Not once, not twice, but thrice. France winger Ousmane Dembélé scored three goals in the first half of its World Cup match against Norway on Friday, putting the Paris Saint-Germain star firmly in the mix for the Golden Boot race for the tournament’s top-goal scorer. All of Dembélé’s goals came in the first 32 minutes…
In one of the most defensive games so far at the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Australia and Paraguay played to a 0-0 draw at San Francisco Bay Area Stadium on Thursday night. While winning would have been a positive, neither team wanted to risk comprising its defense formations to squander a result. With each team…
LOS ANGELES STADIUM — So much for a perfect group stage. After winning its first two games at the 2026 FIFA World Cup, the U.S. men’s national team finished the first round with a 3-2 defeat to already eliminated Türkiye on Thursday on literally the last kick of the ball. With the USA having already clinched…
Japan came to Dallas needing a point and left with a place in the Round of 32 — and the quiet satisfaction of a prediction starting to materialize. I wrote about Japan being dark horses before a ball was kicked. Three games in, nobody’s laughing. Sweden got the draw they needed too, courtesy of a…
Germany still tops the group. Ecuador finally found its finishing touch. And the New York New Jersey Stadium pitch found new critics. Germany lost, and it cost them nothing. Ecuador won, rescuing their World Cup dreams. On a hot Thursday afternoon at the New York New Jersey Stadium, Ecuador came from behind to stun a strong…
For the first time in its history, South Africa is through to the knockout stage of the World Cup after it pulled off a 1-0 upset win over South Korea. Few would have given Bafana Bafana much of a chance after its opening-day loss, but the team showed steady under head coach Hugo Broos and…
Javier Aguirre has been saying for a while now that the key to the Mexican team’s success at the World Cup is that they are a family. This family, it seems, is on a historic journey. Mateo Chavez and Julian Quinones scored in a six-minute span early in the second half, and Mexico beat the…
This wasn’t just a win. It was a festival. How else could you describe the incredible scenes we saw tonight in Mexico City? A vibrant, feel-good, extremely joyous party was on display as Mexican fans, already comfortable with the fact that their national team had already topped Group A and made it to the Round…
Morocco spent a half being outplayed by a team that arrived with nothing to lose, then snapped back to reality. A rotated and rusty Atlas Lions side trailed Haiti twice in Atlanta before quality — and a lively bench — turned it into a 4-2 win. Here are my takeaways from Morocco’s comeback over Haiti:…
The final whistle brought disappointment, but it also delivered history. Despite a 2-1 loss to Switzerland on Wednesday afternoon, Canada, under coach Jesse Marsch, secured its first-ever trip to the FIFA World Cup knockout stage. Marsch has transformed Canada from a nation primarily known for hockey into a team that believes in itself. That belief…
