From the earliest days Sounder at Heart attempted to fuse pop(or subpop) culture references into analysis and news about the team. The first of these stories that burst out from the tiny Sounder-sphere into national recognition was the fusion of Ender’s Game and that first-ever match by the Seattle Sounders.
Writers would join the site. Some would go on to cover bigger teams than the Sounders. But their stops here were wonderful art that showed team-specific writing about soccer could be technical and flowery.
SaH embraces math. It did that when I started, but smarter people joined me over time.