The Cup Runneth Over
Listen:Wavin' Flag, K'Naan
Of the dozen Cup tunes (including Shakira's official ditty, Waka Waka, with its silly video of animals playing soccer), this Somali-Canadian poet-rapper's drumline-backed anthem gives the biggest kick, a can't-get-it-out-of-your-head sing-along.
Watch: The Two Escobars
Telecast on June 22 on ESPN, this doc details two men—Colombian defender Andrés and drug lord Pablo—inextricably linked by surname, and how the former's national soccer teammates became unwitting pawns in the latter's drug trade. Archival footage of Los Cafeteros in the '90s reminds us of an era when Colombian soccer was at the center of the world.
Read:A Beautiful Game, Tom Watt
From sandlots to stadiums, it's the sport in coffee-table-book splendor, with touching anecdotes from the world's best (Beckham, Messi ...) on how they got from Point A to Point B.
Surf: Soccer By Ives
Fox Soccer columnist Ives Galarcep oversees this accessible blog (soccerbyives .net) with an eye for all things American, be they MLS recaps and ruminations, Yanks-abroad nuggets or Galarcep's fluid take on how U.S. national coach Bob Bradley ought to align his charges in South Africa.
Screen: After the Cup: Sons of Sakhnin United
Particularly poignant in a year in which the World Cup will be played in once segregated South Africa, this film-fest darling, now in theaters, documents Sakhnin United, the first largely Arab team to win Israel's State Cup, and how it (briefly) had Jews and Arabs cheering alongside one another.
PHOTO
FLORIAN SEEFRIED/GETTY IMAGES (K'NAAN)
TWO PHOTOS