Welcome to The Goal Club!

It’s 2022, which means we’re in a World Cup year. It’s what soccer/football fans across the globe anxiously wait to come back every four years, (please don’t get me started on FIFA’s plans to hold it every two years.)

While some of you may not be too excited this time around whether it is for the controversies surrounding the host nation of Qatar or the change of the tournament from June to November - I believe this upcoming World Cup should be cherished by all. After all, this will be the last tournament with only 32 teams - a format that has worked remarkably well since it was first introduced in 1998.

The Goal of this site will be to follow the last stretch of World Cup Qualifying, while also covering some of the overlooked stories in the sport from across the globe.

In this site, you can get a taste of what's to come by reading the previews I wrote leading into the 2018 World Cup.

I want to use this platform to answer questions like the probability of winning after scoring first, I want to tell you about little know stories about epic games or tournaments that you may have never heard, have fun making rankings ahead and during important tournaments, and also look into the future and begin imagining how a 48-team world cup could play out, how the new 36-team UEFA Champions League may look and of course have a meaningful discussion on some of the controversies surrounding the sport.

In addition to the blog, I’m also embarking on a joint endeavor with a podcast - this will have a slightly different focus than the blog - While I’ll go more in-depth about some of the posts that deserve a deeper conversation - the main goal is for the podcast to be a conversation with people in and around the game. The goal is to start with people with connections to El Paso and slowly grow our reach outward with enough time.

In the coming days - I will address a question that commentators bring up ahead of every penalty shootout - Is it better to be the first team to take penalty during a shootout - I dusted off the history books to find out if that is the case, so stay tuned for that.

If this space has any remote chance of having any type of success it would be because of you’re involvement and your suggestion for topics to tackle in upcoming posts and interviews. I’ll provide regular updates on what to expect next across The Goal Club’s social media sites.

Thank you, and Welcome to The Club!

Edwin Delgado

The Goal Club