Inquirer.com – Zurich DR

Category: Sports Wires

  • The NBA Finals have been close. Still, Knicks are in command and need 1 win over Spurs for the title.

    SAN ANTONIO, Texas — The final moments in each of the first four games between the New York Knicks and San Antonio Spurs in these NBA Finals had much in common, including that the outcome was still undecided with a minute left every time.

    Game 1, Knicks led by four with 58 seconds to go. Game 2, Knicks won by one when Victor Wembanyama’s game-winning try just missed. Game 3, Spurs won by four. Game 4, Knicks won by one again after OG Anunoby got a miracle tip-in.

    There hasn’t been a finals like this, with a margin of four points or less in the final minute of each of the first four games, since 1973. New York won that series. The Knicks haven’t been champions since.

    That could change Saturday. New York — leading the series 3-1 — can close out the Spurs in San Antonio when the finals resume with Game 5 (8:30 p.m., 6abc).

    “You have to be present,” Knicks coach Mike Brown said Friday. “You can’t think about the outcome. It’s about the process, the next play, the next play, the next play.”

    The series could easily be tied right now, after San Antonio wasted a 29-point lead in Game 4 in what became the biggest collapse in NBA Finals history.

    The Spurs led 81-52 in the third quarter on Wednesday night and got outscored 55-25 the rest of the way, missing 29 of their final 35 shots and losing on Anunoby’s tip-in with 1.2 seconds remaining. Taylor Swift was among the many who celebrated long after the final horn, and now the Spurs have to find a way to somehow regroup from absolute agony.

    “There’s conviction in strength and confidence,” Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said. “That’s what it is. There’s no trick. There’s no avoiding what’s happened. There’s no avoiding all four games have been winnable games. There’s no avoiding we’re down 3-1. There’s not avoiding ways that we could be better. There’s nobody that’s going to be harder on ourselves and accountable to ourselves than the people in the locker room and each other.”

    Entering Game 4, teams with leads of 29 or more points in a game were:

    • 249-0 this season.
    • 288-2 over the last 30 postseasons.
    • 4,088-13 over the last 30 seasons, counting regular season and playoff games.

    That means the Spurs — who have had double-digit leads in all four games — had about a 99.7% chance of winning Game 4, tying the series and coming home with all the momentum. They’re on the brink of elimination instead.

    “We still have that belief that we have a chance to win,” said Spurs guard De’Aaron Fox, who has heard tons of criticism since Wednesday for his decision to try a layup instead of running down the clock when he had the ball and San Antonio leading by one in the final moments. “But we’re taking this one game at a time. We’re not looking at it as we need to win three games. We need to win tomorrow and then we give ourselves a chance to play another game.”

    It will not be easy. When the Knicks have had a closeout opportunity this season, they’ve left no doubt.

    New York is 3-0 in closeout games in these playoffs, winning them by the almost comical average of 39.3 points per game. The Knicks led by 61 points before winning 140-89 to close out Atlanta in Round 1, led by 44 points before winning 144-114 to close out the 76ers in Round 2, then led by 45 points before winning 130-93 to close out Cleveland in the Eastern Conference finals.

    All that happened on the road, too. And thousands of Knicks fans are expected in San Antonio on Saturday night, all ready to see New York end that long title drought.

    “One possession at a time, one play at a time, one quarter at a time,” Knicks guard Jalen Brunson said. “You’re thinking about the now, how you can be better the next possession, how can you turn the page, positive or negative. Regardless of what’s going on, our mindset and approach has to stay the same. I think we’ve done a very good job of that. It’s something that has grown over the season. It’s really important, especially obviously now.”

  • Judge rules Trump can stage UFC fights on the White House’s South Lawn this weekend

    WASHINGTON — A federal judge ruled on Friday that the White House is allowed to stage a UFC show this weekend in an elaborate ring already built on the South Lawn to celebrate the nation’s 250th anniversary — on President Donald Trump’s 80th birthday.

    U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta rejected a legal advocacy group’s request to block organizers from using the White House lawn as the venue for Sunday’s planned UFC mixed martial arts event.

    Mehta concluded that the plaintiffs likely don’t have legal standing to challenge the event and have failed to prove that they would suffer irreparable harm by the event going forward as planned. The judge also cited the plaintiffs’ “unreasonable delay” in suing to challenge an event that’s been in the works for months.

    “In the context of an emergency application — and coupled with the fact that the UFC fight date was long ago known — it is fair to say Plaintiffs unreasonably delayed bringing suit, undercutting their claims of irreparable harm,” Mehta wrote.

    Attorneys from the nonprofit Public Integrity Project sued to challenge Trump’s UFC Freedom 250 event on behalf of an activist and a Vietnam War veteran. The two plaintiffs also asked the court to block organizers from building anything for the event on White House grounds, including a 92-foot-tall, 600-ton steel structure called the Claw.

    The plaintiffs’ alleged “aesthetic harms,” the judge noted, are temporary since the Claw will be disassembled starting Monday morning and staging equipment at the Lincoln Memorial must be removed before then. “The President’s musings about permanency of the Claw does not move the dial in the face of a White House official’s clear representation,” the judge wrote.

    The White House called the lawsuit a baseless attempt to prevent Trump from hosting an event that’s no different from many others routinely hosted at public forums in the nation’s capital.

    Trump’s administration can’t issue permits for sporting events on the South Lawn or at the Lincoln Memorial, where UFC fighters planned to hold a news conference in front of fans on Friday, according to plaintiffs’ attorneys. They noted that the event is a privately organized, for-profit business venture, with VIP packages costing millions of dollars.

    “The President’s administration is granting the UFC an extraordinary business opportunity it may not lawfully grant, and in exchange the UFC is throwing an event at which its leadership, fighters, advertisers, and various celebrities will all pay tribute to the President on his birthday,” plaintiffs’ attorneys wrote.

    Public Integrity Project attorney Brendan Ballou said the plaintiffs were disappointed in the judge’s decision but respect it and intend to “keep bringing cases to raise the cost of corruption in America.”

    “This isn’t a case about a sporting event, it’s about corruption, as a handful of people and companies stand to profit from our public monuments,” Ballou said in a statement.

    The National Park Service and the Interior Department are named as defendants in the lawsuit.

    In 2019, during his first term in office, Trump became the first sitting president to attend a UFC show. Trump, a Republican, is a friend of UFC president and CEO Dana White.

    Mehta was nominated to the bench by President Barack Obama, a Democrat. Mehta has presided over other Trump-related cases, including civil litigation accusing Trump of inciting a mob of his supporters to attack the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, after he lost the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden, a Democrat.

  • Lights! Camera! Cage match! The White House lawn’s Octagon is ready for Trump’s 80th birthday bash

    WASHINGTON — It looks from afar more UFO than UFC.

    Maybe it’s the kind of contraption that has carried space aliens to the White House to force a meeting with America’s leader.

    But come closer and you’ll see the contours of the eight-sided cage, 30 feet in diameter and shaped, with careful precision, like the MMA league’s signature Octagon.

    That is, a STOP! sign flipped on its edge, with wire-mesh sides and padded corners fitted with different sponsors’ logos: Morgan & Morgan, Bud Light, Dodge Ram, Corona Extra, and Polymarket, which identifies itself as the world’s largest prediction market.

    Overhead looms the Claw, a four-sided mass that arcs more than 90 feet into the air and features lights, speakers, thick snakes of wiring, and four large screens so fans not seated right next to the Octagon can follow the cage fighting below.

    Think more of the four-sided, metal grabby thing that tries to grasp stuffed animals at a video arcade rather than what house cats have — hence the extraterrestrial vibes.

    And surrounding all that are risers filled with gray folding chairs forming a temporary arena expected to seat 4,000-plus people for the seven UFC fights being staged on Sunday to celebrate the 80th birthday of President Donald Trump and the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence’s signing.

    “Quite attractive to a lot of people”

    For non-UFC fans, all of this might be disorienting under any circumstances. But the temporary arena is covering nearly the entirety of the White House’s South Lawn, where Marine One usually lands to ferry the president to out-of-town trips and gobs of kids scramble in the grass during the Easter Egg Roll every spring.

    More than $60 million and tens of thousands of hours of labor have been poured into building the arena, according to a court filing from the National Park Service, which oversees the South Lawn and contested a lawsuit meant to block the event. Federal Judge Ahmet P. Mehta on Friday declined to block it, ruling it could go forward.

    The White House says the UFC is covering the costs, though the filing states that seven agencies — including the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Aviation Administration — have “allocated significant resources and manpower.”

    Fighters, their entourages, and assorted support staffers are expected to take over the driveway and part of the West Wing when they’re not fighting. But they’ll enter the arena via curtained-off walkways with access to the Octagon.

    They, as well as ordinary attendees of Sunday’s spectacle, will have picturesque views of the White House’s Executive Residence and its storied Truman Balcony on one side and the Washington Monument towering in the distance on the other. All of it will be accentuated by swirling spotlights, and perhaps even sweat and blood pouring off the fighters pummeling each other.

    A packed pre-event schedule included a news conference at the Lincoln Memorial with UFC chief Dana White and the fighters on Friday night.

    The schedule also includes a ceremonial weigh-in for combatants on Saturday at the Ellipse, a park near the White House, where organizers expect 120,000-plus visitors to watch Sunday night’s proceedings on large screens after winning free tickets in a lottery.

    Stunt athlete Travis Pastrana is also set to do a potentially death-defying backflip on a dirt bike on the White House lawn as part of the preshow extravaganza.

    Trump has called the Octagon and its Claw “quite attractive to a lot of people.” He’s even suggested that maybe the temporary structure could become permanent, like the Eiffel Tower, which he notes was originally built as part of the 1889 World’s Fair but then was never taken down.

    Only the president knows how serious that suggestion really is.

    The fights will go on rain or shine — despite a lack of covering

    Work on the arena began May 20 and has continued for weeks. During a walk-through for reporters on Thursday, construction noises — particularly sanding and hammering — could be heard. Giant cranes were carrying materials around overhead, though that was for the $400 million ballroom that Trump is building nearby, not the UFC fight.

    The remaining grassy lawn around the arena, on the other sides of the White House, has been fitted with supplemental spotlights. But the grass that normally grows between the White House and the start of the risers for the arena is now gone, with nothing but dusty dirt that will need to be resodded when this is all over — unless the president really does decide to leave the arena up permanently.

    There’s also a large Freedom 250 logo standing between the White House and the arena. Nearby, crews removed the tables and yellow patio umbrellas from Trump’s refurbished Rose Garden and were power-washing that space, as well as the colonnade to the Oval Office, in preparation for the fights.

    Secretary of State Marco Rubio signed a cooperation agreement with UFC that will see both institutions provide fight training and health and diet regimens, while promoting teamwork and leadership among youth around the world.

    “We are so polarized,” Rubio said. “There are only a handful of things that bring people together in one place at one time, united by their interest in one thing. We need more of those.”

    Later Thursday, crews began testing the sound system, unleashing a deep rumbling — and sometimes unsettling bass notes — throughout the West Wing. During a subsequent Oval Office event, the music from the lawn was loud enough that the 1970s hit “Boys Are Back in Town” rollicked in the background as Trump spoke.

    Sunday’s event starts at 8 p.m. ET. As darkness falls, crews will illuminate the Claw in red, white, and blue, and the mass of lights will offer projections that make it seem as though the entire structure has been enveloped in a twirling stars and stripes pattern.

    The weather forecast calls for hot and muggy conditions with thunderstorms possible. The underside of the Claw’s tower features an overhead cover that should keep the fighters reasonably dry should it rain — and Trump is also likely to watch from a protected, covered area.

    But everyone else would almost certainly get wet.

    White has vowed that even heavy lightning — when the Claw might make a conspicuous target for bolts — wouldn’t stop the show.

    “I don’t care if it snows,” White said.

  • Tortorella’s confidence unshaken as Golden Knights face elimination game in Stanley Cup Final

    RALEIGH, N.C. — John Tortorella has never worried about how his Vegas Golden Knights handle tough situations in pushing to the Stanley Cup Final.

    That won’t change now, with the Golden Knights facing their first elimination game and dealing with an injury to center William Karlsson.

    The Golden Knights lost 4-2 to the Carolina Hurricanes in Thursday’s Game 5, moving the Hurricanes within a victory of claiming the Stanley Cup. The series shifts to Las Vegas for Sunday’s Game 6 (8 p.m., 6abc), with the Golden Knights aiming to force a Game 7 back here Wednesday.

    “They’ve been through it all,” Tortorella said in a Zoom news conference Friday morning. ”They know what’s at stake here. We need to win one game. They’ll be ready to play.”

    Vegas — featuring numerous holdovers from the team that raised the Cup in 2023 — had only gained momentum since the abrupt firing of coach Bruce Cassidy in late March to hire Tortorella, who coached the Flyers for nearly three seasons.

    The Golden Knights won seven of eight to close the regular season. They faced 2-2 playoff series in Round 1 against Utah and Round 2 against Anaheim, and won Games 5 and 6 to close out each. They swept the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Colorado Avalanche. And they held a 2-1 lead on Carolina after a double-overtime victory in Game 3.

    But the Hurricanes have gradually begun to turn the series.

    Since trailing 4-0 entering the third period of Game 3, the Hurricanes have doubled up the Golden Knights (13-6) while finding a spark with Brandon Bussi taking over in net. In Game 5, the Hurricanes got two more power-play goals from a unit that had sputtered through the Eastern Conference playoffs while also reversing Vegas’ second-period dominance.

    Vegas had compounding mistakes like getting a kill only for Brayden McNabb to immediately go to the box for cross-checking Jackson Blake in the second period. Or there was Mark Stone’s high stick on Jalen Chatfield in the third, leaving Chatfield bleeding from a cut above his right eye for a double-minor penalty.

    Carolina’s Andrei Svechnikov scored after both, coming amid a postseason of questions as to when he and fellow topliner Sebastian Aho would get rolling.

    “Anytime you give the other team’s best players the opportunity to be on the ice on the power play and feel good about themselves … you stack that up and it definitely can be challenging and tire guys out,” center Nic Dowd said afterward.

    Svechnikov’s scores pushed the Hurricanes to 6 of 16 (37.5%) on the power play this series, coming after they were at 12.5% (7 of 56) in a 12-1 push through the Eastern Conference playoffs.

    “One of the areas that we’ve lost a little bit is special teams, a couple of power-play goals last night,” Tortorella said Friday. “Like I said after the game, I thought at times we were killing, we had some good times as far as moving, being aggressive with our penalty kill, and are doing the job. Other times, not so good.”

    Then there’s Karlsson, who missed nearly six months with a lower-body injury before returning for his playoff debut to start the Anaheim series. He had three goals and six assists through 14 playoff games to elevate the Golden Knights, including goals in Games 1 and 4 against Carolina.

    But Karlsson appeared to injure his left arm or shoulder after getting knocked into the boards by Hurricanes defenseman Sean Walker midway through the second. He got medical attention on the bench briefly, skated off, and never returned.

    Tortorella said Thursday that Karlsson was “not going to be with us, probably” and Vegas needed a collective effort to replace him. He offered no additional details Friday morning.

    Still, he has defiantly promised the series would “be back here” for a Game 7.

    “We know what we have to do to beat this team,” McNabb said Thursday night. ”It’s a matter of going home and winning one game. That’s all it is, and hopefully we’re back here for Game 7.”

  • Texas Tech defends playing QB Brendan Sorsby amid gambling addiction, says ‘it’s not murder’

    HOUSTON — Sports leadership at Texas Tech on Wednesday defended their plans to play quarterback Brendan Sorsby next season while he treats his gambling addiction, insisting they are not trying to “engineer his eligibility” through the courts and dismissing widespread criticism that includes the president of the NCAA.

    Speaking to the Houston Touchdown Club, coach Joey McGuire acknowledged the “rage” surrounding the situation, with athletic directors across college football saying that the NCAA ban on players who gamble should remain sacrosanct and a court order won this week by Sorsby crossed a line that should never be crossed.

    “For some reason, as a society, we’ve been OK with other things that happen and allowing players to play, and this has been the one thing that has united people, that they were against,” McGuire said. “It’s crazy because it’s not murder, it’s not beating somebody — so there’s a lot of things that we’re working through. None of this is OK.”

    Athletic director Kirby Hocutt also released a statement to “offer a few facts that seem to be getting lost in the noise” and noting the school is not part of Sorsby’s lawsuit against the NCAA.

    “A young man in treatment for a clinically diagnosed addiction exercised his legal right to seek a remedy in court and a judge agreed with him,” Hocutt said. “Our role has been to support his recover, not to engineer his eligibility.”

    Under the court order, Sorsby will be suspended for the first two games of the season. The NCAA plans to appeal the ruling, with President Charlie Baker telling reporters in Las Vegas that the case illustrated “a new low” in college sports.

    McGuire likened Sorsby recovering from his addiction to fellow Texas Tech quarterback Will Hammond’s recovery from knee surgery.

    “He’s recovering,” McGuire said. “I’ve sat down with this young man multiple times and the things that he is going through and what he’s been through, it’s serious.”

    “And I have a number of people in my family that were addicted to different stuff and so I’ve seen what addiction does to people,” he said. ”And so, us even saying to the point before we get to the legal part, that he could be ready in Week 3 against Houston is still a stretch because guess what, he’s still recovering.”

    McGuire added that Sorsby was “back in the building” after spending some time away from the facilities while he was dealing with his issues.

  • Carson Hocevar accused of ‘creating a lot of enemies’ in NASCAR after 9-car crash at Michigan

    Carson Hocevar sat on the Michigan International Speedway pit wall with a blank look and calmly waited as Bubba Wallace laid into him with an animated lecture.

    As Wallace did nearly all the talking, Hocevar nodded and offered a few smiles. The one-sided conversation ended with Hocevar patting Wallace on the shoulder — defusing the tension while offering little remorse.

    The third-year Cup Series driver, whose aggression has earned him the nickname of “The Hurricane” in rubbing the NASCAR establishment the wrong way, left a trail of wreckage in his wake Sunday at Michigan.

    With a fifth place in the No. 77 Chevrolet, the Portage, Mich., native earned his best career Cup finish at his home-state track. He also triggered a nine-car crash on a midrace restart by bumping John Hunter Nemechek as the cars ahead of him were slowing down.

    “I was like, ‘Man, I didn’t mean to do that,’” Hocevar said. “I obviously feel bad that I wrecked them and everything, but my intention wasn’t to wreck anybody, really. So next time I’ll know what to do a little differently.”

    Many of his peers believe the Spire Motorsports driver should be doing everything differently.

    “Well, you can count on Hocevar to always do dumb [stuff],” Nemechek radioed his team. Josh Berry jokingly referred to Hocevar as “The Intimidator,” the moniker of seven-time champion Dale Earnhardt.

    “I hope at some point [Hocevar] figures it out, but I know I’m not going to show anything to him for a long time,” said Austin Dillon, who finished 36th after his No. 3 Chevy was trashed in the wreck.

    In their pit-wall discussion, Wallace told Hocevar he was jealous of his speed.

    “He’s one of the fastest in the field, and that’s his natural ability,” Wallace said. “I’ve got to give respect to it. But at the same time, Kevin Harvick told me four or five years ago, ‘Stop hitting [stuff], and your finishes will show.’ And that’s what I simply tried to tell [Hocevar], man. He’s going for every move, every second. Not worth it.

    “He’s creating a lot of enemies. I just told him, ’You’re fast. A lot of us are jealous of what you’re able to do. But we’re beating you because we can put a race together better than you.”

    An unfazed Hocevar essentially shrugged when asked about Wallace’s criticism.

    “I get his point and everything,” he said. “I’m just racing really hard, and there were times where I tried to make a move and get two spots when I probably should have just got one, and it cost me.”

    The 23-year-old upstart did show some acquiescence toward the end of the race when he waved by the faster cars of Wallace, Erik Jones and Kyle Larson.

    But there’s an incentive to stick to his hard-charging ways.

    It’s a NASCAR rite of passage for the old guard to scold young stars who threaten their results, and it’s been effective in blunting their progress. Three years ago, Ross Chastain dramatically tailed off after being targeted for scorn from several veterans who tangled with him.

    If he shows restraint, Hocevar might lose his grip on a top-16 spot in the Chase (he is ranked seventh with 11 races left in the regular season). Yet his recalcitrance also runs the risk of costly retribution.

    Amazon Prime analyst Dale Earnhardt Jr. believes Hocevar should stay the course for his own good — and for NASCAR, which thrives on colorful personalities and rivalries.

    “I don’t want him to really change what he’s doing,” Earnhardt said of Hocevar on the postrace show. “As a fan and as a broadcaster, what he did today made this race unique. If he cleans it up, I’m not sure I’m going to like what I’m going to see. I kind of like the drama that he brings. He’s got a hat to wear, and he wears it well. He doesn’t seem interested in changing, and I don’t want him to change.”

    Hamlin ponders future

    With his second consecutive victory and third this season, Denny Hamlin now trails Tyler Reddick by only 51 points, chopping 78 points off the margin in the past three seasons. Team owner Joe Gibbs is still hoping Hamlin will reconsider his decision to retire from full-time driving after the 2027 season.

    Hamlin left the door slightly open (“I told (Gibbs) just check with me in six months”) but said he wants to go out on top before his skills diminish.

    “I feel as though there’s three things that happen,” Hamlin said. “You lose your eyesight. You lose your reaction. And your body hurts. The body hurts are there during the week. I’m not recovering as quick. But the other two things are still sharp. So I want to go out like this.”

    In-Season Challenge

    Sunday at Pocono Raceway will set the field for the second year of the In-Season Challenge. The top 32 drivers in the points standings will complete for $1 million in a bracket-style tournament contested over five races (Sonoma Raceway, Chicagoland Speedway, Atlanta Motor Speedway, North Wilkesboro Speedway, Indianapolis Motor Speedway).

    Connor Zilisch is unlikely to be eligible. The Trackhouse Racing rookie is ranked 34th in the standings (two spots behind Alex Bowman, who missed four races) after becoming the sixth driver in NASCAR history with three consecutive last-place finishes.

  • Somali referee denied entry to the U.S. for World Cup is welcomed home as a hero

    MOGADISHU, Somalia — A leading soccer referee from Somalia who was denied entry to the United States for the World Cup tournament was warmly received by a crowd of supporters and officials on Wednesday as he arrived home.

    Omar Artan, who was named as Africa’s best male referee in 2025, said he plans to be at the next World Cup and urged Somali youth to be proud of their country.

    Artan was set to be the first referee from Somalia to officiate at a World Cup after making FIFA’s final list for the tournament.

    He was denied entry to the U.S. at Miami International Airport on Saturday over unspecified “vetting concerns,” U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in a statement, without giving details of the concerns. FIFA subsequently cut him from the tournament’s referee list.

    Artan was issued a visa to travel to the U.S. last week, according to the Somalia Embassy in Kenya, which processed it. The U.S. is co-hosting the tournament with Mexico and Canada, and Artan was due to meet up with other World Cup referees at their training base in Miami.

    Arriving in the capital, Mogadishu, he thanked the Somali government and public as well as FIFA for their support.

    “I promise you, God willing, that I will attend the next one,” he said as hundreds of supporters at the airport waved Somali flags. “I want the Somali public to take comfort in this and remain confident.”

    Later on Wednesday, thousands of soccer fans packed the stadium in Mogadishu for a welcome ceremony for Artan, with patriotic songs echoing through the arena as supporters waved the nation’s flag and cheered him on.

    Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre also hosted Artan, writing in a post on X that the referee had “already won the hearts of millions and secured his place in history.”

    “He devoted himself to ensuring that football was decided by merit, yet fate denied him the stage he so richly deserved,” Barre said.

    The U.S.’s highly unusual move to deny a FIFA-appointed match official permission to enter a World Cup host country drew outrage across the world and raised questions among some fans about America’s capacity to host the competition.

    Somalia is one of nearly 40 countries subject to new travel restrictions under the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration.

    On Wednesday, the United Nations’ top human rights official called for a “massive rethink” of immigration policies especially in the United States around the World Cup.

    Hundreds of supporters, government officials and members of Somalia’s football community gathered hours before Artan arrived at Aden Adde International Airport.

    As he disembarked, supporters waving Somali flags crowded around him before draping him in the flag.

    He was then escorted by police officers to the airport’s VIP terminal, where he was welcomed by Somalia’s sports minister and other dignitaries, and spoke to journalists.

    “It is up to all of us to defend the Somali name,” Artan said. “Somalia belongs to us, whether it is in a bad state or a good state. That flag belongs to us, and that passport belongs to us.”

    In a country where decades of war and the rise of the al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab extremist group have limited the potential of many in Somalia, Artan’s denial brought disappointment but reminded people what is possible if they chase their dreams.

    Artan’s expected milestone at this year’s World Cup “stands no matter what,” the World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus — from neighboring Ethiopia — wrote Tuesday on X. “You reached the summit of your profession and inspired a generation back home just by getting there, and being kept off the pitch you earned doesn’t change that.”

  • Paraguay fans are eager for their long-awaited World Cup return, in the country they now call home

    When the first World Cup match in the U.S. kicks off, most eyes will be on the host country’s team. But for the small community of Paraguayans living in the U.S., it’s a moment in the spotlight for their own treasured team, returning to the tournament after a 16-year absence.

    Paraguayan fans across the United States have been planning barbecues and get-togethers to watch the team’s group stage matches. While many balked at the prices for Friday’s match against the U.S., with seats selling for more than $1,000 each, some have already bought tickets to later matches.

    Santiago Araujo is among them. His family owns one of the few Paraguayan restaurants in the U.S., in the seaside town of Pacific Grove, Calif. He and his brother scored tickets to see the team face Australia in Santa Clara, Calif., about 80 miles away.

    “Every Paraguayan I know wants to go,” said Araujo, who moved to California with his family when he was 11. “It’s not like there’s seasons of any other sports in Paraguay. I used to sleep with a soccer ball as my toy.”

    A long wait for the small, but dedicated, Paraguayan community

    There are some 37,000 Paraguayans living in the U.S., according to Census estimates, and they’re eager for the team’s long-awaited return to FIFA’s prized tournament. It’s the first time Paraguay has clinched a World Cup spot since 2010, when it had its best performance, reaching the quarterfinals. The team, which FIFA currently ranks 40th in the world, is making its ninth World Cup appearance.

    The U.S. and Paraguay are joined in Group D by Turkey and Australia, which Paraguay will respectively face on June 19 and June 25 in Santa Clara.

    One of Paraguay’s veteran players, midfielder Miguel Almirón, plays for the MLS’ Atlanta United. At 32, he remembers watching that 2010 World Cup as a kid with hopes that someday he, too, would have the opportunity to play on soccer’s biggest stage.

    It’s been a long wait.

    “It’s going to be something beautiful in that moment, not just for me, but also for my family and for all the Paraguayan fans, and for anyone who’s been with us through all the tough moments,” Almirón said recently, thinking ahead to the first match. “There are going to be a lot of emotions at that moment. We take it on with responsibility, because we know so many people are depending on us.”

    How fans are celebrating in the US and Paraguay

    Paraguay is among South America’s less populous countries, with about 7 million people. Landlocked, it’s surrounded by Argentina, Bolivia and Brazil and known for vast savannas, lush landscapes and the indigenous Guarani culture. In the U.S., more concentrated Paraguayan communities can be found in New York and the affluent town of Bernardsville, N.J., which Paraguay’s President Santiago Peña visited in 2024.

    To cheer on the team, Paraguay fans will don its red-and-white jerseys and tubular top hats. In Northern California, Cafe Guarani, which Araujo’s family owns, is hosting a celebration to bring together Paraguayan fans between the games with traditional dishes that include manioc empanadas and iced yerba mate. In the Queens borough of New York, they’ll gather at the I Love Paraguay restaurant to watch the games.

    Ana Di Sessa, of New Jersey, said she’d love to attend the matches in California but it’s too much of a trip.

    “It is not only the tickets — you have to pay your hotel, the flights,” she said. “A lot of people are not going to be able to go there.”

    Zoraida Pereira, a travel agent in Bernardsville, said she has sold packages to fans heading to Santa Clara, but not the opening game because of ticket prices. The 43-year-old, who was born in Paraguay but has lived in the United States for more than 30 years, said it’s tough to choose between the two countries on the pitch.

    “I am rooting for Paraguay this time around,” she said. “They’ve been out for so long.”

    The frenzy is also underway more than 5,000 miles away in Paraguay, where the documentary film “El Renacer Albirrojo” was released about La Albirroja’s yearslong journey to return to the World Cup. The team was sent off to the United States with a fanfare of fireworks, and some community members in the U.S. said they have friends and family flying in from Paraguay to attend the matches.

    Rodrigo Valdez, a computer engineer in San Diego, is planning to travel more than 450 miles to Santa Clara to see the team play. Born in the U.S., the 34-year-old spent his childhood in Paraguay and relishes the attention the team is getting.

    He said he’ll watch Friday’s game with family and friends in San Diego. Despite having a 4-month-old baby, his wife encouraged him to buy himself a ticket to the match with Australia as a gift for his first Father’s Day.

    “It was a unique opportunity for us that we are living in California,” Valdez said. “It will be very meaningful.”

  • Iran soccer body claims fans’ tickets for World Cup games in the U.S. have been revoked

    Adding more turmoil to a chaotic World Cup buildup for Iran, the national soccer federation claimed Tuesday that FIFA revoked the ticket allocation for fans at the team’s three group-stage games in the United States.

    Each federation for the 48 World Cup teams taking part is entitled to receive and distribute 8% of stadium capacity for each of its games, adding up to several thousands of tickets per game.

    Those allocations typically went on sale to each team’s most loyal fans soon after the tournament draw in December, when Iranians for five months already had been subject to a travel ban by the U.S. government.

    Now, just days before Iran opens its World Cup in Inglewood, Calif. — on June 15 vs. New Zealand at the 70,000-seat stadium used by the Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers — the federation claimed in a statement reported by semiofficial state media that it now was unable to provide tickets to its supporters.

    The claim adds to the tensions among Iranian soccer, FIFA, and tournament cohost the United States, which began military attacks on Iran on Feb. 28. Some federation officials have been denied visas to enter the U.S.

    FIFA has total authority over ticketing operations at the World Cup, yet the Iranian soccer body suggested “the United States has now taken steps to obstruct the presence of Iranian supporters at the stadiums.”

    “This incident raises serious questions about the influence of non-sporting and political considerations on the organization of the world’s biggest football event,” the Iranian soccer federation said.

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    Iran, appearing in its seventh World Cup, also plays games June 21 in Inglewood and June 26 in Seattle.

    FIFA said in a statement Tuesday it is “working closely with the IR Iran Football Federation to identify compliant solutions that maximize opportunities for Iranian supporters to attend matches.”

    FIFA President Gianni Infantino and secretary-general Mattias Grafström promised logistical support in face-to-face meetings with Iranian soccer officials in Turkey in recent weeks.

    Most of Iran’s 26-member squad has not had a competitive game since February because they play for clubs in the domestic league that was shut down by the war.

    The team is based in the Mexican border city of Tijuana near San Diego instead of the original plan to train in Tucson, Ariz.

    Denied admissions

    Omar Artan, a referee from Somalia who was denied entry to the U.S. at Miami International Airport on Saturday is not the only person connected to World Cup teams stopped by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

    The Iraqi team’s official photographer, Talal Salah, was detained and denied entry after arriving at Chicago O’Hare International Airport on Friday as part of the country’s 53-member delegation.

    “U.S. authorities asked for his phone; he gave it to them. After 12 hours’ detention, they decided to ban his entry,” said a member of the Iraqi soccer federation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

    Iraqi striker Aymen Hussein also was detained by U.S. immigration authorities for seven hours upon arrival before being released, another Iraqi soccer federation member said.

    CBP confirmed in a statement that two people with the Iraqi national team were subject to “additional inspection” to verify their information or “determine admissibility.”

    Iraq’s Aymen Hussein (left) is congratulated after scoring his side’s second goal against Bolivia in March.Fernando Llano

    Artan, one of Africa’s top referees, was denied over “vetting concerns,” CBP said in a statement without giving details of those concerns. Artan was issued a visa to travel to the U.S. last week, according to the Somalia Embassy in Kenya that processed it.

    The move to deny a FIFA-appointed match official permission to enter a World Cup host country is highly unusual. Artan was due to meet up with other World Cup referees at their training base in Miami.

    Andrew Giuliani, the executive director of the White House FIFA Task Force, said Tuesday the referee was denied admittance for “very good reason” but also declined to go into details.

    Contract deal in LA

    Southern California stadium workers who threatened to strike for the U.S. men’s soccer team’s opening World Cup match on Thursday against Paraguay said Tuesday that they expect to stay on the job after reaching a tentative contract deal with higher wages and more labor protections.

    Workers will vote Wednesday on whether to ratify the deal.

    The union represents 2,000 bartenders, servers, cooks, and dishwashers at SoFi Stadium. The deal came after workers last week voted to authorize a strike as contract talks had stalled with the stadium’s food service provider, Legends Global.