“I’ve never appraoched Zidane as a subject for illustration before. What always struck me about his style of play was his grace of movement. I wanted to show him in a quite skillful pose so I went with the behind the leg drag back. I even toyed with putting a pink tutu on him as a humorous nod to his balletic movements.”
We’re delighted to feature Dan’s work on AFR. Find him on: Twitter / Tumblr / Etsy.
By Jordan Brown, writing from Chicago
Watching last Tuesday’s United States Men’s National Team match against Guatemala, what struck me most—beyond the team’s confident performance—was the support in the stands. The stadium was a packed array of red, white, and blue. The atmosphere was fantastic; the crowd was active and loud, the American Outlaws section enthusiastic in both dress and volume. They also seemed so distinct from a European crowd, so uniquely American in the whole endeavor of support—the Dempsey big-head that got a top billing, the ‘Shot, Shot, Shot’ chant that came out a few times—hints of bombast and swagger, beer in the stands, questionable body paint all spake very American.
The antics weren’t a simulacrum of our European cousins, but instead showed an individual character, and I was suddenly aware that I wasn’t a part of it and dearly wanted to be. The match made me realize that for all my fervent interest in the Beautiful Game, when it came to my own nation’s expression of the sport, I have been an absent participant. It’s taken the week ‘till now for me to consider my situation, but I feel I’ve found a reason: for all the grassroots movement and growing national interest, most Americans are and have been Soccer Orphans.
In Luke Dempsey’s fantastic piece in Howler’s recent first issue, he discusses the difficult position of growing up a Manchester United fan in the West Midlands, home to of clubs like Aston Villa and West Brom—essentially not Manchester.
“If you’ve watched British football from early childhood, your loyalty is probably going to be about your father and which team he supported. I have an American friend who picked Chelsea when she came to the sport as an adult, because she had watched them lose the Community Shield in 2006 and ‘always likes to root for the underdog.’ Bless her.”
In two sentences, Dempsey effectively sums up the identity crisis facing American soccer fans. The America I grew up into is a land of many fathers, but I’d wager that very few of them supported soccer, much less any individual club with any ardor. And the other side of the coin Dempsey has tossed out is a good-natured, but still somewhat common view of the modern American support of European clubs—that it is more novelty than authenticity.
By Kieran Dodds, writing from Cambridge
Saturday morning. I, still a wee lad, run downstairs as fast as my little legs will carry me. No weekend lie in for me. James Richardson and Channel 4 are calling. On goes the television. There’s the music! Generic 90s theme tune resounds through the living room. Except, there’s nothing generic about this at all. Gruff Italian man shouts ‘Campionato! Di Calcio! ITALIANO!’ in time to the music (I think he’s Italian, but I’m unsure, and certain that it doesn’t really matter). I don’t know what it means, but I’m positively exhilarated. The name ‘BAGGIO’ jerks its way along the screen and, a few seconds later… oh, it’s that sweet, eternal sound: either ‘GOAL LAZIO!’, ‘GOLAZZO!’ or ‘GOLACCIO!’ depending upon one’s disposition. And now, there he is. Oh, James Richardson. James, with your polished bald bonce. James, with your cappuccino and quaint Milanese bistro. James, with your crisp, hot-off-the-press edition of Gazzetta dello Sport. This is Football Italia. This is my childhood.
Italian football has come a long way since those halcyon days; days in which bonafide superstars like Zinedine ‘Zizou’ Zidane, Ronaldo, and – my personal favourite – George ‘Moved To Man City Before It Was Cool’ Weah plied their trade at Juventus, Inter and Milan respectively. The consensus is that Serie A has regressed since then; that not only can it not compete with the self-proclaimed Best League In The World (the Barclays Premier League, of course), but that it has also fallen behind La Liga, the Bundesliga, Ligue 1 and its other European rivals in the quest for continental superiority. Serie A, the critics insist, is some sort of mediterranean SPL in which: all fans are backward hooligans; all football is ‘that catanachio rubbish’; and all players and officials are crooked, looking to throw the next match – any match – in order to make a quick buck (or Lira, or Euro, or whatever bloody currency they use over there).
Oh, dear. How wrong they are. Ish.
The Euros are fast approaching, and football’s getting serious; though there’s still fun to be had. Real Madrid took on Manchester United in the Corazon Classic match, with club legends (and Dion Dublin) lining up for both sides. Keep an eye out for Zinedine Zidane, Fernando Morientes, Teddy Sheringham, Roberto Carlos, Andy Cole, Luis Figo, Dwight Yorke and Edwin van der Sar… it makes you dizzy just to think about it [posted by MG].
By Ulysse Pasquier, writing from Montreal
It seems as though a lot has changed in French Football since the Domenechian World Cup debacle. Laurent Blanc’s inspiring ideology has brought the best out of players who want to play football and are eager to represent their country. France is now on a four-game winning streak in Euro 2012 qualifiers and had the luxury of beating both England and Brazil in the process. Even the new jerseys look amazing now, don’t they? Yet, the French have not lost their touch for controversies. Football in France has indeed been shaken for the past weeks by the revelations made by Mediapart. The French journal reported a conversation that took place in a Football French Federation meeting in which Blanc agreed to introduce a quota at training academies to limit dual-nationality players to be formed in France before leaving to represent other countries. What started as a quota fiasco has quickly escalated into a racism scandal at a political scale, putting serious pressure on FFF president Fernand Duchaussoy and Laurent Blanc.
Keigo Yasuda’s “Drawing Football” - AFR’s most creative football video from 2010
Featuring greats like Zidane, Pelé, Maradona, Roberto Baggio, and Cruyff, forget Nike’s “Write the Future” ads. Can you imagine the effort & time that went into this?
(Source: cheekychip)
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The AFR team remembers Paul the Octopus, gets nostalgic about post-football careers in reference to Zidane’s recent role in the “Zidane Position” with Real Madrid, talks about the Premier League & the main matches in Spain and Italy, Carlos Tevez’s homesick situation at Man City, Ronaldinho’s recall into the Brazil squad, the Ballon d’Or candidates, and the Major League Soccer Playoffs.
Contributors: Oli Sparrow (London), Eric Beard (Emory University, Atlanta), Dominic Vieira (Lancaster University), Ulysse Pasquier (McGill University, Montreal), Darshan Joshi (University of South Wales, Sydney)
As usual, we’d love it if you could leave your comments below.
Zinedine Zidane is a football legend and his oldest son Enzo could be following the same footsteps. In this video we see the Real Madrid youngster demonstrate pure class and skill in a friendly kick about. If you want to see Enzo on the football field in the Blanco jersey then watch this video where he’s in action against Barcelona.
(Source: cheekychip)
By Darshan Joshi, writing from Australia
If you know what a ‘Dutch Book’ is, in it’s economic (as well as gambling) translation, then you’d realise that this is not what this is about. It is more of a literal ‘taking a page out of their book’ rather than a witty, schizophrenic banderole. Clearly, in the world of football (to evade some form of racial outrage), it has been established worldwide that all but the French hate the French; a remark that the Irish perpetuated by suffering from a touch of Henry handiwork. But it turns out even that statement may be as off-target as the French national side have been in the past week.
Zinedine Zidane has just come out with the understatement of the World Cup, but we’ll listen to him in awe and reverence anyway. After all, this eye-opener is coming from the same head that headbutted Marco Materazzi, and handed the Jules Rimet trophy to the Azzurri all those years ago. Zidane has said:
The hardest thing is that there is no teamwork. They didn’t play together and it was more a case of individual efforts… He’s not a coach, he’s a selector (in reference to Raymond Domenech)
We’ll get to the selector in a moment, but for once it isn’t just he who is at fault for the goings-on (or should I say, ‘goings-off’…) in the French side this summer.
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