We can thank VAR for the almost vaudeville images we now see of soccer referees drawing imaginary rectangles in air.

The gasps of astonishment and the avalanche of praise that greeted Ronaldo's superb bicycle kick goal against Juventus held a particular interest to me.

Two things: 1) trying not to be irritated by Jose Mourinho, and 2) another goalkeeper incident.

Trapped in my New York apartment. An exaggeration. But it is snowing quite hard. And this is the third week of March.

Harry Kane is seen by English fans as a major reason for giving England a chance of showing well in this year's World Cup.

Decidedly interesting comments from former England striker Michael Owen. He came clean on a dive that he took in England's game against Argentina during the 2002 World Cup. David Beckham scored from the penalty, the only goal of the game. England won and Argentina was out of the World Cup.

Both in the English Premier League and in MLS there were some pretty bad referee calls this past weekend.

The news from Howard Webb and his PRO group of referees is good -- but not good enough.

I have been pondering how I shall vote in the U.S. Soccer presidential election. Of course, I do not actually, officially, have a vote. But who knows, maybe some zany chain of events will force U.S. Soccer to acknowledge my expertise in these matters, so I intend to be ready.

I have an accusation to level at the sport of soccer. Against FIFA, IFAB, the international confederations, the national federations -- in fact all the governing bodies of the sport, everywhere in the world. Plus all referees.

It's taken a while, but a top coach in England has had the nerve to criticize the Premier League's high-minded, not to mention seriously flawed, campaign against diving.

NBC's coverage of EPL games regularly features occasions when we're transported early to the stadium, way before kickoff.

Is college soccer ever going to wake up to the reality of the outside (soccer) world? The question poses itself acutely every year when the Division I final gives us an instructive look at what is happening on the college fields.

Watching a couple of EPL games on Sunday provided a telling insight into what, for me, is the major weakness of English refereeing.

Coming up -- the MLS final between Toronto and Seattle. Well, we've had that before. That's the trouble here. We had Toronto-Seattle last year. And a pretty damn awful game it was.