An odd day, and not just because it was Leap Year Day. The UAE swamped Lebanon in a World Cup qualifier, and 10,000 Lebanese fans went home more or less unhappy, even though the UAE defeating Lebanon should be a “dog bites man” event — which is to say, vaguely interesting, depending on the size […]

[Read more →]

In a small country, the “small stuff” in sports counts for a lot. If you have a small population or a poor one, odds are pretty good you aren’t going to have a lot of success in regional — never mind global — sports. And that explains why the Under 23 soccer game tomorrow between […]

[Read more →]

Fans (of a certain age) of the U.S. soccer team remember what this was like. The national team would play a game against a small nation from far away, and the crowd would be lousy … and perhaps a majority of the people there would be partisans of the visiting nation. I distinctly remember the […]

[Read more →]

You think your national soccer team has problems? (Well, if your team is China, it does.) The UAE fell out of contention for the 2014 World Cup today, November 11, 2011 — three-and-a-half years ahead of the 2014 World Cup. Done. Out of it. Can’t survive the second-to-last round of Asia Confederation qualifying. That’s right. […]

[Read more →]

Yaaaawn. That’s the reaction to the World Series from over here. Well, that or just generic befuddlement. A significant number of people in this part of the world, Arabs and subcontinenters both, know basically nothing about baseball. I mean, they may not even know the game exists, let alone that Americans and some other random […]

[Read more →]

When I reported on the Barcelona Olympics in 1992, I made a point of going over to the Plaza Monumental to see the bullfights. How I found the 2-3 hours of waking daylight to escape to the corrida, during a Summer Games … I don’t clearly remember. It was my first afternoon at the bullfights, […]

[Read more →]

One of the standards in the doldrums of summer print journalism has long been “the series.” Find a couple of people on the staff who aren’t on vacation, and have them spend a bunch of time reporting, and get the graphics people involved, and the photo editor … And let’s put on a show! Let’s […]

[Read more →]

I was thinking about the Beijing Olympics, and realized that the U.S. men’s basketball team had zero Clippers on it. But then, neither did the Vancouver Olympics. Have any Clippers on the U.S. team. Though clipper ships presumably sailed to Vancouver, but not Beijing, it being too far from the ocean. Hong Kong? Sure. But […]

[Read more →]

Part 3 of the series in The National about the best sports venues in the world. Broken out by continent. In Monday’s editions: North America! Interesting, how the voting went. I will tell you who won: Augusta National. Even the Brits in the room know about “the course like no other” or whatever it is […]

[Read more →]

After all the Winter Olympics I went to, and chased around American teams that averaged about two medals every three days … and I miss one for the first time since 1988 … and the U.S. is apparently going to win more medals than anyone. Have you been talking about this, back home? How big […]

[Read more →]