Pitch Invasion

An exciting weekend of football in Argentina was, once again, overshadowed by tragic events off it. Sam Kelly looks at the latest crisis in Argentinian football.

The wheels on the MLS expansion bandwagon are already turning as the league looks to fill out to 18 clubs. Will it be to the “Soccer Capital of the USA”, St Louis, that MLS looks to next? Or would another team in the Midwest not be glamorous enough?

Standing still, it seems, would be as foolish for MLS as reintroducing shootouts to decide drawn games. Expansion will be coming again, and soon. Today we consider Miami’s candidacy for the next coveted spot.

The Philadelphia supporters’ group the Sons of Ben have over two thousand members and their team won’t start play for two more years. Those following MLS closely have read a lot about them in recent times, as a year ago they had thirty-odd members and no team at all, playing an important part in giving [...]

A week has passed since Pitch Invasion published an article largely based on an interview with the head of Section 8 Chicago that criticised the decision of Toronto FC to only offer around 100 tickets to visiting Chicago Fire fans for their upcoming game in October. A firestorm has erupted since. We look at the reaction so far, and the next steps for MLS.

Links for the week.

• Interview with the man who brought football to Philly [This Is American Soccer]
• The surprising River Plate fans in Israel
• South America trying to hold on to their youngsters [Reuters Soccer Blog]
• Fascist Galaxy fan group?! [The Offside]
• Fans Vlogging! [Reuters Soccer Blog]
• English fans paying high price for football [Fanhouse]
• Chicago’s women’s team chooses its name [Peter Wilt's Soccer Blog]

There are few things more enjoyable for the average football fan than seeing the biggest team in their country descend into a slow and painful downfall. So right now, many Portuguese are gleefully watching the drama unfold as the self proclaimed “Biggest Club in the World”, Sport Lisboa de Benfica very publicly self-destruct. Stephen Burrows tells the story.

In Italy, the idea of supporting rival Italian clubs in European competition is not only largely unpopular, but there is on the contrary a tradition of actively supporting their opposition. The verb gufare means to support against, to wish bad luck upon. It comes from the noun gufo, meaning owl, since the owl in Italy (and Spain) is a symbol of bad luck. So football fans “owl” for another team. Vanda Wilcox explains.

Is football in Norway as dull and predictable as people think? Not at all. Norwegian football fan Vegard Rostad Rinnes tells us what’s really going on with the beautiful game in the land of the fjords.