Watching the match, or hearing the score, is enough to make a U.S. soccer fan wince. Jamaica 2, United States 1. In the semifinals of the Gold Cup. Played on American soil. But consider it Step 1 of what cannot help but be an unpleasant stretch for the U.S. national team — if things are […]

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Great performance. Three goals by Carli Lloyd as the U.S. overwhelmed Japan in the final of the Fifa Women’s World Cup. Lloyd in this one reminded me a bit of Zinedine Zidane, also a midfielder and a No. 10, normally an organizer who turned scorer in the biggest of matches. (Zidane had two in the […]

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Everton Ribeiro. I know the player Everton Ribeiro. Left-footed midfielder. During the 2014/15 season he played for the Dubai club Al Ahli. He arrived with a reputation for being one of Brazil’s best players; in recent years he twice had been designated the best player in Brazil’s domestic top flight. Turns out, he wasn’t the […]

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Soccer in Asia tends to be predictable, when it comes to teams showing up at a World Cup. It will be Japan, South Korea and Australia, and the fourth will probably be Iran, though China someday may seize the last berth. Or maybe Uzbekistan. Or the UAE. But getting there, during qualifying, that’s where Asia […]

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I doubt many people in the Gulf region know that the Women’s World Cup is going on. Women’s soccer is not big here. Sometimes, it’s not played at all. (Hello, Saudi.) The UAE and Bahrain, to name two, recently ramped up their support of women’s soccer, but it will be a while before any team […]

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A colleague let me know about this piece in The Guardian, the English newspaper: An oral history of USA at Italia ’90: the World Cup that changed US soccer. This felt very personal, from the first few paragraphs. I know/knew those guys. I was at Port of Spain, Trinidad, for the Shot Heard Round the […]

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Apparently, I’m one of the few people who has a problem with U.S. Soccer — well, Jurgen Klinsmann, actually — recruiting German-Americans (with an emphasis on the German) to fill slots on the national team. Repudiating young American-born/raised players in the process. JK is at it, still. The curious, 4-3 victory over The Netherlands tonight […]

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Again. Europe and the English-speaking world again worked themselves up into a froth of indignity and righteous wrath over the cesspool that is “Fifa business” … … and again the broad swaths of the world where such things don’t matter a bit reelected their man. The reform candidate — or the guy who was not […]

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Brad Friedel, the 43-year-old American goalkeeper, said today he will retire from soccer when Tottenham’s season ends next weekend. That will end the professional career of probably the most-respected U.S.  player, in England — and perhaps around the world. Friedel, however, was never quite as popular at home as he came to be in England […]

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It’s nice to see someone who is struggling score a big goal. Even if it was fairly easy. Even if his teammates did most of the work. Like, say, Javier Hernandez, who scored in the 87th minute tonight to lift Real Madrid past Atletico Madrid and into the Champions League semifinals. It was the only […]

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