You will know, I think, the medical tale -- a surgical joke really -- about the operation that was completely successful. Just unfortunate that the patient died.

So U.S. Soccer has decided to run coaching instruction courses ... in Spanish. Not all the courses, you understand.

The sorry story of the USA's drubbing at the Under-17 World Cup currently being played in Brazil defies any sensible explanation.

The single-game playoff format has much to recommend it. The game has to be won, there is no playing for a tie. The do-or-die atmosphere definitely injects excitement and suspense into the games.

From the English Premier League comes more evidence that VAR -- a tool of undoubted value -- is being seriously misused.

Goalkeepers slamming into an opponent, often making violent contact with his head, remains part of the goalkeeper's repertoire.

My congratulations to the United States Soccer Federation. The ignorance, the arrogance, the bias, the total lack of awareness ...

Referee Mike Dean never looked at the replays. In the EPL version of VAR, use of the field-side monitor is discouraged.

Stand in his way, pull his shirt, trip him -- nothing too physical, but enough to halt the attack.

No apologies for returning, yet again, to this VAR business. It is fast becoming a major talking point in the sport.

Diego Maradona has always known about soccer's extra dimension. Even as a frighteningly young teenager.

The responsibility for what happens on the field during a soccer game is shared by players, coaches and game officials.

That Brazil should have reached the final of the 2019 Copa America can hardly surprise anyone. After all, Brazil is the host nation, the disruptive Germans are nowhere to be seen, so the Brazilians have advanced pretty smoothly.

The International Football Association Board -- the IFAB -- has presented us with an extraordinary document.

An under-20 world championship without Brazil, Germany, Ghana, Spain, Russia, England and the Netherlands?