As Andrei Markovitz’s classic article “The Other “American Exceptionalism” – Why Is There No Soccer in the United States?” makes clear, individuals have long been debating the reasons for the U.S.’s lack of interest in soccer. One of the statements made in Markovitz’ 1988 article struck me, as he wrote that “soccer’s marginal existence as… Read More »
This past Thursday, New England Revolution youngster Diego Fagundez started for Uruguay in the South American Under 20 Championship, which, under current FIFA rules, will permanently exclude him from suiting up for the United States Men’s National Team in the future [1]. Many fans of the USMNT were hoping that the 19 year old… Read More »
Fourth-degree assault charges were dropped against USWNT goalkeeper Hope Solo on Tuesday afternoon, according to Fox Sports. Although she was permitted to participate in all team activities since June, when the charges were filed, the uncertainty surrounding her availability for the upcoming 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup had many wondering if Team USA would have to travel to Canada… Read More »
A Chat with Sandra Serafini Last week, my classmate Lauren Oliveri and I had the opportunity to have lunch with Sandra Serafini. I was honestly a bit intimidated to meet the former FIFA referee and PhD neuroscientist. (Who wouldn’t be? Only a superhuman has those types of qualifications!) However, my fears were instantly quelled… Read More »
Satire can be a fantastic way to stimulate discussion about real issues; often, it can be more revelatory than straight discourse. Laughing at a joke compels understanding and examining why the joke was funny– and in satire, the humor is derived from revealing precisely how ridiculous certain serious subjects truly are. Satirists are… Read More »
In the debate on how to best achieve the first World Cup title for the United States, the differences between how youth are filtered into professional leagues in the U.S. verses other nations who have had World Cup success is often the main topic of conversation. All other national programs outside of the U.S. have youngsters… Read More »
While this post is not about Soccer exactly, I think in light of today’s class discussions comparing youth (American) football to youth soccer in the US it is of interest: Today a Think Progress article came out entitled “Enrollment in Youth Football down 10%”. The numbers given in the article show how youth football in… Read More »
If you are looking for big news on American soccer, pay close attention to the summer of 2015. Very recently, it has been announced that Fox Sports has acquired the television rights to both the 2015 Women’s World Cup as well as the 2015 Men’s Gold Cup. Not only are these two tournaments during… Read More »
This past week, David Goldblatt visited our class to explain his accounts of world football. One interesting comment he made was describing the English Premier league as a business to be completely hopeless. This past summer, Shahid Khan, a US billionaire car parts baron, bought Fulham football club for an estimated $300 million. This… Read More »
A recent article in the The New York Times about “an American boy wonder in Barcelona” caught my eye this morning. The wonder boy is Ben Lederman, age 13. The Lederman family packed up everything and left their lives, family, and friends in California to move to Barcelona in 2011 when Ben (who was then… Read More »
