Copyright 2008 The New York Sun Wed, 18 Jun 2008 16:42:26 -0400 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Paul Gardner :: Stories from The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/authors/Paul+Gardner istoll@nysun.com (Ira Stoll) webmaster@nysun.com en-us PAUL GARDNER http://www.nysun.com/sports/new-stars-are-nipping-at-kakas-heels/70756/ Tue, 5 Feb 2008 00:00:00 EST He's known to millions of soccer fans worldwide simply as Kaka. That's the Brazilian way — to use a one-word nickname. Quite often, the words mean nothing: Pele was never able to explain the origin of his nickname. But we know how Kaka got his name: His younger brother, Rodrigo, couldn't pronounce Ricardo properly, so in early life, Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leite — a name that not one soccer fan in 10,000 would recognize — became Kaka. Later in his life, Kaka moved to Europe to play in Italy... PAUL GARDNER http://www.nysun.com/sports/college-draft-doesnt-make-much-sense-for-mls/70383/ Tue, 29 Jan 2008 00:00:00 EST Major League Soccer is trying very hard to prove that it belongs up there with the NFL and the NBA as an important pro sport. An important American pro sport, that is. As one way of doing this, the MLS has introduced into its schedule an event that is unknown elsewhere in the worldwide game of soccer: the annual college draft. Just like the NBA and the NFL? In appearance, yes. In practice, no. Basketball and football have a wealth of talent to pick from, including a select group who can go... PAUL GARDNER http://www.nysun.com/sports/african-tourney-battles-fifa-internal-disarray/69946/ Tue, 22 Jan 2008 00:00:00 EST The African Nations Cup, now being played in Ghana, was immersed in controversy before it even began. From European clubs came an increasingly strident litany of complaints about the timing of the tournament. The problem is that a great many European clubs now employ African players. They are frequently key members of the team. Under FIFA regulations, these players must be released for national team duty whenever they are wanted for an official FIFA tournament. The African Nations Cup is just... PAUL GARDNER http://www.nysun.com/sports/year-later-america-waits-for-beckhams-help/69530/ Tue, 15 Jan 2008 00:00:00 EST The Beckham era of American soccer descended upon us pretty well exactly a year ago. It was an astounding coup for MLS: the snaring of one of the world's bestknown players, still arguably in his prime. Even if he isn't the world's most skillful player, he is, far and away, the most marketable player — probably the most marketable player the sport has ever had. Of course, things have not gone entirely according to plan. Injuries played havoc with those plans, Beckham has appeared in only a... PAUL GARDNER http://www.nysun.com/sports/despite-criticism-stylish-soccer-does-lead/69060/ Tue, 8 Jan 2008 00:00:00 EST Soccer's constant struggle with the concept of "style" is in the news again. Barcelona's Cameroonian forward, Samuel Eto'o, recently had this to say: "We [Barcelona] sometimes get too obsessed with keeping possession and passing the ball around. It isn't any good to keep playing the same way because if you don't score, it is no use. What counts is winning, and I want to win and don't care how we do it. That's the reality of soccer." In recent years, Barcelona has been cherished as an example of... PAUL GARDNER http://www.nysun.com/sports/soccers-2008-resolution-keep-quiet/68802/ Wed, 2 Jan 2008 00:00:00 EST I'm not good at making, and sticking to, New Year's resolutions — for myself, that is. But I do pretty well when it comes to making resolutions for other people. So, here are my modest proposals to various soccer groups for ways in which they can improve the sport. COACHES: Shut up. On the field and during the game, that is. These guys carry on as though they are quite insane, shouting, yelling, and screaming at everyone — their opponents, their own players, their bench, and the game officials... PAUL GARDNER http://www.nysun.com/sports/as-coach-of-england-capello-has-no-envious-task/68214/ Tue, 18 Dec 2007 00:00:00 EST So English soccer — still covered with embarrassment at its recent failure to qualify for next year's European championship — has decided to go Italian. The Englishman, Steve McClaren, who presided over that latest debacle has been fired. Into the job comes Italy's Fabio Capello, who is given the task of trying to get England's national team to be as good as it always thinks it is. His job — for which he will be paid a reported $8 million a year — may well be impossible. Making England a world... PAUL GARDNER http://www.nysun.com/sports/pure-goal-scorers-are-a-dying-breed/67857/ Tue, 11 Dec 2007 00:00:00 EST Goal scorers are the shining gems of soccer, the players who light up a game, who bring a stadium to its feet, and who adorn the sport with most of its magic moments. I mean the specialist goal scorers: the strikers, the ones who have made an art of goal scoring. Sadly, we don't have as many of them as we used to have. Look at the tactical formations used by most teams these days, and you'll see why. Where there used to be at least three forwards, there is now often just one. Back in the 1960s... PAUL GARDNER http://www.nysun.com/sports/backlash-toward-brazilian-style-unfair/67467/ Tue, 4 Dec 2007 00:00:00 EST Soccer does not have a silly season: It operates permanently in a world that borders on the absurd, and it's never very difficult to come up with recent examples of silliness. Maybe they come from the press. I'm staring at one of those right now, a headline about the poor form of the Spanish club, Valencia, under Ronald Koeman, its new Dutch coach: "Koeman Demands Improvement as Valencia Hit Rock Bottom." Really? Okay, that's just plain silly. But there's another version of silly — what George... PAUL GARDNER http://www.nysun.com/sports/at-new-low-british-soccer-must-re-evaluate-tactics/67020/ Tue, 27 Nov 2007 00:00:00 EST It is widely believed that sometime in the 1960s, the sun did what it was never supposed to do: It finally set on the British Empire. I think not. Oh sure, the territorial possessions disappeared, but one aspect of the British imperial presence remained, and has grown much stronger: The sport of soccer. This is now an activity on which the sun shines perpetually — and never was the global reach of soccer more in evidence than during this past week. As the qualifying games for next year's... PAUL GARDNER http://www.nysun.com/sports/rift-between-fifa-clubs-to-dictate-soccers-future/66745/ Tue, 20 Nov 2007 00:00:00 EST Soccer's past is easily summed up: From a variety of primitive kicking games, it developed slowly into the world's most popular sport. Soccer's present is a bit more complicated, for from that base of worldwide popularity, there has grown a multi-billion dollar global business. And with wealth and power have come enormous problems — problems that forewarn of a troubled future. The makings of a huge split in the sport have been apparent for decades. They have been repeatedly papered over. But... PAUL GARDNER http://www.nysun.com/sports/mls-needs-an-immediate-dose-of-sexy-soccer/66341/ Tue, 13 Nov 2007 00:00:00 EST Sexy soccer is to be the theme of next year's Los Angeles Galaxy. The guy who coined the phrase, Dutchman Ruud Gullit, is the Galaxy's new coach; at his command he has David Beckham, reckoned by many to be the game's sexiest superstar. I'm not aware that Gullit has ever issued a definition of what he means by sexy soccer, so I shall give my version of it. Sexy soccer is emotional soccer, for sure, soccer that excites. It's attacking soccer, goal-scoring soccer. It's soccer that quickens the... PAUL GARDNER http://www.nysun.com/sports/arena-the-latest-in-rash-of-coaching-exits/65907/ Tue, 6 Nov 2007 00:00:00 EST Bruce Arena is out as the coach of the Red Bulls. Fired? Resigned? Neither, or is it both? His departure is the result of a "mutual agreement," says the Red Bulls' management. Whichever, Arena's departure does not come as a surprise. In this age of instant success, Arena was given a year to produce, and he didn't do it. Further damaging his cause, he never came close to fielding an exciting team. "Considering the resources we've committed to this club, we expect results quickly," said the Red... PAUL GARDNER http://www.nysun.com/sports/arena-fails-to-bring-any-life-to-the-red-bulls/65574/ Wed, 31 Oct 2007 00:00:00 EST You have to wonder — does Bruce Arena enjoy coaching the Red Bulls? Maybe he does, but that's not the attitude that comes across. For some time now, Arena's public persona has radiated, if not boredom, certainly a lack of discernible enthusiasm. Asked recently to sum up his first year with the club, Arena replied that the team had got better, had scored more goals, had achieved a few more points on the road, and had finished sixth out of 13 teams. All true, but hardly an inspiring list of... PAUL GARDNER http://www.nysun.com/sports/beckhams-mls-season-stumbles-to-end/65078/ Tue, 23 Oct 2007 00:00:00 EST The Los Angeles Galaxy's turbulent season — and its slender hopes for a playoff spot — came to an end over the weekend when it lost 0–1 to the Chicago Fire. Despite the millions of dollars heaped upon David Beckham by the Galaxy, the English superstar turned out to be a total flop on the field. And it was a rather foolish flop, too, for it was Beckham's own insistence on playing too many games, and on playing when he clearly wasn't fit, that sabotaged his performance. The awful, unthinkable... PAUL GARDNER http://www.nysun.com/sports/brazil-coachs-new-methods-buck-a-tradition/64604/ Tue, 16 Oct 2007 00:00:00 EST Brazil managed, on Sunday, to do what no one had thought it was capable of doing: It played 90 minutes of totally boring, relentlessly negative soccer. The result, in Brazil's first qualifying game for the 2010 World Cup, was a tedious 0–0 tie with Colombia. This, mind you, was from a Brazil team that included Kaka and Ronaldinho, two of the most brilliant attacking players in the world. Excuses? Oh yes, there were excuses: This was a road game played at 2,840 yards altitude in Bogota on a... PAUL GARDNER http://www.nysun.com/sports/soccer-wants-to-bend-business-rules/64182/ Tue, 9 Oct 2007 00:00:00 EST For decades, we've been using nifty shorthand to define soccer's playing formations. We've talked of 4–2–4, 4–3–3, and 4–4–2, and lately of 4–5–1. You'll notice there are only 10 players in these formations. These are tactical setups, and the goalkeeper is largely irrelevant to tactics. But hold on. We have a newcomer in this numbers game: the 6 + 5. Eleven players? This tells you that this is not a playing formation. The goalkeeper is included because this is a political lineup. The 6 + 5 is... PAUL GARDNER http://www.nysun.com/sports/mls-needs-scoring-to-kick-start-playoffs/62829/ Tue, 18 Sep 2007 00:00:00 EST When the dust settles over the MLS playoff scene — all will be decided within the next month — five of the league's 13 clubs will be out of the action. As things stand at the moment, those clubs will be Salt Lake, Toronto, Columbus, Colorado, and Los Angeles. There probably will not be a change in that situation. It is pretty much what could have been expected — except for the Los Angeles Galaxy. With super-megastar David Beckham aboard, the team was expected to sail into the playoffs. But the... PAUL GARDNER http://www.nysun.com/sports/latin-american-flair-will-boost-mls-popularity/62396/ Tue, 11 Sep 2007 00:00:00 EST Major League Soccer has a selling job to do, not merely with its players, or even its teams , but with the sport itself. It has to convince substantial numbers of Americans that soccer is attractive, interesting, and exciting enough to take a place alongside baseball, football, and basketball. It's a tricky assignment, because soccer is a notoriously fickle activity that comes in many forms, from sparkling to downright boring. This is a crucial fact that MLS has not handled particularly well... PAUL GARDNER http://www.nysun.com/sports/recent-deaths-put-health-risks-in-spotlight/61838/ Tue, 4 Sep 2007 00:00:00 EST The emotional response to the death of Antonio Puerta, a 22-year-old midfielder with Spain's Sevilla FC, has been quite extraordinary. Puerta collapsed during a Spanish league game on August 25 and died three days later in the hospital after several prolonged periods of cardiac arrest. Puerta was a local boy, born in the working class district of Sevilla, and over 10,000 people — fans from both Sevilla FC and its crosstown rival Real Betis — filled the streets of Sevilla for his funeral. The... PAUL GARDNER http://www.nysun.com/sports/referee-folly-could-prove-costly-in-epl/61449/ Tue, 28 Aug 2007 00:00:00 EST The English Premier League is only two weeks into its season. But with some 34 games yet to be played, there is talk of a "decisive" moment having already taken place on the field during a game between Liverpool and Chelsea, two teams considered to be a part of the league's Big Four of possible champions: Liverpool and Chelsea (the other two are Arsenal and Manchester United). With four games played, Chelsea is the current leader. Arsenal and Liverpool are three points behind, but each has a... PAUL GARDNER http://www.nysun.com/sports/beckham-cannot-remedy-all-the-galaxys-problems/60919/ Tue, 21 Aug 2007 00:00:00 EST New York and New Jersey got the David Beckham treatment over the weekend. On Friday afternoon, he turned up in West Harlem and gave a cozy little soccer clinic for young players from the FC Harlem soccer club. Over in a corner of the Jacob Schiff Field, a loud group of youths, penned back by fencing, yelled constantly, "David, David, you're the best!" until Beckham — a crowd of photographers and apprehensive security heavies swirling around him — walked quickly over to them to sign autographs... PAUL GARDNER http://www.nysun.com/sports/rise-of-keepers-has-had-negative-impact-on-game/60431/ Tue, 14 Aug 2007 00:00:00 EST Once upon a time, back in the 1860s, there were no goalkeepers in soccer. This special position crept quietly into the rules in the 1870s and has been flourishing ever since. There is a saying in soccer that "goalkeepers are crazy" — which sounds about right, for the goalkeeper has turned into the sport's cuckoo, taking over the nest and assuming an importance that goes far beyond anything that the early rule-makers could possibly have imagined. The cuckoo image seems to me exactly appropriate... PAUL GARDNER http://www.nysun.com/sports/europe-tempts-the-young/59952/ Tue, 7 Aug 2007 00:00:00 EST After 3 1/2 seasons, Freddy Adu, who was with Major League Soccer's Real Salt Lake team, has departed to Portugal, where he has joined the Lisbon club Benfica. Right from the start, when Adu joined MLS as a 14-year-old player back in 2004, there never seemed to be any doubt that his extravagant talent would eventually entice one of Europe's top clubs to swoop and pay lots of money for his contract. This isn't quite what happened: Benfica is a big club, but not one of the richest. They have paid... PAUL GARDNER http://www.nysun.com/sports/superliga-brings-out-the-best-of-mls/59491/ Tue, 31 Jul 2007 00:00:00 EST The SuperLiga — a series of games now being played among four top Mexican and four top MLS clubs — has looked from the start like a tournament too far. With its season already disrupted by the Concacaf Gold Cup, the Copa America, and the FIFA under-20 world championship, surely the last thing MLS needed was yet another distraction? But the SuperLiga is confounding its critics. Crowds have been excellent, averaging over 17,000 for the eight games so far played, including a 37,337 attendance at... PAUL GARDNER http://www.nysun.com/sports/david-beckham-waiting-game/59000/ Tue, 24 Jul 2007 00:00:00 EST While I don't suppose that David Beckham reads much Wilkie Collins, he has leaned heavily on the ploy that the Victorian novelist used in his plot lines: Make 'em laugh, make 'em cry, make 'em wait. So we've been waiting, have we ever. When Beckham signed for the Los Angeles Galaxy back in January, he was on the outs with his club, Real Madrid, and the story was that he would head for America at once. Then, no — Beckham was suddenly back in favor at Real, so he wasn't available until the end of... PAUL GARDNER http://www.nysun.com/sports/oh-by-the-way-beckham-plays-soccer-too/58537/ Tue, 17 Jul 2007 00:00:00 EST Evidently, at this early stage of the Beckham era of American soccer, it is asking too much for reality, never mind sanity, to get a look in. Crowds of groupies greet Beckham and family at Los Angeles airport, the mayor of Los Angeles makes a fool of himself at the official reception, and the pages of W Magazine sizzle with steamy photos of Beckham and his wife, Victoria. Threaded through all these stories, as if the genetic DNA of the Beckham phenomenon, are the numbers with their stretched... PAUL GARDNER http://www.nysun.com/sports/adu-shows-spark-that-us-team-needs/58108/ Tue, 10 Jul 2007 00:00:00 EST As was expected, America's participation in the Copa America, the South American championship, was not a success. Accepting an invitation to compete as a guest team, the Americans sent to Venezuela what was very much a B squad and lost all three of its games. Eduardo de Luca, the general secretary of the South American Soccer Confederation, which organized the tournament, expressed mild disgruntlement: "The Americans opted to send a team with some players who aren't their regulars. That doesn't... PAUL GARDNER http://www.nysun.com/sports/no-soccer-contract-is-set-in-stone/57762/ Tue, 3 Jul 2007 00:00:00 EST Fabio Capello's coaching credentials are as good as anyone's: seven Serie A championships in italy — four with AC milan, two with Juventus, and one with Roma. Plus the 1994 European Champions league title with Milan, and two Spanish league titles with Real Madrid. His latest reward for all that silverware is to be out of work. Having led Real madrid to the Spanish title on the final day of the 2007 season, he was fired 11 days later. incredibly, exactly the same thing happened 10 years ago... PAUL GARDNER http://www.nysun.com/sports/bradley-must-bolster-arenas-model-for-success/57296/ Tue, 26 Jun 2007 00:00:00 EST As usual, the U.S. played its home game against Mexico in front of a stadium packed with Mexican supporters. And, also as usual, the U.S. came away with a win. Sunday's 2–1 triumph in a pulsating Gold Cup final in Chicago was the Americans' ninth win — alongside two losses and a tie — against Mexico since 2000; nine of those games have been played in America, where the record is a remarkable 8–0–1. While the stats are overwhelming, the extent of U.S. dominance on the field has always seemed... PAUL GARDNER http://www.nysun.com/sports/fifas-altitude-ban-draws-fire-from-south-america/56884/ Tue, 19 Jun 2007 00:00:00 EST Excuse the clichι — but this was definitely a "glittering occasion." Meaning that it oozed money. Of course, FIFA is a very rich organization, so the ceremonial opening of its new headquarters in Zurich last month was bound to be an opulent occasion. For a start, the building cost $200 million. Evidently, FIFA President Sepp Blatter felt the need to justify spending such a vast sum. He welcomed soccer delegates from all over the world by telling them that the glass palace that is the new FIFA... PAUL GARDNER http://www.nysun.com/sports/after-rescuing-real-england-can-beckham-save/56345/ Tue, 12 Jun 2007 00:00:00 EST Back in January, when David Beckham agreed to sign with the Los Angeles Galaxy, Major League Soccer immediately got what it wanted: a huge wave of publicity — "much more than we'd ever dreamed of," according to Commissioner Don Garber. Even better, the bulk of that attention was positive. Here we are, five months later, and the publicity deluge continues — even though Beckham is still the great absentee, the star who has yet to join his new club. After falling out of favor with the Real Madrid... PAUL GARDNER http://www.nysun.com/sports/as-israel-gains-footing-england-stumbles/55888/ Tue, 5 Jun 2007 00:00:00 EST From Israel come signs of soccer maturity. The country's national team is doing well in the qualifying games for next year's European Championship (for political reasons, Israel plays its soccer in Europe, not in Asia, as geography would require). On Saturday, Israel played Macedonia in Skopje and won 2–1. The victory means that Israel (14 points from seven games) now shares second place in qualifying group E with Russia (14 points from six games) — both teams being two points behind leader... PAUL GARDNER http://www.nysun.com/sports/expect-a-frenzied-finish-to-spanish-league-season/55404/ Tue, 29 May 2007 00:00:00 EST In European club soccer, we're getting the Spanish version of it ain't over 'til it's over. At the international level, AC Milan have taken the Champions League title, while the UEFA Cup has been won by Sevilla. In England, in Germany, in Italy, and in France, the domestic season has finished, and the champions have been crowned. But not in Spain, where the championship is reaching a frenetic climax. With two games to play, Real Madrid and Barcelona are level with 72 points each, and Sevilla is... PAUL GARDNER http://www.nysun.com/sports/champions-final-brings-bigger-problems-into-focus/54947/ Tue, 22 May 2007 00:00:00 EST The climax of the European season comes tomorrow in Athens when Liverpool meets AC Milan in the Champions League final. Talk about dιjΰ-vu, this is dιjΰ-vu-issimo, with knobs on. We had the same final only two years ago: same clubs, same coaches, many of the same players. Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti messed that one up. With his team leading 3–0 and playing Liverpool off the field, he substituted out key players. Liverpool surged back, tied the game with three goals in six minutes in the second... PAUL GARDNER http://www.nysun.com/sports/legal-action-looms-over-premiership-relegation/54474/ Tue, 15 May 2007 00:00:00 EST Manchester United lost its last game of the season 0–1 to West Ham United on Sunday — only the second time all season that it had lost in its own Old Trafford stadium. Yet its fans reacted with wild applause and cheers, because the game result didn't matter. The team had sewn up the Premier League title a week earlier, and this was an occasion when the big moment came after the game, amidst the on-field presentation of the trophy and the awards to the coach and players. If the ManU fans were... PAUL GARDNER http://www.nysun.com/sports/interim-coach-bradley-is-gulatis-likely-choice/53993/ Tue, 8 May 2007 00:00:00 EST Time's up, Mr. Gulati! We're a week into the month of May — and this is the month that Sunil Gulati, the president of the United States Soccer Federation, told us we would see the appointment of a permanent coach for the American national team. The decision has been skillfully delayed by Gulati for 10 months, ever since he fired incumbent Bruce Arena last July. There followed a five month coach-less interlude (there were no national team games to be played, so the vacuum hardly mattered) during... PAUL GARDNER http://www.nysun.com/sports/chelsea-will-get-chances-to-exact-revenge-on-manu/53507/ Tue, 1 May 2007 00:00:00 EST LONDON — Although there are still three games to play in the English Premier League, Saturday's results strongly suggest that the battle at the top between Manchester United and Chelsea is over. The day started with ManU holding a slender three-point lead over Chelsea. But the key games seemed to favor Chelsea, playing at home against surely beatable Bolton, while ManU was on the road at fourth-place Everton. The simultaneous kickoffs ensured an afternoon of swaying fortunes. At half time... PAUL GARDNER http://www.nysun.com/sports/brilliance-of-messi-ronaldo-steals-spotlight/53081/ Tue, 24 Apr 2007 00:00:00 EST It has been an encouraging week for soccer. A week in which the spotlight has turned away from the darker side of the sport — the fan violence, the corruption scandals — to shine brightly on two of its most brilliant players: Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo and Argentina's Lionel Messi. Both are young — Ronaldo is 22, Messi 19 — and both have left their native country to find fame with a rich European club. Ronaldo plays in England with Manchester United, Messi is at Spain's FC Barcelona. On... PAUL GARDNER http://www.nysun.com/sports/rich-just-getting-richer-in-premiership/52599/ Tue, 17 Apr 2007 00:00:00 EST It has long been a point of dissatisfaction that Europe's most important soccer leagues are dominated by a few select — and noticeably rich — clubs. The season is a long one, stretching from September through May, and when it's over, the winners in Spain will probably be Barcelona or Real Madrid; in Italy, AC Milan or Juventus or Inter-Milan; in Germany, Bayern Munich, and so on. This year, possibly, things will be slightly different because Bayern lies only fourth in the German league, while... PAUL GARDNER http://www.nysun.com/sports/mls-must-address-its-lack-of-scoring/52149/ Tue, 10 Apr 2007 00:00:00 EST You could see this weekend's opening day scorelines in the MLS as a sign that the league is maturing and falling nicely into line with the global trend of defensive soccer. Six MLS games — nine hours of soccer — produced just 10 goals. If that's progress, then MLS could use a little retrogression. Like back to last year, when the six opening day games featured 24 goals. If this weekend's scores look anemic alongside that total, the truth is even harsher, because none of the 10 goals was... PAUL GARDNER http://www.nysun.com/sports/blanco-may-bring-more-mexican-interest-to-mls/51688/ Tue, 3 Apr 2007 00:00:00 EST Bigger than Beckham? Could it be that the Chicago Fire's new signing, the Mexican star Cuauhtemoc Blanco, will be more important to MLS than the hysterically ballyhooed David Beckham? It could be. This is in no way to underestimate the impact that Beckham will have in heightening the visibility of both the league and the sport. But Blanco brings an extra dimension that is beyond Beckham's power. His arrival is an unmistakable message to the tens of thousands of Mexican-American soccer fans that... PAUL GARDNER http://www.nysun.com/sports/donovan-overshadows-a-strong-debut/51219/ Tue, 27 Mar 2007 00:00:00 EST It was Donovan's Day. In Sunday's game, Landon Donovan was the dominating presence, his three goals giving the U.S. an impressive 3–1 win over Ecuador. Hat tricks don't come that often in international soccer, but even among those rare occasions this was really something special. All three goals shone with sheer soccer skill, each showing off a different facet of Donovan's many talents. The game was only 39 seconds old when Donovan struck for the first time. The Ecuadorean goalkeeper, Rorys... PAUL GARDNER http://www.nysun.com/sports/premier-league-teams-mired-in-survival-soccer/50777/ Tue, 20 Mar 2007 00:00:00 EST The weekend's television menu included the Reading vs. Portsmouth game from England's Premier League. Not a pretty sight. A turgid, labored affair that slouched to a fully forgettable 0–0 tie. Things were no better up in Wigan, where the locals hosted Fulham in another EPL 0–0 fiasco, described in press reports as "dire — a game devoid of any imagination." You don't have to look too closely to find reasons for the drabness of the games. Reading and Portsmouth are teams fixed firmly in... PAUL GARDNER http://www.nysun.com/sports/from-arch-nemesis-to-hero-in-10-months/50355/ Tue, 13 Mar 2007 00:00:00 EST Who is the world's best player right now? According to England's Wayne Rooney, it's his teammate at Manchester United, the 22-year-old Portuguese winger Cristiano Ronaldo. "I'm delighted he's playing for us because at this moment he's the best player in the world," says Rooney. David Beckham has an opinion about Ronaldo, too: "The first time I saw him ... I thought, 'He is going to be one of the best players in the world,' and I think he's close to that now." Rooney's paean to Ronaldo could be... PAUL GARDNER http://www.nysun.com/sports/beckhams-knee-injury-sounds-alarm-to-the-mls/49872/ Tue, 6 Mar 2007 00:00:00 EST The weekend's news from Spain will no doubt cause some nail-biting days and sleepless nights at AEG — the company that's shelling out all those millions to bring David Beckham to America. Wouldn't you know it — Beckham has gone and got himself injured while playing for Real Madrid on Sunday. Beckham limped off in the second half in evident discomfort. It's his right knee — damage to the internal lateral ligament say the initial reports. Fabio Capello, the Real coach, gave a decidedly... PAUL GARDNER http://www.nysun.com/sports/beckham-rule-may-be-best-fit-for-just-beckham/49398/ Tue, 27 Feb 2007 00:00:00 EST The wild frenzy of hype that surrounded David Beckham's signing seems to have left Major League Soccer in a state of stunned inactivity. Not much has happened since. Anyone thinking that the arrival of Beckham would set off a rush by MLS clubs to sign other world-class foreign players has been rapidly disabused of the notion. With each of the 13 clubs allowed to take on one Designated Player (like Beckham, this player doesn't count against the salary cap, the club can pay him whatever they want... PAUL GARDNER http://www.nysun.com/sports/midfielders-thrashings-expose-a-leagues-flaw/48902/ Tue, 20 Feb 2007 00:00:00 EST For reasons known only to whatever soccer gods there may be, it has fallen to Pedro Mendes to play the lead role in a number of highly dramatic events that have brutally — yes, brutally — highlighted an ugly flaw in English soccer. Mendes, a midfielder from Portugal, moved to England in 2004 when, at the age of 25, he joined Tottenham Hotspur. Mendes soon found himself in a familiar situation for Latin players in the English Premier League: sitting on the bench. In 2006, he was traded to... PAUL GARDNER http://www.nysun.com/sports/ro-ro-ro-and-the-david-beckham-sideshow/48549/ Tue, 13 Feb 2007 00:00:00 EST Plenty of soccer smiles this weekend — smiles from all the right people, the players who bring delight and excitement to the game: the goal scorers. Let's start with the old man. Who ever thought one would say that about the eternally young Romario? But here he is, age 41, one of the greatest finishers in the history of the game, still playing at the top level in Brazil and still scoring. He got a hat trick for Vasco da Gama on Sunday — three more goals toward the career total of 1,000 goals he... PAUL GARDNER http://www.nysun.com/sports/hooliganism-forming-a-dark-cloud-over-italian/48050/ Tue, 6 Feb 2007 00:00:00 EST There was no soccer played in Italy this past weekend. The big stadiums where the pros play, even the bumpy fields used for youth games were quiet, deserted. The silence was a mark of respect for Filippo Raciti, a police officer killed last Friday evening while on duty outside the Angelo Massimino stadium in Catania, Sicily. During the second half of an all-Sicilian game between Catania and Palermo, tear gas crept slowly across the playing field. The players began to gasp for air, feeling the...