MANCHESTER, England – After a while, feeling bored, cold and wet, Éderson decided to go for a walk. The Manchester City goalkeeper had spent 20 minutes dutifully guarding his penalty area. He had checked all four corners for danger. He found nothing. He had stared, squinting, into the distance, scanning for some threat on the … Read more
The World Cup draw has set the field, even though the invitation list for this year’s tournament in Qatar is not yet complete. Yet even as the teams now know who, and when, they will play, there are still plenty of questions about how things will play out in soccer’s first Winter World Cup. Here’s … Read more
LONDON – Luka Modric has, by this stage, seen pretty much all there is to see. He has won four Champions League titles. He has played in a World Cup final. He has spent a decade at Real Madrid, embedded among some of the finest players of his generation. He is one of the finest … Read more
It wasn’t the sounds of the bombs, though he did hear those, that brought back the memories for Darijo Srna. It was the air raid sirens. When they blared in Kyiv shortly after 6 am on Feb. 24, Srna froze in terror. His mind flooded with thoughts and recollections of his childhood, of his first … Read more
MADRID – The noise rose and swelled with every second that ticked, changing timbre and tone as it did so. It started with whistles, desperate and urgent, only to turn into something closer to a roar, formless and elemental, filled with angst and anticipation, as if the sound itself could ward off any more suffering. … Read more
MADRID – Many things happened at the Wanda Metropolitano in the final 10 or 20 minutes, the ones that seemed to stretch on and on, long past the final whistle, until they almost constituted another self-contained bonus game, a separate third installment of a scheduled two-part drama. There was some hair-pulling. There was quite a … Read more
DALTON, Ga. – The old folks are mostly white and carry in boxes of pizza and portable stadium seats to prop up their backs. The young mothers are predominantly Hispanic, and some press sleeping babies against their chests. Students and fathers are here, too. Most of Whitfield County has packed into Bill Chappell Stadium for … Read more
LONDON – In the single corner of Wembley bathed by bright sunshine, Kevin De Bruyne dutifully shuttled up and down. He stretched out his hamstrings and his calves. He made sure his laces were nice and loose, and, with great time and care, made sure his laces were tight. He wanted everything to feel just … Read more
SARCELLES, France – Every time Mama Diakité heads to a soccer game, her stomach is in knots. It happened again on a recent Saturday afternoon in Sarcelles, a northern suburb of Paris. Her amateur team had come to face the local club, and Diakité, a 23-year-old Muslim midfielder, feared she would not be allowed to … Read more
April 1, 2022, 4:52 pm ET April 1, 2022, 4:52 pm ET Credit …David Ramos / Getty Images Louis van Gaal said it all with just the hint of a playful smile. The Netherlands’ draw for the World Cup was not easy, he said, with his characteristic bluntness, and nor was it lucky. It was, … Read more