Raphael Stevens

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    Canada has one more game before turning its focus to 2026.

    AL RAYYAN, Qatar — After the final whistle, after Canada had been eliminated from the 2022 World Cup with a 4-1 loss to Croatia on Sunday, its goalkeeper Milan Borjan stood in the middle of a huddle of his teammates and waved his arms as he spoke. According to the Canada captain Atiba Hutchinson, Borjan reminded his teammates of how far they had come, told that they still possessed talent despite their performance, and encouraged them — four years before Canada co-hosts the next World Cup — that they would keep getting better. Even reaching this far was an accomplishment. Canada toppled the United States and Mexico en route to winning their qualifying group and ending its 36-year World Cup drought. Once in Qatar, Canada showed flashes of its tantalizing potential — it outplayed Belgium in the teams’ opening match but lost, 1-0. But in its loss to Croatia, Canada then showed how far it has to go before it can expect to contend at the highest level.“You’re playing on a world stage, there’s a lot of quality, so there’s things that we’re going to have to learn as a team,” said Hutchinson, 39, who made his 100th international appearance for Canada on Sunday. “We didn’t get the result we wanted but we’ll learn from this and these mistakes that we made and we’ll get better and better, and the next World Cup will be in Canada. We’ve got great players and have more and more coming through the system. We just have to be ready to do what we’ve been doing.”The 2026 World Cup will be jointly hosted by Canada, the United States and Mexico, and in its expansion to 48 teams all three host countries are expected to qualify automatically. But Canada will certainly want to show more than it did in Qatar. With several standouts who are 25 or younger and play in some of the top leagues in the world — Alphonso Davies (Bayern Munich in Germany), Jonathan David (Lille in France), Tajon Buchanan (Club Brugge in Belgium) and Stephen Eustáquio (F.C. Porto in Portugal) — that may possible. “I know the future for this team is really bright and there are a lot of lessons in this World Cup,” defender Steven Vitória said. “We’re going to keep working to close gaps against the best teams in the world.”Canada still has one more group stage game left in Qatar, against Morocco on Thursday. It has already done better than its only previous trip to the World Cup — Canada went scoreless and winless in Mexico in 1986 — but that is not good enough for Davies, its best player and the scorer of its only goal in Qatar.“For me, I keep dreaming and keep believing and keep pushing,” Davies said after the loss. More

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    Germany Meets the Moment and Keeps its World Cup Hopes Alive

    AL KHOR, Qatar — This is how fine the margins can be: Had Nico Schlotterbeck not raced back, his jaw tight with effort, to steal the ball from Álvaro Morata’s feet, Germany’s World Cup would hang by a thread. For the second tournament in a row, a group stage exit would loom. Questions would be asked, culprits sought, knives sharpened.But Schlotterbeck did race back, straining every sinew to close the gap to Morata, and he did slide in, his timing perfect, and he did steal the ball from his feet, and now it is not beyond the realm of possibility that Germany might find itself — in a couple of weeks’ time — preparing for a World Cup semifinal, the scent of unlikely glory in its nostrils.Catherine Ivill/Getty ImagesThe irony, of course, was that Schlotterbeck’s intervention was just one moment among many thousands over the course of more than 100 minutes, a speck in terms of Hansi Flick’s team’s overall performance, and yet everything turned on that single instant. Every assessment of this game, every analysis of the health of German soccer, hinged on it; so, too, did the international careers of several players and, likely, of one coach.The truth of it is that this had been a hugely encouraging display from Germany, regardless of whether Morata, scorer of Spain’s opener, had added a second in injury time. It would have been even if Flick’s team had not sealed a point thanks to a goal from Niclas Füllkrug, the late-blooming striker added to the squad almost as an afterthought in the weeks before this tournament.That is not to say it was spectacular — far from it — but it was brim full of all of those other traits that are considered quite useful in these circumstances: grit and fight and industry and nous. Germany richly deserved its point, one that means it goes into its final game knowing that a victory against Costa Rica will, in all likelihood, carry it into the knockout rounds.After that, the field opens just a little. It might be Morocco in the last 16 and Portugal in the quarterfinals. Germany came within a whisker of yet another embarrassment in the World Cup. The margins, though, are fine. All of a sudden, it can see nothing but promise. More

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    Iran Calls for U.S. to Be Expelled From World Cup

    DOHA, Qatar — A representative of Iran’s soccer federation on Sunday called for the United States to be expelled from soccer’s World Cup over social media posts that the federation claimed had “disrespected” Iran’s flag.The United States Soccer Federation drew Iran’s ire by including a doctored Iran flag in two posts on its official social media accounts on Saturday. A spokesman for U.S. Soccer said the decision to use an Iranian flag stripped of the country’s official emblem and two lines of Islamic script in posts on Twitter and Instagram was intentional, and meant to show support for the women of Iran — a nod to protests that have roiled Iran at home and followed its team to the World Cup in Qatar.Iran condemned the decision to use an incorrect flag, which it said violated the statutes of FIFA, world soccer’s global governing body.“Respecting a nation’s flag is an accepted international practice that all other nations must emulate,” Safia Allah Faghanpour, a legal adviser to Iran’s soccer federation, said in comments reported by a semiofficial state news agency in Iran. “The action conducted in relation to the Iranian flag is unethical and against international law.”The adviser’s comments were reported by Tasnim News, whose own social media profile includes an image of an American flag in flames.The United States and Iran are set to meet in a crucial game on Tuesday that was already fraught with political overtones and high stakes: The loser, if there is one, most likely will be eliminated from the tournament.Iran cited a specific FIFA regulation that it said called for penalties for anyone “who offends the dignity or integrity of a country, a person or group of people through contemptuous, discriminatory or derogatory words or actions (by any means whatsoever).”FIFA did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the dispute, and it is unlikely to intervene during the tournament.But Iran’s presence in the field has already made headlines: Fans arriving at matches with Iran’s prerevolutionary flag have been told it is not allowed inside stadiums, and Iran’s players have won praise — and criticism — for refusing to sing their national anthem at their opening game, and then appearing to grudgingly go along the second time they took the field.The U.S. Soccer spokesman, who requested anonymity to discuss internal discussions, said the American federation had not been contacted by FIFA about the social media posts. But it said it had deleted the two posts after a series of internal discussions on Sunday and would use Iran’s official flag moving forward.The US. players and their coach, Gregg Berhalter, were not involved in the decision to use the incorrect flag or to remove it, the spokesman said. More

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    After Belgium’s Loss to Morocco, Violence Breaks Out in Brussels

    Riots erupted in the heart of Brussels and several other Belgian cities on Sunday after Belgium was upset by Morocco, 2-0, at the World Cup.Video footage shared online showed crowds overturning and setting ablaze a car Brussels, the Belgian capital. Local reports said rioters also set fire to electric scooters and threw bricks at other vehicles. A Brussels police spokeswoman, Ilse Van de Keere, told reporters that one person had suffered injuries.It was not immediately clear if the protests were between rival fans of the teams.The center of Brussels is on fire after the match. 🇲🇦🇧🇪 pic.twitter.com/D0zznXZ00d— Yassin Akouh (@Yassin_Akouh) November 27, 2022
    In response, the police in Brussels deployed water cannons and fired tear gas to disperse the crowds, videos showed. It was unclear if anyone was arrested.Mayor Philippe Close of Brussels said in posts on Twitter that he strongly condemned the incidents. He advised soccer fans to stay away from the city center. “The police are doing everything they can to maintain public order,” he added.The city of Antwerp also saw an eruption of violence after the match.The police in the neighboring Netherlands said that riots had also broken out in Rotterdam, a port city; the Dutch capital, Amsterdam; and The Hague. Footage shared online showed charred vehicles in the middle of one street.Riot police officers in Rotterdam tried to break up a group of about 500 soccer supporters who had tossed fireworks and glass at officers, according to the authorities.The World Cup, held this year in Qatar, has had several upsets, with Japan trouncing Germany, 2-1, and Argentina falling to Saudi Arabia, 2-1, before coming back to beat Mexico 2-0, and resurrect its chances of advancing. More

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    With Recent Loss, Mexico Faces Potential World Cup Elimination

    Entering the World Cup, there were many questions about the Mexican national team. How good was the squad, really? Was its coach making the right calls? Was this all going to end in bitter disappointment again? Two games into the tournament and the answer feels clear.After a 2-0 loss to Argentina on Saturday night, Mexico sits in last place in its four-team group. Its streak of advancing to the knockout stage in seven straight World Cups is dangerously close to ending. In order to keep it going, Mexico will have to beat Saudi Arabia — by a lot — and pray for some help.“We still have some hope and we have faith and we have to work,” forward Hirving Lozano said in Spanish on Saturday night after the loss to Argentina. “Even if there’s a 1 percent chance, we’ll try.”The biggest problem for Mexico so far this tournament has been what it will need the most on Wednesday against Saudi Arabia: goals. Mexico has scored none. In two games, it has attempted 15 shots. Only five have been on target. Against Argentina, Mexico focused more on defense and control, while hoping to get the ball up the field quickly on transition. While the strategy held Argentina and Lionel Messi scoreless in the first half, it unraveled at times in the second half.“Hurt,” forward Henry Martin said of the team’s mood. “We deserved more. We had a great game, in the first half, they didn’t score. The first goal was the only chance they had.”Asked after the game what message he had for fans who might be angry at the team’s performances at the World Cup, Gerardo Martino, Mexico’s Argentine coach, bristled at the question. He said that he knows his team has struggled with consistently on offense. In its scoreless draw with Poland, he pointed out, Mexico mostly dominated the game but couldn’t quite finish its chances near the goal. Against Argentina, he said Mexico tried a different tactic — and didn’t expect many scoring chances — but failed in its final passes when attacking.As for the fans, Martino said to reporters: “It depends on your view. If you have a view of 60 or 30 minutes? If you tell them about 30 minutes, people will stay mad. If you tell them about 60, probably not as much.”Against Saudi Arabia, Martino suggested, there would be more changes to Mexico’s lineup and tactics, because “we need to score at least three goals” in hopes of advancing. More

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    Cheer, Chant, Clean: Japan Takes Out the Trash, and Others Get the Hint

    Japanese fans went viral for cleaning up after a World Cup victory. Fans from other countries are following their example.AL RAYYAN, Qatar — The final whistle blew on Sunday afternoon, and the Japanese fans who had just spent hours bouncing under a blistering midday sun allowed themselves a moment to wallow in the disappointment of their team’s 1-0 loss to Costa Rica.But the moment quickly passed, and out came the blue trash bags.In the return of a postgame ritual that is being met with widespread astonishment at this year’s World Cup, a group of Japanese spectators, who only moments earlier had been deliriously singing for their team, began meticulously cleaning the stands at Ahmed bin Ali Stadium, picking up trash scattered across the rows of seats around them.It hardly mattered what it was — half-empty bottles of soda, orange peels, dirty napkins — or who had left it behind. The fans went across the aisles shuffling the litter into bags before handing them to smiling — and clearly delighted — stadium workers on their way out.“It’s a sign of respect for a place,” said Eiji Hattori, 32, a fan from Tokyo, who had a bag of bottles, ticket stubs and other stadium detritus. “This place is not ours, so we should clean up if we use it. And even if it is not our garbage, it’s still dirty, so we should clean it up.”The image of spectators calmly assuming janitorial duties during the World Cup has charmed observers from other countries, like the United States, where slaloming around sticky soda spills, toppled bags of popcorn and mini mountains of peanut shells is often accepted as part of the normal sports stadium experience.But in Japan, tidiness, particularly in public spaces, is widely accepted as a virtue. Japanese people at the game said such habits were taught at home and reinforced at schools, where students from a young age are expected to clean up their classrooms and school facilities on a regular basis.The cleaning of shared areas, like stadiums, becomes something of an individual responsibility, and there are often not armies of workers hired to do it.A Brief Guide to the 2022 World CupCard 1 of 9What is the World Cup? More

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    Lionel Messi Saves Argentina’s World Cup

    LUSAIL, Qatar — As he wrapped Enzo Fernández tightly in his arms, Lionel Messi could not help it. His Argentina teammates were screaming, full pelt, toward them. At their back, the stands were melting into a writhing, bubbling soup of sky blue and white. Messi saw it all and, for the first time in what has felt like a long time, he smiled.For someone who has spent the better part of two decades delivering moments of rare, soaring pleasure to millions of people on a weekly basis, Messi looks happy surprisingly infrequently. He tends, most of the time, toward the serious. He often looks concentrated, or focused, or intent.Occasionally, he might look pensive, ruminative. More regularly than he might have liked, particularly in the last few years, he has had cause to look disappointed, either in himself or, more usually, a teammate. And then, of course, there is Messi in despair: the Messi with the sagging shoulders and the hollow eyes, watching his world crash down around him.Five days ago, that was the Messi who had departed the field at Lusail, his dreams in tatters. Argentina had been beaten by Saudi Arabia, an ignominy that will haunt the country for some time, a shame that will be spoken of only in whispers for years, and its World Cup — his World Cup — hung by a thread.That ghost has been at Argentina’s shoulder all week. In its immediate aftermath, as Argentina’s disconsolate players headed back by bus to their hotel, Messi demanded that his teammates remain united. He promised the fans that they would not be left “stranded” by a squad in which they have placed so much hope.After Enzo Fernandez scored Argentina’s second goal, Messi was the first player to meet him.Juan Mabromata/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesHe knew, though, that the only way to dispatch ghosts was to confront them. Argentina had no choice but to return to Lusail, to face Mexico, and to manifest a different denouement. Defeat would end its involvement in the World Cup after just two games. Even a tie would leave it on the brink of elimination from a tournament it harbored genuine hopes of winning. Already, it had no margin for error.A Brief Guide to the 2022 World CupCard 1 of 9What is the World Cup? More

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    Mexico’s Love-Hate Relationship With Argentina Haunts the Team’s World Cup Matchup

    When Mexico faces Argentina on Saturday, Mexican fans will bear mixed feelings toward the country that should be their ultimate rival on that night.The reason: the lasting mark Argentine coaches have made on Mexican soccer.Many Mexicans credit the Argentine coach Cesar Luis Menotti with revolutionizing Mexican soccer by elevating playing style over strength during his run leading the national team in the 1990s. Even though he stayed less than two years and never coached Mexico in a World Cup, he remains a beloved figure there, even as he now serves as the director of Argentina’s national teams.On his first day in Mexico, Menotti, who had led Argentina to the World Cup title in 1978, told reporters that he planned to probe deep into Mexico’s soul “because the only way you can lead a national team is by understanding how it is inextricably linked to the country’s inner life.”With flowing hair and bushy sideburns, Menotti smoked cigarettes on the sidelines, wore sharp suits, freely quoted literature and brought up politics, an unusual brew for conservative Mexico at the time. During his last interview as Mexico’s coach, he said he now “understood Mexico better than many Mexicans.”Since then, there have been two full time Argentine coaches of the Mexican national team (more than any other non-Mexican nationality). Neither has enjoyed the reverence shown for Menotti.A Brief Guide to the 2022 World CupCard 1 of 9What is the World Cup? More