Got to give it to Diego Maradona. The Argentinian God-handed hero/star/drama queen/double-bird-flipping raving lunatic may be the only man alive whose activities in and around the 2018 World Cup could nearly overshadow Germany being knocked out of the tournament in the group stage today. Nearly. We all know what happened to Germany — that hot […]

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Iran is out of Russia 2018, and I have heaved a sigh of relief. Just did it again. A big sigh of relief. It has nothing to do with international politics. It has everything to do with the guys representing Iran on the football fields of Russia and all about the ugliest soccer played by […]

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Germany’s do-or-die, last-kick-wonder-goal, 2-1 victory over Sweden tonight was perhaps the best match, so far, in the 2018 World Cup. It also may be the least popular result, so far, among global soccer fans. Two concepts that call for further reflection.

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The great Gary Larson, creator of the incisive and usually funny-as-hell one-panel cartoon known as the Far Side, has often been on my mind, as the 2018 World Cup enters its second week. One cartoon, in particular. It shows several hugely obese people, relatives, I think we are meant to understand, sitting on a porch […]

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And it’s only Tuesday! It has been a rocky few days for Landon Donovan, maybe the greatest player in American soccer history and, at the moment, maybe the most controversial. On Saturday, came the  Twitter ad in which Landon is holding a green scarf with lettering that reads: “My other team is Mexico” … and […]

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Just saw a memorable match in the 2018 Russia World Cup. It may go largely unnoticed, given that earlier in the day Lionel Messi missed a penalty kick and Argentina was held to a draw by tiny (but doughty) Iceland, population 350,000 … and even earlier France fought off the gritty Aussies in a 2-1 […]

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This is as good as it gets, in world sports. More diverse than an Olympics. Far wider global interest than in cricket or rugby or basketball. The first two rounds of the Fifa World Cup soccer group stage. Eleven consecutive days, this time around, at the 2018 Russia World Cup, of 32 teams still with […]

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I find it nearly impossible to be a neutral observer in any competition. Give me five minutes in a game involving teams I don’t know … and I will have a favorite. It could be about geography or playing style or history, but I will have made a choice. A girlfriend from a long, long […]

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So, four of us pilgrims set off on the Camino de Santiago this morning, marching 22 kilometers in about seven hours and 37,000 steps. In other news … the little Spanish town where we halted for the day went slightly crazy tonight as Real Madrid defeated Liverpool 3-1 in an eventful Uefa Champions League final. […]

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A former colleague who is involved in grassroots soccer may still be in mourning. He was adamant that the U.S. Soccer Federation needed new blood at the top … but the presidential election over the weekend went the way of the two establishment candidates, with the former federation vice president and Goldman Sachs partner (no, […]

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