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Sports Illustrated

Read of the Day: Man-Sticker Love

Picture a grown man, an accomplished professional who also happens to be a hopeless World Cup sticker completist – railing against Panini and their artificial shortage of certain bizarrely random players, skulking around swap meets for a glimpse of the elusive Danny Shittu of Nigeria. “The truth is I am sad. And I am addicted. I can’t go a day without my fix of got-got-got-got-NEED! I’m not complete until North Korea is.”  (Sid Lowe/Sports Illustrated)

(Image credit: [Delta] Christian De’Bono/Flickr through a Creative Commons license.)

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Reaction Formations

This World Cup was the death knell of the 4-4-2 as an attacking formation, says Jonathan Wilson at Sports Illustrated — unlike the regnant 4-2-3-1, it doesn’t easily create triangles, which are necessary to maintaining possession. But can anything beat the 4-2-3-1? A W-W (or 2-3-2-3) might be the reactive wave, says Dr. Ted at World Cup College, in which “the attacking midfielder can be shut-out by two defensive midfielders.”

Read of the Day: Is the Champions League Killing Small-Nation Soccer?

European small-nation champions like Dinamo Zagreb and Red Star Belgrade are being boxed in by the Champions League — way too good for their respective national leagues, not good enough for the big Euro tourneys, where their lack of mental toughness and domestic challengers shows. But the CL money ensures these teams’ edges at home, while the non-competitiveness of their leagues is killing attendance at live matches. “Can [a guy] be bothered to walk 20 minutes down the road to watch Red Star beat some village team? Of course not, not when he has 10 better live games on his TV in his living-room.” (Jonathan Wilson/Sports Illustrated)

Could Yugoslavia 1990 Have Prevented Yugoslavia’s Breakup?

Ivica Osim regrets two things: Turning down Real Madrid’s top job (twice), and not winning the 1990 World Cup with a Yugoslavian side that embodied Tito’s federalist ideal — five Bosnians, two Serbians, a Croatian, a Montenegrin, a Slovenian and a Macedonian. “In my private illusion I wonder what would have happened if Yugoslavia had played in the semifinal or the final, what would happen to the country. Maybe there would have been no war if we’d won the World Cup. I don’t think really things would have changed in that way, but sometimes you dream about what might have happened.” (Jonathan Wilson/Sports Illustrated)

Africa: Every Man for Himself

Africa is no closer to producing a World Cup winner than it was 20 years ago, when Cameroon’s quarterfinal appearance raised everyone’s expectations to utopian. Political interference, corruption, a lack of coaching infrastructure, a culture of give-me-mine, and the dominance of academies (which develop athleticism at the expense of creativeness) are to blame. “African football is not progressing, but more worrying is that it is not even progressing toward progress.” (Jonathan Wilson/Sports Illustrated)

The Underworld Aristocracy of Brazilian Footballers

The links between some Brazilian soccer stars and drug dealers are being increasingly exposed by a Big Brother culture of celebrity scrutiny that rivals England’s. The dealers and the players have formed “a kind of alternative aristocracy” — the regimented players seeing in the dealers a freedom they crave, the dealers seeing in society’s affection for the players a dynamic they can only approximate through fear. (Tim Vickery/Sports Illustrated)

Read of the Day: There is a Haitian Proverb

There is a Haitian Proverb: “Only when the serpent dies can you take its measure.” And only 45 years after his execution in a Haitian prison is the full story of the U.S. 1950 World Cup hero Joe Gaetjens emerging — haunted by the reptile Papa Doc Duvalier. (Alexander Woolf/Sports Illustrated)