You Are Reading An Inferior World Cup Blog. Here's What You Can Do About It

Subtitle: When Hitting The Goal Post Is A Good Thing.

Before the tournament I advised that if you were only going to read one article on the World Cup, to read this one. Then once we got started I advised that if you were only going to read one writer during the World Cup that it should be Myles. This morning I was planning to add that at this stage if you are going to read one article on the World Cup thusfar, it should be this outstanding multi-part piece by Gavin Hamilton, editor of World Soccer magazine, which deals with everything from Germany getting it right for the fans, to the battle for additional future World Cup spots between the confederations already being underway, to the commercialism of the World Cup. Excellent stuff, and a must read.

Then this morning, thanks to DC Trojan, I came across this. Holy shit, wow. Plain and simple: Goal Post is the absolute best World Cup blog out there, period. I just spent the last hour working scrolling down and down and down reading it in it's entirety, and you should do the same. It's contributers are Franklin Foer, author of How Soccer Explains The World and a wide cast of others collectively referred to as his friends.

The current top article is a fascinating commentary by Boris Becker on the significance of the tournament to Germany and Germans vis a vis their conflicted national identity since WWII. It is interesting, informative, and also leaves you amazed that Boris can be such an articluate man considering that he didn't go to college because he was busy, you know, winning Wimbledon at age 18 and becoming the best tennis player in the world. Another outstanding article about German nationalism and allowing itself to once again be proud, here.


Learning to feel good about themselves again.

Or read this excellent article about the national id of Argentina, and how that affects the way Maradona is viewed by his people as a sporting icon, 20 years after the epic match that encapsullated both his absolute genius as well as his cheating prowess. Combined, these two make for quite a nice little sociological preview of tomorrow's match.

Anyhow, Goal Post is absolute must read stuff every day. Extrememly intelligent, articulate, and informative. You should definitely stop wasting your time on here and go check it out. Now.

Pass it on...

And if you have abnormal levels of free time, my World Cup Reader's Guide has been updated with lots of references to excellent soccer writing. Enjoy.