The Position Nobody Was Taught to Teach

Part two of two. Part one argued that the pay-to-play debate is asking the money question backwards: that the countries beating us spend enormously too, the difference being that federations, municipalities, and clubs carry the cost instead of households, and that infrastructure and free play have to exist before a registration fee is the thing standing in a child’s way. …

Cheaper Soccer Won’t Fix This. Here’s the Part Nobody Is Arguing About.

Part one of two. The final whistle in Seattle on July 6 had barely gone before the argument started, and it was the same argument that follows every American elimination. Belgium beat the United States 4-1 in the round of 16, on home soil, in front of the largest audience a soccer match has ever drawn on American television. Within …