The New Republic

One of the great things in watching the World Cup is a chance to appreciate a team like Paraguay. From a fan point of view, they're not all that fun to watch, for obvious reason--defensive gritiness, absence of big names, no spectacular plays, mind-numbing discipline. If it wasn't the obvious limits of the team's abilities, you could call them poor people's Germans. No one outside Paraguay rushes home to watch them, but it's hard not to admire the commitment and hard work and the fact they always make it hard for the other team to beat them. READ MORE >>

Yes, Messi could have scored five goals and Nigeria stood no chance. But Argentina were never under pressure when they had the ball, with a lot of time to pass it around and wait for Messi, or Tevez, to come back for the ball then run practically unencumbered toward the goal with it. Veron was awful, could not make a good pass with all the time in the world, turned it over a few times while being under no pressure whatsoever, and is entirely incapable of passing while running--he walks with the ball. READ MORE >>

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Saturday's Major League Soccer Cup between the Los Angeles Galaxy and Houston Dynamo marks David Beckham's final game in the league, which he joined five years ago for $250 million. Here's what we had to say about him back then. READ MORE >>