TV

I spent a fair amount of time over the past month watching a sport other than soccer. The men’s and women’s NCAA basketball tournaments returned from a year hiatus and produced thrilling competitions, with the Stanford women and Baylor men claiming the titles. Soccer fans who watched the tourneys will have noticed two things: The repeated use of FIFA songs in commercials/promos and basketball announcers pretending to know what they’re talking about while plugging the Champions League on Paramount+. 

Last summer, National Women’s Soccer League was the first major pro team sports organization in America to return to play during the Covid-19 pandemic. The 2020 NWSL Challenge Cup became a blueprint other leagues followed to safely return to play, and CBSViacom has created a one-hour special to commemorate the groundbreaking tournament. Here’s everything you need to know about how to watch NWSL Challenge Cup 2021 and the documentary on the 2020 competition.

In my opinion, there was no more beloved character in 2020 than Ted Lasso. During a difficult year, his eponymous show on Apple TV+ was a joy to watch. The first season had everything you could want from a series during a global pandemic: laughter, heart and soccer. 

But Ted Lasso met his match on Friday, and that was another of 2020’s biggest stars: Trevor Noah. 

A recent Netflix documentary about the legendary Brazilian soccer player Edson Arantes do Nascimento, known as Pelé, tells a compelling story of the athlete’s rise to fame from 1950 to 1974. The 99-minute documentary, which includes interviews with the 80-year-old Pelé, shows Pelé’s spectacular life against the backdrop of Brazil’s politics. But the film fails to address deeper questions of race and class.