In a late decision, I had Christmas off after all. Leah was also off. Same off day for both of us. Doesn’t happen much these days. So the question then became … where to go to deal with Leah’s sudden (but emphatic) repudiation of Indian and Lebanese food? (Which accounts for more than half the […]

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It’s a planet with 7 billion people on it whose agenda is “it’s all about me.” Or, OK, maybe 6.9 billion people living with that myopic world view (many of whom would like to deny it), and maybe 100 million people who are saints or grandmothers or both. So, it was with profound self-focus that […]

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I’ve written it a hundred times. I’ve known Landon Donovan since he was 16. I’ve been writing about him since then. I’ve been in his family home in Redlands and in his first home in Manhattan Beach … and, well, he was the rare major athlete I had anything resembling a quasi-friendly relationship with. I’ve […]

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My friend and former colleague back in Southern California, David, sent me the link to this advertisement for a Dutch company. The link is here.

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We have a little globe, which is handy for quick reference when questions of “how far we from that” and “are we further north/south/east/west than fill-in-the-blank country?” Actually, I have two little globes; the other is in the office and you might be surprised by how often I look at it for basic information. (Like, […]

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Just noticed this story on The National website, here in Abu Dhabi. I’m not even sure it made the print edition of the paper. After TP Mazembe of the Congo lost in the Club World Cup championships game, according to the Agence France-Presse story, some fans rioted in Lubumbashi, the hometown of the Mazembe club as […]

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The circus has pulled up stakes and is leaving town. But it sure was fun to have Blatter Bros. Barnum & Bailey in town for consecutive Decembers. It’s not as if we here in the Gulf get to see elite teams playing hard. They might drop by for a winter-training-camp friendly (like AC Milan will […]

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(UPDATED, with thoughtful comment below on Concacaf/MLS.) Inter Milan won the Fifa Club World Cup tonight, and that absolutely falls into “dog bites man” on the news-o-meter scale. Inter’s opponent in the final here in Abu Dhabi was TP Mazembe of the Congo, a team spending $10 million on players this season, or about what […]

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I can’t help myself. I’m starting to like the guy. Yeah, he might have compromised himself a time or 10 along the way, but the guy has almost a messianic vision for his game, and he is making things happen. They may seem strange to the First World soccer nations, giving the 2018 World Cup […]

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A night after the South American champion was beaten by TP Mazembe of Africa in the semifinals, the European champion did what it is expected to do: Crush its opponents. Final score: Inter Milan 3, Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma 0. This one was over almost before it started.

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