MONTCLAIR, N.J. — If ever there were a picture-perfect day for high school sports, it was a sun-drenched Saturday afternoon in early September when the first intratown soccer showdown in a dozen years took place in this bustling suburb.
With resentments of this nature close to the surface, and with Greece's own far-right parties on the rise, it was inevitable that the soccer showdown in Gdansk would attract a lot of attention.
Few matches in World Cup soccer are as exalted as the showdowns between England and Argentina.
LA CRESCENTA — Though it's still early in the Pacific League girls' soccer season, leading into Friday's first-place showdown between visiting Burroughs High and Crescenta Valley, the teams had built up plenty of statistical intrigue to bolster the match.
LA CAÑADA FLINTRIDGE — Clinging to a one-goal lead in a first-place Rio Hondo League showdown with Monrovia High, La Cañada High boys' soccer Coach Alex Harrison looked to kill some clock.
In June 2008, Fowler participated alongside McManaman in Steve Nash and Claudio Reyna's Showdown in Chinatown, an 8-on-8 charity soccer game at Sara D. Roosevelt Park in Manhattan with McManaman making five of the goals, including one for Fowler.
The occasion was the Showdown in Chinatown, the second installment of Nash's charity soccer game, which pits N.B.A. stars against some of the world's top soccer players.
Nash also co-hosted Showdown in Chinatown in 2008, an 8-on-8 charity soccer game held at Sara D. Roosevelt Park.
The 600-year-old sport combines aspects of rugby, soccer, football, boxing, and wrestling, making it one of the most violent showdowns on earth.
Anyone with even a casual interest in soccer, or international culture and relations, or in following entertaining grudge match showdowns, is getting ready.
Each summer beginning in 2008, Nash, whose father played soccer professionally in South Africa and whose brother played for the Canadian national team, has staged the Showdown in Chinatown, a charity event that puts N.B.A. players and professional soccer stars on the same field in front of gawking spectators.
