Here’s the goal, if, like me, you want to watch it over (and over) again … In reference to some of the comments on my earlier posting about the game , I’ll just say this: If you come to soccer with the mindset that the goal of sports is to create a playing field in […]
Archive | Soccer
If You Haven’t Watched the US-Algeria Match Yet . . .
. . . stop reading immediately, go to ESPN3.com, and watch. Do not read further – you’ll thank me later. If you watched it . . . that was not only the greatest moment in US soccer history (without question), but I’m thinking it may well have been the greatest moment in US sports history […]
We Wuz Robbed!
We really wuz – er, were. A truly stirring US comeback from a 2-0 deficit in its game against Slovenia was spoiled by an indefensible and inexplicable call by the Malian referee, disallowing what would have been the Americans’ third goal. Replays from every conceivable angle confirmed what most viewers thought at the time — […]
Soccer Rules:
Richard Epstein — whom I believe, if memory serves me, is quite persuasive when it comes to articulating the reasons why the common law has evolved towards greater and greater efficiency over time — is apparently unwilling to extend that line of reasoning to the rules of soccer. He’s got some suggestions for changing the […]
My Only World Cup Post – Stolen from Chris Borgen at Opinio Juris …
… and dedicated to Tod Lindberg and his daughter Abbey. Tod is editor of Hoover’s Policy Review and a foreign affairs guru and both Lindbergs are soccer fanatics. I, on the other hand, can only say – further to the very interesting discussion from Ilya, et al. – that I know as little about soccer […]
Debating the Advantages of US Professional Sports Over International Soccer
In a recent post, I wrote that US pro sports have an important unappreciated advantage over international soccer. Unlike the latter, they are not organized in ways that fuel ethnic violence and provide prestige for oppressive regimes. Co-blogger David Post seems to concede my central point, but defends soccer anyway: I think Ilya’s on to […]
World Cup, Round 1:
First, a word about co-blogger Ilya Somin’s interesting post “An Underappreciated Advantage of American Professional Sports Over International Soccer”“. Ilya describes an “important advantage of US pro sports over international soccer: soccer often promotes nationalist and ethnic violence and provides propaganda fodder for repressive or corrupt governments, while US pro sports (with extremely rare exceptions) […]
An Underappreciated Advantage of American Professional Sports Over International Soccer
This month, as two years ago, we have an interesting coincidence of a Celtics-Lakers NBA finals and a major international soccer tournament. In 2008, I wrote a post on the subject that I think is still relevant today: The conjunction of the Celtics-Lakers NBA Finals and the European Soccer Championship [this year, the World Cup] […]
But First, Our National Anthem:
I am, I admit, a total national anthem junkie, and one of the things I love about the World Cup is the way the anthems are featured. The Olympic award ceremony has a certain charm, with the flag being raised while the anthem of the winner is played. But for me, the Cup has more […]
World Cup 2010:
Bowing to incessant popular demand, here’s the latest in my quadrennial guide to everything you need to know about the upcoming World Cup tournament. (OK, not really everything, but at least a bunch of interesting stuff). Even those of you who are, shall we say, less than captivated by the game itself should take the […]
How Jonathan Adler Gets It Wrong, and Soccer Gets It Right:
[As VC’s resident soccerphile, I am of course busily preparing myself for the World’s Greatest (By Far) Sporting Event beginning next week in South Africa. I’ll be posting regular reports on the games, all of which (along with this post) come with the following request: Those of you who seem unable to elevate your discourse […]
Soccerphiles & Soccerphobes, Lay Down Your Arms!
I know that the world (at least the VC world) is sharply divided into opposing camps on all matters soccer-related, but we should put aside our differences and gather together at our favorite watering-holes tomorrow (Wednesday — 230 PM EDT, rebroadcast at 8 PM EDT on Fox Soccer Channel) for a match that should be […]
True Genius:
Every once in a while in sports, someone performs at such an incredibly high level that s/he simply elevates him/herself far, far above the crowd of even the most talented competitors — Gretzky at his peak, Babe Ruth, Tiger Woods. At the moment (for those of you who can tear yourself away from March Madness), […]
Politics and Poker — er, I mean, Soccer
Nate Silver — the fellow who built FiveThirtyEight.com into one of the more successful and sophisticated predictive electoral sites on the Web, and who was remarkably prescient in his electoral vote predictions in the 2008 Presidential election — has now cast his net over more profound and important prey: the world of international soccer. As […]