• Adeus Pele -- my 17-year-old mentor
    by Paul Gardner on Dec 30, 10:35 PM
    Pele became, during the 1958 World Cup, probably the most important influence in the development of my soccer understanding.
      16 Comments
  • Random thoughts after a great World Cup final
    by Paul Gardner on Dec 18, 7:25 PM
    Lionel Messi got his reward. I almost feel that the sport owed him that, for all the pleasure he has given us.
      7 Comments
  • Departing friends
    by Paul Gardner on Dec 16, 6:01 PM
    The deaths of Grant Wahl and Alex Yannis have left me with a sadness, and a spell of that "this shouldn't be happening" feeling.
      6 Comments
  • Will Qatar 2022 be a Qatarstrophe?
    by Paul Gardner on Nov 21, 8:00 AM
    The excitement of red-hot fan support for the host team is not likely to be a feature of this World Cup.
      3 Comments
  • When Video Review gets too clever, it's time to rely on a referee's instincts
    by Paul Gardner on Nov 7, 3:48 PM
    Baseball, we're told, is a game of inches. Right, and soccer is a game of feet. Ha ha, hilarious joke. But hold the knee-slapping
      2 Comments
  • MLS Cup 2022: At Last -- a final to be remembered
    by Paul Gardner on Nov 7, 1:54 AM
    MLS Cup 2022 gave us a bit of everything that soccer has to offer.
      7 Comments
  • Can soccer back up the claim that its rules contribute to the safety and welfare of players?
    by Paul Gardner on Oct 20, 12:00 AM
    What the treatment of these head-clashes shows is that neither in MLS nor in the EPL is the concussion problem taken seriously.
      3 Comments
  • Part 2: Soccer in the Balance
    by Paul Gardner on Sep 18, 5:34 AM
    Of all the groups involved in soccer, I would rank referees as the group with the highest IQ.
      28 Comments
  • Soccer in the Balance (Part 1)
    by Paul Gardner on Sep 14, 1:20 PM
    Soccer is, and should be, a fluid sport played in many different ways and styles.
      15 Comments
  • An extraordinary refereeing oversight
    by Paul Gardner on Jul 26, 10:35 PM
    A rather unpleasant article popped up on the website run by PRO, which oversees referees engaged in pro soccer in the USA.
      10 Comments
  • LAFC's moves cast the shadow of the dreaded elephants graveyard
    by Paul Gardner on Jul 9, 12:23 PM
    Total bafflement. That pretty much sums up my response to LAFC's recent activities in the transfer market.
      12 Comments
  • The tragedy of Scott Vermillion must not be ignored or allowed to fade away
    by Paul Gardner on Jul 5, 2:40 PM
    The early end to his life, the agonies he went through, the wretched suffering of his loved ones, are now all a matter of record.
      9 Comments
  • More subs means better soccer? Don't bet on it.
    by Paul Gardner on Jun 24, 12:27 PM
    You will remember the famous Anatoliy Puzach ... No? ... Ukrainian-born forward for Dynamo Kiev and the USSR?
      15 Comments
  • MLS goes wildly off the rails for 90 disgraceful seconds
    by Paul Gardner on Jun 13, 3:46 PM
    I have been enjoying MLS games so far this season: plenty of good, varied attacking play, plenty of individual brilliance.
      8 Comments
  • Real Madrid's Thibaut Courtois: goalkeeping as it should be
    by Paul Gardner on Jun 2, 2:57 PM
    It takes us back many, many years, to 1878 when the sport's rules first recognized the goalkeeper as a special player.
      8 Comments
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