World Cup In The Magazines

Lots of good soccer news this week between Sports Illustrated and ESPN: The Magazine.  SI has a long piece about the business of being Pele while The Magazine has an entire World Cup section and a long piece about the business of being Pele. 

Actually, both stories about the Brazilian legend go much further than Pele's business ventures.  The Sports Illustrated story, written by S.L. Price, takes a look at the perception of Pele in his native Brazil, which is not as good as one would think.

The Magazine has not only the Pele story, which I haven't yet read, but a cover story on Lionel Messi, an article on U.S. National Team members playing in Europe, a capsule summary of all the teams in the World Cup and projections for the Round of 16 through the finals, plus more.  For what it's worth, the predictions have Brazil beating Germany and Argentina downing Spain in the other with Brazil winning the Cup. 

This just in: Monaco defeats the Vatican

In a friendly between two of the world's smallest countries, Monaco shut out the Vatican, 2-0 last Saturday at the Vatican's sports complex.  No word on attendance, but it was presumably smaller than the estimated 300,000 listening to Pope Francis (himself a soccer fan) nearby.

The New York Times reported on the match.