News:

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Total - 10

Number: 1 (not part of api)

Title: USMNT fans have Tyler Adams feeling close to invincible in World Cup

image:

id: 443329896

publish_date: 2026-06-19 23:15:02

language: en

source_country: us

sourceName: Com

link to original: https://clutchpoints.com/soccer/world-cup-news-usmnt-fans-have-tyler-adams-feeling-close-invincible

text:

Mauricio Pochettino and a talented roster have helped the United States men’s national team achieve history early in the 2026 FIFA World Cup, but one also must not discount the huge boost the home crowd is giving the players on the pitch. Tyler Adams put into words the powerful effect that fans’ support had during Friday’s 2-0 victory versus Australia in Seattle Stadium. “Incredible,” the 27-year-old midfielder said after the U.S. improved to 2-0 in group D play and advanced to the Round of 32. “I can’t thank the fans enough. Playing in front of a home crowd like that gives us that extra motivation, that extra emotion. And it adds so much value to every single thing that we do, every single action that we make. With those fans behind us, I’m not going to say we feel invincible, but wow. It’s encouraging.” "Freeman is an unbelievable character that we have on our team. Such an amazing young player and amazing person." Tyler Adams spoke on the excitement from the @USMNT after Alex Freeman's goal pic.twitter.com/2MmIJkjQ8k — FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) June 19, 2026 Usually known as Lumen Field during the NFL season, the home of the Seattle Seahawks has long been considered one of the most boisterous environments in American sports. The legendary 12s has rattled many visiting teams in the past, and perhaps the same happened during this World Cup battle. Emboldened by Seattle Stadium, the United States quickly grabbed hold of the match and went into halftime with a 2-0 lead. Folarin Balogun set up Australia for a brutal own goal, and Alex Freeman, son of Super Bowl champion and former All-Pro wide receiver Antonio Freeman, scored near the end of the first half. The Americans controlled possession (65 percent) while coasting to another W. The United States men’s national team was not quite as dominant as it was in last Friday’s 4-1 domination of Paraguay, but it still looks to be in excellent form to this point. The fans will try to finish the group stage strong when the U.S. squares off with Turkiye in Inglewood, California’s SoFi Stadium on Thursday.

Number: 2 (not part of api)

Title: English football is being Yankiefied

image:

id: 443316394

publish_date: 2026-06-20 05:00:00

language: en

source_country: gb

sourceName: Newstatesman

link to original: https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/sport/2026/06/the-yankification-of-english-football-2

text:

On Eastern Standard Time, football always starts early. Often at 6am on a Saturday, football shirt over pyjamas, the room recedes into darkness around your big American TV. You may never walk alone, but the bars aren’t open and your partner’s asleep, so you sit on the couch and watch it. I call up Adam Friedland, one of America’s most vocal and verbose soccer fans and host of The Adam Friedland Show, a show with nearly half a million subscribers. Being one of America’s most verbal soccer fans, he’s also just launched a new podcast about the World Cup, The Beautiful Pod. He saw my British +44 number and said, “Yo, I thought Keir Starmer was calling.” If modern Britain means two things to the rest of the world, it is embarrassing politics and football. We spoke about the latter. A devout Gooner, Friedland takes Arsenal seriously. “It’s a very monk-like, solitary experience,” he says. “I watch it in the mornings in my apartment, alone, and then they ruin my weekend before it’s even started. I don’t know what to do when something good happens.” I ask him what he did when Arsenal won the Premier League. “I literally just sat there in my living room and I was like, what do I do? I put on my 2003 Gilberto Silva kit and took my dog for a walk.” Friedland recently hosted the New York mayor, Zohran Mamdani, on his show. “My main takeaway was like, oh, he also likes hip-hop and Arsenal. Like, we’re losers.” Friedland muses that Mamdani is one of the first people of his generation to hold a serious leadership position. “In Congress, they’ve got all these 700-year-old people who have been stealing money for a hundred years and just won’t retire. So Zohran’s the first guy like me.” Football, then, has become a cultural signal in America. It can be harnessed to connect with very specific demographics. “My parents were so excited that Bill Clinton’s campaign song was Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Don’t Stop’,” Friedland says. “They were like, this is our guy. Mamdani and Arsenal is kind of like that.” Friedland pledged himself to Arsenal because they had “cool guys”. Maybe it is because of it has a history of legendary players such as Thierry Henry and Dennis Bergkamp. Arsenal are much beloved across the pond, the second most-supported Premier League club after Liverpool. “I have a sense of superiority over the Ted Lasso boys at the Arsenal pub [who are wearing] the worst whatever neon road-worker kit with, like, Dani Ceballos on the back,” Friedland says, referring to the recent Apple TV comedy series, which follows an American football college coach managing the struggling London-based football team, AFC Richmond. Critics accused it of possessing a saccharine positivity and generally being “too American”. Friedland is of similar mind. Rigorous zeal for a football club and its history, so familiar to Brits, can lean cultish in the States. Or, as Friedland puts it, “I have a couple friends who are like me and it’s like we’re homosexuals in the 1950s.” That may be true of the transfer-obsessive stat fanatics, but Ted Lasso-style casual interest in football is rapidly growing in America. As US audiences have increased, the value of football’s international media rights has almost tripled since 2017, from $340m to $900m. Some fear this will be seen as justification for longer ad breaks in and around games. At the current World Cup (which has the US as one of three host nations, alongside Canada and Mexico) mid-half hydration breaks have been introduced because of extremely hot conditions in several stadiums. But these also offer ample opportunity to sell pharmaceuticals, takeaways and military recruitment to TV viewers. This World Cup has arrived at a moment when America’s voice in “soccer” is getting louder. Eleven out of 20 clubs in the Premier League are now majority owned or controlled by American owners. (Two of these 11 owners are a husband-and-wife team.) To buy a sports team in the States, you have to be a billionaire. Whereas in the England, particularly in the lower leagues, any millionaire average Joe can take a pop. Brad and Sharon Galinson bought Gillingham FC, a team that is currently in League Two and is based in the town in Kent, in 2022. “No one likes change,” Brad says. “But the Brits really don’t like change.” Put another way, resistance to change can also be understood as a desire to protect community heritage. Friedland recognises a certain bent in his culture for what we would call iconoclasm and Americans might call growth. “You guys have a connection to your old buildings and shit,” he says. “In New York City we don’t have that crap. Just tear that shit down. We don’t have a romanticism for the past or a notion of nostalgia. You guys have heritage. We don’t do that.” Where football is concerned, bigger and more commercial does not necessarily mean better. Yankified additions to the game, such as pre-match or half-time concert-style performances, like the Killers’ concert before this year’s Champions League final, are not always met with approval here. “I’m going to watch the football,” Sam Jaffe, a Notts County FC fan, tells me. “I’m not turning up to see the concert beforehand. The atmosphere created by the fans is what makes football special, and I don’t think we need to copy other sports.” One of the most storied American takeovers of a British club, and perhaps the antecedent to the football gold rush, has been Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney’s fever-dream dalliance with Wrexham AFC and the accompanying Disney+ docuseries, Welcome to Wrexham. In 2011,before the A-listers arrived, the Football Conference demanded a £250,000-bond from the club’s then-owners to ensure their participation in the upcoming season. When the owner’s provided only £150,000, the fans raised £100,000, essentially saved the club. Reynolds and McElhenney bought the team for £2m in 2021, when Wrexham were in the fifth-tier National League and operating at a loss. After the takeover, film crews set up camp in the stadium and around the grounds. “We were concerned it would be poverty porn,” Wrexham fan Rich Fay says. “Look at these yokels from North Wales, they’ve got nothing. Here comes Hollywood money.” But after the first series of the documentary came out, it was clear the community was being treated with respect. Since the takeover, Wrexham have returned to the Football League after 15 years. This year, they finished seventh in the Championship, narrowly missing the play-offs and the promise of Premier League riches in their highest finish since the early 1980s. Reynolds and McElhenney haven’t just changed the club for the better, but the town itself. “Wrexham used to be somewhere people would make fun of you for being from,” Fay says. “Now everyone tries to claim they’re from here. It’s gone from being ridiculed to an absolute badge of honour.” The town has seen a 20 per cent yer-on-year boom in tourism since 2021, injecting millions into the local economy. “They say money can’t buy you happiness,” Fay notes, “but we’ve got self-belief and confidence again.” So money cannot buy you happiness, but it can buy you a football club. Before buying Gillingham FC, Galinson had made his money in real estate. When he arrived in the English Football League (EFL), he was dismayed by the lack of financial protection given to clubs and their communities. In the States, he says, profit and sustainability laws protect teams from going under. “Over here, the community is so important, but you guys don’t protect it.” He sits in the camp of owners who understands how critical football is to the community. “The only comparison I could make is to family. With family someone might go to the emergency room, or get engaged, or get into college. But in football that intensity happens every Saturday. We don’t feel that way in America.” Football mania is evangelical. Galinson no longer watches the NFL because it feels it’s too slow and lacks that intensity. But the danger, as Galinson sees it, is that almost every lower-league British club is about seven days away from falling into administration if its owners decide they have had enough. “When the EFL allows nearly every club to be one month away from administration with a change in circumstance or mood of their owner, it’s sad and irresponsible.” He believes the EFL needs to adopt Uefa-style profit and sustainability rules. The question of protection, though, is fraught. One proposed solution to football’s financial volatility was the European Super League. In 2021, 12 of Europe’s richest clubs announced plans for a breakaway competition, backed by major clubs including Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea, Barcelona, Real Madrid and Juventus, and finacially supported by JPMorgan Chase. The project proposed a largely closed league in which founding members would be guaranteed entry every year. Gone would be the nail-biting tightrope of promotion and relegation. It was designed to rival, and potentially replace, the Champions League as the most lucrative club tournament in football. But it was met with disdain. Supporters’ groups across Europe called it “unpopular, illegitimate and dangerous”. Because the tightrope of promotion and relegation is what makes the game: it provides the drama, the jeopardy, the stakes. To be or not to be. Not just to be. And while the Super League was not simply an American invention – Real Madrid, Barcelona, Juventus and others were central to it – its American imprint was hard to miss: a US investment bank financing the project, and several American-owned clubs helping to drive it. Given that US sport is built around closed leagues without promotion and relegation, it is easy to see how football’s essential exhilaration might be mistaken for inefficiency. According to Galinson, the EFL is surprisingly matey at the top. When owners find themselves in each other’s cities, they play golf, go for dinner and discuss how to protect and promote the financial soundness of the EFL by the 2027-28 season. Proposed measures such as salary caps, however, have been immediately opposed by players’ and managers’ unions. “If the owners show up, they’re pretty committed,” Galinson says. “Some of them are absentee owners, which is their business.” One such co-owner is the rapper Snoop Dogg, who joined Swansea City’s ownership group last year in a bid to give the club the backing it deserves. “They’re an underdog that bites back, just like me,” he said. After touring South Wales in this new mode of Yankee ownership tourism, he concluded that Swansea needed more investment and that one day it could be the “Vegas of Wales”. He hopes the city will attract world-class chefs, hotels and clubs so the team has somewhere to “celebrate in style” after winning trophies. One local resident told the BBC, “I think he should leave us alone to be honest.” Maybe, for these absentees, football ownership tourism is the new NFT: sport in the sixth dimension, fulfilling schoolboy dreams, taking over stadiums as a weekend Airbnb, ordering Champagne to the owner’s box. The trend was identified in HBO’s Succession, with its usual sharp satire: a son buys his billionaire father’s childhood football team, Hearts, only for his father to wave him away and say his team is Hibs, their rival. The disparity between how much football means and how little this rich man understands is eye-watering. In discussions about American ownership, it is worth remembering that the problem is not simply nationality. Football’s ownership crisis is much wider than that. Some of the most powerful clubs in the game are now owned or effectively backed by Gulf-state wealth and sovereign investment. Manchester City, Paris Saint-Germain and Newcastle are clear examples, teams that are owned by Abu Dhabi, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, respectively. Manchester City’s owner, Sheikh Mansour, is a senior UAE political figure, and the UAE has been accused of backing the Rapid Support Forces in Sudan, a militia accused of genocide, ethnic cleansing and mass killings in Darfur. Football ownership can become part of a much larger project of soft power and reputation laundering. That does not mean all foreign ownership belongs in the same category. American money has also proved a lifeline to clubs like Wrexham, which were on the brink long before Hollywood arrived. The question, then, is not whether English football should accept American money, but what it must refuse to sell in exchange. Arsenal’s owner Josh Kroenke has played a major role in the club’s success over the last five years. At the Arsenal Premier League Champions parade on 31 May, he posed on the open-top bus in a T-shirt with players Saliba and Gabriels’ faces imposed on characters from the film Stepbrothers. Somehow, this guy gets it. The parade dominated Islington for the entire Sunday and into the small hours of Monday morning. By American standards, it was notably lo-fi. Two buses crawling through the streets from 2pm to 4pm and a few sound systems. That was it. No mega-floats. Shakira was nowhere to be seen. No one had bothered to choreograph a dance. But somehow the atmosphere was full-tilt ecstasy because our love of the game doesn’t have to be coaxed into creativity. Who comes up with football chants? How does everyone know what they are? Who’s idea was it to bellow “Sweet Caroline” and why is it so good? (So good.) After the parade, I found the Arsenal America gang, who have spent an average of $1,500 on plane tickets to be there that weekend. I muscled my way into their WhatsApp chat and asked if anyone wanted to meet for a beer and talk about the team. No one argued with my pub choice, and seven of them arrived within half an hour. They all had great teeth and wore serious merch. They seemed even happier than the average Gooner, glowing after a weekend spent transcending our pedestrian, siloed human experience, packed together with loving strangers, drinking beer on foreign shores. The ineffable atmosphere is the cultural export. A guy called Don arrived late, having travelled all the way back from Heathrow. Don was from Memphis and was wearing blue-tinted shades and had picked up a Big Gabi T-shirt, for centre-back Gabriel Magalhães. The general consensus within Arsenal America was that they want to protect football from American influence. “I’m very wary of American investors because I don’t want the sport to get more American,” one of them said. “The whole reason I don’t watch NFL or baseball is because I don’t want to watch a four-hour game that’s 90 per cent commercials.” A professed Anglophile, Matt came to Arsenal through a love of British culture, typified for him by Monty Python, Black Books and The IT Crowd. That interest led him to Nick Hornby’s Arsenal fan memoir Fever Pitch. “I don’t want the Americanisation of this sport in any way,” he said. Don’s experience of football tracked with Friedland’s. After Danny Welbeck headed in a winning goal against Leicester City on Valentine’s Day in 2016, Don left the house at 6am and returned “steaming”, flowers not in hand. “I was in serious trouble with my girlfriend,” he said. “Actually, she’s not my girlfriend anymore.” For people who have flown across the world for a football match, they seemed surprisingly distressed by the state of transport infrastructure in their home country. They envied the way we can just walk to our stadiums. Matt Sommer is a high-school teacher from Wisconsin. He thought he was coming down with the flu. His most local team is in Chicago, Illinois, a two-hour drive away and a place that everyone in Wisconsin hates. In the US, it is more typical for a stadium to be at least a 40-minute drive out of the city, where there is space for horizon-defying parking lots. It was the same story for everyone. Local football community is incompatible with America’s vastness. Zachary Leiter and Claire Gammon, from Evansville, Indiana, said there is little hope of getting their kids properly into football because coaching opportunities and tournaments would all be a four-hour drive away. None of the Americans I spoke to have bought tickets to the World Cup. Long distances and record-high prices without ticket-touting restrictions have made it an incredibly inaccessible tournament. Don’s group of friends plan to fly to the UK for the 2028 Euros instead. “The World Cup might as well not be at home,” Don said. Americans turn to soccer because the rampant capitalism of US sports has, at times, precluded that closeness and community. In 2016, Stan Kroenke, Arsenal’s main shareholder, moved the NFL team the Rams from St Louis, where they had been based since 1995, to Los Angeles, a four-hour plane ride away. Let us imagine, for a moment, if Arsenal moved to Cornwall. It would not just be a relocation, but also an ontological severance. Arsenal would no longer be Arsenal by any meaningful standard. Football is not about profit, or pop music, or network ratings. It’s only partly about what happens on the pitch. The rest is something we already understand – home or away. [Further reading: Staying up for Scotland]

Number: 3 (not part of api)

Title: World Cup Breakfast: Miguel Almiron becomes first player ever sent off for speaking behind his hand, Emma Hayes' ITV blackboard is 'upgraded', match highlights - and what to look out for today

image:

id: 443315676

publish_date: 2026-06-20 06:44:20

language: en

source_country: gb

sourceName: Dailymail

link to original: https://www.dailymail.com/sport/football/article-15888529/World-Cup-Breakfast-Miguel-Almiron-Paraguay-red-Turkey-Emma-Hayes.html

text:

World Cup Breakfast: Miguel Almiron becomes first player ever sent off for speaking behind his hand, Emma Hayes' ITV blackboard is 'upgraded', match highlights - and what to look out for today Have you paid attention to the action so far? Try our World Cup quiz HERE See more Daily Mail on Google - save us as a Preferred Source By LIAM MORGAN, ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR and WILL GRIFFEE Published: 07:00 BST, 20 June 2026 | Updated: 07:44 BST, 20 June 2026 Hello and welcome to Daily Mail Sport's World Cup Breakfast from day nine at the tournament - your one-stop shop for everything you've missed overnight in North America. For all the latest news, viral moments and what to look out for, stay right here. OVERNIGHT ACTION This is what happened while you were asleep... USA 2-0 Australia (Group D) The USMNT are living the American dream at their home tournament as they booked their place in the knockout stage with a convincing win over the Socceroos. Thousands of US fans turned the Seattle Stadium into a party and their players gave them plenty to celebrate as they took a giant step towards topping the group. The roof had already come off when Cameron Burgess inadvertently turned the ball into his own net to give the US the lead just 11 minutes in. Alex Freeman scored the second goal for the US as they booked their place in the knockouts Mauricio Pochettino's men, who opened their campaign by beating Paraguay 4-1, added a second before the break thanks to Alex Freeman. The goal was initially ruled offside before VAR intervened and replays showed he was onside, sparking delirium inside an already raucous stadium. A late melee was the highlight of a feisty second half with Australia unable to get back into the match. The result means the US will win the group if Turkey fail to beat Paraguay, sending them to Santa Clara to face a third-placed team in the last 32, while the Aussies can still join them despite the defeat. A word, too, for Pochettino's outfit, which saw fans draw comparisons to Hollywood superstar Russell Crowe. The US manager will be hoping his side continue to play like Gladiators after reaching the last 32 with a match to spare. Read DANIEL MATTHEWS' REPORT HERE. Scotland 0-1 Morocco (Group C) Social media was again awash with pictures of giddy Scots queuing up for bars and continuing to drink Boston dry before they took on the impressive African side. Sadly it took just 70 seconds for Morocco to spoil the Scottish party as Ismael Saibari fired home a superb strike after capitalising on a defensive error. It was a largely attritional affair after that early blow but Steve Clarke's men finally upped the ante in the second half, twice having legitimate penalty shouts waved away by the officials on the pitch and in the VAR box many miles away. Scott McTominay also went close late on but it wasn't to be for the Scots, who failed to match the energy from their thousands of fans who have travelled Stateside to support them. They also couldn't channel their inner Pep Guardiola, spotted by the TV cameras in the posh seats in Foxborough. Clarke's team will still harbour hopes of reaching the last 32 despite facing Brazil in their final game, while Morocco - who were wasteful here and should have won more comfortably - are well placed to progress. A fascinating final day awaits in one of the most intriguing groups in the tournament. READ IAN LADYMAN'S REPORT HERE. Ismael Saibari's strike just 71 seconds into the match proved enough to beat Scotland Brazil 3-0 Haiti (Group C) Manchester United forward Matheus Cunha scored twice as Brazil moved top of World Cup Group C with a 3-0 win over Haiti. Vinicius Junior netted the third, with all of the goals coming in a first half during which Brazil looked markedly improved from their insipid opening draw against Morocco. The result ensures Haiti, who lost to Scotland 1-0 in their first game, can no longer reach the knockout phase. Brazil ran riot in the first half, helped by some generous defending from the Caribbean side, whose high line gave Cunha, Raphinha and Vinicius plenty of opportunities to run in behind. An excellent start for the five-time winners was tarnished somewhat as Raphinha went off before half-time with what looked to be a hamstring injury, with Bournemouth teenager Rayan replacing him. READ OLIVER HOLT'S REPORT HERE Brazil and Man United star Matheus Cunha celebrates scoring against Haiti in the 3-0 win Turkey 0-1 Paraguay (Group D) Miguel Almiron became the first player to be sent off for covering his mouth during an altercation with an opponent, but Paraguay clung on for a 1-0 World Cup win over Turkey. The former Newcastle player was dismissed following a VAR review in first-half stoppage time. Almiron had covered his mouth while speaking to Turkey’s Baris Yilmaz. Matias Galarza gave Paraguay a second-minute lead as he collected a pass from Julio Enciso and fired a low effort into the bottom corner from 20 yards. With both sides having lost their opening game, there was plenty at stake at the San Francisco Bay Area Stadium and the tension soon led to a fiery encounter. Given their numerical advantage it was no surprise that Turkey dominated the second half. Needing a goal to maintain any chance of progressing, Turkey became increasingly desperate as Gill denied Uzun and Deniz Gul put the rebound off target. Merih Demiral headed a stoppage-time effort wide as defeat saw Turkey eliminated. Miguel Almiron is consoled by team-mates after being sent off for speaking behind his hand VIEW FROM THE GROUND - IAN HERBERT One of the tented fanzones in Houston was a place of many colours as USA played Australia. Sweden, Argentina, Netherlands, Colombia and France shirts were all present. It was not a tide of USA. A World Cup merchandise seller inside the place said he'd sold as many Dutch T-shirts as USA. (The Dutch play the Swedes here on Saturday.) Neither was the USA match the sole preoccupation in the FIFA fanzone. As the first half played out, many were queuing for a skills game pitching players against a virtual David Beckham. Yet more waited in line to visit a replica of Houston's NASA Space Station. There were plenty of different team colours on show in the Houston fanzone on Friday Houston is proud to be a host city, but attention quickly turned to the Houston Astros' evening baseball match against Cleveland Astros, half a mile down the road. Not exactly football as we know it. Baseball and NFL vie for top spot in this sport mad city, with basketball third. Soccer sits somewhere alongside ice hockey. The USA will need to go all the way to the final if Houston is ever to call itself a soccer city. TEAM OF THE DAY PICTURE OF THE DAY Not much went Scotland's way during their meeting with Morocco in Boston, the European nation's adopted home at the World Cup. As well as having two penalty claims rejected by referee Ilgiz Tantashev, Lewis Ferguson was also left baffled that he was not given a free-kick after being bundled to the floor by Ayyoub Bouaddi as they went in search of an equaliser. The challenge did, however, provide the sublime picture below. Hats off to the photographer who took this one. Lewis Ferguson was bundled to the floor by Ayyoub Bouaddi but the referee took no action VIRAL MOMENT OF THE DAY ITV pundit Emma Hayes has had her chalkboard corner of the studio upgraded after the broadcaster was accused of making it look like 'a small kitchen'. Viewers had also questioned why the USA women's boss, who won a record 15 trophies with Chelsea, was given a 'lame' small chalkboard instead of a digital touchscreen. One TV insider called the setup 'hugely embarrassing' and questioned whether male pundits such as Gary Neville would be put in the same situation. The ill-judged set led to a series of mean memes where Emma's noughts and crosses were replaced with a shopping list. Others used AI to add a sink, tap, piles of washing up, tea towels and even an ironing board, dressing her in a pinny. And ITV have taken note, giving Hayes an upgraded board with magnetic pieces to move around rather than the chalkboard. During her analysis of Brazil vs Haiti, she alluded to the controversy surrounding her tactics corner. She said: 'Let's focus on the first half in particular.' Hayes, 49, then turned around and looked directly down the camera lens, saying: 'I know that's a challenge for some of us at home.' Emma Hayes' Hydration Break Analysis pic.twitter.com/QHHJPOBCbQ — ITV Football (@itvfootball) June 20, 2026 Emma Hayes' chalkboard was given an upgrade in the ITV studio on Friday night CELEBRITY WATCH Unsurprisingly, a host of American celebrities and stars desperate to sample World Cup fever descended on Seattle for their nation's encounter with Australia. This included Paris Hilton, who not only posed for pictures with mascots and fans but also led the crowd in a rendition of the 'U-S-A' chant that has been reverberating around this tournament. Paris Hilton led the American crowd in a rendition of the 'U-S-A-' chant before the Australia clash Hilton, 40, was among the host of American stars and celebrities in attendance in Seattle STATS OF THE DAY An unwanted record is on track to be broken at this year's tournament. Cameron Burgess' own goal in Australia's defeat by the US was already the seventh of the competition so far. The highest is 12, set at the 2018 World Cup in Russia. Brazil then fielded their oldest team at a World Cup since the 1962 final against Czechoslovakia. Carlo Ancelotti's charges had an average age of 30 years and 190 days for the match against Haiti. FIFA also revealed on Friday that the 1,000th World Cup match in history will be played at the event in North America. The honour falls to Tunisia and Japan, who meet in Group F on Saturday. THREE THINGS TO LOOK OUT FOR TODAY 1.Alexander Isak vs Virgil van Dijk Sweden hammered Tunisia with a freewheeling 5-1 victory in their first group game that led to the opposition manager being sacked. Graham Potter's side could be great value this tournament with the attack spearheaded by their Premier League stars. Alexander Isak is looking back to somewhere near his sharpest form after a disappointing and disjointed season with Liverpool. Rather than the World Cup being a hinderance to pre-season, Liverpool fans will surely just be pleased that Isak is getting game time and ideally returning to Merseyside in much better shape than last year when he arrived after a summer of going on strike. With Mo Salah gone and Liverpool's attacking unit still needing further signings, the burden will fall on their record signing to come up trumps next term. It will be fascinating to see how he fares against his club team-mate Virgil van Dijk, who he has found some success against in the past during his time at Newcastle. 2. Diomande's shifting price tag There will be more Liverpool interest in the second game of the day when Germany take on Ivory Coast. Their major target of the summer, Yan Diomande, is the star for the Ivorians and RB Leipzig won't mind at all if he lights up the world stage against top opposition. Liverpool have already had an £86million bid for the 19-year-old sensation rejected and are set to return with an improved offer. No doubt Michael Edwards and Co would be up for Diomande having a quieter game as the selling club look to drum up a bidding war, with PSG also interested in the winger. Yan Diomande is Liverpool's main transfer target this summer and a bid has been rejected 3. Tunisia to be 'the worst side'? Anyone who drew Tunisia in the pre-World Cup sweepstakes might be quite pleased if there's a 'worst team' category. The hammering by Sweden has made them early contenders along with Curacao for the dubious honour. Sabri Lamouchi was sacked and replaced by Herve Renard, who should in theory make them much more defensively solid. Renard famously steered Saudi Arabia to a shock group-stage win over eventual champions Argentina in Qatar four years ago. But if he fails to avoid a heavy defeat by Japan, Tunisia's campaign will be over already and those sweepstake owners could cash in. TODAY'S GAMES Netherlands vs Sweden (6pm, Houston, BBC) Graham Potter's free-scoring Swedes possess one of the strongest attacks at the tournament, demonstrated ruthlessly by the 5-1 dismantling of Tunisia earlier this week. But Viktor Gyokeres and Isak will face a much sterner test when they take on a Dutch team known more for its defensive solidity than its attacking prowess. Van Dijk and Co were left disappointed as they twice led Japan before having to settle for a draw and Ronald Koeman's men will need to be much sharper at both ends if they are to pick up their first win of the tournament. Sweden will qualify for the last 32 with a victory, while a draw will do little for the Dutch. Prediction: Draw Sweden's attack were deadly in thrashing Tunisia in their opening match and face the Netherlands hoping to book their place in the next round Germany vs Ivory Coast (9pm, Toronto, ITV) The build-up to this Group E encounter has been dominated by controversy surrounding Ivory Coast's Elye Wahi, who was initially barred from entering Canada before a late U-turn. Wahi, who played just under an hour of the win over Ecuador, is the subject of an investigation into alleged spot-fixing after being booked when playing for Nice against Metz on May 17. It is claimed an 'unusual amount of bets' were placed on the player receiving a yellow card. The 23-year-old was reportedly arrested less than two weeks before the World Cup began and Ivory Coast manager Emerse Fae has a decision to make on whether he plays against Germany, one of the favourites to lift the trophy on July 19. Prediction: Germany win It is not clear whether Elye Wahi will feature for Ivory Coast against Germany on Friday Ecuador vs Curacao (1am, Kansas City, BBC) A familiar problem, namely troubles in front of goal, cost the South Americans dearly in their opener against Ivory Coast and defeat by the competition's minnows could spell the end of their tournament, with Germany to play in their final Group E game. Ecuador qualified second behind Argentina in the CONMEBOL region but their path was built largely on defensive solidity, scoring just 14 goals. They did everything but find the net in their loss to the African side, hitting the crossbar twice and the post once before Amad Diallo stole the points with a stoppage-time winner. But Ecuador will fancy their chances of racking up a few against Curacao, who enjoyed only a fleeting moment of joy when they equalised against Germany before being thrashed 7-1. Prediction: Ecuador win Tunisia vs Japan (5am, Monterrey, BBC) One for the World Cup purists in the UK, given the kick-off time, and a real opportunity for Japan to cement their status as a dark horse by taking a giant step towards the round of 32. Japan were dogged in their draw with the Dutch and showed they can cope without the absent Kaoru Mitoma and Wataru Endo, who are missing because of injury. Tunisia will have to be much, much better if they are to avoid another defeat after being comfortably swept aside by a rampant Sweden in their opening game. Prediction: Japan win Have you paid attention to the action so far? Try our World Cup quiz HERE TurkeyWorld Cup 2026Brazil Share or comment on this article: World Cup Breakfast: Miguel Almiron becomes first player ever sent off for speaking behind his hand, Emma Hayes' ITV blackboard is 'upgraded', match highlights - and what to look out for today Add comment

Number: 4 (not part of api)

Title: HLs: Lynx get close win against Valkyries

image:

id: 443294346

publish_date: 2026-06-20 04:20:14

language: en

source_country: us

sourceName: Nbcsports

link to original: https://www.nbcsports.com/watch/wnba/highlights-minnesota-lynx-grab-close-win-against-golden-state-valkyries

text:

Skip navigation Search Query Submit Search Premier League College Football Men’s College Basketball Horse Racing Mabrey scores career-high 37 points, ties single-game 3-point record as Tempo rally past Sun 101-97 Associated Press, Associated Press, Kiki Iriafen’s late layup lifts the Mystics past New York 86-83, snapping the Liberty’s streak Associated Press, Associated Press, U.S. Open Round 3 tee times: Full Saturday pairings, featured groups and how to watch Patricia Duffy, Patricia Duffy, HLs: Mystics, Iriafen snap Liberty’s win streak Highlights: Truck Series Navy 250 Shackell dominates 200m butterfly in Indy on Day 2 Trending Teams Washington Commanders St. Louis Cardinals New York Yankees Pro Football Talk NFL Player News Fantasy Football Sunday Night Football Matthew Berry Chris Simms Unbuttoned NFL Betting Highlights and Clips NBA Player News NBA Playoffs Player Stats Fantasy Basketball NBA Betting Highlights and Clips NBA All-Star Game MLB Player News MLB Standings Fantasy Baseball MLB Betting Highlights & Clips Sunday Night Baseball World Cup Home Schedule and Scores Groups and Standings Copa Mundial on Peacock Premier League 2026 World Cup College Football Fantasy Sports Men’s College Basketball Women’s College Basketball Paralympics Horse Racing On Her Turf Figure Skating National Dog Show Navy All-American Bowl Stream on Peacock Live & Upcoming Highlights & Clips NBC Sports NOW All Podcasts Fantasy Football Happy Hour Chris Simms Unbuttoned Rotoworld Football Show The 2 Robbies MLB According to CC Rushing the Field NBC Sports (iOS) NBC Sports (Android) Peacock (iOS) Peacock (Android) ProFootballTalk ProFootballTalk Player News NFL Player News NBA Player News MLB Player News Fantasy Sports Rotoworld Home Matthew Berry Fantasy Football Fantasy Basketball Fantasy Baseball Betting Home NFL Betting NBA Betting MLB Betting College Football College Basketball NBC Olympics Telemundo Deportes NBC Sports Press Box Search Query Submit Search Premier League College Football Men’s College Basketball Horse Racing Mabrey scores career-high 37 points, ties single-game 3-point record as Tempo rally past Sun 101-97 Associated Press, Associated Press, Kiki Iriafen’s late layup lifts the Mystics past New York 86-83, snapping the Liberty’s streak Associated Press, Associated Press, U.S. Open Round 3 tee times: Full Saturday pairings, featured groups and how to watch Patricia Duffy, Patricia Duffy, HLs: Mystics, Iriafen snap Liberty’s win streak Highlights: Truck Series Navy 250 Shackell dominates 200m butterfly in Indy on Day 2 Trending Teams Washington Commanders St. Louis Cardinals New York Yankees Pro Football Talk NFL Player News Fantasy Football Sunday Night Football Matthew Berry Chris Simms Unbuttoned NFL Betting Highlights and Clips NBA Player News NBA Playoffs Player Stats Fantasy Basketball NBA Betting Highlights and Clips NBA All-Star Game MLB Player News MLB Standings Fantasy Baseball MLB Betting Highlights & Clips Sunday Night Baseball World Cup Home Schedule and Scores Groups and Standings Copa Mundial on Peacock Premier League 2026 World Cup College Football Fantasy Sports Men’s College Basketball Women’s College Basketball Paralympics Horse Racing On Her Turf Figure Skating National Dog Show Navy All-American Bowl Stream on Peacock Live & Upcoming Highlights & Clips NBC Sports NOW All Podcasts Fantasy Football Happy Hour Chris Simms Unbuttoned Rotoworld Football Show The 2 Robbies MLB According to CC Rushing the Field NBC Sports (iOS) NBC Sports (Android) Peacock (iOS) Peacock (Android) ProFootballTalk Player News NFL Player News NBA Player News MLB Player News Fantasy Sports Rotoworld Home Matthew Berry Fantasy Football Fantasy Basketball Fantasy Baseball Betting Home NFL Betting NBA Betting MLB Betting College Football College Basketball NBC Olympics Telemundo Deportes NBC Sports Press Box Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices. HLs: Lynx get close win against Valkyries June 20, 2026 12:20 AM Relive the top moments from the Minnesota Lynx's 81-75 win over the host, the Golden State Valkyries at the Chase Center on Friday night. Related Videos HLs: Mystics, Iriafen snap Liberty’s win streak HLs: Reese fuels Dream’s win over Clark, Fever Sarama a great WNBA COTY value bet over Reeve HLs: Wilson outduels Copper in WNBA Finals rematch Highlights: Fire get comeback win against Storm Highlights: Miles torches Sparks for 31 points HLs: Liberty knocks off Sky in thrilling finish Dream’s Paopao on growing into a leadership role Aces’ defensive issues ‘exposed’ in loss vs Wings Liberty hit their stride, head to Cup Finals HLs: Clark’s double-double helps Fever beat Tempo Dream vs Fever rematch will ‘live up to the hype’ Commissioner’s Cup standings, Wings win over Aces Sparks scoring power was ‘suffocated’ by GSV Williams is ‘setting the tone’ for the Valkyries GSV’s Charles: What Williams brings to the court HLs: Valkyries extinguish Sparks’ winning streak Wings rout Aces, Lynx take Fire as Cup final nears HLs: Wings first-half surge helps get win vs. Aces HLs: Lynx dominate Fire Sparks can take advantage of Valks’ bad 3-point D HLs: Dream’s offense suffocates Tempo HLs: Liberty notch comfortable win over Mystics HLs: Fire snag last-second win over Wings HLs: Wilson, Gray lead Aces to fend off Lynx Ionescu reportedly set to return vs Mystics Mitchell: Accountability fuels Fever’s success Bird: Possible Commissioner’s Cup Finals matchups Fever showed ‘grit’ in win over Sun Clark on Fever’s ‘resilience’ after tight win Latest Clips Highlights: Truck Series Navy 250 Shackell dominates 200m butterfly in Indy on Day 2 HLs: Scheffler rebounds with strong Round 2 Ledecky glides to sub-four-minute 400m free win Is Anunoby the best role player in the league? McIlroy remains optimistic after difficult Round 2 Flemings: I’m excited to hoop in the NBA Highlights: 126th U.S. Open, Round 2 Afternoon Douglass bests Walsh in world record 50m free Flemings on NBA Draft process, playing for Sampson Biggest disappointments of 2025-26 NBA season Mathias rockets to lifetime best in 50m free win How far can this USMNT team go? Schauffele: ' I appreciate the game more’ SVG: Coronado streets will ‘be tough to navigate’ Higgs buries sensational birdie from off the green Highlights: 126th U.S. Open, Round 2 Morning HLs: Fitzpatrick grinds out hard-fought Round 2 HLs: Bryson fights through difficult 75 in Round 2 Schauffele breaks down Rd. 2 showing at U.S. Open Clark ‘fought really hard’ to keep pace in Round 2 HLs: Schauffele cards second-round 66 at U.S. Open Bacio routs in Palace of Holyroodhouse Stakes Johnson in freefall at U.S. Open after quad on 15 Fitzpatrick catches massive break with chip-in par Flagstick sends Mouw’s approach on 16 to the beach Precise shakes slow start to win Coronation Stakes Bryson uncorks 427-yard drive in U.S. Open Round 1 Could Ronaldo cost Portugal the World Cup? Venetian Sun wins a close Commonwealth Cup Stay in the Know Subscribe to our Newsletter and Alerts College Basketball College Football Figure Skating Horse Racing Motor Sports Fantasy Baseball Fantasy Basketball Fantasy Football Stream & Podcast Clips & Highlights Sports Podcasts Stream on Peacock NBC Sports on YouTube NBC Sports iOS NBC Sports Android Peacock TV iOS Peacock TV Android Local Coverage NBC Sports Bay Area NBC Sports Boston NBC Sports Philadelphia Advertise Careers Closed Captioning FAQ NBC Sports Store Press Box Ad Choices Privacy Policy Cookie Settings CA Notice Terms of Service A Division of NBCUniversal. DISCLAIMER: This site and the products offered are for entertainment purposes only, and there is no gambling offered on this site. This service is intended for adult audiences. No guarantees are made for any specific outcome. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, please call 1-800-GAMBLER. Ⓒ 2024 NBC Universal Add favorite players, teams, and leagues with an NBCUniversal Profile

Number: 5 (not part of api)

Title: Highlights: Truck Series Navy 250

image:

id: 443291224

publish_date: 2026-06-20 02:55:08

language: en

source_country: us

sourceName: Nbcsports

link to original: https://www.nbcsports.com/watch/nascar/nascar-truck-series-2026-highlights-navy-250at-naval-base-coronado

text:

Skip navigation Search Query Submit Search Premier League College Football Men’s College Basketball Horse Racing Mabrey scores career-high 37 points, ties single-game 3-point record as Tempo rally past Sun 101-97 Associated Press, Associated Press, Kiki Iriafen’s late layup lifts the Mystics past New York 86-83, snapping the Liberty’s streak Associated Press, Associated Press, U.S. Open Round 3 tee times: Full Saturday pairings, featured groups and how to watch Patricia Duffy, Patricia Duffy, HLs: Mystics, Iriafen snap Liberty’s win streak Shackell dominates 200m butterfly in Indy on Day 2 HLs: Scheffler rebounds with strong Round 2 Trending Teams Washington Commanders St. Louis Cardinals New York Yankees Pro Football Talk NFL Player News Fantasy Football Sunday Night Football Matthew Berry Chris Simms Unbuttoned NFL Betting Highlights and Clips NBA Player News NBA Playoffs Player Stats Fantasy Basketball NBA Betting Highlights and Clips NBA All-Star Game MLB Player News MLB Standings Fantasy Baseball MLB Betting Highlights & Clips Sunday Night Baseball World Cup Home Schedule and Scores Groups and Standings Copa Mundial on Peacock Premier League 2026 World Cup College Football Fantasy Sports Men’s College Basketball Women’s College Basketball Paralympics Horse Racing On Her Turf Figure Skating National Dog Show Navy All-American Bowl Stream on Peacock Live & Upcoming Highlights & Clips NBC Sports NOW All Podcasts Fantasy Football Happy Hour Chris Simms Unbuttoned Rotoworld Football Show The 2 Robbies MLB According to CC Rushing the Field NBC Sports (iOS) NBC Sports (Android) Peacock (iOS) Peacock (Android) ProFootballTalk ProFootballTalk Player News NFL Player News NBA Player News MLB Player News Fantasy Sports Rotoworld Home Matthew Berry Fantasy Football Fantasy Basketball Fantasy Baseball Betting Home NFL Betting NBA Betting MLB Betting College Football College Basketball NBC Olympics Telemundo Deportes NBC Sports Press Box Search Query Submit Search Premier League College Football Men’s College Basketball Horse Racing Mabrey scores career-high 37 points, ties single-game 3-point record as Tempo rally past Sun 101-97 Associated Press, Associated Press, Kiki Iriafen’s late layup lifts the Mystics past New York 86-83, snapping the Liberty’s streak Associated Press, Associated Press, U.S. Open Round 3 tee times: Full Saturday pairings, featured groups and how to watch Patricia Duffy, Patricia Duffy, HLs: Mystics, Iriafen snap Liberty’s win streak Shackell dominates 200m butterfly in Indy on Day 2 HLs: Scheffler rebounds with strong Round 2 Trending Teams Washington Commanders St. Louis Cardinals New York Yankees Pro Football Talk NFL Player News Fantasy Football Sunday Night Football Matthew Berry Chris Simms Unbuttoned NFL Betting Highlights and Clips NBA Player News NBA Playoffs Player Stats Fantasy Basketball NBA Betting Highlights and Clips NBA All-Star Game MLB Player News MLB Standings Fantasy Baseball MLB Betting Highlights & Clips Sunday Night Baseball World Cup Home Schedule and Scores Groups and Standings Copa Mundial on Peacock Premier League 2026 World Cup College Football Fantasy Sports Men’s College Basketball Women’s College Basketball Paralympics Horse Racing On Her Turf Figure Skating National Dog Show Navy All-American Bowl Stream on Peacock Live & Upcoming Highlights & Clips NBC Sports NOW All Podcasts Fantasy Football Happy Hour Chris Simms Unbuttoned Rotoworld Football Show The 2 Robbies MLB According to CC Rushing the Field NBC Sports (iOS) NBC Sports (Android) Peacock (iOS) Peacock (Android) ProFootballTalk Player News NFL Player News NBA Player News MLB Player News Fantasy Sports Rotoworld Home Matthew Berry Fantasy Football Fantasy Basketball Fantasy Baseball Betting Home NFL Betting NBA Betting MLB Betting College Football College Basketball NBC Olympics Telemundo Deportes NBC Sports Press Box Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices. Highlights: Truck Series Navy 250 June 19, 2026 10:55 PM Watch the best moments from the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Championship race at Naval Base Coronado. Related Videos SVG: Coronado streets will ‘be tough to navigate’ Van Gisbergen discusses Coronado Street Course What drivers said after NASCAR Cup Race at Pocono HLs: NASCAR Cup Series race at Pocono Bell recalls Michigan crash in vivid detail Hamlin explains his tribute to Busch at Michigan HLs: NASCAR Cup Series race at Michigan HLs: Craftsman Truck Series at Michigan HLs: NASCAR Cup Series 2026 Nashville HLs: Craftsman Truck Series at Nashville Busch’s best rivalries during NASCAR Cup career Highlights: NASCAR Cup Series race at Charlotte HLs: Craftsman Truck Series at Charlotte NASCAR drivers reflect on Busch’s legacy Relive Busch’s back-to-back Brickyard 400 wins Busch’s most significant wins in NASCAR Cup Series Busch wanted son to see hard work paying off Latest Clips HLs: Mystics, Iriafen snap Liberty’s win streak Shackell dominates 200m butterfly in Indy on Day 2 HLs: Scheffler rebounds with strong Round 2 Ledecky glides to sub-four-minute 400m free win Is Anunoby the best role player in the league? McIlroy remains optimistic after difficult Round 2 Flemings: I’m excited to hoop in the NBA Highlights: 126th U.S. Open, Round 2 Afternoon Douglass bests Walsh in world record 50m free Flemings on NBA Draft process, playing for Sampson Biggest disappointments of 2025-26 NBA season Mathias rockets to lifetime best in 50m free win How far can this USMNT team go? Schauffele: ' I appreciate the game more’ Higgs buries sensational birdie from off the green Highlights: 126th U.S. Open, Round 2 Morning HLs: Fitzpatrick grinds out hard-fought Round 2 HLs: Bryson fights through difficult 75 in Round 2 Schauffele breaks down Rd. 2 showing at U.S. Open Clark ‘fought really hard’ to keep pace in Round 2 HLs: Schauffele cards second-round 66 at U.S. Open Bacio routs in Palace of Holyroodhouse Stakes Johnson in freefall at U.S. Open after quad on 15 Fitzpatrick catches massive break with chip-in par Flagstick sends Mouw’s approach on 16 to the beach Precise shakes slow start to win Coronation Stakes Bryson uncorks 427-yard drive in U.S. Open Round 1 Could Ronaldo cost Portugal the World Cup? Venetian Sun wins a close Commonwealth Cup Knicks championship parade draws millions of fans Stay in the Know Subscribe to our Newsletter and Alerts College Basketball College Football Figure Skating Horse Racing Motor Sports Fantasy Baseball Fantasy Basketball Fantasy Football Stream & Podcast Clips & Highlights Sports Podcasts Stream on Peacock NBC Sports on YouTube NBC Sports iOS NBC Sports Android Peacock TV iOS Peacock TV Android Local Coverage NBC Sports Bay Area NBC Sports Boston NBC Sports Philadelphia Advertise Careers Closed Captioning FAQ NBC Sports Store Press Box Ad Choices Privacy Policy Cookie Settings CA Notice Terms of Service A Division of NBCUniversal. DISCLAIMER: This site and the products offered are for entertainment purposes only, and there is no gambling offered on this site. This service is intended for adult audiences. No guarantees are made for any specific outcome. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, please call 1-800-GAMBLER. Ⓒ 2024 NBC Universal Add favorite players, teams, and leagues with an NBCUniversal Profile

Number: 6 (not part of api)

Title: World Cup bust: Cities across the US are left with empty hotel rooms as tourism boom fails to materialize

image:

id: 443289072

publish_date: 2026-06-19 21:26:33

language: en

source_country: gb

sourceName: Dailymail

link to original: https://www.dailymail.com/yourmoney/article-15914105/world-cup-hotel-bust-san-francisco-miami.html

text:

World Cup bust: Cities across the US are left with empty hotel rooms as tourism boom fails to materialize READ MORE: The 2026 World Cup will be the biggest gambling event in history See more Daily Mail on Google - save us as a Preferred Source By SARA MCGIFF, US REAL ESTATE & CONSUMER REPORTER Updated: 22:26 BST, 19 June 2026 San Francisco is ground zero for the World Cup's tourism bust across the United States. FIFA initially reserved large blocks of hotel rooms in host cities, but later cancelled 75 percent of the bookings in several markets months before the start of the highly anticipated tournament. Today, San Francisco is absorbing the fallout, as hotel rooms sit empty and rates remain flat despite boasts by the city's travel industry leaders that the event would deliver a major economic boost, much like the 2026 NFL Super Bowl. On Super Bowl weekend, the city demonstrated its hospitality chops by profiting handsomely despite the game being played 43 miles away from Santa Clara's Levi Stadium. The average room rate across the city's 31,000 hotel rooms surged higher to $394 a night for two-star hotels, $582 for three-star properties and $1,259 for four-star and above, according to Sports Management Research Institute data. But unlike the Super Bowl, the World Cup's booking impact has so far appeared more uneven. A similar trend is playing out nationwide: An American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) report found that bookings are running well below expectations in almost every US World Cup host city. The group said the trend does not align with FIFA's claim that more than five million tickets have been sold, warning that the 'anticipated economic lift may fall short.' San Francisco has become a shining example of the World Cup's tourism bust for hotels across the United States The Golden Gate City is feeling the repercussions, with hotel rooms undersold and rates flat despite expectations the World Cup would replicate the Super Bowl's economic boost San Francisco's hotels showed they could cash in on major sporting events during February's Super Bowl weekend, when average nightly rates climbed to $394 for two-star hotels, $582 for three-star properties and $1,259 for four-star and above despite the city sitting 43 miles from Levi's Stadium One person has died after a train crashed into another 5.6k viewing now Our ultimate guide to the best barbecue food and drink 43.6k viewing now The four mistakes that led to bungee tragedy on Skeleton Bridge 5.2k viewing now The AHLA - the largest hotel association in the US representing more than 32,000 properties - said FIFA may have contributed to the shortfall by block-booking large numbers of rooms for its own use, effectively creating artificial demand. The move initially pushed prices higher, but after FIFA later released a significant portion of those rooms it left a 'vacuum of availability' that has weighed on the market. A study commissioned by FIFA and released last year predicted the World Cup could create 185,000 jobs in the US and add $17.2 billion to GDP. Hotels had been preparing for an influx of international visitors, who typically book longer stays and spend more per trip. But AHLA warned that fewer overseas fans visiting the US 'threatens the broader economic impact.' According to the report, FIFA's large-scale room blocks across host cities 'shaped revenue forecasts, staffing plans and preparations,' and 'manufactured artificial demand' that masked weaker-than-expected tourism flows. The AHLA also said up to 70 percent of rooms reserved by FIFA in cities including Boston, Dallas, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Seattle have now been cancelled. In Los Angeles, around 70 percent of the city's hotels reported bookings below expectations ahead of the World Cup, LAist reported. Los Angeles is facing a similar challenge, with up to 70 percent of hotels reporting bookings below expectations ahead of the World Cup A FIFA-commissioned study projected the World Cup would generate 185,000 US jobs and add $17.2 billion to the economy, but the American Hotel & Lodging Association warned that weaker-than-expected international tourism threatens those gains Atlanta and Miami are the only host cities bucking the trend, with about half of hotels reporting bookings are in line with or ahead of expectations Miami led all host cities in hotel demand, with the World Cup building on its already strong leisure tourism Brawl breaks out in Times Square between World Cup fans Progress: 0% Current Time 0:00 Duration Time 1:00 Video Quality ---WhiteBlackRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyan---OpaqueSemi-Opaque ---WhiteBlackRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyan---OpaqueSemi-TransparentTransparent ---WhiteBlackRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyan---OpaqueSemi-TransparentTransparent 50%75%100%125%150%175%200%300%400% NoneRaisedDepressedUniformDropshadow DefaultMonospace SerifProportional SerifMonospace Sans-SerifProportional Sans-SerifCasualScriptSmall Caps World Cup sparks global fury as US ticketing tricks banned at previous tournaments make it the priciest sports event EVER The CEO of the Hotel Association of Los Angeles, Jackie Filla, told the outlet that LA hotels struck an agreement with FIFA to commit to having enough rooms to meet the expected demand through a room block agreement, but that those rooms are now sitting empty. Filla also noted that bookings are unexpectedly low behind their usual summer numbers, adding that it could be due to the mega-event deterring travel to the city. Two cities bucking the trend are Atlanta and Miami, where hotels say bookings are 'in line with or ahead of expectations.' Miami had the strongest demand, with the World Cup building on leisure demand, the AHLA report found. After matches were announced in December, hotel operators in San Francisco were cautious about the World Cup's economic impact, according to Alex Bastian, president and CEO of the Hotel Council of San Francisco, in comments to SFGATE. He said the Bay Area was not assigned 'first-place seed teams' with large traveling fan bases, limiting expected demand. Bastian added that a matchup featuring a country like Brazil would likely have driven stronger hotel bookings. Brazil, along with Colombia and Portugal, is instead playing in Miami, which is also hosting a quarter-final and third-place match. Michael Stathokostopoulos, senior director of hospitality analytics at CoStar Group, told SFGATE that marquee European teams such as Germany, Italy or Spain would also have boosted demand in San Francisco. Italy failed to qualify, while Germany is playing in Houston, Toronto and the New York City metro area, and Spain is playing in Atlanta and Mexico. Levi's Stadium will host a Round of 32 match on July 1, and Stathokostopoulos said later knockout games could draw stronger last-minute international demand depending on which teams advance. Share or comment on this article: World Cup bust: Cities across the US are left with empty hotel rooms as tourism boom fails to materialize Add comment

Number: 7 (not part of api)

Title: Awer Mabil is proud to represent Australia as one of team's refugees playing in the World Cup

image:

id: 443288234

publish_date: 2026-06-19 05:05:49

language: en

source_country: ca

sourceName: Thestar

link to original: https://www.thestar.com/sports/soccer/awer-mabil-is-proud-to-represent-australia-as-one-of-teams-refugees-playing-in-the-world-cup/article_1f49dd52-5c8f-5d5a-96af-7a748053caec.html

text:

ALAMEDA, Calif. (AP) — Awer Mabil’s face quickly turned to pure joy. He beamed and fought his emotions, a reaction Australia’s veteran forward hardly could have seen coming. It had nothing to do with a soccer result, either. But rather a reflection that took him back to his tumultuous youth as a refugee and how some good fortune landed him in Australia for a new start in life. Mabil looked into the audience during his media conference after training Tuesday and discovered a familiar face in David Basheer, the longtime commentator on Australia’s SBS network who had just offered a question days ahead of the Socceroos’ World Cup matchup against the United States on Friday in Seattle. “I grew up watching you,” Mabil said, so taken aback that he asked Basheer to repeat himself. A touching moment, in this pressure-packed, every-four-years spectacle, and yet one more example of Mabil’s refreshing sincerity as one of the Aussies’ key faces at this World Cup, no matter how many minutes he plays. He’s an ambassador from Down Under, to be sure. Difficult start to his life The 30-year-old Mabil also represents the persistence it took to prevail and get this far, given his daunting path. He was born in Kakuma, Kenya, to South Sudanese parents who had escaped civil war, and he moved to Australia 20 years ago at age 10 through the country’s humanitarian resettlement program. He began playing organized soccer in Adelaide, South Australia state. It’s fitting that Mabil is sharing his story during Refugee Week, with World Refugee Day on Saturday. “It’s a Refugee Week and it’s a week that I would like to say to anybody that is misplaced all over the world that we are with you,” he said. “And we are in a world stage right now, in a big tournament — and just to tell you everything is possible, so keep going.” Mabil is making contributions in many ways. He took part in a video message about diversity ahead of the World Cup that went viral. The message: “No matter where you come from, football is for everyone.” “It’s coincidence again that it’s Refugee Week in the World Cup and also at the same time you have many refugees in the team. And at the same time, when I reflect back, I’m like we all belong to this world together,” Mabil said. “And now we’re representing Australia.” He considers himself a “big brother” to teammates Mo Touré and Nestory Irankunda, fellow refugees from Africa. A World Cup milestone The 20-year-old Irankunda became the youngest player to score a World Cup goal for the Socceroos in a 2-0 win over Turkey on Saturday in Vancouver, British Columbia. The Australians want to show how far the country has come at the World Cup level. “I hope we’re starting to gain a little bit more respect,” defender Alessandro Circati said. “I don’t want to be the underdogs for the rest of my life.” Mabil will do his part to help the Socceroos build something special. He played briefly as a substitute in two group-stage matches four years ago for the Aussies, then didn’t get on the field for the opener this year. “I’m proud of the boys,” he said. “A lot of the young boys now making the difference for the national team all come through Adelaide, and it’s a credit to the football community.” He and his mates are loving the omelet bar and lining up for it at their team headquarters, the Claremont Resort and Club in nearby Berkeley. They are training at the former headquarters of the NFL’s Oakland Raiders. “Coming in as a senior player I think is more mental that you have to be present for the younger ones. Sometimes you want to slap them,” Mabil joked. “I’ll play my role to the best of my abilities to be available for the young ones and also the older ones because the older ones also they go through difficulties so they don’t have all the answers — nobody has all the answers. We just have to continue to be there for each other. In these kind of tournaments, it’s very important to remain united.” AP World Cup: https://apnews.com/fifa-world-cup

Number: 8 (not part of api)

Title: See it: Photos of the raucous World Cup atmosphere for USA-Australia

image:

id: 443286320

publish_date: 2026-06-19 19:56:44

language: en

source_country: us

sourceName: Bostonherald

link to original: https://www.bostonherald.com/2026/06/19/photos-usmnt-vs-australia

text:

US fans react after the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren) United States fans celebrate on the stands at the end of the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson) United States fans hold a sign on the stands at the end of the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson) A US fan waits for the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren) US fans wait for the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren) Australia and United States fans pit their mascot kangaroo and eagle against each other outside the stadium before the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson) A group of United States fans arrive outside the stadium before the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson) New York Giants quarterback Jameis Winston, greets United States fan outside Seattle Stadium before the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Maddy Grassy) Paris Hilton stands on the pitch before the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson) Former Seattle Seahawks and NFL player Marshawn Lynch takes pictures during the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr) An Australian fan celebrates as fans march to match before the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Maddy Grassy) A United States arrives for the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Maddy Grassy) A young United States arrives for the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Maddy Grassy) Australia fans march together to the stadium for the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson) An Australian fan celebrates as fans march to the match before the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Maddy Grassy) United States fans march to the match before the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Maddy Grassy) United States fans march to the match before the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Maddy Grassy) United States fans march to the match before the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Maddy Grassy) United States and Australia fans bump fists on their way to the stadium for the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson) A US fan waits for the start of the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez) US fans wait for the start of the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez) A US fan waits for the start of the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez) A spectator waits for the start of the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr) A U.S. fan cheers before the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr) Fans during the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez) Helicopters fly over the stadium before the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Maddy Grassy) US fans during the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez) United States players stand during the national anthems before the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson) Helicopters fly over before the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez) Soccer fans during the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez) US fans during the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez) United States fans on the stands during the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson) United States fans hold signs on the stand during the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson) A group of United States fans arrive outside the stadium before the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson) A group of United States fans arrive outside the stadium before the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson) US players celebrate the opening goal of their team during the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr) United States’ Folarin Balogun celebrates their first goal with the fans during the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson) United States’ Folarin Balogun (20) and Antonee Robinson (5) celebrate after Australia’s Cameron Burgess scored an own goal during the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren) United States head coach Mauricio Pochettino next to Australia’s Nishan Velupillay (23) during the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez) United States’ Christian Pulisic (10) during the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez) United States fans celebrate after the World Cup Group D soccer match between United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez) United States’ Ricardo Pepi (9) and Australia’s Harry Souttar (19) fight for the ball during the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren) Australia’s Aiden O’Neill (13) appeals for offside after United States’ Alex Freeman (16) scored a goal past Australia goalkeeper Patrick Beach (18) during the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Maddy Grassy)

Number: 9 (not part of api)

Title: The U.S. was missing its World Cup star. It didn’t miss a beat.

image:

id: 443284714

publish_date: 2026-06-20 03:56:52

language: en

source_country: us

sourceName: Nbcnews

link to original: https://www.nbcnews.com/sports/soccer/us-was-missing-world-cup-star-didnt-miss-beat-rcna350943

text:

Missing its playmaking star, and facing an Australian team that had frustrated it only seven months earlier, the U.S. had all the elements for a World Cup letdown Friday. Instead, the U.S. won again, made more history (again) and became among the first teams to secure its place in the tournament’s knockout stage. No Christian Pulisic? No problem — for now. With Pulisic sidelined by a calf injury, Folarin Balogun replaced his role as a playmaker by running up the pitch’s left side and creating havoc for Australia and chances for his teammates. The 2-0 victory marks the first time the U.S. men have won successive World Cup games since 1930. The result left the U.S. scoreboard-watching as the team flew from Seattle back to its home base in Southern California: A win or draw by Paraguay against Turkey late Friday would ensure the U.S. would win its group, with one group-stage game against Turkey still to play next week. “We’re delighted,” Balogun said. For a second straight game, the U.S. won because of things it has lacked in previous World Cup runs, and even during the 20 previous months that coach Mauricio Pochettino spent as U.S. coach: confidence and tactics. After a dominating, 4-1 U.S. win over Paraguay to open the tournament last week, Paraguayan coach Gustavo Alfaro described a pentagon-shaped formation that U.S. players had regularly created in the midfield, a shape that gave the U.S. a level of tactical “complexity” that allowed it to counter any move Paraguay made, Alfaro said. One week later in Seattle, Pochettino’s game plan set out to create triangles. With Pulisic unavailable, Pochettino started two strikers up front in Balogun and Ricardo Pepi. Pepi, Antonee Robinson and Malik Tillman formed a triangle on one side of the field, with Balogun, Weston McKennie and Sergiño Dest aligned on the other side. The U.S. wanted to use it to move the ball quickly from one side of the field to the other, Pochettino said, “but feeling free to change, to move, to create all the dynamics ... I think that approach worked really well.” “It wasn’t a shock” to play up front with Pepi, Balogun said. “It wasn’t, you know, like a ‘plan B’ because (Pulisic) was out. It didn’t feel like that to me. It just felt like another solution to win the game.” Balogun’s pressure with the ball led to a breakdown of Australia’s defense in the first 10 minutes, and when he fired a shot into the goal box, Australian defender Cameron Burgess didn’t kick the ball cleanly and it deflected into the net for an own goal and 1-0 lead for the U.S. The scoring sequence looked strikingly similar to the own-goal Paraguay committed last week when its defense was flummoxed by the pressure Pulisic created in the opening minutes. The U.S. is now the first team in World Cup history to have an opponent score an own goal in consecutive matches. “I want to be dangerous, I want to create opportunities, and it might not always be myself that scores, but if I can force an error that gives us the lead, then for me it’s like a goal as well,” Balogun said. Yet even before that opening goal, Pochettino already felt the U.S. had “built the victory in our attitude” by trusting his game plan. In the lead-up to Friday’s kickoff, U.S. coaches had noticed Australia’s tendency not to kick “long balls,” but to use more intermediary passes. During the opening minute, Balogun and Pepi pressed Australia to play long kicks and operate out of its comfort zone. Meanwhile, with Pulisic watching from the dugout in Seattle’s Lumen Field, a new face stepped in to add scoring. Alex Freeman scored in the 43rd minute off a header — the first headed goal for the U.S. since 2014. Freeman, 21, is the third-youngest U.S. player to score in the World Cup. The son of former NFL wideout Antonio Freeman, Alex Freeman hadn’t represented the U.S. until 2025 and was playing in MLS as recently as January. To go from there, to being mobbed after his goal was upheld by video review Friday, was “hard for me to kind of take it all in,” he said. By the match’s end, fans in Seattle were chanting Pochettino’s name, which he received with a smile and a fist pump. There was no update on whether Pulisic will be available to play in the team’s group-stage finale against Turkey on Thursday at SoFi Stadium. “I saw that a team that really believe in what it is doing,” Pochettino said. “We need to be flexible, because the opponents are completely different. That capacity to adapt to the different demands of the opponent and the game, and also our demand, like our coaching staff planning different approach on the games, I think only I can say good fantastic things about my players, about the squad, about my players. There they were fantastic.”

Number: 10 (not part of api)

Title: See it: Photos of the raucous World Cup atmosphere for USA-Australia

image:

id: 443284562

publish_date: 2026-06-19 19:56:44

language: en

source_country: us

sourceName: Sandiegouniontribune

link to original: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2026/06/19/photos-usmnt-vs-australia

text:

US fans react after the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren) United States fans celebrate on the stands at the end of the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson) United States fans hold a sign on the stands at the end of the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson) A US fan waits for the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren) US fans wait for the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren) Australia and United States fans pit their mascot kangaroo and eagle against each other outside the stadium before the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson) A group of United States fans arrive outside the stadium before the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson) New York Giants quarterback Jameis Winston, greets United States fan outside Seattle Stadium before the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Maddy Grassy) Paris Hilton stands on the pitch before the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson) Former Seattle Seahawks and NFL player Marshawn Lynch takes pictures during the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr) An Australian fan celebrates as fans march to match before the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Maddy Grassy) A United States arrives for the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Maddy Grassy) A young United States arrives for the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Maddy Grassy) Australia fans march together to the stadium for the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson) An Australian fan celebrates as fans march to the match before the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Maddy Grassy) United States fans march to the match before the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Maddy Grassy) United States fans march to the match before the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Maddy Grassy) United States fans march to the match before the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Maddy Grassy) United States and Australia fans bump fists on their way to the stadium for the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson) A US fan waits for the start of the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez) US fans wait for the start of the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez) A US fan waits for the start of the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez) A spectator waits for the start of the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr) A U.S. fan cheers before the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr) Fans during the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez) Helicopters fly over the stadium before the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Maddy Grassy) US fans during the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez) United States players stand during the national anthems before the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson) Helicopters fly over before the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez) Soccer fans during the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez) US fans during the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez) United States fans on the stands during the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson) United States fans hold signs on the stand during the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson) A group of United States fans arrive outside the stadium before the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson) A group of United States fans arrive outside the stadium before the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson) US players celebrate the opening goal of their team during the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr) United States’ Folarin Balogun celebrates their first goal with the fans during the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson) United States’ Folarin Balogun (20) and Antonee Robinson (5) celebrate after Australia’s Cameron Burgess scored an own goal during the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren) United States head coach Mauricio Pochettino next to Australia’s Nishan Velupillay (23) during the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez) United States’ Christian Pulisic (10) during the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez) United States fans celebrate after the World Cup Group D soccer match between United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez) United States’ Ricardo Pepi (9) and Australia’s Harry Souttar (19) fight for the ball during the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren) Australia’s Aiden O’Neill (13) appeals for offside after United States’ Alex Freeman (16) scored a goal past Australia goalkeeper Patrick Beach (18) during the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Maddy Grassy)

Data:

{"data":{"offset":0,"number":10,"available":1933,"news":[{"id":443329896,"title":"USMNT fans have Tyler Adams feeling close to invincible in World Cup","text":"Mauricio Pochettino and a talented roster have helped the United States men’s national team achieve history early in the 2026 FIFA World Cup, but one also must not discount the huge boost the home crowd is giving the players on the pitch. Tyler Adams put into words the powerful effect that fans’ support had during Friday’s 2-0 victory versus Australia in Seattle Stadium.\n“Incredible,” the 27-year-old midfielder said after the U.S. improved to 2-0 in group D play and advanced to the Round of 32. “I can’t thank the fans enough. Playing in front of a home crowd like that gives us that extra motivation, that extra emotion. And it adds so much value to every single thing that we do, every single action that we make. With those fans behind us, I’m not going to say we feel invincible, but wow. It’s encouraging.”\n\n\"Freeman is an unbelievable character that we have on our team. Such an amazing young player and amazing person.\" \nTyler Adams spoke on the excitement from the @USMNT after Alex Freeman's goal pic.twitter.com/2MmIJkjQ8k\n— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) June 19, 2026\n\nUsually known as Lumen Field during the NFL season, the home of the Seattle Seahawks has long been considered one of the most boisterous environments in American sports. The legendary 12s has rattled many visiting teams in the past, and perhaps the same happened during this World Cup battle.\nEmboldened by Seattle Stadium, the United States quickly grabbed hold of the match and went into halftime with a 2-0 lead. Folarin Balogun set up Australia for a brutal own goal, and Alex Freeman, son of Super Bowl champion and former All-Pro wide receiver Antonio Freeman, scored near the end of the first half. The Americans controlled possession (65 percent) while coasting to another W.\nThe United States men’s national team was not quite as dominant as it was in last Friday’s 4-1 domination of Paraguay, but it still looks to be in excellent form to this point. The fans will try to finish the group stage strong when the U.S. squares off with Turkiye in Inglewood, California’s SoFi Stadium on Thursday.","summary":"Mauricio Pochettino and a talented roster have helped the United States men’s national team achieve history early in the 2026 FIFA World Cup, but one also must not discount the huge boost the home crowd is giving the players on the pitch. Tyler Adams put into words the powerful effect that fans’ support had during […]\n\n\nThe post USMNT fans have Tyler Adams feeling close to invincible in World Cup appeared first on ClutchPoints.","url":"https://clutchpoints.com/soccer/world-cup-news-usmnt-fans-have-tyler-adams-feeling-close-invincible","image":"https://wp.clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Tyler-Adams-competes-for-the-United-States-mens-national-team.jpg","video":null,"publish_date":"2026-06-19 23:15:02","author":"Alex House","authors":["Alex House"],"language":"en","source_country":"us","sentiment":0.214,"sourceName":"Com"},{"id":443316394,"title":"English football is being Yankiefied","text":"On Eastern Standard Time, football always starts early. Often at 6am on a Saturday, football shirt over pyjamas, the room recedes into darkness around your big American TV. You may never walk alone, but the bars aren’t open and your partner’s asleep, so you sit on the couch and watch it. \n\nI call up Adam Friedland, one of America’s most vocal and verbose soccer fans and host of The Adam Friedland Show, a show with nearly half a million subscribers. Being one of America’s most verbal soccer fans, he’s also just launched a new podcast about the World Cup, The Beautiful Pod. He saw my British +44 number and said, “Yo, I thought Keir Starmer was calling.” If modern Britain means two things to the rest of the world, it is embarrassing politics and football. We spoke about the latter.\n\nA devout Gooner, Friedland takes Arsenal seriously. “It’s a very monk-like, solitary experience,” he says. “I watch it in the mornings in my apartment, alone, and then they ruin my weekend before it’s even started. I don’t know what to do when something good happens.”\n\nI ask him what he did when Arsenal won the Premier League. “I literally just sat there in my living room and I was like, what do I do? I put on my 2003 Gilberto Silva kit and took my dog for a walk.”\n\nFriedland recently hosted the New York mayor, Zohran Mamdani, on his show. “My main takeaway was like, oh, he also likes hip-hop and Arsenal. Like, we’re losers.” Friedland muses that Mamdani is one of the first people of his generation to hold a serious leadership position. “In Congress, they’ve got all these 700-year-old people who have been stealing money for a hundred years and just won’t retire. So Zohran’s the first guy like me.”\n\nFootball, then, has become a cultural signal in America. It can be harnessed to connect with very specific demographics. “My parents were so excited that Bill Clinton’s campaign song was Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Don’t Stop’,” Friedland says. “They were like, this is our guy. Mamdani and Arsenal is kind of like that.”\n\nFriedland pledged himself to Arsenal because they had “cool guys”. Maybe it is because of it has a history of legendary players such as Thierry Henry and Dennis Bergkamp. Arsenal are much beloved across the pond, the second most-supported Premier League club after Liverpool.\n\n“I have a sense of superiority over the Ted Lasso boys at the Arsenal pub [who are wearing] the worst whatever neon road-worker kit with, like, Dani Ceballos on the back,” Friedland says, referring to the recent Apple TV comedy series, which follows an American football college coach managing the struggling London-based football team, AFC Richmond. Critics accused it of possessing a saccharine positivity and generally being “too American”. Friedland is of similar mind. Rigorous zeal for a football club and its history, so familiar to Brits, can lean cultish in the States. Or, as Friedland puts it, “I have a couple friends who are like me and it’s like we’re homosexuals in the 1950s.”\n\nThat may be true of the transfer-obsessive stat fanatics, but Ted Lasso-style casual interest in football is rapidly growing in America. As US audiences have increased, the value of football’s international media rights has almost tripled since 2017, from $340m to $900m. Some fear this will be seen as justification for longer ad breaks in and around games. At the current World Cup (which has the US as one of three host nations, alongside Canada and Mexico) mid-half hydration breaks have been introduced because of extremely hot conditions in several stadiums. But these also offer ample opportunity to sell pharmaceuticals, takeaways and military recruitment to TV viewers.\n\nThis World Cup has arrived at a moment when America’s voice in “soccer” is getting louder. Eleven out of 20 clubs in the Premier League are now majority owned or controlled by American owners. (Two of these 11 owners are a husband-and-wife team.) To buy a sports team in the States, you have to be a billionaire. Whereas in the England, particularly in the lower leagues, any millionaire average Joe can take a pop. \n\nBrad and Sharon Galinson bought Gillingham FC, a team that is currently in League Two and is based in the town in Kent, in 2022. “No one likes change,” Brad says. “But the Brits really don’t like change.” Put another way, resistance to change can also be understood as a desire to protect community heritage. Friedland recognises a certain bent in his culture for what we would call iconoclasm and Americans might call growth. “You guys have a connection to your old buildings and shit,” he says. “In New York City we don’t have that crap. Just tear that shit down. We don’t have a romanticism for the past or a notion of nostalgia. You guys have heritage. We don’t do that.”\n\nWhere football is concerned, bigger and more commercial does not necessarily mean better. Yankified additions to the game, such as pre-match or half-time concert-style performances, like the Killers’ concert before this year’s Champions League final, are not always met with approval here. “I’m going to watch the football,” Sam Jaffe, a Notts County FC fan, tells me. “I’m not turning up to see the concert beforehand. The atmosphere created by the fans is what makes football special, and I don’t think we need to copy other sports.”\n\nOne of the most storied American takeovers of a British club, and perhaps the antecedent to the football gold rush, has been Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney’s fever-dream dalliance with Wrexham AFC and the accompanying Disney+ docuseries, Welcome to Wrexham. In 2011,before the A-listers arrived, the Football Conference demanded a £250,000-bond from the club’s then-owners to ensure their participation in the upcoming season. When the owner’s provided only £150,000, the fans raised £100,000, essentially saved the club. \n\nReynolds and McElhenney bought the team for £2m in 2021, when Wrexham were in the fifth-tier National League and operating at a loss. After the takeover, film crews set up camp in the stadium and around the grounds. “We were concerned it would be poverty porn,” Wrexham fan Rich Fay says. “Look at these yokels from North Wales, they’ve got nothing. Here comes Hollywood money.” But after the first series of the documentary came out, it was clear the community was being treated with respect.\n\nSince the takeover, Wrexham have returned to the Football League after 15 years. This year, they finished seventh in the Championship, narrowly missing the play-offs and the promise of Premier League riches in their highest finish since the early 1980s. Reynolds and McElhenney haven’t just changed the club for the better, but the town itself.\n\n“Wrexham used to be somewhere people would make fun of you for being from,” Fay says. “Now everyone tries to claim they’re from here. It’s gone from being ridiculed to an absolute badge of honour.” The town has seen a 20 per cent yer-on-year boom in tourism since 2021, injecting millions into the local economy. “They say money can’t buy you happiness,” Fay notes, “but we’ve got self-belief and confidence again.”\n\nSo money cannot buy you happiness, but it can buy you a football club.\n\nBefore buying Gillingham FC, Galinson had made his money in real estate. When he arrived in the English Football League (EFL), he was dismayed by the lack of financial protection given to clubs and their communities. In the States, he says, profit and sustainability laws protect teams from going under. “Over here, the community is so important, but you guys don’t protect it.” He sits in the camp of owners who understands how critical football is to the community. \n\n“The only comparison I could make is to family. With family someone might go to the emergency room, or get engaged, or get into college. But in football that intensity happens every Saturday. We don’t feel that way in America.”\n\nFootball mania is evangelical. Galinson no longer watches the NFL because it feels it’s too slow and lacks that intensity. But the danger, as Galinson sees it, is that almost every lower-league British club is about seven days away from falling into administration if its owners decide they have had enough. “When the EFL allows nearly every club to be one month away from administration with a change in circumstance or mood of their owner, it’s sad and irresponsible.” He believes the EFL needs to adopt Uefa-style profit and sustainability rules.\n\nThe question of protection, though, is fraught. One proposed solution to football’s financial volatility was the European Super League. In 2021, 12 of Europe’s richest clubs announced plans for a breakaway competition, backed by major clubs including Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea, Barcelona, Real Madrid and Juventus, and finacially supported by JPMorgan Chase. The project proposed a largely closed league in which founding members would be guaranteed entry every year. Gone would be the nail-biting tightrope of promotion and relegation. It was designed to rival, and potentially replace, the Champions League as the most lucrative club tournament in football.\n\nBut it was met with disdain. Supporters’ groups across Europe called it “unpopular, illegitimate and dangerous”. Because the tightrope of promotion and relegation is what makes the game: it provides the drama, the jeopardy, the stakes. To be or not to be. Not just to be. And while the Super League was not simply an American invention – Real Madrid, Barcelona, Juventus and others were central to it – its American imprint was hard to miss: a US investment bank financing the project, and several American-owned clubs helping to drive it. Given that US sport is built around closed leagues without promotion and relegation, it is easy to see how football’s essential exhilaration might be mistaken for inefficiency.\n\nAccording to Galinson, the EFL is surprisingly matey at the top. When owners find themselves in each other’s cities, they play golf, go for dinner and discuss how to protect and promote the financial soundness of the EFL by the 2027-28 season. Proposed measures such as salary caps, however, have been immediately opposed by players’ and managers’ unions. “If the owners show up, they’re pretty committed,” Galinson says. “Some of them are absentee owners, which is their business.”\n\nOne such co-owner is the rapper Snoop Dogg, who joined Swansea City’s ownership group last year in a bid to give the club the backing it deserves. “They’re an underdog that bites back, just like me,” he said. After touring South Wales in this new mode of Yankee ownership tourism, he concluded that Swansea needed more investment and that one day it could be the “Vegas of Wales”. He hopes the city will attract world-class chefs, hotels and clubs so the team has somewhere to “celebrate in style” after winning trophies. One local resident told the BBC, “I think he should leave us alone to be honest.”\n\nMaybe, for these absentees, football ownership tourism is the new NFT: sport in the sixth dimension, fulfilling schoolboy dreams, taking over stadiums as a weekend Airbnb, ordering Champagne to the owner’s box. The trend was identified in HBO’s Succession, with its usual sharp satire: a son buys his billionaire father’s childhood football team, Hearts, only for his father to wave him away and say his team is Hibs, their rival. The disparity between how much football means and how little this rich man understands is eye-watering.\n\nIn discussions about American ownership, it is worth remembering that the problem is not simply nationality. Football’s ownership crisis is much wider than that. Some of the most powerful clubs in the game are now owned or effectively backed by Gulf-state wealth and sovereign investment. Manchester City, Paris Saint-Germain and Newcastle are clear examples, teams that are owned by Abu Dhabi, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, respectively. Manchester City’s owner, Sheikh Mansour, is a senior UAE political figure, and the UAE has been accused of backing the Rapid Support Forces in Sudan, a militia accused of genocide, ethnic cleansing and mass killings in Darfur. Football ownership can become part of a much larger project of soft power and reputation laundering.\n\nThat does not mean all foreign ownership belongs in the same category. American money has also proved a lifeline to clubs like Wrexham, which were on the brink long before Hollywood arrived. The question, then, is not whether English football should accept American money, but what it must refuse to sell in exchange.\n\nArsenal’s owner Josh Kroenke has played a major role in the club’s success over the last five years. At the Arsenal Premier League Champions parade on 31 May, he posed on the open-top bus in a T-shirt with players Saliba and Gabriels’ faces imposed on characters from the film Stepbrothers. Somehow, this guy gets it. \n\nThe parade dominated Islington for the entire Sunday and into the small hours of Monday morning. By American standards, it was notably lo-fi. Two buses crawling through the streets from 2pm to 4pm and a few sound systems. That was it. No mega-floats. Shakira was nowhere to be seen. No one had bothered to choreograph a dance. But somehow the atmosphere was full-tilt ecstasy because our love of the game doesn’t have to be coaxed into creativity. Who comes up with football chants? How does everyone know what they are? Who’s idea was it to bellow “Sweet Caroline” and why is it so good? (So good.)\n\nAfter the parade, I found the Arsenal America gang, who have spent an average of $1,500 on plane tickets to be there that weekend. I muscled my way into their WhatsApp chat and asked if anyone wanted to meet for a beer and talk about the team. No one argued with my pub choice, and seven of them arrived within half an hour. They all had great teeth and wore serious merch. They seemed even happier than the average Gooner, glowing after a weekend spent transcending our pedestrian, siloed human experience, packed together with loving strangers, drinking beer on foreign shores. The ineffable atmosphere is the cultural export.\n\nA guy called Don arrived late, having travelled all the way back from Heathrow. Don was from Memphis and was wearing blue-tinted shades and had picked up a Big Gabi T-shirt, for centre-back Gabriel Magalhães.\n\nThe general consensus within Arsenal America was that they want to protect football from American influence. “I’m very wary of American investors because I don’t want the sport to get more American,” one of them said. “The whole reason I don’t watch NFL or baseball is because I don’t want to watch a four-hour game that’s 90 per cent commercials.”\n\nA professed Anglophile, Matt came to Arsenal through a love of British culture, typified for him by Monty Python, Black Books and The IT Crowd. That interest led him to Nick Hornby’s Arsenal fan memoir Fever Pitch. “I don’t want the Americanisation of this sport in any way,” he said.\n\nDon’s experience of football tracked with Friedland’s. After Danny Welbeck headed in a winning goal against Leicester City on Valentine’s Day in 2016, Don left the house at 6am and returned “steaming”, flowers not in hand. “I was in serious trouble with my girlfriend,” he said. “Actually, she’s not my girlfriend anymore.”\n\nFor people who have flown across the world for a football match, they seemed surprisingly distressed by the state of transport infrastructure in their home country. They envied the way we can just walk to our stadiums. Matt Sommer is a high-school teacher from Wisconsin. He thought he was coming down with the flu. His most local team is in Chicago, Illinois, a two-hour drive away and a place that everyone in Wisconsin hates. In the US, it is more typical for a stadium to be at least a 40-minute drive out of the city, where there is space for horizon-defying parking lots.\n\nIt was the same story for everyone. Local football community is incompatible with America’s vastness. Zachary Leiter and Claire Gammon, from Evansville, Indiana, said there is little hope of getting their kids properly into football because coaching opportunities and tournaments would all be a four-hour drive away.\n\nNone of the Americans I spoke to have bought tickets to the World Cup. Long distances and record-high prices without ticket-touting restrictions have made it an incredibly inaccessible tournament. Don’s group of friends plan to fly to the UK for the 2028 Euros instead. “The World Cup might as well not be at home,” Don said. \n\nAmericans turn to soccer because the rampant capitalism of US sports has, at times, precluded that closeness and community. In 2016, Stan Kroenke, Arsenal’s main shareholder, moved the NFL team the Rams from St Louis, where they had been based since 1995, to Los Angeles, a four-hour plane ride away.\n\nLet us imagine, for a moment, if Arsenal moved to Cornwall. It would not just be a relocation, but also an ontological severance. Arsenal would no longer be Arsenal by any meaningful standard. Football is not about profit, or pop music, or network ratings. It’s only partly about what happens on the pitch. The rest is something we already understand – home or away.\n\n[Further reading: Staying up for Scotland]","summary":"American fans, and American money, are taking over the game","url":"https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/sport/2026/06/the-yankification-of-english-football-2","image":"https://dl6pgk4f88hky.cloudfront.net/2026/06/20/gettyimages-2280596579.jpg","video":null,"publish_date":"2026-06-20 05:00:00","author":"Lauren Sneade","authors":["Lauren Sneade"],"language":"en","category":"sports","source_country":"gb","sentiment":0.003,"sourceName":"Newstatesman"},{"id":443315676,"title":"World Cup Breakfast: Miguel Almiron becomes first player ever sent off for speaking behind his hand, Emma Hayes' ITV blackboard is 'upgraded', match highlights - and what to look out for today","text":"World Cup Breakfast: Miguel Almiron becomes first player ever sent off for speaking behind his hand, Emma Hayes' ITV blackboard is 'upgraded', match highlights - and what to look out for today\n\nHave you paid attention to the action so far? Try our World Cup quiz HERE \n\nSee more Daily Mail on Google - save us as a Preferred Source\n\nBy LIAM MORGAN, ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR and WILL GRIFFEE\n\nPublished: 07:00 BST, 20 June 2026 | Updated: 07:44 BST, 20 June 2026\n\nHello and welcome to Daily Mail Sport's World Cup Breakfast from day nine at the tournament - your one-stop shop for everything you've missed overnight in North America.\n\nFor all the latest news, viral moments and what to look out for, stay right here.\n\nOVERNIGHT ACTION\n\nThis is what happened while you were asleep...\n\nUSA 2-0 Australia (Group D)\n\nThe USMNT are living the American dream at their home tournament as they booked their place in the knockout stage with a convincing win over the Socceroos.\n\nThousands of US fans turned the Seattle Stadium into a party and their players gave them plenty to celebrate as they took a giant step towards topping the group.\n\nThe roof had already come off when Cameron Burgess inadvertently turned the ball into his own net to give the US the lead just 11 minutes in.\n\nAlex Freeman scored the second goal for the US as they booked their place in the knockouts\n\nMauricio Pochettino's men, who opened their campaign by beating Paraguay 4-1, added a second before the break thanks to Alex Freeman. The goal was initially ruled offside before VAR intervened and replays showed he was onside, sparking delirium inside an already raucous stadium.\n\nA late melee was the highlight of a feisty second half with Australia unable to get back into the match. The result means the US will win the group if Turkey fail to beat Paraguay, sending them to Santa Clara to face a third-placed team in the last 32, while the Aussies can still join them despite the defeat.\n\nA word, too, for Pochettino's outfit, which saw fans draw comparisons to Hollywood superstar Russell Crowe. The US manager will be hoping his side continue to play like Gladiators after reaching the last 32 with a match to spare.\n\nRead DANIEL MATTHEWS' REPORT HERE.\n\nScotland 0-1 Morocco (Group C)\n\nSocial media was again awash with pictures of giddy Scots queuing up for bars and continuing to drink Boston dry before they took on the impressive African side.\n\nSadly it took just 70 seconds for Morocco to spoil the Scottish party as Ismael Saibari fired home a superb strike after capitalising on a defensive error.\n\nIt was a largely attritional affair after that early blow but Steve Clarke's men finally upped the ante in the second half, twice having legitimate penalty shouts waved away by the officials on the pitch and in the VAR box many miles away.\n\nScott McTominay also went close late on but it wasn't to be for the Scots, who failed to match the energy from their thousands of fans who have travelled Stateside to support them. They also couldn't channel their inner Pep Guardiola, spotted by the TV cameras in the posh seats in Foxborough.\n\nClarke's team will still harbour hopes of reaching the last 32 despite facing Brazil in their final game, while Morocco - who were wasteful here and should have won more comfortably - are well placed to progress. A fascinating final day awaits in one of the most intriguing groups in the tournament.\n\nREAD IAN LADYMAN'S REPORT HERE. \n\nIsmael Saibari's strike just 71 seconds into the match proved enough to beat Scotland\n\nBrazil 3-0 Haiti (Group C)\n\nManchester United forward Matheus Cunha scored twice as Brazil moved top of World Cup Group C with a 3-0 win over Haiti.\n\nVinicius Junior netted the third, with all of the goals coming in a first half during which Brazil looked markedly improved from their insipid opening draw against Morocco.\n\nThe result ensures Haiti, who lost to Scotland 1-0 in their first game, can no longer reach the knockout phase.\n\nBrazil ran riot in the first half, helped by some generous defending from the Caribbean side, whose high line gave Cunha, Raphinha and Vinicius plenty of opportunities to run in behind.\n\nAn excellent start for the five-time winners was tarnished somewhat as Raphinha went off before half-time with what looked to be a hamstring injury, with Bournemouth teenager Rayan replacing him. \n\nREAD OLIVER HOLT'S REPORT HERE \n\nBrazil and Man United star Matheus Cunha celebrates scoring against Haiti in the 3-0 win \n\nTurkey 0-1 Paraguay (Group D) \n\nMiguel Almiron became the first player to be sent off for covering his mouth during an altercation with an opponent, but Paraguay clung on for a 1-0 World Cup win over Turkey.\n\nThe former Newcastle player was dismissed following a VAR review in first-half stoppage time. Almiron had covered his mouth while speaking to Turkey’s Baris Yilmaz.\n\nMatias Galarza gave Paraguay a second-minute lead as he collected a pass from Julio Enciso and fired a low effort into the bottom corner from 20 yards.\n\nWith both sides having lost their opening game, there was plenty at stake at the San Francisco Bay Area Stadium and the tension soon led to a fiery encounter. \n\nGiven their numerical advantage it was no surprise that Turkey dominated the second half.\n\nNeeding a goal to maintain any chance of progressing, Turkey became increasingly desperate as Gill denied Uzun and Deniz Gul put the rebound off target. Merih Demiral headed a stoppage-time effort wide as defeat saw Turkey eliminated. \n\nMiguel Almiron is consoled by team-mates after being sent off for speaking behind his hand\n\nVIEW FROM THE GROUND - IAN HERBERT\n\nOne of the tented fanzones in Houston was a place of many colours as USA played Australia. Sweden, Argentina, Netherlands, Colombia and France shirts were all present. It was not a tide of USA. A World Cup merchandise seller inside the place said he'd sold as many Dutch T-shirts as USA. (The Dutch play the Swedes here on Saturday.) \n\nNeither was the USA match the sole preoccupation in the FIFA fanzone. As the first half played out, many were queuing for a skills game pitching players against a virtual David Beckham. Yet more waited in line to visit a replica of Houston's NASA Space Station. \n\nThere were plenty of different team colours on show in the Houston fanzone on Friday\n\nHouston is proud to be a host city, but attention quickly turned to the Houston Astros' evening baseball match against Cleveland Astros, half a mile down the road. Not exactly football as we know it. Baseball and NFL vie for top spot in this sport mad city, with basketball third. Soccer sits somewhere alongside ice hockey. The USA will need to go all the way to the final if Houston is ever to call itself a soccer city.\n\nTEAM OF THE DAY \n\nPICTURE OF THE DAY\n\nNot much went Scotland's way during their meeting with Morocco in Boston, the European nation's adopted home at the World Cup.\n\nAs well as having two penalty claims rejected by referee Ilgiz Tantashev, Lewis Ferguson was also left baffled that he was not given a free-kick after being bundled to the floor by Ayyoub Bouaddi as they went in search of an equaliser.\n\nThe challenge did, however, provide the sublime picture below. Hats off to the photographer who took this one. \n\nLewis Ferguson was bundled to the floor by Ayyoub Bouaddi but the referee took no action\n\nVIRAL MOMENT OF THE DAY \n\nITV pundit Emma Hayes has had her chalkboard corner of the studio upgraded after the broadcaster was accused of making it look like 'a small kitchen'. \n\nViewers had also questioned why the USA women's boss, who won a record 15 trophies with Chelsea, was given a 'lame' small chalkboard instead of a digital touchscreen.\n\nOne TV insider called the setup 'hugely embarrassing' and questioned whether male pundits such as Gary Neville would be put in the same situation.\n\nThe ill-judged set led to a series of mean memes where Emma's noughts and crosses were replaced with a shopping list.\n\nOthers used AI to add a sink, tap, piles of washing up, tea towels and even an ironing board, dressing her in a pinny.\n\nAnd ITV have taken note, giving Hayes an upgraded board with magnetic pieces to move around rather than the chalkboard. \n\nDuring her analysis of Brazil vs Haiti, she alluded to the controversy surrounding her tactics corner. \n\nShe said: 'Let's focus on the first half in particular.'\n\nHayes, 49, then turned around and looked directly down the camera lens, saying: 'I know that's a challenge for some of us at home.'\n\nEmma Hayes' Hydration Break Analysis pic.twitter.com/QHHJPOBCbQ\n— ITV Football (@itvfootball) June 20, 2026\n\nEmma Hayes' chalkboard was given an upgrade in the ITV studio on Friday night \n\nCELEBRITY WATCH\n\nUnsurprisingly, a host of American celebrities and stars desperate to sample World Cup fever descended on Seattle for their nation's encounter with Australia.\n\nThis included Paris Hilton, who not only posed for pictures with mascots and fans but also led the crowd in a rendition of the 'U-S-A' chant that has been reverberating around this tournament.\n\nParis Hilton led the American crowd in a rendition of the 'U-S-A-' chant before the Australia clash\n\nHilton, 40, was among the host of American stars and celebrities in attendance in Seattle\n\nSTATS OF THE DAY\n\nAn unwanted record is on track to be broken at this year's tournament. Cameron Burgess' own goal in Australia's defeat by the US was already the seventh of the competition so far. The highest is 12, set at the 2018 World Cup in Russia.\n\nBrazil then fielded their oldest team at a World Cup since the 1962 final against Czechoslovakia. Carlo Ancelotti's charges had an average age of 30 years and 190 days for the match against Haiti. \n\nFIFA also revealed on Friday that the 1,000th World Cup match in history will be played at the event in North America. The honour falls to Tunisia and Japan, who meet in Group F on Saturday.\n\nTHREE THINGS TO LOOK OUT FOR TODAY \n\n1.Alexander Isak vs Virgil van Dijk \n\nSweden hammered Tunisia with a freewheeling 5-1 victory in their first group game that led to the opposition manager being sacked. \n\nGraham Potter's side could be great value this tournament with the attack spearheaded by their Premier League stars. \n\nAlexander Isak is looking back to somewhere near his sharpest form after a disappointing and disjointed season with Liverpool. \n\nRather than the World Cup being a hinderance to pre-season, Liverpool fans will surely just be pleased that Isak is getting game time and ideally returning to Merseyside in much better shape than last year when he arrived after a summer of going on strike. \n\nWith Mo Salah gone and Liverpool's attacking unit still needing further signings, the burden will fall on their record signing to come up trumps next term. \n\nIt will be fascinating to see how he fares against his club team-mate Virgil van Dijk, who he has found some success against in the past during his time at Newcastle. \n\n2. Diomande's shifting price tag\n\nThere will be more Liverpool interest in the second game of the day when Germany take on Ivory Coast. \n\nTheir major target of the summer, Yan Diomande, is the star for the Ivorians and RB Leipzig won't mind at all if he lights up the world stage against top opposition. \n\nLiverpool have already had an £86million bid for the 19-year-old sensation rejected and are set to return with an improved offer. \n\nNo doubt Michael Edwards and Co would be up for Diomande having a quieter game as the selling club look to drum up a bidding war, with PSG also interested in the winger. \n\nYan Diomande is Liverpool's main transfer target this summer and a bid has been rejected \n\n3. Tunisia to be 'the worst side'? \n\nAnyone who drew Tunisia in the pre-World Cup sweepstakes might be quite pleased if there's a 'worst team' category. \n\nThe hammering by Sweden has made them early contenders along with Curacao for the dubious honour. \n\nSabri Lamouchi was sacked and replaced by Herve Renard, who should in theory make them much more defensively solid. \n\nRenard famously steered Saudi Arabia to a shock group-stage win over eventual champions Argentina in Qatar four years ago. \n\nBut if he fails to avoid a heavy defeat by Japan, Tunisia's campaign will be over already and those sweepstake owners could cash in. \n\nTODAY'S GAMES \n\nNetherlands vs Sweden (6pm, Houston, BBC)\n\nGraham Potter's free-scoring Swedes possess one of the strongest attacks at the tournament, demonstrated ruthlessly by the 5-1 dismantling of Tunisia earlier this week.\n\nBut Viktor Gyokeres and Isak will face a much sterner test when they take on a Dutch team known more for its defensive solidity than its attacking prowess. \n\nVan Dijk and Co were left disappointed as they twice led Japan before having to settle for a draw and Ronald Koeman's men will need to be much sharper at both ends if they are to pick up their first win of the tournament.\n\nSweden will qualify for the last 32 with a victory, while a draw will do little for the Dutch.\n\nPrediction: Draw \n\nSweden's attack were deadly in thrashing Tunisia in their opening match and face the Netherlands hoping to book their place in the next round\n\nGermany vs Ivory Coast (9pm, Toronto, ITV)\n\nThe build-up to this Group E encounter has been dominated by controversy surrounding Ivory Coast's Elye Wahi, who was initially barred from entering Canada before a late U-turn.\n\nWahi, who played just under an hour of the win over Ecuador, is the subject of an investigation into alleged spot-fixing after being booked when playing for Nice against Metz on May 17. It is claimed an 'unusual amount of bets' were placed on the player receiving a yellow card.\n\nThe 23-year-old was reportedly arrested less than two weeks before the World Cup began and Ivory Coast manager Emerse Fae has a decision to make on whether he plays against Germany, one of the favourites to lift the trophy on July 19.\n\nPrediction: Germany win \n\nIt is not clear whether Elye Wahi will feature for Ivory Coast against Germany on Friday\n\nEcuador vs Curacao (1am, Kansas City, BBC)\n\nA familiar problem, namely troubles in front of goal, cost the South Americans dearly in their opener against Ivory Coast and defeat by the competition's minnows could spell the end of their tournament, with Germany to play in their final Group E game.\n\nEcuador qualified second behind Argentina in the CONMEBOL region but their path was built largely on defensive solidity, scoring just 14 goals. They did everything but find the net in their loss to the African side, hitting the crossbar twice and the post once before Amad Diallo stole the points with a stoppage-time winner.\n\nBut Ecuador will fancy their chances of racking up a few against Curacao, who enjoyed only a fleeting moment of joy when they equalised against Germany before being thrashed 7-1.\n\nPrediction: Ecuador win \n\nTunisia vs Japan (5am, Monterrey, BBC)\n\nOne for the World Cup purists in the UK, given the kick-off time, and a real opportunity for Japan to cement their status as a dark horse by taking a giant step towards the round of 32.\n\nJapan were dogged in their draw with the Dutch and showed they can cope without the absent Kaoru Mitoma and Wataru Endo, who are missing because of injury.\n\nTunisia will have to be much, much better if they are to avoid another defeat after being comfortably swept aside by a rampant Sweden in their opening game. \n\nPrediction: Japan win \nHave you paid attention to the action so far? Try our World Cup quiz HERE \n\nTurkeyWorld Cup 2026Brazil\n\nShare or comment on this article:\nWorld Cup Breakfast: Miguel Almiron becomes first player ever sent off for speaking behind his hand, Emma Hayes' ITV blackboard is 'upgraded', match highlights - and what to look out for today\n\nAdd comment","summary":"Hello and welcome to Daily Mail Sport's World Cup Breakfast from day nine at the tournament - your one-stop shop for everything you've missed overnight in North America.","url":"https://www.dailymail.com/sport/football/article-15888529/World-Cup-Breakfast-Miguel-Almiron-Paraguay-red-Turkey-Emma-Hayes.html","image":"https://i.dailymail.com/1s/2026/06/20/06/109483741-0-image-m-45_1781933173322.jpg","video":null,"publish_date":"2026-06-20 06:44:20","author":"Editor,Liam Morgan,Will Griffee","authors":["Editor","Liam Morgan","Will Griffee"],"language":"en","source_country":"gb","sentiment":0.177,"sourceName":"Dailymail"},{"id":443294346,"title":"HLs: Lynx get close win against Valkyries","text":"Skip navigation\n\nSearch Query\n\nSubmit Search\n\nPremier League\n\nCollege Football \n\nMen’s College Basketball\n\nHorse Racing\n\nMabrey scores career-high 37 points, ties single-game 3-point record as Tempo rally past Sun 101-97\n\nAssociated Press,\n\nAssociated Press,\n\nKiki Iriafen’s late layup lifts the Mystics past New York 86-83, snapping the Liberty’s streak\n\nAssociated Press,\n\nAssociated Press,\n\nU.S. Open Round 3 tee times: Full Saturday pairings, featured groups and how to watch\n\nPatricia Duffy,\n\nPatricia Duffy,\n\nHLs: Mystics, Iriafen snap Liberty’s win streak\n\nHighlights: Truck Series Navy 250\n\nShackell dominates 200m butterfly in Indy on Day 2\n\nTrending Teams\n\nWashington Commanders\n\nSt. Louis Cardinals\n\nNew York Yankees\n\nPro Football Talk\n\nNFL Player News\n\nFantasy Football\n\nSunday Night Football\n\nMatthew Berry\n\nChris Simms Unbuttoned\n\nNFL Betting\n\nHighlights and Clips\n\nNBA Player News\n\nNBA 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If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, please call 1-800-GAMBLER.\nⒸ 2024 NBC Universal\n\nAdd favorite players, teams, and leagues with an NBCUniversal Profile","url":"https://www.nbcsports.com/watch/wnba/highlights-minnesota-lynx-grab-close-win-against-golden-state-valkyries","image":"https://nbcsports.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/f45fa59/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1920x1080+0+0/resize/1440x810!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fhdliveextra-a.akamaihd.net%2FHD%2Fimage_sports%2FNBCU_Sports_Group_-_nbcsports%2F255%2F239%2Fnbc_wnba_lynxval","video":null,"publish_date":"2026-06-20 04:20:14","author":null,"language":"en","source_country":"us","sentiment":0.535,"sourceName":"Nbcsports"},{"id":443291224,"title":"Highlights: Truck Series Navy 250","text":"Skip navigation\n\nSearch Query\n\nSubmit Search\n\nPremier League\n\nCollege Football \n\nMen’s College Basketball\n\nHorse Racing\n\nMabrey scores career-high 37 points, ties single-game 3-point record as Tempo rally past Sun 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If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, please call 1-800-GAMBLER.\nⒸ 2024 NBC Universal\n\nAdd favorite players, teams, and leagues with an NBCUniversal Profile","url":"https://www.nbcsports.com/watch/nascar/nascar-truck-series-2026-highlights-navy-250at-naval-base-coronado","image":"https://nbcsports.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/8ba272d/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1920x1080+0+0/resize/1440x810!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fhdliveextra-a.akamaihd.net%2FHD%2Fimage_sports%2FNBCU_Sports_Group_-_nbcsports%2F244%2F1003%2Fnbc_nas_trucksa","video":null,"publish_date":"2026-06-20 02:55:08","author":null,"language":"en","source_country":"us","sentiment":0.661,"sourceName":"Nbcsports"},{"id":443289072,"title":"World Cup bust: Cities across the US are left with empty hotel rooms as tourism boom fails to materialize","text":"World Cup bust: Cities across the US are left with empty hotel rooms as tourism boom fails to materialize\n\nREAD MORE: The 2026 World Cup will be the biggest gambling event in history\n\nSee more Daily Mail on Google - save us as a Preferred Source\n\nBy SARA MCGIFF, US REAL ESTATE & CONSUMER REPORTER\n\nUpdated: 22:26 BST, 19 June 2026\n\nSan Francisco is ground zero for the World Cup's tourism bust across the United States.\n\nFIFA initially reserved large blocks of hotel rooms in host cities, but later cancelled 75 percent of the bookings in several markets months before the start of the highly anticipated tournament.\n\nToday, San Francisco is absorbing the fallout, as hotel rooms sit empty and rates remain flat despite boasts by the city's travel industry leaders that the event would deliver a major economic boost, much like the 2026 NFL Super Bowl.\n\nOn Super Bowl weekend, the city demonstrated its hospitality chops by profiting handsomely despite the game being played 43 miles away from Santa Clara's Levi Stadium.\n\nThe average room rate across the city's 31,000 hotel rooms surged higher to $394 a night for two-star hotels, $582 for three-star properties and $1,259 for four-star and above, according to Sports Management Research Institute data.\n\nBut unlike the Super Bowl, the World Cup's booking impact has so far appeared more uneven. \n\nA similar trend is playing out nationwide: An American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) report found that bookings are running well below expectations in almost every US World Cup host city.\n\nThe group said the trend does not align with FIFA's claim that more than five million tickets have been sold, warning that the 'anticipated economic lift may fall short.'\n\nSan Francisco has become a shining example of the World Cup's tourism bust for hotels across the United States\n\nThe Golden Gate City is feeling the repercussions, with hotel rooms undersold and rates flat despite expectations the World Cup would replicate the Super Bowl's economic boost\n\nSan Francisco's hotels showed they could cash in on major sporting events during February's Super Bowl weekend, when average nightly rates climbed to $394 for two-star hotels, $582 for three-star properties and $1,259 for four-star and above despite the city sitting 43 miles from Levi's Stadium\n\nOne person has died after a train crashed into another\n\n5.6k viewing now\n\nOur ultimate guide to the best barbecue food and drink\n\n43.6k viewing now\n\nThe four mistakes that led to bungee tragedy on Skeleton Bridge\n\n5.2k viewing now\n\nThe AHLA - the largest hotel association in the US representing more than 32,000 properties - said FIFA may have contributed to the shortfall by block-booking large numbers of rooms for its own use, effectively creating artificial demand.\n\nThe move initially pushed prices higher, but after FIFA later released a significant portion of those rooms it left a 'vacuum of availability' that has weighed on the market.\n\nA study commissioned by FIFA and released last year predicted the World Cup could create 185,000 jobs in the US and add $17.2 billion to GDP.\n\nHotels had been preparing for an influx of international visitors, who typically book longer stays and spend more per trip.\n\nBut AHLA warned that fewer overseas fans visiting the US 'threatens the broader economic impact.'\n\nAccording to the report, FIFA's large-scale room blocks across host cities 'shaped revenue forecasts, staffing plans and preparations,' and 'manufactured artificial demand' that masked weaker-than-expected tourism flows.\n\nThe AHLA also said up to 70 percent of rooms reserved by FIFA in cities including Boston, Dallas, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Seattle have now been cancelled.\n\nIn Los Angeles, around 70 percent of the city's hotels reported bookings below expectations ahead of the World Cup, LAist reported. \n\nLos Angeles is facing a similar challenge, with up to 70 percent of hotels reporting bookings below expectations ahead of the World Cup\n\nA FIFA-commissioned study projected the World Cup would generate 185,000 US jobs and add $17.2 billion to the economy, but the American Hotel & Lodging Association warned that weaker-than-expected international tourism threatens those gains\n\nAtlanta and Miami are the only host cities bucking the trend, with about half of hotels reporting bookings are in line with or ahead of expectations\n\nMiami led all host cities in hotel demand, with the World Cup building on its already strong leisure tourism\n\nBrawl breaks out in Times Square between World Cup fans\n\nProgress: 0%\n\nCurrent Time 0:00\n\nDuration Time 1:00\n\nVideo Quality\n\n---WhiteBlackRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyan---OpaqueSemi-Opaque\n\n---WhiteBlackRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyan---OpaqueSemi-TransparentTransparent\n\n---WhiteBlackRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyan---OpaqueSemi-TransparentTransparent\n\n50%75%100%125%150%175%200%300%400%\n\nNoneRaisedDepressedUniformDropshadow\n\nDefaultMonospace SerifProportional SerifMonospace Sans-SerifProportional Sans-SerifCasualScriptSmall Caps\n\nWorld Cup sparks global fury as US ticketing tricks banned at previous tournaments make it the priciest sports event EVER\n\nThe CEO of the Hotel Association of Los Angeles, Jackie Filla, told the outlet that LA hotels struck an agreement with FIFA to commit to having enough rooms to meet the expected demand through a room block agreement, but that those rooms are now sitting empty.\n\nFilla also noted that bookings are unexpectedly low behind their usual summer numbers, adding that it could be due to the mega-event deterring travel to the city.\n\nTwo cities bucking the trend are Atlanta and Miami, where hotels say bookings are 'in line with or ahead of expectations.'\n\nMiami had the strongest demand, with the World Cup building on leisure demand, the AHLA report found.\n\nAfter matches were announced in December, hotel operators in San Francisco were cautious about the World Cup's economic impact, according to Alex Bastian, president and CEO of the Hotel Council of San Francisco, in comments to SFGATE.\n\nHe said the Bay Area was not assigned 'first-place seed teams' with large traveling fan bases, limiting expected demand.\n\nBastian added that a matchup featuring a country like Brazil would likely have driven stronger hotel bookings.\n\nBrazil, along with Colombia and Portugal, is instead playing in Miami, which is also hosting a quarter-final and third-place match.\n\nMichael Stathokostopoulos, senior director of hospitality analytics at CoStar Group, told SFGATE that marquee European teams such as Germany, Italy or Spain would also have boosted demand in San Francisco. \n\nItaly failed to qualify, while Germany is playing in Houston, Toronto and the New York City metro area, and Spain is playing in Atlanta and Mexico.\n\nLevi's Stadium will host a Round of 32 match on July 1, and Stathokostopoulos said later knockout games could draw stronger last-minute international demand depending on which teams advance.\n\nShare or comment on this article:\nWorld Cup bust: Cities across the US are left with empty hotel rooms as tourism boom fails to materialize\n\nAdd comment","summary":"They were promised a windfall of tourist spending, but World Cup host cities are seeing weaker-than-expected hotel bookings as international fans stay away.","url":"https://www.dailymail.com/yourmoney/article-15914105/world-cup-hotel-bust-san-francisco-miami.html","image":"https://i.dailymail.com/1s/2026/06/19/19/109475085-0-image-m-19_1781893100060.jpg","video":"https://video.dailymail.com/video/mol/2026/06/16/754203372048727917/1024x576_MP4_754203372048727917.mp4","publish_date":"2026-06-19 21:26:33","author":"Editor,Sara McGiff","authors":["Editor","Sara McGiff"],"language":"en","source_country":"gb","sentiment":-0.091,"sourceName":"Dailymail"},{"id":443288234,"title":"Awer Mabil is proud to represent Australia as one of team's refugees playing in the World Cup","text":"ALAMEDA, Calif. (AP) — Awer Mabil’s face quickly turned to pure joy. He beamed and fought his emotions, a reaction Australia’s veteran forward hardly could have seen coming.\n\nIt had nothing to do with a soccer result, either. But rather a reflection that took him back to his tumultuous youth as a refugee and how some good fortune landed him in Australia for a new start in life.\n\nMabil looked into the audience during his media conference after training Tuesday and discovered a familiar face in David Basheer, the longtime commentator on Australia’s SBS network who had just offered a question days ahead of the Socceroos’ World Cup matchup against the United States on Friday in Seattle.\n\n“I grew up watching you,” Mabil said, so taken aback that he asked Basheer to repeat himself.\n\nA touching moment, in this pressure-packed, every-four-years spectacle, and yet one more example of Mabil’s refreshing sincerity as one of the Aussies’ key faces at this World Cup, no matter how many minutes he plays.\n\nHe’s an ambassador from Down Under, to be sure.\n\nDifficult start to his life\n\nThe 30-year-old Mabil also represents the persistence it took to prevail and get this far, given his daunting path. He was born in Kakuma, Kenya, to South Sudanese parents who had escaped civil war, and he moved to Australia 20 years ago at age 10 through the country’s humanitarian resettlement program. He began playing organized soccer in Adelaide, South Australia state.\n\nIt’s fitting that Mabil is sharing his story during Refugee Week, with World Refugee Day on Saturday.\n\n“It’s a Refugee Week and it’s a week that I would like to say to anybody that is misplaced all over the world that we are with you,” he said. “And we are in a world stage right now, in a big tournament — and just to tell you everything is possible, so keep going.”\n\nMabil is making contributions in many ways. He took part in a video message about diversity ahead of the World Cup that went viral.\n\nThe message: “No matter where you come from, football is for everyone.”\n\n“It’s coincidence again that it’s Refugee Week in the World Cup and also at the same time you have many refugees in the team. And at the same time, when I reflect back, I’m like we all belong to this world together,” Mabil said. “And now we’re representing Australia.”\n\nHe considers himself a “big brother” to teammates Mo Touré and Nestory Irankunda, fellow refugees from Africa.\n\nA World Cup milestone\n\nThe 20-year-old Irankunda became the youngest player to score a World Cup goal for the Socceroos in a 2-0 win over Turkey on Saturday in Vancouver, British Columbia.\n\nThe Australians want to show how far the country has come at the World Cup level.\n\n“I hope we’re starting to gain a little bit more respect,” defender Alessandro Circati said. “I don’t want to be the underdogs for the rest of my life.”\n\nMabil will do his part to help the Socceroos build something special.\n\nHe played briefly as a substitute in two group-stage matches four years ago for the Aussies, then didn’t get on the field for the opener this year.\n\n“I’m proud of the boys,” he said. “A lot of the young boys now making the difference for the national team all come through Adelaide, and it’s a credit to the football community.”\n\nHe and his mates are loving the omelet bar and lining up for it at their team headquarters, the Claremont Resort and Club in nearby Berkeley. They are training at the former headquarters of the NFL’s Oakland Raiders.\n\n“Coming in as a senior player I think is more mental that you have to be present for the younger ones. Sometimes you want to slap them,” Mabil joked.\n\n“I’ll play my role to the best of my abilities to be available for the young ones and also the older ones because the older ones also they go through difficulties so they don’t have all the answers — nobody has all the answers. We just have to continue to be there for each other. In these kind of tournaments, it’s very important to remain united.”\n\nAP World Cup: https://apnews.com/fifa-world-cup","summary":"ALAMEDA, Calif. (AP) — Awer Mabil’s face quickly turned to pure joy. He beamed and fought his emotions, a reaction Australia's veteran forward hardly could have seen coming.","url":"https://www.thestar.com/sports/soccer/awer-mabil-is-proud-to-represent-australia-as-one-of-teams-refugees-playing-in-the-world-cup/article_1f49dd52-5c8f-5d5a-96af-7a748053caec.html","image":"https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/thestar.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/8/ba/8ba6aa6a-07b7-561e-9393-c23139ea3a9e/6a2c83ba8869c.image.jpg?crop=1620%2C851%2C0%2C114&resize=1200%2C630&order=crop%2Cresize","video":null,"publish_date":"2026-06-19 05:05:49","author":"Janie Mccauley The Associated Press","authors":["Janie Mccauley The Associated Press"],"language":"en","category":"politics","source_country":"ca","sentiment":0.677,"sourceName":"Thestar"},{"id":443286320,"title":"See it: Photos of the raucous World Cup atmosphere for USA-Australia","text":"US fans react after the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)\n\nUnited States fans celebrate on the stands at the end of the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)\n\nUnited States fans hold a sign on the stands at the end of the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)\n\nA US fan waits for the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)\n\nUS fans wait for the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)\n\nAustralia and United States fans pit their mascot kangaroo and eagle against each other outside the stadium before the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)\n\nA group of United States fans arrive outside the stadium before the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)\n\nNew York Giants quarterback Jameis Winston, greets United States fan outside Seattle Stadium before the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Maddy Grassy)\n\nParis Hilton stands on the pitch before the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)\n\nFormer Seattle Seahawks and NFL player Marshawn Lynch takes pictures during the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)\n\nAn Australian fan celebrates as fans march to match before the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Maddy Grassy)\n\nA United States arrives for the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Maddy Grassy)\n\nA young United States arrives for the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Maddy Grassy)\n\nAustralia fans march together to the stadium for the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)\n\nAn Australian fan celebrates as fans march to the match before the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Maddy Grassy)\n\nUnited States fans march to the match before the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Maddy Grassy)\n\nUnited States fans march to the match before the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Maddy Grassy)\n\nUnited States fans march to the match before the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Maddy Grassy)\n\nUnited States and Australia fans bump fists on their way to the stadium for the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)\n\nA US fan waits for the start of the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)\n\nUS fans wait for the start of the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)\n\nA US fan waits for the start of the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)\n\nA spectator waits for the start of the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)\n\nA U.S. fan cheers before the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)\n\nFans during the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)\n\nHelicopters fly over the stadium before the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Maddy Grassy)\n\nUS fans during the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)\n\nUnited States players stand during the national anthems before the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)\n\nHelicopters fly over before the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)\n\nSoccer fans during the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)\n\nUS fans during the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)\n\nUnited States fans on the stands during the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)\n\nUnited States fans hold signs on the stand during the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)\n\nA group of United States fans arrive outside the stadium before the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)\n\nA group of United States fans arrive outside the stadium before the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)\n\nUS players celebrate the opening goal of their team during the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)\n\nUnited States’ Folarin Balogun celebrates their first goal with the fans during the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)\n\nUnited States’ Folarin Balogun (20) and Antonee Robinson (5) celebrate after Australia’s Cameron Burgess scored an own goal during the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)\n\nUnited States head coach Mauricio Pochettino next to Australia’s Nishan Velupillay (23) during the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)\n\nUnited States’ Christian Pulisic (10) during the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)\n\nUnited States fans celebrate after the World Cup Group D soccer match between United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)\n\nUnited States’ Ricardo Pepi (9) and Australia’s Harry Souttar (19) fight for the ball during the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)\n\nAustralia’s Aiden O’Neill (13) appeals for offside after United States’ Alex Freeman (16) scored a goal past Australia goalkeeper Patrick Beach (18) during the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Maddy Grassy)","summary":"Celebrities and passionate fans filled the streets and stadium in Seattle.","url":"https://www.bostonherald.com/2026/06/19/photos-usmnt-vs-australia","image":"https://www.bostonherald.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/AP26170644672475-2.jpg?w=1024&h=683","video":null,"publish_date":"2026-06-19 19:56:44","author":"Staff And Wire Reports","authors":["Staff And Wire Reports"],"language":"en","category":"sports","source_country":"us","sentiment":0.501,"sourceName":"Bostonherald"},{"id":443284714,"title":"The U.S. was missing its World Cup star. It didn’t miss a beat.","text":"Missing its playmaking star, and facing an Australian team that had frustrated it only seven months earlier, the U.S. had all the elements for a World Cup letdown Friday. Instead, the U.S. won again, made more history (again) and became among the first teams to secure its place in the tournament’s knockout stage. No Christian Pulisic? No problem — for now. With Pulisic sidelined by a calf injury, Folarin Balogun replaced his role as a playmaker by running up the pitch’s left side and creating havoc for Australia and chances for his teammates. The 2-0 victory marks the first time the U.S. men have won successive World Cup games since 1930. The result left the U.S. scoreboard-watching as the team flew from Seattle back to its home base in Southern California: A win or draw by Paraguay against Turkey late Friday would ensure the U.S. would win its group, with one group-stage game against Turkey still to play next week. “We’re delighted,” Balogun said. For a second straight game, the U.S. won because of things it has lacked in previous World Cup runs, and even during the 20 previous months that coach Mauricio Pochettino spent as U.S. coach: confidence and tactics. After a dominating, 4-1 U.S. win over Paraguay to open the tournament last week, Paraguayan coach Gustavo Alfaro described a pentagon-shaped formation that U.S. players had regularly created in the midfield, a shape that gave the U.S. a level of tactical “complexity” that allowed it to counter any move Paraguay made, Alfaro said. One week later in Seattle, Pochettino’s game plan set out to create triangles. With Pulisic unavailable, Pochettino started two strikers up front in Balogun and Ricardo Pepi. Pepi, Antonee Robinson and Malik Tillman formed a triangle on one side of the field, with Balogun, Weston McKennie and Sergiño Dest aligned on the other side. The U.S. wanted to use it to move the ball quickly from one side of the field to the other, Pochettino said, “but feeling free to change, to move, to create all the dynamics ... I think that approach worked really well.” “It wasn’t a shock” to play up front with Pepi, Balogun said. “It wasn’t, you know, like a ‘plan B’ because (Pulisic) was out. It didn’t feel like that to me. It just felt like another solution to win the game.” Balogun’s pressure with the ball led to a breakdown of Australia’s defense in the first 10 minutes, and when he fired a shot into the goal box, Australian defender Cameron Burgess didn’t kick the ball cleanly and it deflected into the net for an own goal and 1-0 lead for the U.S. The scoring sequence looked strikingly similar to the own-goal Paraguay committed last week when its defense was flummoxed by the pressure Pulisic created in the opening minutes. The U.S. is now the first team in World Cup history to have an opponent score an own goal in consecutive matches. “I want to be dangerous, I want to create opportunities, and it might not always be myself that scores, but if I can force an error that gives us the lead, then for me it’s like a goal as well,” Balogun said. Yet even before that opening goal, Pochettino already felt the U.S. had “built the victory in our attitude” by trusting his game plan. In the lead-up to Friday’s kickoff, U.S. coaches had noticed Australia’s tendency not to kick “long balls,” but to use more intermediary passes. During the opening minute, Balogun and Pepi pressed Australia to play long kicks and operate out of its comfort zone. Meanwhile, with Pulisic watching from the dugout in Seattle’s Lumen Field, a new face stepped in to add scoring. Alex Freeman scored in the 43rd minute off a header — the first headed goal for the U.S. since 2014. Freeman, 21, is the third-youngest U.S. player to score in the World Cup. The son of former NFL wideout Antonio Freeman, Alex Freeman hadn’t represented the U.S. until 2025 and was playing in MLS as recently as January. To go from there, to being mobbed after his goal was upheld by video review Friday, was “hard for me to kind of take it all in,” he said. By the match’s end, fans in Seattle were chanting Pochettino’s name, which he received with a smile and a fist pump. There was no update on whether Pulisic will be available to play in the team’s group-stage finale against Turkey on Thursday at SoFi Stadium. “I saw that a team that really believe in what it is doing,” Pochettino said. “We need to be flexible, because the opponents are completely different. That capacity to adapt to the different demands of the opponent and the game, and also our demand, like our coaching staff planning different approach on the games, I think only I can say good fantastic things about my players, about the squad, about my players. There they were fantastic.”","url":"https://www.nbcnews.com/sports/soccer/us-was-missing-world-cup-star-didnt-miss-beat-rcna350943","image":"https://media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com/image/upload/t_fit-1500w,f_auto,q_auto:best/rockcms/2026-06/260619-poch-045-gr-71fc58.jpg","video":null,"publish_date":"2026-06-20 03:56:52","author":"Andrew Greif","authors":["Andrew Greif"],"language":"en","category":"sports","source_country":"us","sentiment":0.037,"sourceName":"Nbcnews"},{"id":443284562,"title":"See it: Photos of the raucous World Cup atmosphere for USA-Australia","text":"US fans react after the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)\n\nUnited States fans celebrate on the stands at the end of the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)\n\nUnited States fans hold a sign on the stands at the end of the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)\n\nA US fan waits for the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)\n\nUS fans wait for the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)\n\nAustralia and United States fans pit their mascot kangaroo and eagle against each other outside the stadium before the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)\n\nA group of United States fans arrive outside the stadium before the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)\n\nNew York Giants quarterback Jameis Winston, greets United States fan outside Seattle Stadium before the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Maddy Grassy)\n\nParis Hilton stands on the pitch before the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)\n\nFormer Seattle Seahawks and NFL player Marshawn Lynch takes pictures during the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)\n\nAn Australian fan celebrates as fans march to match before the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Maddy Grassy)\n\nA United States arrives for the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Maddy Grassy)\n\nA young United States arrives for the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Maddy Grassy)\n\nAustralia fans march together to the stadium for the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)\n\nAn Australian fan celebrates as fans march to the match before the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Maddy Grassy)\n\nUnited States fans march to the match before the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Maddy Grassy)\n\nUnited States fans march to the match before the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Maddy Grassy)\n\nUnited States fans march to the match before the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Maddy Grassy)\n\nUnited States and Australia fans bump fists on their way to the stadium for the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)\n\nA US fan waits for the start of the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)\n\nUS fans wait for the start of the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)\n\nA US fan waits for the start of the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)\n\nA spectator waits for the start of the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)\n\nA U.S. fan cheers before the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)\n\nFans during the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)\n\nHelicopters fly over the stadium before the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Maddy Grassy)\n\nUS fans during the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)\n\nUnited States players stand during the national anthems before the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)\n\nHelicopters fly over before the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)\n\nSoccer fans during the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)\n\nUS fans during the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)\n\nUnited States fans on the stands during the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)\n\nUnited States fans hold signs on the stand during the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)\n\nA group of United States fans arrive outside the stadium before the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)\n\nA group of United States fans arrive outside the stadium before the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)\n\nUS players celebrate the opening goal of their team during the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)\n\nUnited States’ Folarin Balogun celebrates their first goal with the fans during the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)\n\nUnited States’ Folarin Balogun (20) and Antonee Robinson (5) celebrate after Australia’s Cameron Burgess scored an own goal during the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)\n\nUnited States head coach Mauricio Pochettino next to Australia’s Nishan Velupillay (23) during the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)\n\nUnited States’ Christian Pulisic (10) during the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)\n\nUnited States fans celebrate after the World Cup Group D soccer match between United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)\n\nUnited States’ Ricardo Pepi (9) and Australia’s Harry Souttar (19) fight for the ball during the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)\n\nAustralia’s Aiden O’Neill (13) appeals for offside after United States’ Alex Freeman (16) scored a goal past Australia goalkeeper Patrick Beach (18) during the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Maddy Grassy)","summary":"Celebrities and passionate fans filled the streets and stadium in Seattle.","url":"https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2026/06/19/photos-usmnt-vs-australia","image":"https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/AP26170644672475-1.jpg?w=1024&h=683","video":null,"publish_date":"2026-06-19 19:56:44","author":"Staff And Wire Reports","authors":["Staff And Wire Reports"],"language":"en","category":"sports","source_country":"us","sentiment":0.501,"sourceName":"Sandiegouniontribune"}],"QuotaRequest":"1.1","QuotaUsed":"1.1","QuotaLeft":"48.9","QuotaKeyId":0,"retryCount":0}}