latest articles by simonevans
Women's World Cup
/ 3927 days agoWomen’s soccer doesn’t need male approval or political correctness
There was a predictable uproar on Twitter this week when Andy Benoit, an NFL writer for Sports Illustrated, stated that “Women’s sport in general [is] not worth watching." Judging from the reaction, you could be forgiven for thinking that the entire American sports social media world had been waiting in a state of high anticipation […]
News
/ 3949 days agoYears of Blazer corruption raises questions for American soccer
Imagine for a moment that an Englishman had been General Secretary of UEFA for two decades and a member of the FIFA executive committee. A rather eccentric character, who had a driver transport him around England in a gold-colored Rolls Royce and who and constantly posed Churchill fashion with a large cigar, this English football […]
News
/ 3956 days agoIs it time for UEFA to take the Nuclear Option and split from FIFA?
Let’s cut to the chase with this FIFA nonsense. Department of Justice indictments here, Swiss federal investigations there, the corrupted or corruptible soccer leaders from around the world are still going to vote for Sepp Blatter as president. British newspapers headlines can scream for Blatter to go – FIFA congress delegates will vote for him to […]
News
/ 3963 days agoMaldini tackles Beckham in Miami; Should MLS be worried?
The North American Soccer League hates being called a ‘second division’ and so the turn of phrase used by Italy’s venerable daily newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport on Thursday will have cheered the league’s commission Bill Peterson. Reporting the announcement that Miami is to have an NASL team from next season – owned by soccer television […]
FIFA
/ 3970 days agoFIFA is all about ‘cash for votes’; Here’s how it could be ended
In two weeks time, Sepp Blatter will almost certainly win a fifth term as president of FIFA and we can expect another round of the ritual despairing comment from the British press and the other pockets of resistance to the way the global game is run. But nothing will change. The three candidates who have […]
News
/ 3977 days agoMessi the Greatest of All Time? The debate is pointless
Jerome Boateng had barely got back on his feet after Lionel Messi’s sublime second goal before the instant-pundits of the social media world were declaring the ‘debate over’ regarding Lionel Messi. There are of course two debates about Messi. Is he the greatest player of the modern era? In other words, the Messi vs. Ronaldo […]
News
/ 3984 days agoMLS still targeting USA players in Europe? There are hardly any left
MLS Commissioner Don Garber re-opened his dispute with Jurgen Klinsmann last week when he said that the league would continue to pursue U.S. national team players regardless of what the national team coach thought of that approach. While the comments sparked another round of debate about the relationship between Garber and Klinsmann, the reality is […]
News
/ 3998 days agoKlinsmann's 'tinkering' finally delivers benefits to silence critics; By Simon Evans
It is far too soon to be declaring Jordan Morris the future of the United States national team attack, but his goal and performance against Mexico on Wednesday showed once again that coach Jurgen Klinsmann has an eye for talent and that his months of experimentation may not have been in vain. Klinsmann has spent […]
News
/ 4005 days agoWill US’s soccer ideologies survive the move to the mainstream?
When I moved to the United States from Italy a little over eight years ago, one of the several motivating factors behind the decision was the desire to take a break from soccer. Covering Serie A in Italy for eight years, pretty much all-day, every day, took me to the brink of soccer burn out. […]
News
/ 4012 days agoMLS can’t be the only home for soccer’s American boom
On Saturday, largely ignored by the national media, another new American soccer club will be born. And once again, it looks like being another success story. Jacksonville Armada will open their NASL campaign and they hope to beat the league’s regular season attendance record of 14,593. It is another sign that North American club soccer […]
News
/ 4019 days agoMiami-haters could forge identity for Beckham’s MLS superclub;
There were two developments on the expansion front in Major League Soccer in this past week, that generated two very different reactions in the American soccer community. In Minneapolis, MLS awarded a franchise to the Minnesota United group which is set to become the 23rd team in the ever-growing league. From being a club that […]
News
/ 4026 days agoPremier League’s Euro-flop is no real cause for alarm
So much for the ‘Greatest League in the World’ eh? For the second time in three seasons, no Premier League club has made it into the last 16 of the Champions League. All the millions spent by Chelsea, Manchester City, Arsenal and Liverpool counted for little when it came to the crunch. England’s elite just […]
News
/ 4039 days agoMLS and TV networks need to make most of this second chance
So after all the strike threats, tough talking and marathon negotiations, Major League Soccer’s 20th season will kick off on time this weekend – and the new campaign is in many ways marks a second chance for the league. With a new television deal and a series of expensive ‘name’ signings in the league, along […]
News
/ 4047 days agoWhy a long and bitter MLS strike is unlikely; By Simon Evans
With eight days until the start of the Major League Soccer season and no sign of a deal between the players union and the league over a new Collective Bargaining Agreement, MLS clearly risks a work stoppage at the opening of its 20th season. All reports indicate that the issue of free agency is going […]
News
/ 4054 days agoRacist comments are another sad example of Serie A decline
Arrigo Sacchi’s comments that “there are too many colored players” in Italian youth teams is the latest in a series of racism cases that have emerged in Italian soccer but it is arguably the most revealing. The Italian game is in the midst of a dramatic decline and it is sometimes easy to forget that it […]