The Clip Stage

By Corley MillerJune 29, 2026

The goals are all that really count, in the end—maybe they are all we need to watch. Watching the clips, we have gotten away with something: We have watched the World Cup without having had to watch any soccer.

Read article

Comments

No comments yet.

Let Everything Change

I became a Sonny Rollins fan on my 13th birthday, when my dad took me for the first time to his favorite record store in Portland, Oregon. He gave me $50, which in 1987, netted me twelve LPs. One was a European bootleg of Moving Out. It was only two bucks, and I was drawn […]

Nate WooleyJul 31, 2026

n+1

The Fan Zone

The fan doesn’t stop at liking their object, they co-create it in both social and artisanal modes. In soccer we might say: You don’t become a fan when you think “soy hincha de la seleccíon,” but when you sing it. Playing for the national team, for many, is the pinnacle—the perfection—of fandom. Like most perfections, it makes itself absurd.

Corley MillerJul 30, 2026

n+1

Great, Gaudy Artifice

No awkward fumbling in the dark, no failed maneuvers, no humiliating slurp sounds slipped out in the throes of passion—even a middle-aged beauty crowns the novice to be a carnal “king”! Have you ever heard of a more seamless first time? Then you remember this is a book written by a teenage girl who’s never been kissed, let alone had sex.

Isabella TrimboliJul 27, 2026

n+1

In the Grip of Politics

All of us, from academics to fishermen, have now internalized a practice of reading the social world as a field of political or latently political signs. TV watching habits, food choices, clothing, interpretive approaches to 19th-century British literature: Everything becomes an opportunity to take a political stand, and to position yourself in relation to others taking political stands—and in a profession where discourse is everything, such opportunities abound.

Greg AfinogenovJul 27, 2026

n+1

Dima Maghrib!

A man told me he had driven in from Philadelphia after dropping off his children at the game in New Jersey, preferring to watch it from Queens. Others had gone to MetLife hoping to catch a glimpse of the team without paying stadium prices.

Aida AlamiJul 23, 2026

n+1

Great Expectations

Oh well, my girlfriend says. My girlfriend is Canadian and it is quite difficult to explain to her that if you have any real fascination with English football, you cannot just walk away from a loss in the semifinals of the World Cup by saying “Oh well.”

David WingraveJul 23, 2026