Arguably, the best matchup of the group stage arrives on Saturday night

Co-hosts Canada face Bosnia-Herzegovina at World Cup - watch live at top of pageBBC Radio 5 Live commentary also available via 'watch & listen' tabLukic heads Bosnia in front at Toronto StadiumEx-Man City forward Dzeko on bench for Bosnia - full team news hereHow to watch the World Cup on BBC | Team-by-team guide | Pundit predictions Watch live as Lukic heads Bosnia in front against co-hosts Canada at World Cup

Eleven NFL stadiums are playing host to the World Cup this summer, but each have required substantial alterations to host the beautiful game.

The family of a female wrestler in Washington state is suing education officials and school districts over allegations that the teenager was sexually assaulted by a transgender opponent.

Luke Reece never played hockey growing up in the Toronto suburb of Mississauga. Instead, he played soccer, like many Canadians who are now adults.The sport is so popular it has surpassed hockey and all other sports in youth participation, according to a recent report by Jumpstart, a Canadian charity that helps low-income youth play organized sports. It said half the nations youth participate in organized soccer.Reece was one of many locals sporting Canada soccer gear on Thursday ahead of their nations World Cup opener Friday against Bosnia-Herzegovina.Wish I had tickets to the game tomorrow, but I dont, Reece said. Im going to a game in Vancouver. It was cheaper to get a ticket out there.Is Canada about to have a soccer moment?It already has a good hold in this country in terms of participation. I think we all expect that to grow. These tournaments inspire so many next-generation people to find their heroes, play the game, said Christina Linz, president of the women's Northern Super League. I think (it) will really draw those emotional connections.Thursday in Toronto looked a bit like wear-your-favorite-soccer-jersey day as the tournament opened in Mexico. Canadas red tops, like the one worn by Reece, were among the most popular.Mexico (No. 13) and the United States (No. 17), the other co-hosts for the World Cup, each sit higher in FIFAs rankings than Canada, which is 30th, but that means theres more to gain for the Canadians. Especially when it comes to generating passion for the sport.Canada coach Jesse Marsch said Thursday he has felt a real momentum behind this team and behind this moment as Canada Soccer, the sports national governing body, looks to capitalize on hosting the World Cup for the first time.Canada has become more and more multicultural, and I think the excitement for so many different nations to be here in North America and in Canada, and to be playing with all of the greatest players in the world and some of the greatest coaches, I think that theres real excitement behind what this will be, Marsch said.Potentially stalling the potential of Marschs squad is the absence of star defender Alphonso Davies, who was ruled out for Fridays match as he continues to nurse a hamstring injury sustained during Bayern Munich's Champions League semifinal against Paris Saint-Germain on May 6.Marsch is hopeful that Davies will be able to return at some point in the group stage. He said Davies had an MRI on Wednesday.Were getting ready to ramp things up, Marsch said Thursday.Davies is one of many Canada players fighting injuries. Defender Moise Bombito is recovering from a broken leg, but Marsch said Bombito is ready to contribute.Regardless of whos on the pitch for Canada, its ready to make a statement, and players are eager to prove their country is a soccer nation.Every one of these boys is incredibly Canadian, and the pride they have in putting on the jersey, representing the country, hearing the national anthem, Marsch said. These guys sing the national anthem, belt it out to the top of their lungs, because they want to show the country how proud they are to be here, to be Canadians, and to represent what Canada is.___Lexie Linderman is a student in the John Curley Center for Sports Journalism at Penn State.___AP World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-world-cup

Several top pro athletes and their surgeons say a modern version of an old tool is shaving weeks off the recovery time for certain injuries. And some top doctors think this is only the beginning.Cy Young Award winners Tarik Skubal and Blake Snell let doctors use the instrument on their prized elbows. Connor Hellebuyck, the 2025 Hart Trophy winner as NHL MVP, trusted it to address issues in his knee. Several NFL players have turned to it, too.Its called the NanoNeedle scope 2.0, a miniaturized, flexible version of the traditional arthroscope. It's very early there is little published research on the model but it is accumulating an impressive list of proponents.Every time Ive used it, including when I started using it in the lab, different types of procedures occur to me that we could do, said Dr. Neal ElAttrache, the head team physician for the Los Angeles Dodgers and Los Angeles Rams.An arthroscope is a pencil-like tube with a camera that goes into joints, expands the area with salt water or saline, and projects an image onto a screen. Then doctors insert secondary instruments in the same area to perform the surgical procedure. With the diminished size 1.9 millimeters in diameter, compared to 4 millimeters for a traditional scope the NanoNeedle is designed to cause less pain, inflammation and tissue damage, leading to a faster recovery. It uses much less fluid than a traditional scope, and it also is proving to be a valuable tool when it comes to diagnosing the extent of certain injuries.Basically, were able to accomplish anatomic type of work and repair with far less surgical trauma, ElAttrache said.Star athletes have returned ahead of schedule after NanoNeedle proceduresThe NanoNeedle was used when Skubal had a loose body removed from his left elbow by ElAttrache on May 6, and again when Snell had a similar elbow surgery on May 19.When Skubal a two-time AL Cy Young Award winner who is eligible for free agency after this season was placed on the injured list, the Detroit Tigers said the ace would be sidelined for two to three months. But he is expected to return on Saturday after pitching five scoreless innings in a rehab start on Sunday a turnaround of about 5 1/2 weeks.ElAttrache said he has used the NanoNeedle scope with four patients, but he declined to identify the other two cases. Snell had a bigger operation that also involved the sculpting of a spur, but ElAttrache is optimistic about the timeline for the left-hander's return to the Dodgers.The percentage of time out, I think, is going to be about half the time for Snell, ElAttrache said.Hellebuyck, a three-time Vezina Trophy winner as the NHLs top goalie, had arthroscopic surgery on his right knee on Nov. 22. He was expected to be sidelined for four to six weeks, but he was back in net for the Winnipeg Jets after three weeks.Dr. James Voos, the head team physician for the Cleveland Browns, said he has used the NanoNeedle during procedures on five Browns players, including center Luke Wypler's ankle fracture surgery.Ankles and elbows I think are areas where it has had very great utility and then rapidly adopted, said Voos, who also serves as the president of the NFL Physicians Society. And were finding more and more uses in the knee and shoulder.In addition to his duties with the Browns, Voos is the chair of the orthopedics departments at University Hospitals and Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. He already has seen benefits when it comes to the treatment of younger athletes.There are some very challenging elbow injuries in gymnasts and baseball players that the previous cameras were too large for the joint, Voos said. Theyre designed for adult joints. So the smaller camera allows us to see and work in these smaller spaces. In pediatrics and adolescence, that was more challenging and potentially caused more damage before, some more soft tissue damage.NanoNeedle has been in the works for a few years, and it's still evolvingThe NanoNeedle was developed by Arthrex, a Florida-based company that makes medical supplies. Voos is an educational consultant for Arthrex, and ElAttrache has worked with the company for more than 30 years.The initial version was created in 2019, according to Ryan Kellar, a senior product manager at Arthrex. There was another version that came out in 2023 before the current model with upgraded visualization, processing and imaging was released in August.This is our third iteration, Kellar said. We already have the fourth iteration coming in the fall. That fourth iteration is going to be everything that this conventional scope is at all the less invasive benefits of nano arthroscopy. So we really believe that nano is the next foundation of less invasive orthopedic care for general population, as well as kind of a gold standard for athletes.Dr. Kyle Hammond, the head team physician for the Atlanta Falcons and head orthopedic surgeon for the Atlanta Hawks, has used the NanoNeedle in a teaching setting as an orthopedic surgeon at Emory Healthcare and assistant professor at Emory University School of Medicine. But he hasn't used it on a patient yet.Hammond said other companies have made similar devices for needle arthroscopy, but he praised the quality of the camera and the video feed with the NanoNeedle, along with its ease of use.It really has basically become very similar to what our standard arthroscopy equipment is, he said. Its just on a smaller scale.The current version of the NanoNeedle is disposable, raising questions about cost versus the expense of sterilization for the reusable traditional arthroscope. Like anything in science, Hammond said, more usage and research are needed to assess the benefits of the new design versus the standard version of the scope.To kind of determine if they have true efficacy over the standard of care, they have to be used for a long period of time and you have to collect data and you kind of have to prove that from a statistical model, Hammond said.Dr. Brian Cole, the head team physician for the Chicago Bulls, said the level of adoption will depend in large part on the willingness of clinicians to incorporate the scope into their workflow.Theres a sort of econometric analysis on top of a healthcare analysis at the same time, said Cole, who also is a consultant for Arthrex. But I would say directionally, this is where were going. Less invasive, cost-effective, predictable, eliminating problems that we might or could have with existing technology. So, in that regard, this is very innovative, you know, in my opinion, and its consistent with the direction were going in.___AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports

Both Iran and Pakistan say a deal has never been closer - echoing US President Donald Trump's statement on Thursday.

Toronto hat Millionen fr VIP-Tickets bei der WM ausgegeben. Diese verkauft die Stadtverwaltung mit Gewinn weiter, um die Kosten des Turniers zu refinanzieren.[mehr]

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L'Argentine a partag avec l'administration amricaine une liste de 13.000 pres de famille en dfaut de paiement de leur pension alimentaire pour qu'ils ne puissent pas assister aux matches de la Coupe du monde de football aux tats-Unis. Les coquipiers de Lionel Messi y disputent leurs trois premiers matches du tournoi.