Rain here produces a reaction rather like snow does in Southern California. “Oh, cool! Come over and look at this! Wow! … Hey, wait. … This is not comfortable to be walking around in. I don’t have the right clothes. And it might even be dangerous to drive in …” It rained real rain today […]

[Read more →]

The more a person pokes around Asian Cup history — and the 2015 version of the event is ongoing — the more curious it gets. Lots of political interruptions and upheaval among various states. Sounds like it is time for another list. Herewith, 10 curious facts concerning Asia’s quadrennial soccer competition:

[Read more →]

Talking Abu Dhabi the emirate, now. The big city has the same name as the emirate, but the emirate has one other major population center … and that is Al Ain. Al Ain is perhaps best known, in the region, as the home of the UAE’s most decorated soccer team. Eleven league championships, one Asian […]

[Read more →]

I was in China’s capital for about three weeks in 2008, before and after the Olympics, and I was deeply impressed by how awful the air was. The sun was, as I wrote back then: “a pale rumor in leaden skies.” Like nothing I had ever seen in Los Angeles, where I spent my first […]

[Read more →]

What soccer fans love? Winning. What soccer fans love most? Winning … with style. This explains the lasting popularity of Brazil in the World Cup. Of Barcelona in European soccer. Even if reputation at times is left behind by reality, soccer fans want entertainment, and that is rep Brazil and Barcelona carry. That is the […]

[Read more →]

They wear green and gold instead of red, white and blue, but I am constantly reminded of American soccer when I watch Australian soccer, which I will be doing for a few weeks because Oz is hosting the quadrennial Asian Cup tournament. I am reminded of U.S. soccer for several reasons. Australians call the game […]

[Read more →]

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 […]

[Read more →]

The UAE is mad about “Guinness World Records.” The National reports on one or two per week, it seems. Many of them silly. I remember when the “Guinness Book”, as it was known decades ago, was fun to read. “Tallest man.” “Fastest train.” “World’s Biggest Waterfall. Things like that. Fairly common things. Now, we’ve got […]

[Read more →]

A business story. Ugh. But the business of the UAE is business. Commodities and services and tourism and all the rest of it. The National has a 12-page business section, broadsheet, and the biz crew has no trouble filling it. Something is always going on. The big biz news story for months now has been […]

[Read more →]

A fairly significat chunk of what sports journalists do is cover scheduled events. Games. Press conference. Interviews. Unscheduled news generally sets off some scrambling. A hiring, a firing, a change in policy, a violent opinion — we expect that sort of unexpected, but it requires extra effort. What we do not expect is scheduled events […]

[Read more →]