Asia

The Palestine Cup, a FIFA-sanctioned club championship that sends its winner to the Asian Champions League, was effectively canceled this week by Israel. 

Now the world is waiting to see how FIFA reacts, if indeed it steps in at all.

New Zealand opened its 2019 Rugby World Cup campaign with a 23-13 victory over South Africa on Saturday in Yokohama, Japan, and it's easy to see why the All Blacks are favorites to win the tournament for a third straight time.

I’m not talking about their play out there — I didn’t wake up at 4:45 a.m. to watch it — I’m talking about their first haka. I’m no rugby expert but I don’t think anyone is going to beat these guys. I’m looking at the schedule now and next up is Canada on Oct. 2. Send all your thoughts and prayers to Canada.  

Taika Waititi is a genius. The New Zealand filmmaker finally earned global recognition after directing Thor: Ragnarok, where he also showcased his acting chops in the role of Korg, the hilarious rock-like creature that returned for Avengers: Endgame.

If I asked you to name the current leading scorer in Euro 2020 qualifying, who would you go with? Harry Kane? Cristiano Ronaldo? Kane is joint-second with six goals and Ronaldo has five to his name, so those aren’t bad guesses, but it's actually Israel’s Eran Zahavi. 

The 32-year-old Zahavi isn’t exactly a household name — at least outside of Israel and China. The only time he's spent playing outside those two countries was a brief spell with Palermo, where he scored only two goals in 23 Serie A appearances. 

Sahar Khodayari, a 29-year-old woman facing six months in prison for simply attending a men’s soccer match, died Monday. 

Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iranian women have been barred from stadiums to watch men’s soccer matches (or any other sport). The clerical regime claims it promotes promiscuity to see men play in shorts. 

FIFA's unveiling of the 2022 World Cup logo was . . . underwhelming. The unveiling took place in Qatar's capital Doha on Tuesday at around 8:00 p.m. local time, with thousands of spectators watching as the logo was projected on billboards and buildings throughout the city.

The long, grueling road of Asian qualifying for the 2022 World Cup began back in June with the first round and continued today with the start of the second round of proceedings. A massive fixture went down this morning in Central Jakarta, pitting fierce rivals Indonesia against neighbors Malaysia.

Fernando Torres played the final match of his long, storied career on Friday. El Niño won everything there is to win in soccer: youth championships, two European championships, a World Cup and a Champions League. He scored everywhere he went (though it took him a while at Chelsea) and has never been disparaged as a bad teammate.