On the New York Times "analysis"

On Saturday the New York Times published an "analysis" of global soccer, hoping to sum up all the relevant issues of the year in one fell swoop. The resulting concoction claims world soccer has avoided the recession because Real Madrid signed Ronaldo for too much money, ruminates on the beauty of Barca's youth academy, blames Maradona for Messi not being awesome in an Argentina shirt, discusses immigrants playing for Germany and Switzerland, inserts a couple paragraphs on corruption, and closes with two sentences on Slovenia qualifying for the World Cup.

Ok - this is not a very thorough analysis, particularly when you don't have to look all that hard to see the problems overly-leveraged soccer clubs are facing or the serious concerns about Real Madrid's spending patterns.

As for Diego Maradona, I'm not all that informed on what's going on down there, but Argentina's whole side has been messed up for a while, and hasn't looked all that good no matter who they've played under. So to simply say "The reason must be Diego Maradona," might be sexy and breezy, but I think the question of Messi's national team performance calls for a wee bit more nuance.

Then there's this awkward bit:

[Messi was] the star, yes, but the star of a fantastically integrated team.

Europe’s best national side, Spain, is also an integration — of Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia, Sevilla. Another interpretation of integration arose significantly during the year. We saw it in the German side that won the European under-21 championship in Sweden, and saw it again in the Swiss youths who became world under-17 champions in Nigeria.

More than half the Germany squad and more than half of Switzerland’s emerging talents were born abroad or are the sons of immigrants.

I think it's right around the awkward phrase "another interpretation of integration" where the whole passage just grinds to a halt. Four whole sentences to make our way from Argentina's national team, through Spain's national team and club sides, to a couple FIFA youth tournaments until we finally get to the point. The author could have just said something like,

"European integration continues to change the face of international soccer as both Germany and Switzerland fielded youth sides where more than half the players were born abroad or were the sons of immigrants."

See how easy that is? Then the author could have devoted more space to, I don't know, analysis and stuff, instead of overwrought transitions that take us nowhere.

And while I'm sympathetic to limited column inches, niche sport, etc., was it too much to ask for a mention of MLS, FMF, or CONCACAF? Or was this the "stuff white people like" sort of analysis?

-FS