By Paul Gardner LONDON — Poor Sam Allardyce. Well, maybe. Depends how you see things. Not long ago, Allardyce was one of the few English coaches in the EnglishPremier League … he had a lowly job with a lowly team — Sunderland, which he just managed to save from relegation last season. But that background […]
SoccerTalk with Paul Gardner
Posted inSoccerTalk with Paul Gardner, Story
De Jong's barren MLS stint helps debunk the holding-midfielder myth
By Paul Gardner LONDON — Holding midfielder. Defensive midfielder. Are they the same animal? I’m not sure. And frankly, I don’t care. Because I have along-standing mistrust of English soccer terminology. As well as serious suspicions about the value of tactical talk. I have always had that terminology mistrust, and for once alwaysreally means always. […]
Posted inSoccerTalk with Paul Gardner, Story
Jordan Morris: ruthless enough to be a great goalscorer?
By Paul Gardner The pitiful lack of clarity that infests English-language soccer terminology was intriguingly exposed in Taylor Twellman’s recent interview with Jordan Morris. Twellman asked Morris how he viewed himself — as a forward or as a goalscorer? An odd question. There is, after all, no reason at all why a soccer player should […]
Posted inSoccerTalk with Paul Gardner, Story
The truly Greek Olympic final: Apollo vs. Dionysus
By Paul Gardner So the men’s Olympic final comes down to this: Apollo vs. Dionysus. Apollo, god of reason and logic (that’s the methodical Germans, you see), andDionysus, god of emotions and instincts (and that’s the free-styling Brazilians). So, translating Greek mythology into soccer reality, we have yet another matchup between thestraight-laced efficiency of European […]
Posted inSoccerTalk with Paul Gardner, Story
Under-17 age cheating and FIFA's mysterious MRI tests
By Paul Gardner FIFA’s Under-17 World Cup — for me, the liveliest and the most enjoyable of all the global tournaments — has, since its first edition in China in 1985,always been played under a heavy cloud of suspicion. I covered 10 of the first 11 tournaments, and learned very quickly that there were always […]
Posted inSoccerTalk with Paul Gardner, Story
Olympians bring back soccer with a smile, Brazilian soccer
By Paul Gardner Watching Brazil toy with Denmark was quite like old times. Not so old, of course — let’s say just 30 years ago. Admittedly, this was the Brazilian Olympicteam, one of those bizarre combinations of young and old and whoever might be available. But Brazil is Brazil. Well, that’s what we would have […]
Posted inSoccerTalk with Paul Gardner, Story
The tedious Martyrdom of Marsch — but he happens to be right
By Paul Gardner The New Jersey Red Bulls, it seems to me, had every reason to be miffed after their 2-2 tie with the Galaxy. They had seen their 2-0 lead snatched away by aspirited late Galaxy comeback. But the Bulls felt they should have had a PK when Galaxy goalkeeper Brian Rowe brought down […]
Posted inSoccerTalk with Paul Gardner, Story
Castillo goes, MLS loses
By Paul Gardner The Turkish city of Trabzon holds a cherished place in my thoughts. Not that I’ve ever been there, or will ever go. But in my youth I read a most wonderfulnovel, “The Towers of Trebizond” — and the ancient town with the lovely name of Trebizond has lost none of its attraction […]
Posted inSoccerTalk with Paul Gardner, Story
Farewell Sigi — for the moment
By Paul Gardner So Sigi Schmid has gone the way of all coaches who don’t win games, or don’t win enough games, or don’t win the important games … coaches who,we are told, have lost the locker room, or who have run their course, while the club needs to take “another path,” to move “to […]
Posted inSoccerTalk with Paul Gardner, Story
MLS DisCo makes another dubious diving decision
By Paul Gardner The MLS Disciplinary Committee — the DisCo — continues its far from satisfactory activities. Its latest bulletin is a mixed bag. It has a positive pointto make, showing that it has become aware of what the FIFA rulebook actually says, rather than what the DisCo thinks it says. The topic is diving, […]