It was a busy Sunday for me, so I limited my soccer gazing. Just one TV game: Liverpool-Manchester City.

The English Premier League certainly displayed its diversity credentials this past weekend.

Reading the English press, listening to the British commentators, it's quite impossible to escape the topic of diving.

I have been trying for quite a few years now to persuade referees to let me listen in on what they say to players during a game. Not live, a tape will do nicely.

Ron Newman, without any doubt, was the Bill Veeck, or maybe it was the Casey Stengel - of pro soccer, a mischievous spirit who understood that if soccer was to be popular in the USA,

If referees are reluctant to penalize goalkeepers (obviously, they are), now we have the option of VAR replay scanning to set matters aright.

From Atlanta, there was -- almost -- nothing but good news. A glittering evening, a huge, record crowd, lots of good players, and some pretty good soccer.

So George Orwell was right? Words, it seems, are losing their meaning.

How about VAR -- a revolutionary development in refereeing -- how did that fare? Pretty well, I'd say. As it ought to have done -- I mean, who is going to argue with VAR's basic job?

The signs that the 2018 World Cup was not going to be business as usual came early.

Yikes! Here they come again! The set-piece merchants, the soccer commentators who will keep insisting that our sport is all about "set pieces."

If ever there was a tricky soccer situation that was waiting to be solved by VAR, surely it was the problem of goalkeeper movement at penalty kicks.

A good deal of attention has been focused on the functioning of the VAR system during this World Cup. Rightly so, for it represents a revolution in soccer thinking

Last week I made a point: that it was time for the soccer world to take Mexico seriously. And now we have another team that merits the same attention: England.

The Mexicans have been very, very patient. Far too patient, I think, in trying to establish their right to belong up there with the top soccer countries.