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
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Dispatches

Dispatch from Cape Town: Rowan Flad on FanFest, USA-SLV, ENG-ALG

June 23, 2010 — by Suman

We just received via email a dispatch from South Africa: friend, former teammate, and archaeologist Rowan Flad on watching the US-Slovenia game last Friday at the FanFest in Cape Town, followed by watching England-Algeria live: Today [Friday, June 18] we (me and my wife In Paik) attended our first live match of WC2010 – England v. Algeria.  We spent the day exploring Cape Town a little more, after having done Table Mountain and some other sites yesterday, first going to a sweet little coffee shop in Observatory (Obz), the part of town where we are staying, called “Queen of Tarts,” and then heading into the City Bowl area where we had a lunch of African tapas at a joint called “Africa Café.”  We then headed to the District Six museum, which was only a few blocks from “Fanfest” – the designated viewing area where a huge screen had been set up outside city hall for people to watch

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EuropeGeneral Knowledge

Where in the world is Slovenia?

June 23, 2010 — by Suman

Something I've been asking myself over the past couple weeks.  Here is the 1st hit upon Googling the title of this post. The Slovene lands were part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire until the latter's dissolution at the end of World War I. In 1918, the Slovenes joined the Serbs and Croats in forming a new multinational state, which was named Yugoslavia in 1929. After World War II, Slovenia became a republic of the renewed Yugoslavia, which though Communist, distanced itself from Moscow's rule. Dissatisfied with the exercise of power by the majority Serbs, the Slovenes succeeded in establishing their independence in 1991 after a short 10-day war. Historical ties to Western Europe, a strong economy, and a stable democracy have assisted in Slovenia's transformation to a modern state. Slovenia acceded to both NATO and the EU in the spring of 2004. So a Slovenia v Serbia matchup would be quite

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Commentary

“I take no joy in the collapse of the French”

June 22, 2010 — by Suman

Lifted from today's France v South Africa / Mexico v Uruguay open thread of comments: Strangely, I take no joy in the collapse of the French (how many times in history has that phrase been used?). I suppose it’s more fun to watch a team you dislike lose at full strength, but this is just sad. Like some strung out 80s movie star — it’s hard to watch, and you wish they’d go away quietly.

Live Blog

Liveblogging Korea v Nigeria

June 22, 2010 — by Sean — 6

This one is for all the marbles. If Korea win, they go through. If Argentina win, and Korea tie, Korea go through. We're pro Korea here (that's South Korea, obviously) — be the Reds! There are a couple other situations where Korea can advance to the knockout stages, but it's all academic. They need to win against the Super Turkeys...I mean Eagles. In the other match, Argentina promise to turn on the style, and probably rest some of their players against a Greek side that hasn't looked strong enough to move beyond the group, let alone beat what may very well be the tournament's eventual winners. All the fun after the bump! ————————————————————————— [liveblog]12[/liveblog]

MVH

MVHs: France / S. Africa & Uruguay / Mexico

June 22, 2010 — by Christine

Early MVH predictions: Luis Suarez (Uruguay) the 23-year-old striker who scored goal #1 in this very riveting Uruguay / Mexico match up. He made it look so easy, didn't he? And that million dollar smile (okay and overbite)! Magnifico! And on the S. Africa / France side: gotta go with my man Katlego Mphela. He's a striker for the Mamelodi Sundowns when he's not playing for his home country South Africa, and he was responsible for that all-too-easy second goal against France at the end of the first half. Go Bafana Bafana!

Live Blog

Open thread: France v South Africa / Mexico v Uruguay

June 22, 2010 — by Suman — 9

Our first open thread..fill up the comments section with commentary, updates, questions, etc re the first two games of the day.  Don't be shy..the CultFootball team is unfort not going to be liveblogging these games, but we'll try to keep an eye on the comments and chime in ourselves. We're about 35 minutes from the kickoffs..any pregame questions? To get the conversation going, here's some pregame chatter from the NYT Goal blog: The problems of the French team have been well chronicled, and it's hard to tell if they are getting better or worse: France Coach Raymond Domenech is considering major lineup changes because some players may not want to playin the wake of Nicolas Anelka's expulsion from the team, and France's sports minister said she reduced the remaining players to tears with an emotional appeal on the eve of today's match. Mathematically, France and South Africa are still alive in Group A,

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Commentary

Digging Europe’s Dark Vision of Futbol: The Unsettling Language of UK Futbol Announcers

June 22, 2010 — by Ryan — 1

It's really not all that bad.
One of the best side benefits of World Cup soccer has been the chance to listen to non-American announcers cover the games. It’s not so much that the U.S. seems to have few legitimate broadcasters who can competently, unpretentiously offer their opinion, which is basically a true statement, no it’s more about the subtle nuances like terminology. Take the following examples: 1) “the smash and grab” – in the overwhelming cluster$#%k that was Switzerland’s goal against Spain the UK announcer repeatedly described it as a “smash and grab” goal. Likewise, Paraguay’s set play success against Italy received the same moniker. I swear no American announcer would ever imply both theft and violence in the purest of all things a world cup goal. No, our man would say the Swiss were “gritty”, “dogged” or “had a nose for the goal”. I’d

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