Sports
Amid the 4 Nations noise, Canada reclaims its throne as ‘the king of hockey’
They crossed the 49th parallel, from Manitoba into North Dakota — and drove through day and night — across eight states and more than 3,000 kilometers, according to the Canadian odometer on their Nissan Murano.
Two canceled flights meant they were desperate. So they piled into a car, stopping only for gas. And, despite a two-hour detour through Milwaukee, off a middle-of-the-night wrong turn, they made it to Boston in 30 hours.
They were five among the thousands of Canadians who lined up outside TD Garden hours before the start of the NHL’s 4 Nations Face-Off final between Canada and the United States.
“We’re here for the Maple Leaf,” said Matt McLeod. And they were there for their childhood friend Seth Jarvis, who was living his dream of playing for Canada.
But at the most hyped international hockey game in more than a decade, everyone had their reasons to care. And beyond the 60 minutes and overtime, it felt like there was so much more than a win at stake.
With more than a decade of built-up tension between the two rivals, heat on the ice was inevitable. But for many, the championship game wasn’t about bragging rights alone. A looming trade war between the United States and Canada, following tariff threats by President Donald Trump and repeated claims that he’d like the sovereign neighbor to become the country’s 51st state, created an unparalleled level of hostility between the two nations.
Canadian fans booed the American national anthem when the teams met in a round-robin match in Montreal, which was followed by three fights in the first nine seconds of the game.
It was impossible to ignore the wider implications, especially when the U.S. team’s general manager Bill Guerin said his players used the political tensions as inspiration and invited Trump to attend the final. Before the championship, Trump encouraged the Americans while taking another shot at Canada becoming the 51st state and referring to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as a governor.
Outside TD Garden, that tension was evident hours before the opening face off.
“Welcome to the USA, Canada’s 11th Province,” read a massive sign carried by Ian MacKinnon, as fans dressed in Canada and USA jerseys shuffled in a queue that stretched down Causeway Street. He’s an American, by way of grandparents who first immigrated to Nova Scotia. MacKinnon doesn’t care much about sports, but he biked there with his sign in hopes of making a point and maybe offering a touch of levity.
“The way the series started with fist fights in the first 10 seconds, I felt maybe tonight I could make people smile,” MacKinnon said.
And most people did, while some tossed light jabs.
“51st state!” one man yelled as he passed in line.
“U-S-A! U-S-A!” chanted another.
One fan tried to rip the sign from MacKinnon’s hand, but he held firm.
In the concourse, American fans posed with Mark Goggin, who’d painted his face red and white, with temporary tattoos of a cartoon moose and beaver on each check. Goggin crossed the border from his home in Windsor to catch a flight from Detroit with his son. As innocent and playful as most of the interactions between the fans were, Goggin felt the wider implications that the game carried seemed somewhat lost on his American counterparts. They didn’t seem to appreciate just how serious Canadians have taken the threats and taunts, he said. It might be fun and games to them, but in Canada the aggression has spurred a rush of patriotism.
“Canadians are so pumped to win this game. Because we can’t beat Trump, right?” Goggin said. “It’s the only thing we can beat them at — hockey.”
His eyes reddened as he described the emotion many Canadians carried into the final.
“It’s so big for Canadians,” Goggin said. “It’s more than a game.”
Mark Goggin’s rooting interests were easily discerned. (Dan Robson / The Athletic)
Harjinder Sidhu flew from Winnipeg to attend the game with his brother and his 5-year-old nephew, who traveled from Edmonton. The 30-year-old said the outside context matters.
“Canada will never be the 51st state. … It’s very disrespectful,” he said. “Our soldiers have died next to their soldiers in wars, which we do happily because they’re our brothers. But that brother is acting a little too aggressive right now. And today we’ll show them who’s the king of hockey.”
For more than a century, hockey has been Canada’s game. But it has long been anticipated that the Americans would catch up and possibly surpass Canada. Recent trends underscore that reality. The majority of Canadian NHLers play for American teams. And as has been pointed out many times, no Canadian team has won a Stanley Cup since 1993.
That tension filled the TD Garden too. It hung uncomfortably when Wayne Gretzky, hockey’s greatest icon, stepped onto the ice representing Canada in a pregame ceremony wearing a suit, to respectful stick taps and cheers. Mike Eruzione, captain of the 1980 Miracle on Ice team, followed to a riotous roar wearing a U.S.A. jersey — fist-bumping the American players and waving his hands to pump up the crowd as they chanted “U.S.A.”
It wasn’t lost on many Canadians watching that Gretzky, star of the famed 1987 Canada Cup winning team, attended President Trump’s election victory party at Mar-a-Lago and his recent inauguration ceremony.
A smattering of boos greeted the Canadian national anthem, but a chorus rose alongside singer Chantal Kreviazuk, who made her own comment on the moment by changing the lyrics in a verse from “in all of us command” to “that only us command.” Kreviazuk later posted on Instagram that she believed Canadians needed to stand up and use their voices in the face of a “potentially consequential moment.”
“We should express our outrage in the face of any abuses of power,” she wrote.
A hockey game happened, and a thrilling one, with a crowd heavily on the American side.
But after the most dramatic show of international men’s hockey in more than a decade — sealed by Connor McDavid’s overtime winning goal — it was Canadians piling on the ice and embracing in the stands. American fans streamed out into the concourse as “O Canada” played once more, to fireworks around a giant Canadian flag. The red-and-white jerseys filled the lower bowl, surrounded by empty seats.
Drew Doughty sang as loud as he could. It had been so long since he’d last felt this moment, and he didn’t know if he’d ever feel it again.
And later, in the locker room, the Canadian players belted “We Are The Champions” by Queen, Molson Canadian and Moet sloshing on the floor. Their reign as the world’s greatest, secured for at least another year.
Above, in the concourse, a chant of “Can-na-Da, Ca-na-da” echoed as fans marched toward the exits, and out onto Causeway Street.
A woman in a grey sweater with a U.S. flag on it shouted after them: “You’ll be the 51st state soon.”
But no one bothered to listen.
As the champagne dried on the locker room floor, and other Canadian players reveled in the hallway en route to the team’s afterparty at a nearby bar, Mark Stone acknowledged that the political tension weighed on the team throughout the series.
“I definitely read and saw everything, Saturday to tonight,” Stone said. “It’s hard to stay off that stuff, the way the world is with social media. This game meant a lot to us, a lot to our country, and we’re proud to put on that jersey and get a win for our country.”
In the hall, Brad Marchand, Sidney Crosby and Nathan MacKinnon posed for a photo together. MacKinnon held up a Canadian flag. Crosby, the captain, clutched the 4 Nations Cup.
Seth Jarvis and the friends who’d driven from Winnipeg, piled in to pose for some photos, too. They wore the sweaters of Crosby, McDavid, MacKinnon and Mitch Marner — just a few among the thousands that still filled Boston’s streets, shouting and laughing and cheering, for a victory that felt so much bigger than a game.
(Illustration: Eamonn Dalton / The Athletic. Photos: Dan Robson / The Athletic; Brian Babineau / 4NFO/World Cup of Hockey; Bruce Bennett, Ben Jackson / 4NFO/World Cup of Hockey via Getty Images)
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Oba Femi and Brock Lesnar’s feud will come to a head at SummerSlam in August, and the showdown has the potential to be WWE’s match of the year.
Femi beat Lesnar at WrestleMania 42 and led to “The Beast Incarnate” deciding to retire – at least for a moment – at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. Lesnar made a dramatic return a few weeks later, challenging and beating Femi at Clash in Italy.
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Oba Femi looks on during Monday Night RAW at Allstate Arena on July 6, 2026, in Chicago, Illinois. (Melina Pizano/WWE via Getty Images)
At SummerSlam, Femi and Lesnar will do battle inside a Hell in a Cell.
WWE Hall of Famer John Bradshaw Layfield called the next meeting between Femi and Lesnar a “generational matchup.”
“I’ve never seen anything like Oba – well, I have. I’ve seen Brock,” he told Fox News Digital. “It’s very much the carbon copy of Brock coming in. Brock coming in was like, oh my God, who is this guy? The guy can even talk, and he’s gonna be one of the biggest stars in wrestling. Not only could he talk, he’s a really smart guy. Brock became one of the biggest draws in professional wrestling. He came one of the biggest draws in UFC. It’s an unbelievable story, and now you got somebody who can rival that character.
Brock Lesnar in action against Oba Femi during “Monday Night Raw” at TD Garden on March 23, 2026, in Boston, Massachusetts. (Michael Owens/WWE via Getty Images)
“This Oba Femi comes out with the silly little walk he does. Everyone kinda does it, it’s like The Bushwackers. But the whole arena does it. I was in Vegas and I didn’t want to go to the matches and deal with the traffic and deal with the backstage area, and so I kinda just watched it in a sports bar. I stood in the back where nobody could recognize me, and as soon as Oba came out, the entire sports bar was sitting there doing that Oba Femi dance. The guy is just unbelievably over.
“I really think that somewhere in the NFL this year, you’re going to see an entire NFL arena doing this dance. You’re gonna have somebody like Saquon Barkley or ‘King’ (Derrick Henry) or some of these guys do this dance, and it’s infectious. Once one of them does, one of these great running backs or wide receivers, or somebody scores a touchdown, that’s when I think you’re gonna see entire arenas doing it. I just think Oba Femi is lightning in a bottle and Brock has always been that way. This is, to me, a generational matchup.”
Brock Lesnar and Oba Femi face off during WrestleMania 42: Night 2 at Allegiant Stadium on April 19, 2026, in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Georgiana Dallas/WWE via Getty Images)
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SummerSlam will take place on Aug. 1 and 2 at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.
Sports
Commentary: ‘I don’t want any handouts.’ Amid the Angels’ drought, a starry homecoming for Mike Trout
Mike Trout last played in an All-Star Game seven years ago. It’s crazy, really. The best player of the previous decade, the link that ties Barry Bonds and Albert Pujols to Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani, has not taken an All-Star at-bat this decade.
Injuries, mostly. And he turns 35 next month.
Next week’s All-Star Game takes place in Philadelphia, about 40 miles north of Trout’s hometown of Millville, N.J. Major League Baseball reserves a potential All-Star roster spot or two each summer for distinguished players: Bryce Harper and Justin Verlander this year, Clayton Kershaw last year, Pujols and Miguel Cabrera in past years.
That could have been Trout’s spot this summer: a worthy honor for a three-time most valuable player, a local hero feted on the national stage the Angels have failed to provide him.
“I wouldn’t have done it,” Trout said.
Not even at home?
“It’s an honor to get voted in and represent the American League,” he said. “For me, I don’t want any handouts.”
Trout is an All-Star for the 12th time, the old-fashioned way: He earned it.
Fans voted him into the starting lineup, with the most final-round votes of any AL outfielder. His peers voted him as one of the top three outfielders in the AL.
“It means a lot,” he said. “I’ve been through a lot of hurdles, a lot of adversity. I put some hard work in, and I did not let up. I could have easily got down on myself and not pushed through it and not come back.
“I know what I am capable of. I know I have the confidence to get back to the player I used to be.”
His .874 OPS entering play Thursday ranks second among AL outfielders, a career season for many players. In 11 of his 14 full seasons — all but the previous three — he has posted a higher OPS.
In April, in a four-game series against the New York Yankees, Trout hit five home runs and drove in nine runs.
“Everything was clicking,” he said. “When I first came up, that’s how I felt the whole season.
“Just to be able to get that feeling back, that little spark, to know it’s still in there, it makes you feel pretty good.”
For him, so does playing in Philadelphia. The first time he played there with the Angels, Millville basically closed down for the night, and just about everyone in town boarded a bus to the game. Then Trout had an exceptionally rare experience, a visiting player cheered at the home of the boo.
Mark Gubicza can testify to that. Gubicza, the two-time All-Star pitcher and now the Angels’ television analyst, grew up in Philadelphia.
“I don’t care if you were God himself, if you were wearing a different color uniform, I was still booing you,” Gubicza said. “But he was cheered.”
Still is. Trout is a diehard Philadelphia Eagles fan, with his season tickets not in some climate-controlled luxury suite but along the sideline.
“The players all walk by him and say ‘Trouty!’ ” Gubicza said. “Before they all go out to get their heads beat in, they’re all saying hi.
“He’s not one of those guys that comes there to be seen. He’s going there to root. That’s why they love him: He’s one of us.”
Said Trout: “I know how passionate I am about the Eagles. From my experience as an Eagles fan, it’s just different.
“It’s like win or die.”
It’s not like that in Southern California, where almost no one listens to sports-talk radio, and where a nice day is always a day away.
No one would begrudge Trout for living year-round along the Orange County coast. (OK, maybe Philadelphia fans would.)
Roy Hallenbeck, Trout’s high school coach, remembered visiting years ago on what he called “a perfect day” and asking Trout how he could ever get tired of all that sunshine.
“Yeah, coach, I couldn’t live here,” Trout told him. “‘I need my seasons.”
Trout built a family home near his boyhood home. He built his Trout National golf resort, with a course designed by Tiger Woods, in Millville.
He is as loyal to the Angels as he is to Millville. He appreciates the team that “took a chance on a kid from a little town in southern New Jersey” and signed him to two nine-figure contract extensions.
Trout was the last Angels player to take a postseason at-bat, in 2014. Even amid baseball’s longest playoff drought, he still considers Anaheim a special place, and always will.
“It’s where it all began,” Trout said. “I think the fuel of people doubting us kind of makes it more of a fire for me to try to get back to the playoffs. I think that’s the biggest key for me.
“Could I take the easy way out and just leave? Yeah. But I think — I said this last year around this time, but it’s the same feeling I’ve been having — I really haven’t sat down and talked to anybody about it specifically, but I know there’s a time where, if things change, who knows? I don’t know. But, for me, right now, my focus is on trying to get this club back in the playoffs.”
At the All-Star Game, Trout might well hear Phillies fans beseech him to come play for the home team. However, Hallenbeck said, the hometown folks no longer are as strident in that long-held wish.
“I think the overriding sentiment of most people I talk with, even Phillies fans, is we would all — as people that know him, love him and care for him — love to watch him play relevant baseball in August and September,” Hallenbeck said. “It doesn’t matter where. It doesn’t matter who. Just being relevant late in the season would be something we would all love to see.
“Hopefully, it’s with the Angels. They’ve been so good to him. We’d love to see it there.”
So would we. In the meantime, in the absence of a World Series, Trout deserves to enjoy his homecoming game.
Sports
London descends into disorder as Morocco fans flood streets after World Cup elimination by France
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Public unrest began in parts of London late Thursday night, and it appears Morocco’s exit from the 2026 FIFA World Cup at the hands of France is the reason.
France took down Morocco 2-0, eliminating the African country for the second consecutive tournament, this time in a quarterfinal match.
As a result, many feared Paris would erupt into riots, especially after the chaos that followed Paris Saint-Germain’s UEFA Champions League victory over Arsenal in May.
Instead, images and videos from Edgware Road in northwest London showed police clashing with large crowds as smoke billowed through the streets and debris littered the roadway.
A police vehicle is parked in a road as people from pro-Palestinian activist groups gather near the Edgware United Synagogue during a demonstration against the “Great Israeli Real Estate Event” organized by real-estate agency My Home in Israel, which markets property in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, in London, Britain, June 14, 2026. (Toby Shepheard)
Riot police, equipped with shields and body armor, tried to contain the crowds as they clashed with people launching fireworks and throwing debris. One video also appeared to show an officer down.
KYLIAN MBAPPÉ, OUSMANE DEMBÉLÉ FIRE FRANCE INTO WORLD CUP SEMIFINALS WITH WIN OVER MOROCCO
It’s unknown what happened to the officer who was down on the asphalt or how he was injured.
Fans waved Moroccan flags in the middle of the streets, which held up traffic. Some even jumped on top of vehicles trying to get through the area.
Moroccan fans in the stands before a FIFA World Cup 2026 quarterfinal match between France and Morocco at Boston Stadium July 9, 2026, in Foxborough, Mass. (Richard Sellers/SportsphotoAllstar)
Similar scenes unfolded after Egypt’s World Cup exit, when Argentina rallied for a controversial 3-2 victory that featured several disputed officiating decisions.
Paris, on the other hand, looked more like a city celebrating than one on the brink of a riot. Supporters of both France and Morocco flooded the streets, slowing traffic in several parts of the city.
One video showed horns blasting from cars with French and Moroccan flags out the windows on the L’avenue des Champs-Élysées in Paris. Supporters on the side of the road, waving their own flags, joined in on the celebration.
France’s Kylian Mbappé scored his eighth goal of this World Cup, which ties him for the most with Argentina’s Lionel Messi. Ousmane Dembélé also scored in the second half for France in the 2-0 win over Morocco.
It’s the third straight semifinal appearance for France, while Morocco still made World Cup history despite the loss. After becoming the first African country to reach the quarterfinals and semifinals in World Cup history in 2022, Morocco added to that by becoming the first-ever African nation to reach more than one quarterfinal.
Moroccan fans react while attending a watch party for the World Cup round of 8 match between France and Morocco in Boston, Massachusetts, on July 9, 2026. (Joseph Prezioso/AFP)
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Morocco’s exit means there are no more African nations alive in the World Cup. France will be taking on the winner of Spain and Belgium, while England and Norway and Argentina and Switzerland face off in the quarterfinals.
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