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Miriti Murungi

Well Struck: Deceptive Correlations, Card Waving and a Ball Tom Friedman Would Love

Did England’s early World Cup exit boost English tourism? Did the Jabulani make shots less accurate? Can a soccer ball boost business productivity?

Football Management: England’s early World Cup exit boosted English tourism, and other deceptive correlations

This just in: The Jabulani made no difference to shot accuracy (Touch and Tactics)

The decline, fall and remaining prostrate of World Cup TV punditry (twohundredpercent)

WSC: In defense of card-waving (sort of)

Zonal Marking’s final World Cup final analysis begins: basic shapes and pressing

Tom Dunmore on the example rugby is setting for soccer on dealing with homophobia

The history of the U-20 Women’s World Cup…now on in Germany (Tom Dunmore/Pitch Invasion)

The sOccket ball: Play and plug (Miriti Murungi/Nutmeg Radio)

James Hamilton asks: What is the connection between poverty and skill on the ball?

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Why It’s OK to Say ‘This is Africa’s World Cup’

All of Africa is acting as if it’s co-hosting the World Cup — and justifiably so. The “othering” of Africa by Europeans has been co-opted by many Africans to become continental identification and pride. And the sport has a “transcendent role in daily life” from Accra to Nairobi. A Mauritanian feeling ownership of an event hosted thousands of kilometers away isn’t false consciousness — it’s a model for the rest of us. (Miriti Murungi/Nutmeg Radio)

Read of the Weekend: Beyond Seats on a Plane

The coverage of U.S. soccer writing is shockingly narrow — obsessed with breaking news, team minutiae and who’s going to make the USMNT plane to South Africa, neglectful of access and diversity issues. “Rarely do our writers focus on why the game is played or how our society can transform the game and vice versa, both issues that, coming back to the plane game, are just as relevant to our national success.” (Miriti Murungi/Nutmeg Radio)

Read of the Day: Mining Africa’s Soccer Youth

Africa’s countless youth academies and clubs are too often like the continent’s resource mining practices — “rampantly shady” and ruthlessly rapacious, looking for the Hope Diamond of a Drogba or an Eto’o and tossing the rest (and the community) away. One Ghanaian club is instead trying a model of responsibility — 1/5th of its proceeds go to sustainable development projects. They’re Division 2…but moving up. (Miriti Murungi/Nutmeg Radio)

Read of the Day: Imagine That

The United States thinks developing top soccer pros takes money, training, equipment, access, more money…OK, but why do thousands of kids who lack those things in other places develop into amazing professionals? Because they have something just as important as tactics — they dream the game. Maybe MLS needs an Imagination Project… (Miriti Murungi/Nutmeg Radio)

There’ll Never Be Enough Sandra Bullocks

Is American soccer’s unspoken problem that the system is leaving too many potentially talented players in the starting blocks? An African-American tells his story of club and ODP soccer coming too late at age 16–and wonders how many kids never even hear about these opportunities. (Miriti Murungi/Nutmeg Radio)