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Soccer America

Everyone and The Special One are down on Fabio Capello — except Martin Samuel, who says Capello “has already been a Jackass, a weirdo and one half of Laurel and Hardy and this for topping his European Championship qualifying group with three wins and a draw, rightly restoring John Terry as England captain and evolving his squad more successfully than anyone could have imagined after the disappointment of the World Cup.” Meanwhile, everyone’s up on the USMNT except Paul Gardner, who calls Bob Bradley a yesterday man, leading “a team without style, a team that has nothing better than craven defense to offer in a home game against a strong opponent.”

(Image credit: Dekuwa/Flickr through a Creative Commons license.)

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Stop Defending Tony Meola’s Haircut

On the one hand, Americans are still faced with the “Soccer is Gay and Foreign and Makes My Shriveling Mind Hurt” genre of xenophobic sports journalism — which hasn’t evolved in two decades. But the counter-genre — “Will Soccer Now Make It in America?” as exemplified by Hendrik Hertzberg’s recent piece in The New Yorkerhas grown equally tiresome and obsolete. The argument is over, and the TV ratings for the World Cup prove it. “It’s not 1990 any more; we don’t have to defend Tony Meola’s haircut.” (Zach Dundas/True/Slant)