Go ahead, name the top three sports venues in Africa. I’m thinking you can’t name three.  At all. A year ago I certainly couldn’t, and if you can do it now it’s because you were paying attenting to the names and datelines from the World Cup in South Africa.
Africa pretty clearly seems the most under-served […]

[Read more →]

I don’t know this. But I believe it.
Rumor floating around … that Manchester City, the new big spender of the English Premier League, is trying to add Landon Donovan to its roster. Considering that he scored three goals in the World Cup and had that nice 10 weeks with Everton last winter … Sure. City […]

[Read more →]

Watching a soccer match while you put out a newspaper is a bit tricky. Especially when the big-screen is over your right shoulder and around a pillar. But I saw more than enough of Spain-Holland to be hit by this thought at about the 75th minute:
If I had never seen a soccer game before, and […]

[Read more →]

Let’s see … Where were we … before ants and LeBron James took over our lives.
Germany had just bombed Argentina out of the quarter-finals, Uruguay won that bizarre handball match over Ghana, Brazil went out to the Netherlands, and Spain took down Paraguay.
Which were the two days when what had been shaping up as South […]

[Read more →]

In the run-up to the World Cup, I wrote — early and often — about the coaching disaster that was Diego Maradona. He somehow had Argentina in peril of not qualifying for the World Cup by dint of bizarre lineups, erratic behavior and bad results against some of South America’s lesser sides.
I became convinced he […]

[Read more →]

On Day 22 of the 2010 World Cup, “Holland 2, Brazil 1″ figured to have no rivals for the attention of the soccer planet.
Ha.
Uruguay defeating Ghana on penalties in a madcap match was the story of of the day, for a variety of reasons. Sportsmanship, the Laws of the Game, villainous Uruguay, unlucky Ghana and […]

[Read more →]

The Big Show shut down for two days, and it gave us a taste of what our summer will be like only 10 days hence.
Ack.
For three full weeks we could watch at least two World Cup matches every day. Twenty-one consecutive days. If we had a couple of TVs, we could watch two matches at […]

[Read more →]

South America is the revelation at this World Cup.  Not because Argentina and Brazil are doing well; that’s expected.
But because the entire South American delegation of five made the second round … and four of them are in the quarterfinals.
And when was the last time South America was the best continent in the world in […]

[Read more →]

I was driving up Airport Road here in Abu Dhabi at about 11:30 p.m. (more about the driving thing later), and I saw a crowd gathered outside a restaurant across from the ironically named “Happy Yemen” seafood resto.
Dozens of men, standing and looking at the restaurant window … and it struck me:
They were watching the […]

[Read more →]

It’s time for FIFA to be dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century. Heck, we’d settle for the late 20th century. (Wouldn’t want to unsettle the lords of soccer too much; 1980 might be about all they’re ready for.)
If the world is going to watch the World Cup … wouldn’t it be nice to […]

[Read more →]