International Football – The News Desk

Beer, Euro 2024, and all those cups – what’s going on?

29Jun

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Beer, Euro 2024, and all those cups – what’s going on?

Follow live coverage of Switzerland vs Italy and Germany vs Denmark at Euro 2024 todayThe European Championship has been drenched in beer. In the fan zones and outside the stadiums. On the concourses and in the stands.Everyone has been drenched. Fans, players and, much to the amusement of everyone not wearing a lanyard, journalists, who have been sheltering laptops and walking into press conferences dripping with booze.Get the tiny violins. Possibly a towel.We do need to talk about the plastic cups, which have been cascading down from the stands towards anyone taking a corner or goal kick.The beer first, though.The official sponsor of the tournament is Bitburger, the German brewer, and the concourse bars are exclusively stocked with their products. For matches at the Allianz Arena, for in...

One year of Cristiano Ronaldo in Saudi Arabia

31Dec

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One year of Cristiano Ronaldo in Saudi Arabia

It was one of those rare days when nothing comes off for Cristiano Ronaldo and he cannot conceal his rising frustration.An offside flag denied him a goal and a VAR intervention denied him a penalty before he sent a wild shot and two headers off target in the closing stages of a crucial game. At one stage, he wrestled an opponent to the ground and was perhaps lucky to avoid a red card. As the game slipped away, he kept grimacing, looking to the heavens in disgust, as if to ask what he had done to deserve this.It was another blow for Al Nassr’s Saudi Pro League title hopes and, walking off the pitch at the final whistle, Ronaldo heard mocking chants from the jubilant Al Hilal supporters. “Messi, Messi,” they shouted, trying to taunt him with the name of his great rival.Grinning, he twice gr...

Cho Gue-sung on how his life has changed a year on from the World Cup

14Dec

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Cho Gue-sung on how his life has changed a year on from the World Cup

There can’t be many footballers who have gone from playing for a military team to the cover of Vogue in a few months.But that’s just one of the ways South Korean striker Cho Gue-sung’s life has changed in the last year or so.Last year was a decent one for Cho. He joined Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors, one of Korea’s top teams, in 2020 but took a while to find his feet. He had been a defensive midfielder until only a few years before, moving up front to take better advantage of his 6ft 2in (188cm) height and pace, but he was still relatively young in the position.As Korean players sometimes do, he used his mandatory period of military service as a bit of a reset, and to help improve his physical condition. He joined Gimcheon Sangmu — a team comprised of players on military service that was in the ...

2024 Copa America draw analysis: USMNT verdict, Argentina’s chance of repeating and more

10Dec

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2024 Copa America draw analysis: USMNT verdict, Argentina’s chance of repeating and more

For the second time in a decade, the prestigious Copa America tournament is coming to the U.S. The tournament, which is set to be staged this summer, could be the final act of superstar Lionel Messi in his country’s colors. If it is, he’ll have a chance to close out his international career by winning a third consecutive trophy with Argentina — and doing it in the city where he now resides. The Copa America final will be played in Miami on July 14.GO DEEPERCopa America 2024: Everything we knowOn Thursday, Messi and Argentina learned their path to another trophy — as did every other team hoping to knock off the defending Copa America champions. It didn’t happen without a bit of confusion during the final pot of the draw, when a third CONCACAF team was erroneously drawn into the U.S.’s grou...

Quincy Promes and how Amsterdam’s criminal underworld preys on footballers

3Dec

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Quincy Promes and how Amsterdam’s criminal underworld preys on footballers

When Marylio V was escorted from his cell in Amsterdam’s district court on October 31, his alleged accomplice in a drugs bust involving 1,363kg (3,005lbs) of cocaine with a street value estimated at £65million ($82m) was nowhere to be seen.There was no expectation, however, that Quincy Promes, a Dutch international footballer with 50 caps, would show up.He did not appear at his previous criminal case either. That was in June 2023, when he was found guilty of stabbing his cousin in the knee at a family party where, the court heard, “the Hennessy flowed freely.”The 18-month sentence for that offence is yet to start because Promes, 31, has remained out of reach of the Dutch justice system, having stayed in Russia throughout the trial, playing for Spartak Moscow.Separately, according to the D...

Casement Park – Euro 2028’s derelict stadium caught in a storm of politics and protests

22Nov

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Casement Park – Euro 2028’s derelict stadium caught in a storm of politics and protests

Northern Ireland’s doomed bid to reach the 2024 European Championship will have a suitably downbeat conclusion at Windsor Park in Belfast tonight. Denmark, who ensured their qualification on Friday, are the visitors.It had been hoped this would be a major occasion, a Group H play-off of sorts, with the home side inspired as before by the raucous Windsor Park atmosphere. But it has been a hugely disappointing campaign for Michael O’Neill in his second spell as manager.While Denmark were qualifying, O’Neill’s team were losing 4-0 in Finland, making it seven defeats in the first nine group games. The two exceptions were both against lowly San Marino.There have been mitigating factors — injuries have been decimating. Last week, O’Neill cancelled training as only seven players were available. ...

The kidnap of Liverpool footballer Luis Diaz’s father, as told by his family

19Nov

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The kidnap of Liverpool footballer Luis Diaz’s father, as told by his family

Josher Jesus Brito Diaz thought nothing of it when his phone began to ring.As the man in charge of his cousin’s charity — the Luis Diaz Esperanza Foundation — and part of the Liverpool winger’s immediate circle, life is always busy. Such is the reality of being in the first family of La Guajira, the remote region in northern Colombia that calls Diaz its most famous son.On Sunday, October 29, Josher’s uncle Gaby was up for election to a council seat in Barrancas, a town dominated by the Cerrejon open-cast coal mine where both Josher and his footballer cousin were born. The Saturday had been a day of frantic activity for Josher — driving, carrying and fetching. Diaz’s parents, Luis Manuel Diaz and Cilenis Marulanda, had also been assisting.“We were preparing for the elections the next day,”...

Erling Haaland is rapidly closing in on an international record that has stood since 1934

17Nov

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Erling Haaland is rapidly closing in on an international record that has stood since 1934

Erling Haaland is just six away from Norway’s goalscoring record, so it is surely inevitable that he will soon be his nation’s most prolific striker ever.On one hand, that will have happened remarkably quickly – Haaland only scored his first goals for Norway in 2020. On the other, this has been an incredibly long time coming.GO DEEPERWhat is Haaland really like?Of the 213 FIFA-affiliated nations, Norway’s is the longest-standing outright individual goalscoring record in the world. It was set by Jorgen Juve, a fascinating figure who ended his international career in 1937 and later became a renowned sports journalist in his home country.Juve scored a relatively modest 33 goals in 45 matches for Norway, including five hat-tricks, although his tally is made remarkable by the fact he played as...

How the USWNT lured Emma Hayes away from Chelsea: Inside the near $2 million deal

17Nov

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How the USWNT lured Emma Hayes away from Chelsea: Inside the near $2 million deal

Chelsea Women had created a frenzy. On Nov. 4, the English club released a statement saying their coach Emma Hayes was leaving at the end of the season to “pursue a new opportunity outside of the Women’s Super League and club football.” Hayes had just entered her second decade in charge of the club, and few knew where she would land next.That same day The Athletic, among others, reported that Hayes’ next job would be with the U.S. women’s national team, leading a four-time World Cup and Olympic gold medal-winning program into a new era. On Tuesday, U.S. Soccer made her appointment official.Hayes, who previously won six WSL titles in England, will become the 10th full-time coach of the U.S., but not until her final season with Chelsea is complete next May. Sporting director Matt Crocker ma...

In loss to Germany, USMNT shows it has to evolve in Berhalter’s second cycle

17Oct

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In loss to Germany, USMNT shows it has to evolve in Berhalter’s second cycle

Ahead of Saturday afternoon’s friendly against Germany, U.S. men’s national team coach Gregg Berhalter said games like this were “not about being afraid of the result (or) being afraid of competing, it’s about embracing these moments.”His hope: that in the next three years before the 2026 World Cup, games like this would serve as opportunities to learn what it will take to compete — and beat — the very best in international soccer.The 3-1 loss to Germany in front of a sold-out crowd of 37,743 in East Hartford, Connecticut, however, showed the U.S. still has to evolve – from the team that was eliminated by the Netherlands in the knockout round of the 2022 World Cup to one that can make a deep run on home soil.“We still have a lot of work to do,” center back Tim Ream said bluntly when asked...