
Mauricio Pochettino and U.S. suffer big setback in Nations League loss to Panama
Mauricio Pochettino's first major test as coach of the men's national team ended in disaster Thursday when Cecilio Waterman scored deep into stoppage time to give Panama a 1-0 victory in the CONCACAF Nations League semifinals before a tiny crowd at SoFi Stadium, where the Americans will play two of their three group-play matches in next year's 2026 World Cup.
The game marked the second time in seven games under Pochettino that the U.S. was held scoreless and the second time in less than a year that Panama has beaten the U.S. in a tournament. The Central Americans beat the U.S. 2-1 in last summer's Copa América, a result that hastened former coach Gregg Berhalter's firing.
Panama will play the winner of Thursday's second semifinal between Mexico and Canada for the Nations League title on Sunday. The U.S., winner of the three previous Nations League tournaments, will play for third place against the loser.
Panama took a defensive posture from the start, playing with a five-man back line and crowding the midfield with four more, generating what little offense it produced on the counterattack.
And while that well-organized defense frustrated the U.S. for long stretches, the Americans still managed three dangerous chances in the first half, with Josh Sargent striking Panamanian defender Edgardo Fariña with a right-footed shot that caromed off the post in the 19th minute; Weston McKennie sending a header into the midsection of goalkeeper Orlando Mosquera a minute later; and Sargent losing a goal on a shot from the center of the box that beat Mosquera in the 24th minute because Tim Weah was well offside.
The game opened up a bit early in the second half with the best chance by either team coming in the 82nd minute when second-half substitute Patrick Agyemang beat the defense into the box with only Mosquera to beat. But the keeper came up big, pushing the right-footed shot away for his third save of the afternoon.
Four minutes later Agyemang was back, played into the box by Christian Pulisic. But the Charlotte FC striker got his feet tangled trying to get off a shot and chipped his try onto the top of the net.
That set the stage for Waterman's game-winner deep into stoppage time. The winger, who plays club soccer in Chile, took a pass from Adalberto Carrasquilla in the box on the right wing and set a low well-paced shot across the front of the goal and in at the far post. The shot was Panama's first on target in the game and U.S. keeper Matt Turner didn't get a hand on it.
Thursday's semifinal doubleheader was as much a test for the temporary grass carpet laid over SoFi's synthetic Matrix Turf field as it was for the four national teams.
FIFA requires World Cup games to be played on natural surfaces and eight of the 16 stadiums that will be used in next year's tournament have artificial fields. Those venues will have to install grass for the World Cup.
SoFi's 70 x 110-meter field, grown at a sod farm in Washington state, was laid down in strips earlier this month and was used for the first time Thursday. The ersatz surface will remain in place for Sunday's Nations League final and the third-place game as well as for a women's friendly between the U.S. and Brazil next month.
Otto Benedict, the stadium's senior vice-president for facility and campus operations and the person overseeing the project, will study the field's performance with help from FIFA to ensure the surface will be able to hold up under the strain of eight World Cup games in 28 days.
'We are taking readings almost every single hour, if not more than that. We have systems in here that are looking at the ambient temperatures, the ambient moisture,' Benedict said of the multi-million-dollar process.
'It's a learning opportunity. We want to put on the best possible event with the best possible pitch.'
SoFi is the 10th different venue the USMNT has played at in L.A. County, from a 1958 World Cup qualifier against Mexico at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Long Beach to a 2023 friendly against Serbia at BMO Stadium. The U.S. played at four venues in Orange County, including Titan Stadium on the campus of Cal State Fullerton, the site of eight matches.
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Fox Sports
43 minutes ago
- Fox Sports
Azteca Stadium to feature hybrid field, modern amenities for 2026 World Cup
Associated Press MEXICO CITY (AP) — A hybrid field, updated locker rooms, elevators and hospitality zones are among the new features of Azteca Stadium for the 2026 World Cup, the owners said Wednesday. Sports entertainment company Ollamani also confirmed the stadium will reopen March 28, which will be 75 days before the start of the World Cup as Mexico City Mayor Clara Brugada announced recently. 'The centerpiece of the stadium's renovation is the people who visit it. Our main objective is to substantially improve their experience in every way,' stadium director Felix Aguirre said in a statement. The iconic venue closed last May for renovations ahead of next year's 48-team competition hosted by Mexico, the United States and Canada. The 83,000-seat Azteca, which recently was renamed, will host five games including the tournament opener. It also hosted the first matches in the 1971 and 1986 World Cups. Ollamani, which is affiliated with Grupo Televisa, Mexico's largest television network, also said the stadium will have bigger capacity, but did not specify how many extra seats it will have. It will be the second time that Azteca has a hybrid pitch — one was installed in 2018 but returned to natural grass a year later. The poor field conditions in November 2018 forced a last-minute change of venue for an NFL game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Los Angeles Rams. 'The pitch, being subjected to intensive use, will have a new ventilation and suction system, thereby achieving better recovery, stability and resistance,' Ollamani said in a statement. The new locker rooms will be located at the center of the stadium under the luxury boxes and with a tunnel leading to the pitch. Before, they were located in the north and south part of it. 'The project includes new facilities in the competition areas, improving the experience of the player, fans and media in line with the most modern stadiums in the world," the company said. The plan includes installing large LED screens inside and outside the stadium. Before the renovations, the stadium had just two big screens that were installed in 2015. Ollamani did not provided specific details about elevators or escalators. In the past, the only way to move between the lower and upper sections was using an old ramp. The hospitality zones were also a necessity. The old stadium had a small concession area outside the venue, but inside there were no food courts and the fans were forced to buy from the vendors roaming the seating area. Among other renovations, the stadium owners also announced a new press box area, improved restrooms, a 200-unit CCTV surveillance system and a new sound system. Originally, a major renovation was planned including a shopping center and hotel, but residents of Santa Úrsula, a popular neighborhood located south of the capital, opposed them. Ollamani said that the facade and the roof will be renovated 'to improve the stadium appearance without losing its essence.' Earlier in the year, the owners released images of work done on the pitch and the lower seats. The luxury boxes apparently haven't been touched because some owners refuse to release them to FIFA. The box owners recently filed a complaint with Mexico's consumer protection agency seeking clarity over use of the seating for the 2026 World Cup. ___ AP soccer: recommended in this topic


Newsweek
an hour ago
- Newsweek
Christian Roots of the NBA—From Naismith to This Year's 79th NBA Finals
Faith and sports go hand in hand. Quarterbacks quote Bible verses in interviews, and today's top NBA players, from Golden State Warrior star Stephen Curry (verses of scripture adorn his sneakers) to Indiana Pacers sensation Tyrese Halliburton (he cites church as "a big part of my success and my sanity"), count themselves among the 62 percent of Americans who call ourselves Christians. As sports fans nationwide watch the drama of the 79thth NBA Finals unfold, it's worth telling the story of basketball's Christian roots. Indeed, Christianity was the driving force behind the game's origin story. "I want to take you back to the first game of basketball in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1891," Paul Putz, author of The Spirit of the Game: American Christianity and Big-Time Sports, told Our American Stories. "Eighteen grown men, most in their mid-20s, walked into the gym at the International Young Men's Christian Association Training School, where they were students. There were two peach baskets tacked to banisters on opposite sides of the gym, 10 feet off the ground. There was a soccer ball, too, and 13 rules for a new game their instructor, James Naismith, explained to them." Putz described that first game: "They divided into two teams of nine: No dribbling, no jump shots, no dunking. Instead, they passed the soccer ball back and forth, trying to keep it away from their opponents while angling for a chance to throw it into the basket." The inventor of basketball, Dr. James Naismith, stands in a field carrying a ball and a basket. The inventor of basketball, Dr. James Naismith, stands in a field carrying a ball and a basket. There was no template for what a shot might look like, Putz explained. As the players positioned the ball at the top of their heads to toss it toward the basket, a defender would swoop in and grab it away. "If you've ever tried to coach second-graders, it was probably a scene like that—except with big players and beards," Putz said. When the game ended, just one person made a shot. The final score: 1 to 0. To the students—and Naismith—it was a success. The students loved the challenge and possibilities of the game. Naismith loved those things, too. But he loved what the game represented, and why he was at the YMCA Training School in the first place. On his application, he was asked to describe the role for which he was training, and wrote: "To win men for the Master through the gym." Naismith's idea was simple but revolutionary: He believed sports could shape Christian character in ways mere study could not. So who was this man who created one of America's great homegrown sports? "He grew up in rural Canada," Putz said. "His parents died of illness when he was 9, and his uncle, a deeply religious man, took him in. When Naismith was 15, he dropped out of school, working as a lumberjack, but returned to high school at the age of 20 and entered college with the goal of becoming a minister." Most Christians in Naismith's day viewed sports as, at best, a distraction; others saw sports as a tool of the devil. "But Naismith was coming of age during the rise of a new movement called 'Muscular Christianity,'" Putz said. "It pushed back against the dualism that separated the spiritual and physical," Putz explained. "The body itself had sacred value, they believed, and human beings should be understood holistically—mind, body and soul intertwined." For Naismith, this idea came home in an epiphany playing football as a seminary student. During a game, a teammate lost his temper and let out a stream of curse words. During a break, he turned to Naismith and said sheepishly, "I beg your pardon, I forgot you were there." Naismith never spoke out against profanity, but his teammate felt compelled to apologize because, in Naismith's words, "I played the game with all my might yet held myself under control." His teammate was responding to Naismith's character on and off the field. Soon after that encounter, Naismith heard about the YMCA Training School in Springfield, a new college dedicated to connecting physical activity and Christian formation. And away he went to America to invent the game we know and love. "Naismith believed strongly in individual expression, and wanted basketball players to have space to create," Putz explained. "He celebrated inventive moves—like the dribble and the hook shot—and expressed awe as players pushed the limits of what was possible." But Naismith also understood that with freedom came constraints. "Basketball is personal combat without personal contact," Naismith would often say. Players can move anywhere at any time, and get close to their opponents, but can't overpower them physically, Putz explained. The only way to make the game work is consistently applying the rules. Which is why Naismith's favorite role wasn't player or coach but referee. Naismith would become a pioneer on more than one front. In the 1930s, while a professor at the University of Kansas, a young African American student named John McLendon enrolled, Putz explained. "He wanted to join the basketball team—but Kansas didn't allow Black players." Naismith took the young man under his wing, and McLendon would later become one of the most important basketball coaches of the 20th century. Basketball was influenced by Americans of all stripes. "In 1892, Senda Berenson, a Jewish instructor at a women's college, saw basketball as a rare opportunity for women to participate in sports," Putz said. "She adapted the rules and helped make it the most important women's team sport of the 20th century." The Jewish community embraced the game early, producing many of its first stars and innovators. So did Catholics and Latter-day Saints. Basketball also crossed racial and ethnic lines. Though the YMCA was segregated, Black Americans created their own spaces—often through churches—and built thriving basketball cultures, especially in cities like New York and Washington, D.C. It didn't take long for Naismith's creation to became a pluralistic and collaborative force—a gift to the world, developed and shaped by many hands, Putz added. "One of my favorite Naismith stories comes from the 1920s," Putz concluded. "He dropped by a small-college gym in Iowa, and a pickup game was about to begin. The players needed a referee and spotted the old man in the bleachers. One ran over to ask if he'd officiate—but before Naismith could respond, another player interrupted: 'That old man? He doesn't know anything about basketball.' The players walked off to find someone else. Naismith just smiled." The fact is, basketball would not be the game we know and love today if it hadn't been for Naismith's Christian vision. "I'm sure," Naismith wrote near the end of his life, "that no man can derive more pleasure from money or power than I do from seeing a pair of basketball goals in some out of the way place—deep in the Wisconsin woods an old barrel hoop nailed to a tree, or a weather-beaten shed on the Mexican border with a rusty iron hoop nailed to one end." Naismith's story is worth celebrating as we watch the Thunder and Pacers battle for the 79th NBA title.

Miami Herald
an hour ago
- Miami Herald
Countdown to 2026 World Cup has begun, and pressure is on U.S. team to improve
Soccer is making big headlines in the United States this week with the kickoff of the Club World Cup at Hard Rock Stadium on Saturday and celebrations in 11 cities across the country on Wednesday commemorating one year to go to the 2026 World Cup. All 16 World Cup host cities (11 in the United States, three in Mexico and two in Canada) unveiled countdown clocks as part of the festivities. The Miami clock was revealed at the Perez Art Museum (PAMM) in downtown in a ceremony that included city and county officials, the Miami World Cup host committee, and singer Marc Anthony. The clocks will count down to the stroke of midnight on June 11, 2026, when the tournament opens in Mexico City. The first 13 of 48 teams have already qualified, including co-hosts Canada, Mexico and the USA, who get automatic entry. The way things are going for Team USA of late, coach Mauricio Pochettino and the U.S. Soccer Federation are surely grateful for the automatic bid. The U.S. team lost 4-0 to Switzerland in a friendly in Nashville on Tuesday night, with all four goals conceded in the first half. It was the fourth loss in a row for Team USA. Among the headlines following the game: USMNT humiliated by Switzerland 4-0. USMNT thrashed 4-0 by Switzerland in final Gold Cup tune up. First half debacle dooms hapless USMNT in 4-0 friendly loss to Switzerland. Former U.S. national team stars Alexi Lalas and Landon Donovan, now Fox Sports commentators and podcasters, have not minced words in their analysis of Team USA, questioning the heart, work ethic and commitment of some players. Pochettino, an Argentine who was hired last Fall from Tottenham Hotspurs to lead the American squad, has tried to instill more passion and pride in the national badge. 'We're going through a period right now where this team is being looked at in a critical sense, and I think fairly so,' Lalas said on a conference call marking the year to go to the World Cup. 'I think more concerning is a possible apathy that has crept in towards this team. And I never thought if you would ask me, back in 1994, what the summer of 2025 a year away from the World Cup in 2026 would look like that this would be what I would come up with.' Both Donovan and Lalas stressed that there is pressure on the U.S. team to rise to the occasion. 'I also don't want to let this generation off the hook,' Lalas said. 'This is a generation that, over those last 30 plus years, everybody has worked to make sure that they have everything that they possibly need in terms of the opportunities and the resources that they have. 'And with that comes higher expectations, and I do think fair expectations, and so whoever ultimately is on that field come next summer, when that whistle blows, I hope that they recognize the opportunity, and I hope that they recognize the responsibility to further the game.' Donovan said the team's highest profile Europe-based players who have been considered locks to make the World Cup squad might be replaced by hungrier, lesser-known players if they are not careful. 'When you put the U.S. jersey on, or you get invited to a camp, it is a massive responsibility,' Donovan said, adding that he was moved by seeing 30,000 U.S. military members singing the Star Spangled Banner at a 2006 game in Germany. 'That's the level of dedication I think fans want to see.' The last time the United States hosted a men's World Cup was 1994. Lalas said the world will see next year how much soccer progress has been made in this country. 'I think the world is going to be pleasantly surprised by how far we have come in it's still a relatively short period of time, but we still have a ways to go,' Lalas said. 'A World Cup is, for lack of a better word, this circus that comes to town with a huge tent. That tent has gotten bigger, and we want to make sure that we are as welcoming and accommodating as possible, because we recognize that a lot of people are going to come in and maybe again, as far as we've come, they're going to be some people that taste test, and we hope that they get a little taste of it, and they want more, because the circus will leave town. The legacy that it leaves, that's what's important.' Other teams who have punched their tickets to the World Cup are defending champion Argentina, first-time qualifiers Jordan and Uzbekistan, as well as Australia, Brazil, Ecuador, IR Iran, Japan, Korea Republic and New Zealand. The remaining 35 teams will be confirmed by March 2026, when all the regional qualifying tournaments have concluded. World Cup tickets will go on sale to the public in the coming months. Select ticket-inclusive hospitality packages are already available. Additional hospitality packages, including for matches in Canada and Mexico, are set to go on sale in July. Fans can learn more at Messi returns to Inter Miami Lionel Messi raced back to the Inter Miami training facility Wednesday morning to prepare for the Club World Cup following Argentina's 1-1 tie with Colombia Tuesday night in World Cup qualifying. Inter Miami plays Egyptian power Al Ahly in the opening game Saturday night at Hard Rock Stadium. 'I don't think any other player's doing something like that,' said Inter Miami defender Ian Fray. 'They just played [Tuesday night] at 8 o'clock and he was already back and came straight from the airport in his full Argentina kit. You just look at that and say, `This guy's ready.' It just shows you he's taking really seriously, which you'd expect. It elavates all of our levels by being there.'