Pride of London

It’s not secret that I’m a Chelsea supporter, but I usually try to avoid explicitly stating my west London bias in my writing. Sometimes, though, I just want to write about my favorite team. So, I am now a contributor to the Chelsea blog the Pride of London. Maybe you’re curious about what Tiemoue Bakayoko […]

Preseason Trophies (yes, they totally count)

I confess I can be a frustrating person to get along with. For example, my wife is often exasperated when I obscure whether I am being enthusiastically sarcastic or simply enthusiastic. Being the garbage person that I am, I enjoy the confusion to the point I often can’t tell either. It’s a character flaw. What […]

Hello, Mister DJ – Pt. I

I’m not sure who let me make the warmup mix for my university’s soccer team, but whoever it was must have regretted it. I saw my mix as a standalone work of art (the transition from the Clash’s “London Calling” to Bloc Party’s “Banquet” is pure 2005 goodness), but not everyone agreed. There were some […]

The Optimist of the Goal

Eduardo Galeano wrote that he was beggar for good football; growing up in rural America before the internet age, I was beggar for any football. Through a coincidence of geography and television rights, I spent a disproportionate amount of time watching the Argentine Primera in the late 90’s. There were a lot of talented footballers […]

2 5 3

I often forget how obscure football used to be in America. There was not a professional league for much of the 90’s, and it was an environment where current Bundesliga striker Bobby Wood was not even aware of the existence of the World Cup. Now I see kids walking around with Totti shirts, and my […]

Apostasy

It is fairly easy for me to link religion to soccer because of my nationality; a visiting Russian friend once told me, “You Americans talk about religion the way we talk about weather.” However, I don’t think it is particularly uncommon to link sports and religion. Stadiums are often called “cathedrals of the game.” Sunday gridiron […]

War Face

For centuries, when a new pope assumed the office, his coronation procession would be punctuated by the master of ceremonies halting him, burning flax, and shouting mournfully that thus passes the glory of the world. It was a reminder to the man that had just become the supreme pontiff that all of the pomp and […]