Soccer

9:26 AM ET Jeff Kassouf The origin story of the Kansas City Current‘s run to the NWSL Championship begins with a victory over OL Reign. Not the 2-0 win on Sunday over the Shield-winning Reign in the semifinal in Seattle. That gutsy result clinched the Current’s spot in this year’s NWSL Championship, set for Saturday

1:36 PM ET Sid LoweSpain writer Barcelona‘s players were called to the Camp Nou early on Wednesday, arriving a couple of hours before the start of their Champions League game with Bayern Munich and a fraction after the start of Inter Milan‘s Champions League game with Viktoria Plzen. The coach, Xavi Hernandez, had set up

12:42 PM ET Tite, left, and Neymar, right, have opposite perspectives on how politics and sports should interact. Will that disconnect doom the national team? CARL DE SOUZA/AFP via Getty Images In less than three weeks, Brazil — the football team — head to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar among the favourites to win it

4:00 AM ET Antonio Conte celebrates a year in charge of Tottenham Hotspur next week, but all signs are beginning to suggest it won’t be a happy anniversary. The former Juventus, Chelsea and Inter Milan coach has been a success so far, in relative terms at least, by salvaging a seemingly hopeless situation when arriving

3:04 PM ET EINDHOVEN — Arsenal‘s bid to top Group A will go to the final match of the pool stages as they fell to a 2-0 defeat to PSV Eindhoven. The Eredivisie side flourished in front of their home support as they took full advantage of a poor Arsenal performance to clinch their spot

12:58 PM ET Seven weeks ago, Graham Potter left Brighton & Hove Albion for a team lower in the Premier League table. Months after leading the Seagulls to their best-ever top-division finish — ninth place in 2021-22, just five points away from qualifying for European competition, with late-season wins over Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester

3:30 AM ET Matchday 5 of the Champions League saw 12 teams qualify for the knockout stages, with plenty of goals, heartbreak and drama along the way. Early exits for Barcelona, Juventus, Ajax and Atletico Madrid will be bitter for those fans and players, while Chelsea and Bayern Munich look like title contenders after finishing

5:33 PM ET Bayern Munich beat Barcelona 3-0 at the Camp Nou on Wednesday night to advance to the Champions League round of 16 as group winners. Xavi Hernandez’s side went into the match knowing they already had no chance of reaching the knockout round for the second year in a row after Internazionale beat

10:08 AM ET Jeff Kassouf Jessica Berman, the commissioner of the National Women’s Soccer League, understands that one key metric will drive success in every other area. “I think we know, all of us who have worked in the sports industry for decades: The rocket fuel behind the growth of any sport league is attendance,”

5:30 AM ET Rob DawsonCorrespondent Jose Mourinho once hailed former Manchester United goalkeeper Joel Pereira, now playing in the Netherlands with RKC Waalwijk, as “the best Portuguese goalkeeper of the next generation” so he doesn’t always get it right, but the manager can afford himself a smile at what Diogo Dalot is doing at Old

4:43 PM ET Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe each scored twice and Neymar added another as Paris Saint-Germain routed Maccabi Haifa 7-2 at the Parc des Princes on Tuesday to cruise into the Champions League last 16. The star attacking trio each found the net to put the hosts up 3-0 inside just 35 minutes.

11:23 AM ET The U.S. Soccer Federation announced that it is holding a training camp in Frisco, Texas, for MLS players who are still in contention for a spot on the United States World Cup roster, but whose teams are no longer in the MLS Cup playoffs. The camp will run from Oct. 25 until

3:30 AM ET ISTANBUL — Dr. Eric Lamberg gathers his players together. “All right guys, you hear that?” the coach asks. “That was a shock. Everybody’s shocked. You guys just took down England!” There are cheers, applause and crutches hoisted into the air in celebration from the assembled players and staff of the United States’

4:34 PM ET PORTLAND, Ore. — In the third minute of second-half stoppage time, with the score tied 1-1 in the National Women’s Soccer League semifinal between the Portland Thorns and the San Diego Wave, Thorns defender Meghan Klingenberg prepared to take a corner kick, and the entire north end of Providence Park roared as

7:00 AM ET Newcastle United‘s excellent run of form continued this weekend with a 2-1 win at Tottenham Hotspur that saw Eddie Howe’s side stretch their Premier League unbeaten streak to seven games and go climbing into the top four. – Stream on ESPN+: LaLiga, Bundesliga, MLS, more (U.S.) The decisive goal came via Miguel

7:12 PM ET Associated Press Portland Thorns players celebrate after scoring a goal against the San Diego Wave in the NWSL playoffs. Getty Images Crystal Dunn came off the bench and scored in second-half stoppage time to give the Portland Thorns a 2-1 victory over the San Diego Wave in their NWSL playoff semifinal to book

5:08 PM ET Ousmane Dembele scored and provided assists for Sergi Roberto, Robert Lewandowski and Ferran Torres as Barcelona cruised past Athletic Club 4-0 in LaLiga on Sunday. Barcelona remain second in the standings on 28 points, three behind leaders Real Madrid and five clear of third-placed Atletico Madrid. – Marsden: Camp Nou roars for

8:33 AM ET Raphael Varane‘s injury is not as bad as first feared, with sources telling ESPN the defender is set to miss three to four weeks but he won’t play for Manchester United again before the World Cup. Varane, 29, had an MRI scan on Sunday after leaving United’s 1-1 Premier League draw at