The great Gary Larson, creator of the incisive and usually funny-as-hell one-panel cartoon known as the Far Side, has often been on my mind, as the 2018 World Cup enters its second week. One cartoon, in particular. It shows several hugely obese people, relatives, I think we are meant to understand, sitting on a porch […]

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A former colleague who is involved in grassroots soccer may still be in mourning. He was adamant that the U.S. Soccer Federation needed new blood at the top … but the presidential election over the weekend went the way of the two establishment candidates, with the former federation vice president and Goldman Sachs partner (no, […]

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This is not an exercise in academic rigor. I did not have someone sitting with a note pad writing down literally the first 10 facts I could recall pertaining to sports in 2017. But … it is a fairly accurate recreation of a fairly quick trip through my brain to see what stuck from the […]

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George Weah was an outstanding soccer forward from Liberia who excelled in the 1980s and 1990s with some of Europe’s biggest clubs — AC Milan, Paris Saint-Germain, Monaco, Marseille, Chelsea … In 1995, he was named Fifa Player of the Year and won the Ballon d’Or, making him the first (and still only) African player […]

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It is an exhibition, not a tournament. Something just north of hitting on a practice court. No matter. Serena Williams‘s return to a tennis court with an elite opponent on the other side of the net, with paying fans in the stands and someone keeping score … may be the biggest sports story in UAE […]

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Yes, I was the guy who suggested this match could end 4-0, and added 7-0 might be OK if the UAE club held mighty Real Madrid scoreless for, say, a half-hour. I underestimated Al Jazira, the Arabian Gulf League champions, in a semifinal of the Fifa Club World Cup. And perhaps Real did, too. But […]

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No. Really. Al Jazira of Abu Dhabi and the UAE … will play Real Madrid of Spain in the semifinals of the 2017 Club World Cup on Wednesday night. In Zayed Sports City, in the capital. This is the Madrid of Cristiano Ronaldo and 12 European championships. And the Jazira of Ali Mabkhout, twice champions […]

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The World Cup without the U.S. national team? Those who consider it a disastrous setback for soccer in America are badly mistaken. It’s 2017, not 1998! Soccer in the U.S., at the club level, is in fine shape and trending upward. If anything, sitting out Russia 2018 can serve as a wake-up call for the […]

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The 32 teams are set. Last nation into the tournament was Peru, with a 2-0 aggregate victory over New Zealand in the inter-confederation playoffs. Here are the nations that will participate in Russia 2018 — 31 of them, with the host Russia making it 32. Let’s break these down into contenders, long shots, also-rans and […]

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Italy went bonkers tonight. The national team, the azzurri, was held to a scoreless draw with good-but-not-special Sweden, and the home-and-away runners-up playoffs for the final four European berths at Russia 2010 went to Switzerland, Denmark, Croatia — and Sweden. Italy stays home. This is the biggest shock from this edition of World Cup qualifying […]

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