John Doyle | The World is a Ball

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia — “Are you seeing the beaches of South Africa for us?” a reporter asked Slovakia coach Vladimir Weiss after Slovakia’s 2-2 draw in a World Cup qualifier against the Czech Republic on Saturday night. Weiss smiled tightly and said, “Not yet.”

The reporter may have been a tad misguided about the attraction of the beach in South Africa next June – it will be winter there – but his question was illustrative of the country’s focus on qualify for its first World Cup. Weiss’s answer was realistic. But he, like all of Slovakia, can be more than cautiously optimistic. All Slovakia has to do now is avoid defeat and this tiny nation of 5.5 million, long over-shadowed in everything by former partners the Czechs, can make its World Cup debut. Continue reading

BUENOS AIRES — I came here to see a soccer game. Just for the weekend. A long trip for a short visit, but doable. Argentina was playing Colombia in World Cup qualifying on Saturday night, so it was going to be worth the time on planes and the money spent.

Like everyone coming here to see soccer — and soccer tourism is a growth business in beleaguered Argentina — I anticipated a fabulous atmosphere. Screaming, singing, chanting fans watched uneasily by police, just in case of real trouble. I saw the police, for sure, and the fans, all 45,000 at River Plate Stadium, but the cops were relaxed and the fans were the edgy ones — not enthusiastic rabble-rousers. Continue reading

LONDON — On Wednesday morning, the start of a mild gray day, the final participant in the famous Fourth Plinth experiment in Trafalgar Square had her say. The experiment — Antony Gormley’s project allowing 2,400 people to spend an hour each on the plinth (a pedestal on which a statue usually stands) over 100 days — was eccentric, but it gave ordinary people the power to perform or preach in a great public space.

While others had railed against global warming or taken off their clothes, the final person, Emma Burns, a 30-year-old medical photographer, draped a Liverpool F.C. banner on the plinth and read out the names of the 96 Liverpool supporters who died in the Hillsborough stadium disaster in 1989.

The hundreds of people watching Burns end the plinth experiment broke into a spontaneous singing of the Liverpool supporters’ song “You’ll Never Walk Alone.” It was a surreal, emotional scene. Continue reading

BRUSSELS –- How sweet it is to see Spain play. Live. In person. It is not like it is on TV, where the camera follows the ball and the intricate orchestral maneuvers that ebb and flow around the play cannot be seen.

A full, expectant crowd of close to 50,000 came to the Roi Baudouin Stadium on Wednesday night to see Belgium play Spain. Most, of course, were here to support Belgium, which has made a vigorous and impressive start to its World Cup qualifying campaign, but even the most partisan supporter was also here to savor Spain’s skills, those of the European champion, unbeaten in 27 matches. Continue reading