CommentaryEnglandNews The Wormburner: A Whole Lotta Questions (Fantasy Football, Draft)July 9, 2019 — by Rob Kirby
BrazilCommentaryHistoryPhotographyThe AmericasWorld Cup Dictators and Soccer: The Junta, Argentina 1978, Disappearings, Match Fixing and Early Deity Era Maradona (Argentina)July 11, 2014 — by Rob Kirby
CommentaryHistoryItalyLong ReadsNews Dictators and Soccer: Popes, PR and the Vatican Soccer Sin BinMay 17, 2013 — by Rob Kirby

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AfricaHistoryLong ReadsNews

2012 Egyptian Stadium Massacre Still Killing

February 26, 2013 — by Rob Kirby

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Expect more deaths on March 9 in Egypt—both from judicial death sentences and the inevitable post-verdict riot—in the continuing fallout from the demise of the Hosni Mubarak regime in late January 2011 and the Port Said soccer stadium massacre in early February 2012 on its near-anniversary. On the second anniversary, the courts sentenced 21 to death for their part in the soccer stadium killings, which then sparked a riot that claimed 30. But let's rewind a year. After portside rival Al-Masry defeated Cairo's most successful club Al-Ahly 3-1 in Port Said in February 2012, fans set upon one another with rocks, fireworks, broken bottles, knives and reportedly even swords. Or rather, the locals set upon the traveling Cairo support. According to the Egyptian interior minister, 13,000 Al-Masry fans attacked the approximately 1,200 Al-Ahly away fans. Al-Masry fans jumped a low fence, invaded the pitch and stadium lights went suddenly dark, turned

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Champions League

The Match of Matches: Real Madrid vs Manchester United at El Bernabéu

February 13, 2013 — by Suman

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Today is the match of matches--at least of the season thus far: Real Madrid vs Manchester United, at El Bernabéu. It's the 1st leg of their Champions League Round of 16 draw, certainly a huge and highly anticipated match (though sophisticated football hipsters know that Shakhtar Donetsk vs Borussia Dortmund--also playing today, at the Donbass Arena--is the truly interesting matchup of the the Round of 16). For previews of today's match, read ZonalMarking's tactical preview listicle here (the takeaways, or posited by Adam Novy before he read Michael Cox (see Appendix 1 below for more): "Smother Ronaldo, sit on Xabi, hope that Carrick isn't smothered); and/or listen to Michael Cox, Sid Lowe and Barney Ronay on Monday's rather epic pod. For a history Madrid-Manchester United, the Telegraph has put together a nice feature: "Real Madrid v Manchester United: all of their past meetings have been a history of entertainment", with embedded YouTube clips of

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PreviewUnited States

International Wednesday Roundup, Part 2: The Hex!

February 7, 2013 — by Suman

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The highly anticipated (at least in this quadrasphere (?)) CONCACAF Hex started yesterday, with three very compelling matches: the USMNT went down to Honduras and lost 2-1, Costa Rica battled back for a 2-2 draw in Panama City, and perhaps most surprisingly Jamaica left the usually forboding Estadio Azteca with a point after battling Mexico to a scoreless draw. (Each of the 10 matchdays between Wednesday and October 15 will consist of three matches featuring the six teams in the Hex, for a full home-and-away round robin among the squads. Actually that's not quite true--for some reason Jamaica-Mexico's return fixture in Kingston is scheduled on its own on June 4, and there are only two matches on June 18. See here for the full schedule.) We asked our team of correspondents to send in their thoughts on the matches. Here are Coach Larry's in-game observations on Honduras-USA: Worse it's Ray Hudson.

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AfricaCommentary

Rounding Up A Busy Day of International Football

February 7, 2013 — by Suman

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As we posted to our tumblr yesterday morning, there were at least 10 international matches of interest yesterday, ranging from the Africa Cup of Nations semifinals in the morning, to a bunch of international friendlies in mid-afternoon, and capped off by the 1st three Hex matches. Here's a roundup of various match notes and observations from the CultFootball crew: The two Africa Cup of Nations semifinals: I put on the first semifinal, Mali vs Nigeria, midway thru the 1st half, and quickly saw Nigeria go up 3-0 within the span of 20 minutes. Goals from (1) Elderson, assisted by Chelsea's Victor Moses (no, Elderson is not a naturalized Nigerian originally from Brazil--his full name is Uwa Elderson Echiéjilé, born in Benin City, playing the last few years in Portugal for Sporting Braga (no, he's not a naturalized Nigerian originally from Benin--Benin City is in Nigeria); (2) Ideye Aide Brown, a 24yo striker who

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AsiaCommentaryHistoryLong Reads

Dictators and Soccer: Kim Jong-il and North Korea (or Football, Famine and Giant Rabbits)

January 18, 2013 — by Rob Kirby — 3

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[Editor's note: This is the 3rd installment in the ongoing Dictators and Soccer series. See also the previous installments on Nicolae Ceaușescu of Romania and Mobutu Sésé Seko of Zaïre and later installments on Pope Benedict XVI of Vatican City and beyond.] While some dictators qualify as relatively batshit crazy, North Korean Supreme Commander Kim Jong-il took run-of-the-mill guano and weaponized it with a deep, visceral nuclear fear factor. Against the backdrop of a starving nation, he enriched uranium, trained missiles on South Korea and Japan and generally gave everyone the heebie jeebies with the supremely iffy accuracy of the North Korean military's test fires. To show another side—for, if nothing else, he was a well-rounded pot-bellied man—he then broadcast his eccentricities at back to back World Cups (his and hers, 2010 and 2011). Ultimately, this one-two proved too show stopping to top, so the tiny strongman took his bow and

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CommentaryEnglandPreviewtransfers

A CultFootball Roundtable: Demba Ba, Agents, Money Business–How Loyalty May Miss the Point

January 5, 2013 — by Rob Kirby

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Some CultFootball roundtable reactions to a Telegraph piece on Ba leaving Newcastle for the money (and why shouldn’t he?): Tyler: Roman and Demba, cut from similar cloth? The Cunning Linguist: No way! That article reeks of the old love of the game mentality and "where are English players in the EPL" rant. Ba went to a club that may play Champs League and will get paid more money while slotting into the lone striker role in a 4-2-3-1 set up as opposed to the 4-3-3 of Newcastle. Football's a business, a money business. 7.5mm quid for a 13 goal scorer is good business. That said, I'd have preferred to see a recall for Lukaku as I think he can spell a clearly tired and out of confidence Torres. Lally (aka Political Footballs): Also, Newcastle put the release clause in the contract whilst not guaranteeing him money if he didn't play because

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CommentaryEnglandtransfers

The End of the Arsenal Is Not At Hand

December 31, 2012 — by Rob Kirby

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Calendar finale 2012 miraculously witnessed Arsenal removing the pesky “handbrake” to which manager Arsène Wenger so often refers (why would any team so repeatedly employ such an antiquated and momentum-killing device?) and the team won four successive matches in December: the crisp 2-0 v. West Brom, followed by the toyingly awesome 5-2 v. Reading, the limp but who cares 1-0 v. Wigan, finally concluding with the scoreline-busting 7-3 v. Newcastle. Suffice it to say, two of the four failed to feature historic defensive displays from either side. But no gripes with goals. No, sir. Midfield marshal Santi Cazorla could have even pushed those scorelines higher if ballhog teammates reciprocated on occasion and passed to him on his own forward runs. Theo, to your direction this last statement looks. After all the negative press bullshit, we marched into the Boxing Day match in fourth place. Fourth! Unexpected, perhaps undeserved, but definitely

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