Aram Gumusyan

July 4th comes early this year as America unites as one to support the Red, White, and Blue against the Red Devils of Belgium. Millions will do their patriotic duty of sneaking out of work come 4 PM Eastern. Here’s how newspapers both here and in the Low Country are previewing the massive match. The […]

World Cup Match #51, Round of 16, Group B Winner vs Group A Runner-up: Netherlands vs Mexico Date and Time: Sunday, June 29th, 12EST/9PST, ESPN, Univision, and WatchESPN Location: Estadio Castelao, Fortaleza Two soccer-obssessed nations with disparate pasts meet in Sunday’s marquee matchup. The Netherlands is a small country that consistently overachieves with players who […]

It’s been a bloodbath for English sport lately. In March, its rugby team lost out to Ireland in the Six Nations on mere point differential. Just recently the team went down to New Zealand for an Antipodean Winter tour and lost all three tests to the All Blacks. Its cricket team surrendered the Ashes back […]

At this rate, we won’t have anything left for July 4th. Each U.S. match at this World Cup continues to bring out massive American support from sea to shining sea in offices, homes, and most impressively, in grand public gatherings. Our nation’s newspapers tore themselves away from running generic AP content to brilliantly capture local […]

In 1990, when the US qualified for the World Cup for the first time in 40 years, I didn’t have cable so I couldn’t enjoy TNT’s ramshackle coverage. So I followed along with the New York Daily News. There were no recaps, highlights, or columns, just the scores printed in agate type on a page of […]

As a tourist town, Los Angeles suffers by comparison to other cities. It lacks the compactness of Boston, D.C., or San Francisco; cities where a solid day’s walk lets you to soak in a wealth of sights. It doesn’t have must-see architectural landmarks like the Golden Gate Bridge, the Empire State Building, the Willis (Sears) […]

So you plan on watching Italy versus Uruguay today, eh? Fancy a match with some actual stakes? You won’t even take a peek at the dead rubber between England and Costa Rica? No interest at all in an underachieving England squad making its earliest World Cup exit since 1958? But Italy and Uruguay are only […]

Brazil was supposed to breeze through Group A but Mexican goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa’s heroics means that there’s all to play for on Monday (4pm ET/1pm kickoff). Should Brazil succumb to the pressure and slip against Cameroon then the winner of the Croatia-Mexico game wins Group A. All Mexico needs is a draw to advance for […]

What does the USA have to do Thursday in the World Cup Group G to advance to the next round of the tournament? Any of the four teams (USA, Germany, Ghana and Portugal) can still mathematically qualify for the next round based on the results of the games, which will be played at the same […]

Tabloid newspapers have a bad reputation in America, which means that most cities only have a boring broadsheet. That's a shame because sports are more fun to follow with a bit of sensationalism and bold graphics. Let’s take a look at how the Portuguese papers, and some American ones, are pumping us up for today’s […]

Even Disney would have rejected the Uruguay-England story as too hackneyed. The Premier League’s best player, much maligned everywhere but at home, miraculously recovers from injury and scores two gorgeous goals to down a squad containing five of his teammates. He then cries tears of joy before a Sao Paulo stadium full of his gleeful […]

England still have a chance of advancing out of Group D but there's a lot that has to happen in order for that to happen. Italy needs to beat Costa Rica and then Uruguay, then after beating Costa Rica themselves England have to hope they have the most goals out of the bottom three. Aram […]

George Harrison sang that “All Things Must Pass” and so it was for Spain’s reign. Spanish tears met Chilean cheers. Let’s take a look at how both nations’ newspapers reacted to the match. Catalonia’s Mundo Deportivo (see above front cover) narrowly wins the front page of the day with its zeitgeist-capturing “Abdication” headline. Spain’s mind was […]

The above illustration shows which clubs have contributed players to the 23-man England World Cup squad. Aside from backup keeper Fraser Forster of Scottish champions Celtic, the balance of the squad comes from just eight Premier League sides. This is not necessarily a negative; Italy and Spain won the last two Cups with largely domestic-based […]

The next time a World Cup hater complains about 0-0 soccer scorelines, show them highlights of yesterday’s Brazil-Mexico scorcher. It was non-stop action defined by Mexican goalkeeper Guillermo “Memo” Ochoa acrobatically stonewalling the relentless Yellow-and-Green attack. Sometimes a draw is as historic as a victory. The Mexican media on both sides of the border treated […]