When I decided that, oh, what the hell, I was a fan of Arsenal FC, the English Premier League club … I was concerned at being branded a front-runner. Straddling the turn of the century, Arsenal won the Premier League three times in seven seasons, and this was when Alex Ferguson, the knighted coach of […]

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Alexis Sanchez, an attacking player recently of Arsenal FC, moved to Manchester United today, as his deal to switch Premier League teams was completed. That meant it was time for an “unveiling”, as the Brits inevitably describe an “introduction” … typically with stiff and anxious new player behind a table, with a club executive nearby, […]

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Ah, so it wasn’t just his missing the game. Not all about “don’t know what to do with myself.” It also was about getting paid. According to a newspaper report in Mexico, Landon Donovan will be paid $180,000 per month by the Liga MX club that has brought him out of retirement. In North American […]

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Catalonia took another step on the road to sovereign status in a referendum today. And, as we typically do in reflecting the world of sports, we make it about us. To wit: “If  Catalonia leaves Spain … what does this mean for FC Barcelona and the Spanish league and the Spanish national team?” The short […]

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They probably should give a bit more thought than usual to avoiding trouble as they travel to Champions League group stage matches in Moscow in the coming days. One fine idea might be to hold off on consuming copious amounts of alcohol in the hours before kickoff. Why? Beside the calories? Because English club fans […]

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I get it. Some might consider it silly, ridiculous even, to be headed for a sports bar on a Wednesday night while visiting an exotic capital city. But keep in mind that 1) the sports bar is about 50 yards away from where we are staying; 2) the bar serves food as well as beer […]

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What a great name! In full it is Rajiv Ramon van La Parra, but usually it is written without the “Ramon”. He is a Netherlands-born soccer player for Huddersfield Town of the English Premier League. He has been in the first XI of Huddersfield’s two games this league season, both victories, and that has raised […]

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Not exactly a rousing endorsement of Major League Soccer. The data guys at the FiveThirtyEight website have come up with a batch of calculations they believe indicate the “relative strength” of soccer leagues in Europe, North America and South America. (See the rankings, about a third of the way down the page.) In simplest terms, […]

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Being an Arsenal fan is the worst idea in sports. Being an Arsenal fan is the greatest idea in sports. No team in the world can look so elegant, so beautiful. And no team of Arsenal’s pedigree can look as shiftless and feckless. Which is by way of introduction to the first Premier League match […]

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For as long as I have been a quasi-fan of Arsenal FC, which is about seven years now, the debate has raged, fomented by placard-waving fans or banners pulled along in the sky by small airplanes. Sometimes the argument is loud. Sometimes louder. Is it time for Arsene Wenger, the coach since 1996 of English […]

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