By Paul Gardner Nineteen goals in eight games was the MLS harvest over the weekend. Hardly prolific scoring — the average was 2.4 per game, which is about normal inthis low-scoring era. I suppose the good news is that there were no 0-0 ties. San Jose beat Colorado 1-0, but the other seven games all […]
SoccerTalk with Paul Gardner
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Steve Nicol gets tangled up in the physical game
By Paul Gardner I see that the Revs’ Steve Nicol is complaining about rough play. Specifically, he believes that his player, Sainey Nyassi, is being fouled way toomuch, and that referees are not punishing the offenders. To the extent that he is right — and that may well be 100 percent — I sympathize with […]
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Clash of Coaching Egos Coming Up
By Paul Gardner Inter Milan vs. Bayern Munich was not the Champions League final that we thought we were going to get. Certainly not the one that many — including me– would have preferred. But there you are — that’s what we’ve got, and there’s little to argue with in the semifinal results. Before that, […]
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Ho hum, it's all the skillful player's fault
By Paul Gardner I can’t say I think much of the uniforms that the Philadelphia Union sported at its game against the Red Bulls. Dreary, frankly, when they surely oughtto be cheerful. From what I know of salesmanship, which may not be a great deal, I’d have thought the idea was to radiate brightness and […]
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World Cup Technobabble Explained
By Paul Gardner I don’t really need a technical study, published in the South African Medical Journal, to tell me that those stupid vuvuzelas are a curse. But that’swhat we’ve got, and we now know, thanks to Dr. De Wet Swanepoel of the University of Pretoria’s department of communication pathology, that vuvuzelas can damage your […]
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Was it the Volcano? Or Jose Mourinho?
By Paul Gardner It could be that, as far as the soccer world is concerned, 2010 will be remembered as the Year of the Volcano. The year that a volcanic eruption inIceland greatly disturbed air travel, and meant that Barcelona had to travel by road — in luxury buses — to Milan for their UEFA […]
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The rare talent of Red Bull rookie Tim Ream
By Paul Gardner The Red Bulls find themselves in unfamiliar territory, sitting on top the world. The world of the MLS Eastern Conference, I mean. Not that big a world,true, but the Red Bulls top-dog position is pretty impressive. As impressive as their new stadium. What has not been so impressive is the playing form […]
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Will ESPN keep its eye on the ball?
By Paul Gardner Impressive is the word for the panoply of World Cup stuff that ESPN put on show — briefly — during a New York press conference earlier this week. Wegot clips of the promos, peeks at various documentaries, plus all sorts of news about just how seriously ESPN is taking this event. Certainly […]
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Referee Vaughn was right on Moreno goal
By Paul Gardner I’ll confess to amazement when referee Terry Vaughn allowed Jaime Moreno’s goal against Philadelphia last Saturday. Not that I saw anything wildly wrongwith what Moreno did, anything that smacked of a foul, like crude body contact. Nothing like that at all. But we’ve become accustomed to the fact that goalkeepers are granted […]
Posted inSoccerTalk with Paul Gardner, Story
Soccer success: the Barca way … or the money way?
By Paul Gardner Is Barcelona simply too good? Too good to the point where our expectations of what it can achieve know no limits? I suppose that’spossible, though I doubt it. That sort of transcendent power doesn’t happen in soccer — well, not for long anyway. Barca is bound to let us down at some […]