It’s time. Jurgen Klinsmann must go. He now is inflicting real damage on the U.S. national soccer team. The U.S. Soccer Federation really has only One Job that fans insist it complete: Qualification for the Fifa World Cup. A limp and lifeless U.S. team was crushed 4-0 in Costa Rica tonight. The U.S. has lost […]

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I follow two national soccer teams. The U.S., of course, but also the UAE, after working six years in Abu Dhabi. Both teams have key matches in 2018 World Cup qualifying tomorrow. The Yanks play at Costa Rico, trying to avoid a second defeat to open Concacaf qualifying, following the 2-1 home loss to Mexico. […]

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Qualifying for the soccer World Cup, any of them, should be easy for the U.S. national team. Jurgen Klinsmann, however, is about to make it difficult. The Yanks lost 2-1 tonight to Mexico in Columbus, Ohio, the first match in the Concacaf “Hexagonal” and the first defeat to Mexico on U.S. soil in five World […]

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Aside, perhaps, from the return of oil to $100 a barrel, the United Arab Emirates would like nothing more than to qualify for the 2018 World Cup. The UAE played in the 1990 World Cup, a remarkable achievement at the time, given the country had not existed 20 years earlier. But they have not been […]

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That was the result this week of an Asian Football Confederation third-round qualifying match for the 2018 World Cup. Mahmoud Al Mawas scored in the 54th minute to give Syria the one-goal victory before 37,000 at Shaanxi Province Stadium in China. The match is unlikely to have a bearing on which four or five Asian […]

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Gianni Infantino, who grew up one Swiss town away from his infamous predecessor as Fifa president, Sepp Blatter, seems to be equally prone to silly or unworkable ideas. (We can only hope he does not prove as venal.) Infantino campaigned for the presidency earlier this year on a platform that called for the World Cup […]

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This is big. Take a deep breath, American soccer fans. A Yank has taken charge of an English Premier League team … a team in the world’s most popular sports league. Bob Bradley is the new coach of Swansea City, the Wales-based club that already is at risk of relegation, seven matches into the season. […]

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Some might opt for England’s Premier League. Others would nominate the Uefa Champions League or perhaps the World Cup or European Championship. But a strong case can be made that the greatest soccer competition is the quadrennial World Cup qualifying for South America’s 10-nation confederation, generally known as Conmebol. And a writer is making that […]

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After the U.S. women’s national soccer team lost a Rio 2016 shootout to Sweden, a game that ended 1-1 in regulation, goalkeeper Hope Solo was not in a diplomatic mood. She rarely is after losing, God bless her. The Swedes got an early lead, then sat back and absorbed pressure, and when they conceded the […]

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Rio 2016 is the first Summer Olympics I will not attend since Moscow 1980. Yes, it was a good run. I made it to eight consecutive Summer Games. Beginning with Los Angeles 1984 and continuing with Seoul 1988, Barcelona 1992, Atlanta 1996, Sydney 2000, Athens 2004, Beijing 2008 and London 2012. The first four with […]

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