World Cup Week

Sometimes a national team looks nothing like the country it represents.

• By Will Parchman

The number of immigrants in a country doesn't seem to have an effect on how diverse its national team is. If anything, it appears that ethnic and racial minorities get pushed toward soccer.

• By David Keyes

The idea of Italian identity has always been a weak one, and the brief, oncer-every-four-years flirtation with the national team just brings those issues into sharper focus.

• By Vanda Wilcox

The massive, multicultural, multiracial nation initially struggled to find a uniting identity—until everyone started playing and watching the sport brought over by the British.

• By David Goldblatt

This post recognizes it is adding to the noise—but remains hopeful that it also says something valuable about the future of media coverage.

• By Noah Davis

Most domestic American players don't make that much money, but with new collective bargaining negotiations coming up, a good performance from the U.S. National Team could help to change that.

• By Clint Irwin

A rumored death threat from Mussolini, what was ostensibly an on-field boxing match, and an egregious handball doubling as payback for the Falklands War.

• By Kevin Lincoln

As soccer picks up fans and followers in the U.S., entrepreneurs are betting that they’ll be able to make a lot of money off of a sport that’s already enormously popular elsewhere. Will their bets pay off?

• By Kyle Chayka

Unlike many of the great Brazilian players, Sócrates, who didn't become a professional until age 24, remained an outspoken political voice up until his death three years ago.

• By Dave Zirin

It's not easy to make a pop song that appeals to the entire world.

• By Elliott Turner

Bosnia and Herzegovina makes its maiden voyage to the World Cup this summer, and Croatia will be playing in its fourth tournament, but the memories of Yugoslavia—and the what-if questions—have yet to fade away.

• By Jon Arnold

Club soccer has surpassed the international version of the sport in just about every way: better pay, better players, better teams. And yet, come Thursday, the world will still be watching.

• By Luke Dempsey

The author of Football Against the Enemy talks to us about the way the game has changed over the past 20 years, the globalization of America, and his son's angry kindergarten teacher.

• By Ryan O'Hanlon

A fraction of one percent of FIFA's total profit from the tournament.

• By Andrew Guest

Despite the country's lack of success on the international stage, Iran's relationship with soccer has always been an intimately political one.

• By Suhrith Parthasarathy

At games for the U.S. National Team, fans brag about being back-to-back World War champs. They're being less sarcastic than they realize.

• By Aaron Gordon

Introducing our latest special report.

• By Ryan O'Hanlon