The United Arab Emirates didn’t come within a country mile of qualifying for Brazil 2014. For practical purposes, the UAE’s qualifying run in the Asian Football Confederation ended in late 2011, back when I was covering the team for The National. A home loss to Kuwait and then a road loss to Lebanon, which is […]

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The hardest bit of staying up all night is the hour before dawn. Well, maybe when it is the second time in two days you have reached that hour before dawn which, in Abu Dhabi this time of year, is a bit after 5 a.m. But that was required of anyone who wanted to watch […]

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The centennial of the start of World War I, the greatest European disaster in the past two centuries, is coming up fast. The 100th anniversary of the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, by the Serbian zealot Gavrilo Princip, is on June 28. The event led directly to the outbreak of war, on July 28, […]

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Don’t know why it took so long for this to dawn on me, but it did, finally, tonight, whole waiting for the midnight kickoff of Game 1 of the World Cup. This tournament could lead to some sort of planetary record for work absenteeism, lethal hangovers, alcohol poisoning, sleep deprivation and random hookups over a […]

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As I have outlined on this blog, I cannot bring myself to support the U.S. team in this World Cup, not while it is run by that Enemy of American Soccer named Jurgen Klinsmann. If you clicked on the first link, above, you may have noted that several commenters on that entry seemed ready to […]

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I wouldn’t say I held out high hopes for the Seth MacFarlane movie A Million Ways to Die in the West. Written by Seth MacFarlane, produced by Seth MacFarlane, starring Seth MacFarlane and directed by Seth MacFarlane. Despite one guy holding too many roles, some viewers had hinted that it was Blazing Saddles for a […]

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This occurred to me while reading a long story in The National’s business section about Taco Bell and its apparently new “crispy waffle taco” breakfast item. (The assumption being, on the part of our business staff, that nearly everyone in the UAE knows what Taco Bell is.) So, how is the UAE doing, when it […]

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A few days back I posted an entry about how I doubt I will be able to cheer for the U.S. national team at the coming World Cup, because I have developed an animus towards Jurgen Klinsmann, the coach who dumped Landon Donovan. That provoked some reaction, some of it more than a bit tart. “We don’t […]

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I like to think I am good with geography. I have studied maps and globes since childhood. For fun. At this moment, I own three globes, here in Abu Dhabi, two of them about five inches wide, the third about 10. One of the little ones, which is quite nice despite its size, sits on […]

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This has nothing to do with Spain. Or Germany. Or Brazil. Or any of the global soccer powers. This is about the United Arab Emirates which, until tonight, had the longest unbeaten streak in international soccer. Yes, the UAE, which draws its national team from a mere 1 million citizens. (The other 7 million of […]

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