As noted in the post yesterday, Europe and South America had dominated the Club World Cup. No team from any other continent had played for the championship. The Rest of the World was 0-10 against Europe’s and South America’s club champions. Then came tonight’s stunning result.

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Somehow, the gulf in the soccer world between Europe, South America … and everyone else … seems more pronounced in the Club World Cup than the regular World Cup. I know why. In the World Cup, even though you know that the odds are about 99.99 percent than a team from Europe or South America […]

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Sunday, here in the Muslim world, is like Monday in much of the rest of the world. The first day of the work week. And, thus not a day generally looked forward to. Sunday. Not Monday. And today, it struck me that a whole batch of western pop songs would have to be rewritten, or […]

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When you live in the U.S., you might not think of this often, when you are pondering international soccer. But we do around here: West Asia vs. East Asia. To Europeans or Americans, all of Asia is “east,” right? But not when you live here. We have West Asia, East Asia, South Asia and Southeast […]

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Here are some photos of the new apartment. It’s still a work in progress, but just a little update for the curious. Notice how spacious it is! And actually, we decided it’s more of a house than an apartment. Nobody on either side of us, and nobody above. And that makes it a little cooler. […]

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One of my favorite aspects of international sports events is the languages. At the Fifa Club World Cup in Abu Dhabi this year, we have teams made up of guys whose mother tongues are … Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, French, Korean, Arabic, English and pidgin English. (Plus a smattering of Balkan languages.) When I’m not trying […]

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Maybe I’m missing something, over here in Abu Dhabi. The Dodgers actually had a good season? They did things right? They were an organization to admire, to emulate? I thought the team finished fourth in a five-team division, with a losing record, and was hamstrung by the bitter divorce of the team’s co-owners and didn’t […]

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This is a pretty big deal for the country, for the city and for … me. I was designated to coordinate coverage, so it’s been just about all I’ve thought about for a couple of weeks now. For the Tuesday paper, we have six slugs and three briefs. Good stuff. Here are the links:

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If you are not interested in the travails of housing in Abu Dhabi, capital of the UAE, then skip right past this item. After a few days less a year in the Teeny Apartment, we completed a move today to a bigger place, for less money … around the corner from where we were before. […]

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We at The National have done a seven-part series on the clubs that will play in the Fifa Club World Cup in Abu Dhabi from December 8-18. The idea is to make the seven clubs more familiar to anyone who might go see the matches. An interesting group. From Inter Milan, one of the most […]

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