England have qualified for the World Cup 2026 knockout stages after results in other groups went their way on Friday night.

Thomas Tuchel’s side are top of Group L on four points, following an impressive opening win against Croatia and then a 0-0 stalemate against Ghana on Tuesday night.

The format of the 48-team World Cup, however, meant England’s place in the round of 32 was secured ahead of playing Panama in their final fixture on Saturday.

England are guaranteed to finish in the top three places of Group L, with Panama already eliminated due to the head-to-head tiebreaker following defeats to Ghana and Croatia.

And, with four points, England only needed the third-place team in four of the 12 groups to finish on three points or fewer.

There were already two before Friday night: South Korea in Group A and Scotland in Group C, whose hopes of progression were meanwhile solely reliant on other third-placed teams not breaking the three-point barrier.

And after Senegal battered Iraq 5-0 to come third in Group I with three points on the board, Uruguay were dumped out of Group H following a 1-0 loss to Spain. Those results mean that England have had their progression into the knockouts assured before kicking a ball in their Group L finale.

Who will England face in the round of 32 if they top Group L?

England still have work to do to top Group L, and will do so if they beat Panama and better Ghana’s result against Croatia.

Since England and Ghana drew 0-0, it would come down to goal difference to determine who finishes top if they are level on points. Ghana could overhaul England if they beat Croatia by a big scoreline.

An England win, combined with a draw between Ghana and Croatia, or a Croatia win, would confirm top spot.

In that scenario, they will face the third-place team from one of Group I/J/K in the round of 32. As things stand, these are the teams that could be in the mix to face the Three Lions: It is likely to be Senegal.

Who will England face in the knockouts if they finish as runners-up?

If England were to finish as group runners-up, they will face the second-placed team from Group K – that will be decided in a shootout between Colombia and Portugal. If Colombia avoid defeat, it would be Portugal – assuming DR Congo don’t win by a massive scoreline against Uzbekistan.

What is England’s route to the final?

In the last-16, England could face Group A winners Mexico in the high-altitude cauldron of the Estadio Azteca.

If they overcame that serious test of resolve, Group C winners Brazil could be their quarter-final opponent.

Argentina, following a fine start with Lionel Messi’s five goals, may then be their potential semi-final opposition.

If Terence Crawford was to ever come out of retirement, there is one active fighter who believes their potential showdown would be “easy work”.

‘Bud’ called time on his glittering career last December, just a few months removed from his unanimous decision victory over Canelo Alvarez.

Prior to their super-middleweight encounter, Crawford was considered the consensus underdog but nonetheless produced a legacy-defining display, becoming a three-division undisputed champion.

The American’s most accomplished performances arguably came at 147lbs, however, as all eight of his welterweight victories ended inside the distance.

Most notably, Crawford dethroned Errol Spence Jr with a ninth-round stoppage in July 2023, before moving up to 154lbs and outpointing Israil Madrimov for the WBA title.

But despite ‘Bud’s’ resounding success between those two weight classes, in particular, Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis ultimately believes he would defeat Nebraskan in convincing fashion.

‘Boots’ unified the welterweight division with a sixth-round finish over Eimantas Stanionis in April 2025, and now looks to dethrone unified super-welterweight champion Xander Zayas.

The pair will square off at the Barclays Center, New York, this Saturday, and despite this being only his second outing at 154lbs, Ennis has been made a sizable favourite.

Clearly brimming with confidence, the 28-year-old even told MILLION DOLLAZ WORTH OF GAME earlier this week that a possible Crawford clash would be “easy work”.

While he was the IBF mandatory challenger at 147lbs, ‘Boots’ was particularly bullish in his effort to fight Crawford, who instead moved up in weight and dethroned Madrimov.

And now, with ‘Bud’ having retired from the sport, it appears the Ennis fight is even less likely.

In the first two parts of this series, we’ve covered block practice and transfer training to improve your putting. Today, we will cover variable practice, where golfers learn whether those skills can hold up under pressure.

On the golf course, every putt matters. A three-foot putt to win a match feels different than a three-foot putt during practice. Your heart rate increases, your attention narrows, and golfers become more aware of the outcome. While technical skill remains important, performance often depends on a player’s ability to execute under pressure.

Performance training is designed to recreate those demands. Rather than focusing on mechanics, golfers are challenged to complete tasks with consequences attached to success and failure. The objective shifts from learning a skill to proving that the skill can be trusted when it matters most.

Effective performance games often include scoring systems, consequences for missed putts, competitive challenges, and opportunities to perform with only one attempt. These constraints create emotional investment and encourage golfers to develop routines, commitment, and focus similar to what they experience during competition.

Below are two performance-based putting games that challenge golfers to execute under pressure, measure their performance, and develop the confidence needed to transfer practice success to the golf course.

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21 Around the World

One of the best performance putting games is the “21 Around the World Challenge” because it combines pressure, consequence, and changing locations around the hole.

Setup

Place seven tees or markers in a circle around a hole, with each putt measuring between three and five feet depending on the golfer’s skill level. Each station is worth three points, making the maximum possible score 21.

How to play

Begin at any station and attempt one putt. A made putt earns three points, while a miss earns zero. Continue around the circle until all seven putts have been attempted, then total your score.

Scoring

Scores of 18–21 indicate excellent performance, 15–17 are considered good, 12–14 represent average performance, and anything under 12 suggests additional practice is needed.

Performance version

The real value of this game comes from adding meaningful consequences. Require yourself to score at least 18 points before leaving the practice green, restart the challenge after missing two consecutive putts, finish the challenge by holing the final putt, or compete against a partner with the loser buying drinks or completing a set of push-ups. These consequences create emotional investment and closely simulate the pressure golfers experience during competition.

The Seashell Putting Challenge

Want to become a great putter inside 12 feet? The Seashell Putting Challenge is designed to test your ability to make putts from a variety of distances and angles while building confidence under pressure.

Setup

Find a hole on the practice green with minimal break, approximately one percent slope or less. Place tees around the hole in a spiral or seashell pattern at distances of 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12 feet. The gradual curve of the pattern ensures each putt comes from a slightly different angle.

How to play

Begin at the three-foot station and attempt to hole one putt. If successful, move to the next station and continue working through all ten distances until you have made one putt from every location. If you miss a putt, simply move to the next station and continue the challenge. The objective is to eventually hole one putt from every station.

You are allowed to miss putts throughout the challenge, but you may not miss three consecutive putts. If three misses occur in a row, the challenge begins again from the start. This consequence adds pressure while encouraging golfers to remain focused throughout the exercise.

Advanced version

To increase the difficulty, set up the challenge on a section of the green with greater slope, approximately 1.5 to 2 percent. The additional break forces golfers to continually adjust their start lines while maintaining precise distance control and commitment on every stroke.

Why it works

The Seashell Putting Challenge combines changing distances, varying angles, and performance pressure into a single game. As golfers move farther from the hole, the difficulty naturally increases, while the “three misses in a row” rule creates accountability and consequence. The result is a realistic test of a golfer’s ability to perform from scoring range.

Putting improvement is not the result of a single drill or practice session. It’s a process that begins with building the skill, progresses through learning to adapt that skill in changing environments, and ultimately culminates in the ability to perform under pressure. By incorporating block practice, transfer training, and performance training into a structured practice plan, golfers can move beyond simply hitting putts and begin developing the skills necessary to lower scores.

The group stage is ending, who will teams face in the knockouts once they qualify?

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Jun 27, 2026

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For the last few years it’s taken a pair of binoculars to see anything wrong with Scottie Scheffler’s golf game. Still, he left last week’s U.S. Open bemoaning one troubling trend: all season long he’s been, by his standards, a slow starter, spotting the leader strokes before playing catch-up on the weekends.

“This year I haven’t had many 36-hole leads. I haven’t had any 54-hole leads,” he said.

Well, that didn’t last long.

Just five days later, Scheffler owns the 36-hole lead at the Travelers Championship. After a Thursday round of six-under 64 he set the place on fire Friday morning, making 11 birdies against just a single bogey en route to 10-under 60 and a two-round record at 16 under par.

He leads by two over Viktor Hovland, who could only manage 9-under 61.

Scheffler’s right about his season-long trends: he’s top-three in scoring average for his second, third and final rounds on Tour this year but just 57th in his first rounds. This week he’s improved on both his Thursday and Friday marks.

Scheffler had a few interesting takeaways following the birdie barrage.

Mostly he was dismissive of his own dominance, writing off the difference between a good vs. great round as the matter of a few holed putts.

“Some days they’re kind of hanging on the edge and not quite going in, and then other days they’re finding the bottom of the cup. Today was a day definitely which most of them were finding the bottom of the cup,” he said.

Scheffler would have become the second player in Tour history to break 60 twice, though he admitted doesn’t remember all that much about his 59 at TPC Boston in 2020.

“I wish my golf memory was a little better, to be honest with you. I remember the end of that round, the birdie putt I made on 18, but outside of that, I don’t really remember a whole lot.”

He joked that shooting 59 here wouldn’t have been all that impressive anyway, knowing Jim Furyk has shot 58.

“It was kind of funny. It was like, ‘Yeah, it would be cool to shoot 59, but somebody has already shot 58 here, so it’s not even the course record,’” he said. “You know, Jim kind of takes away a little bit of the special 59 when you are losing still.”

And he shared a favorite saying from the golf world.

“The old adage in golf is you have to be really smart or really dumb. I don’t want to call myself dumb, but like, my long-term memory is not as sharp. Maybe it’s a little bit easier to kind of put some things behind me,” he said. He added that he will occasionally go back and watch old footage of his golf swings when he needs clues — “searching for feels and kind of things that you like — but mostly he enjoys staying in the present.

Finally he gently dismissed another golf cliche: that it’s hard to back up one great round with another good one.

The 2026 NHL Draft got underway on Friday night at KeyBank Center in Buffalo — home of the Buffalo Sabres — and while drafts usually provide their share of surprises, the first overall pick was not one.

The Toronto Maple Leafs “earned” the top pick after an abysmal 2025-26 campaign, and they used it to select Penn State star Gavin McKenna.

The 18-year-old from Whitehorse, Yukon, has been the presumptive top dog in the 2026 NHL Draft class for years at this point.

TOP NHL PROSPECT GAVIN MCKENNA CHARGED WITH ASSAULT IN DOWNTOWN PENN STATE INCIDENT, COURT DOCUMENT SHOWS

The Toronto Maple Leafs selected Penn State’s Gavin McKenna with the first-overall pick in the 2026 NHL Draft. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

However, despite new Leafs GM John Chayka meeting with McKenna at his home, the team was tight-lipped about their decision.

But, in the end, he was always going to be the guy to hear his name called first this year, just not before Justin Bieber made an awkward announcement.

Maybe don’t skip the run-through next time, Biebs.

Nonetheless, the pick stands: Gavin McKenna is a Toronto Maple Leaf.

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The Leafs certainly have some needs to address. Their goaltending is questionable (though that’s difficult to fix quickly through the draft), and the blue line could use some added size. This draft featured several players who could have helped in that regard, including Albert Smits out of Europe and Chase Reid of the OHL’s Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds.

But, in the end, McKenna is the kind of ultra-talented player you take regardless of your needs.

He posted 51 points (15G, 36A) in just 35 games at Penn State last season, so even if he’s not a top-line winger, he’s going to help fill out the Leafs’ second or third lines very nicely.

Gavin McKenna (left) poses with singer Justin Bieber, who announced the Toronto Maple Leafs’ pick. ((Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images))

McKenna’s going to have to make an impact quickly as the team looks to turn things around in a hurry under new coach Jim Hiller, and he’ll have to do it under pressure.

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But he can handle it. He’s dealt with tons of attention so far in his career, and even some considerable off-ice distractions to throw down a solid freshman season and set himself up nicely to be the No. 1 pick.

After McKenna, the San Jose Sharks selected Sweden’s Ivar Stenberg with the No. 2 pick, while the Vancouver Canucks used the No. 3 pick on Caleb Malhotra, son of ex-NHLer and current Canucks coach Manny Malhotra.