Soccer

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,

5:52 PM ET The World Cup semifinals are set! With Croatia and Argentina clinching their spots on Friday, history was made on Saturday with Morocco beating Portugal to be the first African team to reach the final four. They’ll meet defending champions France, who outlasted England in the other quarterfinal match. Be sure to check

6:45 PM ET England skipper Harry Kane said he will have to live with the penalty miss that condemned his team to a World Cup quarterfinal exit against reigning champions France on Saturday. The striker had drawn his side level at Al Bayt Stadium with a successful spot kick that saw him match Wayne Rooney’s

10:53 PM ET ESPN News Services Grant Wahl, one of the most well-known soccer writers in the United States, died early Saturday while covering the World Cup match between Argentina and the Netherlands in Qatar. He was 48. US media seated near him said Wahl fell back in his seat in the press box at

8:00 PM ET In a World Cup that has seen some upsets and stunners, we had our biggest yet! Brazil, led by Neymar and the favorites to win it all in Qatar, were eliminated in the quarterfinals by Croatia on penalties. Now, the 2018 World Cup runners-up aim to oust Lionel Messi and Argentina, who

6:42 PM ET LUSAIL, Qatar — If Lionel Messi is to finally lift the World Cup, he is doing it the hard way. Genius can take you only so far, especially if your team is as flawed as Messi’s Argentina, but the fairy-tale story can still have the perfect ending. It might even happen with