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.

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Long-Distance Callers Make Long-Distance Calls

It occurred to me this morning, in the middle of all the Ramón Calderón hubbub, that if I were to make a list of the best literary accounts of English-speaking people trying to come to terms with the meaning and legacy of the Spanish Civil War, it would probably look something like this:

(1) “Spanish Bombs,” by The Clash

(2) Orwell

(3) Hemingway

(4) The collected writings of English and American soccer journalists on the rivalry between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid.

Does that seem about right?