Soccer Blog Compare and Contrast

The two blogs that I am comparing are from The New York Times and The Washington Post. Both of these blogs are about soccer, both nationally and internationally. The New York Times blog is written by a host of journalists and is named Goal while The Washington Post blog is written by Steven Goff and is named Soccer Insider.

While both of the blogs concentrate on both United States Soccer and International Soccer, Goal written by a host of journalists is more focused on the events that are going around the world with regards to soccer, while Soccer Insider is more concerned about the American player and the American game.

The soccer insider is part of the Washington Post, so it has more involvement with events pertaining to DC United and the MLS. An article posted just yesterday talks about how Andrew Jacobson a rookie on DC United decided to sign with the French club Lorient. In the article it says how this is bad for the MLS because of the money that he would make in the MLS is much less than the money overseas. It then goes on to say what the impact would be on DC United and whether they would miss him or not.

The New York Times is a major national newspaper so in it’s blog, it has more international flavor. Many of its articles from the past week have to do with the African Cup of Nations, the national tournament in Africa. Many of the articles about this event center not only around the soccer that is being played but also around the impact that soccer has on everybody in those countries. This can be seen in an article written by Greg Lalas, talking about a soccer match between Ghana and Morocco, that is much more than soccer to those two countries, “ ‘Ghanaians root for Guinea because of solidarity, because we are all West Africans’, Emmanuel Amponsah of The Ghanaian Times told me that night.” Later on it goes on to say, “The rivalry between North and West Africa resumes every two years at the Africa Cup of Nations. It reveals itself in a contrast of playing styles, but also points to deeper cultural differences.”

While the similarities can be seen between these two blogs because they are both about soccer and what is going on with it around the country. The differences are more glaring, Soccer Insider does not really delve into cultural or social issues that are brought up by soccer, but it goes more into the team side of things with great updated news about DC United. Goal on the other hand, goes into the cultural and social issues that are so often involved with soccer especially on a continent where soccer is as much part of the tradition as baseball and football are here. Both do a great job of reaching the audience that they are meant to reach, Soccer Insider fans of DC United and readers of The Washington Post and Goal, readers of the nationwide New York Times and international issues and sports.

Links:
Goal: http://goal.blogs.nytimes.com/
Soccer Insider: http://blog.washingtonpost.com/soccerinsider/