Danny Baza Blas

I love soccer. Ninety-nine percent of the world, however, uses the term football in reference to our American soccer. This year has brought us a cornucopia  of soccer madness, starting with the World Cup in Brazil, and the recent start of the club season for teams all over the world, except for the United States, which is on its own schedule (as not to compete with 900-pound gorilla--the NFL). My favorite league is in England. The English Premier League is the most-watched league in the world . I like the Premier League because it has the largest collection of soccer talent from countries around the world, playing in a single league.  On any given week, any English team can defeat a more powerful opponent. It's a potential David vs. Goliath week in and week out. That's exciting! That's what makes the EPL The best. I'm soccer mad. In conjunction  with my love for EPL soccer, I play " fantasy soccer ." Fantasy soccer is an online competition in which...

Yael Averbuch plays soccer for the U.S. National Team Yael Averbuch plays for the United States Women's Soccer team, and she recently wrote an amazing and inspiring essay on following dreams, and how pressures from the outside world forces the vast majority of people to abandon their dreams. At 27 years, Yael wrote she continues to sleep in a bedroom in the house of her parents; most everything she does has been in pursuit of this undefinable dream that defies all worldly logic. Logic tells me what I’m supposed to do. Logic tells me to put a timeline on my goals. Logic tells me to compare myself to other players. But I say that logic is for those bound by fear. It explains the world if you don’t have the guts to explain it your own way. Everything extraordinary — passion, faith, love — goes against logic.