Despite the relative lack of updates recently, I have been working hard on future posts for the site. My idea to make my cross-country trip from Washington, DC (where I live now) to San Diego (where I’ll be starting graduate school next month) into an American Soccer Road Trip has just about become reality and I want to update you on what to expect.
My route, more or less. Click here for a more detailed map.
To many Americans, even hard-core soccer fans, knowledge of this country’s soccer history is decidedly limited. Not that it has been entirely their fault: a comprehensive history of American soccer has never existed. That is, until David Wangerin’s authoritative, engaging, and enlightening book Soccer in a Football World.
Apologies for the lack of updates. I’m on vacation now and will be until next week. I may post something this week, but no guarantees.
This is not me, though it would be nice if it were (photo: destination360.com)
When I found out that I’d be taking the train next week from New York to the New Jersey shore (maybe an hour ride), where my friend has a house, I was inordinately excited. My friend didn’t get it. “It’s only a commuter train,” he said. But that doesn’t matter to me. My fascination with trains comes from having grown up taking the commuter train from suburban Philadelphia into day care in the city, where my mom worked. Every day, I’d come home and report dutifully to my dad which train we had taken: “The 614 in the morning and the 829 in afternoon.”
My childhood crush: the SEPTA train (photo: Wikipedia)
Even now, nearly 25 years later, I retain my fascination with trains. On a trip to Argentina, I took the grungiest, dirtiest train I’ve ever seen from Buenos Aires to La Plata – and loved it (the owner of the bed and breakfast where I was staying couldn’t understand that I wasn’t being sarcastic in saying so).Perhaps you’re wondering why I’m discussing my fascination with trains on a blog called Culture of Soccer. Well, it’s an extremely roundabout way of introducing a topic I’ve been thinking about recently: the connections between of trains and soccer. Yes, really, I have been thinking about it.
What a difference a week makes. Last weekend Iraqis of all stripes were out in the streets celebrating their national team’s unexpected victory in the Asian Cup. But the team’s return to their war-wracked country has proven anything but happy.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki welcomes back Hayder Abdul Amir (photo: AP/Hadi Mizban)
In America, things are big. Stadiums are big, as are the distances that separate them. In other parts of the world, however, the distances between stadiums are, in some case, very small. Here is a sampling of some stadiums that are very close to each other.
The photos are taken from that most miraculous of tools, Google Earth. Click on them to see full-size images.
