Andrew Kerth 
Turn on Wimbledon and you will notice it immediately: every single player, from the defending champions to the first-round qualifiers, dressed head to toe in white. No neon kits, no bold sponsor colorways, no personal flair beyond the occasional one-centimeter trim. In a sport where the other three Grand Slams have become runways for colorful … Read more
Look at any soccer team and one player immediately stands out: the goalkeeper, dressed in a completely different color from everyone else on the pitch, often something deliberately loud, neon yellow, hot pink, electric green. It is one of the sport’s most recognizable visual quirks, and it raises an obvious question: why does the goalkeeper … Read more
How many hot dogs can a human being actually eat? It is the question at the heart of competitive eating’s most famous discipline, and the answer has been pushed to lengths that medical science would have once considered impossible. The astonishing truth is that the ceiling has kept rising for two decades, and the current … Read more
Every Fourth of July, while most of America fires up the grill, a select group of competitive eaters gathers at the corner of Surf and Stillwell Avenues in Coney Island to chase the most famous prize in their sport: the Mustard Belt. The Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest has grown from a boardwalk sideshow … Read more
When a nation heads to the World Cup, it does not just bring the eleven players who start each match. Behind that starting lineup is a full squad of players, backups, and specialists ready to step in over the course of a month-long tournament. So how many players are actually on a World Cup team? … Read more
At the World Cup, a single yellow card can carry huge consequences. Pick up bookings in the wrong matches and a key player can be suspended for a crucial knockout tie, potentially even a semifinal. The rules around yellow-card accumulation and suspensions are among the most important, and most confusing, at the tournament, and for … Read more
You have almost certainly heard commentators use both terms during a match: “there will be four minutes of stoppage time” or “we’re into added time now.” For newer soccer fans, this can be genuinely confusing, are added time and stoppage time two different things? The short, reassuring answer is no. They are simply two names … Read more
Look at any soccer league table or World Cup group standings and you will see a column, often labeled “GD,” that can decide a team’s entire season or tournament. That is goal difference, one of the most important tiebreakers in the sport. When two teams finish level on points, goal difference frequently determines who finishes … Read more
If you follow international soccer, you will constantly hear that a player has earned a certain number of “caps” for their country. A commentator might note that a veteran is “winning his 100th cap,” or that a youngster is “making her international debut, her first cap.” But what exactly is a cap, and why is … Read more
If you watch or read about soccer, you will constantly hear that a player “scored a brace.” It is one of the sport’s most common goalscoring phrases, but for newer fans it can be confusing, partly because the word “brace” has nothing obviously to do with football, and partly because its origin is genuinely surprising. … Read more