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No vision, no future: soccer faces another four years of Infantino
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Friday, March 17, 2023
Not a single member country or confederation presented a candidate for 20 ...
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Germany wakes up -- more dribbling and touches for young players
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Thursday, March 9, 2023
Why don't we encourage more young players to thrill the stands, rath ...
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Should a 'soft' foul in the penalty area go unpunished?
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Thursday, March 2, 2023
Try to find the 'Laws of the Game' section under the tit ...
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How the German men's national team can regain the love of its public
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Thursday, February 23, 2023
There's more to this than mere results. There's also the question ...
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Everything's good. Really. Everything.
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Thursday, February 16, 2023
A sensitive reader last week lamented the negative tone of this colum ...
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What is the 'spirit' of soccer? And where can I find it?
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Thursday, February 9, 2023
I hate to shatter IFAB's delusions, but soccer is no longer play ...
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Keep the Copa, scrap the Gold Cup
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Friday, February 3, 2023
Only perennial host USA and Mexico have won the Gold Cup besid ...
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Are live creature mascots being subjected to 'animal torture'?
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Thursday, January 26, 2023
Eintracht Frankfurt's Attila the Eagle has been unable to comment on PETA ...
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Offside needs a creative and comprehensive overhaul
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Thursday, January 19, 2023
Was the offside-positioned Marcus Rashford interfering with play in the run-up ...
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What are the responsibilities of a captain?
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Thursday, January 12, 2023
Let's quantify the captain's "degree of responsibility for the behavior of t ...
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Bam. Bam. Bam. Three red cards. I'd be fine with that.
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Thursday, January 5, 2023
What can soccer learn from other sports in its perpetual struggle ...
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World Cup 2022: The Good, the Bad, and the Very Ugly
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Wednesday, December 21, 2022
The Qatari national team looked like an English fifth division outfit rig ...
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World Cup 2022 semis: The jinking goblin of wonder and delight
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Wednesday, December 14, 2022
The semifinals proved to be one round too far for the dogg ...
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World Cup 2022 quarterfinals: Unlocking the 10-man defense, superstar tears, and erratic refs
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Sunday, December 11, 2022
Only moments of supreme individual brilliance suffice to open up physical, well-drill ...
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World Cup 2022 Round of 16: Great goals, poor penalties, and FIFA's loneliest man
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Wednesday, December 7, 2022
My wish: a statutory yellow-card for every righteous digit-wagging hatchet man tryi ...
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World Cup 2022 group games, third round: Fading Europe, emerging World
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Friday, December 2, 2022
It's more than refreshing to see Japan alongside Morocco, Australia, the US ...
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World Cup 2022 group games, second round: Real strikers, fake MVPs, and why 8x4 works best
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Tuesday, November 29, 2022
Soccer is an absurd game, and cup tournaments can effect random a ...
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World Cup 2022 group games, first round: A surfeit of VAR, politics and stoppage time
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Friday, November 25, 2022
FIFA will often use World Cups to try out new applications ...
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Ref Watch: The goalkeeper's tears, and a penalty
Youth Soccer Insider, Ian Plenderleith - Wednesday, November 23, 2022
I run back towards the halfway line, but when I turn arou ...
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Uncovering FIFA's all very well, but what about the future?
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Friday, November 18, 2022
The four-part Netflix documentary is a very well re-constructed history of t ...
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World Cup Books, Part 3: How fans can achieve real and lasting change
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Wednesday, November 16, 2022
Ronny Blaschke: "I believe that every individual should develop their own relationsh ...
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World Cup Book Review, Part 2: Searching for the real Qatar
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Wednesday, November 9, 2022
Will the World Cup bequeath Qatar a soccer legacy, a benefit cit ...
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World Cup Book Review, Part 1: Dictatorship, USA 94, and the greatest upsets
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Monday, October 31, 2022
Among World Cup-season book publishing: a look at how USA 1994 "chang ...
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Ref Watch: Model behavior and the coaches who disgrace themselves and their clubs
Youth Soccer Insider, Ian Plenderleith - Sunday, October 23, 2022
In the second half, the angry coach's previously polite and well-behaved te ...
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Bodycams for referees: Is there no better solution?
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Sunday, October 16, 2022
The plague of bad behavior in soccer has been learned down t ...
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Leicester -- the unlikely birthplace of the mass-produced replica shirt
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Thursday, October 6, 2022
Grown men or women were yet to start showing their support ...
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The courage of players who believe killing people is wrong
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Saturday, October 1, 2022
You can no more separate pro sports from politics than you c ...
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Turn off the lights, turn off the beer taps: Bayern Munich's 'in crisis'
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Tuesday, September 20, 2022
Bayern won the last 10 Bundesliga titles, and this season has beat ...
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Handball, or not? Even pro refs haven't a clue
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Thursday, September 15, 2022
The German federation (DFB) this week took the surprising step to ca ...
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Yay, we're in the Champions League! That's a good thing, right?
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Tuesday, September 6, 2022
It's a quarter of a century since UEFA began to allow non-champio ...
