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The English coined "soccer"

2024-03-27

From my friends at Duolingo:

The people that affectionately call their Prince William "Wills" and £5 and £10 notes ~"fivers" and "tenners"~ are responsible for shortening "Association Football" to just "Assoc."—which, when written, looks like it might be pronounced "Assock." (This "Association Football" name is the same as the French Football Association in FIFA!) In late 1800s England, at Oxford, there was also a fad of adding -er to some words. And thus, "soccer" was born. In England. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

Congratulations, Argentina!

2022-12-18

Congratulations to Argentina and Lionel Messi on winning the World Cup. Thrilling game.

I saw Messi play in person in 2019 and it remains one of the three most impressive in person sporting performances I’ve ever seen. What I’ll remember most about watching the game, besides the atmosphere was how different Messi was in person.

He sat the first half of the game and then came in for the second half. Everyone else on the field was a football player; he was a great white shark. He scored the game’s only goal and was so business like about it. It felt like he could’ve scored it whenever he wanted and chose to do it then and not to do it again so as not to show up his opponents. I’m glad that guy has won a World Cup.