Month: May 2026

Canadian winger Marcelo Flores will miss this summer’s World Cup after suffering a torn ACL in his right knee, head coach Jesse Marsch confirmed on Sunday. The 22-year-old Georgetown, Ontario native—who plays club football for Mexico’s Tigres UANL—was forced off in tears during the 77th minute of Saturday’s Concacaf Champions Cup penalty kick shootout loss to Toluca. Marsch expressed heartbreak for the young midfielder, noting that Flores remains in good spirits and has been invited to join the squad post-surgery. “Obviously, we’re devastated for him,” Marsch said in a press conference. “Our hearts are with him. He’s in good spirits. He’s already focused on moving forward and getting himself healthy for the future.” Vice-captain Stephen Eustáquio echoed the sentiment, stating the team is motivated to play for their sidelined teammate. “Obviously there’s a couple players that have been through that injury and we kind of knew that it could possibly be what it is,” Eustáquio said. “He was very important for us, as a person as well as a player.” Flores’ injury adds to a growing casualty list for Canada. While captain Alphonso Davies is still recovering from a hamstring injury and is unlikely for the June 12 opener against Bosnia-Herzegovina, he is expected to play later in the tournament. Under tournament rules, Marsch has until 24 hours before Canada’s first match to name Flores’ replacement, a decision he plans to evaluate after Monday’s friendly against Uzbekistan.​Latest Sports News from FOX Sports

Bank of America Stadium (Charlotte) – It’s clear who the standout players were on Sunday, when the USA beat Senegal 3-2. Christian Pulisic had an assist before ending his six-month scoring drought with a great finish. Here’s how I rate the key players from the Americans’ first World Cup tune-up against Senegal. Man of the match. Pulisic looked dangerous every time he touched the ball. He got the Americans on the board with a great assist for Dest before taking his goal really well by going around the goalkeeper. Balogun was the USA’s second-best player on the field after Pulisic. He looked a constant threat in the box and got his goal to reward his hard work. For me, he’s the Americans’ clear starting striker at the World Cup. Dest made a great run for his goal to open the scoring and showed great energy in his role on the right wing. As I mentioned before, I really liked his partnership with Freeman. He’ll provide quality and attacking flair for the Americans this summer. Pepi worked hard and got his assist on Pulisic’s goal. He was involved in both of the Americans’ first-half goals and showed good movement in the process. He can still be cleaner in the box around the goal, though. Freeman looked really comfortable on the right side of the defense next to Mark McKenzie, with whom I thought he had good chemistry. Also, importantly, he provided good balance and support for Sergiño Dest as he worked on the right wing. Turner conceded the goal but was otherwise fine. Facing a one-on-one situation against a player like Sadio Mané, I wouldn’t expect him to make that save. Adams did his job during the first half – solid and reliable in midfield. I thought McKenzie slotted in well in the middle of the back three in the first half. He played well alongside Freeman and passed well out of the back. Tillman, who played the second half, had a goal that was called out for a foul by Balogun in the box. He also won possession and would have had an assist early in the half if Balogun wasn’t offside. Solid performance in the second half from Trusty. McKennie played the second half of this one. He’ll be an impact player and starter for this team come the World Cup. They’re getting him ready for the tournament here. You can see Reyna’s quality on the pitch, but there’s also clearly more to be unlocked. He started next to Pepi and Pulisic in attack. You know what you’re going to get from Tim Ream, who played the first 45 minutes. Weah will play a role this summer on the wing for the Americans. He gives them a different threat in attack with his pace. Scally played at right back in the second half. Berhalter filled in for Weston McKennie in midfield and was fine, playing the most minutes of any American on Sunday. Robinson gave the ball away, leading to Mané’s first goal. The chemistry between him and Pulisic on the left will be important for this team moving forward. Roldan played the second half and will provide depth in midfield this summer. Arfsten came in at halftime in place of Robinson and will be the backup left back this summer. Robinson played the second half next to Trusty in defense. He did well after his mistake on Senegal’s second goal. Brady played the second half, while Matt Freese, who is competing with Turner for the starting spot, did not see the field. Zendejas only played 14 minutes on Sunday, so his grade is incomplete.​Latest Sports News from FOX Sports

Detroit — Alex Palou did it again. But he did it in a little different way. Palou, who typically masters pitting later than the rest of the field and then burying them with fresher tires and already having a lead, pitted earlier than the other leaders and used that strategy to his advantage Sunday in winning the Detroit Grand Prix. After Palou pitted, a caution came out, putting his top challengers outside the top five. Kyle Kirkwood, the defending race winner, rallied to second. But he had nothing for Palou, who won for the fourth time in eight races this season, including his third on a street course. “Last year or the past couple years, we were not that strong on street courses,” Palou said in his post-race news conference. “And this year we’ve been able to win at three street courses. It just feels incredible.” Here are my takeaways: 1. McLaughlin And Power Upset Over Tangle Scott McLaughlin and Will Power tangled in the race, which resulted in Power having too much damage to continue and ruining McLaughlin’s day. Power was in no mood to talk, as he delivered an expletive toward the FOX cameras after he got out of his car. McLaughlin was frustrated as well. “We were side-by-side at [Turn] 3 and I got, like, a little sideways — which made me press him to the wall a lot more aggressively than I wanted,” McLaughlin told me and other reporters after the race. “I don’t know whether he’s pissed off because of that. I’m not sure. But then after that, he got me. And I was pretty happy with it. “I was like, ‘Still good, good result, right now he’s faster than me on restarts, I’ll let him have it.’ And then … I was just going to go the outside, and he just kept turning in and just basically gave me no option. Just turned into the side of me and drove me into the right-side fence and another fence.” McLaughlin and Power were teammates for several years at Team Penske. “I have so much respect for Will Power,” McLaughlin said. “He’s been my teammate for so many years and helped me so much. And we’ll talk about it. “I regard him as a guy with a lot of respect. But today I just felt like he gave me no option, and I really didn’t want to see that happen for either of us.” 2. Kirkwood Questions Yellows After the Indy Grand Prix, where INDYCAR officials were criticized for Alexander Rossi sitting on the frontstretch without the caution being thrown in hopes of finishing a green-flag pit cycle before issuing a full-course caution, INDYCAR began a new policy not to let green-flag pit cycles influence a full-course caution. That philosophy appeared to bite Kirkwood, who still had to make his final pit stop when the caution came out and Palou had already pitted. And then another yellow came out when Kirkwood was challenging Palou, a caution he felt was a quick trigger. “This is what happens when you guys rip into them, to be honest,” Kirkwood said in his post-race news conference. “It was disappointing to see. Two yellows out caught me out fighting for the lead where we almost … went to make a pass on him. “Yellow comes out right when I have a run on him. I was pretty disappointed with it. But I understand their position. You guys all called for yellows, so they’re going to throw yellows.” 3. Palou’s Strategy Works When things are going well, it’s hard to have things not go your way. Just ask Palou, who pitted at the optimal time. If he was on the other strategy, though, he was still likely in a better position already, having used his two sets of soft tires. He pulled away from Kirkwood at the end with Kirkwood on the soft tires and Palou on the hard tires, which are more consistent even though they are slightly slower at the start of a run. No matter the strategy, Palou was just happy to come back after losing a few spots in the opening stint after starting from the pole. “It didn’t really feel like we were leading that much,” Palou said. “I know that we were leading, but man, it was a lot of work.” 4. Rough Racing The race featured contact between several drivers and Santino Ferrucci, Alexander Rossi and Kyffin Simpson were among those who had penalties for avoidable contact. Is that just the nature of the tight Detroit circuit? Or are drivers feeling the pressure? “The cars are too strong, frankly,” said Graham Rahal, who finished third, in his post-race news conference. “Now the cars are very durable. You can hit things quite hard, and they don’t really break that much. “Then the second thing is people know here that you just have to be a bulldog. The thing is the guys that keep doing it. And I’m not going to name names but some of them have a lot of experience. And it hasn’t worked out for them once. So I’m not really sure why they keep making the moves of desperation that they do.” 4 ½: What’s Next The INDYCAR drivers head to World Wide Technology Raceway (commonly known by its previous name, Gateway) for a race on the 1.25-mile asphalt oval across the river from St. Louis. The race is the second of four on small ovals this year, with one already at Phoenix and then a doubleheader at The Milwaukee Mile later this year.​Latest Sports News from FOX Sports

BANK OF AMERICA STADIUM (Charlotte, N.C.) — As the ball rolled into the net, you could see the relief and weight lifted off Christian Pulisic’s shoulders. The USA’s star forward had a goal — breaking a befuddling scoring drought that stretched to December — along with an assist, and Folarin Balogun netted the game-winner as the Stars and Stripes topped African powerhouse Senegal in Sunday’s pre-World Cup exhibition. A good result in front of a crowd of more than 60,000 for the U.S. against a quality side that will also be at the 48-team tournament. Only one more test left before the real thing kicks off for the USA in its World Cup opener on June 12. Here are my takeaways from Sunday’s victory: 1. Christian Pulisic Snaps Drought In Style So much of the discourse surrounding the American squad in the buildup to this World Cup has been about Pulisic’s career-worst goalless streak, which had extended to more than 20 games for club and country by the time the Stars and Stripes’ headliner arrived stateside last week to prepare for the biggest summer of his life. All along, Pulisic insisted he wasn’t concerned. “There’s difficult times, and then sometimes one will bounce off your knee and go in, and then it seems like everything goes in after that,” Pulisic said again on Saturday before the squad flew to Charlotte for Sunday’s contest. “That’s just the way things work, and I feel pretty confident.” It showed against Senegal. It took less than six minutes for Hershey, Pennsylvania’s favorite son, who set up Sergiño Dest’s opener. Just 13 minutes later, Pulisic doubled the USA’s advantage himself when he took a pass from Ricardo Pepi, rounded visiting keeper Mory Diaw and coolly slotted the ball into Diaw’s vacated net. Not only was it the 27-year-old attacker’s first tally since he scored for AC Milan last December — it was his first for the national team since late 2024. 2. USA Gets Much-Needed Win … All last week, the U.S. players oscillated between saying how important winning at least one of their final two pre-World Cup exhibitions and noting, correctly, that the only results that actually matter are the ones in the main event. But winning is always good. And for a squad that let its fans down by getting outscored, 7-2, in a pair of March losses to European powers Belgium and Portugal, it certainly doesn’t hurt. “Winning is contagious,” midfielder Tyler Adams said. It’s also a habit. The U.S. can take a ton of confidence from their performance on Sunday in a game that wasn’t as close as the scoreline suggests (see below). The U.S. attack was sharp. And it could’ve scored more; Balogun had an apparent goal called back for offside before his eventual game-winner, and Malik Tillman had one ruled out as well. 3. … But Defensive Questions Persist Up 2-0 with just two minutes of the opening 45 remaining, the home side was cruising. That changed in a heartbeat after Antonee “Jedi” Robinson was dispossessed in midfield, sending the Lions of Teranga roaring toward Matt Turner’s goal. Habib Diarra then made a perfect pass to former Liverpool star Sadio Mané, Senegal’s skipper and all-time top scorer, who only needed one touch to deposit the ball past Turner and inside the far post. It was a disappointing strike to give up at that point in the match. More disappointing was the guests’ second. Diarra was at the heart of it again, with center back Miles Robinson unaware that the Sunderland man was lurking behind him. Robinson’s error left goalkeeper Chris Brady, who came on for Turner at halftime to make his first international appearance, with a tough decision to make. He chose poorly, rushing out and getting caught in no-man’s land as Mané pulled his team level. 4. Is This Close To Pochettino’s Best Lineup? During a roundtable with a small group of reporters at U.S. Soccer’s training facility outside of Atlanta last week, the former Paris Saint-Germain manager revealed that he’s had an idea what his starting lineup since “before March.” How many of those players began Sunday’s encounter? By my count, it’s somewhere in the neighborhood of six: Pulisic, Dest, Jedi, Tyler Adams, Alex Freeman and captain Tim Ream. Matt Freese is almost certainly still the No. 1 heading into the final preparation match next week. If healthy, Balogun and midfielder Weston McKennie are lineup locks. Versatile players like Tim Weah and Malik Tillman could be in the mix, too. As expected, Pochettino made wholesale changes at halftime; per FIFA rules, the teams agreed beforehand to use up to 11 subs apiece. The U.S. coach took full advantage, switching out 10 players at the break, with midfielder Sebastian Berhalter the only holdover. Forward Alex Zendejas entered for Berhalter with about a quarter-hour remaining. The plan was clearly to give as many players as many minutes as possible. I’m guessing that the XI we see next week in Chicago will be a lot closer to the group that is on the field when the Americans’ World Cup campaign begins against Paraguay on June 12. 4 ½. Mighty Germany Awaits In USA’s Final Tuneup Before it can carry the momentum of Sunday’s victory into the World Cup itself, the U.S. will face the four-time World Cup champs in Chicago in its high-profile send-off. The 10th-ranked Germans are never an easy out, but there’s no reason the Americans can’t pull off the upset in what would count as this generation’s long-awaited “signature” win. After all, they’ve upset Die Mannachaft four times in a dozen meetings all-time. Win the next one, and U.S. players and supporters will enter the planet’s biggest sporting event knowing that they can beat anyone.​Latest Sports News from FOX Sports