Issue 4 is almost here, and we've got two launch events.
We'll be at the Stanchion Book Fair in London on May 30th — Brixton Library, 11:30AM to 4:30PM, free entry. Come find us alongside some of the best independent football publications, groups, and creatives around. @stanchionbooks
The Chicago launch follows on June 6th at The Soccer House @soccerhousehq (501 N Ogden). 6PM to 10PM, free entry. Writer panel, a conversation about the issue and the game, and Crossbar Syndicate (@crossbarsyndicate ) making custom shirts on the spot so bring something from home or pick one up in the shop.
RSVP in bio.
If there's something you want us to get into on the panel, leave a note when you sign up.
We'll see you there 😎
The World Cup is back in the United States after 32 years.
And so are we with our Issue #4
We trace what changed, what didn't, and what we lost along the way.
A community club on Chicago's North Side plays football the way it was meant to be played. Peter McCabe on the logos that defined a tournament. Cape Verde arrive on the world stage for the first time. Nigeria's shirt as a statement of identity. The Stars and Stripes, then and now. And a few kits worth coveting.
92 pages. 150 copies. Hand numbered. Printed in Belgium.
Issue 4 drops this June.
Everyday essentials: phone, wallet, keys, Pas. Pat. Issue 3.
Issue 3 drops today at the launch party and tomorrow on the website!
Also in the lineup: custom tote bags, limited edition prints, new collabs, and new merch 👀
See you all tonight at the Skyline Pitch!
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Photo credit: @enavlalla
Model: @alisearou
Tote bag: custom @crossbarsyndicate x @passingpattern
Shout-out the FFF 🇨🇵
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We're all gonna tune into the World Cup. Of course we are!
But it's a circus that comes and goes. It always is. There's a club in Chicago that was built to stay. That's Edgewater Castle FC: community-owned, women-coached, free to play, and the only competitive fútbol in the city this summer.
The most radical club in Chicago footy.
Issue 4, coming this June.
But hey, why wait? The Rooks kick off their home opener this Saturday, with a doubleheader at Winnemac Stadium. Men's at 1PM, women's at 4PM, both against Rockford Raptors.
Show up. Support your local!
📍 Winnemac Stadium, Ravenswood
🗓 Saturday, May 16
Get tickets here: /
Words by Ernesto Martinez @esnerto89
Layout by Thomas Hill @pandaprints_
Big thank you to the whole Edgewater team
Introducing the team behind Issue 4 of Passing Pattern.
With Infantino's recent move to pull Panini from the World Cup, we figured stickers were the only right way to do introductions.
This edition brought together creatives from across the world — each one bringing a distinct voice, expertise, and genuine care for the project.
We're grateful for every contributor who made this issue what it is.
Issue 4 drops in June. More information to come.
Football doesn't exist outside the world that makes it. It absorbs everything — politics, identity, place, time — and reflects it back at you.
Reflections: The Pitch as a Mirror is a mixed media gallery show brought to you by football creatives from around the world. Chicago, June 12–14. Free entry - RSVP at link in bio. Different programming each night. More to come.
48 Hours of Fußball: From Hamburg to Frankfurt
A follow-up to our last piece, 48hrs of Calcio. This time I hopped on a plane to Germany to see how much bratwurst, how many pints, and how many matches I could fit into one weekend.
It started with a chat with a St. Pauli OG on the plane about the politics and history of the club, and ended with a debate in the Waldstadion about how football can be a serious cockblocker.
We've moved to Substack — this piece, plus our full back catalogue, is all there and all free.
Preview it here, read the rest through the link in bio.
Let us know what you think of the new format.
Written by Alexander Tsanov
A kit is never just a uniform. It carries the weight of the people who wore it, the people it represents, and the world that was falling apart — or coming together — the moment they put it on.
Yugoslavia assembled their greatest ever squad two years before the country ceased to exist. The players would soon be on opposite sides of a war. Haiti arrived at their first World Cup carrying the weight of a dictatorship on their backs. Iran qualified while women breached the gates of the Azadi Stadium — a ground that had banned them for nearly two decades. West Germany lifted a trophy as the nation on their shirts was already reforming.
And then there are the teams still fighting for the right to play at all. Palestine, present in stadiums and cities across the world, representing a people under occupation. Catalonia and Euskadi, fielding teams that FIFA doesn't recognize, in front of tens of thousands. In these cases, the match is never really about the football.
These are the shirts that said something the touchline couldn't contain.
Written by Alexander Tsanov and Rohan Menon
80 Kilometers in 48 Hours: Calcio in Lombardy — Part 3
Kick-off at San Siro. A light show, a lineup announcement, and "BENVENUTI ALL'INFERNO" flashing across the pitch. The Inter Ultras showed up with tifos, drums, and orchestrated demonstration, ready for war. The Milan ultras, in stark contrast, showed up in all black — a protest to the bureaucratic nature of modern football.
For 90+ minutes, we lived calcio alongside our neighbors: two lads from the UK buzzing every time the Croatian touched the ball, two old men from the south who wouldn't take a photo without knowing which side you were on, and one man in front who by the second half had lost his voice yet tried to sing along to whichever set of ultras was loudest.
Allegri's men ground out the win. Some might call it a tactical masterclass, others Haram ball. But it doesn't matter how you get to 7 consecutive wins in the derby.
Biking home through the city afterwards we flew past horns honking, dodged scarves swinging from out of windows, and stray curses. The post-derby fever continued on for the rest of the night and into the next week.
When in Rome, do whatever they do. But in Milan, go see some calcio. And everything that comes with it.
Written by Rohan Menon & Alexander Tsanov
80 Kilometers in 48 Hours: Calcio in Lombardy — Part 2
Day 2 is Derby della Madonnina. Blue and red stripes everywhere, a "schifoso" from a scowling Interista, and a little girl in a gelateria who had no time for our confusion — just "Forza Milan!" and a high five.
128 years of rivalry. 80 of them sharing a stadium. This isn't neighbors feuding. It's siblings.
San Siro in the flesh is something else. A brutalist colossus, a carnival of food trucks outside, and a salamella sandwich that earned its reputation.
Inside, vertigo — three tiers dropping away beneath you, and the realization that the tier directly below is full of Nerazzuri, separated by a thick sheet of glass.
Part 2 of 3
Written by Rohan Menon & Alexander Tsanov
80 Kilometers in 48 Hours: Calcio in Lombardy — Part 1
When you've got 48hrs in Italy, how do you make the most of it?
First, you start in Milan. Pasta in a piazza, a gawk at the Duomo, and then Milano Centrale shaking you awake with its fascist-era columns before you board the train north.
Bergamo is 40 kilometers and a different world. 16th century Venetian walls, a stream of blue and black pulling you through the city without a map, and a stadium with a 1920s facade hiding a very modern football club. On the night, La Dea scraped a point thanks to Scamacca doing the heavy lifting.
Cold drinks in Navigli to close out Day 1.
Written by Rohan Menon & Alexander Tsanov
Everyone comes to Barcelona looking for 'més que un club'.
Most find a stadium tour and a premium experience package.
But the magic is still there — it's just not where the algorithm points you. It's in Vila de Gràcia, where CE Europa plays 3rd division football in front of a crowd that actually gives a damn. It's in Sant Andreu, where flares and drums and Catalan stripes make a mid-table match feel like something worth remembering. It's at RCDE Stadium, where Espanyol fans have spent decades being proud of exactly what they're not.
Football in this city is alive. "Més que un club" just might not mean what you think it means anymore.
Written by Rohan Menon
