soccer
June 28, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
It’s understandable if, at the start of a soccer tournament like the World Cup or the Euros, the manager of a national team doesn’t know which players make up his best eleven. After all, these teams don’t play regularly and their composition changes every time they gather for a tournament. After three matches, though, most managers know their best eleven. And if one or two of its members are unavailable
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June 26, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
Euro 2020 has reached the knock-out stages. They will begin in a few minutes with a match between Wales and Denmark. All of the eight teams we identified as the elite of the tournament have advanced. Denmark, a popular choice for “dark horse,” also made it. The Danes overcame the near death of their best player Christian Eriksen. Of the six teams we identified as “minnows,” only Wales has made
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June 23, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
The first soccer match I ever watched was the 1966 World Cup Final between England and West Germany. It was played at Wembley Stadium in London and broadcast by ABC’s Wide World of Sports (thank you Jim McKay). England won that match 4-2 after extra time. Since then, Germany has pretty consistently gotten the better of England in soccer. Of particular note are Germany’s two wins in major semifinal matches
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June 21, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
I’m a fan of soccer and of nationalism. Thus, I relish soccer tournaments that pit national teams against one another. Euro 2020 (being held a year late due to the pandemic) is such a tournament. Before the kickoff of matches in these tournaments, the starting players line up on the field and the national anthems of their countries are played. The camera pans on the players and microphones pick up
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June 16, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
Soccer superstar Cristiano Ronaldo made news in two ways on Tuesday — one soccer-related, one not. In soccer news, by scoring two goals against Hungary, Ronaldo became the all-time leading soccer in the history of the European Championship tournament. No player from any nation has scored as many goals in this major competition as Ronaldo. In other news, Ronaldo snubbed Coca-Cola. He removed two Coke bottles from the table at
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June 16, 2021 — Steven Hayward
Power Line’s sports desk (Paul) is covering the Euro 2020 soccer tournament, but at the risk of annoying him with my soccer denialism, I want to bring to readers’ attention some real excitement yesterday in Munich, when a Greenpeace stuntman seriously injured two spectators, and ripped up the overhead “spidercam,” with a parachute jump into the stadium ostensibly intended as some kind of incoherent climate protest. The Daily Mail has a
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June 16, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
Euro 2020 was delayed a full year due to the pandemic. Was the wait worth it? The jury is still out after the first round of matches, as the teams round into shape. Six of the eight teams thought to make up the top tier won their opener. The exceptions were Spain, which, despite a strong first half, only managed a goalless draw with Sweden, and Germany, which lost 1-0
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June 11, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
As I write this post, Euro 2020 is set to kick off. A year late. Today’s opening match features Italy and Turkey. It’s not a matchup to send one’s heart racing — both countries normally play a “pragmatic” style of football. Yet, on paper this is an above-average group stage contest. That’s because, with 24 teams, the tournament has been badly diluted. It was a great tourney when it featured
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June 5, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
The 2020-21 EPL season started out looking like a wide-open race for the title. At least half a dozen teams held the league lead at one time. Everton was among them. Heck, even Southampton was. However, around the turn of the year Manchester City went on a merciless run, and ended up winning the title in a rout. City also claimed the League Cup. The FA Cup went to Leicester
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June 4, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
For almost a year now, soccer players in England have been kneeling just before kickoff to show support for Black Lives Matter. During almost all of this period, English fans weren’t present for the matches. Thus, we had no sense of how they felt about this gesture. But now fans are back, albeit in limited numbers. And earlier this week, fans in Middlesbrough (in England’s northeast) had the chance to
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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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