Well, that was one hell of a month, wasn’t it?  The consensus in the sporting press is that this was the best World Cup in recent memory, and it’s hard to argue otherwise.  We saw plenty of goals, one or two overacheiving underdogs, mercifully few officiating fiascoes and, at the end of the day, the…

After the referee mercifully blew the final whistle and put Brazil out of their misery on Tuesday afternoon, I pulled out my copy of the Bible and skimmed through the Book of Revelation.  Much to my relief,  I was able to confirm that Brazil losing a World Cup semi-final on home soil by six clear goals was not…

We’re close enough now that these guys can almost taste it.  Two wins from immortality.  It’s easy to understand why goals have proven harder to come by since we’ve entered the knockout phase.  Defenders are committed to the point of desperation.  No one wants to make a mistake, including the managers.  Riskier tactics and team…

Look… most of us always understood that we weren’t going to win the World Cup.  Jurgen Klinsmann took some heat for admitting as much before he got on the plane to Brazil, but anyone who pays any sort of attention to this sport knew that he was simply being realistic.  Roy Hodgson said more or…

There are no games in Brazil today, so we have a chance to catch our breath before we kick off the knockout rounds tomorrow.  The group stage was fun, but now we’re down to the nitty gritty, where a small mistake could send your team packing.  Yesterday, four more teams punched their tickets into the Round of 16:…

We have indeed seen the last of Luis Suarez in this World Cup.  FIFA handed him a suspension that covers the next nine international matches, as well as a four-month ban from “all football-related activities.”  According to the announcement, he won’t even be allowed to enter a stadium during that time.  Inconvenient not just for…

What can I say about Luis Suarez that hasn’t already been said?  I mean, this was the third time in the last four years that he’s bitten an opponent during a match.  Not sure how much he can complain about the world labeling him as a sociopath.  He’ll serve a suspension, and then he’ll play again,…

If you’ve made time to watch the World Cup this year, you’ve been rewarded for it.  Everyone seems to agree that it’s been a great tournament so far – plenty of goals, exciting and competitive games, and some shocking results in the group stage.  The pace has picked up this week, as the first round…

Half a minute.  That’s all that stood between the U.S. team and progression into the Round of 16.  They just needed to keep Portugal out for another thirty seconds… I probably watched the replay of that closing sequence in Manaus twenty times last night.  When the ball comes to Bradley near the half-way line, all…

Well, after all that talk, we’ve finally seen some real, live soccer.  And it was… interesting.  Brazil wound up meeting pre-match expectations with a 3-1 win, but that score isn’t indicative of how close the match really was.  Brazil was sweating, for sure, and they’ll know that they’ll need to improve if they want to…