The spate of recent criticisms regarding college sports -- meaning the big-time revenue makers of football and men's basketball with few worries allotted to swimming or gymnastics -- center on two arguments: that their behemoth existence is detrimental to the university's mission of education and scholarship; and that their prominence...

Kudos to the Japanese team on winning its first World Cup! Apart from this unexpected outcome, the real winner has been a wonderful atmosphere of genuine competition and fierce contestation among the teams on the field, accompanied by a civility and congeniality among thousands of fans in the stands, Germany's...

Together with the young Israeli academic and New York University professor Liel Leibovitz, Todd Gitlin, one of our finest intellectuals and -- to me at least -- the most authentic and simpatico voice of the genuinely democratic and universalistic American left, offers us a thought-provoking book that deserves much attention...

The World Cup ended on Sunday, July 11th. Many of us delighted in this tournament not only as inveterate soccer fans, but also as witnesses to a unique event that unified the globe for more than a month. And yet, the potentially divisive forces of nationalism have not vanished. Clearly,...

By Andrei S. Markovits and Lars Rensmann

In case you haven't noticed, there is an authentic soccer culture in America. Team USA's performance against England showed once more that American teams, and the soccer culture they represent, can compete with the best of the world. The skills that these players...

From pariah to contender -- America is no longer reviled in the soccer world, but we are still chasing complete acceptance, and the 2010 World Cup will decide the future of soccer in America and the country's standing among the world's soccer nations.

Significant strides have been...

Eri Yashoda, an 18-year old female knuckleball pitcher from Japan, will commence playing minor league ball for the Chico Outlaws this spring. She will thus be the first female to pitch in professional ball since Ila Borders retired more than 10 years ago. But will this...

The Obama victory is nothing short of sensational, epochal and a true game-changer in American politics. And we American progressives have every reason to be immensely proud of having backed this wonderful man in this historic quest that has already changed this country and will do so much more in...

Now that we have all read the (in my view) excessively lengthy Mitchell Report, I would like to see the reaction leave the realm of hysteria and sensationalism, and settle into a much-needed deliberation and thoughtful discussion that just might help us go beyond the current state of useless anger...

Forty-eight percent of Germans think the United States is more dangerous than Iran while only 31 percent believe the opposite according to a new survey conducted by the respected Forsa Institute for the widely-read magazine Stern. Even more than the German average, young people in particular - 57 percent of...