In places without a name, ‘Pelada’ films the football we never knew
Pelada debuts at the South by Southwest Film Festival as the ultimate expression of football’s capacity for communion.
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South Africa
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Afrika’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. With podcast » -
Remembering Eudy, KwaThema’s brightest, killed on its darkest night
Eudy Simelane, former midfielder for the senior South African women's national team, Banyana Banyana, shaped her world around football before her murder in Apr 08.Aug 30, 2009 | 10 comments | View Post
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Grassroots & youth
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L’Athlétique d’Haiti | ‘The soccer program is going to be back on track’
Update on the Haiti earthquake from Laura Anduze, international liaison for L'Athlétique d'Haiti, the youth soccer program founded in Cité Soleil, Port-au-Prince, in 1996 by Robert Duval.Jan 24, 2010 | 0 comments | View Post
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Municipal 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 »Mar 30, 2009 | 0 comments | View Post
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Language & literature
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In Chicago midfields, Hemon discovers transcendental soccer nation
For Aleksandar Hemon, the Bosnian-born writer, lack of soccer means spiritual death. With interview »Nov 30, 2009 | 0 comments | View Post
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Anatoly Kuznetsov and Dynamo Kyiv’s ‘almost incredible’ story
Anatoly Kuznetsov's work, smuggled to the UK in 1969, contained what would become, when translated, one of the first English-language accounts of Dynamo Kyiv's deeds during World War II.Jun 18, 2009 | 0 comments | View Post
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Women’s football
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The ‘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 »Jul 18, 2009 | 2 comments | View Post
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Where Cossacks held sway, women’s football adds international spice
Even women's football in Ukraine has shown effects of globalization, with players from South Africa, Spain, Mexico and Australia joining one club in 2008.
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History & origins
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Ukrainian will, Carpathian pride and the summer of ’69
Some 30,000 Ukrainians descended on Moscow in Aug 1969 and sang folk songs in the heart of the Soviet empire. FC Karpaty supporters celebrated the regional second-division club's surprising place in Soviet soccer history.Aug 21, 2009 | 3 comments | View Post
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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 to youngsters. With podcast »Oct 04, 2008 | 2 comments | View Post
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Cinema & visual arts
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20 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 » -
The Zen of Mathare: brew changaa, carry water, play soccer
The final installment, from Nairobi and Cape Town, from Gwendolyn Oxenham's diaries supporting The Soccer Project, a documentary about pickup soccer worldwide.Nov 30, 2008 | 2 comments | View Post
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Other Recent Articles
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Mexico | Despite opposition, loyalists continue to spread América brand
Club América shirts predominate in the Georgia Dome in a friendly against AC Milan. The club has made itself a continental brand but has drawn loathing from Mexican compatriots, who shout, “Those colors make me sick!” With video »
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Obama schedules soccer summit in Soccer City
Barack Obama has put executive-branch muscle and street soccer cred behind the United States bid for the 2018 or 2022 World Cup finals. In Jun 2010 he will attend Opening Ceremonies at Soccer City in Soweto.
Jun 23, 2009 | 0 comments | View Post
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South Africa | At the top of our thoughts, near the bottom of the world
World football stands poised between an obscenity and a dream—the obscenity the £136 million to send two Lusophone footballers to Real Madrid, the dream a 2010 World Cup in South Africa that might make soccer here a sport for all.
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Settling Palestinian question in ‘90-minute war’
In Itay Meirson’s first novel, Milchemet Tisheem Hadakot (The 90-Minute War), the intractable Middle Eastern dispute over Palestine is decided in one football match. The winning team keeps the Holy Land. The losers get eastern Oregon.
May 10, 2009 | 0 comments | View Post
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Roster of films, 11mm Fußballfilmfestival, 3–6 April 2009
The list of 35 feature films and documentaries at the 11mm Fußballfilmfestival in Berlin, 3–6 Apr 09.
Apr 03, 2009 | 0 comments | View Post
Nicolas Sarkozy, France's president, has campaigned to relocate the remains of goalkeeper-cum-existentialist Albert Camus from their resting place in Lourmarin. 
