In six-plus years based in Abu Dhabi, I saw this kid play dozens of times in person, hundreds of times when we add TV exposure … and it seems to me a highly justified decision by one on the web’s most important soccer sites: Omar Abdulrahman of Al Ain and the United Arab Emirates, best […]

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Well, that wasn’t very sporting. Manchester United’s team was trying to get to the Boleyn Ground for West Ham United’s last match at Upton Park, in east London, after 112 seasons there. The throng outside the stadium was so dense, before the game, that the ManU team bus could hardly move as it got close […]

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These next five days are crucial in the history of UAE soccer. What looked like one of the best teams in Asia, a year ago, probably needs to win twice at home — versus Palestine tomorrow and Saudi Arabia on Tuesday — just to make the final round of continental qualifying for the Russia 2018 […]

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Actually, we’re pushing 60 percent finished with the current decade, given that we persist in starting decades and centuries and millennia on years that end in zero. (Digression alert!) And, by the by, what are we calling this decade? Apparently we haven’t decided because it’s varieties of stupid/awkward. Back in 2009, the BBC did a […]

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An appealing aspect of the UAE is how compact it is. Both in terms of area and population. The country is the 116th biggest in the world, in size, just behind Austria; if it were a U.S. state it would rank 40th, behind Maine). And the population is maybe 9 million, putting it 91st in […]

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Omar Abdulrahman … the best player nearly no one outside the UAE knows about. He is really good, if he is allowed to play, and he has become the leader of the UAE national team, which plays host Saudi Arabia in the semifinals of the Gulf Cup of Nations tomorrow. He dominated the final Group […]

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If you think American sports franchises are quick on the trigger, when it comes to firing coaches … you have not been paying attention to sports clubs overseas. The owner of the Chelsea soccer club fires a world-famous coach about once every six months. Once you get past Alex Ferguson, Arsene Wenger and David Moyes, […]

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Biggest sports story since I arrived in Abu Dhabi. The UAE national team won the Gulf Cup tonight! How big is that?

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The Gulf Cup. Technically, I suppose, it’s the Gulf Cup of Nations. Played every two years. Probably very few people, even serious soccer fans, know about this tournament. But is huge in the UAE and environs. And tonight the UAE senior side, augmented by the rising stars who played at the 2012 London Olympics, defeated […]

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I find the notion of “2013” awkward. It’s the 13. Not a felicitous number. Though it does sound more like a football score than anything we have had in a while. Which is good. Moreso than 20-10 or 20-09, certainly, or even 20-07. Just looking at it, it seems as if it is a prime […]

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