Robert Hay

The hysteria of transfer Deadline Day has come and gone, and like a fraternity the day after hosting a “Back to Campus” party, a number of teams have to live with the consequences of their rushed decisions. On World Soccer Talk we’ve covered a number of angles on the pros and cons of the transfer […]

The recent World Cup has spawned a number of books that not only look at the recent past of American soccer but what the men’s national team needs to do going forward. Many of these stories are being written by journalists, but it is rare we hear from people who have experienced the U.S. soccer […]

At the beginning of last season, the average tenure of a manager in the Premier League was 2 years and 2 months. This is comparable with the tenure of managers in Serie A and La Liga, and slightly less than the tenure of a coach in the Bundesliga. What this means to a soccer fan […]

As the trophy was hoisted and the players celebrated a third consecutive scudetto, you could forgive Juventus fans from feeling a little giddy. With one of the best coaches in Italy, an ownership group that seemed interested in boosting the squad for the Champions League, and the spine of the Italian national team under contract, […]

MLS 3.0 is in full force and the sports media have focused like a laser on the growth of the league. Soccer-specific stadiums have sprung up across the country, academies are churning out young talent, big names are coming across the Atlantic to play in North America, and suddenly U.S. men’s national team players are […]

Confidence in FOX Sports’ expected level of coverage for the 2015 Women's World Cup and men’s World Cup 2018/2022 is already at a low. I won’t rehash the reasons why (although there is extensive coverage of it on World Soccer Talk and other sites such as Awful Announcing) but there has been little shown so […]

In October 2012, World Soccer Talk published an analysis of the health of the top 100 soccer blogs according to a 2011 list that was created by The Guardian newspaper of the best soccer blogs worth following. At the time of the review of the list in 2012, 37% of the blogs were defunct with more on the edge […]

Pop quiz! Which legal streaming platforms are showing the UEFA Champions League qualifying matches? And where can you watch the English Championship via legal streams? Yeah, we thought so. It's not easy to know the answers to these questions, right, without digging into a lot of exhaustive online research? For soccer fans, the world is […]

Celtic barely advancing in the Champions League and Ted Lasso videos mean one thing to the serious soccer fan – it’s back. After a tasty appetizer of the World Cup, European club soccer returns this month beginning with the Premier League this weekend. While MLS fans would counter that their season is six months old, […]

What a turn of events in a week. Last Thursday, Juventus looked to be stable heading into the preseason as it fought back against clubs trying to poach its young stars while dipping into the transfer market to strengthen a squad expected to compete more in the Champions League. In the space of seven days, […]

There are myriad reasons for Brazil’s abrupt departure from the World Cup and honestly there is a sliver of truth in every theory or reason given for their poor play. One reason, however, for the change in the Brazilian soccer culture struck me as both very truthful and an opportunity for MLS to argue that […]

Going into the World Cup, a major storyline around the U.S. national team was the number of key players who had left overseas clubs to return to MLS. Facing a logjam in the AS Roma midfield, Michael Bradley accepted a designated player spot with Toronto FC to earn more money and a starter’s spot. Prior […]

From the moment he was excluded from the U.S. World Cup roster, Landon Donovan faced a critical choice. He could accept, map out the rest of his playing career, and begin to work on his post-playing options. Or he could fight back, showing the world that his exclusion was long-term a poor choice for how […]

As the streets that once held thousands for watch parties are swept clean, and the inevitable myriad articles blaming everyone and anyone for the U.S.’s loss are Tweeted, this is a sad day for U.S. soccer fans. Those of us who follow the team closely are slightly less saddened, however, knowing that the Yanks will […]

In the end, the United States can only blame themselves for their elimination from the World Cup. Although Belgium on paper were a more talented team, this game showed the United States was actually presented with a good match-up that gave them a chance to advance. Belgium’s defense was exposed before the U.S.’s speed and […]