The world of soccer has been rocked by a French player's game-defining handball in the much-anticipated qualifier match between France and Ireland. Thierry Henry has admitted to the offense, but said ultimately it is the duty of the linesman to make the call. His action and subsequent admission have drawn strong reactions, including attempts to vandalize his Wikipedia page. [more inside]
posted by lovermont on Nov 19, 2009 - 111 comments

The Guardian recently published a beautiful article about Danish Dynamite, the '80s Danish national soccer (football) squad. Rob Smyth and Lars Eriksen write about how the success and failure of the national team highlighted national traits that Denmark has. The writing about the matches is among the most inspired I have ever read. [more inside]
posted by reenum on Nov 11, 2009 - 6 comments

A history of the online World Cup. Do you remember the first ever official FIFA world cup website? How much we've grown...
posted by ascullion on Jun 14, 2006 - 6 comments

Pickles - The dog who won the World Cup. There were two amazing events that happened in London in 1966 that focused on the Jules Rimet Trophy (aka The World Cup): 1: England won; 2. the 15 inch, solid gold trophy tall was stolen, held to ransom, and then discovered in a bush by a dog called Pickles. The English FA had commisioned a base metal replica, which - after the Queen awarded the trophy to Bobby Moore - was substituted for the priceless trophy in the England dressing room, when a copper swapped it with legendary Manchester United & England fullback Nobby Stiles. That was the one which toured the country over the next few years - not the the real one. The replica was sold £254,000 by Sothebys in 1997... to FIFA, whereas the original was stolen again in Brazil, and has never been seen since. The replica is on long term loan to the National Football Museum in Preston, Lancashire - though they don't always tell you: it's a fake.
posted by dash_slot- on Jun 5, 2006 - 12 comments

Please, do mention the war. Really, it's hard not to. After all, in a sense football is war, as the General famously joked. Sometimes it's peace. Same goes for that other football, by the way.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane on Jun 3, 2006 - 11 comments

Old Firm dialectics It's going down the thinnest wire tomorrow in the Scottish Premier League (football/soccer/fitba that is) as Celtic and Rangers, with one game left to play in perhaps the most absurd league in Europe, stand equal on points and goal difference after 37 games thus far.
posted by skellum on May 24, 2003 - 7 comments

Brazil vs. Germany. The 2002 FIFA World Cup has come to an end. History was made today.
posted by riffola on Jun 30, 2002 - 48 comments

A few rather mundane numbers have turned into international chart toppers by being blessed as the 'official song' of the FIFA World Cup^TM or being on the 'official album' and getting airplay as the theme songs for local TV broadcasts. I think this trend started during Italia '90. Neither I, nor FIFA can remember any official songs from Mexico '86 or Spain '82. While Anastacia's Boom is this year's FIFA designated 'official song;' I like Tejano singer Jennifer Peña's upbeat Vamos al Mundial, the theme song for Univision's World Cup broadcast. What's the theme song of your local World Cup broadcast? Is it any good?
posted by tamim on Jun 25, 2002 - 11 comments

Is Univision's coverage of the World Cup, like, way better than ESPN's or what?
posted by brookish on Jun 25, 2002 - 16 comments

Kicked Out Of The World Cup? Kick The Blues Away Now! Friday fun and consolation with a kicking little game under the expert supervision of kicked-out Italian striker Roberto Baggio. Fire away, losers!
posted by MiguelCardoso on Jun 21, 2002 - 8 comments

"Soccer scolds" attack! The Weekly Standard's Jonathan Last has had it with gushing soccer writers like Slate's David Thomson ("[Soccer is] something made out of muscle, speed, grace and the soul") who see American lack of enthusiasm for the sport as a deep-seated national character flaw worthy of dire-sounding pronouncements. Is he right, or, as The San Francisco Chronicle would have it, can soccer really bring world peace?
posted by transona5 on Jun 20, 2002 - 29 comments

Korea 2-1 Italy. A classic World Cup in the making? First it was Senegal dumping out the French, and then the Argies and the Portuguese were left biting the dust. Spain and Ireland fought out a nail-biting penalty shoot-out, Saudi Arabia got hit for eight, and now South Korea continue their miraculous journey by sending Italy home. Next on the cards: let's hope for another classic when England take on Brazil!
posted by arrowhead on Jun 18, 2002 - 39 comments

Yet another African dream. After Cameroon's heroics of Italia '90, Senegal follow up with a quarter-final achievement themselves.
posted by arrowhead on Jun 16, 2002 - 10 comments

How two perfect moments in time brought such tremendous joy and pride to a nation. To me, this truly is the world's most beautiful game, if just for moments like these. I wish everyone could feel this kind of passion for something, whether it be football or not. Sadly, we may never experience this kind of a reaction to anything here in the US.
posted by dopamine on Jun 4, 2002 - 120 comments

so which site has the best soccer live coverage? is it yahoo!'s fifaworldcup.com? is it the bbc? is it someone else? right now from here (germany) it looks like none of the big sites is holding up to the traffic. is any site as well prepared as msnbc was for the olympics? oh, and it looks like senegal is winning the opening match.
posted by HeikoH on May 31, 2002 - 17 comments

I have a bad feeling about this. The UK government has urged employers to be leniant to staff who want to watch the World Cup when they should be working. Isn't this instantly discriminating against people who happen to like football (Soccer) all that much? For example, I'm sure I know what would happen if I broached the idea of turning up for work late on May 16th after I've been to the first showing of this thing.
posted by feelinglistless on Apr 29, 2002 - 15 comments

It's the Shperiks! Those wacky mascots for the upcoming FIFA World Cup Korea-Japan! I can't tell what the heck is going on here, and if it weren't for the upbeat BGM, I'd probably be scared to visit this site again. But it was an interesting little adventure...
posted by Bixby23 on Mar 26, 2002 - 6 comments

Preparing Asia for the World Cup.
posted by Spoon on Mar 15, 2002 - 1 comment

Welcome to the 2002 FIFA Worldcup, er, make that WorldCup, um... "The efforts being made by organizations of all kinds to ensure that a positive image of [Korea] is projected this summer deserve the highest praise. It is a crying shame, however, that so many of these efforts will be undermined by the comedic quality of much of the English being used." Not intended as a poke at Korea, but an interesting example of how hard it is for people (or a people) to change their mindset (more inside).
posted by Bixby23 on Feb 24, 2002 - 13 comments

Live webcast ban of the World Cup (FIFA) finals BY German media group Kirch: An interesting perspective by Alan Docherty in the Guardian. (via Politech) More inside .......
posted by justlooking on Feb 3, 2002 - 5 comments

As Seoul Prepares for Soccer World Cup, a Debate Is Unleashed Over Dog Meat. Cultures collide as FIFA warns and Brigitte Bardot threatens to organize boycotts of Korea over their Canine Cuisine. Koreans are offended. (more)...
posted by Mack Twain on Dec 11, 2001 - 27 comments

World Cup Fever! The draw for the group stages of the FIFA World Cup Korea/Japan was made on 1st December. England got an awful draw: Argentina, Sweden and Nigeria. The USA look like they did much better: Portugal, Poland and one of the hosts, South Korea. As an Englishman, I'm pretty down about it at the moment.
posted by salmacis on Dec 3, 2001 - 36 comments

The World Cup draw is Saturday, though I am a bit confused about the process. Why on earth is England ranked behind Germany?
posted by tranquileye on Nov 28, 2001 - 19 comments