The 1971 Division 1 Final (Howard 3 St Louis 2) played in the cavernous — and lamentably empty — Orange Bowl started my rethink about college soccer. The quality of the soccer was much, muchbetter than I had last seen it — some 10 years earlier. Not only from Howard’s foreigners but also from the […]
SoccerTalk with Paul Gardner
Posted inSoccerTalk with Paul Gardner, Story
Sixty years of trying to assess men's college soccer (Part 1)
College soccer — the men’s version — has been going through something of a crisis recently. Caused by the fear that the NCAA might take action that would threaten the very existence of manycollege soccer programs. The threat still hovers. It is obviously not something to taken lightly. After all, men’s college soccer matters … […]
Posted inSoccerTalk with Paul Gardner, Story
From Quarantine — A Memoir: Me, soccer, Stanley Matthews, the Potteries and Arnold Bennett
The immobility of quarantine at least gives one time to think, to reflect, to remember. I’ve been playing around with all three, so — as Vladimir Nabokov commanded –Speak, memory! I have to shout, reaching all the way back to 1943 for the first soccer memory that I can put a date to. I was […]
Posted inSoccerTalk with Paul Gardner, Story
Between the lines with the back shoulder, not forgetting the low-block 5-3-2
Well, how about this? We’ve arrived at the unthinkable: A world without soccer. The sport is not dead, but it is certainly in hibernation. No games allowed, no games to watch except the old– dead? — ones. And now they’ve got us all cozily holed up at home, making it difficult to even chat about […]
Posted inSoccerTalk with Paul Gardner, Story
Messi yellow card exposes the soccer rules snafu
Lionel Messi, without any shadow of doubt, is one of the all-time greatest players among the millions who have ever played this game of soccer. An absolute gem, brilliantly sparkling with soccerskills, a joy to watch — an enormous credit to the sport. But does soccer appreciate what it has, what Messi means — in […]
Posted inSoccerTalk with Paul Gardner, Story
Wow! UEFA nails Man City — and how
Here’s something to classify alongside flying pigs and maybe a Unicorn grazing in your garden: one of soccer’s richest clubs being severely punished by the sport itself. I don’t meanpunished by FIFA — maybe that’s a bit too much to hope for — but here we have the No. 2 soccer organizing body, UEFA, which […]
Posted inSoccerTalk with Paul Gardner, Story
How much longer can soccer put up with the clueless IFAB?
Surely it is time to cry Enough! and do away with the antiquated and dangerously useless International Football Association Board, IFAB? This is a committee which is supposed to keep its eye onsoccer’s rules — to make sure they are kept up to date, that they are comprehensive, that they are clear and easily understood. […]
Posted inSoccerTalk with Paul Gardner, Story
Soccer and technological doping
The phrase “technological doping” has been hovering over sports — all of them — for some time now. More as a vague, ill-defined problem than a clearly identifiable threat. Ithas taken several years for the problem to become measurable. Now — so to speak — the results are in. The problem has taken on a […]
Posted inSoccerTalk with Paul Gardner, Story
The EPL puts on a show — only the referees disappoint
Holiday soccer means, inevitably, the English Premier League. The only top league that elects not to take time off. It means binge-watching, which I’m told is not good for me, while it alsoprovides an opportunity for a concentrated look at the EPL. Over the past week I’ve watched 8 games more or less through their […]
Posted inSoccerTalk with Paul Gardner, Story
An object lesson in how to ignore Latino soccer
You will know, I think, the medical tale — a surgical joke really — about the operation that was completely successful. Just unfortunate that the patient died. But are you aware that U.S.Soccer has recently staged a soccer version of the joke? I’m indebted to Barry Pauwels, the Belgian who is U.S. Soccer’s Director of […]