Read “The religion of football,” a June 4, 2010, post at CNN’s Belief Blog about the parallels one author sees between his religion and his passion for soccer.

Another is a June 10, 2010, piece at The Huffington Post, “Love and Devotion: The World Cup and the ‘Religion’ of Soccer,” by Bradley B. Onishi, a doctoral candidate in the religious studies department at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

One of those stories is a June 11, 2010, item from Baptist Press’ sports pages about evangelicals using the World Cup spotlight to witness to their faith.

Read “Is God watching World Cup soccer?,” a June 13, 2010, entry at USA Today‘s religion blog, Faith & Reason, which rounds up a number of stories related to religion and the tournament.

Read “The Evangelicalism of Brazil,” a June 14, 2010, post at the World Cup blog of The New Republic, about the number of dedicated evangelical Protestants on Brazil’s team and what it says about religion in what was once a Catholic stronghold in Latin America.

“Who’s Afraid of Sacred Soccer?” is a June 16, 2010, essay at ReligionDispatches.org by Gary Laderman, head of the Department of Religion at Emory University.

Read the Wikipedia entry on the 2010 World Cup. The entry provides a useful overview of the tournament and historical background. As with any open-source site, reporters should double-check all information in the entry.

See an interactive guide to all the games and teams, broken down by schedule, venue, and groups and stages.

Read a Feb. 19, 2010, article published on CBSNews.com about Tiger Woods’ return to Buddhism after his extra-marital affairs leaked to the press.