I return to the worrying tale of Eric Garcia, the young Man City defender severely injured last Wednesday.

Alas for the English Premier League, usually so deft at promoting itself. Here we had the long-awaited (it's been 100 days) return.

German "ghost games" have presented soccer with a unique opportunity to explore one of its most contentious areas.

So here comes the difficult bit. Trying to make a coherent whole of my dealings with and memories of college soccer since 1960.

The 1971 Division 1 Final (Howard 3 St Louis 2) played in the cavernous -- and lamentably empty -- Orange Bowl started my rethink about college soccer.

College soccer -- the men's version -- has been going through something of a crisis recently. Caused by the fear that the NCAA might take action that would threaten the very existence of many college soccer programs. The threat still hovers.

The immobility of quarantine at least gives one time to think, to reflect, to remember. I've been playing around with all three.

When people start using arcane language to make matters clearer, you can be quite sure that they are not trying to clarify. They are trying to mystify.

Playing in a dangerous manner is what goalkeepers are doing every time they dive to the ground at an opponent's feet.

Something to classify alongside flying pigs: one of soccer's richest clubs being severely punished by the sport itself.

Surely it is time to cry Enough! and do away with the antiquated and dangerously useless International Football Association Board, IFAB?

The phrase "technological doping" has been hovering over sports -- all of them -- for some time now. More as a vague, ill-defined problem than a clearly identifiable threat.

The level of English Premier League play and the entertainment value have been consistently high.

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.