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American midfielder Johnny Cardoso uncertain for CONCACAF Gold Cup quarterfinal against Costa Rica

American midfielder Johnny Cardoso uncertain for CONCACAF Gold Cup quarterfinal against Costa Rica

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — American midfielder Johnny Cardoso is uncertain for Sunday's CONCACAF Gold Cup quarterfinal against Costa Rica because of an ankle injury.
The 23-year-old started friendlies against Turkey and Switzerland this month, didn't dress for the Americans' tournament opener against Trinidad and Tobago and made late-game substitute appearances in group stage games against Saudi Arabia on June 19 and Haiti last Sunday.
'We need to assess,' coach Mauricio Pochettino said Saturday. "Today, he didn't participate with the team. He suffered a little issue in his ankle, and we'll see tomorrow if he can be on the bench or not."
The winner of Sunday's game plays Canada or Guatemala on Wednesday in St. Louis.
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Diversity is not what's dragging down U.S. men's national team. Data proves it
Diversity is not what's dragging down U.S. men's national team. Data proves it

USA Today

time44 minutes ago

  • USA Today

Diversity is not what's dragging down U.S. men's national team. Data proves it

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His findings are similar to those in a study by Michel Beine, Silvia Peracchi and Skerdilajda Zanaj that looked at ancestral diversity and its impact on a national team's performance. "Ancestral diversity and performance: Evidence from football data," published in the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization in September 2023, found ethnic diversity can lead to an additional goal scored per game. 'The idea is, basically, that more genetic diversity is going to allow more complementary skills between players,' Beine said. 'Soccer is a game in which complementary skills is very important because you have different positions and these different positions, they require different type of skills. … These complementarities, these different type of skills are going to be beneficial for the team.' Look at France. Les Bleus won the men's World Cup in 2018 and were runners-up in 2022 with a team that was a melting pot. In addition to players whose parents and grandparents and great-grandparents and — you get the idea — were born in France, about half the team was born in Africa or the French Caribbean, or had parents who were. England, much to the country's consternation, endured decades of frustration after winning the World Cup in 1968. But it has reached the final at the last two European Championship and got to the semifinals of the 2018 World Cup with a multiracial team. Belgium had its best finish ever at the World Cup in 2018, third place, with a team that reflected the influence of immigration to that country in the 1950s and 1960s. Conversely, teams that are homogenous — Iceland, for example, or Japan — don't fare as well. 'This mixing, in terms of skills, in terms of genetic endowment, we show in the statistical analysis that, over time, countries benefited from immigration flows and diverse immigration flows. … They improved their soccer performances,' Beine said. 'On the contrary, you have countries who had very little immigration flows and who have kept quite a homogeneous population … maybe they have less benefited from this.' Soccer is a global game — and not only because it's played everywhere in the world. Players routinely move from country to country in their club careers, and that is likely to have far more influence than the country in which they were born or the neighborhood in which they grew up. Lionel Messi was born in Argentina, moved to Spain at 13 and spent two decades at Barcelona before going to France to play for Paris Saint-Germain. Now he's in the United States, playing for Inter Miami. Do you really think him being from Rosario has more of an impact on Argentina's national team than what he learned at Barcelona? "The evidence is very clear that diversity is something that can be beneficial. And it is a little bit overlooked by people,' Beine said. 'I think that sometimes people are not looking at the evidence. Or they are closing their eyes on what is really obvious.' And that is that. The USMNT, much like the country it represents, is better for its diversity. Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour.

Carlos Alcaraz loves playing on grass and is trying to win a third Wimbledon title in a row
Carlos Alcaraz loves playing on grass and is trying to win a third Wimbledon title in a row

Hamilton Spectator

timean hour ago

  • Hamilton Spectator

Carlos Alcaraz loves playing on grass and is trying to win a third Wimbledon title in a row

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WATCH: Wisconsin basketball star John Tonje reacts to his NBA Draft selection
WATCH: Wisconsin basketball star John Tonje reacts to his NBA Draft selection

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timean hour ago

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WATCH: Wisconsin basketball star John Tonje reacts to his NBA Draft selection

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