LeBron James says World Cup is bigger than NBA Finals
Basketball superstar LeBron James landed in Rio de Janeiro ahead of the World Cup final on Sunday, and he said the Maracana showdown is bigger than the NBA Finals. Fresh from announcing his decision to leave the Miami Heat and return to his first team the Cleveland Cavaliers, James touched down in Brazil to watch […]
How Germany Became the 2014 World Cup Champs
In June of 2000 Germany finished dead last in its group at the European Championship. They scored one goal in three games, losing to Portugal 3-0 in their final match. “At the turn of the millennium German football stared disaster in the face – it completely lacked a professional foundation,” the writers of a 2011 report from […]
Why Brazil’s youth turned against the World Cup
The streets of Rio de Janeiro have been Michel Oliveira’s workplace for almost a decade. The 23-year-old has never set foot inside an office or had a boss. At the age of 15, Oliveira dropped out of the city’s public school system to earn money selling sandwiches and snacks on Rio’s famous beaches, Ipanema and […]
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: Soccer Will Never Be a Slam Dunk in America
Has the time finally come to slap a Do Not Resuscitate bracelet on soccer’s prospects for popularity in America? If it were up to me, the answer would be no, because soccer players are among the strongest, fittest, most strategic athletes in the world. But, for various reasons, the sport itself does not seem destined […]
Special Brasil Kits
Nike launches special kits for its Brazilian Clubs. In a gesture to honor the Brazilian National Team, Corinthians, Internacional, Santos, Coritiba and Bahia. The teams will wear the special kits that mix the classic yellow worn by the “Scratch” with each team’s own traditional colors. These unique third uniforms will all embody this historic moment […]
Residents Wonder How New Stadiums Will Benefit After Cup
NATAL, Brazil — From her crumbling house with the leaky roof, across a new highway from a new World Cup stadium, Maria Ivanilde Oliveira heard everything. Notes of the national anthems floated through the humid air into her living room, where her black vinyl couch was losing its stuffing and a metal bookshelf was secured […]
Brasil reacts to Neymar’s injury
Fortaleza’s Avenida Beira Mar was alive with the sounds of Brazil’s celebrations after they took another step towards the 2014 Fifa World Cup final – but there was no mistaking the Neymar effect. The road that sweeps around the front of this picturesque north-eastern coastal location was populated with fans torn between the joy of quarter-final […]
Kaka: Right time for MLS
As the Brazilian star weighed options these last few months – remain in Italy at AC Milan, go home to Brazil or join Major League Soccer – he felt the time was right to make the leap. On Tuesday, Orlando City announced the 2007 FIFA World Player of the Year as its first-ever designated player. […]
For Algeria, football remains a fault line with France
In April 1958, a few months before the World Cup, two members of the French national team snuck across the border to Italy, and from there to Tunis. For a few days, no one knew where they were. Then they appeared at a press conference alongside other professional footballers who had also left, undetected, from […]
Brasil: Capoeira
Capoeira is a martial art infused dance, which is thought to have originated in the 16th century in Brazil. Although today capoeira has become somewhat omnipresent with the booming popularity of street acrobatics such as parkour, its history remains mysterious. Discover the story of this 500 year old martial art, and explore the best places […]
