Author Archives: Raf Noboa y Rivera

Rafael Noboa y Rivera

Writer, musician, student, veteran & political activist.

La Mano del Diablo, The Crossbar of God, The Fallibility of Man

By Raf Noboa y Rivera | Published: July 3, 2010
I’m still struggling with putting this game into words. It wasn’t the greatest game I’ve ever seen, from a technical perspective. There have been prettier goals scored, just in this World Cup alone. People ask me why I love soccer, and I tell them: because it’s the closest any sport gets to reflecting the agony and [...]
Posted in World Cup, soccer | 1 Comment

GHANA 2, U.S. 1: A chance goes begging…

By Raf Noboa y Rivera | Published: June 27, 2010
First off, all praise to Ghana’s Black Stars. Bearing the hopes of an entire continent as the last African side in the World Cup, they showed themselves more than equal to the task. This was a truly well-deserved win by Ghana – they’ve now equaled 1990 Cameroon and 2002 Senegal as the third African team [...]
Posted in World Cup, soccer | 7 Comments

U.S.A. vs GHANA: An epic preview for an epic match

By Raf Noboa y Rivera | Published: June 26, 2010
Oh, Africa. The hopes were so very high that this would be the World Cup where African teams – who’ve blessed the game with players like Roger Milla, Michael Essien, and Didier Drogba – would finally break through en masse to the knockout rounds. Instead of a dream, African fans got a nightmare in the round [...]
Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Mama Said Knock You Out: Previewing the World Cup’s Sweet 16

By Raf Noboa y Rivera | Published: June 25, 2010
It all begins again tomorrow, when Uruguay tees off against South Korea to start the knockout round at the World Cup. From here on out, the stakes get higher, of course: win or go home, as the cliche goes. For those of you (paging Rick Reilly) who hate on soccer because of all the damned draws, [...]
Posted in World Cup, soccer | 2 Comments

U.S. vs Algeria: WHO YOU GOT?

By Raf Noboa y Rivera | Published: June 23, 2010
Here’s the USA lineup for today’s match vs Algeria’s Desert Foxes: Howard; Cherundolo, DeMerit, Bocanegra (c), Bornstein; Donovan, Bradley, Edu, Dempsey; Gomez, Altidore And here’s the ALG lineup: Mbolhi; Bougherra, Halliche, Yahia (c); Kadir, Yebda, Lacen, Belhadj; Matmour, Djebbour, Ziani. All in all, an attacking lineup. Missing from it: Oguchi Onyewu, who, frankly, has had a rollercoaster World [...]
Posted in World Cup, soccer | 3 Comments