Two individuals long prominent in American soccer have been hit hard by the USA’s World Cup fiasco — Coach Bruce Arena and USSF President Sunil Gulati. Arena looks like the big loser. Whilethis is not something to shed tears over — why do something that Arena himself will not do? — it is certainly something […]
SoccerTalk with Paul Gardner
Posted inSoccerTalk with Paul Gardner, Story
Clay Berling & Soccer America — his inspired invention
The death of Clay Berling stirs up memories of my first days in the USA. Way back in the early 1960s I used to sit around with little groups of soccer people in New York as we discussed thesport’s problems. Not enough publicity, hardly any really, ignored by the national press and television … soccer […]
Posted inSoccerTalk with Paul Gardner, Story
From goalkeepers, from referees … the sound of a scandalous silence
By Paul Gardner The appalling story came from Germany, just 14 days ago. It was widely reported. And it was wisely reviewed by Mike Woitalla on this website, under the headline:“Will This Be the Wakeup Call?” Wolfsburg goalkeeperKoen Casteels had come close to killing an opponent, Stuttgart’s captain, Christian Gentner. Casteel had come racing off […]
Posted inSoccerTalk with Paul Gardner, Story
Rugby, not soccer, pursues promising concussion test
By Paul Gardner I am being reluctantly forced to the opinion that official soccer’s attitude to concussions entails the utmost cynicism. I have read, with care, theso-called concussion protocol — the series of tests that are — we are told — required to be administered to players suspected of suffering from a concussion. A complicated […]
Posted inSoccerTalk with Paul Gardner, Story
Exposed! The shabbiness of the English anti-diving campaign
By Paul Gardner It was totally right and proper that the farce of the English campaign against diving should be brutally exposed at Wembley, often called “thecathedral” of English soccer. Exuding an insufferable self-righteousness about diving has long been an English affectation. A rather ugly one, too. Whatever they may tell us, it is stillwidely […]
Posted inSoccerTalk with Paul Gardner, Story
VAR: Howard Webb's skewed videos
By Paul Gardner In no time at all we shall be getting, in MLS, the benefits of video replays to help referees make the right calls. Something that has taken soccer adecade or more to introduce, while we’ve all — (I mean all of us, don’t I?) — been hollering at the absurdity of instant […]
Posted inSoccerTalk with Paul Gardner, Story
Chuck Blazer 1945-2017: The Fatally Flawed Friend
By Paul Gardner The tragedy that was Chuck Blazer is now over. And tragedy it assuredly was, a good man destroyed by his own excesses, a man capable of wondrous warmth andhumanity who ended up vilified as The Soccer Rat. The greed that brought Chuck down cannot be ignored, but I will not allow it […]
Posted inSoccerTalk with Paul Gardner, Story
New medical study shows FIFA protocol is being ignored
By Paul Gardner To laugh … or to cry? There is no middle course here, no way of dodging the utter failure of soccer’s response to the concussion crisis. No way toignore the inadequacy of the protocol, no way to pretend you haven’t noticed the pathetic hesitancy of referees when confronted with head injuries. To laugh […]
Posted inSoccerTalk with Paul Gardner, Story
The Gnat's Eyebrow and other VAR stupidities
By Paul Gardner The trial of video-assistance for referees currently under way at the Confederations Cup in Russia cannot be said to have cleared anything up. There remains a gooddeal of confusion. There is a fundamental confusion between a video-review, and sheer technology, as in goal-line technology. GLT does away with human judgment altogether — […]
Posted inSoccerTalk with Paul Gardner, Story
That Goal
By Paul Gardner It was Pele who started the “soccer is beauty” theme. He titled his autobiography — one of them, anyway -– “My Life and the BeautifulGame.” That was back in the 1970s, and it seemed so right at the time. Pele did wonderful things on the field, his play was full of creative […]