Category Archives: World Cup

Soccer’s Pre-emptive Public Holiday Curse

Soccer can sometimes feel like an alternate reality, an escape. On a hard-earned weekend, a manual laborer and his friends might be able to gather for a couple of hours and kick the ball around.  Sheltered children shuttled in minivans from their identical suburban houses to florescent-lit schools can find release on the pitch. A… Read More »

Football vs Fútbol: El Mundial y el Super Bowl

Cuando escuchas la palabra “fútbol”, podría ser una de dos cosas, depende del contexto. En los Estados Unidos, esta palabra se refiere al fútbol americano, pero en todas las demás partes del mundo, se refiere a un deporte diferente. Durante muchos años, los fanáticos de los dos deportes no se han solapado la mayor parte… Read More »

The Controversy of South Korea: 2002 World Cup

If one were to take a look at the results of the 2002 World Cup, one might applaud the South Korean underdogs of the tournaments for rising up to the occasion and advancing over heavy favorites. In reality, it’s one of the most controversial tournaments in the history of the World Cup. The controversy started… Read More »

Album del mundial

Desde el mundial en Alemania en el 2006 he intentado llenar el álbum del mundial. El álbum, creado e impreso por Panini, tiene fotos de los jugadores organizados por equipo. Incluye estadísticas y datos importantes de los diferentes participantes e imagines relevantes como el escudo del equipo y la bandera del país. Como crecí en… Read More »

A Case Against VAR

The referee’s role in a soccer match is unique in sports.  In his book Soccer in Sun and Shadow, Eduardo Galeano describes the ref as “An abominable tyrant who runs his dictatorship without opposition, a pompous executioner who exercises his absolute power with an operatic flourish.”  The relationship between the ref and the players is… Read More »

Hublot and the referee board.

Something’s up. So. Every so often in soccer, one of the teams will sub out a player. (It’s a pretty common occurrence, I’m sure you’ve seen it before.) The incoming player and an accompanying referee walk out to the middle of field. That referee has this, kind of pointless, job of holding up a display… Read More »

The State of Corruption in FIFA

In the summer of 2015, US authorities indicted 14 powerful constituents associated withe the FIFA governing body, including two FIFA vice presidents and five corporate executives. The indictments were issued for 47 different counts of criminality, including wire fraud, racketeering conspiracy, money laundering, and corruption. The 14 individuals in question were arrested at a luxury… Read More »

Understanding the Women’s Game – A Journey of Panels

This week I had the pleasure of listening to Gwendolyn Oxenham, author of Under the Lights and In the Dark: Untold Stories of Women’s Soccer, as well as a panel of Women’s Soccer figures: Dan Levy, agent for many of the players of the USWNT, Anson Dorrance, coach of UNC’s women’s soccer team, Carla Overbeck,… Read More »