I had to spend some time driving through the dank swampland of northern New Jersey this weekend, and I saw an interesting alert on some road signs:

NY/NJ STADIUM EVENT SUNDAY

PLAN AHEAD

Any idea what that’s about?

(Quick scheduling update: The next newsletter will come out on Thursday, after the two World Cup semifinals. We’ll have a post recapping the World Cup on Monday, then go back to our regular 2-post-a-week schedule after that.)

— Rodger Sherman

Today’s Lineup

1. Eyeing up the last week of the World Cup

2. Breaking down what probably won’t be our last controversial use of VAR

3. Wrapping up Wimbledon with some deadpan Czech humor

4️⃣ The Final Four 4️⃣

It’s just like the NCAA Tournament. We had our upsets and our Cinderellas. (Cape Verde even had a March Madness-style unique mascot — go Blue Sharks!)

But then things got serious, and only the 1-seeds remain. Literally! This is the first time FIFA seeded the top four teams into four separate quadrants, to ensure they wouldn’t play before the semifinals … and it’s the first time the four semifinalists are the top four ranked teams in the official FIFA rankings. Those two things are probably connected!

Here are the four teams:

1. Argentina, who entered the tournament as the #1-ranked team in the world, the defending World Cup champions, and back-to-back Copa America champions

2. Spain, who entered the tournament as the #2-ranked team in the world, and the reigning European champions

3. France, who entered the tournament as the #3-ranked team in the world, finalists at the last two World Cups and winners in 2018

4. England, who entered the tournament as the #4-ranked team in the world, and back-to-back finalists at Euros.

But enough about the FIFA Rankings … true prestige is topping the prestigious Sports! The Newsletter World Rankings. Here’s how I have the four remaining teams:

🇫🇷🥖🚲 FRANCE 🚲🥖🇫🇷 

I’m not sure a team of the 11 best non-French players in this tournament could beat LE JUGGERNAUT FRANÇAIS right now. (I asked Google Translate how to say “juggernaut” in French and it said “mastodonte” which seems like a different, equally scary thing.) France is the only team remaining that hasn’t had a draw or extra time victory — just win after win after win, five of the six by multiple goals. They’ve outscored their opposition by 14 goals in six games;

🇪🇸🚩🐂 SPAIN 🚩🐂🇪🇸

Spain finally allowed a goal against Belgium after keeping a clean sheet for the first 491 minutes of the tournament. (That’s about eight hours of scoreless soccer.) They’ve still only allowed seven shots on goal in six games. It’s been a bit harder finding offense —they needed a pair of late game-winners from super-sub Mikel Merino to win their last two games. Merino has scored three goals at major tournaments, all game-winners, all in the knockout rounds: In the 119th minute of the 2024 Euro quarterfinals, in the 91st minute against Portugal, and the 89th minute against Belgium. The man simply has no tolerance for extra time or penalties.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿👑💂‍♀️ ENGLAND 💂👑🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

I’m gonna be honest, I expected a team of English players who primarily play in England combust when exposed to North American weather. But they survived the altitude of the Azteca and the humidity of Miami. (AND they can do it on a rainy night in Stoke.) Jude Bellingham has gone full supernova in the knockout stages, scoring back-to-back braces against Mexico and Norway; the 23-year old now has twice as many World Cup goals as any other English player with the last name “B——-ham.”

🇦🇷🌞🥩 ARGENTINA 🥩🌞🇦🇷 

Argentina has now won back-to-back-to-back games in extra time, against Cape Verde, Egypt, and Switzerland. The last two featured … controversial decisions in Argentina’s favor. Against Switzerland, Argentina went almost 80 minutes without a shot on goal, and it took 40 minutes for the Argentines to break through after a Swiss red card. Either they’re blessed by the soccer gods, or they’re massively outperforming their actual talent level.

🟨🟥 A Killer Flop 🟨🟥

🇦🇷 Argentina 3 🇦🇷🇦🇷🇦🇷
🇨🇭 Switzerland 1 🇨🇭

We’ve all heard it before: you say something like “hey, anybody been watching the World C-“ and before you can even finish the sentence, the loudest person in the group is yelling “OH I JUST CANT STAND SOCCER. THERE’S JUST SO MUCH FLOPPING!”

But soccer actually has a harsh penalty for flopping, and it changed the trajectory of the World Cup. On Saturday night, Switzerland’s Breel Embolo was sent off when he received a yellow card for embellishment (Embolo-shment?) against Argentina, his second yellow of the game.

Embolo left the field in tears, and Switzerland’s upset hopes instantly ended. The Swiss had just scored five minutes before the red card and were looking dangerous, while Argentina hadn’t recorded a shot on goal in 60 minutes. Afterwards, Switzerland had zero shots on goal, while Argentina scored twice in extra time and won.

The call led to Swiss outrage and complaints about the potential overuse of VAR. But while it may seem a little unfair to alter a game’s for an non-violent act: they have the potential to change the sport for the better.

• The rulebook is clear. Simulation is a yellow card offense.

• That said, the mechanism by which Embolo was penalized is odd. This World Cup, FIFA introduced the use of VAR for “mistaken identity” errors. (Or on the Spanish broadcast, CONFUSIÓN DE IDENTIDAD, which is also a classic telenovela plot point.) In theory, “mistaken identity” allowed the VAR to fix situations where the referee accidentally gives a card to the wrong player — #10 instead of #11, etc. But the mistaken identity clause has been used for a seemingly dissimilar situation: Plays where the referee originally gives a card for a phantom foul, but the replay official notices that there was a dive on the play, and the player on the other team should instead receive a penalty for simulation.

• If the Argentine defender, Leandro Paredes, hadn’t first received a yellow card for the foul that never took place, the officials wouldn’t have been allowed to go back and give one to Embolo. Hence the “mistaken identity” ruling.

• It was the second time during the World Cup that we’ve seen a mistaken identity review used to swap a yellow card from a defender to a diving attacker. The first time occurred in the USA-Paraguay match, when a yellow card on Tim Ream was changed to a yellow card for simulation on Paraguay’s Miguel Almirón.  

• (Yes, that’s the same guy who got a red card for covering his mouth. He got penalized for BOTH weird rule changes this year.)

• Between this, the Egyptian goal in the Round of 16 that was disallowed because of a foul 100 yards from the goal, and a missed red card on Messi earlier in the tournament, people are starting to feel like Argentina is getting a friendly whistle as FIFA wants the sport’s most famous and popular player to stay alive. I WONDER WHERE PEOPLE GOT THE IDEA THAT FIFA MIGHT HELP CERTAIN TEAMS GAIN ADVANTAGES ON THE FIELD.

• But quite frankly, Embolo’s flop was egregious and cynical. He launched himself pre-contact. I could almost forgive that — perhaps it was just a split-second error in judgment — but Embolo continued rolling around on the ground, feigning injury, for an extended period of time. It was a clear attempt to trick the referee rather than simply playing sports.

• And while I understand skepticism about the overreach of VAR, I think anti-flopping crackdowns is actually a good use of replay review. The reason athletes flop (not just in soccer, but in every sport with officials) is because it’s hard to identify flopping in real time. It works! Athletes know there is little risk and high reward.

• But now, the dark art of diving is under a microscope for the first time. And I think players will be a lot less likely to hurl themselves at the ground over fictional fouls when they know the referee can rewind.

🇪🇸 Spain 2 🇪🇸🇪🇸
🇧🇪 Belgium 1 🇧🇪

Two Spanish goals on two rebounds off of two Belgian goalkeepers. Legendary Belgian GK Thibaut Courtois fumbled a shot in the first half, then got injured in the second. His backup Senne Lammens made an even worse error in the 89th minute that dropped the ball right to Spain’s Mikel Merino for the game-winner.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 England 2 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿
🇳🇴 Norway 1 🇳🇴

Erling Haaland failed to score, the first time in his last 15 games for the Norwegian team in which he was held scoreless — and they had won all 14 games in which he scored. Some of the blame for that has fallen on his teammate Alexander Sørloth, who couldn’t get off a pass to Haaland on a 2-on-1 breakaway:

Norway did score a go-ahead goal to take a 2-1 lead at one point, but it was disallowed because Haaland shoved his new Manchester City teammate Eliot Anderson to the ground. Haaland was got subbed off for the first time all World Cup before the second period of extra time.

This game featured CABLEGATE, as one of England’s goals allegedly came after the ball hit the camera wires above the field, but FIFA says the sensors in the ball didn’t detect a hit. 

Regardless: What a run for the Norwegians, who hadn’t been to the World Cup since 1998. If one thing can get Americans to truly love soccer, it’s the realization that there’s a big goofy Norwegian lad who scores goals by being faster and stronger than everybody, the greatest Viking we’ve seen since Randy Moss. (Kinda plays like him, too. Just throw it to the big guy and let him cook.) Safe rowing back to Norway, friends.

Rest in peace, Jayden Adams, 2001-2026

Devastating news from South Africa over the weekend, as news broke that 25-year old Jayden Adams died just weeks after playing in three World Cup games for South Africa, including the historic win over South Korea that sent them through to the knockout rounds of the World Cup for the first time ever.

It’s unfathomable that one of the players who played in this World Cup has already passed away. You picture the players going home and reminiscing for decades about the time they played on the world’s biggest stage. How could one of them already be gone, before the tournament is even over?

It’s a reminder to be grateful for every day we get, and that it’s never a bad time to tell the people in your life that you love them.

🤘🎸 Roch and Roll 🎸🤘

The Chicago White Sox picked UCLA shortstop Roch Cholowsky first overall in the MLB Draft. Somehow, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred botched the name of the player widely expected to be #1 overall. (And it’s pronounced like it’s spelled! He had to swerve hard to mispronounce it!)

The White Sox also used a first round pick on Landon Thome, son of former White Sox slugger Jim.

🇨🇿💔 Trophies > Friendship? 💔🇨🇿

One thing I find fascinating about tennis championships is the way they interview the loser on the court after the match. Not something you see in most other major sports! Karolína Muchová had one of the best lines in the history of runners-up: clearly devastated after losing the Wimbledon final to her fellow Czech Linda Nosková, she joked through the tears about “Linda, my ex-friend…”

(Don’t worry, I I think they’re actually still friends.)

It was the first Grand Slam win for Nosková. On the men’s side, Jannik Sinner won his second straight title.

🏌️‍♀️ Two for Ryu 🏌️‍♀️

South Korea’s Haeran Ryu won her second-straight major at the Evian Championship in France, defeating Brooke Henderson in a one-hole playoff. Ryu shot a 60 in the third round, breaking the record for the lowest round in women’s major history. The 25-year-old hadn’t won a major until three weeks ago, when she won the Women’s PGA Championship.

🦵🏥 Knee-tore-ious 🏥🦵

Conor McGregor’s return to UFC was short and painful: The 37-year-old suffered a non-contact knee injury on his first kick one minute into his first fight in five years. In the last ten years, McGregor is 1-5 as a fighter, including his much hyped, but pointless boxing match against Floyd Mayweather. I’m sure he’ll still manage to get paid a lot of money to fight again at some point in the future.

📈 Inflation, amirite? 📈

Tech billionaire Vinod Khosla has agreed to purchase the Seattle Seahawks for $9.6 billion. The sale smashes previous record for an NFL franchise sale was when the Commanders were sold for “just” $6 billion in 2023, and is more than twice as high as the record set in 2022 when the Broncos were sold for $4.5 billion. You think they’ll throw in a 2026 Super Bowl ring for Khosla, or is that the sort of thing money can’t buy?

In other news, if 2 billion more people upgrade to paid subscriptions to Sports!, we can buy an NFL team.

On Deck is written by Bradley Locker and Rodger Sherman.

🌍⚽🏆 World Cup Semifinals! 🏆⚽🌍

Hey, you know what stinks? That the two World Cup semifinals are on during the afternoon on weekdays in the United States. Look, I understand the logic — Europe watches soccer! A lot! — but we’re hosting this time! Shouldn’t we get a little bit of deference here? — RS

🇫🇷 France 🇫🇷 vs. 🇪🇸 Spain 🇪🇸

Tuesday, 3 p.m. ET in Arlington (FOX/Peacock/Telemundo) 

Could this be the de facto tournament final … AND THE BATTLE FOR ANDORRA. These two have had two exceptional matchups in the last two years: They played in the 2024 Euro semifinals and in last year’s Nations League semis — a stunning game in which Spain took a 4-0 lead, then allowed four French goals before winning 5-4. The Spanish defense seems a little better now, as they’ve only allowed one goal in the entire tournament … but Kylian Mbappé has eight all by himself. Something’s gotta give!

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 vs. 🇦🇷 Argentina 🇦🇷

Wednesday, 3 p.m. ET in Atlanta (FOX/Peacock/Telemundo)

The greatest rivalry in international soccer history (at least among nations that aren’t in the same hemisphere) gets a new chapter. 

These teams have played five World Cup matches, all controversial in their own way. In 1966 in England, Argentina’s Antonio Rattin refused to leave the pitch after his second yellow card, scrunching up a Union Jack flag before police escorted him off the field. In 1986, Diego Maradona scored the greatest goal in World Cup history and the blatantly illegal Hand of God goal, demonstrating total mastery of the game and total disregard for its rules a few minutes apart. In 1998, David Beckham was sent off in an England loss, but redeemed himself four years later by scoring the winning penalty against Argentina . England and Argentina have split the four matches two apiece, making Wednesday the rubber match.

AND OH YEAH! They fought a war against each other in the 1980s.— RS

⚾ MLB Home Run Derby ⚾

Monday, 8 p.m. ET in Philadelphia (Netflix)

Seven of this year’s Top 25 home-run hitters will take their swings to Philadelphia, highlighted by league leader and Phillies star Kyle Schwarber (32). While this year’s Derby doesn’t feature a ton of traditional star power outside of hometown standouts Schwarber and Bryce Harper, it does showcase several breakout sluggers like the Rays’ Junior Caminero, the Yankees’ Ben Rice, and the Cardinals’ Jordan Walker. Plus, a revamped format for the event will now center on swing count instead of time elapsed, which could lead to a lot of players waiting for the perfect pitch instead of just trying to bang every pitch out of the park. A sleeper to watch: the Royals’ Jac Caglianone. — BL

⭐⚾ MLB All-Star Game ⚾⭐

Tuesday, 8 p.m. ET in Philadelphia (FOX)

Juan Soto and the National League eye their third victory in four seasons. (Don’t worry, it doesn’t decide the World Series home team anymore.) Last year, Schwarber blasted three homers during the inaugural swing-off to win MVP — that would be the perfect end to the All-Star festivities in Philly. —BL