The US men’s national team have already made history this summer. They scored the most goals they ever have in a single World Cup game, won two straight games in the tournament for the first time in the modern era, and wrapped up top spot in an evenly-matched Group D with a game to spare.On Thursday evening they faced a far more familiar foe: World Cup adversity. And in the key moments – the kind of spots where knockout games are won and lost – they wilted. Kaan Ayhan’s goal with the last kick of the game sealed a 3-2 win for Turkey, giving their disastrous tournament a positive ending. It also means the Americans go into last 32 – where they will play Bosnia and Herzegovina – with fresh questions. Continue reading...

⚽️ Kick-off time: 7pm local/10pm EDT/3pm BST/12pm AEST⚽️ Third-place table | Player guide | Tables | And mail Beau⚽️ Follow live coverage of Paraguay v Australia as it happensAlso seeking a spot in the knockout rounds …… is our referee, Mustapha Ghorbal. He and fellow Algerians Mokrane Gourari and Abbes Akram Zerhouni are the on-field crew. Continue reading...

⚽ All the latest news from day 10 of the tournament⚽ Player guide | Bracketology | Golden Boot | Mail usComments won’t be on until a little bit later – sorry about that – but in the meantime don’t forget you can email us to share your thoughts.“I think I need a statue in Curaçao now,” said Eloy Room after keeping Ecuador at bay and earning his country’s first World Cup point – his clean sheet particularly significant after that 7-1 hammering by Germany in the first game. The Miami FC goalkeeper was just one off Tim Howard’s record of 16 saves (for USA v Belgium in 2014) in a World Cup match.It’s going to be an insane memory. You don’t think about it ​when you do it but of course it’s going to be something you look back to. For me as a goalkeeper, this is almost a perfect game. It’s unbelievable. And I cannot do it alone. I did it with the team and my defenders and the midfielders, strikers. We did it as a ⁠team. Continue reading...

In 2010 and 2022, the US faced heightened emotions from the lead-in to the tournament itself. As hosts next year, little will change The draw is done. The schedule is set. For the US men’s national team, all that’s left, aside from playing the games, are the emotional highs and lows. After the draw, US head coach Mauricio Pochettino referenced a “competitive stress” factor triggered by the World Cup. He said the friendlies against Belgium and Portugal in March are intended to simulate that stress so that it doesn’t surprise his players when the spotlight of the World Cup arrives. With the margins always thin at a World Cup, earning results that mitigate that pressure could prove to be the difference between the USMNT crashing out just when they capture the undivided attention of the nation, or enduring and soaring to a best-ever finish. Continue reading...

Glitzy draws, OJ-era chaos, grass laid over AstroTurf and a host nation that barely cared – the 1994 World Cup arrived amid suspicion and slapstick. Yet it became a watershed that would alter US sport and global football politics alike “The United States was chosen,” the columnist George Vecsey wrote in the New York Times in 1994, “because of all the money to be made here, not because of any soccer prowess. Our country has been rented as a giant stadium and hotel and television studio.” Nobody could seriously doubt that. The USA had played in only two World Cups since the second world war and hadn’t had a national professional league for a decade. And that meant there was a great deal of skepticism from outsiders, even after Fifa made it clear there would be no wacky law changes to try to appeal to the domestic audience: Would anybody actually turn up to watch? But there was also hostility in the United States. A piece in USA Today on the day of the draw told Americans they were right not to care about the World Cup, what it sneeringly described as the biggest sport in “Cameroon, Uruguay and Madagascar”. “Hating soccer,” wrote the columnist Tom Weir, “is more American than mom’s apple pie, driving a pickup or spending Saturday afternoon channel surfing with the remote control.” Excerpted from The Power And The Glory by Jonathan Wilson, copyright © 2025 by Jonathan Wilson. Used with permission of Bold Type Books, an imprint of Basic Books Group, a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc. Continue reading...

World Cup draw 2026: live reaction Turkey, Romania Slovakia or Kosovo is other opponent Co-hosts begin their campaign on 12 June in LA A full 1,098 days since exiting the 2022 men’s World Cup with a loss to the Netherlands in the heat of Qatar, and 189 days until they open the 2026 World Cup in the midsummer heat of Los Angeles, the US men’s national team found out who they’ll face next in the world’s most popular sporting event on a cold, snowy day in Washington DC. Games against Australia, Paraguay, and one of Turkey, Romania, Slovakia and Kosovo will await the US in the 2026 World Cup, which they will co-host with Mexico and Canada, after the draw for the competition at the Kennedy Center on Friday. The United States’ opening game in the competition is set for 12 June in Los Angeles, with subsequent group games in Seattle on 19 June and in Los Angeles again on 25 June. Fifa will announce the order of opponents and the kickoff times for those games on Saturday at 5pm ET. Continue reading...

Sport and Rights Alliance has made seven requests for action Amnesty International USA also worried by US government’s role Fifa risks becoming “a public relations tool of an increasingly authoritarian US government,” human rights organisations have warned as they call on football’s international governing body to do more to protect the rights of residents and supporters at next summer’s World Cup. With concerns rising over the possibility of local communities and travelling fans being subjected to immigration raids or arbitrary detention during the tournament, the Sport and Rights Alliance has made seven requests for action from Fifa before Friday’s World Cup draw in Washington. The key demand is that Fifa “commit to ensuring effective protections against racial profiling, arbitrary detention, and unlawful immigration enforcement during the tournament”. Continue reading...

The US coach took charge of a team in flux and initially looked like he would feed that uncertainty. But his foundations are starting to look solid Tell us: have you bought tickets for the 2026 World Cup yet? The symbolism felt a tad heavy-handed, as if a scriptwriter had slightly overcooked the plot. That the United States men’s national team should utterly humiliate Uruguay 5-1 ,the very opponent who dumped the Americans out of the 2024 Copa América in the group stage on their home soil, precipitating an all-out crisis. That the first of the USMNT’s goals on Tuesday, and the assist for the second, should come from Sebastian Berhalter, whose father, Gregg, was fired as US head coach after said Copa. That Berhalter’s successor, Mauricio Pochettino, should reclaim the program’s honor against his mentor, his “second father”, his “football father”, his “inspiration”, Marcelo Bielsa. Leander Schaerlaeckens’ book on the United States men’s national soccer team, The Long Game, is out in the spring of 2026. You can preorder it here. He teaches at Marist University. Continue reading...

The Borussia Mönchengladbach midfielder returns to the national team for the first time since March as injuries and recoveries rule out regulars Gio Reyna and Joe Scally will make their US men’s national team returns in the upcoming international window, while Christian Pulisic is among several regulars set to miss out, with the Milan midfielder having just recovered from an injury suffered during his most recent time with the national team. Reyna and Scally, both of Borussia Mönchengladbach, are among a 25-player squad named by manager Mauricio Pochettino for two friendlies: against Paraguay on 15 November at Subaru Park in Chester, Pennsylvania, and against Uruguay at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida on 18 November. Continue reading...

Argentinian says he is happy in current role Pochettino will lead co-host US at World Cup United States men’s national team coach Mauricio Pochettino has admitted he misses the Premier League and would like to return there in the future. “The Premier League is the best league in the world,” he told the BBC in an interview published on Thursday. “Of course I am missing it. I am so happy in America but also thinking one day to come back to the Premier League. It’s the most competitive league.” Continue reading...

If Nuno Espírito Santo had considered a relaxing cruise after being sacked by Nottingham Forest, he finally got to enjoy the feeling by watching his West Ham defence look all at sea while the driving rain was his ocean spray. Two lapses in concentration within the opening quarter of an hour gave Leeds victory and further highlighted that the Hammers are in a relegation battle. West Ham sit second bottom of the Premier League nine games into the season, and their only win came against their current head coach. They had the majority of the ball at Elland Road and were eventually rewarded with a late consolation goal from Manuel Fernandes, but the stuttering start under Nuno continues, thanks to early close-range strikes from Brenden Aaronson and Joe Rodon. Continue reading...

Lavelle scores after 33 seconds before US fade Portugal earn first-ever win and goals against Americans Morgan feted in emotional send-off at Subaru Park The US women’s team stumbled Thursday in their first game since July, allowing a goal in each half that sent Portugal to its first win against the Americans, 2-1 on a night two-time World Cup winner Alex Morgan was feted with a star-studded farewell. Portugal not only beat the US for the first time in 12 matches, they scored their first goals against the Americans in international play. Continue reading...

Mexico, Costa Rica and Jamaica join the United States' bid to stage the Women's World Cup in 2031 and are set to host matches at the tournament.

United States boss Emma Hayes says working in international football is like "becoming a grandparent" in the way that managers only spend short periods of time with their players.