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Ronaldo and Neymar - who in their right mind wants them?
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Thursday, June 30, 2022
A small gap in the soccer calendar has action-starved fans gorging ...
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Kick-ins, 30-minute halves and dribbling from free kicks. Why not?
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Monday, June 20, 2022
The head of Dutch amateur soccer put forward a series of chang ...
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Moving documentary shows Ronaldinho's Barca rise and decline
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Friday, May 20, 2022
When Ronaldinho laughs, it's like watching him play - it's impossible n ...
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'Your Show' reflects all the rhythms and contradictions of a pro referee's life
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Tuesday, May 10, 2022
Novelist Ashley Hickson-Lovence writes about the life of the first and ...
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Time-wasting: why do we tolerate it?
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Monday, May 2, 2022
It's almost 15 years since Venezuelan referee Manuel Andarcia sent off Colombia ...
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Mass brawls are what the fans want to see
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Monday, April 25, 2022
"Children play at being soldiers. That is sensible," wrote the Austrian auth ...
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The Rochester Lancers: 'the antithesis of the New York Cosmos' -- book review and author Q&A
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Tuesday, April 5, 2022
It's something of a minor miracle that soccer established itself -- ev ...
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Abandoned game in the Bundesliga -- it's not just the fan who's at fault
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Tuesday, March 22, 2022
This was a really ugly matchup. Numerous nasty fouls, and a gre ...
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Germany decides to put the Fun(ino) back into youth soccer
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Monday, March 14, 2022
The emphasis is on enjoying soccer, rather than being so discouraged th ...
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Two compelling books: Rockin' English soccer in the 1970s and wonderful losers the world around
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Tuesday, March 8, 2022
At its best, Spurling writes in his introduction, the English game ...
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Soccer united against Putin -- 10 years too late
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Tuesday, March 1, 2022
The soccer world agreed that war is a terrible thing, and Russia ...
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Absorbing ref documentaries reflect how VAR has changed the game
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Tuesday, February 22, 2022
It's surprising to realize how quickly we've become accustomed to the Vid ...
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Egypt's near-triumph highlights the need for new tournament rules
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Tuesday, February 8, 2022
What can be done in these tournaments to prevent dull teams playi ...
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Newcastle United: What happens when sportswashing runs short on detergent?
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Wednesday, February 2, 2022
The English Premier League club's fiscal saviors have come in the fo ...
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Bundesliga fans getting gouged to watch a foregone conclusion
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Tuesday, January 25, 2022
How can the Bundesliga keep fans interested when those fans know Baye ...
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How to stall referee abuse in youth soccer
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Monday, January 24, 2022
Well-meaning campaigns, initiated by the state federation and the referees' association, me ...
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Haaland vs. Hinteregger: when abusive conduct is not properly punished
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Monday, January 10, 2022
When the pro game legitimizes this kind of conduct, there's a knock- ...
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Infantino's New Year message -- peace, love, unity and a large slice of flam
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Monday, January 3, 2022
I received a press release from FIFA, headlined President Infantino's New Ye ...
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'Football, She Wrote': A wonderful collection of women's soccer writing on struggle, progress and hope
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Thursday, December 16, 2021
Just as it's heartening to see how far women's soccer has co ...
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How I yearn for 'especially sporting conduct'
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Tuesday, November 30, 2021
Former U.S. international Timothy Chandler was recently involved in a much-discussed penal ...
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The raging sideline coach is a man out of time
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Wednesday, November 17, 2021
At first I don't recognize the man standing in the door ...
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Wear a flat cap! Dance! Smile! It's only soccer
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Monday, November 8, 2021
"I will never apologize for always having played soccer with a smi ...
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'The Hard Yards' delivers compelling stories from 'the toughest league' -- a more intriguing playground than the EPL
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Tuesday, November 2, 2021
Below the over-hyped, self-styled "greatest league in the world" is an engagin ...
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Kimmich and Beckham flout the risks of celebrity activism
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Monday, November 1, 2021
All celebrities are to a large extent playing roles when they're ...
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The loudmouth moaner -- why does every team have one?
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Sunday, October 31, 2021
For a new player, he was awfully quick to start ordering everyo ...
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So much to dislike about soccer: a critic writes
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Monday, October 4, 2021
Ambrose Bierce defined a critic as "a person who boasts himself ha ...
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FIFA wants your feedback on a biennial World Cup -- let them have it
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Tuesday, September 28, 2021
A press release from FIFA was headlined "Majority of fans favor mo ...
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'The Barcelona Complex,' starring Cruyff and Messi, details the rise and decline of 'the world's greatest club'
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Monday, September 20, 2021
Barcelona's 3-0 home loss to Bayern Munich in last week's UEFA Champio ...
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Joshua Kimmich deal shows what soccer needs least -- players' agents
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Tuesday, August 24, 2021
Bayern Munich and Germany's central midfielder Joshua Kimmich extended his contract wi ...
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A chat with Seamus Malin: Part 2 -- the NASL and the evolution of the American fan
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Wednesday, August 18, 2021
'In the 1970s was really when things started to change in t ...
