This was one of the more interesting legs of the 2005 road trip across Mexico to see the United States’ World Cup qualifier at Estadio Azteca. We had seen the map, and we knew we were leaving the desert, but we did not fully anticipate the massive shift in climates, once we entered Nayarit state. […]

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This is about United States versus Mexico soccer. World Cup qualifying soccer at that … But this is now, not 2005 — as it is in the parts of the 12-year-old series I have been republishing on this blog in recent days. The U.S. national soccer team got a very nice result today, in Mexico […]

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On our Tijuana-to-Mexico City road trip ahead of a 2006 World Cup qualifier, back in 2005, we noticed that the main north-south road on the western side of Mexico goes right through Navajoa — where Los Angeles Dodgers pitching star Fernando Valenzuela was born. Back in 2005, I assumed readers would not be interested in […]

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This ran as Day 1 in the March 2005 Futbol Diaries road-trip series — ahead of the U.S. national team playing Mexico in a 2006 World Cup qualifying match at Azteca Stadium. It can stand a bit more context. We had begun the day in Southern California, and we were driven down to San Diego […]

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The United States and Mexico are set to resume the greatest rivalry in North American soccer, four days hence, in a 2018 World Cup qualifying match to be played in Mexico’s Estadio Azteca. And the thought of it prompted memories of the 1,800-mile road trip two of us took from Tijuana, Mexico, to Mexico City […]

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Francesco Totti ended his 25-season Italian football career over the weekend, getting in his 786th match for Roma, the only club he has ever known. By the time it was over, Totti, 40, and many of his legion of fans were in tears, shattered by the end of an era. The New York Times suggests […]

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In 1999, a U.S. team led by Landon Donovan got to the semifinals of the Fifa Under 17 Championship, in New Zealand. The young Americans played Australia to a 2-2 draw but lost the shootout 7-6 when Kenny Cutler missed his penalty and Oz’s Joshua Kennedy converted. Brazil won the tournament and the Yanks finished […]

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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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For as long as I have been a quasi-fan of Arsenal FC, which is about seven years now, the debate has raged, fomented by placard-waving fans or banners pulled along in the sky by small airplanes. Sometimes the argument is loud. Sometimes louder. Is it time for Arsene Wenger, the coach since 1996 of English […]

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The English Premier League. Has to be the longest competitive schedule in team sports. The 2016-17 season, which ended over the weekend with 10 matches … began on August 13 and concluded on May 21. Yes, that is a season that lasted nine months and one week. Or, if you prefer, 40 weeks and one […]

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