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Welcome back to The Times’ Lakers newsletter, where the offseason is back in full swing.

The Lakers have the 25th pick in the NBA draft, which begins Tuesday at Barclays Center, tipping off what is expected to be a consequential, potentially roster-flipping offseason. Next week, the free agency frenzy kicks up. Players including Austin Reaves, Deandre Ayton and Marcus Smart must decide on their player options by June 29 at 8:59 p.m. PT. Free agents can start negotiations at 3 p.m. on June 30 and put pen to paper as soon as July 6 at 9:01 a.m.

Don’t expect the Lakers’ biggest question to be resolved by then.

LeBron James may drag his retirement debate into the summer as the 41-year-old considers stretching his career to a record-extending 24th season. Before we worry about one career that feels like it will never end, we’ll look at careers that are just starting.

With the 25th overall pick…

The crowd of reporters gathered around AJ Dybantsa’s table was four or five rows deep before the potential No. 1 pick even arrived for his interview at the NBA’s predraft media availability Monday. Across the ballroom at this luxe Manhattan hotel, Kansas guard Darryn Peterson, who any other year could be a lock for the top selection, fielded questions from an equally large gaggle of reporters.

This draft class is drawing attention for its incredible talent and depth. ESPN front office insider Bobby Marks said there are “three No. 1 picks” between Dybantsa, Peterson and Duke’s Cameron Boozer. The excitement shouldn’t stop at just the top of the group.

“What I love about the draft is Jalen Brunson went 33rd, Tyrese Maxey went 21st, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander went 11th, and Steph Curry went right after Johnny Flynn and Ricky Rubio,” ESPN college basketball analyst Fran Fraschilla said. “… Love the top four, also know this draft is such an inexact science.”

This draft is considered one of the deepest in a generation, even outside of the clear-cut top four of Dybantsa, Peterson, Boozer and North Carolina’s Caleb Wilson. But after the forward-heavy top tier, the group probably will be remembered for its talented and diverse group of guards. That’s not necessarily the best fit for the Lakers, who are targeting wings and bigs to build around Luka Doncic.

Mock drafts put prospects including Dailyn Swain, Isaiah Evans, Chris Cenac Jr., Tarris Reed, Henri Veesaar and Jayden Quaintance within the range of the Lakers’ 25th pick. But the draft unravels in unpredictable ways. Teams are approaching the later picks with caution and curiosity.

(Thuc Nhi Nguyen / Los Angeles Times)

“A lot of the teams in the 20s right now are trying to figure out who’s going to be there,” ESPN draft analyst Jeremy Woo said on a conference call with reporters. “I think 25 is right around where the talent pool kind of drops into that next tier of guys.”

Evans, a 6-foot-6 guard from Duke, said he wasn’t offended by prognostications that place him late in the first round. He cares only that he goes to “a city that is going to accept me.” Evans shot 36.1% from three-point range on 7.4 attempts per game last season for the Blue Devils, averaging 15 points and 3.2 rebounds.

Seeing the long list of sleeper picks who turned into All-Stars, MVPs and champions showed Swain that when he hears his name called Tuesday isn’t matter as consequential as what he plans to do next.

“Once I get drafted, whenever that is, I have the same opportunity as the next person,” Swain said. “So I’m just trying to take complete advantage of that and make the most of my opportunity.”

In young players, the Lakers look for “game processors, highly competitive, basketball IQ, team-first players,” president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka said at the end of the season. Those are qualities the Lakers can develop in their next key role player.

Pelinka called player development “a very important area for us to have Lakers excellence in.” Less than 24 hours after being eliminated by a much deeper Thunder team, Pelinka cited Oklahoma City second-year guard Ajay Mitchell as a success story the Lakers want to emulate. The 2024 second-round pick was a playoff game changer for the Thunder, averaging 22.5 points and six assists while shooting 56.3% from the field during Oklahoma City’s second-round sweep.

The Lakers, one year removed from drafting a promising player in the second round, are looking for similar growth from Adou Thiero.

The 6-foot-8 forward has the youth and athleticism Pelinka called “North Stars” for the team’s roster decisions. Compared to his older, ground-bound teammates, Thiero looked ready to leave the atmosphere on some of his rebound attempts.

Coach JJ Redick said multiple times during the season that this would be an important summer for Thiero. His rookie season was marred by persistent knee injuries, first to his surgically repaired left knee and then to his right knee after an MCL sprain kept him sidelined for months. He was not able to participate in summer league or much of the preseason.

Thiero said after the season that he anticipated playing summer league games with his offseason priority being to develop his shooting.

“Just getting the confidence to take the open shot when it’s there,” Thiero said. “Just keep building on my offensive game, try and get more comfortable with the speed of the NBA. … Try to be a little bit more of an impact player for the team.”

Thiero attempted three three-pointers in his rookie season and made one. During his G League appearances, Theiro averaged 15.4 points, shooting 62.5% from the field, and was nine for 14 from three. In college, he was a career 28.4% three-point shooter with 74 attempts in three years.

The Lakers start summer league in San Francisco on July 3 in the California Classic. The four-team event also includes the host Golden State Warriors, San Antonio Spurs and the Miami Heat.

Favorite thing I ate this week

Pesto ham sandwich with roasted tomato soup.

(Thuc Nhi Nguyen / Los Angeles Times)

Before starting the summer league circuit next month, I enjoyed some time at home this June. One of my favorite meals to make at home is a pesto sandwich with homemade roasted tomato soup. I usually like roasted chicken, but I used the ham I already had on hand on sourdough with harvarti and provolone cheese and homemade pesto. I make the pesto with basil, walnuts, Parmesan cheese, garlic and lemon. Instead of olive oil, I use avocado to bind everything together so it doesn’t soak through the bread as easily. You’re welcome to steal this hack for your next sandwich.

In case you missed it

Lakers likely to select a big man or wing in first round of NBA draft

Plaschke: Lawrence Tanter was the Lakers’ smooth operator whose subtlety spoke volumes

Lakers promote Lawrence Tanter to special advisor for game presentation

Until next time…

As always, pass along your thoughts to me at thucnhi.nguyen@latimes.com, and please consider subscribing if you like our work!

Fox has adopted a new split-screen approach to ads during the World Cup’s mandatory hydration breaks, after a stir among viewers over how it had been handling the pauses.

At the start of the tournament, the network aired full-screen ads during the three-minute breaks, cutting away from the field during the opening match between Mexico and South Africa. Soccer fans complained that they were missing on-field action, and the backlash mounted.

By the Mexico-South Korea match last week, Fox had changed course, running split-screen advertisements for the first time: two side-by-side panels, one keeping the camera on the stadium while the other played a commercial. The approach hasn’t been consistent, though. For Friday’s U.S.-Australia match, the network reverted to full-screen ads.

Fox declined to comment on the changes.

Viewers were quick to notice the split-screen format and weigh in on social media. “At least FOX stopped doing the stupid full screen breaks,” one user wrote on X. “I can live with split screen.”

The World Cup has posted substantial ratings gains for Fox.

Throughout the first 16 telecasts of the tournament, the network is averaging more than 6 million viewers from Fox and Fox Sports 1, up 128% from 2022’s World Cup in Qatar. The broadcast of the U.S. team’s first game this month was the most-watched FIFA Men’s World Cup telecast in English in U.S. history, with more than 18 million views, according to the network.

The hydration break itself is new to the World Cup. FIFA announced it in December as a way to protect players’ health in the summer heat. In every match, the referee is to call for a break around the 22-minute mark of both halves, regardless of the weather.

In addition to helping the players, these extra minutes created a new advertising window. Networks are allowed to leave the on-field action 20 seconds after the referee signals the hydration break and return 30 seconds before play resumes, allowing for ads of up to two minutes and 10 seconds in total. They can air any full-screen ad they’d like, or run a split-screen ad — though a split-screen has to feature a FIFA partner, such as Coca-Cola or Adidas.

Ads during the tournament’s earlier games reportedly cost around $200,000 for a 30-second slot. The price jumps to $750,000 when the U.S. is playing, according to the Wall Street Journal.

When any rules change in televised sports, the most dedicated fans are going to get upset, said Patrick Rishe, the director of the sports business program at Washington University in St. Louis. Despite all the online uproar, he said that the hydration breaks are overall beneficial, as they allow networks an extra opportunity to recoup revenue and brands to get additional exposure.

“This is commercially fantastic for FIFA and the networks. It’s tactically helpful for the teams, and I do think it’s helpful for growing interest in the sport,” Rishe said. “It makes it easier for the casual fans to stay engaged.”

MIAMI — Giannis Antetokounmpo wants more championships. So do the Miami Heat.

And the Heat finally have another superstar.

Ending a marathon watch for the next great Miami get, the Heat landed Antetokounmpo — a two-time NBA MVP and 10-time All-Star — from the Milwaukee Bucks on Monday night in exchange for a massive haul of players and draft picks.

The terms, according to a person who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the move has yet to receive the required league approval: Antetokounmpo and Bobby Portis are heading to Miami for Wisconsin native Tyler Herro, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Kel’el Ware and Kasparas Jakucionis. Milwaukee also gets at least four picks, including the No. 13 selection that will be made in Tuesday night’s NBA draft.

It ends a wild back-and-forth in the final days of the saga, with the Bucks considering offers from both Miami and Boston for Antetokounmpo — who led Milwaukee to the 2021 NBA title, was on the NBA’s 75th anniversary list of its greatest players ever, is a nine-time All-NBA selection and is coming off an injury-shortened season where he averaged 27.6 points per game.

There has been no secret that this is what Miami has sought, because this is what Miami usually seeks. The Heat pulled off similar moves by landing Shaquille O’Neal in 2004 (helping lead to the 2006 NBA title) and by getting LeBron James and Chris Bosh to play alongside Dwyane Wade in 2010 (leading to four NBA Finals runs in four seasons together, along with the 2012 and 2013 NBA titles).

Now, it’s Antetokounmpo’s turn. At 31, the Heat clearly believe he still has many good years left — and it’s generally presumed that by making this deal they’ll give the Greek superstar a massive extension later this year.

He was a perennial MVP candidate in Milwaukee, getting votes for that award in nine consecutive seasons before 2025-26, when too many missed games left him ineligible.

He has averaged 24.1 points and 9.9 rebounds per game in his career, with 10 consecutive seasons of averaging at least 22.9 points — with three years in there of averaging more than 30 points per game.

Only seven current players have more points in their careers than Antetokounmpo, who has totaled 21,531 to this point.

Antetokounmpo had been mentioned in trade talks countless times in recent years, with the Bucks always insisting — with words and actions — that they had no interest in trading their best player and one of the best players in the history of their franchise.

But this time, it seemed different.

The Bucks, who fired Doc Rivers as coach after the season, don’t have a roster that would be considered a championship contender. By trading Antetokounmpo, they can essentially start over with four players (and the Heat were high on all of them) along with draft capital.

“I just think before the draft is a natural time, right, because if Giannis does play somewhere else we’re going to get a lot of assets. … You’ve got to get it right,” Bucks co-owner Jimmy Haslam said in May, when the team introduced new coach Taylor Jenkins — who was told that Antetokounmpo may or may not be with the franchise when next season starts.

Jenkins and the rest of the NBA now has the answer: Antetokounmpo won’t be there.

Antetokounmpo had spoken highly of Miami many times over the years, even when the Heat and Bucks were going head-to-head in the playoffs. He also shares an agent with Heat star center Bam Adebayo, who was the only player that Miami clearly was not willing to part with in order to make this deal happen.

“They’re going to play tough and they’re not going to stop playing,” Antetokounmpo said after Milwaukee played Miami on March 12. “That’s the Miami Heat culture.”

Little did anyone know that night that those words were coming after what would be the next-to-last game for Antetokounmpo in a Bucks uniform. He played three nights later against Indiana, then was held out of Milwaukee’s final 15 games of the season.

The Bucks said that was for injury-related reasons. Antetokounmpo said he wanted to play.

He had some bouts with injury this past season: Antetokounmpo missed four games in late November with a left adductor strain and sat out eight games in December with a right calf strain, then he injured the right calf again in January.

He landed awkwardly on a dunk in that March 15 victory over Indiana and didn’t play again because of what team officials had labeled as a left knee hyperextension and bone bruise. Antetokounmpo said the last few weeks of the season that he was healthy and wanted to play, a dispute that resulted in an investigation by the league office.

Reynolds writes for the Associated Press.

Two games, two wins and the U.S. is already through to the knockout stage of a World Cup it is hosting.

For forward Folarin Balogun, things couldn’t be going any better.

“You know, if someone said before the tournament, two games and you’d be through to the knockouts, I think we all would have taken it,” he said. “We’re delighted.”

On Monday, the U.S. got more good news when Christian Pulisic, its talisman, returned to training after missing 10 days because of a calf injury. So Balogun said the last thing the team wants to do is take its foot off the gas for Thursday’s group-play finale with Turkey.

U.S. forward Folarin Balogun celebrates after scoring against Paraguay during the teams’ opening World Cup match at SoFi Stadium on June 12.

(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

“The object and the aim is to go out there and win,” he said before Monday’s practice at the Orange County Great Park in Irvine. “Three wins, three games. We can create history.”

He is unlikely to be part of that effort, however. Balogun, Tyler Adams, Chris Richards and Antonee Robinson all picked up yellow cards in the first two U.S. games, and a second booking against Turkey would leave them ineligible to play in the round of 32 match.

There’s no need to risk that in a game that will change neither team’s World Cup fate — the U.S. already won the group while Turkey has been eliminated and will fly home after the match. But protecting their momentum is important for the Americans, who last won their group in 1930 and have won a World Cup knockout-stage game just once.

“Game to game, even minute to minute, half to half, it ebbs and flows,” captain Tim Ream said of momentum. “You can wrestle momentum away from teams and create your own. Every goal, every block, every set play — everything that we’re doing is together. That’s how we create the momentum.”

U.S. defender Chris Richards kicks the ball in front of Paraguay forward Julio Enciso while midfielder Tyler Adams looks on.

(Kelvin Kuo/Los Angeles Times)

“Momentum is everything,” defender Richards added. “Going into the last game with the group stage with two wins, hopefully we can finish with the third.”

With decisive victories over Paraguay and Australia, the U.S. has consecutive wins in a World Cup for the first time in 96 years. It has never won more than twice in a tournament, so beating Turkey would make history — and a bold statement.

“The belief’s always been there,” forward Alejandro Zendejas said. “Not just now, but in the past FIFA windows. We’ve been playing against good national teams, respected national teams, and we’ve been coming out with a positive result. So just keep on believing in this group.”

Zendejas said one reason the team is playing so well is because the players genuinely like being around one another. And unlike other national team camps, which rarely last more than 10 days, these 26 players have been together nearly a month, which has helped bond a roster that was already tight.

“The vibes are high, the team is having fun,” he said. “Training is intense, but in a good way. That’s since the beginning of this whole camp.

“It’s fun being around these guys. There’s a bunch of jokes. But when it comes to work and training and games, we get serious. And we’ve been showing that.”

With coach Mauricio Pochettino likely to rotate his squad against Turkey to protect the players with yellow cards, Zendejas is among those who figure to see the field for the first time in the tournament. Midfielder Cristian Roldan, who is in his second World Cup but has yet to play, was in line to get some minutes as well, but he was held out of training Monday with what was vaguely described as a muscle strain. His status is listed as day to day.

Pulisic’s role in Thursday’s game could be Pochettino’s toughest decision. The team’s best player, Pulisic was electric in the first half of the opener with Paraguay, setting up two goals. But he hasn’t played since, and his absence was noticeable against Australia.

So while getting him back on the field would be a positive, an additional week’s rest and recovery also would be valuable since there will be no room for error in the knockout stages.

Iran’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad World Cup got a lot better Sunday.

By playing Belgium to a scoreless draw before another packed house at SoFi Stadium, Iran is in position to win its group with a victory over Egypt on Friday and advance to the knockout stage for the first time.

That would be a just reward for a team that is unbeaten two games into what has been a trying tournament off the field.

Before it even left Iran, the team was forced to move its training camp from Tucson to Tijuana, and more than a dozen members of its delegation were told they would be barred from entering the U.S. The players had their movements in the U.S. severely limited, heard their national anthem jeered twice and generally have been unwelcome as the first qualifiers to play a World Cup game in a country with which they are at war.

And if all that wasn’t bad enough, on Sunday, Iran had a brilliant first-half goal, one that seemingly had given it its first lead of the tournament, erased on a video replay that confirmed the narrowest of offside violations.

The disallowed goal, one of the best any team has scored in this World Cup, came on a set piece in the 25th minute. Iranian captain Ehsan Hajsafi took the free kick from about 35 yards, but instead of going to the goal, he pushed the ball through the Belgium wall to Mehdi Taremi, who took a clean first touch, then put a left-footed ball between Belgian keeper Thibaut Courtois and the left post.

Iranian soccer fans hold a pre-revolutionary Iranian flag following the team’s scoreless draw with Belgium in the World Cup at SoFi Stadium on Sunday.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

The play caught Belgium completely by surprise, and for one of the few times in this tournament, Iran had reason to cheer. But the celebration was short-lived when referee Dario Herrera took the goal away after a lengthy video review determined Taremi to be offside.

That was the best thing that went right for Belgium in a first half it dominated, only to come up empty. It had an 11-2 edge in shots, completed six times as many passes and controlled the ball for more than 36 of the first 45 minutes. But it couldn’t get the ball past Iranian keeper Alireza Beiranvand.

If the World Cup has been trying for Iran, it’s been frustrating for Belgium, which needed an own goal from Egypt’s Mohamed Hany to escape with a draw in its opener. And a smothering Iranian defense that frequently packed seven players in the box added to that frustration Sunday.

Belgium forward Romelu Lukaku, left, and Iran defender Shojae Khalilzadeh battle for the ball in the second half of a World Cup match at SoFi Stadium on Sunday.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

That allowed Iran to get the first dangerous chance of the second half — and it also came off a set piece — with Taremi banging a clean volley on target from the center of the box. But Courtois stood his ground and made the save.

The game took a turn in the 62nd minute when Belgium’s Nathan Ngoy mishit a weak backpass, sending Taremi on a breakaway with only Courtois to beat. When Ngoy reached out and grabbed the Iranian by the shirt, pulling him to the ground, he drew a red card, leaving Belgium to play the final half-hour down a man.

Iran clearly deserved a better fate after absorbing wave after wave of a withering Belgium attack without breaking. It also was quicker and far more creative on offense, though it had nothing to show for that.

For Belgium, still looking for its first goal of the tournament, the result was another strain on an aging golden generation of players. If they don’t beat New Zealand in their final group-stage game Friday, they’ll leave the World Cup after the first round for a second straight time.

For more than four decades his voice was embraced by millions, a calming baritone in a sea of Lakers bedlam.

Yet in the most unfair of twists, on the night his career ended he was silent and alone.

Three months ago, Lawrence Tanter was walking through his bedroom when he suddenly collapsed while losing all strength in his arms and legs.

He fell and couldn’t get up. He lives alone, so he couldn’t cry out for help. He was able to secure his phone, but he says he was too stubborn to call 911.

“I wanted to get up by myself,” he said. “I knew I would eventually get up by myself.”

But this 6-foot-7 bear of a man was too weak to get up by himself. Listening to a Lakers road game on a bedside radio, he remained on the floor and eventually fell asleep until finally summoning his oldest friend the next morning.

Lakers star LeBron James salutes public address announcer Lawrence Tanter before the start of a game in 2024.

(Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)

“I got there and I’m like, why didn’t you call sooner?” Joe Williams said. “I told him, ‘I know you’re a warrior but, c’mon man, this is serious.’”

Serious enough to be diagnosed as a stroke. Serious enough to quietly end the most sonorous, soothing stretch in local sports history.

For 43 years as the Lakers’ iconic public address announcer, Tanter has been the coolest sound in the city, the measured, reassuring voice that decorated the team’s two hype-filled homes with gravitas and grace.

When the Lakers announced his retirement last week as he continues to battle effects from the March 17 stroke, the man known to everyone as simply “LT” closed his career with taciturn perfection, summing up a Lakers lifetime in eight words.

“It’s been a great run,” he intoned this week from a hospital bed, his pipes still the strongest part of him. “I’ve been blessed.”

It is Lakers fans who have been blessed, gifted with a voice that, whenever they attended a game, reminded them they were home.

“LT is in every way a part of Laker history,” said former Laker and current broadcaster Mychal Thompson. “He too is a Laker legend.”

Lakers public address announcer Lawrence Tanter gets set up at the scorer’s table before a game in 2011.

(Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)

When the retirement news broke with the Lakers announcing they were moving LT into an advisory role — a classy good-bye — fans everywhere broke out their LT best.

“Toooo many steps.” … “James Woooorthy.” … ”LeBronnnn James.”

And, of course, everybody’s favorite…“Llllaker Girlsss.”

“I always imagine, if he could hear God’s voice, it would sound like LT’s,” Thompson said.

This was never more true than on a somber night in late January in 2020. LT put his giant arms around a grieving city with pregame introductions that will never be forgotten.

“At one guard, number 24, 6-6, 20th year out of Lower Merion High School, Kobeee Bryant.”

The player taking the court was Avery Bradley.

“At the other guard, number 24, 6-6, 20th year out of Lower Merion High School, Kobeee Bryant.”

Lakers public address announcer Lawrence Tanter watches play from his spot at the scorer’s table during a game in 2012.

(Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)

The player taking the court was Danny Green.

And on it went, all five Lakers introduced as Kobe Bryant before their game against the Portland Trail Blazers, the ultimate tribute before the Lakers’ first game since Bryant’s death.

It might have been LT’s finest hour, and every second of it broke his heart.

“The hardest introductions ever,” he remembered.

LT handled it simply by being LT, a comforting bard who could elicit much emotion with a slight change in cadence or key.

“With his timing, his rhythm, he could get excitement going without raising his voice,” said Bob Steiner, the retired Lakers executive who hired LT in 1982. “Lawrence became a star in the same way Chick Hearn was.”

While working for the Lakers, LT also worked for several jazz and rhythm and blues radio stations in town, most notably KJLH, which gave him built-in credibility in the city.

“If you go around town, you will find that he was known almost as much for his radio work as his public address work,” Williams said.

In combining the rhythm of jazz with the tenor of basketball, LT was the coolest cat at the scorer’s table, a distinctive figure in a white goatee and a newsboy cap who raised the roof while never raising his voice.

“I never tried to be a cheerleader,” said LT, 76. “I just tried to be a public address announcer.”

While many of today’s public address announcers are screamers, LT was so subtle that his most repeated call involved not the action, but the in-game entertainment.

“Everywhere we go, somebody recognizes his voice and does an imitation,” Williams said. “But nothing gets repeated like ‘Llllaker Girlsss.’”

Those two words, uttered at the end of every routine by the iconic dance team, contain the essence of LT’s greatness. He knows what you’re watching doesn’t need any embellishment; he’s capturing the scene with the power of subtlety.

“You’re sitting in the stands and when the dancers finish dancing, you say to your friends out loud, ‘Llllaker Girlsss,’ and everybody laughs,” said Pete Arbogast, who was the master of ceremonies when LT was inducted into the Southern California Sports Broadcaster Hall of Fame last year.

LT’s speech that afternoon was dominated by individual thank-yous to his many friends who attended the ceremony, typical LT humility.

“From my nose to my toes, I say thank you,” he concluded.

Lakers public address announcer Lawrence Tanter is given brownies by actress Dyan Cannon before the start of a game in 2011.

(Los Angeles Times)

Today it is the Lakers who are thanking him.

“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,” Lakers governor Jeanie Buss said in a statement. “I am incredibly grateful for everything he has given to this franchise.”

His next stop should be the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, where he deserves to be enshrined as a contributor, becoming the first public address announcer to receive such an honor.

What other PA voice defined a franchise like LT? Who else missed just two games in 43 years? Name another PA announcer who accumulated nine championship rings yet refuses to wear any of them, ever, because it was never about him?

“It’s high time the Hall of Fame inducts him as a valuable and legendary contributor to the game,” Thompson said.

And if he is one day inducted, how would he introduce himself?

“At one forward, number 43, 6-foot-7, from Thornton Township High School, Llllawrence TAN-ter …”

LT laughed at the thought. He never actually would say that. But wouldn’t you like to hear it? Just once?

“Laker games,” Thompson said, “will never sound the same again.”

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.

There have been dozens of football transfers in Southern California during the offseason, but the one transfer who could make the greatest impact is running back AJ McBean, who announced he was leaving Mira Costa High for Gardena Serra.

McBean, who ran 10.55 seconds in the 100 meters this spring thanks to Mira Costa’s track program and his commitment to getting faster, joins a Serra offense that returns all five starters on the offensive line. He’s got the speed and strength to help the Cavaliers make up for not reaching the Southern Section playoffs last season out of the extremely competitive Mission League.

He’s been a longtime resident of Hermosa Beach, so what would motivate him to leave Mira Costa after recently making a commitment to Stanford? He apparently wants to prepare for college by being used in a more versatile role catching passes out of the backfield to show off his many skills. At least that’s what his family told coach Scott Altenberg. Mira Costa was changing its offense to better feature him, so it’s a tough loss for the Mustangs.

McBean will have to move to become eligible immediately.

Hope at Whittier

Former Garfield coach Lorenzo Hernandez, in his first season at Whittier, has already discovered a talent he can’t wait to develop. Offensive and defensive lineman Joseph Medina from the class of 2028 has made quite a first impression on Hernandez.

Medina didn’t play last season, “and in three months that we have been here, he is off the charts,” Hernandez said.

Hernandez calls him “a great technician and amazing leader.”

Agoura QB depth

Never has coach Dustin Croick of Agoura had more quality depth at quarterback than what he will have this season thanks to two newcomers.

Junior Kris Carranza has transferred from Sierra Canyon to Agoura and is a top candidate to start. The Chargers are also adding incoming freshman quarterback Emerson Andrews, whose father, David, played tight end at Ohio State and was a member of the 2002 national championship team. He is director of athletic performance for UCLA’s men’s basketball program. If anyone has a strength and conditioning question, submit it to Emerson, who knows someone.

Commitments rolling in

With college recruiters headed on vacation, lots of players decided to make commitments to make sure they have a “certain” destination. There’s also a new trend of players announcing on social media posts that they are “shutting down” their recruitment, which is supposed to mean their decision is final. Then how come others keep recruiting them? Because it’s never final in this era of NIL.

Quarterback Chris Fields, the City Section player of the year from Carson, committed to Georgetown. Offensive lineman Micah Butler from Hamilton committed to Sacramento State. Kicker Gabriel Goroyan of Westlake committed to Stanford. Defensive back Wesley Ace from Gardena Serra committed to San Jose State. Safety Jaden Walk-Green from Corona Centennial has committed to Washington and teammate Brett Smith has committed to UNLV. Running back Kamden Tillis of Los Alamitos has committed to San Diego State.

Man among boys

USC recruiters deserve praise for identifying the best in Southern California and pursuing them with great intensity. There’s no doubt that Damien safety Gavin Williams, a USC commit, will be the standard for excellence this coming season. He’s fast and strong and players who don’t adjust to his physical skills are in for a surprise.

Damien won the Chaminade seven-on-seven passing tournament on Saturday, beating Crespi in the final. On the first play, Williams caught a long touchdown pass, sprinting well past the defender who had no idea how fast he runs.

First-year coaches galore

It’s going to be fun tracking the progress of first-year football coaches this season because there are so many at well-known programs. The question of who will have the best record should be debated all summer.

Iggy Porchia became the latest new hire, replacing his mentor, the late Angelo Gasca, at Venice.

There should be a competition on which new private coach will have the best record and which new public school coach will have the best record. There are so many candidates with new coaches at JSerra, Orange Lutheran, Servite, Los Alamitos, St. Francis, St. Bernard, Bishop Montgomery, Oaks Christian, Whittier Christian, Bishop Alemany, Muir, Pasadena, Long Beach Poly, Arroyo, North Hollywood, Sun Valley Poly and on it goes.

Transfer issues coming

It appears the Southern Section will be busy again this fall after last year’s eligibility scandal when it declared 19 transfer students ineligible at Bishop Montgomery, resulting in the varsity season ending after one game and forcing the Archdiocese of Los Angeles to clean up what looked like a preventable mess.

This time, it could be public schools facing scrutiny. The same rumors that started last summer about schools loading up on transfers are circulating again this summer. Principals who don’t act after multiple transfers seemingly out of nowhere start showing up to play football only have themselves to blame.

And schools that delay submitting transfer paperwork until the last minute thinking investigators will be too busy to spot an error don’t understand the process.

City Section commissioner Vicky Lagos has a policy that she immediately schedules a meeting with the administration, athletic director, coach and parents when one school receives multiple transfers to review paperwork. The Southern Section deployed AI last fall to help it catch parents submitting false information.

So prepare for more exciting times. It’s like a cat-and-mouse game. And don’t forget about the anonymous emails identifying parents not living at the official address they put on their transfer paperwork.

TIJUANA — About 150 miles from SoFi Stadium, south of the Mexican border, sits the hotel housing Iran’s World Cup team for its games at the Inglewood venue.

The entrance to the Marriott in Tijuana is barricaded, flanked by police and members of the Mexican National Guard, guns held close. No one enters without a hotel reservation or special pass.

Despite the tensions and challenges surrounding Iran’s participation in the World Cup, early Saturday morning finds the mood inside the four-star hotel relaxed, even jubilant. Several dozen fans mingle and bond over their shared excitement to see the squad’s players before they depart for their second group-stage match at SoFi.

“I wanted to come down to support Iranian soccer, and cheer for them when they exited the building and make them happy,” says Lucas Zarrabi, 13. The teen, who attended Monday’s 2-2 draw with New Zealand and has a ticket for Sunday’s match against Belgium, is one of several fans from Los Angeles who made the drive to stay with the team. Others flew in from San José and even Miami, turning up at the hotel not quite four miles from the U.S. border crossing.

Showing up is important, some said, because of what they describe as unfair conditions imposed on the team. After the outbreak of war, the Iranian team was forced to move its base camp from Tucson to Tijuana. Eleven team officials and staff members did not receive U.S. visas. The Trump administration has also denied Iran’s requests to arrive two days before matches — and mandated that the team must leave immediately after each game.

“Every little technicality is making it difficult for the team,” says Abbas Eftekhari, 65, who was born in Iran and has lived in the U.S. for more than 40 years. “I think this is going to drain them psychologically and also physically.”

Iran’s soccer federation has been vocal about the obstacles, saying it would lodge a complaint with FIFA.

“Football shouldn’t lose its power to politics,” Hedayat Mombeini, secretary-general of the Iran Football Federation, said Friday. He added that the restrictions “are certainly having a negative effect on us, but we are trying to overcome these problems with our Iranian pride.”

Since the team landed on June 7, Ali Eslami has visited the hotel gates nearly every day.

“It’s the best pleasure for me. I wished them the best luck. I told them it’s hard but they’re doing excellent things,” said Eslami, who splits his time between Southern California and Tijuana.

He was there again Friday, waiting for the players to return from afternoon training blocks away at the Estadio Caliente, home to the Liga MX’s Xolos.

“I have been in America for 50 years — this has been the most emotional thing, to see the team that I have not seen in 50 years,” he said.

Some Iran fans fear reprisal from fellow members of the diaspora for supporting the team, insisting they were in Tijuana for the love of soccer and the players, not politics. Eftekhari worries that the mood at Iran’s first match, where fans and protesters clashed, affected the players.

“As soon as they see that their countrymen have slogans against them, it also has a negative psychological effect on them. But, that’s how things are at this time,” Eftekhari says.

Just over 24 hours until Sunday’s noon kickoff, it’s not just Iranian fans contributing to the atmosphere. A group of flight attendants from China staying at the hotel embrace the excitement, donning jester hats and waving scarves colored red, white and green. And soccer fans from Tijuana are eager to show some local hospitality. Iran has diplomatic ties with Mexico, unlike with the U.S., and sought to move its group-stage matches to the country where it has an embassy.

“We love the Mexican people very much, and for us, the best situation is for our games to be held in Mexico,” Abolfazl Pasandideh, the Iranian ambassador to Mexico, said at the time.

Leonardo Ramirez Lopez, a 10-year-old soccer fanatic from Tijuana, clutches his autograph album in hopes he’ll get new signatures.

“It’s a new team that I don’t have experience with how they play,” he says. But Iran is already his third-favorite team, behind Colombia and Argentina.

After more than two hours of waiting, several dozen fans break into cheers as players finally file through the lobby. The squad smiles and waves, stopping for a few autographs. As each player leaves, he kisses a Quran, pressing his forehead against it before boarding the bus to Tijuana’s airport.

“Iran, Iran! Whoop, whoop!” fans cry, breaking into song.

Angueira writes for the Associated Press.

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.

Amid the first days of grief after Alex Vesia and his wife lost their newborn daughter last fall, Vesia noticed something as he watched the World Series on television. He paused the broadcast, then checked the video, then texted another player to make sure.

51.

Dodgers teammates wore his number on their caps. So did players from the Toronto Blue Jays.

“It was awesome,” Vesia said. “It was a very heartwarming moment.”

Moving.

Touching.

And, under baseball’s rules, illegal.

Who knew, really, until this week? Three pitchers from the San Francisco Giants wrote the name of a Bible verse on their Pride Night caps and, amid an uproar, Major League Baseball said it had warned the players that “writing of any kind, with any message” on any playing apparel is not permitted. The issue, the league said in a statement, was not what they wrote on their caps but simply that they wrote on them at all.

Said MLB in the statement: “We have given the same warning numerous times in the past to players for messages such as ‘Dad’, ‘Happy Mother’s Day, I Love Mom’ and names of family members.”

To its credit, the league did not enforce the rule when Vesia’s number started appearing on caps in the World Series. But, if you’re going to draw a line on enforcement, where should you draw it?

In San Francisco, the actions of the Giants’ pitchers were widely condemned.

“They were in for a rude awakening with the response, and it wasn’t just from the gay community,” Giants broadcaster and former pitcher Mike Krukow told KNBR, the team’s flagship radio station. “It was from the Northern California community that supports the gay community.”

In response to media inquiries, and as first reported by Outsports, MLB confirmed it had warned the three players. I asked the league whether warnings had been issued in two other instances in which players had written on their caps, including Clayton Kershaw last year writing the same Bible verse on his Pride Night cap that the Giants’ pitchers wrote this year. MLB declined to comment.

“I got chastised by the league when I put Charlie [Kirk]’s name on my hat last year, because a man was murdered in cold blood,” Dodgers pitcher Blake Treinen told me, “and now these gentlemen who are relievers in San Francisco are getting chastised by the league for putting a Bible verse on their hat. It’s crazy to me.”

Treinen said league officials had told him the rule is strictly enforced.

“I straight up asked Clayton last year, ‘Did they call you when you put that on your hat?’” Treinen said. “He said, ‘No.’”

The Pride caps feature team logos decorated in the colors of the rainbow, a symbol long associated with the gay community. In the Bible verse cited by the pitchers (Genesis 9:12-16), the rainbow represents “the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures.”

That the league would warn players against writing a Bible verse on their caps ignited a wave of conservative outrage, from Vice President JD Vance to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.

Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley fired off a letter to MLB commissioner Rob Manfred, alleging apparent discrimination “against baseball players who profess their Christian faith” and threatening the league’s antitrust exemption. Assistant U.S. Atty. Gen. Harmeet Dhillon said on national television that players might be able to file a claim for employment discrimination.

That is complete nonsense. This is what you want: When employees raise an issue to their employer, the employer listens and addresses their concerns.

In 2023, the year after five Tampa Bay Rays players declined to wear rainbow logos for Pride Night, Manfred said the league would no longer compel players to do so.

“We have told teams, in terms of actual uniforms, hats, bases that we don’t think putting logos on them is a good idea just because of the desire to protect players: not putting them in a position of doing something that may make them uncomfortable because of their personal views,” Manfred said then.

Teammates congratulate Freddie Freeman after his walk-off home run gave the Dodgers a 1-0 win on June 5, when the Dodgers held their annual Pride Night. Blake Treinen, the winning pitcher that night, elected to wear his regular Dodgers cap instead of the Pride version.

(Katelyn Mulcahy / Getty Images)

Manfred said the Pride Night celebrations could go on, however a team wished to stage them — or not, in the case of the Texas Rangers, the only one of the 30 MLB teams that declines to hold a Pride Night. And the league still sells Pride gear on its website for all teams, including the Rangers.

In the cases of the Giants and Dodgers, MLB grandfathered each team’s long-running use of a rainbow logo on the cap, with this accommodation to players: If you don’t feel comfortable wearing the Pride cap, just wear your regular cap.

That is what Treinen and outfielder Alex Call did when the Dodgers celebrated Pride Night. That is also what a fourth Giants pitcher did.

“My job is to abide by the rules,” Treinen said. “Ultimately, the only rule we have is to wear our team-issued uniform. So that’s what I chose to do.”

To Treinen, the decision over whether to wear a Pride cap is not about passing judgment on anyone else but about what he sees as the push “to force something on people that you know that is controversial to their faith — and, in fact, straight up against their faith.”

He expressed his support for the Giants pitchers.

“Kudos to those men over there who are standing strong in their faith,” he said. “It’s a sad thing to corner someone and try to make them feel bad about their convictions.”

I respect Treinen for explaining his viewpoint. To me, wearing a Pride cap for one night does not diminish your faith at all. It might sharpen your convictions. More important, it signals a welcome to everyone in the community that buys the tickets and broadcast subscriptions that help pay your salary.

“I think a few people made it about themselves and not about the community,” San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie told the Bay Area Reporter.

We always proclaim the life lessons of sports. One of them: Sometimes you have to put the team’s interests ahead of your own.

VANCOUVER, Canada — When the first men’s World Cup game played in Canada kicked off last week, Anthony Totera sat in the stands and wept.

“It was a dream come true,” said Totera, who has spent most of his 57 years on earth promoting Canadian soccer. “I can’t describe the emotions. It was something surreal.”

If the 1994 World Cup, the first held in the U.S., forever altered the direction of American soccer, this summer’s tournament, which Canada is sharing with the U.S. and Mexico, has the potential to do the same for that country.

“This is going to be something monumental,” Totera said. “We’re going to get to another level, another point, where we’re going to say this was when it all turned.”

With an opening draw against Bosnia and Herzegovina last week in Toronto and Thursday’s 6-0 blowout victory over Qatar in Vancouver, this tournament is already the most successful on the field for Canada, which had lost all six previous World Cup games it had played. Now it’s poised to advance to the knockout rounds for the first time ever.

Jonathan David’s three goals were more than Canada had scored in its previous World Cup seven games combined. And former LAFC goalkeeper Maxime Crepeau, who lost his chance to play in the last World Cup when he broke his leg in the MLS Cup final, had no trouble making them stand up, recording Canada’s first-ever World Cup clean sheet.

The hosts outshoot Qatar 32-2 and had 97 touches in the box in one of the most dominant performances in recent World Cup history.

“I really think that we’re a soccer country,” LAFC midfielder Stephen Eustaquio said. “It’s a very special group.”

But the win was a costly one since Canada, which entered the tournament missing three starters to injury, lost another early in the second half when midfielder Ismael Kone was carted off on a stretcher with an apparent broken leg after Qatar’s Assim Madibo clipped him from behind.

And while that success on the field — costly or not — is significant, Steve Reed, the former Canadian Soccer Assn. president who was instrumental in bringing the World Cup to Canada, said the real goal wasn’t to win games as much as it was to win over the public.

“Each time we have hosted major tournaments, we have seen a significant increase in participation and general public interest,” said Reed, who was part of the group that organized the 2015 women’s World Cup in Canada. That tournament produced nearly a half-billion dollars in economic activity, double the original projections. It also boosted investment of soccer infrastructure, including the construction or upgrading of 21 “FIFA-quality” pitches, and surged youth participation numbers. The quarterfinal game between the host country and England drew a record TV audience of 20.8 million Canadians.

“I would say that we have proved that we excel at hosting major events. This will just be reinforced in 2026,” Reed said.

“In terms of expectations,” he continued, “one would be the continued growth of the game, particularly on the men’s side. We have always been great at the grassroots level. But we need to be better at the top end of the game, creating more professional opportunities for players in our domestic leagues and creating a pipeline to bigger clubs in major leagues.”

Canada fans celebrate after a 6-0 win over Qatar at the World Cup on Thursday.

(Kaleb Tatum / Associated Press)

That’s exactly the kind of legacy the 1994 World Cup created in the U.S., where it gave birth to Major League Soccer, a deep lower-tier professional infrastructure and an academy system that has sent players to major teams all over the world. Canada has also benefited from that, with MLS placing teams in Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto. Nine players from the league — including three from LAFC — are on Canada’s World Cup team.

In the last decade, Canada has begun building its own youth development system. It also launched the Canadian Premier League, an eight-team professional league that has already sent 15 players to the national team. Those initiatives had a good foundation to build on since soccer is Canada’s most popular sport in terms of registration and participation and ranks behind only hockey as a spectator sport.

Still, when Victor Montagliani, a former Canadian Soccer Assn. president, first publicly floated the idea of bidding to host the men’s World Cup in 2013, he was lampooned.

“People absolutely laughed at him, all across this country,” said Totera, who is now the grassroots ambassador for the Premier League. “But his closest friends and people that knew him knew he didn’t lie when he said, ‘I want to bring the World Cup to Canada.’ And he brought it.”

Canada had to pair with the U.S. and Mexico to make that happen, with the so-called United Bid beating back a proposal from Morocco thanks in part to some steady diplomacy from Reed, who took over as president when Montagliani was chosen to lead CONCACAF, the governing body that oversees soccer in North America, Central America and the Caribbean.

Canada’s reward was 13 World Cup games — seven in Vancouver and six in Toronto. Mexico gets the same number, while 78 of the record 104 matches will be played in the U.S.

That same year, 2018, Reed and Canada Soccer put the final piece of its World Cup preparations in place when it hired John Herdman to rebuild its men’s team.

In seven years with the country’s women, Herdman had taken a team that finished last in the 2011 World Cup to the quarterfinals of the next tournament, sandwiched between two bronze-medal performances in the Olympic Games. His impact on the men’s team was equally as stunning.

When Herdman took over, it had been 32 years since Canada played in its only World Cup. The country not only returned in its first cycle under the new coach, but it won the CONCACAF qualifying tournament to earn its place in the 2022 tournament.

“Being a Canadian football supporter, the roller-coaster ride has been downward for most of the years,” said Totera, who pulled on his first Canada soccer shirt the year he entered first grade. “But for the last few years, it’s been on on the upswing.”

Herdman found success in part by making the recruitment of dual nationals a priority, starting four of them — including Alphonso Davies, who immigrated to Canada from a refugee camp in Ghana — in Qatar.

Nearly a quarter of Canada’s population was born somewhere else and Herdman leaned into that diversity.

Jesse Marsch, the U.S.-born coach who took over the national team in 2024, followed Herdman’s lead, recruiting six dual nationals to his World Cup team. As a result the 26 players on Canada’s roster, or their parents, come from more than 17 countries — from Iran, Croatia, Jamaica and Barbados to Haiti, Lebanon, Nigeria and the Philippines.

“We’re a melting pot. We embrace it,” said Totera, whose family moved to Canada from Italy. “I look at that team, our team, and they’re from all parts of the world. Not one from one section of the world or the other section. No, all over.

“Amazing.”

Now, with a win and draw in two games, that diverse Canadian team is almost certain to advance out of a World Cup group stage for the first time — just as the U.S. did when it first hosted a men’s World Cup in 1994.

“After ‘94, after the World Cup was there, they took off to bigger and better things,” Totera said. “I believe once we get into the knockout route, we won’t look back.

“We’re on the cusp of something really special in this country right now. And we need to grab it and run with it.”

Goalkeeper Raúl Rangel was 18 years old and playing for Chivas de Guadalajara’s youth academy the last time Mexico faced South Korea in a World Cup match in 2018.

Three years ago, when asked who might be the next great goalkeeper for the Mexican national team, Rangel named himself ahead of veteran Guillermo “Memo” Ochoa. A bold statement for a player who was just making his professional debut.

On Thursday, the 26-year-old goalkeeper will defend El Tri’s goal during his second World Cup match at Guadalajara Stadium — where he usually plays home games with Chivas — when Mexico takes on South Korea at 6 p.m. PDT on Fox/Telemundo in the second match of Group A.

“I told everyone, ‘I see myself at the World Cup.’ Some people laughed,” Rangel recalled. “I’d been picturing myself on the national team for three years.”

Mexico’s Julian Quinones celebrates with teammates after scoring during a World Cup match against South Africa at Azteca Stadium on June 11.

(Luke Hales / Getty Images)

Mexico and South Korea won their opening matches — El Tri against South Africa and the South Koreans against the Czech Republic — so the winner of this match will take first place in the group and secure its spot in the next round. The incentive is clear for Mexico, as the group winner will play the next two knockout rounds at Azteca Stadium, where El Tri has never lost a World Cup match.

The second-place team, on the other hand, would have to travel to Los Angeles for its next match. While the opponent could be tougher, Los Angeles would be a comfortable destination for South Korea — it has a strong fan base in L.A. and wouldn’t have to contend with Mexico City’s high altitude.

After an opening match in which Mexico coach Javier Aguirre acknowledged that the pressure of the first day affected the team’s performance and that the emotional atmosphere at Azteca Stadium had “weighed heavily” on several of his players, the coach and the players hope to deliver a sharper performance against South Korea.

“Yes, there was a bit of nervousness, a bit of fear,” Mexico midfielder Erik Lira admitted after the opener.

“We need to be more decisive; the win has calmed the nerves we’ve had over the last few days,” Mexico defender Israel Reyes said.

But if Mexico wants to excel, it needs not only to put its nerves behind it but also to improve tactically. Mexico, a co-host of the tournament alongside the United States and Canada, is aiming to reach the knockout stage of the World Cup and advance beyond the round of 16. El Tri has won only one match in the knockout stage — in 1986, when it defeated Bulgaria 2-0 at Azteca Stadium.

“I think that mental aspect has been missing for us. We have to believe that we can achieve great things,” Rangel said. “I truly believe I’m going to be a champion with Mexico. We have a responsibility as hosts.”

The match will be played at Guadalajara Stadium, 5,138 feet above sea level, and will mark the first time Mexico has played a World Cup match in the city.

Chivas, Mexico’s most popular club team, has the most players on the national team with five and all of them will get to play their second World Cup match on their club’s home turf. Brian Gutiérrez, the Mexican American who played a key role in the opener as South Africa was hit a with a red card while trying to stop him, and veteran Roberto Alvarado, who recorded an assist against South Africa, joined Rangel as Chivas starters in the opener. Bench players Luis Romo and Armando González, who also saw action in the opener, also play for Chivas.

Mexico captain Edson Álvarez challenges South Africa’s Themba Zwane during a World Cup match at Azteca Stadium on June 11.

(Carl Recine / Getty Images)

Aguirre will have to make at least one lineup change against South Korea, with Edson Álvarez replacing César Montes, who is serving a red-card suspension. Álvarez is coming off an injury and it’s unclear how he will navigate the stress. Aguirre is also expected to give playing time to 17-year-old prospect Gilberto Mora in midfield — possibly in place of Gutiérrez — and to bring in Jorge Sánchez for Reyes at fullback.

South Korea arrives with a mix of European experience and a hunger for glory. LAFC star Son Heung-min is playing in his fourth World Cup and scored against Mexico in 2018. Kim Min-jae of Bayern Munich has been a rock in defensive midfield, while Paris Saint-Germain’s Lee Kang-in — who, interestingly, played under Aguirre at Mallorca — is a constant threat in creating plays. Joining them is Hwang In-beom of Feyenoord in the Netherlands.

The South Koreans have also been training for weeks at Verde Valle, Chivas’ training facility, which has allowed them to acclimate to the altitude. With the support of the Mexican crowd, they won their World Cup opening match against the Czech Republic at Guadalajara Stadium.

“It was like playing a game in Seoul,” Hwang said after the match, thanking Guadalajara for its support.

“[Mexico] is a good team, but, as you’ve just seen, we can take on anyone,” Hwang said after his team rallied from a 1-0 deficit to beat the Czech Republic.

The week, however, was not without controversy for the South Korean team, as the squad barred press from their home country after audio of media criticizing the mandatory military service exemption granted to Son was leaked. The audio also included criticism of coach Hong Myung-bo.

South Korea and Mexico faced off in September ahead of the World Cup, tying 2-2 in Nashville.

The World Cup stage, however, will be different and brings immense pressure.

The first six days of the 2026 FIFA World Cup are over, with the U.S. and Mexico each winning their group stage openers. However, several teams in the World Cup field are still looking to hit the competitive pitch for the first time.

Here’s everything you need to know about matches being played on Wednesday and Thursday in the 48-team tournament across the U.S., Mexico and Canada (all times Pacific).

Wednesday’s Group K games:

Portugal vs. DR Congo

Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo celebrates after scoring during a World Cup qualifying match on Oct. 14.

(Armando Franca / Associated Press)

Where: NRG Stadium, Houston
Time: 10 a.m.
TV: Fox, Telemundo

The buzz: The Democratic Republic of the Congo is back in the World Cup for the first time since 1974 — when the country was known as Zaire — and in its first game it faces fifth-ranked Portugal and Cristiano Ronaldo, the greatest goal scorer in soccer history. Ronaldo, 41, is playing in the tournament for a sixth time, and this likely is his last chance to win the one prize that has eluded him — a World Cup title.

As for the Congo, it qualified by beating Jamaica in extra time of an inter-confederation playoff in March. But its final pretournament tuneup, with Chile this month, was canceled in Spain because of health concerns linked to the Ebola outbreak in Congo, then relocated to France, where Les Leopards lost 2-1. Before that, the team’s only two losses in the last year had been to World Cup qualifiers Senegal and Algeria.

Uzbekistan vs. Colombia

Uzbekistan’s Eldor Shomurodov controls the ball during an international friendly against the U.S. in September 2023.

(Jeff Roberson / Associated Press)

Where: Estadio Azteca, Mexico City
Time: 7 p.m.
TV: FS1, Telemundo

The buzz: Uzbekistan, a former Soviet republic, is another first-time World Cup qualifier, having punched its ticket for the tournament by finishing second to Iran in its Asian Confederation qualifying group. Its best player is forward Eldor Shomurodov, the team’s all-time leader in goals and the active leader in appearances who shared the lead in Turkey’s Super Lig with 22 scores this season.

Colombia is returning to the World Cup after missing the 2022 tournament. That led to the hiring of Argentine manager Néstor Lorenzo, who guided Colombia to a 28-game unbeaten streak between 2022 and 2024.

Wednesday’s Group L games:

England vs. Croatia

England’s Harry Kane takes part in a team training session on Saturday.

(Charlie Riedel / Associated Press)

Where: AT&T Stadium, Arlington, Texas
Time: 1 p.m.
TV: Fox, Telemundo

The buzz: The last time these teams met in the World Cup was in the 2018 semifinals, where Croatia won in extra time. Since making its first World Cup as an independent country in 1998, Croatia has finished third or better three times, making the final in 2018 and the semifinals in 1998 and 2022. Only France has fared better in the last two tournaments. England, a quarterfinalist in Qatar, made the final of the last two European Championships and, like Croatia, comes into this tournament with an aging core led by captain Harry Kane, England’s all-time leader in goals.

Ghana vs. Panama

Panama’s Ismael Diaz, center, controls the ball during an international friendly against Brazil in May.

(Silvia Izquierdo / Associated Press)

Where: BMO Field, Toronto
Time: 4 p.m.
TV: FS1, Telemundo

The buzz: Panama made its first World Cup appearance in 2018, and seven players from that team are back looking for their first win in the tournament. Prolific goalscorer Ismael Diaz is one of those holdovers as is San Diego FC midfielder Anibal Godoy, the team captain. Ghana, meanwhile, has qualified for five of the last six World Cups but hasn’t gone beyond the group stage since 2010. Its best player is Leicester City forward Jordan Ayew, Ghana’s all-time leader in caps and its active leader in goals.

Thursday’s Group A games:

Czechia vs. South Africa

Czechia’s Ladislav Krejci, center, celebrates with teammates after scoring against South Korea on June 11.

(Matias Delacroix / Associated Press)

Where: Mercedes Benz Stadium, Atlanta
Time: 9 a.m.
TV: Fox, Telemundo

The buzz: Both teams lost their openers, meaning neither can afford another setback. But South Africa will be without two key players in midfielders Yaya Sithole and Themba Zwane, who both drew red cards in the team’s loss to Mexico. Ladislav Krejci’s second-half goal gave Czechia the lead briefly in its loss to South Korea. It was the country’s first World Cup lead since a 3-0 win over the U.S. in group play in 2006.

Mexico vs. South Korea

Mexico’s Raúl Jiménez celebrates after scoring against South Africa at the World Cup on June 11.

(Natacha Pisarenko / Associated Press)

Where: Estadio Akron, Zapopan, Mexico
Time: 6 p.m.
TV: Fox, Telemundo

The buzz: After both teams opened their World Cup with wins, a victory here likely will mean advancing to the knockout rounds as the group champion. Mexico has a one-goal lead in goal differential but will be facing South Korea without defender César Montes, who drew a silly red card in stoppage time of El Tri’s win over South Africa.

Thursday’s Group B games:

Switzerland vs. Bosnia and Herzegovina

Switzerland’s Breel Embolo scores on a penalty shot against Qatar at the World Cup on June 13.

(Eakin Howard / Associated Press)

Where: SoFi Stadium, Inglewood
Time: Noon
TV: Fox, Telemundo

The buzz: Switzerland dominated its first game, outshooting Qatar 26-6 and putting seven tries on target. But it dropped two important points on an own goal deep in stoppage time, turning a potential 1-0 win into a 1-1 draw. Despite all that offense, Switzerland’s only goal came on Breel Embolo’s penalty shot. Bosnia also let a lead — built on Jovo Lukic’s header in the 21st minute — get away late in its draw with Canada.

Canada vs. Qatar

Canada’s Cyle Larin (9) celebrates with teammates after scoring against Bosnia-Herzegovina at the World Cup on June 12.

(Sam Balkansky / Associated Press)

Where: BC Place, Vancouver, Canada
Time: 3 p.m.
TV: FS1, Telemundo

The buzz: Cyle Larin scored two minutes after coming off the bench late in the second half of Canada’s opener, giving the country its first point in a World Cup match. A win against Qatar almost certainly would be enough to see Canada through to the second round, but the team once again will be without its best player, injured winger Alphonso Davies. Qatar also earned its first World Cup point against Switzerland, with keeper Mahmud Abunada making five saves, enabling the team to draw on an own goal in stoppage time.

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.

Fox is under fire for missing on-field action during the first match of the World Cup last week. .

Many sports fans were irate when the network aired a full-screen ad when play resumed after a water break during last Thursday’s Mexico–South Africa match.

In the second half, the referee called for the newly instated hydration break, but the call came during a replay, which led to a miscommunication over when the three-minute break actually started.

Fox ran its full-screen ad late, and because the break didn’t last the full three minutes, players were reportedly left stalling on the field — and many Fox viewers missed the restart entirely.

“The reason that I keep coming back to these games as a fan is for 45 solid minutes of entertainment. Anything that interrupts that, whether it’s [these hydration breaks] or anything else, is not great for the game,” Garrett Denney, an avid World Cup fan and frequent user of the World Cup Reddit page, said. “What we want to see is that kind of rhythm and tempo, the intensity for a full half of soccer.”

Fox declined to comment.

The hydration break is new to the World Cup. FIFA announced it in December as a way to protect players’ health in the summer heat. In every match, the referee is to call for a break around the 22-minute mark of both halves, regardless of weather.

A FIFA spoesperson declined to comment, but pointed to a previous press release describing the breaks as a “focused attempt to ensure the best possible conditions for players, drawing upon the experiences of previous tournaments.”

The extra minutes also created something else — a new advertising window, and broadcasters are taking advantage.

Networks are supposed to leave the on-field action 20 seconds after the referee signals the break and return 30 seconds before play resumes, allowing for ads of up to two minutes and 10 seconds in total. They can air any full-screen ad they’d like, or run a split-screen ad — though a split-screen has to feature a FIFA partner, like Coca-Cola or Adidas.

The stakes are especially high for Fox, which is also leaning on the tournament to promote Fox One, its streaming service that lets subscribers watch its programming without a traditional pay-TV subscription. The World Cup broadcast has been a major plus for the platform, which costs $19.99 a month.

For some soccer fans, though, the commercial breaks are an intrusions.

“The FIFA hydration break is pure capitalism,” comedian Kevin Fredericks wrote on X.

Musician Lloyd Cole made a similar point about the new ad windows: “US tv finally got their 4 quarters. Fifa, corrupt? Fifa?”

After Fox’s stumble, many fans started questioning the intention behind the rule itself.

That frustration has pushed some viewers toward an alternative: Telemundo. The Spanish-language network, available through the Peacock streaming platform, opted for minimal hydration-break ads instead of full-screen takeovers.

During the same Mexico–South Africa match, while Fox aired its full-screen ad, Telemundo kept players on camera, let its commentators share their thoughts, and ran a Lays ad in the corner of the screen. The network has described it as a conscious decision to prioritize authenticity and keep viewers immersed.

“No ads on Telemundo and I’m learning Spanish at the same time!” one user quipped on the World Cup subreddit.

Denney, who’s rooting for Team USA, said his family prefers the Telemundo stream too — even with only part of the household fluent in Spanish.

“Part of our household is fully fluent in Spanish, part is not. And even despite the language barrier, we’ve really gravitated toward the quality of the Telemundo stream,” Denney said. “It’s really more of a rhythmic commentary. You can get deep into the game, you’re not pulled so far out of that experience and it feels almost like you’re at the stadium.”

SAN FRANCISCO — The toughest decision of the Sparks’ season to date is fast approaching.

Within the next few games, the team will have to decide whether they are going to keep fan-favorite Kate Martin around.

She joined the roster on a developmental contract at the start of the season after being waived by the Golden State Valkyries the day of roster releases. Developmental contracts were introduced this year as part of the league’s new collective bargaining agreement.

Each team can carry up to two players on developmental deals. Those players are allowed to practice and travel with the team, but they can only be active for a maximum of 12 games during the season.

The Sparks’ Kate Martin shoots over the Fire’s Nyadiew Puoch at Crypto.com Arena on June 7.

(Luiza Moraes / Getty Images)

Typically, developmental players are used as emergency depth, stepping into the lineup only when injuries create a short-term need. That hasn’t been the case for Martin, who has been active for eight of the Sparks’ first 13 games, making her a regular part of the team’s plans.

“I’ve been activated for quite a few games and that is a blessing,” Martin said. “I feel very grateful to have been activated for so many games so far, but I think just like not knowing until like game day, trying to figure out, like, ‘Oh, am I going to be activated, am I not?’ I think that’s probably the biggest difference, but you know, they don’t treat me any differently.”

When given the opportunity, Martin has brought energy and impact off the bench. She is shooting 47.4% from the field and taking 1.6 shots from three-point range per game despite playing just 7.4 minutes. Martin often receives the loudest cheers from fans during home games.

She delivered her strongest offensive performance in a loss to the Tempo on May 17, scoring 11 points on 4-of-7 shooting, but since then she has been used as a first-half rotation player to rest the Sparks guards as a reliable shooter and defender.

Even with the Sparks at full strength against the Portland Fire last week, Martin still earned eight minutes of play. Then she played four minutes in Saturday’s overtime win against Phoenix.

“We’re figuring it out in real time,” Sparks coach Lynne Roberts said. “These are new positions, and so each player only gets 12 games, but Kate does have experience. She is a spark off the bench. Everyone out there trusts her. There’s value to that. It’s hard, though, as a [developmental] player, to play one game and not play the next, and like it’s just hard for the rest of the group. So that part’s been tricky, and we’re figuring it out as we go.”

With seven active appearances already used, Martin has just four games remaining under the terms of her developmental contract. The Sparks must either preserve those appearances for later in the season or make a long-term commitment by signing her to a standard contract or she will become a free agent again.

The challenge is that Los Angeles does not currently have an open roster spot, meaning the team would need to waive a player to make room.

The Sparks’ Dearica Hamby and Kate Martin chest bump to celebrate after scoring against the Dallas Wings at Crypto.com Arena on June 5.

(Luiza Moraes / Getty Images)

Rookies Jihyun Park and 2026 second-round draft pick Ta’Niya Latson have both appeared in fewer games than Martin, as have veteran Emma Cannon and second-year forward Sania Feagin, who was injured earlier this season but hasn’t claimed a rotation spot since her return.

Martin was a regular part of the rotation with the Valkyries in her one season with the franchise, playing in 42 games and averaging 6.2 points per game and 31% shooting from three-point range. She was inconsistent at times, but also provided a spark off the bench and it was a surprise when they cut her.

After an emotional few days after being waived, Martin joined the Sparks, where she was excited for the opportunity to develop. Now, she sees herself as a fit beyond the 12-game limit.

“The system that we want to run at a very fast pace,” Martin said. “Spread the floor and shoot a lot of threes, and I think that I am good at spacing the floor, and I think that what they want to run here offensively benefits my game in a lot of ways, and I think I fit kind of seamlessly in that way.”

Toronto Tempo forward Isabelle Harrison was tossed from Sunday’s game after committing a hard foul against the Atlanta Dream’s Angel Reese.

Reese had established position in the paint nearly four minutes into the third quarter when she was passed the ball. Harrison reached over and tackled her to the floor. Reese’s teammates immediately jumped in to separate the two players.

The takedown occurred with around 6:05 left in the third quarter, while the Dream were leading 52-42. Officials reviewed the play and Harrison was assessed a Flagrant 2 foul for contact that was deemed “unnecessary and excessive” and ejected from the game.

Harrison, who was drafted in 2015, was the leading scorer for the Tempo with 17 points at the time she was tossed. Reese ended the game with 15 points and 17 rebounds in Atlanta’s 102-77 victory. It marks the ninth double-double of the season for the two-time All Star.

WNBA officials have been cracking down on physical play this season after complaints about the level of physicality last year.

Things appeared to get heated between the two former teammates, who crossed paths during Reese’s rookie season with the Chicago Sky, starting in the first half of Sunday’s game at the Coca-Cola Coliseum in Toronto. The players could be seen exchanging words throughout their match-up and, at one point during the second quarter, Harrison swatted at the ball being held by Reese after play had already been stopped.

After the game, Tempo coach Sandy Brondello said Harrison’s ejection was “unfortunate” because Harrison was “playing so well.” When asked about what she was hoping to see from her team in their next stretch of games, Brondello mentioned consistency and her players “not getting too high [or] too low.”

“I think sometimes the emotions get the best of us and takes away from how we want to play,” Brondella said.

Dream guard Allisha Gray, who led all scorers with 26 points, praised her teammate after the game.

“Angel’s a beast on the boards,” Gray said. “She does everything that we need to help us win and accomplish our goals for the game. So, I think Angel did really well tonight, keeping her composure and really battling on the boards.”

The Dream (9-4) is currently fourth in league standings, while the Tempo (7-7) sit in ninth place.

SEATTLE — If a pregnant Nigerian woman had been allowed to board a plane 25 years ago, the U.S. team’s path through this summer’s World Cup may have unfolded much differently. Instead, a gate agent turned her away, insisting it wasn’t safe for her to fly from New York to London.

So Florence Balogun returned to Brooklyn, where she had been visiting relatives, and waited for her second son to be born. And when Folarin arrived a few weeks later, entering the world just hours before Independence Day dawned, he did so as an American citizen.

It was that quirk of fate that allowed Balogun, who lived just two months in the U.S., to represent the country on soccer’s biggest stage.

“I’m extremely proud my individual journey will come full circle now,” he said before the tournament started. “Especially the World Cup being here, the opportunity to represent my nation. It’s going to be something special for me.”

The first game certainly was, with Balogun scoring twice in the first half of a dominant 4-1 win over Paraguay, becoming the first American with multiple goals in a World Cup game in 96 years while introducing himself to a country that may have known his name, but not his unique talent.

“If you don’t know the type of player he is, you could see it today,” midfielder Weston McKennie said. “It’s the World Cup, everyone steps up to their maximum. In the past a lot of people maybe have not made him out to be a player like that.

“He showed everyone he’s willing to do the dirty work as well.”

Balogun once had his pick of countries to represent. His birth in Brooklyn made him eligible to play for the U.S., his longterm residency in London made him eligible to play for England and his parents’ nationality qualified him to play for Nigeria.

He picked the U.S.

And he’s not the only one on the American team who had a choice. Half the men on the World Cup roster — including Christian Pulisic, Gio Reyna and Malik Tillman, who each had a goal or an assist against Paraguay — are dual nationals, meaning they’re playing for the U.S. because they want to, not because they have to.

“You’re more American if you were not born over there because you had the choice to choose and you chose America,” Kenneth Dest, the Surinamese-American father of Dutch-born defender Sergiño Dest, said in an HBO Max documentary.

If America is a nation of immigrants, it only seems right that it should be represented in the World Cup by a team of immigrants. Like Tillman and Dest, who were born and raised in Europe, the sons of U.S. soldiers. Or forwards Tim Weah, the Brooklyn-born son of the former president of Liberia, and Alejandro Zendejas, who was born in Mexico but became a U.S. citizen at 13 after his father was naturalized.

U.S. forward Folarin Balogun, right, celebrates his goal with Sergiño Dest (2) and Chris Richards (3) against Paraguay.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

The paternal great-grandmother of goalie Matt Turner fled religious persecution in Lithuania, with his Jewish ancestors changing their family name from Turnovski to Turner when they arrived at Ellis Island. The parents of midfielder Cristian Roldan came to the U.S. to escape civil wars in Central America, his father from Guatemala and his mother from El Salvador.

They didn’t wind up wearing the same uniform by accident, however. The recruitment of dual nationals dates to the 1980s under Hungarian-born manager Bob Gansler, who qualified the U.S. for the World Cup for the first time in 40 years with a team that included players born in Uruguay, Greece, Germany and El Salvador.

It really began to scale up about 15 years ago under Bob Bradley and his successor Jurgen Klinsmann. Gregg Berhalter then took it to another level, recruiting more than a dozen dual nationals — including Dest, Tillman, Balogun and Turner — in his five years as coach.

The practice isn’t limited to the USMNT. When France won the World Cup in 2018, 16 of the 23 players on the team came from families that recently immigrated from places like Zaire, Cameroon, Morocco, Angola, Congo or Algeria. More than half the players on Algeria’s team in this summer’s tournament were born in Europe while only seven men on Morocco’s roster are from Morocco.

Even Japan, famously homogeneous, has a Black goalkeeper who was born in Arkansas to a father from Ghana.

“Inclusion always pulls sport forward,” said Ronen Dorfan, a journalist and sports historian based in Budapest.

Still, Balogun’s journey is unusual — and not just because of the way it started.

He was two months old when he and his mother finally made it to London and eight years later he was good enough to enter Arsenal’s academy system. He made his junior international debut with England at 17, then three months later was invited to play four games for the U.S. U18 team.

But Balogun’s future appeared to be with England, especially after he scored seven times in 13 appearances with the U21 team, then followed that up with a career-high 21 goals for Reims in France’s Ligue 1 in 2022-23.

Yet neither performance earned him a call-up to a senior national team that was deep at forward.

So the U.S., which desperately needed a fast, technical, two-footed No. 9, pounced, getting Balogun to withdraw from England’s U21 training camp to make a secret visit to Florida. Once there, U.S. Soccer arranged for him to sit courtside at an NBA game, receive VIP passes to Universal Orlando, attend spring training with the Yankees and meet with a number of U.S. national team players.

With a schedule like this, his visit didn’t stay secret for long. After studying pictures Balogun had posted on social media, some U.S. fans determined he was in Orlando and began peppering his feeds with American flag emojis. Others found him at his hotel and urged him to commit to the U.S., a plea his parents, citing a quirk in fate, had been making for years.

You’re American, they argued. You were born there.

Six weeks later he did commit, with FIFA approving his request to switch allegiances from England to the U.S. A month after that, he scored his first senior international goal in the 2023 Nations League Finals and he’s never looked back. Because if Balogun, 24, felt overlooked in England, he’s felt looked after in the colonies.

“When I committed and throughout this whole cycle and the whole journey to me being at this point, I’ve always said the fans gave me so much motivation, showed me so much support,” said Balogun, who speaks in a pronounced London accent. “The most important thing has been to repay that.

“I just want to continue to show the fans I made the right decision. I want to continue to make the fans proud as well.”

He made a great start on that in his World Cup debut.

Ariel Atkins’ head whipped back. After taking an elbow from Indiana’s Monique Billings on May 13, the Sparks’ team doctors spotted the potential for a head injury and sent her to the locker room.

It was the second concussion of her career, but she didn’t know that at the time. All she knew was that her head hurt.

“You just don’t feel like yourself,” Atkins said. “It’s hard to even be a part of society. Luckily, this wasn’t a serious one.”

There have been eight diagnosed concussions in the WNBA already this year after just a quarter of the season. There were eight total in 2025, four in 2024 and six in 2023.

The “why” could be bad luck, better awareness in diagnosing concussions or something else. Atkins thought the lack of game flow because of new officiating standards might be making things harder.

“You would think it should be down,” Atkins said. “Maybe there is no rhythm when there are stoppages.”

Atkins got hit in the nose against the Wings three weeks after returning from her concussion. She stayed in the game after a quick check on the bench.

She didn’t have a concussion that time, but players do seem to be getting hit in the head at a higher rate. Minnesota-based sports scientist Lucas Seehafer thinks it’s too early to make a definitive declaration of why that is happening.

“Some players and coaches in the past have talked about the physicality of the play,” he said. “I know some people have talked about how the rules are kind of lax, or you’re maybe not as rigorous as what they could be in terms of like punishing blows above the shoulders and that kind of stuff. But it’s tough to say with any certainty until we get more data.”

On opening night in Seattle, Golden State forward Cecilia Zandalasini suffered her first concussion when elbowed by the Storm’s Zia Cooke.

She called the process to return a “nightmare.”

“It was so weird with the feeling of always having a headache,” she said. “I had to wait until it was gone, I couldn’t move.”

Valkyries forward Cecilia Zandalasini called working through concussion protocal a “nightmare” earlier this season.

(Ellen Schmidt / Getty Images)

Seehafer said that when it comes to women’s sports, hockey and soccer have a reputation for having higher concussion rates, but basketball can be just as physical.

“Compared to the rest of the [pro sports] leagues, the WNBA is pretty much doing exactly what the other leagues are doing, but again, is that enough?” he said. “It’s tough to say. I would say they’re not, but I don’t think they’re egregiously leaving athletes open to even more severe injuries, necessarily. My bias is just that everything can be safer.”

The WNBA follows the same concussion protocol as the NBA, by which a player must undergo a locker room evaluation after getting hit in the head. If the player is cleared by medical staff, they can return to the game.

Any player showing concussion-related symptoms, such as a headache or dizziness, must be monitored for 24 hours by the team’s medical staff. Once they are symptom-free, they go through a range of activities from light physical activity to full-contact practice. They must stay symptom-free throughout that entire process to be allowed back into games.

“Back when I played, I didn’t know what concussion meant,” said Sparks coach Lynne Roberts. “I think now we understand the science of how serious it is, and we don’t rush them back. Once they’re back, there’s really nothing you can do. It’s a contact sport, and the players just kind of play through that, but obviously we’re very cautious with not letting a player play until the doctor’s fully certain that she’s symptom-free and at no risk.”

The hardest part with concussions can be the initial diagnosis. Oftentimes, symptoms show up hours or even days later. For Zandalasini, she was originally diagnosed with a jaw injury before dealing with a headache the next day.

Atkins knew a little bit about what concussions felt like, and even this time was different. Why concussions are up this year is still a mystery, and perhaps it will even out as the season goes on.

But for now, players and medical staff are on alert.

“It’s the thing with athletes, right?” Atkins said. “We’re trying to figure out pain versus injury, like, is it something serious? Is it not? I don’t want to hurt myself further. So, yeah, it can be hard to decipher that with a head injury.”

The first three days of the 2026 FIFA World Cup are done, with the U.S. and Mexico each winning their group stage openers. However, most of the World Cup field is still looking to hit the competitive pitch for the first time.

Here’s everything you need to know about matches being played on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday in the 48-team tournament across the U.S., Mexico and Canada (all times Pacific).

Sunday’s Group E games:

Germany vs. Curacao

Germany’s Antonio Rudiger and Deniz Undav walk on the field before a friendly against the U.S. in Chicago on June 6.

(Alexander Hassenstein / Getty Images)

Where: NRG Stadium, Houston
Time: 10 a.m.
TV: Fox, Telemundo

The buzz: This is David vs. Goliath. Germany, a four-time champion ranked 10th in the world, against Curaçao, the smallest country to qualify for a World Cup. But remember David won that first battle, and Curaçao, with a roster full of Dutch-born-and-bred players and an experienced coach in Dick Advocaat, at 78 the oldest manager in the tournament, won’t be a pushover.

Ivory Coast vs. Ecuador

Ecuador’s Piero Hincapie controls the ball during a World Cup qualifier against Argentina in September 2025.

(Franklin Jacome / Getty Images)

Where: Lincoln Financial Field, Philadelphia
Time: 4 p.m.
TV: FS1, Telemundo

The buzz: Ecuador hasn’t lost since September 2024, a run that’s been fueled by the European-based back line of Willian Pacho (Paris Saint-Germain), Piero Hincapié (Arsenal), Pervis Estupiñán (AC Milan) and holding midfielder Moisés Caicedo (Chelsea). Ivory Coast is the youngest team in the World Cup, with an average age of 25.4 years, but it beat France in its final tournament tuneup. In three previous World Cups, the Elephants failed to advance out of the group stage.

Sunday’s Group F games:

Netherlands vs. Japan

Netherlands standout Frenkie de Jong looks on during an international friendly against Algeria on June 3.

(Dean Mouhtaropoulos / Getty Images)

Where: AT&T Stadium, Arlington, Texas
Time: 1 p.m.
TV: Fox, Telemundo

The buzz: The eighth-ranked Dutch, arguably the best team never to win a World Cup, come into this tournament with a golden generation led by defenders Virgil van Dijk and Nathan Ake, midfielder Frenkie de Jong and coach Ronald Koeman. Japan’s only loss in the last 12 months came to the U.S. in a friendly last September; after that it beat fellow World Cup qualifiers England, Scotland, Ghana and Brazil and played Paraguay to a draw. The Dutch have lost just twice, to Algeria and Germany, in the last 23 months.

Sweden vs. Tunisia

Tunisia’s Hannibal Mejbri warms up before an international friendly against Belgium on June 6.

(Omar Havana / Associated Press)

Where: Estadio BBVA, Guadalupe, Mexico
Time: 7 p.m.
TV: FS1, Telemundo

The buzz: Tunisia played in five of the last seven World Cups without getting out of group play, but this time it brings a roster that blends international veterans such as midfielders Hannibal Mejbri (Burnley) and Elias Achouri (Copenhagen) and young talent, including teenager Rayan Elloumi of the Vancouver Whitecaps, the ninth-youngest player in the tournament. Sweden beat Ukraine and Poland in a pair of UEFA playoff games this spring to grab a place in this tournament. Aston Villa defender Victor Lidelof is the most experienced player with 76 caps, including four World Cup appearances.

Monday’s Group G games:

Belgium vs. Egypt

Belgium’s Joaquin Seys, left, and Axel Witsel celebrate after defeating the U.S. in an international friendly on March 28.

(Mike Stewart / Associated Press)

Where: Lumen Field, Seattle
Time: noon
TV: Fox, Telemundo

The buzz: Belgium hasn’t lost in more than a year, but it also hasn’t played a top-10 team since 2024. It has a veteran core of four players — midfielders Axel Witsel and Kevin De Bruyne, goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois and forward Romelu Lukaka — with more than 100 international caps. Egypt, Africa’s oldest national team, is playing in a World Cup for the fourth time and is still looking for its first win. Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah, the team’s active leading scorer, is the only player on the roster with a World Cup goal.

Iran vs. New Zealand

Iran’s Amirhossein Hosseinzadeh plays the ball during an international friendly against Gambia on May 29.

(Khalil Hamra / Associated Press)

Where: SoFi Stadium, Inglewood
Time: 6 p.m.
TV: FS1, Telemundo

The buzz: For the first time in World Cup history a tournament qualifier, Iran, will play in a country with which it is at war, the U.S. The Iranians, with the second-oldest roster in the tournament, are playing in their fourth straight World Cup. Only a 1-0 loss to the U.S. kept them from advancing out of group play in 2022. New Zealand, playing in its third World Cup, was winless the first two times — although it didn’t lose in its last visit in 2010, playing Slovakia, Italy and Paraguay to draws. The Kiwis are the only team this century not to lose in group play while also failing to advance.

Monday’s Group H games:

Spain vs. Cape Verde

Spain’s Ferran Torres scores during an international friendly against Iraq on June 4.

(Manu Fernandez / Associated Press)

Where: Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta
Time: 9 a.m.
TV: Fox, Telemundo

The buzz: Cape Verde is one of four nations making its World Cup debut and it will open against second-ranked Spain, a tournament favorite which has lost just once since March 2024. Every player on Spain’s roster plays for a top European team; four of them played in last month’s Champions League final.

Saudi Arabia vs. Uruguay

Uruguay’s Federico Valverde heads the ball past Brazil’s Joao Gomes during a Copa America quarterfinal match in 2024.

(Godofredo A. Vásquez / Associated Press)

Where: Hard Rock Stadium, Miami Gardens, Fla.
Time: 3 p.m.
TV: FS1, Telemundo

The buzz: Saudi Arabia, playing in its third straight World Cup, began its last visit by beating eventual champion Argentina in one of the most stunning upsets in tournament history. And the last time the World Cup was held in the U.S., in 1994, the Arabian Falcons became the first Arab-Asian team to reach the round of 16. Uruguay, a quarterfinalist in 2018, comes into this World Cup with an experienced roster led by Real Madrid midfielder Federico Valverde and Atlético Madrid defender José María Giménez.

Tuesday’s Group I games:

France vs. Senegal

France’s Kylian Mbappe works out with teammates in Waltham, Mass., on Friday.

(Martin Meissner / Associated Press)

Where: MetLife Stadium, East Rutherford, N.J.
Time: noon
TV: Fox, Telemundo

The buzz: France, ranked third in the world by FIFA, played in the last two World Cup finals and is favored to make it back again this year. Its best player, captain Kylian Mbappe, holds the tournament record with four goals in World Cup finals, including a hat trick in Qatar four years ago. Senegal is led by former African player of the year Sadio Mane, the country’s all-time leader in goals. Senegal made the quarterfinals in 2002 and the round of 16 in Qatar.

Iraq vs. Norway

Norway’s Erling Haaland controls the ball during a World Cup qualifier against Moldova in March 2025.

(Aurel Obreja / Associated Press)

Where: Gillette Stadium, Foxborough, Mass.
Time: 3 p.m.
TV: Fox, Telemundo

The buzz: Norway is playing in the World Cup for the first time this century which means Manchester City‘s Erling Haaland will finally make his tournament debut. A three-time Premier League scoring champion, Erling has more goals for club at country at 25 than either Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo had at that age. Iraq has gone even longer between World Cups, making its only appearance in 1986 when it lost all three games. Iraq won its way back with a 2-1 victory over Bolivia in an inter-confederation playoff last March. The winning goal came from forward Aymen Hussein, the team’s active leader in goals and appearances among outfield players.

Tuesday’s Group J games:

Argentina vs. Algeria

Argentina’s Lionel Messi, fourth from left, practices with teammates in Kansas City, Kan., on Thursday.

(Charlie Riedel / Associated Press)

Where: Arrowhead Stadium, Kansas City, Mo.
Time: 6 p.m.
TV: Fox, Telemundo

The buzz: Top-ranked Argentina was upset by lowly Saudi Arabia in its World Cup opener four years ago, then ran the table to give Lionel Messi the one title he was missing. Argentina returns 17 players from its world championship team, among them Messi, the golden ball winner; goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez, the golden glove winner; and midfielder Enzo Fernández, the 2022 tournament’s best young player. Algeria is ranked 28th in the world, it best ranking in more than a decade, and has lost just twice in the last two years. Its roster features 16 players from first-division clubs in Europe.

Austria vs. Jordan

Mousa Al-Tamari of Jordan controls the ball during the international friendly match against Switzerland on May 31.

(Sona Maleterova / Getty Images)

Where: Levi’s Stadium, Santa Clara, Calif.
Time: 9 p.m.
TV: Fox, Telemundo

The buzz: Jordan played its first international match in 1953 but it hasn’t played in World Cup until now, finally qualifying by finishing second to South Korea in its Asian group. Its best player is captain Musa Al-Taamari, a dynamic winger known as the “Jordanian Messi” who leads active players with 91 international caps. Austria is playing in the World Cup for the first time this century and it hasn’t won a game here since 1990. Its best player in Real Madrid defender David Alaba, a four-time Champions League winner and 10-time Austrian footballer of the year.

The U.S. men’s soccer team chose an incredible day to have an incredible day.

Crucially, the United States aced its only chance to make a first impression, kicking off this colossal World Cup it’s co-hosting with Mexico and Canada with a 4-1 victory over Paraguay.

Consider it a save for the tournament, three points for soccer in America and maybe even a win for uniting the States.

The Americans on the pitch did all that, including making sure a sellout crowd of 70,492 fans got their money’s worth for their exorbitantly high-priced seats to watch football under Friday Night Lights at SoFi Stadium.

U.S. forward Folarin Balogun, right, celebrates with Sergino Dest and Chris Richards after scoring during a World Cup win over Paraguay on Friday at SoFi Stadium.

(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

It was not a clean sheet. And it wasn’t an elixir for all the issues — visas, tickets, transportation — that ailed the tournament in its buildup.

But the opening statement by the United States confirmed what we thought might be true. Only one thing could save this soccer tournament: soccer.

The U.S. delivered a performance to change the conversation — for the next few weeks and maybe longer.

Making history to alter history.

The United States scored multiple goals in a World Cup first half for the first time since 2002.

It got two of them from Folarin Balogun, the Brooklyn-born, England-raised forward of Nigerian descent who became just the second USMNT player to score two goals in a World Cup game and the first since 1930.

Got a perfect match from Chris Richards, the afro-rocking defender with the long, loping strides, who was 83 for 83 on his passes. That’s better than any player at a World Cup since 1966.

And if possession is nine-tenths of the law of attraction, know that the Americans possessed the ball 71% of the first half, most in the first half of a World Cup game in the modern era.

Landon Donovan, star of the 2002 team that reached the World Cup quarterfinals — a record that still stands — posted on X: “From start to finish, that was the most enjoyable day of soccer I’ve ever experienced.”

That’s the stuff that will get the American people going. Get us invested, get us behind them. That could convert even devout casuals.

Americans love a good underdog story. We also want the best, the finest, the biggest — and this, with its expanded field of 48, is the biggest version of the biggest and best tournament in the world.

And the only thing we love more than winning is dominating. The United States did that Friday against a Paraguayan team that had allowed only 10 goals in 18 World Cup qualifying matches, and whom the United States beat 2-1 in a tense match in November.

Fans cheer during the U.S. win over Paraguay in their World Cup opener Saturday at SoFi Stadium.

(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

That was Mauricio Pochettino and his players helping us help them.

“The fans, amazing,” said Pochettino, the team’s accomplished Argentine coach. “On behalf of the whole team, a massive thank you to the fans. Because the energy that they [gave] to the team was amazing. We can do amazing things if the fans are in this as well.”

Friday was so good for soccer in America.

And so good for America. The kind of butt-kicking that’s chicken soup for a nation’s soul.

Maybe it’s idealistic and naive, or apple-pie-in-the-sky wishful thinking, but I believe that they can win. (And by win, I mean make the quarterfinals again.)

There’s no removing politics from this World Cup, but wouldn’t it be fun to all rally behind a team together? Can’t you see the country coalescing behind the right wingers and left wingers on the pitch? Picture people celebrating the freedom inherent in Pochettino’s system? Cheering the all-for-one and one-for-all of this team of dual nationals and Americans raised abroad — or in Alabama?

Postmatch, Pochettino refused to single out any one player, instead giving reporters a recitation of his roster: “[Christian Pulisic] was amazing [setting up two goals]. Balogun was amazing, of course. Tim Ream was amazing, of course. Chris Richards was amazing, yes. Weston McKennie, he was amazing, amazing. Antonee Robinson, Alex Freeman, amazing. Sergiño Dest, amazing …”

Like they put it on the @USMNT Instagram account: “Together as Won.”

U.S. soccer, amazing.