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As with migratory birds and other animals, soccer fans have an inherent internal clock that signals when vital matters are imminent. This natural sense has been thrown off this summer as the brutal Qatari weather forced the FIFA World Cup to be pushed back until the winter.

In a normal year, the World Cup final would be happening right about now. Instead, we have a little more than four months to wait until the 2022 version of the beloved competition begins. 

Former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger loves a good complaint. Now acting as FIFA's Chief of Global Football Development, it is his job to complain, masking his gripes as ways to improve the game.

Most sports fans in the United States think of summer as the season for baseball, but the warmest months of the year are also the perfect time to attend a professional soccer match — and there's no shortage of teams.

As Major League Baseball continues to cut minor league teams, the decline of professional baseball in the country becomes more prominent. But not so with soccer.

When we think of injuries in soccer and of their repercussions, we often think of big names at big clubs. But oftentimes it is the absence of important players at mid-sized clubs that has the biggest impact on performance.

Larger clubs have the depth to replace even the most talented of players; most teams do not. This list of most impactful injuries this season will include one or two big names, but it also features several footballers that sometimes go unnoticed.

What is a Xogg? Alternatively, what is a Zigg? The Xoggz and the Ziggx were the men's and women's semi-pro soccer clubs based out of Columbus, Ohio, in the mid-1990s.

According to fossilized internet forums (because there is no other discussion of the topic), these were made-up names that were going to be assigned meaning through a fan contest. Unfortunately, neither club survived long enough for that to happen.

While these clubs were short lived, their rise and fall illustrates the state of American soccer in the 1990s.

After a three-year delay, the most prestigious competition in American soccer is finally back. Now in its 107th iteration, the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup is older than the Coupe de France, Coppa Italia, NFL and NBA.

It features 91 semi-pro and professional American soccer teams from four divisions and seven leagues, plus a further 12 amateur clubs — good for a total of 103 entrants.