Taking a turn ‘in the woods,’ confronting the goalkeeper’s choice
Goalkeepers—as 20th-century existentialists knew—provide football’s paradigm for action in the face of uncertainty.
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Jul 11, 2010 | 6 comments
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Koman Coulibaly, refereeing and the electronic scrum over ‘truth’
Malian referee Koman Coulibaly is scapegoated in the U.S. draw with Slovenia Jun 18, launching a vicious Wikipedia war that sacrifices his humanity and ours.
Jun 19, 2010 | 3 comments
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From Johannesburg, lesbian footballers chosen to play, choosing to live
Life in the FIFA-free zone | Chosen Few Lesbian Soccer Club in its witness to the healing powers of eros and sport outdoes FIFA in promoting football’s influence on self and society.
Jun 14, 2010 | 0 comments
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In places without a name, ‘Pelada’ films the football we never knew
Pelada debuts at the South by Southwest Film Festival as the ultimate expression of football’s capacity for communion.
Mar 16, 2010 | 10 comments
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Auschwitz and the perversion of football
On Holocaust Remembrance Day, we interview William Heyen about his poem “Parity,” concerning a 1944 football match at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Beside crematoriums, Nazis engineered the ultimate perversion of sport.
Jan 28, 2010 | 3 comments
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In disaster, soccer infrastructure becomes Haitian lifeline
Football grounds around the world have a tradition of offering refuge from disasters. Stadiums and soccer itself offer shelter and solace in Haiti following the devastating earthquake Jan 12.
Jan 25, 2010 | 3 comments
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L’Athlétique d’Haiti | ‘The soccer program is going to be back on track’
Update on the Haiti earthquake from Laura Anduze, international liaison for L’Athlétique d’Haiti, the youth soccer program founded in Cité Soleil, Port-au-Prince, in 1996 by Robert Duval.
Ahead of 2012, Ukraine reclaims iconographic and football treasures
With Orthodox nativity celebrations upon us, we wonder if Ukrainian traditions of religious iconography and football offer creative ideas for recovering lost history and making one nation.
Jan 09, 2010 | 2 comments
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Peruvian women, in ‘fulbito Andino,’ find light in the darkness
Indigenous Andean women don colorful skirts(polleras) and play on weekends as respite from hard labors at home and in the fields.
Jan 05, 2010 | 0 comments
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In Chicago midfields, Hemon discovers transcendental soccer nation
For Aleksandar Hemon, the Bosnian-born writer, lack of soccer means spiritual death. With interview »
Afrika’s tale—saved from the streets to play on the streets
Football’s powers of resurrection have rarely had a better exemplar than Martin Afrika. The 32-year-old captain for South Africa at the Homeless World Cup has reconstructed his identity through sport. With podcast »
Remembering Eudy, KwaThema’s brightest, killed on its darkest night
Eudy Simelane, former midfielder for the senior South African women’s national team, Banyana Banyana, shaped her world around football before her murder in Apr 08.
Aug 30, 2009 | 11 comments
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Mexico | Despite opposition, loyalists continue to spread América brand
Club América shirts predominate in the Georgia Dome in a friendly against AC Milan. The club has made itself a continental brand but has drawn loathing from Mexican compatriots, who shout, “Those colors make me sick!” With video »
The ‘wrong-footed soccer maiden’ who bridged Manhattan, Beijing
Gay Talese, following the Women’s World Cup final on 10 Jul 99, takes interest in the Chinese player who misses a penalty kick, Liu Ying. With podcast »
Jul 18, 2009 | 4 comments
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South Africa | At the top of our thoughts, near the bottom of the world
World football stands poised between an obscenity and a dream—the obscenity the £136 million to send two Lusophone footballers to Real Madrid, the dream a 2010 World Cup in South Africa that might make soccer here a sport for all.
Anatoly Kuznetsov and Dynamo Kyiv’s ‘almost incredible’ story
Anatoly Kuznetsov‘s work, smuggled to the UK in 1969, contained what would become, when translated, one of the first English-language accounts of Dynamo Kyiv’s deeds during World War II.
Jun 18, 2009 | 0 comments
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20 years later, remembering East German film and football
The sixth edition of the 11mm Fußballfilmfestival revels in Ostalgie (“Eastalgia”) by screening 14 films from or concerning the former East Germany. With film listing and podcast »
Roster of films, 11mm Fußballfilmfestival, 3–6 April 2009
The list of 35 feature films and documentaries at the 11mm Fußballfilmfestival in Berlin, 3–6 Apr 09.
Apr 03, 2009 | 0 comments
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Municipal de Fútbol, where Angelenos do not fear to tread
Municipal de Fútbol focuses on what the project’s essayist, Jennifer Doyle, calls the most developed subculture in Los Angeles: improvisational soccer. With podcast »
Mar 30, 2009 | 0 comments
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