This was the title of an article in The New York Times yesterday. The article discusses the rise and current fall of Diego Maradona and the Agentina soccer population’s general dissatisfaction and disenchantment with Maradona as the coach for the national team. And while Argentina did just qualify last week for the 2010 World Cup… Read More »
With final outcomes in FIFA World Cup qualifying often dependent more on the performance of other teams in a qualifying group than on one’s own results, the final matchday of CONCACAF’s hexagonal qualification round on Wednesday yielded an incredible example of how one goal thousands of miles away can dramatically alter another team’s World Cup… Read More »
Now that Argentina has (just barely) secured its spot in the 2010 World Cup after a tortuous and rocky qualifying run, fans of Argentina can breathe a little easier. One fan found occasion for an instant Youtube celebration of the last-minute goal against Uruguay, which shows an ecstatic Maradona jumping for joy. With his red… Read More »
In a piece at the Americas Quarterly, Eric Farnsworth speculates about the possible political ramifications of this coming Saturday’s U.S.-Honduras World Cup qualifier. The political stand-off between former president Manuel Zelaya (who is living in the Brazilian embassy in Tegulcigalpa) and those who deposed him in a coup earlier this year is paralyzing the country,… Read More »
In 2010, the World Cup tournament will finally take place in a (cold) South Africa. As the tournament begins, however, there will be thirteen European teams in the tournament, and only six African teams, with one of them — South Africa — automatically qualified as the host. Of course, it could be worse: at the… Read More »
In the past, the World Cup meant everything to national football teams; it was an opportunity to prove their team’s success to the world. I recently came across an article that made me realize just how crucial the World Cup still is to a team’s success, and in turn, to the amount of funding they receive. In… Read More »
