world-cup Page 35 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Team USA Dropkicked Out Of World Cup By Rudy Gobert And ... Frank Ntilikina?
Team USA had a seven-point lead over France with just under eight minutes to play in today’s FIBA World Cup quarterfinal game. From that point on, France went on a 22-5 run and advanced to the tournament semi-finals while leaving Team USA behind to make a new life for themselves in the trash. ...

Hong Kong Soccer Fans Turn Their Backs And Boo Chinese National Anthem
Fans at Hong Kong Stadium turned their backs on the Chinese national anthem prior to a World Cup qualifying match against Iran on Tuesday, bringing the long-running pro-democracy protests to the sporting world, per the Associated Press. The fans not only turned their backs, but also held up signs wi...

FIBA Officials Missed A Call So Bad They Got Kicked Out Of The World Cup And Inspired A Ferocious Coach Meltdown
Lithuania’s run at the FIBA World Cup ended this morning against the Dominican Republic, though their chances of advancing through the second group stage were killed on Saturday when they lost to France by three points. The nature of that loss was highly controversial....

Giannis's Shoulders Not Big Enough To Carry Everyone; Team USA Cruises Past Greece
The problem with simply double-teaming Giannis Antetokounmpo or clogging the paint to thwart him is that when the ball is not in his superhuman hands, it’s usually in Khris Middleton’s very capable hands or Brook Lopez’s or Eric Bledsoe’s, or hell, Pat Connaughton’s. ...

Brazilian Coach Gleefully Shit-Talks Giannis Antetokounmpo After Anderson Varejão Destroys Greece
A Brazilian team of Guys—led by Anderson Varejão and Leandro Barbosa—took down the reigning MVP in the group stage of the FIBA World Cup in China on Tuesday, and winning head coach Aleksandar Petrovic will never let the Greek Freak hear the end of it. ...

Team USA Escaped With A Win Over Turkey, But It May Have Cost Them Jayson Tatum's Ankle
Team USA should’ve lost to Turkey in their second group-stage game today at the FIBA World Cup, and though they were handed a 93-92 win by some last-second incompetence, the victory may have come at a price. On the very last play of overtime, Jayson Tatum sprained his ankle after throwing a pass and...

Australians Fall Madly In Love With Brook Lopez, As Is Natural
Nothing was especially exciting about Team USA’s win over Canada in Sydney Sunday night, but the exhibition game did offer one revelation: Milwaukee Bucks center Brook Lopez is deeply, inexplicably beloved in Australia....

Patty Mills Casually Tosses Team USA On The Barbie, Snaps Their 78-Game Winning Streak
Prior to Team USA’s game against Australia on Friday, Kemba Walker told an Australian reporter that there was a lot of room for growth within the team, and that their previous performance was perhaps not as great as some players thought it was. The quote was the kind of thing a veteran player says t...

Kyle Kuzma Demonstrates Beautiful Touch As He Scores On His Own Basket
Team USA is down to 13 players, who are all in contention for the final 12-man roster. With the FIBA World Cup just 10 days away, the squad played the first of a two-game exhibition against Australia on Thursday, and won comfortably, 102-86. During the first quarter, Donovan Mitchell skied for an im...

Team USA Routed In Bleak Scrimmage Against D-League Crew
Team USA still needs to winnow its pool of 15 finalists down to 12 before the FIBA World Cup begins on September 1. No one else is getting added to this team, but perhaps they should burn down the roster and start all over....

UEFA Thankfully Won't Uphold The Dumb VAR Rule That Marred The Women's World Cup
One of the worst-received aspects of the Women’s World Cup this summer was the VAR-induced penalty kick debacle. The choice to subject goalkeepers’ feet locations to exacting scrutiny with video review, and to let penalty takers try their kicks again should VAR detect that a keeper drifted a centime...

Carmelo Anthony Can't Even Get A Gig On A Depleted Team USA
All poor Carmelo Anthony wants to do is play basketball, for whoever will have him. He recently went on ESPN to talk about his abrupt exit from the Rockets and then the NBA, and though he did not quite seem to grapple with Houston’s on-court case for getting rid of him, it is still bizarre that he h...

FIFA Is Screwing Up The Women's World Cup
On Wednesday, FIFA approved the expansion of the 2023 Women’s World Cup from 24 teams to 32, ignoring concerns about match quality and financial investment in an attempt to capitalize on the growing popularity of women’s soccer. It’s a very FIFA move, as no entity is better at taking a good idea and...

The Team USA Rejections Are Getting Grim
The FIBA World Cup has only drawn closer since Monday, and Team USA’s prospects have only gotten drearier. The players’ excuses are starting to increasingly resemble ones that might be used to beg out of a coworker’s birthday party....

Team USA Is Bleeding Out
The FIBA World Cup begins in China on the last day of August. After a training camp in early August, Team USA will set its 12-man roster by August 12. Who will still be standing at that point?...

The Biggest Thing Holding Back Women's Soccer Is The Same Old Thing
PORTLAND, Ore. — The crowd decked out in red and black sways between elation and disappointment as the seconds tick away. Voices rise when the hometown Portland Thorns take possession of the ball, and heavy sighs spread through the crowd of close to 19,000 when they turn it over. The Thorns have mos...

USWNT's Ashlyn Harris Says Former Teammate Was Excluded For Homophobia, Not Christianity
In the never-ending search for fuel to feed the conservative backlash against the world champion USWNT, some media outlets—mostly of the conservative Christian variety—dredged up a year-old interview with former USWNT defender Jaelene Hinkle. Talking to The 700 Club last May, Hinkle said that she tu...

We Need To Talk About Russell Westbrook
We’re officially in the slowest part of the sports calendar: There is no real basketball on (get out of here, we’re not counting Summer League), soccer just wrapped up its summer tournaments, baseball is in the dead zone between the All-Star Game and September, and so on. But the streets demand the ...

CONCACAF's New World Cup Qualifying Format Is Bigger (And Dumber) Than Ever
CONCACAF’s convoluted World Cup qualifying format has always been tilted in favor the big boys at the expense of the teams in the confederation’s bottom tier, making it so the dozens of small nations had essentially no hope of ever playing in the World Cup. It’s understandable why CONCACAF sought to...

The USWNT Put On A Show At Today’s Victory Parade
The United States women’s national soccer team cruised through the World Cup, winning every game all while getting slammed for being too arrogant. They’ve now been celebrating for about three days, including today’s ticker-tape parade through the streets of Manhattan....