Like most everyone else on the planet, Wrong Side of the Pond have been closely following the chaotic story line surrounding the allegedly corrupt bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups. The focus on the winning Qatar 2022 bid has been particularly dramatic, and has often time bordered on a soap opera. A pint-sized desert country, devoid of […]
Category: world cup
WSOTP pod: season 2 episode 14
Who cares if it’s an international break… there’s still plenty of football to warrant a new episode of the Pondcast. So what’s on deck this week? D.J. and Jeremy delve into the US men’s national team friendly against Colombia and the negative reactions to Klinsmann’s post-World Cup displays. Euro 2016 qualifying also gets some time in the spotlight, […]
ten words or less #100
One hundred is a really big number, and it’s honestly a little mind-boggling that I’ve now written that many of these link round ups. They’re easily the laziest updates I post to WSOTP. They’re nothing more than the fruits of me gleaning the internet for content that’s not my own in order to pacify you until I have […]
a peach of a goal… or ten
Not that this is a groundbreaking thought or anything, but most individual awards in the world of sport are one hundred percent subjective. Soccer is particularly guilty of this when awarding prizes like league MVP’s, goalkeepr of the year awards, or the yearly handing out of the FIFA Balon d’Or. It’s not always the case, but often […]
ten words or less #99
The weekend is upon us, and the football will be coming thick and fast. Tomorrow morning we kick things off with a little Liverpool v Chelsea treat and the weekend is capped off off with some MLS Playoff action. And somehow, someway, I have to manage a way to watch as much of it as […]
you wanna talk about progress?
Three years ago this week, the hiring of Jürgen Klinsmann as the new US men’s national team head coach was to be a watershed moment in US soccer history. The German legend was charged with taking a plucky, overachieving American side and turning us into a dominant force in world football. In his introductory press conference, Klinsmann […]
your duty as an american soccer fan
Much has been made of the incredible interest in the World Cup here in the United States. The tournament on the whole averaged 4.5 million viewers over all 64 matches, a 36% increase from the 2010 World Cup four years ago. We also saw records smashed for single game viewership several times: the first was […]
ten words or less #93
Ah vacation… you were much needed. After a month of World Cup to digest, my brain and Twitter feed certainly needed the rest. So after spending a week with my family on an isolated lake in South Carolina, I’m now back and ready to dip my foot into the pools of world football once again. But […]
WSOTP world cup 2014 XI
Without a doubt, this was the best World Cup I had the privilege of watching. An impetus for attacking was shared by nearly every team at the tournament, with a record-tying 171 goals tallied in Brazil. The biggest stars of the game all turned up, notching important goals and providing key moments. Goalkeepers were in […]
cause and effect
For a tournament that has arguably been the most entertaining World Cup in recent memory, this should be a time of celebration. Four international heavy weights — Brazil, Germany, the Netherlands and Argentina — compose the semifinalists. Together they’ve already made 18 appearances in the final, and 30 appearances at this stage in total if you include […]
Wrong Side of the Pond 