The world over, sports action tends to cluster around weekends. Friday-Saturday-Sunday are the heavy days because that is when more people have more time to spend paying close attention to whatever athletic endeavor matters most to them. Monday-through-Thursday … not nearly as fun or hectic. Usually. Then there is European soccer, which 12 weeks a […]

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We made a fuss over the statue of David Beckham unveiled a couple of days ago at the former StubHub Park stadium. The first at a Major League Soccer stadium. It should have been Landon Donovan; he put in more years, scored far more goals won more championships. For Beckham, the Los Angeles gig always […]

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The LA Galaxy on Saturday afternoon will unveil what is thought to be the first statue of a former player to be displayed at a Major League Soccer stadium. The club said it will be No. 1 in “a series of statues” that will stand just outside the stadium in the new Legends Plaza at […]

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The championship tournament of Asian soccer is under way at the moment in the United Arab Emirates, and I sorta/kinda wish I were there. Asian teams are becoming more interesting, and perhaps a bit more competitive, in recent years, and to have a look at the top 24 of them, all playing this month in […]

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Good news, for L.A. Galaxy fans. Zlatan Ibrahimovic has signed on for another season with the Major League Soccer club. Here is video, via the Galaxy, of him talking about it. The return of the hulking Swede with the pony-tail, a 500-goal scorer who will be 37 during the 2019 season, improves the club’s chances […]

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That wasn’t such a chore, was it? A mere 421 days after the U.S. national team lost in Trinidad and failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup … and the Yanks have a coach! That would be Gregg Berhalter, recently head man of Major League Soccer’s Columbus Crew. Not a glamor hire, certainly. Berhalter […]

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A soccer-related item popped into my email in-box the other day, and in it a Spanish coach with lots of history with youth players made a fairly simple and probably undeniable statement: It is a waste of time for a coach to shout instructions at kiddie soccer players. I knew that because I saw the […]

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Have I done this before? After 10-plus years I must have. But know what? I’m not going to check because the 10 teams I love to hate changes a bit, from year to year. This list would probably be unlike any other I might have done. For instance, most of my life I have wished […]

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Much has been made this week of the moments of madness after Khabib Nurmagodemov defeated Conor McGregor in a highly anticipated Ultimate Fighting Championship event in Las Vegas. People rushed into the ring, punches were thrown. Some people who were at the event feared that the situation could devolve into a riot in the sold-out […]

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It rained in London yesterday. Not just a little. A lot. Steady, pelting rain nearly the whole of the afternoon. And especially during the Crystal Palace-at-Watford match, staged in a London suburb. The players were soaked. The officials were soaked. The fans, those of them who stayed in seats not covered by the partial roof […]

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