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Eze dismisses idea of changing spot-kick technique‘If there is a penalty to take I’ll be there again’Eberechi Eze says he will not let his missed penalty in the Champions League final stop him from stepping up in a shootout for England in the World Cup.The attacking midfielder sent his kick wide when Arsenal lost on penalties against Paris Saint-Germain in Budapest last month but he is determined not to let the disappointment define him and is confident in his technique. Eze, who also had softly-struck penalties saved for Crystal Palace in games against Liverpool and Newcastle last year, dismissed the idea that it is time to move away from his stuttering runup to the ball.“No, I think I have taken penalties for a long time and it’s part of the journey,” he said. “You have to continue to improve, find new ways to improve. I’m not going to stress too much about it because I know I’m in this position for a reason and all the training behind it.”Eze has a calm mentality and will not shy away from taking another penalty. “Football is full of everything and you have to try to accept everything as it is, to enjoy it as much as you can,” he said. “Playing in a Champions League final is where I want to be, it’s what I want to do.“We’ll go for it again next season and if there is a penalty to take then I’ll be there again. All the big players have missed big penalties, have experienced these type of moments. I’ve had messages from everyone to speak on those moments. For me it’s not something I wish never happened. I’m grateful it happened. I’m going to grow from it, learn from it and move forward.”There is no doubt that Eze would take a penalty for England in a knockout tie. “If called upon, for sure,” he said. “Why wouldn’t I take it?”England worked on improving their relationship with penalties during the Gareth Southgate era. They won a World Cup shootout for the first time when they knocked out Colombia in the last 16 in 2018 and they converted five nerveless kicks when they defeated Switzerland in their Euro 2024 quarter-final.However, Southgate’s hopes of helping England win silverware for the first time since 1966 were dashed when they lost the Euro 2020 final to Italy on penalties. The backlash on social media was extreme and Eze has looked at how Marcus Rashford and Bukayo Saka handled the experience of failing to score against Italy. Both forwards are in England’s squad in the US and Saka exorcised his demons by scoring in the shootout against Switzerland two years ago.“Honestly before even speaking to them, you can see the way big players carry themselves,” Eze said. “You step up, you do what you need to do. If you miss, you miss. If you score, you score. It’s having the mentality to keep going. That’s part of the journey.”The miss against PSG aside, not much has gone wrong for Eze during the past two years. He scored the winner for Palace when they beat Manchester City in the 2025 FA Cup final and he helped Arsenal win the Premier League after joining Mikel Arteta’s side last summer.“It’s important for a player’s confidence to have that under your belt, to experience winning,” Eze said. “It gives you a different level of confidence and a lot of players [in the squad] experiencing that is only going to help us here.”Eze is competing with Jude Bellingham and Morgan Rogers for the No 10 role. He is likely to be on the bench when England face Croatia in their opening match in Group L but he is ready to play anywhere across the frontline. “I think that’s the type of player I am, it’s not just one position I can play,” he said. “Wherever I’m called upon is where I will play. I’ll try to express myself and enjoy myself.”

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Lille midfielder excelled against Brazil but it was no surprise to his national coach after a key role in convincing him to turn down France’s overturesThe name Ayyoub Bouaddi was on everyone’s lips after Brazil’s draw against Morocco on Saturday night. Even the army of concerned South American journalists firing questions at Vinícius Júnior at the MetLife Stadium had to acknowledge that the Real Madrid forward had been fortunate to be named as man of the match despite scoring a superb equaliser to rescue a point for Carlo Ancelotti’s side in their opening game of the 2026 World Cup.Instead it was the imposing figure with a distinctive mop of hair in Morocco’s central midfield who stole the show on his first competitive international appearance. Bouaddi managed the most touches (88), won the most duels (11) and completed the most successful passes in the opposition’s half (30), finishing with a passing success rate of 93% as he dominated Casemiro – a player almost twice his age and with a vastly different career trajectory. It came as no surprise to his coach, Mohamed Ouahbi, after he played a crucial role in convincing Bouaddi, who made his debut for Lille in March 2023 three days after his 16th birthday, to turn down France’s overtures just before this tournament.“He didn’t impress me because we already know what a player he is,” Ouahbi said. “I’m not the guy to be afraid of playing youngsters. We were sure and certain that he’d have a big match, and so it wasn’t a risk at all – it wasn’t the kind of match for taking risks against Brazil.”He added: “We had a lot of meetings with him to get him to choose Morocco, and he was good. He already has a lot of experience in Ligue 1. It’s not just about his age; he has already played more matches than others [older than him], more matches in the Champions League. There was also the masterclass against Real Madrid and so he may only be 18 but he already has a lot of experience.”Ouahbi was referring to Bouaddi’s performance in a 1-0 victory against Ancelotti’s Madrid in October 2024 on the day he turned 17, which ended with Lille’s supporters singing happy birthday to him on the pitch. That ensured that every big club in Europe has been tracking his progress since, with Arsenal, Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich thought to have registered an interest in a player believed to be valued at about £70m by Lille.“Let’s keep this mindset, it’s only the beginning,” Bouaddi said on social media after the Brazil game. A photograph of him attending a Morocco match as a 10-year-old at the 2018 World Cup was also doing the rounds as the internet swooned. “He’s a great player,” said Morroco’s Sunderland winger Chemsdine Talbi. “He came to help us and we’re really happy to have him on the team.”Bouaddi was born and raised in Creil in the Oise department, where his father, Hassan, used to be deputy mayor, and played for AFC Creil until he joined Lille’s academy at 13. Not long before his historic debut in the Conference League that made him the youngest player to play in a European club competition game, he won a public speaking contest for players enrolled at professional academies in France at the Élysée Palace that was attended by Brigitte Macron. Bouaddi is studying for a degree in mathematics and physics “to make the most of my free time”. “That’s how I was raised,” he said. “It helps keep your mind sharp.”The future looks bright for him and Morocco under Ouahbi, who is in his first senior role as manager after winning the Under-20 World Cup last year. The midfield that finished the game against Brazil had an average age of 20.6, with Roma’s Neil El Aynaoui – the son of the retired tennis player Younès – and Samir El Mourabet of Strasbourg also impressing against a Brazil side that looked laboured by comparison.Casemiro’s partnership with Bruno Guimarães will probably not be seen again and although Fabinho added some stability when he came on in the second half, the 32-year-old’s best days are behind him. Brazil’s starting XI had the highest average age for a game since 2006, although Vinícius rejected the suggestion that they were calling out for an injection of youth in the engine room.“I don’t believe that,” he said. “I think we have to adapt to the players we have here, young players, more experienced players, adapt to each other, help us, because it will make all the difference for us. Experience matters a lot in this competition, and the young guys like me and other players who are here, we will have to do everything for our group to achieve great results in the competition.”

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US broadcaster overran ads during hydration breakBroadcasts must return 30 seconds before play resumesFox will not face any sanction from Fifa for breaking the governing body’s advertising rules during the opening game of the World Cup between Mexico and South Africa last week.The US broadcaster broke Fifa’s strict guidelines for showing commercials during hydration breaks on the first occasion they were in operation by returning to the live action 10 seconds after play had resumed during the second half at Mexico City Stadium.Fifa’s tournament regulations, which were given to all rights holders two months ago, state that while broadcasters can show ads during hydration breaks they must return to the match 30 seconds before play resumes.While Fox’s commercials overran by 40 seconds, the broadcaster is understood to have provided an explanation to Fifa by claiming that it was unaware that referee Wilton Sampaio signaled a hydration break early after Raúl Jiménez scored Mexico’s second goal of the game, and that it was unaware it had been called. As a result Fox was late in cutting to its commercial breaks, which subsequently overran.While some viewers complained about Fox’s error, there have been no repeat incidents since. Telemundo, the World Cup’s Spanish-language broadcaster in the US, has opted not to cut away to full-screen advertising during hydration breaks, which last for three minutes and take place once in each half regardless of temperature.

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Precious win gives Steve Clarke’s team a platform but nervy display against Haiti could prove a missed opportunityIt felt so typically Scottish that even rare success on the World Cup stage delivered such paradoxes of emotion and analysis. In Ireland, sporting glory is routinely cherished without contradiction. Scots have far more of a tendency to apply “ah, but” as an addendum. So it proved from Boston to Brora, where dissection of the 1-0 win over Haiti was far from straightforward. Rightly so.Record books will show John McGinn’s scruffy goal earned the Scots just a fifth win at a World Cup finals. The claiming of a point against Morocco on Friday will, barring an extraordinary set of results elsewhere, seal Scotland a knockout berth for the first time. They haven’t even featured at this level since 1998. Any team within touching distance of heady times, rewarding a fantastic supporter base in the process, can hardly be castigated.“It felt like a home game,” said the midfielder Lewis Ferguson of the scene in Boston. “I didn’t realise until we stepped on to the pitch how many Scottish people were there. The away kit was everywhere. Our support is amazing and never in doubt. They travel everywhere. They always have, always will, that’s a given. We went on a walk within the city on Saturday and it was full of Scotland fans. That gave us that little buzz going into the game.“I wasn’t born for the 1998 World Cup so I’ve never witnessed Scotland playing at this level. So to be part of the team that’s won a game is really special.”Attention towards Ferguson is apposite. He was excellent in midfield against Haiti, justifying faith from Steve Clarke. Scotland’s central defensive pairing of Grant Hanley and Jack Hendry were strong. Ben Gannon-Doak displayed directness and decision making that bodes well. Elsewhere, though, questions were raised that mean those keen to present the game as an ideal World Cup start are being over optimistic.After Morocco, Brazil lie in wait. If Scotland remain on three points, they are already in the territory where relying on goal difference to secure qualification as a third-placed team looks borderline. Haiti offered opportunity which Scotland did not properly grasp, for no other reason than they returned an indifferent performance. Beyond celebration in Massachusetts and plenty of it in the middle of the night back home in Scotland, that will be quietly recognised.“We could have been better on the ball and we will be,” said Ferguson. “It was difficult and we were under pressure towards the end. But we dealt with it, got a clean sheet and three points.” Again, all correct. Scotland were, however, jittery.Ferguson, like Clarke, referenced a level of pressure encountered by Scotland’s players due to widespread expectation they would swat Haiti aside. Scotland teams of the past have blundered against inferior opposition at World Cups. A reality is that 1978, 1982 and 1990 are not relevant in the context of Clarke and this squad. More pertinent are the European Championships of 2021 and 2024, from which it should be safe to believe Scotland have evolved.Haiti are comfortably the worst team Scotland have faced in a finals under Clarke. Yet they still laboured for long spells, the anxiety touched upon by players and staff readily apparent. It is legitimate to ask what was learned from 2021 – when the Scots slumped to an opening defeat against the Czech Republic – or three years later, when Germany thumped them in Munich. Haiti are an enthusiastic but patently limited team. Scottish nervousness due to the simple fact they were of higher quality is not entirely rational.“It’s going to be really difficult against two top sides,” said Ferguson. “Both of them are ranked in the top eight in the world. So they’ll be tough games but I feel we can come alive in those sort of games when we’re the underdog. We’re looking forward to it, the next one will be a completely different game. But we’ll back ourselves.”Ferguson has touched upon a Scottish cliche, that when hopes are low the team can prevail. That has not forcibly been borne out under Clarke, especially against sides of the stature of Morocco and Brazil. In practical, tactical terms Scotland will need much more composure – and probably greater numbers – in midfield. Scott McTominay’s stomach bug in the lead-up to Haiti provides a decently extenuating circumstance for a poor showing but there were ominous parallels there, too, with the summer of 2024. Scotland need McTominay’s star quality to shine through.Another danger emanated from Morocco’s draw against Brazil, which was confirmed before Scotland kicked off. Morocco will now carry real belief they can top Group C, which will focus their minds for Scotland. Brazil will not have sauntered towards first place in the section by the time they face the Scots in Miami. Elite teams who are hugely incentivised are clearly a more substantial problem for Scotland than if going through tournament motions.“I want more,” said McGinn. “I wanted a second and third [goal] and to kick on in the group. That wasn’t stress free but it was never going to be. They are a tricky team.”The Scotland camp is well within its rights to accentuate pluses. It is similarly fair to ponder shortcomings. This Scottish team is within days of marching to where Denis Law and Kenny Dalglish could not. To do so, they must prove psychological shackles against Haiti were indeed the real problem.

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Anxious dead-of-night watch parties ended in celebration after 1-0 victory over Haiti in first finals match since 1998It was around 2.28am in the UK that John McGinn ended 28, arguably 36, years of hurt – and anyone daft enough to be asleep will surely have stirred as chants of “no Scotland, no party” echoed from Boston to Glasgow.The scenes after McGinn’s deflected goal and Scotland’s 1-0 defeat of Haiti were joyous. Sheer unbridled happiness. And relief.Dead-of-night watch parties were held across Scotland, the biggest at the Ovo Hydro arena in Glasgow, where more than 5,000 fans celebrated Scotland’s first World Cup match since 1998.When the final whistle blew, drinks went flying in the air and the noise raised the roof.For neutrals, the match between the 42nd Fifa-ranked team (Scotland) and the 83rd (Haiti) was not a great footballing spectacle. It was a laboured, anxiety-inducing victory, but nobody cared. For Scotland, a win is a win.“It was really good, but I think we could have done better,” said 12-year-old Darcy Morrison, who was watching in Glasgow with her mother and brother. “I thought we were going to beat them 4-0 but we didn’t.”Denise Rae, 52, from Aberdeen, was dressed in a Scotland bucket hat and sunglasses. “It was amazing,” she said. “It’s been a long time coming. Come on, Scotland, we can do it. Let’s get to the next round.”Fiona Barrie, 24, said the game had been a “big deal” for her sister, Dee. “She was born the last time Scotland were in the World Cup, she was 74 minutes old at the final whistle. So it’s a big deal for her,” she said.William MacGregor, 41, from Dumbarton, described the post-goal atmosphere as “bouncing … Drinks were flying everywhere when the goal went in. Not mine, I kept mine.”Scotland’s last World Cup appearance was 28 years ago, but the last victory was even further back – a 2-1 win against Sweden in 1990, which included Mo Johnston hammering home a late penalty.Among the famous names in the stadium for Sunday’s match was Rod Stewart, who cancelled a gig in San Diego on Friday because of illness. Hours later, he posted a clip of himself and two of his sons on a private jet to Boston singing: “no Scotland, no party”.Stewart, 81, said he had been to six World Cups and that if Scotland could get through to the next round, “I’ll die a happy man”.Also in the 64,000-plus crowd were the actors Gerard Butler and Martin Compston, the singer Clare Grogan and the chef Gordon Ramsay, who visited the players before the match, reportedly telling them: “Let’s fucking go!”There were reports at the weekend that the thousands of Scotland fans who had converged on Boston before the match had gone some way to drinking the city dry.One fan spoken to by WBZ News at Logan airport said his only complaint about the flight to Boston had been that “we ran out of beer”. Another said he was about to drink his duty-free whisky before hitting the town. “I want to find Cheers,” he said.The Boston Globe described thousands of “kilt-wearing, bagpipe-playing” Scottish fans as taking over parts of the city. After the final whistle it was “time for even more beers”, the newspaper’s reporter at City Hall Plaza wrote. Callum Liddle, 29, who had travelled from Scotland to Boston, said: “It’s the best day of my life.”The Scottish first minister, John Swinney, was also at the match. After the final whistle he described the team as outstanding and said the Tartan Army had been “great ambassadors for Scotland”.“I can tell you, there’s not as lovely a feeling as being the first first minister in Scotland to see Scotland win a game in a World Cup,” he said.In Boston the morning after, the kilts had largely been put away and people were nursing sore heads with big smiles as they gathered around the Common.“The game was a typical Scotland game but we sneaked it so that’s fine”, said Jordan Davidson, in town from Aberdeen on a joint trip with his daughter, Molly. “The whole week we’ve been here has been great. The bars have been brilliant, people have been wonderful and the atmosphere at the game was fantastic. Haitian people were lovely, they were singing, they were dancing and the Tartan Army were just on first-class form. As you can probably hear from my throat.”Molly wasn’t born the last time Scotland got a win at the World Cup and didn’t want to tempt fate by predicting another, with Scotland still to face Morocco and Brazil in Group C. “I’m scared to predict anything at this stage. I think that’s exactly what a Scotland fan would say, right? But I’m really happy to just be here now and have these memories, especially with my dad. Yesterday with the Haitian fans, seeing everybody dancing together, coming together, even though you’re technically opponents – I think that’s what sums up the World Cup and to experience that firsthand has been incredible.”The victory means Scotland are top of their group, after Brazil drew with Morocco. Although not mathematically certain, things will really have to turn for them not to qualify.For Haiti the result is clearly disappointing, but to even qualify for tournament was a massive achievement. There were no home fixtures because of the humanitarian crisis and gang violence in the country.For Sunday’s match, most councils in Scotland extended the licensing hours of bars and clubs. The hospitality trade expects to see a sales boost of about 40%.There will be headaches, but the king has approved Swinney’s proposal of a Scotland bank holiday on Monday 15 June. So who cares?

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⚽ Kick-off: 12pm local/1pm EDT/6pm BST/3am AEST⚽ Player guide | Bracketology | Golden boot | Email DanielGermany: Neuer, Kimmich, Tah, Schlotterbeck, Brown, Pavlovic, Nmecha, Sane, Musiala, Wirtz, Havertz. Subs: Baumann, Nubel, Rudiger, Anton, Goretzka, Leweling, Woltemade, Gross, Beier, Stiller, Amiri, Raum, Thiaw, Ouedraogo, Undav.Curaçao: Room, Floranus, Bazoer, Obispo, Fonville, Comenencia, Leandro Bacuna, Hansen, Chong, Juninho Bacuna, Locadia. Subs: Bodak, Doornbusch, Sambo, Gaari, van Eijma, Roemeratoe, Antonisse, Noslin, Gorre, Martha, Margaritha, Kuwas, Kastaneer, Brenet, Felida. Continue reading...

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Irankunda and co have not yet earned golden generation status but they can revive Australia’s World Cup aspirationsThere always was a familiar feeling to this youthful squad of Socceroos. That sense of deja vu. That you had seen something like this before. But it took Nestory Irankunda running to the corner flag to remember what it was.By reviving Tim Cahill’s famous goal celebration, the new face of Australian football instantly connected this fearless crop of young footballers finding their way on the world stage to the greats wearing yellow that have gone before.Beyond the celebration, the echoes were everywhere. The scorer was a 20-year-old, not yet born when John Aloisi scored the penalty against Uruguay in 2005. The coach, Tony Popovic, was a player in the Socceroos squad in Germany the following year. The 20-year anniversary of Cahill’s double against Japan was exactly two days ago, and these players marked it with a 2-0 win over Turkey.It all makes comparison hard to avoid. But do not misconstrue it: Irankunda and co have not yet earned the status of another golden generation. There is no Harry Kewell in this team, no Mark Viduka. They may get there, they may not. There is still much to prove, much to improve.The force that is stirring is harder to pin down, more difficult to define. That 2006 side brought Australia back to the World Cup after a long hiatus. They had talent, sure, but that Germany campaign was less action movie than mystery drama.What is the Socceroos’ ceiling on this, football’s grandest stage? Just how far could they go? Watching the agonising defeat to Italy in the last-16 game in Kaiserslautern, those were genuine thoughts among those in the crowd. Marco Materazzi had been sent off, Lucas Neill was capably marshalling the defence, and Guus Hiddink had saved two substitutions for the impending period of extra time.Of course, Fabio Grosso made those the great unanswerables of Australian football. A puzzle of pain returns every time that world champion Italy team pops up in another cursed flashback. Then again, with every World Cup that has since come and gone, a sobering thought has begun to take hold. Maybe this was the Socceroos’ ceiling, a World Cup hallway the height of the front door.Since then, there were the fading embers of that golden cohort, and a succession of forgettable national team coaches. There was the brief Ange Postecoglou tenure, its end serving only to deflate.This article means no disrespect. Over two decades there were successive successful World Cup qualification campaigns, achieved by solid professionals representing the Socceroos, with the odd Aaron Mooy to sustain the dreamers. But the downright newness of 2006 – its impact amplified by the team’s quality – was a hard act to follow.Each time the World Cup came around, the proposition became the same: avoid a thumping by the top-seeded team and disaster against the minnows. Then just beat Denmark. This was now life for the Socceroos in a tournament that over five successive appearances Australians had got to know perhaps too well.The infinite possibilities Australian fans felt in 2006 collapsed into a singular purpose. Please, just get out of the World Cup group.So when Graham Arnold – to his eternal credit – took the workmanlike squad of 2022 to the round of 16, it should have been a breakthrough, an emotional release. Like in 2006, their exit was noble. Against eventual champions Argentina it finished 2-1, and Garang Kuol’s late chance snuggled in next to Grosso’s trailing leg in the pantheons of Socceroos’ what-ifs.Yet that team is not celebrated like their predecessors of 2006. They were over-achievers, who had little more to give. The Socceroos were by now stratified into the suffocating middle class of football, with World Cups like another working week. A numbness had taken hold.Where had Australian football’s hope gone? Where was the wonder? What was left of its imagination?The Socceroos’ World Cup script, it turns out, is not pre-written. On this night of shocks in Vancouver, Popovic dropped his captain, and left out his de facto vice-captain. Then Irankunda scurried away onto an exquisite pass, producing one delicious touch then a finish.Patrick Beach threw himself to his right to divert aside a searing drive. Block after block followed, save after save. A brief interlude featuring a stunner from Connor Metcalfe. Then more blocks, more saves as Vancouver’s yellow swarm – and millions back home – began to feel World Cup wonder again.This XI was a team with an average age of 24.6 years – almost 12 months younger than the next youngest lineup the Socceroos have selected at a World Cup. Popovic, a coach known to be conservative, was suddenly a man taking risks. The gambles paid off to deliver a result against Turkey, by far Australia’s biggest victory in the World Cup. It’s not hard to calculate: there have been only five.This is a new World Cup formula for the Socceroos. They boast a plethora of emerging stars, all with Premier League potential. There is Irankunda the supernova. The multifactorial Mo Touré. Jordy Bos, bossing the left. Alessandro Circati, hot-headed but still a cool customer. Now Paul Okon-Engstler and Beach.They may not end up eclipsing the round of 16 efforts of 2006 and 2022, but right now it doesn’t matter. Like that 2006 side of Kewell and Viduka, these Socceroos have started something. A new World Cup adventure has begun.

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Against Paraguay, the Monaco striker provided the ruthless finishing the USMNT have often missed in recent yearsEven after they conceded an early goal on Friday, Paraguay kept affording the United States ample room up the channel. As the ball reached Malik Tillman and Weston McKennie in midfield, their disoriented opponents never quite seemed to know how to station themselves to stem the tide. The US’s off-ball movement further complicated those efforts, dizzying Paraguay’s defense before it could establish an ideal structure.“I just tried to run in behind,” McKennie said after the US had completed their 4-1 victory. “I think I realized early on that they were struggling to follow my deep runs. If it’s not broken, don’t fix it. I keep trying to do it until they figure something out. I was able to find more space than usual, and it was fun. I really enjoyed to get on the ball as much as I did.”Throughout a remarkable first half, the heart of the park seemed fully in the co-hosts’ control. The spacing between Tyler Adams and the more advanced tandem of McKennie and Tillman seldom proved an issue as Paraguay struggled to position themselves in the passing lanes. In those rare moments, the US weren’t shy to recirculate, knowing the on-ball acumen of the defensive trio.Throughout the 2022 World Cup, the US at times resembled a club team, in part because of how effectively their midfield trio operated. In Qatar, Adams and McKennie were joined by Yunus Musah for an “MMA” engine room that kept the ball moving and shifted itself accordingly to be sturdy when defending. Musah’s club career has since stagnated and he was barely in contention for this summer’s World Cup, but Tillman’s progress and the emergence of others – such as Johnny Cardoso, Sebastian Berhalter, Tanner Tessmann and Aidan Morris – made Musah’s regression a non-issue for Mauricio Pochettino.While the personnel have changed, the dimensions of the field have not. The extra spaces McKennie scampered into on Friday weren’t due to some quirk concocted by this summer’s co-hosts. It’s an evolution of Pochettino’s design, built on the back of the progress of the US’s best players since Qatar.By the time the Copa América came around in 2024, the midfield seemed to be the only dependably functional facet of Gregg Berhalter’s USMNT. Teams could operate in a low-to-mid defensive block, allowing the US to advance into the attacking half where they’d quickly run out of ideas. It had become clear that the system was designed to funnel the attack through Christian Pulisic, and opponents planned accordingly.The one real boon to emerge from getting grouped at the Copa was the validation of Chris Richards’s bona fides. At that point, he had two seasons under his belt with Crystal Palace, but only became a regular starter along their backline after Oliver Glasner arrived in February 2024. Richards’s partnership with Tim Ream kept the US in games, but wasn’t enough to produce positive results against Panama and Uruguay.Richards has since evolved further. He’s become even more vital to Palace since Marc Guéhi’s departure, and logged the most minutes of any player in the club’s triumphant 2024-25 FA Cup campaign. He was similarly regular as the club captured the Uefa Conference League this past season.Richards has gained confidence from his success with Palace as well as his recovery from an ankle injury sustained late in the season, and he didn’t put a foot wrong against Paraguay. He set a World Cup record for passes with a 100% success rate (83), and worked with Adams to assess the Paraguayan structure before dishing off to Ream (to his left) or Alex Freeman (to his right) to begin the next advance upfield.“It felt good,” Richards told the Guardian in the mixed zone. “Honestly, I wasn’t second guessing myself. That was the main thing. Playing with pain’s OK as long as I’m not second-guessing myself.”Up the field was the US’s most vital newcomer of this World Cup cycle. Folarin Balogun’s commitment to the US – despite his eligibility for England and Nigeria – was a massive coup for a program that operated without a dependable striker from 2016 to 2023. Famous for his finesse, Balogun isn’t shy to outmuscle opponents and buy his teammates time to get into dangerous positions.Balogun’s upbringing in Arsenal’s academy has given him exceptional movement and excellent reading of the game. As McKennie and Tillman navigated the channels, Balogun could comfortably drift into the correct spots to get the service he needed, giving Paraguay goalkeeper Orlando Gill plenty of practice at picking the ball out of his net.Without the gauntlet of Concacaf qualifying, and given the team’s inconsistency throughout Pochettino’s reign, there was understandable cause for concern that this group wasn’t ready for the World Cup. After several weeks refining their movement, the US were more than comfortable shunting the ball up and down their lines to keep control of the game. It didn’t take long for the fans at Los Angeles Stadium to break into the polite applause that accompanies savvy recirculation.Joining big clubs hasn’t always worked for this generation of US players. Musah’s move to Milan ultimately set back his development: he never settled into one role as the club changed coaches with regularity after his arrival in 2023. Gio Reyna’s struggles cost him precious refinement with Dortmund and Mönchengladbach.But right now, the US have the type of players they have often missed in the past. They have Richards, a defensive anchor who was vital to his club’s FA Cup and Conference League titles. And they have Balogun, a striker who, despite some dry spells, ranked fourth on Ligue 1’s goalscoring charts.Opponents have to contend with Balogun while still facing the threat of Pulisic, who led Milan in goals just a year ago and has been in rare form since the Senegal friendly at the end of May. Reyna provided a timely reminder of why the program remains so optimistic about him in spite of scarce usage at the club level. McKennie (Juventus) and Adams (Bournemouth) have established themselves as vital midfielders for Europa League qualifiers.Of course, plenty of other nations can go toe to toe with the US on talent. The US’s Group D rivals, Turkey, will arguably be the first such foe they face. The Turks have dazzling attackers who ply their trade at Real Madrid and Juventus, the brilliant Hakan Çalhanoğlu pulls the strings, and the tidy Merih Demiral is in defense. By the round of 16 the US will probably resume underdog status, and Belgium, France and Spain could fall in the same side of the bracket should the co-hosts top their group.But there’s time for the US to build a head of steam as they consider those obstacles. Fans should thank their stars for birthright citizenship – without it, the US would still be without Balogun, a striker who can stretch the field and make life easier for his teammates.

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Goalkeeper repays faith shown in him with resolute displayBefore he became an instant national hero, Socceroos goalkeeper Patrick Beach had a perfect view of Nestory Irankunda’s opening goal during the 2-0 win against Turkey in Vancouver.“We know one of our threats is our pace up front,” he said. “I just saw an opportunity to get it out wide, and then within two or three passes, Nes was in the 18-yard box and having a crack on goal. And then it was absolute limbs, wasn’t it?”The goal triggered a spectacular outpouring of emotion among the Socceroos players, who crowded Irankunda and hindered his goal celebration. The 10,000-strong contingent of Australian fans in Vancouver didn’t appear to mind.“Seeing the whole crowd jump up in yellow and green, everyone just went crazy,” Beach said. “I went crazy with the crowd behind, so it was an unbelievable moment, and something that we’ll remember for sure.”Irankunda said Beach kept Australia in the game. “He’s been training extra hard and I know a lot of people weren’t expecting him to start,” the forward said. “He came out today, and he’s shown the world what he can do. He made a lot of important saves, and if it wasn’t for him, the score could have been different. But he saved us.”Irankunda’s own contribution was almost as important. His goal changed the complexion of the match, after the Socceroos struggled to get into the contest before the first drinks break.The goal was a breathtaking display of counterattacking football, after he was played in behind by Paul Okon-Engstler. “My body just started doing what it does. I didn’t control anything, it just happened,” Irankunda said.“After I scored, it was crazy. I just saw Mo [Touré] to my right, I was telling him to relax so I could do my celebration, but he was super excited as well. And at the end of the day, it was a good goal, in my opinion, and I had to dedicate the celebrations to Tim Cahill.”Irankunda boxed the corner flag, borrowing the trademark of Australia’s greatest men’s goalscorer. Twenty years ago this week, Cahill scored two of his most famous goals against Japan at the World Cup in Germany.“Timmy Cahill is my biggest inspiration in Australian football, and I look up to him and I want to be like him one day,” Irankunda said. “And you know, I’m really, really, really proud of myself to get the goal.”Beach said he found out he would start in goal instead of captain Maty Ryan only two days ago. “The boss and our keeper coach pulled me aside and told me that I’d be playing, that I have been performing well, and they have confidence in me, and they gave me all the confidence I needed to get out there and do my job.”He produced a string of saves, including one in the first half from a Abdulkerim Bardakci long shot that he tipped on to the post. “I remember the ball was coming in quickly,” he said. “One of their players hit a snap shot in between two of the boys, and I remember just getting down low to my right.”The save was the best of a half dozen stops that prevented Turkey from first equalising, and then in the dying stages from mounting a comeback. “It was amazing. This is a dream come true,” Beach said.“This is all you think about as a kid. This is the pinnacle, to play for your country on the world stage. And to get a result in the first game and against a really good opposition, it’s just one of the best nights.”Coach Tony Popovic said the victory made him proud. “As head coach, to experience this, put a smile on these people’s faces that have travelled so far to support us, and I’m just happy for a wonderful young group of men.”