Thanks to your support, XI Quarterly has reached its funding goal on Kickstarter of raising at least $11,000!
A new North American print soccer magazine will now be a reality this summer. Thank you, 11,000 times over!
(P.S. - any further donations will only improve XI’s coverage of North American soccer, so please reblog & keep spreading the word!)
New Reward Level For XI - Support New Soccer Media!
A new reward level has just been added on Kickstarter for XI supporters: $18 gets you a year-long digital subscription to XI. This will also be included for everyone who pledges over that level as well! Details here: http://kck.st/H51kHc
Since the Shot Heard Around the World…
A little earlier, we posted a photo and caption from the Chicago Tribune on the US men’s national team’s travails in attempting to qualify for the 1990 World Cup (which would mark 40 years since the US’ last appearance on the grand global stage).
“U.S. falters to tie with El Salvador,” headlined a piece by Phil Hersh in the Trib, commenting that “The United States soccer team has put itself into an extremely awkward position. To reach the 1990 World Cup in Italy, it must score a goal in its final regional qualifying match at Trinidad and Tobago.”
The rest, of course, is history, as FIFA explains:
Just after the half-hour mark his question was answered. Caligiuri stepped up to collect a square ball from Bruce Murray, which bobbled up off the ruddy pitch. Instead of laying it off for the darting Tab Ramos or looking to keep possession, the defender - who would only ever score five goals in 110 appearances for his country - beat one man and swung his left foot hopefully. The shot looped in an arc towards the Trinidadian goal and caught keeper Michael Maurice, who claims to have been blinded by the sun, off his line.
The goal was dubbed ‘the shot heard round the world’ by a suddenly interested US media, opportunistically smelling a novelty story to sell. It later became known as simply ‘the shot’ in the USA.
The next day in the New York Times, George Vecsey wrote about the remarkable achievement of the United States’ “well-mannered men” in Port-of-Spain who had silenced the “30,000 fans almost all wearing red outfits and many carrying black umbrellas, to create one of the most impressive sights possible in a soccer stadium.”
For Vecsey, such a sight was almost unthinkable in his home country, lacking a professional first division outdoor league during the Dark Ages of soccer in the U.S. “There is no such colorful or noisy reception for soccer in the United States, which has been awarded the 1994 World Cup because of the vast amount of corporate money that could be generated there.”
The recent failure of the US men’s Olympic team to qualify for the London games raised many questions about the progress of soccer in the U.S. - some valid, some more fitting for English tabloid hysteria. To look back to 1989, though, and to think that 23 years later the USMNT would have appeared in six straight World Cup finals tournaments (and the USWNT would have won two World Cups), to think that there is now a solidly established first division men’s professional league and that Vecsey’s statement that there is “no such colorful or noisy reception for soccer in the United States” would simply be impossible to validly claim now is to see the scale of change in this country’s soccer culture.
This history of soccer, its present and its future in the United States (and elsewhere in North America) are the stories XI wants to tell, with your help.
- Tom Dunmore
Follow @pitchinvasion
XI Kickstarter drive passes $2k
Thank you all for the support in launching a new North American soccer magazine! $2k down in two days, $9k to go…
A short conversation with XI co-editor Tom Dunmore about his vision for the magazine. If you like the sound of the new North American soccer magazine, check out the Kickstarter page for the XI project.
Introducing XI Quarterly. More info on Kickstarter.
The second day of the XI Kickstarter drive is underway. Great progress yesterday, $1,220 donated by 27 people to support the launch of the new North American soccer magazine; still $9,780 more needed to make this happen.
Interestingly, the most popular donation level so far on Kickstarter has been at $100: that rewards the donor with a one year (four issue) print subscription to the magazine, each one delivered one week before the rest of the world can get their hands on it.
If you can, please support XI on Kickstarter!
The foundation icon for XI, a new North American soccer print publication. Please support XI on Kickstarter, only 29 days to raise $11,000 and create a new American soccer magazine.
