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Don’t get me wrong — I’m absolutely thrilled that Autzen Stadium will host a July 24 soccer match between two very high-level European clubs with some of the world’s most talented players at the 2016 International Champions Cup. I definitely will be going to the match. Continue reading
Despite much wishful thinking since the U.S. hosted the 1994 World Cup, soccer fans remain marginalized in this country. Soccer rarely receives the attention and accommodation given to the three (or four) hegemonic sports in the U.S. — American football, basketball, baseball and ice hockey (what Andrei Markovits and Steven Hellerman refer to as the “big three and one-half”). Continue reading
Article 24 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights recognizes that every person has the right to leisure. For many people, leisure consists of playing soccer, especially with goals, referees, out-of-bounds lines and other standard conditions — including opponents. These things are not so easy to get at the Oregon State Penitentiary (OSP), I discovered when I came to play there as an outsider in a prison soccer match. Continue reading
Andy Zuñiga in mid-swing as he passes the ball up field. Photo by Trask Bedortha. Like many children, Tunde Jowosimi grew up playing soccer, and he continued playing when he moved from Nigeria to England. Continue reading
A Copa das surpresas (“the [World] Cup of surprises”) was a phrase I remember hearing several times during the first weeks of the 2014 World Cup. Holland had crushed the 2010 World Cup champion, Spain, 5-1. Germany beat Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal, 4-0. Costa Rica went undefeated in its first three games to become the leader of one of the most difficult groups of the cup. Top-ranked teams like Spain, Italy, Portugal and England didn’t even make it to the round of 16. Continue reading
I consider myself a fairly transparent person, but there’s something I’ve been reluctant to share: I would not be upset or disappointed if the albiceleste (the Argentine team — nicknamed after the white and sky-blue stripes of their flag and jerseys) wins the World Cup. I was passionately supporting other teams but they’ve all been eliminated. Continue reading
To appreciate what this World Cup and the seleção canarinha (Brazil’s national team of soccer — nicknamed after a species of canary whose plumage is yellow, like the team’s jerseys) mean to Brazilians, I’ve been trying to diversify the social environments in which I watch the matches played by their national team. Continue reading
While soccer has been exploited by some with malicious intentions (recently evidenced by the horrific suicide bombing that took 14 lives of World Cup-viewers in Nigeria), soccer has tremendous potential for promoting and facilitating peaceful intercultural exchanges and fraternal international relations. Continue reading
My travel experience has convinced me that the best plan is to make no plans — or at least to keep plans as flexible as possible — and my experience of watching Brazil’s first match in this hubristically hopeful host nation has confirmed my conclusion that spontaneity and flexibility bear the sweetest of fruits. Continue reading
After Charles Miller brought two soccer balls with him from Scotland to Brazil in 1894, the game caught on like wildfire. Soccer has become a defining characteristic of this young, diverse nation, which often identifies itself as o país do futebol (“the country of soccer”). Alex Bellos, former South America correspondent for The Guardian, concluded that “football gives Brazilians a feeling of national identity — citizenship, even — much more than anything else.” Continue reading