The Run of Play is a blog about
the wonder and terror of soccer.

We left the window open during a match in October 2007 and a strange wind blew into the room.

Now we walk the forgotten byways of football with a lonely tread, searching for the beautiful, the bewildering, the haunting, and the absurd.

Contact Us

[contact-form 1 'Contact form 1']

One Year Ago on The Run of Play

A Portrait of Peter Crouch
“He has the shoulders of a kangaroo and the head of a quarter-teaspoon.” Includes contributions from history’s greatest writers.

Going to Ground in America and Europe
Why is diving perceived so differently on different sides of the Atlantic?

Transfer Gossip as the Soul of Football
It comes into the world—no one knows from where; passes through the world—no one knows how; and departs the world—no one knows why. It can’t be bound by the crude material of fact. It animates itself insubstantially, like the soul.

The Run of Play Contest: Describing Peter Crouch
Our first-ever contest, and last-ever functional contest, produced a barrage of reader-created one-liners about the gawkiest striker ever hatched from an egg of the heron family.

Read More:

One Year Ago on The Run of Play

by Brian Phillips · December 5, 2008

[contact-form 5 'Email form']