The other day I was walking around the little French town where we live and thinking about things I covered during 40 years in sports journalism. I reflected on events I really enjoyed — just sorta free-associating. As often occurs in one of these reveries, eventually I shake my head and concede, “I got to […]

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This thing started just the other day! September 20. That was just last week … or last month … or nearly last month. The ninth Rugby World Cup concluded today in Japan. South Africa overwhelmed England 32-12 to end the 20-team tournament on its 43rd day. And people complain that the baseball playoffs are too […]

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The final full day on the Celebrity Constellation cruise offered a menu of attractions that pretty much overwhelmed even the most ambitious of shore-going travelers. Start with Naples itself. One day cannot adequately convey the history and energy and madness of the First World city that most closely resembles a Third World city. But then […]

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Demonstrating global superiority has been the straight-forward bit for the U.S. women’s national team. The Fifa Women’s World Cup has been contested eight times since its founding in 1991, and the Yanks have won four of those tournaments, including the past two, now that a 2-0 conquest of The Netherlands can be added to the […]

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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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What are we? The proverbial “red-headed stepchildren”? We just went 26 days without an elite soccer game being played anywhere in the world. It was on July 15 that France defeated Croatia 4-2 to win the 2018 World Cup. And then planet soccer went cold turkey. None of the big European leagues in action. No […]

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How many times has global soccer gone through this over the past 30 years? Three times? Four? England, standing prepared to stage, on short notice, what appears to be a possibly amateurish — or scandal-tainted — World Cup. Most recently, it was Russia 2018. This time it is Qatar 2022, the World Cup that has […]

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The nadir was Wednesday morning, July 18. As I rolled out of bed, this is what was in the “scoreboard” bar of the espn.com homepage: –The final score of the baseball All-Star game. –A result from an NBA summer league game. –And two scores from the WNBA. Yes, which still exists. And that was it. […]

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No one will ever accuse France of not sufficiently celebrating its second World Cup championship. Quicker than you can say “Kylian Mbappe”, every piece of national-team apparel seemed to have that second star on it. For those not familiar with the “star” system in international football, a team is entitled to wear on the jersey, […]

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Russia 2018 is over. It was France 4, Croatia 2 in the championship match, and the final whistle had barely been blown before some pundits were suggesting it was the best World Cup final in the history of the event. Granted, six goals is a good place to start. That is as many goals as […]

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