In the hinterlands of Cary, North Carolina itself largely a vast hinterland between Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill, a place once featured in National Geographic as the ultimate suburb sits the Wake Med Soccer Complex. There's a slight chance you may have seen it at some point on TV the ACC soccer tournament is played here, along with an exhibition game by the U.

"Didier Drogba delivered a long and passionate eulogy to the European Cup as Chelsea finally secured their holy grail." The Sun, 21 May 2012

There are some matches that end up seeming primarily the vehicle for one person to somehow attain mythical status. The Champions League final between Chelsea and Bayern was written, it seems now, purely to allow Didier Drogba a form of poetic catharsis worthy of fiction or film.

I think all of those who watched yesterday's African Cup of Nations Final match between Ivory Coast and Zambia share my feeling: we were privileged to be allowed to participate in one of the more remarkable moments in modern sporting history. It was one, of course, that went largely under the radar in the U.

Since its founding in 1907, Al Ahly S.C. has been known as ‘the people's club,' representing resistance against the many forms of colonialism that have long plagued the African continent. Initially the first sporting club to allow Egyptians to join, Al Ahly remains the most popular of Egyptian teams, wearing to this day the red kits that honour the pre-colonial Egyptian flag.

The violence at Port Said last night has generated enormous commentary on twitter, and a beginning of media coverage of varying quality. One of the best summaries came last night at The Lede blog of New York Times it's quality largely due to the fact that it is composed of the tweets and videos generated on the ground in Egypt.

This picture, taken on the Brooklyn Bridge on November 17th by Mother Jones reporter Josh Harkinson, is one of thousands of images generated by the Occupy Wall Street movement. The sign is at once a declaration and a question: "Something is Happening." But what, precisely, is it? And were will it take us?

Of all the moments in the surreal, simultaneously compelling and slightly sickening Manchester City vs. Manchester United game today, there is one that will probably stay rooted in our imaginations for at least a little while: Balotelli's cheeky question: "Why Always Me?" after his first goal. Like the most conversation-worthy and striking moments in football, this one is fascinating because it seems at once funny and irritating, appropriate and trangressive.

Early last month, senior executives from the Professional Footballers' Association (PFA), the League Managers' Association, the Football Association (FA), the Football League and the Premier League met with Cyrus Mehri, an American lawyer who, along with the late Johnnie Cochran and a labor economist, Janice Madden, drafted and successfully petitioned the National Football League (NFL) to adopt the "Rooney Rule," the requirement that NFL teams interview at least one minority candidate for any head-coaching vacancy.

Turkish football authorities have pioneered a remarkable anti-hooliganism tactic: allowing only women and children to watch a game. Initially after violence marred a Fenerbahce match authorities had decided to ban all fans from two games. Then someone instead suggested only allowing certain fans.

A slightly brighter story is shaping up in the CONCACAF World Cup qualifying games played by Haiti. They've followed up a 6-0 trouncing of the Virgin Islands with a 2-0 defeat of Curacao.

Haitian football has, of course, been through a lot during the past years, including the death of key personnel during the earthquake, a harsh post-earthquake 9-0 loss to the U.

There was something oddly consuming about the dullness of today's France-Romania European Qualifying match. It was played in Bucharest, in front of a packed and energized crowd of Romanian fans, who understood that this was probably the pivotal moment in the country's attempt to get to the European Cup next year.

The headline in El País said it all: "The strike of champions."

As of Friday, August 12, the AFE (Spanish Footballers' Association) union resolved to strike for at least the first two matchdays of the Spanish professional football season.

Their reason is a crisis in Spanish football related to the credit bust that, thus far, has left at least 200 players in First and Second Divisions owed €50 million in wages.

My recent post on Louisa Necib has been the most read popular I've ever written on this blog. That's a great testament to the burst of interest this Women's World Cup has generated around the world. (France's semi-final game, for instance, attracted 4 million viewers in a country that has been very slow to adopt women's football).

A tremendous game today: the polar opposite of U.S.-Brazil, and indeed of France-England, but as riveting in it's way. That was a relief, since I'm not sure I could have handled the kinds of emotional ups and downs that this past weekend delivered. Tonight, instead of the drama of confusing calls and the absurdity of penalty kicks, we had a clean, flowing game, one won through determined and brilliant play-making by the U.

Of all the things that impressed and elated me about the play of the U.S. team yesterday against Brazil, one might come as a bit of a surprise. It was this: during the waning minutes of the game, before Rapinoe's cross and Wambach's brilliant header, at least two players did their best to draw penalty kick calls against Brazil.