http://cultureofsoccer.com Sun, 15 Jun 2008 22:34:46 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en It is an understatement to say that the path from Uganda to South Carolina is not well trodden. But in the past few years an increasing number of young men from Uganda have been making the unlikely journey to Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina to study and play ... http://cultureofsoccer.com/2008/05/08/winthrop-universitys-unlikely-ugandan-connection-an-interview-with-assistant-coach-daniel-ridenhour/ The only thing more incredible than the fact that brother and sister Alexis and Amber Hernandez both play for youth national teams is the fact that both represent Mexico. The Hernandez siblings have lived their entire lives in California, but in the past year both have worn Mexico’s famous tricolor. ... http://cultureofsoccer.com/2008/04/11/player-focus-alexis-and-amber-hernandez/ Ed. Note: I don't normally dabble in "news of the day" type articles so this is a bit of a departure. I wrote this MLS preview and submitted it to the Guardian for consideration, but since I didn't hear back, I figured I might as well publish it here. A ... http://cultureofsoccer.com/2008/03/28/2008-mls-preview/ The case of Chivas’ Jesus Padilla is not the only example of a soccer team in Mexico struggling to define who is, in fact, Mexican. The national team has been embroiled in controversy for much the same reason. The previous national team boss, Argentine Ricardo Lavolpe, angered some in Mexico ... http://cultureofsoccer.com/2008/03/20/global-political-economy-and-team-selection-mexico-and-qatar/ What LA-based journalists Luis Bueno and Andrea Canales uncovered about Jesus Padilla was not that big a deal. Their reporting showed that Padilla, a young forward for Chivas of Mexico, was born in San Jose, Calffornia, not San Miguel de Alto in the Mexican state of Jalisco, as stated on ... http://cultureofsoccer.com/2008/03/14/jesus-padilla-and-la-raza-cosmica-in-the-21st-century/ Following up on my interview with Andrea Canales a few weeks ago, my interview with her fellow LA reporter Luis Bueno is up now on This is American Soccer (TIAS). Luis writes for Sports Illustrated, MLSNet.com, the Press-Enterprise, in addition to running his Sideline Views blog along with Andrea. Most ... http://cultureofsoccer.com/2008/03/12/interview-with-luis-bueno/ This past weekend, I had the opportunity to head up to Los Angeles to speak with a couple of prominent soccer writers there. Andrea Canales and Luis Bueno are the duo behind the Sideline Views blog, and they also write individually for various publications. Both interviews were done as part ... http://cultureofsoccer.com/2008/02/19/interview-with-andrea-canales/ When Kosovo declares independence on Sunday, the number of countries to have risen from the ashes of the former Yugoslavia will reach seven (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia being the other six). Kosovo’s independence – supported by the US and many EU countries, but strongly opposed ... http://cultureofsoccer.com/2008/02/16/ethnic-balkans-around-the-globe/ In the past few years, the number of American players plying their trade abroad has increased exponentially. It wasn’t that long ago that knowledgeable American fans could easily count all of the “Yanks Abroad” (personally, I remember scouring for newspapers that would have a one-sentence blurb on the exploits of ... http://cultureofsoccer.com/2008/02/04/explaining-the-lack-of-american-coaches-abroad/ Many trace the origins of many aspects of Western society to ancient Greece (though not all: in his essay Anthropology and the Savage Slot, Rolph-Michel Trouillot claims that “Greece did not beget Europe. Rather, Europe claimed Greece” [21]). The beginnings of democracy, philosophy, and debate as they are practiced today, ... http://cultureofsoccer.com/2008/01/29/some-team-names-are-all-greek-to-me/