Scissors Kick

“Attitude. Stubble. Warrior. Braveheart. Pretend for a moment that William Wallace managed a soccer team. After signing on the dotted line and facing the media to discuss his transition from freedom fighter to manager, one of Wallace’s first tasks would be recruiting an army, one, presumably, that would reflect his, shall we say, brave spirit.” Nutmeg Radio

“Fernando Torres, the £50 million mercenary, can’t score goals. Ashley Cole shoots people, Glen Johnson steals toilet seats, and Wayne Rooney probably shuns direct deposit just so he can wrap his grubby, calloused hands around somewhere in the neighborhood of £250,000 every week. In Rooney’s case, his astronomical paycheck is his reward for verbally accosting referees, assaulting fellow professionals, and the occasional exquisite bicycle kick. At least that’s what the interwebs and media outlets tell me when they aren’t telling me how special he is.” Nutmeg Radio

“Twitter. All the kids were doing it. And then, all the adults were doing it. All the corporations decided they would do it. Then people decided to use it to overthrow dictators. And at some point during this process, all of our beloved sports teams caught Twitter fever. Today, if you’re a sports team without Twitter, you might as well be in black and white. That may explain why practically every professional team in a major sports league is ‘utilizing Twitter as an effective means of connecting with fans,’ or something like that. It’s probably not a stretch to think that in 2011, every team communications plan has a page dedicated to Twitter in the ‘Social Media’ section.” Nutmeg Radio

“Jonathan Wilson’s Guardian article on Brazilians playing for Ukrainian team Shakhtar Donetsk is a fascinating read. Wilson primarily focuses on Douglas Costa’s journey from Brazil to Ukraine and the struggles that Brazilian players endure when they uproot from familiar surroundings and head to new frontiers. But perhaps just as interesting as the article are the exchanges in the comment section about racism in Ukraine and Russia.” Nutmeg Radio

“The past few years have seen an influx of investors from the Far East, India, and the Middle East looking to break into the English game. Worries about diluting the purity of the English game have become the issue du jour. These sentiments are not restricted to England. Italy has struggled with the introduction of “others” into Italian society. France’s inverse love affair with African and Arab populations is well documented. This same narrative can be found in immigration debates in the United States where conservatives continuously harp on about our immigrant nation losing itself through, well, immigration.” (Nutmeg Radio)

“For as far back as I can remember, hip-hop artists have waxed poetic about how hard they had it, and in most cases they’ve been right. However, it is good to see when artists are able to inject some prospective into their view of the world.” (Nutmeg Radio)

“Soldiers of Peace, a new documentary film, takes us into the world of conflict resolution. In the excerpt below (courtesy of Telegraph 21), we meet a courageous Kenyan woman named Fatuma Abdulkadir who risks her life to bring peace to her community through the creation of a football league.” (Nutmeg Radio)