Kick-started

Curious where soccer ranks in the European imagination? One in five British children in a Christmas survey thought Jesus played for Chelsea Football Club, the runaway favorite of the Barclays Premier League. When Spanish rivals Barcelona and Real Madrid play, well over $1 billion in salaries compete on a single field.

In other words, it’s a tad more intense than Major League Soccer in the United States, which kicked off in March with two new expansion teams. Instead of names like the Los Angeles Galaxy, European teams and fervor seem to rise straight out of old city-state pride. It’s “FC Barcelona” (or Football Club Barcelona). It’s “FC Bayern Munich” (Munich of Bavaria). It’s simply “Roma.”

Perennial powerhouses are succeeding, such as Munich with just one loss in German play. Yet its latest continent-wide Champions League victim, Ukraine’s FC Shakhtar Donetsk, reached Europe’s Top 16 despite its nomadic status, banished by soccer authorities from its war-damaged stadium.

London’s Chelsea FC is poised to win the English title, with a revived Manchester United displacing surprise Southampton, which is fighting for a prestigious berth in the European championships after years relegated to the minor leagues. Continent-wide, just eight teams remain in that prestigious UEFA Champions League, which will crown a titan in June.

Back down to earth, if you will, in the United States, former Brazilian superstar Kaká has relentlessly promoted his new allegiance, Orlando City SC. A raucous 62,000 saw the franchise’s inaugural game at the Citrus Bowl, beating 1994 World Cup numbers. The club’s Brazilian part-owner saw potential in the growing South American populations of Florida and Georgia. Fellow newcomer New York City FC also won new fans, with 60 percent of season ticket holders making their first such commitment in any sport.

As the MLS grows, the global trend is certainly against more “Galaxy” and “Dynamo,” but fans are still choosing between the terms “Soccer Club” and “Football Club.” But the Europeanization of American soccer seems able to birth both together.

Ready to play

Homeschoolers could soon play sports at public schools in Virginia as a so-called “Tim Tebow” bill sat on Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s desk. Virginia’s bill had failed before, as in Texas and several other states with ongoing grassroots movements to pass “Tim Tebow” bills.

It’s not a new movement, and depending on whom you ask, roughly half of states allow homeschoolers some access to public classes or activities. But more recently, would-be NFL quarterback Tebow became the face of the movement. A homeschooled Tebow played at a Florida public high school and went on to be one of the greatest NCAA quarterbacks in history.

The bills are controversial, with concerns ranging from the benching of enrolled students in favor of homeschoolers to academic eligibility or even academic cheating. Some homeschoolers wonder whether athletics programs like East Coast Homeschool Basketball Championships in Lynchburg, Va., which has doubled in eight years to 100 teams, could be damaged by such a bill. —A.B.