Ahead of the United States' World Cup opening match against Paraguay on Friday, former U.S. men's national team assistant coach and current Canada head coach Jesse Marsch shared his experience leading the USA in the 2010 World Cup. Marsch threw a dig at the U.S. team, and former players did not hesitate to respond. But let's back up. Marsch opened up about his time leading USA under former head coach Bob Bradley, and commented about his perspective around the players specifically what he thought was lacking. "In the U.S., we had to beg players to sing the national anthem," Marsch said. Marschs comments did not faze FOX Sports Clint Dempsey who played for Marsch and the American national team in the 2010 World Cup. "I cant take that guy too seriously," Dempsey said ahead of Canadas opening match against Bosnia and Herzegovina on Friday. "It was an honor for me, growing up and representing my country. I wasnt someone who would normally sing. I put my hand over my heart and pray to the good man upstairs." Dempsey remains one of the USAs most talented players across his three World Cup appearances he was the only player to score in all three and recorded 54 goals in 141 appearances with the United States. When it comes to playing for the U.S., Dempsey emphasized his experience representing his country. "I bled for this country. I broke my nose playing for this country. I came back from two heart procedures and played for this country," Dempsey added. "Im not going to take advice from someone who switched to the other side and is singing for another countrys national anthem." Marsch assisted Bradley from 2010-2011 and was a part of the Americans' 2010 World Cup staff when the squad posted a first-place finish in Group C before being eliminated by Ghana in the round of 16. Marsch was strongly considered taking over as the United States head coach in 2023, but he was ultimately sidelined when former coach Gregg Berhalter was rehired. Additionally, FOX Sports Thierry Henry offered his advice to Marsch ahead of his World Cup debut. "You got to walk the walk and talk the talk. You cant hide behind the fact that you are a decent team," Henry said ahead of Canadas opener. "You took a job, by the way, that someone started That team was already there when he arrived. Yes, he elevated them. Lets see what he can do today against Bosnia [and Herzegovina]." Since Marsch arrived to Team Canada in 2024, he has accumulated a 12-12-5 record.

Videos circulated of the Spurs star being pelted with eggs outside the team hotel

If you declared the Atlanta Braves the best team in baseball as we reach the middle of June, you wouldnt find many who could argue with that. The Braves, who are 45-23 with an eight-game lead in the NL East entering play Friday, have been the most consistent team in the sport so far in 2026. For most of this season, Atlanta has held either the best record in all of MLB or the best record in the National League.With dominant pitching and a robust offense, the Braves success in 2026 has resembled what weve come to expect from their talented roster over the past several seasons. But last year, due to a combination of injury and underperformance from some of the homegrown stars, Atlanta missed the postseason for the first time in eight seasons.So far this year, despite injuries to key contributors such as Spencer Strider, Drake Baldwin, Sean Murphy, Spencer Schwellenbach, Hurston Waldrep and now Ronald Acua Jr., Atlanta has thrived and put significant distance between itself and the second-place Philadelphia Phillies who, without their surge in May, couldve been behind in the division by double digits by now.2026 Soccer Pick 'Em with FOX One: The group stage is here. Make your picks now!Resilience has become a marker of the Braves teams over the past several seasons. And it appears that even with their success early in 2026, theyll have to tap into that again this summer, as superstar outfielder Acua is on the injured list for the second straight month due to a left hamstring strain. The 28-year-old supernova injured the hamstring while running to first base on Tuesday against the White Sox and immediately exited the game. He injured the same hamstring a month ago in similar fashion.Its a Grade 1, Braves manager Walt Weiss said this week. So it's not terrible, but enough that we had to IL him. We could be waiting around for a while if we were playing shorthanded and we were waiting for this thing to heal. So [we] went ahead and put him on the IL. I don't think it's as severe as the last one, but still gonna need some time.Even if its not severe, the hamstring strain comes as a huge blow for Acua, who was really starting to heat up at the plate. Over his past 11 games, the former NL MVP recorded a .316/.458/.737 slash line with five homers and seven stolen bases. So while the Braves believe they dodged a bullet with the Grade 1 strain, another injury to the teams best player is undeniably bad news and something their offense will have to overcome.It's frustrating [for Acua], Weiss said. Its frustrating for any athlete that gets injured, you know. It's all part of it. Unfortunately, Ronald's had to deal with it, you know, more than his fair share. But I think it's very important that we get over this not that there was any lingering effects from the first one. He was 100 percent obviously, running around like he was, but he's got to make sure he gets through this and back on the field and helping us win games.Can the Braves keep pace as the National League's best team without Ronald Acua Jr.?Grant Thomas/Yahoo SportsBeyond Acua, the production in Atlantas lineup has come from two main sources: first baseman Matt Olson, who leads the team in hits and home runs, and center fielder Michael Harris II, who has returned to the form that made him the NL Rookie of the Year in 2022. But the level at which Atlanta has been playing requires production from more than just the stars. Case in point: Designated hitter Dominic Smith has provided unexpected impact so far this season, hitting .291 with six homers in 55 games. And lately, veteran utilityman Mauricio Dubn has provided a spark, batting .360 with a 1.189 OPS and three homers in his past seven games. If the Braves are going to keep pace as one of MLBs top teams even without Acua, Smith and Dubn will have to keep it up.Max Scherzer joins elite companyBlue Jays right-hander Max Scherzer is 41 years old, but if theres one thing he still knows how to do, its strike hitters out. Scherzer joined rarified air on Wednesday against the Phillies, becoming just the 11th pitcher in MLB history to record 3,500 career strikeouts. The Blue Jays right-hander fooled Phillies slugger Kyle Schwarber, striking him out looking on a changeup to reach the historic mark.Scherzer is the first MLB hurler to surpass 3,500 strikeouts since Detroit Tigers right-hander Justin Verlander reached the milestone in 2025. Scherzer, who will be 42 next month, is currently 11th on the all-time MLB strikeout list. Hes just 12 strikeouts away from passing Hall of Famer Walter Johnson and 31 away from passing Hall of Famer Gaylord Perry for ninth all time.

One year after announcing his abrupt retirement on social media, former Lions center Frank Ragnow broke his silence on the process and the failed physical that prevented his in-season return.

The 2026 FIFA World Cup resumes Saturday with the tournaments two remaining hosts, Canada and the USA, kicking off their campaigns (from 5am AEST).

There had been a party atmosphere in the air as thousands of Canada fans gathered in the streets of downtown Toronto and marched to the stadium.

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

Jovo Lukic heads Bosnia in front against co-hosts Canada in the opening game in Group B at the Toronto Stadium in the 2026 World Cup.

Kai Havertz spricht im Sportschau-Interview mit Alex Schlter ber die Stimmung im DFB-Team und seine Rolle in der Mannschaft. Die Rufe aus Deutschland, Deniz Undav msse im Sturm spielen, lassen ihn kalt.[mehr]

Oklahoma City Comets (37-28) vs. Charlotte Knights (36-30)Game #66 of 150/First Half #66 of 75/Road #34 of 75Pitching Probables: OKC-LHP Charl... - PCL Oklahoma City Comets