When “Ecuador 2, Honduras 1” finished tonight — tomorrow morning, in Eurasia/Africa — 26 of the 48 group stage games had been played. That still leaves plenty of time for (some) teams who didn’t start fast to do some damage in the 2014 World Cup. But … What we have seen so far is perhaps […]

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In the John le Carre novel Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy* the mole in British Intelligence is finally unmasked, and when asked why he betrayed his nation to the Soviets, Le Carre gives him a response something along the lines of: “We were bred to empire … and it was gone before it was our turn.” […]

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I pitied him before I knew who he was. Probably like several million other people who saw the defining moment of the Russia-South Korea match in the World Cup last night/this morning. He is Russia’s goalkeeper, Igor Akinfeev. His mistake in the 68th minute led to South Korea’s only goal in a 1-1 draw. If […]

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The hardest bit of staying up all night is the hour before dawn. Well, maybe when it is the second time in two days you have reached that hour before dawn which, in Abu Dhabi this time of year, is a bit after 5 a.m. But that was required of anyone who wanted to watch […]

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Someone sent me a message. “Tony Gwynn. 54.” I first thought I was being told that he had a birthday, and the notion of him being 54 was the news. I was thinking, “I remember watching him play basketball for Long Beach Poly … and he’s 54 already?” Then eventually it dawned on me, when […]

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The centennial of the start of World War I, the greatest European disaster in the past two centuries, is coming up fast. The 100th anniversary of the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, by the Serbian zealot Gavrilo Princip, is on June 28. The event led directly to the outbreak of war, on July 28, […]

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The Los Angeles Kings tonight wrapped up their second Stanley Cup championship in three years. And though I, like most native southern Californians, am not a hockey fan, we must concede this: Los Angeles would be confronting a potential championship drought, about now, if the Kings had not had not turned into world beaters.

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Don’t know why it took so long for this to dawn on me, but it did, finally, tonight, whole waiting for the midnight kickoff of Game 1 of the World Cup. This tournament could lead to some sort of planetary record for work absenteeism, lethal hangovers, alcohol poisoning, sleep deprivation and random hookups over a […]

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If you don’t care to wade through my “Landon’s greatest game post” (referenced in the previous entry) … let’s make it easy for you. Here is the video — highlights — of the U.S.-Slovenia game from South Africa 2010. It is just under five minutes, of what I consider Landon Donovan’s greatest game.

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When American soccer fans think of South Africa 2010, they tend to immediately think of the Algeria game. Which is understandable. The 1-0 victory. The late goal by Landon Donovan put the Yanks into the final 16, and allowed them to win a group which included England. The epic Andres Cantor call. But the 2-2 […]

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