From the Spot of the Foul

Don Garber's Pipe Dream

Mark Ogden's Sunday article at Telegraph.co.uk explores Don Garber's efforts at bringing the 2018 World Cup to America as well as his long-term goal: to make Major League Soccer (MLS) one of the top soccer leagues in the world. Mr. Garber's dream raises lots of questions rather than delivering methods.

The waste land

Thierry Henry's arrival in New York City this past week evoked a lot of memories. It also made me think of the state of Major League Soccer, and T. S. Eliot.

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Nigeria's wasted wealth

Nigeria should be the greatest footballing nation on the African continent, but it is not. It boils down to the fact that this nation of 150 million people wastes its resources: natural, financial, and human.

The badge now has a star

Spain 1 Netherlands 0 (aet)

2010 World Cup Final

Sunday 11 July 2010 | Soccer City Stadium | Johannesburg, South Africa

Spain joined 'the club' on Sunday, leaving the Dutch still longing for a smoking jacket and ascot.

Death by exhaustion

After Wednesday's semi-final match with Spain, Germany's coach Joachim Löw indicated that his team was physically exhausted because they spent 90+ minutes chasing the ball. It made me think of coyotes and the game of squash.

Spanish perfection

Spain 1 Germany 0

2010 World Cup Semi Finals

Wednesday 7 July 2010 | Moses Mabhida Stadium | Durban, South Africa

Spain stuck to their guns - constructed with velvet handles and cold steel barrels - while Germany never got their game on. It resulted in a win for La Roja that could be described as perfection.

Trying to make the third time a Dutch charm

Holland 3 Uruguay 2

2010 World Cup Semi Finals

Tuesday 6 July 2010 | Green Point Stadium | Cape Town, South Africa 

This one didn't have the Shakespearean drama of the two previous quarter-final matches - Uruguay v Ghana and Spain v Paraguay - but it was well-played nontheless. This evenly-played match between two sides of high quality with discipline featured two captains, each scoring on thunderstrikes from long distances, of sides desperately trying to reach their third World Cup final.

One man's cheat is another man's strategist: the case of Arjen Robben and Luis Suarez

In soccer, what constitutes cheating?

That entirely depends on your point of view, perhaps influenced by your cultural upbringing, perhaps influenced by your coach and fellow players, perhaps some other set of circumstances. Cheating is not as black and white as some would like to think, which is why, as we move toward the semi-finals of the 2010 World Cup, we're consumed with the recent performances of Luis Suarez of Uruguay and Arjen Robben of Holland that had profound influences on their respective teams advancing out of the quarter-final round.

Patience, madness and brilliance

Spain 1 Paraguay 0

2010 World Cup Quarter Finals

Saturday 3 July 2010 | Ellis Park Stadium | Johannesburg, South Africa 

Two minutes of madness and two moments of brilliance is what will go forth from this match in the annals of World Cup history.

When Paraguayan forward Oscar Cardozo stood over the ball at the penalty spot in the 57^th minute of a scoreless contest, no one could have predicted the sheer chaotic madness that was about to fill the following two minutes. The two moments of brilliance that occurred much later in the match were more predictable, but no less amazing in this memorable match.

Deutsch Freude

Germany 4 Argentina 0

2010 World Cup Quarter Finals

Saturday 3 July 2010 | Cape Town Stadium | Cape Town, South Africa

 

Germany's squad came into this World Cup as boys. They now go forth to the semi-finals as men.

 

The Argentinians went the way of the English, exposed as being not good enough for this stage of the biggest tournament in the world. The Germans sliced and carved apart Maradona's Men in the second half by defending like a steel wall and then sending waves of black-shirted jungen toward goal.

Death by cruel and unusual punishment

Uruguay 1 Ghana 1 (aet, 4-2 pen)

2010 World Cup Quarter Finals

Friday 2 July 2010 | Soccer City | Johannesburg, South Africa

 

Nothing is easy on the continent of Africa. This match reinforced that fact to the entire world of sport.

Dunga's Brazil is dead

 

Holland 2 Brazil 1

2010 World Cup Quarter Finals

Friday 2 July 2010 | Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium | Port Elizabeth, South Africa

 

It was a simple, almost harmless, if not hopeful floater that Wesley Sneijder offered to the Brazilian goalmouth in the 53rd minute. The problem for Brazil was that, in attempting to clear, goalkeeper Julio Cesar collided with his teammate Felipe Melo and the ball just barely glanced off of the back of Melo’s head into the goal.

Can Jonathan be Nigerian football's goodluck charm?

A country’s president has dissolved its own football federation come the hell or high water that could be delivered as punishment by FIFA, the world’s governing body of soccer. The next few days, or perhaps even only hours, may determine the short-term and long-term fate of the once-proud Nigerian Super Eagles, one way or another.