World Cup

HONG KONG - Son Heung-min struck with less than two minutes remaining to earn South Korea a dramatic 2-1 win over Syria in Ansan on Thursday as Paulo Bento's side maintained their unbeaten start in Group A in the final phase of Asia's World Cup preliminaries.

Son swept the ball home from close range in the 89th minute, five minutes after Omar Khribin looked to have secured a share of the points for the Syrians in a game dominated by the hosts.

The Reggae Boyz knew they would be without some of the big names like Leon Bailey (Aston Villa), Michael Hector (Fulham), Amari’i Bell (Luton Town) and Cory Burke (Philadelphia Union) heading into the second window of Concacaf World Cup qualifying. However, another bombshell was dropped on Wednesday when Michail Antonio, the Premier League’s third highest goal scorer this season, announced he was withdrawing from Jamaica’s next three games.

For the first time ever, Portugal has captured the Futsal World Cup. Pany Varela scored both of Portugal’s goals in a 2-1 victory over previous world champion Argentina, and the South American side was left crushed after the frame of the goal denied a last-second shot that would’ve sent the match to extra time.

“Why is Pulisic not playing?” will be a question frequently asked in the coming weeks as the USMNT prepares for the second window of World Cup qualifying.

On Wednesday, head coach Gregg Berhalter released the 27-man roster that will represent the United States in October’s qualifying games against Jamaica, Panama and Costa Rica. Christian Pulisic and Gio Reyna’s names weren’t on the list.

I heard once, I can’t remember from where, that the greatest measure of your time remaining on this planet was in how many more World Cups you could reasonably expect to witness before death. Instead of saying “I am 30,” you could say “I hope to see 12 more World Cups.”

That struck me as a reasonable philosophy. 

Birthdays start to come and go with an increasing desire to make less of what starts to seem like a doomsday countdown, but the World Cup — with its quadrennial rarity — stands out as a month-long celebration of the best of our outward reality.  

After missing the European Championship with a knee injury that lingered into the start of the new season, AC Milan striker Zlatan Ibrahimović has been recalled to the Sweden national team for a pair of upcoming World Cup qualifiers against Kosovo (Oct. 9) and Greece (Oct. 12). Ibrahimović celebrates his 40th birthday on Oct. 3, so we’ll get to see if transitioning into the "middle age adult" stage of life has any effect on his game.

You wouldn’t think so.

There was some good news and some bad news from UEFA on Thursday. The good: European football’s governing body announced it will double the prize money available for the 2022 Women’s Euros. The bad: The Women’s Euro prize money is a miniscule fraction of the men’s Euro prize money.

MANCHESTER, England - FIFA says it has fan backing for the much-criticized plan to shift to a biennial World Cup after releasing a summary of the results of an opinion survey of supporters.

The proposals, which have been outlined by FIFA's head of Global Football Development, former Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger, have been met with widespread opposition from within the game.

Futsal’s importance to developing great footballers has never been a secret. 

Brazil is the standard-bearer of the hard court game that favors ball control, passing in tight spaces and creativity over any sort of physical advantage. Ronaldinho, Ronaldo, Neymar, Pelé and Philipe Coutinho all played extensively in their youth, and what they learned and practiced on the court translated beautifully onto the pitch.

By scoring Argentina’s opener against Bolivia in World Cup qualifying on Thursday night and then adding a second and third, Lionel Messi moved ahead of Pelé in terms of most international goals amongst South American footballers with 79.