In Atlanta, spreading soccer contagion at parade rest
Ron Newman helped build the U.S. game, calling on carpentry skills to construct goalposts out of discarded building materials. In Atlanta in 1967, he jumped off a Memorial Day float and kicked a ball...
View ArticleIsraeli writers’ trophy leads to ‘emptiness of the day after’
Assaf Gavron, captain of the Israeli writers' XI (see 9 Dec 08), regards football as a legitimate literary subject: "The main appeal is to accomplish the boyhood dream of many men really, not only...
View ArticleNorthern latitudes helped make Marta a player of Sol importance
Marta Vieira da Silva, 22, announces that she will leave her home of five years—Umeå, Sweden, the northern coastal city that nurtured her game and personality but that could not keep her from the...
View ArticleMunicipal de Fútbol, where Angelenos do not fear to tread
Municipal de Fútbol focuses on what the project's essayist, Jennifer Doyle, calls the most developed subculture in Los Angeles: improvisational soccer. With podcast »
View Article20 years later, remembering East German film and football
The sixth edition of the 11mm Fußballfilmfestival revels in Ostalgie (“Eastalgia”) by screening 14 films from or concerning the former East Germany. With film listing and podcast »
View ArticleThe ‘wrong-footed soccer maiden’ who bridged Manhattan, Beijing
Gay Talese, following the Women's World Cup final on 10 Jul 99, takes interest in the Chinese player who misses a penalty kick, Liu Ying. With podcast »
View ArticleAfrika’s tale—saved from the streets to play on the streets
Football's powers of resurrection have rarely had a better exemplar than Martin Afrika. The 32-year-old captain for South Africa at the Homeless World Cup has reconstructed his identity through sport....
View ArticleIn Chicago midfields, Hemon discovers transcendental soccer nation
For Aleksandar Hemon, the Bosnian-born writer, lack of soccer means spiritual death. With interview »
View ArticleAuschwitz and the perversion of football
On Holocaust Remembrance Day, we interview William Heyen about his poem "Parity," concerning a 1944 football match at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Beside crematoriums, Nazis engineered the ultimate perversion...
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