Jurgen Klinsmann wants Landon Donovan to know he remains in the German’s doghouse. Hundshaus, I suppose it would be. I get it. I’m sure Landon does, too. Klinsmann wants everyone to know who’s the boss of the U.S. national team. On one level, I have no problem with what he is doing. On another, I […]

[Read more →]

Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed, brother of the president of the UAE, will spend about $100 million to operate a Major League Soccer franchise in Queens, according to a story in the New York Times today. “Two people with knowledge of the negotiations” told the Times that Sheikh Mansour will operate the MLS’s 20th team, an […]

[Read more →]

It’s been decades now that parents have been hectoring kids about video games. “Nobody is going to pay you to play video games … no careers in that!” May not be a career, but a guy who has spent enormous stretches of time with his thumbs on a controller … can make $272,000 for winning […]

[Read more →]

I am immersed in soccer. Football, as it is known on this side of the Atlantic. I watch a half-dozen matches a week. Sometimes more. I edit soccer copy every day I walk inside the offices of The National. Soccer (or cricket) is on the TV behind me hour after hour. I can tell you […]

[Read more →]

Mike Lopresti is one of my favorite sports journalists, as well as one of the best sports journalists in the United States over the past 30-some years. We go way back. I met him no later than 1980, and I tried to hire him a few years later — just before he and I and […]

[Read more →]

Social media. A mixed blessing, at best. Up-to-the-minute news … up-to-minute bad information. A social-media-driven rumor of a 9.99-magnitude earthquake, hitting the UAE between April 25 to April 30 apparently was taken as truth by some nervous people here. To the point that The National did a story to knock down the rumor.

[Read more →]

It is difficult to convey, via the printed word, the sights and sounds of living in the UAE. Public photography here is actively discouraged and sometimes illegal. And conveying a sound … that is difficult in print. Thus, a video of Emiratis interacting would be a handy thing, for those of you who wonder what […]

[Read more →]

The UAE is not really fit for agriculture. Perhaps a few valleys in the north of the country, where some modest mountains create a bit of shade and hold some water, or in the interior near Al Ain, once an oasis and now a city of 570,000. But most of the country is just … […]

[Read more →]

The UAE is made up of seven Emirates, and you are forgiven if you do not know more than two — Abu Dhabi and Dubai. The three northernmost emirates have little or no oil, a fair number of Emiratis who are anything but wealthy, and a predilection for conservatism, both in matters of religion and […]

[Read more →]

Because of Bob Dueker, I have not eaten a doughnut in more than 40 years. Because of Bob Dueker, mostly, I have exercised three times a week for more than 40 years. Have to give that guy some credit as probably the most influential coach/teacher I had, in my youth. And the strange thing? I […]

[Read more →]