Welcome! This is an unapologetic, agenda-free zone. Just commentaries on current events that’ll move you to think, laugh, rage, and even cry.
Sweden eliminates USA No women’s soccer team has been more celebrated than the US Women’s National Team (USWNT). But Sweden demonstrated today that no team is invincible. The United States was eliminated from the women’s World Cup on Sunday after losing to Sweden, 5-4, in a dramatic penalty-kick shootout after a scoreless draw in the round of 16 in Melbourne,… Read more.
Pelé, the GOAT Legacy and social media are replete with people eulogizing Pelé. And they are all saying practically the same thing. It’s some version of this: Pelé, the Brazilian soccer legend who won three World Cups and became the sport’s first global icon, has died at the age of 82. … For more than… Read more.
Messi leads Argentina to World Cup title This World Cup was the best! The guardians of this beautiful game couldn’t have scripted it any better. Proof enough came from fans marveling at the unprecedented hospitality. But its success had everything to do with players’ dazzling feats. Fans experienced the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat several times… Read more.
Neymar equals Pele’s record Brazil can cite objective criteria to avoid giving Neymar this coveted recognition. But most Brazilians would forgive the CBF for using this goal-counting method as a pretext to do so. If it didn’t, Neymar would replace Pele as the face – not just of Brazilian soccer but of Brazilian pride. And you’d be hard-pressed to find… Read more.
Frankly, bitching about human rights in Qatar is rather like awarding China the next World Cup and then bitching about Orwellian censorship there. Read more.
In “Trump, May, Macron: Don’t Bomb Syria. Withdraw World Cup from Russia!,” April 11, 2018, I pledged to boycott this World Cup. I honored that pledge. But I cannot resist sharing the following about France’s 4-2 victory over Croatia’s in Sunday’s final match: Immigrants, sons of immigrants and grandsons of immigrants bonded together with scions… Read more.
Scoring macabre political points is the only goal Western powers can accomplish by bombing Syria. This is why I’ve been decrying it for years. In fact, when Western commentators hailed Russian President Vladimir Putin for joining this priapic orgy of bombing in 2015, I wailed in “Bombing ISIS Smacks of Masturbatory Violence,” November 18, 2015.… Read more.
Truth be told, my feelings of mercy are such that – after the United States scored four improbable goals in the first sixteen minutes of this match – I switched to The Forsyte Saga on PBS. Not to mention that I picked Cameroon to win. For the first time since 1999, the FIFA Women’s World… Read more.
In my original commentary, “FIFA: Soccer’s Federation of Imbeciles, Fraudsters & Autocrats,” May 29, 2015, I stated my belief that Blatter is the prime suspect in the FBI’s ongoing investigation. But it’s standing operating procedure in major bribery/racketeering/corruption cases for agents to arrest the capos and consigliere, and get them to sing like canaries for… Read more.
I should begin by reiterating that: I had no emotional or financial interest in the outcome of this game. Nigeria was my pick to win it all. But after it was kicked out in the second round, I shifted my allegiance to Argentina. (“Brazil Surrenders World Cup to Germany 1-7,” The iPINIONS Journal, July 9,… Read more.
