soccer

Manchester United fans riot in protest against American owner

Featured image In English football, it doesn’t get much bigger than Manchester United vs. Liverpool. Unfortunately, today’s match between these titans had to be postponed because a protest by Man U fans turned into a mini-riot. The fans were protesting against the Americans who own the club — the Glazer family. The protest wasn’t about the team’s performance. Arguably, United is having its best season since Sir Alex Ferguson retired as manager »

Poland’s national soccer team says no to the knee

Featured image Ever since shortly after the George Floyd’s death last May, soccer players in England have been “taking a knee” just before the kickoff of their matches. In my view, athletes should be free to take a knee (or not to) before a match. But why a Minneapolis cop’s excessive use of force, and the death it may or may not have caused, should prompt soccer players in Manchester to take »

Whiny narcissist meets empty suit

Featured image Today, Joe Biden allowed Megan Rapinoe, a female soccer player, to use the White House for two of her favorite purposes: (1) whining about not being paid enough and (2) calling attention to herself. Rapinoe, a radical feminist, is leading the crusade for “equal pay” for women soccer players. At the White House, she made it personal, declaring that, by being paid less than players on the men’s national soccer »

Proud all-Basque team wins Spanish Cup

Featured image On Sunday, Athletic Club Bilbao won the Spanish Super Cup. It accomplished this by defeating the two powerhouses of Spanish football — Real Madrid in the semifinal and Barcelona in the final. In the final, Athletic Bilbao trailed 2-1 but leveled the match in the 89th minute. It went on to score a 3-2 victory in extra time. Athletic Bilbao is a special team. Most European clubs are full of »

Wayne Rooney hangs up his boots

Featured image When we started blogging in 2002, Wayne Rooney was a 16 year-old phenom for Everton FC. This week, Rooney retired as a player. He will be the manager of Derby County in England’s second tier of football. If I didn’t already feel old, this news would have done the trick. Rooney wasn’t your average teenage phenom. He was probably the most promising soccer prospect England had produced in decades and »

The return of the “yid army”

Featured image As I discussed here, this weekend fans returned in small numbers (2,000) to some English Premier League soccer matches. Tottenham Hotspur was among the EPL teams to welcome fans. And what a welcome! Spurs defeated their hated rival Arsenal 2-0 in the North London Derby. Spurs are heavily supported by London Jews. They always have been, to the point that many Spurs fans call themselves the “Yid Army.” And, sure »

Some fans allowed to attend some EPL matches

Featured image For the first time since March, fans were allowed to attend English Premier League matches today. But not very many fans and not all EPL matches. England is divided into three categories (tiers) for purposes of the pandemic, with tier 3 being the most seriously affected. No EPL venue falls within tier 1. The 29 venues are equally divided between the other two tiers. In tier 2 venues, 2,000 fans »

Remembering Diego Maradona

Featured image Diego Maradona died last week of a heart attack at age 60. Maradona is generally considered the second greatest soccer player of all time, behind only Pele. Some even rate him ahead of the magical Brazilian. I never saw Maradona play in person, but did see him on television in four World Cups — 1982 (where he was a petulant dud), 1986, 1990, and 1994. All things considered, I have »

A day in West Yorkshire

Featured image I’m thankful for lots of things. One of them, although far down the list, is that I was able to make my soccer pilgrimage to the north of England before the Wuhan coronavirus hit. (We were even able, in early February of this year, to take a vacation in the Dominican Republic.) Last year on this date I was in Huddersfield, a city of about 160,000 in West Yorkshire. Harold »

Remembering Ray Clemence and the heyday of English goalkeeping

Featured image Ray Clemence died yesterday at the age of 72 after battling prostate cancer for 15 years. When I began following English soccer in the late 1970s, Clemence was the number one goalkeeper for the English national team and for Liverpool, then the best club side in the world. At the time, English goalkeeping was the world’s gold standard. Gordon Banks had been one of the two best keepers at the »

Toffees in dreamland

Featured image Four weeks into English Premier League season, Everton sits atop the table, thanks to four wins in four matches. This is the first time since 1969 that Everton has won its first four league matches. If I’m not mistaken, it’s the first time since 1987 that we have won four straight at any point in a season. We won the league in both of these seasons. We have also won »

An all-time English Premier League top 60

Featured image The English Premier League kicks off its 30th season this weekend. In honor of the occasion, The Athletic has come up with a list of the 60 greatest players of the Premier League era. Here is the list, along with the team[s] for which each player starred during his prime years: 1. Thierry Henry (Arsenal) 2. Alan Shearer (Blackburn and Newcastle) 3. Eric Cantona (Manchester United) 4. Ryan Giggs (Manchester »

Remembering Liverpool’s other “British Invasion” band

Featured image When I think of England in the 1950s, I think of shortages, decline, and despair. Part of that impression stems from the play “Look Back in Anger” and the movie “The Entertainer” (also a play) — both by John Osborne — so it might be an exaggeration. But certainly much of the art and literature of 1950s England reflected pure bleakness. I view the early Beatles as an answer, or »

2019-2020 English Premier League all-stars

Featured image The 2019-2020 English Premier League season was played in two stages, due to the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic. The EPL shut down in March, resumed in mid-June, and ended on July 26. Liverpool won the title, its first since England’s top flight rebranded itself as the EPL. The Red Shite topped the old English First Division for the last time in 1989-1990. The Shite was on its way to a record-shattering »

Home fans make a difference in Germany

Featured image The German Bundesliga completed its regular soccer season this weekend. The last nine match weeks were played in almost entirely empty stadiums. Fans weren’t permitted entry. (If you heard crowd noise on television, it was solely for the telecast. The noise wasn’t heard by the players.) How did home teams fare without their fans? Poorly. The home team won 26 matches; the away team won 38 matches; and there were »

The EPL embraces BLM

Featured image There’s good news and bad news regarding the English Premier League. The good news, from my perspective, is that the EPL will resume its football season next Wednesday, June 17. The bad news is that all players will wear the words “black lives matter” on their jerseys. As I understand it, for the first 12 matches — those through June 22 — the names of the players on the back »

Squabbling threatens reopening of MLB and the EPL

Featured image The German Bundesliga, one of the world’s greatest sports league, will resume playing soccer this weekend. The games will take place behind closed doors. The English Premier League, an even greater sports league, has been cleared by the government to resume in early June, assuming certain conditions are met. But the matches will have to be played not only behind closed doors, but at neutral venues. Unfortunately, EPL clubs can’t »