Continuing my summer observations looking back at memorable moments in covering high school sports since 1976, you can’t find a better, more beloved action-packed night than Feb. 24, 2017, at USC’s Galen Center when you got to see two great high school basketball games for the price of one in the Southern Section Open Division semifinals.

Anyone who was there remembers the long lines to get in, the sold-out crowd and drama involving Sierra Canyon against Bishop Montgomery and Mater Dei against Chino Hills.

Enjoy the memories from the video looking back.

A freak mishap Sunday night abruptly ended England midfielder Jordan Henderson’s 2026 World Cup.

Henderson, 36, spent the match on the bench in England’s 3-2 win, but quickly drew attention after falling over an advertising board, leaving him writhing in pain during a moment of victory for England.

On Monday, Henderson opted to undergo surgery, bringing an unusual ending to the World Cup campaign of one of England’s veteran leaders.

ENGLAND PLAYER INJURES WRIST HOPPING OVER AD BOARD DURING TEAM’S WORLD CUP VICTORY CELEBRATION VS MEXICO

As the stadium speakers blasted Oasis, Henderson tried to climb over a pitch-side advertising board to celebrate with the traveling supporters. He lost his footing and landed awkwardly on his wrist.

WATCH:

England captain Harry Kane reacted to Henderson’s injury Sunday night after the match.

ENGLAND STUNS MEXICO 3-2 IN INSTANT WORLD CUP CLASSIC, HANDS TEAM FIRST WORLD CUP LOSS AT ESTADIO AZTECA

“Yeah Hendo just fell over there. I think he’s OK. Something to do with his arm,” Kane said, unaware of the severity of Henderson’s injury at the time.

The celebrations quickly turned to concern as medical staff rushed onto the field, administered oxygen, and stretchered Henderson off the pitch.

Before the accident, Estadio Azteca hosted a World Cup classic. Jude Bellingham sparked England with a first-half brace before Harry Kane added a penalty. Mexico answered through Julian Quinones and a late Raul Jimenez penalty.

ENGLAND STUNS MEXICO 3-2 IN INSTANT WORLD CUP CLASSIC, HANDS TEAM FIRST WORLD CUP LOSS AT ESTADIO AZTECA

Henderson watched the thriller from the bench, picking up a yellow card in the 98th minute for his touchline protests. The match fell into chaos when England defender Jarell Quansah was shown a straight red card, forcing the Three Lions to desperately hang on.

While manager Thomas Tuchel and the squad flew to Kansas City to prepare for a quarterfinal clash against Norway, Henderson remained hospitalized in Mexico City. England next faces Erling Haaland’s Norway on Saturday without the suspended Jarell Quansah.

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Henderson’s World Cup had its ups and downs. The last one ended it.

Send us your thoughts: alejandro.avila@outkick.com / Follow along on X: @alejandroaveela

SEATTLE — For three weeks, it was the best World Cup ever for the U.S.

The Americans scored more goals, won more games and generated more interest than any U.S. team in history. But all that glory gave way to grief Monday when a 4-1 loss to Belgium brought the U.S. crashing back to Earth.

Belgium never trailed, getting two first-half goals from Charles De Ketelaere and two in the second half from Hans Vanaken and Romelu Lukaku to clinch a spot in the tournament quarterfinals, where it will face Spain on Friday at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood. For the U.S., whose lone goal came from Malik Tillman, its World Cup ended in the round of 16 for a fourth straight time.

The U.S. did win a knockout round game in the tournament for just the second time, but that came in a round of 32 necessitated by the World Cup’s expansion to 48 teams. All three tournament hosts, the U.S., Canada and Mexico, were eliminated in the round of 16.

The run-up to Monday’s game was clouded by the controversy surrounding U.S. striker Folarin Balogun, the Americans’ leading scorer, who wasn’t officially cleared to play until about seven hours before kickoff after FIFA rejected an appeal from the Royal Belgium Football Assn. The association was seeking to overturn an unusual ruling from the FIFA disciplinary committee, which on Sunday made Balogun eligible to play despite the fact he was shown a red card and expelled from his team’s previous game.

The red card also carried with it a ban from the team’s next game — in this case, the Belgium match — but FIFA suspended that penalty and imposed a one-year probation instead. It was just the second time in World Cup history — and the first since 1962 — that FIFA has held a red-card suspension in abeyance and allowed a player to participate in his team’s next game.

Balogun was active Monday, going the full 90 minutes, but Belgium kept him from getting on the scoreboard.

Belgium, in fact, was on the front foot from the start, taking six shots and putting two on target in the first eight minutes before going ahead on De Ketelaere’s first goal in the ninth minute. De Ketelaere, starting over the more physical Lukaku, Belgium’s all-time leading scorer, got free on the edge of the six-yard box and ran onto a centering pass from Nicolas Raskin, then made the easy tap-in for his first World Cup goal.

The sequence followed Sergiño Dest’s decision to let a headed clearance attempt from Chris Richards bounce inside the penalty area, allowing Raskin to scoop up the loose ball and send it on to De Ketelaere, whose goal marked the first time the U.S. trailed in the first half hour of a game in this tournament. It was also the earliest goal the U.S. had allowed in a World Cup game since Nani scored for Portugal in the fifth minute of the second group stage game in Brazil in 2014.

The U.S. matched that in the 31st minute when Tillman deflected a free kick in off the head of Vanaken following a foul on Balogun. It was Tillman’s second free-kick goal in as many games, making him the second player since 1966 to score twice off direct free-kick goals in the same World Cup.

But the draw was short-lived, with De Ketelaere putting Belgium in front, where they would stay, two minutes later with his second score of the first half, this one a header over the back of U.S. captain Tim Ream. Leandro Trossard got the assist, bending a perfect back-post cross from the end line to his waiting teammate.

Belgium dominated the opening half, outshooting the Americans 11-3 and putting five of those tries on goal, an edge U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino tried to address by subbing Dest off at halftime for Gio Reyna. It didn’t work, however, with Belgium expanding its lead on a major gaffe from U.S. keeper Matt Freese in the 57th minute.

Freese, who had given up just one goal in his first three starts, came well off his line to beat De Ketelaere to a loose ball, chesting it to the turf. But De Ketelaere poked a toe out to knock the ball back to Vanaken, who skipped a shot from about 30 yards past a retreating Ream and into the vacant goal.

After the goal, U.S. star Christian Pulisic was subbed out after sustaining an apparent leg injury while attempting a shot. He was limping on the field before being replaced by Sebastian Berhalter.

Lukaku, who came on in the 67th minute, closed out the scoring with a goal in stoppage time.

The U.S., which was eliminated by Belgium in the round of 16 of the 2014 World Cup, hasn’t beaten the Red Devils since its opening match of the first World Cup in 1930.

U.S. goalkeeper Matt Freese reacts after Belgium midfielder Hans Vanaken (not shown) scored against him in the second half of Belgium’s 4-1 win at the World Cup on Monday.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)