Video of the Week: "WRITE THE FUTURE"

The Searching Cross is back for the World Cup! Expect this page to showcase frequent updates on South Africa 2010, as we all witness the greatest sporting event in the world. (And follow me on Facebook and Twitter for further updates!)

Our latest Video of the Week is Nike's World Cup ad, which has been getting lots of mainstream airtime as we get closer to June 11. Superstars such as Drogba and Ronaldo take center stage, capturing many of the purest emotions we feel when watching the beautiful game. Lesser luminaries like Ribery and Landon Donovan appear in cameos that make you simply go, "That was awesome." Even non-soccer icons like Roger Federer and Homer Simpson make appearances, showing how the World Cup gets the whole world's attention. I could go on and on, but if you haven't seen this commercial yet, or even if you want to bask in its awesomeness again, you owe it to yourself to take a look. Nike really outdid themselves this time.

And for those of you who dislike Nike's domination of world soccer, here's a lesser-known Puma commercial that focuses more on Africa. Just as awe-inspiring, and it really captures the spirit of African soccer. Plus, it shows off the sweet "African unity" jersey that they've made for the continent's first ever World Cup. Check it out:

Video of the Week: Ref knocked unconscious

In Morocco this week, a referee was knocked into a coma after this shot hit him square in the head. He was out cold immediately after being struck, and is currently in a hospital in Casablanca. Rough luck for this guy, best wishes for a quick recovery.

In other news, I regret to say that The Searching Cross is taking a hiatus until the summer. My class load is heavy this semester, so I can't follow the soccer scene as intensely as I'd like. Rather than bore you with uninformed articles, I'll be taking a break from writing until the month before World Cup 2010. However, you may see the occasional Twitter post, so definitely subscribe to the feed. See you all in May!

Soccer & Politics

This past semester, Duke University offered a very interesting class called "World Cup and World Politics". Professor Laurent Dubois taught how international soccer and world politics are often interrelated, and the class studied multiple examples where one has affected or symbolized the other.

Recently the class completed its final projects, exhaustive websites studying a particular country or topic. These informative projects cover the most interesting material of a highly engaging class, so I suggest that you take a look around at least. For the full list of sites and their subjects, click HERE.

The project that I worked on is titled "El Clasico as Spanish History", about the Barcelona-Real Madrid rivalry and its relationship with Spanish politics. Specifically, we tackled the contentious signings of Alfredo di Stefano and Luis Figo, two of the most explosive stories in the history of La Liga. If you're interested, the link is provided via the above link, or you can just click HERE to go there directly.

Finally, the host site itself, Soccer Politics, is also a great blog to follow for stories that extend past the field of play. The whole class contributes to the blog, and anybody can comment on the posts. You can find a feed on the sidebar of this site, or head to http://www.soccerpolitics.com/ to be redirected to the full blog.

Enjoy!

Video of the Week - Figueroa scores from midfield

And you thought only David Beckham did this. On Saturday against Stoke, Wigan's Maynor Figueroa scored a brilliant free-kick from his own half. Figueroa's awareness here was impressive, but the precision of this strike has to be seen to be believed.

Though the wondergoal gave Wigan a 2-1 lead, Ryan Shawcross leveled two minutes later. When Hugo Rodallega had his 90' PK saved, the teams were destined to finish level. Nevertheless, even though Wigan has been forgettable this season at 14th position in the table, this strike is destined to live on in our collective memory for far longer.