GUADALAJARA, Mexico — Spain, ranked second in the FIFA rankings and the favorite to win the World Cup, did not play its best game, but did enough late Friday to defeat Uruguay 1-0 and eliminate the South American team in one of the most anticipated matches of the first round.
Spain finished first in Group H, while first-time participant Cape Verde advanced in second place with just three points, the result of three draws. Uruguay was eliminated from the tournament with only two points, following two draws and one loss.
For much of the match on Friday, Spain lacked better offensive coordination ahead of facing more dangerous opponents in the upcoming do-or-die rounds.
Alex Baena scored a goal in the 42nd minute by connecting with the ball after a cross from the right. The ball slipped past goalkeeper Fernando Muslera, who at first seemed to have no trouble blocking the shot, but the ball found the back of the net, making all the difference on Friday night in Guadalajara in front of 45,065 fans — most of whom were rooting for Spain. Muslera did not return for the second half and was replaced by Sergio Rochet.
“We have to celebrate because, honestly, it’s hard to finish first in a group like this,” said Baena, a midfielder for Atlético Madrid.
“It was a physically demanding match — extremely intense — and we rose to the occasion,” said Spain coach Luis de la Fuente, who emphasized that winning the World Cup requires winning tough matches against tough teams like Uruguay.
“I’m proud of this team because they want to keep growing. I have complete faith in this team. We’re where we are, and that’s exactly where we wanted to be,” added De la Fuente, who noted that the team needed to improve its fluidity of play.
Uruguay failed to beat Saudi Arabia or Cape Verde — two teams that, on paper, seemed inferior at the start of the tournament. Coach Marcelo Bielsa’s team couldn’t find its rhythm or play at its best.
“I wasn’t able to bring out the full potential of Uruguay’s players,” Bielsa said, visibly shaken by his failure with the Uruguayan national team. “What I’m leaving behind for Uruguayan soccer is nothing, because any contribution a coach might make to the soccer of a country where he worked for three years never takes root if results aren’t achieved.”
At the end of the match, Uruguay’s Agustín Canobbio was sent off after committing a hard foul on Spanish defender Pau Cubarsí in the 95th minute, prompting several Uruguayan players to protest the decision by U.S. referee Ismail Elfath.
For Bielsa and Uruguay, this marks the end of an era in which many believe the Argentine coach lost control of the locker room and his relationship with the media became strained because of his eccentric and explosive personality, but, above all, a lack of wins.
Cape Verde will face Argentina in the round of 32 on Friday in Miami. Spain will face the second-place finisher in Group J, which will be determined late Saturday by the match between Algeria and Austria. The game will be played at SoFi Stadium.
The match was the fourth and final World Cup game played in Guadalajara. Before the game began, a minute of silence was observed in memory of the victims of the earthquakes in Venezuela. So far, Venezuelan authorities have reported that more than 900 people have died and that thousands are missing.
For the second straight year, the City Section is allowing a pilot program of high schools forming a boys flag football league as its popularity grows.
This year’s group of high school participants is expected to double in size between eight and 16 teams, City Section commissioner Vicky Lagos said. All will be small charter schools. Last year, several teams that temporarily dropped 11-man football, Sotomayor and Torres, had flag teams in a league that was played in the fall. Sotomayor and Torres will have 11-man teams this season.
When Lagos mentioned the pilot boys flag football league at an 11-man coaches meeting this month, there was clear skepticism voiced by coaches. If boys flag football ever gets approved, Lagos said schools would have to choose between having an 11-man team or a flag team. When Lagos mentioned having the flag season in the spring, there was concern it would take away participants from track and field teams.
This issue figures to come up around the state as schools in the California Interscholastic Federation have similar discussions. Flag football is likely to gain a boost in exposure when it is played at the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
Lagos points out that boys flag football participants would be different than 11-man. Middle school students engage in flag football and attract students whose parents don’t want them to play 11-man tackle football for fear of head injuries.
Girls flag football is in its fourth year and rising fast. Adding boys flag football is a debate and issue that will need to be addressed in the future.
Ron Nocetti, executive director of the CIF, said a section must first bring up adding boys flag football as a sport before real discussions can begin.
Philip Doyle, who led Ireland to the Women’s Six Nations Grand Slam as head coach in 2013, has died aged 61.
He had two spells in the role, leading the side for three years after being appointed as Kevin West’s successor in 2003 before returning in 2010.
Doyle enjoyed success in the second stint as he steered Ireland to a first Six Nations Grand Slam in 2013, a first win over New Zealand and a fourth-placed finish at the 2014 World Cup.
He stood down after that tournament and went on to take over as Scotland women’s boss in 2019, but left that role a year later due to the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic.
He also had spells coaching Blackrock College women’s team and Ulster Rugby’s women’s team.
Leading tributes, Blackrock College said there was “profound sadness” and described Doyle, affectionately known as ‘Goose’, as “the most influential coach in the history of women’s rugby”.
The club added: “At Blackrock, Goose was far more than a list of achievements. He was a mentor, a friend, a storyteller, and a constant source of encouragement.
“He cared deeply about the people he coached. He gave players confidence, challenged them to be better, and reminded everyone around him why rugby is such a special game.”
“Few people have done more to advance the women’s game in Ireland and fewer still have done it with such charisma, warmth, humility and generosity of spirit.”
Former German player’s comments that ‘African football’ is ‘a bit unorthodox sometimes, a bit wild’ sparked controversy.
Published On 26 Jun 202626 Jun 2026
Even in one of the most joyous moments in his country’s footballing history, Ivory Coast manager Emerse Fae found himself managing sadness over the remarks of a former role model that have sparked debate about potential racist connotations.
But afterwards, Fae was asked to respond to analysis given by former German midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger on German public TV ahead of Germany’s 2-1 win over the Ivorians in both teams’ second Group E match in Toronto.
Here is how DW.com characterised what Schweinsteiger said: “Ahead of the Group E clash in Toronto, which Germany won 2-1, Schweinsteiger said in his role as a pundit for German public broadcaster ARD that the Ivorians played ‘African football’, which he characterised as ‘a bit unorthodox sometimes, a bit wild, not quite as tactical.’”
In his response, Fae noted how he once admired the former Bayern Munich man so much that he sometimes was called “Bastian” by his friends.
“I think it’s sad,” said the 42-year-old Fae, who is only several months older than the 41-year-old Schweinsteiger. “He was a very, very good player; a great player.
“I’ve always loved him, personally. As a midfielder, I’ve always liked the way he played, the way he understood football. … So when I heard his comments, I was disappointed, disappointed in the man.
“Because when you know football the way he knows it, it’s odd that you would speak that way, which we could call racist if we were calling a spade a spade, but that’s the way it is.”
Schweinsteiger played parts of 13 seasons for Bayern Munich, helping the German club giants win eight league titles and one UEFA Champions League crown. Internationally, he was a key contributor to Germany’s 2014 World Cup-winning squad.
He has not publicly commented on the remarks in the days since.
On Thursday, Fae’s side got the better of one of the game’s most famous managers, the 78-year-old Dick Advocaat, who, in guiding Curacao, was managing in his third World Cup.
Fae’s group also earned a 1-0 victory to open the tournament against Ecuador, a team that came into this World Cup unbeaten in 19 matches and hailed for its defensive solidity.
“I can’t change the way he talks,” Fae said of Schweinsteiger.
“But all I can do is show on the pitch that Africa is not just the physical game. We are very technical as well, very tactical. And all I can hope is that this was just a clumsy statement, that it wasn’t particularly reflective of what’s in his mind.”
Shohei Ohtani was the first Dodger to be named a 2026 All-Star, after leading the majors in Phase 1 voting for the All-Star game on July 14 in Philadelphia. Six other Dodgers were finalists through the fan ballot, giving them a chance to claim starting spots in Phase 2 of voting.
Ohtani locked down the starting DH spot for the National League squad, with 3,341,257 votes. The top vote-getters in each league bypass Phase 2. Second baseman Ernie Clement of the Toronto Blue Jays was the top vote-getter in the Amlerican League, with 3,232,932 votes.
Ohtani was the expected choice, despite a slow offensive start. His red-hot June boosted him up the leaderboards. He entered Thursday with the second-highest OPS in the National League (.963), barely trailing Mets outfielder Juan Soto (.965).
Pitchers aren’t chosen through the fan vote — hurlers and reserves have to wait for the player ballot (which includes votes from players, coaches and managers) and commissioners picks. But Ohtani has been just as impressive on the mound this year.
He has a 1.58 ERA, the fourth-best mark among NL pitchers who have thrown at least 50 innings this season.
Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman (2,666,008 votes), third baseman Max Muncy (2,890,181) and outfielder Andy Pages (2,158,664) also led their respective NL position groups in voting. Other Dodgers finalists, who advance to voting Phase 2, include catcher Will Smith (1,871,805), shortstop Mookie Betts (1,762,343 ) and outfielder Teoscar Hernandez (1,569,932).
The vote totals reset for Phase 2, which runs from next Monday through Thursday. The remainder of the All-Star starters are set to be announced on July 4 on Fox Sports.
A bowl of lemons sits on a table in the conference room Mauricio Pochettino has turned into an office at the U.S. men’s soccer team’s beachfront resort in south Orange County. The citrus fruit, the coach believes, has the spiritual ability to absorb negative energy. On the corner of another table, the flame from a candle flickers.
“I like candles,” says Pochettino, who believes they release therapeutic fragrances and create a calming environment.
But it is the massive, blood-red mural covering the entire south side of the room that truly reveals what Pochettino believes. In the center of the wall, just behind the coach’s desk, white block letters spell out “Why Not” above a script “U.S.,” which, despite the periods, is meant to be read as “us.”
Pochettino has turned the question in a mantra for a World Cup team that has answered it with two wins in as many games and has a chance to win a third match in the tournament for the first time when it meets Turkey at SoFi Stadium on Thursday.
The idea came to him during a team meeting last November when he sensed his players had doubts about their upcoming World Cup run. So Pochettino turned those doubts into a question. If South Korea could come from nowhere and make the semifinals of the 2002 World Cup, and if Morocco could do the same four years ago in Qatar, why not the U.S.?
Why not us?
“Hey, come on, guys, are you listening to me?” Pochettino said he asked the group. “We need to believe.”
Before he could convince his players, however, he had to convince himself. And that might have been the hardest part.
The 54-year-old Pochettino is a benevolent Svengali with a whistle; Ted Lasso with an Argentine accent. Belief isn’t so much a concept for him as it is a way of life. But when he and his coaching staff took over the U.S. team in the fall of 2024, following its disastrous performance in the Copa América, he said he inherited a demoralized, dispirited group.
“We received a big bang,” Pochettino said, mimicking a punch to the face. “We were knock[ed] out for a while.”
“We were so naive,” he continued. “The situation was way worse than we really believed.”
Pochettino refused to change the system that has brought him success at European clubs Tottenham, Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea. So he set out to change the players instead. That would take time, something he had very little of since he took over with the World Cup just 20 months away.
“It’s difficult to analyze the process, you know,” Pochettino said during an informal, 40-minute discussion at his team’s Dana Point hotel, the sun setting over the ocean through the open patio doors of his office.
“When you put the seed on the soil, [the] first seed, you don’t see nothing. Then you start to grow the tree. It was difficult to explain the plant because it’s not easy.”
The seed Pochettino planted with the national team took time to sprout. He lost five of his first 10 games, including a disastrous four-game stretch that included Nations League losses to Panama and Canada in the spring of 2025. The team’s supporters revolted, but Pochettino rejoiced.
“What happened, that was [a] good crash,” he said. “When we detect all the problems, we go for the solution. And we knew that the solution will arrive. The object is to challenge people.”
U.S. men’s soccer coach Mauricio Pochettino during the second half of his team’s World Cup match vs. Paraguay at SoFi Stadium.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
So he stayed the course.
“That was the process. Now is not a coincidence,” he said of the team’s success.
Pochettino has long believed that building a roster isn’t about picking the best players, but picking the right players. Players who fit his tactical approach, players who get along with one another, players who contribute to the team chemistry.
For him, the human connection, human respect is as important — if not more important — than the ability to dribble through tight spaces. And those traits are particularly important in a World Cup since the team will spend every day together for six weeks or more.
Although Pochettino’s team includes 13 holdovers from the 2022 World Cup roster, it also includes five players who made their national team debuts in the last 18 months.
Sometimes, he concluded, it is easier to simply change the player than it is to change what the player thinks or believes. And the newbies have totally bought in.
“We’re all in total belief. We’re all totally supportive and have faith in the process that he’s been outlining,” said goalkeeper Matt Freese, who made his first appearance for the national team more than 12 months ago and now is starting in a World Cup. “Our task was to keep believing, keep working hard and keep trusting. And we did that. We fully bought into the process.”
That process has made Pochettino the first U.S. coach to win a group stage in 16 years while his two victories in as many games match Bruce Arena, the most successful World Cup coach in U.S. history, who managed eight games over two tournaments.
The lemons and candles Pochettino keeps in his office are manifestations of energia universal or universal energy, a foundational concept common to many Eastern philosophies that believe a fundamental life force connects all things. Pochettino said he has long felt this connection and it has been a foundational part of his coaching.
But it doesn’t stop with the candles and citrus fruit. Pochettino also has filled the mural behind his desk with inspirational sayings.
“The talent has brought us here, but it is heart, effort and unity that will make us unforgettable,” one reads.
“If I dream of touching the moon, maybe I can get close to it. If I only dream of getting close, I’ll stay on Earth,” another says.
Each ends with the coach’s initials, similar to the way a painter signs his portraits.
Pochettino’s faith in the power of fruit and candles and his penchant for penning aphorisms hasn’t taken away from the ferociousness of his approach to soccer. Many players say the training sessions under Pochettino — which are intricate, focused and highly physical — are frequently more intense than the games. But most also are punctuated with laughter.
“Training is still very competitive, it’s very intense,” said midfielder Max Arfsten, who made his national team debut under Pochettino last year. “That’s the culture that the coaches created. Everyone’s still trying to prove something.”
Although Pochettino has spent his life in Argentina and Europe and still splits his time between houses in Barcelona and London, flying to the U.S. for matches and training camps, he’s been a quick study in this country’s culture and quirks.
“One of the things that we really like, and we learn from you, is in the way that you approach life. It’s more casual than formal,” said the coach, whose English is still a work in progress. “People are very approachable and make you feel comfortable. That, for me, was a massive surprise. You always want to welcome people.
“Even the music, even the food. People say ‘no, Americans have crazy food.’ Yes, you have crazy food. But also you have Whole Foods. In Europe, you don’t have a Whole Foods.”
And Pochettino has adopted it all. He’s become a big fan of country artist Lainey Wilson, went to hear Teddy Swims, a uniquely American genre-blending singer, last winter in New York, and is learning the words to John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads,” the unofficial victory anthem of the World Cup team.
Perhaps more important, at times he’s taken his lemons and his candles and pushed them aside, replacing them with another distinctly American trait: the in-your-face confidence to will yourself to victory from the most hopeless situations.
It’s how Americans won at Valley Forge even before they were Americans and how they won on the beaches of Normandy when the concept of America was threatened. It’s how Americans went to the moon and invented the internet.
“We’re American. We don’t take s—,” midfielder Sebastian Berhalter said Pochettino told the team during one meeting. “Even though he’s Argentinian, he has that mindset of, ‘Look, this is what we do. This is who we are. This is what America’s about.’ Even from an outside perspective, he showed us Americans what we’re about.
“He really drills that into us.”
For decades Americans have measured World Cup success in advancing beyond the group stage. Pochettino entered this summer’s tournament predicting a run to the semifinals, runs like South Korea and Morocco made.
“When people believe in each other, impossible dreams become possible,” reads another message the coach has scratched onto the wall of his office.
Hearts are moving closer to appointing Belgian football’s manager of the year, Wouter Vrancken, as the club’s new head coach.
The 47-year-old left hometown club Sint-Truiden this summer after leading them to third place in the Belgian Pro League – their highest finish in 60 years – in his first full season in post.
Derek McInnes departed Hearts for Rangers last week after taking the club to second place last season, missing out on a first title since 1960 on the final day to Celtic.
Hearts are now close to confirming his replacement. Vrancken is set to take charge of a first club outside his homeland after impressive spells at Sint-Truiden and Genk, whom he took to the brink of the Belgian title in 2023.
Having started his coaching career in Belgium’s lower leagues, his return to the top flight was as assistant at another of his former clubs, Kortrijk.
He took over as boss of Mechelen in 2018 and led them to promotion and the Belgian Cup in the same season before three top-eight finishes in the top flight.
Cameras flash, capturing VIP guests emerging from luxury cars.
It has all of the makings of a Hollywood premiere.
Only the carpet that lines the entrance is royal blue instead of scarlet red. The “stars” are teenage football players on recruiting visits. The luxury car is parked on the turf of Spaulding Field. And the Hollywood show is in Westwood.
Despite the parallels, the feeling remains the same — something is brewing within the UCLA football program and it may yield awards.
And no group has felt the smoke of the Chesney Train more than the 2027 recruiting class.
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The Bruins boast the No. 12 recruiting class in the nation and fourth best in the Big Ten, improvements of 50 and 11 spots, respectively, from the previous year, according to 247Sports’ composite rankings. UCLA had not produced a top-15 class since 2016.
Chesney’s inaugural group features 22 commits, including six four-star recruits, and is headlined by five-star defensive back Juju Johnson, who ranks as the third-best recruit from California and the second-best cornerback in the nation, per 247Sports.
However, to UCLA football general manager Darrick Yray — who spent the last four seasons at Florida State, signing a top-20 class each year — stars and rankings mean nothing without fit.
“It starts and stops with being developed in all areas, socially, academically, spiritually and athletically,” Yray said. “Those four pillars of a young man, we’re trying to attract here, but also are they going to fit in all four of those areas of what we are and what we hold our standard to. They need to be a great steward of what it means to be a student-athlete at UCLA.”
After a talk with my family and god I’m shutting my recruitment down and I’m 100% locked in with UCLA. Very happy to be apart of the bruin family and excited to ball out in my city. #GOBRUINNSSSS🧸🧸🧸🧸 @UCLApic.twitter.com/CGbD2ELDCI
Chesney underscored a similar message during spring practices, illustrating that being a Bruin does not stop once you leave the gridiron.
Talent sets the foundation for what the coaching staff looks for, but character sets the ceiling for what they can become, Yray said.
And this motto is central to the staff’s recruitment efforts.
“You want guys who are intrinsically motivated rather than extrinsically,” Yray said. “It’s easy to get up when everyone’s watching and there’s 80,000 people in front of you. It’s what you’re doing when no one’s looking, it’s how you’re working, it’s how you’re studying. We want to be consistent across the board in everything that we do.”
These efforts partly were to cultivate connections in an area saturated with talent, but also to establish relationships in an area Chesney has little experience in.
Providing accessibility also means instilling transparency.
Some players may not fit for UCLA, and UCLA may not fit for some players. And the only litmus test of finding the personnel who will thrive in the Chesney system is forming relationships off the field — allowing authenticity to rise to the top.
“It comes back to relatability. It’s not just football, it’s not just transactional, and it can’t be that way, in order for this to work,” Yray said. “I want to be genuine, and that’s what we want to be here too. This is what you’re going to get. It’s not going to change six months later. That’s how we’re going to be 24/7.”
It was this relatability and energy that drew in four-star wide receiver Kingston Celifie.
The Calabasas product — who boasted offers from California, Arizona and Kansas — first noticed Chesney’s energy on the field, seeing him run around to every position group and even get involved in drills.
But after more conversations, the staff’s collective determination to not only revitalize the program but also develop the whole individual gave Celifie confidence in UCLA, prompting the wide receiver to shut down his recruitment.
“Coach Chesney, he has great energy, which I was attracted to, and ultimately that’s why I committed. I just felt like it was home,” Celifie said. “I feel comfortable here. The official visit, everyone was celebrating all the accomplishments, and I really got to see the coaches outside of the football life, which was great.”
The acquisition of Celifie not only signified a major addition to the 2027 class, but also marked the start of the Bruins keeping homegrown talent in Los Angeles.
In making recruits feel at home when they’re on campus, it is imperative to make sure every part of their visit is tailored to them, Yray said.
While showing off the perks of the program and Los Angeles — through visits to Santa Monica and VIP tours from Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, a UCLA alum — is an integral part of the process, each recruit requires something different to ensure that the experience is what Yray called an “all-inclusive vacation.”
“What are the areas that are going to change their opinion of someplace, and are you checking off those boxes to make sure that they’re having the best experience every single time that they come here,” Yray said. “It can’t be a cookie-cutter mentality; it has to be individualized. If you were going somewhere, you want to have the best experience possible for 24 hours straight.”
Visits are not just a uniform formality, they are a one-of-a-kind experience.
JSerra’s Godschoice Eboigbodin is a 6-foot-5, 260-pound defensive end from Nigeria.
(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)
And no visit may have been more special than that of three-star edge Godschoice Eboigbodin.
During at-home visits with defensive ends coach Sam Daniels, the JSerra product was able to connect on a personal level with Daniels, describing him as “family” and “just another one of my friends.”
And at Eboigbodin’s official visit at UCLA, his birth family from Nigeria and host family in Southern California were able to come together for the first time, celebrating his accomplishments and giving the future Bruin confidence that UCLA was home.
“That was the first time both my families met — my real parents and my parents here. I was so excited,” Eboigbodin said. “That is why I had a really good time at my official visit at UCLA because it was really cool having them meet each other, connecting the families together. I was ecstatic.”
Chesney has yet to coach a game at UCLA, let alone one at the Power Four level. Yet, the momentum he has generated is real.
Not only is the 2027 recruiting class exceptional, but also the transfer class that will make up the majority of next season’s starters is excited to build the foundation of the program.
“Guys are bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, coming to work every single day,” Yray said. “We’re excited at the opportunity as a staff of what this presents, and we get to do this, at the greatest place in the world to do it. There’s no better location, there’s no better rich history. There’s really no excuse … to not have success here.”
Record-setting baseball team takes home hardware
From left, UCLA’s Dean West, Roch Cholowsky, Mulivai Levu and Roman Martin share pregame vibes before a 3-2 loss to Saint Mary’s during an NCAA regional at Jackie Robinson Stadium on May 29.
(Scott Strazzante/For The Times)
Since our last UCLA Unlocked newsletter, the Bruins baseball team earned more hardware.
UCLA first baseman Mulivai Levu was named an ABCA/Rawlings Gold Glove winner for the second consecutive season, becoming the first Bruin to win multiple Gold Gloves.
Levu had a .996 fielding percentage while committing two errors all season. He converted 446 putouts, had 21 assists and assisted on 42 double plays.
UCLA coach John Savage was named the Skip Bertman Coach of the Year by the College Baseball Foundation.
The Bruins were 52-8, matching the program record for wins, and their 48-6 regular-season mark was the best in school history. UCLA became the first wire-to-wire No. 1 team, opening and closing the season atop the top 25 in every major poll.
Named after the first coach inducted into the College Baseball Hall of Fame, the coach of the year award celebrates leaders on and off the field.
“I am truly honored to receive this award. Having Skip Bertman’s name on the trophy says everything,” Savage said in a news release. “He’s the legend of legends in this game. As a young coach out West, I always admired and looked up to Skip.”
Savage is the third-longest-tenured coach in UCLA baseball history and has a 776-489-2 record.
Junior shortstop Roch Cholowsky earned first-team All-America honors from Perfect Game, the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Assn., American Baseball Coaches Assn./Rawlings and Baseball America. Cholowsky hit .320 with 21 home runs, 60 RBIs and 73 runs scored while anchoring UCLA’s infield defense with a .965 fielding percentage. He ranked among the national leaders in OPS (1.088), slugging (.636) and on-base percentage (.452), starting all 60 games at shortstop.
Outfielder Will Gasparino was named a first team All-American by the NCBWA. Gasparino hit .314 with 20 home runs, 64 RBIs and 99 hits, finishing among the conference leaders in extra-base hits and total bases. He also posted a perfect 1.000 fielding percentage with 114 putouts.
Closer Easton Hawk earned first-team NCBWA and first-team ABCA/Rawlings All-America honors after posting a 1.93 ERA with 14 saves and 52 strikeouts across 34 appearances, holding opponents to a .187 average. He gave up nine earned runs all season.
Levu and pitchers Wylan Moss and Logan Reddemann earned second-team All-America honors from the NCBWA, while pitcher Angel Cervantes was named to the Perfect Game Freshman All American team.
Do you have a comment or something you’d like to see in a future UCLA newsletter? Email newsletters editor Houston Mitchell at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
McDermott’s relationship with Queiroz goes back to 2011 and has spanned three different national teams with two spells at Iran as well as one at Qatar and now Ghana, but it was a mutual connection that got the ball rolling for the two to meet.
“Carlos was considering the Iran job in 2011 and my former head coach in the USL in America was Carlos’ long-term goalkeeper coach. I was already in the Middle East, working in Abu Dhabi for a club team and the conversations started. I met Carlos in Doha, we talked and myself and two other staff members joined Carlos and accepted the Iran job and that was the start of it,” he explained.
While he did not accompany Queiroz to Colombia or Egypt, instead taking over at the “mighty Glentoran” where he won an Irish Cup, McDermott did not hesitate in following him to Qatar and now to Ghana after a spell with League of Ireland First Division side Cobh Ramblers.
“Here we are again, another brilliant project with a brilliant football nation. It’s an opportunity I don’t think anyone can say no to, to work with the Ghana football team and Carlos again, it’s been brilliant.”
While many managers and their coaching staff have a few months to plan everything from travel to squad selection for the World Cup, Queiroz and McDermott did not have that luxury.
Appointed in April, they did not get to work with their full 26-man squad until the end of May, with just one full training session before a 1-1 friendly draw against Wales on 2 June and a flight to the US the next day.
“The logistics and travel were already in place, we tweaked them a little,” he said. “A big group of our players didn’t arrive until 30 May and we didn’t have a full training session until 31 May.
“We had two days, played Wales and flew the next day to the US. We had to submit our 26-man list before we even played Wales but the players have been brilliant to work with.”
Their last-minute preparations do not seem to have hampered things on the pitch, with Ghana beating Panama 1-0 in their opening Group L game in Toronto, courtesy of a 95th-minute winner from Caleb Yirenkyi.
McDermott has been impressed with how the squad has gelled off the pitch and their musical talents.
“When they are together, as you can see from social media, there is a bond and it’s new to me. I’ve been around the Middle East, Asia, Ireland and US and have had groups with good atmospheres but this, it’s hard to express it. I stand sometimes and just enjoy it,” he said.
“It was the night before we played Panama in the hotel and they have a tradition where the day before their first game after the training session they have a prayer and a song.
“The song went from the pitch and carried on to the 30-minute bus to the hotel and carried on to the hotel and once they got going they got going, it went on for an hour and a half. When you see the positive energy it gives them it’s nice. My foot started tapping!”
‘If he starts … or if he gets substituted, it’s fine – it is his role as a player,’ Egypt coach Hossam Hassan says.
Published On 21 Jun 202621 Jun 2026
Egypt coach Hossam Hassan has dismissed talk of unrest involving talisman Mohamed Salah, insisting there were no issues within the squad as they prepare to face New Zealand in their crucial World Cup Group G match at BC Place, Vancouver.
“Salah is an important player for our squad, and the 26 players who are here with me are very important,” Hassan told reporters on Sunday.
“Every player who has worked with me knows I deal with them in a professional manner. I do not have favourites.”
Salah, 34, scored nine goals in the qualifying campaign and provided an assist for Emam Ashour in their opener with Belgium. He was substituted in the 76th minute of that 1-1 draw in Seattle, with highly-rated teenager Hamza Abdelkarim coming on.
Salah walks off the pitch after getting substituted in the match against Belgium [Lee Smith/Reuters]
New Zealand also opened their campaign by sharing the points in a 2-2 draw with Iran in Los Angeles, leaving the group finely poised ahead of Sunday’s encounter.
Hassan insisted all was well in the Egyptian camp.
“Salah is a great player who helps his teammates. He has a lot of discipline and is a role model,” he said.
“If he starts … or if he gets substituted, it’s fine. It is his role as a player. Everyone knows that I am working for the benefit of the team and the national side.
“Rumours are being spread about stars, about players, about teams. But Salah is someone who is very disciplined,” he added.
“He trains with us. He’s the first player that would also say yes to my decisions as a technical director. So I think he will be very positive tomorrow.”
Egypt and New Zealand are both targeting their first-ever World Cup win to boost their chances of reaching the knockout stage. The Egyptians are appearing in their fourth finals.
“We want to present something very positive,” Hassan said.
“We want to show that we have talent, not as something new, but as something that the African national squads have always had as a tradition throughout generations of footballers in Africa, for us and for international football.
“We drew in the first match, and we want to win and secure these points. This is our ambition for tomorrow. This is the ambition of the Egyptian people, for Egyptian football and for African football as well. We are representing all of these people, and we really hope to perform.”
GUADALAJARA, Jalisco — Before the World Cup, critics and fans of the Mexican national team debated whether Javier Aguirre’s third stint as head coach was the right decision. Two games later, the coach has led Mexico to the tournament’s knockout round.
Thursday’s 1-0 victory over South Korea at Guadalajara Stadium made the World Cup co-host the first in the tournament to advance while also clinching the top spot in Group A with one group play game remaining. After South Korea’s goalkeeper fumbled a ball, Luis Romo scored the goal that gave the Mexicans six points and pushed them to the top of the standings.
El Tri will close out the first round against Czechia (6 p.m.) at Azteca Stadium on Wednesday.
During his post-match news conference, Aguirre spoke less about the result and more about the journey that led him to this moment. At 67 and having coached Mexico in three World Cups, he explained that his experience allowed him to approach a match he described as eminently tactical.
Mexico goalkeeper Raul Rangel reaches back to stop the ball from entering his goal during his team’s 1-0 World Cup win over South Korea Thursday.
(Silvia Izquierdo / Associated Press)
“I’ve always tried to get my team to play well and to help the players and the national team develop,” Aguirre said.
For the coach, advancing to the knockout round represents the culmination of more than three decades of work on the sidelines and the support of a group of players who rose to the occasion under the most demanding circumstances.
The coach also acknowledged that advancing to the next round has eased the tension surrounding the team after the doubts that existed before the World Cup. Without mentioning personal vindication, he noted that soccer tends to judge solely based on the most recent result.
“If you win, you’re the best; if you lose, you’re the worst,” Aguirre said.
Aguirre said he remains calm because he believes his approach to coaching hasn’t changed and that the team was rewarded Thursday night against South Korea in a match marked by limited space and a high degree of tactical discipline.
With qualification secured, Aguirre said he will not alter his soccer philosophy during Mexico’s final group stage match even though it no longer faces the pressure of securing a spot in the next round.
He said Czechia will enter the game with a different competitive need and a drive to advance, while Mexico will work to maintain a high level of performance that allowed it to record two consecutive wins and keep two clean sheets at the start of the tournament.
On the South Korean side, coach Hong Myung-bo avoided making excuses and focused his analysis on the play that decided the match. Although he explained that he had not yet reviewed the goal sequence in detail, he knew the team made a series of small errors in an area of the field where he had previously warned that losing possession could prove decisive.
Mexico goalkeeper Raul Rangel blocks a shot by South Korea’s Son Heung-min during the World Cup match on Thursday.
(Natacha Pisarenko / Associated Press)
The coach said that one of the central focuses of their preparation had been avoiding turnovers near South Korea’s box in the face of Mexico’s high press.
Myung-bo said that during the pre-match talk, he emphasized that the first 20 minutes would be crucial and believed his players had executed that part of the plan. He said that as the minutes passed, South Korea managed to create chances and was gaining strength until its critical turnover.
“After the momentum of the match shifted in our favor … both in terms of overall pressure and the play itself, we were able to create many opportunities,” Myung-bo said. “Although it ended up being a very frustrating match and we’re left with a bitter taste in our mouths over the lost possession, there’s no time to dwell on it. We have one last match ahead of us, so we’ll prepare well.”
Bloomfield had been out of work since he was sacked as Luton boss in October 2025 when he was appointed at Oxford at a time when they were 23rd in the Championship, three points adrift of safety.
He came in after Rowett had overseen a dismal spell of one win in ten matches.
Bloomfield began his managerial career at Colchester United before taking over from Gareth Ainsworth at Wycombe Wanderers in 2023.
After leading the Chairboys to the League One automatic promotion places amid the challenge of big-spending Birmingham City and Wrexham last season, he left the club to take over at Luton.
But Bloomfield was unable to prevent the Hatters from suffering back-to-back relegations to the third tier and was dismissed after an underwhelming start to the season, with the club 11th in the table.
Speaking after Oxford’s relegation was confirmed in April, Bloomfield said he was confident of keeping his job.
“I’ve enjoyed my time at the club. It’s obviously not been the outcome that we wanted for the season.
“We’ve been pleasantly content with some of the improvements we have made but ultimately we wanted to stay in the league.
“I’ve not given much thought to my job and the bigger situation and ultimately, as a manager or head coach, all you can do is focus on being the best you can be,” he said in April.
Oxford looked capable of pulling off a “great escape” in late February and early March when they won three games in a row to move up to 21st.
However, just two wins in the following eight matches saw them lose ground on the sides above them.
Relegation brought an end to a two-year spell in the second tier after they won promotion via the League One play-offs in 2023-24.
His French club finished eighth in Ligue 1 last season and reached the Europa Conference League semi-finals, losing to Rayo Vallacano. It was the first time Strasbourg had reached the last four of a European competition.
O’Neil played at Bristol City when current Ipswich chief executive Mark Ashton held the same role at Ashton Gate.
Strasbourg had initially been confident of keeping him following his January arrival, but O’Neil will return to the Premier League for the first time since leaving Wolves in December 2024.
Ipswich are looking for a new head coach after McKenna stepped down last week, despite leading them back to the top flight by finishing second in the Championship last season.
The 40-year-old took charge of the Tractor Boys in 2021 and led them to three promotions in the past four seasons, two of which have taken the club into the Premier League.
McKenna was linked with the Fulham job after Marco Silva’s departure, but quit Town to take a break from the game and spend more time with his family.
“I feel this is the right time for me to step aside,” he said. “I do so with great pride at the incredible progress we have made and with huge hope and optimism for the future of the club.”
Ipswich open their Premier League campaign at home to Sunderland on 22 August.
SEATTLE — Cristian Roldan and Haji Wright grew up less than three years and 30 miles apart, Roldan in Pico Rivera and Wright in Culver City. The odds that they would go on to become teammates on not one, but two, U.S. World Cup teams seem astronomical.
Yet despite starting at the same time and place and arriving together at the same destination, the two players followed completely different paths to get there.
Wright joined the Galaxy’s academy at 14 and signed with Schalke of the top tier German Bundesliga days after his 18th birthday. Roldan was still playing for El Rancho, when he was 17, making him the only member of the U.S. World Cup team to play four years at a public high school.
“I might be the last one,” Roldan said. “I hope not.”
Crescenta Valley’s Salar Hajimirsadeghi and El Rancho’s Cristian Roldan meet in unison for a header.
(Tim Berger / Glendale News Press)
High school soccer was once the foundation of the sport in the U.S. Eighteen players on the 2002 World Cup team, the only American team to reach the tournament quarterfinals, played for their high school teams. By 2022, the only man on the roster who played four years for a public school was Roldan.
“I don’t wish my story, or how I ended up here, was any different,” Roldan said. “What I will say was it made it more difficult to be here, play[ing] four years in high school. But it makes my story special.”
His story becomes even more special with this World Cup, which opened for the U.S. in Inglewood, a 45-minute drive from his boyhood home, and will continue when the Americans face Australia on Friday in Seattle, where Roldan played two years at the University of Washington and 12 seasons as an all-star midfielder with the Sounders, winning two MLS titles.
“When we talk about people’s paths, Cristian’s is not the standard right now,” said older brother Cesar, an athletic trainer with the Galaxy. “Cristian did it mostly to be around his friends. He wanted to play with his buddies.
“That is not a standard way to make it into MLS. And forget about making [it] all the way to the national team.”
“Yeah, it’s different,” Cristian said with a smile. “Being able to play in your backyard, have friends and family there. It’s a celebration.”
And it may never be repeated.
Roldan, 31, is the third-oldest player on the U.S. team, so the MLS academy system was just getting started when he enrolled at El Rancho in 2010. But as the academy system and the Elite Club National League became larger and more powerful, they began to throw their weight around.
Academy and elite club teams essentially robbed prep soccer of its best players by forcing them to choose between their high school teams and elite club programs, demanding a year-round commitment and banning participation in other sports. When top players began opting for the academies, others had no choice but to follow if they wanted to be seen and scouted.
That also robbed U.S. soccer of one of the few advantages it has over European and South American countries, most of whom have nothing to rival the high school and college sports infrastructure where kids can play and develop for free.
Cristian Roldan sprints during a training session Tuesday in Irvine ahead of the United States’ World Cup match against Australia on Friday.
(Andre Penner / Associated Press)
“That’s not available in Germany or England, or whatever,” said Brian Schmetzer, Roldan’s coach with the Sounders. “I like the fact that the United States is a big enough country where we can give kids opportunities to continue playing.”
Especially since the academy and elite club pathways aren’t open to everybody. Moving from a free neighborhood high school team to an academy can be expensive, erecting a “pay-to-play” barrier that often restricts those programs to wealthier families. Travel to games and practices can also be an issue. Since many high school-age players can’t drive, a parent has to accept the responsibility of toting them back and forth to team activities.
That leaves little time for work, which can pose an additional financial burden.
“My parents would have done whatever for us. So they would have made things happen,” Cesar Roldan said of Cristian. “But he really didn’t have any of those options. There was just not the opportunity.”
Paul Caliguiri, who played in two World Cups before retiring as the second-most-capped player in U.S. Soccer history, said the slow strangulation of high school soccer will ensure some talented players will be overlooked.
“There are a lot more qualified players that choose the path of high school soccer rather than the full-time academies,” he said. “The issue is that many of those players that don’t go to full-time academies when the opportunity presents is likely due to transportation.
“We need to have more full-time training offered to players without increasing the ‘pay to play’ cost.”
Dominic Picon, who coached all three Roldan brothers at El Rancho, agrees.
“We’re losing a ton of kids who never get seen,” he said. “There’s a lot of kids that just get lost in the shuffle simply because we have a very limited scope of how we find players. If you look at our three main sports — baseball, basketball and football — virtually all of them play high school sports. They all come through that pipeline.”
Roldan, the son of a Guatemalan immigrant father and a Salvadoran-born mother, said he never really considered any of those issues when he decided to play with the neighborhood kids in high school, just as his older brother Cesar had done.
“I looked up to my brother and I wanted to share a similar path as he did,” he said. “And I wanted to win a trophy for the city of Pico Rivera, which only has one high school.”
U.S. midfielder Cristian Roldan defends the ball from Senegal forward Habib Diarra during an international friendly match on May 31.
(Scott Kinser / Associated Press)
He made good on that last pledge in his senior season. Playing with younger brother Alex, who was a junior, Roldan scored 54 goals and had 31 assists — what Picon calls “video-game numbers” — to lead El Rancho to 29 wins and a CIF Southern Section title. Individually, he was named the Gatorade national player of the year.
Alex would go on to play alongside Cristian with the Sounders and captain the Salvadoran national team. Picon said he knew the brothers were good. But he didn’t know how good.
“When you’re coaching them, they’re in high school,” he said. “You never look at them and say, ‘You know, these guys are going to be in the World Cup someday.’”
In fact, there was some doubt both would even play in college. Alex was headed to a junior college in Arizona before receiving a last-minute offer from Seattle University. And Cristian, despite his award-winning senior season, had very few firm offers from top schools, in part because he insisted on playing high school soccer and in part because he was small at 5-foot-7.
“What hurt him is playing at a public school,” Picon said. “His rise was improbable because of where he came from, but also when he did play in front of [college] coaches, I think his size was something that dissuaded coaches.”
Contrast that with Wright, whose exposure at the academy level helped him get stamped as one of the country’s top youth players, opening up professional opportunities before he was old enough to vote.
In the end, it wasn’t Roldan’s talent that got him a scholarship as much as it was the boldness of his mother Ana. When Washington coach Jamie Clark inadvertently sat down next to her at the Surf Cup showcase in San Diego, she urged him to have a look at her son.
He did, then called Picon the next week.
“He’s a legit player,” Picon remembers telling Clark. “He’s better than 99% of the academy players out there. It’s just because of where he plays, the city that he’s from.”
Cristian Roldan speaks to reporters during a team training session in Seattle on Thursday.
(Soobum Im / Getty Images)
Picon was right. In his first season at Washington, Roldan was the Pac-12 freshman of the year and after his sophomore season he turned pro. MLS stardom and two World Cup selections were on the horizon. And there was luck in that, the coach says.
But that good fortune started at home with parents who put their faith in public schools, then saw that faith rewarded.
“It’s the quintessential American story, right?” Picon offered. “You have immigrant parents. They come here and they put a lot of trust in the public school system. At the elementary level, the teachers were tasked with making sure they have a grasp of English. They did that.
“At middle school, they were tasked with getting them prepared for high school and they did that. All three were accepted into a four-year [college], their kids.
“Where Cristian and his brothers lucked out is having the parents that they did. They were the type of parents that any coach, high school or club, would want to have.”
Getting to the World Cup, then, isn’t always determined by the path you take. Sometimes the most important factors are how and where you started.
Rangers have appointed Derek McInnes as manager on a three-year contract after agreeing a compensation deal with Scottish Premiership rivals Hearts.
McInnes is the third boss at Ibrox inside a year and replaces Danny Rohl, whose move to Austrian side RB Salzburg was confirmed earlier on Wednesday.
The 54-year-old joined Hearts from Kilmarnock last summer and led the Tynecastle club to a second-placed finish, missing out on the title to Celtic on a dramatic final day, but edging Rangers out of the Champions League qualifiers.
The former Rangers midfielder turned down an approach from the Ibrox club in December 2017 in order to stay at Aberdeen but has now followed Tynecastle captain Lawrence Shankland in moving from Hearts.
“It is a real honour,” McInnes said. “The demands here are clear and our supporters rightfully have high expectations. It is up to me, my staff and my players to meet those expectations, and have this club performing as it should.
“There is a lot of hard work ahead, but already the preparations have begun and I am looking forward to meeting the current squad in the coming weeks and welcoming some new faces.”
Alan Archibald, Paul Sheerin and Craig Clark will assist McInnes.
While Rohl was head coach, McInnes will have the title of manager and was the frontrunner as soon as it emerged that the German was keen to leave for Salzburg.
Chairman Andrew Cavenagh said the Scot is “someone we have always rated highly” and is “exactly what this club needs at this moment in time”.
He added: “His deep Scottish and Rangers experience are important for us. He knows how to win in this league, and he is coming off an extremely strong season with Hearts.”
Rohl, 37, replaced Russell Martin as head coach in October and steered Rangers into a three-way title fight, but a post-split collapse yielded a third-placed finish behind Celtic and Hearts as the Ibrox club ended the campaign without silverware.
Cavenagh – who publicly backed Rohl at the end of the season – thanked him for his “service and commitment to Rangers”.
“He and his staff put in a significant amount of hard work during his time in charge, which we are greatly appreciative of,” he added.
The smooth and soothing voice that generations of Lakers fans grew so accustomed to when Lawrence Tanter was the longtime public address announcer has put down his microphone.
Tanter, known as the “Voice of the Lakers,” has retired from his game-day role, the team announced Tuesday, and he will become a special advisor for Lakers game presentation.
Tanter, 76, sat in his courtside seat as the public address announcer for 43 years at Lakers games, starting in 1982 when they played at the Forum and lasting until late March, when the team announced he would miss a game to attend to his health. Those with knowledge of the situation who are not authorized to speak publicly on the matter said he had a stroke.
“Lawrence Tanter has been an integral part of the Lakers gameday experience for more than four decades, setting the tone for countless memorable moments with his professionalism, energy and signature booming voice,” said Jeanie Buss, the Lakers’ governor. “Since the 1980s, LT has narrated every chapter of Lakers basketball, connecting generations of fans, players, coaches and staff while becoming a trusted and unforgettable part of the Lakers’ experience. I am incredibly grateful for everything he has given to this franchise.”
From the days of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Magic Johnson, to the Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal era and the current LeBron James and Luka Doncic days, Tanter was the voice that resonated.
Béla Guttmann may be the most consequential soccer coach you’ve never heard of. But if it weren’t for Guttmann, you may never have heard of Pelé.
And Brazil may never have become the greatest soccer-playing country on Earth.
That’s because Guttmann changed the shape of modern Brazilian soccer — and changed the sport forever — when he imported the revolutionary 4-2-4 system from Hungary to Sao Paulo in 1957. A year later, Brazil won the first of five World Cups and the joga bonito was born.
But what Guttmann brought to Brazil isn’t nearly as interesting as how he got it there. That’s just one of the fascinating stories in “The Beautiful Game … The Untold Story,” the exhibit that will open the Holocaust Museum LA on Sunday at the Goldrich Cultural Center, a $70-million expansion that will double the size of the Pan Pacific Park museum’s campus to 70,000 square feet.
A soccer ball from the holocaust is among the items on display in the exhibit “The Beautiful Game … The Untold Story” at the Holocaust Museum LA.
(Eric Thayer/Los Angeles Times)
The exhibit was unveiled during a private reception on Saturday followed by a free preview day open to the public from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The grand public opening will take place in August.
The show’s launch coincides with eight local World Cup matches, which kicked off with the United States’ 4-1 win over Paraguay on Friday at SoFi Stadium, and it shines a light on the important but largely overlooked relationship between Jewish life and the global game, as well as how Jewish innovators like Guttmann shaped the modern rhythm, style and culture of the sport.
“It was in the same intellectual level as jazz, as art and everything modern and progressive,” journalist Allon Sander, who helped curate the exhibit, said of Jewish participation in European soccer in the years before World War II.
“The origin of the game and how it intersects with Jews and the Holocaust and the impact that these Jewish footballers and coaches had to shape the game and help popularize the sport is so fascinating,” added Beth Kean, the museum’s CEO. “And it’s an unknown history.”
Much of that story can be told through Guttmann, who was born in Budapest in the final year of the 19th century and developed into one of the sport’s first Jewish stars, representing Hungary in the 1924 Olympics and playing for nine teams in two countries before retiring to become a coach.
But none of that success mattered when the Hungarian government began introducing anti-Jewish laws in 1938, costing Guttmann his job and nearly his life when he was sent to a Nazi forced-labor camp, where he was tortured. Just days before he believed he would be shipped to Auschwitz, which meant certain death, he escaped alongside Erno Erbstein, another Jewish coach.
Erbstein revolutionized soccer in Italy before dying in 1949, along with the entire Torino team, when their plane crashed into a hilltop outside Turin. Four years ago, he was inducted into the Italian soccer hall of fame. Guttmann, meanwhile, who lost much of his family in the Nazi death camps, would go on to coach for 42 years in 14 countries, winning championships in six of them yet only staying in a single place for more than two years just once.
“He’s running away from his demons,” said Ronen Dorfan, a journalist and sports historian based in Budapest whose research was instrumental in putting the exhibit together. “His father was murdered, his sister was murdered. You never know how you survived in Budapest during the war so he had guilt feelings.”
A jersey worn by player Max Wozniak and a jersey from the 1930s are displayed in an exhibit called “The Beautiful Game … The Untold Story.”
(Eric Thayer/Los Angeles Times)
The exhibit was designed in three sections, the first devoted to the years before World War II, the second is about the Holocaust and the third is the postwar years. And while it details Jewish participation in, and influence on, global soccer, it also challenges the cliché that Jews were intellectuals, artists and laborers but not athletes.
“We are always trying to challenge stereotypes. Stereotypes that we might have about ourselves and even stereotypes that we believe about others,” said Jordanna Gessler, the museum’s vice president of education and exhibits who helped curate the show. “It’s crucial to help people find their place and their voice and really see the unity, the similarities between people.
“This is a story that was lost in time and we’re really bringing it out,” Gessler added. “To really have this conversation and encourage people to explore stories that they might not know.”
One thing people might not know is that in the 1920s and ‘30s, Europe’s best teams weren’t in England, Germany or France, but in Austria and Hungary, where they were led by Jewish players and coaches such as Hugo Meisl, Jozsef Braun, Arpad Weisz, Marton Bukovi, Gusztav Sebes and Gyula Mandi. Weisz and Braun were both killed by the Nazis.
A soccer ball from the 1974 World Cup is displayed at an exhibit called “The Beautiful Game … The Untold Story.”
(Eric Thayer/Los Angeles Times)
The surge of antisemitism and fascism in Germany, Italy and Eastern Europe helped spread the influence of those revolutionary players and coaches around the world.
“With the rise of the Reich and the Holocaust, the coaches ran away,” Dorfan said. “And they ran to every corner of the world, to Brazil, to Argentina, to Portugal [and] provided coaches to Real Madrid, to Barcelona, to Benfica, to Flamengo.
“There isn’t one of these clubs that doesn’t owe its tactical development in the ‘40s and ‘50s to the Jewish coaches, which came primarily from Hungary.”
The primary tactical development was the shift from the popular but rigid 2-3-5 formation, which required immense physical endurance and tactical discipline, to the fluid 4-2-4, which spread the wingers to the touch line and allowed for improvisation and creativity on the attacking end, a formation pioneered in Budapest in the 1920s.
“They developed a more refined game of passing the ball, keeping it on the carpet rather than the English kick and run, and really put thought into tactical thinking,” Dorfan said.
Guttmann, who played or coached for more than two dozen teams in his career — including one, in Romania, that paid him in vegetables during the postwar period — brought the Hungarian approach to Brazil in 1957 when he coached Sao Paulo to a championship. After Vicente Feola, the manager Guttmann replaced at Sao Paulo, took over the national team a year later, he brought the formation with him, popularizing many of the tactics still used in modern soccer, such as fluid defensive wingers, overlapping full backs, the use of a withdrawn striker and an attacking midfield.
The soccer team at the Theresienstadt concentration camp’s flag is displayed in a Holocaust Museum LA exhibit called “The Beautiful Game … The Untold Story.”
(Eric Thayer/Los Angeles Times)
“He is the whole exhibition in one man,” Dorfan said of Guttmann.
“Obviously if we wouldn’t have had the Holocaust, those [coaches] wouldn’t be kept out of Europe, Europe would be much stronger, much more developed. [And] then the development of Brazil or the success of Brazil would be coming much later,” Sander said.
Dorfan spent the better part of two years tracking down many of the more than 100 trophies, uniforms, photos and trinkets that make up “The Beautiful Game” exhibit, a search that required determination, perseverance and more than a little luck. Many of the items, because of their ties to Jewish athletes and teams, were hidden during the war and presumed lost. Others resurfaced only through detective work that sent Dorfan following leads that spanned decades and crossed more than a dozen borders.
That also cost money. So Alan Rothenberg, the man who, as president of the U.S. Soccer Federation, first brought the World Cup to Los Angeles 32 years ago, stepped up to lead an effort that raised more than $1 million to fund the exhibit.
“The story really needs to be told, particularly with what’s going on right now with respect to antisemitism,” Rothenberg said. “It’s really important for people to realize what can happen. And soccer is a great vehicle to draw them in. The one main thing in the museum is bringing schoolkids in.”
The Nazis and their collaborators failed in their attempt to erase the history of Jewish soccer pioneers; in fact, they inadvertently popularized both the men — and women — and their ideas. But the sport also helped other Jews survive a dark period and Kean said that may be the most beautiful and uplifting part of “The Beautiful Game.”
“The main reason we decided to do this exhibition in the first place is because for years so many survivors, when they talk about their life before the war, so many of them talk about soccer. So many of them were passionate and fond of the sport,” she said.
“We knew the exhibit opening was going to coincide with the World Cup. L.A. is going to be on the world stage. This is a great opportunity for the museum to get these stories out.”
Too popular, too strong and a deep domestic league is a problem Rouet would love Canada to have.
“The fun part with the [Canada] girls being in PWR is the quality of games,” he added.
“If you look at the top eight in the PWR, even Bristol, who are last, have six wins.
“There are no easy games, and this is the value for the players definitely.
“But off the pitch, the [Canada] girls have to live as students. They are not well paid, Rugby Canada doesn’t provide them enough money and their visas don’t allow them to work on the side.
“So, PWR is very helpful, but it’s also not sustainable for them to do that for 10 years.
“Also the only reason this PWR is the best of the leagues is because there are players from six, seven, eight countries that play in England.
“Those young English players who aren’t centrally contracted, have to grind to get game time. That is not bad for them. It’s the same for the senior Canada players when they come to a PWR club.”
Those Canada players and their colleagues will get three shots at England, and revenge for their World Cup final defeat, this autumn. They meet the Red Roses in Exeter on 19 September, before home fixtures in Toronto and Ottawa on 17 and 24 October.
Canada will have big crowds, but, with players scattered across continents and Rugby Canada’s focus switching to the men’s side and Australia 2027, short preparation time for those games.
“That’s the reality of our programme – we have to just be confident, but also be mindful if we don’t beat England, that’s OK,” said Rouet.
For Saracens, expectations are higher. They finished the PWR’s regular season strongly.
Gloucester-Hartpury, the three-time defending champions, didn’t.
The ‘Circus’ is in danger of falling flat after defeats by Ealing Trailfinders and Bristol Bears in their final two games.
Saracens take on Exeter this Sunday in the semi-finals and Rouet and his team are determined to put on a show of their own.
“We have a duty to try to promote the women’s game and part of that is playing fast rugby that is exciting, fun and beautiful to watch,” he added.
“We have great players at Saracens, players who love to take initiative, take an option, read the game as well as respect the structure. They love to do that, maybe I just try to empower them to do so.”
He can build bridges, but Rouet also hopes to destroy dynasties.
When Kings’ new head coach Peter Laviolette took a tour around the Los Angeles area, he thought he was only going to get a one-bedroom home with a view of the water. His children, though, piped in: “Make sure you get a four-bedroom,” Laviolette remembered his three children saying.
During Laviolette’s time away from the sport, the 61-year-old traveled to Scotland and watched his son play in the East Coast Hockey League. The time away has given Laviolette time to rethink his coaching, and after 30 years of coaching, including 23 as a head coach in the NHL, he’s bringing a trident approach to reshape culture and win games. Centering a hockey family is one part.
“For me, there’s three real important pieces,” Laviolette said. “First, build a family inside the locker room, inside the organization. Secondly, to really work to try and build the culture to get players and organizations to think about the choices they make and how that can affect the culture. And then the third part is the actual game on the ice, just making sure that every day from the start of training camp we work at the game.”
Los Angeles hired Laviolette to a three-year contract after he spent a year away from the sport. Laviolette’s coaching experience stretches 1,594 games, the ninth-highest career total, with six teams: the Capitals, Flyers, Islanders, Hurricanes and Predators. Most recently, he was fired by the Rangers in 2025 after two years with the team.
His postseason success might be the biggest draw for the Kings, who have seen middling success in the years since their second Stanley Cup title in 2014. Los Angeles made the playoffs each year since the 2021-22 season, but the team did not advance past the first round.
Meanwhile, Laviolette is only the fourth coach in hockey to lead three teams to the Stanley Cup Final. He last won with Carolina in 2006, but he earned two President’s Trophies in 2017-18 and 2023-24 with the Predators and the Rangers.
Kings general manager Ken Holland, left, and Peter Laviolette pose for a photo during the new coach’s introductory news conference Wednesday at the team’s training facility in El Segundo.
(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)
Still, Laviolette, despite his track record of first-year turnarounds, is joining a team in flux. The Kings fired coach Jim Hiller after the Olympic break. Interim coach D.J Smith helped guide the team to an 11-6-6 finish, aided in part by a trade for Rangers winger Artemi Panarin, whom Laviolette has also coached.
“I had a really good relationship with Artemi in New York,” Laviolette said. “He’s one of the most talented players I’ve ever coached, and I’m really happy to get to work with him again. He’s an amazing talent.”
Using the winger to go on the prowl is one of the small changes Laviolette plans to bring. The Kings have historically prioritized defense in a league that has shifted to attacking. Los Angeles fell to 30th in goals per game last season (2.68), the first time the Kings averaged fewer than three goals since the 2021-22 season. The team was also 28th in power-play percentage at 17%. Laviolette acknowledged that Los Angeles needed to change, highlighting that an attack-forward mindset has been a keystone of his coaching.
“I don’t think it should be irresponsible to defense,” he said. “But through my experiences, and even just watching the playoffs right now, this is an attack-oriented game, and you have to be willing to move.”
Where does Panarin fit?
“He has the ability to be a game-breaker and a difference-maker,” Laviolette said. “He’s not just a goal scorer. He’s not just a playmaker. He’s elusive. He’s shifty.”
The goal for next season is to score 250 times, according to Kings’ vice president and general manager Ken Holland. The team scored 220 last season.
“We’ve got to get back to scoring more goals,” Holland said. “Part of that’s going to be personnel driven, part of that’s going to be probably style‑of‑play driven, mentality, and certainly the head coach has a lot to do with it.”
As Laviolette meets current staffers and decides whom to bring in, Holland is managing the phones to reach out to assistant coaches and players. Smith has definitively moved on. Phil Housley, whom Laviolette described as an “excellent coach,” could be another potential candidate. Housley worked with Laviolette as one of the Rangers’ assistant coaches between 2023 and 2025.
Still, it’s hard to say the Kings will be a Cup contender with Laviolette. His teams tend to dramatically decline two or three seasons after his hiring. He struggles to develop younger players, instead relying on veterans to carry the weight. Laviolette will have to amplify players like Quinton Byfield and Brandt Clarke, each a talented 23-year-old with high ceilings.
The Kings’ success will rest in how well Los Angeles adapts to Laviolette’s coaching trident. The veteran coach, to his credit, projected confidence.
“When you put those three things together,” he said. “You can really become an unstoppable force.”
Peter Laviolette will be the next head coach of the Kings, a person with knowledge of the negotiations told the Associated Press on Monday.
The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the Kings hadn’t yet announced the results of their lengthy search for a permanent replacement for interim coach D.J. Smith, who replaced Jim Hiller in March.
The 61-year-old Laviolette is expected to get a three-year contract to take over his seventh NHL team. The Kings have made the playoffs in five consecutive seasons, but they’ve also endured five straight first-round exits under three head coaches and two general managers.
Laviolette is returning to the NHL after being fired by the New York Rangers in April 2025. He has also led the New York Islanders, Carolina, Philadelphia, Nashville and Washington during a 23-year head coaching career highlighted by a Stanley Cup championship with the Hurricanes in 2006.
Laviolette’s teams have reached the postseason in 11 of the past 14 seasons he finished behind a bench, and he also led the Flyers (2010) and the Predators (2017) to the Stanley Cup Final. His 1,594 career games coached are the ninth most in NHL history.
In his first West Coast NHL job, Laviolette is taking over a good team that is stuck in a profound rut, unable to become a Stanley Cup contender.
General manager Ken Holland fired Hiller shortly after the Olympic break in the coach’s second full season in charge, and the Kings went 11-6-6 after Smith stepped up from his assistant’s role. Smith, who was a candidate for the permanent job, got the Kings into the final Western Conference playoff spot — but Los Angeles was swept out of the first round by the Colorado Avalanche.
The Kings’ four previous first-round exits were all at the hands of the Edmonton Oilers, leading to the departure of general manager Rob Blake a year ago.
The Kings still haven’t won a playoff round since raising the Stanley Cup in 2014, but the roster has a solid core of talent despite the retirement of longtime captain Anze Kopitar.
Holland acquired high-scoring forward Artemi Panarin from the New York Rangers last winter, and high-scoring forwards Adrian Kempe, Quinton Byfield and Kevin Fiala are all returning.
The intense Laviolette became known for creating aggressive offensive attacks and making quick franchise turnarounds in his previous stops. He could be part of an organizational shift for the Kings, who have spent two decades as a philosophically defense-first team — to the regular detriment of their offense.
The Kings finished 29th in the NHL in scoring last season with just 220 goals, easily the fewest among playoff teams. They are in the bottom half of the NHL in scoring over the past five seasons despite making the playoffs every year.
Holland publicly wondered whether the Kings are too defensive-minded after they scored just five goals in their four-game sweep at the hands of the Avalanche, but he didn’t commit to a change in team philosophy.
The shuttle of the Iran World Cup team between Mexico and the United States took root Sunday in Tijuana with an accessory.
The players arrived in Tijuana wearing gold-colored lapel pins on their jackets acknowledging victims of a missile strike on an elementary school that took place Feb. 28 at the outset of the war in their country.
The pins simply read “#168” — replicating the hashtag of the number of people killed in the daytime strike in Minab in southern Iran. Most of the victims were girls attending Shajareh Tayyebeh Elementary School.
The Iran delegation flew on a private jet from Turkey to Tijuana. Mehdi Taj, president of the Iran Football Federation, said two weeks ago that the training base would be in Mexico instead of Tucson.
FIFA has not given a reason for the change, although delays have occurred in processing U.S. visas for some Iranian players and other members of the delegation that allegedly have ties to the Revolutionary Guard.
Iran is preparing to play its three group-stage games in the United States, with the first scheduled June 15 against New Zealand at SoFi Stadium (called Los Angeles Stadium during the World Cup). Its second game, June 21 against Belgium, is also scheduled in L.A. and the third game will take place June 26 in Seattle against Egypt.
It is unclear whether FIFA — the governing body of the World Cup — would allow the pins to be worn by anyone on the sidelines during matches. That would include coaches and other team personnel in addition to players.
FIFA took no action in response to earlier displays of remembrance by the Iran players and has not commented on the legality of wearing the pins. FIFA regulations state that “equipment must not have any political, religious or personal slogans, statements or images.” The rule applies to players, coaches and officials on the sidelines during matches.
The Iran team twice acknowledged victims of the airstrike during the Iran national anthem before warmup matches in March. In the first, players held purple school backpacks decorated with bows. In the second, players held images of those who had died.
Before more recent warmup games, the Iran team stood with their right hands across their chests during the anthem. And earlier in March, some members of the Iran women’s soccer team remained quiet during the national anthem at an Asian Cup match, leading Iranian state TV to call them “wartime traitors.”
Video footage analyzed by investigative group Bellingcat appears to show a U.S. Tomahawk missile striking the school, which was adjacent to a compound associated with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and barracks for its naval brigade. The United States has not accepted responsibility for the attack, although the military is investigating.
Upon arriving in Tijuana, Iran team captain Ehsan Hajsafi criticized FIFA about the delay in obtaining visas.
“First of all, we’re very happy that the team has finally arrived, and we’re delighted about that,” Hajsafi told reporters. “Thank God, the team’s condition is very good.
“With everything that happened, visas were eventually issued. Personally, however, I do have a complaint about FIFA. Why did it take so long? As far as I understand, visas were issued only to the players and a few members of the coaching staff.”
Ahead of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, Hajsafi spoke boldly about the government crackdown on mass demonstrations in Iran.
“Before anything else, I would like to express my condolences to all of the bereaved families in Iran,” Hajsafi said. “They should know that we are with them, we support them and we sympathize with them. “We cannot deny the conditions — the conditions in my country are not good and the players know it also.”
