soccer
June 1, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
England manager Gareth Southgate has picked his squad for the soon-to-commence Euro 2020 tournament (still named after the year in which it was supposed to be played). As expected, Everton’s Ben Godfrey didn’t make the final cut. He’s one for the future. Trent Alexander-Arnold made the team, as I argued he should. He’s one of four right backs in the squad. Even without Godfrey, two Everton players were selected —
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May 26, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
Today’s Europa League final featured two contrasting teams: Manchester United and Villareal. Man U, which represents the red half of a city of about half a million, has won everything there is to win in soccer, and most things multiple times. Villareal, known for some reason as the Yellow Submarine, represents a Spanish city of around 50,000. Until today, it had never won anything. This year, Man U finished second
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May 25, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
Gareth Southgate, manager of the England national football team, has selected 33 players for his provisional Euro 2020 team. The tournament is called Euro 2020 because it was supposed to be played last year. The provisional squad includes three Everton players — goalkeeper Jordan Pickford, defender Ben Godfrey, and forward Dominic Calvert-Lewin. Southgate will have to cut seven players before the tournament to get the team down to 26. Pickford
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May 15, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
This week, the Arabic-language social media sites of two English Premier League football teams voiced support for Hamas in its latest confrontation with Israel. The two clubs are Wolverhampton Wanderers (Wolves) and West Ham United. The Wolves’ tweet stated, in Arabic: You don’t need to be Palestinian to speak, you just need to be human. Our hearts and prayers are behind Palestinians. God save the people of Jerusalem & Palestine.
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May 9, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
Wayne Rooney burst onto the soccer stage as a 16 year-old in 2002, the same year Power Line entered the blogosphere. I’ve been writing about Rooney ever since — his sensational performance at Euro 2004, his exit from Everton the same year, his champagne play at Manchester United for whom he is the all-time leading scorer (as he is for the English national team), his return to Everton, and his
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May 2, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
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
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April 1, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
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
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March 24, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
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
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January 19, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
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
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January 16, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
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
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December 7, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
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
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December 5, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
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
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December 1, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
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
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November 26, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
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
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November 16, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
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
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October 6, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
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
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September 9, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
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
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