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 […]

[Read more →]

Whoa, there, Rams fans. Your team is not going to sprint to the Super Bowl any time soon. That 7-2 start? Nice. But when the Rams stopped playing cupcakes and ran into another quality team, the Minnesota Vikings … well, it did not go well. To the tune of 24-7, with the “highest-scoring-team-in-the-league” Rams on […]

[Read more →]

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 […]

[Read more →]

Funny thing, NFL schedules. Fans and journalists yammer, before the season, about how easy or tough this or that team’s schedule is. And then they play the games … Which this year has led to an unexpected, semi-elite showdown of division-leading 7-2 teams, the Los Angeles Rams and Minnesota Vikings teams. Teams who, two months […]

[Read more →]

If you think about it, not much pertaining to the 2018 Russia World Cup has been of a global nature, so far. In qualifying competition, European nations played nations from the European confederation. Asian nations played other Asian nations. And so on. The 2018 World Cup has been a regional event, to date. That changed […]

[Read more →]

Reaching the quarterfinals of a Fifa tournament is pretty much the definition of success, on the male side of the U.S. national soccer realm, and the Under 17 team just did it, at the U17 World Cup in India. And what does it mean for the senior side to have the kids get to the […]

[Read more →]

It’s time for a list. A lot of information and opinions banging around out there about the U.S. loss at Trinidad and Tobago, and subsequent failure to qualify for the 2018 World Cup. Let’s see if we can pick out a few of the most interesting notions — and maybe introduce a few new ones.

[Read more →]

China is the world’s most populous nation, with 1.38 billion people. India is second, at 1.28 billion. The U.S. is third, at 325 million. Indonesia is fourth, at 260 million. Further down the list, Pakistan is No. 6 with 203 million and Bangladesh is No. 8 with 158 million. Q: And what do those six […]

[Read more →]

OK, we can stop whining. A couple of hours of cursing and gnashing of teeth is understandable, but after that … time to move on. Weird things happened tonight and the U.S. national team is out of the World Cup for the first time since 1986. A 2-1 defeat at Trinidad & Tobago; Honduras and […]

[Read more →]

That’s what you say when the ball gets away and rolls into another court, in tennis or basketball. “A little help, please?” A request, not a demand. Which is what the U.S. national soccer team is asking of Mexico and Costa Rica. “A little help, please?”

[Read more →]