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/2008/08/a-soccer-players-escape-from-argentina%c2%a0-into-philosophy/ http://www.theglobalgame.com/blog/2008/08/a-soccer-players-escape-from-argentina%c2%a0-into-philosophy/#comments Wed, 27 Aug 2008 22:41:36 +0000 John Turnbull http://www.theglobalgame.com/blog/?p=334 Crónica de una fuga (Chronicle of an Escape) has released to DVD in North America. We interview Claudio Tamburrini—philosophy professor and former goalkeeper—about his Mar 1978 decision to "opt for life."]]> http://www.theglobalgame.com/blog/2008/08/a-soccer-players-escape-from-argentina%c2%a0-into-philosophy/feed/ http://www.theglobalgame.com/blog/2008/04/cinema-in-tiro-libre-walls-of-separation-and-misunderstanding/ http://www.theglobalgame.com/blog/2008/04/cinema-in-tiro-libre-walls-of-separation-and-misunderstanding/#comments Thu, 24 Apr 2008 03:59:45 +0000 John Turnbull http://www.theglobalgame.com/blog/?p=442 Ed M. Koziarski, "Social Justice, with Soccer," Chicago Reader, Apr 3).]]> http://www.theglobalgame.com/blog/2008/04/cinema-in-tiro-libre-walls-of-separation-and-misunderstanding/feed/ http://www.theglobalgame.com/blog/2008/03/history-in-hard-stone-ancient-ball-playing-exploits-remain/ http://www.theglobalgame.com/blog/2008/03/history-in-hard-stone-ancient-ball-playing-exploits-remain/#comments Fri, 07 Mar 2008 03:53:07 +0000 John Turnbull http://www.theglobalgame.com/blog/?p=405 The Ancient Americas”) and Washington, D.C. (“Exploring the Early Americas”), feature artifacts of ball-playing in Mesoamerican cultures as part of larger surveys. (Mar 6)]]> http://www.theglobalgame.com/blog/2008/03/history-in-hard-stone-ancient-ball-playing-exploits-remain/feed/ http://www.theglobalgame.com/blog/2007/12/footballs-place-in-yuletide-ritual/ http://www.theglobalgame.com/blog/2007/12/footballs-place-in-yuletide-ritual/#comments Sun, 30 Dec 2007 03:40:58 +0000 John Turnbull http://www.theglobalgame.com/blog/?p=340 Pascal Khoo Thwe recalls in From the Land of Green Ghosts: A Burmese Odyssey that football helped mark the festival calendar. To commemorate trophies at distant tournaments, his township team would receive homecoming welcome from a brass band playing Handel. But not The Messiah. (Dec 29)]]> http://www.theglobalgame.com/blog/2007/12/footballs-place-in-yuletide-ritual/feed/ http://www.theglobalgame.com/blog/2007/12/the-planet-is-a-ball-certainly-true-in-suriname/ http://www.theglobalgame.com/blog/2007/12/the-planet-is-a-ball-certainly-true-in-suriname/#comments Wed, 12 Dec 2007 21:04:41 +0000 John Turnbull http://www.theglobalgame.com/blog/?p=314 Paramaribo, Suriname, Dec 12 | An itinerant search for football in the sweltering nether-zone of Suriname—hard to reach, its own authenticity as a country diminished by the locals—carries the reader through Daniel Titinger's 6,100-word narrative, "Kicking the Ball to Holland," in the Virginia Quarterly Review (fall 07).]]> http://www.theglobalgame.com/blog/2007/12/the-planet-is-a-ball-certainly-true-in-suriname/feed/ http://www.theglobalgame.com/blog/2007/07/cross-of-distinction-cruz-azuls-visit-to-atlanta-offers-another-cultural-intersection/ http://www.theglobalgame.com/blog/2007/07/cross-of-distinction-cruz-azuls-visit-to-atlanta-offers-another-cultural-intersection/#comments Wed, 25 Jul 2007 20:03:10 +0000 John Turnbull http://www.theglobalgame.com/blog/?p=263 Atlanta, Jul 25 | Much of soccer culture in the United States remains hidden, but matches such as the Jul 28 Copa Amistad between the Atlanta Silverbacks and Cruz Azul cast light on the place of the sport in everyday lives of Latinos. Will Ramí­rez, publisher of Estadio, a Spanish-language sports weekly based in Tucker, Georgia, describes in our Jul 24 podcast how he and many of the 425,000 Hispanics in the Atlanta area remain linked to soccer despite, or because of, displacement. Also joining us are Silverbacks owner Boris Jerkunica and Los Angeles Times writer Sam Quinones.]]> http://www.theglobalgame.com/blog/2007/07/cross-of-distinction-cruz-azuls-visit-to-atlanta-offers-another-cultural-intersection/feed/ 24:21 Atlanta Silverbacks Park, now fitted out with three artificial pitches and a 3,000-seat stadium, sits east of Spaghetti Junction (aka Tom Moreland Interchange), the five-level ... Atlanta Silverbacks Park, now fitted out with three artificial pitches and a 3,000-seat stadium, sits east of Spaghetti Junction (aka Tom Moreland Interchange), the five-level stack of roller-coaster-like ramps servicing Interstates 85 and 285. (copy;nbsp;2007 Navteqnbsp;#124; copy;nbsp;2006 Google) Much of soccer culture in the United States remains hidden, but matches such as the Jul 28 Copa Amistad between the Atlanta Silverbacks and Cruz Azul cast light on the place of the sport in everyday lives of Latinos. Will Ramiacute;shy;rez, publisher of Estadio, a Spanish-language sports weekly based in Tucker, Georgia, describes in our Jul 24 podcast how he and many of the 425,000 Hispanics in the Atlanta area remain linked to soccer despite, or because of, displacement. Spanish people play soccer like crazy. They play from Monday through Sunday. The first league in Atlanta was back in rsquo;87 or rsquo;88 with only 15 teams. And now there are more than 30 [leagues]. I say about 40,000 [Hispanic] players play soccer over the week. That's a lot of players. Ramiacute;shy;rez, who played professionally in his native El Salvador and in Honduras before coming to Houston in 1985 to play for Houston Dynamos of the short-lived United Soccer League, started the tabloid in 1997 with $1,000. He operated from a room in his house before putting $30,000 on credit cards to expand; now, Estadio numbers among at least seven periodistas deportivos in the Atlanta area with a combined 180,000 circulation (2003 figures) (see Michelle Hiskey, "Newspapers Make Sport(s) in Spanish," Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 17 Aug 03). Much of Estadio's coverage focuses on the amateur Latino and international leagues. The Jul 19 issue (no. 542) features de rigueur post-game pictures of victors and trophies but also of the game's grittier underside: a player strapped to a gurney as he is loaded onto a DeKalb County fire-and-rescue vehicle and another under police escort after being ejected from a second-division encounter in Liga Independiente de Chamblee. The profusion of ads throughout shows how the Hispanic community has emerged as a market force. The Hispanic papers boasted of their influence in 2003 when the Atlanta Beat of the Women's United Soccer Association acquired Maribel Domiacute;nguez of Mexico (see 5nbsp;Mar 04). Supporters waving Mexican flags boosted the team's attendance; Estadio, on its front page, branded Domiacute;nguez "Mari-gol." Estadio included a five-story package on the Silverbacks' home friendly Jul 12 versus Monterrey. The teams drew 1ndash;1. (copy; 2007 Estadio) Boris Jerkunica, owner of the Silverbacks, credits the Hispanic press and other Hispanic-owned companies with helping to build the Silverbacks brand within Atlanta. Estadio features four full pages of Silverbacks coverage on Jul 19, with concentration on an earlier friendly versus another Mexican first-division team, Monterrey. The match did not merit a mention in the local English-language newspaper, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "The American press has been harder to engage," Jerkunica says, "especially the newspaper in town." In efforts to build a club environment at Silverbacks Park at what perhaps is Atlanta's most famous intersectionmdash;the tangle of cement highway ramps north of the city known collectively as Spaghetti Junctionmdash;the Atlanta team relies at least partly on Hispanic leagues and families to fill its three fields on weekday nights and weekends. Watching any of the Silverbacks' teams, whether the first-division USL team, the W-League Silverbacks women or developmental sides, from the main 3,000-seat stadium, one remains aware of parallel action on the neighboring two lighted fields. Balls periodically arc through the klieg lights, and constant foot and car traffic churns up construction dust from Georgia clay. In creating a ladder of teams down to youth levels, Jerkunica says he has modeled player-developme... Grassroots,amp;,Youth,,Language,amp;,Literature,,Latin,America,,Media,amp;,Music,,Mexico,,Podcast,,USA,,Women's,Football The Global Game no No http://www.theglobalgame.com/blog/2007/07/lofty-discussions-moraless-maneuvering-in-zurich-may-earn-reprieve-for-la-paz/ http://www.theglobalgame.com/blog/2007/07/lofty-discussions-moraless-maneuvering-in-zurich-may-earn-reprieve-for-la-paz/#comments Fri, 06 Jul 2007 17:40:14 +0000 John Turnbull http://www.theglobalgame.com/blog/?p=259 Zurich, Switzerland, Jul 6 | Is it safe to play football on the Andean altiplano or the Tibetan plateau? FIFA has not decided yet, but it continues to modify its judgment, originally decreed in May, that FIFA competitions could not be staged above 2,500m. We interview, as part of our third podcast, Eduardo Ávila of Global Voices Online to learn about Bolivia's reaction to FIFA's decision-making process.]]> http://www.theglobalgame.com/blog/2007/07/lofty-discussions-moraless-maneuvering-in-zurich-may-earn-reprieve-for-la-paz/feed/ 00:01:01 The Globo network in February reports on Flamengo's visit to Real Potosiacute;shy; in Copa Libertadores, a 2ndash;2 draw. Toward the end of the report, Flamengo ... The Globo network in February reports on Flamengo's visit to Real Potosiacute;shy; in Copa Libertadores, a 2ndash;2 draw. Toward the end of the report, Flamengo players are seen receiving oxygen and collapsing from the strains of high altitude. Potosiacute;shy;, Bolivia, is 4,070m, or 2frac12; miles, above sea level. Zurich, Switzerland #124; Is it safe to play football on the Andean altiplano or the Tibetan plateau? FIFA has not decided yet, but it continues to modify its judgment, originally decreed in May, that FIFA competitions shall not be staged above 2,500m (see Jun 15). On Jun 27, FIFA president Sepp Blatter said medical consultations had influenced the governing body's executive committee in raising the limit to 3,000m, thus excluding Bogotaacute;, Quito and portions of Mexico from the high-altitude ban. In a convoluted statement at a Zurich press conferencemdash;see podcast belowmdash;Blatter said FIFA would only intervene in World Cup qualifiers. Qualifying in South America begins in September, by which time, Blatter said on Julnbsp;5, the "topic ... must be resolved in a very logical way." "We do not want to keep people from playing football," Blatter has said on several occasions, making one wonder why FIFA has tried to devise a solution to a problem that does not exist. At the same Jun 27 press briefing at which he proposed a FIFA-sponsored conference in late October to consider scientific evidence on high-altitude sportmdash;a conference now seemingly on the back burnermdash;Blatter acknowledged that "this is not a scientific or medical decision, it is a sports/political decision." Morales and Blatter meet for a low-key, media-friendly kickabout on Jun 28 in Zurich. Both appear to violate Lawnbsp;4 governing players' equipment. (Andreas Meier #124; Reuters) The political aspects triumphed the following day when Bolivian president Evo Morales jetted from Caracas, Venezuela, where he had been attending opening ceremonies of Copa Ameacute;rica, to meet privately with Blatter at FIFA headquarters. Afterward, Morales appeared to have won a concession allowing FIFA matches to be played in La Paz. "The winner is our country, the winner is La Paz," Bolivian soccer chief Carlos Chavez exulted. The La Paz exception was made explicit on Julnbsp;6. As part of our third podcast, native Bolivian and Global Voices regional editor Eduardo Aacute;vila comments on Morales's unaffected passion for the sport. Aacute;vila recalls attending a barbeque when Morales was campaigning for the presidency. "He was a different person on the football field," Aacute;vila says. Morales picks out the number 10 jersey, likes to score and frequently provides the winning goal in his matches, whether by accident or design. "That's one of his signatures. He wants to play football against journalists, play against exndash;football players, play against kids from the street. That's sort of a uniter." Whether the country is fully united by Morales's lobbying on football remains in question. The nation, as Aacute;vila notes, is divided ethnically among mestizo and the various indigenous communities (Aymara, Quechua, Guaraniacute;) despite the rallying cry from the 1952 revolution, "Somos todos bolivianos" (see Andrew Canessa, "Reproducing Racism: Schooling and Race in Highland Bolivia," Race, Ethnicity, and Educationnbsp;7 [Jul 04]: 185ndash;204). Morales himself is Aymara and cherishes his highland roots, although Canessa's article on schooling in highland communities points to the gradual loss of Andean traditions due in part to a classroom quest for uniformity in thought and language. "The mountain spirits have left us," mourns one young woman. From the perspective of science, whether Bolivians maintain a physical advantage over opponents in competitive football at altitude is difficult to establish with certainty. Aacute;vila posits that the benefit is more psychological. Bolivian players based abroad... Bolivia,,FIFA,amp;,Governance,,Latin,America,,Podcast The Global Game no No http://www.theglobalgame.com/blog/2007/06/souls-on-the-line-guatemala-city-sex-workers-turn-to-futbol-for-a-sense-of-who-they-are/ http://www.theglobalgame.com/blog/2007/06/souls-on-the-line-guatemala-city-sex-workers-turn-to-futbol-for-a-sense-of-who-they-are/#comments Sat, 30 Jun 2007 19:40:20 +0000 John Turnbull http://www.theglobalgame.com/blog/?p=258 Guatemala City, Guatemala, Jun 30 | Of football documentaries that favor the human element there is no shortage of late. One of the most recent is Estrellas de la Lí­nea, screened at English-language film festivals as The Railroad All-Stars, about Guatemala City sex workers who in 2004 organized themselves as a football team.]]> http://www.theglobalgame.com/blog/2007/06/souls-on-the-line-guatemala-city-sex-workers-turn-to-futbol-for-a-sense-of-who-they-are/feed/ http://www.theglobalgame.com/blog/2007/06/into-thin-air-where-llamas-and-footballers-prosper-fifa-fears-to-tread/ http://www.theglobalgame.com/blog/2007/06/into-thin-air-where-llamas-and-footballers-prosper-fifa-fears-to-tread/#comments Fri, 15 Jun 2007 21:07:06 +0000 John Turnbull http://www.theglobalgame.com/blog/?p=256 La Paz, Bolivia, Jun 15 | On May 27, FIFA's executive committee announced the ban on competitive international matches 2,500m above sea level. For once united internally and with their Andean neighbors, Bolivia—the country most severely affected—is organizing. A manifesto sponsored by several Bolivian newspapers concludes, "Bolivians are a poor people, we play football with humility, but we are dignified and we have a national character such that we will defend our rights when we are not at fault."]]> http://www.theglobalgame.com/blog/2007/06/into-thin-air-where-llamas-and-footballers-prosper-fifa-fears-to-tread/feed/