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How a New York bar brought boots and pints to North America.
“Jack Keane is recalling the days when he’d be threatened with physical violence for televising football in New York City. How dare you show that shit? shouted an instigator, some drunk East Village...
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Do U.S. Soccer Fans Steal Europe’s Customs? Damn Right We Do!
“It’s disappointing, though not terribly surprising, that this is how Jonathan Clegg begins his jeremiad against American soccer fans, published in the Wall Street Journal Thursday night: ‘Growing up...
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Watching the World’s Game, in the World’s City
“On a gloriously sunny afternoon recently, Lunasa, an East Village pub, was packed seven deep at the bar, as three TVs showed the day’s big games. Soccer games, that is, in Germany, Portugal and...
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Terry Gilliam, Guy Ritchie & Alejandro González Iñárritu Direct Soccer Ads...
“Even if you don’t hail from one of the world’s many soccer-loving countries (you know, the ones that don’t call it ‘soccer’) surely you can get on board for the World Cup. Here in the United States, I...
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USA: a diamond midfield
“While 4-2-3-1 remains the dominant formation, there’s a decent amount of tactical variety on show at this World Cup. The United States are expected to add to this variety by using a diamond midfield,...
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National Defense
“On June 12th, the United States men’s national soccer team faces England, in Rustenburg, South Africa, in a match that is expected to draw one of the largest audiences in the history of televised...
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The End of Ghana’s Golden Generation
“As exhilarating as Monday’s 2-1 World Cup victory was for United States supporters, it must have been equally as heartbreaking for Ghana supporters. Having clawed back to tie the match 1-1, and...
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The Reducer: World Cup Winners and Losers
“Can I interest you in March Madness spiked with second chances? Because that’s what we’ve got on our hands. After a little more than a week of World Cup action, we’ve seen the defending champions go...
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The Anchor on an Evolving Team
“Tim Howard did not always like what Jurgen Klinsmann was doing to Howard’s closest friends. He actually hated it. One by one, all of the veteran players on the United States national team had their...
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World Cup Pass & Move: I Can’t Believe That We Did Draw!
“Looks like we picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue! That was a pretty turbulent soccer match on Sunday. To try to make sense of it all, we’ve got a bunch of Grantland writers on hand to talk...
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A Cruel Match in an Unforgiving Jungle
“The US team was in a stadium in the middle of a city in the middle of a jungle, getting ready to take the field to play Portugal. The sun had dropped behind the arena and it was getting darker. And...
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Group G – ESPN
Group G Overall POS TEAM PTS GD P W D L F A 1 Germany 7 5 3 2 1 0 7 2 2 United States 4 0 3 1 1 1 4 4 3 Portugal 4 -3 3 1 1 1 4 7 4 Ghana 1 -2 3 0 1 2 4 6
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World Cup As a Bandwagon Fills, a Team Fails Forward
“The United States soccer players seemed to pass the ball to Germany more often than they did to their own teammates. Late in the game, two Americans — Jermaine Jones and Alejandro Bedoya — were left...
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I Was Wrong About Klinsmann
“Three weeks ago, I wrote in this space that Jurgen Klinsmann had to deliver now. Wins in friendlies and the Gold Cup and CONCACAF qualifiers are great (and, at this point, expected), but his job was...
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Is This Soccer’s Moment in America?
“The World Cup is enjoying a surge in TV ratings thanks to excitement surrounding the U.S. team’s strong performance, putting the tournament among the elite telecasts in all of sports. But can soccer...
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Babylon on the Beach
“There have been other parties on this beach. Not just the annual Carnival bacchanal or the New Year’s fireworks, which are massive and can run ragged (as a friend here told me, ‘you watch the...
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8 Books to Guide You Through the World Cup
Golazo!: The Beautiful Game from the Aztecs to the World Cup: The Complete History of How Soccer Shaped Latin America by Andrea Campomar “The world is divided into two groups of people: those who look...
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Variation on a Theme of Jacques Brel
“The United States plays Belgium today in the round of sixteen, with the winner moving on to the quarterfinals of this 2014 World Cup. It’s an accomplishment the U.S. has only managed once before, in...
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Hail to the Alamo: Team U.S.A. Goes Down Fighting
“In the very end—after the comeback goal from Julian Green, a nineteen-year-old World Cup débutant; after the close-range miss from Clint Dempsey that almost levelled it; after the final whistle that...
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Attack-minded Belgium finds way through USA, defiant Tim Howard
“It looked chaotic at times, and playing an extra 30 minutes wasn’t in the plan, but Belgium’s 2-1 win over the United States on Tuesday went about as Belgian manager Marc Wilmots scripted it. Belgium...
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