High mortgage rates aren’t the only reason homeownership remains out of reach for many Americans.

Behind the scenes, homebuilders are grappling with an overlooked challenge — a shortage of skilled workers — that is slowing construction and making it harder to close the nation’s housing gap.

Builders say the labor shortage is creating a ripple effect throughout the housing market, delaying projects, raising construction costs and limiting the number of new homes coming online at a time when demand continues to outpace supply.

BIDEN’S ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION SURGE CAUSED HIGHER RENT AND HOME PRICES, FED STUDY FINDS

NAHB estimates government regulations add nearly $132,000 to the price of a typical new home. (Matthew Busch/Bloomberg/Getty Images / Getty Images)

“Labor is one of the largest and most expensive inputs when it comes to home production and land development,” Jim Tobin, president and CEO of the National Association of Home Builders, told Fox News Digital.

He said that every month, the construction industry is short by approximately 250,000 workers.

“It’s been as high as 400,000 jobs short when we were really cooking along a few years ago,” Tobin said, adding that the labor gap “is a persistent shortage.”

And the industry’s labor needs are only expected to grow in coming years.

THE KEY STRATEGY RED STATES ARE USING TO LOWER HOUSING COSTS REVEALED

Housing industry leaders say states that have prioritized homebuilding have been better positioned to accommodate population growth and economic expansion. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)

A recent Home Builders Institute and National Association of Home Builders report estimates builders will need roughly 723,000 new workers annually to keep pace with demand and help close the nation’s 1.5 million-home housing gap.

The shortage is already affecting how quickly homes can be built. According to Home Builders Institute President and CEO Ed Brady, labor constraints are extending construction timelines and driving up costs.

ONE TYPE OF PROPERTY IS QUIETLY SAVING AMERICANS THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS

“This shortage adds nearly two extra months to building timelines, inflating costs and delaying delivery,” Brady told Fox News Digital.

Builders say replenishing the skilled trades pipeline is only part of the solution.

GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE

An “Open House” sign in front of a home for sale in the Woodland Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, California on July 13, 2025.  (Eric Thayer/Bloomberg/Getty Images / Getty Images)

Tobin said many construction jobs do not require a four-year college degree and can provide stable, middle-class careers, but the home construction industry has struggled for years to attract enough workers to replace retiring tradespeople.

Wordle players searching for Sunday’s answer can find it here: the solution to puzzle #1849, released July 12, 2026, is CLACK, according to multiple outlets tracking the daily New York Times word game.

The five-letter word refers to a sharp, abrupt, rhythmic sound produced when two hard objects strike against each other rapidly, such as the noise of an old mechanical keyboard, colliding pool balls, or train wheels rolling over track joints. Puzzle trackers described Sunday’s word as a moderate challenge for solvers, noting that some players gravitated quickly toward the correct meaning while others were initially thrown off by words evoking similar sounds or unrelated concepts, including air travel, geometry and carpentry, before ultimately landing on the correct answer.

For those working through the puzzle before checking the solution, several structural clues were available to help narrow down the possibilities. The word contains a single vowel alongside four consonants, along with one repeated letter, and begins with the letter C. Puzzle guides also offered a wordplay-style hint describing the answer as “the signature noise produced by typing on an old-fashioned mechanical keyboard,” alongside its resemblance to words such as “snack,” “track” and “back,” given that it rhymes with each.

Wordle challenges players to guess a hidden five-letter word within six attempts, using color-coded tile feedback to indicate whether each guessed letter is correct and correctly placed, correct but misplaced, or absent from the word entirely. The game, created by software engineer Josh Wardle in 2021, was acquired by The New York Times the following year after surging in popularity, and has since become a fixture of the paper’s daily games lineup alongside titles such as Connections, Strands and the Mini Crossword.

Puzzle trackers offered a familiar set of strategic reminders for players working through Sunday’s word or preparing for future puzzles. Common advice includes opening with a word containing frequently used letters such as R, S, T, N and L to quickly surface useful information, testing different vowel placements early in the guessing process, and treating even an incorrect guess as useful data by paying close attention to which letters turn green, yellow or gray. Guides also cautioned against ruling out repeated letters too quickly, noting that Wordle answers occasionally reuse the same letter twice, as in past answers like SHEEP or BLOOM, a pattern Sunday’s answer, CLACK, also followed with its doubled C.

Players down to their final guesses were advised to avoid speculative attempts once the field of possibilities had narrowed significantly, instead favoring answers that satisfy every constraint established by prior feedback rather than guessing based on instinct alone. Analysts of the game’s daily difficulty patterns have generally noted that maintaining composure in the final one or two guesses, rather than rushing, tends to produce better outcomes than reactive guessing under pressure.

Saturday’s puzzle, #1848, carried the answer AVIAN, according to solution trackers, continuing a recent stretch of varied five-letter words spanning different categories and levels of difficulty. The Times maintains a full archive of past Wordle puzzles, allowing players who want extra practice, or who missed a previous day’s word, to revisit earlier solutions at their own pace.

Beyond the standard daily puzzle, Wordle’s broader ecosystem has continued to expand in recent years, inspiring a range of spinoff and companion games that build on its core mechanics. Among the more prominent examples is Worldle, a geography-based riff on the format in which players attempt to identify a country based on its outline shape, receiving distance-based feedback in kilometers after each guess, within the same six-attempt structure as the original game. Recent Worldle answers have included countries such as Ethiopia, Italy, Mali and Taiwan over the preceding week, according to puzzle trackers following that spinoff separately. Other Wordle-inspired games mentioned alongside Sunday’s puzzle updates included Octordle and Quordle, both of which challenge players to solve multiple hidden words simultaneously rather than just one.

The puzzle’s continued popularity nearly five years after its original release has been attributed in large part to its simplicity and shareability. Each day brings exactly one new word, with no ads interrupting the format, and players can share their results on social media through a grid of colored squares that reveals their guessing pattern without spoiling the actual answer for others who haven’t yet played. That shareable format helped fuel Wordle’s rapid rise in the early 2020s and has continued to sustain a large, dedicated daily audience in the years since.

The Times’ companion analysis tool, Wordle Bot, continues to offer players detailed statistical breakdowns of their performance on each day’s puzzle, including how efficiently a given guess eliminated remaining possibilities and how a player’s overall approach compares with the broader base of daily solvers. Data cited by puzzle trackers covering Sunday’s word did not include finalized average-guess figures at the time of publication, though the Times’ internal Wordlebot statistics for the previous day’s puzzle, AVIAN, showed a range of solving outcomes across the player base.

Players who did not solve Sunday’s puzzle were reminded by tracking outlets that a new Wordle puzzle becomes available every day at midnight in each player’s local time zone, meaning a missed word carries no bearing on future attempts and streak-conscious players can simply pick back up with the next day’s release. The Times has continued to expand its broader portfolio of daily puzzle offerings in recent years, part of a wider strategy aimed at keeping readers returning to its games platform on a consistent basis, with Wordle remaining the most widely recognized entry point into that ecosystem.

Monday’s Wordle puzzle is set to reset at midnight local time, continuing the game’s unbroken daily cadence. Players looking for an early head start on hints can typically expect a new round of guides and clues to appear across puzzle-tracking sites shortly after the transition, following the same structural format used for Sunday’s reveal.

Puzzle fans working through Sunday’s New York Times Connections game have their solution: puzzle #1127, released July 12, 2026, sorted 16 words into four groups spanning fruit terminology, candy brands, a college-life motto and geographic wordplay tied to U.S. state capitals, according to multiple outlets tracking the daily puzzle.

Connections challenges players to organize 16 seemingly unrelated words into four hidden groups of four, with each group linked by a shared theme, color-coded by difficulty from yellow, the easiest, through green, blue and finally purple, traditionally the most difficult and often built around wordplay rather than straightforward meaning. Players select four words at a time and submit a guess, with the game indicating correct groupings by color and offering a “one away” warning when a guess is close but not quite right. Four incorrect guesses end the puzzle.

Sunday’s yellow category centered on the reproductive part of a fruit, grouping the words pip, pit, seed and stone, all terms describing the small structure inside various fruits from which a new plant could theoretically grow. The green group asked players to identify a bit of fruit-flavored candy, linking dot, nerd, runt and spree, each a reference to a well-known candy brand or product name associated with fruity flavors.

The blue category, one level up in conceptual difficulty, gathered verbs found in a familiar college-life slogan, connecting party, repeat, sleep and study, a set puzzle guides described as evoking the well-known “eat, sleep, study, repeat” or similar rhythm associated with the college experience. The puzzle’s purple group, traditionally its trickiest, required players to recognize the starts of U.S. state capitals, linking den, mad, pho and sac, corresponding to the beginnings of Denver, Madison, Phoenix and Sacramento.

One puzzle guide covering Sunday’s grid described the overall difficulty as balancing straightforward action words against trickier conceptual links, noting the board “balances straightforward action words with trickier conceptual links, making it satisfying once everything clicks.” The same source offered a general strategy tip for approaching similarly structured puzzles going forward, suggesting players lock in the more obvious verb-based groupings early before turning their attention to shorter word fragments that may require broader geographic or cultural knowledge to fully parse.

Connections was developed internally by the Times and rolled out widely in 2023 following a beta testing period, building on the momentum generated by Wordle, which the paper had acquired the previous year. Since its full launch, Connections has become one of the more popular entries in the Times’ expanding games section, which also includes Wordle, Strands, the Mini Crossword, Sudoku and Pips, part of a broader strategy by the paper to build a suite of daily puzzles that keeps readers returning to its games platform consistently.

The category names themselves remain hidden from players at the outset of each puzzle, requiring solvers to infer each group’s connecting theme purely from the 16 scrambled words presented on the board. That design choice has made the game notably prone to misdirection, since certain words are often deliberately chosen because they could plausibly fit into more than one category before a puzzle’s true structure becomes clear. Sunday’s board illustrated that tendency well, given that fruit-related terms and short word fragments both appeared in multiple categories, requiring players to look past surface-level associations to land on the puzzle’s intended groupings.

Beyond the standard Connections puzzle, the Times has also continued expanding into sports-specific content through its ownership of The Athletic. Connections: Sports Edition, a spinoff format that resets daily at midnight Eastern time alongside the main puzzle, asks players to group 16 sports-related terms into four themed categories. Sunday’s sports edition, puzzle #657, covered plays commonly seen on a baseball field, terms associated with coming in first place, players connected to a particular Boston sports franchise, and vocabulary tied to breaks in play, according to puzzle guides tracking that edition separately from the main game.

For players who prefer working through Connections gradually rather than seeing the full solution at once, most puzzle-tracking outlets offer graduated hint systems that follow the game’s own difficulty ladder, presenting clues from the yellow category through purple in ascending order of difficulty. That structure allows players to request a partial nudge, such as a thematic hint for the purple category alone, without necessarily spoiling the remaining groups if they would still like to solve those independently.

Access to the daily Connections puzzle, along with Wordle and the Mini Crossword, remains free through the Times’ games app and website, while the publication’s full puzzle archive, including older Connections boards, requires a Times Games subscription to access. The paper has continued to build out tools surrounding its puzzle offerings in recent years, including performance-tracking features that let players monitor their solving statistics over time, similar in spirit to the Wordle Bot analysis tool available for that game.

Sunday’s puzzle followed Saturday’s edition, puzzle #1126, which puzzle guides also flagged as relatively approachable, continuing a stretch of moderately difficult boards heading into the new week. The Times typically varies puzzle difficulty across a rolling weekly cycle, with Mondays generally considered the easiest entry point and puzzles growing progressively more challenging as the week progresses, though that general pattern is not always consistent from week to week.

Connections has built a dedicated fan base since its official debut, with players frequently sharing their results, without revealing the actual answers, on social media in a format similar to Wordle’s now-familiar shareable grid. That format lets players display how many mistakes they made and the order in which they solved each category, without spoiling the puzzle for others who haven’t yet played that day’s grid. The game’s popularity has also spurred a wave of independent puzzle guides and hint sites, many of which publish same-day breakdowns within hours of each puzzle’s midnight release, catering both to players who want quick verification of their answers and those who prefer a more structured, hint-driven path toward solving the board themselves.

Monday’s Connections puzzle is scheduled to reset at midnight Eastern time, continuing the game’s daily rotation. Players looking for hints ahead of the next release can typically expect updated guides to appear across puzzle-tracking sites within hours of each new puzzle going live, following the same category-by-category format used to break down Sunday’s grid.

This article was written by

Follow

Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have no stock, option or similar derivative position in any of the companies mentioned, and no plans to initiate any such positions within the next 72 hours. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

I do not provide personal investment advice. All content in this article, including but not limited to opinions, analyses, commentaries, forecasts, stock picks, and investment strategies, is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be interpreted as financial or investment advice. While I strive to provide accurate and up-to-date information, the content may contain errors, inaccuracies, or omissions. Any financial decisions or investments made based on the information presented in this article are solely at your own risk. I am not responsible for any financial losses, damages, or other consequences resulting from actions taken in reliance on the information provided. You should conduct your own due diligence and consult with a qualified financial professional before making any investment decisions. This article reflects my personal views and opinions and is not affiliated with any employer, financial institution, or advisory firm. No representations or warranties are made regarding the completeness, accuracy, or reliability of the content, including any external links provided. Any third-party links are for informational purposes only, and I do not endorse or take responsibility for the content or services offered by external sources. All information is provided on an “as is” basis without any express or implied warranties.

Seeking Alpha’s Disclosure: Past performance is no guarantee of future results. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. Any views or opinions expressed above may not reflect those of Seeking Alpha as a whole. Seeking Alpha is not a licensed securities dealer, broker or US investment adviser or investment bank. Our analysts are third party authors that include both professional investors and individual investors who may not be licensed or certified by any institute or regulatory body.

Costco is warning customers who recently purchased a certain variety of plant that they may have unknowingly brought home an invasive insect capable of spreading a disease that can damage or even kill some other plants and trees.

The warehouse giant issued a notice last week that desert willow plants sold between June 24 and July 3, 2026, may have been infested with the glassy-winged sharpshooter.

“This invasive insect pest can spread harmful plant diseases, including Pierce’s disease, which can kill grapevines,” the notice said. “The pest can also damage citrus trees, landscape plants and other crops. Early detection and rapid response are critical to preventing the pest from spreading further.”

COSTCO HIT WITH LAWSUIT ALLEGING PROTEIN POWDER SOLD IN STORES CONTAINS ‘ DANGEROUS’ LEVELS OF LEAD, ARSENIC

Costco has issued a warning about desert willows, like the one pictured above, that were recently sold at its warehouses. (iStock)

Pierce’s disease is a bacterial infection that has long threatened California vineyards.

According to a 2025 report prepared for the California Department of Food and Agriculture, the disease costs the state’s grape and wine industry about $110 million annually, and officials estimate those losses could climb by another $56 million per year if the invasive pest becomes established statewide.

A glassy-winged sharpshooter rests on a leaf at Buena Biosystems in Santa Paula on June 13, 2002. (Stephen Osman/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

Researchers say the glassy-winged sharpshooter is particularly difficult to contain because it can fly a quarter mile or more without stopping, allowing it to spread the disease between host plants.

Rather than returning the plants to a Costco warehouse, customers are being instructed to keep them in their original containers, isolate them from other plants and contact their local county agricultural commissioner’s office.

WEALTHY AMERICANS CHOOSE ONE GROCERY STORE CHAIN OVER RIVALS, SURVEY FINDS

Agricultural inspectors may examine the plant and nearby vegetation, and if the pest is found, officials will remove and dispose of the plant.

A customer browses vegetable plants at a Costco Wholesale Corp. store in Naperville, Illinois, on May 23, 2016. (Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Costco also advised customers not to plant the desert willow if they have not already done so, not to transport or relocate it, and not to throw it away or place it in a compost bin. If possible, the company recommends sealing the plant inside two trash bags until inspectors can evaluate it.

GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE

Although customers are being told not to bring the plants back to Costco, the retailer said it will provide a full refund to affected shoppers who present the notification letter at their local warehouse.

The company apologized for the inconvenience, saying customers’ cooperation is critical to helping protect California agriculture from the spread of the invasive pest.

Jude Bellingham scored twice, including a decisive extra-time winner, to send England past Norway 2-1 in a fiercely contested World Cup quarterfinal in Miami on Saturday, pushing Thomas Tuchel’s side within one win of its first men’s World Cup final since 1966.

Norway took the lead in the 36th minute when Andreas Schjelderup’s dipping effort beat England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford, with Martin Ødegaard credited with the assist. England responded almost immediately, equalizing in first-half stoppage time when Bellingham, the Real Madrid star, took a pass from Anthony Gordon in stride and beat Norway goalkeeper Orjan Nyland to make it 1-1 heading into halftime. The match remained level through 90 minutes, forcing extra time.

Bellingham struck again just three minutes into the extra period, capitalizing after Nyland could only parry a shot from substitute Morgan Rogers, giving England the lead for good and completing his two-goal performance. The result pushes England into the semifinals to face Argentina, a match set to be broadcast live on the BBC, after Argentina defeated Switzerland in the tournament’s other quarterfinal.

BBC chief football writer Phil McNulty described England’s path through the match as one shaped almost entirely by Bellingham’s individual brilliance. “England stand one win from their first men’s World Cup final since 1966 as Jude Bellingham’s brilliant two-goal display inspired them to come from behind to beat Norway after extra time in Miami,” McNulty wrote, adding that Tuchel’s side “rode their luck in a quarter-final played in fierce heat and humidity, but Bellingham was once again the talisman to send England into the last four.”

McNulty noted that Bellingham’s reaction after his first-half equalizer reflected the composed manner in which he has carried England through the tournament. Rather than an elaborate celebration, Bellingham simply turned and jogged back to the center circle in what McNulty described as “businesslike fashion,” pausing only to rally the crowd of England supporters inside Miami Stadium. Saturday’s extra-time winner brought Bellingham’s tally to six goals across the tournament, continuing what McNulty characterized as “almost looks like a personal mission to bring glory to England.”

Tuchel was forced into changes at halftime, withdrawing Declan Rice, who had been managing illness and injury, along with winger Noni Madueke, and introducing Eberechi Eze and Bukayo Saka in their place. The substitutions came as England searched for a spark against a resilient Norwegian side that had already produced the deepest World Cup run in the country’s modern history by reaching the quarterfinals.

Norway continued to threaten after the break despite trailing on the scoresheet for much of the second half. A goal from Torbjorn Heggem was ruled out following a VAR review after Erling Haaland was judged to have fouled England’s Elliot Anderson with a shove in the buildup, a decision that denied Norway what would have been a restored lead. Norway also struck the crossbar through a header from David Moller Wolfe later in the match, underscoring how closely contested the game remained even as England ultimately advanced.

Haaland, who entered Saturday’s match having scored seven goals across the tournament and emerged as one of its most talked-about individual stars both on and off the pitch, was unable to make a decisive attacking impact against England. McNulty wrote that Haaland “threatened fleetingly, almost cashing in on a loss of concentration by John Stones in the first half,” and grew visibly frustrated when teammate Alexander Sorloth opted to attempt a solo effort rather than pass to an unmarked Haaland with a clear run on goal. Haaland was ultimately substituted at the start of the second half of extra time. McNulty noted that Haaland “knew what was coming after the video assistant referee intervened” on the disallowed Heggem goal, adding that he “barely” celebrated in the match’s aftermath.

Despite the disappointing result, McNulty wrote that Haaland’s broader tournament had brought “great pride to Haaland and Norway,” reflecting the significance of Norway’s run to the quarterfinal stage for a country making just its second major tournament appearance in more than two decades after missing the World Cup since 1998.

Bellingham was named player of the match, finishing with an average rating of 8.88 according to post-match statistics, well ahead of Norway’s top performer, Ødegaard, who registered a 6.48 rating. Schjelderup, the Norway goal scorer, finished with a 6.14 rating, while Haaland’s rating of 5.32 reflected his relatively quiet afternoon by the standards of his tournament to that point.

Saturday’s match drew an announced attendance of 64,478 at Miami Stadium, played under conditions McNulty described as fierce heat and humidity, factors that appeared to affect both sides as the match wore into extra time. England’s win came just days after a demanding round-of-16 victory over Mexico at Estadio Azteca, and McNulty suggested England looked “understandably” jaded for portions of Saturday’s contest given the accumulated toll of the tournament’s Miami leg layered on top of that earlier match.

With the win, England advance to their third World Cup semifinal since lifting the Jules Rimet Trophy 60 years ago in 1966, a stretch that has included previous semifinal losses to West Germany in 1990 and Croatia in 2018. Tuchel’s side will now turn its attention to Argentina, with Lionel Messi’s side awaiting in the semifinal after eliminating Switzerland in the tournament’s other quarterfinal matchup.

For Norway, meanwhile, Saturday’s exit brings an end to a historic tournament run that captured the imagination of the football world, driven in large part by Haaland’s seven-goal haul and the underdog spirit surrounding a national team appearing on the World Cup’s biggest stage for the first time in nearly three decades. Despite the loss, Norway’s performance throughout the tournament, culminating in Saturday’s tightly fought extra-time defeat to the eventual finalists, is likely to be remembered as one of the standout stories of the 2026 World Cup.

Lionel Messi’s personal goal-scoring streak came to an end at nine consecutive World Cup matches, but the Argentina captain still guided his team into the semifinals of the 2026 World Cup for the second consecutive tournament, setting up a mostly assist-driven performance that helped Argentina outlast Switzerland 3-1 after extra time on Saturday at Kansas City Stadium in Missouri.

Argentina, chasing back-to-back World Cup titles after winning in Qatar in 2022, advanced to face England in the semifinals on July 16, with a spot in the final on the line. The result came after a grueling 120 minutes in Kansas City that tested both squads physically, with the match ultimately decided in extra time following a 1-1 scoreline through regulation.

Messi entered Saturday’s match with a chance to extend his streak of scoring in nine straight World Cup games, a run dating back to the round of 16 at the 2022 tournament in Qatar, to 10 consecutive matches. He attempted four shots over the course of the game but was unable to find the net. Instead, Messi turned his focus toward creating opportunities for his teammates, and Argentina responded by scoring three goals across the full 120 minutes of play.

Messi opened the scoring indirectly in the 10th minute of the first half, delivering a corner kick that Alexis Mac Allister headed home to give Argentina an early lead. The assist marked Messi’s 10th career World Cup assist, making him the first player in tournament history to reach double digits in that category. Switzerland equalized in the 22nd minute of the second half, forcing the match into extra time after Argentina was unable to add to its lead through the remainder of regulation play. Throughout the match, Messi continued contributing in a facilitating role, delivering six crosses, the most of any player on either team.

The deciding moments came deep into extra time. In the seventh minute of the added period, Julián Álvarez struck a right-footed shot from outside the penalty area that curled into the top right corner of the Swiss goal, putting Argentina back in front. Lautaro Martínez added a third goal for Argentina later in the second half of extra time, sealing the victory. Messi, 39, played the full 120 minutes, continuing to direct Argentina’s attack even as the match wore into its final stages without him managing to add his name to the scoresheet.

Messi has worn Argentina’s captain’s armband for the past 15 years, a tenure that began in 2011 and has coincided with the national team’s transformation from a group widely regarded as championship contenders on paper into one that has consistently delivered on that potential. Under his leadership, Argentina won the Copa América in both 2021 and 2024 and lifted the World Cup trophy in 2022, ending a 36-year wait for the country’s third title.

Argentina goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez described Messi’s leadership style as understated despite his standing as the sport’s most accomplished active player. “Messi is the best player in the world, but he does not put up authority in the national team and acts the same as other players,” Martínez said, adding that the squad planned to approach the coming stretch of the tournament with heightened focus. “We will seriously awaken a sense of responsibility and increase the players’ concentration.”

Messi’s approach to leadership has evolved over the course of his international career, shifting from a more reserved, quieter presence in his early years as captain to a more vocal role following a string of difficult losses in major finals, including Argentina’s runner-up finish at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil and back-to-back Copa América final defeats in 2015 and 2016. Ahead of Argentina’s 2021 Copa América final victory over Brazil, Messi is reported to have rallied teammates in the locker room, telling them, “We haven’t even seen our families in 45 days. Still, I came for this moment, and there is only one step left now. Everything is up to us. There is no such thing as coincidence. Let’s trust ourselves and be calm. Let’s go get the trophy.” Argentina went on to win that match, capturing its first Copa América title in 28 years.

Álvarez, whose extra-time strike proved decisive against Switzerland, credited the team’s collective belief for pulling out the result in a physically demanding match. “It was a difficult time for us, but I believed that if we all worked together, we would get a goal,” Álvarez said. “I’m so glad that’s what happened in the end. The team members did their best until the end.”

Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni offered high praise for Messi’s continued output at 39 years old, an age at which sustained peak performance at the World Cup level is exceedingly rare. “Messi is like a machine,” Scaloni said shortly after the match. “Considering he’s 39 years old, you might think he won’t be able to do his part. But he will always try to be the best, and he will always be at the top.”

Saturday’s win extended Argentina’s run through a tournament that has proven physically taxing across all three of its knockout-stage matches so far, according to figures within the team’s camp, with Scaloni’s side once again relying on Messi’s on-field organization and experience to see the match through despite his personal scoring drought. With the victory, Argentina now has two matches remaining in its bid for a second consecutive World Cup title: the semifinal against England on July 16, followed by either the final or the third-place match depending on that result.

Messi’s sixth World Cup appearance, a milestone in itself for a player who first appeared on the tournament’s biggest stage as a teenager, will continue for at least two more matches, with growing belief inside the Argentina camp that its captain remains capable of delivering when it matters most, even in matches where his name does not appear on the scoresheet.