Jonathan Wilson, one of the most well-respected soccer journalists, contends fullback is the most important position, noting that since 1994 the World Cup “has been won by the team with the best pair of attacking full-backs: Jorginho and Branco for Brazil in 1994; Lilian Thuram and Bixente Lizarazu for France in 1998; Cafu and Roberto [...]

Landon Donovan has long been the most prominent American player, but his actual position on the national team has not always been clearcut. Wandering from left midfield to withdrawn striker to right midfield to forward, Donovan has never settled into a permanent position at the international level. Today, Fútbol for Gringos will attempt to chronicle [...]

The absence of starting striker Charlie Davies poses a riddle for Bob Bradley: does the manager use his traditional 4-4-2 or find a new formation? The likely solution is moving Clint Dempsey into Davies’ spot and keeping the 4-4-2. Unfortunately, there is no clear-cut backup for Dempsey’s right midfield position. Stuart Holden may have been [...]

Like all sports, soccer is beholden to shifts of philosophy. Zonal Marking recently chronicled the latest rise of the 4-3-3 formation. In short, the article posits that teams of the early 2000s were obsessed with employing a physical, defensive midfielder (unimaginatively termed a ‘destroyer’) in conjunction with a creative, attack-minded foil (the ‘creator’), using the [...]