world cup
Women's protests overshadow Iran's World Cup loss
Iran’s players didn’t sing their national anthem and didn’t celebrate their goals. In the stands, many Iranian fans showed solidarity with the protest movement that has roiled the country for months.
Iran’s World Cup opener Monday against England was not just about soccer, but the political struggles gripping the Islamic Republic. And for some Iranian women, barred from attending men’s soccer matches at home, it was a precious first chance to see the national team live.
“Do you know how painful it is to be the biggest football fan and never go to a match in 34 years?” said Afsani, a 34-year-old beekeeper from Tehran, who traveled to Qatar to watch the men's team for the first time. She said she wept when she entered the Khalifa International Stadium.
Like other Iran fans, Afsani declined to give her last name for fear of government reprisals.
Iran lost 6-2 to a superior England team, but the result wasn't the most important to Mayram, a 35-year-old Tehran resident who also watched her first soccer match live. She was disappointed that the players didn’t show more overt solidarity with the protests at home.
“You have girls being killed in the street,” she said. “It’s hard to say but this is not a happy occasion. It is really sad.”
Iran is competing in the World Cup amid a violent crackdown on a major women’s protest movement that has resulted in the deaths of at least 419 people, according Human Rights Activists in Iran, a group that has been monitoring the protests.
Read more: England crush Iran to raise hope again: "It might just come home".
The unrest was spurred by the Sept. 16 death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of the country’s morality police. It first focused on the state-mandated hijab, or headscarf, for women, but has since morphed into one of the most serious threats to the Islamic Republic since the chaotic years following its founding.
Many Iran fans in Doha wore T-shirts and waved signs with the mantra of the uprising — “Woman, Life, Freedom.” Others wore jerseys bearing the names of female protesters killed by Iranian security forces in recent weeks.
In the 22nd minute of the match — a reference to Amini's age when she died — some fans chanted her name, though the refrain quickly faded out and was replaced by “Iran."
Other fans dressed in conservative black chadors and hijabs in the color of the Iranian flag cheered loudly for their national team. Many of them declined to speak about the political situation, saying it was not relevant to them.
Before international matches, Iran's players usually sing the national anthem with the right hands on their heart. On Monday they stood silently, their arms draped around each other's shoulders, prompting Iran’s state TV to cut from a close-up of the players’ faces to a wide shot of the pitch. During the match, the players didn't celebrate their two goals, something that has become common in Iranian league matches since the protests began.
The question of whether to root for the national team has divided Iranians. Many now view support for the Iranian team as a betrayal of the young women and men who have risked their lives in the streets.
“The protest movement has overshadowed the football,” said Kamran, a linguistics professor who lives in the verdant northern province of Mazandaran. “I want Iran to lose these three games.”
Others insist the national team, which includes players who have spoken out on social media in solidarity with the protests, is representative of the country’s people and not its ruling Shiite clerics. The team’s star forward, Sardar Azmoun, has been vocal about the protests online. He was on the bench during the match, to the dismay of fans who said they were looking to him to make a gesture of protest on the pitch. Two former soccer stars have even been arrested for backing the movement.
Read more: Iran sentences anti-government protester to death: Report
Ali Jassim, a 14-year-old Iranian fan, said he was sure the political crisis was affecting the team’s performance, as England went up 3-0 at half-time.
“I don’t know how they can focus in a stadium full of so many people who want them to fail, ” he said.
The Iranian government has tried to encourage citizens to support their team against Iran’s traditional enemies. Iran plays the United States on Nov. 29 — a contentious showdown that last occurred at the 1998 World Cup in France.
Observers note that the players are likely facing government pressure not to side with the protests. Already, Iranian athletes have drawn enormous scrutiny. When Iranian climber Elnaz Rekabi competed in South Korea without wearing her country’s mandatory headscarf, she became a lighting rod of the protest movement.
“At the end of the day, I want the players to achieve their dreams,” said Mariam, a 27-year-old sports fan and international relations student who traveled to Doha from Tehran to watch her first men's soccer match live. “It’s not their fault our society is so polarized.”
Mariam said a big achievement for the women protesting at home would be the right to choose whether to wear the hijab.
“But after that, women will go for their right to be in stadiums,” she said.
England crush Iran to raise hope again: "It might just come home".
“It’s coming home”, the theme slogan resonates euphoria for England fans and invites ridicule from other fans. The chant was making the rounds resolutely when Gareth Southgate’s team made a brave run to the semis in the World Cup 2018 defying all expectations. It has been a case of going close to home but not actually there. England has failed to jump over the final hurdles in their last two appearances in major tournaments.
The last one in the Euros 2020 final where they lost to Italy on penalties was a rather bitter pill to swallow for the English. Most of these players have now been there with Southgate’s set up for a while now, and the new ones are promising young talents raring to go make their mark on the world stage.
Iran in their opening game was a much more important test for their world cup credentials than many would give credit for. For starters, Iran is the 20th placed team in world rankings but even if we ignore that, England previously have been notorious for losing such games on the world’s biggest stage. One doesn’t have to go back much further than 2010 when England drew their opening game to the USA, who in comparison to their opponents can be labeled footballing minnows. The result was so shocking that much of the world media had misquoted the score in England’s favor the following morning. Dismantling an Iran team which must have been determined to make a statement performance by a 6-2 margin in their opening game shows the maturity of the England team.
Gareth Southgate’s biggest achievement as the team boss would be instilling a sense of national unity which even two world cups ago was divided by club loyalty. Iconic players such as Rio Ferdinand and Frank Lampard have gone on record to say how their club rivalries played a part in hostility within the dressing room. Now in 2022, such dressing room politics seem a tale of yesteryears. From Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka to Manchester United’s Marcus Rashford, they are one team.
Read more: FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022: England make strong statement with a thumping win over Iran
England’s new “golden generation” will however face challenges such as their approach of making this attack-heavy team retreat back into a defensive back-five whenever it comes up against top opponents. Their approach in their upcoming game against USA, which provides a potential route for revenge for 2014, and an always fierce battle against Wales will provide a clearer picture of how far England has come as a team. But the signs in the opening game were promising for this team and their avid supporters. For now the chants of “It’s coming home” seem more hopeful than delusional.
Read more: England Squad analysis for 2022 World Cup
What is ‘One Love’ armband and why is FIFA against it in World Cup 2022?
Captains of seven European teams, including former champions Germany and England, were set to wear rainbow-marked armbands, which bear the words "OneLove" on them and feature the number one inside a heart, during World Cup 2022 being held in Qatar to promote diversity and inclusion in football and society.
This created the possibility that on Monday (November 21, 2022), Harry Kane of England, Virgil van Dijk of the Netherlands, and on Tuesday (November 22, 2022) Gareth Bale of Wales would wear the mark of protest against the host nation Qatar and in defiance of FIFA.
However, after facing threat from the governing body of world football of on-field punishment for players, England, Wales, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands will not wear the One Love armbands.
READ: FIFA’s punishment threat forces European team captains to abandon ‘One Love’ armbands
Same-sex relationships are criminalised in host nation Qatar where members of the LGBTQ community were sent behind bars and harassed by authorities as recently as September, according to Human Rights Watch.
The seven European teams reversed course Monday and abandoned a plan for their captains to wear armbands to protest Qatar's human rights record as threats of "sporting sanctions from FIFA left them no choice but to abandon" the One Love campaign gesture they announced in September.
Just hours before the first players wearing the armbands, supposed to act as a form of silent protest not dissimilar to taking the knee as a symbol of anti-racist solidarity, were set to enter the field, FIFA warned that they would be issued yellow cards right away as the displays are "against" its regulations.
READ: FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022: England make strong statement with a thumping win over Iran
In the end, the teams said they could not sacrifice success on the field. A yellow card is a warning, but two yellows would see a player sent off the field for the rest of the match and banned from the next – a sanction that is intensified in the World Cup football format, where teams play just three matches before the elimination rounds begin.
"As national federations, we can't put our players in a position where they could face sporting sanctions, including bookings," the seven European football federations said in a joint statement.
During a meeting with European football federations on Sunday, FIFA mentioned the possibility of yellow cards.
READ: World Cup 2022: Iran goalkeeper clashes heads with teammate
For FIFA final competitions, the captain of each team must wear the captain's armband provided by FIFA, according to the equipment rules.
FIFA's proposal, announced Saturday, was for captains to wear armbands with socially aware slogans. In that offer, armbands reading "No Discrimination" – the only one of its chosen slogans aligned with the European teams' wish – would appear only at the quarterfinal stage.
Since being awarded the World Cup hosting rights in 2010, Qatar received a wave of international backlash for its treatment of low-paid migrant workers as well as its criminalisation of homosexuality.
Read More: Qatar World Cup: Biggest party or scam in the world?
The Dutch Football Association initiated the One Love campaign at the start of the 2020 football season to "express their support for unification of all people" and condemn all forms of discrimination.
In September 2022, it was announced that nine other nations, including Norway, Sweden, and France, would also adopt the One Love campaign for upcoming matches, including the Qatar World Cup and next year's UEFA Nations League.
Messi begins legacy-defining World Cup with match against Saudi Arabia Tuesday
Lionel Messi begins his legacy-defining World Cup with a game against likely the weakest opponent the Argentina star will face in Qatar.
On a 36-match unbeaten run, Argentina opens the group stage Tuesday against Saudi Arabia — the second lowest-ranked team at the tournament.
It seems like an ideal chance for Messi to push his international goals tally toward a century — he currently has 91 — in what’s surely a forlorn attempt to catch the leading men’s mark of 117, owned by great rival Cristiano Ronaldo.
How Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni treats Messi for this game in particular, being staged in the 80,000-seat Lusail Iconic Stadium, might be instructive given the captain’s fitness has been managed heading into the World Cup.
Messi trained individually on Friday and Saturday because of what the Argentina soccer federation described as “muscle overload.” That raises doubts over whether Messi will play the full 90 minutes against Saudi Arabia.
Not that he should be needed that long.
The Saudis might have come through Asian qualifying relatively comfortably, but they tend to struggle on soccer’s highest stage, reaching the last 16 only once in their five appearances at the World Cup.
They started the 2018 tournament with a 5-0 loss to Russia, the host nation.
World Cup 2022: France faces midfield battle against Australia
Even without the injured Karim Benzema, defending World Cup champion France has plenty of attacking power.
Most teams would love to have either Kylian Mbappe, Antoine Griezmann or Olivier Giroud in their forward line, let alone all three. They have 119 international goals between them, plus an abundance of speed, craft, experience and skill.
But France does not have the same assurances in midfield, and that is where Australia could trouble Les Bleus on Tuesday in their opening Group D match.
France struggled to beat Australia 2-1 when the teams met in their World Cup opener four years ago, and that was with a full-strength midfield.
France coach Didier Deschamps is missing the injured N’Golo Kante and Paul Pogba — his dynamic engine room from 2018. Pogba has played 91 times for France and one of his 11 goals came in the 4-2 win over Croatia in the 2018 final.
READ: Which European teams have the best chances of winning 2022 World Cup?
While Pogba’s form has been up and down since then, Kante’s consistency rarely ever dropped and he’s arguably an even bigger loss.
A tireless runner with an incredible ability to close down space, surface from anywhere to win the ball and then release it cleanly, Kante is one of the best defensive midfielders in world soccer. But he’s recovering from a hamstring operation and won’t add to his 53 international appearances.
So Deschamps faces Australia with a revamped midfield where the most experienced player is Adrien Rabiot — Pogba’s teammate at Italian club Juventus — with 29 appearances.
The 27-year-old Rabiot finally feels ready to emerge as France’s new midfield leader.
“When I played in the French youth teams, I was often more experienced than my teammates. Now I find myself in a similar position,” he said. “I feel that I’m able to help others, to lead by example. I like being in this position.”
England Squad analysis for 2022 World Cup
It’s been 56 years since England won the World Cup. Although they approach the tournament with excellent players each World Cup, they fail to amaze the fans. But, this time, the team seems to have a good rhythm among the players. Under Gareth Southgate, England reached the semi-finals of the 2018 World Cup and lost the Euro 2020 final to Italy in a tiebreaker.
So, this time, can England play the ultimate game? Is England going to win the World Cup title after 56 years? The Three Lions are going to the World Cup for the seventh time in a row, and they will be joined by Wales and Iran from Qatar World Cup Group B.
England team announced for 2022 World Cup in Qatar
Role
Players
Goalkeepers
Jordan Pickford (Everton), Aaron Ramsdale (Arsenal), Nick Pope (Newcastle)
Defenders
Kieran Trippier (Newcastle), Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool), Kyle Walker (Manchester City), Benjamin White (Arsenal), Harry Maguire (Manchester United), John Stones (Manchester City), Eric Dier (Tottenham), Conor Coady (Everton), Luke Shaw (Manchester United)
Midfielders
Declan Rice (West Ham), Jude Bellingham (Borussia Dortmund), Kalvin Phillips (Manchester City), Jordan Henderson (Liverpool), Conor Gallagher (Chelsea), Mason Mount (Chelsea)
Forwards
Harry Kane (Tottenham), Callum Wilson (Newcastle), Marcus Rashford (Manchester United), Raheem Sterling (Chelsea), Bukayo Saka (Arsenal), Phil Foden (Manchester City), Jack Grealish (Manchester City), James Maddison (Leicester City)
Read More: Which European teams have the best chances of winning 2022 World Cup?
English coach Southgate announced the 26-member team for the 22nd appearance of the World Cup. He announced the World Cup squad with regular faces on November 10. England has a very talented pool of players, but their recent form is not promising. Also, their creative options are not very desirable. Harry Kane, one of the best strikers in the world, is joined by young midfielders like Declan Rice and Jude Bellingham.
The only surprise in England’s World Cup team is Leicester City star, James Maddison. After three years, this English midfielder returned to the national team just before the World Cup. This time England is going to Qatar with a much-expected team.
Midfielder Kalvin Phillips has returned from injury. However, Harry Maguire survived in the World Cup team despite poor performance and various criticisms. However, Fikayo Tomori, Evan Toney, and Jared Bowen did not make the team.
Read More: Toffee set to livestream FIFA World Cup Qatar'2022 beginning on Sunday
This time, Jordan Pickford is getting the responsibility of handling the English goalpost. But Southgate may suffer in defense. With Reece James and Ben Chilwell sidelined due to injury, the English coach will have to rely on Maguire and Arnold, who are out of form.
However, the English attack is full of stars. With so many options, Southgate will face difficulties in making the starting XI.
England team analysis for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar
Although Brazil, Argentina, France, and Portugal are the favorites to win the World Cup, they are not the most expensive team. The most expensive team in terms of current market value is team England. Let’s see some of the expensive key players.
Harry Kane, forward
Not only England but Harry Kane is one of the best strikers in the world right now. He is now physically fit and injury-free. The 29-year-old striker has a physio working round the clock. He has been in good form for Tottenham.
Read More: Germany Squad Analysis for 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar
The biggest motivation for him will be to surpass Wayne Rooney, who scored 53 goals for the national team; just two more goals are needed to become England’s all-time leading scorer.
It will certainly surprise everyone if Harry does not surpass Rooney in Qatar. He was the joint-top scorer for non-penalty goals at Euro 2020 (4 with Czech Republic’s Patrik Schick). Joint top scorer in this year’s World Cup qualifiers (12 with Memphis Depay of the Netherlands).
Declan Rice, midfield
23-year-old West Ham captain Declan Rice is a regular member of the current England squad. He lets others play, and his ability to be in the right place at the right time has been an invaluable defensive asset for England.
Read More: France Squad Analysis for 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar
No one but Rice can give this defense to Gareth Southgate. His ability to win the ball and positional discipline will give Bellingham the power forward in attack. England’s attack will always rely on his efficient passing, so his success or failure will largely determine the future of the England team.
Benjamin White, defense
25-year-old Ben White, who plays in Arsenal, can play in all three positions, center back, right back, and defensive midfield. However, in this year’s World Cup, he may also have to play at left back due to injury. Because the team’s regular left-back, Chelsea’s Ben Chilwell, has been ruled out due to injury.
Jude Bellingham, midfield
Jude Bellingham is the only England player selected from outside the English league. The 19-year-old midfielder plays for Borussia Dortmund. He will play the biggest role in filling the lack of a creative midfielder in the team. Teams will look to him to get forward with the ball and make the final pass inside the penalty box.
Read More: FIFA World Cup 2022: Things you need to know
Phil Foden, forward
Manchester City’s 22-year-old Phil Foden is considered one of the best young players in the world. He plays on the left foot but can play on the right wing when the team needs it. Although he is not physically strong, the ball sticks to his feet like glue and can easily trick the opposition player. He is a natural talent and also plays in the ‘false nine’ position if the team needs it.
Final Words
But can the England team really go far? They have had no win in the last 6 Nations Cup matches. Lost 4 and drew 2. They were beaten 4-0 by Hungary in June. However, England has qualified for the World Cup by being the champion in Group ‘I’ in the European region in the World Cup-2022 qualifiers.
If everything goes well, such as if England becomes the group champion from Group B’ and, on the other hand, Senegal or Ecuador becomes the runner-up from Group ‘A’ then England will not face difficulties in defeating Senegal or Ecuador in the second round. But in that case, they will likely face France in the quarter-finals. And the farewell bell for the English team in Qatar World Cup can ring from there.
Read More: Why Maradona's 'Hand of God' goal is priceless -- and unforgettable.
Luis Enrique more than just a coach for Torres
Luis Enrique is more than just a coach for Spain forward Ferran Torres. He is also the father of the Barcelona player’s girlfriend — and that’s no problem for them at the World Cup.
Torres dates the 20-year-old daughter of Luis Enrique, Sira Martínez, and says he and the coach have done well, separating work and family.
“The coach and I are being able to separate when we are family and when we are coach and player,” the 22-year-old Torres said Sunday in Qatar, where Spain will play in Group E.
He and Sira have not hidden their relationship, but the forward has not often spoken publicly about it.
“You have to deal with it naturally,” Torres said. “It is what it is, and we have been dealing with it very well.”
Read more: Barcelona joins Qatar World Cup boycott; will not host public viewings
Luis Enrique brought up Torres’ relationship with his daughter in one of his appearances as a streamer on Twitch. When asked about which player he felt was the most similar to him when he used to play, Luis Enrique — a former midfielder for Spain’s national team and for Barcelona — had a long pause and then said, laughing: “This one is very easy for me. It’s Ferran Torres. Because if not, my daughter will get me and cut my head off.”
Torres hinted he was watching the stream when Luis Enrique made the joke.
“I’m a fan of his streams. Every night we are waiting to watch him and we have a good time with it,” Torres said. “He jokes a lot. It was something that came up live, it was a joke.”
Torres is one of the many youngsters Luis Enrique picked for Spain’s revamped squad. He hasn’t played many minutes with Barcelona under coach Xavi Hernández, but started for Spain in the two Nations League matches in September. He also came off the bench in the World Cup warmup against Jordan last week.
Torres plays more on the sides but can also be used at the top of the attack at the striker position, where Luis Enrique only brought Álvaro Morata to his squad.
“We have eight forwards and that helps,” said Torres, who feels like good performances in Qatar may help his case at the club level with Barcelona. “The World Cup may work as a trampoline for me and many other players.”
Spain is trying to win a second World Cup title after lifting the trophy for the first time in 2010 in South Africa. The team’s first match in Qatar is on Wednesday against Costa Rica. The team will then face Germany and Japan.
Read more: Real Madrid show Barcelona still have a long way to go
Qatar ready to open Mideast’s first FIFA World Cup before leaders, fans
Qatar prepared Sunday to open the Middle East’s first FIFA World Cup before global leaders and soccer fans now pouring into this energy-rich nation after being battered by a regional boycott and international criticism.
Regardless of the outcome of Qatar versus Ecuador on the pitch, Doha already has drawn Saudi Arabia’s powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to the opening ceremony and inaugural match of the tournament.
That Prince Mohammed, whose nation had closed Qatar’s only land border to the world through the kingdom over a yearslong political dispute, will attend shows how far the rapprochement between the two nations has gone.
Read: FIFA earn record $7.5b in revenues for current World Cup period
Newspaper columns during the crisis had even suggested digging a trench along the 87-kilometer (54-mile) border and filling it with nuclear waste at the height of the conflict. While rhetorical bluster, it showed how deeply the anger ran in the region amid the dispute — which Kuwait’s then-ruler suggested nearly sparked a war.
Its root came from Qatar’s stance in supporting the Islamists who rose to power in Egypt and elsewhere following the 2011 Arab Spring. While Qatar viewed their arrival as a sea change in the gerontocracies gripping the Mideast, other Gulf Arab nations saw the protests as a threat to their autocratic and hereditary rule.
Qatar also faced criticism from the West as groups they funded initially in Syria’s civil war became extremists. Qatar later would deny that it ever funded Islamic extremists, despite criticism from across the American political spectrum from Hillary Clinton to Donald Trump.
US enter World Cup against Wales after 8-year wait
Gio Reyna, Joe Scally and Yusuf Musah were 11 years old the last time the United States took the field in a World Cup match. On the 3,066th day after that loss in Brazil, the Americans return to soccer’s showcase with a new-look team dreaming lofty goals and hoping for actual ones.
Filled with novelty, nerves and naivety, these young American team take the field against Wales on Monday night in a match a growing fanbase back home has been pining for since 2014.
“Three years, four years of just working up to this moment, I think all the guys are ready to go,” midfielder Weston McKennie said.
A Friday match against England follows and group play ends Nov. 29 against Iran, which famously eliminated the U.S. from the 1998 World Cup in France.
Only DeAndre Yedlin, a 29-year-old defender, remains from the American team eliminated by Belgium in the second round eight years ago. Yedlin, Christian Pulisic, Kellyn Acosta and Tim Ream are among just four holdovers from the group that flopped to the field in anguish after the crushing loss at Trinidad in CONCACAF qualifying in October 2017 that ended the streak of U.S. World Cup appearances at seven.
McKennie debuted a month later in a 1-1 friendly draw at Portugal along with Tyler Adams and Cameron Carter-Vickers. A total of 118 players were tried over 68 matches in a World Cup cycle interrupted by a pandemic, including 91 after Gregg Berhalter was hired as coach in December 2018. He gave debuts to 56 players and took the second-youngest roster to the tournament at an average age of just over 25 years, older than only Ghana.
Some are already looking ahead to 2026, when the U.S. co-hosts the tournament and the core group figures to be in its prime.
Read: Messi or Ronaldo: Who has better chance at leading team to FIFA World Cup win?
“We want to build a ton of momentum going into 2026, but it all starts now,” Berhalter said.
Berhalter becomes the first American to play and coach at a World Cup — his 50th minute shot from Claudio Reyna’s corner kick struck German defender Torsten Frings’ arm on the goal line but was not called a hand ball in 2002′s 1-0 quarterfinal loss.
“I was in my mom’s belly,” quipped Gio Reyna, Claudio’s son, who was born that November.
Berhalter has installed a high-pressing style and led the Americans to a 36-10-10 record that included titles in the 2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup and Nations League.
“The final determination of this group,” he said, “will be at the World Cup. That’s how generations are measured. We can all be talking — that’s great, we beat Mexico three times. Or we won the Gold Cup or the Nations League. But the real measuring stick for this group is certainly going to be how you perform in Qatar.”
Wales is back in the World Cup for the first time since 1958, led by 33-year-old Gareth Bale and 31-year-old Aaron Ramsey. The Dragons advanced to the 2016 European Championship semifinals before losing to eventual champion Portugal and made it to the second round of last year’s Euros before a 4-0 wipeout against Denmark. The lack of World Cup experience has the Welsh as guarded as the Americans heading into the match at Ahmad bin Ali Stadium, a renovated 44,000-seat venue west of the capital.
“They’re intense, they’re athletic, they move the ball quick and they’re really attacking,” Wales defender Ben Cabango said of the U.S. “So we’ve got to make sure we’re in a good shape and just get in a good defensive position. And then, obviously, on a counter we can hit any team with the quality we have.”
With Miles Robinson and Chris Richards injured, the American central defense will start a pair from among Walker Zimmerman, Aaron Long, Carter-Vickers or 35-year-old Tim Ream, back on the national team for the first time in 14 months.
Read: FIFA World Cup 2022: Things you need to know
“Tim’s the grandpa of the group,” Adams said.
Forward, a position that produced just three goals in qualifying, also is uncertain for the U.S. Josh Sargent, Jesús Ferreira and Haji Wright are the choices.
Following Berhalter’s surprising decision to drop Zack Steffen, Matt Turner likely will start in goal over Ethan Horvath and Sean Johnson. Turner has been limited to four Europa League matches in his first season with Arsenal, the last Oct. 20.
“I showed the coaching staff here how much I’ve grown as a person and a player,” Turner said.
Pulisic also has struggled for playing time, getting just five starts for Chelsea this season. Right back Sergiño Dest made only two starts for AC Milan.
As the opener approached, Pulisic recalled gathering for World Cup games in the basement of his home in Hershey, Pennsylvania, and watching Landon Donovan score the injury-time goal that beat Algeria in 2010 to earn advancement.
“The family coming together, wearing all our red, white and blue, just getting excited,” Pulisic said. “It was always a dream of mine. I wanted to be there so bad. But now to be here as a part of this team actually at the World Cup, it’s special. And, yeah, I don’t want to take a moment of this for granted.”
FIFA earns record $7.5b in revenues for current World Cup period
FIFA earned record revenues of $7.5 billion in the four years of commercial deals tied to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, the governing body of soccer said Sunday.
FIFA revealed its earnings to officials from more than 200 of its members. It is $1 billion more than income from the previous commercial cycle linked to the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
The extra income was buoyed by commercial deals with the World Cup host country. Qatar Energy joined as a top-tier sponsor, and new third-tier sponsors include Qatari bank QNB and telecoms firm Ooredoo.
READ: FIFA World Cup 2022: Things you need to know
FIFA also added second-tier sponsor deals this year from financial platform crypto.com and a blockchain provider — its first new American sponsor in more than a decade.
Key broadcast deals for this year’s World Cup were signed during Sepp Blatter’s presidency in two-tournament deals that included the Russia and Qatar tournaments. They included deals with Fox in the United States and Qatari broadcaster BeIN Sports from 2011.
FIFA’s revenues will rise to about $2.5 billion despite the COVID-19 pandemic. FIFA was prepared to use that cash to help members through uncertainty in 2020 when national team soccer and World Cup qualifying games were almost entirely shut down.
Revenues are likely to approach $10 billion for the next four years thanks to a new financial strategy for women’s soccer and the expanded 2026 World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
READ: Amid all its controversies, can football win the day in Qatar?
Separate sponsor deals for women’s soccer are being signed for the 2023 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
The 2026 men’s tournament will have 48 teams instead of 32.
FIFA has an almost blank slate for the 2026 edition with top-tier sponsors Coca-Cola, Adidas and Wanda the only deals currently extended.