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Mixed Zone blog

Photo by George Rose/Getty Images

The Mixed Zone is the Great Game Lab’s content hub, a blog that curates our Fandom (recommendations), Scrimmages (roundtables), Scouting Reports (dispatches from the Great Game’s venues), and VARs (commentaries connecting the news to our core inquiries).

brick building with mural of Leeds United players painted on it

Elland Road

One of the more intriguing sights I encountered on a book reporting trip to England this month was a poster in a restroom at the University of Leeds entitled “Recognising Microaggressions.” Among the expressions listed that could, even unintentionally, amount to discrimination against members of

text "the night European football was born" over the image of two soccer players from opposing teams with their backs to the camera and with the stadium and flood lights in the distance. On the far left and on the far light of the image are headshots of two men, the one on the left in black and white and the one on the right in color.

Wolves: Champions of the World

As we await this month’s fascinating European Champions League quarterfinals, we heartily recommend you watch Wolves: Champions of the World, a 13-minute documentary that sheds light on the iconic European competition’s origins.

Are We Excited to Stream Women’s World Cups on Netflix?

In this scrimmage, Andrés and Victoria team up with fellows Sarah Spain and Des Linden to discuss Netflix acquiring the rights to the 2027 and 2031 Women's World Cups.
Sifan Hassan

2024 MVP (or Runner)

Before I get to the brilliance that is Sifan Hassan, first, I should explain what exactly we mean by a “VAR” blog. VAR, or video assistant referee, is a recent technology enhancement to the game of soccer for the purpose of video scrutiny of the play as well as the initial call by the ref.

VAR
Leon Marchand

College football’s Olympic impact

Significant changes are coming to American college sports in 2025: schools are getting their ducks in a row to begin revenue sharing with athletes (mostly football and basketball athletes) for the first time in history, the new Congress will consider a raft of new legislative proposals to redesig

VAR

Wait, which world leader would you put in goal?

As an ice breaker, we asked our Inaugural GGL Fellows some questions you might want to try out on friends at dinner
Richard Nixon and Pele

Chestnuts Roasting and Global Footballing Streams

The Netflix Christmas Day streaming of two marquee NFL games is an underappreciated milestone in sport’s globalization, but its actual historical significance is being overshadowed by a more prosaic concern: Will buffering or other glitches mess with my enjoyment of the game?

VAR

Puck’s Podcasts

Puck & its The Varsity podcast with John Ourand: Puck is a small but smart newsletter-driven online publication that does a fantastic job of covering what we at The Great Game Lab like to call the mediafication of all sport.

F1 Arcade logo on modern background

The F1 Arcade

It cost me $43 to go to Sao Paulo and attend a Formula 1 Grand Prix watch party, or at least a decent simulation of one at the F1 Arcade experience in Washington, D.C. I was a bit worried it might turn out like the Wonkagate incident in Glasgow, but that was not the case.

Rafa Márquez: El Capitán

We love the documentary film Rafa Márquez: El Capitán, and not just because it was written and produced by León Krauze, journalist and political analyst, and to our good fortune, fellow of the Great Game Lab.

The Good Game Podcast

Great Game🤝Good Game, or at least that’s how GGL Fellow Sarah Spain likes to put it, and we do too! Good Game with Sarah Spain is a daily women’s sports radio show and part of the iHeart Women’s Sports Audio Network.

Futbolera

We’ve recommended Futbolera: A History of Women and Sports in Latin America by Brenda Elsey and Joshua Nadel in a number of our classes, and students are always grateful we did.