Futbol – Xaviar X. Xerexes

A Few Thoughts on World Cup 2014

by Xaviar XerexesJuly 27, 2014

So last year I wrote a thought piece on the current Confederations and their qualification systems for the World Cup. About a month removed from this year’s World Cup in Brazil I am emerging from acute soccer withdrawal and wanted to note some thoughts about Brazil. First off, this was an exciting edition of the World Cup. Great games, lots of goals and drama galore. The German shellacking of Brasil will go down in history as one of the greatest shock defeats in the history of the game. The advance of Costa Rica deep into the tournament was as great …

A Few Thoughts on International Futbol

by Xaviar XerexesOctober 11, 2013

Association Football known world-wide as football or futbol but tagged with soccer in the United States is the world’s game by any measure. I have my own complicated relationship with the game which has meant different things to me at different points of my life. Right now it’s World Cup qualification season across the world. In each of six regional confederations, tournaments are ongoing to determine which teams will make the final cut of 32 nations at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. (England may claim to be the home of the game because it propagated the rules the World …

Watching EURO cup: England vs Italy

by Xaviar XerexesJune 24, 2012

Halftime-ish at England vs Italy and no goals so far. Been perhaps the most competitive quarterfinal so far. Winner has to play get many though – not much of a prize. Update: well that turned out to be a bit of a bust of a game. Italy deserved the win for dominating the game and yet – letting things slide to PKs was inexcusable. I really hate PKs as a tie breaker. MLS: The DC – NY game was entertaining at stretches but disconcerting to see the DC midfield sliced up so effectively. DC did not play well enough to …

Sports News

by Xaviar XerexesSeptember 24, 2002March 8, 2020

2002 Soccer ReCap Another year of soccer and although I didn’t get to see as much MLS soccer as I would have liked, thanks to the miracle that is TIVO I saw just about all of the Korea/Japan World Cup. There’s not much you can add about the World Cup: a great cup, dramatic upsets, a solid final between two futbol giants and a nice performance from Ronaldo that caps his return from the still bizarre disaster of a performance in the France 1998 final. The United States made tremendous strides at the Cup. What’s interesting is the MLS season where from …

Nineteen Ninety Eight

by Xaviar XerexesDecember 31, 1998

I’m not going to argue with Wikipedia — On December 5, D.C. United defeated Vasco da Gama 2–1 on aggregate to win the Interamerican Cup (one of the greatest triumphs in the history of U.S. club soccer).