Mexico usually hits a wall when it plays on the opening day of the World Cup. Of the seven previous occurrences, El Tri's record is five losses and two draws. Mexico gets another shot Thursday when it hosts South Africa to kick off the 48-team tournament. "We must break that trend," coach Javier Aguirre told a news conference Wednesday at the Azteca stadium. "I did not know about that," he said of the winless sequence, "but Ill mention it to the guys. Its a good reason to tell them we need to go out there and win the match. Lets hope we break that trend tomorrow." Thursday's game is a rematch of the 2010 World Cup opener in South Africa. That game ended in a 1-1 draw at Johannesburg. Aguirre, who is in his third stint as Mexico manager, has the team playing its best football in years and riding a seven-game unbeaten streak. El Tris last loss was against Paraguay in November. "It could be a great day for us; come what may, it will be a celebration that endures for decades," said Aguirre, who played for Mexico at the 1986 World Cup on home soil when the Mexican squad didn't contest the tournament opener but did reach the quarterfinals. "I hope we get off on the right foot, just as we did back then," he added. "The players know it: tomorrow could be a historic day for many of them, as it is unlikely these guys will ever experience a World Cup on home soil again." Mexico lost its opening-day games in 1930, 1950, 1954, 1958 and 1962 and had draws in 1970 at home and 2010. Some of those tournaments had games kicking off simultaneously on opening day, such as Uruguay in 1930 when France beat Mexico 41 while the United States defeated Belgium 30. At the 1986 World Cup, defending champion Italy played the tournament opener against Bulgaria a 1-1 draw in Mexico City. The Mexican team played its first group-stage game two days later and had a 2-1 win over Belgium. Old Rivals Aguirre and Hugo Broos, an ex-Belgium international who is now South Africa coach, played against each other that day. "I vividly remember the confidence with which we took the field to face Belgium. We felt certain the match wouldnt go poorly; we understood the challenge Belgium posed, and the South Africa coach who played in that match learned from that experience," Aguirre added. Broos, who was appointment in May 2021, has South Africa to its first FIFA World Cup in 16 years and also secured a third-place finish at the 2023 African Cup of Nations. "For sure it is big challenge, to play in front of 87,000 Mexicans, but I will tell the players to focus on the match. The Mexicans (supporters) at the stadium do not play, they just shout and sing and dance," Broos said. "We have to focus on the game (and) if we can do that and not be bothered by the noise of the Mexicans, we can have a good game tomorrow." After losing to Mexico in 1986, Broos and Belgium rallied to reach the semifinals. Mexico lost to Germany on penalty kicks in the round of 16. "We dont have the pressure that belongs to the host," Broos said. "We are prepared very well for tomorrows match." Reporting by The Associated Press.

Three opening ceremonies will be taking place in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, and here's what to know

On this action packed edition of The Dunker Spot, Nekias Duncan and Steve Jones break down a historic night at MSG as the Knicks come back from 29 points down to take a commanding 3-1 lead against the Spurs.If you ever have NBA or WNBA questions, email us at dunkerspot@yahoo.com(0:25) Knicks' historic comeback vs. Spurs (7:46) Key takeaways from Game 4OG Anunoby #8 of the New York Knicks shoots the game winning shot during the game against the San Antonio Spurs during Game Four of the 2026 NBA Finals on June 10, 2026 at Madison Square Garden in New York, New York.Joe Murphy Subscribe to the all new Yahoo Sports NBA channel on YouTube! Watch this full episodeon theYahoo Sports NBA YouTube channelCheck out the rest of the Yahoo Sports podcast family at https://apple.co/3zEuTQj or at yahoosports.tv

Shohei Ohtani cruised through the first six innings Wednesday before things unraveled in the seventh, including a missed ABS challenge that helped the Pirates rally and set the stage for a 9-8 win over the Dodgers.

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For all the shots Victor Wembanyama hit to get the San Antonio Spurs to the NBA Finals, the series is beginning to be defined by a few of his misses.After clanking his shot off the rim at the buzzer on what would have been the Game 2 winner, Wembanyama did the same on two key free throws late in Game 4 on Wednesday night. With the chance to put his team up by three with 1:47 left, he instead went 0 for 2, and the New York Knicks took the lead and went on to win 107-106 on OG Anunobys tip-in with 1.2 seconds left.Its just a shot, Wembanyama said. You might work on your form hours and hours. At the end of the day its just a shot, so you need to shoot it the normal way.Wembanyama and the Spurs are now on the brink of elimination, down 3-1 in the best-of-seven series. It mattered little that the 7-foot-4 big man from France scored 24 points and had 13 rebounds.It mattered more that the Knicks held Wembanyama to eight points in the second half on the way to rallying from 29 points down, the largest comeback in finals history. Game 5 is Saturday night San Antonio.Its going to go one of two ways, Wembanyama said. One of two ways, a bad one and a good one. The bad one would be giving up. The good one would be getting stronger through this, getting more together. I know this is what were going to do.Wembanyama enters Game 5 on the edge of possible discipline after being called for a flagrant foul early in the second half for a right elbow to Karl-Anthony Towns chin. Because of the NBAs flagrant foul point system, he now has three and is one more away from an automatic one-game suspension.Of course Im going to be a little more careful, but its not going to change much, Wembanyama said. An officiating decision in the aftermath of Game 3 going the other way would have put him in danger of already staring down a suspension. The NBA acknowledged officials missed Wembanyama striking Knicks guard Jalen Brunson in the head but did not retroactively make it a flagrant.The leagues going to do what theyre going to do, New York coach Mike Brown said before Game 4. They arent going to listen to me. They arent going to listen to nobody else.Wembanyama early in Game 4 looked to be getting under the skin of his opponents. After scoring on Mitchell Robinson and letting him hear about it while going back down the court late in the first quarter, he took a forearm to the face and appeared to say, Im in your head, bro, while pointing to his right temple.A similar play happened early in the second, when 6-foot guard Jose Alvarado jostled with Wembanyama before ultimately pushing the 7-4 big mans right leg to get him to the ground. Things changed after halftime. San Antonio had its biggest lead of the night at 81-52 when Wembanyama elbowed Towns, and the Knicks outscored the Spurs 55-25 the rest of the way.Wembanyama played all but three minutes of the first half, which coach Mitch Johnson called normal. Johnson said Wembanyama, who ended up playing nearly 44 minutes, got a little more playing time to try to close it out.With two days after this, what was at stake, we wanted to win the game and try to put it away, Johnson said.Asked if that caused him to wear down as the game went on, Wembanyama responded: Substitution patterns, I dont know. Its not really my expertise. But, yeah, I guess I did.___AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA

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Curaaos Torwart bezeichnet Manuel Neuer als groes Vorbild. David Raum unterstreicht die deutschen Titelambitionen. Alle Nachrichten rund um das DFB-Team im Liveblog.[mehr]

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