I now am a fan of England, at Russia 2018. And not just because the rest of my preferred teams have been eliminated. As noted a few weeks ago, I was around a lot of English soccer, in six-plus years in Abu Dhabi, and if you are a fan of the Premier League, as I […]

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There are two kinds of people in the world. Those who believe Lionel Messi is the best soccer player in the world … and those who believe Cristiano Ronaldo is. The World Cup staged a sort of referendum today on what has been decade-long struggle between the players and their fans: Who is better? Who […]

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This has been the case since the invention of the World Cup, in 1930: Someone from Europe or South America is going to win … and their finals opponent also will hail from Europe or South America. I became attuned to this quadrennial inevitability (to date) while working in the Persian Gulf for more than […]

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Got to give it to Diego Maradona. The Argentinian God-handed hero/star/drama queen/double-bird-flipping raving lunatic may be the only man alive whose activities in and around the 2018 World Cup could nearly overshadow Germany being knocked out of the tournament in the group stage today. Nearly. We all know what happened to Germany — that hot […]

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Iran is out of Russia 2018, and I have heaved a sigh of relief. Just did it again. A big sigh of relief. It has nothing to do with international politics. It has everything to do with the guys representing Iran on the football fields of Russia and all about the ugliest soccer played by […]

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Germany’s do-or-die, last-kick-wonder-goal, 2-1 victory over Sweden tonight was perhaps the best match, so far, in the 2018 World Cup. It also may be the least popular result, so far, among global soccer fans. Two concepts that call for further reflection.

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The great Gary Larson, creator of the incisive and usually funny-as-hell one-panel cartoon known as the Far Side, has often been on my mind, as the 2018 World Cup enters its second week. One cartoon, in particular. It shows several hugely obese people, relatives, I think we are meant to understand, sitting on a porch […]

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Just saw a memorable match in the 2018 Russia World Cup. It may go largely unnoticed, given that earlier in the day Lionel Messi missed a penalty kick and Argentina was held to a draw by tiny (but doughty) Iceland, population 350,000 … and even earlier France fought off the gritty Aussies in a 2-1 […]

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This is as good as it gets, in world sports. More diverse than an Olympics. Far wider global interest than in cricket or rugby or basketball. The first two rounds of the Fifa World Cup soccer group stage. Eleven consecutive days, this time around, at the 2018 Russia World Cup, of 32 teams still with […]

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I find it nearly impossible to be a neutral observer in any competition. Give me five minutes in a game involving teams I don’t know … and I will have a favorite. It could be about geography or playing style or history, but I will have made a choice. A girlfriend from a long, long […]

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