TRIVIA TIME! (answers below this post)
- Where was the term “soccer” created?
- How many teams have won the world cup?
- What is the U.S’ highest ever finish?
2022 sees the return of the world’s favorite sporting event: the FIFA World Cup. In case you live under a rock, let me explain what that means. This year, 32 international delegations will meet in Qatar to compete for what could be considered soccer’s (ahem, football’s) greatest prize, the World Cup – the physical embodiment of worldwide soccer supremacy.
You might be thinking, “what’s this got to do with the library?” Well, as the world’s most popular sport, soccer has been frequently used as a lens to understand international relations, game theory, neuroscience, human movement, social structures, racism, economic inequality, and so much more.
This year in particular offers a few new things for the tournament. This is the first time that the tournament will take place in the Middle East and, with that, the first appearance of the Qatari National Team. Additionally, this is the first time that the tournament will be taken from its traditional summer scheduling (not without controversy) and moved to the winter to avoid the heat of the Arabian Peninsula.
So, in the spirit of the World Cup, check out some of these resources available at the Eisenhower Library!
- How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization
- Beyond Soccer: International Relations and Politics as Seen through the Beautiful Game
- More than Just a Game: Soccer vs. Apartheid: the Most Important Soccer Story Ever Told
- Offside: Soccer and American Exceptionalism
- The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer
- Soccer vs. the State: Tackling Football and Radical Politics
- Neuroscience Applied to Soccer
- Where was the term “soccer” created? England – as a nickname for what was referred to as “association football”
- How many teams have won the world cup? 8 (Germany, Spain, Italy, France, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and England) Do you think this year will give us a new winner? Who?
- What is the U.S’ highest ever finish? 3rd Place in 1930 – the first World Cup.