Sports
Brazil are trapped in a cycle of apathy – just as rivals Argentina thrive
Brazil have endured so many low ebbs over the past 15 years that it can be hard to remember them all.
The historically embarrassing 7-1 defeat to Germany at their own World Cup? Sure, but don’t forget the moronic reappointment of Dunga as coach in the immediate aftermath or the twin Copa America meltdowns of 2015 and 2016. The doomed, drawn-out pursuit of Carlo Ancelotti has to be on the list, too, as should about six other federation-level failures. You’d need a team of forensic experts to properly sift through all this rubble.
There is also a more recent option that might have passed you by. In November 2023, led by their second interim coach of the year, Brazil welcomed Argentina to Rio de Janeiro for a World Cup qualifier. They lost 1-0, a predictable result that nonetheless tipped the crisis-o-meter towards ‘existential’.
It was Brazil’s third defeat in the first six rounds of qualification. It left them sixth in the 10-team South American group. Venezuela, no one’s idea of a major football power, were above them in the standings. So were Ecuador and they had started the campaign with a points deduction.
The expansion of the World Cup and an extra automatic qualifying spot for the CONMEBOL region (there are now six, with an inter-continental play-off for the nation finishing seventh) ought to have reduced Brazil’s chances of failure to nought. Instead, they were flirting with disaster.
Sixteen months on, the situation is under control. A hard-fought victory over Colombia last week lifted Brazil to third. There is an eight-point buffer between them and seventh. We can say with some certainty that they will be at the 2026 World Cup. The drama is over.
That, though, is not to say that all is sunshine and roses. Indeed, as Brazil prepare to face Argentina for the first time since that reversal in Rio de Janeiro, there is a lingering sense of unease about the direction of travel.
Vinicius Junior celebrates his late winner in Brazil’s 2-1 win over Colombia on Friday (Buda Mendes/Getty Images)
Brazil’s results have improved, but it would be generous to say they have been playing well. They were stodgy in the extreme at last summer’s Copa America and recent matches have followed the same template: there are little spurts of inspiration, most of it individual, but also long periods when Brazil are fretful and frantic. They started well against Colombia but let all momentum seep away, as they often do.
Vinicius Junior’s late winner, a deflected strike from range, owed more to pluck and luck than any collective plan. “I hope it unlocks something,” Vinicius Jr said after the game. He is not the only one.
Dorival Junior, who took over as coach in January 2024, is a likeable character. He arrived with a reputation as a firefighter, someone who could avert the impending crisis. On that count, it’s job done. Mathematically, Brazil are safe. The question now is whether he has the tactical acumen to turn them into a proper team.
The jury is very much out on that one. He says he wants his star forwards — Rodrygo, Vinicius Jr, Raphinha — to play with freedom, but more structure is needed against organised defences. His system can leave Brazil’s two midfielders exposed and he is slow to react to shifts in the pattern of a match. “Sometimes it’s difficult to get your message across clearly,” he said after the Colombia game, an admission that was far more revealing than he can have intended.
Another line from his press conference — “We’ve seen a considerable improvement in every game” — drew the ire of the Brazilian press. “You need a magnifying glass to see any progress,” deadpanned Jessica Cescon of GloboEsporte. “We need something different, a gust of originality,” wrote Tostao, the former Brazil striker.
The juxtaposition with Argentina is a painful one on every level. Few would ever admit to such heresy, but all sensible Brazilian football fans will feel an acute pang of jealousy when they look across their southern border.
Most obviously, there are the trophies. Argentina won the World Cup in 2022, something Brazil have not managed in over two decades and don’t look like doing any time soon. The last two editions of the Copa America have gone Argentina’s way, too. Brazil won that competition in 2019, but that seems a long time ago now. For the past six years, this has been an incredibly one-sided rivalry.
Part of the charm of this period of Argentine dominance is that it was so unexpected. Argentina, like Brazil, spent the 2010s lurching between crises, yet found a winning lottery ticket down the back of the sofa. Lionel Scaloni has not solved every issue behind the scenes — he came close to walking away from the job last year after allegedly falling out with the federation hierarchy — but he has filtered out the noise and the nonsense to transformative effect. Brazil would kill for a little slice of the same.
Dorival Junior took over as Brazil head coach in January 2024 (Evaristo Sa/AFP via Getty Images)
On the pitch, Argentina are everything Brazil are not: settled, drilled, coherent. Obviously, the presence of a world-historical footballer is always likely to swing things in your favour, but Argentina know how to get by when Lionel Messi is absent, as he will be in Buenos Aires on Tuesday. This is Scaloni’s seventh year in charge and you can tell. Brazil’s players, as Marquinhos put it this week, “are still getting to know each other”; Argentina’s dogs of war know each other inside out.
Perhaps the most stark contrast, though, is to be found in the stands and in the streets.
It is impossible to think about Argentina’s World Cup win without remembering those amazing scenes of support and jubilation in the country’s cities: the swaying seas of fans in city squares, the tears, the singing, the lads clinging to telephone poles, hollering themselves hoarse.
Success always breeds attachment, but there is something extra here, genuine communion. Argentines do not just watch these players; they feel in tune with them, represented by them, ennobled by their many attributes. (And, less positively, defensive of their flaws.)
Things are different for Brazil. There is, understandably, no great groundswell of support for the Selecao in its current iteration. More interesting is the lack of any great national outrage about the team and its diminished standing. The overriding feelings are apathy and drift.
This is not a new phenomenon. Brazilian pundits have wrung their hands about the lack of connection between the national team and the public for years, maybe even decades. The players are asked about it all the time. Every game is painted as an opportunity to get people onside, to start forging a new, united front. It’s an impossible thing to track empirically, but the persistence of the discourse tells its own story.
A few factors are usually cited as reasons for the malaise. One is that many national team players have no real links with the Brazilian public, having left the domestic scene before playing much — or any — senior football. Another is that Brazil spent years playing friendlies all over the globe, prioritising revenue over kinship.
Then there are the usual, tired tropes about players caring more about their bank accounts and club teams than they do for their country, an argument completely undermined by the willingness of those same players to cross the Atlantic multiple times per year to get jeered whenever they don’t win 3-0. (It would be unfair to conduct any analysis of the team-fan relationship without noting the strains of entitlement and impatience that exist within the Brazilian fanbase.)
It’s not clear how you solve any of this. It’s not clear that you even can. The best hope, you’d say, is simply to start winning things — to kickstart a virtuous cycle that obscures all of the fissures, much as Argentina did when they appointed Scaloni in 2018.
As Brazil head to Buenos Aires, to another raucous stadium, to yet another exhibition of symbiosis between team and public, they will know that there is a path out of purgatory. Bottling lightning like Argentina did, however, will not be easy.
(Top photos: Getty Images)
Sports
Jordan Staal’s two-goal night lifts Hurricanes past Golden Knights, evening Stanley Cup Final series
Tyler Reddick Makes History! Inside His 3-Peat and Historic Start to the Season
Fresh off his victory at Circuit of the Americas, Tyler Reddick joins Kevin Harvick on this week’s Victory Lap to break down his historic third consecutive NASCAR Cup Series win to open the 2026 season. Reddick discusses how he and 23XI Racing have built early-season momentum, what has clicked across the organization, and how the team has elevated its performance to championship level. He details his intense battle with road course standout Shane van Gisbergen at COTA, the strategy and execution that helped him secure the win, and what it means to become the first Cup driver to win the first three races of a season. Reddick also reflects on his viral 3-peat photo tribute to team owner Michael Jordan, the confidence inside the garage, and how this dominant start shapes expectations for the rest of the year.
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The Carolina Hurricanes have evened up the Stanley Cup Final once more thanks to Jordan Staal’s two-goal night in Las Vegas to beat the Golden Knights in Game 4, 5-3.
The series now sits at 2-2 with Game 5 slated for a return back to Carolina’s Lenovo Center on Thursday to see who will have the edge in this pivotal clash on ice.
This game didn’t need overtime like the previous two, but it did need someone to break the 3-3 tie that went into the third period between these opponents.
Jordan Staal of the Carolina Hurricanes celebrates his power play goal with teammates against the Vegas Golden Knights during the first period of Game Four of the Stanley Cup Final at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nev., on June 9, 2026. (Brian Babineau/NHLI via Getty Images)
With 13:39 left in Game 4, Shea Theodore made a disastrous turnover in the Golden Knights’ own zone, and Hurricanes star Seth Jarvis picked it off right in front of the net.
Luckily for Vegas, Carter Harter stopped Jarvis’ backhand, but the threat wasn’t averted just yet. Jarvis battled to get the puck back out in front, and it ended up trickling to the stick of Nikolaj Ehlers, who tried flipping it to Staal.
SETH JARVIS SCORES OVERTIME GAME-WINNER AS HURRICANES STORM BACK FROM 2-0 DEFICIT TO EVEN STANLEY CUP FINAL
Staal lost his edge on his skate, but that didn’t stop him from swatting a back-handed shot of his own toward the net. It just trickled past Hart, and Staal celebrated while still down on the ice. He became the first player in 44 years to score a goal in each of the first four games of the Stanley Cup Final.
With the way these games have been going, though, a one-goal lead was not safe. This time, however, the Hurricanes had the defense and timely saves by Brandon Bussi, who head coach Rod Brind’Amour went with over Frederik Anderson, and the decision paid off.
The Golden Knights took 20 shots on goal, with Bussi saving 7 in his first time on ice for Carolina in this series. And Ehlers sealed victory when he cleverly banked the puck out of his own zone with an empty net on the other end that walked into the net for the 5-3 win.
Jordan Staal of the Carolina Hurricanes scores a first-period goal against Carter Hart of the Vegas Golden Knights in Game Four of the 2026 Stanley Cup Final at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nev., on June 9, 2026. (Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
The Hurricanes came out roaring in the first period in this one as well, scoring three goals to the Golden Knights’ one by captain Mark Stone. Logan Stankoven notched his 11th of these playoffs just 1:06 into the game. Jackson Blake quickly followed on a goal assisted by Taylor Hall and Ehlers.
Then, Staal’s first goal of the game came 12:48 into the period on a power play. Shayne Gostisbehere ripped a shot on goal, and after Hart made the save, Staal was first to find the puck and a clear shot right in front of the goal.
With a 3-1 lead after the first 20 minutes, the Hurricanes had to feel good. But again, no lead is safe, and Vegas reminded them of that in the second period.
Logan Stankoven of the Carolina Hurricanes celebrates after scoring a first-period goal against the Vegas Golden Knights in Game Four of the 2026 Stanley Cup Final at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, on June 9, 2026. (Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
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William Karlsson got Vegas closer with his third goal of the playoffs, while Brett Howden, adding to his case for the Conn Smythe Trophy, scored his 14th to tie it all up at three.
In the end, Staal’s heroics for the Hurricanes is why he has a “C” on his sweater.
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The first serious legal challenge to the House settlement will come courtesy of a USC freshman linebacker.
Talanoa Ili, a top-100 recruit in the Trojans’ vaunted 2026 class, joins Stanford quarterback Charlie Mirer as one of two lead plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit that takes aim at the system implemented since the settlement ushered in a new era of direct payment from universities to athletes. The suit, which was filed Tuesday, accuses the NCAA, the Power Four conferences and the enforcement arm they created — the College Sports Commission — of participating in a “conspiracy” by creating a system of policies that have “direct anti-competitive effects, including the suppression of [name, image and likeness] compensation below competitive levels.”
Those policies, their attorneys argue, violate state laws in California that prohibit restrictions on NIL rights, as well as federal antitrust statutes. They’re seeking monetary damages, as well as an injunction that would upend the enforcement structure created to determine whether individual NIL deals over $2,500 meet criteria, including whether they have “a valid business purpose” or fall within a reasonable range of market value.
The clearinghouse, NIL Go, was created with the hope of eliminating an influx of booster-funded NIL deals that were basically direct payments from donors to the program. But since its inception, the system has been more restrictive and worked less efficiently than some schools and athletes might have hoped. As of last month, according to Yahoo Sports, more than $125 million worth of NIL compensation that had been promised to athletes had been rejected by the clearinghouse or was still under review.
In Ili’s case, the complaint states that he received a “substantial multi-year offer” from USC’s House of Victory collective in 2024 that led him to commit to the Trojans, only to have the offer disappear after approval of the House settlement.
“Absent the NIL Restrictions on Direct Pay NIL Compensation, Ili would have received more for his NIL rights than he now receives,” the complaint states. “The Agreement has thus injured Ili.”
Mirer, meanwhile, claims that he has received no NIL compensation from Stanford’s collective or revenue-sharing money from the university since 2024 as a result of the settlement.
Stanford quarterback Charlie Mirer during a game last season.
(Godofredo A. Vásquez / Associated Press)
“The [CSC agreement] has suppressed, deterred, and effectively terminated the economic relationships that had produced his prior NIL compensation,” the lawsuit says.
Even the plaintiffs in the House settlement, which created the CSC, are in the process of challenging the current system. On Wednesday, plaintiff attorney Jeffrey Kessler will argue in a hearing that school-affiliated businesses such as multimedia rights holders or corporate sponsors, should not be subject to the CSC’s rigorous criteria for NIL deals. That decision could also open the floodgates, with schools using those entities to circumvent the cap.
Two U.S. senators are hoping to pass legislation they believe would bring more stability to college athletics and thwart legal challenges. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Maria Cantwell (D-Texas) spoke with presidents and chancellors from the Big Ten Conference on Tuesday about a bipartisan bill, the Protect College Sports Act, which would codify some of the CSC’s policies into federal law.
Sports
Rob Gronkowski is ‘Team USA all the way’ despite being a soccer novice ahead of 2026 FIFA World Cup
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It’s officially World Cup week around the globe, and for the U.S. men’s national team, it’s the quest to make a run on home soil.
While soccer isn’t remotely close to the national sport, the feeling of patriotism and support for the USMNT is expected in full force when kickoff comes on June 12 against Paraguay in Inglewood, California.
Just ask legendary NFL tight end Rob Gronkowski, who may still be learning the game he never played growing up, but is “Team USA all the way” as they gear up for the tournament.
Rob Gronkowski attends WrestleMania 42 Night 2 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada, on April 19, 2026. (Georgiana Dallas/WWE)
“No doubt about it. I’m Team USA all the way. How can you not be?” he told Fox News Digital in a recent interview. “I mean, I think it’ll be the greatest thing for the sport of soccer if somehow a miracle Team USA wins the World Cup.”
Gronkowski understands it’s a long shot for the USMNT to capture its first World Cup title. But his understanding of the sport mirrors that of many Americans, who love their country and want to see the Stars and Stripes make a run.
USMNT CAPTAIN TYLER ADAMS READY TO BE IN ‘PATRIOTIC MOOD’ PLAYING ON HOME SOIL FOR 2026 FIFA WORLD CUP
Working alongside fellow NFL fan-favorite, New York Giants quarterback Jameis Winston, Gronkowski has been building his soccer acumen and getting ready for the World Cup on Tubi’s “The Other Football.”
“I think it’s great for America to learn the game of soccer,” Gronkowski said about the show. “We got referees come on, we have players that come on. They’re teaching us the game of football and we’re asking questions because America’s a country that’s slacking behind in the game of soccer. There’s no doubt about that, and it’s great for the game of soccer that the World Cup is here because I feel like the whole entire world knows about soccer, knows the rules inside out and knows all the players. A good percentage of the USA is learning about the game of soccer. The game of soccer is expanding.
“I’m learning so much about it and I’m loving it.”
The U.S. Men’s National Team poses during the announcement of the 2026 World Cup roster in New York on May 26, 2026. (Timothy A. Clary/AFP)
Gronkowski and his brothers were multi-sport athletes growing up, but soccer didn’t fall into that regimen in West New York. That doesn’t mean Gronkowski didn’t share tremendous respect for what these elite athletes do on the pitch and will showcase for the next month.
“The cardio, the shape they’re in is absolutely incredible,” he explained. “I just never played growing up. I don’t think I would last that long. I’m a short sprit guy – 40 yards. Then, I need a little break. If I had to go that long, I don’t think I would’ve lasted on a soccer field. I truly love their athleticism. I wish I played a little bit because my footwork for the game of football and basketball would’ve been more phenomenal and more on point as well. They’re just complete athletes and I respect what they do. I’m learning more and more about the game, and that’s what’s great about the World Cup being here.”
Not only are Gronkowski and Winston learning about the rules, but also the expanded FIFA format that will debut this week. It will be 48 teams instead of the usual 32, where two teams from each group of four will make it to the knockout stages, as well as the best eight teams in third place across the 12 groupings.
LANDON DONOVAN RECALLS LIFE-CHANGING WORLD CUP MOMENT AMID PLAYERS’ ‘RESPONSIBILITY’ OF GROWING GAME IN USA
Gronkowski is looking forward to cheering on the U.S., and while it’s a longshot they win it all, he has a bar set for victory.
“If we get out of the tourney and into the knockout stages and at least win one of those games and get to the Round of 16, I think that’s a win,” he said. “That’s like the USA winning the World Cup. It’s not winning it all, but that just shows how special it would be if we got that far.”
Christian Pulisic poses with his jersey during the United States World Cup roster reveal in New York City on May 26, 2026. (Adam Hunger/Getty Images)
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The USMNT will face Paraguay on June 12, followed by matches against Australia on June 19 and Türkiye on June 25 to complete their group stage play.
And like many others simply watching to support the country and share their patriotism, Gronkowski now knows enough of the basics to get rowdy for a hopeful U.S. run.
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