A weird thing about being in Thailand — which is physically closer to the U.S. than is the UAE, and by several thousand miles — is an even bigger sense of disconnect from American sports. It’s the time zones. By 10 a.m. UAE time, just about every sports event “last night” in the U.S. is […]

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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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Most of us hear “World Cup” and think of the big event. The senior men, 32 teams. The one every four years that pretty much everyone pays attention to, even Yanks. But Fifa runs several varieties of World Cup, the others being for women or for age-group players, and what once was known as the […]

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1. The United States is headed for the World Cup for the seventh consecutive time. It’s a lock. Bom dia, Brasil 2014! But it gets better.

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The first thing to keep in mind, when considering the U.S. national soccer team losing tonight at Costa Rica is … The U.S. never wins in Costa Rica. The Yanks didn’t win there when the U.S. was a second-rate soccer country. And they do not win when they are ranked No. 20 in the world, […]

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Earlier this month, the story was that Landon Donovan might look for a move to Europe at the end of the year, when his current four-year, $10 million deal with the L.A. Galaxy ran out. It didn’t sound quite right. Landon is 31, which is about the time that Europe’s top leagues look to part […]

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Landon Donovan has five goals and seven assists in five games so far in the 2013 Gold Cup. He has been the best player in the tournament. He has played all but about 20 minutes in five victories ahead of Sunday’s final. And we still are discussing whether he should 1) be recalled for World […]

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Time to catch up on some Landon Donovan news. This broke while I was in the U.S. soccer-news vacuum known as “Italy” … and shows that Jurgen Klinsmann continues to nurse his hard feelings towards the leading scorer in American national team history. Klinsmann did not invite Landon into the national team ahead of some […]

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As I wrote in a blog post for The National, I am predisposed to like David Moyes. He twice gave Landon Donovan a chance to play Premier League football, during the Major League Soccer offseason, and Landon used those two winter loan stretches, at Everton in 2010 and 2012, to put to rest the “can’t […]

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Jurgen Klinsmann wants Landon Donovan to know he remains in the German’s doghouse. Hundshaus, I suppose it would be. I get it. I’m sure Landon does, too. Klinsmann wants everyone to know who’s the boss of the U.S. national team. On one level, I have no problem with what he is doing. On another, I […]

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