The World Cup intrigue begins earlier than ever. In this case, the pot distribution revealed today, ahead of the draw on Friday, was a source of some controversy. Well, it was in England, anyway. What it shows for fans of the U.S. national team is that the Yanks are likely to be in a tough […]

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The UAE has soccer “derbies”, in the English sense — rivalries between neighbors. Al Wahda and Al Jazira, for instance, located only a couple of miles apart, here in Abu Dhabi. Sharjah’s two teams, Al Shaab and Sharjah, have a strong rivalry, too. But the country does not really have rivalries involving teams from different […]

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Hoped you liked the 2010 World Cup … Because the 2014 version is overwhelmingly the same teams you saw in 2010. Here is the complete list of teams who are going to Brazil who did not play at South Africa:

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I have been thinking about this for some time now. A sort of nightmare soccer scenario. The UAE national team over the past year has played as well as it has at any time in the country’s history. Which may count for nothing on the World Cup stage — a potentially crushing disappointment I wrote […]

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Some threshold has been crossed here. I have swapped Sunday football for Sunday futbol, and I hardly notice the difference. Were we still in California I likely would have seen all of part of games like Denver at San Diego and Dallas at New Orleans. Instead?

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It lasted 23 days, but it seemed longer. Twenty-four teams, originally, from New Zealand to Canada, from Argentina to Sweden. They played 52 games in 23 days, and many of us here in the UAE got quite used to having these kids around, and watching them on Al Jazeera, the Qatar cable station that carried […]

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I have noted this during every World Cup since 1990, at least. The first I covered … so of course I would have noticed it. But now, even watching via television, I discover the same emotions. I am oddly bereft when the group stage of a World Cup ends, producing a day or two of […]

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Michel Platini, president of the European football federation, has called for the World Cup to be expanded from 32 to 40 teams. First reaction? More of a good thing can’t be bad. Second reaction? Too much of a good thing can, in fact, be bad. Why 40 teams? Why now? Why would it be a […]

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I love, love, love Japan’s team at the Fifa Under 17 World Cup, being held at the moment in the UAE. The Japanese are quite good. A 1-0 victory over Russia, the European champion; a 3-1 victory over Venezuela. Their place in the final 16 is assured. But I like them for far more than […]

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It has been an interesting story, Bob Bradley’s two years in Egypt. The former U.S. national team coach, dismissed in the summer of 2011, found a place coaching Egypt, but during a time of historic upheaval there. For most of the subsequent two years, Bradley did well to keep Egypt competitive after revolution and the […]

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