One of the strange things about Europe is that someone you know from the United States is bound to be in the same location as you at some point. This was the case with my friend Todd San Jule. The last game Todd and I had attended together was the Seattle Seahawks at Green Bay Packers NFC divisional playoff game on January 12, 2008.
This time we agreed to meet for the Fulham and Basel Europa League match at Craven Cottage. In order to get to Craven Cottage I took the …

The scheduling Gods shined upon me when creating the Europa League schedule. Originally I debated whether to leave for Finland on Thursday afternoon or Friday morning since the Europa League schedule was not out at the time. I did not know whether Fulham or Everton would play Thursday night. My preference was Fulham since I could take the train to London Thursday morning and attend the match. If Everton had been home I would have to take either a late train Thursday night or an early …

One part of Spanish soccer I do like is the late start times of soccer matches. La Liga’s weekly Saturday night contest begins at 10 pm (meaning it ends close to midnight) – no sporting event in the United States has that scheduled start time. Last season, I remember thinking it was crazy that Game 2 of the NLDS between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs had an 8:37 pm start time at Wrigley Field.
Thus, I should not have been surprised when the Europa League Play-off match …