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)
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The WNBA season has been in session for about a week, so it is far too early to make assumptions about teams. That doesn’t mean we won’t make them; it’s just too early to really believe it. I lost my first WNBA bet this season, so I’m hoping to avenge that loss here as the Sky take on the Mercury.
The Chicago Sky are one of the most poorly run franchises in basketball. They have had some great names on their team and only one championship to show for it.
Phoenix Mercury forward DeWanna Bonner shoots over Indiana Fever guard Aerial Powers in the first half at PHX Arena. (Rick Scuteri/Imagn Images)
There really isn’t a clear indication of what is wrong with the franchise, but they’ve never been able to retain their talent. Aside from Kamilla Cardoso, I can’t name a player on this team that they’ve actually drafted. They just seem to get good players and then show them the door.
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Even though they’ve had questionable front office decisions, they seem to have put together a solid team for this season – something I didn’t expect before the season started.
They are 2-0, which is too early to really say they are a good team. I also want to reserve judgment until they face a team with a longer history than last year. The Portland Tempo played their first-ever game against the Sky, and Golden State was good last year, but still is in just their second season of existence.
The Phoenix Mercury are actually considered one of the best franchises in the league. I’m sure there are issues that people have reported, but for the most part, they have good facilities, and people want to play for their team. They made it all the way to the WNBA Finals last season before falling to the Las Vegas Aces. This year, they are looking to restart that journey and see if they can win the last game of the year.
Phoenix Mercury guard Kahleah Copper dribbles the ball in the second half at CareFirst Arena in Washington, D.C., on July 27, 2025. (Emily Faith Morgan-Imagn Images)
It will need to come with some better play than they’ve shown through three games this year. They are just 1-2 for the year with a 0-1 home record. The lone win was a blowout victory over the Aces (a clear revenge game if we’ve ever seen one). Then they lost the next two games against Golden State and Minnesota. Losing to the Lynx wouldn’t be a problem, but they didn’t have Napheesa Collier, who still has an ankle injury.
I expect the Mercury to make some adjustments for this game. They haven’t looked very crisp to begin the year, but they’ve been strong on offense, averaging 87 points per game.
The Sky are going to keep relying on their offense to do just enough and their defense to lock in. The Sky do have an edge on the interior, so they can get buckets fairly easily down low. I like the over 166.5 in this game.
Chicago Sky guard Skylar Diggins chases the ball during the fourth quarter against the Golden State Valkyries at Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif., on May 13, 2026. (Bob Kupbens/Imagn Images)
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I also think it is worth betting on Kahleah Copper to go over her point total. Copper had two rough games before she broke out in the last game. Now she has the same sight lines and can attack the bigs from the Sky with her athleticism. Since going to Phoenix, she has scored 29, 7, 16, 25 and 28 points in five games against them.
For more sports betting information and plays, follow David on X/Twitter: @futureprez2024
Tom Harp has been coaching volleyball at Granada Hills High for so long that few remember he won a City Section championship as a co-head football coach with Darryl Stroh in 1987.
In the 1990s, he turned exclusively to coaching boys’ and girls’ volleyball, winning a combined 15 City titles and making 28 finals appearances. The top-seeded Highlanders will try to deliver a seventh Open Division championship on Saturday when they face West Valley League rival Chatsworth in a 4 p.m. final at Birmingham.
The league rivals split their two West Valley matches, with each going five games. Chatsworth knocked off 17-time champion Palisades in the semifinals. MIT-bound Grant Chang is Chatsworth’s 6-foot-6 powerful outside hitter.
All-City volleyball player RJ Francisco of Granada Hills shows off his hitting skills against Chatsworth.
(Craig Weston)
Granada Hills has RJ Francisco, who had 19 kills in a win over Chatsworth.
The Southern Section Division 1 final is Friday night, with Mira Costa taking on Loyola in a 7:30 p.m. match at Cerritos College.
Regional and state playoffs begin next week.
This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.
Sports
Cedric Alexander becomes new TNA X Division champion, crushing Leon Slater’s history-making attempt
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All eyes were on the Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) X Division Championship on Thursday night as Leon Slater looked to retain the title over Cedric Alexander and solidify himself as the longest-reigning X Division champion in the company’s history.
Slater knew a legacy was on the line as he looked to break a record set by Austin Aries. But he needed to pin Alexander twice in one match to retain the title. It was a steep mountain to climb as Alexander had been just as dangerous since he entered the company.
The match started off hot with Slater and Alexander trading blows to begin the match. But a quick-thinking Slater rolled up Alexander quickly for the first fall.
Cedric Alexander in the ring during NXT at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Fla., on Sept. 23, 2025. (Bradlee Rutledge/WWE)
Alexander was able to go on offense from there. He hit a nasty German suplex on the outside of the ring. He continued to work on Slater’s tweaked neck. He later hit a Lumbar Check to tie the match at 1-1.
Slater went deep into his bag. He hit an avalanche Styles Clash, which could have kept anyone else down. However, Alexander kicked out. Alexander was able to counter Slater’s high-flying abilities just for a moment and knocked him back out of the ring.
Alexander sent Slater into the steel steps, leaving him busted open. Alexander declared that he would be the “greatest” X Division champion. One brainbuster later, Alexander tried to pin Slater, but couldn’t get him down.
Alexander hit a Lumbar Check again, but Slater kicked out. Slater mustered up the last ounce of energy. A tilt-a-whirl slam set Alexander up for a swanton 450. Slater missed and Alexander hit another Lumbar Check, and then again.
Leon Slater enters the arena during NXT at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Fla., on Jan. 6, 2026. (Craig Melvin/WWE)
Alexander pinned Slater for the win, completely shocking the fans in Sacramento, California. It will be the first reign for Alexander and his first title of any kind in TNA.
Alexander is a reminder, at least for TNA, that “The System always wins.”
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Fabian Aichner appears
Fabian Aichner, formerly known as Giovanni Vinci, makes his way to the ring during WWE SmackDown at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, Calif., on Sept. 20, 2024. (WWE/Getty Images)
Moments before TNA went off the air, the lights went out in the Sacramento Memorial Auditorium. Emerging from the darkness was Fabian Aichner.
Aichner stared down Alexander and appeared to name himself the next challenger for the X Division Championship. Aichner, known as Giovanni Vinci for much of his run in WWE, hadn’t really been seen or heard from in months since his departure from WWE.
Aichner wrestled under his real name for a stint in WWE before he came back as Vinci in June 22. He was with WWE until 2025. He was a two-time NXT tag team champion and an Evolve champion before it became a WWE brand.
Eric Young earns future shot at TNA World Championship
Eric Young outlasted nine other men in an over-the-top battle royal and earned a shot at Mike Santana’s TNA World Championship to start the show.
The match came down to him and Elijah after the latter was able to toss members of The System out of the ring while also avoiding Frankie Kazarian trying to get back into the match following his own elimination.
Young and Elijah came to blows on the apron, knowing that as soon as their feet touch the ground, they would be eliminated. Young grabbed onto Elijah’s hair to try to hang onto the moment. Elijah broke away with Young’s back turned to him. Elijah, however, didn’t account for his wide stance.
The TNA original kicked Elijah in the groin and pushed him down to the ground. Young won the match and received a shot to win the TNA World Championship in the future.
He also made clear that Santana was next on his list of people to wipe out as he did to Joe Hendry, EC3 and Ricky Sosa in weeks past.
“Mike Santana, you’re gone next,” he declared.
Mike Santana learns his next opponent
Mike Santana stands in the ring during NXT at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Fla., on Sept. 30, 2025. (Kevin Sabitus/WWE)
Mike Santana came out to address the crowd and praised Young for his efforts to help build TNA from the ground up.
“You better be coming with something different because while you may be someone who helped build this place, when it comes to the new era of TNA on AMC, I’m the guy. I’m the man. I’m the one who holds down the fort week after week as your TNA world champion.”
While Young might have earned a title shot, Daria Rae came out and revealed to the crowd that Steve Maclin was cleared to return to action following an injury at the hands of Santana.
Maclin will get a shot at Santana’s TNA World Championship next week on “Impact.”
Santino Marella also came out during the segment after he was “suspended.” He revealed that Indi Harwell re-signed with TNA.
Lei Ying Lee, Xia Brookside rivalry heats up
Xia Brookside attends the “Freelance” screening at Regal Waterford Lakes in Orlando, Fla., on Oct. 24, 2023. (Jose Devillegas/Getty Images)
Lei Ying Lee brought the TNA Knockouts Championship back home last week with a win over Arianna Grace. She addressed the crowd before being interrupted by her former best friend, Xia Brookside.
In all black, Brookside claimed she was already in Lei’s head.
“You’re such a fraud. I’ve destroyed you mentally, I’ve destroyed you emotionally, I’ve destroyed you physically, and that title will be around my waist.”
Both competitors tossed expletives at each other before the segment was over. But Brookside made clear that she had her eyes on the title.
AJ Francis prevails over KC Navarro
A.J. Francis told Fox News Digital before the SacTown Street Fight on “Impact” that he was going to bring the pain to Navarro.
While wearing “Show Stealer” across his back, Francis did just that. Francis took some punishment from Navarro – a few shots from a baseball bat and a drop kick with a trash can.
Francis was able to turn the tide for a few moments, using the baseball bat to his advantage. But Navarro dug deep. He aligned six chairs in the ring, hoping to splash Francis through it. Instead, Francis countered and attempted an avalanche Down Payment. Somehow, Navarro countered with a cutter as both men crashed through the sea of chairs.
It looked like it could’ve been it. Navarro went for the pin, but only got a two count.
Francis turned on the heat from there. He got ahold of Navarro and hit a Down Payment through tables lined up on the outside of the ring.
He rolled Navarro back into the ring and picked up the pinfall victory.
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“Impact” match results
- Eric Young wins the 10-man battle royal to earn a shot at the TNA World Championship.
- A.J. Francis def. KC Navarro in a SacTown Street Fight.
- Rosemary and Allie def. Veronica Crawford and Mila Moore
- Cedric Alexander def. Leon Slater to win the X Division Championship.
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