World Cup live updates, scores: Tim Weah goal has USMNT up 1-0 on Wales in second half
A day four years in the making has finally arrived. For the first time since the 2014 World Cup, the U.S. men’s national team will play in the tournament. With a young, talented team, the USMNT’s game against Gareth Bale and Wales on Monday will set the tone for a challenging, but manageable, Group B.
Elsewhere in the group, England used its young stars to dominate an overmatched Iranian side, staking its claim as the favorites in Group B. Senegal, without superstar Sadio Mané due to injury, fell to 2010 World Cup runner-up Netherlands 2-0 in the midday match.
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Tim Weah poking home after getting a perfectly weighted pass slipped through the defense by Christian Pulisic.
Weah, 22, is the first American goalscorer at the World Cup since Julian Green in 2014.
Jürgen Klinsmann fielded questions from reporters at the FIFA media centre in suburban Doha.
And the final query of the session took him back to his old job, as he praised both Major League Soccer and the USMNT’s talented generation of youngsters for the growing profile of U.S.-reared managers like Jesse Marsch and Gregg Berhalter.
said Klinsmann, who later reeled off the list of U.S. players contributing at high-level European clubs as he tipped the USMNT as a team to be reckoned with.
Netherlands tops Senegal, 2-0
The Netherlands matched its Group A foe Ecuador with its own 2-0 victory in its 2022 World Cup opener. Withstanding a competitive Senegal side that ended up with 15 shots, the Netherlands was more efficient in its attacks.
Winger Cody Gakpo, 23, opened the scoring off of a perfectly-timed run in the box, heading home a lob off the right foot of midfielder Frenkie de Jong. Then, with stoppage time waning, Dutch midfielder Davy Klaassen put the match away with a goal off a rebound.
The Netherlands finished with 10 shots, including three on target. It edged Senegal in possession by a margin of 41% to 39%.
That puts the Netherlands in a tie at the top of the group with Ecuador, who defeated host nation Qatar, 2-0, in the tournament opener Sunday.
TB12 ready for USMNT
Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady enjoyed his bye this weekend in the NFL and appears set to root on the USMNT in its World Cup opener against Wales.
Rising star Cody Gakpo scores go-ahead goal for Netherlands
Cody Gakpo wants to make sure he’s on any list of breakout young stars at this World Cup.
The PSV attacker scored what turned out to be the game-winner for the Netherlands in their 2-0 victory over Senegal, heading a chipped pass from Frenkie de Jong home in the 84th minute.
will showcase rainbow team logos at its training facility and media center in Qatar in a show of solidarity with the LGBTQ community but will not feature any such logo on its jerseys.had committed to wearing an armband that features the rainbow colors, to promote diversity and inclusion in soccer.
FIFA, however, threatened to issue yellow cards to players who wear the “One Love” armband, which led to the federations of England, Wales, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland to ask their captains not to wear them.
USMNT names Tyler Adams as World Cup captain
U.S. men’s national team coach Gregg Berhalter named midfielder Tyler Adams as his captain throughout the World Cup on Sunday. Adams, 23, is the youngest player to captain the USMNT at a World Cup since 1950. He has worn the armband nine times out of his 32 caps.
“We’re proud to announce Tyler as the captain for the World Cup. We think he has great leadership capabilities,” Berhalter said at a press conference Sunday. “He leads by his actions and his words, so we’re proud to have him as a captain.”
— Seth Vertelney, Pro Soccer Wire
Senegal-Netherlands at the half: 0-0
Playing in their third World Cup, and doing it without star forward Sadio Mané, Senegal has held its own against one of the world’s powers. The match has been fairly even, with possession and play alternating between both halves of the pitch. Even though they applied pressure early, the Netherlands have been sloppy at times on the back end with occasionally careless passes.
Meanwhile, winger Ismaïla Sarr has been the most threatening player for Senegal, which fired six shots, with one on goal in the first half. The Netherlands, by comparison, have five shots, with none on target. Holland, however, has a slight edge in possession: 43% to Senegal’s 42%.
In the 40th minute, the Netherlands had its most dangerous attack, when midfielder Steven Berghuis possessed the ball in front of goal and fired a shot with plenty of pace that zipped over the crossbar.
Gareth Bale has Wales dreaming big ahead of World Cup opener vs. USMNT
AL-RAYYAN, Qatar — He’s a teenage phenom turned worldwide superstar who’s won five UEFA Champions League titles, about a dozen other team honors and myriad individual awards. Already long since an icon in his homeland, he was one of the highest-paid players in the world for much of his time at Real Madrid. And earlier this year he moved to sunny Southern California just in time to become an MLS Cup-winning hero for LAFC in Hollywood fashion.
Yet you could almost feel sorry for Gareth Bale on Sunday as he recounted the angst he and the rest of his nation felt as their Welsh national team missed out on the sport’s biggest party over and over again for his entire lifetime — and three decades before that as well.
“I think France ‘98 was probably my first memory,” the winger told reporters one day before Wales’ Group B clash with the U.S. men’s national team, their first World Cup match since 1958. “I just remember having this pencil case with the logo on it and everything.”
Bale’s dazzling skill has been the crown jewel for his talented generation of Welsh players. And after hauling their nation – which largely favored rugby over soccer until they hit the scene – out of the footballing doldrums with a run to the Euro 2016 semifinals in their first major tournament appearance in over half a century, Qatar ‘22 represents a chance to seal their legacy.
Wales faces the U.S. Men’s National Team at 2 p.m. ET in Ar-Rayyan, Qatar
— Charles Boehm, Pro Soccer Wire
The starting 11 for Senegal-Netherlands
The starting lineups are out for the second match of the day, between Senegal and the Netherlands.
England reminds Group B rivals they are all playing for second place
England made a major statement in its World Cup opener, hammering Iran 6-2 to lay down a marker in Group B.
The Three Lions were always favored to finish atop a group that also includes the U.S. and Wales, but the emphatic nature of their win on Monday underlined their status as the class of their World Cup group.
It was England’s young stars who shined the brightest at the Khalifa International Stadium in Doha, with 19-year-old Jude Bellingham opening the scoring with a header before 21-year-old Bukayo Saka scored a brace in his first World Cup game.
After reaching the semifinal of the 2018 World Cup and the final of Euro 2020, England entered the 2022 World Cup as one of the favorites and its performance against an overwhelmed Iranian side did nothing to dispel that notion. But the four-goal margin of victory set England on course to finish atop Group B, with goal differential as the first tiebreaker. Next up for the Three Lions is a showdown with the U.S. Men’s National Team on Friday.
— Seth Vertelney, Pro Soccer Wire
Final: England 6, Iran 2
England was dominant from start to finish in its first match of the 2022 World Cup.
Next up for England? That’d be the USMNT on Friday at 2 p.m. ET. Iran will look to bounce back against Wales in Friday’s early game, a 5 a.m. ET start.
Maluma left the set calling Israel’s KAN News chief international correspondent Moav Vardi “rude.”U.S. men’s national team, the Welsh have been waiting an actual lifetime for this moment. Their last World Cup appearance was in 1958. Since then, their squad has amassed substantial tournament know-how in the last two European Championships.
And that’s not including the masterclass of Gareth Bale.
“I’ve said all along, you’ve probably heard me say this, that I think they’re underrated,” USMNT coach Gregg Berhalter said of Wales at a press conference Sunday.
Iran didn’t sing national anthem, England takes knee before kickoff
The political situation back home has been a regular line of questioning for Iran ahead of the team’s opening Group B match against England.
Large swathes of people in the country have risen up to protest for women’s rights following the death of Mahsa Amini while being detained for allegedly breaking rules regarding head coverings.
“We have to accept that the conditions in our country are not right and our people are not happy,” Iran captain Ehsan Hajisafi said. “We are here, but it does not mean that we should not be their voice or we should not respect them.
“Whatever we are is from them. We have to fight. We have to perform the best we can and score goals and to present the bereaved people of Iran with the results. And I hope that the conditions change towards the expectations of the people.”
USMNT got a pep talk from none other than the POTUS himself.
U.S. President Joe Biden, from his desk in the Oval Office, was connected to a phone held by USMNT coach Gregg Berhalter in a room filled with the entire team.
“I know you’re the underdog, but I tell you what man, you got some of the best players in the world on your team,” Biden said in a video posted by the team on Twitter.
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England asks captains not to wear ‘OneLove’ armbands after FIFA threat
Following FIFA’s threat of yellow cards for any players wearing the “OneLove” armbands during the World Cup, the federations of England, Wales, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland have asked their captains not to wear them. The Netherlands, England and Wales open play Monday.
“We can’t put our players in a position where they could face sporting sanctions including bookings, so we have asked the captains not to attempt to wear the armbands in FIFA World Cup games,” the federations said in a joint statement Monday.
“We were prepared to pay fines that would normally apply to breaches of kit regulations and had a strong commitment to wearing the armband. However, we cannot put our players in the situation where they might be booked or even forced to leave the field of play.”
FIFA said Monday that all captains are now allowed to wear its “No Discrimination” armbands. The armbands for that campaign, which was not supposed to begin until the quarterfinals, are blue, with the red outline of a heart around a soccer ball and the words “Football Unites the World.”
MORE:World Cup teams ask captains not to wear ‘OneLove’ armbands after dispute with FIFA