KU Professor Robert Rodriguez on the World Cup

By Sylvia Maria Gross

Kansas City, MO – With the World Cup on in Germany this month, we become aware of how important soccer is in so many cultures around the world. It's also becoming an essential part of suburban youth culture in the United States. But do young American soccer players become fans of the US team? And now that the US is out of the competition, are they following other country's soccer teams?

KU Professor Robert Rodriguez can look at a soccer game from many perspectives - he's writing about this World Cup for the Lawrence Journal-World. Four years ago, he covered the competition in Asia for the Kansas City Sports Calendar. But he also teaches political science at the University of Kansas, and has studied the role of soccer during the dictatorship in Argentina. And personally, he grew up in California, but his parents were from Argentina, a soccer powerhouse. KCUR's Sylvia Maria Gross spoke to Robert Rodriguez over the phone, in between World Cup soccer matches.