I will guess you saw my Chicago soccer history toots on
Mastodon. There are
facets of my life in soccer which I have not yet scribed about.
In 2025, this is being revitalized.
I have applied to F.I.F.A. for credentials to cover the Club World Cup 2025™ tournament in the
U.S.A. (& Canada). As you might know, F.I.F.A knows about me
from my coverage of this tournament when it was contested in Japan in
2005-2012 {with some gaps}. I submit I should be credentialled. I
wonder who else might be. If it is a matter of numbers, I do not
have a lot of traffic. But I do not do “clickbait”, and that
is what typically gets the numbers. {Would you really want to view a
piece titled, "CONCACAF's Top Five Scumbags"?}
I shall also apply to CONCACAF for a credential to the CONCACAF 2025 Gold Cup, which I covered in 2007 and 2011, but since its matches will be mostly on the west coast, and in the same time frame, it is my second choice. How much traversing would I have to do?
These soccer pages have been extant on the World-Wide Web since the 20th Century. But I would have been accused of being a “Pollyanna” had I predicted things which happened, especially in 2014. ["Someday, the City of Chicago will open up Soldier Field for spectators to watch the U.S.A. Mens' World Cup Soccer Team on a big television screen."]
As for Major League Soccer; I am moderately neutral. I lack the emotional connection to the Chicago FIRE. I want them to do well; but their winning or losing is not going to keep me awake at night. The major reason I do not attend their home games is because I do not motor to Soldier Field. I take transit. When out-&-about, I almost always carry a black leather satchel containing my Windows® 8.1 x64 laptop computer. The security setup at Soldier Field is not going to allow me to carry that inside.
I almost always completely capitalize the nicknames of soccer clubs. Formally assigning a nickname to a club is a North American custom, although many international clubs have colloquial nicknames [e.g.: Arsenal (ENG)]. Even when a club are defunct, whenever I write about them, I completely capitalize their nickname (and I use plural nouns & verbs).
I have been involved with soccer as an enthusiast since 1978. For all but 20 months {February 1981 - October 1982, when I lived in Southern California}, I have been in Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.
Beginning in April 1983, I began a streak of attending Chicago STING home games which went uninterrupted until the franchise "suspended operations" in June 1988. [That's right: The STING have still not officially gone defunct. Because if they did, Lee B. Stern would be unable to prevent any other corporation from using the nickname "Chicago STING".] There were three exceptions: I boycotted the STING's match v. Team America during the 1983 ChicagoFest at Soldier Field for political reasons. I was in New York City on a data processing job assignment and missed a weeknight indoor game (v. Tulsa) in March 1984. Because I would not spend any money on a game when someone whom I loathed (and continue to loathe) was the post-game ‘attraction’(!?), I did not attend the indoor match on 31 December 1984.
I am not now, nor have I ever been, a soccer "purist". I respect people's preferences for one discipline of soccer vis-a-vis another.
To revert to my index screen, click on this segment.