Football

4:11 PM ET ORLANDO — As the U.S. men’s national team prepares for Sunday’s World Cup qualifier against Panama, and with the possibility that the U.S. could clinch a spot in Qatar, manager Gregg Berhalter has a simple message for his players: Stick to the process. “I preach to the team about just one game

Mar 24, 2022 Less than five years ago, Ben White was so far removed from top-level football that his typical matchday experience involved a pregame curry and a half-time fistfight. In August 2017, White was sent on a season-long loan to League Two side Newport County by parent club Brighton & Hove Albion, with the

11:38 PM ET Associated Press Lionel Messi says he will reconsider his future in soccer later this year but said it’s likely “many things will change” after the World Cup in November and December in Qatar. Messi’s comments came after Argentina beat Venezuela 3-0 on Friday in the remaining match of the penultimate round of

8:46 AM ET It’s like the old joke about buses: you wait hours for one, and then two come along at once. Except in reverse. Italy went 60 years without missing a World Cup and now, after Thursday’s 1-0 playoff defeat to North Macedonia, they’ve missed the last two buses to the biggest show on

5:00 AM ET MEXICO CITY — The number of times that the United States men’s national team has walked out of Estadio Azteca seething, on the wrong end of a scoreline, are too many to count. Usually it was because the visitors had been subjected to death by 1,000 passes, no match for Mexico‘s methodical

1:22 AM ET MEXICO CITY — It didn’t get the historic win it was looking for, but the United States national team picked up an important point at the Estadio Azteca, taking a significant step toward World Cup qualification in a 0-0 draw with Mexico. Coupled with Panama‘s 1-1 draw with Honduras, the United States

5:46 PM ET Italy will miss out on the World Cup for the second successive tournament after the Euro 2020 winners were stunned by a stoppage-time winner from North Macedonia in Thursday’s playoff semifinal in Palermo. With Italy frustrated for 90 minutes by a heroic North Macedonia defensive performance, Aleksandar Trajkovski, a former Palermo player,

7:00 AM ET Cristiano Ronaldo is one of the biggest names in soccer who could miss out on the tournament. Tim Clayton/Corbis via Getty Images Can you imagine a FIFA World Cup in Qatar without Portugal‘s Cristiano Ronaldo or Egypt‘s Mohamed Salah? Or a tournament in which European champions Italy or African champions Senegal fail to

7:16 PM ET An executive of Peruvian club Universitario Deportes has stated that former Portland Timbers midfielder Andy Polo was paid in full by Major League Soccer and the Timbers despite the MLS club saying his contract was terminated last month, and that Polo was asked by MLS not to sue the league because he

10:51 AM ET The U.S. men’s national team have had a interesting relationship with the World Cup. After appearing in three of the first four competitions (1930, 1950, 1954), the Yanks missed the next nine before returning, in 1990, thanks to a pivotal qualifying goal by Paul Caligiuri in Trinidad & Tobago. (You can see

4:00 AM ET Tor-Kristian Karlsen With Manchester United a long way from recapturing the Premier League trophy they once almost took for granted, the club’s struggles to even secure a top-four finish this season suggest that it’s going to take more than just a few transfers to catch up to the likes of Liverpool and

1:41 AM ET Associated Press The Orlando Pride has apologized after a supporters’ group was told it could not display a banner that said “Gay” at a match this weekend. The Black Swans’ banner was in reference to Florida’s recent legislation dubbed by critics as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. The supporters’ group went to

3:29 PM ET It exists on what can seem like a mythical plane, with an aberrational combination of history, decibels and lack of oxygen leaving the Estadio Azteca peerless in North America. As just one of two stadiums to host the World Cup final twice, along with Rio’s fabled Maracana, few soccer venues can even

4:30 AM ET Ian DarkeESPN.com writer Close Darke, who called games for the network during the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, is ESPN lead soccer voice in the United States. He has covered the Barclays Premier League and the Champions League since 1982, and has one of the world’s most recognizable soccer voices.

11:57 AM ET Jeff Carlisle Close U.S. soccer correspondent Jeff Carlisle covers MLS and the U.S. national team for ESPN FC. Dan Hajducky Close ESPN Hajducky is a reporter/researcher for ESPN. He has an MFA in creative writing from Fairfield University and played on the men’s soccer teams at Fordham and Southern Connecticut State universities.

11:35 AM ET No matter what you read or hear elsewhere, it’s a fact that Real Madrid did not lose this Clasico, in which they were utterly thrashed, “because Karim Benzema was out.” Don’t accept that: It’s glib, it hides some key truths and it is a little typical of the modern obsession with one-phrase

7:52 PM ET Alex Kirkland Rodrigo Faez Manager Carlo Ancelotti took responsibility for Real Madrid‘s 4-0 El Clasico thrashing by Barcelona on Sunday, saying the defeat was “my fault.” Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored twice and Ronald Araujo and Ferran Torres were also on the scoresheet as Barca recorded their biggest Clasico win at the Bernabeu since

6:14 PM ET Barcelona earned a first win over Real Madrid since 2019, dismantling the LaLiga leaders 4-0 at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu, with goals from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (two), Ronald Araujo and Ferran Torres. Here are three thoughts on El Clasico: 1. Xavi has turned Barcelona around Xavi’s first game in charge at Barcelona was