The Guardian

England’s squad arrived at Swope Soccer Village, their World Cup base, to find locals (and the local police) out in force Before Thomas Tuchel and his England players departed for the United States, there was talk about their World Cup training ground in Kansas City being too open. It was motivated, in part, by the Southampton Spygate scandal. Would England’s rivals be able to steal a glance at t…

Brutally tough return to tournament awaits, but the stature of opposition feels less important than the fact of being here at all It was an arrival worth more than half a century of waiting. The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) players strolled into the arrivals hall of George Bush airport on Thursday kitted out in tuxedo suits and leopard-print sashes, channelling La Sape vogue for snappy …

This all proved rather difficult to evaluate as the dust settled. Scotland’s fifth win at a World Cup finals should have been a cause for epic celebration. Victory over Haiti meant this is a team not guaranteed to receive a bloody nose against lesser nations after all. More than 10,000 days after limping out of the World Cup in France, Scotland returned to the biggest stage in football and claime…

As it happened: Knicks 94–90 Spurs Jalen Brunson scores 45 points to seal 4-1 series victory Good things come to those who wait for a long, long time. The New York Knicks clinched their first NBA championship for 53 years with another thrilling late comeback win over the San Antonio Spurs on Saturday. Three days after grabbing a 3-1 NBA finals series lead by completing the largest comeback in fin…

⚽️ Kick-off time: 9pm local/2pm AEST/5am BST/12am EDT ⚽️ Player guide | Bracketology | Golden Boot | Mail Jonathan Before we get stuck into the main event, let’s have a quick whip around the day’s action so far. Brazil looked very ordinary against a Morocco side who might regret not capitalising on their early ascendancy. Continue reading...

Rugby World Cup winner says he feels like he is picking up the fundraising baton from people such as Doddie Weir and Rob Burrow Sunshine streams into Lewis Moody’s conservatory near Bath as we share a sofa with his dog, Ziggy, who has swapped his usual cheerful bounciness for a peaceful snooze. Moody has already explained how Ziggy licked away the tears rolling down his face, and the face of his …

Defensive lineman was No 7 pick in 2011 draft Off-field incidents, suspensions affected his career Former NFL defensive end Aldon Smith died Saturday at the age of 36, the San Francisco 49ers said. The team did not disclose the cause of death. Smith played six seasons in the NFL for the 49ers, the Oakland Raiders and the Dallas Cowboys. Continue reading...

So it turns out that Carlo Ancelotti is no miracle worker. After watching his side fall behind to Ismael Saibari’s brilliant opening goal, the Brazil manager needed a big favour from Vinícius Júnior to ensure the five-time World Cup winners’ first match of the 2026 edition did not end in an embarrassing defeat. For large portions of an absorbing first half that hopefully set the tone for the rest…

Houston is a host city but those gathered there for a GOP convention are far more concerned with contentious politics – and an elephant Greg Abbott, the governor of Texas, has just finished a 25-minute address and most of the hits have been played. The radical Democrats must be destroyed in November’s midterms; an Austin-style woke agenda should be avoided at all costs; it is essential the Lone S…

Sign up now! Sign up now! Sign up now? Sign up now! There’s an elemental force to football that can never be bottled and sold off. For reasons only known to Gianni Infantino and attendant pen pushers, the Azteca has been renamed the Mexico City Stadium for the Geopolitics World Cup. You can change a name for admin purposes, make punters pay through the nose for tickets, and charge 280 pesos ($17)…

Qatar snatched their first ever World Cup point with a stoppage-time goal to draw 1-1 against Switzerland in an energetic Group B opener. Switzerland went ahead in the 17th minute when Breel Embolo coolly stroked home a penalty but paid the price for failing to score more after 26 attempts on goal in a match they dominated from the kick-off. Continue reading...

11-time All-Star released on $100 bond Police spotted handgun in player’s Mercedes Cleveland Cavaliers guard James Harden was released from a Houston jail after he was arrested early on Saturday morning on a misdemeanor gun violation. Harden was driving through downtown Houston with four others when he was stopped by police just before 4am. When Harden drove up behind another vehicle, an officer …

Semi-final: Bath 26-27 Exeter Chiefs meet Northampton at Twickenham on Saturday For the first time since the greatest game in Premiership history, the away team have won a playoff. This was not a comeback to match that of Harlequins at Bristol in 2021 , but Exeter looked every bit as dead and buried at half-time. And then a new team took to the field for the second half. And so we will have a new…

‘I feel like my old self again. It’s a bit of a relief’ Lewis Hamilton second ahead of Kimi Antonelli George Russell scorched to pole position for Sunday’s Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix after Lewis Hamilton narrowly failed to pip him with a thrilling last-ditch effort for Ferrari. Another dramatic qualifying session was stopped early in Q3 when Charles Leclerc, Hamilton’s Ferrari teammate, suffe…

Raducanu to face Jovic later after 6-3, 7-5 win British No 1 falls in second set of quarter-final Everything seemed to be progressing perfectly for Emma Raducanu in the early stages of a day that, in the best case scenario, would require a marathon effort like no other. The British No 1 was in the middle of putting together a cool, efficient performance on a mercifully sunny day in Barons Court. …