I’ve seen worse PR pitches in my email but none that make me more personally enraged than “The driveway hoop is getting an AI upgrade”

If it were me and I wanted to avoid a second yellow card, I personally wouldn’t have visibly dived

My VAR take is that it, like every other form of replay in every other sport, is going nowhere because of sports gambling.

It's all related. And none of it should be THIS hard.

"We just watched one of the most incredible games in recent memory on the biggest stage imaginable featuring one of the most important athletes of all time. "Let's now throw it to Alexi Lalas to help us make sense of it."

One thing I will say is that the US youth soccer system is certainly flawed, but I am interested to see where we’re at in like 15 years, because there are some very, very good 9-year-olds out there at some of these clubs.

Not to be overly downer, but I’m hesitant to overstate the accomplishments of the USMNT when their wins were Australia, Paraguay and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and their losses were Turkiye (already out) and Belgium (4-1, outclassed).

Biggest game is USMNT history and their opponent casually brings Jeremy Doku in at the 70-minute mark lol it is unbelievably Joe-ver

This is the legacy of No Child Left Behind smh

"A 2028 first round pick (the LA Clippers' own) that, if it is top 16, instead becomes the unprotected right for Boston to swap its currently-held 2028 first round pick (the worst of Boston's and San Antonio's) with the better of the LA Clippers' or (if PHI's is top 8) PHI's 2028 first round pick."

I'm certainly not the only one, but this is pretty much precisely how I thought the American World Cup was going to go lol

It was wild watching the poor Mexican player with the destroyed ankle receive an increasingly large amount of medical attention every time the camera panned to that side of the field.

There are going to be like 12 minutes of stoppage time and Mexico is going to be exponentially more desperate every minute that passes, we're gonna see some things we've never seen before over the next like 15 minutes.

Really need Quiñones to play for a team that matters ASAP.

I love late goals like Neymar’s because they make everything that happened previously so much more consequential. Suddenly Haaland’s second goal is the game-winner instead of just insurance, and Bruno G’s saved PK is an even more unmitigated disaster.

I will never get tired of seeing shots of Distraught Gabriel.

The Celtics have a really good and coherent big rotation.

Some semantics are at work here (and some ownership covering their backsides), but it's probably a fair distinction - the Celtics aren't cost-cutting, they are creating a path to make a run at an expensive superstar in the summer of 2027.

Not ready for Yan Diomande's World Cup run to be over.

I hope we are all talking about the big offseason acquisition news: Spurs acquiring Mateus Fernandes.

“We come from the red earth“ is an absolutely unbelievable bar

You have to think of it in the metaphysical sense, an effort to let the fates decide because the humans have shied away from their responsibility. They’re given an extra 30 mins to get a victory. And if not, then we invite the chaos of the universe to do what it will.

The ultimate indignity is what happened to Brahim Diaz for Morocco at AFCON but this was a close second

If I still lived in Massachusetts, it would be time for me to surrender all payment methods to my wife until about 3:15 p.m. with instructions to tase me if I asked for them prior.

It's, uh, pretty dire that Jaylen Brown rumors have gone from Giannis to " .... maybe Jalen Duren?"

Güler nutmegged the soul out of Pulisic lol

I can't wait to watch Darryn Peterson hoop.

I wonder if Jaylen gave the Celtics a hush-hush heads up that he would prefer to be traded, and Giannis was Brad's first stab at it.

That Heat roster is not very scary for several of the reasons I probably wouldn’t have involved myself in the Giannis sweepstakes in the first place.

Seems like it would be very hard to convince Jaylen Brown that he's a valued member of the Celtics' organization if Miami wins these sweepstakes.

I was stressed about the amount of money it cost to watch MLS Messi when he came to town. Roughly a year later, I have no recollection of that money and vivid memories of seeing the GOAT up close with my kid that I would not trade for anything. Definitely a privilege to have watched him.

If any team is built to survive the most washed striker of all time, it's Portugal.

Beautiful run by the best player in the world and also Mbappe

Senegal's green/white/yellow kits are SO good

hey pals i wrote about Wemby, whomst is neither a sucker nor a fraud, but rather a bozo (for now) defector.com/whither-wemby

What this game tells me is that Real Madrid is wasting time and money bringing in new stars and should instead sign Cabo Verde players to finally slow down Barcelona.

I often think about that video of young Jalen Brunson and his dad working out. He looks exhausted, he’s on concrete, the drills aren’t crisp. You‘d never know he will be a Finals MVP. But if you stack days where you don’t feel like being there and build brick by brick, special things can happen.

Mitchell Robinson wins the NBA finals on a free throw

Americans getting into soccer should introduce themselves to Barney Ronay’s writing. He’s excellent.

I’m all about Balogun playing for the US team via birthright citizenship and I’m super all about birthright citizenship, but it is kind of on the nose RE: our youth soccer system that yesterday’s star player was only tarnished by one month in the US as a child.

I enjoy Gio Reyna‘s whole thing immensely because he’s not toxic enough to be truly disliked, but he’s also not squeaky clean enough to be boring, all which means he’s far more compelling than he is good. Soap Opera Sports at its finest.

USMNT vs. Uruguay might have been a warning shot

First and last day of school photos of your kid really are one of the more affecting things I've discovered in life

Cooling breaks = good/necessary Ads during cooling breaks = an abomination and, in a just world, a capital offense for all involved

I have no idea how FOX thinks it is going to wring three hours of pre-game coverage out of the USMNT lol this is not a wall-to-wall coverage kind of team

I started watching soccer obsessively over the last few years (and still don't know much), but my top 3 tips for American Newcomers Who Want To Sound Smart: - Watch France for Olise and Cherki, not Mbappe - Watch Argentina for Nico Paz, not Messi - Watch the Ivory Coast for Yan Diomande