National Teams

MANCHESTER, England — It is 62 years since all four British home nations last qualified together for the finals of a major tournament but after Wednesday's Euro 2020 penalty shoot-out playoff drama, such a prospect is now within reach.

Scotland and Northern Ireland find themselves one game away from qualification for next year's European Championship and the chance to join Wales and England in the delayed finals.

The last time all four made it to a major tournament was the 1958 World Cup finals in Sweden.

BERN — The amount of money spent on international transfers in the window which closed on Monday dropped by more than 30 percent compared to the corresponding period last year amid the COVID-19 pandemic, global soccer body FIFA said in a report on Friday.

FIFA announced that a total of $3.92 billion was spent by clubs worldwide between June 1 and Oct. 5 in the transfer window this year, compared to $5.8 billion a year ago.

On Thursday, Vlatko Andonovski called Catarina Macario into the USWNT fall training camp. Later that day, Macario, a Brazilian-born college megastar, announced she had obtained U.S. citizenship. So, when will Catarina Macario be eligible for USWNT games? Well, that’s still up to FIFA, and Macario herself admits there is still a ways to go.

Argentina got their World Cup qualifying campaign off to the perfect start on Thursday when Lionel Messi's early penalty gave them a 1-0 win over Ecuador in a lackluster match in Buenos Aires.

The Argentine FA piped fan noise around the empty Bombonera stadium and the chants of "Messi! Messi!" were vindicated as early as the 12th minute when he put Argentina ahead from the spot after Lucas Ocampos was fouled inside the penalty area.

Three England players scored their first international goals to give Gareth Southgate's experimental team a comfortable 3-0 win over Wales in a friendly at Wembley Stadium on Thursday.

In-form Everton striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin opened the scoring in the 26th minute before second-half goals from Conor Coady and Danny Ings secured the win in the warm-up game for Nations League matches against Belgium and Denmark.

Norway’s fledgling golden generation — spearheaded by Borussia Dortmund’s Erling Haaland and Real Madrid’s Martin Ødegaard — fell at the penultimate hurdle to Euro 2021 on Thursday, losing 2-1 to a deserving Serbia after extra time in the qualifying playoffs in Oslo.  

Norway hadn’t qualified for a major international tournament since Euro 2000 — whereas Serbia participated at the 2018 World Cup — but the home side entered this one full of hope after a qualifying cycle that included only one defeat (albeit five draws) in a group with Spain, Sweden and Romania.