Derby games are incredibly significant. Pronounced as "darby," these games go beyond simple rivalries between top teams. These are games based on local pride. In soccer, there are top matches like Spain’s El Classico between La Liga giants Real Madrid and Barcelona FC. These two teams not only represent the best of their league but also their political dichotomies. However, this rivalry is not a derby since Barcelona and Madrid are essentially a whole country apart from each other. Derbies are white-hot local battles between two teams that usually occupy the same city or general area. In America, you can consider the MLB matchup of the Chicago White Sox and Cubs as a derby. The same could have been said about the NFL games between the San Francisco 49ers and the then Oakland Raiders before the Raiders packed up for Las Vegas. But in soccer, these games manifest into something grander than a regular game. Whoever wins a derby gets to have bragging rights over their in-town inferiors.
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So now we return to the song of cleats and goalposts. If you ever felt that the writers of HBO's Game of Thrones wronged you, then you can relish in the annual battles for Europe's top prizes. I'll agree, it ain't like Westeros, but there's still an absolute buffet of drama and heartbreak to witness this season. It's all the joy of watching absurdly rich houses battle each other for supremacy without the fear of continuity being thrown out of the window.
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This week I am writing about the 2019 Women's World Cup, which starts next Friday. Twenty-four teams will play in two phases starting with a round-robin style group stage where the best of those teams will move on to a knock-out tournament stage. The United States are in Group F with Thailand, Chile, and Sweden. France and Korea open the festivities on Friday and then the United States have their first match on June 11 against Thailand. It's going to be an exciting month of soccer and this will be your primer for the 2019 Women's World Cup. I'll walk you through the tournament format from the group stage to the tournament and help you get to know the women who will be looking to repeat greatness. So find your favorite reading spot and get to know...
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The European Leagues are now wrapping up their domestic seasons. This means that only one more big game remains and that is the oft-written about UEFA Champions League Final that I've been mentioning in this Newsletter. The final takes place next weekend, Saturday, June 1, 2019 when English Premier League teams Liverpool FC and Tottenham Hotspur compete for the championship in Madrid, Spain. The reason I love this championship so much is that it's what got me truly into the sport. Way back in 2008 I was a fresh-faced college student visiting London to study a whole bunch of history, writing skills, and literary classics. It was a time when I was maybe a little more concerned with being a lush and a degenerate, but we all have our moments. The summer of 2008 gave me a real taste of how passionate people feel for the sport of soccer. This week, you get to learn…
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DC has entered its monsoon season with the shifting atmospheric pressure and that means I'll conjure up an old cliché to sell the impact this last week in soccer. Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool FC proved how strong the English Premier League is on the world stage. Both teams came into their second-leg UEFA Champions League semi-final matches facing deficits against two strong teams. Spanish La Liga club Barcelona were the giants of the remaining four teams. With a soccer legend like Lionel Messi and a quality squad behind him, it was tough foreseeing Liverpool making a comeback. Yet, they did it in Liverpool's home fortress of Anfield. Just a ways away over in the Netherlands, a wounded and short-handed Tottenham Hotspur were facing off against Ajax, the giant killers of the Champions League. Who did they slay on their quest for Champions League glory? Real Madrid, who are heated rivals with Barcelona and Juventus, who conquered Italy and had their sights set on the rest of Europe. But Ajax found a way to beat them all. Surely, a beleaguered Tottenham was going to a piece of cake. Yet, even Ajax wasn't ready for the fight that exists within a downed--but not out--English club.
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March Madness is the second best time to be a sports fan while the top spot belongs to the World Cup. I will gladly admit bias in making this sweeping, authoritative statement; however, I do have some solid reasoning for my ranking. While the top college hoops tournament is a grand event, it's still an intrinsically American product. Soccer, on the other hand, is a world-wide sport. While America as a whole is fickle about its interest in the World Cup, the immigrants and international visitors will still pack our bars and go wild for their home countries. The nature of one's support for their country is level with one's support for their alma mater. For this small school South Dakota boy, I don't exhibit such a fervor during this time as I do when the US Men's and Women's National Teams compete for gold. But I do recognize and appreciate the similarities. Anyway this blog post has nothing to do with any of those topics. Or does it? Like college grads who preserve artifacts and mementos from their years of studying and extracurriculars of official and unofficial merit, soccer fans do likewise. They sport the colors of their favorite team. They memorize the songs and chants that have been passed down through generations. And, a most curious fact, they collect an uncomfortable amount of scarves even if they live in tropical climates or in my case, a swamp which has yet to be drained and actually has become far worse for wear in recent times. But before I lose myself deeper into an unrelated tangent, let's discuss...
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There was a time when soccer was poised to become the next great American sport. The North American Soccer League was that platform for teams and players to enter the pantheon of athletic greatness. But something happened. Maybe a fervor of anti-communist rhetoric had kept the sport born of the working class from taking a foothold. Perhaps a cabal of capitalist pig millionaires had conspired to quash incoming competition. Maybe America just had too many sports for people to care about. When the NASL died shortly after its founding, America was devoid of professional soccer on a major level. That was until 1993 when the US Soccer Federation won a bid for the 1994 FIFA World Cup and established Major League Soccer. The league kicked off last week, so now is a good time to...
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