Borja Iglesias paints his nails and speaks his mind on issues like Gaza and homophobia with a candour that has seen him called "the alien of football".

But the 33-year-old Celta Vigo striker — a World Cup squad member and reliable cover should Spain's first-choice forwards falter — says the game is full of players like him. We just never hear from them.

"The reality is I do not think footballers should be pigeon-holed," Iglesias told AFP.

"There are an enormous amount of different people, of ways of understanding our profession, our life — and I meet more footballers who are atypical than you'd think."

In 2020, Iglesias painted his nails black following the murder of African-American George Floyd by a policeman in Minneapolis.

He said the gesture was intended to highlight how "very often you can have sexist, macho, racist and homophobic thoughts. This served as a statement about that".

Iglesias, who was a member of the Bayer Leverkusen side that went unbeaten through the 2023-24 campaign in securing the domestic double, said he understood why he was seen as being different.

"It is because I do not mince my words when I speak," he said.

"Sometimes I believe that we are very scared of saying what we think because of the impact it could have.

"I also had this fear. But suddenly it dawned on me nothing serious will happen when you say what you think."

Iglesias, who has eight caps to his name since making his debut in 2022, said he broke the psychological barrier when he realised he felt better when he got things off his chest.

"It was a case of trial and error," he said.

"Because I had a hunger to speak out rather than hold my tongue.

"I felt that for me personally it did me good to speak and be who I really am."

- 'Battle for inclusivity' -

US president Donald Trump's immigration policies have attracted a lot of criticism but Iglesias says the American head of state is not unique in that respect.

"I came here to play at the World Cup," he said.

"However, the reality is that there are things taking place here which do not please me.

"But that is also the case in Spain.

"As regards being a footballer, if we contribute towards making sure these never happen again, little by little things will get better.

"That is one way of thinking.

"Obviously, I would adore to change lots of things, but it is not easy."

Iglesias, who says human rights, respect and inclusivity are matters that touch him deeply, has been vocal about hompohobia.

He has suffered for that, he was subjected to homophobic chanting after a La Liga match with Sevilla last season.

Iglesias, who is heterosexual, was supported by around 5,000 Celta supporters, coaching staff and the club president, who painted their nails black in solidarity with him at the next home match.

"It is a battle for inclusivity," said Iglesias referring to his calling out of homophobia.

"That anyone can be who they want to be.

"That you can please who you want, have sexual relations with who you want.

"I think I am not saying anything out of the ordinary, it should be normal to say such things."

Iglesias, who earned the nickname Panda, the title of a rap song, laughs when he is asked whether he considers himself the striker for all struggles.

"All of them, no... I would not have the strength," he said.

"But if I see something which does not please me or I find unfair, yes, I will try to put across my point of view, thanks to the impact we can have in our profession."

pm/ali/pi/rcw/jc

When the initial 2026 World Cup schedule was released two years ago, the date of Seattle’s final group-stage contest fashioned an unmissable opportunity. The “Emerald City”, positioned with its exquisite downtown skyline off the Pacific coast in Washington state, is famous for its spectacular Pride celebrations at the end of June. It coincides with the 1969 Stonewall Riots, seen as the catalyst for the liberation of gay people in the United States more than 55 years ago.

For Jen Barnes, founder and CEO of Rough & Tumble – a first-of-its-kind sports bar which promotes gender equity and inclusivity in sports viewing and fandom – Friday is a chance to parade the LGBTQ+ community in perfect harmony with the world’s most popular sport and its greatest show.

"Soccer is the world's game for a reason,” Barnes, who is co-chair of Seattle’s World Cup Pride+ Match Committee, tells The Independent. "When I think about what it will look like to fans watching from afar and fans who are here experiencing it, I do feel like we are celebrating Pride for the world on that day.

“I think that is really the most important story here."

And yet, not for the first time at this World Cup, the story is different. What should have been an elaborate celebration of inclusivity has instead turned into another unpalatable political storm. December’s draw in Washington, D.C. came and went and, 24 hours later, the matches fell into place.

Which countries would be involved in the first-ever World Cup Pride Match? Iran and Egypt. Two countries with long-standing anti-gay laws and ideology.

In Iran, homosexuality is strictly illegal under Sharia law. Penalties range from flogging to the death penalty. In Egypt, homosexuality is not explicitly outlawed, but LGBTQ+ people experience regular discrimination and violence. Police, via the implementation of vague “debauchery” and “incitement to indecency” laws, regularly persecute and arrest queer people, who can face up to seven years in prison.

In the aftermath of the draw, both countries’ football federations were quick to condemn the rainbow match. Egypt said it “categorically rejects any activities promoting LGBTQ during the match”, citing the “provocation of cultural and religious sensitivities among fans.” Iran’s football federation stated that the event was an “irrational move that supports a certain group.”

Both countries appealed to Fifa, who were quick to wash its hands of any involvement. “I must clarify that there will be no ‘Pride Match’ at the World Cup,” Fifa president Gianni Infantino said in January.

“There will be a Fifa World Cup match in Seattle and, on the same day, events organised by external organisations will be taking place in the city. But that has nothing to do with the match itself.”

On the face of it, there is a very simple alteration Fifa could have made to alleviate any concerns or protests surrounding Friday’s event. The Canadian city of Vancouver plays host to the other Group G match taking place simultaneously tonight, with Belgium taking on New Zealand: two countries with progressive LGBTQ+ laws.

Why could the two matches not simply have swapped locations? For one thing, it would have removed one of the three obstacles Iran have faced in their myriad of US visa issues encountered over the last fortnight. As it turns out, the Iran team have actually been in Seattle since Wednesday, in a match they need a result (and likely a win) in to progress to the knockout stage.

Typically, common sense did not prevail. We are where we are. "I think it's expected given their rules,” Barnes said of Iran and Egypt’s protestations. “I'm not sure if disappointed is the right word. Despite Iran and Egypt’s policies, queer people exist everywhere and that's really the most important part.

"We don't control the draw. Those are the countries that were drawn. It's an important moment to make sure that we are uplifting a community that is disenfranchised in certain parts of our world.

"We've really spent a lot of time uplifting the queer community and making sure that our visitors and our fans coming into town feel safe.

“If they are allies, they know they're in a wonderful place celebrating the queer community. If they are queer themselves, they're in a safe place and they're going to have a lot of fun."

The latest is that Fifa will not stop fans from bringing in rainbow fans to Seattle’s Lumen Field stadium on Friday.

A Fifa spokesperson added: “General statements of human rights, including rainbow flags and other flags representing sexual orientation and gender identiy, are permitted under the Fifa World Cup 2026 Stadium Code of Conduct and may be displayed inside stadiums provided they are used in a manner consistent with the code.”

Celebrations across the city, outside of Fifa’s jurisdiction, include “The Unity Loop” – a curated route designed to direct visitors to LGBTQ+ owned restaurants, bars and shops. There will be watch parties across Seattle, including at Barnes’ Rough & Tumble bar, while there will be themed rainbow merchandise and social media campaigns.

For Seattle’s Police Department, when combining the Pride celebrations with the expected Iranian regime protests – as seen at Iran’s first two matches in Los Angeles – it is set to be quite the operation. There will be heightened security measures, including drones and Coast Guard patrols along the waterfront.

Seattle’s mayor Katie Wilson admitted that local law enforcement were “expecting and prepared for protest activity.” Jamie Pedersen, the state senator and one of several openly gay members of the Washington State Legislature, added: “If you tried to import a pride celebration into Egypt or Iran, obviously that could be a disaster.

“But in a community like Seattle that prides itself on welcoming people from all over, I just can’t imagine that it’s going to be a significant problem.”

And Barnes, ahead of an event which has been four years in the making, concurred: “What I really do anticipate is purely a celebration of soccer and inclusion. We've worked really closely with our Iranian American community and our Egyptian American community here. Seattle is such a welcoming community for our LGBTQ+ fans and those who live here.

As for the match’s legacy, there is even hope that the event could take place at the 2030 World Cup, held in Spain, Portugal and Morocco. "I absolutely hope that this is something that gets carried forward,” she added. “There are queer human beings everywhere on this planet. There's no reason not to be inclusive of a huge portion of our fan base and our athletes themselves.”

CBS Sports named this transfer as a potential X-factor for the Longhorns, and it may not be who you expect originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

Following a relatively disappointing 2025 campaign in which Texas missed the College Football Playoff after consecutive appearances in 2023 and 2024, the Longhorns landed several elite contributors in the offseason through the transfer portal.

The Longhorns’ most high-profile addition was former Auburn Tiger Cam Coleman, the consensus No. 1 wide receiver in the portal and a projected first-round pick in the 2027 NFL Draft. But when identifying a transfer addition who could “swing College Football Playoff hopes” for the Longhorns, CBS Sports’ Chris Hummer elected to go in a different direction: offensive tackle Melvin Siani.

Siani was ranked as the No. 6 and No. 4 offensive tackle in the 2026 transfer portal class by 247Sports and On3/Rivals, respectively.

The Ontario, Canada native signed with Temple out of high school and spent his first two collegiate seasons there, including a redshirt year, before transferring to Wake Forest ahead of 2025. He did not allow a sack as a member of the Demon Deacons last year and announced his commitment to the Longhorns in January:

BREAKING: Wake Forest transfer OT Melvin Siani has Committed to Texas, he tells @On3

Posted an 80.7 PFF pass block grade this season with 0 sacks allowed (859 snaps)

He’s a Top 25 Player (No. 4 OT) in the On3 Portal Rankingshttps://t.co/RlUbB6EMhSpic.twitter.com/29ozC7NNyY

— Hayes Fawcett (@Hayesfawcett3) January 15, 2026

The offensive line was a major weakness for the Longhorns in 2025, as Hummer pointed out: “Texas was No. 109 in pressures allowed last season and struggled to consistently run the ball. That unit must improve for Texas to reach its goals.”

Hummer continued by noting how Siani’s arrival could bring both stability and experience to the Texas offensive line unit: “The Longhorns already have an All-American candidate at left tackle in Trevor Goosby. By adding Siani, one of the best OTs in the ACC last season, Texas should have the strongest tackle pairing in the country. And with last year's starting right tackle Brandon Baker able to slide inside, the Longhorns are employing an o-line interior with more than 3,000 combined career snaps...”

Texas also added a tackle (Jonte Newman) and trio of interior offensive linemen (Laurence Seymore, Dylan Sikorski, and Paris Patterson Jr.) through the portal, adding both starting-caliber talent and valuable depth in the trenches as they look to return to contention in 2026.

MORE Texas Longhorns News:

• Chris Del Conte's latest comments hint at uncertainty surrounding Notre Dame series
• SEC announces kickoff times for Longhorns vs. Texas State and UTSA, rounding out non-conference slate
• Texas HC Steve Sarkisian makes surprising admission about Arch Manning’s NFL future
• Longhorns beat out Bulldogs, Ducks, and Buckeyes for coveted 2027 DL

The Texas Longhorns will open the 2026 season on September 5 against the Texas State Bobcats, with kickoff scheduled for 2:30 p.m. CT on ESPN.

New York — Fifty-two years separated Haiti’s last two World Cup goals from the two scored against Morocco on Wednesday. For 52-year-old Murielle Lodvil, the wait spanned her entire lifetime.

She was one of the many watching from the pockets of New York’s Little Haiti, where bars and restaurants fell quiet as fans watched the match unfold on screens before it burst into further chaos: an equaliser, a goal and then another equaliser in the frantic first half.

Haiti went into the last group match with Morocco with elimination already sealed, after losing to both Scotland and Brazil in Group C. Haiti would concede twice more, but the result did little to diminish the occasion for Murielle.

As a birthday gift to herself, she bought tickets for her and 41-year-old sister, Barbara Albert, to watch Haiti face Brazil last week.

“That is why Haiti participating on this world stage was so special to me,” she said. “Every moment of this experience counts, ending with two goals, even with the outcome.”

Ms Albert said the experience at the Brazil match underscored the pride many supporters felt simply seeing Haiti return to the World Cup stage.

“The representation was really good. We’re proud of our Haitian community. We really showed up for them,” she said.

The sense of pride was also visible at the UBS Arena in Elmont, New York last Wednesday. The state is home to the country’s second-largest Haitian community, home to about 113,000 Haitian residents, according to the US Census Bureau in 2024.

Last week, an hour before Haiti faced Brazil, the Haitian flags were already gone. The Brazil flags, handed out alongside them at the door, remained half-stacked on distribution tables.

Thousands in wigs, Haitian jerseys and flags draped over their shoulders had filled the nearly sold-out, 19,000 seat stadium, with a handful in Brazilian yellow and green. Amid the sea of red and blue was Maude Schwartz, who waved a Haitian flag as she danced into the arena alongside her family, pumping her hands up in the air.

The 58-year-old Pilates studio owner, who moved to the US from Haiti in 1990 on a student visa, had come seeking a taste of the World Cup atmosphere. While her twin sons were at the match, she was satisfied with a $10 ticket to the watch party.

“Oh my goodness, my entire family is here,” she said, gesturing at the crowd around her.

But not everyone that wanted to be here could make it. “I have a niece who has repeatedly been denied a visa to come to the United States,” she said.

Her experience reflects broader constraints facing Haitian supporters. A travel ban imposed by the Trump administration, which began last year and was expanded in January, kept some supporters like Maude’s niece from attending.

Even players were affected. The defensive midfielder Woodensky Pierre, who lives in Haiti, was unable to travel to the United States to join the national team until 10 days before Haiti’s opening match against Scotland on June 13th.

“This is a world event and people should not be denied entry to this country,” said 55 year old Jean-Marc, a former player in the Long Island Football League dressed in a Haitian jersey and a wig dyed in the national colours. Born in the US to Haitian parents, he spent part of his childhood in Haiti before returning in 1986, following the fall of the Duvalier regime many called a dictatorship.

Watching Haiti compete in the country he has lived in for decades, he called it a “momentous event for all Haitians”.

‘Afraid of a raid’

Back in Flatbush, the Brooklyn neighbourhood that many call Little Haiti, Nadege Fleurimond has thrown open the doors of her Haitian-Caribbean restaurant, BunNan, for every Haiti match, offering those priced out of the stadium, a way in.

She came to the United States from Haiti as a seven-year-old and has watched immigration uncertainty touch nearly every Haitian family she knows. Watching Haiti’s World Cup run in the country where she built her life carried its own weight.

“I am Haitian, and I am also American,” she said. “The United States gave me opportunities, education and the ability to build businesses and create jobs. Haiti gave me my roots, my values, my resilience and my culture,” she added.

“It’s a reminder that immigrants don’t have to choose one identity over the other,” she added.

For Fleurimond, who grew up hearing more stories about what Haiti couldn’t do than what it could, the team’s appearance alone in the World Cup was enough.

“It was proof that we belong in rooms and on stages people often count us out of,” she said.

Celebrations in Little Haiti

When Shahidul Partha was growing up in Kulkandi, Bangladesh in the early 2000s, many of the villagers watched World Cup matches on his family’s property. Upwards of 80 people piled into his front yard to watch the action on a 14in black-and-white TV, run by battery and one of the only sets in the area. To calm themselves, they sipped on milk tea and ate biscuits. The crowd cheered whenever Brazil or Argentina scored.

“It was a very nice moment and it was like they were playing with the players,” 35-year-old Partha says. He now lives in Hatfield, Pennsylvania and works as a software engineer, as well as a commissioner for the township and other local governments.

“When it is a goal, everyone is screaming loudly,” he says. “Everyone is excited, people are shouting, like: ‘Go, go, make it go.’ Sometimes they give directions: ‘Go this side, go this side.’”

Living thousands of miles away from Bangladesh, Partha continues to root for Brazil because, paradoxically, it reminds him of home.

While Bangladesh’s national soccer team have never qualified for the World Cup, that hasn’t stopped the population’s fervent support of the game. The south Asian nation of more than 170 million people and its diaspora have long supported Argentina and Brazil. The fandom is reflected in its audience: nearly 20% of the traffic to the Guardian’s live blog for Argentina’s opening match with Algeria on 16 June came from Bangladesh. In Brahmanbaria, Bangladesh, a Brazil superfan recently painted his house green and yellow to commemorate the nation’s flag and adorned the facade with murals of soccer players. Bangladeshi Americans say that supporting South American teams helps connect them with their culture and heritage, and serves as a reminder of their home nation’s independence.

After Bangladesh’s independence from West Pakistan in 1971, the burgeoning nation’s broadcasting infrastructure slowly improved. Bangladeshi support for Brazil originated in the 1970s, when Pelé was at the peak of his international fame. As citizens of a newly formed nation, Bangladeshis related to the formerly colonized Brazilians and Pelé’s transcendence from poverty. Mehedi Farhana recalls her third-grade history textbook in the 1980s detailing Pelé’s early struggles in life and ultimate success.

“We are in that time, a third-world country. We are trading minimum resources, but we want to prove to the world that we can do it,” says 48-year-old Farhana, an associate pharmacist born in Bangladesh who now lives in Hatfield, Pennsylvania. She and her family are lifelong Brazil fans. Farhana remembers waking up in the middle of the night to watch Brazil compete in World Cups when she was growing up in Bangladesh. She and others who lived in Bangladesh in the 1970s and 1980s could relate to the socioeconomic status of Brazilians. “They are the same like that, they’re poor, they don’t have great resources,” Farhana says, “but still they can prove they can do it.”

By the 1980s, there was a surge in color TV ownership throughout Bangladesh. Most Bangladeshis watched the World Cup for the first time in 1986, when the state-owned TV network, Bangladesh Television (BTV), broadcast the tournament live. They were enthralled with Argentina and Brazil during that tournament, an experience that cemented a long-lasting cultural obsession that has spanned generations and nations.

In the quarter-finals of the 1986 tournament, Argentina defeated England, which had colonized the region now known as Bangladesh for nearly 200 years. During that game, Argentina’s star player, Diego Maradona, scored a goal that became known as the “hand of god”, which Bangladeshis still gush over.

“These big stars are coming up, and they’re defeating the nations who occupied before,” said Onyx Chowdhury, a 40-year-old Bangladeshi American who lives in Long Island, New York. “In a match of soccer, that is something that definitely played a role in people’s hearts.”

Chowdhury sees a generational divide between Argentina and Brazil fans of Bangladeshi origin. While his entire immediate family are Argentina fans, his mom’s family who are older, root for Brazil.

“The older generation, they will bring up Pelé, because the 70s was Pelé’s era, and then Maradona was in the 80s. And now, obviously, my generation has the [Lionel] Messi era, so it’s just been moving further down and down.”

The 1986 World Cup also came during a time of political tension in Bangladesh. The country was under martial law for several years in the 1970s and 1980s. Ibrahim Chowdhury, a journalist and writer for 40 years, was an activist who had recently graduated from university in Bangladesh at the time. He was part of an international group who supported the labor movement and were hiding from the police. Soccer offered him a reprieve from oppressive rule.

“We were fighting against the autocracy of military government. At that time that was the only entertainment that came in. We gathered together and the police were looking [for us], and we were watching football,” Ibrahim Chowdhury says. One of his friends kept watch outside for the police as he and others watched the game. “All the political movement before this froze for the whole World Cup … it was a very memorable moment.”

Now the 65-year-old, who lives in North Brunswick, New Jersey, is fulfilling a lifelong dream of participating in the World Cup in person. He secured a volunteer position to greet fans and provide them with directions at World Cup matches at this summer’s tournament.

“I had a fascination to cover it as a journalist … but I couldn’t get a chance,” Ibrahim Chowdhury says. “So this opportunity in the United States, Canada or Mexico came up, I applied for both the journalist pass and for the volunteerism, and I got [the volunteer pass].”

In Paterson, New Jersey, which has one of the largest Bangladeshi-American populations in the United States outside New York City, a local Bangladeshi American soccer team mostly supports Argentina. Hundreds of males ranging from 14 to 35 years old have participated in the Bangladeshi American Sports League since it was founded in 2018.

“It’s like an emotion to Bangladeshi people,” the league’s secretary, Monsur Latif, says about the two South American teams. “They don’t see Brazil or Argentina as a different team. If you speak with them, it’s more like it’s ‘us’. Even though none of us … have been to any of those countries, the emotion is always there.”

The 34-year-old engineer identifies as a hardcore Argentina fan. He loves their sky blue and white jersey and cherishes the memories of watching the team with his brothers as a youth. “It’s the style of their game,” Latif said. “Everything is perfect.”

Throughout the month, members of the Bangladeshi American community have hosted watch parties at their houses for Brazil and Argentina. Even though he’s an Argentina fan, Latif rooted for Brazil as they defeated Haiti on 19 June at a party at his friend’s house.

While Latif and Onyx Chowdhury were born after the 1986 World Cup, they grew up hearing about Maradona’s moves as though it was a family legend passed down through the generations. Onyx Chowdhury is now instilling the fandom in his young son.

“My son’s getting forced into it too,” Onyx Chowdhury says. He has been dressing his one-year-old in an Argentina jersey to capture photos of the up-and-coming fan.

“Through fandom,” Onyx Chowdhury says, “there’s some sort of connection to where you’re originally from.”

Tears welled in Mauricio Pochettino’s eyes. His US team had just lost the 2025 Gold Cup final in a hard-fought match to determine the regional crown. To make matters worse they had been beaten by Mexico, their arch-rivals.

Were they tears of sadness, of frustration at the result? Perhaps in part. But as Pochettino explained this week, these were also tears of empathy for his players. They had just played a tournament final. In Houston, one of the largest metro areas in the United States.

And yet, the crowd was hostile, visibly and vocally in favor of their rival.

At past stops, such scenes would have been unfathomable; as if Tottenham’s stadium were filled almost entirely with Arsenal shirts on derby day. One year out from the World Cup, Pochettino had received a reality check not just about how far his program had to go to make a World Cup run, but also the unique and at times disadvantageous position his players occupied in their home country’s sporting landscape.

“Being honest, maybe we didn’t feel or see [how] difficult the process [would be] … We were so naive,” Pochettino said this week. “We misjudged the situation. It was worse than we really believed. … When we arrived here, we received a big bang, punch, and we were knocked out for a while. We said: ‘What the fuck?’”

Related: From military brats to birthright citizens: how USMNT’s magnificent mess became its strength

The “punch” he referred to actually came months before the Gold Cup heartbreaker, the first of three setbacks that have shaped the path of this US team.

And yet those setbacks led them here. This US side have gotten results early at the 2026 World Cup and established themselves as one of the most eye-catching outfits in the field. With two wins and a 6-1 combined scoreline, they have secured top spot in their group and may now enjoy the luxury (or curse, depending on how you look at it) of playing a World Cup game with no stakes. The home environments have been raucous and, players and Pochettino say, have propelled the team to their wins.

This, inarguably, is the program’s high point under Pochettino. But to get there, they studied at the school of hard knocks.

***

In March 2025, the US’s task in the Concacaf Nations League seemed straightforward: get past Panama in the semi-final before their usual regional final against Mexico or Canada. A newfangled competition launched in 2019-20, the US had won its first three installments.

This time, they couldn’t even reach the final.

The US struggled to threaten a well-organized Panama who were playing with passion. And on top of that, they faced the opposite problem they would encounter months later in Houston: nobody was there to watch.

“It was empty,” Pochettino reflected. “You remember the game, Panama? It was the Mexican people [in the stands] because they played after us.”

For decades, the US dominated Panama, boasting a 17-4-2 record as of mid-2021. But on this day, Panama claimed a fourth win in their last six matchups, including the 2023 Gold Cup semi-final, a 2024 Copa América group game and now a first berth into the Nations League final, pouncing on a US mental lapse to score with just their third shot.

“That was [a] good crash, no?” Pochettino said this week. “And it was good to see. … When people say, ‘Yeah, but you have bad results.’ Yeah, yeah: bad results. No worries. We know what we are going to do. When we detect all the problems, we go for the solution. And we knew that the solution would arrive.”

Related: USMNT’s Alex Zendejas, yet to play at World Cup, readies for his moment: ‘I’m sure it’ll come’

Among the problems Pochettino identified was the very culture of the team. Players had grown comfortable. So when Christian Pulisic asked Pochettino if he could miss the Gold Cup but be involved for the preliminary friendlies against Turkey and Switzerland, Pochettino declined, wanting one cohesive group from day one of camp through the end of the tournament – the same approach he took with his World Cup roster.

This kicked off a back-and-forth between player and coach, and decisive losses in those pre-Gold Cup friendlies ratcheted up the pressure. But Pochettino had established an expectation: be all-in, or watch from home.

The Gold Cup unearthed new members of his eventual core. Malik Tillman finally had a chance to be his national team’s chief playmaker. Matt Freese took over in goal and outlasted the esteemed Keylor Navas in a shootout. Alex Freeman became an undroppable young option. Sebastian Berhalter worked into Pochettino’s midfield rotation.

Pochettino evolved, too. International tournaments more closely resemble the club side of the game than the infrequent cadence of friendly windows. For over a month, he worked with a fixed squad every day. He could better refine his system and more directly improve their game.

Even as he fought back tears after losing the final to Mexico, Pochettino praised his team’s heart, lauding it as necessary to actualize his ambitions for the World Cup.

“Keep improving, but please don’t change,” Pochettino urged in the locker room, his mind still on the environment that greeted them that night.

“We were in Columbus watching Ohio State against Texas,” Pochettino said, citing a college football game played on 30 August 2025. “There were 70,000 fans there. And my question was, you know, why not? If the fans are very passionate, why not with us, with soccer? Because if [the support is] with us, they will be and show the same passion. It’s massive. It’s so powerful for the player.”

A mantra was born: “Why not us?” And with it, a new style of playing. With Pulisic and other program mainstays returning in September, Pochettino debuted what eventually became the team’s base shape: a fluid side that morphs rapidly to unsettle opponents with off-ball movement, quick switches from side to side, and fearlessness when openings present themselves. Showtime, if you will.

Credible results ensued: a 2-0 win over Japan in September, a draw with Ecuador and a win over Australia in October, then a November window that featured a win over Paraguay and a 5-1 romp of Uruguay to close 2025 on the highest note imaginable.

And then, the third hard lesson: two defeats this March. Worse than the humbling 7-2 aggregate, the team looked unsure of themselves. The defense was over-run, even reverting to a previous, more porous structure against Belgium. Mired in a career-worst goal drought, Pulisic was given a rare start at center-forward against Portugal to little impact.

“I feel like we’ve always bought in,” Chris Richards said this week, “but I really feel like the March camp that we had was really important. … I think we really gave, you know, two really good teams in Europe a really strong game.”

Pochettino kept the faith, but even in his defense, he admitted: “Belgium and Portugal have, in the top 100 players, [a] few or some players in that top 100. I think we don’t have [any].”

Related: Some US players believe they can win the World Cup. Are they deluded?

Despite the internal positivity, the pessimism surrounding the program had returned. This was the USMNT fans had come to expect: a side who could pull off occasional impressive results before crashing back to earth, equally prone to failure against opponents mighty and minnow. Wouldn’t they regret scheduling pre-World Cup friendlies against two strong sides in Senegal and Germany?

“No,” Pochettino said. “That is good for us. It’s going to measure our level.”

A 3-2 win over Senegal and a 2-1 defeat to Germany showed his team rounding into form in the nick of time. And then, you know the rest: a dominant 4-1 bulldozing of Paraguay. A 2-0 silencing of Australia. And, on Thursday, a dead-rubber fixture between an eliminated Turkey and the US, already the winners of Group D.

Only four teams at this World Cup won their groups after two games. Argentina and Germany are among the most storied teams in men’s football. Mexico enjoy famously strong support and benefit from playing at altitude in hostile environments. In their company sit Pochettino’s US.

“It’s not going to be figured out overnight, it’s not going to be figured out in one camp, or sometimes in six months, or 12 months, maybe not as fast as everybody wanted to,” defender Mark McKenzie said. “I think we’re showcasing that it’s a process.”

Brazil punished Scotland's defensive frailties to advance to the World Cup knockout rounds on Wednesday as Switzerland and Canada sealed their place in the last 32.

Five-time World Cup champions Brazil clinched first place in Group C after defeating Scotland 3-0 in Miami, topping the group on goal difference from second-placed Morocco, who secured their passage after battling to a 4-2 win over Haiti in Atlanta.

Brazil's victory meant Scotland finish third in the group standings, leaving their hopes of finishing among the eight best-ranked third-placed teams who advance to the last 32 hanging by the slenderest of threads.

Vinicius Junior scored twice for Brazil, pouncing on a horrendous blunder by Scott McKenna to fire the South Americans ahead in the seventh minute.

The Real Madrid striker then nodded in Brazil's second in first-half stoppage time after losing his marker all too easily at the Hard Rock Stadium.

Manchester United striker Matheus Cunha added a third in the 60th minute, delivering a potential fatal blow to Scotland's chances of squeezing into the last 32.

Brazil's win also saw coach Carlo Ancelotti give veteran striker Neymar his first appearance of the tournament, the Selecao's all-time leading scorer coming on as a substitute in the 76th minute.

"We played as a collective and that's a good thing," a satisfied Ancelotti said afterwards. "There are many positive things, such as Neymar's appearance, which can help us."

Brazil and Scotland's clash in Florida was one of six matches taking place Wednesday as a hectic final round of group fixtures got underway.

- Swiss, Canada march on -

Earlier, Switzerland defeated Canada 2-1 in Vancouver to clinch top spot in Group B.

The Canadians advanced to the second round of the World Cup for the first time in their history despite the defeat, clinching the runners-up berth on goal difference ahead of third-placed Bosnia-Herzegovina, 3-1 winners over Qatar.

Ruben Vargas and Johan Manzambi scored the goals to seal Switzerland's victory, while Promise David pulled a goal back in the final 15 minutes to set up a tense finish.

Prior to the 2026 tournament, Canada had never won a match at the World Cup but with their second-placed finish in the pool they will play the runner-up from Group A on Sunday in Los Angeles.

"I know our team has heart, right? But I know that we have a group that will give everything to every moment," said Canada coach Jesse Marsch.

On having to move to California for Canada's next game, Marsch said: "It's been awesome, and that's the disappointment, we just want to continue the energy that's taken place here in Canada."

Bosnia-Herzegovina, like Scotland, will have to wait to see if they advance to the knockout rounds after finishing third in Group B with four points.

On a dizzying day of action when the final games in each group will be played simultaneously, co-hosts Mexico know they are already guaranteed of playing in the knockout round.

The Mexicans won Group A after two victories and will play the Czech Republic, who need a victory to stand any chance of going through to the last 32.

South Africa improved dramatically in their last game to draw with the Czechs after a pitiful performance in the tournament curtain raiser against Mexico when they had two men sent off and lost 2-0.

They need to beat Son Heung-min's South Korea, who themselves are targeting the knockout phase.

The action on Wednesday is the first of four days of six games, the result of a tournament expanded for the first time to 48 teams.

rcw/gj

Brazil advanced to ⁠the knockout stages of the World Cup in style after Vinicius Jr netted twice in a 3-0 win over Scotland in their final Group C match while ⁠Neymar also made his first appearance in a Brazil shirt in three years.

The victory on Wednesday came at a full house in Miami Stadium where 64,478 fans watched Carlo Ancelotti’s side top the group with seven points ⁠while Morocco finished second with a 4-2 win over Haiti.

Vinicius has scored in every game so far and the 25-year-old has four goals in the tournament to find himself in elite company, going level with Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland while he sits one goal behind Lionel Messi.

Scotland boss Steve Clarke said he expected Brazil to ‌attack from the outset and the South Americans needed seven minutes to go 1-0 up when Scott McKenna failed to clear the ball, allowing Rayan to nick it and find Vinicius unmarked.

As goalkeeper Angus Gunn scrambled to stop him, the Real Madrid forward simply took one touch to move the ball past him and tap it into an empty net as the fans in yellow erupted.

Brazil nearly made it 2-0 just before the first hydration break when Vinicius nicked the ball off Jack Hendry ⁠to score, but Scotland earned a reprieve after a VAR check and the ⁠goal was overturned by the referee for a foul by the Brazilian.

That remained the theme in the first half, with Brazil being more combative to win the ball back while Scotland failed to capitalise on set-pieces — the only time they had opportunities to ⁠score — as they finished the half with no shots on target.

Brazil’s second goal was a dagger to Scotland’s hearts on the stroke of halftime when once ⁠again they won the ball high up the pitch and Bruno ⁠Guimaraes crossed the ball to the far post, where a grateful Vinicius headed home his second.

In the second half, Brazil pressed for a third goal and it came with another scything move through the midfield as Guimaraes grabbed his second assist, dancing into the ‌box before setting up Matheus Cunha for his third goal of the tournament.

But the biggest cheer of the night was reserved for Neymar as Ancelotti brought the 34-year-old on for his first appearance in a ‌Brazil ‌shirt since October 2023.

Scotland had little to show in attack and Alisson remained a rock in goal, denying them one last chance in the dying minutes as Brazil kept a clean sheet.

As Norway excels in its first World Cup appearance since 1998, a wave of false claims about the team's eating habits is also capturing online attention. These allegations specifically target the quality of American food, suggesting the Norwegians distrust it to such an extent that they brought provisions from home to avoid local fare.

The Norwegian team is currently based in Greensboro, North Carolina, throughout the 2026 tournament, which the U.S. is co-hosting with Canada and Mexico. While it is true the team shipped certain products from Norway for the World Cup, the underlying reason has absolutely nothing to do with concerns about food quality.

CLAIM: The Norwegian men's national soccer team brought its own food to the 2026 World Cup because it doesn't trust the quality of food in the U.S.

THE FACTS: This is false. The team brought some products from Norway to maintain consistency in players' diets and provide a taste of home, according to its head chef Aron Espeland. Other ingredients have been sourced locally. Nutrition experts say that such a practice is common among elite athletes who play internationally.

“When athletes are competing at the highest level, consistency is important,” Espeland said. “The players are used to certain products and flavors, and familiar foods can contribute both to nutrition and overall well-being during a demanding competition.”

He continued: “Overall, the experience of cooking for the team in the U.S. has been excellent. We have had access to high-quality local ingredients, and our approach has been to combine those with a selection of Norwegian products that help create continuity and a sense of home for the players during the tournament.”

Many of the claims spreading online say the team brought in 1,000 kilograms (2,200 pounds) of food from Norway for the World Cup. Espeland confirmed that the amount is actually about 580 kilograms (1,276 pounds). That consists of 300 kilograms (660 pounds) of Norwegian salmon and trout, 100 kilograms (220 pounds) of halibut, 80 kilograms (176 pounds) of Norwegian brown cheese, and 100 kilograms (220 pounds) of Jarlsberg cheese.

The team, whose support staff includes three chefs, did not bring oranges from Norway, despite social media posts claiming otherwise. Espeland said that players are served freshly squeezed orange juice every morning, made from oranges sourced locally in the U.S.

Plenty of other teams travel with their own chef and have taken their own food to past World Cups. For example, Argentina and Uruguay each brought thousands of pounds of meat to Qatar in 2022. The U.S. squad traveled to Brazil in 2014 with oatmeal, Cheerios, peanut butter and A1 Steak Sauce.

Such practices are not unusual for elite athletes who compete in different countries, according to experts. The reasons include maintaining routine and consistency, reducing risk of adverse reactions, providing cultural familiarity and accommodating personal preferences.

“Interpreting this practice as a lack of trust in the host nation’s food system misunderstands the purpose of high-performance nutrition,” said Rafaela G. Feresin, an associate professor of nutrition at Georgia State University. “The goal is not to evaluate local food quality; it is to eliminate unnecessary variability during competition. Bringing a chef and familiar ingredients to a major tournament is standard, performance-driven logistics.”

Amy Goodson, a sports dietitian who has worked with professional teams including the Dallas Cowboys and the Texas Rangers, explained that bringing food to international competitions is more about “control, consistency, and performance” rather than distrust.

“Nutrition is a performance variable at the World Cup level,” she said. “These athletes train, travel, and compete with elite intensity, often multiple times in a short window, while managing weather and time zone changes. What they eat directly impacts energy availability, hydration status, recovery, immune function, and even decision-making on the field. When margins are razor thin, fueling consistency becomes critical.” ___

At long last, we come to Group L of World Cup 2026, where England reside and Thomas Tuchel will hope to steer them safely into the knockouts, preserving as much energy as possible for the challenges ahead.

An opening game against 2018 runners-up Croatia will set the tone for this group and in a rematch of that memorable World Cup semi-final eight years ago, the Three Lions will be eager for a different result. If they repeat the 6-1 victory over Panama from the group stage of that edition in Russia though, they’ll be more than satisfied.

This Panama team look like a tougher nut than their predecessors but, conversely, Ghana are not the same force they were when only the hand of Luis Suarez denied them a semi-final spot in 2010. There is value in winning Group L, given that the runners-up would likely be on a collision course with tournament favourites Spain in the last 16.

Group L fixtures

(all times BST)

17 June, 9pm: England 4-2 Croatia – AT&T Stadium, Arlington

18 June, 12am: Ghana 1-0 Panama – BMO Field, Toronto

23 June, 9pm: England 0-0 Ghana – Gillette Stadium, Foxborough

24 June, 12am: Panama 0-1 Croatia – BMO Field, Toronto

27 June, 10pm: Panama v England – MetLife Stadium, East Rutherford

27 June, 10pm: Croatia v Ghana – Lincoln Financial Field, Philadelphia

England

It’s now 60 years since England’s lone World Cup success – an accomplishment that is becoming increasingly irrelevant given that those who remember it are now all of retirement age and 1966 is closer to the sinking of the Titanic than to today.

More pertinent is England’s recent World Cup record, with semi-final and quarter-final defeats at the last two editions (plus runner-up finishes at each of the past two Euros) meaning Thomas Tuchel is the man tasked with completing the work that Gareth Southgate started. Can a German finally end English football’s six decades of hurt?

In Harry Kane, Tuchel has Europe’s most prolific striker over the past 12 months, plus plenty more quality woven throughout the team. Yet, despite an impeccable qualifying record that saw them win all eight games without conceding a single goal, there is a nagging feeling that the Three Lions are just a slight level below the very best sides in the world, such as Spain and France, and that they might wilt in the North American heat. Only time will tell.

Squad:

Goalkeepers: Jordan Pickford (Everton), Dean Henderson (Crystal Palace), James Trafford (Manchester City)

Defenders: Reece James (Chelsea), Tino Livramento (Newcastle United), John Stones (Manchester City), Marc Guehi (Manchester City), Ezri Konsa (Aston Villa), Dan Burn (Newcastle), Jarell Quansah (Bayer Leverkusen), Djed Spence (Tottenham Hotspur), Nico O’Reilly (Manchester City)

Midfielders: Elliot Anderson (Nottingham Forest), Jordan Henderson (Brentford), Declan Rice (Arsenal), Kobbie Mainoo (Manchester United), Eberechi Eze (Arsenal), Jude Bellingham (Real Madrid), Morgan Rogers (Aston Villa)

Forwards: Bukayo Saka (Arsenal), Noni Madueke (Arsenal), Anthony Gordon (Newcastle), Marcus Rashford (Barcelona), Harry Kane (Bayern Munich), Ollie Watkins (Aston Villa), Ivan Toney (Al Ahli)

Coach: Thomas Tuchel

Star player – Harry Kane, Bayern Munich: Appears to be in the form of his life at the age of 32 and is right in the Ballon d’Or hunt after scoring a staggering 61 goals for Bayern Munich in all competitions and helping them to a domestic double. His goalscoring and ability to drop deep to link up play make him the key to this England side.

Breakout talent – Nico O’Reilly, Manchester City: A breakout campaign at club level that saw Man City fans vote the 21-year-old as their player of the season, O’Reilly racked up a phenomenal nine goals and six assists while playing mostly at left-back. A classy ball-player, he looks set to start at full-back for Tuchel’s side but is also an option in midfield if required.

Fifa ranking: 4.

Odds to win the World Cup: 15/2, latest odds from online bookmakers.

Croatia

This is likely one last rodeo for a slew of Croatian warhorses such as Ivan Perisic, Mateo Kovacic, Andrej Kramaric, Dominik Livakovic and, of course, talismanic 40-year-old captain Luke Modric.

Runners-up in 2018 and semi-finalists in 2022 is a remarkable return for this golden generation, so do they have enough in the tank to go deep again or are they slightly over the hill? Common wisdom says potentially the latter but there are young talents such as Josko Gvardiol and Luka Vuskovic dotted among the veteran nous.

They cruised unbeaten through a friendly group in qualification with seven wins and one draw and coach Zlatko Dalic will be quietly confident his team can make some noise in North America.

A defeat in the opening game against England would pile a bit of pressure on however, as while Ghana are probably tougher on paper than in reality, a slightly underrated Panama are potentially trickier in real life than they may first appear. Croatia should still qualify for the knockouts relatively comfortably but how much further can they genuinely go?

Squad:

Goalkeepers: Dominik Livakovic (Dinamo Zagreb), Dominik Kotarski (FC Copenhagen), Ivor Pandur (Hull)

Defenders: Josko Gvardiol (Manchester City), Duje Caleta-Car (Real Sociedad), Josip Sutalo (Ajax), Josip Stanisic (Bayern Munich), Marin Pongracic (Fiorentina), Martin Erlic (Midtjylland), Luka Vuskovic (Hamburg)

Midfielders: Luka Modric (AC Milan), Mateo Kovacic (Manchester City), Mario Pasalic (Atalanta), Nikola Vlasic (Torino), Luka Sucic (Real Sociedad), Martin Baturina (Como), Kristijan Jakic (Augsburg), Petar Sucic (Inter), Nikola Moro (Bologna), Toni Fruk (Rijeka)

Forwards: Ivan Perisic (PSV), Andrej Kramaric (Hoffenheim), Ante Budimir (Osasuna), Marco Pasalic (Orlando City), Petar Musa (Dallas), Igor Matanovic (Freiburg)

Coach: Zlatko Dalic

Star player – Luka Modric, AC Milan: The ageless wonder is still going strong into his 40s, now pulling the strings for AC Milan after iconic spells with Real Madrid and Tottenham. He enters his fifth World Cup having won the Golden Ball as Croatia lost in the final in 2018 and also led them to the semi-finals four years ago. Can he finally get an ageing side over the hump?

Breakout talent – Luka Vuskovic, Hamburg: Just 19 years old, the Tottenham centre-back has excelled on loan at Hamburg this season, being named in the Bundesliga Team of the Season after a stellar campaign and is attracting interest from the likes of Barcelona and Bayern Munich. Physically imposing, aerially dominant and a great reader of the game, Vuskovic is also a threat from set-pieces – scoring six goals for Hamburg and netting his first Croatia goal against Colombia in March.

Fifa ranking: 11.

Odds to win the World Cup: 80/1.

Ghana

The ghost of 2010 still hangs over Ghanaian football when they were agonisingly, heartbreakingly close to becoming the first African side to reach the World Cup semi-finals, only for Luis Suarez to save a surefire winning goal on the line illegally with his hand, right at the end of extra time. Asamoah Gyan clattered the crossbar with the penalty and Uruguay then won the shootout to send the Black Stars home.

It has been a fairly unremarkable World Cup record for Ghana since then – group-stage exits in 2014 and 2022, plus a failure to qualify in 2018 – but they breezed through qualifying this time round, with eight wins and a draw from 10 games.

However, this may be fool’s gold given they failed to qualify for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations, having suffered group-stage exits in 2023 and 2021, and have endured five losses and a limp draw with Wales in their six friendlies since sealing a spot in North America this summer.

Veteran coach Carlos Queiroz does have some attacking quality to call upon, most notably Man City’s Antoine Semenyo, plus Inaki Williams, Kamaldeen Sulemana and captain Jordan Ayew, while the controversial Thomas Partey pulls the strings in midfield but they look weak at the back and lack real depth across the squad. Their World Cup chances rest almost entirely on the opening group game against Panama in Toronto.

Squad:

Goalkeepers: Benjamin Asare (Accra Hearts of Oak), Lawrence Ati-Zigi (St. Gallen), Joseph Anang (St. Patrick’s Athletic)

Defenders: Baba Abdul Rahman (PAOK), Gideon Mensah (Auxerre), Marvin Senaya (Auxerre), Alidu Seidu (Rennes), Abdul Mumin (Rayo Vallecano), Jerome Opoku (Istanbul Basaksehir), Jonas Adjetey (Wolfsburg), Kojo Oppong Peprah (Nice), Derrick Luckassen (Pafos), Elisha Owusu (Auxerre)

Midfielders: Thomas Partey (Villarreal), Kwasi Sibo (Real Oviedo), Augustine Boakye (Saint-Etienne), Caleb Yirenkyi (FC Nordsjaelland), Abdul Fatawu (Leicester)

Forwards: Kamaldeen Sulemana (Atlanta), Christopher Bonsu Baah (Al Qadsiah), Ernest Nuamah (Lyon), Antoine Semenyo (Manchester City), Brandon Thomas-Asante (Coventry), Prince Kwabena Adu (Viktoria Plzen), Inaki Williams (Athletic Bilbao), Jordan Ayew (Leicester)

Coach: Carlos Queiroz

Star player – Antoine Semenyo, Manchester City: Brilliant for Bournemouth in the first half of the season and just as impressive after his January move to Man City, where he was the match-winner in the FA Cup final, Semenyo can provide the creative spark for this Ghana team. Strong, fast and with an eye for goal, how he links up with the likes of Inaki Williams and Jordan Ayew in attack will be crucial for Ghana’s chances

Breakout talent – Caleb Yirenkyi, Nordsjaelland: Box-to-box midfielder Yirenkyi is the youngest member of Ghana’s World Cup squad at just 20 but has already racked up 11 caps since his Black Stars debut 12 months ago and scored his first international goal in the World Cup warm-up against Wales. Has shone in the heart of midfield for Danish side Nordsjaelland after coming through the famous Right to Dream academy that produced the likes of Mohammed Kudus and Kamaldeen Sulemana and is now attracting the attention of Porto. Will hope to make things tick from the engine room.

Fifa ranking: 73.

Odds to win the World Cup: 500/1.

Panama

Panama head to a second World Cup in their history, determined to improve on a slightly disastrous 2018 campaign where they conceded 11 goals and scored just two in finishing rock-bottom of the group.

That tournament included a 6-1 battering at the hands of England and they’ll have the opportunity for redemption in a rematch with the Three Lions this time round.

An experienced squad have actually produced some impressive results in recent years, beating the USA en route to the 2023 Gold Cup final before narrowly losing to Mexico, finishing as runners-up in last year’s Concacaf Nations League and remaining unbeaten throughout World Cup qualifying.

Coach Thomas Christiansen has fashioned a side that are hard to break down and their world ranking of 33 shows they can’t be taken lightly. Beating Ghana and potentially sneaking through to the knockout stage is a realistic target.

Squad:

Goalkeepers: Orlando Mosquera (Al-Fayha), Luis ⁠Mejia (Nacional), Cesar Samudio (Marathon)

Defenders: Cesar Blackman (Slovan Bratislava), Jorge Gutierrez (Deportivo La Guaira), Amir Murillo (Besiktas), Fidel Escobar (Saprissa), Andres Andrade (LASK), Edgardo Farina (Pari Nizhny Novgorod), Jose Cordoba (Norwich), Eric Davis (Plaza Amador), Jiovany Ramos (Puerto Cabello), Roderick Miller (Turan Tovuz)

Midfielders: Anibal ‌Godoy (San Diego), Adalberto Carrasquilla (UNAM), Carlos ​Harvey (Minnesota United), Cristian Martinez (Ironi Kiryat Shmona), Jose Luis ‌Rodriguez (Juarez), Cesar Yanis (Cobresal), Yoel Barcenas (Mazatlan), Alberto ​Quintero (Plaza Amador), Azarias Londono (Universidad Catolica)

Forwards: Ismael Diaz (Leon), Cecilio Waterman (Universidad de Concepcion), Jose Fajardo (Universidad Catolica), Tomas Rodriguez (Saprissa)

Coach: Thomas Christiansen

Star player – Anibal Godoy, San Diego FC: Godoy will captain Panama 16 years on from his international debut, having won nearly 160 caps, and he remains a key cog sitting in front of the defence at 36 years of age. His leadership will also be crucial if Los Canaleros are to improve on their 2018 performances.

Breakout talent – Jose Cordoba, Norwich City: Panama have opted for experience, with none of their players under the age of 24, but defender Cordoba – who had a very good end to the club season for Norwich in the Championship – only turned 25 a week before the World Cup and will be crucial to ensuring their defence holds as firm as possible. Comfortable on the ball and a physical presence, he is already starting to attract Premier League attention that would only intensify with a good World Cup.

Fifa ranking: 33.

Odds to win the World Cup: 1500/1.

Group L prediction

The England-Croatia opener looms large in deciding the destination of the group. That could easily be a draw and leave a chase for goal difference to top the pile but we’ll give a slight edge to England, with Croatia finishing second. Ghana versus Panama is equally important and almost too tough to call, so we’ll say that’s a draw that ultimately sees both sides miss out on qualifying as one of the best third-placed teams.

In 1993, the United States Soccer Federation handed a contract to Rinus Michels. But the Dutch godfather of Total Football, operationalized through his on-field avatar Johan Cruyff, was not hired to coach the national team, or to coach anybody, really.

By this time, Michels, who managed the Los Angeles Aztecs of the North American Soccer League in 1979 and 1980, had already turned down the chance to manage the US men’s national team twice. Once, in 1983, when it would be entered, disastrously, into the NASL as Team America. And once more in 1991, when Bora Milutinović was appointed instead.

The federation’s general secretary Hank Steinbrecher had something else in mind now.

He dispatched Michels, accompanied by his wife, on a three-month-long tour of the United States. Then, one of the sport’s leading minds was to report back on what he found. “He said, ‘Well, Hank, you have a problem. You are a continent; you are not a country,’” the late Steinbrecher recalled when I spoke to him for my book on the USMNT’s history. “‘The football you play in Los Angeles is very different from the football you have to play in Maine, because of your climatic conditions. The football you play in Chicago is very different from Miami.’ He was crystal clear.”

Michels also pointed out that the Dutch federation – whose national team he had coached four times, taking Oranje to the 1974 World Cup final and lifting the 1988 European Championship – had a unified playing and coaching methodology that ran all the way down to the grassroots game.

The Michels report, which seems to have been lost to time, was followed by one written up by the Portuguese journeyman coach Carlos Queiroz, who laid out a blueprint for implementing just such a national philosophy. The key, Queiroz argued, was to build a national training center as an incubator of national soccer talent and thought, followed by regional ones. This insight begat Project 2010, which impounded the under-17 men’s national team in a full-time residency in Bradenton, Florida, in early 1999. The Bradenton camp ran for 18 years and yielded 33 senior national team players – powering the rise of the USMNT in the early 2000s and supplying the current core of Christian Pulisic, Tyler Adams and Weston McKennie, too – an extraordinarily high success rate when compared to other such national talent factories.

Michels was right that developing talent in such a vast country would require a modicum of ideological coherence. But he was wrong in diagnosing this regional diversity as an issue.

If this incarnation of the United States men’s national team, this joyous bouillabaisse of accents and backgrounds and origin stories, has demonstrated anything, it’s that the unusual variety of paths its players have taken to get there is an asset.

For decades, there were hardly any routes into pro soccer north of the border with Mexico. In the vacuum, a tangle of pro leagues and semi-pro leagues and college circuits filled the space, flourishing or failing and sometimes doing both, in rapid succession. Sitting loosely underneath this ragged landscape emerged an equally chaotic youth game that was eventually captured by commercialism.

It all made for a senior national team that’s as varied as the regions and realities they emerged from.

Some members of this team passed through college soccer – briefly in some cases, like in goalkeeper Matt Freese’s, or for all four years like his positional rival, Matt Turner. Freese for personal reasons, because it was expected in his family. Turner because he wasn’t remotely ready for the next level and simply needed more time to mature, to develop with players his own age, but at a competitive level. There’s a plausible school of thought that credits the longevity of the 38-year-old USMNT captain and starting center-back Tim Ream to the four years he spent in college. Had he been a pro for those years, the thinking goes, his body would have broken down sooner. But the schedule in the collegiate game, which essentially amounts to that of an unpaid, part-time pro, allowed him to improve and fill out.

It wouldn’t have made sense for Christian Pulisic to play college soccer, as evidenced by the fact that he was playing in Borussia Dortmund’s first team by the time he was 17. Gio Reyna did the same at an even younger age. But that alternative simply didn’t exist a generation earlier. Tab Ramos, a peer and USMNT teammate of Gio’s father Claudio Reyna, once said that when he emerged from college soccer at North Carolina State the exact same player he had entered it as. It’s just that he had no choice. The New York Cosmos drafted him out of high school, only for the North American Soccer League to crumble.

Tim Weah and Weston McKennie made their competitive debuts with Paris Saint-Germain and Schalke 04, respectively, at age 18.

Others went pro as teenagers but stayed stateside. Joe Scally signed with New York City FC at age 15, just as Ricardo Pepi did with FC Dallas; Tyler Adams with the New York Red Bulls at 16; Alex Freeman with Orlando City at 17; two days before his 18th birthday, Auston Trusty signed with the Philadelphia Union, which also developed Brenden Aaronson. Haji Wright spent time as a teenager with the reincarnated Cosmos, then a minor league team, before heading to Schalke.

For as long as the USMNT has existed, it has benefited from, and actively cultivated, the talent that washed on our shores with each wave of immigration. But it has profited, too, from the prolific siring of European-born children by our armed forces stationed abroad. Dozens of such players, the product of some kind of alchemy between nature and nurture, have fallen into the laps of the USMNT and its coaches. This team is no different, gaining Sergiño Dest via the Netherlands and Malik Tillman from Germany, both of them born to American servicemen fathers. Antonee Robinson was born to an American father in England, albeit one who worked in IT.

And then there is the delightful upshot of birthright citizenship, which brought Folarin Balogun to the team quite by accident – his mother had planned to return to England before having her baby, only to be told by the airline that she was too close to her due date to do so safely. Yunus Musah, who was on the 2022 World Cup team, happened to the USMNT program in much the same way. And so, it appears, did Johnny Cardoso – who missed this World Cup through injury – whose Brazilian parents had him in New Jersey before moving back home a few months later.

The combination of having both college soccer and MLS academies, a tangle of minor leagues, and some combination of all of the above is often dismissed as untidy and inefficient. This magnificent mess is seen as a weakness, an anachronism, as a sign that something is still amiss with our structure. But it’s worth wondering if efficiency is really the objective here. Is more soccer not by definition better? With more pipelines open, more players are likely to emerge, all in their own time and on their own journey.

After all, we do not offer the same chances to every community – in soccer as in all other things. Our elite youth system in the United States caters almost exclusively to the upper-middle class, yet we have produced a senior national men’s team that defies this structure and these strictures. The fact of this team’s delightful diversity made a mockery of the Department of Homeland Security’s hateful “OUR SOIL” social media post ahead of the USMNT’s 2-0 victory over Australia on Friday. The Trump administration, after all, is doing its utmost to rid the nation of birthright citizenship.

In whatever manner they made it to the national team, what counts is that these players got there in the end and formed the most talented and pedigreed version of this team. This team reflects a nation that offers a bit of everything, and a bit of everyone, because there are lots of ways of getting to it. Yet the men’s soccer team that represents this nation is defiantly diverse, in every way, and all the better for it.

The US soccer system has a diversity problem; the 2026 US men’s national team doesn’t.

Leander Schaerlaeckens is the author of The Long Game: U.S. Men’s Soccer and Its Savage, Four-Decade Journey to the Top, or Thereabouts, which is out now. He teaches at Marist University.

Maybe this World Cup had been just too exciting. Previously sceptical Americans were in danger of being converted to soccer. The various ills of Gianni Infantino and Fifa were being camouflaged by a flood of goals, many of them fine.

Not here. Loud boos greeted the hydration breaks, though they were no less eventful than much of the match. At least when nothing happened during them, there was no actual expectation of anything occurring. This was the worst match of the World Cup.

Thomas Tuchel had stated he had enjoyed one of the best weeks of his career. But that was before a shocker of a match. His team emerged with a point and retain top spot in Group L. But, frustrated and frustrating, they were dismal nonetheless.

The English are no strangers to unpleasant experiences in Massachusetts; after all, more than 300 chests of their tea were dumped at the bottom of Boston Harbor in 1773. If the English are chased out of Boston this time, it will be less about a determination for no taxation without representation than annoyance at their sheer dullness. Although, presumably, no one will want to mark the 250th anniversary of this.

At the least, however, this should dampen expectations of Tuchel’s team. There were suggestions they had been the most impressive side in the first round of fixtures. Not the second. After the buccaneering demolition of Croatia, the bland stalemate with Ghana.

Maybe Tuchel is discovering that problems which predate him remain. Gareth Southgate’s England were often uninspired in the second game of a tournament, as anyone who stayed awake throughout the Euro 2024 draw with Denmark can testify. It is 14 years since Time Magazine branded England the “world’s most disappointing team”. And if the Southgate era then provided more overachievement than underachievement, the World Cup has had few more disappointing games this year.

Not that Ghana confounded predictions. They did precisely what might be expected of a Carlos Queiroz team; they did it well, too, and the ends justified the means. They have four points and, for the first time since 2010, Ghana are surely headed for the knockout stages of the World Cup. For a side ranked 73rd by Fifa, that is no mean feat.

But England did too little to break them down and they did it too slowly. After the talk they had fearsome amounts of firepower, there was precious little evidence of it. Jude Bellingham became the youngest man to get 50 caps for his country, but his stand-out contribution was a last-ditch tackle. Harry Kane played at the old home of his hero Tom Brady, but with rather less impact, and skied his best chance.

England almost abandoned any idea of creativity in the middle, forever looking to move the ball wide. Tuchel has looked for pace on the wings; but with Ghana defending deep, there was little room behind their back four. Noni Madueke was too predictable, forever checking inside, as though hearing the voice of Mikel Arteta inside his head.

Anthony Gordon had his powers diminished by Ghana’s low block. The Merseysider was replaced, having looked anything but a Barcelona player. The closest anyone came to a breakthrough was when the goalscoring left-back, Nico O’Reilly came off the bench to head against the bar and when his fellow defender Marc Guehi had an effort cleared off the line.

Meanwhile, England looked more fragile than Ghana. Ezri Konsa inexplicably escaped without conceding a penalty for a knee-high challenge on Prince Kwabena Adu. Ghana had a counter-attacking threat; in the second half, anyway, because they began with no intent.

It was the first game in this World Cup with no shots on target in the first half; Ghana had none off target, either. It was not until the 57th minute that either goalkeeper was worked, and even then Gordon shot straight at Benjamin Asare.

Meanwhile, Ghana had 11.6 percent of possession in the first 20 minutes. They completed 34 passes in the first 36 minutes. One man probably enjoyed it. This was Queirozball, a formula refined across World Cups. The great anomaly was when his Iran opened their 2022 World Cup campaign with a 6-2 thrashing by England. When the final whistle blew here, only Mexico, Spain, Argentina and Ghana have not conceded in this World Cup.

Their national anthem, God Bless Our Homeland Ghana, contains the phrase “to defend forever”. It seemed Queiroz’s charges were happy to do just that. The jubilation at the final whistle came from their spectators. They can plan to extend their stay in the United States.

There were glummer faces painted with the cross of St George. The colony of Massachusetts has had different experiences of the visitors from the old country. While the Scotland supporters brought entertainment to Boston, the England team offered only tedium.

For several teams fighting for a place in the last 32, Wednesday’s round of group games are a do-or-die moment. Scotland are among those attempting to make history.

Steve Clarke’s side are still in contention for the knockout rounds after beating Haiti and losing to Morocco, both by a scoreline of 1-0. A point against Brazil would all but secure their spot, although a narrow defeat may also be enough.

All four teams in Group A and Group B are either through to the round of 32 or can still make it. Co-hosts Mexico are already through as group winners while Canada still have some work to secure top spot in their group.

Here is your complete guide on how to watch today’s World Cup games, including kick-off times, broadcast networks, and online streaming options.

• Complete guide to all the players

• A visual guide to every stadium

• Standings

• Golden Boot leaders

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Bosnia and Herzegovina v Qatar

Time (ET): 3pm

Stadium: Seattle Stadium

How to watch

United States: FS1 / Telemundo (Stream on Fubo)

Canada: TSN (Stream)

United Kingdom: ITV4 (Stream)

Australia: SBS (Stream)

What to watch for

Everything points to Bosnia and Herzegovina standing a good chance of making it out of the group stage of a World Cup for the first time. A win over Qatar would almost certainly get the job done for Sergej Barbarez and his players, who have been more competitive at this tournament than the late collapse against Switzerland suggested.

Qatar also enter their final group game with a chance of making the last 32, but their 6-0 thumping at the hands of Canada has surely hit their confidence. A second successive group stage exit looms for the 2022 World Cup hosts.

Player to watch: Edin Dzeko, Bosnia and Herzegovina - The former Manchester City striker hasn’t had much service so far, but will surely have opportunities to find the back of the net against a defensively vulnerable opponent.

What to read

Bosnia and Herzegovina team guide

Qatar team guide

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Switzerland v Canada

Time (ET): 3pm

Stadium: BC Place Vancouver

How to watch

United States: FOX / Telemundo (Stream on Fubo)

Canada: CTV / TSN (Stream)

United Kingdom: ITV1 (Stream)

Australia: SBS (Stream)

What to watch for

Switzerland finally hit their stride in the closing stages against Bosnia and Herzegovina, in which the introduction of Johan Manzambi off the bench completely changed the dynamic of their attack. The Freiburg forward will surely keep his place in the lineup for this match.

Co-hosts Canada lost Ismaël Koné to a serious leg injury in their last outing against Qatar. That, however, was the only negative of a morale-boosting 6-0 win that highlighted the attacking capacity of Jesse Marsch’s side even with Alphonso Davies still unavailable on the sidelines.

Player to watch: Jonathan David, Canada - The Juventus forward found his shooting boots against Qatar, netting a hat-trick. He is their best link-up player and their most reliable finisher in and around the penalty area.

What to read

Canada team guide

Switzerland team guide

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Morocco v Haiti

Time (ET): 6pm

Stadium: Atlanta Stadium

How to watch

United States: FS1 / Telemundo (Stream on Fubo)

Canada: TSN (Stream)

United Kingdom: BBC Two (Stream)

Australia: SBS (Stream)

What to watch for

Morocco have shown glimpses of their excellence at this World Cup, but have yet to produce a 90-minute performance. That could change against Haiti who enter the final round of group games already eliminated. The Atlas Lions want top spot in the group and may finally play with the handbrake off.

Haiti should feel good about how they have equipped themselves in one of the most challenging groups in the entire tournament. They certainly haven’t embarrassed themselves, although Wednesday’s meeting with Morocco could be their toughest test so far.

Player to watch: Brahim Diaz, Morocco - If one player embodies how Morocco have added more to their game since making the World Cup semi-finals in 2022 it’s Diaz, whose dribbling ability and natural creativity is always a threat.

What to read

Morocco team guide

Haiti team guide

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Scotland v Brazil

Time (ET): 6pm

Stadium: Miami Stadium

How to watch

United States: FOX / Telemundo (Stream on Fubo)

Canada: TSN (Stream)

United Kingdom: BBC One (Stream)

Australia: SBS (Stream)

What to watch for

Scotland have moved from Boston to Miami for Wednesday’s crunch match with Brazil and The Tartan Army have come with them. If Clarke’s team can string something together in the final third in the way that evaded them in defeat to Morocco, they stand a chance of making the knockout rounds of a World Cup for the first time.

This tournament has been an uneven one for Brazil who struggled to impose themselves against Morocco only to sweep away Haiti in their next fixture. Carlo Ancelotti is edging closer to finding the right attacking formula, but concerns about the balance of the rest of his team remain.

Player to watch: Matheus Cunha, Brazil - The Manchester United attacker gave Brazil some much-needed attacking cohesion in the win over Haiti and is expected to keep his place in the lineup as the South Americans target top spot in the group.

What to read

Brazil team guide

Scotland team guide

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Czechia v Mexico

Time (ET): 9pm

Stadium: Mexico City Stadium

How to watch

United States: FOX / Telemundo (Stream on Fubo)

Canada: TSN (Stream)

United Kingdom: BBC One (Stream)

Australia: SBS (Stream)

What to watch for

With Mexico already sure of their place in the last 32 as group winners, Javier Aguirre could be tempted to rest some of his best players for Wednesday’s encounter with Czechia. Indeed, El Tri have earned the opportunity to preserve themselves for the knockout rounds where their World Cup campaign will be defined.

Czechia, on the other hand, likely need a win to make it out of Group A. Miroslav Koubek’s side have underwhelmed in their two games so far, failing to impose themselves in two winnable matches against South Africa and South Korea. They may have left it too late to salvage a round of 32 spot.

Player to watch: Obed Vargas, Mexico - If Aguirre rotates his squad, as expected, Vargas could be in line for a start in central midfield. The Atletico Madrid youngster is an energetic presence in the middle of the pitch and a driving force with the ball at his feet.

What to read

Mexico team guide

Czechia team guide

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South Africa v South Korea

Time (ET): 9pm

Stadium: Monterrey Stadium

How to watch

United States: FS1 / Telemundo (Stream on Fubo)

Canada: TSN (Stream)

United Kingdom: BBC Two (Stream)

Australia: SBS (Stream)

What to watch for

There hasn’t been much between the four teams in Group A so far with three of the four matches played to this point producing under 2.5 goals. Wednesday’s encounter between South Africa and South Korea could also be keenly contested even if the AFC outfit are the slight favourites.

South Korea only need a draw to secure their spot in the last 32 while South Africa require three points to stand any realistic chance of progressing beyond the group stage. At some point, Hugo Broos will have to release the handbrake on a team that has played with a lot of caution at this tournament.

Player to watch: In-Beom Hwang, South Korea - The Feyenoord midfielder has been a commanding presence for South Korea in the centre of the pitch, offering plenty on both sides of the ball. He will be a key figure in their final group game.

What to read

South Korea team guide

South Africa team guide

Colombia secured their place in ⁠the FIFA World ⁠Cupround of 32 with a game to spare after a 1-0 ⁠victory over the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Group K on Tuesday, with Daniel Munoz scoring ⁠the winner after the South Americans had been frustrated for much of the evening.

Colombia moved to six points from two matches and guaranteed ‌their progress to the knockout stage ahead of their final group game against Portugal, who beat Uzbekistan 5-0 earlier on Tuesday.

DR Congo remained on one point and will need a result against ⁠Uzbekistan to keep their ⁠qualification hopes alive.

Colombia dominated possession and created the better chances throughout, but were repeatedly denied by goalkeeper Lionel Mpasi, ⁠who produced a series of saves to keep out ⁠efforts from James Rodriguez, Luis ⁠Diaz and Jhon Arias.

The breakthrough finally arrived in the 76th minute, when Juan Quintero’s pass found Munoz surging ‌into the penalty area, and the defender fired a low shot that took a ‌deflection ‌on its way past Mpasi.

More to follow…

Colombia finally broke down a stubborn DR Congo side on Tuesday to secure a 1-0 win that guaranteed their place in the World Cup knockout rounds.

Victory in Guadalajara, courtesy of a 76th-minute goal from Daniel Munoz, took them top of Group K with six points -- two clear of Cristiano Ronaldo's Portugal with one game to go in the first round.

Portugal, held 1-1 by DR Congo in their opening match, earlier hammered Uzbekistan 5-0 in Houston, with Ronaldo scoring twice.

Colombian fans turned the Mexican stadium into a sea of yellow, vastly outnumbering supporters of the African nation.

The South Americans, who beat Uzbekistan 3-1 in their tournament opener, dominated the early stages, peppering Lionel Mpasi's goal.

Munoz squandered an early chance and shortly afterwards had a goal ruled out for offside while James Rodriguez unleashed a stinging shot that was brilliantly saved as Colombia kept probing.

Mpasi made further sharp stops from Johan Mojica and Luis Diaz as the Colombians, playing with pace and invention, continued to dominate.

But their intensity dipped after the first drinks break, allowing DR Congo to edge back into the contest and pose their own occasional threat.

Mpasi made another stunning save with his leg from Diaz in the 50th minute to keep the game goalless.

DR Congo briefly threatened but Crystal Palace defender Munoz made up for his first-half miss when his shot was deflected past a wrong-footed Mpasi.

The African team did not give up and as the clock ticked past 90 minutes Colombian goalkeeper Camilo Vargas was forced to scramble to his left to turn a fierce Nathanael Mbuku shot behind.  

Colombia, who failed to qualify for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, will face Portugal in Miami on Saturday, while DR Congo take on Uzbekistan in Atlanta.

The Africans still have an outside chance of reaching the last 32 in their first appearance at the World Cup since 1974, when the country was known as Zaire.

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Midway through US goalkeeper Matt Freese's World Cup media duties on Tuesday, the familiar face of Weston McKennie appeared among the scrum of reporters and cameras.

"It's hard to focus on you guys!" said Freese, as the star midfielder tried his best to distract his teammate.

"He was also our chauffeur -- he drove us here on a golf cart," Freese explained, joking that McKennie is only an "alright driver."

In between their on-field heroics in wins against Paraguay and Australia that have helped captivate a sometimes soccer-skeptical nation, the US players have plenty of time for hi-jinks at their southern California training base.

It is a few miles from the luxury beachfront hotel that has been fully taken over by the squad, affording players calm and privacy amid the pressure of representing one of the tournament's host nations.

Fellow 'keeper Matt Turner has called the resort "our little oasis," while midfielder Gio Reyna admitted to feeling "a little bit spoiled, to say the least."

"We wake up in the morning, and some of the boys want to go surfing, some boys will want to go fishing, some boys will want to go shopping," said Folarin Balogun.

"There's just so much you can do here, and I've only just experienced a small fraction," marveled the striker, who was born in the US but grew up in England, and has rarely spent more than a few consecutive weeks across the pond.

- 'Tense moments' -

The US base camp was chosen after years of preparation by officials, aware of the intense scrutiny players would come under, and keen to forge bonds between the teammates.

The apparent calm and joviality is at odds with Qatar four years ago, when Reyna was almost sent home after a bust-up with then-coach Gregg Berhalter over his attitude in training.

That row famously spiraled to include Reyna's family and a historic assault allegation that saw the manager investigated by US soccer authorities, and subsequently cleared.

Not everything has been plain sailing this time either. Star forward Christian Pulisic suffered a knock in training that was aggravated in the 4-1 opening win against Paraguay, and has not played since.

Captain Tim Ream told AFP that there have been "some tense moments, amongst ourselves," during coach Mauricio Pochettino's intense training sessions.

But with another 2-0 win against Australia in the books, and the team's dynamic and attacking football winning over fans and pundits, it seems to be working.

Having topped Group D, the US already know all three of their potential next three knockout games would be on the West Coast -- in San Francisco, Seattle and then Los Angeles for a quarter-final, if they make it that far.

- 'Smores -

Balogun refused to reveal which players had taken up surfing, a sometimes treacherous activity in the giant swells of California's Pacific coast, presumably worried he might get them in trouble.

But there are plenty of calmer, typically American activities available to players as they pass the substantial time between games at this expanded, 48-team, 39-day World Cup.

Pulisic said he has taken to making 'smores over a "little fire pit" at the hotel -- a campfire treat made from marshmallows and chocolates that is the epitome of cozy nostalgia for Americans.

Reyna discussed going for "a dip, for a little recovery and a little sun" on the beach after training.

For Freese, it all brings the players closer together, as they try to create something special at the World Cup, having not reached the quarter-finals since 2002.

"Before I got here, I heard from some people, some mentors, that it's such a special experience," said the goalkeeper.

"What they were talking about was how a group bonds and how a group becomes a family within a World Cup setting.

"I didn't really know what they meant, but now I know what they meant. It's such a special feeling.

"We go back to our hotel and it's very isolated and very secluded, and just us there, and we really just get to be ourselves and bond and become cohesive off the field. "

amz/rcw

Portugal superstar Cristiano Ronaldo silenced his critics as he became the first man to score in six different World Cups on Tuesday while England's bid to reach the last 32 stumbled with a 0-0 draw against Ghana.

Ronaldo, 41, had come in for stinging criticism after a lacklustre display in Portugal's opening 1-1 draw with the Democratic Republic of Congo.

But the veteran striker roared back to life with two goals as Portugal kickstarted their campaign with a 5-0 drubbing of Group K rivals Uzbekistan in Houston.

A jubilant Ronaldo -- who had failed to score in 10 consecutive matches at major tournaments -- mouthed "I'm back, I'm back" as he celebrated after opening the scoring in the sixth minute.

He added a second on 39 minutes to give Portugal a 3-0 lead after Nuno Mendes had put Roberto Martinez's side 2-0 up in the 17th minute with a well-taken free kick.

Portugal, regarded as one of the tournament favourites, cut loose in the second half with two more goals, including a spectacular Rafael Leao strike, to complete the rout.

"I can say it was a very tough week, a difficult week, a week in which public opinion was very harsh on us, on all the players, especially on the coach," Ronaldo said.

"But it's always like that, it's fine because when you think about it, it's already 23 years I've been a professional and whenever things don't go well it's, 'Cristiano, he's finished, he's old'."

Portugal will face Colombia in the final round of Group K fixtures needing a win against the South Americans to clinch top spot.

Colombia made certain of their place in the last 32 after grinding out a hard-fought 1-0 win over DR Congo in Tuesday's late game in Guadaljara.

Colombia lead the group with six points, two clear of second-placed Portugal, and need only a draw against the Portuguese in Miami on Saturday to top the group.

- England frustrated -

But while Ronaldo and Portugal celebrated are back on track, England were left frustrated in their bid to join the likes of France, Argentina and Germany in the last 32 after failing to break down Ghana in a goalless Group L stalemate at Foxborough outside Boston.

England had launched their campaign last week with a stylish 4-2 win over Croatia, with their relentless attacking play sweeping aside the 2018 World Cup finalists.

But against a Ghana team defending in depth, England were unable to find the invention needed to break through, creating hardly any chances that troubled the Black Stars.

England were also fortunate to escape what looked like a strong penalty claim from Ghana in the 79th minute when Ezri Konsa bundled over substitute Prince Adu in the box.

A toothless England performance was summed up in the final minutes, when England captain Harry Kane blasted over the bar with the goal gaping.

The result left England and Ghana level on four points, just ahead of Croatia, who defeated Panama 1-0 in Toronto later Tuesday to eliminate the Central Americans.

England star Jude Bellingham insisted though there was no reason to panic, with England still in control of their destiny. A win over eliminated Panama in their final first phase game would likely see them top the group.

"It's important for us not to get too negative, not to get too het up on it," the Real Madrid ace said. "No worries, no stress, no drama at all in there.

"Very frustrating. Like, second game fever, you know, the same as always with us," said the Real Madrid midfielder.

"It feels like in all the tournaments I've been to, it's been the same -- a decent performance to start and a good win. And then just the second one..."

Off the field on Tuesday, FIFA President Gianni Infantino confirmed that US President Donald Trump will attend the World Cup final in New Jersey on July 19 and present the trophy to the winners.

"We will be together with the president enjoying the final and handing the trophy to the winner, of course, together," Infantino told Fox and Friends.

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The knockout bracket in the FIFA World Cup 2026 is starting to take shape.

It begins with the round of 32, which runs from June 28 to July 3.

What is the format and criteria for qualification, and which teams have progressed or been eliminated?

What is the format of the World Cup knockouts?

The top two teams in each of the 12 groups, along with the eight best third-place finishers, advance to knockouts.

The knockout phase begins with the round of 32, introduced for the first time at a World Cup after the expansion of the tournament from 32 to 48 teams.

Then comes the round of 16, followed by the quarterfinals, semifinals and a playoff for third place. The final is on July 19.

The stage-wise breakdown of the tournament’s schedule is:

• Group stage: June 11 to June 27
• Round of 32: June 28 to July 3
• Round of 16: July 4-7
• Quarterfinals: July 9-11
• Semifinals: July 14-15
• Bronze medal match: July 18
• Final: July 19

What are the rules change for the tie-breaker criteria at the 2026 World Cup?

FIFA is using head-to-head records instead of goal difference as the primary tiebreaker for teams level on points for the first time at a World Cup.

Haiti, Turkiye, Tunisia, Jordan and Panama have been eliminated because they are unable to catch the third-placed teams in their respective groups, as they lost to those teams.

Tie-breaker criteria for World Cup groups

According to FIFA’s rules for the tournament, if two or more teams in the same group are equal on points after the group stage ends, the following criteria, in the order below, will be applied to determine the ranking:

Step one

• Greatest number of points gained in the group matches.
• Superior goal difference in the group matches between the teams concerned (head-to-head).
• Greatest number of goals scored in the group matches between the teams concerned (head-to-head).

If the teams are still tied, the criteria below applies:

Step two

• Superior goal difference across all group matches.
• Greatest number of goals scored across all group matches.
• Highest team conduct score (players and team officials) relating to the number of yellow and red cards obtained.

If the teams somehow still cannot be separated, then the following criteria below applies:

Step three

• The two or more teams still equal on points shall be ranked according to the most recent published edition of the FIFA world rankings.

The criteria for the eight best‑ranked teams

The eight best teams among those ranked third will be determined as follows:

• Greatest number of points gained in all group matches.
• Goal difference resulting from all group matches.
• Greatest number of goals scored in all group matches.
• Highest team conduct score (players and team officials) relating to the number of yellow and red cards obtained in all group matches.
• The two or more teams still equal on points shall be ranked according to the most recent published edition of the FIFA world rankings.

Which teams have reached the World Cup round of 32?

(As of June 24, 04:15 GMT)

⚽️ Mexico (Group A) 

The cohosts were the first to qualify for the knockouts, after taking top spot in Group A with a 1-0 win over South Korea on Thursday, June 18. The Mexicans started their campaign with a 2-0 win over South Africa in a chaotic tournament opener.

⚽️ USA (Group D)

The United States were the second team to punch their ticket to the knockouts, thanks to their 2-0 win over Australia that sent them on top of Group D on Friday, June 19. The USA thumped Paraguay 4-1 to kick off their campaign.

⚽️ Germany (Group E) 

Germany became the third team to enter the last 32 with a 2-1 win over Ivory Coast on Saturday, June 20. The Germans – who failed to get out of the group stage both at Russia 2018 and four years ago in Qatar – started their tournament with a 7-1 thrashing of Curacao.

⚽️ Argentina (Group J)

Argentina sealed their ticket to the knockouts with a 2-0 victory over Austria on Monday, June 22, as Lionel Messi scored twice, becoming the World Cup’s all-time leading scorer with 18 goals. The Argentina captain also bagged his maiden tournament hat-trick in their 3-0 opening game win over Algeria. Reigning champions Argentina are guaranteed the top spot in Group J.

⚽️ France (Group I)

Pre-tournament favourites France secured a place in the round of 32 with a 3-0 win over Iraq later on Monday, as Kylian Mbappe scored a brace. The 2018 world champions beat Senegal 3-1 to kick off their tournament, with Mbappe scoring twice in that game, too.

⚽️ Norway (Group I)

Norway beat Senegal 3-2 in their second game of the tournament, sealing their place in the knockouts. The Norwegians, who are back at the World Cup after 28 years, started their campaign with a 4-1 thrashing of Iraq.

⚽️ Colombia (Group K)

Colombia joined the party on Tuesday, June 23, with their 1-0 win over DR Congo. The South Americans also won 3-1 against Uzbekistan in their opening game.

Which teams have been knocked out of the World Cup 2026?

⚽️ Haiti (Group C)

Haiti became the first team to be sent home packing from the World Cup after suffering a 3-0 loss to Brazil on Friday, June 19. Playing in their first tournament since 1974, they also lost 1-0 to Scotland in their first game.

⚽️ Turkiye (Group D)

Turkiye soon followed suit, bowing out of the tournament after a 1-0 defeat to 10-man Paraguay later on Friday. They also suffered a shock 2-0 defeat to Australia in the first group match – their first appearance at the tournament after 24 years.

⚽️ Tunisia (Group F)

Tunisia became the third team to be eliminated after they lost 4-0 to Japan on Saturday, June 20. The defeat came shortly after they suffered a heavy 5-1 defeat to Sweden in the opener. Tunisia were the first African team to win a World Cup match when they beat Mexico in 1978, but they have never progressed beyond the group stages.

⚽️ Jordan (Group J)

Jordan, one of the four debutants at the tournament, bowed out on Monday, June 22, after losing 2-1 to Algeria in their second group game. The Asian side also lost 3-1 to Austria in their opening game.

⚽️ Panama (Group L)

Panama were knocked out of the World Cup on Tuesday, June 23, after suffering their second defeat of the group stage, falling 1-0 to Croatia. They also lost 1-0 to Ghana in their first game.