Sports blog information from USA TODAY.
August and September are for hoops, at least in FIBA competitions. The World Cup is in full swing, showcasing a wealth of talent. As usual, we’re using Global Rating to identify the tournament’s top players.
August and September are for hoops, at least in FIBA competitions. The World Cup is in full swing, showcasing a wealth of talent. As usual, we’re using Global Rating to identify the tournament’s top players.
In Canada’s unexpected World Cup blowout over France, the Canadians were +33 in the 26 minutes played by #Rockets forward Dillon Brooks. “We put the world on notice,” Brooks says.
On paper, Friday’s 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup opener between Canada and France was thought to be a relatively even matchup.
Each team featured a handful of current NBA players. The Canadians featured Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Dillon Brooks, Luguentz Dort, Kelly Olynyk and RJ Barrett. French standouts included Rudy Gobert, Evan Fournier and Nicolas Batum.
On the court, it turned out to be a mismatch. Canada won in a shocking blowout, 95-65 (box score).
One leading reason was Brooks, who signed with the Houston Rockets this offseason. In 26 minutes, Canada’s energetic defensive ace had 12 points and 4 rebounds on 5-of-6 shooting (83.3%), including 1-of-2 on 3-pointers (50%). Most impressively, Canada was plus-33 in those minutes, ranking No. 2 among all players.
“We started off slowly, and I tried to create some energy early on,” Brooks told Sportsnet’s Arash Madani. “I told guys to stick with it.”
“We actually look at every single game as if it’s Game 7 in the NBA,” Brooks said to reporters postgame (via Eurohoops.net). “We put the world on notice. This ain’t no joke; we ain’t playing.”
Read on for further quotes and highlights from Brooks’ showing.
“I have an idea where the injury occurred,” explained Porzingis.
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Star Boston Celtics big man Kristaps Porzingis recently chose to sit out for his Latvian National Team in the 2023 FIBA World Cup due to a bout of plantar fasciitis and in a recent interview with Sporta Studija via Eurohoops, Porzingis shed some light on how the situation came about.
“I have an idea where the injury occurred,” explained Porzingis. “But an injury develops during a career and then jumps onto the field. During the training process, it started to hurt. There has never been anything like it. I felt that there were no options to achieve the shape I wanted.”
“There was no logic in trying to break my feet,” added the Boston bog man, alluding to his choice not to push his luck by playing for Latvia. Still, Porzingis plans to remain with his national team while they play in the ’23 World Cup.
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“I said being around is important, even though I’m not playing,” he explained. “They supported my decision.”
“Also, there’s a long season ahead. It’s important for me to spend time with my teammates, with my family, and Boston respected my decision.”
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The players deserve so much better than this classless garbage.
Thanks to Spain’s dominance, Sunday’s 2023 World Cup Final was largely without drama. La Roja took the lead in the 29th minute over England after an Olga Carmona goal. They would hold firm for the rest of the match en route to a 1-0 victory and the nation’s first-ever Women’s World Cup title.
But the way the Spanish Football Federation’s Twitter account treated the celebrations after the fact has deservedly ruffled some feathers in the soccer world. The official account posted a photo of Spain head coach Jorge Vilda kissing the championship trophy with a caption of “Vilda In” and a No. 1 index finger emoji.
Even if Vilda was technically the coach, this was in wildly poor taste after all the pre-tournament controversy he himself created. It could even certainly be viewed as a direct insult to the players and their rightful gripes about a “leader” who probably shouldn’t have been in charge.
☝️ 𝗩𝗜𝗟𝗗𝗔 𝗜𝗡. pic.twitter.com/qmOJbNhAID
— Selección Española Femenina de Fútbol (@SEFutbolFem) August 20, 2023
In September 2022, 15 of Spain’s players maintained they wouldn’t play in this World Cup specifically because of Vilda, alleging he had fostered team conditions of abuse, fear, and bigotry. Only three of said players actually ended up traveling to Australia and New Zealand, with Vilda making the final roster decisions. No wonder there was a lot of talk about how the Spanish players even refused to interact with Vilda on the sideline.
Never mind that Spain’s roster — even without a good portion of its players — appeared to be so talented that any coach could’ve likely made a deep run in the tournament. Vilda was regularly criticized during this World Cup for poor strategic planning and curious lineup management. Yet, the team won it all in spite of him.
The Spanish Football Federation should be taking its players’ concerns about abuse and mistreatment seriously. If Vilda had to remain as the coach during this glorious run after his mess, the least the organization could’ve done is NOT pretend his contributions made any meaningful impact on the best international team in the sport.
The federation leaders should be embarrassed he was highlighted like this anyway.
Here are the rules for the shootout in the final.
We’ve reached the 2023 World Cup Final, and that means the winner of the game takes the whole tournament.
But if the game is tied? We go to two 15-minute periods of extra time to break a tied game since the game can’t end with both teams having the same score.
After those two periods, if the game is still tied? We go to a penalty kicks shootout.
Here’s how that works:
1. Each team gets five players each to take a penalty shot to the opposing goaltender, with a each squad alternating attempts.
2. If one team outscores the other in all five of their shots, it wins.
3. If they’re STILL tied after that five-and-five back-and-forth, new players are chosen and we go to sudden death — first team to miss one after the other makes one loses.
Got it? Good.
The 2027 Women’s World Cup will be the 10th edition of the tournament.
The 2027 FIFA World Cup will be the 10th edition of the tournament, no doubt holding a special place in the history books.
With 2027 still a long ways off, it is currently unknown which country — or countries! — will play host to the 32-team tournament. As of now, four bids were confirmed to FIFA in April 2023 for the 2027 World Cup. The bids in question are from:
The United States and Mexico
Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands
South Africa
Brazil
The United States last hosted the Women’s World Cup in 2003. The other remaining countries have not hosted a Women’s World Cup tournament since its inception.
Soccer fans will find out which bid will win out when the FIFA Congress appoints the host on May 17, 2024.
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A look at how much money 2023 World Cup participants receive.
The prize pool for the 2023 World Cup is more than three times what it was four years ago thanks to a new pay structure announced by FIFA in June.
Each of the 32 teams that qualified for the World Cup will receive a minimum of $1.56 million, with payments increasing the further teams make it in the tournament, up to $4.29 million for the champion, as USA TODAY Sports explained.
Each World Cup player gets at least $30,000, with those payments similarly increasing throughout the knockout rounds. Round of 16 players get $60,000 each, quarterfinalists get $90,000, semifinalists get $165,000, runners-up get $195,000 and each player on the championship roster receives $270,000.
These funds are paid to each team’s federation, which is expected to pass the money to the players.
Between player and team payouts, the World Cup champions will receive a total of $10.5 million, which is more than double the $4 million paid to the U.S. women in 2019.
However, despite the increase to a $152 million prize pool this year, FIFA still has work to do to make up the gender pay gap. The pool for the men’s tournament last year was $440 million.
MORE WORLD CUP:
Wondering what’s the difference? We’re here to help.
With the 2023 World Cup set to close in Australia and New Zealand, some new fans of the sport might find themselves asking questions when they hear announcers mention “stoppage time” and “extra time.” Mainly, how are they different?
Well, we are here to help. And no, they are not the same.
Soccer matches are comprised of two 45-minute halves with a running clock.
Stoppage time is the period added on to the end of each half that accounts for pauses in the match due to injuries, goals, substitutions, VAR reviews and other stoppages to regular game action. The referee is supposed to keep track of that time lost and add it to the end of the half.
Extra time is a totally different concept and synonymous to overtime in U.S. sports. Extra time is only used to break ties in the knockout stage as group stage matches are allowed to end in ties.
At the World Cup, extra time will consist of two 15-minute periods. If the score is still tied after extra time, it will go into a penalty shootout. There is no sudden death or “golden goal” at the World Cup, so if a match goes into extra time, we’re guaranteed those additional 30 minutes.
MORE WORLD CUP:
The 2023 FIBA World Cup is quickly approaching. While we still don’t have the final rosters for most of the National Teams taking part, we have a good idea of who’s going to be balling in Japan, Philippines and Indonesia. As of now, there are 57 …
The 2023 FIBA World Cup is quickly approaching. While we still don’t have the final rosters for most of the National Teams taking part, we have a good idea of who’s going to be balling in Japan, Philippines and Indonesia.
As of now, there are 57 players under NBA contract projected to play in the World Cup. That includes the full Team USA 12-player roster, nine players from Australia and seven players from Canada leading the way.
Here’s the full list:
Spain and England are both playing for what would be their first-ever World Cup championship.
After nearly a month of soccer down under in Australia and New Zealand, the 2023 World Cup is about to come to a close.
It was a banger of a tournament, one that featured a surprisingly early exit from the Americans, nerve-racking penalty kicks, fantastic goals, awesome celebrations and a few mild controversies.
The final will feature Spain against England. Spain reached the big stage by knocking off Sweden – which beat the USWNT – 2-1. Meanwhile, England topped host Australia 3-1, despite an incredible score from Sam Kerr.
Here’s everything you need to know about the World Cup final between La Roja and the Lionesses.
