I have watched nearly every minute of England’s Euro 2012 campaign, and after looking at them for 270 minutes, what most impresses me about them is this: They really are not very good.

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I’ve seen a lot of soccer, over the past 25 years. From AYSO to the World Cup. Hundreds of matches. Maybe a thousand. But I still do not know this game in the way that someone who grew up playing and watching it does. I don’t know soccer like I do baseball, basketball, (American) football, […]

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The good news about Harry Redknapp being fired as coach of the Tottenham soccer club: Galaxy fans won’t be tempted to spend $50 to listen to him describe a practice session. It was a curious news release, from the Galaxy, which tumbled into my inbox. In part, it read:

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At The National, I have done my level best to write and edit in British English. It is more difficult than you might imagine. I have made a mental note about 500 times now to keep a list of all British usages that run counter to those in America. It would be a very, very […]

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He came, he saw, he stunk it up. If anyone has the Latin for that (after the veni, vidi part) … feel free to pass it along. Diego Maradona‘s first season as a coach in the UAE came to an ignominious end on June 10 when his Al Wasl team blew a 3-1 lead after […]

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Euro 2012 began tonight, and if the Old World preening gets any worse these guys are going to dislocate shoulders from clapping themselves on the back. The quadrennial Euro soccer tournament involves 16 national teams from Uefa, and right about here in the discussion all Euro fans are obliged to inform the rest of the […]

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I love bobbleheads. I have confessed to this several times. At this minute, I have two bobbleheads on my desk at The National, here in Abu Dhabi. Duke Snider and David Eckstein area a little worse for wear, given that late-night cleaners handle them roughly, but they still nod at me, and make me smile. […]

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The Material Girl dropped by the UAE’s capital for a couple of shows over the weekend, and this time of year it is way too hot to be standing outside for hours. But the Sunday show was her first show in the Arab world, and it was a big deal locally. Something like 20,000 people […]

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On my first day back at work at The National, I was moved to do a column on the Los Angeles Kings, a team I covered a time or 100 in a previous life … and the surprise monsters of the Stanley Cup playoffs, so far. Hockey is not a major sport in this part […]

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The streets in the 17th arrondisement of Paris had gone dead by 8 p.m. The Italian restaurant down the block was operating, but it seemed as if it was open only to sell take-out pizzas (like the three we bought) to people in the neighborhood. You could feel a sort of hunkering down, and a […]

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