Published on August 25th, 2022 | by Jameelah "Just Jay" Wilkerson
It’s not long now until Qatar 2022 gets underway, welcoming the greatest soccer-playing nations in the world to the Middle East for the most prestigious prize in a single-sport competition. Every four years, the World Cup brings billions of eyes to the screen for soccer, and increasingly, this is becoming the case in North America. While Mexico has long been soccer mad, the US and Canada haven’t been, but in 2022, all three nations will be in attendance, with all three being given a fair chance to escape their groups by the Sporting News report. With high hopes, soccer fever is gradually building, so here are a bunch of ways to get wrapped up in all of the excitement just before the tournament commences on November 20th at the Al Bayt Stadium.
Get your soccer fix with some great flicks
Sport isn’t always the easiest to capture or put a narrative to for fictional entertainment, but a few movies have been able to achieve this feat. Recently, Paltrocast interviewed the stars of the latest in the range of soccer movies, High Expectations, which stars Ally Booke (of Fifth Harmony fame), Taylor Gray, and Kelsey Grammer. The best place to start, however, is with the classics. For most people, the 2006 film Goal! is the go-to film for an uplifting and surprisingly strong soccer flick. The Goal! review by Roger Ebert notes that it works because it’s a sincere film, even if there are some unrealistic soccer moments amidst all of the accurate showings.
Other movies that are certainly worth a watch are The Damned United, starring Michael Sheen as the 44-day manager of Leeds United (Brian Clough), the Busby Babes chronicling tale United, Bend It Like Beckham, and Mean Machine. However, there’s certainly a lot of quality to be found in the more factual or documentary-style options, with Sir Alex Ferguson: Never Give In holding an IMDB rating of 8.2 out of 10. Still, all of the rage these days is for docu-series, especially sports docu-series. Perhaps the biggest of these, having chronicled several NFL teams and the Toronto Maple Leafs before, is All or Nothing. For soccer, you can catch ones on Juventus, Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspur, Brazil, and in 2022, there’ll be an Arsenal series.
Track the scores with a little extra
Around the world, you can’t always get to watch the soccer that you want to see. Be it because of local rights permissions or the game simply isn’t carried by any provider in your state, so much of the soccer world isn’t accessible. Even if you’re betting on a game taking place in Europe, you’re not guaranteed to be able to find a stream or channel showing the action. So, many have turned to score providers, but there’s a big difference between the most novel score trackers and the run-of-the-mill alerts. Sometimes, you don’t have to just watch for a live ticker to react and can have the all-important scores pop up almost as a background alert.
This is the case within the Betway roulette library. In titles like Score Spin and Win Super Chip, Football Studio, Live Football Roulette, Football French Roulette, and Live Betway Football Roulette, you can play classic casino games while keeping on top of the scores. The all-in-one experience makes the following of quick alerts more diverse for most. If you’re more of a stats-cruncher, there’s the live scores and match center from the WhoScored site. Here, you can customize the scores that come through to you, as well as see advanced stats like pass success, aerials won, tackles, possession loss, and individual player ratings.
For any soccer fan in North America, one of the best ways to get set for the World Cup is to tune into the MLS. Home to talents like goalkeeper Jonathan Bond, the amount of talent in the league has increased significantly over the last few years, and not just by way of international big names. Even matches that don’t invoke local rivalries like NYCFC vs. Minnesota United see Taty Castellanos, Talles Magno, Keaton Parks, Hassani Dotson, and Emanuel Reynoso take to the field. Soon, there may be even more if Apple’s streaming deal for $2.5 billion has a similar impact on the MLS as Sky did for the English Premier League in the ‘90s.
Now is the prime time to really get into soccer as, very soon, you’ll be able to fully enjoy the epic celebration and thrills that come with the FIFA World Cup.
Jameelah "Just Jay" Wilkerson Publisher and CEO of The Hype Magazine. Follow me on Twitter @HypeJustJay
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