Laurent Dubois's Blog, page 12

The 2018-19 Season for a Leicester City Fan

By Cameron Anderson The most interesting “honor” in the English Premier League is the concept of the “best of the rest” that resides for middle of the table clubs looking for a reason to care as their season comes to an uneventful, trophy-less conclusion. It is clearly much better than escaping a relegation battle, and… Read More »

Breaking Down Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s Puzzling Team Management

As a Manchester United fan, I was truly excited for the second half of the season after Ole Gunnar Solskjaer took over as caretaker manager back in December. My excitement grew in the months following his appointment—United were finally scoring goals and appeared to be playing more free flowing football that resulted in a long… Read More »

The Biggest Storyline for Each Team Heading into the Champions League Semi-Finals

Barcelona – Searching for a Return to Glory After failing to make it past the quarterfinals the past three years, Barcelona find themselves back in the driver’s seat of the tournament. Though the Blaugrana are an established team in the UCL (having won four times since 2005 and five times total), they have seen major… Read More »

La Bandera LGBTQ y el Fútbol

El uso de la bandera del arcoíris del movimiento LGBTQ provocó críticas de un equipo inglés que compite en la National League North, el nivel sexto del fútbol profesional inglés. Altrincham F.C. llevó camisetas del arcoíris para apoyar a la comunidad LGBTQ y su “Football vs. Homophobia” campaña en febrero de 2019. Una fuente fuerte… Read More »

Resilience, Homelessness, and Fighting from the Ground Up

When reading Under the Lights and in the Dark, by Gwendolyn Oxenham, I gained a unique glimpse into the livelihood and experiences of famous women’s soccer players. As progressive as a country or region can claim to be, it is quite obvious what their actual values are towards gender roles and women when understanding how… Read More »

Heartbreak for Les Parisians: PSG in the Champions League

To this date, the best match that I have watched has been the 2014 Champions League quarter-finals match between Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain. The game in it of itself wasn’t exceptionally thrilling. It was, however, the first Champions League match that I saw in person. Everything about the day was memorable. From the moment we… Read More »

NCFC: The State of Soccer

After working for several years the North Carolina Football Club failed to receive a MLS bid, but why? Raleigh measured up to the other markets on many metrics. Raleigh already has a professional men’s soccer team, but so do many of the twelve MLS expansion applicants. The Triangle is a top 25 television market, but… Read More »

On One Goal: A Coach, A Team, and the Game that Brought a Divided Town Together

Our discussion following the reading of Amy Bass’s One Goal: A Coach, A Team, and the Game that Brought a Divided Town Together revolved around the issue of cultural identity and American soccer. This discussion, to me, perfectly captured the essence of the course as a whole, and felt like a perfect closure to the… Read More »

Howler by De Gea

**This blog post draws inspiration from the capturing the game assignment that our class did in the beginning of the year. I noticed that quite a few of the assignments described phenomenal goals from the perspective of the goal scorer. However, I didn’t notice any of the posts describe the anguish, despair, or embarrassment that… Read More »

Nicaraguan Soccer

When I tell people I am from Latin America I usually get the follow-up question of how good is your team in soccer(especially during the World Cup). As a Nicaraguan that conversation usually leads to an uncomfortable conversation. Unlike our rivals to the south, Costa Rica who have qualified for the World Cup four times,… Read More »