Peter Stokes

To the casual observer, soccer supporters might appear to constitute a kind of undifferentiated mass, a gathering of people (male, by and large) strangely mesmerized by a sport commonly featuring score lines as seemingly absent of drama as 2-1 and 1-0, or a crowd distinguished only by their local, tribal custom of donning jerseys colored […]

When these two teams last met in the Premier League back in mid-October, Queens Park Rangers was sitting comfortably at mid-table with 9 points from eight matches while Chelsea held third place with 19 points, just three points off league leading Manchester City. It was, by all appearances, going to be just another garden variety […]

As a Chelsea fan, I woke to the best news of 2012 on Sunday when I read on Facebook that Chelsea had announced, only a few minutes earlier, Andre Villa-Boas’s departure and Roberto Di Matteo’s appointment as interim manager. Watching Chelsea’s loss to West Brom on Saturday, I had suggested the very same change myself. […]

Losing, as every soccer fan knows, hurts. But losing streaks are far worse. Watching our teams stumble through a run of bad games becomes almost unbearable. The pain is searing. We feel personally affronted, gaping at the last minute set-piece defensive collapse from the comfort of our living rooms. Or we join the indignant barroom […]

Soccer is a family matter in our household. My lovely wife will eagerly watch two or three English Premier League matches with me every weekend. My 12 year old son will check in on scores between sessions with FIFA 11. My 10 year old daughter will draw upon her burgeoning fluency with the game to […]