Argentina-Brazil Rivalry Too Hot for Brotherhood
This World Cup has seen Latin American soccer fans cheering for each others’ teams. Not Argentines and Brazilians, whose rivalry remains stubbornly in place. Quarrels between fans of South America’s two biggest countries have broken out in stadiums as supporters taunt each other. Police intervened in Belo Horizonte where Argentina fans and host Brazil threw […]
Boateng speaks out!
African football has yet once again showed its ugliest side and unprofessionalism by lying to the world. Kevin Prince Boateng ripped into the entire Black Stars World Cup campaign in Brazil and the Schalke man minced no words as he spoke his heart out to journalists after the Ghanaian federation had announced that him and […]
The World Cup and Ramadan
On June 28, two noteworthy global events begin: the second round of the World Cup and Ramadan, the Islamic month observed by fasting. For some of the dozens of Muslim players on Algeria, France, and Germany, this will pose a problem: having to play world-class soccer after having abstained from food and water since sunup. […]
World Cup Sets Facebook Record
Facebook reported that the World Cup has racked up more than a billion comments, posts, and “likes” which is more than any other event in history. About 220 million people have taken part in the unprecedented online conversation. Knock-out matches that took place during the weekend pushed the overall number of “interactions” at Facebook past […]
Pickup Soccer in Brazil
RIO DE JANEIRO — In Brazil, the ball is always moving. It moves on grass and on sand, on concrete and on cobblestone. Sometimes, during the rainy season, it even moves on water. Organized soccer, the kind the Brazilian national team will play next year in the World Cup, is known as futebol (pronounced FOO-chee-ball) […]
Japanese Brazilians celebrate mixed heritage
Nearly 1.5 million Japanese descendants live in Brazil, and two-thirds of those live in Sao Paulo state. Sao Paulo, Brazil – The room was a mixture of Brazilian green and yellow and Japanese red and white, as more than 200 members of the city’s large Japanese community turned out to watch the country of their […]
Suarez is not a bad person
On Tuesday a fragile man broke in the industry we all support. He cracked in the pressure cooker we all built. On my way into work every morning I pass a mural. Sometimes I pause and just gaze at it for a while. That’s why it is there. One of the inspirational figures painted onto […]
Black identity in Brazil
Before teams representing their countries from around the world arrived in Brazil, the country’s president, Dilma Rousseff, took the opportunity to label 2014 the “anti-racism World Cup.” The declaration came after a wave of racist incidents in soccer around the world targeting Black players, many of whom are Brazilian. While it’s a well-intentioned gesture and […]
Brasil: Samba and the Samba Schools
It all started in the end of the XIX Century in what was then known as Little Africa (Pequena Africa), the residence of the tias baianas. These were ladies who came from Bahia, and made a living selling food delicacies around town in their typical white dresses with big round skirts. They were also the […]
Boateng and Muntari sent home by Ghana
Ghana’s players departed the World Cup finals £1.7m richer after receiving the appearance money that they claimed they were owed, but with their reputations severely damaged following a series of controversial off-the-field events that overshadowed Thursday’s 2-1 defeat by Portugal. With Germany beating the USA in the other Group G fixture, a 2-1 victory would […]
