You bet. Start worrying now, if you are not already doing so. Only four days till the U.S. national team plays host to Panama, only eight days until an away game with Trinidad & Tobago, as Concacaf hexagonal qualifying for the 2018 World Cup concludes. At stake, the U.S. streak of seven consecutive World Cup […]

[Read more →]

The United States and Syria and their national soccer teams. Concepts never before found in the same paragraph, on this blog. Each hoped today for a victory. Each would be crushed by a defeat. Each will settle for draws, late in the making, draws that keep each team on a road to the Russia 2018 […]

[Read more →]

We like to think sports are above and beyond politics. We know that is not true, has never been true and never will be true. Political imperatives often threaten fair and free sports events, and anti-competitive forces tomorrow have one of the greatest opportunities in modern times to take the narrative in a pre-ordained direction. […]

[Read more →]

Well, this is alarming. The United States national soccer team played host to Costa Rica tonight at Red Bull Arena in New Jersey in a 2018 World Cup qualifying match. USMNT fans gathered to see what they expected would be a spirited riposte aimed at the Ticos for a 4-0 thrashing they gave the Yanks […]

[Read more →]

The United Arab Emirates national team came up big. On the same day I said the Emiratis would lose 3-0. And maybe worse. Needing a victory over Saudi Arabia to keep alive its ultra-slim chances of qualifying for the Russia 2018 World Cup, the UAE got goals from two of the greatest forwards the country […]

[Read more →]

This is about United States versus Mexico soccer. World Cup qualifying soccer at that … But this is now, not 2005 — as it is in the parts of the 12-year-old series I have been republishing on this blog in recent days. The U.S. national soccer team got a very nice result today, in Mexico […]

[Read more →]

As fans of the U.S. national team, we have skewed perceptions of what qualifies as hard times. As a fan of the UAE national team, I can vouch for that. For the Americans, World Cup qualifying losses to Mexico and Costa Rica, two of the top sides in the western hemisphere, ranks as a panic […]

[Read more →]

Wow. It feels like the American soccer world emerged, in a span of 24 hours, from a dark and forlorn place and back onto the light and airy part of the global stage. A changing of the guard even as a veteran was back in the coaching box. … The goal-laden return of Clint Dempsey. […]

[Read more →]

I follow two national soccer teams, the United States and the UAE. Both play twice in the coming week in crucial 2018 World Cup qualifiers. I don’t feel good about either national team’s chances. For reasons that apply to both — key injuries, the pressure to produce results and competent opponents. First, the U.S.

[Read more →]

Great story out of Italy. FC Crotone, a small club from the deep south of the country, qualified to play in the top-flight Seria A this season — a first for the club from an ancient city in the deep south of the country. As one might imagine, the local fans of calcio were quite […]

[Read more →]