Matt Crocker left US Soccer for this?!

Hopefully not the best game of the day. But maybe the game that gets people to put some respect on Cape Verde’s 🇨🇻 name and game. Blue Sharks’ opener is still one of the highlights of the tournament for me!

Lamine Yamal, welcome to the World Cup. That will be your first of many. 🇪🇸

The actor for Miguel in a live adaptation of 'Road to El Dorado'

Someone, somewhere is trying to get Bora Milutinović on the phone. He’s got a plane to catch.

15 saves endears him to the world, one own goal defending rapists, now hoping Ivory Coast puts 7 more past him.

[soon to be] *former Ecuador manager

[Cooligans’ damn son, you got CONCACAF’d .gif]

a note for Sweden's situation 3 points will probably be enough to get through to the knockouts, but goal difference is likely to be determinative and conceding more here could put them at risk www.expectinggoals.com/p/even-more-...

I love this kid vomiting up FIFA

Graham Potter wearing his funeral suit might have been a bit too on point today.

The World Cup is making an impact around the country, but if youth soccer isn't accessible and affordable enough for kids who may be inspired by the tournament to play, it will go down as a missed opportunity www.cbssports.com/soccer/news/...

Chef’s kiss to this gem of a headline from Post Sports copy editor Dan Hargett:

Santa Clara (the stadium formerly known as Levi’s) was considered to have gotten the worst group stage fixtures will now host the USMNT 🇺🇸 in the Round of 32.

USMNT 🇺🇸 win the group for the first time since 2010!!

Turkey Rockets 🤝 0 for 27

It’s poised now.

The spin on the ball, the crossbar/post double doink…that’s more what I’m looking for.

With more teams and more games, I’ve been waiting for one of the games to be completely unhinged (complimentary or derogatory, I’m not picky). What I’m saying, we are owed a true World Cup After Dark match. This is 32/104…just saying, would be a great time for it.

A goal and a yellow card inside the first 5, Matías Galarza absolutely committed to making his mark on this game. Could get a brace, could get sent off, could happen before the hydration/commercial break….nobody knows.

Hope you didn’t tune into this one late. 66 seconds for Paraguay 🇵🇾 to open the scoring.

[Sees the timeline & that post] [puts down phone] [walks over to old timey record player] [vinyl starts spinning. drop needle] [Bella Ciao starts to play throughout house, shot pulls out as it echos across the neighborhood, then through other diverse neighborhoods across the country] [scene]

Mass immigration and culture blending are what made the United States the world's dominant economic and cultural power. Anyone who says otherwise is wrong. If you don't love immigrants and diversity then you don't love America, period.

The USMNT can't park the bus because our country lacks the funding for public transportation.

I’d rather we look like this up 2-0, but this second half is so dramatically different from the first game and the first half of this game. Nervy.

ball knowers

Great spot from my MLSsoccer colleague Jonathan Sigal: What a RISE for Alex Freeman 👶🏼March 1, 2025: First MLS start 🛡️June 7, 2025: USMNT debut vs. Türkiye 📈Oct 30, 2025: MLS Young Player of the Year 🛫Jan 29, 2026: Transfer to Villarreal 🚀June 19, 2026: Scores at World Cup Rocket Man.

VAR said "it's Juneteenth. Let Freeman ring."

VAR for USA!! 2-0

Own Goal has tied Landon Donovan for most USMNT goals in World Cup history with 5.

Don’t care who gets the last touch…1-0!!! LFG

Michael is one of the all-time great!

“The hydration can disrupt the flow of the game” is not a problem for this game which is completely lacking for any flow, energy or momentum.

This game desperately needed a goal and the South Korean goalkeeper and CB obliged.

Disgrace of Gijón (1982) has little on this first half in Guadalajara. Whomp whomp.

We have now completed 23.1% of the 2026 World Cup. Up next: Czechia 🇨🇿 vs. South Africa 🇿🇦

This is a great game…unless you’re a fan of goalkeeping…then it’s a completely forgettable game.

Uzbekistans coach who qualified them had to step down from objectively the biggest moment of his entire career because he got sick, I hope that guy is at home going mental watching this

I wrote this about Messi for ESPN for Copa América Centenario in 2016. Still holds up.

In like 2010 or 2011, I sent a tweet that was something along the lines of “we should never take for granted that we lived in an era where we got to see Lionel Messi play football. We’re going to be able to look back at that and remember the joy he played with and the joy he gave us.”

Remarkable scenes in the mixed zone tonight - both players lingering well beyond what FIFA comms asked of them, stepping off the dais to answer more Qs even as their handlers sought to shepherd them out of the area Seemed eager to express what they're dealing with and how challenging all this is

Even if the crowds and the vibes are great at the WC now that games are going, there are still plenty of people who do not get to participate in any of this because of the draconian and racist policies of this administration. The pomp and the sport makes it too easy to forget about/overlook them.

We’re into the longest 5 minutes in Cape Verde 🇨🇻 history

WELCOME TO WASHINGTON, SOCCER FANS. Get acquainted with our state via this highly accurate and mostly-to-scale map.

spain may put three past them yet but what every cape verde player is doing right now is nothing short of heroic, this is amazing

At what point do we actually start to think it’s possible that Cape Verde 🇨🇻 could hold out for a point here?! 80’? 85’? I don’t want to get too excited too soon. But I can feel it building.

Cape Verde's goalie looks like he's seen some shit, man

It’s true. I’ve experienced it when I worked with Papua New Guinea 🇵🇬 in 2016. Our ONE was front page, national news…and I’ll never forget it. (Thanks to Lisa Cole for inviting me to join her staff.)