The 2026 World Cup semi-finals are set. For the first time in World Cup history, the four semi-finalists are the top four ranked teams in the world. Spain vs France in Dallas on Tuesday. England vs Argentina in Atlanta on Wednesday.

Coach's-eye segment on the biggest statistical trend of the tournament: every team that has shot first in a World Cup penalty shootout at this tournament has lost. 4 for 4. And in the last 13 WC shootouts before this one, teams going first have won just 15% of them. Before that: 49%, essentially a coin flip. Something has shifted. If your captain wins the coin toss, they should pick to shoot SECOND. Most coaches are still telling them to shoot first.

Plus: quarter-final recap. France 2-0 Morocco (Mbappé goal + assist). Spain 2-1 Belgium (Merino again, and Spain's 6-match clean-sheet run ends). England 2-1 Norway after extra time (Bellingham brace, including one goal that Norway's manager thinks was affected by "a cable falling from the sky" — being called the Cable of God, a 1986 callback). Argentina 3-1 Switzerland (Álvarez golazo from outside the box in the 112th, Argentina's 6th straight WC semi).

My call for the whole tournament: Spain still to win it. England to beat Argentina in the semi. Spain to beat France. Final in New Jersey on July 19: Spain lifts it.

Jürgen Klopp is the new Germany head coach. Officially agreed Sunday, formal announcement in two weeks. Coach's-eye on what he inherits, what he changes, why the Wirtz reunion matters, and why it might still not be enough. Plus: the DFB paid Nagelsmann a hefty severance to walk away — that's how badly they wanted him gone.

The USA-Trump-FIFA saga: Balogun red-carded in the Round of 32 vs Bosnia. Trump called Infantino. FIFA overturned the suspension. Belgium then beat USA 4-1 with De Ketelaere brace and assist, Balogun with 10 first-half touches and one saved shot. Belgium's federation X account after the whistle: "Overturn this." Greatest federation tweet in modern football.

Ronaldo's World Cup career is over. Spain 1-0 Portugal, Mikel Merino 91st-minute winner in Dallas. Diogo Costa kept Portugal alive as long as he could. Spain's 6th consecutive clean sheet. Cristiano finishes his WC career with 9 total goals across 5 tournaments. He never won the trophy.

Cabo Verde went out 3-2 to Argentina in extra time — Lopes Cabral scored a goal-of-the-tournament candidate, Vozinha made 8 saves, Messi (with his 20th career WC goal, all-time record) publicly admitted Argentina couldn't press them properly. Bubista's coaching masterclass is the coach's-eye lesson of the tournament.

Round of 16 carnage: Norway 2-1 Brazil (Ancelotti's project dead), Morocco 3-0 Canada (host out), England 3-2 Mexico (host out), Belgium 4-1 USA (third host out), Spain 1-0 Portugal, France 1-0 Paraguay. Post-R16 favorites: Spain still my pick. Norway is the dangerous dark horse. France-Morocco Thursday. Norway-England is the quarter-final of the tournament.

NBA offseason: Giannis to Miami. Kawhi to Toronto. Jaylen Brown for Paul George (Celtics/Sixers). Ja Morant to Portland. LaMelo to Minnesota. LeBron leaving the Lakers. And the Warriors are trying to build the oldest superteam in NBA history — LeBron, AD, Curry, Draymond, Porziņģis — with a combined age of 178 in the starting five. Coach's-eye on why that's nostalgia, not a title strategy.

Tuesday: Argentina-Egypt. Wednesday: Switzerland-Colombia. Thursday: Quarter-finals start with France-Morocco.

Germany are out of the World Cup. Round of 32. Penalties. To Paraguay. The four-time champions just lost their first ever WC penalty shootout. To the 34th-ranked team in the world.

The Tah header in extra time that was disallowed should have stood — ESPN's VAR analyst confirmed it. Schmeichel, Shearer, Friedel all said the same. Plus the Woltemade handball claim. Plus the disallowed penalty in the Ecuador match earlier. The refereeing was a mess.

But the refereeing didn't lose this. Nagelsmann did. Same system in every match. Sané a "black hole" on the right for the entire tournament. Wirtz — the £116M Liverpool man — wasted on the left when his best position is behind the striker, exactly what Vladimír Šmicer just publicly told Liverpool not to do. No pace in the squad. Substitutions that fixed things, coming too late, again. And in sudden death of the shootout, the SIXTH German taker was Jonathan Tah — a center back who, per the German commentator, "has never taken a penalty in his entire career." Tah skied it. Canale buried it. Out.

Bonus: the Netherlands also went out on penalties to Morocco. Saibari scored the winner. Hakimi hit the post. Multiple misses on both sides. Morocco plays Canada in the round of 16.

Plus: Brazil 2-1 Japan with a 95th-minute winner — Ancelotti's project is also fighting itself. Canada beat South Africa 1-0 with a Eustáquio stoppage-time winner. Real coach's-eye on why so many penalties are getting missed across the day — it's coaching, not pressure.

Tonight: Norway vs Ivory Coast. The dark horse is still alive.

Germany are through to the knockouts. Nagelsmann made a triple sub at the 60th, Deniz Undav scored twice, and Ivory Coast were beaten 2-1. Real coach's-eye lesson: when your starters aren't doing it, change the structure, don't wait. Most managers don't make that call. Nagelsmann did. Schlotterbeck off at halftime, replaced by Rüdiger, suspected ligament damage — Germany may be down a starting center back going into the knockouts.

Cabo Verde drew Uruguay 2-2 — Pina scored their first ever World Cup goal from a 32-meter free kick. Two draws against major football nations. They could qualify. Population 600,000.

Curaçao got their first World Cup point with a 0-0 against Ecuador. Their keeper Eloy Room made 15 saves — the most in 90 minutes of a World Cup match since records began in 1966.

Türkiye are OUT. 62 shots across two matches, zero goals — the worst two-match goalless run in World Cup history. Vincenzo Montella goes home.

Plus: the first mouth-covering red card in World Cup history — exactly as the rule was designed.

Then: I went to two VNL Women's matches at Huamark in Bangkok last week, and twenty years of coaching team sport jumped out at me. Even the pros can't pass — and I think I know why. Early specialization, the libero rule, and the cost of building specialists instead of generalists. Why Italy keep winning, why Thailand can take Canada to four sets, and what every youth coach in every team sport should be thinking about.

Thursday: Germany vs Ecuador. Final group match.

Germany 7-1 Curaçao. Big debut. Ivory Coast beat Ecuador in the 90th minute and Group E is still interesting. Neuer started. Calf held. Wirtz was excellent. Real test is Saturday in Toronto.

Other World Cup notes: Brazil were rescued by Vinícius against Morocco and look like a team still adjusting to Ancelotti. Sweden five-one'd Tunisia. Japan held the Netherlands 2-2 with an 89th-minute equalizer. Scotland got their first World Cup win in 28 years. Australia upset Türkiye.

NBA: The Knicks won the championship — first since 1973. The Spurs held leads of 12+ in all five games and converted one. Wembanyama walked off the court without shaking hands. He's 22 and learning what losing feels like. Brunson was Finals MVP at 29 and deserves more credit than he's getting.

UFC Freedom 250 from the White House South Lawn: Justin Gaethje TKO'd Ilia Topuria via corner stoppage in round 4. Topuria's first career loss. Ciryl Gane denied Alex Pereira a three-division title by beating him in round 2. All seven fights ended in finishes.

Saturday: Germany vs Ivory Coast in Toronto. The real test.

Germany 2-1 USA in Chicago. Havertz in the 2nd, Sané with the winner in the 57th, and an Antonee Robinson goal in between that you should look up. Germany got the win but the Neuer-Baumann question is still unresolved seven days from the opener. Lennart Karl is out of the squad with a thigh injury. Coach's-eye honest take: Germany are about 10% to win this tournament, and that's being generous.

Plus a proper World Cup preview: Spain are the favorites and probably the right pick. Argentina are the narrative pick. France are the coin flip. Brazil under Ancelotti is the genuinely unknown variable. Norway are everyone's dark horse with Haaland and Ødegaard. Morocco are still being called a dark horse even after making the semis in Qatar. Belgium are quietly scoring seven goals in two friendlies and nobody is talking about them.

Christian Eriksen collapsed on a pitch in Denmark on Sunday. He's in hospital, he's stable, his pacemaker did its job. We wish him well.

FIFA's new rules: 5-second goal kicks, 10-second substitutions, mouth-covering red cards, expanded VAR. The 5-second rule is going to fundamentally change how some teams play.

Women's VNL just started — USA control, Italy still the team to beat, Germany off to a good start, China losing at home.

NBA Finals: Knicks up 2-0 on the Spurs. Wembanyama threw a pass into his teammate's back to lose Game 2. He's 22. He'll be back. Maybe this series, maybe next year.

The World Cup starts Thursday Bangkok time. Germany play Curaçao on Sunday. In Houston.

We're back after a week off. The football season ended without us — Bayern won the DFB-Pokal 3-0 over Stuttgart with a Kane hat-trick, PSG won the Champions League final on penalties against Arsenal, and Wolfsburg lost the relegation playoff to Paderborn. Three new clubs in the Bundesliga next season, including Elversberg, who play in a town of 12,800 people.

The actual story of the past two weeks: the Spurs beat OKC 4-3 in the Western Conference Finals. Wembanyama outplayed SGA. Real basketball beat foul-baiting. NBA Finals start Thursday: Spurs vs Knicks. Spurs in six.

Plus: Germany beat Finland 4-0 in a meaningless friendly (Finland aren't at the World Cup). A coach's-eye preview of what to actually watch for the German team in two weeks. AAA's mask-vs-mask match in Mexico on Saturday was the best wrestling storyline of the year — Chad Gable unmasked, gave a heartfelt speech, and we explain why this is a coach's-eye masterclass in commitment. Clash in Italy: Cody beat Gunther on a controversial finish, and Brock Lesnar is back winning. Again.

Next week: World Cup is two weeks away. NBA Finals underway. Lots to talk about.

Bayern equalized in the 94th. They were dead in the 3rd. Dembélé scored before the Allianz crowd sat down, then PSG defended for 87 minutes — and we have a coach's-eye correction to do about last week's body-language read, because Luis Enrique just showed how a real coach manages his team's psychology at this level.

Plus: Bundesliga matchday 33 produced relegation chaos - Heidenheim climbs, St. Pauli sinks, Wolfsburg ...stays. All three play at the same time Saturday. Eta got her first win. Riera might be done at Frankfurt. Stuttgart destroyed Leverkusen one week after Leverkusen destroyed Leipzig. The Bundesliga is now the most chaotic-at-the-bottom league in Europe.

In the NBA: Knicks sweep Sixers, OKC about to sweep Lakers, Wemby vs Edwards is the next decade. UFC: Strickland upsets Chimaev. WWE: Asuka may have just said goodbye.

PSG vs Arsenal in Budapest, May 30. Bayern in the DFB Pokal final on May 24. Bundesliga finishes this weekend.