first round

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.

In the first round of Tuesday night’s NBA draft, the Lakers made a trade with the New York Knicks, acquiring Cameron Carr, who the Knicks had selected with the 24th overall pick in the first round.

The Lakers then took guard Sergio De Larrea from Spain with the 25th pick and traded him to the NBA champion Knicks, along with cash considerations. The Lakers went to Spain recently to watch De Larrea work out.

Lakers president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka didn’t talk about the trade because the NBA had not made it official as of late Tuesday night. Carr was in New York at the draft, but he also didn’t speak with the media.

In need of athletic wing players on a team that could have up to nine free agents, the Lakers got one with 21-year-old Carr.

The 6-foot-5 Carr averaged 18.9 points per game at Baylor, 5.8 rebounds and 2.6 assists. Carr shot 49.4% from the field and 37.4% from three-point range.

Most NBA draft boards had projected Carr to be selected between 15th and 21st in the first round. But he slipped to the Lakers, who like the idea that Carr is so athletic, is a three-and-D player with a 7-2 wingspan and has a 42.5-inch vertical.

He set a record at Baylor during his sophomore year with 642 points during the 2025-26 season. That ranked him fifth in program history, regardless of class.

Carr has been compared to Knicks wing player Mikal Bridges, a two-way player who just won the championship with New York.

The draft will continue Wednesday with the second round, but the Lakers don’t have a pick.

The Lakers needed to add a player such as Carr because they have so many roles to fill.

LeBron James is a free agent and is looking for a contract from the Lakers. Austin Reaves is expected to opt out of his deal that will pay him $14.8 million. The Lakers can pay Reaves the most, a five-year deal for $241 million. Marcus Smart, the best defender on the Lakers, has a player option for $5.3 million. People around the NBA expect him to opt out and sign a deal for more money. Rui Hachimura is an unrestricted free agent and will have many teams after him. Luke Kennard is a free agent and will have a few teams after him because of his three-point shooting.

So, essentially, the Lakers need players on their roster and Carr is a player that the Lakers felt fell to them when so many draft boards had him going earlier.

The Lakers will seek to use their 25th pick in Tuesday’s first round of the NBA draft on a player who fills a need on a roster that could have up to nine free agents this summer. Yet the Lakers also are aware that picking that late in the round could leave them selecting the best player available.

They probably will be in search of a center who can be a lob threat or an athletic wing who can play defense and knock down three-pointers, two positions the Lakers crave as they try to build a team around star Luka Doncic that fits best with his style of play.

Names that NBA executives and mock drafts attached to the Lakers are Kentucky center Jayden Quaintance, Texas forward Dailyn Swain and Duke wing Isaiah Evans.

The Lakers spent time in Spain looking at 20-year-old guard Sergio de Larrea, but many NBA scouts see him going later in the first round or even in the second. According to people not authorized to speak publicly, the Lakers were impressed by their workout with Purdue point guard Braden Smith. But he’s on the smaller side (6 feet) and played four years in college, leading scouts to believe his upside is not that high and that he’ll be drafted in the second round.

The Lakers don’t have a pick in Wednesday’s second round.

After the Lakers were swept by a deep and athletic Oklahoma City team in the second round of the playoffs, president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka outlined what it takes when trying to compete in the uber-tough Western Conference against the likes of the Thunder and the San Antonio Spurs, who became the second-youngest team to reach the NBA Finals.

Pelinka looked at how Thunder guard Ajay Mitchell was drafted in the second round and how he flourished in just his second season, especially in the playoffs, in which he averaged 15.1 points and 4.3 assists in 11 games.

“Depth is really important, athleticism and youth. We have a lot of components of that on our roster, but we need to add to it,” Pelinka said last month during his exit interview with the media. “I think those are some of the key North Stars that we need to look at.

“One of the players that they had who played really well, Ajay Mitchell, they got in the second round. So there’s ways to add to your roster if you commit to doing the hard work and commit to the process of adding the right pieces. … We’ll be doing that through the draft and free agency and through trades. We’ve gotta find a way to have a roster that will compete with any team in the NBA. That’s what we do here.”

The Lakers do have three tradable first-round picks — 2026, 2031 and 2033 — but the latter two can’t be moved until after the draft.

Lakers star LeBron James is an unrestricted free agent and is looking for a deal from the Lakers, while Austin Reaves is expected to opt out of his $14.8-million deal so he can sign a contract with them for up to five years and about $241 million.

Still, the Lakers have to proceed with the draft to find a player.

Texas forward Dailyn Swain, left, vies for a loose ball against Purdue guard Braden Smith during an NCAA tournament game in March.

(Godofredo A. Vásquez / Associated Press)

Swain (6-7) and Evans (6-6) are the kind of athletic wings the Lakers could use, but both might be chosen before the Lakers make their pick.

The 6-9 Quaintance could slide to the Lakers because of health concerns. He played in only four games last season at Kentucky because the team was being cautious following knee surgery after he tore an anterior cruciate ligament when he played at Arizona State.

Scouts still view him as mobile, athletic and young enough — he turns 19 next month — to develop. But, Quaintance will need to rehab his knee and probably won’t be ready for the upcoming season. When healthy, scouts said, he can be the lob threat and defender that Doncic yearns to have.

Here’s a bit of Dodgers trivia for the bandwagon fans in our midst: Who was the manager before Dave Roberts?

That was 11 years ago. He is Don Mattingly, who returns to Dodger Stadium on Friday as manager of the Philadelphia Phillies.

The Phillies were 9-19 when they fired Rob Thomson and replaced him with Mattingly. They are 20-8 since then, a better record than the Dodgers have posted over the same span.

In Philadelphia, Mattingly got his chance because the Phillies were losing. In Los Angeles, Mattingly departed amid a run of winning.

For Mark Walter and what was then a new Dodgers ownership group, that was not enough. As Walter enters his first offseason as the Lakers’ controlling owner, it’s worth keeping that in mind.

“They have a hunger for victory that is the greatest I’ve ever seen, without exaggeration,” former Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti told me.

In two seasons with Rob Pelinka as president of basketball operations and JJ Redick as coach, the Lakers won division titles both times, failing to get out of the first round of the playoffs one year and failing to get out of the second round of the playoffs the next.

In 2013 and 2014, with Colletti as GM and Mattingly as manager in the first full seasons of Walter’s ownership, the Dodgers won division titles both times, failing to get out of the first round one year and failing to get out of the second round the other.

The Dodgers replaced Colletti with Andrew Friedman.

In 2015, the Dodgers won the division but failed to get out of the first round of the playoffs. Friedman offered Mattingly a short-term extension, and Mattingly opted for a long-term deal to manage the Miami Marlins.

After Walter and Co. took over the Dodgers, Mattingly told me Wednesday, there was one year he thought he might be fired: 2013, when the Dodgers started 30-42 and fell 9 1/2 games out of first place in mid-June. The Dodgers then reeled off 42 wins in 50 games and won the division by 11 games.

He appreciated that Walter, team president Stan Kasten and eventually Friedman did not simply bring in a new manager at their first chance.

“You get to evaluate and see,” Mattingly said, “and you have your vision for where you want it to go, and sustain it. That’s the thing they’ve been great at: sustaining it. It’s been year after year. You can’t really doubt what they’re doing.”

Kasten’s first move was not to fire Colletti, but to ask what ownership could provide for him so that he could do a better job. The owners quickly responded by funding the addition of impact players (Adrián González and Hanley Ramirez), extending the contract of a popular home-grown player (Andre Ethier), revitalizing the Dodgers’ Latin American talent pipeline (Yasiel Puig and Julio Urías), renovating the clubhouse and, at Mattingly’s suggestion, refreshing the family room.

“We started to be able to compete with a different mindset, which was invaluable,” Colletti said.

Similarly, with Friedman and former Dodgers general manager Farhan Zaidi as consultants, the Lakers have added two positions for assistant general managers, overhauled the scouting staff, created more room at team headquarters by relocating their G League affiliate to the Coachella Valley, and borrowed from the Dodgers’ playbook in modernizing medical and biomechanical facilities.

This summer could be critical in determining the future of the Lakers, including who runs them. Walter can spend all he wants, as he does with the Dodgers, but the luxury-tax penalties in the NBA are more severe than in baseball and could restrict the roster flexibility so coveted by the likes of Friedman and Zaidi. A star-studded roster beyond Luka Doncic — say, a trade for Giannis Antetokounmpo? — could require the Lakers to sacrifice the draft picks that also would limit roster flexibility.

The Lakers will have the resources. Walter will want to see the creativity and the championships — or, at least, the path to them. Ultimately, he will decide what he did with the Dodgers: Does he have the best people he can get running the team?

“You see many organizations that win, and then they take a step back,” Colletti said. “They feel like they have some goodwill in the bank, they don’t have to chase the biggest free agents, and they don’t need to re-invest in the team or the stadium.

“From my vantage point, all the way up and down that organization and especially at the ownership level, it’s almost like they’ve never won, and they’re hungry to get there. To be there and be unsatisfied — that quest to be as great as you can be — is one of the great indicators of the excellent ownership it is.”

In the meantime, any advice for Pelinka and Redick? Colletti let out a hearty laugh.

“Do your best,” he said, “and turn it up a notch.”

Nelly Korda’s bid for a U.S. Women’s Open title began Thursday with a foot fault.

The No. 1-ranked player opened her round at Riviera wearing a pair of golf shoes provided to her by LeBron James, Nike Victory Pro 4s with white uppers, gold swooshes, red-and-navy details and an American flag pin on the laces.

Snazzy as they looked, the shoes were a little loose fitting for Korda, who swapped them for a more familiar pair after she played the first six holes at one over par. She never really found her groove and finished the opening round with a two-over-par 73.

“Just hit it really poorly off the tee,” said Korda, who immediately headed to the practice range after meeting with the media following her round. “Found myself in a lot of trouble on the wrong side of a lot of these pins. I just felt like I was kind of just grinding to make safe pars. It wasn’t a great day. I hit it really good Monday through Wednesday, so I have honestly no idea where this came from.”

For others, Riviera — playing host to the major championship for the first time — was as comfortable as an old shoe.

Korea’s Sei Young Kim worked her way to the top of the leaderboard with a 67, making back-to-back birdies on the 10th and 11th holes, then three in a row on Nos. 6, 7 and 8.

Sei Young Kim eyes her putting line on the ninth green during the first round of the U.S. Women’s Open at Riviera Country Club on Thursday.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

According to Elias Sports Bureau, Kim ended a personal streak of 43 consecutive major championship rounds shooting 70 or higher. It was the longest active streak of its kind entering this week.

“The U.S. Open is not regular — not the same as a regular tournament,” Kim said. “So you need to be really patient instead of attacking the pin. So I really try to follow what my caddie says.”

Some caddies have an even closer relationship with their players. On the bag for Michelle Wie West is her husband, Jonnie West, son of late NBA legend Jerry West. Wie West retired three years ago after the Open at Pebble Beach, but came out of retirement to use her last year of exemption to play on this iconic course, celebrating its centennial.

Wie West opened her round with a flourish, crushing her tee shot 293 yards down the left side. Although she missed the green on her approach, chipped up for a short birdie putt but missed it.

Wie West, once one of the biggest stars in the game, qualified for the USGA amateur championship at age 10, the youngest player to do so. She turned professional shortly before her 16th birthday and won five times on the LPGA Tour, with her only major victory coming at the U.S. Open in 2014.

Now a mother of two, Wie West said part of her motivation to return for this tournament was so her daughter, Makenna, who turned 6 this week, will have memories of her playing.

Michelle Wie West, right, and caddie Jonnie West, her husband, discuss an approach shot during a practic round Wednesday.

(Harry How / Getty Images)

“It’s everything,” Wie West said of that inspiration. “Being able to share this with her — even the last couple of months, just practicing. We talk a lot before she goes to bed, and I tell her what I do when she’s at school. ‘I had a tough day at practice. This is what I overcame.’”

Makenna is almost a sounding board.

“My daughter is like the best sports psychologist I’ve ever had, honestly. … I’m going to try to live by the words I tell my daughter. I always tell her before a game or tournament, ‘I don’t care about the results. All I care about is a good attitude and that you try your hardest.’ That’s my No. 1 goal this week.”

Still in search of her first major victory is Gaby López, whose 68 on Thursday put her just behind the leader. She grew up in Mexico City and said Riviera has a familiar and comfortable feel.

“It’s all high elevation [there] and flies way less here,” she said. “But the same kikuyu [grass] and the ball sits up, and you just have to be ready to hit some flier shots off the fairway.

“That rough, you can get lucky at times. … It’s so sticky it’s hard to get it out, especially when you’re going to have no spin. So you just have to be very specific where you’re going to miss it if you don’t hit the fairway.”

Lopez has started hot in the U.S. Open before, although she wasn’t pleased with those results. She was four under through her first nine holes in 2017 before going two over in her second nine. She shot a 70 that day and was tied for 13th after the opening round, but wound up missing the cut.

Her approach this year is simple and straightforward.

“Right now let’s be smart, let’s be focused on what you want to achieve,” she said, “and at the end of the day, let’s put yourself in a position that you can have a shot on the back nine on Sunday.”