I would rate it as one of the major conundrums of world soccer -- but it's a pretty obvious one, with an even more obvious answer. So ...

Six weeks after the event, we now get referee Howard Webb's explanation of why he did not red-card the Netherlands' Nigel de Jong in the World Cup final.

What sounds like a cri de coeur has recently been heard from Arsenal coach Arsene Wenger. You could also call it, less romantically, a rant, I suppose.

For purely soccer reasons, I would like to see D.C. United doing well. Under the guidance of Kevin Payne, this is a club that has always played, at any rate always tried to play, a skill-based version of soccer.

Tackling. An essential part of soccer, of course, we all accept that. Well, just about. A year or two back, Michel Platini had the audacity to voice a notion that must have occurred to anyone who has watched more than one or two games: that the sport might be better off if tackling were banned.

At this point of the MLS season, we are faced with the unappetizing thought that the L.A. Galaxy might win the whole thing. An eventuality that is worth pondering, because a Galaxy championship would be accomplished with a team playing remorselessly pragmatic soccer. The Galaxy, truth be told, is not a particularly entertaining outfit.

So it's EPL time again. Things got under way with a 0-0 tie between Tottenham and Manchester City. No goals. That was on Saturday. The previous day, I had watched an exhibition game between Bayern Munich and Real Madrid. Which also finished 0-0. No goals.

Over 77,000 fans to watch a soccer game. In the USA! And this was not a competitive game, merely a USA vs. Brazil exhibition game.

To call D.C.United a struggling team hardly does justice to the depth of its problems. It is a team stuck in one of those dreadful time-locks when absolutely nothing goes right. And it's painful to watch, because this team was, once upon a time, the closest MLS ever came to having a great team.

Images of the recent World Cup final linger on in my mind. Andres Iniesta's goal, of course, now made more lustrous by knowledge we could not have at the time, that this was the winning goal.

Last night I tuned in to watch Landon Donovan, but what I got was something rather different. The game was the Galaxy at home to the Chicago Fire and within five minutes the Fire was leading, 2-0.