Soccer

5:54 AM ET The Football Association has confirmed that Gareth Southgate will stay on as England manager through to Euro 2024. The 52-year-old already had a contract for another two years but was considering whether to walk away after six years in charge following England’s World Cup quarterfinal exit to France in Qatar. – Stream

6:00 AM ET It’s the World Cup final — France against Argentina, the reigning world champions versus the champions of South America, Kylian Mbappe taking on Lionel Messi — and it will end with one of football’s heavyweight nations winning the World Cup for a third time. Qatar 2022 has had its highlights, including great

7:00 AM ET DOHA, Qatar — One of the upshots of the 2022 World Cup is how tight so many games were, particularly in the knockout stage. I don’t mean in terms of result, I mean in the way the games actually unfolded on the pitch. I realize it’s largely subjective, and you might disagree,

Dec 15, 2022 Military minds are fond of saving that “no plan ever survives first contact with the enemy.” Substitute “opposition” for “enemy” and we have a fair approximation of a situation that Argentina manager Lionel Scaloni has already faced twice in his brief coaching career. One was in his side’s opening game at the

9:35 AM ET France have been hit with a virus that could see the team’s starting centre-back pairing miss the World Cup final, sources have told ESPN. According to sources, Raphael Varane has small symptoms of the virus and fellow defender Ibrahima Konate has not left his room after feeling unwell. – Stream on ESPN+:

10:00 AM ET The 2022 World Cup in Qatar has flown by. Wedged into the middle of the European club season, it has had to. It’s hard to believe that the tournament began 26 days ago, yet so much has transpired in that time, including whittling down a field of 32 to just France and

9:35 AM ET Alex Kirkland Rodrigo Faez Real Madrid have reached an agreement to sign Palmeiras forward Endrick in 2024, the club announced on Thursday. Endrick — who is 16 and will move to Madrid when he turns 18 in July 2024 — is one of the most exciting young talents in Brazilian football. –

3:16 PM ET Back in November, before the World Cup began, I dove into the treasure trove that is StatsPerform’s World Cup charting data archive to look at the trends that have changed and taken over the sport from 1966 to 2018. When did the possession game start to really take over? (1990 or so,

5:05 AM ET The 2022 World Cup draws to a close this weekend, marking the end of an era for the tournament before it rolls into the United States, Mexico and Canada in four years’ time. – World Cup 2022: News and features | Schedule | Bracket The current format, which sees 32 teams drawn

7:55 PM ET The stage is set for the 2022 World Cup final, and it’s going to be a doozy. Lionel Messi and Argentina will take on Kylian Mbappe and defending champions France on Dec. 18 at 10 a.m. ET. Will Messi equal the feat of Argentina icon Diego Maradona while cementing his status as

5:33 PM ET AL KHOR, Qatar — At the final whistle, Morocco coach Walid Regragui embraced his opposite number, France boss Didier Deschamps, who had just guided Les Bleus to a second consecutive World Cup final. Regragui gathered his group of bruised and spent players after Wednesday’s 2-0 defeat into a huddle in the middle

Dec 13, 2022 DOHA, Qatar — Fatima Regragui is in her late 60s. When her son Walid was a professional player — he had spells in the French leagues with teams such as Toulouse and Ajaccio, while also making 45 appearances for Morocco — she never travelled anywhere to see him in action. Not even

5:36 PM ET LUSAIL, Qatar — Lionel Messi has praised Argentina for passing an “acid test” in bouncing back from losing against Saudi Arabia in their opening match to reach the World Cup final. The Sunday showpiece will see Argentina face either France or Morocco after Messi inspired Lionel Scaloni’s side to a 3-0 win

6:54 PM ET AL DAAYEN, Qatar — Knockout tournaments like the World Cup generally require you to finish strong, unlike, say, a league format where you can build up a big lead at the start and hobble first across the finish line. Argentina evidently got the message. On the night that Lionel Messi scored his

5:02 AM ET Adriana Garcia Brazil great Ronaldo believes Neymar and other Brazilian players should have psychological help to deal with the “disproportionate pressure” from the World Cup. Neymar admitted after his team’s World Cup quarterfinal defeat to Croatia on penalties that he was “psychologically destroyed.” “I would advise having a psychological support to withstand

8:00 AM ET Rob DawsonCorrespondent DOHA, Qatar — There’s a spot on the Corniche promenade in Doha where the 2022 World Cup organising committee erected a flag each time a new nation qualified for the tournament. Croatia‘s went up in November 2021. While heavyweights like Germany, Spain, England and Brazil have had theirs removed now

4:32 PM ET Last week, in response to word that the US Soccer Federation was interested in re-signing men’s head coach Gregg Berhalter following a run to the World Cup round of 16, the general world soccer media, and a lot of the sport’s more casual American fans, shrugged their respective shoulders and said, “Yeah,

7:00 AM ET Argentina‘s dance goes on, as their fans sing, to Tuesday’s World Cup semifinal match against Croatia, followed by either a shot at eternal glory in Sunday’s final, or a melancholic end to the Lionel Messi era in Saturday’s third-place consolation game. Barring the gateway to glory are the very opponents against whom,