In a totally unpredictable turn of events (sarcasm), one of the many games that was set to arrive in September 2026 will now try to avoid what has quickly become the most stacked month of the year and launch in October 2026 instead. Valor Mortis, the first-person melee action game from Ghostrunner makers One More Level, has pushed the game's release date from September 24 to October 13, 2026. The September date was revealed during the Xbox Games Showcase this past Sunday, though according to a report from Game File, by the time the trailer had aired, the developers already […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/valor-mortis-release-date-delay-october-2026/

Amazon says that its AWS Graviton5 is the fastest and most efficient CPU it has ever built and is now generally available for AI and other use cases. AWS Graviton5 Starts Rolling Out To Customers, Offering Better Performance With Latest Technologies Including PCIe Gen6 Today marks the official "General" availability of AWS's next big chip, the Graviton5 CPU. The chip is said to be much faster than the existing generation of AWS CPUs, and also expand their capabilities with the latest IO features. Starting off with the performance, Amazon AWS claims that Graviton5 CPUs will offer up to 25% faster […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/aws-graviton5-cpus-now-available-purpose-built-for-ai-192-cores-ddr5-8800-pcie-gen6/

Apple is gradually accumulating a legendary portfolio of patents related to material sciences, with a recent patent filing describing a cheaper, more efficient process to recover pure aluminum from its scrapped alloy state. Apple's patent application describes a process that recovers pure aluminum from a scrapped heap at temperatures as low as 125 degree Celsius Traditional methods of recovering pure aluminum from its alloys, such as the Hoopes process, are generally energy- and capital-intensive, diminishing the underlying economic rationale. Apple, however, has now applied to patent a new aluminum recovery method, one that involves electrorefining in conjunction with a low-melting-temperature […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/apples-next-aluminum-breakthrough-could-turn-cnc-machining-waste-back-into-iphone-and-macbook-neo-frames-at-temperatures-as-low-as-125-degree-celsius/

Sidehunt is a weekly hunt for side projects and indie launches. Submit your product to collect votes, earn badges and dofollow backlinks, and reach early adopters who try new tools.

Browse projects, track launches, and promote with premium spotlights or ads. Use Sidehunt to validate ideas, build momentum, and grow awareness within a community of indie builders and makers.

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Jetlag Coach creates a personalized circadian schedule to help you adjust faster across time zones. Enter your itinerary and preferences to get timed guidance for sleep, light exposure, caffeine, and optional melatonin.

It uses research in circadian biology to start adaptation before you fly and realigns each day's plan as your body clock shifts. Following the schedule helps reduce fatigue, recover alertness sooner, and make the most of your trip.

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Hostsmith hosts files, static sites, and AI-generated artifacts on a global CDN with automatic SSL. Create a site by uploading a ZIP file, choose a subdomain, and go live in seconds, or connect your own domains. Update content easily with automatic cache invalidation and manage private or public sites. Hostsmith includes an API and an MCP server so agents like Claude Code and Cursor can publish with one tool call. Plans range from a free tier to agency and premium options with more sites, bandwidth, storage, and EU data residency.

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Resonance Within You is a personalized affirmation audio app that turns your goals, intentions, or journal entries into calming tracks voiced in your own voice on paid plans. You can choose tone, soundscapes, and frequency stacks to improve focus, sleep, confidence, and daily self-belief. Start free with a 90-second track, then upgrade for longer sessions, saved voice recordings, guided journeys, offline listening, and exports. Your voice data stays private and is used only for your tracks.

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DomainVetting is an ICANN-accredited domain registrar that focuses on transparent, upfront pricing and speed. You can register domains with instant activation and free lifetime WHOIS privacy, with renewal prices shown before you buy. Manage records with a clean, developer-friendly dashboard and globally distributed Anycast Premium DNS. Transfers out take under 24 hours with no friction. Upcoming features include domain hijack alerts, a smart renewal calendar, DNS templates, and team access.

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StackOverlap helps marketing leaders audit their technology stacks and uncover overlaps that waste budget. Select the tools you use, and its AI profiles each product, maps redundancies, and delivers savings estimates, a consolidation roadmap, and leadership-ready reports.

Use My Stack to track tools, costs, renewals, monitor market signals, and run monthly check-ins. Budget dashboards, renewal calendars, and context-aware insights help you manage spend and make confident procurement decisions.

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The 2026 World Cup kicks off today, Thursday, June 11, with host nation Mexico facing South Africa in what is a rematch of a previous World Cup opening game. With fans already making their way to the stadium, expectations are sky-high for the attendance at one of soccer’s most storied venues.

The iconic Estadio Azteca underwent a major renovation that began in May 2024 and has since been officially renamed Estadio Banorte. For the duration of the World Cup, however, FIFA is using the venue’s official registered name, and the governing body lists the stadium’s tournament capacity at 80,824 spectators.

While tickets for some World Cup matches remain available, including the Group A contest between South Korea and Czech Republic, the opening match between Mexico and South Africa is completely sold out. The stadium’s total capacity of approximately 87,000 seats means the remaining spots are reserved for media and commercial partners. For fans still looking to attend, resale prices for the opener range anywhere from $2,800 to $17,000, a dramatic markup from FIFA’s official pricing.

South African Sports, Arts and Culture Minister Gayton McKenzie spoke to the level of anticipation on his country’s side. “8,000 fans in the stadium for the opening match, lots of vuvuzelas, and I think 50,000 more are excited to travel,” he told Diario AS.

A special venue for a special occasion

The Estadio Azteca has been the backdrop for some of the most iconic moments in soccer history, from the legendary 1970 “Game of the Century” between Italy and West Germany to Diego Maradona’s unforgettable performance against England in 1986. Now it will host a World Cup opening game for the third time, the most of any stadium in history.

The Mexico vs. South Africa matchup also carries its own distinct footnote in the record books. It will be the first time in World Cup history that two nations have faced each other in an opening game twice, the two sides having met in the very first match of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, a contest that ended 1-1. Sixteen years on, they meet again to kick off a new chapter.

Other games scheduled at the Azteca

Beyond Thursday’s opener, the Estadio Azteca is set to host several additional matches during the 2026 World Cup:

• Wednesday, June 17th: Uzbekistan vs. Colombia (Game 24)
• Wednesday, June 24th: Czech Republic vs. Mexico (Game 53)
• Tuesday, June 30th: 1º Group A vs. 3º Group C/E/F/H/I (Game 79 – Round of 16)
• Sunday, July 5th: Winner Game 79 vs. Winner Game 80 (Game 80 – Round of 16)

Lionel Messi and Argentina find themselves carrying both enormous expectations and a unique piece of soccer history at the 2026 World Cup. The reigning world champion arrives in North America as one of the leading contenders for the trophy. However, there is an intriguing statistic hanging over the tournament that has captured the attention of supporters across the globe.

Argentina enters the competition in outstanding form after years of consistency under coach Lionel Scaloni. The national team has already enjoyed remarkable success during the current cycle, yet a historical trend suggests that one particular achievement before a World Cup has rarely been a blessing.

La Albiceleste arrives in Kansas City, Missouri, aiming to defend the title won in Qatar four years ago. Having built a squad that combines experienced leaders with emerging talent, the South American giant is widely considered among the strongest teams in the tournament.

Recent performances have only reinforced that reputation. Victories in competitive matches and impressive results in friendlies have helped Argentina climb to the summit of international soccer, while Messi continues to inspire, approaching the final stages of his legendary career.

A convincing 3-0 friendly victory over Iceland helped Argentina secure its place at the top of the FIFA rankings ahead of the tournament. The result confirmed the country’s rise above several other elite nations and strengthened the belief that another deep World Cup run could be possible.

The curious World Cup ‘curse’

In the middle of all the optimism surrounding Argentina lies a remarkable statistic that has persisted for decades. According to FIFA’s statistics, no country has ever won the World Cup while entering the tournament ranked No. 1 in the FIFA World Ranking system.

The ranking system was introduced by FIFA in 1992, and since then, every nation that arrived at a World Cup as the world’s highest-ranked side ultimately failed to lift the trophy. That trend has survived numerous tournaments despite several dominant teams appearing capable of breaking it.

The statistic has become one of soccer’s most fascinating modern curses. While rankings are designed to reward consistency and excellence, history suggests that being the top-ranked side entering a World Cup may bring added pressure rather than a competitive advantage.

How all previous No. 1-ranked teams fell short

Several giants have attempted to overcome the trend, only to fall short when the tournament began. Brazil entered the 1998 World Cup as the top-ranked nation but lost in the final to France. Four years later, France arrived at the 2002 tournament as both defending champion and the highest-ranked side, only to suffer a shocking group-stage elimination.

Brazil once again topped the rankings before both the 2006 and 2010 editions. Despite possessing squads filled with world-class talent, the South American powerhouse failed to progress beyond the quarter-finals on both occasions.

The pattern became even more surprising in 2014 when Spain arrived in Brazil after dominating international soccer for years. The European champion was expected to challenge for another title but was eliminated in the group stage in one of the tournament’s biggest shocks.

Germany suffered a similar fate in 2018. Ranked No. 1 before the competition, the defending champion crashed out in the group phase. Brazil then inherited the unwanted burden in 2022 and was eliminated before reaching the final.

That history now places Argentina in a unique position heading into the 2026 World Cup. The national team currently occupies the No. 1 position in the FIFA rankings after overtaking rivals including Spain and France. While that status highlights Argentina’s strength, it also means Messi and his teammates are attempting something that no nation has accomplished since the ranking system was introduced.

The 2026 FIFA World Cup has finally arrived, bringing together more nations, more matches, and more excitement than ever before. Hosted across the United States, Canada, and Mexico, the competition promises more matches, more drama, and more storylines than any previous edition, making it essential for supporters to keep track of every fixture.

With a record 104 matches scheduled between June 11 and July 19, fans around the world are preparing for a month of soccer that will dominate conversations, daily routines, and television screens. Whether following a favorite national team or keeping an eye on the entire tournament, having the complete schedule close at hand has become more important than ever.

The 2026 edition marks a historic moment for FIFA and international soccer. For the first time, 48 national teams will compete for the trophy, expanding the competition far beyond the traditional 32-team format used in recent decades.

That expansion has created a tournament unlike any before it. More countries have qualified, more cities are involved, and supporters have an unprecedented number of matches to follow throughout the competition.

The three host nations have also made history. The United States, Canada, and Mexico are jointly staging the tournament, while Mexico becomes the first country ever to host World Cup matches in three separate editions.

Download FIFA’s official 2026 World Cup schedule PDF

For supporters looking to stay organized throughout the tournament, the World Cup TV Schedule and official fixture chart provide a convenient way to track every game from start to finish.

Here is where you can download the PDF and keep the full tournament schedule available throughout the competition. Whether you print it for your wall, keep it at your desk, or save it on your phone, the chart serves as a valuable companion during the month-long soccer festival.

What’s more, our 2026 World Cup TV Schedule is particularly useful because it includes every stage of the competition, helping supporters monitor results and identify upcoming matches with ease.

Why fans need the full schedule

The World Cup only comes around once every four years, which is why supporters often plan entire weeks around the tournament. From early group-stage clashes to knockout-round drama, every fixture can influence the road to the final.

This year presents an even greater challenge because of the increased number of matches. Keeping track of kickoff times, venues, standings, and potential knockout pairings can quickly become overwhelming without a complete fixture chart.

A printable wall chart or PDF schedule allows supporters to follow results, update standings, and visualize every national team’s potential route to the championship match.

Mexico face South Africa in the opening clash of the 2026 World Cup. As one of CONCACAF’s strongest national teams, Javier Aguirre’s side arrive as clear favorites, looking to shine offensively, which remains their greatest strength. Unlike their opponents, Hugo Broos’ team arrive without being one of Africa’s top national teams and with significant attacking concerns. Nevertheless, both sides are expected to field their strongest possible starting XI.

Despite not having stood out in Africa, South Africa arrive at the World Cup as one of the most defensively solid teams. Acknowledging their attacking shortcomings, head coach Hugo Broos could opt for a more cautious approach, relying on Khulumani Ndamane and Nkosinathi Sibisi at the back. In addition, Lyle Foster could be tasked with providing the goals, as he has been a regular performer for Burnley.

Javier Aguirre has managed to build a very balanced roster. Led by Julián Quiñones, Raúl Jiménez, and Álvaro Fidalgo, they aim to implement a more dominant style of play, relying on creativity in possession. In addition, Mexico have players such as Alexis Vega, Santiago Giménez, and Gilberto Mora who can adjust the game from the bench, making them clear favorites to secure the victory in the 2026 World Cup opener.

Mexico predicted lineup vs South Africa

After shining in CONCACAF, Mexico arrive as one of the clear candidates to make an impact at the 2026 World Cup. To achieve this, head coach Javier Aguirre has a deep and competitive roster at his disposal, featuring players such as Santiago Giménez and Obed Vargas. In addition, they are placing their hopes in Julián Quiñones’ excellent goalscoring form as they look to advance to the knockout stages.

Considering this, Mexico could lineup as follows: Guillermo Ochoa; Jorge Sánchez, César Montes, Johan Vásquez, Jesús Gallardo; Érik Lira, Brian Gutiérrez, Álvaro Fidalgo; Roberto Alvarado, Raúl Jiménez, Julian Quiñones.

South Africa predicted lineup vs Mexico

South Africa are looking to spring a surprise at the 2026 World Cup. Relying on a defensive strategy, they are aiming to reach the knockout stages of the tournament for the first time in their history. To achieve this, head coach Hugo Broos could place his trust in Lyle Foster, who comes into the tournament after playing for Burnley and will be looking to lead the scoring efforts in an attempt to upset Mexico.

With this in mind, South Africa could play as follows: Ronwen Williams; Khuliso Mudau, Nkosinathi Sibisi, Khulumani Ndamane, Aubrey Modiba; Yaya Sithole, Teboho Mokoena; Oswin Appollis, Relebohile Mofokeng, Themba Zwane; Lyle Foster.

is set to return to action later this year, but one former opponent has now revealed that he had signed for a rematch with ‘Tank’, only for the three-division world champion to then have a change of heart. Davis has not won a fight in almost two years, with his most recent outing coming against […]

The post Former world champion says he signed for Gervonta Davis rematch but “they chose not to”: “Let’s make that clear” appeared first on Boxing News.

Galatasaray yaz döneminde merkez orta sahaya kesinlikle takviye yapacak. Juventus'tan Khephren Thuram ve Real Madrid'den Eduardo Camavinga, listenin ilk 2 sırasını oluşturuyor.

Galatasaray, orta saha için en az 2 takviye planlıyor:

1 merkez orta saha

1 10 numara

Bu iki bölge kesinlikle güçlendirilecek. Merkez orta saha listesinin zirvesindeki ikili ise belli: Khephren Thuram ve Eduardo Camavinga... Bu iki oyuncudan en az birinin kadroya katılması planlanıyor.

Juventus forması giyen Thuram için İtalyan ekibinin 40 milyon euroluk bonservis beklentisi var. Real Madrid ise Camavinga konusunda kapıyı 50 milyon eurodan açıyor. Galatasaray Yönetimi, ciddi bir transfer bütçesi oluşturdu. Orta alanda kelimenin tam anlamıyla paraya acımayacaklar.

Yönetimin aşması gereken bir problem ise 10+4'lük yabancı kontenjanı... Sarı-Kırmızılılar, bazı isimleri elden çıkarmalı... Türkiye Futbol Federasyonu'nun bu kuralı esnetebileceği konuşuluyor. Fakat şu anda Galatasaray bütün planlarını 10+4'e göre yapıyor. Sarı-Kırmızılılar, Thuram ve Camavinga konusundaki temaslarını eş zamanlı sürdürüyor.

İtalya 1. Futbol Ligi (Serie A) ekibi Bologna'nın yeni teknik direktörü Domenico Tedesco, eski takımı Fenerbahçe hakkındaki soruya samimi bir yanıt verdi.

İtalya Serie A ekiplerinden Bologna'nın teknik direktörü Domenico Tedesco, Fenerbahçe'de görev yaptığı döneme ilişkin dikkat çeken açıklamalarda bulundu.

"FENERBAHÇE'YE TARİH YAZMAK İÇİN İMZA ATMIŞTIK"

Fenerbahçe'nin uzun yıllardır lig şampiyonluğu yaşayamadığını hatırlatan Tedesco, "Fenerbahçe son deneyimimdi. 13-14 yıldır şampiyon olamayan ve herkesin şampiyonluğa çok aç olduğu bir kulüp. Bu şu anlama geliyor; üst üste beş maç kazansanız bile altıncı maçta puan kaybettiğinizde her şey hemen bir krize ve probleme dönüşebiliyor" dedi.

Galatasaray ile yaşanan şampiyonluk yarışının baskıyı daha da artırdığını söyleyen deneyimli teknik direktör, "Galatasaray tüm maçlarını kazanıyor, puan farkı 2'den 3'e, 4'e çıkınca hemen bir gerginlik oluşuyor. Oraya tarih yazmak ve o sonuçları almak için imza atmıştık, bu yüzden beni neyin beklediğini çok iyi biliyordum" dedi.

"ÇOK DUYGUSAL AMA..."

Tedesco, tüm zorluklara rağmen Fenerbahçe'ye duyduğu saygıyı da dile getirerek, "Çok duygusal ama harika bir kulüp. İnanılmaz taraftarları, muazzam bir stadyumu ve atmosferi var. Baskı da bu oyunun bir parçası. Bununla hiçbir zaman sorun yaşamadım, aksine beni her zaman motive etmiştir" ifadelerini kullandı.

A Milli Erkek Basketbol Takımı'nın FIBA 2027 Dünya Kupası Elemeleri'nde Bosna Hersek ve İsviçre ile yapacağı maçların aday kadrosu belli oldu.

Türkiye Basketbol Federasyonundan yapılan açıklamaya göre Dünya Kupası Elemeleri C Grubu'nda yer alan milli takım, 2 Temmuz Perşembe günü Bosna Hersek'e konuk olacak. Ay-yıldızlılar, 6 Temmuz Pazartesi günü ise İsviçre'yi ağırlayacak.

Başantrenör Ergin Ataman'ın yönetimindeki A Milli Erkek Basketbol Takımı'nın aday kadrosunda şu oyuncular yer alıyor:

Adem Bona, Alperen Şengün, Berk İbrahim Uğurlu, Cedi Osman, Emre Melih Tunca, Ercan Osmani, Erkan Yılmaz, Furkan Korkmaz, Kenan Sipahi, Malachi Flynn, Onuralp Bitim, Ömer Faruk Yurtseven, Sertaç Şanlı, Şehmus Hazer, Tarık Biberovic, Yiğit Arslan, Yiğit Onan, Yiğitcan Saybir.

Kasımpaşa, son olarak NS Mura forması giyen 19 yaşındaki santrfor Kenan Kurtovic ile 5 yıllık sözleşme imzaladığını açıkladı.

Kasımpaşa'dan yapılan açıklamaya göre:

"Kenan Kurtovic Kasımpaşamızda

NS Mura forması giyen Kenan Kurtovic, CEO’muz Ceyhun Kazancı’nın katılımıyla Kemerburgaz Tesislerimizde düzenlenen törende kendisini kulübümüze bağlayan 5 yıllık resmi sözleşmeye imza attı.

Anlaşma kapsamında Kenan Kurtovic, 2026/27 sezonunu NS Mura’da kiralık olarak geçirecektir.

Kenan Kurtovic’e Kasımpaşa ailesine hoş geldin diyor, başarılı bir sezon diliyoruz."

Trabzonspor, Lorient Kulübü'yle sözleşmesi sona eren Senegalli forvet Bamba Dieng'le temas kurdu. Fakat 26 yaşındaki futbolcuyu çok sayıda takım istiyor. Bunlardan biri de Samsunspor!

Bamba Dieng, Lorient Kulübü'nün bütün yeni tekliflerine rağmen takımdan ayrılmaya karar verdi. 26 yaşındaki santrfor, bedelsiz ayrılmaya hazırlanıyor. Trabzonspor'un da Senegalli futbolcuyla temaslara başladığı öğrenildi. Buradaki en büyük problem, 1.78 boyundaki oyuncunun çok sayıda talibinin bulunması...

SIRALI TAM LİSTE

Samsunspor da durumu takip ediyor. Trabzonspor ve Samsunspor dışında şu takımların adı da Bamba Dieng'le anılıyor:

Real Betis

Torino

Lazio

Freiburg

Hoffenheim

St. Pauli

Bologna

Werder Bremen

Oyuncunun menajeri, bütün taliplerle temaslarını sürdürüyor. Kısa süre içinde durumun netleşmesi bekleniyor.

7 MİLYONA ALINMIŞTI

Bamba Dieng, geride bıraktığımız sezonda Ligue 1'de 22 maça çıktı. Sahada 1.219 dakika kaldı. 10 gol ve 1 asist üretti. Fransa Kupası'nda oynadığı 3 mücadelede ise rakip ağları 5 kez havalandırdı. Lorient onu 2023'ün Ocak ayında Marsilya'dan transfer etmişti. O dönemde 7 milyon euro bonservis bedeli ödediler.

Kocaelispor, Yunanistan ekibi Atromitos'la mukavelesi sona eren Makana Baku ile anlaşma sağladı. 28 yaşındaki Alman sol kanat oyuncusunun kısa süre içinde yeni takımına katılması bekleniyor.

Kocaelispor, geride bıraktığımız sezonda en çok konuşulan takımlardan biri olmuştu. Süper Lig'de flaş sonuçlar aldılar. Bazıları onların küme düşeceğini düşünüyordu. Fakat sezonu 10. sırada bitirdiler. 2026-2027'de ise daha başarılı bir performans sergilemek istiyorlar.

KISA SÜRE İÇİNDE

Yeşil-Siyahlılar'daki transfer çalışmaları sürüyor. Kocaelispor, sol kanatta önemli bir takviyeye imza attı. Yunanistan ekibi Atromitos'la sözleşmesi sona eren Makana Baku ile anlaşma sağlandı. Resmi açıklamanın kısa süre içinde yapılması bekleniyor...

GÖZTEPE'DE OYNAMIŞTI

Alman futbolcu, geride bıraktığımız sezonda 40 resmi maça çıktı. Sahada 3.145 dakika kaldı. 13 gol ve 10 asist üretti. Makana Baku, bir dönem ülkemizde Göztepe forması da giymişti. Kocaelispor'la birlikte Türkiye'deki ikinci macerasına atılacak. Neler yapabileceği ise merakla bekleniyor.

Kasımpaşa, Norveç ekibi HamKam'da forma giyen Mame Alassane Niang konusunda girişimlere başladı. 1.97 boyundaki forvetin, uygun bir maliyetle bitirilmesi planlanıyor.

Lyn Kulübü, Senegalli forvet Mame Alassane Niang'ı satın alma maddesiyle birlikte bir başka Norveç ekibi HamKam'a kiralamıştı. HamKam, 14 Temmuz'da Lyn'e 110 bin euro ödeyerek 20 yaşındaki santrforun bonservisini alacak. Fakat orada da fazla kalması beklenmiyor. Çünkü Kasımpaşa devreye girdi!

DAHA FAZLA MAAŞ

İstanbul ekibinin konuyla ilgili resmi temaslara başladığı öğrenildi. 1.97 boyundaki futbolcunun da Kasımpaşa'yı çok istediği belirtildi. Çünkü burada, Norveç'e oranla daha fazla senelik maaş alacak. 2006 doğumlu oyuncu, TFF'nin 10+4'lük yabancı kontenjanındaki "genç" maddesini fazlasıyla karşılıyor.

1 MİLYONUN BİRAZ ÜZERİNDE

Kasımpaşa'nın, HamKam'a 1 milyon euronun biraz üzerinde bir teklif yapacağı belirtildi. Norveç temsilcisi, sadece 110 bin euro bonservis bedeli ödediği genç yeteneği satmaya sıcak bakıyor. Kasımpaşa, hücum hattında hava topu üstünlüğü bulunan bir oyuncu istiyordu. Mame Alassane Niang, bu anlamda beklentileri karşılayabilir.

Fenerbahçe'de başkanlık seçiminin bitmesi sonrası transferde gaza basıldı. Sarı-Lacivertliler'in, Zenit'in sağ kanat oyuncusu Luiz Henrique'yi takibe aldığı öğrenildi.

Rus ekibi Zenit, 2025'in Ocak ayında Botafogo'ya 33 milyon euro ödeyerek Luiz Henrique'yi kadrosuna katmıştı. Brezilyalı sağ kanat oyuncusuyla 31 Aralık 2028 tarihine kadar mukavele yapıldı. Sözleşmede ayrıca +1 yıllık uzatma opsiyonu bulunuyor (çift taraflı).

NENE'NİN DURUMUNA BAĞLI

25 yaşındaki sağ kanat, bu sezon Rus Ligi'nde 28 maça çıktı. Sahada 2.038 dakika kaldı. 6 gol ve 4 asist üretti. Fenerbahçe'nin Brezilyalı yıldızı takip etmeye başladığı öğrenildi. Ancak bu transfer tamamen Dorgeles Nene'nin ayrılık durumuna bağlı... Malili futbolcunun adı şu takımlarla anılıyor:

Stuttgart

Borussia Dortmund

Bayer Leverkusen

Marsilya

ONDAN GELECEK PARA

Fenerbahçe, Nene'yi iyi bir rakam karşılığında elden çıkarabilirse, ondan gelecek para Luiz Henrique hamlesinde kullanılacak. Nene kalırsa, bu transfer dosyası kapanacak. Brezilya Milli Takımı'nın da kadrosunda bulunan 1.82 boyundaki Luiz Henrique, ülkesi adına bugüne kadar 15 maça çıktı. Rakip ağları 2 kez havalandırdı.

Galatasaray yaz döneminde kaliteli bir stoper transferi yapmayı planlıyor. Listeye son eklenen ismin, Lille forması giyen Alexsandro olduğu öğrenildi. Ancak oyuncunun sağlık raporları incelenmeden resmi adım atılmayacak.

Galatasaray'ın mevcut kadrosundaki tek sol ayaklı stoper; Abdülkerim Bardakcı... Sarı-Kırmızılılar bu sebeple solak veya her iki ayağını da kullanan bir savunmacı istiyor. Listeye eklenen son ismin Lille forması giyen Alexsandro olduğu öğrenildi. Ancak ortada bir sorun var.

HEYETTEN ONAY ÇIKARSA

26 yaşındaki savunmacı, geride bıraktığımız sezonda bazı sakatlık problemleri yaşadı. Bu sebeple Ligue 1'de sadece 9 maça çıkabildi. Galatasaray'ın, iki ayağını da kullanabilen oyuncu konusunda öncelikle sağlık raporlarını inceleyeceği belirtildi. Eğer Sağlık Heyeti'nden onay çıkarsa, işler ciddileşebilir.

2 MİLYONA ALMIŞLARDI

1.91 boyundaki futbolcunun Lille Kulübü'yle 30 Haziran 2028 tarihine kadar mukavelesi bulunuyor. Tahmini piyasa değeri 15 milyon euro civarında... Fransızlar onu 2022 yazında Chaves ekibinden sadece 2 milyon euroya almıştı. Alexsandro'nun adı önceki yıllarda da Galatasaray'la anılmıştı.

10+4'teki "genç" yabancı kontenjanına uyan Jhon Duran, Galatasaray'ın gündeminde bulunuyor. Yeni yabancı forvet konusunda Icardi'nin ayrılığı beklenirken, Duran'a sürpriz bir talip çıktı.

Fenerbahçe geride bıraktığımız sezonun başında büyük umutlarla Jhon Duran'ı kiralamıştı. Ancak Kolombiyalı forvetle ilgili yaşanan sorunların ardından devre arasında yollar ayrıldı. Al-Nassr bu kez onu Zenit'e kiraladı. Orada da beklentilerin altında kaldı. Suudi Arabistan ekibinin yeni sezon planlamasında Duran yok...

O TAKIM LAZİO

Bu sebeple oyuncuyu satın alma opsiyonuyla birlikte kiralamak istiyorlar. Şu ana kadar Duran'ın tek talibi Galatasaray olarak gözüküyordu. Fakat İtalya basınında çıkan haberlere göre; Lazio da 22 yaşındaki santrforla ilgili harekete geçme kararı aldı....

ALTERNATİFLERE GİDİLECEK

Galatasaray Yönetimi'nde yeni yabancı golcü konusunda Icardi'nin ayrılığı bekleniyor. Arjantinli forvetle temaslar sürüyor. Ancak büyük ihtimalle bu hikaye sona erecek. Duran, Aslan'ın adaylarından biri... Yine de Sarı-Kırmızılılar'ın alternatifleri var. Eğer 1.85 boyundaki futbolcu Lazio'nun yolunu tutarsa, listedeki diğer isimlere gidilecek.

Uzun müddətdir “Qarabağ”ın baş məşqçisi Qurban Qurbanovla görüşmək arzusu olan azarkeş klubun bazasında olub.

Futbolpress.az xəbər verir ki, bu barədə “atlılar”ın mətbuat xidməti məlumat yayıb.

Yaşlı fanata klubun forması təqdim olunub. O, daha sonra baş məşqçi və futbolçularla görüşərək xatirə şəkilləri çəkdirib.

ABŞ, Kanada və Meksikanın ev sahibliyi edəcəyi dünya çempionatı bu gün start götürəcək. “Futbolpress” mundialla bağlı rubrika başladıb – bu müddətdə qrupları, komandaların mundiallardakı çıxışlar və şansları haqda məqalələr dərc edilib.

Ötən yazılarımızda A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, İ və J qrupunu dəyərləndirdik. İndi isə K qrupuna nəzər salaq:

Qrup K
Kolumbiya
Portuqaliya
Özbəkistan
Konqo

Kolumbiya

“Qəhvəçilər” ləqəbli Cənubi Amerika təmsilçisi tarixində yeddinci dəfə dünya çempionatında mübarizə aparacaq. İlk dəfə 1962-ci ildə mundiala qatılan kolumbiyalılar həmin vaxt qrupdan çıxa bilməyib.

Birinci dəfə iştirak etdiyi mundialda SSRİ yığması ilə matçda 1:4 geridə olmasına baxmayaraq, geridönüş edərək 4:4 hesablı heç-heçə əldə etmişdi. Həmin görüşdə tarixin ən yaxşı qapıçılarından hesab edilən Lev Yaşina birbaşa künc zərbəsindən qol vuran Markos Koll qolkiperə unutmayacağı an yaşatmışdı.

Yığmanın dünya çempionatları tarixindəki ən yaxşı nəticəsi 2014-cü ilə aiddir. Komanda həmin mundialda 1/4 finala qədər irəliləmiş, ancaq Braziliyaya uduzaraq, mübarizəni dayandırmışdı. Dünya çempionatında 6 qolla bombardir olan Xames Rodriqes sonda “Qızıl buts”u qazanmışdı. Onun Uruqvaya vurduğu məşhur qol isə turnirin ən yaxşısı seçilmişdi.

Kolumbiya millisi ilə bağlı neqativ hadisə isə 1994-cü il mundialına aiddir. ABŞ ilə oyunda avtoqol müəllifi olan Andres Eskobar turnirdən qayıtdıqdan sonra Medellində qətlə yetirilmişdi. Bu, tarixin ən faciəli hadisələrindən hesab edilir.

Kolumbiya millisinin heyətinin dəyəri 302.35 milyon avrodur. Komandanın aparıcı üzvü “Bavariya”da çıxış edən Luis Diasdır. Heyətdə Luis Suares, Riçard Rios, Con Lukumi kimi son dönəmlərdə adından söz etdirən futbolçular yer alır.

Kolumbiya millisi mundiallarda:
22 oyun, 9 qələbə, 3 heç-heçə, 10 məğlubiyyət.

Portuqaliya

“Dənizçilər” və ya “Beş qalxanlılar” ləqəbli yığma tarixin ən uğurlu kollektivlərindəndir. Portuqallar 9-cu dəfə mundialda iştirak edəcək. İlk dəfə qatıldığı 1966 dünya çempionatında üçüncü yeri tutan komanda daha sonra bu uğurunu təkrarlaya bilməyib.

Tarixin ən yaxşı futbolçularından hesab edilən Kriştiano Ronaldo millinin simvoludur. Millidə ən çox qol vuran oyunçu ünvanını daşıyan portuqaliyalı ulduz həm də yığma ilə mundiallarda ən çox forma geyinəndir – 22 dəfə. Bu mundial Ronaldonun 6-cı dünya çempionatıdır.

“Futbolun Ronaldoya borcu var” kimi fikirlər Portuqaliya yığmasını mundialın favoritləri arasında göstərilməsinə səbəb olur. 41 yaşlı ulduz böyük ehtimalla sonuncu dünya çempionatında iştirak edəcək bu, o və komanda yoldaşları üçün əlavə çempionluq motivasiyası yaradıb.

Portuqaliya millisi mundiallarda:
35 oyun, 17 qələbə, 6 heç-heçə, 12 məğlubiyyət.

Özbəkistan

Mərkəzi Asiyanın güclü kollektivlərindən sayılan “ağ qurdlar” tarixində ilk dəfə dünya çempionatının əsas mərhələsinə qatılıb. Yığma 1992-ci ildən, SSRİ-nin dağılmasından sonra müstəqil komanda ilə beynəlxalq arenada yarışır.

Komanda müstəqilliyindən iki il sonra Asiya Oyunlarında qızıl medal qazanaraq, tarixinin ən böyük uğuruna nail olub.

Yığmanın heyətində Abdukadir Xusanov (“Mançester Siti”), Eldar Şomurodov (“Başakşəhər”) kimi futbolçular yer alıb.

Özbəkistan millisini keçmiş dünya çempionu Fabio Kannavaro çalışdırır. Mütəxəssisin mundial təcrübəsi yığmanın əsas üstünlüyü olacaq.

Konqo

“Bəbirlər” ləqəbli yığma tarixində ikinci dəfə dünya çempionatında iştirak edəcək. Konqo millisi bundan öncə 1974 mundialına qatılıb və qrupda qalıb. Həmin dövrdə ölkə Zair adı altında çıxış edib. Dünya çempionatında debüt “bəbirlər” üçün uğurlu alınmayıb və komanda hər üç oyunu uduzub. Həmin mundialda komanda Yuqoslaviyaya 0:9 hesabıyla məğlub olaraq ölkə futbolunun ən ağrılı nəticəsinə imza atdı.

Həmin mundialda maraqlı məqam komandanın müdafiəçisi Mvepu İllunqa ilə bağlıdır. Braziliya ilə oyunda cərimə zərbəsi başlanmazdan əvvəl topa qaçan İllunqanın uzun müddət futbol qaydalarını bilmədiyi iddia edilmişdi. Lakin oyunçu daha sonra açıqlamasında bu hərəkətinin siyasi etiraz olduğunu bildirmişdi.

Konqo yığmasının heyətinin dəyəri 143.90 milyon avrodur. Komandada Noa Sadiki (“Sanderlend”), Yoan Vissa (“Nyukasl”), Aaron Van-Bissaka (“Vest Hem”) kimi tanınmış futbolçular yer alır.

Konqo millisi mundiallarda:
3 oyun, 3 məğlubiyyət.

K qrupunun afişası:
17 iyun Portuqaliya – Konqo
18 iyun Özbəkistan – Kolumbiya
23 iyun Portuqaliya – Özbəkistan
24 iyun Kolumbiya – Konqo
28 iyun Kolumbiya – Portuqaliya
28 iyun Konqo – Özbəkistan

Şahin Cəfərov

“Mançester Siti” “Tottenhem”dən Pedro Porronu transfer etmək istəyir.

Futbolpress.az xəbər verir ki, bu barədə insayder Fabrizio Romano məlumat yayıb. MS yarımmüdafiəçi üçün təklif göndərməyə hazırlaşır.

“Tottenhem” Porronu buraxmaq niyyətində deyil. Klub onu komandanın əsas oyunçusu hesab edir və daha bir mövsüm Londonda qalmağını istəyir.

İspan futbolçu başa çatan mövsümdə Premyer Liqada 34 oyunda 1 qol vurub.

“Sabah” heyətini yeni futbolçu ilə gücləndirib.

Futbolpress.az xəbər verir ki, fransalı vinger Yunis Laçab bundan sonra “bayquşlar”ın uğurları üçün çalışacaq. Bu barədə klubun mətbuat xidməti məlumat yayıb. Laçab Fransanın “Lill” klubundan bir illik icarəyə götürülüb.

“Lill” klubunun yetirməsi olan 21 yaşlı futbolçu karyerası ərzində klubun əsas və ikinci komandalarında çıxış edib.

Vinger başa çatan mövsümdə əvəzedici komandada 12 oyunda 2 qol vurub, 2 məhsuldar ötürmə edib.

“Sabah”ın Laçabı icarəyə götürəcəyini öncədən yazmışdıq.

Source

Source

Khephren Thuram has attracted exploratory interest from a pair of Premier League clubs, with Juventus prepared to consider selling the French midfielder for a fee of between €45 and €50 million as the club scramble to plug a significant financial gap before the end of June.

According to Tuttosport, Juventus have less than a month to generate approximately €55 million in sales to offset the losses from missing out on Champions League football.

Nico Gonzalez’s departure alone will not be sufficient, and with Bremer’s €58 million release clause not activating until July, the club need to find another major sale before the financial year ends.

With Kenan Yildiz categorically off the table, every other key asset is theoretically available, and Thuram, who has already knocked back approaches from Galatasaray and Fenerbahce, is the latest to attract serious attention.

Lobotka and Kessie identified as Thuram replacements if Premier League clubs firm up interest in Juventus star

The Premier League enquiries are described as exploratory at this stage, clubs testing Juventus’s willingness to sell and establishing a price, but the response from Turin is significant.

An offer in the €45-50 million range would represent a substantial profit and would be genuinely considered.

Should Thuram depart, Juventus have identified potential replacements. Stanislav Lobotka remains a long-standing target, though De Laurentiis is unlikely to sell to a direct rival at a cut price despite a €25 million release clause valid for foreign clubs.

Franck Kessie is also under consideration; the Ivorian is set to leave Al-Ahli as a free agent, though Spalletti’s assessment of his profile and his wage demands present complications of their own.

Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis has set a €10 million asking price for Romelu Lukaku, according to TMW, as the club look to offload the Belgian striker following his fallout with the club at the end of last season.

In the report published on TuttoMercatoWeb, it suggests the price tag represents a significant loss on the approximately €30 million Napoli paid to sign Lukaku in the summer of 2024, but his injury-ravaged campaign and the breakdown in his relationship with the club have drastically reduced his market value.

The former Manchester United and Chelsea forward managed just seven appearances and 64 minutes of football under Antonio Conte this season, contributing a single goal before a thigh injury effectively ended his campaign.

Allegri decision key to Lukaku future as Napoli await World Cup return

The one factor that could yet keep Lukaku in Naples is incoming coach Massimiliano Allegri, who has long admired the striker from afar and reportedly attempted to sign him from Chelsea in the past.

Any decision is likely to be deferred until after the World Cup, with Lukaku currently on international duty with Belgium.

Interested clubs have been put on notice; €10 million is the figure required to open talks.

Cafu has backed Carlo Ancelotti to restore Brazil’s identity and belief at the 2026 World Cup, drawing on his own experience of winning the tournament twice to explain why the right coach and the right spirit can prove just as decisive as individual talent.

Writing for Gazzetta dello Sport, the former Milan and Brazil legend was unequivocal in his admiration for Ancelotti.

“We are talking about one of the most successful and respected coaches in the history of football,” Cafu wrote.

“His international experience, his ability to manage great players and his composure can be fundamental qualities for a national team that in recent years has shown talent but has often been lacking in decisive moments. Ancelotti brings serenity and leadership. Brazil needs to rediscover confidence and identity, without giving up that creativity which has always characterised our football.”

Cafu recalls Ronaldinho’s 2002 dance as blueprint for Brazil’s World Cup spirit as Ancelotti prepares to lead charge

To illustrate his point, Cafu reached back to the 2002 World Cup, the tournament he considers the perfect blueprint for what Brazil must recreate.

“Mister Felipe Scolari gathered us together and told us the atmosphere was not right; we needed more joy,” he wrote.

“Ronaldinho did not need to be told twice and started a rhythm that swept us all along. From that moment the group loosened up and we began to live each day with more lightness. That team was very strong, but the difference was also made by unity, smiles and the desire to be together.”

On his prediction for this summer, Cafu was bold.

“I see Brazil among the candidates for the final victory,” he wrote.

“I believe that with Carlo Ancelotti and the potential of our squad, the Seleção has every reason to reach at least the semi-finals. And when Brazil reaches the last four, anything can happen. Because the history of our football teaches one thing: when Brazil rediscovers confidence and team spirit, it becomes a national team nobody wants to face.”

Real Madrid have proposed Franco Mastantuono to Juventus on a straight loan deal as the two clubs continue to negotiate on multiple fronts this summer, with the Argentine teenager potentially available as a low-cost solution to the Bianconeri’s attacking overhaul.

According to TuttoSport, Madrid are keen to find Mastantuono a European club where he can play regularly next season, accepting that he may not command a starting role at the Bernabeu in 2026/27.

A permanent sale is categorically off the table, the club believe strongly in the player’s potential, but a loan arrangement mirrors the formula used two summers ago with Como for Nico Paz, and suits all parties in principle.

Juventus taking time to assess Mastantuono fit as Real Madrid push other Serie A options

Juventus are taking a measured approach, however.

The club’s hierarchy want to assess whether Mastantuono’s profile is compatible with Spalletti’s system before committing, particularly given the scale of the attacking rebuild already underway following the departures of Vlahovic, Milik and the expected exits of Jonathan David and Lois Openda.

Real Madrid are not prepared to wait indefinitely and have already approached other Serie A clubs, including those without European football, where Mastantuono would have a clearer path to regular minutes.

Separately, discussions between Juventus and Madrid over Gonzalo Garcia are also ongoing, though that deal would be structured as a permanent transfer with a buy-back clause rather than a loan.

The broader Juventus-Madrid axis also encompasses Brahim Diaz, whose situation will only become clearer after Morocco’s World Cup campaign concludes.

Real Madrid have reportedly switched their focus to Manchester City defender Josko Gvardiol as Arsenal don’t want to sell Riccardo Calafiori.

The Spanish giants are also considering Chelsea defender Levi Colwill as another alternative as they continue to look for signings in defence.

That’s according to TEAMtalk, who state that Calafiori is not available, whereas Gvardiol has just two years left on his contract, so might be more realistic.

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And while Colwill is also appreciated, he is not yet considered a priority for Los Blancos, so it seems like the Gvardiol saga will be one to watch.

Josko Gvardiol’s Manchester City future in doubt

Gvardiol has been a key player for Man City, but there is still no agreement over a new contract, so it makes sense that this is a situation Real are keeping a close eye on.

We have also received information from sources on Real’s interest in two other City players – Ruben Dias and Matheus Nunes.

Gvardiol might make more sense for Madrid if they want someone of a similar profile to Calafiori – a young and versatile player capable of operating well at centre-back or left-back.

Dias could also be a good option for incoming manager Jose Mourinho, but this is certainly far from ideal for City after the upheaval they’ve already suffered this summer with Pep Guardiola’s departure.

Riccardo Calafiori news is boost for Arsenal

Most Arsenal fans will surely be pleased to hear that Calafiori now looks set to stay at the Emirates Stadium.

The Italy international was a key player for the Gunners as they won the Premier League title and reached the Champions League final in a memorable 2025/26 campaign.

More Stories / Latest News

Update: Real Madrid given answer on Arsenal star as two other transfer targets named

Jun 11 2026, 16:48

Bid made: Fabrizio Romano says Newcastle United “confident” of signing €30m star “very soon”

Jun 11 2026, 16:14

World Cup debutants forced to change kit by FIFA for ‘political reasons’

Jun 11 2026, 15:52

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Admittedly, though, Calafiori does have a bit of a poor injury record, so perhaps the right offer could have given Arsenal something to think about.

Still, this latest update suggests Real are looking elsewhere, so Arsenal won’t need to think too much about making any major changes to their back line this summer.

The post Update: Real Madrid given answer on Arsenal star as two other transfer targets named appeared first on CaughtOffside.

Newcastle United are reportedly close to sealing the €30m transfer of Osasuna winger Victor Munoz, according to Fabrizio Romano.

The 22-year-old has impressed in La Liga and looks like a prospect for the future, and Newcastle need a signing like that out wide after the sale of Anthony Gordon to Barcelona.

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According to Romano, Newcastle have made an official bid and are expected to finalise this €30m deal very soon.

See below for details, with Real Madrid also having a sell-on clause on the player, meaning they’ll get 50% of his transfer fee…

Fabrizio Romano on Newcastle’s bid for Victor Munoz

? Newcastle, confident to seal Victor Muñoz deal very soon for package over €30m after official bid sent today.

Real Madrid have 50% sell-on clause and buy back clause but #NUFC optimistic to proceed quickly. ???? pic.twitter.com/TzyWfRuej1

— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) June 11, 2026

Romano posted on X: “Newcastle, confident to seal Victor Muñoz deal very soon for package over €30m after official bid sent today. Real Madrid have 50% sell-on clause and buy back clause but #NUFC optimistic to proceed quickly.”

Newcastle fans will no doubt hope this can be completed quickly as Romano suggests, with Eddie Howe’s squad in need of strengthening after the blow of losing Gordon, which followed an already difficult season at St James’ Park.

Want more CaughtOffside coverage? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list for news you can trust

NUFC lost Alexander Isak last summer and their signings to replace him didn’t really work out, with the club failing to repeat the success of 2024/25 when they won the Carabao Cup final and qualified for the Champions League.

More Stories / Latest News

Update: Real Madrid given answer on Arsenal star as two other transfer targets named

Jun 11 2026, 16:48

Bid made: Fabrizio Romano says Newcastle United “confident” of signing €30m star “very soon”

Jun 11 2026, 16:14

World Cup debutants forced to change kit by FIFA for ‘political reasons’

Jun 11 2026, 15:52

Munoz looks like he could be a good fit to help get Newcastle back on track, but one imagines the club will also need to keep on working on finding talent that can take this team to the next level after an up-and-down few years.

MORE: World Cup 2026 live coverage

The post Bid made: Fabrizio Romano says Newcastle United “confident” of signing €30m star “very soon” appeared first on CaughtOffside.

The World Cup is just hours away from getting underway, but FIFA are still in the process of getting their ducks in a row before the tournament begins. Just over 72 hours before their campaign gets underway in the highly anticipated clash with Scotland, debutants Haiti have been forced to change their kit.

The Haitian side are making their first appearance at the World Cup in their history after coming through Concacaf qualifying. They topped their group with Honduras, Costa Rica and Nicaragua, winning three of their six ties against the Central American trio. The Caribbean island count Premier League duo Jean-Ricner Bellegarde (Wolves) and Wilson Isidor (Sunderland) amongst their ranks, and will be looking to pull off a shock.

FIFA force Haiti to alter home kit for World Cup

As reported by The Athletic, Haiti have agreed to alter their home kits after FIFA told them that it contained a political statement. By regulations, FIFA do not permit national teams to make political statements on official uniform. FIFA explained that the image of revolutionary fighters hoisting the country’s flag could be ‘interpreted differently’, and requested the change.

The Haitian Football Federation had the following to say on the matter, calling it a ‘misinterpretation’.

“Following a misinterpretation, FIFA officials asked the federation to remove an image depicting Vertières and some independence heroes raising the Haitian flag.”

Nevertheless, they have removed the image from their kit, after requesting manufacturer Saeta to alter it.

Background behind Vertieres image

The image is a reference to the slave revolution in Haiti in 1803, led by Toussaint Louverture, overthrew French rule. It is, as things stand, the only slave revolution to result in rule by a government of those who were previously being oppressed.

FIFA have drawn criticism for the United States’ handling of the tournament, refusing visas and travel permission for numerous fans, a referee and the Iranian team.

The post World Cup debutants forced to change kit by FIFA for ‘political reasons’ appeared first on CaughtOffside.

Your backlog is full. Your developer wants to know what to tackle first. Your boss wants to know why three months of SEO work haven’t moved the needle. And you’re stuck defending your roadmap with gut feelings.

If you can’t tell someone how much traffic a fix is worth before you ship it, you’re guessing. Guessing doesn’t hold up in budget meetings.

This is a framework for turning messy data into directional estimates. Not perfect, but good enough to prioritize with confidence and explain your thinking to anyone in the room.

Why every recommendation can’t be high priority

When everything is urgent, nothing gets done well.

I’ve watched teams spend two sprints fixing an obscure schema issue affecting three pages while a title tag template bug quietly dragged down thousands of product pages. Both were flagged “high priority” in the audit. One was worth maybe 50 clicks a month. The other? Closer to 15,000.

Traffic is the lens that reveals true priority. It doesn’t mean you ignore brand visibility or UX, but it gives you a common unit to compare recommendations. Without quantified impact, you’re letting the squeakiest stakeholder, or the most interesting technical puzzle, drive your roadmap instead of actual business value.

One more thing to factor in: The SERP landscape has shifted dramatically underneath your forecasts. SparkToro’s latest research found that 68% of U.S. Google searches in the first four months of 2026 ended without a click, up from 58.5% just two years ago.

AI Overviews, featured snippets, and answer boxes are intercepting traffic before anyone reaches your site, and it’s accelerating. Research from Seer Interactive found organic CTR for informational queries with AI Overviews fell 61% between mid-2024 and late 2025.

That means the same ranking improvement can deliver wildly different results depending on SERP layout.

A jump from position eight to three on a commercial keyword might triple your traffic. The same move on an informational query dominated by an AI Overview? You might see nothing.

Your forecasts need to account for this, or you’ll overpromise every quarter.

Your customers search everywhere. Make sure your brand shows up.

The SEO toolkit you know, plus the AI visibility data you need.

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Step 1: Define the scope

Before you estimate anything, nail down the scope. Is this a sitewide technical change, a template fix, or a single-page optimization? The answer completely changes your math.

Sitewide technical fixes

These include site speed, mobile usability, HTTPS migrations, and Core Web Vitals. Touch every page, but not every page benefits equally. 

A CWV fix might move pages that were borderline failing while doing nothing for pages that were already passing. Segment by current performance before you estimate exposure.

Template-level changes

Rewriting title tags across all product pages or fixing a broken canonical pattern across blog posts can have an outsized impact, but weigh your forecast by where traffic actually lives. Your product templates might drive 80% of organic clicks while your blog drives 10%.

Individual page optimizations

Examples include refreshing meta descriptions, adding internal links, and updating old content. These are easier to model but harder to scale. Even a 50% lift on five pages might not move a business needle. Great for quick wins, but don’t let them crowd out the bigger opportunities.

Step 2: Calculate your current traffic exposure

Once you know which pages are in scope, pull the numbers from Google Search Console.

• Organic clicks give you your baseline. Filter by the affected URLs, look at the last 90 days, and note the trend. If clicks are declining, the fix may be urgent, or the keyword itself might be softening. Context matters.
• Impressions and near-win rankings tell you where the real upside lives. Pages ranking positions 8-15 are your low-hanging fruit. They’re already visible, just not getting clicked. Push them into the top five and CTR jumps. Filter for pages with high impressions and low CTR. That’s your opportunity zone.
• SERP feature prevalence matters more than it used to. Check whether your target keywords trigger AI Overviews or other features. Google now reports AI Mode impression data directly in Search Console, which gives you a clearer picture of where your visibility is showing up, even if clicks aren’t flowing from it. If AI features dominate a keyword’s SERP, temper your click expectations accordingly.

Step 3: Estimate potential lift

Now comes the educated part.

Your own history

If you optimized a batch of category pages six months ago and saw an average 18% traffic bump, use that as your baseline for the next batch. Keep a running log of past projects and their outcomes. 

Over time, you’ll build a benchmark library that makes every forecast faster and more credible to the people you’re presenting to.

Competitor benchmarks and SERP analysis

Look at who’s ranking above you. Are they doing something obviously better: longer content, stronger UX, or more authoritative backlinks? 

If your fix closes that gap, you can reasonably forecast a ranking gain. Tools like Ahrefs or Semrush let you compare page metrics side by side.

AI-influenced CTR assumptions

This is where many forecasts quietly fall apart. CTR curves from even a few years ago no longer hold. 

Organic CTR on informational queries with AI Overviews dropped from 1.76% to 0.61%, research from Seer Interactive found. That’s a 61% decline between mid-2024 and late 2025. 

There’s some encouraging news: Seer’s 2026 update found CTR on AI Overview queries climbed back to 2.4% by February 2026, suggesting the steepest period of compression may be leveling off. 

Still, I apply a meaningful CTR discount to informational queries and keep commercial queries closer to legacy benchmarks, then adjust based on what I’m actually seeing in Search Console for that specific keyword set.

Step 4: Build three scenarios, not one number

A single forecast number feels confident. It’s also a lie.

You don’t know if Google will index your changes this week or next quarter. You don’t know if a competitor will rebrand and steal your featured snippet. You don’t know if your dev will ship the fix with a bug that tanks page speed. So stop pretending you do.

Give stakeholders three numbers: conservative, expected, and aggressive. These models provide estimates, not exact figures, and as long as that’s clearly communicated, any model you build adds value.

Here’s how to construct the three scenarios:

• Conservative: Assume partial implementation, delayed indexing, and that competitors improve at the same time. Apply the lowest lift you’ve seen from comparable past fixes. This is your “we still made progress” floor.
• Expected: Use your best historical benchmark, assume normal rollout timelines, and factor in current SERP dynamics. This is the number you’d bet on if you had to pick one.
• Aggressive: Assume clean implementation, faster-than-usual indexing, and that you pick up a featured snippet or two. This is your “stars align” ceiling. It happens. Just not every time.

Apply AI impact to each scenario, too. In your conservative case, assume AI Overviews expand further into informational queries. In your expected case, assume the current SERP feature prevalence holds. In your aggressive case, assume you capture snippet features that offset some CTR loss.

For example, you’re forecasting a title tag template fix across 300 product pages pulling 22,000 clicks per month. Based on past template work, you’ve seen 12% to 20% CTR lifts after ranking improvements.

• Conservative: 12% lift → ~2,600 additional monthly clicks.
• Expected: 16% lift → ~3,500 additional monthly clicks.
• Aggressive: 20% lift → ~4,400 additional monthly clicks.

Now multiply by your average conversion rate and order value, and that range becomes a revenue conversation, not an SEO conversation. That’s what gets your fix prioritized.

Step 5: Use the forecast to build your roadmap

Here’s where it pays off. You’ve got 20 items in your backlog. You’ve forecasted traffic impact for each. Now sort by expected value, weight by effort (developer hours, content hours, etc.), and build a simple impact-versus-effort matrix. 

Prioritization frameworks like RICE (reach, impact, confidence, effort) can help you rank competing initiatives more systematically.

High impact, low effort? Ship it now. High impact, high effort? Plan it next quarter and get buy-in early. Low impact, high effort? Drop it or save it for a slow month.

Suddenly, your roadmap makes sense to everyone, not just you.

A few traps to avoid as you do this: 

• Don’t overcount affected pages (check how many are noindexed before you run the math). 
• Don’t ignore seasonality (a December forecast in retail lives in a different universe than June). 
• Never treat your baseline as static. If your site loses backlinks or a competitor launches a major content push, your projections shift.

It’s also worth noting that GSC reporting itself changed in late 2025 when Google stopped supporting the &num=100 parameter, which affected how impressions and position data appear. Treat data from that point forward as your new normal.

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The goal is directional accuracy

When you present a forecast, say the quiet part out loud: “I’m highly confident we’ll hit the conservative number. I’m moderately confident we’ll hit the expected. Aggressive depends on factors outside our control.”

That framing protects you when reality comes in 20% lower. More importantly, it makes you look like the person in the room who’s actually thought things through, not the one selling fantasy numbers to win approval.

Nobody expects you to predict the future. They just want to know you’ve done the work and that your roadmap is built on something real.

Directional accuracy gets you there. Perfect precision is a distraction.

Google is rolling out enhanced Local Services Ads (LSAs) for Home Listings across all 50 U.S. states, giving homebuyers more property information directly within ads and creating new lead opportunities for real estate agents.

Homebuyers increasingly begin their search on Google, and the expanded ad format is designed to connect them with local agents earlier in the buying journey.

What’s new. The updated LSA experience now includes property details within the ad itself, including pricing, photos and key home features.

The experience is powered through a partnership with HouseCanary, whose property data platform supplies listing information shown in the ads.

Why we care. Google is moving further down the purchase funnel, allowing real estate advertisers to showcase actual listings — complete with photos, pricing and property details — directly within Local Services Ads. That means buyers can evaluate homes and contact agents without leaving Search, potentially increasing lead quality and conversion rates.

How it works. Buyers searching for homes can contact agents directly from the ad by calling, messaging or booking an appointment.

Who benefits. Existing LSA advertisers will automatically be included in the new experience. Real estate professionals not currently using Local Services Ads can sign up to begin receiving leads, while portal partners can enroll agents through Google’s managed partner program.

The bottom line. Google is betting that richer listing information combined with direct agent connections will make Search a more useful starting point for homebuyers — and a valuable source of high-intent leads for agents.

SEO content is starting to sound painfully repetitive.

Search for almost anything online and you’ll find pages repeating the same advice in slightly different ways. Now that AI tools can create blog posts in seconds, the problem is getting worse.

There’s more content than ever, but much of it feels forgettable. This homogeneity is becoming a real issue for SEO.

Real experience is becoming a bigger SEO differentiator

As AI-generated content floods search results, businesses need something that helps them stand out. Right now, one of the biggest things separating good content from bad content is real experience.

AI can write content. But it can’t replace lived experience.

It can’t tell people what happened when a strategy failed. It can’t explain the lessons learned from working with real clients. It can’t share the small details that come from years of doing the work.

That human side matters more than many businesses realize.

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So much SEO content sounds the same

For years, SEO focused heavily on creating content around keywords and search terms. Businesses were encouraged to publish more and more articles to increase visibility.

The problem is that many websites ended up producing content that sounded identical.

Now AI has made that even easier.

Anyone can create a blog called “10 SEO tips” or “How to rank higher on Google” in under a minute. The internet already has thousands of them, and most add nothing new.

People are tired of reading content that feels copied, even when it technically isn’t.

The pages that stand out now usually feel more human.

They include:

• Real examples.
• Honest opinions.
• Lessons learned.
• Client stories.
• Testing and results.
• Personal insight.

In short, they sound like they were written by someone who has done the job. And that distinction is becoming increasingly important as search changes.

Search has evolved. Your content needs to as well.

Google has spent years talking about trust and experience in content. At the same time, AI search tools are making it easier for people to get quick answers without clicking through endless websites.

That evolution means basic information alone is becoming less valuable. If AI can already summarize general advice, businesses need to offer something more. This is where real experience becomes especially valuable for SEO.

A business owner sharing what genuinely worked for them will often build more trust than another polished article filled with generic advice. A case study showing real results carries more weight than a page stuffed with keywords.

Specific details make content feel believable. And that level of detail is something AI still struggles to do well because it can only work from existing information. It can’t truly speak from experience.

For small businesses, that distinction can be especially valuable. Big brands often rely on their name and reputation. Smaller businesses usually win customers because people trust them, like them, and feel a connection with them. That human side can become a real SEO advantage.

AI works best when paired with real expertise

None of this advice means businesses should stop using AI.

When used properly, AI can help with research, planning, idea generation, and speeding up content creation. Most marketers already use it in some way, and that use will continue.

But the businesses getting the best results aren’t relying on AI alone. They’re combining AI with real knowledge, personality, and experience. They’re adding opinions, stories, and insights that can’t simply be generated in seconds. That’s what makes people pay attention.

SEO isn’t about publishing the most content. It’s about creating content people remember and trust. As more websites fill up with AI-generated articles that all sound the same, genuinely human content becomes more valuable.

Because while AI can write words, it still can’t replace real experience.

We’ve spent the last two years optimizing for AI visibility by focusing on what we say about ourselves: writing better About pages, adding clear schema and SameAs markup, structuring content more effectively, and providing more direct answers.

All of these principles still apply and are essential for the qualification phase of an LLM’s brand processing (clarity + relevance). But a study João da Silva and I conducted using Friction AI’s platform puts a number on a factor the industry has been circling around but couldn’t prove.

Among brands that were already recognized (where the LLM could describe them accurately), Knowledge Graph (KG) strength predicted visibility within the category each brand was coded to. What it didn’t predict was whether a brand would surface in an adjacent category query, even if it belonged there from a business perspective. In other words, recognition didn’t guarantee recommendation. That’s the framing gap.

What brands did we test and how did we test them?

For this case study, we tested 12 athleisure and activewear brands across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, and Google AI Overviews: 14,140 API runs over seven days, using UK geography with web search enabled.

For each brand, we ran two types of prompts:

• Recognition prompts (“What is [Brand]?” and “Describe [Brand]”)
• Recommendation prompts (“Best athleisure brands,” “Top 10 athleisure brands,” and “Which athletic apparel brands are worth buying in 2026?”)

The brands spanned three Knowledge Graph tiers, assigned by Google KG resultScore (the raw score returned by Google’s Knowledge Graph Search API — a proxy for how strongly an entity is established in Google’s index), so we could test whether KG strength predicted recommendation visibility:

• Low KG: LNDR, TALA, Gymshark, Varley.
• Mid KG: Reebok, Outdoor Voices, Rhone Apparel, Sweaty Betty.
• High KG: Alo Yoga, Nike, lululemon, New Balance.

Spoiler ahead: The high-KG brands didn’t dominate recommendations. The mid-KG tier showed the largest average gap between recognition and recommendation.

Within the high-KG tier, some brands were universally recommended, while others were nearly invisible in recommendation prompts, despite being perfectly recognized across every LLM we tested.

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Recommendations: What the co-mention data showed

We mapped how often brands appeared together in athleisure content across external sources (articles, reviews, comparison pieces, and editorial lists) crawled via API from UK-indexed sources.

Some of the most interesting results include:

• lululemon + Alo Yoga: 534 co-mentions.
• lululemon + Nike: 482 co-mentions.
• Alo Yoga + Nike: 449 co-mentions.
• Gymshark + lululemon: 264 co-mentions.
• Gymshark + Alo Yoga: 252 co-mentions.

These brands appear together repeatedly in the same articles, roundups, and editorial comparisons across independent sources. Together, they form a cluster that the LLM treats as “athleisure.”

Now look at the other end of the spectrum. New Balance co-occurs with lululemon in athleisure content so rarely that it doesn’t appear in the top pairs at all. Nike co-occurs with lululemon roughly 50 times more often than New Balance does.

Nike, New Balance, and Reebok share the exact same Google Knowledge Graph description: “Footwear company.” From an entity standpoint, they start from the same position. But Nike is inside the athleisure cluster. New Balance and Reebok are entirely outside it.

The LLM isn’t evaluating these brands independently and deciding which ones fit athleisure. It’s pattern-matching against associations built from external content. If a brand hasn’t appeared consistently alongside lululemon, Alo Yoga, and Gymshark in the content the model trained on — or retrieves from — it doesn’t belong in that cluster because the semantic association was never built.

Nike, the hero: Same KG description, completely different results

Nike, New Balance, and Reebok share the same KG entity description: “Footwear company.” LLM probing across all five systems assigns all three unanimously to the athletic_footwear category, so from a pure entity-clarity standpoint, they start from the same position.

However, their recommendation rates in athleisure queries aren’t remotely equivalent.

Nike surfaces in 71% of athleisure recommendation prompts, while New Balance and Reebok appear in 0% across all five LLMs and all 14,140 runs.

The difference isn’t how they’re defined (“Footwear company”). It’s which conversations they appear in and which other brands appear alongside them.

LLMs don’t infer category adjacency. If a brand hasn’t been consistently mentioned alongside the relevant players in a category — in press, reviews, editorial content, and comparison pieces — the model doesn’t make the leap. Jason Barnard describes this well: if A plus B should equal J, you have to construct that path explicitly. The model won’t build it for you.

New Balance’s co-mention density lives in running and performance content. Nobody built the semantic bridge from running → athletic lifestyle → athleisure in external content, so the model doesn’t cross it. The Knowledge Graph says “Footwear company,” and the third-party corpus confirms footwear. Athleisure queries retrieve the athleisure corpus, and New Balance isn’t in it.

The third-party citation weight in recommendation vs. recognition data

When we split citations by prompt type — recognition vs. recommendation — a pattern emerges that should reframe where most GEO budgets are being spent.

For recognition prompts — where the user has already typed your brand name — own-brand content is the dominant source:

• ChatGPT cited own-brand content 49% of the time.
• Perplexity: 36%.
• Claude: 23%.

This is where your About page and homepage are used for clarity, and your services, category, and guide pages are used for relevance.

Recommendation prompts give us completely different results. When the user hasn’t named your brand and is asking for the best option in a category, own-brand citations drop to 18% on ChatGPT and to effectively zero on Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews. Third-party sources account for 82% to 100% of what gets cited across all five systems.

The GEO community has argued for some time that external signals matter more than on-site optimization for recommendation visibility, and this data puts specific numbers behind that argument. It also shows that external signals aren’t all the same thing.

• Entity clarity gets a brand recognized. That’s a problem you solve on your own site.
• External credibility gets it considered. That’s a PR and corroboration problem.
• Co-mention density in the right category cluster places a brand in the concept graph for a specific recommendation query. That’s a category-positioning problem. 

These are three separate problems that require different solutions. Conflating them is why many GEO recommendations stop short.

The practical addition to any GEO audit is this: after checking entity clarity and external credibility, audit where you appear in relation to others.

• Are your press mentions listing you alongside your actual category competitors?
• Do the roundups that include you also name the brands that dominate your target category? 

If not, the LLM has probably never learned to associate you with that category because it has never seen you in that “company.” Unlike entity clarity or schema, it’s not something you can fix on your own website. That’s the gap.

What the co-mention structure means for PR and content strategy

As we’ve seen so far, being mentioned in a category isn’t enough. Being mentioned alongside the right brands in a category is what places you in the concept graph for that cluster.

A press mention that describes a brand as “performance apparel” in isolation does little to advance its athleisure concept graph placement. 

A press mention that lists it alongside lululemon, Alo Yoga, and Gymshark in an editorial comparison does considerably more because it builds the co-occurrence signal the model needs to associate the brand with that cluster.

The same logic applies across content type.

Editorial roundups and comparison pieces 

Being included in “best of” lists that name your category competitors is worth more to your concept graph than a standalone brand profile. The cluster signal comes from appearing in the same article as the brands that define the category.

Podcast appearances

If the host introduces you in relation to specific named brands, or compares your approach to a category leader, that co-occurrence gets indexed. 

A bio that says “founder of [Brand], which competes with lululemon and Gymshark in the premium athleisure space” does different work than a bio that says “founder of [Brand], a performance apparel company.”

Analyst and industry reports

Category-level reports that group brands together are high-signal co-mention sources. Being included in a sector analysis alongside your category peers places you in the concept graph in a way that standalone coverage doesn’t.

Retailer and comparison taxonomy

Being stocked and categorized alongside category leaders in a major retailer’s taxonomy is a co-mention signal. The retailer’s category page is external content that places your brand in a cluster.

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A note on the data and what comes next

This study covers a single category — athleisure and activewear — with 12 brands tested in the UK. The co-mention figures are raw co-occurrence counts from UK-indexed sources crawled via API, covering content indexed at the time of the study in May 2026. Cross-category validation and additional geography testing are in progress.

The full paper, “The Recognition-Recommendation Gap: Empirical Evidence That Category Coding, Not Knowledge-Graph Strength, Determines Brand Visibility in Generative AI Output,” has been published by João da Silva and me on Zenodo and documents the methodology, brand sample, prompt set, and extraction code in sufficient detail for independent replication.

But the pattern in the co-mention data is clear enough to act on now. Three brands share the same Knowledge Graph description: one appears in 71% of athleisure recommendation responses, and two appear in 0%. The structural difference is co-mention density in category-aligned third-party content.

The question worth asking about any brand is this: In the content that talks about your category, are you in the room, and are you in the right company?

The search industry is experiencing something many of us have never seen before.

The supply of search talent now exceeds the demand for search talent.

Blame artificial intelligence. Blame the economy. Blame years of checkbox SEO execution becoming increasingly commoditized.

Whatever the reason, the result is the same.

Search layoffs are up. Job openings are down. The market is more competitive than at any point in my 15+ year career.

The uncomfortable reality is that many of the skills that once made an SEO valuable are becoming easier to automate, outsource, or generate with AI.

Pull up a chair.

Let’s talk about why this is happening, what skills are becoming table stakes, and what employers should actually be looking for when hiring SEO talent in 2026.

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The first SEO jobs AI comes for

One of the biggest misconceptions surrounding AI is that it’s coming for SEO jobs.

I don’t believe that’s what’s happening.

What I do believe is happening is that AI is changing which SEO skills employers are willing to pay a premium for.

Historically, a significant portion of SEO work revolved around gathering information and generating recommendations. Technical audits, content briefs, keyword clustering, schema markup, metadata recommendations, and competitive analyses all required time, experience, and effort.

Those activities still matter today.

The difference is that they are becoming dramatically easier to produce.

An SEO can now use AI to generate a first-pass audit, content brief, or optimization recommendation in minutes. What once took hours can often be accomplished in seconds.

This doesn’t make the output worthless. It simply changes where the value resides.

For years, many organizations treated recommendations as the deliverable. The audit was the deliverable. The roadmap was the deliverable. The deck was the deliverable.

But recommendations were never the end goal.

Recommendations only create value when they lead to prioritization, implementation, and measurable business outcomes.

AI helps solve the problem of idea generation.

It does very little to solve the implementation problem.

That’s why I believe the first SEO jobs AI comes for are those centered around producing recommendations rather than driving outcomes.

As the cost of generating recommendations approaches zero, employers naturally place greater value on the people who can determine which recommendations matter and implement them.

In other words, AI is commoditizing parts of SEO execution.

It is not commoditizing judgment.

What AI still struggles to do

As AI becomes better at generating recommendations, the value of SEO talent shifts elsewhere.

Prioritization. Testing. Communication. Influence. Judgment.

These aren’t new skills. They’ve always mattered.

The difference is that they are quickly becoming the primary differentiators.

Most organizations don’t suffer from a shortage of ideas. They suffer from a shortage of alignment, execution, and good decision-making.

Finally, there is judgment.

A few weeks ago, I found myself disagreeing with Gemini about a topic I know extremely well. The answer sounded reasonable. The explanation was polished. The problem was that it was wrong.

As AI becomes more capable, the ability to identify when it is confidently wrong becomes a skill in itself.

The future SEO isn’t the person who can generate the most recommendations.

It’s the person who knows which recommendations actually matter.

The new SEO career framework

For years, the career progression of an SEO was fairly straightforward.

• Learn more about SEO. Get promoted.
• Learn technical SEO. Get promoted.
• Learn content strategy. Get promoted.
• Learn analytics. Get promoted.

While those skills are still important, AI is rapidly reducing the value of knowledge for knowledge’s sake. The ability to produce SEO recommendations is becoming more accessible every day.

That doesn’t mean expertise no longer matters. It means the skills layered on top of that expertise matter more.

Today’s most valuable search professionals understand search. They understand AI. They understand how businesses operate. Most importantly, they know how to align people, priorities, and resources around a common objective.

The higher you climb within an organization, the less your success depends on your ability to identify problems and the more it depends on your ability to solve them.

AI scales execution. People scale vision.

What I’d look for if I were hiring today

If I were hiring an SEO in 2026, I wouldn’t spend much time asking about canonical tags, title tags, or XML sitemaps.

Not because those topics are unimportant, but because I can quickly determine whether someone understands the fundamentals.

What I’d really want to understand is how that person operates when things become messy.

I’d ask them to share a recommendation nobody agreed with.

Years ago, I argued that H1 tags provided virtually no ranking benefit.

People laughed. Some openly disagreed. Eventually, John Mueller echoed a similar position, and Bill Slawski had been discussing the concept for years.

I don’t care whether the candidate was right.

I care whether they had the conviction to challenge assumptions and the communication skills to navigate disagreement.

I’d ask about a failed test.

Every experienced SEO has watched a seemingly great initiative die somewhere between recommendation and implementation. The difference is what happened next. Did they move on to the next project, or did they find a way to remove blockers and maintain momentum?

I’d ask about a project that stalled.

Every experienced SEO has watched a seemingly great initiative die somewhere between recommendation and implementation. The difference is what happened next. Did they move on to the next project, or did they find a way to remove blockers and keep the momentum going?

I’d also ask where AI gave them bad advice.

The common theme across all of these questions is simple.

I’m not looking for someone who knows SEO. I’m looking for someone who can turn SEO knowledge into outcomes.

The easiest part of SEO has always been knowing what to do. The hard part is getting it done, generating tangible results.

AI won’t replace SEOs, but the lazy ones are toast.

This post first appeared on the author’s website and is republished here with permission.

The United States men’s national team begins its World Cup on Friday night against Paraguay at SoFi Stadium (9 p.m. ET, FOX), and the opening game’s result has long been an omen for the team’s hopes of advancing.

In 10 previous World Cups with a group stage, the U.S. has advanced all six times after winning or drawing its opener, and been eliminated in the group stage all four times after losing the opener.

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The U.S. is a -110 favorite to win the match, with Paraguay at +320 and the tie at +240 odds at sportsbooks. The United States is not only the favorite to win Group D (+150), but is an overwhelming favorite (-625) to qualify from the group and make it to the Round of 32.

The forgiving new format with eight of 12 third-place teams advancing means that the initial result is less critical, but the U.S. still wants to win the group or at least finish second to get a more favorable matchup in the knockout round. 

With that in mind, here are two bets I like for the U.S. opener:

United States over 0.5 first-half goals (+100)

The U.S. enters the tournament having played 11 consecutive games against 2026 World Cup teams. In eight of those games, the U.S. scored in the first half. That lines up with the underlying numbers and the eye test, which has seen the Americans be aggressive early on. The U.S. had 11 first-half shots against Germany and eight against each of Senegal, Portugal and Belgium this year. 

More than half of the U.S. lineup will likely have been on the 2022 World Cup roster, and the team has talked about being more aggressive now that half the squad has World Cup experience. I expect the Americans to go right at Paraguay from the opening kick, creating plenty of chances for a first-half goal. 

Both teams to score (+110)

While the U.S. has attacked well against strong opposition, the defense also has not been stellar. In the aforementioned 11 games vs teams as this World Cup, the U.S. has had one shutout, in September against a Japan team that didn’t have all its regular starters.

The U.S. beat Paraguay 2-1 in November, with 1.1 expected goals to Paraguay’s 0.7 on eight shots apiece. A defensive-minded Paraguay may try to keep this game tight, but an aggressive style from the U.S. should open it up. Plus Chris Richards, the best U.S. center back, probably won’t play as he continues to recover from an ankle injury.

If I had to pick a score, I’d go with a repeat of last year and a 2-1 U.S. win. I’d rather play both teams to score though, especially getting plus money. 

Thursday is the final day of minicamp for the Green Bay Packers, who have another week of Organized Training Activities left in the offseason program. However, head coach Matt LaFleur has decided to give his veterans a break this spring, sending them home a week early for the summer.

Ahead of Thursday’s practice, LaFleur spoke to the media and informed them that only the team’s rookies will be required to stay in Green Bay through next week. Veterans will instead be dismissed for the summer following today’s practice, having gone through just two weeks of OTA practices plus minicamp. It’s a new approach for LaFleur’s Packers, but so is scheduling minicamp for the second-to-last week of the program instead of the final week.

This may have to do with the spring program stretching farther into June than usual. With the NFL’s season starting later in 2026, training camps are likely to be pushed back a bit later, but that also means that spring practices can go all the way through June 19. Hopefully that extra week off for Green Bay’s veterans finds them further refreshed and ready to go when training camp does begin.

That date will come just under seven weeks from today. LaFleur also informed the media in attendance that the report date for veterans to show up for training camp will be Tuesday, July 28, with the team’s first practice of camp coming the following day on July 29. These dates fit nicely with the team’s Shareholders Meeting, which was recently announced to be taking place on Monday, July 27.

The Packers have not yet revealed a training camp practice schedule, only announcing that the annual Family Night event will take place on Friday, August 7. However, expect most of the team’s open practices to come during the first two weeks of camp, as the team has road preseason games scheduled for August 13 (at Pittsburgh) and August 21 (at Denver) before returning home for their exhibition finale. The final week of the preseason will feature joint practices with the Arizona Cardinals, coached by LaFleur’s brother Mike, before the two teams face off in the last game of the summer on August 28.

Ever since it was first announced nearly a year ago, the idea of a UFC event on the White House lawn juxtaposed against the start of the World Cup has not sat quite right.

On one hand, you have a sporting event being marketed as a celebration of America’s 250th birthday, promising to be coded in politics and unlikely to reflect the sour mood of the country.

On the other, you have a sporting event that has been a question mark for the world ever since President Trump returned to office in January of 2025. Amid reports of nightmares at airports and ICE raids, would foreign soccer fans find it too difficult or too intimidating to experience what this big, complex country has to offer? Would being on the world’s biggest sporting stage be a mirror for our national discontent or showcase our strengths?

Two very different events: One designed for the president to tell us how great we are, the other exposing our fears that in the eyes of the world, we’re not the country we used to be.

But a surprising phenomenon has sprouted this week as the start of the World Cup draws closer and closer. Those who have arrived from overseas, touring our big cities and small towns, have done a better job reminding us what an awesome, interesting and welcoming country this is than we could ever do ourselves.

Across social media, our foreign guests are expressing their awe for our massive football stadiums, delighting in plates of barbecue, enjoying iconic breakfast chains and being wowed by truck stops. Normally a pit of bile, opening the X app has been a celebration of Americana through the eyes of foreigners who are for the first time experiencing all the great little things we take for granted.

A group of German guys have been roadtripping from Atlanta to the Gulf Coast and beyond, discovering Waffle House (yeah, the food really is great) and Buc-ee’s (so big, so unnecessary, but so well-run) and the Auburn War Eagle flying around Jordan-Hare Stadium during the friendly between Argentina and Iceland (it’s an awesome stadium, but that’s just a standard Saturday for college football fans).

“This is the most ‘The European mind can’t comprehend this moment of my life,’” wrote @FreddyLA7, who has gained hundreds of thousands of followers on X since arriving in the U.S.

I’ve also been following a young Swedish woman named Elsa, who landed first in Indianapolis and discovered ranch dressing.

“Why did no one tell me ranch sauce is like crack? EUROPE WE NEED RANCH ASAP,” @elsathora wrote while calling a roadside diner meal “the best food ever.” Now she’s in San Francisco trying cioppino and commenting on the beauty of fire trucks.

There’s a Scottish guy documenting a trip through Texas being welcomed by a pitmaster who wanted to show off his work. There’s yet another German whose eyes are being opened by the stereotype-busting cleanliness and architectural beauty of Chicago. There’s a Brit in Florida posting about stadiums and Big Gulps. There's a Japanese fan in Nashville calling the neon lights of the honky-tonks "a view so stunning it feels like a lie."

I was also moved this week by video clips from an Algerian television station following their national team at its training base in Lawrence, Kansas. From young American kids waving Algerian flags to older folks telling a reporter they didn’t know a thing about Algeria but wanted to make sure people watching back home knew their team was going to be embraced by the local community, that’s the America that should make us all proud to be co-hosting this global event.

Maybe the World Cup is exactly what this country needed to feel a little better about ourselves, if for no other reason than a reminder that despite our problems and our politics, we have a lot of good people and a lot of really cool stuff at our fingertips. Seeing it through the eyes of others has cleansed the soul in a way UFC White House lawn fights, concerts and parades never will.

For a long time now, no matter which person or political party has occupied the White House, polls consistently show the majority of Americans believe the country is on the wrong track. That may well be true in a lot of categories.

But a big, corporate 250th birthday national party and all the bells and whistles that go along with it will never do a better job convincing us how amazing our country is than a handful of random European soccer fans documenting their experiences on social media. Maybe some of them are pandering or engagement farming, but who cares?

Just look at the numbers: These posts are getting millions of views and thousands of comments, mostly from Americans who are like, “Yeah, that’s us!” and flooding their feeds with recommendations.

Because ultimately, despite the current government’s slant toward isolationism, I believe most Americans want to be liked. We want to show visitors that we are more than the scary headlines they read in their newspapers. We want to introduce them to the uniquely American things we enjoy because we hope they’ll enjoy them, too. That’s just how we are, and this World Cup can be a turning point not only in how others view us, but how we view ourselves.

Inevitably, there will be some warts shown, too. If reports on ticket sales and hotel bookings are correct, the number of visitors may be lower than what FIFA initially expected. There could be ugly incidents at stadiums, reports of foreigners being harassed, visa issues, who knows.

That’s America, too. In a place this big, this diverse and sometimes this unwieldy, there is no such thing as perfection. In the immortal words of Kevin Durant at the 2024 Olympics: “A lot of bull**** happens in our country. But a lot of great things happen, too.”

As the World Cup begins, there are plenty of reasons to reflect on America’s place in the world at the moment. There’s a lot going on domestically and internationally to cause stress at home and frustration abroad.

But when the party’s over next month, those who came will have a better understanding of who we are and those of us who meet them in bars or restaurants or stadiums will see ourselves more clearly. That’s how international sport at its best is supposed to work. It’s the best birthday present America could get.

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The Detroit Tigers are getting a superstar back on the mound sooner than anyone could've expected. 

Two-time Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal is set to make his anticipated return to the mound on Saturday for Detroit against the Cleveland Guardians on the road. Tigers manager AJ Hinch shared the news and MLB.com's Jason Beck relayed it on X on Thursday.

"Tarik Skubal will start Saturday, Tigers manager A.J. Hinch announced," Beck wrote. 

This is incredible news for Detroit, and the baseball world in general. Skubal is a game-changer when he's on the mound and is the best pitcher in the league. It's hard to deny that fact. When he landed on the Injured List and it was shared that he needed surgery, immediately, the fear was that he was going to miss a lot of time. That hasn't been the case. He's going to be back on the mound less than two months after undergoing surgery to remove a loose body.

Do you have a take to get off your chest? Do you want to engage in a growing Tigers community? Comment on our content alongside staff and fans alike!

That's unheard of. 

It will be interesting to see if he can hold up and pitch at the level he was before surgery back in the majors, but that's something we'll start to find out as soon as this weekend. The Tigers have been brutally bad this season. But they are getting their best player back into the mix. 

More MLB: Red Sox Double Down On Craig Breslow Despite 27-39 Record

Dundee United's Luke Graham one to watch? Terry Devlin to Wrexham? What happened between Pompey boss John Mousinho and Bristol City?

BBC Radio Solent's Andy Moon offers his own insights on the contracts and transfer rumours at Portsmouth and why he thinks Mousinho is set to stay at Fratton Park.

Listen to the full update on BBC Sounds

Listen to more Portsmouth content on BBC Sounds

• Latest Portsmouth news, analysis and fan views

While the New Jersey Devils underachieved as a whole last season, there is one area that fans have been begging to be upgraded for quite some time now. Former General Manager Tom Fitzgerald attempted to rectify the gap by bringing in Jacob Markstrom in a trade with Calgary. The move forged a veteran pair between him and Jack Allen giving the Devils experience in goal. It was also seen as a transaction that could improve the team if Markstrom could consistently maintain the same high level of play that he demonstrated in his last season behind a bad Flames team.

Well…that never happened.

In his first season coming over, Markstrom struggled at times, but a few strong streaks of play saw him finish with a .900 save percentage (behind “backup” Jake Allen) in 49 games. This past season, Markstrom’s play, as we have discussed before, fell off of a cliff. In 43 starts and 44 overall appearances, his save percentage plummeted to an .883, which was a better final number than it was at many points during the season. Additionally out of 59 goalies to appear in at least 25 games, Markstrom was 50th in goals saves above expected. Simply put, Markstrom wasn’t stopping shots to help the team win games.

So how can the Devils possibly get out of this? Well, that’s where this gets slightly tricky, but still doable.

PuckPedia has the buyout information from the current CBA listed on a single page of their website. To summarize what is important for today’s point, the first buyout window opens either on June 15th or 48 hours after the final game of the Stanley Cup Finals, whichever happens later. In the case of the Markstrom Problem, this window is inconsequential: his new deal does not begin until July 1st, meaning the Devils cannot buy out a contract that hasn’t started yet.

Teams can gain a second buyout window, but it is only available if certain conditions are met. For a team to become eligible for the second window, they must have a player file for salary arbitration. Regardless of if the case is settled of awarded, teams going through this process gain a 48 hour period where they can again buy players out. The Devils have seven players who are eligible for arbitration, although five of them are in the minors, so there may not be as much to deliberate with their next deals. The two NHL players, however, could allow this window to open.

Arseny Gritsyuk and Paul Cotter both have arbitration rights this summer. All it would take is one of them going to arbitration, the team settling it after Markstrom’s new deal kicks in, and then they theoretically should be able to buy him out. If new General Manager Sunny Mehta is truly trying to improve this team, he doesn’t even really need to disagree with Grits and Cotter about what they’re worth. He just needs one of them to file. Is it maybe somewhat cutthroat? Sure, but at the same time Mehta is going to try to make his mark on the team and shape it into his own vision. If that means making necessary moves to cut an unnecessary anchor off the boat, then unfortunately so be it. Markstrom will still get his money, and the Devils will add by subtracting.

This would still require the Devils to go out and find another goaltender to pair with Allen, and the free agent market isn’t exactly looking promising. At the same time, almost everyone on that list has a higher save percentage than Markstrom, so could it really be worse? Internal promotions are also an option, and again, could they be any worse? The Devils need to get a better solution in net if they want to truly make the noise this core was supposed to be making. If it takes a Golden Knights-esque type move to bring the team back to relevance, I will take that over squandering more years not competing.

What are your thoughts on the Devils trying to get Jacob Markstrom’s next contract off the books? Do you feel as though the league would try to step in and negate this? Do you think it’s a wise or unwise decision to get Markstrom off the books via second buyout window? Leave any and all comments below and thanks as always for reading!

Ready to shock the football world?

At the 2026 World Cup, plenty of young players are waiting for their chance to shine and announce themselves on the world stage.

So here are five wonderkids who could set the tournament alight. Could one of them even get their hands on the award for best young player of the tournament?

Gilberto Mora (Mexico)

The youngest player at the World Cup at 17 years and 240 days old on opening day, the Mexican playmaker is a huge talent already being courted by Europe’s biggest clubs.

He has already broken his country’s record by becoming the youngest player in its history to earn a call-up, and already has seven appearances to his name, as well as having started the Gold Cup final.

That, along with the fact he already has more than 50 club appearances, shows just how highly rated he is.

This is Mora’s chance to announce himself to the whole world.

Ibrahim Mbaye (Senegal)

Already well known in France, the PSG wonderkid has the chance to make a name for himself on the international stage this summer.

The 18-year-old Senegalese is the fourth-youngest player at this summer’s World Cup.

Earlier this year, he became the youngest goalscorer in his country’s history as he helped his side reach the final of a controversial Africa Cup of Nations.

Given the incredible level of competition for places in his position at PSG, opportunities have naturally been harder to come by, but the fact he has still been given a chance says a lot about his talent.

In an ambitious Senegal side, he could be one of the sensations of the summer.

Luka Vuskovic (Croatia)

Having already started to make a name for himself, Luka Vušković could use the 2026 World Cup to go to another level.

At just 19, the Croatian defender, on loan at Hamburg from Tottenham, is regarded as one of the brightest prospects in Europe in his position.

He broke through very early at Hajduk Split, standing out for his exceptional maturity, his impact in duels and his ability to contribute offensively despite his young age.

In a Croatia side seeking renewal, he has the opportunity to establish himself as one of the breakout stars of the tournament.

Findlay Curtis (Scotland)

Scotland is a nation with a strong tradition of producing exciting wingers, but that profile has become rare over the past few decades.

However, in Curtis, 19, they seem to have a player in the mould of their former greats: quick, exciting with the ball at his feet and always ready to cause problems for full-backs.

Impressive on loan at Kilmarnock from Rangers last season, he could be a real game-changing option off the bench. He also opened his international account with a first goal in May’s friendly win over Curaçao.

Curtis could be his country’s secret weapon in the United States.

Johan Manzambi  (Switzerland)

Still little known outside the Bundesliga, despite being named Europa League breakthrough player of the season, Johan Manzambi could use the 2026 World Cup to burst into the mainstream spotlight.

The 20-year-old Swiss midfielder has established himself this season as one of SC Freiburg’s standout breakout players.

Developed at Servette FC before moving to Germany, he quickly caught the eye with his work rate, technical quality and ability to make the difference in both penalty areas.

His club performances have opened the door to the Swiss national team, where he has already made an impression despite his young age.

In an ambitious Switzerland side, he has all the qualities to become one of the sensations of the tournament.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇫🇷 here.

• Watch live BBC coverage of day four at Queen's - no play before 17:15 BST
• Britain's Emma Raducanu faces veteran world number 18 Sorana Cirstea for place in quarter-finals
• GB wildcard Harriet Dart in action against lucky loser Kamilla Rakhimova
• Top seed Elena Rybakina plays defending champion Tatjana Maria later, GB's Katie Boulter also due on court
• Serena Williams' comeback halted as doubles partner Victoria Mboko withdraws through injury

Queen's: Raducanu due on court at 17:15 BST after rain - watch

Thursday marks the final day for the Las Vegas Raiders’ spring practices, as OTAs and rookie minicamp are already over and the final mandatory minicamp practice is scheduled for June 11. Then, it’s a quick summer break before training camp rolls around in mid-to-late July. The exact date for when the Raiders can report to camp is unknown at this time.

So, we are in the beginning stage of the dreaded “slow news” period for the NFL. But I’ll still be taking your mailbag questions as long as everyone keeps sending them in!

As always, anything Raiders-related is on the table and fire away with anything that’s on your mind. Send your questions my way by either dropping a comment in the comments section below, tweeting at me (@MHolder95) or via email at SBPQuestions1@gmail.com. I’ll follow up with another column in the coming days.

If you don’t have a commenting account already, you’ll need to create one but the steps are pretty easy and it’s a seamless process. Also, we have full-time moderators to enforce the Community Guidelines. 

The Spurs' experience disadvantage is finally creeping up in the worst of ways. They've blown double-digit leads in each of the first four games of the NBA Finals. Fourteen points in Game 1. Twelve points in Games 2 and 3.

But the lead they blew Wednesday night was by far the worst. And not just of this series. Of any playoff series in NBA history.

The Spurs allowed the New York Knicks to come back from 29 points down to win on a tip-in layup by OG Anunoby with one second left on the clock. It was a gut-wrenching way for the young Spurs to lose that made me think about a similar collapse in a championship game: the Atlanta Falcons blowing a 28-3 lead to the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LI (2017).

OG ANUNOBY WITH THE PUTBACK.

KNICKS COMPLETE THE 29-PT COMEBACK FOR THE WIN.

LARGEST COMEBACK IN NBA FINALS HISTORY 🤯 pic.twitter.com/ZtWVWY6JsR

— NBA (@NBA) June 11, 2026

In contrast, though, the Falcons' loss isn't nearly as embarrassing when you consider their blown lead came against arguably the greatest coach of all time and the greatest quarterback of all-time who was already a four-time Super Bowl champion. If there was any team capable of pulling that off, it was the Patriots.

The Spurs blew their lead (and a 99.6 win probability) against a team in a 53-year title drought who people believed couldn't win a championship because their best player was too small. That theory is being blown out the water.

Besides, 28-3 is only the fourth biggest blown lead in NFL playoff history.

Quite possibly the biggest comeback/biggest choke in history. Incredible stuff. pic.twitter.com/LpvhKcQBcS

— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) June 11, 2026

This obviously won't make Falcons fans feel any better about 2017, as they remain title-less to this day. Nor is it supposed to. It might, however, make Spurs fans feel even worse about what took place Wednesday, because this is a series they could easily be leading, or tied at the very least. If they don't come back to win it, their Game 4 meltdown will be remembered as arguably the worst in sports.

Credit the Knicks for fighting to the end. Captain Clutch Jalen Brunson did the heavy lifting with 36 points. OG Anunoby chipped in 33 and saved Josh Hart with his game-winner. Karl-Anthony Towns made a clutch defensive play to seal the win. They never gave up.

But the inexperience everyone was worried about with the Spurs going into the playoffs bit them at the wrong time. De'Aaron Fox had a complete meltdown in the fourth quarter that culminated in his gaffe at the very end. And even though he's considered the vet of this squad, he's still just a 28-year-old in the midst of his first deep playoff run.

Mitch Johnson didn't call a single timeout during New York's biggest stretch. But again, he's just a 39-year-old in his second year as coach. The rest of the Spurs also didn't have answers, because they're a bunch of pups in this league. That's how they ended up on the wrong end of a 29-point comeback. That number will go down as the NBA's version of 28-3.

Patrick Mahomes gets a new, massive contract

Patrick Mahomes is officially the NFL's first half-billion player after restructuring his contract with the Chiefs. Cory Woodroof graded the record-breaking deal that runs through 2033:

"With coach Andy Reid likely nearing retirement, having Mahomes locked in through 2033 is huge. It gives a perennial Super Bowl contender a healthy window of certainty, as long as the quarterback stays healthy. After all, he's coming off ACL and LCL tears and isn't a lock to be ready for the start of the 2026 season. Even then, Mahomes is always worth every penny. It's a great deal, even if it's, y'know, a lot of money."

Here's a reminder Mahomes is still only 30 years old. I can't wait to see what this next act of his career looks like.

Gallery of the Day

Quick hits: SEC country tour ... grow up, Knicks fans ... and more

• Allow FTW's Alex McDaniel to introduce you to the viral German soccer fan live-tweeting his road trip through the South ahead of the World Cup.
• Hey, Knicks fans, stop throwing stuff at Victor Wembanyama, pleads Charles Curtis, a Knicks fan.
• Kyler Murray sounded off on "already being behind" in the Vikings' QB battle due to having to split reps with J.J. McCarthy.
• The Bucks are about to blow the Giannis Antetokounmpo trade after too much overthinking, Robert Zeglinski wrote for Layup Lines.

This was For The Win’s daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Did a friend recommend or forward this to you? If so, subscribe here.

This article originally appeared on For The Win: Spurs' NBA Finals loss to Knicks is worse than Falcons' 28-3 collapse

The Atlanta Falcons have 27 more days to work out a new contract with tight end Kyle Pitts. If they can't come to an agreement by then, Pitts will play out the 2026 NFL season under the franchise tag, paying him a fully guaranteed $15,045,000.

While a market setting deal for star running back Bijan Robinson is an easy decision to make for the front office, making Pitts the highest-paid tight end in the league isn't quite such a slam dunk.

At the end of ESPN analyst Bill Barnwell's new piece predicting which players will earn the biggest deals at each position, he saves tight end for last and shares his doubts about giving Pitts TE1 money.

"Pitts isn't much of a blocker, and I'm not sure I would want to make him the highest-paid tight end, but too many teams need move tight ends who can stretch the field. He's also only 25 years old. The Falcons could tag Pitts a second time and pay him $18 million, but with a new regime in place, Atlanta might choose to move on from Pitts, especially with London signing a new deal and running back Bijan Robinson likely to join him shortly."

Barnwell has a fair point. Pitts was undeniably impressive last season, posting career highs in catches (88), first downs (51), catch rate (74.6%) and touchdowns (five), but it's also the first year that he's really lived up to expectations as a top-five overall pick.

It really depends on hon much head coach Kevin Stefanski wants to use Pitts as part of his scheme. On the one hand, no other team ran more two-tight end sets than the Cleveland Browns last year - and the Falcons run those better than any other team in the NFL.

On the other, we can guarantee that Bijan Robinson and Drake London are going to eat a lot of targets, no matter who is starting at quarterback. There also has to be a bigger slice of the pie going to the Falcons' new receivers, Zachariah Branch and Jahan Dotson. When all that is accounted for, will Pitts' target share really be worth making him the highest paid tight end in football?

It's difficult to say, and a tough decision for new general manager Ian Cunningham to make. The Falcons may decide that they'll get more value from trading Pitts, pocketing the money (and a high draft pick) and shifting their offense more towards their other weapons.

This article originally appeared on Falcons Wire: ESPN says Atlanta Falcons shouldn't pay Kyle Pitts TE1 money

A trio of Auburn pitchers will join Mason Koch in the transfer portal as the offseason gets underway.

Saxon Roberts, Trevor Booten, and Justice de Jong are set to depart Auburn and search for new homes within the transfer portal, according to D1Baseball's transfer portal tracker. Roberts and de Jong are freshmen, while Booten is a redshirt sophomore.

Booten enters the transfer portal after spending three seasons with the Auburn Tigers, making minimal appearances. The LaGrange, Georgia, native did not appear in any games for the Tigers during that span and will now begin his search for a program where he can thrive and make up for lost time on the mound.

Roberts faces a similar situation. He appeared in one game for Auburn this season, where he walked the only two batters he faced. Roberts' presence will be missed in Auburn's dugout, as he was a "fan favorite" for his upbeat personality.

The most notable of the bunch is Justice de Jong, who struck out five batters in six relief appearances. He was seen as a "get over" guy in games where Auburn was down by a large margin, and he will look to find a new role with another program.

The trio joins Mason Koch in the transfer portal, who announced his intention to enter the portal earlier this week. According to D1Baseball, Koch, de Jong, Booten, and Roberts are the only four players from the 2026 roster to enter the transfer portal so far. The Tigers have added one pitcher from the transfer portal, Zach Stevens from South Alabama, and one speedy outfielder from Georgia State, John Beverely.

Contact/Follow us @TheAuburnWire on  X (Twitter), and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Auburn news, notes, and opinions. You can also follow Taylor on Twitter @TaylorJones__

This article originally appeared on Auburn Wire: Auburn baseball loses three pitchers to the transfer portal

Mauricio Pochettino paused. The microphone signal flickered. He tried, for a second time, to say a few things to the 5,500 fans who had gathered in the sun Monday at Championship Soccer Stadium in Irvine, California – the United States’ World Cup home base – for an open training session. Nothing. Then something. More choppy audio. By the time things came back online, he had developed a quip.

“We are in the greatest country in the world,” he said in his Rioplatense-accented English. “But the technology does not work.”

Pochettino’s adaptation to the US soccer scene has not been without hiccups. The Argentinian arrived on a $6m-per-year contract (the largest outlay for a coach in US Soccer history) with a résumé featuring some of the most famous clubs and players in the world. His job: to lead a nation more known for excellence in other sports to a historic finish at a World Cup they would co-host.

Related: Mauricio Pochettino: ‘No one sees the USA as a contender – but why not?’

Over his 22 months in charge, the results – 15 wins, 10 losses, and a draw – are hardly indicative that a run of that magnitude is coming. His side have looked unsettled in their structure at various points, alternating brilliant passages with lackadaisical moments, full of fight one minute then meek the next. Yet Pochettino has fed into the hype, saying repeatedly that the US can win the World Cup. (“Why not?”, he is fond of asking.)

Many observers argue that it’s just as easy to see the team crash out in the group stage, or exit at the first knockout round, as they did at Qatar 2022. There are no pushovers in a group with Paraguay, Australia and Turkey. And the team have struggled against the type of quality sides they may face in the Round of 32, last 16, and beyond.

What is enough? It’s the uncomfortably vague question that looms over the US more than most at this tournament. The elite, like Spain, France, Brazil and Argentina, enter the World Cup knowing that anything less than winning the trophy will be a failure. Minnows – the likes of Curaçao, Jordan and Cape Verde – know that simply giving a good account of themselves will count for a whole lot.

The US performance, meanwhile, will be read as a referendum not just on a group of players considered to be the most talented in the history of the men’s program, but on the potential of American soccer itself.

“We want to do this for ourselves and for our own country,” Christian Pulisic, the team’s biggest star, told reporters earlier this month. “We have really good players playing in top clubs in the world, we have a good team. We’re going to do the best we can to prove ourselves right.”

The coach believes. The players believe. But what would be enough to make their country believe? The sport is no longer anathema here, but it is dominated by foreign powers – the Premier League, Mexico’s Liga MX and the Champions League all have a vice grip on what the public considers to be top-class soccer worth watching. What would be enough to make American soccer dominate soccer in America? To unleash an avalanche of attention that, for once, may match that given to baseball, basketball and American football? To hoover up an influx of commercial dollars that could – could – be put to good use and help solidify a domestic soccer culture in the American mainstream?

“The first gift an Argentinian gets is a football; here, it’s a baseball bat, a basketball, an oval ball,” Pochettino told the Guardian. “Changing that’s not today or tomorrow. But there are almost 400 million people, 80 million Latinos, who already have that football DNA, and there’s space [for all sports]. What’s the problem? That people want results now.”

Related: Chris Richards races to be ready as US count down to World Cup opener: ‘I have to make it’

Theoretically, a 2026 run that exceeds the previous modern high mark – the 2002 run to the quarter-finals – could lead to a boost in all these areas, if not instant results. But just as important, if not more so, is whether the public can truly connect with these players; from the trio of childhood friends (Pulisic, Weston McKennie and Tyler Adams) who form this team’s backbone, to the defensive anchor Chris Richards, to dual-nationals such as Antonee Robinson, Folarin Balogun, Alejandro Zendejas and Ricardo Pepi.

What would be enough to turn them into genuine household names?

That sort of work lies partially in events like Monday’s, where Pochettino addressed the crowd. Once the microphone was fully operational, he spoke of how proud he was to be based in Irvine, where the mayor’s office said more than 30,000 people applied for tickets to that open training. He thanked the fans for their support, and the thousands who won the lottery cheered, providing a pleasant counterbalance to the internet-fuelled negativity that can fester among this program’s diehards. They closely watched the team go through passing drills and took selfies in the autograph line as they congratulated the players on their success, asked about moments in their career, regaled them with stories of how long and far they had come to see them. To them, this team is already a ray of light in an otherwise dark world.

Yet among some in the broader US soccer fandom, there exists a palpable sense of unease about this tournament, and what US success could represent, and who may co-opt it. The US players did not go to war with Iran, and they did not enact racist travel bans that have already seen a top referee barred from entering the country. They did not send federal forces to terrorize their own citizens, or systematically demonize anyone who comes to this country in search of asylum or a better life. They did not build a UFC arena on the White House lawn, essentially a middle finger of counter-programming of a world event that so many in this country have worked so hard to bring to life.

But the waving stripes and shimmering stars on the players’ kits represent the country, and the government, that did all those things. Will any amount of success, any number of indelible, joy-generating goals be enough to erase that? Or to move past it?

Pochettino has completely steered away from political discussions, and seems to have advised his players to do so as well. On Monday he told the Orange county crowd that he could not be prouder to lead the US, that their players, the fans and the federation have made him a better person and a better coach.

“Well, I don’t know if I could be made a better coach,” he quipped – a clear joke that nonetheless did not land, at least not until he apologized for his “Argentinian humor”. He closed his speech with what he clearly thought would be an automatic rouser – a short 1, 2, 3 countdown, and “USA!” The crowd couldn’t find the cadence Pochettino intended, and struggled to match the rhythm. He tried again. “I think you can do better,” he said. “1, 2, 3 …”

The entire crowd shouted “USA” in unison.

Through the 2024-25 season, the Los Angeles Lakers have had a total of 506 players suit up for them, going back to their days in Minneapolis. Some were forgettable, some were serviceable, some were good and a select few were flat-out legendary.

During the Lakers' 80th season of existence (they were founded back in 1946 as the Detroit Gems in the National Basketball League), LeBron Wire is taking a look at each player who has worn their jersey, whether it has been a purple and gold one or the ones they donned back in the Midwest during their early years.

In 2012, the Lakers took Robert Sacre in the second round of the NBA draft out of Gonzaga University. Standing seven feet tall and weighing 270 pounds, he eventually broke into their regular rotation, and while he lacked offensive skills, he played hard and gave the team ample energy and effort.

He spent four seasons in the league, all of which came with the Lakers, and averaged 4.2 points, 3.1 rebounds and 0.6 blocks in 14.5 minutes a game. After leaving the NBA, Sacre spent a couple of years with Hitachi SunRockers Tokyo-Shibuya of the Japanese B.League.

This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: Lakers jersey history No. 50 — Robert Sacre

Coming off a partially torn ACL, which required surgery to repair, former Washington Huskies star quarterback Michael Penix Jr. will have every opportunity to take back the starting job with the Atlanta Falcons.

After he was selected with the No. 8 overall pick in the 2024 NFL draft, the Falcons decided to sign another left-handed former top ten pick in Tua Tagovailoa in free agency ahead of the 2026 season to compete with Penix and give the team another veteran option for first-year head coach Kevin Stefanski.

But with Penix unable to compete in full team practices at this point and official team activities (OTAs) starting to wind down, it appears that Atlanta's quarterback battle may not take place until training camp gets underway in July.

Falcons HC Kevin Stefanski reported that Michael Penix is getting closer to competing in 11 on 11 drills.

Penix was able to participate in 7 on 7s during OTAs so there is a shot he's a full go for camp.

The QB1 spot is wide open. pic.twitter.com/oE0Himcwyp

— The Goal Line Grind (@theGLgrind) June 9, 2026

"It's tough to have a competition when both guys aren't competing at the same level right now," quarterbacks coach Alex Van Pelt told ESPN. "So, it's hard, and it'll come. It'll happen at some point. Mike's done a great job of getting himself to where he is right now. Really impressive to take 7-on-7 reps and go out and compete. That's been great. But really, there's no competition until we can actually evaluate him equally."

As for his recovery, after completing just over 60 percent of his passes for 1,982 yards and 9 touchdowns with 3 interceptions in nine starts in 2025, Stefanski said that the 26-year-old is in a great place with his recovery.

"He's hitting every milestone that he's supposed to hit. We're in constant communication with our medical team and Mike, and I think he's doing everything he can do, and certainly, when he may want to do more, we have to hold him back from certain things potentially. But not going to put any time frames out there just yet, just going to focus on what's in front of us."

This article originally appeared on Huskies Wire: Michael Penix Jr. to have every chance to win Falcons' starting QB job

Celtic face the prospect of losing 1,000 spectators for a home Scottish Premiership match if there is a repeat of the pitch invasion that followed their title-clinching victory over Hearts in May.

In what was a final-day decider, fans streamed out of the stands after Callum Osmand raced clear to make it 3-1 in the seventh minute of stoppage time.

Hearts left the stadium immediately, with players still in their kits, citing a "menacing and threatening atmosphere inside the stadium", with Celtic later issuing an apology.

Announcing the outcomes of disciplinary action taken against several clubs in relation to unacceptable conduct by fans, the SPFL has fined Celtic £7,500 and issued a penalty suspended until 30 June 2028, which would be triggered by a "significant pitch incursion".

Celtic were also fined £2,500 for their fans entering the pitch and using pyrotechnics in the previous game away to Motherwell, which was settled in their favour by a 99th-minute penalty from Kelechi Iheanacho.

In this case, Celtic have been told they will lose 100 tickets from their allocation to one away match in the league, suspended until 30 June 2027.

Motherwell were cited for the same offences in the same fixture and will too pay a £2,500 fine.

The Fir Park club will have block E in the East Stand closed for one match if there is a repeat of such behaviour before 30 June 2027.

Inverness Caledonian Thistle and Hamilton Academical must each pay £1,000 for fans entering the field of play in their 2 May meeting in the Highlands.

The host club will have half of their North Stand closed for a league game, with the threat of punishment suspended until 30 June 2028.

Hamilton were also reprimanded and given a formal warning for a pitch invasion at home to Clyde on 15 May.

And Stenhousemuir face a reduction in capacity of 150 seats at Ochilview Park for one match, again suspended until 30 June 2028, after supporters celebrated promotion to the Championship on the Alloa Athletic pitch on 16 May.

Luke Kornet helped the Boston Celtics win a title in 2024, and now as one of the veteran players on the San Antonio Spurs roster, he is helping prepare a new generation of NBA players for the league's biggest stage. The Vanderbilt alum opened up about his move to Texas to join the Spurs this past offseason, and how he is helping to mentor the San Antonio youth movement on his new ball club in a recent interview.

I was able to be in Boston for a long time, and obviously, (as) I came into the situation I knew it was different," explained Kornet. There's a lot of young players and the success we've been able to have has been awesome to be able to be a part of.

"And I do really consider myself as trying to facilitate and help everyone on the court," added the former Boston big man. "And we have a lot of a lot of talent, a lot of ability and a lot of guys who are continuing to explore that and figure that out. So, I'm trying to provide a role where I can help be a stable presence and be reliable and help put guys in positions to succeed."

He has not moved on entirely from his time in Boston, however, and still keeps in touch with some of his former Celtics teammates. "I heard from guys who've been in touch (...)," said Kornet. "There's a group of us who are still texting throughout the year and whenever. As for Derrick (White), it's been radio silence, I think."

"I knew some stuff from San Antonio, but you know the type of guy he is, where he's one to foster and hold grudges. So, you want to let that simmer and get into space and you unfortunately have to play them twice a year, so you see him then, but there was a hostile act that happened when we played them last, so I don't know if we're exactly on speaking terms."

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This article originally appeared on Celtics Wire: Luke Kornet in touch with former Celtics teammates - except Derrick White?

The 2025-26 college golf season is complete, which means it's time for postseason awards.

The top-ranked teams in the country took home the trophies on both the men's and women's side at Omni La Costa, where the championships were contested for the third time in what's currently a five-year contract.

However, when it comes to the Coach of the Year conversation, there are two who stood out among the rest, and they've been selected as the Golfweek 2026 Coaches of the Year.

Golfweek selects men's and women's All-America teams and honorable mention selections, as well as Players of the Year and Coaches of the Year. All-America selections were released Wednesday, and Player of the Year honorees will be announced Friday.

Here's a look at Golfweek's 2026 Coaches of the Year and a look at past winners:

Golfweek 2026 Men's College Golf Coach of the Year: Armen Kirakossian, UCLA

In late March when UCLA showed up to The Goodwin, the Bruins were below .500 and in danger of missing the NCAA postseason. Kirakossian helped spark a turnaround, and UCLA finished second that week. Then the Bruins won the Big 10 Championship, finished seventh after stroke play at NCAAs, earned their first match-play wins at the national championship and then finished as national runners-up. All of that in the span of 67 days. A truly incredible turnaround for the fourth-year head coach guiding a young team.

"Anytime you can be recognized amongst your peers and be named Coach of the Year is a huge honor," Kirakossian said. This wouldn’t have been possible without the amazing effort from our team and players. I have never seen a group rally and come together like they did this spring. They were the full embodiment of what it means to play for something greater than themselves. This isn’t a one-man coaching staff; so many people at UCLA work tirelessly to make moments and seasons like this happen.

"Mason Banger, our assistant coach, preaches visualization and without his relentless belief in this group, we certainly wouldn’t have had the success we did. It’s no mystery that college athletics is changing and we couldn’t do what we do without the support of our administration, thank you for putting us in a position to succeed."

Golfweek 2026 Women's College Golf Coach of the Year: Josh Brewer, Eastern Michigan

Two years ago, Brewer took over an Eastern Michigan team ranked 226th. This year, the No. 27 Eagles made their first NCAA postseason appearance and not only advance to the national championship but made it into match play and into the national semifinals before falling to eventual champion Stanford. The school and boosters backed Brewer, and he constructed a mid-major team that operated like a Power-4 program and became one of the best stories in college golf this season.

"It is an amazing honor that simply says I am surrounded by successful people," Brewer said. "This award goes to Eastern Michigan and GameAbove for giving me the opportunity to lead their women’s golf program. It belongs to the players and their families who believed we were capable of competing at the highest level when we only had a vision to sell them. Lastly it goes to my family for always supporting me and allowing me to do something that has never felt like work."

Past men's winners

• 2025 – Chris Malloy, Ole Miss
• 2024 – Nick Clinard, Auburn
• 2023 – Mike Small, Illinois
• 2022 – John Fields, Texas
• 2021 – Mike Small, Illinois
• 2020 – None
• 2019 – Conrad Ray, Stanford
• 2018 – Alan Bratton, Oklahoma State
• 2017 – Casey Martin, Oregon
• 2016 – John Fields, Texas
• 2015 – Chuck Winstead, LSU
• 2014 – Alan Murray, UAB
• 2013 – Steve Desimone, California
• 2012 – John Fields, Texas
• 2011 – Mike McGraw, Oklahoma State
• 2010 – Josh Gregory, Augusta State
• 2009 – Matt Thurmond, Washington
• 2008 – Chris Zambri, USC
• 2007 – Conrad Ray, Stanford
• 2006 – Mike McGraw, Oklahoma State
• 2005 – Rod Myers, Duke
• 2004 – Steve Desimone, California
• 2003 – Larry Penley, Clemson
• 2002 – Bruce Heppler, Georgia Tech
• 2001 – Buddy Alexander, Florida
• 2000 – Mike Holder, Oklahoma State
• 1999 – Chris Haack, Georgia

Past women's winners

• 2025 – Anne Walker, Stanford
• 2024 – Alicia Um Holmes, UCLA
• 2023 – Laurie Gibbs, Pepperdine
• 2022 – Dana Dormann, San Jose State
• 2021 – Kory Henkes, Ole Miss
• 2020 – None
• 2019 – Dan Brooks, Duke
• 2018 – Andrea Gaston, USC
• 2017 – Missy Farr-Kaye, Arizona State
• 2016 – Mary Lou Mulflur, Washington
• 2015 – Mary Lou Mulflur, Washington
• 2014 – Therese Hession, Ohio State
• 2013 – Andrea Gaston, USC
• 2012 – Mic Potter, Alabama
• 2011 – Carrie Forsyth, UCLA
• 2010 – Devon Brouse, Purdue
• 2009 – Melissa Luellen, Arizona State
• 2008 – Andrea Gaston, USC
• 2007 – Dan Brooks, Duke
• 2006 – Devon Brouse, Purdue
• 2005 – Laurie Gibbs, Pepperdine
• 2004 – Martha Freitag, Vanderbilt
• 2003 – Nancy McDaniel, California
• 2002 – Dan Brooks, Duke
• 2001 – Mike Morrow, Kent State
• 2000 – Todd McCorkle, Arizona
• 1999 – Dan Brooks, Duke

How were winners chosen?

Coach of the Year winners were selected based on performance of their teams throughout the season and into the postseason.

This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Armen Kirakossian, Josh Brewer win Golfweek 2026 Coach of the Year

This originally appeared in Tuesday morning’s edition of The A Block, Awful Announcing’s daily newsletter with the latest sports media news, commentary, and analysis. Sign up here to be the first to know everything happening in the sports media world.

Whenever the World Cup rolls around, the conversation in American sports media inevitably turns to what the tournament will mean for soccer’s long-term future in this country. Will this be the moment the sport finally breaks through? Will the casual fans who tune in for a few weeks become permanent converts? It’s a version of the same debate we’ve had for decades, and it tends to feel more legitimate every four years, because the numbers genuinely keep getting better.

This year, the conversation feels different for obvious reasons. The tournament is being played here, in NFL stadiums, in the middle of summer, when there’s essentially nothing else going on. Fox is airing 70 matches on broadcast television and streaming many more free on Tubi. Telemundo, which reported record advertiser demand, is delivering more than 700 hours of coverage across all 104 games. The 2022 World Cup final between Argentina and France drew 25.8 million combined English and Spanish viewers despite being played in Qatar in December, directly competing with the NFL. Doing those numbers in the U.S. in June, with marquee matchups in prime time, seems like a low bar to clear.

All of which raises a question that doesn’t have a comfortable answer: if tens of millions of Americans fall in love with soccer over the next five weeks, where do they go to watch more of it once the tournament ends? Because the most logical answer — MLS, the domestic professional league specifically designed and marketed as the long-term home of American soccer — is on Apple TV, which, per Nielsen’s The Gauge data, gets about as much total viewing time as AMC+. It’s not where casual sports fans go on a Saturday afternoon. It’s not where a newly converted World Cup viewer is going to stumble across an Inter Miami or LAFC game.

This was always going to be the awkward part of MLS’s Apple deal, which the league signed in 2022 for 10 years and $2.5 billion, giving Apple exclusive global rights to every match. The pitch at the time was that this was a visionary leap into the future of sports media, and that the World Cup would supercharge interest in the league right as it was becoming more accessible than ever on a global platform. What actually happened is that MLS spent its first three years under Apple charging fans $99 a year for MLS Season Pass, limiting its linear TV presence to just 34 matches on Fox and FS1, and watching the viewership data come back consistently underwhelming, all while Lionel Messi was being Lionel Messi. Not a single other major American sports league has followed MLS’s lead and moved the majority of its games to a single streaming platform since the deal was announced. As has been previously noted, MLS served less as a trendsetter and more as a cautionary tale.

Don Garber has now more or less said as much publicly, telling Andrew Marchand that the league was “way early” on the streaming-exclusive model. That admission came alongside a renegotiated deal last fall that scrapped the Season Pass and shortened the agreement from 10 years to seven, expiring after 2029 instead of 2032. Games are now free for any Apple TV subscriber, which is a genuine improvement, and opening weekend this season saw a 59% year-over-year increase in viewership. But as Landon Donovan pointed out in an appearance last week, removing the paywall only helps people who are already inside the Apple ecosystem, but does nothing for the much larger group of Americans who don’t subscribe to Apple TV and aren’t going to go find it because they watched a great USMNT game on Fox.

“I don’t think MLS is mature enough yet to go away from the NBCs and the Foxes and ABCs and the linear television,” Donovan said. “I think we still need that exposure. Even the NFL still does it — they’re smart enough to know they need the big media engines to help keep promoting their sport.”

The frustrating part is that the infrastructure problems aren’t new information to anyone inside the league. In an anonymous survey of MLS executives conducted by The Athletic last year, one GM said the league needed to “end the deal with Apple” because it was “bad for fans.” Another GM said, “The reason why people don’t watch now is as simple as you can watch anything all over the world. If you want basketball, no offense to MLS, but are you going to turn on the Serbian league? You’re not. You’re going to watch the best product.”

When the Premier League is on NBC, Liga MX is on Univision, and Champions League is on CBS, MLS asking people to seek out a separate streaming app was always going to be a difficult sell. Doing it during the three years leading up to the biggest soccer event in American history only made it worse.

None of this means MLS is in trouble, exactly. The Apple deal ends in 2029, which gives the league another shot at the market under much better circumstances than the first time around. The league is also transitioning to a European-style summer-to-spring calendar, which should make its playoff schedule more competitive with other leagues and stop forcing MLS Cup to compete with NFL Sunday. And the World Cup will almost certainly drive genuine interest in the sport, benefiting everyone who broadcasts soccer in this country, including Apple.

But the specific question — whether the momentum from this summer can actually translate into durable MLS growth — is harder to answer optimistically when the league’s games are on a platform that most of the people watching the World Cup right now don’t use and aren’t going to start using because of a tournament on Fox. The mechanism for converting World Cup enthusiasm into MLS viewership basically doesn’t exist in 2026, and that’s going to be a lot more obvious over the next five weeks than it’s been at any point in the last four years.

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The post Will World Cup momentum actually stick this time? appeared first on Awful Announcing.

By the time this article appears on Salon, the men’s national teams of Mexico and South Africa will be almost ready to take the field — sorry, the pitch — at Mexico City’s cavernous Estadio Azteca for the opening match of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Playing at home, at 7,300 feet above sea level and before 80,000 or so rabid supporters, El Tri will be heavily favored to win. But however many supporters of Bafana Bafana (Zulu for “The Boys”) have made it there all the way from South Africa are certain to put on an upbeat, colorful display.

Whether that game is thrilling or boring, and no matter who wins, the focus will be on spectacle, showmanship and soccer, in roughly that order. There has been a predictable amount of disorder around the tournament in the Mexican capital, including a teachers’ strike and left-wing street protests. But neither the game nor any of that has anything to do with Donald Trump, who will not be on hand to get booed and pretend he’s being cheered. However security is handled, there will be no ICE officers surveying the crowd with facial-recognition software and abducting people for unstated reasons. Everyone who needed a visa to attend this game, as far as I know, got one with minimal fuss.

It’s a happy accident of sorts, if you choose to look at it that way, that the first couple of games in the largest and most troubled tournament in the ambiguous history of this overinflated event are taking place outside the United States, and may serve as modest reminders of what the World Cup is somehow, still, vaguely supposed to symbolize. (Later on Thursday, South Korea will play the Czech Republic in Guadalajara.)

It might also serve as something of a reality check. Almost everything negative that could possibly be said about this World Cup is true: It’s an egregiously expensive festival of interlocking consumerism and nationalism, plagued by staggering levels of corruption and set against a visibly crumbling but wildly ambitious quasi-authoritarian regime. When earnest liberals called upon FIFA, the governing body of world football-and-or-soccer (both words are legit and I refuse to litigate that issue), to bar the U.S. from competing or to cancel the tournament, an enormous epistemological error was involved: FIFA president Gianni Infantino is, if anything, a more shameless, soulless and sycophantic specimen than Donald Trump.

Still and all, the World Cup is literally too big to fail. It’s the biggest global showcase for the world’s most popular sport, not to mention a television and marketing enterprise many times larger than the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals or the Oscars. In an era increasingly dominated by “narrowcasting” and web streaming, roughly one-third of the world’s population is likely to watch the final match on July 19. Furthermore, for hardcore fans the idea that FIFA is a semi-criminal enterprise and the World Cup tournament something of a garbage fire is nothing new. Fandom of all varieties is a testament to the fact that hope springs eternal, and all true football fanatics know that this tournament has a history of pure-dee showboating and athletic glamour that makes it larger than its surroundings.

Sure, holding this extravaganza in the U.S. under the second Trump administration is both tragicomic and grim, for reasons I hardly need to explain here. (Despite those first-round games in Mexico and a handful in Canada, about 80 percent of the tournament will be held in the U.S., including both semifinals and the July 19 final at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.) It’s already clear that teams and supporters from majority-Muslim nations are being subjected to arbitrary and punitive scrutiny, and a FIFA-licensed referee from Somalia with a valid visa was denied entry, for no known reason. All of that is shameful, and deeply contrary to the supposed traditions of international sport. Well, kind of: Let’s stop there for a minute and consider history.

Four years ago the World Cup was held in Qatar, an autocratic hereditary monarchy where homosexual activity is illegal, and whose stadiums and tourist venues were built by foreign laborers under a system akin to indentured servitude. That tournament also featured one of the greatest matches ever played, the thrilling, back-and-forth 3-3 draw between Argentina and France, finally won by Argentina on penalty kicks.

Four years before that, the tournament was in Russia — and, yeah, Vladimir Putin hadn’t officially invaded Ukraine yet (except that he actually had). That one also ended in brilliant fashion, with the stylish French team capping their glorious run with a 4-2 victory over Croatia’s gritty, gutty band of outsiders.

We could keep going: In 1978, the World Cup was held in Argentina, then under a brutal military dictatorship that disappeared dissidents by the thousands, sometimes by throwing them out of helicopters into the ocean. The Argentine team won the trophy, although that wasn’t the year of Diego Maradona’s infamous “Hand of God” goal, which happened eight years later in Mexico. If we go back to the tournament’s no-budget beginnings, the second-ever World Cup was won by Italy at home in 1934, under Benito Mussolini’s fascist dictatorship, in large part because Uruguay, the defending champions, refused to play.

So while it might seem like a rhetorical masterstroke to compare this year’s tournament to the 1936 Berlin Olympics under Hitler — a popular theme on social media this week — you’re not likely to impress or surprise any half-conscious world football fan with that analogy. An authoritarian regime is using this so-called festival of global togetherness to sportswash its crimes? Gotcha, that checks out. (The 2034 World Cup will be held in, ahem, Saudi Arabia, sportswashing regime par excellence.) This tournament is less about sportsmanship and athletic excellence than about pushing crappy beer and extortionate credit cards? Thanks for the heads up, champ. This year’s flatulent spectacle combines all the worst tendencies of consumer capitalism, surveillance-state policies and self-important sports machismo into a toilet-bowl perfect storm? Friendo, did you just wake up and figure out what decade this is?

Tickets are outrageously expensive, as if to drive home the point that in the Land of the Free, one-percenters will pay literally any price for VIP treatment (or, frankly, for routine treatment) at these kinds of pseudo-significant events. Picking a game at random, the cheapest tickets I could find for the match between England and Ghana in Foxboro, Massachusetts, on June 20 were about $750 each. Tickets in the lower deck near midfield were about $1,250.

European visitors are learning first-hand exactly how dreadful American public transit is, and what actual hot weather feels like. Indeed, climate-change-fueled summer heat could be a disabling health hazard for players and traveling supporters alike; while stadiums in Dallas, Atlanta and Los Angeles are enclosed and temperature-controlled, those in Kansas City, New Jersey and Miami are not. (Yes, I said Miami. Outdoors. In the summer.) “Hydration breaks” will be introduced at roughly the 23rd and 67th minute of World Cup matches, finally fulfilling one of the TV networks’ most cherished desires: Chopping up soccer games to get in more commercials!

(Staff/AFP via Getty Images) Klaus Fischer of West Germany ties the score at 3-3 on a bicycle kick in extra time of the World Cup semifinal against France, July 8, 1982.

Given all that, no amount of skepticism or cynicism is unjustified. And yet: Even in this godawful Trumpian summer, millions of people around the world will hope to witness something magical that rises above the empty discord, something like that 2022 Argentina-France final, or — be still, my heart — something like the legendary 1982 semifinal between France and West Germany (as it was then) that my dad and I watched on Spanish-language TV — the only way it was carried live, without the then-new phenomenon of “cable” — from the comfort of his Naugahyde sofa.

In the middle of an otherwise routine article of jocular sportswriter predictions on The Athletic, Canadian journalist Joshua Kloke explained why he’s bringing his seven-year-old son to a match this year. His German-born grandparents, Kloke writes, had instilled a deep family loyalty to Die Mannschaft (the German national team), so he’s taking his kid to the June 20 match between Germany and Ivory Coast in Toronto. (A terrific choice, honestly.) He continues:

My grown man’s eyes get wide just thinking and talking about it. I’m choosing to pierce through all the ugly noise that surrounds the tournament and remember what it’s like watching your first World Cup as a child. What a rush. Maybe something happens during the game and he’ll latch onto the sport and tournament for good. It happened to most of us once. It’s a good, and pure, feeling while it lasts. It’s too soon to spoil it for him.

Well, OK then. So what about the U.S. team? Are they any good?

What about them indeed? The short version is that even if you’re feeling less than patriotic under current conditions, the U.S. men’s national team, circa 2026, comes with high drama and an intriguing storyline. They’re playing at home and coached by one of the biggest names in world football, Argentina’s Mauricio Pochettino, former head coach at Chelsea, Paris Saint-Germain and Tottenham Hotspur. By consensus, this is the most talented group of male American players ever assembled, led by lightning-quick winger Christian Pulisic, the first Yank to approach genuine stardom in a major European professional league.

You could feel me hedging more than a little there, right? That’s because the best-ever American men’s team is still just a notch or two above “bang average,” to use the standard Brit insult hurled at Yank players, and this team has yet to prove it can play Pochettino’s aggressive, attacking style with any consistency. Pulisic at his finest is definitely not bang-average, and he had a brilliant year for AC Milan in Italy — but it was last year, and in 2026 he virtually disappeared. For the U.S. to thrive in this tournament, it can’t be the Pulisic show, despite his ubiquitous appearance in beer and credit-card commercials. His supporting cast of Europe-based almost-stars will need to coalesce big time.

(Michael Miller/ISI Photos via Getty Images) Folarin Balogun of the U.S. national team during a friendly match against Germany in Chicago, June 6, 2026.

I’m looking at you, Weston McKennie of Juventus and Tyler Adams of Bournemouth, and maybe most of all at slinky-smooth forward Folarin Balogun, who scored 18 goals for Monaco in the French Ligue 1 last season. We’ll find out soon enough: On paper, the U.S. team should be able to beat its first two opponents, Paraguay and Australia, and slide into the knockout rounds as a favored seed. But lose either of those games and the flag-waving will be over real fast. If you’re not sure how you feel about that, I’m right there with you.

Admit it: You’re going to break down and watch, aren’t you?

Those U.S. games will make for compelling theater, but the Yanks’ chances of winning the tournament are mathematically indistinguishable from zero. (Reaching the round of 16 would be a fine result, and the quarterfinals would be fantastic.) So who’s going to win? No national team from outside Europe or South America has ever hoisted the World Cup, and while that will certainly change someday, it won’t be this year. If either France or Spain, the two teams most visibly loaded with big-name stars, don’t capture the prize on July 19, it will be at least a modest surprise — and will probably mean that either Argentina or Brazil has recovered from their self-torment and navel-gazing and gone on a spectacular run.

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Look, if you can’t resist soaking up at least a little of the grandiose spectacle — either despite the awfulness of the larger meta-narrative or because of it — I won’t tell. It’s hard to tell how many first-round matches will actually mean anything this year, since 32 of the 48 teams will be moving on to the knockout stages and the most important task in early games is to avoid losing. We’ll see several startling upsets in this round that won’t end up mattering, along with a disheartening number of 0-0 and 1-1 draws. With that, here are my best guesses on the can’t-miss matches of the first round:

June 12: Canada v Bosnia (Toronto) A pair of lovable underdogs who both hope to be among the tournament’s surprises. Playing at home with the go-go style favored by American coach Jesse Marsch (a fact that took some adjustment up north, believe me!), the Canadians are always fun to watch. Bosnia barely snuck in via qualifying and is probably overmatched here, but the team’s biggest star, Esmir Bajraktarević, is a fun story: He was born in Appleton, Wisconsin, and played in Major League Soccer before deciding to commit his sporting future to his parents’ homeland.

June 13: Brazil v Morocco (East Rutherford, N.J.) It’s unusual to get such a terrific matchup right off the bat: The world’s most famous footballing nation, now led by superstar Italian coach Carlo Ancelotti — who looks more like a World Bank executive than a sports bro — against Africa’s most skillful team, loaded with European-based players. (Many nations draw heavily on their global diaspora for soccer talent, but Morocco is an extreme case: Only seven of the 26 players on the squad were actually born there.) There’s a chance both teams will decide it serves their interests to play a listless draw and share the orange slices. But I’m betting pride will speak louder than caution.

(Franck Fife/AFP via Getty Images) Kylian Mbappé of the French national team during a friendly match with Northern Ireland on June 8 in Villeneuve-d’Ascq, France.

June 16: France v Senegal (East Rutherford) You could call this one a post-colonial theorist’s delight, but more than anything else it’s a match between two top-shelf teams that value showboating elegance, occasionally to their own detriment. Despite the burden of history, there’s not as much animosity here as you might imagine: At least 10 players on the Senegalese team are French by birth, and several of the French players have Senegalese roots. Your first chance to see whether mercurial French forward Kylian Mbappé, the world’s best player, is paying full attention this year.

June 17: England v Croatia (Arlington, Texas) Could this be the year that England’s mighty Lions finally bring the World Cup “home” to the nation that invented the sport, launching a display of beer-soaked Union Jack patriotism to nauseate the world? Well, probably not. But starting against a gritty, grinding opponent with a long history of making better teams look bad will provide a useful test.

June 21: Spain v Saudi Arabia (Atlanta) Spain may have the most overall talent of any team in the tournament, and they’re barely getting tested in the first round. The Saudis have a record of startling upsets in international play; we might see that happen, or we might see Spanish wonder-teen Lamine Yamal score five goals.

(Roger Wimmer/ISI Photos via Getty Images) Scott McTominay of Scotland in a friendly match against Bolivia in Harrison, N.J., June 6, 2026.

June 24: Scotland v Brazil (Miami) They are making a bunch of Scottish men play soccer — sorry, fitba’ — outdoors, in late June. In Florida. Against Brazil. Mind you, this Scottish squad, led by Scott McTominay of Napoli, have outdone themselves to get this far. Even if the Brazilians win 6-1 (which seems relatively likely), guys in Glasgow pubs will be talking about the magnificence of that one Scotland goal 30 years from now.

June 26: Norway v France (Foxboro) The French may have qualified for the second round by this point. If they haven’t, this tough, ambitious young Norwegian side, led by relentless goal-scoring machine Erling Haaland, could present a difficult challenge for Mbappé, Ousmane Dembélé and the rest of the superstar French lineup, which tends to pout and bicker when things aren’t going well.

(Rita Franca/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images) Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal during a friendly match against Chile at the National Stadium in Lisbon, June 6, 2026.

June 27: Colombia v Portugal (Miami) On the last day of the first round comes its best single matchup: Two evenly-matched sides with fading but still relevant superstars — Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo and Colombia’s James Rodríguez — that favor aggressive, attacking football and tend to feel that defense is for cowards. At least both teams are used to playing in the heat, because this one will be relentless.

The post Can the worst World Cup ever find a way to redeem itself? appeared first on Salon.com.

The Denver Broncos are in the process of planning a new stadium with the goal of having it ready in time for the 2031 NFL season.

Denver wasn't picked as a host city for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, but the world's game could return to North America in the future (perhaps as early as the 2038 World Cup). With the possibility of major soccer matches returning to the U.S. down the road, the Broncos' ownership group would be wise to learn from Los Angeles Rams owner Stan Kroenke (who is married to Ann Walton, cousin of Denver co-owner Rob Walton).

Kroenke built SoFi Stadium — one of the most amazing stadiums in the NFL — for his Rams, and they share it with the Los Angeles Chargers. The stadium cost about $5.5 billion, but that expensive building project apparently didn't have the foresight to plan for the possibility of hosting World Cup matches on a field with FIFA-approved dimensions. Either that or Kroenke was fine with planning to pay even more to make stadium renovations to accommodate FIFA's field requirements down the road.

The Rams had to remove 400 seats to make the field's corners wide enough to host World Cup matches this summer. The Broncos can avoid such a headache by planning for the possibility of future World Cup matches when they finalize plans for their stadium. It's well-known that Denver will be a contender to host a future Super Bowl with a retractable-roof stadium. That stadium could also host World Cup matches, and the Broncos should plan ahead for that possibility.

Social: Follow Broncos Wire on Facebook and Twitter/X! Did you know: These 25 celebrities are Broncos fans.

This article originally appeared on Broncos Wire: World Cup: Broncos can learn from SoFi Stadium's mistake in 2038

Let’s get to the Philadelphia Eagles news and links …

Spadaro: Uar Bernard offers a glimpse into his new world – PhiladelphiaEagles.com
Bernard refers to Clint Hurtt as “a father to me,” and Hurtt, after openly nudging Executive Vice President/General Manager Howie Roseman during the NFL Draft weekend to remember Bernard, has returned the commitment with constant checkups and extra remedial coaching sessions. The investment is equal on both sides. “Every advice he gives me is helpful to me,” Bernard said. “He’s a great coach. The D-line group, being one of the best D-line groups in the league, I’m just happy and grateful to be here.” Eagles fans, always on top of everything with the team, have recognized Bernard the few times he has been outside the team’s Complex, posing for pictures and making him feel loved. “It is a dream come true,” Bernard said, smiling broadly. Bernard said he will spend the next six weeks before Training Camp begins “working hard. Trying to improve every day, getting in contact with my teammates, my coach, getting every detail lined up,” as he stays in Philadelphia.

‘Freakishly strong, freakishly fast’ Uar Bernard is relishing the ‘learning process’ of his NFL transition – Inquirer
As for life on the field, Bernard called it a “learning process” — which makes sense given he went from not playing football to the NFL. “It’s good,” Bernard said. “I don’t see anything hard if you keep working out. If you have passion for what you do, you’re going to progress every day. So, I believe that the process is going smoothly.” His teammates and coaches agree. Speaking with reporters last week, Mailata — who had a relationship with Bernard before the draft thanks to their IPP ties — called him a “freak of nature.” “He’s just freakishly strong, freakishly fast,” Mailata said. “And I can’t even compare him to me just because he’s just again, not of this world just by like metrics and numbers-wise. … Once he puts it all together, I think it’s a wrap.”

Eagles sign A.J. Epenesa and the NBA GOAT’s namesake, cut 3 players – BGN
A.J. Epenesa. Epenesa, a 2020 second-round pick (No. 54 overall — one spot after Jalen Hurts) by the Buffalo Bills, was supposed to sign with the Cleveland Browns earlier in the offseason, but ultimately didn’t pass his physical. The reason for the failed physical wasn’t disclosed, but the 27-year-old suffered several injuries last season, including a concussion, a pectoral injury, a foot injury, and a neck issue. After his deal with Cleveland fell through, Epenesa met with the Miami Dolphins and Chicago Bears before ultimately landing in Philly. Despite his many ailments, Epenesa still played in 16 games in 2025, and through six seasons with Buffalo, only missed a handful of games. He recorded 135 total tackles, 53 QB hits, 24 sacks, five forced fumbles, and four interceptions. The edge rusher also has a good amount of special teams experience, and contributed in that phase of the game throughout his career.

A.J. Epenesa signs with Philadelphia Eagles – Buffalo Rumblings
Epenesa appeared in 91 regular-season games and 14 playoff contests for the Bills. He recorded 6.5 sacks twice (2022 and 2023) and never reached 30 pressures in a single regular season in Buffalo, though he had over 20 each year after his rookie campaign in 2020. He was best as a rotational three-down type, perfectly suited for the Sean McDermott defense because of his size and length. He did deflect 21 passes in his six-year stint in Buffalo, and had four interceptions, none bigger than his tip-to-pick of Patrick Mahomes in the Bills win in Arrowhead in 2023.

NFL free agency: News on 2 former* Browns defensive ends – Dawgs By Nature
Earlier this offseason, Berry agreed with former Buffalo Bills DE AJ Epenesa to a one-year deal, before a failed physical led the team to void the agreement. While no reason was given for the deal not going through, Epenesa had a number of health issues previously and remained unsigned for over two months. On Wednesday, the Philadelphia Eagles ended that wait for Epenesa, signing him to a one-year deal. Since Epenesa never officially joined Cleveland’s team, we added an asterisk in the title for his time.

Eagles minicamp practice notes: The Eagles’ secondary could be nasty in 2026 – PhillyVoice
“We’re rotating there at the two spot,” he said. “I’m not ready to say anybody is anything as far as positions. We don’t have to make any determinations there, but what Andy and Tanner have been doing every other day is rotating there with the two’s and both getting a lot of good work.” So, you know, that appears to be an open competition, which remains silly to me. (In the media-attended practices, McKee was clearly better, for the record.)

Minicamp – Day 2 – Iggles Blitz
Interesting to see Micah Morris go up to the second team. OL coach Chris Kuper wants to move guys around and see what he’s got. I’m curious about Willie Lampkin. I thought he had a chance to be in the mix for backup G or C. The coaches must think Jake Majors has out-played him. The team signed journeyman OG Michael Jordan to give them some more experience. He has 49 career starts playing for CIN, CAR, NE and TB last year.

Eagles minicamp observations: All aboard the Riq Woolen hype train – NBCSP
The Eagles dodged a bullet with two potential injuries during Wednesday’s practice. Saquon Barkley fell awkwardly on the football while trying to make a sideline catch. Barkley might have knocked the wind out of himself but was able to return. Dontayvion Wicks got banged up on the left sideline and got checked out by trainers but also returned. And second-year OT Cameron Williams had to head inside early; the heat seemingly got to Williams, who lost his breakfast on the field.

NFL divisions ranked by QB talent for the 2026 season – NFL.com
3) NFC EAST. I’ve accepted that the average football fan will not give Dak Prescott his flowers unless the Cowboys finally win something. It’s fine, but ball knowers understand Prescott was one of the NFL’s best quarterbacks last season and should be expected to continue producing at such a rate in 2026. I cannot make the same confident statement about Jalen Hurts, a quarterback who seemed to fall victim to his own perfectionism as much as he did to Philadelphia’s offensive dysfunction. New coordinator Sean Mannion should revamp the scheme and fix those issues in 2026, but there’s a big difference between should and will. For his part, Hurts needs to stop seeking the perfect throw and just start making the open one. [BLG Note: The Dak apologism is so silly to me. Dude has two playoff wins — including one against a team with a losing record — in 10 seasons. I’d contend that real ball knowers know that regularly shrinking in the playoffs shouldn’t be celebrated.]

Best NFL offenses in 11, 12, 13, 21, 22 personnel groupings – ESPN
12 personnel (1 RB, 2 TE, 2 WR). The team to watch in 2026: Philadelphia Eagles. Under new coordinator Sean Mannion, I expect the Eagles to show more 12 personnel in 2026 (264 snaps last season). The team can pair veteran tight end Dallas Goedert and rookie Eli Stowers, a seam stretcher who can pick up extra yards after the catch. Plus, in Mannion’s system, look for quarterback Jalen Hurts to see more under-center reps, which leads to timing, boot and play-action concepts out of 12 personnel. Keep an eye on the Saints here, too.

Raiders downplay Nakobe Dean’s absence at mandatory minicamp practice – PFT
New Raiders linebacker Nakobe Dean missed all of the voluntary offseason program. He was at the team’s media day on Monday, with Dean posting a photo on social media of himself in his uniform against a green screen. Dean, though, was not present on the field at the team’s mandatory minicamp on Tuesday, according to multiple reports.

5 potential breakout players on offense for the Cowboys – Blogging The Boys
LT Tyler Guyton. Heading into Year 3, this season for Tyler Guyton is possibly a make-or-break one. Injury, and not being a finished product out of college, has so far have stunted his growth/development. Because of that the former first-round pick is an open competition with Nate Thomas to be Dallas’ starting left tackle this year. If he can manage to stay healthy and improve his technique, there’s no reason to believe he can’t have a breakout season. He possesses all of the athleticism to be a successful starting LT in the league, but unfortunately he hasn’t put it all together yet.

Don’t sleep on Luke McCaffrey, the forgotten Commanders wide receiver – Hogs Haven
Where/how can Luke McCaffrey fit into this new offense? McCaffrey is a unique player who is still learning the nuances of the wide receiver position. He has the ideal size and athleticism to be a significant contributor this season. I know the word “position-flex” held a negative connotation in the past, but in this case, I believe it to be a good thing. What we have learned throughout OTAs is that new offensive coordinator David Blough likes to move his receivers around pre-snap to create favorable matchups for his players. This should benefit a player like McCaffrey.

8 winners and 6 losers from NY Giants spring practices – Big Blue View
WINNERS: John Harbaugh — I have said this before, but hiring Harbaugh was easily the best move the Giants made this offseason. It might be the best decision the franchise has made since forcing Tom Coughlin to turn in his key card. Harbaugh’s resume, his passion, his credibility, his ability to connect with players, his understanding of what good football is supposed to look like and how it is supposed to be achieved, have changed everything for the Giants. Harbaugh’s honeymoon won’t last forever. He will make mistakes. His teams will come up short sometimes. The Giants, though, are in good hands. Finally.

Rams left tackle charged with felony domestic violence – SB Nation
Los Angeles Rams starting left tackle Alaric Jackson was arrested by LAPD officers early Tuesday morning in response to a 911 call at his San Fernando Valley home shortly after 11 p.m. local time. Jackson was subsequently charged with felony domestic violence, which was defined as “a person who willfully inflicts corporal injury against a spouse.” Police told NBC4 in Los Angeles that Jackson had been engaged in a verbal altercation with a woman, who then took out her phone. The Rams’ player believed the woman was attempting to film him and became angry, trying to take the phone from the woman, and leaving visible scratch marks as a result. He posted $50,000 in bail and is currently free while he awaits his court date.

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In September 2025, FIFA officially unveiled the soccer-playing trio of official mascots for the 2026 World Cup.

Featuring animals that represent each host nation, it will be the first time the tournament features a trio of mascots. The three mascots also represent three different positions on the field.

FIFA president Gianni Infantino stated the mascots "are central to the incredible, entertaining atmosphere we're creating for this game-changing tournament. They'll win hearts and spark celebrations across North America and around the world."

The 2026 World Cup will be co-hosted by the United States, Mexico and Canada, taking place from June 11 through July 19.

Here are the official mascots for the sport's biggest spectacle.

Clutch the Bald Eagle

Representing the midfield, Clutch the Bald Eagle unites people, using the power of flight to showcase purpose, passion and play. Clutch is fearless on the pitch but, more importantly, uplifting off it as well. Known for rallying teammates, lifting spirits and much more, Clutch is the embodiment of American sports.

Maple the Moose

Between the sticks is Maple the Moose, who has journeyed across all of Canada's provinces and territories in an attempt to connect with the people and embrace their culture. Maple is considered creative, resilient and unapologetic. Most of all, Maple has endless stories and undeniable flair.

Zayu the Jaguar

From the jungles of southern Mexico, striker Zayu the Jaguar has exceptional ingenuity and has been known to terrorize defenders on the pitch. Off the pitch, Zayu is a true testament to Mexico's rich heritage and vibrant spirit. Additionally, Zayu carries the heart of Mexico with pride, a true symbol of people living in the country.

Introducing the 2026 World Cup mascots: Maple the Moose, Zayu the Jaguar and Clutch the Bald Eagle 🌎 pic.twitter.com/aLdl3OG7a5

— B/R Football (@brfootball) September 25, 2025

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 2026 FIFA World Cup mascots: Meet Clutch, Maple and Zayu

Kalshi Promo Code TSNEWS: Get $10 Bonus for World Cup Prediction Markets originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

There is nothing better than the opening round of the FIFA World Cup, and I'm here to make sure we set ourselves up for a nice pay day right out of the gate. If you're looking to get some skin in the game, you can sign up here with the Kalshi promo code TSNEWS to unlock a $10 bonus after making $10 in trades.

Using Kalshi Promo Code TSNEWS for the World Cup

Details of the Welcome Offer

This special promotion is exclusively available for new Kalshi customers looking to explore prediction markets during the opening stage of the soccer tournament. To get started, we just need to create an account and make a first-time deposit of at least $1. From there, your $10 sign-up bonus is officially unlocked once you have made $10 in trades on the platform. Kalshi is accessible to players in all 50 states, provided you are at least 18 years old to play.

Once your bonus is unlocked, you can deploy those bonus funds on any of the day's World Cup matches. Whether you are handicapping South Africa stepping onto the pitch against Mexico or Czechia squaring off with Korea Republic, the promotional funds apply across the entire Round 1 slate. I love this approach because it gives new users the complete freedom to trade on the full schedule of matchups rather than being locked into just a single game.

Look Ahead: Predicting the World Cup Winner

While trading on individual daily matches is a fantastic way to learn the ropes, this is also the perfect time to look at the big picture and predict who will win the World Cup outright. Predicting the tournament champion requires a bit more strategy, but it’s a brilliant way to chase a bigger payout.

Since your sign-up bonus gives you extra capital to play with, you can use this time to scout the top contenders during the opening slate and place a well-researched wager on the team you think will lift the trophy at the end of the tournament.

First World Cup Matches: Win Probabilities

When we're trading on soccer, the 3-way moneyline is one of my absolute favorite markets to attack. It allows you to make predictions on the outcome of a match after 90 minutes of regular time, giving you three distinct possibilities to consider: a home team win, a draw, or an away team win.

Below is the complete list of win probabilities for the entire opening round of the FIFA World Cup.

As you review the schedule and consider the likelihood of each team walking away with three points, keep in mind that these are the exact matches where you can apply your Kalshi welcome offer. Once you make your first $10 in trades as a new user, your $10 sign-up bonus will be unlocked and ready to deploy on any of the percentages listed above.

Steps for Using the Kalshi Promo Code

Getting started and unlocking your bonus on Kalshi is a simple, straightforward process. Follow my playbook below to activate your welcome offer with confidence:

1. Create an Account: Register for a new account here by providing standard personal information.
2. Verify Identity: You will need to provide proof of identification to ensure a safe and secure trading environment.
3. Enter Promo Code: During the registration process, be sure to enter the Kalshi promo code TSNEWS.
4. Make a Deposit: Fund your new account by making a first-time deposit of at least $1.
5. Trade to Unlock: Make a total of $10 worth of trades on the platform. Keep in mind that you do not have to make a single trade worth $10; the requirement is simply a cumulative sum of $10 in trades before the welcome offer is activated.

Once your initial $10 in trades is complete and your sign-up bonus is officially unlocked, you will have complete flexibility on how to use it. The $10 bonus can be used on any of today's World Cup matches—whether you want to trade on Mexico taking on South Africa at Mexico City Stadium, Korea Republic hosting Czechia at Estadio Guadalajara, or any other matchup on the board.

World Cup matches on Tubi: Schedule to watch free 2026 games including USA and Mexico originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

The 2026 FIFA World Cup will unfold over five weeks with games in three different countries, a once-in-a-lifetime sporting event for die-hards and casuals alike. 

While those who live and breathe soccer undoubtedly are locked into the full match schedule, with intriguing matchups and games involving their favorite countries or players highlighted, there's good news for those who just want to see what the fuss is all about. 

MORE:Complete FIFA World Cup 2026 schedule

Fans can watch the opening game of the World Cup, which will see co-host Mexico face South Africa, along with the United States' opener against Paraguay the next day, for free. 

The Fox broadcasts of both matches will be simulcast live on the media giant's Tubi streaming service at no charge, with only registration required. 

See below for all the details on how to watch two of the World Cup's biggest teams open what they hope will be a run to glory this summer. 

How to watch World Cup matches on Tubi

Tubi will simulcast two World Cup 2026 matches for free: the opening games in the tournament for the USA and Mexico. Just register for an account to watch the much-anticipated openers for the World Cup co-hosts. 

FIFA World Cup shows on Tubi

Beyond streaming those two matches, Tubi also features World Cup-related documentaries and more. The FIFA World Cup Fox Hub also includes highlight packages and replays of select games from the 2022 FIFA World Cup. 

Among the offerings: 

• Destination World Cup 2026: A Tubi original following Team USA's Weston McKennie, Spain's Marc Cucurella and Harry Wilson of Wales in the months leading up to the 2026 tournament. 
• The Other Football: A weekly video podcast that features Rob Gronkowski and Jameis Winston talking soccer instead of the kind of football where they make their living. 
• Summer of '94: A Fox Sports-produced documentary looking back on the 1994 United States men's national team that captured the hearts of the country while playing in a World Cup on home soil.

What is Tubi?

Tubi is a streaming service owned by Fox since 2020 that carries thousands of movies along with television programs, documentaries, reality shows and more. 

The service has 100 million active monthly users who are able to stream content from numerous distributors plus Tubi original films and shows. 

Is Tubi free? 

Yes, Tubi is completely free to use. Viewers need to register with the site by providing an email address (or through their Google or Facebook accounts), but no credit card or other payment information is necessary. 

Because the service is free, however, there are advertising breaks during shows and movies. 

Tubi supported devices

Viewers can use Tubi via web browsers, most smart TVs and numerous other platforms, including: 

• Amazon Fire TV/Stick and Kindle Fire tablets
• Android mobile phones and tablets
• Apple iOS devices including iPhones and iPads
• Apple TV
• Google Nest Hub
• PlayStation 4 and 5 
• Xbox 

MORE WORLD CUP NEWS:

• Last time the World Cup was in United States
• Revisiting the first World Cup in 1930
• Most World Cup wins by country
• Future World Cup locations for 2030 and beyond
• Guide to host countries, cities for 2026 World Cup

Welcome to the Bavarian Football Works daily Men’s World Cup match thread! Every day during this tournament we will have a feature thread for discussion of the day’s matchups.

Today we have Group A on tap to kick off the tournament:

• Mexico vs. South Africa (3:00 PM EDT)
• Korea Republic vs. Czechia (10:00 PM EDT)

Predictions

Just for fun! Drop yours below.

• Mexico 1 – 0 South Africa
• Korea Republic 1 – 2 Czechia

How to Watch

TV/streaming: Fox One (USA), Peacock (USA en Español), Find Your Country

Tips for commenting:

1. If you’re a new member, feel free to introduce yourself! We’re mostly very friendly! Also, we’re from all parts of the world so don’t feel shy if you’re from a country that doesn’t seem represented on the blog.
2. Use the on-screen “Refresh comments” button to periodically load new comments.
3. Keep the sorting to “newest” to easily follow the conversation. It puts the newest comments at the top.
4. While swearing is allowed within reason, please be polite to your fellow posters and avoid gratuitous obscenities. Racist, homophobic, and misogynistic language is not allowed whatsoever.

Check out our beginners thread if you have any more questions. That’s about it. Auf geht’s!

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World Cup trophy: the object of desire for 48 national teamsCredits: Omar Vega - FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images

The 2026 FIFA World Cup finally kicks off this Thursday (11), after about three and a half years of anticipation. A total of 48 national teams make up the biggest edition in history, all dreaming of reaching the final on July 19 at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.

At 4 p.m. (Brasília time), Mexico and South Africa, in Group A, will face each other in the opening match of this World Cup, replaying the first game of the 2010 edition. Sixteen years ago, they drew 1-1. This time, the rematch will take place at the legendary Azteca Stadium, which hosted the finals in 1970 and 1986. It is also the stadium that has hosted the most World Cup matches: 19.

Later, at 11 p.m., South Korea and the Czech Republic, in the same group, will take the field at Akron Stadium in Jalisco, Mexico.

__instagram:https://www.instagram.com/reel/DZcklXRxhQ3/?igsh=bGxqdHBtanZhcGtn__

Host countries and host cities

The 23rd edition of the tournament will have three host countries for the first time: the United States, Mexico, and Canada. Altogether, there will be 104 matches, divided among 16 cities: in the United States, the selected cities were Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Houston, Kansas City, Miami, New Jersey, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Seattle; in Mexico, Guadalajara, Mexico City, and Monterrey; and in Canada, Toronto and Vancouver.

In addition to Mexico, which opens its campaign this Thursday, the United States and Canada will take the field this Friday (12). Canada will face Bosnia at 4 p.m. (Brasília time) at BMO Field in Toronto, while the United States will take on Paraguay at 10 p.m. (Brasília time) at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles.

South Africa and Mexico will play the opening match of the 2026 World Cup, replaying the first game of the 2010 editionCredits: Shaun Botterill - FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images

Tournament format

The 48 national teams were split into 12 groups of four countries each. Thirty-two will advance to the knockout stage. The group winners and runners-up from each group will qualify, along with the eight best third-place teams.

With the increase from 32 to 48 participants, a round before the round of 16 was created, and the number of matches increased from 64 to 104. Therefore, the finalists and the teams competing for third place will play eight matches.

Brazil in World Cups

The spot secured in the qualifiers kept Brazil as the only country to take part in all 23 World Cup editions. Altogether, in World Cups, Brazil has played 114 matches, with 76 wins, 19 draws, and 19 losses. The 237 goals scored make it the most prolific attack in history. It has also conceded 108 goals.

__instagram:https://www.instagram.com/p/DWlDBd-DRtS/?igsh=djRsb2RsMm5hbXQx__

Brazil will make its debut this Saturday (13), at 7 p.m. (Brasília time), against Morocco at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. It will then face Haiti on the 19th at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, at 9:30 p.m. (Brasília time), and close out the group stage against Scotland on the 24th at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami.

Five-time world champion (1958, 1962, 1970, 1994, and 2002), the Seleção will be aiming to win its long-awaited sixth title.

Broadcast

In Brazil, the World Cup will be broadcast by six different outlets and platforms: Globo and SBT (free-to-air TV), sportv and N Sports (pay TV), Ge TV (via Globoplay), and CazéTV (YouTube).

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.

The Cubs sit at 34-34 so far in 2026, but the way they’ve gotten to that .500 record is anything but average. While it seems hard to believe here in June, yes, it was 2026 when the Cubs were putting together multiple 10 game winning streaks, not to mention a 15-game home winning streak that had fans giddy and looking up records from decades ago.

Oh, what a difference a month makes:

That’s right, y’all. It was this season when the Cubs were 15-games over .500 and looked like they might just be the team to beat in a tough NL Central. Here on June 11 they are eight games back of the division leading Brewers having just dropped back-to-back games (and therefor the series) against the 26-42 Colorado Rockies. Their offensive woes are so entrenched they’ve managed to score just five runs in two games at Coors Field.

To be clear, baseball isn’t played in a 30-game season for a reason. There are winning streaks and losing streaks. The 2016 World Series Champion Cubs were 1-9 heading into the All Star break. But looking at that 7-22 mark, which is good for merely a .241 winning percentage over a 29-game stretch, had me wondering which Cubs teams had 30-game stretches of sub-.300 winning percentage baseball and how they wound up faring that season.

Luckily, Baseball Reference has precisely the right tool for this query in their span-finder. Unluckily, none of the Cubs teams who have ever gone 8-22 at some stretch during the season since 1920 (the Live Ball Era) have ever made the playoffs. You can peruse this very sad and hapless list below:

A few notes on this list. First, spans don’t happen in neat 30-game intervals and the way Baseball Reference deals with that is to identify multiple spans. I sorted this query by lowest winning percentage and scanned a little over 250 individual spans to identify each year where there was a 30-game span with an 8-22 record or worse. I think I got every season, but I may have missed one or two. Additionally, a lot of the teams who had a 5-25 stretch also had a 6-24 stretch or a 7-23 stretch, you get the gist. They are represented by the worst 30-game stretch they had that season.

The years that don’t have 30 decisions in the list are stretches that had some tie games in pre-lights Wrigley Field.

All of the above notes aside, that table isn’t so much a warning bell as the Titanic hitting an iceberg. The glass isn’t half empty, it somehow evaporated after being overflowing.

No Cubs team that has ever posted a 30-game winning streak with an 8-22 record (or worse) during any stretch of the season has ever made the playoffs. Out of 23 seasons where managers experienced such a stretch, four previous Cubs managers were fired during that season, an additional three resigned.

To be clear, I’ve seen and read nothing that leads me to believe Craig Counsell or any other member of the Cubs coaching staff should be fired. The injury problems to the pitching staff combined with the offensive struggles of well over half of the lineup aren’t going to magically improve because of a new manager. Do not add my voice to the cacophony of fans who think this team will go back to winning 10 in a row with a new skipper. That said, one of the first things that jumped out at me as I scanned these seasons was that 30.4% of the managers who oversaw such a stretch were not managing the Cubs at the end of that season.

It’s bleak, to say the least.

The next team on the list of terrible, horrible, no good, 30-game spans just happens to be the first appearance of the 2026 Cubs. The Cubs entered play tonight with a 9-21 record over their last 30 games. If they can eke out a win today they will be 8-22 over their last 30 games.

We should all take some solace in yesterday being the first appearance of the 2026 Cubs on this list. They’ll have earned themselves a second appearance after tomorrow, even if they win. In an environment with expanded playoffs they may even be able to make the postseason field. But many of the teams on this list appear 5, 10, sometimes 20 or more times, and they certainly didn’t have two 10-game winning streak under their belts earlier in the season. If the Cubs are going to try for another unprecedented feat in 2026, perhaps they will become the first team to make the playoffs in a season where they posted a sub .300 winning percentage for a period of 30 games.

The FIFA World Cup is upon us once more and time zones can be hard to navigate. So allow us to help you out.

The World Cup is one of the biggest sporting events in the world, and it’s treated like the celebration that it is, with incredible performances and events — all of which you can watch from home. It begins with the opening ceremonies, and this year, they feature some familiar faces.

Here’s what you need to know.

What time does the opening ceremony start?

Technically, there are multiple ceremonies, each one ahead of each game. The very first one happens before Mexico plays South Africa, at 1:30 p.m. ET on Thursday.

The Canadian opening ceremony will take place on Friday, June 12, at 1:30 p.m. ET.

But if you’re looking for the LA-based opening ceremony, that happens at 7:30 p.m. ET on Friday.

Where can I watch it?

You can watch the opening ceremonies before each game on Fox or stream them on Fubo.

Who’s performing at the Los Angeles ceremony?

Katy Perry, Future, Anitta, LISA, Rema and Tyla are all set to perform at the LA opening ceremony on Friday.

Is anyone exciting performing at the others?

You bet! The World Cup remains a huge event that brings out huge stars, and the other opening ceremonies will see faces you definitely recognize. That includes Shakira, J Balvin, Belinda, Alejandro Fernández, Los Ángeles Azules, Lila Downs and Danny Ocean. Canada’s ceremony includes Alanis Morissette, Alessia Cara, Elyanna, Jessie Reyez and Michael Bublé.

The post How to Watch the World Cup Opening Ceremony appeared first on TheWrap.

The 2026 FIFA World Cup is all set to kick off tonight with co-hosts Mexico taking on South Africa in the Group A opener.

And, Real Madrid will be watching the game closely for one of their targets is expected to be in action during the contest at the Mexico City Stadium.

Real Madrid tracking Gilberto Mora

Indeed, according to AS, Real Madrid are closely following teenage wonderkid Gilberto Mora, who is in line to make his World Cup debut with Mexico tonight.

Gilberto Mora is on Real Madrid’s radar. (Photo by Agustin Cuevas/Getty Images)

The 17-year-old versatile attacker plays for Club Tijuana in Mexico and is represented by Rafaela Pimenta, the agent who counts Erling Haaland among her clients.

Despite his young age, Mora has already made over 50 first-team appearances for his club, in which he has scored ten goals.

The teenager, who can play in any position in the final third, also has eight caps for the Mexican national team.

Man in demand

Gilberto Mora is being tracked by many top clubs (Photo by Francisco Vega/Getty Images)

Mora has been on Real Madrid’s radars for quite some time now, and is now all set to make his World Cup debut, which would make him one of the youngest-ever to feature in the prestigious tournament.

Apart from Los Blancos, the teenage wonderkid is being followed by several other top clubs across Europe, all of whom will be keeping a close eye on his performances at the World Cup.

A strong run in the quadrennial event could certainly lead to strong interest in Mora this summer.

The 2026 season has come to its conclusion, and with it, the chaos that is the NCAA transfer portal has officially opened. While teams navigate the Mountain West-Pac-12 split, I will be keeping track of who teams lose and gain through the portal window. This article will be reposted with updates every day until the close of the transfer portal on June 22. There were a few additions made yesterday, so let’s take a look at them.

Entering Portal

* – Indicates a new development

Signed From Portal

New Developments

UTEP

Entered Portal: P Arianna Flores, DP Mary Jane Nicholson, 1B Jordan Credeur, C Mallory Zylinski-Wrobel, P Hannah Jones, P Ryann Presswood, DP Paige Lassiter

Signed From Portal:UTL Mia Richards (Texas Tech), LF Lyndsey Hooker (Michigan State), P Liliana Montoya (New Mexico State)

Outlook: UTEP made three signings yesterday, now leading the country in portal signings at this time. Two of their signings (Mia Richards, Liliana Montoya) did not play at all for their respective teams in 2026, though specifically for Richards, her recruitment to Texas Tech gives the impression that she has a great deal of upside. Lyndsey Hooker, on the other hand, did get some playing time for the abysmal Spartans, with her 32 at-bats leading to a .219 average, one home run, and four RBIs. I would expect Hooker, who will now be playing much closer to her hometown of Prosper, Texas, to be an impact player for the Miners in 2027. This class is very solid on paper, which is all you can ask for with a program coming off of a season where they finished with three times as many losses as wins.

Mountain West Conference

Grand Canyon

Entered Portal: 3B Ellie Pond, P Maggie Place, LF Izzy Rueda

Signed From Portal: P Madison Evans (South Dakota)

Hawaii

Entered Portal: RF Kennedy Thompson

Signed From Portal: N/A

Nevada

Entered Portal: 3B Katie Wetteland, P Ainsley Berlingeri, P Jessica McPartland, 2B Gianna Serrano

Signed From Portal:N/A

New Mexico

Entered Portal: DP Ella Dawson, P Caprice Barela, P Marina Tinari, 2B Jewels Hanawahine, 2B Mya Pacheco

Signed From Portal:N/A

San Jose State

Entered Portal: RF Leataataofiti Sherlin

Signed From Portal:N/A

UC Davis

Entered Portal: N/A

Signed From Portal: N/A

UNLV

Entered Portal: P Yanina Sherwood, C Brooke Piscotta

Signed From Portal: N/A

Pac-12 Conference

Boise State

Entered Portal: P Charley Duran, P Julianne Rose, RF Ashley Hernandez Lofton

Signed From Portal: N/A

Colorado State

Entered Portal: C Abby Edwards, 2B Jac Smith

Signed From Portal: N/A

Fresno State

Entered Portal: LF Olivia Hill, 3B Nadia Rountree, OF-C Alexa Brunetti, UTL Leila Dixon

Signed From Portal: N/A

Oregon State

Entered Portal: LF Jada Lewis, RF Ella Dardis, SS Camrynn Gordon, P Kynlee Griffith, P Amariah Hoerner

Signed From Portal: N/A

San Diego State

Entered Portal: DP Tylie Kitchen, P Montse Reyes-Cardenas

Signed From Portal: DP Ava Sin (Seattle U)

Texas State

Entered Portal: P Madison Azua, P Chesney Davis (Tulsa), SS Camryn Plocheck, P-IF Savannah Carter

Signed From Portal: N/A

Utah State

Entered Portal: 2B Jazmin Ramirez, C Jaelyn Castillo, C Sofia Trejo, P Emmalyn Brinka, IF-OF Jakobi Nebeker

Signed From Portal: N/A

The Big Ten produces some of the best tight ends in the country seemingly every year. Even when a crop of great tight ends go to the NFL, there’s always someone to take their place, matching or even sometimes exceeding the production of their predecessors. Meanwhile, some schools (looking at you, Iowa) have someone pencilled in at the position every year who you know is going to be great.

Today, we’ll be continuing our series ranking the top five players at each position group in the Big Ten for the 2026 season, this time by looking at the tight ends.

5. Hunter Welcing – Ohio State

Last season, Ohio State went to the portal, pulling in one of the best tight end transfers in last year’s class in Max Klare. The Buckeyes had their usual offensive success, and Klare was a big part of it, eventually becoming a second-round draft pick.

This year, the Buckeyes went back to well to get Hunter Welcing, a sixth-year senior who enjoyed a breakout at Northwestern last season. While he hadn’t really produced much in the previous years, he was one of the few bright spots for the Wildcats in 2025, earning All-Big Ten honorable mentions. He caught 28 passes for 296 yards and two touchdowns; he did much of his damage (81 yards) vs Michigan.

Ohio State’s passing attack should be among the best in the nation once again, and with Carnell Tate no longer in the offense, there will be plenty of targets to go around. It’s a good bet Welcing will have the most productive year of his career in Columbus.

4. Decker DeGraaf – Washington

Decker DeGraaf has been quietly productive for Washington the last two seasons. As a true freshman, he played a modest role in the offense, but still strung together 15 receptions for 233 yards (15.5 yards per catch) and three touchdowns. In 2025, he caught 32 passes for 360 yards and two touchdowns.

The Huskies faced some attrition on offense this offseason, losing their two best players in wide receiver Denzel Boston and running back Jonah Coleman. Quarterback Demond Williams is back, though, so the passing game will still be a big priority. With DeGraaf as the best returning pass-catcher on the team and plenty of playmaking opportunities likely in his future, he could emerge as a more well-known name in Big Ten circles this year.

3. Ben Brahmer – Penn State

It’s a whole new regime in Happy Valley this season, with Matt Campbell taking over at Penn State. He’s bringing along a plethora of his players from Iowa State, including Ben Brahmer, a senior who had a career year in 2025.

Finishing as a semifinalist for the Mackey Award last season, Brahmer caught 37 passes with 446 yards and six touchdowns. He will also have quarterback Rocco Becht throwing him the ball, continuing the chemistry they built last season.

Brahmer’s physical traits are some of the best you’ll find at the position. At a hulking 6-foot-7 and 255 pounds, he’s hard to miss in the red zone and a load for defenders to bring down. Not only was he productive as a pass-catcher last season, but he’s a great blocker as well, something that should bode well with his new fan base.

2. D.J. Vonnhame – Iowa

Death, taxes, and great Iowa tight ends.

Sophomore D.J. Vonnhame will be picking right back up where he left off last season, and perhaps taking his game to another level as well. In 2025, he only made five starts but was one of the Big Ten’s most productive tight ends, registering 29 receptions for 434 yards and three touchdowns en route to freshman All-American honors.

Vonnhame has all the traits to be productive once again and emerge as one of the best tight ends in the country. His ability to run after the catch is what makes him stand out, as he’s a blur in the open field despite his size. It remains to be seen what the ceiling of the Hawkeye offense is with Mark Gronowski no longer under center, but Vonnhame will be a big part of whatever they’re able to accomplish this season. Make sure you’re buying your stock on this sophomore while you still can.

1. Jamari Johnson – Oregon

Kenyon Sadiq broke the mold the last two seasons for Oregon in terms of athleticism and movement ability from the tight end position. And once again, the Ducks have someone taking over at the position that looks like they were built in a lab and moves like a slot receiver despite being 6-foot-5 and 257 pounds in Jamari Johnson.

Johnson played the first two seasons of his career at Louisville, appearing in just seven total games before joining Oregon’s program last offseason. And even with Sadiq and a loaded group of weapons in the fold, Johnson was still highly productive, hauling in 32 passes for 510 yards and three touchdowns as part of a breakout season that got him All-Big Ten honorable mentions.

He’ll enter the 2026 season as the biggest weapon in the passing game for quarterback Dante Moore, with a chance to build on his production and become a household name for what should once again be one of the country’s best teams.

It’s time to start preparing for the 2026 Syracuse Orange football season. We’re going through the roster to take a look at each Syracuse player as we get to know a lot of new faces for Year 3 of the Fran Brown Era.

Up next is…

Name: Kam Pringle

Position: Offensive Line

Year: Redshirt Sophomore

Height: 6’8”

Weight: 335 lbs

Hometown: Dorchester, SC

High School/Previous College: Woodland/South Carolina

2025 Stats: Pringle played in every game last season, splitting time between special teams and the O-Line. Started one game against Miami. All of his offensive snaps were played at Right Tackle and he recorded a run blocking grade of 51.4 and pass blocking grade of 46.8 per PFF.

2026 Projections: I could see Pringle being an important piece next season for a Syracuse offensive line that is shrouded in uncertainty. He’s a player with a solid body and began to get more offensive snaps towards the end of last season, including his first start in November. Fran could use a player of his caliber to lock down some of the questions around this O-Line.

How’d he get here?: Pringle was an extremely sought after prospect in high school with his top 6 schools being NC State, Clemson, Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina, where he would eventually commit. He came to Syracuse in the portal before last season.

What’d recruiting sites say?: Consensus three star transfer from ESPN, Rivals, and 24/7. Consensus four star prospect out of high school.

Social Media:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pringlekam

X: https://x.com/PringleKam

Interesting nugget o’interest: Aside from being a beast on the football field, Pringle was also a beast in the pits in high school, as he threw a 47’2.5” shotput as a sophomore, winning the South Carolina 2A state championship.

Lets get a look at ya: Some junior season highlights from his Hudl.

The FIFA World Cup kicks off in some hours and Mexico will lock horns with South Africa about 16 years after doing the same in the 2010 edition. A lot has changed since then and importantly, there will some Serie A presence at the tournament’s grand opener.

Johan Vasquez

By now, Genoa’s Johan Vasquez has become a recognised figure for the Mexican side. He has now played close to 50 times for the national team and on the way, he has become a vital leader for the Rossoblu as well.

For Genoa, he has played 144 times and has seen a fair bit of ups and downs too. At one point, he spent a loan at Cremonese and for a while, it felt like his time at the club could be over. But he returned to the fray just as they returned to Serie A and is now their club captain.

He is very reliable on the ball and oozes safety. The World Cup could be an excellent opportunity for him to make a mark and possibly earn a big move.

Santiago Gimenez

In a way, the striker Santi Gimenez finds himself at the other end of the spectrum from Vasquez. There was a chance he could have ended up in the Premier League in January but a ankle injury denied that from happening. The 2025/26 campaign was quite frustrating for him, as he failed to score even once.

This came right after he was largely convincing after joining them in January 2025. The money shelled out wasn’t low by any means but Milan’s instability has impacted the striker quite a bit. At Feyenoord, he was a proven threat but his numbers for Mexico haven’t always been convincing either.

But the World Cup will be his stage to turn his career around. He may not have a future at Milan but it will send a message to potential suitors.

Kaustubh Pandey I GIFN

Jordan Romano knows what it feels like to be one of the best relievers in baseball. He has been there.

Two All-Star appearances, 105 saves with the Toronto Blue Jays, and a stretch from 2021 through 2023 where he was, on most nights, simply unhittable. A 6-foot-5 right-hander from Markham, Ontario, with a fastball that backed hitters off the plate and a 2.90 ERA across his six seasons in Toronto, Romano was, for several years, one of the most reliable ninth-inning arms in the American League.

Then the right elbow gave out.

Romano underwent arthroscopic surgery in July 2024 to repair an impingement. He made just 15 appearances in 2024, posted a 6.59 ERA, and watched Toronto non-tender him that winter.

He signed with the Philadelphia Phillies for $8.5 million in 2025, trying to recapture his elite form. Romano made 49 appearances, posted an 8.23 ERA across 42.2 innings, and ended the season on the IL with right middle finger inflammation. He then signed with the Los Angeles Angels over the winter on a major league deal and made the Opening Day roster, but lasted 11 appearances before being released on April 27 with a 10.13 ERA across eight innings. The Angels chapter lasted less than a month.

Now, sitting in the Arizona heat at the Rockies’ Scottsdale facility — days before his assignment to Triple-A Albuquerque — Romano was throwing off the mound for the third time in a week and talking about energy transfer.

Choosing Colorado

The reason he chose Colorado, of all the places he could have landed, comes down to one name: Matt Buschmann.

The Rockies bullpen coach was on Romano’s staff in Toronto for several years, and Romano credits him as a significant piece of his success during that run. When the opportunity to sign with Colorado emerged, Romano called Buschmann. He liked what he heard about the people the organization had brought in. He spoke with pitching personnel — Owen Cuffee and Emilio Martinez among them — and came away convinced this was the right environment to do the work.

“I really like the stuff they’re doing, the new guys they hired,” Romano said. “I talked to Owen and Emilio — really smart guys. I decided this is probably the best fit for me to work on my stuff, get better down here, and help contribute up there.”

Rebuilding the delivery

The work, in his telling, is specific. The mechanics of how he transfers energy through his delivery — the sequencing, the timing, the feel of it translating from bullpen session to live game — is where he is spending most of his time. It is unglamorous and incremental, the kind of thing that doesn’t show up in a stat line.

Some days it clicks.

Some days it doesn’t.

“I’m trying to get to the point where my delivery is doing what I’ve been working on without really thinking about it,” he said. “Muscle memory. I feel like we’re almost there. It’s kind of exciting.”

He is also working on a new splitter grip — one he believes gives him better command of the pitch and more movement — and on generating more velocity overall. The combination of a tuned-up delivery and a sharper splitter, in his mind, is the difference between the pitcher he has been recently and the pitcher he knows he can be.

Finding joy in the process

What is striking about Romano, sitting in the ACL clubhouse in early June, is how unbothered he seems by any of it. This is his fourth organization in three years — Toronto, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and now Colorado. — and he has developed a kind of institutional fluency for the transition.

“The first two weeks, you’re kind of learning everyone’s name,” he said. “And then after two weeks, it’s kind of like — everyone’s been cool here.”

He does not come off as bitter about the way things have gone. He is not performing enthusiasm that he doesn’t feel. He genuinely seems to enjoy the process.

“The thing I like most about baseball is, like, the performing is amazing,” he said, “but the working on stuff — you’re trying to do something, and then you see it kind of click. That’s the best feeling for me.”

He paused. “Get down here, get in the trenches a little bit, work on your stuff.”

The road back to Coors

He has pitched at Coors Field before. He knows what it asks of a pitcher — the way breaking balls behave differently in thin air, the necessary adjustments in pitch locations.

“You’ve got to set your sights a little differently with your breaking balls,” he said. “But I actually enjoy it. It’s a beautiful park.”

He wants to get back there. He is not racing toward it. One step at a time, he said. Get the delivery right first. Let the rest follow.

For a pitcher who was, not long ago, one of the most reliable closers in the American League, the patience required to rebuild something from the ground up in Triple-A in June is not nothing.

But Romano doesn’t frame it as patience.

He frames it as a preference.

The work itself, he says, is that part he loves. The competing and feeling good — that’s what he’s building toward.

“Sometimes it’s not as fun competing when you know you’re a little off, or you don’t feel right,” he said. “Competing and feeling good — that’s going to be fun. That’s honestly one of the better feelings you can have.”

He’s close. He said so himself. From a guy who has had every reason to stop believing it, that counted for something.

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After completing my most recent review on Daniel Jackson, I started thinking “What if the Phillies drafted for need?” The “need” being a right handed power bat, preferably a corner OF. I would also prefer if the prospect not be a reach or a guy that almost certainly will go 20 spots higher. Turns out there’s a guy ranked in the Phillies range at #29, that could easily fall to the 36th pick. As luck would have it he’s a former power hitting Catcher who had to convert to Right Field because of defensive concerns (promise I did not plan all these little parallels).

Rose is a 6’1”, 210 lbs Right Fielder who just turned 21 at the end of May. He was ranked ~200 in the 2023 draft, but since he told teams he would honor his commitment to Louisville, he went undrafted. He’s an above-average runner (though he’s a stocky guy, so I expect that to not be a big long term strength) and currently an above-average hitter for power with a potential to tap into more (on to that later). He has a borderline plus arm, which is enough to play in Right Field, where he reportedly gets good reads and has the speed and arm to be, at least, as average defender out there. Jackson has fringe 5-tool skills, but Zion is almost entirely about the Power as his lone carrying tool, though nothing else looks below average.

As a hitter, Zion is also very different from Jackson’s relatively clean swing. Zion has similar bat speed and strength, but with a big leg kick and a lot of bat wiggle before he starts his swing. Higher level Pitchers may be able to exploit all that movement by rushing him and throwing his timing off. So he’ll need some adjustments made with a pro hitting coach to try to quiet those parts down some. Also similar to Jackson, Zion had a bit of a reputation as a free swinger, but unlike Jackson he has a history of very good bat control that allowed him to make consistent contact with a very respectable 14% K rate in 2025 and a 10% K rate in 2026 and consistently ran excellent walk rates the last 2 years. Zion’s Home Runs were down this year, but his doubles were up (both in terms of rate, as he played way less games this year thanks to Louisville having a very down year and not making the postseason), so his Slugging is actually higher. Still draft year is a bad time for bad Home Run luck, especially if it’s a big part of your profile. I think a swing change to silence some of the bat waggle and improve his timing, as he sometimes strides, then rotates and it would be best to be into your rotation a little earlier, can further aid in his ability to get to an above average or better hit profile. It’s a small change, but could unlock additional home run power too.

I’ll embed two videos here. The first is from a showcase during his High School years, so you can see his swing then (also, some teams still are reportedly high on his potential behind the dish, so you get some throws from the position to start off here). The second is of highlights from this season. No side views, but the swing, while nosier, does seem to have more of an upstroke for launch angle.

The reason I think Zion is ranked a little ahead of Jackson is because of greater positional certainty. He’s already shown he can be an average or better player full time at positions other than Catcher along with a better hitting track record. I’d be shocked to see any team put him back at Catcher and set his development timeline back by likely years. I’d expect he stays in the OF, maybe even Center early on until he proves he needs to move to Right or Left.

According to a report from Football365, Arsenal are set to reignite their interest in Nico Williams despite his long-term contract at Athletic Club. The Gunners were among the leading clubs chasing him after Euro 2024, where he produced outstanding performances for Spain and played a key role in helping them win the tournament. His displays attracted strong interest from Arsenal and Barcelona, who were viewed as the most serious contenders at the time. However, he chose to remain in Bilbao and committed his future by signing a new ten-year deal, which was widely seen as ending immediate speculation over a possible departure.

Since then Arsenal have focused on other attacking targets in the transfer market, but they are still expected to strengthen their forward options this summer, particularly on the left side of their attack.

Arsenal interest remains active

Despite his contract extension, Williams continues to be regarded as one of the most dangerous wide players in European football. His pace, directness and ability to beat defenders in one-on-one situations make him an attractive option for elite clubs across the continent.

Arsenal are believed to remain convinced that he could significantly improve their attacking output and add greater depth in wide positions. The club are currently assessing whether a deal would be realistic given Athletic’s strong negotiating position.

Arsenal prepare potential approach

Williams is still seen as a key figure at Athletic and remains central to their long-term plans. The Spanish side are expected to resist any approach unless a substantial offer is made.

Nevertheless, Arsenal are expected to continue monitoring his situation closely and could test Athletic’s resolve if the opportunity arises during the transfer window.

The Gunners view the winger as a player capable of improving their squad immediately and adding more unpredictability in attacking areas. His international experience and consistency at club level continue to enhance his reputation.

While the situation remains complex due to his long-term contract, Arsenal are expected to keep exploring possibilities before the window closes. Any potential deal would likely depend on significant progress in negotiations between the two clubs.

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The FIFA World Cup 2026 is not exactly asking for a casual viewing commitment. Between Argentina’s title defense, the USMNT playing on home soil and another loaded field featuring France, Brazil, England, Spain and more, the expanded 48-team tournament is going to take over the summer sports calendar from June 11 through July 19. The only annoying part? Figuring out where every match is actually streaming.

For U.S. viewers, it comes down to this: FOX and FS1 have the English-language broadcasts, while Telemundo, Universo and Peacock have Spanish-language coverage.

The less easy part is figuring out which streaming service has exactly what you are looking for, which could vary, depending on which matches you are hoping to catch live. Because unfortunately, not every streaming service carries every local FOX station, not every Peacock plan includes live sports, and not every “free” option gets you anywhere near all 104 matches.

So, before the opening match turns into the group stage, the group stage turns into knockout-round stress and the July 19 final somehow sneaks up on everyone, it is worth figuring out which platform actually gets you the games you want.

How To Watch the FIFA World Cup 2026 Live Online

In English, FIFA World Cup 2026 matches will air on FOX and FS1, which are available through live TV streaming services including DIRECTV, Sling, Fubo, Hulu + Live TV and YouTube TV. FOX will also stream matches through FOX One and the FOX Sports app. For Spanish-language coverage, Peacock will stream matches live, with Telemundo and Universo also carrying coverage on TV.

BEST OVERALL PICK

DirecTV Stream

$0

Buy Now

– 5-day Free Trial
– Includes FOX and FS1.
– Some plans also include Telemundo, but it varies by zip code.

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DIRECTV Stream is our best overall pick to watch the FIFA World Cup 2026 because it puts the two big English-language channels, FOX and FS1, in one place, with local FOX availability depending on your market.

DIRECTV also lists Telemundo and Universo access for Spanish-language coverage, though Telemundo availability can also vary by market. The service currently offers a 5-day free trial for new customers, with no annual contract and no satellite dish required. A valid card is required, and after the trial, the service renews monthly unless canceled.

How to watch the FIFA World Cup 2026 with DIRECTV Stream:

DIRECTV Genre Packs are also worth a look if you want something more focused than a full live TV package. For this tournament, MySports is the DIRECTV Genre Pack to look at first. It includes FS1, plus a wider lineup of sports channels, and DIRECTV currently lists it at $49.99/month for the first two months before it moves to $64.99/month. New customers can also start with a 5-day free trial, so you can get a handful of games in for free before being charged.

MiEspañol is the other pack worth checking, especially if Spanish-language coverage is part of your World Cup plan. It includes networks such as Telemundo, TUDN and ESPN Deportes, and DIRECTV currently lists it at $29.99/month for the first two months before the price moves to $34.99/month.

How to watch the FIFA World Cup 2026 with DIRECTV Genre Packs:

BEST BUDGET PICK

Sling TV

$19.99

Buy Now

– No Free Trial
– Fox is only available in designated markets, so double check yours before signing up.

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Sling is the budget option, but only after making sure that your zip code includes FOX and FS1 in its coverage. Sling’s World Cup page lists coverage on FOX in designated markets and FS1, with plans starting at $19.99/month through Sling Select.

The FOX part is the thing to confirm before signing up. FS1 will carry some World Cup coverage, but FOX is where many of the biggest matches will air, including the final. The bummer is Sling says FOX is only available in designated markets. It also does not currently offer a standard free trial.

How to watch the FIFA World Cup 2026 with Sling:

BEST FREE TRIAL BACKUP

Fubo Sports

$0 (5-Day Free Trial)

Buy Now

– 5-day free trial, then a discounted price of $45.99 for Fubo Sports + News
– Also includes ESPN Unlimited
– Stream on on to 10 screens at once

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Fubo Sports is the better fit for viewers who already have been thinking about committing to a live sports streaming package. Its World Cup page says it carries FOX and FS1, giving subscribers access to all 104 matches in English. It also offers unlimited cloud DVR and multiview, which are actually useful once the group stage starts putting multiple matches on the same day.

Fubo’s World Cup plan is currently listed at $45.99 for the first month, then $73.99/month after that, with regional restrictions, taxes and fees still in the mix. New users may also see a 5-day free trial, but as always, confirm the length at checkout.

How to watch the FIFA World Cup 2026 with Fubo:

BEST SPANISH LANGUAGE OPTION

Peacock

$10.99

Buy Now

– All 104 matches live in Spanish for Premium and Premium Plus subscribers
– Peacock Select subscribers get the first eight Group Stage matches

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Peacock is where the World Cup streaming map gets a little more specific. It will not have the English-language FOX or FS1 broadcast, so do not use it as a one-stop answer for the full tournament in English.

What Peacock does have is Telemundo’s Spanish-language coverage, with all 104 matches streaming live in Spanish for Premium and Premium Plus subscribers, plus replays, highlights and a dedicated World Cup hub.

Peacock Premium costs $10.99/month, while Premium Plus costs $16.99/month. The cheaper Peacock Select tier is $7.99/month, but live sports are generally not included there. The World Cup gets a small exception: Select subscribers can watch the first eight Group Stage matches from June 11 through June 13. Those same eight matches will also be available free on the Telemundo app with no login required.

How to watch the FIFA World Cup 2026 with Peacock:

Other Ways to Stream the FIFA World Cup 2026

FOX One is for viewers who do not need a full live TV bundle. FOX says all 104 matches will stream on FOX One and the FOX Sports app, with live coverage, highlights and on-demand viewing included. The service starts at $19.99/month and currently offers a 3-day free trial for new subscribers, so it is a cleaner fit if the World Cup is the reason you are signing up in the first place. Got an Amazon Prime membership? If so, they’re currently offering the same free 3-day trial if you sign up through Amazon’s Prime Video. This is a great option if you don’t want to download another app on your phone or TV.

Hulu + Live TV seems to be better for viewers who want the World Cup, but also want a live TV package they might keep after the final. Hulu + Live TV lists 100+ live channels and costs $89.99/month after a 3-day free trial, when that trial is available. It also includes Hulu, Disney+ and live sports through ESPN.

YouTube TV sits in the same cable-replacement bucket as Hulu + Live TV. Its main plan is listed at $89.99/month for 100+ live channels, with promotional pricing sometimes available for new users. The service currently lists a 21-day free trial for new users, but that is the kind of offer to double-check before signing up, as it could depend on how recently you have used a free trial, if ever.

Can You Watch the FIFA World Cup 2026 for Free?

Some of it, yes. All 104 matches through one free legal streaming option is a different story.

The most realistic free route is to use a short-term trial from a service that actually carries the channels you need, whether that is DIRECTV Stream, DIRECTV Genre Packs, Fubo, Hulu + Live TV, FOX One or YouTube TV. The annoying but important part is the fine print: most trials require a payment method and turn into paid plans automatically, so set the cancellation reminder the same day you sign up.

There are also a few free matches already on the schedule. Tubi will stream Mexico vs. South Africa on June 11 and USA vs. Paraguay on June 12 live and free with a Tubi account. The Telemundo app will stream the first eight matches from June 11 through June 13 for free with no login required.

So, in case you are overwhelmed by all of the choices, here’s how it breaks down:

Looking for merch to support your team? Here’s some of the best FIFA World Cup merch and collabs that you can buy right now.

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Welcome to World Cup 2026! It’s the first year for this expanded tournament with 48 teams participating. That means a lot more teams that might not normally make the World Cup like Curacao and Haiti. It is also, I believe, the first time that the tournament has been hosted by three nations — the whole of North America is involved with the USA, Canada, and Mexico all co-hosting.

The tournament starts in Mexico with Group A, the host nation playing against 2010 hosts South Africa this afternoon in Mexico City, followed by the nightcap of South Korea vs. Czechia in Guadalajara. Stay up late (or get up extra early four our UK contingent) and you get to see Son Heung-Min lead his nation for what could be the last World Cup of his career.

This is your open thread. Be nice!

Mexico vs. South Africa (Group A)

3:00 p.m. ET / 8:00 p.m. BST
Mexico City Stadium, Mexico City, Mexico
TV: FOX (USA), Telemundo (USA – Español) ITV 1 (UK)
Stream: Tubi, Fox One, Peacock (Telemundo stream)

Current and former Tottenham Hotspur players involved: None

South Korea vs. Czechia (Group A)

10:00 p.m. ET / 3:00 a.m. (Fri.) BST
Guadalajara Stadium, Guadalajara, Mexico
TV: Fox Sports 1 (USA), Telemundo (USA – Español), ITV 1 (UK)
Stream: Tubi, Fox One, Peacock (Telemundo stream)

Current and former Tottenham Hotspur players involved: Son Heung-Min (South Korea)

Arsenal have sent 15 players from 9 different countries to North America for the 2026 World Cup, the second most of any Premier League club behind Manchester City sending 19. It would have been 16 and 10 but Jurrien Timber was forced to withdraw from the Netherlands side because of the groin injury that kept him out down the stretch of the club season.

Manchester United are sending 13 players from 10 different countries. You’ll never guess which Premier League clubs are sending the 4th and 5th-most players. Answer here.

Arsenal put together a nice primer on the Gunners heading to the tournament that I’ll summarize and augment with U.S. TV info (link to FOX Sports’ coverage page that has streaming links).

Leandro Trossard, Belgium
Egypt, Monday, June 15th, 3 pm ET, FOX
Iran, Sunday, June 21st, 3 pm ET, FS1
New Zealand, Friday, June 26th, 11 pm ET, FOX

Trossard is projected to start on the opposite wing from Jeremy Doku.

Gabriel Magalhaes, Gabriel Martinelli, Brazil
Morocco, Saturday, June 13th, 6 pm ET, FOX
Haiti, Friday, June 19th, 8:30 pm ET, FOX
Scotland, Wednesday, June 24th, 6 pm ET, FOX

Big Gabby will start at CB. Medium Gabby will come off the bench.

Piero Hincapie, Ecuador
Ivory Coast, Sunday, June 14th, 7 pm ET, FS1
Curacao, Saturday, June 20th, 8 pm ET, FS1
Germany, Thursday, June 25th, 4 pm ET, FOX

Piero will start at CB alongside PSG’s Pacho.

Ebere Eze, Declan Rice, Noni Madueke, Bukayo Saka, England
Croatia, Wednesday, June 17th 4 pm ET, FOX
Ghana, Tuesday, June 23rd, 4 pm ET, FOX
Panama, Saturday, June 27th, 5 pm ET, FOX

Declan Rice (named vice-captain) and Bukayo Saka will start, Ebere Eze and Noni Madueke will come off the bench.

William Saliba, France
Senegal, Tuesday, June 16th, 3 pm ET, FOX
Iraq, Monday, June 22nd, 5 pm ET, FOX
Norway, Friday, June 26th, 3 pm ET, FOX

Saliba will start for France, health permitting. He’s being managed through a back problem that may need surgery after the tournament.

Kai Havertz, Germany
Curacao, Sunday, June 14th, 1 PM ET, FOX
Ivory Coast, Saturday, June 20th, 4 pm ET, FOX
Ecuador, Thursday, June 25th, 4 pm ET, FOX

Kai will start leading the line.

Martin Ødegaard, Norway
Iraq, Tuesday, June 16th, 6 pm ET, FOX
Senegal, Monday, June 22nd, 8 pm ET, FOX
France, Friday, June 26th, 3 pm ET, FOX

The Arsenal club captain also captains his national team.

David Raya, Martin Zubimendi, Mikel Merino
Cabo Verde, Monday, June 15th, 12 pm ET, FOX
Saudi Arabia, Sunday, June 21st, 12 pm ET, FOX
Uruguay, Friday, June 26th, 8 pm ET, FOX

All three are not expected to be starters, which is really harsh on David Raya. I’d expect both Zubimendi and Merino to be regularly used subs.

Viktor Gyökeres, Sweden
Tunisia, Sunday, June 14th, 10 pm ET, FS1
Netherlands, Saturday, June 20th, 1 pm ET, FOX
Japan, Thursday, June 25th, 7 pm ET, FS1

Big Vik will start up top alongside Alexander Isak. Gyökeres scored a hat trick in the qualifier semifinal against Ukraine and the late winner in the final against Poland to put Sweden into the tournament.

We’ll have Arsenal vs. Arsenal clashes on June 25th with Ecuador (Hincapie) against Germany (Havertz) and on June 26th with Norway (Ødegaard) against France (Saliba).

Khephren Thuram has attracted exploratory interest from a pair of Premier League clubs, with Juventus prepared to consider selling the French midfielder for a fee of between €45 and €50 million as the club scramble to plug a significant financial gap before the end of June.

According to Tuttosport, Juventus have less than a month to generate approximately €55 million in sales to offset the losses from missing out on Champions League football.

Nico Gonzalez’s departure alone will not be sufficient, and with Bremer’s €58 million release clause not activating until July, the club need to find another major sale before the financial year ends.

With Kenan Yildiz categorically off the table, every other key asset is theoretically available, and Thuram, who has already knocked back approaches from Galatasaray and Fenerbahce, is the latest to attract serious attention.

TURIN, ITALY – APRIL 19: Khephren Thuram of Juventus celebrates scoring his team’s second goal during the Serie A match between Juventus FC and Bologna FC 1909 at Allianz Stadium on April 19, 2026 in Turin, Italy. (Photo by Valerio Pennicino/Getty Images)

Lobotka and Kessie identified as Thuram replacements if Premier League clubs firm up interest in Juventus star

The Premier League enquiries are described as exploratory at this stage, clubs testing Juventus’s willingness to sell and establishing a price, but the response from Turin is significant.

An offer in the €45-50 million range would represent a substantial profit and would be genuinely considered.

Should Thuram depart, Juventus have identified potential replacements. Stanislav Lobotka remains a long-standing target, though De Laurentiis is unlikely to sell to a direct rival at a cut price despite a €25 million release clause valid for foreign clubs.

Franck Kessie is also under consideration; the Ivorian is set to leave Al-Ahli as a free agent, though Spalletti’s assessment of his profile and his wage demands present complications of their own.

Thomas Tuchel has made some controversial choices when picking his England team for the World Cup.

Ivan Toney has come back into the fold despite not being picked for England very much over the past 12 months.

Meanwhile, the likes of Cole Palmer and Phil Foden have been left at home.

On top of that, the selection of Jordan Henderson has raised a few eyebrows, but speaking on his TikTok page, John Terry has now justified this decision.

John Terry backs Jordan Henderson’s England selection

Terry spoke about Henderson’s role in this England squad.

The former England captain admitted that, at this point, Henderson is not one of the Premier League’s best players, however, he still thinks he’s worthy of being in the England squad.

Indeed, Terry reckons Henderson’s professionalism and experience will be important for England, claiming that he could be an important player late in cagey games.

“My honest thoughts of Jordan being involved is 100% I get it from the managerial perspective.

“Is Jordan one of the best players in the Premier League this year? No, you could argue not.

“Would I personally want Jordan around the place? Yes, 100%.

“Is Jordan Henderson a very, very good footballer? Yes, he is.

“You could probably claim that Adam Wharton deserves the shirt over him. You could probably claim a couple more.

“People have their opinions, but these are mine, and I’m quite strong on it as well. So two calls gone for the decision where you’re bringing a player in that’s going to drive those standards. I speak about this quite a lot, regardless of England, about people that are going to drive the standards, drive the training, and manage stuff because when you’re a manager at a big tournament, you’ve got so much to worry about anyway.

“It’s really important that you’ve got a group of players. John Stones falls into this, I’m sure Pickford, Harry Kane falls into it. I’m sure big Dan Burn falls into this as well. Good people around allow the players to manage that group of players in it and allows the manager to focus on what he needs to focus on, which is the tactics, the opposition all of that.

“Now, I’ve heard people like Roy Keane come out and go, ‘what’s he doing, magic tricks?’ and stuff like that. No, he’s not. He’s a fantastic player. And also, if we’re under pressure a little bit, I can see him coming on for 15, 20 minutes, winning the game 1-0. People like that being experienced pros, seeing the game out, showing a little bit of the dark arts that we don’t really see, time wasting, all of these little bits that he’s got bundles of experience. So, do I think he can make a big impact at the World Cup? I 100% do, and would I have him there? Yeah, I would.”

Jordan Henderson is still valuable to England

Terry knows what he’s talking about, and he’s spot on here.

England are able to name a 26-man squad, and within that, you want a number of players you can describe as natural leaders.

Henderson ticks that box.

Henderson has won all there is to win at club level, and almost every single one of his former Liverpool teammates has spoken about what a great leader he is.

This is a young squad that needs a clear leader within it, and while Henderson may not be as good as a player like Adam Wharton at this point, he’s much better-suited to the role he’s going to play at this tournament.

Welcome back, fantasy football diehards. Last week, I shared a column with 23 facts about running backs. Today I’ve got a fresh fact set for the wide receiver position, which you’ll want to know if you’re doing best ball or other early fantasy drafts. Not drafting now? Then keep them in the back of your mind for drafts later this summer.

You can access all of my 2026 fantasy football content here.

The wide receiver position is in many ways the engine of fantasy football. It’s the deepest position by a wide margin, and while fantasy league formats and lineup requirements vary, a typical starting lineup includes at least three receivers. Most fantasy teams end up getting more total points from the receiver position than any other.

In my running backs column, I discussed how most of the biggest names at that position have been able to stay on the field across the last two seasons. That hasn’t been the case for receivers. Thankfully, it’s a position with a lot of depth and one where you can often find help on the waiver wire.

Elite running backs have reasserted themselves in the last two seasons and have crept back up to the top of draft boards. But the top tiers of receivers are putting up some eye-popping numbers too. Active players account for eight of the 16 highest receiving yardage seasons in NFL history, and five of the nine highest career receiving yards per game averages.

Let’s get to it. Here are 21 fantasy facts you need to know at the wide receiver position.

1. Puka Nacua is averaging 95.3 receiving yards per game across his three-year career. That’s the most in NFL history
2. Nacua led all receivers in multiple statistics in 2025, including yards after the catch (666), first downs (80), and yards per route run (3.70).
3. College teammates Justin Jefferson (90.1) and Ja’Marr Chase (87.7) are second and third all-time in career receiving yards per game.
4. Amon Ra St. Brown has bucked the injury trend, playing in 83 of a possible 85 games during his five-year career.
5. St. Brown is the safest first round pick in fantasy football. In each of the last four seasons, he topped 140 targets, 100 catches, and 1,150 yards. And in each of the last three seasons he amassed double-digit TDs and finished as the WR3 in Full-point PPR.
6. St. Brown is second all-time among receivers in percentage of targets caught (73.7%), trailing only Michael Thomas, and he’s seen the second most targets in the NFL across the last five seasons (742 total targets, trailing only Chase’s 767 in that span).
7. Chase led the NFL in targets in each of the last two seasons, and the 360 targets he amassed across 2024 and 2025 is the most in a two-year span in fifteen years (Calvin Johnson).
8. Tee Higgins has 21 TDs on 132 catches across the last two seasons, in just 27 games played. That’s a 16% TD catch rate.
9. Seven receivers had a 30% or greater team target share in 2025 (for their games played), led by Jaxson Smith-Njigba at 35.8%. The other six, in order of highest percentage: Garrett Wilson, Chase, St. Brown, Drake London, Nacua, and Jefferson.
10. Across his four-year career, Christian Watson has caught 20 TD passes and has amassed 97 first downs on receptions, on just 133 catches. That’s a 15% TD catch rate and a 73% first down catch rate.
11. Six Ohio State receivers are slotted in as their team’s clear #1 WR in 2026: Terry McLaurin, Chris Olave, Garrett Wilson, Jaxson Smith-Njigba, Marvin Harrison, Jr., and Emeka Egbuka. Titans’ rookie Carnell Tate could join this list early in the season, as well.
12. Nico Collins’s ranking in yards per route run over the last three seasons: Tenth, second, and second.
13. Justin Jefferson had fewer receiving yards in 2025 (while playing in all 17 games) than he did in 2023, when he only played in ten games.
14. Last season, Egbuka became the 9^th player all-time to surpass 400 receiving yards in his first five NFL games.
15. Alec Pierce led the NFL in yards per catch in each of the last two seasons (22.3, 21.3). Across those two seasons, he has 13 TDs on just 84 receptions. That’s a 15% TD catch rate.
16. In his fourth NFL season, but first with Dallas, George Pickens set career highs in targets, receptions, touchdown catches, first downs, and catch rate.
17. Wan’Dale Robinson was targeted 140 times in each of the last two seasons, and Brian Daboll was his head coach for most of that time. Robinson is now a Titan, and Daboll is the new offensive coordinator in Tennessee.
18. Malik Nabers is averaging just shy of 11 targets per game across 19 career games, and that’s the highest average in the NFL across the last two seasons.
19. The Miami Dolphins do not have a receiver on their roster with more than 105 catches at the NFL level.
20. Garrett Wilson led the Jets with 395 receiving yards in 2025 (he only appeared in seven games).
21. Zay Flowers has tallied between 108-118 targets, 74-86 receptions, 4-5 touchdowns, and 44-48 first downs in each of his three seasons. Consistency!

That’s it for today. Keep it here for more offseason fantasy content. And once again, Let’s Go Knicks!

Donald Trump is set to be absent from the Los Angeles Stadium when USA begin their 2026 World Cup against Paraguay on Friday night.

The US are one of three co-hosts staging the tournament in North America alongside Mexico and Canada, and each nation’s opening game will feature its own opening ceremony.

State figureheads usually appear at their country’s first match of the tournament and Trump was expected to be in the stands. Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani attended Qatar’s opening game against Ecuador in 2022, and Vladimir Putin watched Russia’s first game of the 2018 World Cup against Saudi Arabia in Moscow.

But it has been widely reported that the US president will not attend, barring a late U-turn, instead leaving secretary of state Mark Rubio to travel from Washington with transport secretary Sean Duffy and secretary of homeland security Markwayne Mullin.

Trump will be at the White House on Saturday evening, however, to host a UFC event, dubbed UFC Freedom, in celebration of his 80th birthday and the USA’s 250th anniversary.

The US president has regularly appeared at major sporting events during his two terms. He flew in to the Ryder Cup in New York last year and was present at the Club World Cup final in New Jersey last summer, inserting himself into Chelsea’s trophy celebrations on stage.

His appearances have not always been welcomed. Trump was loudly booed at the NBA Finals last week after being shown on big screens. His vice-president, JD Vance, was booed at the Winter Olympics opening ceremony in Milan earlier this year.

The start of the tournament has been clouded in controversy around high ticket prices and America’s strict border controls. Fans from more than half the qualified countries need visas to enter the United States, adding cost and uncertainty for travellers already wary of tight border enforcement.

The Trump administration also denied a Somali referee entry over alleged links to “suspected members of terror organisations”.

The Texas A&M Aggies have found their new pitching coach, and he is bringing plenty of MLB experience to College Station. Texas A&M head coach Michael Earley has hired Barry Enright as his pitching coach, according to Ryan Brauninger of TexAgs.

While Enright has never worked at the collegiate level, he has worked for the Arizona Diamondbacks, Los Angeles Angels, and Athletics. Arizona hired him in 2019 as a pitching coach for a minor league team, promoting him to assistant major league pitching coach and minor league pitching coordinator in 2021.

He was then hired as the pitching coach for the Angels in 2023, a position he held until 2025, when he was not retained by their new manager. The Athletics hired him in January of 2026 to be their pitching coordinator and director of pitching in their player development department.

Enright played for the Diamondbacks and Angels after being drafted in the second round of the 2007 MLB Draft by the Diamondbacks, spending two years with each team from 2010-13. He finished his career with a 5.57 ERA and a 7-13 record in 148 2/3 innings before getting into coaching.

He does have experience at the collegiate level, the Stockton, California native, pitched at Pepperdine from 2005-07. He started 56 games for them, going 35-8 with a 3.45 ERA in 353 innings.

Enright will be looking to turn around a Texas A&M pitching staff that has struggled over the past few seasons. They had a 5.24 ERA in 2026 and a 4.30 ERA in 2025.

Contact/Follow us @AggiesWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Texas A&M news, notes and opinions.

This article originally appeared on Aggies Wire: Texas A&M Baseball: Aggies hire Barry Enright as pitching coach

Executives from Franklin Templeton and BNP Paribas say tokenized assets and stablecoins could improve capital efficiency across Europe as Wall Street expands tokenization efforts.

YouTube is expanding in-app video sharing and messaging to eligible adults in more markets, reviving a version of its messaging feature removed in 2019.

The post YouTube Brings In-App Sharing & Messaging To The U.S. appeared first on Search Engine Journal.

Earlier this month, a rumor from China claimed Oppo's ColorOS 17 will be heavily inspired by Apple's Liquid Glass design language, borrowing quite a few elements from it while keeping the effect less transparent than what Apple did in iOS 26 (it's worth noting that Apple itself is toning down Liquid Glass' transparency in iOS 27 while also giving you a slider to customize it). However, it seems like that rumor was simply pure conjecture. Today, ColorOS design director Chen Xi posted on Weibo saying that ColorOS 17 will focus on improving the basic user experience, and will thus not include...

You can add Huawei to the growing list of brands that are set to raise the prices of its devices. Huawei issued an official “price adjustment notice” to its key partner networks and corporate clients in China, where it confirmed that starting July 1, 2026, the prices for all Huawei products will be hiked. According to the post, Huawei describes supply chain shifts in the global chip industry alongside the high demands of AI systems as the two main factors that have put the company under “ever-increasing cost pressure”. In short, sky-rocketing RAM and storage prices are to...

Another Summer Game Fest has come and gone, though we're still feeling the ripple effects of everything that was just announced. Part of that comes in the form of looking at what resonated the most with players, and as part of a report from The Game Business, marketing analytics firm LevelUp has the answer for the games that garnered the most engagement from players and press, and none of the top-10 games are a surprise. That's because they're all big, triple-A juggernauts that would've been the most-talked-about games regardless of where they showed up. Not a single indie game broke […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/summer-game-fest-2026-god-of-war-laufey-ocarina-of-time-remake-resident-evil-veronica/

The skepticism surrounding Halo: Campaign Evolved for its ditching of the Slipspace Engine in favor of the Unreal Engine 5 for its return to PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S seems to have been well-founded, as an NVIDIA RTX 5090 GPU, the best consumer GPU available, doesn't hit the high framerates one would expect at 1440p resolution. In a new video preview shared on YouTube, content creator Jackfrags showed a preview build running on a system powered by an AMD Ryzen 9 9950X 3D CPU and the aforementioned RTX 5090 at 1440p resolution and Ultra settings with NVIDIA DLAA […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/halo-campaign-evolved-stumbles-unreal-engine-5-rtx-5090/