Same song, difference verse. Yesterday, I mentioned I had never seen a rugby match. Not so much because I don’t like rugby, but because I do not follow it and it is unfamiliar to me. Then we get to sports I know well, perhaps even quite well, which I would prefer not to see, going […]

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I follow two national soccer teams. The U.S., of course, but also the UAE, after working six years in Abu Dhabi. Both teams have key matches in 2018 World Cup qualifying tomorrow. The Yanks play at Costa Rico, trying to avoid a second defeat to open Concacaf qualifying, following the 2-1 home loss to Mexico. […]

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Aside, perhaps, from the return of oil to $100 a barrel, the United Arab Emirates would like nothing more than to qualify for the 2018 World Cup. The UAE played in the 1990 World Cup, a remarkable achievement at the time, given the country had not existed 20 years earlier. But they have not been […]

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Going back to the Abu Dhabi days here. In the UAE, daily English-language journalism is, 95 percent of the time, not dissimilar from English-language journalism in the U.S. or Britain. Timely, fact-based, well-sourced. But then there is that 5 percent when things get a bit squirrely, and you didn’t really see what you saw — […]

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Only one sport really matters among the citizens of the United Arab Emirates. And, actually, it is a subset of one sport. The men’s national soccer team. Not necessarily the domestic soccer league those guys play in; Emirati fans are far more interested in club soccer in other countries, particularly in England and Spain. No, […]

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Rio 2016 is the first Summer Olympics I will not attend since Moscow 1980. Yes, it was a good run. I made it to eight consecutive Summer Games. Beginning with Los Angeles 1984 and continuing with Seoul 1988, Barcelona 1992, Atlanta 1996, Sydney 2000, Athens 2004, Beijing 2008 and London 2012. The first four with […]

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We expected “warm” in southern France. We did not expect “hot”. We thought we had left behind “hot”, back in Abu Dhabi. And in a sense we did. No highs of 118 Fahrenheit with high humidity, here in the Languedoc. However, perceptions of heat are impacted by considerations we had not necessarily considered. To wit:

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According to the old story, if you toss a ball at a non-American, he will try to stop it with his feet. If you throw a ball at an American, he likely will catch it in his hands. I have not played catch in a very long time. Certainly, not since before leaving for Abu […]

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It was three years ago that I saw Ricardo Quaresma at what must have been his low ebb. This would have been in Abu Dhabi, in the stands at Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium, where I watching the final of the President’s Cup — which pitted Al Ahli and Al Shabab on a stultifying May evening. […]

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It is a great job: Recording the highs and lows of a Volvo Ocean Race sailing team during a nine-month circumnavigation of the planet. It is a horrific job: During the 40,000 or so nautical miles of the journey, the onboard VOR reporter will encounter heaving seas, deep cold, blistering heat and the spartan living […]

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