Hey there! Long time no write soccer blog posts for your fleeting amusement, huh? Sorry I sort of abandoned and forgot about you there. Trust me when I say that there’s a good explanation. No, I’m not “moonlighting for the LA Galaxy and increasingly unable to handle the pressure of my life as an international icon in the twilight of his career” (funny, you at the back). What’s happening is that, at the moment, the entire editorial staff of the site is stuck in a small town in Pennsylvania trying to buy a house. And at the end of a long day of small-town Pennsylvania house-hunting, the entire editorial staff has been more inclined to relax near the meaningful end of a whisky and soda than to figure out how to set up a “VPN connection” on an “iPad” back to a “computer” that has Photoshop “on” it. Normal production will resume shortly, and like everything typed on an iPad, that is a “sacred promise.”
In the meantime, if you haven’t seen it yet, check out my new Slate piece on the Old Firm rivalry. Since 80% of the response I’ve gotten has been from people accusing me of being biased toward one side or the other, I should point out that the piece is not about whether Rangers/Celtic are better than, worse than, or the same as Celtic/Rangers, but about all the ways in which the rivalry (and sectarianism in general) have historically been fostered and exploited by outside forces, often the same forces that are now disowning bigotry and blaming the clubs for it. It’s a weird feeling, writing “the clubs are pawns in this game” and hearing back “BUT WHICH CLUB’S FAULT IS IT.” Welcome to soccer, I guess. I could relate some pretty amusing anecdotes about crazy tweets I’ve gotten from outraged fans, but it’s a beautiful day, the sun is shining, and I think I might be paying by the kb for this hotel’s wireless connection.
Agudelo: completely unreal. I can’t wait to see the whole game (it wasn’t a big priority in the public viewing fora of small-town PA for some reason) and maybe, like, have an opinion on 4-4-2 or something. Right now I’m just clobbered by the story of it all.
Anyway, the editorial staff is off to see if there’s any paperwork left in the county for it to possibly sign. I hear there’s an “app for that.”
Read More: Celtic, Rangers, Schedule Update
by Brian Phillips · March 27, 2011
Read the Slate post, thought it was interesting, and I believe that it basically encapsulates what I love about footie (although you no doubt highlight the negative aspects of it)–the cultural and historical roots, the idiosyncratic nature by which each club has particular meaning to its supporters.
I think the question remains though…WHY ARE YOU BIASED AGAINST CELTIC/RANGERS/SCOTLAND?!?!?!
Anyways, glad to see you guys posting here again, and looking forward to more classical music soundtracks…might I suggest something with Zidane next?
Trying oh so hard to suppress the urge to ask whereabouts in PA… Granted, not in a creepy-I’m-going-to-stalk-you-way, rather the more pathetic alternative I-once-lived-there-(twice)-&-it-must-shamefully-be-in-my-genetic-make-up-to-ask-such-a-superficially-banal-question. Pity me- I’m an American female having spent the last hour trying to research informative, intelligent (text)books on the anthropology of soccer… and have been largely unsuccessful. Judging by my meager list, “Inverting the Pyramid,” “Brillant Orange” and “Soccer & Philosophy” seem to be my best bets. Oh, look a segue! Per chance you can rec’d any denser material as I have not (directly) the aforementioned question?
@Ana I’ll let Brian enjoy a nice whisky and Coke and take care of this one. Michael Cox of Zonal Marking has a page on his site with fairly comprehensive list of well-written footy books. A good place to start, I think. http://www.zonalmarking.net/bibliography/
At last, the storm is over, the clouds are breaking and the fingers of God are shining through. After a week of being parched, finally a new article in Runofplay, yay! Oh dear, I need rehab, I think, for addiction to runofplay.com
@Ana Two A couple of anthropologomusthaves for you are Futebol: The Brazilian Way by Alex Bellos, and Soccer Against the Enemy (orig. title: Football Against the Enemy) by Simon Kuper. Also, although David Goldblatt’s hefty The Ball Is Round is a general history, it’s very much skewed towards the sociopolitical background of the sport’s inexorable rise as the twentieth century developed.
I’d also strongly recommend Gordon Burn’s Best and Edwards: Football, Fame and Oblivion, which is as much a study of football’s place in society when it was still a local – i.e. pre-globalised – phenomenon as it is a fused biography of Manchester United’s two most iconic (and, for different, reasons, most ill-starred) players.
@Eric Beard- much obliged. I will start there then work my way backwards through the reference notes.
@Ana While Zonal Marking contains a very good book list, it tends toward formations and tactics. What it seems that you are looking for by your anthropology reference is soccer placed in social context. If that’s the case then “The Ball is Round” is probably a better starting point:
http://www.amazon.com/Ball-Round-Global-History-Soccer/dp/1594482969
You’re Slate piece is very good, and while I can understand why you have received touchy responses (supplying several examples of bad behaviour from Rangers fans and, well, none at all from their friends from across the city would irk less serene Gers fans than myself), my only personal grievance is that on two occasions (two!) you went with Celtic & Rangers rather than Rangers & Celtic. The Rangers were founded first, won the first Scottish league title, have won 11 more than Celtic and were the first club in the world to win fifty championships. Indeed if not for the sake of decency then for mere euphony, please amend this most grievous mistake in your article.
Yours in good humour.
@Jamie Davidson Of course that ought to be ‘Your’ Slate piece.
@Ana
eduardo galeano – soccer in sun and shadow
I really enjoy it, between this and the ball is round. You’ll be set for a bit.
I’ve heard theres a “brilliant orange” for Brazil, but I can’t recall the name.
Pitch Invasion, is a great blog…it’s not updated as much as it used to be, but the archive is amazing. The global game is another great blog with a good archive and now that I think about it…This is Amerian Soccer is another site you’ll enjoy digging around the archives.
@A. Ruiz Is it Futebol: The Brazilian Way by Alex Bellos that you’re thinking of? I haven’t read it recently, but I seem to remember it being rather interesting; especially the section on Garrincha.
I can’t last much longer. I am like Tom Hanks near the end of Castaway.
Again, many thanks! Made the mistake of opening RW Emerson’s Essays in anticipation of Spring & am afraid Transcendentalism shall occupy my reading list for the rest of both seasons respectively. Summer reading list is secure though.