More stories

  • in

    Who Will Win the World Cup?

    Who’s going to win the World Cup? To get an answer, you could seek the opinion of coaches, players, pundits or fans.Or you could ask the people who have a great financial stake in the outcome: bookmakers.With every team having played one game, the most likely team to win the World Cup this year is, as almost every year, Brazil, according to oddsmakers around the world. But it is far from a sure thing. The team’s odds are roughly 3-1, meaning at best it has about a 25 percent chance of lifting the trophy at this point.Also considered strong contenders are France (6-1) and England and Spain (both 7-1). The next leading contender is, somewhat surprisingly, Argentina at 8-1, even though it lost its opening game to Saudi Arabia. The consensus seems to be that it will bounce back against Mexico and Poland and make it to the knockout rounds. On the other hand, Argentina was originally the second favorite at 5-1, so it certainly has slipped.As you might have noticed, the favorites are the usual suspects.The truth is, long shots just don’t win the World Cup very often. Oh, they sometimes make a surprise run to the semifinals (South Korea in 2002) or even the final (Croatia in 2018) but they just don’t win it.So if you truly believe in, say, the United States (150-1) or even Costa Rica (as much as 3,000-1 after losing to Spain, 7-0), you could be richly rewarded if they defy the odds come the final on Dec. 18.There are odds available on the individual awards as well, giving a clue as to who bettors and bookies think will perform well the rest of the way at the tournament.Before the World Cup began, who else but Lionel Messi (7-1) was the favorite for the Golden Ball as player of the tournament, an award he won eight years ago. But after Argentina’s stutter, he has slipped behind Kylian Mbappé of France (6-1).That prize almost always goes to a player on a successful team, but not necessarily the winning one. The last two Golden Balls went to players on the runner-up (Luka Modrić of Croatia and Messi), and the winner before that, Diego Forlán of Uruguay, made only the semifinal.The final game on Thursday significantly shook up the betting for the Golden Boot for the top goal-scorer of the tournament. Richarlíson of Brazil had been a 25-1 shot before the tournament started, but his two goals against Serbia has made him a favorite at 8-1. The other top contenders are Mbappé (9-1, with one goal so far), Olivier Giroud of France (11-1, two goals) and Messi (13-1, one goal).The other players with two goals so far aren’t attracting as much interest from bettors: Ferran Torres of Spain (20-1), Bukayo Saka of England (20-1), Enner Valencia of Ecuador (50-1) and Mehdi Taremi of Iran (such a long shot that few bookies have even posted a price on him yet).Fancy an American to get a bootload of goals? Timothy Weah, who had the Americans’ only goal in their first game, is 300-1 or more to finish as the tournament’s top scorer. More

  • in

    At the World Cup Iran’s Anthem Was a Tense Moment For Players and Fans

    AL RAYYAN, Qatar — Iran’s national anthem was met by halfhearted singing or mouthing of the words by players and the jeering whistles of thousands of fans at Ahmad bin Ali Stadium before the team played Wales on Friday in its second game at the World Cup.The scene, and the sounds, was different from Iran’s opener against England on Monday, when players gave the anthem the stoic silent treatment, a form of protest that got global attention. Iran’s team, a regular at the tournament and long a unifying force in a divided country, has for months been trying to navigate the delicate internal politics of Iran, caught between government expectations and an ongoing national uprising. Before Friday’s match against Wales, the stadium camera feeds showed a man sobbing as Iran’s anthem was played. When an emotional woman was shown, fans erupted in cheers. Elsewhere, others booed. In the seats, a woman unveiled a No. 22 jersey with the name Mahsa Amini on it. She was the 22-year-old who died while in police custody in September, sparking a growing movement of discontent about freedoms and women’s rights under Iran’s theocratic rule.The Iran National Anthem plays at the FIFA World Cup ahead of their matchup vs Wales 🇮🇷 pic.twitter.com/T4ilXEAN9k— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) November 25, 2022
    It was the actions of Iran’s players, though, that attracted the most attention. After standing silently during the anthem before their first game, they appeared to sing with varying degrees of commitment amid a mix of boos and cheers. Iran’s fan base may be as incessantly noisy as any here at the World Cup. That was true before the game, as its fans and those arriving to cheer Wales emerged from the metro and spilled out toward Ahmad bin Ali Stadium. One woman coming off the metro started a chant — “Say her name! Mahsa! Amini!” — that has become common here. Others wore blue T-shirts that read, “Woman Life Freedom.” One man wore a shirt that read, “Arrest of Lawyers = Beginning of Your End” in English on the front and Arabic on the back.World Cup security officers have been trained to look for such political displays. Before Monday’s game against England, fans were told they wee not allowed to bring or display Iran’s pre-revolutionary flag inside the stadium. Outside the arena on Friday, grim-faced officers patrolled in packs of five or six, wearing black-and-blue vests that read “security cells” on the back. A group of 10 officers surrounded one woman, argued with her and took something from her, perhaps a shirt.Freed and frustrated, she disappeared into the stadium. More

  • in

    Qataris Say Criticism of Country Amid World Cup Is Rooted in Stereotypes

    Many in the country say the barrage of criticism about its human rights record and the exploitation of migrant workers is laced with discrimination and hypocrisy.When the singer Rod Stewart was offered more than $1 million to perform in Qatar, he said, he turned it down.“It’s not right to go,” Mr. Stewart told the The Sunday Times of London recently, joining a string of public figures to declare boycotts or express condemnation of Qatar as the Gulf nation hosts the soccer World Cup.In the prelude to the tournament, which started this past weekend, Qatar has faced an increasing barrage of criticism over its human rights record, including the authoritarian monarchy’s criminalization of homosexuality and the well-documented abuse of migrant workers.Yet Mr. Stewart voiced no such disapproval when he performed in 2010 in Dubai or 2017 in Abu Dhabi, cities in the nearby United Arab Emirates — a country that also has an authoritarian monarchy and has faced allegations of human rights violations but that has more successfully cultivated a Western-friendly image. Mr. Stewart declined a request for comment through his public relations firm.That kind of dissonance is one that has increasingly frustrated Qataris as they face the glare of the international spotlight that trains on each World Cup. The tournament has brought a disproportionate burst of negative coverage, they say, and spawned descriptions of their country and people that feel outdated and stereotypical, painting an image of Qatar that they barely recognize.Qataris say that they are calling out the double standards. Why, they ask, do Europeans buy natural gas from Qatar if they find the country so abhorrent that they cannot watch soccer there? Why don’t some of the international figures who have spoken out against Qatar do the same for the United Arab Emirates?They have also said that they hope the first World Cup to be held in an Arab nation will challenge stereotypes about Qataris, Arabs and Muslims.Instead, it sometimes seems to have done the opposite.A “fan village” in Doha, made up of shipping containers converted into small accommodation units.Erin Schaff/The New York TimesIn a speech last month, the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, called the opprobrium “an unprecedented campaign that no host country has ever faced.” Speaking to a German newspaper, the Qatari foreign minister, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, said that some of the criticism was racist and arrogant.Organizers have said that at least 15,000 journalists are expected to visit Qatar, a country with a population of three million, for the World Cup. The torrent of reporting has been overwhelming for a country that rarely makes global news. That is partly why Qatari officials wanted to host the tournament. It fits into a broader, decades-long push by Qatar’s rulers to turn the once-obscure country into a prominent global player, a strategy funded by vast natural gas wealth.A Brief Guide to the 2022 World CupCard 1 of 9What is the World Cup? More

  • in

    Richarlíson, Brazil and, maybe, the start of something special.

    LUSAIL, Qatar — Not all goals sound the same. Sometimes, the noise they generate is one of joy, giddy and delighted. Sometimes, it is more guttural, not so much a celebration as a growl of defiance. At others, it is a sough of grateful relief. And very occasionally, it is something different: not an exhalation but a drawing of the breath. Sometimes, it is the sound of wonder.For a little more than an hour, Brazil had toiled to overcome Serbia. The last of the heavyweights to start this tournament, Brazil had entered it with a head of steam: beaten only once in three years, untouchable for 18 months, expected to sweep aside anything standing that stood in the way of its long-awaited sixth World Cup.Here it was, though, in front of a partisan and expectant crowd, grinding its way to an uninspiring win against an obdurate, but limited, opponent. It had the lead, thanks to the sort of gnarled, forgettable goal the game had merited, but it was hardly the sort of emphatic statement that had been anticipated.Everything changed in a single instant. Vinicíus Junior burst down the left wing. With the outside of his right boot, he fizzed a low cross toward Richarlíson, the scorer of the first goal. As it traveled, the ball clipped an outstretched Serbian leg; only a little, but enough to change its trajectory.Richarlíson did his best to readjust. The ball skipped off his foot and spun into the air. And then, instinct taking over, he leaped from the ground, twisting and contorting his body in a pirouette, and as the ball reached its apex he met it with a full, pure volley. It flashed past the outstretched arm of Vanja Milinkovic-Savic, Serbia’s helpless goalkeeper. The Lusail stadium, as one, pursed its lips and inhaled. Brazil, ever so slightly belatedly, had arrived.There is a distinct possibility that moment will be seen, in a little less than a month, as the moment that Brazil’s campaign in Qatar caught light. Richarlíson is, to some extent, the most disposable member of Tite’s glittering forward line, not so much because of any shortcoming on his part but because of the vaguely obscene options available ahead of him.Neymar, of course, is the star of the Brazil’s show, the player that plenty of those flooding into the Lusail had come to see — his name, when the teams were read out before the game, was greeted by a cheer roughly twice as loud as anyone else — but he is, unlike in the previous iterations of the Seleçao that have dotted his career, not alone.

    .css-1v43nwx{z-index:10;position:absolute;bottom:10px;left:20px;text-align:left;font-family:”nyt-franklin”,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-weight:500;font-size:0.625rem;line-height:1.2rem;color:#FFFFFF;text-shadow:0px 0px 10px rgb(0 0 0 / 35%),0.5px 0.5px 1px rgb(0 0 0 / 75%);}@media (min-width:740px){.css-1v43nwx{left:15px;font-size:0.56rem;}}.css-s08p0c{width:100%;height:100%;}.css-p7s86k{margin-top:15px;display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-box-pack:justify;-webkit-justify-content:space-between;-ms-flex-pack:justify;justify-content:space-between;-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;}.css-ft194h{display:inline-block;width:6px;height:6px;background-color:var(–color-background-quaternary,#C7C7C7);background-clip:content-box;border:3px solid transparent;border-radius:50%;font-size:0;-webkit-transition:-webkit-transform 0.4s;-webkit-transition:transform 0.4s;transition:transform 0.4s;}.css-ubucgd{display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-box-pack:justify;-webkit-justify-content:space-between;-ms-flex-pack:justify;justify-content:space-between;-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;}@media (max-width:600px){.css-ubucgd{visibility:hidden;}}.css-1gwzf7c{all:unset;cursor:pointer;width:26px;height:26px;border:1px solid var(–color-stroke-quaternary,#DFDFDF);border-radius:50%;-webkit-transition:background-color 0.15s;transition:background-color 0.15s;display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;}.css-1gwzf7c:first-of-type{margin-right:10px;}.css-1gwzf7c:hover{background-color:var(–color-stroke-quaternary,#DFDFDF);}.css-1gwzf7c > svg{pointer-events:none;stroke:var(–color-content-primary,#121212);stroke-width:1.5px;fill:none;margin:0 auto;}.css-1j00jk6{margin:0;padding:0;max-width:600px;margin:auto;max-width:945px;}.css-1j00jk6 > figure:focus,.css-1j00jk6 > image:focus,.css-1j00jk6 > video:focus{outline:none;box-shadow:none;}.css-50qg67{position:relative;background:black;padding-top:100%;}@media (min-width:601px){.css-50qg67{padding-top:66.66666666666666%;}}.container-size-small:not(.device-mobile) .css-50qg67,.container-size-medium:not(.device-mobile) .css-50qg67{padding-top:66.66666666666666%;}.css-y68rbb{width:100%;position:absolute;top:0;left:0;bottom:0;display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;overflow-x:scroll;overflow-y:hidden;-webkit-scroll-behavior:smooth;-moz-scroll-behavior:smooth;-ms-scroll-behavior:smooth;scroll-behavior:smooth;-webkit-scroll-snap-type:x mandatory;-moz-scroll-snap-type:x mandatory;-ms-scroll-snap-type:x mandatory;scroll-snap-type:x mandatory;-ms-overflow-style:none;-webkit-scrollbar-width:none;-moz-scrollbar-width:none;-ms-scrollbar-width:none;scrollbar-width:none;-webkit-scrollbar-color:transparent transparent;-moz-scrollbar-color:transparent transparent;-ms-scrollbar-color:transparent transparent;scrollbar-color:transparent transparent;-webkit-user-select:none;-webkit-user-select:none;-moz-user-select:none;-ms-user-select:none;user-select:none;list-style:none;margin:0;padding:0;}.css-y68rbb::-webkit-scrollbar{width:0;display:none;}.css-y68rbb::-webkit-scrollbar-track{background:transparent;}.css-y68rbb::-webkit-scrollbar-thumb{background:transparent;border:none;}.css-8ryqmc{width:100%;height:100%;position:relative;-webkit-flex:0 0 100%;-ms-flex:0 0 100%;flex:0 0 100%;-webkit-scroll-snap-align:start;-moz-scroll-snap-align:start;-ms-scroll-snap-align:start;scroll-snap-align:start;list-style:none;margin:0;padding:0;}.css-8ryqmc > figure{width:100%;height:100%;display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;margin:0;padding:0;position:relative;}.css-8ryqmc > figure > video{cursor:pointer;}.css-1agnlsp{display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-box-pack:center;-webkit-justify-content:center;-ms-flex-pack:center;justify-content:center;margin-top:15px;list-style:none;margin:0;padding:0;}.css-1fbd9um{display:inline-block;width:6px;height:6px;background-color:var(–color-background-quaternary,#C7C7C7);background-clip:content-box;border:3px solid transparent;border-radius:50%;font-size:0;-webkit-transition:-webkit-transform 0.4s;-webkit-transition:transform 0.4s;transition:transform 0.4s;background-color:var(–color-background-inversePrimary,#121212);}.css-l8c3c2{all:unset;cursor:pointer;width:26px;height:26px;border:1px solid var(–color-stroke-quaternary,#DFDFDF);border-radius:50%;-webkit-transition:background-color 0.15s;transition:background-color 0.15s;display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;}.css-l8c3c2:first-of-type{margin-right:10px;}.css-l8c3c2:hover{background-color:var(–color-stroke-quaternary,#DFDFDF);}.css-l8c3c2 > svg{pointer-events:none;stroke:var(–color-content-primary,#121212);stroke-width:1.5px;fill:none;margin:0 auto;}.css-l8c3c2 > svg{stroke:var(–color-stroke-quaternary,#DFDFDF);}.css-l8c3c2:hover{background-color:transparent;}Kai Pfaffenbach/ReutersNelson Almeida/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesAmanda Perobelli/ReutersAnne-Christine Poujoulat/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesJustin Setterfield/Getty ImagesKai Pfaffenbach/ReutersAndrej Isakovic/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesDado Galdieri for The New York TimesNatacha Pisarenko/Associated PressAmr Abdallah Dalsh/ReutersAndrej Isakovic/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesMoises Castillo/Associated Press

    On one side, he has Vinicíus Junior, the gleaming future of Real Madrid, already the scorer of the winning goal in a Champions League final, and on the other Raphinha, a man valuable enough that Barcelona mortgaged a good portion of its future to sign him last summer. The alternatives on the bench include a player who cost Manchester United $100 million, and is not even the first reserve for his country.It is that supercharged armory, of course, that has made Brazil favorite for this tournament, regardless of the striking impressions made over the first round of games in Qatar by France, Spain and England. Its underpinnings, though, are no less significant: the poise and command of Casemiro in midfield; the experience and authority of Thiago Silva and Marquinhos in defense; the presence, as an option of last resort, of the best goalkeeper on the planet.In those final 20 minutes, as the stadium recovered from its swoon, all of that fell into the sharpest relief possible. Richarlíson’s athleticism, his invention, seemed to have unlocked something in his teammates, to have reminded Brazil that it is the biggest and brightest show in town, that it was time to dust this tournament with its unique, compelling glamour.And so, all of a sudden, the game reached the stage where Casemiro, the sole defensive midfielder, the only adult in the room, was breezily curling shots off the crossbar from 30 yards. Tite, as if keen to remind everyone else of what, precisely, they were dealing with, spent the final stages throwing on as many absurdly gifted attackers as he was permitted under the rules. Here was Rodrygo, and Antony, and Gabriel Jésus; and if you liked them, wait until you see Gabriel Martinelli.That level of resource should, of course, provide some solace to the only sour note of the evening: the sight of Neymar hobbling from the field, his right ankle visibly swollen after suffering a heavy tackle. Though Alex Sandro, the left back, assured the news media after the game that Neymar was “fine,” just in a little bit of pain and in need of some ice, it did little to cool Brazil’s collective fever.The early suggestions had it that the Paris St.-Germain forward had suffered a sprain; a nation found itself on tenterhooks. No matter how glistening the alternatives, no matter how enviable Brazil’s strength in depth, this remains a team constructed around and on behalf of Neymar. It is on his shoulders that the country’s hopes of the crown lie.That is what Brazil expects, after all. It has been 20 years since it last conquered the world, since it last occupied what it regards as its rightful throne. It has waited long enough. In Qatar, nothing less than victory will do.This is supposed to be a month that those Brazilian fans who have made the journey to the Gulf, and the nation as a whole, will never forget, four weeks of flashbulb moments and sculpted memories, a tournament in which Tite’s team leaves the rest of the world gasping for air.Thanks to Richarlíson, Brazil has the first of those moments. The assumption, from all of those inside Lusail, once they had caught their breath, was that it will not be the last. Brazil, at last, has arrived. More

  • in

    Brazilians Give Thanks Today — for Their Team’s World Cup Opener

    Dado Galdieri for The New York TimesRIO DE JANEIRO — Brazil does not celebrate Thanksgiving, but it is in effect a national holiday here this year. School, banks and government offices closed early on Thursday, and just about everyone was off work, unless they were serving beer or frying something. The national team was back in action.Fans spilled out of bars onto the streets across Rio’s beachside Copacabana neighborhood on Thursday afternoon. Most people wore the national team’s iconic yellow jerseys, but this year, there was a lot more blue in the mix. That is because the yellow jerseys have become a sort of uniform for supporters of Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, and many on the left have begun wearing the team’s alternative blue jersey in response.The jersey is not the only thing that has become politicized. Brazil’s star player, Neymar, was one of Bolsonaro’s most vocal supporters ahead of last month’s election, which Bolsonaro lost. Neymar even promised to pay homage to Bolsonaro after his first goal in the World Cup, though such political statements are banned.“It’s wrong. The team doesn’t belong to any political party,” said Fabrício Neves, 42, an offshore oil technician standing outside a bar wearing a blue Romarío jersey from Brazil’s championship 1994 team. “We go through a lot of hardship here, and the national team brings us some joy for a little while.” More

  • in

    Brenden Aaronson Won Over Leeds. Can He Win at the World Cup?

    Christian Pulisic might be the standard-bearer for the United States World Cup team, but it is Brenden Aaronson who has captured hearts in England.LEEDS, England — The stadium was already half-empty, and the steadfast few who remained inside Elland Road were in an unforgiving mood. Leeds United had just been beaten, again, this time by Fulham. A fourth defeat in a row, a seventh game without a win, and the specter of the Premier League’s relegation zone were starting to exert a dreaded, inevitable gravity.As the team made a perfunctory tour of the field, thanking the fans for their forbearance, they were met — mostly — with silence. When Jesse Marsch, the team’s American coach, followed a few seconds later, even that veneer of cordiality disappeared. He had been taunted by the crowd during the game. Now, he was being booed.At that point, Brenden Aaronson would have been forgiven for deciding to slip away to the dressing room. Few would have noticed that Aaronson, a 22-year-old American, had not been part of the players’ gloomy procession.Aaronson, though, did not take the easy way out. Instead, he walked slowly, deliberately around the field in Marsch’s wake. In front of all four grandstands, he held his hands up, open-palmed, as if begging for forgiveness. And, as he did so, the mood changed. By the time Aaronson left the field, his self-imposed ordeal over, the silence — if not quite the gloom — had lifted. Even in defeat, Aaronson had brought the fans to their feet.Whether accidentally or by design, Leeds United has spent much of the last three years as English soccer’s great thought experiment, a laboratory for challenging deeply held assumptions.The first hypothesis it tested was whether the outré methods of the Argentine coach Marcelo Bielsa, the sport’s most unapologetic ideologue, could work in the Premier League. The supposition had long been that no, they could not. Leeds gave Bielsa the chance to disprove it.He led the team to a ninth-place finish in his first season after winning promotion from the Championship and then plunged it into danger of relegation the next, but the adoration he earned from a fan base that tends toward cynicism was enough to overturn the established logic: At least one other English club is now toying with the idea of employing Bielsa.Leeds’s next challenge was, if anything, even more fraught. Leeds replaced Bielsa, in February, with Marsch, who became only the second American coach to take charge of a Premier League team. A few months later, he was joined not only by Aaronson — a native of Medford, N.J. — but by Tyler Adams, acquired from RB Leipzig but raised in upstate New York. Fair or not, how Leeds fared would be pitched as a referendum on English soccer’s attitude toward Americans.The results, thus far, have been mixed. Adams has been a steady, subtle success: a diligent, astute defensive midfielder, sufficiently well liked for a vast portrait of him to be hung from the imposing, cantilevered roof of Elland Road’s Jack Charlton Stand. “I didn’t realize it was quite so big,” Adams said after seeing it for the first time. “It’s pretty cool.”Aaronson has not been a starter for the U.S., but his game-changing cameos are a valuable tool for Coach Gregg Berhalter.Patrick T. Fallon/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesThe verdict on Marsch has been more contested. He earned some credit for steering the team clear of relegation last season, and an early season win against Chelsea in August, But that was followed by a string of disappointments in which Marsch’s team kept, as he put it, “finding ways to lose,” and a recurring theme emerged in the critiques of him: Leeds’ executives, and Marsch himself, noted that his nationality always seemed much more relevant after defeats than in the glow of victory.There has been no such ambivalence about Aaronson. He might have been a relative unknown when he arrived at the start of the summer from Marsch’s former team Red Bull Salzburg as a vaguely underwhelming replacement for Raphinha, the Brazilian wing who was then on his way to Barcelona.Aaronson may not have a regular starting role in Coach Gregg Berhalter’s United States team at the World Cup. In just three months, though, he has established himself as the great American success story of this Premier League season — ahead of even Christian Pulisic, now consigned to the ranks of replacements at Chelsea — and erased every last shred of skepticism that accompanied his arrival.Unlike Marsch, Aaronson’s Americanness does not appear to be a problem. He had already earned a song in his honor within a few weeks of arriving at the club, a reworked version of Estelle’s “American Boy.” “The Square Ball,” an ironic and occasionally acerbic Leeds fanzine and podcast, has taken to referring to him — affectionately — as the “Yank Badger.”The sobriquet hints at the source of his popularity. Under first Bielsa and now Marsch, Leeds has grown used to a style of play that borders on the physically exhausting. Both coaches demand that their players run. The fans have come to expect it, too. And even in a team marked by its (occasionally inefficient) industry and (occasionally counterproductive) intensity, Aaronson’s work ethic, his endless scurrying and snuffling, stands out.Aaronson came on as a substitute his team’s World Cup opener against Wales.Pedro Nunes/ReutersIn a victory at Liverpool in October that most likely saved his manager’s job, for example, Leeds not only ran more than any team had in any Premier League game this season, but Aaronson ran more than anyone else. He registered 8.2 miles, more than any player has run in any league game this year.“Brenden Aaronson loves grass,” Daniel Chapman wrote earlier this season in “The Square Ball.” “Green grass. Yellow grass. Part synthetic grass. All the grass, he loves all the grass, loves running in it, rolling in it, being on it, dancing across it, eating it up metaphorically with his running feet and perhaps literally with his hungry mouth.”Marsch regards that characterization, while not incorrect, as a touch reductive. “He has more quality than people think,” the coach said. “He’s a good finisher, he’s really clever with how to put passes together in tight spaces. It’s so much just about his ability to make final plays, and slow himself down a little bit in the final third.”Even Marsch, though, could not quite resist the lure of making a horticultural analogy. “He’s like a weed,” Marsch, a former M.L.S. coach with the Red Bulls, told MLSsoccer.com’s “Extratime” podcast earlier this season. “You almost see him grow before your eyes.”That is what has endeared him, so quickly, even to Leeds’s most hard-bitten, weather-beaten fans: not just his effort, but his intent. It is what has filled American fans with optimism about his contributions heading into Monday’s World Cup opener against Wales.That day against Fulham, Aaronson had no reason to apologize. The defeat, most certainly, had not been his fault. He had been Leeds’s best, and most effective, player. Still, though, he made his way around the field, still moving, even after the final whistle, still believing he could have done more. More

  • in

    How Japan Upset Germany, the World Cup’s Latest Fallen Favorite

    1 Germany Group E Final 2 Japan DOHA, Qatar — These are the days in which the mighty fall. On Day 3 of the World Cup, Argentina was left reeling after suffering a chastening defeat to Saudi Arabia. On Day 4, it was Germany’s turn. Another of the pretournament favorites was left shocked and embarrassed […] More

  • in

    Germany Protests FIFA Decision That Blocked Rainbow Armbands

    The players who started for Germany in their opening match at the World Cup on Wednesday covered their mouths during the traditional pregame team photograph before facing Japan at the Khalifa International Stadium on Wednesday in protest of a FIFA decision that kept their captain from wearing a rainbow-colored armband in the match as part of a social justice campaign.FIFA, soccer’s governing body, had prevented Germany and several other European team captains from wearing armbands promoting gay rights by threatening them with yellow cards.The campaign was meant to raise awareness of marginalized groups in the host country, Qatar, which criminalizes homosexual conduct.“It wasn’t about making a political statement — human rights are non-negotiable,” the team said in a statement posted on its official Twitter account. “That should be taken for granted, but it still isn’t the case. That’s why this message is so important to us. Denying us the armband is the same as denying us a voice.”Germany was part of a group of at least seven European countries, including England, Wales, Belgium, Denmark, Switzerland and the Netherlands, who backed down from the plan to have their captains wear rainbow armbands after FIFA’s threat. “As national federations, we can’t put our players in a position where they could face sporting sanctions including bookings, so we have asked the captains not to attempt to wear the armbands in FIFA World Cup games,” the national federations said in a joint statement. More