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Hoppe's serene hat trick makes the case for giving youth a chance
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Tuesday, January 12, 2021
"Youth is full of sport, age's breath is short/Youth is nimble, a ...
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Saudi 'sportswashing' shows why more players must take a moral stance
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Tuesday, January 5, 2021
Why should high-profile sport stars, whose words reach so many, not spe ...
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2020 rewind: Silent stadiums and hot debates on anthems, coaching, soccer's rules and urgently needed reform
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Tuesday, December 29, 2020
Below is a selection of columns from 2020 that have provoked most ...
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Searching for solutions to the global problem of referee abuse
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Tuesday, December 22, 2020
Tom Webb and his colleagues identify the importance of training and mentorin ...
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Wise and witty 'Farther Corner' takes us back to England's Northeast
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Wednesday, December 16, 2020
The very character of non-League soccer in England is a lure f ...
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What are soccer's standards for 'unsporting behavior'?
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Monday, December 7, 2020
There was a curious incident during stoppage time of VfB Stuttgart's Bundesli ...
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Who were the real cheats when Maradona beat the English?
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Monday, November 30, 2020
U.S. soccer fans used to tell me how hard it was findi ...
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Making the case for a shootout revival
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Monday, November 23, 2020
When I lived in the USA, I used to love being ask ...
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Scotland finally breaks the hard-luck narrative
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Monday, November 16, 2020
Following abject failure in qualification group play, a good run in th ...
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Soccer's biggest flaw is its TV rights-based economic model
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Tuesday, November 10, 2020
The vacant stadium restart has yet again helped soccer to swerve arou ...
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Why German amateur soccer has been suspended again
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Thursday, October 29, 2020
Having refereed close to two dozen games here since August following t ...
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When you forget the meaning of soccer results
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Tuesday, October 20, 2020
Her soccer-loving husband can no longer process the information in scorelines su ...
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Black player history in England: Who broke through first at the 92 clubs and the prejudice they had to overcome
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Wednesday, September 30, 2020
The authors list the first Black players at each of the curre ...
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What happened to the conversation about the future of soccer?
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Tuesday, September 22, 2020
Paris St. Germain's star ego Neymar has left Nike after 15 yea ...
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'Thanks, ref' -- two simple words to boost the game
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Tuesday, September 15, 2020
When that basic human interaction doesn't happen, you start to feel resentme ...
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London, loneliness and a long, hot World Cup summer
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Monday, September 7, 2020
The prose is as understated as his presence at the back ...
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Knockout soccer for Europe's top competitions? Only if we go the whole way
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Monday, August 31, 2020
All of a sudden, the single-game format was "more exciting" than gam ...
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After five-month break, German amateur soccer is back up and running with the usual flare-ups and square-ups - but for how long?
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Monday, August 24, 2020
There's an intense and pointless argument about, of all things, a throw-i ...
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'Blood and Circuses' delves into the post-communist chaos of eastern European soccer
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Monday, August 17, 2020
Storied teams were deprived of state support and had to rely ...
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Coaches instigate brutal foul play, and get away with it too
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Tuesday, July 28, 2020
It's just over four years since I turned off the television ha ...
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World Cup winner's early retirement shows: Players need more help to be themselves
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Tuesday, July 21, 2020
Germany forward and World Cup winner Andre Schurrle announced his retirement fr ...
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Meeting the coach who preaches Imagination Soccer
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Sunday, July 12, 2020
While talking tactics with a fellow coach the other night, I ventur ...
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What is handball? Nobody knows any more
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Friday, July 3, 2020
There was a video question in my online refereeing exam concerning ...
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Salary caps in Europe -- is Schalke making the first move?
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Monday, June 29, 2020
Schalke, through high transfer fees and salaries, has sought to buy succe ...
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Investigations closing in on FIFA boss Gianni Infantino
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Monday, June 22, 2020
FIFA President Gianni Infantino came to power in 2016 on the hee ...
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All rise for the anthem. Or not. It's a choice
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Friday, June 12, 2020
When I was a lad, the Scottish national anthem was the jaun ...
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Bundesliga's road-win stats prove the power of the crowd
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Monday, June 8, 2020
The statistics have always shown that, broadly speaking, home advantage is ...
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Dispatch from Germany: 'The world is watching and waiting to see if we pull through' says the Bundesliga chief
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Friday, May 22, 2020
DFL chairman Christian Seifert outlined a staunch defense of the Bundesliga's attem ...
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More subs, less drama, less dissent: Assessing the Bundesliga restart
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Monday, May 18, 2020
FIFA introduced some tweaks and recommendations specially tailored to the game ...
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Soccer in empty stadiums -- a Thatcher dream come true
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Thursday, May 14, 2020
When the Bundesliga restarts this weekend behind closed doors, the wishes ...
