Brian Cook Presents

Another Premier League season is finally upon us after a terrific summer of Euro 2008 action. There’s also the more immediate prospect of the Olympic soccer tournament, which should feature a good number of young and old stars including Pato, Messi, Diego and Ronaldinho. Looking back at last season’s Premier League predictions, it could have [...]

A recent 4-4-2 magazine article about marginal nations banned from FIFA piqued my interest in some fascinating cultural enclaves. It’s hard to define or draw comparisons between these places/groups of people, but football appears to be a common thread. Combined with some fascinating geography, here are four of my favorite non-state footballing nations.
Basque
As non-FIFA teams [...]

After seeing numerous end-of-year lists around the web, I thought it fitting to sum up my Top 5 in each category of The Cookblog. And so, without further ado, here they are:

Art
These are the best web sites and artists that I discovered during the past year.

Edward Gorey - I’ve posted about him before, but the [...]

Happy Birthday John, you magnificent bastard.

John Mayer - Kid A (Radiohead cover)
John Hartford - Indian War Whoop
Paul McCartney - Dance Tonight

In the past few days, no topic has been receiving as much attention as this the England vs Russia Euro 2008 qualifying match on Football365, my soccer news source of choice. Everyone has been writing into the site’s famous mailbox with their two cents on England’s likely tactics, best team selection and chances of winning.

Much [...]