Soccer

10:00 AM ET The 2022 World Cup in Qatar has flown by. Wedged into the middle of the European club season, it has had to. It’s hard to believe that the tournament began 26 days ago, yet so much has transpired in that time, including whittling down a field of 32 to just France and

4:25 PM ET Former Argentina international Gabriel Batistuta said he was happy to see Lionel Messi overtake him as the country’s top scorer at the World Cup in Qatar, where the South Americans are preparing to fight for the title against France on Sunday. Messi reached 11 World Cup goals in his career after scoring

9:35 AM ET France have been hit with a virus that could see the team’s starting centre-back pairing miss the World Cup final, sources have told ESPN. According to sources, Raphael Varane has small symptoms of the virus and fellow defender Ibrahima Konate has not left his room after feeling unwell. – Stream on ESPN+:

9:35 AM ET Alex Kirkland Rodrigo Faez Real Madrid have reached an agreement to sign Palmeiras forward Endrick in 2024, the club announced on Thursday. Endrick — who is 16 and will move to Madrid when he turns 18 in July 2024 — is one of the most exciting young talents in Brazilian football. –

3:16 PM ET Back in November, before the World Cup began, I dove into the treasure trove that is StatsPerform’s World Cup charting data archive to look at the trends that have changed and taken over the sport from 1966 to 2018. When did the possession game start to really take over? (1990 or so,

5:05 AM ET The 2022 World Cup draws to a close this weekend, marking the end of an era for the tournament before it rolls into the United States, Mexico and Canada in four years’ time. – World Cup 2022: News and features | Schedule | Bracket The current format, which sees 32 teams drawn

7:55 PM ET The stage is set for the 2022 World Cup final, and it’s going to be a doozy. Lionel Messi and Argentina will take on Kylian Mbappe and defending champions France on Dec. 18 at 10 a.m. ET. Will Messi equal the feat of Argentina icon Diego Maradona while cementing his status as

5:33 PM ET AL KHOR, Qatar — At the final whistle, Morocco coach Walid Regragui embraced his opposite number, France boss Didier Deschamps, who had just guided Les Bleus to a second consecutive World Cup final. Regragui gathered his group of bruised and spent players after Wednesday’s 2-0 defeat into a huddle in the middle

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5:36 PM ET LUSAIL, Qatar — Lionel Messi has praised Argentina for passing an “acid test” in bouncing back from losing against Saudi Arabia in their opening match to reach the World Cup final. The Sunday showpiece will see Argentina face either France or Morocco after Messi inspired Lionel Scaloni’s side to a 3-0 win

6:54 PM ET AL DAAYEN, Qatar — Knockout tournaments like the World Cup generally require you to finish strong, unlike, say, a league format where you can build up a big lead at the start and hobble first across the finish line. Argentina evidently got the message. On the night that Lionel Messi scored his

5:02 AM ET Adriana Garcia Brazil great Ronaldo believes Neymar and other Brazilian players should have psychological help to deal with the “disproportionate pressure” from the World Cup. Neymar admitted after his team’s World Cup quarterfinal defeat to Croatia on penalties that he was “psychologically destroyed.” “I would advise having a psychological support to withstand

8:00 AM ET Rob DawsonCorrespondent DOHA, Qatar — There’s a spot on the Corniche promenade in Doha where the 2022 World Cup organising committee erected a flag each time a new nation qualified for the tournament. Croatia‘s went up in November 2021. While heavyweights like Germany, Spain, England and Brazil have had theirs removed now

4:32 PM ET Last week, in response to word that the US Soccer Federation was interested in re-signing men’s head coach Gregg Berhalter following a run to the World Cup round of 16, the general world soccer media, and a lot of the sport’s more casual American fans, shrugged their respective shoulders and said, “Yeah,

7:00 AM ET Argentina‘s dance goes on, as their fans sing, to Tuesday’s World Cup semifinal match against Croatia, followed by either a shot at eternal glory in Sunday’s final, or a melancholic end to the Lionel Messi era in Saturday’s third-place consolation game. Barring the gateway to glory are the very opponents against whom,

8:34 PM ET United States midfielder Giovanni Reyna was almost sent home from the World Cup in Qatar due to a lack of effort in training and in a pre-tournament scrimmage against Qatari side Al Gharafa SC, sources told ESPN. Reyna, 20, did not start a single game for the US in Qatar but did

1:52 PM ET Cristiano Ronaldo said on Sunday that he had always been dedicated to being a part of the Portuguese national team, which was knocked out of the World Cup a day earlier, but he was coy about his future in the national side. The 37-year-old, a five-time Ballon D’Or winner, had arrived in

7:44 AM ET OLEKSANDR PETRAKOV LOOKED around the airplane at his boys with both love and disgust. He sat in 1A, front left, his usual head coach seat, as he and the Ukrainian national soccer team flew from Glasgow to Yerevan, Armenia for their next match. They’d lost 3-0 to Scotland a few hours before,