Jorge Fossati has been around. He began coaching soccer teams in 1993, and been employed pretty much nonstop, in a very volatile field, including time in his native Uruguay, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Brazil. When he was hired by Al Ain, that made five countries he had coached in, three here in the Gulf. And […]

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The Los Angeles Lakers open camp for the 2013-14 season on Saturday, with a media day. If Kobe Bryant is there at all … he will be the bleary-eyed guy suffering from jet lag. Why? Because the night before, Kobe will have coached a celebrity team. In Dubai. On the other side of the world, […]

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I may have mentioned this. I am, in theory, an Arsenal fan — if I am a fan of any Premier League team. (Though I could perhaps be talked into Fulham, now that Michael Jackson is leaving the premises.) Anyway, during this long, long time as an Arsenal fan — it’s been at least a […]

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Abu Dhabi? Or Dubai? This is an ongoing debate in the UAE. Which city is preferable/better, and on what levels? To most people who live in Dubai, this is no contest. Theirs is the bustling metropolis with conspicuous consumption and enormous towers. A movable feast. Or a movable party, anyway. However, for many of us […]

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This car may be cursed. After five days, a dead battery. Two weeks later, a right-front tire, with plenty of tread, that mysteriously went flat. Which brings to mind the Stephen King novel Christine — about a car apparently inhabited by a “vengeful spirit”. At best, the Audi is proving to be a money pit. […]

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An annoying reality of life in Abu Dhabi, especially at the south/east end of the island, is the horn-honking drive-by drivers. In several neighborhoods here, guys pull up in their land yachts and wait for employees of coffee shops, restaurants and even groceries. That leads to gridlock in the streets outside those businesses, many of […]

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The America’s Cup once was a big deal. I can remember putting together a proposal, sent to the sports editor of Gannett News Service, a quarter-century ago, to cover the America’s Cup near Perth, in Australia. And it was not a ridiculous notion. At the time, the America’s Cup was big. Very big. (I remember […]

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I wrote a comment piece for The National today, looking at the United States soccer team, now assured of playing in a seventh consecutive World Cup. On the eastern side of the Atlantic, we must assume the majority of our readers know little or nothing of American soccer. They would refer to it as “football”, […]

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Not an original thought, I’m sure, but original to me. The best way to explain English soccer to somebody back in the U.S., who almost certainly doesn’t really care about the Premier League … is to compare it to college football. The same sort of tribal, DNA-encoded madness.

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The UAE leans toward traditions and styles preferred by some of the elite European leagues, so the local Super Cup is rather like those of several other countries. The defending league champion plays the defending cup champion (in this case, the President’s Cup; in England, the FA Cup) in a match that kicks off the […]

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