http://www.theglobalgame.com/blog Soccer as a second language Mon, 05 Jan 2009 23:50:30 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 en hourly 1 ©The Global Game admin@theglobalgame.com (The Global Game) admin@theglobalgame.com(The Global Game) 1440 football, soccer, world cup, women soccer, world football, world soccer, fifa, football culture Interviews on world soccer culture. Interviews on world soccer culture. The Global Game The Global Game admin@theglobalgame.com No no http://www.theglobalgame.com/images/dembaksm.jpg http://www.theglobalgame.com/blog 144 144 http://www.theglobalgame.com/blog/2008/09/for-brazil-silence-is-golden-at-paralympic-final/ http://www.theglobalgame.com/blog/2008/09/for-brazil-silence-is-golden-at-paralympic-final/#comments Fri, 19 Sep 2008 16:43:37 +0000 Veronique Dragonet http://www.theglobalgame.com/blog/?p=674 Sept 17 | Brazil's got a striker so good he can score blindfolded. Felipe Marcos's goal in the last minute broke a tie with China and gave Brazil Paralympic gold, 2–1, in five-a-side soccer, blind classification.]]> http://www.theglobalgame.com/blog/2008/09/for-brazil-silence-is-golden-at-paralympic-final/feed/ http://www.theglobalgame.com/blog/2008/03/china-football-at-all-compass-points-on-eastsouthwestnorth/ http://www.theglobalgame.com/blog/2008/03/china-football-at-all-compass-points-on-eastsouthwestnorth/#comments Thu, 06 Mar 2008 04:59:20 +0000 John Turnbull http://www.theglobalgame.com/blog/?p=404 James Montague has dissected the "footballing Venn diagram of ... political and social hatreds" that constituted the recent East Asian Championships in Chongqing, China (“Football? What Football? The Asian Game Is about Politics," Guardian Unlimited, Mar 3). Within Asia, Montague concludes, football still comes with political intrigue, readily available in every permutation of a four-team round-robin featuring the hosts plus Japan, South Korea and North Korea. (Mar 5)]]> http://www.theglobalgame.com/blog/2008/03/china-football-at-all-compass-points-on-eastsouthwestnorth/feed/ http://www.theglobalgame.com/blog/2008/03/books-murakami-runs-from-soccer-to-the-distance/ http://www.theglobalgame.com/blog/2008/03/books-murakami-runs-from-soccer-to-the-distance/#comments Sun, 02 Mar 2008 02:20:25 +0000 John Turnbull http://www.theglobalgame.com/blog/?p=398 A multihued archipelago, tuned to soccer's harmonics”), part-time Hawai‘i resident Haruki Murakami reflects in a recent Spiegel Online interview on his sporting interests and their relationship to his writing (“When I Run I Am in a Peaceful Place," Feb 20). (Mar 1)]]> http://www.theglobalgame.com/blog/2008/03/books-murakami-runs-from-soccer-to-the-distance/feed/ http://www.theglobalgame.com/blog/2008/02/a-multihued-archipelago-tuned-to-soccers-harmonics/ http://www.theglobalgame.com/blog/2008/02/a-multihued-archipelago-tuned-to-soccers-harmonics/#comments Sat, 01 Mar 2008 04:52:52 +0000 John Turnbull http://www.theglobalgame.com/blog/?p=395 Honolulu, Feb 29 | Gamba Osaka's 6–1 victory over Houston Dynamo in the Pan-Pacific Soccer Championships final added another jot to the history of the Japanese on the Hawaiian Islands—a history that spans three centuries and that has helped create a multicultural population well-suited to building soccer from the grassroots.]]> http://www.theglobalgame.com/blog/2008/02/a-multihued-archipelago-tuned-to-soccers-harmonics/feed/ http://www.theglobalgame.com/blog/2007/08/pride-of-lions-iraqi-asian-cup-victory-reminds-a-civilization-what-normal-feels-like/ http://www.theglobalgame.com/blog/2007/08/pride-of-lions-iraqi-asian-cup-victory-reminds-a-civilization-what-normal-feels-like/#comments Fri, 10 Aug 2007 01:47:12 +0000 John Turnbull http://www.theglobalgame.com/blog/?p=266 Baghdad, Aug 9 | A triumphant march through the Asian Cup tournament in July contributed to the resurgence of the Arabic phrase Assood al-Rafidain (Lions of Mesopotamia) to refer to the Iraqi national football team. "It's a way of labeling them with this unifying and historic cultural icon," says Newsweek Baghdad correspondent Larry Kaplow, who appeared on our Aug 7 podcast. Rising above divisions by ethnicity and sect, the Iraqi team, which trains and plays matches in Jordan, defeated Saudi Arabia 1–0 on Jul 29 to lift the Asian Cup for the first time.]]> http://www.theglobalgame.com/blog/2007/08/pride-of-lions-iraqi-asian-cup-victory-reminds-a-civilization-what-normal-feels-like/feed/ 18:10 Lions in a garden, stone panel from the North Palace of Ashurbanipal in Nineveh, northern Iraq. The alabaster panel dates to 645 B.C.E. The Mesopotamian ... Lions in a garden, stone panel from the North Palace of Ashurbanipal in Nineveh, northern Iraq. The alabaster panel dates to 645 B.C.E. The Mesopotamian lion was hunted to extinction in the 19th century. (Room 10a, The British Museum) What became of the lions' den, the cave of the young lions, where the lion goes, and the lions' cubs, with no one to disturb them? (Nahum 2:11, NRSV) Baghdad #124; Scholars reading the verse from Hebrew prophecy relate the allusion to the "lions' den" to the Assyrian rule of Ashurbanipalnbsp;II (668ndash;626 B.C.E.). Specifically, Nahum might refer to the caged lions Ashurbanipal would release to affirm his hunting prowess: "They let a fierce lion of the plain out of his cage and on footnbsp;... I stabbed him later with my iron girdle dagger and he died," reads an inscription related to a period bas-relief. Biblical authors such as Nahum saw Assyrian domination, symbolized by the lion figure, as the destroyer. In Mesopotamia, the land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, Assyrian kings likened themselves to lions, and so the recent resurgence of the Arabic phrase Assood al-Rafidain (Lions of Mesopotamia) to refer to the national football team. "It's a way of labeling them with this unifying and historic cultural icon," says Newsweek Baghdad corresondent Larry Kaplow, who appeared on our Augnbsp;7 podcast (see below). KaplowRising above divisions by ethnicity and sect and scattered by never-ending violence, the Iraqi team, which trains and plays matches in Jordan, defeated Saudi Arabia 1ndash;0 on Jul 29 to win its first Asian Cup. "We had only one player but with 11 bodies," writes an anonymous journalist blogger (ldquo;Did You Learn the Lesson?" Inside Iraq, Jul 30). Expressing similar feelings, poet Adel al-Fatli in Baghdad daily Azzaman published "Yes, Yes to Football" in advance of the final: "Football managed to unite Iraqisnbsp;/ Football is worth 1,000 times more than policy" (quoted in "Notes from Baghdad as Kickoff Nears," Goal [New York Times weblog], Jul 29). Beyond the political readings, however, and the cravings for a more illustrious past when Iraq was a desired destination in the Arab world, Kaplow affirms how football through sectarian battle and dictatorship has thrived as a means to pursue normal life. It's a constant, omnipresent game. I was in a hotel where I stay a lot, where a lot of journalists stay, and there we had erected fortifications around the hotel and put up floodlights. That immediately turned into a nighttime soccer field, where the floodlights were, for some of the smaller children in the neighborhood. They could go out there after the searing daytime heat and play soccer until 9, 10, 11 at night on a cul-de-sac near the hotel. Gen. David Petraeus here, who's the commander of all the forces in Iraq, often when he goes out on a day trip on his helicopters will take a circuitous route, looping over the whole city of Baghdad, sometimes for 15 or 20 minutes. I was on one of these in his helicopter convoy. He does it to look at normalcy in the city. What's the most obvious thing is you see football matches going on. If it's after work hours, 4 or 5 in the afternoon, grown menmdash;they'll often have pitched in, gotten uniforms. So flying over the city you'll see dirt pitches with nary a blade of grass on the whole thing, but goals erected and men in sort of fluorescent yellow, fluorescent green tops running around kicking soccer balls. And of course you see them when you drive around the city at that time of day. It's a huge pasttime. I suppose it would compare to other big soccer countries, whether in Latin America or Europe. It's by far the number-one sport. Basketball is second, but a very, very distant second. The day after Iraq's 1ndash;0 victory over Saudi Arabia, blogger Al Tarrar of Baghdad Connect offers a new design for the Iraqi flag. (Baghdad Connect, via Global Voices Online) The yearning for n... Asia,,Faith,amp;,Resistance,,Grassroots,amp;,Youth,,Iraq,,Middle,East,,Podcast,,Teaching,Resources The Global Game no No http://www.theglobalgame.com/blog/2007/01/mind-over-rattan-in-a-meld-of-meditation-and-footvolley-the-burmese-excel/ http://www.theglobalgame.com/blog/2007/01/mind-over-rattan-in-a-meld-of-meditation-and-footvolley-the-burmese-excel/#comments Thu, 04 Jan 2007 02:06:19 +0000 John Turnbull http://www.theglobalgame.com/blog/?p=217 Doha, Qatar, Jan 3 | In the family tree of football variants, cuju begat chinlone begat sepak raga begat sepak takraw. While this genealogy may be speculative—less formalized and less freighted than that in the first chapter of Matthew—the importance is that the stylized kickball game of imperial China has found expression in the modern era.]]> http://www.theglobalgame.com/blog/2007/01/mind-over-rattan-in-a-meld-of-meditation-and-footvolley-the-burmese-excel/feed/ http://www.theglobalgame.com/blog/2006/12/stranded-in-time-ghanaian-plays-football-alone-readings-for-8-december-2006/ http://www.theglobalgame.com/blog/2006/12/stranded-in-time-ghanaian-plays-football-alone-readings-for-8-december-2006/#comments Fri, 08 Dec 2006 01:17:22 +0000 John Turnbull http://www.theglobalgame.com/blog/?p=200 Pampanga, Philippines, Dec 7 | Within Diosdado Macapagal International Airport six miles northwest of Angeles City, Ghanaian footballer Ayi Nii Aryee spends his days in legal limbo, lacking proper paperwork to travel to his destination or back to his point of origin. He has been living at the airport, the one-time U.S. air base formerly known as Clark Field, since July, sleeping first on terminal chairs and then on a cot provided by the airport's fire brigade.]]> http://www.theglobalgame.com/blog/2006/12/stranded-in-time-ghanaian-plays-football-alone-readings-for-8-december-2006/feed/ http://www.theglobalgame.com/blog/2006/11/links-for-2006-11-30/ http://www.theglobalgame.com/blog/2006/11/links-for-2006-11-30/#comments Thu, 30 Nov 2006 01:24:07 +0000 John Turnbull http://www.theglobalgame.com/blog/?p=196 Huang Jianxiang and on the end of Lansdowne Road in Dublin.]]> http://www.theglobalgame.com/blog/2006/11/links-for-2006-11-30/feed/ http://www.theglobalgame.com/blog/2006/11/links-for-2006-11-27/ http://www.theglobalgame.com/blog/2006/11/links-for-2006-11-27/#comments Mon, 27 Nov 2006 01:27:48 +0000 John Turnbull http://www.theglobalgame.com/blog/?p=194 Shunsuke Nakamura, prospects for Australia's A-League, Icelandic influence in the form of a takeover at West Ham United, FIFA's ban on Iran, and pessimism over South Africa 2010.]]> http://www.theglobalgame.com/blog/2006/11/links-for-2006-11-27/feed/