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RealClearSports World Cup

Is Era of Soccer Finally Upon America?

Art Spander, RealClearSports

Dutch Search for Ghost of World Cup Past

Martin Rogers, Yahoo! Sports

Introducing More Stats to Soccer

Thomas Kaplan, New York Times

Holland's Coach Is One Serious Man

Stephen Brunt, Globe and Mail

Is this the end or the beginning? Does soccer, football to the rest of the world, finally capture the United States? Or was this World Cup fascination only a brief affair, a fling ...(full article)

Amid the Netherlands’ preparations and festivities and nerve-jangling hope ahead of Sunday’s World Cup final, an extraordinary manhunt is under way. The Dutch nation, n...(full article)

People in soccer have historically paid little attention to statistics, arguing that the only way to judge players is to see them in action. Often, the only numbers associated with...(full article)

It is difficult to discern, not having dealt with the man on a regular basis, whether it is Lambertus (Bert) van Marwijk’s dour personality that emerges when he is under the spot...(full article)

To celebrate or not to celebrate? That was the question at 10.15pm local time here in the Catalan capital on Wednesday night. True, Spain had just reached its first ever World Cup ...(full article)

More Recent Articles

A First in Cup Qualifying for Player, Team

Jonny Saelua did not always envision herself as an international soccer player. What she really wanted to do was join a dance company and “travel the world just performing.” ...

Fox Outbids ESPN for 2018, '22 World Cups; Bad for Soccer

Cleatus is going to Russia and Qatar. Sports Business Journal and SI.com are reporting that FOX has outbid ESPN and NBC for the U.S. based English language rights for the 2018 and ...

World Cup TV Rights Vital to U.S. Soccer

Next Wednesday is one of the most important days of the next decade for soccer in the United States. That's when bids are due in Zürich, Switzerland, for the U.S. broadcast righ...

Expectations High for American Women

The United States Women’s National Team may be ranked No. 1 in the FIFA world rankings, but is it the best team in the world? It’s difficult to answer in the affirmative, par...

German Women Favored in World Cup

The FIFA Women's World Cup, which begins Sunday in Germany, will be almost unrecognizable from the first event held 20 years ago. That tournament, played in China, was essential...

England Says World Cup Voters Asked for Bribes

Ever since the good, godfearing Anglo nations were shut out of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, rumors have flown that Russia and Qatar bribed their way to the top. No one would be ...

FIFA: World Cup Slots Unchanged

FIFA has confirmed the number of qualification slots allocated to each continent for the 2014 World Cup will not change.The world football governing body held its first World Cup ...

4-2-3-1 Best Way to Maximize U.S. Soccer Talent

The secret is out on Bob Bradley: The U.S. coach has some tactical wanderlust in him, after all. We all raised a curious brow at that dalliance with the 4-2-3-1 formation late la...

Inside Qatar's 2022 World Cup Bid

The campaign was extraordinary in terms of its cost – it proposed to spend £27 million last year alone on communications – and in the way it wielded influence fro...

Heat Is the Least of Problems With Qatar

In the days since FIFA's baffling decision to award the 2022 World Cup to Qatar there has been a lot of talk about adjusting the timetable because of the oppressive heat. The heat ...

World Cup Bid Process Flawed, Needs Transparency

The Baur au Lac hotel, a five-star palace on the banks of Lake Zurich, was the epicenter of The Game here this week: the final lobbying of the nine bids vying to host the 2018 and...

FIFA's Progressive Move Is Right One

It is easy to understand why so many among us who comprise the United States feel like they have a birthright to at least direct, if not actually control, the rest of the world. As...

World Cup Picks Leave Black Mark on FIFA

Qatar’s victory in the race to be awarded the 2022 World Cup was a triumph for spin over substance and leaves a black mark on FIFA’s already-besmirched name. In the hours after...

England Can Be Proud in Defeat

Damn the World Cup, in Russia in 2018 and the one in the sand and cranked-up air-conditioning to follow four years later in Qatar. There, in the desert by a boiling sea, they will ...

Defeat Shows English Football Lacks Leadership

Despite the best efforts of the great, David Beckham, David Cameron and Prince William, and the great unknown, Eddie Afekafe, England failed to convince Fifa they can host the grea...

Russia and Qatar Win World Cup Bids

FIFA delegates awarded Russia and Qatar the right to host World Cup tournaments in 2018 and 2022, ending a process that has been marred by accusations of vote rigging. The decision...

World Cups a Win Against Al Qaeda

An insufferable little windbag by the name of Sepp Blatter—president of FIFA, the governing body of world soccer—has just disclosed to the world that Russia will host t...

World Cup Vote to Define Decade in England

In football it always come down to 22 men. In a Zurich conference hall this afternoon, 22 men in suits will make a decision that will either transform or traumatise English ...

Losing World Cup Would Be Big Blow

Somewhere between Qatar's promise to unify the world, Australia's pledge to throw the best party on earth and Japan's plan to simulcast the tournament to crowds all over the world ...

Russia and Qatar Have Edge for 2018 and 2022

With 24 hours to go before the vote in Zurich to decide who gets to host World Cups 2018 and 2022, the world's press is in a frenzy of speculation. We'll turn it over to them with ...

FIFA Playing Favorites With World Cup Bids

If you love soccer, you enjoyed the 2010 World Cup and, chances are, you will keenly follow the bidding process this week which could see the United States awarded hosting rights t...

World Cup Soccer Bids Clouded in Corruption

Like guests on some television reality show, politicians and royalty, oil barons and corporate billionaires are gathering in Zurich. There they will fawn over 22 — maybe 23 &...

Spain/Portugal and Qatar Remain Slight Favorites

World leaders and the world's sporting press (except for the US, of course) are now descending upon Zurich for Thursday's votes on who gets to host soccer's World Cups in 2018 and ...

FIFA Must Change World Cup Bid Process

Fifa’s controversial process of picking World Cup hosts must never be repeated. No more secret ballots, please, no more collusion and no more double bids. For all his faults,...

World Cup Bids for England, USA Losing Steam

It's decision week in the race to decide who gets to host World Cup 2018 and World Cup 2022. Last week, we set odds on the victors - Russia and Spain as co-favorites for 2018,...

2022 Cup: Can U.S. Beat Out Australia, Qatar?

The intrigue continues in the world of soccer's equivalent to the proverbial smoke-filled room. Yesterday, we previewed the controversy-ridden, conspiracy-laden run-up to the sele...

Who Will Host the 2018 World Cup?

It involves global intrigue, a bitter clash among some of the world's leading powers, even a whiff of financial scandal. A spy incident or the latest trade war? No, it's just one o...

Awarding 2 Cup Bids Encourages Collusion

Ostensibly, this paso doble began because the Barcelona coach enjoyed his two years playing for Al Ahli and genuinely believes the emirate can “host a spectacular, passion...

Qatar a Threat to World Cup Bid

For most of the past two years, Qatar's bid to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup has been a punch line in global soccer. The small desert kingdom has just one fully functional soccer st...

CONCACAF Is Killing Best Rivalry in North America

They're killing the most important rivalry in American soccer.   That's my unavoidable conclusion after speaking to Chuck Blazer, the general secretary of CONCACAF, who confirme...

Source: FIFA Ponders Drastic Cup Changes

Soccer’s governing body FIFA is considering a series of drastic new proposals that could dramatically change the face of future World Cups, Yahoo! Sports has learned. Followi...

England Finally Gets Back to Winning Ways

Having failed to play like England at the World Cup, at least Fabio Capello’s team looked like England again at Wembley last night: and in more ways than one. The win wa...

England Makes Strong Case for World Cup

LONDON—Winning football's World Cup is arguably the toughest feat in all of sports. Earning the right to stage the sport's showpiece event may be a close second: a delicate g...

American Soccer Hitting Right Notes

Thierry Henry will not say American soccer fans sing better than English fans. But they do sing well. And maybe that is the missing link, the natural order of soccer progression. ...

Breaking Down England's Humiliation

  Stephan Nopp headed a team of 55 students from the German Sports University in Cologne who spent almost 1,000 hours analysing Fabio Capello’s team during the b...

Capello: Poor Fitness Sank English at World Cup

Fabio Capello claims England were in poor physical condition for the World Cup in South Africa and he knew from the outset that they were too tired to make any impact. In a remar...

Deposed Maradona Stubborn, Tactical Novice

Calling Diego Armando Maradona a soccer god is not idle exaggeration. There is after all a Church of Maradona with a reported membership of 100,000 people. Now, however, Maradona i...

FIFA Behind on Fulfilling Cup Promise in Africa

Some of the record $3 billion brought in by the 2010 World Cup is helping fund a program to develop soccer in Africa. But FIFA, the organization that governs world soccer, hasn't m...

If World Cup Is Epic, Why So Many Issues?

Here in the epicenter of soccer dysfunction, we have yet another ghastly headline involving those chaotic French footballers. Franck Ribery didn't manage a goal during the World ...

World Cup Should Go Back to 16 Teams

I wasn't quite as down on this World Cup as most people seem to have been, but these things are relative. I'd place it high above 2002 and just above 2006, but behind every other ...

Schweinsteiger Wears Lampard's WC Jersey to Pick-Up Game

A tradition that began in the early 1930s, players have been swapping jerseys at the end of big international matches for the last 80 years. Have you ever wondered what the players...

Spain Could Dominate Soccer for Years

The scenes in Madrid yesterday when hundreds of thousands welcomed home the World Cup winners and celebrated Spain becoming only the eighth nation to win the trophy were extraordin...

Did the World Cup Help South Africa?

From his office inside Holy Cross Anglican Church in Soweto, Father Steve Morero has seen the tour buses come and go by the hundreds. From the beginning of the World Cup last month...

Iniesta Reminds World What Spain Is About

Day after day as a kid, Andres Iniesta had watched his family work. He was from a tiny village of Fuentealbilla, Spain, where his grandfather owned a small tavern called Bar Lujan....

Paul the Octopus Goes Eight for Eight

Eight picks, eight correct, eight tentacles. Paul the Oracle Octopus is clearly the biggest winner of the World Cup after recording a perfect prognostication record whether he know...

Dutch Fail to Ruin Spain's Beautiful Game

Amid the rubble of what was supposed to be one of the great World Cup finals it was entirely, beautifully appropriate that it was Andres Iniesta of Spain who in the end came shinin...

Dirty World Cup Final Difficult for Referee

This was not how it was supposed to happen. When Howard Webb blew the whistle at the end of extra time he was hounded by a pack of Dutch players, Mark van Bommel to the fo...

10 Players to Benefit Most from World Cup

Here's a list of 10 players, who've raised their transfer profiles considerably and could be on the move this summer (in no particular order):...

Netherlands Sees Reds Over Yellows

Controversial World Cup referee Howard Webb came under attack from furious Netherlands players and head coach Bert van Marwijk after Spain’s 1-0 extra-time victory on Sunday ...

Little Iniesta Comes Up Big for Spain

It seems so odd, now it is over and the streets did not run with blood and the stadiums did not fall down, that so many said, so vociferously, that it was Africa on trial here th...

World Cup News and Scores