The first game I've been able to watch live in approximately a month, and it just had to be the dire one. No matter, the game on Sunday is much more important ( Read more... )

( Part 4: 1974-1978, The 1974 World Cup, a story of two rival managers, Argentinian football under La Junta, preparations for hosting the 1978 World Cup, the singlemindedness of César Luis Menotti, the final, and possibly the greatest post-victory reality check of the entire book. )

WAAAAAY TOO MANY WORDS.

( Part 3: 1955-1974, Argentina back on the international stage, football in post-Perón Argentina, the 1966 World Cup, and Estudiantes as they hit both the pinnacles and pitfalls of anti-fútbol. )

This is TOO LONG FOR LIFE.

( Part 2: 1935-1954, football in popular culture, the golden era and la década infame, La Máquina and La Nuestra, Perón, Eva, and Los Padrinos. )

So basically what I plan to do over the next few weeks is extract all of the Argentina-related snippets from The Ball Is Round and type them up, so we'd ostensibly end up with a detailed yet condensed history of Argie football.

( Part 1: 1914-1934, football tied to new notions of masculinity, fútbol rioplatense and the pibe ethos, El Gráfico, player migration, and professionalization of the domestic league. )

Probably only niamh_x is interested in this, but I finally (HAH! A month later than I promised) typed up that snippet about the Gaelic Athletic Association. It mostly pits the GAA against the rise of football in Ireland, but there's some early history in there.

( Sports and politics would become inseparable ... )

A month or so, and I've finally finished The Ball is Round, the last 50 pages of it in a sleepless fit two nights ago. It's ... staggering, is all I can really say, just the scope of the research that must have been involved, and how Goldblatt maintains the same level of passionate involvement throughout. The narrative never softens its grip, and ( Read more... )

Worlds collide. Last night I skimmed through the Spain-Sweden match (the knowledge that Albiol will be in black and white next season cures most of the restlessness I have about Valencia's current woes). Today, on the way home from work, I read this passage in The Ball Is Round about the first-ever Spain-Sweden match. Interesting how things change ( Read more... )

A number of things happened over the course of the 07/08 season that made me question my previous scope of understanding regarding football. I was paralyzed by Hicks and Gillett and their rapidly unraveling ball of yarn, haunted by the image and the afterimage of Fernando Torres, appalled by Valencia's breach of dignity, and frustrated by my ( Read more... )