Spain and Argentina have booked their place in Sunday’s World Cup final at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, closing out a tournament that has delivered exactly the showpiece many expected back in June.

Anyone checking the Spain Argentina odds will find a final between the reigning European champions and the reigning world champions, and that context alone points to a tightly contested match, with the possibility of the game being settled by penalties, something Argentina know only too well.

Lionel Messi and Lamine Yamal will lead their countries into Sunday’s final aware that history could repeat itself under the lights in New Jersey.

How a shootout works

The format itself is brutally simple. Level after 90 minutes, teams play 30 minutes of extra time. Still level, it comes down to five penalties each, then sudden death if the sides can’t be separated. There’s no away goals rule to fall back on and no substitution that changes the outcome, just a long walk from the halfway line and one moment that follows a player around for the rest of their career.

Goalkeepers spend days before a big match studying where opposing takers tend to put the ball, but even the best preparation still comes down to a guess made in half a second.

1994: Brazil vs Italy

Brazil and Italy played out a goalless draw in the searing heat of the Rose Bowl in 1994, still the only World Cup final never to produce a goal.

It went to penalties, and Roberto Baggio, Italy’s best player all tournament, stepped up last knowing a miss would hand Brazil the trophy. He put his effort over the bar, and Brazil won 3-2 on penalties, and that image of Baggio standing motionless, head down, has outlasted almost everything else from that tournament.

2006: France vs Italy

Twelve years later in Berlin, Zinedine Zidane opened the scoring for France with a cheeky chipped penalty, only for Marco Materazzi to equalise for Italy before half-time. The match finished 1-1 after extra time, remembered as much for Zidane’s headbutt on Materazzi and the red card that ended his career as for the football itself.

David Trezeguet then missed France’s fourth penalty off the crossbar. Fabio Grosso, who’d also scored the winner in the semi-final against Germany, stepped up to take the decisive kick and sent Italy to a fourth World Cup, won 5-3 on penalties.

2022: France vs Argentina

The most recent shootout final needed no such reminder of its stakes. Argentina and France drew 3-3 after extra time in Qatar in 2022, in what many still call the best final ever played. Lionel Messi put Argentina 2-0 up with a penalty and a second goal before Kylian Mbappe dragged France level with two goals in the same minute. Messi restored the lead in extra time, only for Mbappe to complete his hat-trick from the spot and force penalties.

In the shootout, goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez, never shy of a bit of gamesmanship on the goal line, saved Kingsley Coman’s penaltyand watched Aurelien Tchouameni fire over the bar. That left Gonzalo Montiel to send Argentina into delirium and complete Messi’s collection of major honours. Few would have wanted to bet  that outcome once Martinez had made his first save, and Sunday’s final looks capable of throwing up similarly fine margins.

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Canelo Alvarez has revealed what he thinks Terence Crawford needed to do in order to receive his full praise.

Crawford pulled off the big upset last September as he successfully stepped up two weight divisions and earned a unanimous decision victory over Canelo at the Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas to dethrone the Mexican superstar of his undisputed super-middleweight crown.

Canelo was keen to run things straight back as he chased an immediate rematch against Crawford, but ‘Bud’ instead made the decision to hang up his gloves and retire, vacating the world title belts in the process.

It seems Canelo still holds some resentment towards that decision, as he told Ring Magazine that the only way Crawford would ‘get the credit he deserves’ would have been to face him for a second time.

“I always give [Crawford] credit, but we need to run it back.

“After the fight I said, ‘We need to run back this fight’, because I don’t feel I really won and I need to make this fight happen again. [If the rematch happens], it’s going to be different.

“For him to deserve all the credit, he needs to give me the rematch. But he decided to retire, and we need to accept that and move forward.”

Despite the comments, it is highly unlikely for a rematch between the two fighters to take place, with Crawford more than happy in retirement, while Canelo has now shifted his focus to an October showdown against WBC super-middleweight champion Christian Mbilli.

While the Cleveland Browns and safety Grant Delpit may be treading around a contract issue on the heels of training camp, there is no doubt the impact that he has made on the field.

Drafted by the Browns in the second round of the 2020 NFL Draft, Delpit has been a mainstay in Cleveland, earning a second contract during the 2023 season. While he now enters the final year of that second contract, personnel around the league have taken notice of his impact with the Browns.

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As ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler continues to poll executives around the NFL to form an aggregated ranking system, he has arrived at the safety position today. And while Delpit did not make the cut as a top-10 safety in the NFL, he did get a nod as an honorable mention

What NFL execs have to say about the Browns’ safety

What has one AFC executive excited about Delpit is his versatile skillset and ability to be deployed in a variety of schematic ways. That has shown up in Cleveland with his ability to gain ground over the top, come downhill as a tackler, and more. Here is what the anonymous executive had to say on the Browns’ veteran safety:

“He can blitz, cover tight ends, aggressive, instinctive. He would be up there if he had more ball production.”

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Can Delpit and the Browns come to an agreement on another contract extension? Can he find yet another leap in his game entering his seventh season in the NFL?

This article originally appeared on Browns Wire: Browns S Grant Delpit the latest to be recognized around the NFL

George Foreman and Earnie Shavers are hailed as some of the biggest punchers in boxing history, but the heavyweight duo returned the same answer when they revealed who hit them the hardest during their professional careers.

Foreman and Shavers boasted a combined 138 stoppages by the time they both hung up the gloves, with both men remembered as some of the heavyweight division’s most devastating knockout artists before their respective passings. 

However, when discussing who returned the favour and hit him the hardest, Shavers named Ron Lyle, who knocked him out in 1975, as the hardest punching opponent of his career, in a clip that has been doing the rounds on social media.

“A guy by the name of Ron Lyle from Denver, Colorado. Lyle was a great puncher, yeah.”

Meanwhile, in an interview with Oxford Union, ‘Big George’ recalled his fabled five-round slugfest against Lyle, just four months on from the latter’s scrap with Shavers.

“Ron Lyle [hit me the hardest] and he hit me so hard that it didn’t even hurt. His distinction was that he was a convicted criminal, he had served in Colorado Penitentiary and boy was he muscular. 

“When I got into the ring, no one, beyond Sonny Liston, ever stood up to me. Everybody would have to run, hide and cover-up. No one stood up to me, but Ron Lyle decided ‘I ain’t running!’.” 

“He hit me so hard that it didn’t even hurt. There I was on the canvas, thinking ‘what excuse are you going have now?’. [When you lost to] Muhammad Ali you said the ropes were loose, someone drugged you, I had all of these excuses, so I was laying on the floor thinking ‘I can’t think of an excuse,’ I had to get up.

“When I got up, he knocked me down again, he knocked my teeth through my bottom lip.” 

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“He beat me so bad that he fainted and I won the fight.”

Lyle lost out to Muhammad Ali in the solitary world title challenge of his career, retiring with a record of 43-7-1 (31 KOs), following a brief four-fight comeback in 1995, which ended a 15-year run of inactivity.

Anthony Joshua returns to the ring next weekend, as he boxes Kristian Prenga in a warm-up bout for his super-fight with Tyson Fury.

Joshua will face the Albanian, who is a relative unknown, in the Briton’s first fight since surviving a fatal car crash in December, which claimed the lives of two of his teammates.

That accident in Nigeria occurred 10 days after Joshua stopped YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul in Miami, a fight that “AJ” knows was not a comprehensive gateway to his all-British showdown with Fury.

So, 36-year-old Joshua (29-4, 26 KOs) will first face Prenga (20-1, 20 KOs), one night after Fury’s warm-up against Mariusz Wach. Joshua vs Fury is then due in late 2026, with a November date rumoured for Wembley Stadium – provided the fight takes place in the early hours of the morning, apparently.

Before then, on the Joshua vs Prenga undercard, British stars Hamzah Sheeraz and Josh Kelly will put their world titles on the line. Here’s all you need to know:

When is the fight?

Joshua vs Prenga will take place on Saturday 25 July at Jeddah Superdome in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The main card will begin at 6pm BST (10am PT / 12pm CT / 1pm ET), with main-event ring walks due around 10.45pm BST (2.45pm PT / 4.45pm CT / 5.45pm ET).

How can I watch it?

The event will stream live exclusively on DAZN pay-per-view at a cost of £19.99. You do not need a DAZN subscription to secure the event, but it does come as part of their Ultimate plan (24.99 per month for 12 months, or £249.99 upfront).

Odds

Joshua – 1/33

Prenga – 28/1

Draw – 10/1

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Undercard

Subject to change; ‘C’ denotes champion:

Main card

Anthony Joshua vs Kristian Prenga (heavyweight)

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Hamzah Sheeraz vs Simon Zachenhuber (WBO super-middleweight title)

Josh Kelly vs Caoimhin Agyarko (IBF super-welterweight title)

Reito Tsutsumi vs Alvino Herrera (super-featherweight)

Jacob Bank vs Pawel August (super-middleweight)

Nishant Dev vs Cesar Diaz (super-welterweight)

Prelims

Lenny Patrach vs Oleksandr Khyzhniak (light-heavyweight)

Ziyad Almaayouf vs Frank Mango (welterweight)

Mikie Tallon vs Orlando Pino (super-flyweight)

Mohammed Alakel vs Lydon Chircop (lightweight)

Sultan Almohamed vs Efren Besalduch (super-featherweight)

Omar Hikal vs Brian Castellano (super-middleweight)

Mahmoud Mobark vs Bryan Zapata (super-lightweight)

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Over the past few seasons, Tarik Skubal has been one of the best, if not the best, pitchers in the sport. Since 2023, Skubal has the second-lowest ERA among pitchers with at least 50 starts and ranks 9th in total strikeouts, despite having 13 fewer starts than every pitcher above him on that list. The two Cy Youngs are a culmination of his continued dominance, but now his upcoming free-agent decision looms large for the Detroit Tigers.

Skubal is a Scott Boras client. If you know anything about Boras guys, it’s not common for any of them to take team-friendly deals to stay in smaller markets, so this could very well be his final season in Detroit.

At this moment, the Tigers are 44-52, good for 4th in the AL Central, but are still only 3.5 games back of the final Wild Card spot. Detroit closed out the first half of the regular season strong, going 9-3, and got as close as 4.5 games of the Central division.

In a normal year, the season would be all but over for the Tigers, but fortunately they’re playing in one of the worst American Leagues we’ve ever seen. The trade deadline is August 3rd, so Detroit has five series to decide whether to make a playoff push or sell. Only one of those series is against a team over .500, and three of the other four series are against the three worst teams in the American League.

Detroit isn’t out of it yet

Detroit is finally getting healthier, and a playoff push isn’t out of the question, but that doesn’t make them a contender. Skubal and Casey Mize make one of the best 1-2 punches in baseball, but the lineup is terrible.

Last season blinded Detroit to a flawed lineup. Most of the lineup outperformed their expected stats and have plummeted back to Earth this year. Kevin McGonigle, Riley Greene, and Dillon Dingler are a very solid top of the order, and Gelyber Torres should return from injury soon, but I’m just not very sold on this team.

The return you can get on a guy like Skubal can change the long-term direction of your organization. Mason Miller was dealt at the deadline for four players who are now the first, fourth, and twelfth-ranked players in the Athletics farm system. Skubal would only be a rental, but if you could land a top 10-20 prospect in the sport, I think you have to do it.

Unless Detroit is going to shock the world and pay Skubal’s massive extension, I think the Tigers should start preparing for a world without their ace. This team’s not strong enough to contend and will only set themselves back if they hold on to Skubal.

After the referee blew his whistle for fulltime at the end of Wednesday’s World Cup semifinal, Argentina players understandably celebrated their come-from-behind 2-1 win in injury time over their longtime bitter rivals England.

However, during the celebrations, Lisandro Martinez and Giovani Lo Celso waved to the fans and held up the banner, which read: “Las Malvinas Son Argentinas” (“The Falklands are Argentine”). It was unclear where ​the banner had come ⁠from, but there was a report that it had earlier been seen displayed in the stands.

“And they will always be Argentine,” midfielder Leandro Paredes told a reporter when asked about the banner.

“We were aware of what this match meant for the country. We tried to represent our nation and all those who lived through that sad moment in our history, so that they could identify with us and we could convey a positive image.”

Apparent violation of FIFA rules

The banner would appear to be in violation of tournament organizer FIFA’s Stadium Code of Conduct, which bans “banners, flags, flyers, apparel and paraphernalia ⁠that ⁠are of a political, offensive, and/or discriminatory nature.” It was not clear what, if any sanction football’s global governing body might impose on the players.

The question of sovereignty over the Falkland Islands in the ​South Atlantic has long been a source of tension between Argentina, which calls them “Las Malvinas”, and the United Kingdom.

Ongoing diplomatic tensions

This tension spilled over into war in the spring of 1982, when the leader of Argentina’s then-military junta ordered an invasion of the islands. Britain responded by sending a military task force to the islands, located a few hundred kilometers from Argentina’s eastern coast. In a conflict that lasted just over two months and claimed the lives of more than 900 soldiers on both sides, Britain repelled the invasion and reasserted control of the Falklands. While the islands’ residents voted overwhelmingly in a 2013 referendum to remain British, Argentines still claim the territory is rightfully theirs.

UK expects FIFA to ‘investigate thoroughly’

In response to the actions of the Argentine players on Wednesday night, the United Kingdom has called for FIFA to act.

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UK Business Secretary Peter Kyle told the BBC that the behavior of the players was “entirely inappropriate” and that politics and football need to be kept separate.

“In fact, the World Cup has one of its central tenets that politics is separate from football,” he noted.  “That is now a matter for FIFA. I expect FIFA to do its investigation thoroughly.”

In the match itself, England had their hopes set on reaching their first World Cup final since 1966, when they last won the competition. The Three Lions took the lead in the 55th minute, but relinquished control and Argentina took advantage with two late goals, both assisted by Lionel Messi.

The 39-year-old superstar now has the chance to defend the World Cup title with Argentina. In his way stand Spain, who delivered a dominating performance in their 2-0 win over France in the first semifinal on Tuesday.

Edited by: Jonathan Harding

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McLaren have fallen to the back of the top four teams in recent races as rivals have introduced upgrades, but the hope is that the aerodynamic package to be brought in across the Hungarian and Dutch Grands Prix on either side of Formula 1’s summer break will return them to competitiveness.

They decided that it was better to take the grid penalty in Belgium, where they expect to be no more competitive than at the last race in Britain but where passing is relatively straightforward, than compromise Hungary, where the car should perform better and overtaking is notoriously difficult.

Norris said: “I have to wait and see really how the overtaking is. We probably have a small straight-line speed advantage, comparing to people a little bit further back. So comparing to them we should have a good chance.

“To just overtake in general could be pretty difficult here. But the slipstream is pretty big, and there’s still a few straights, but there’s no straight-line mode (through some of the flat-out sections), and therefore the slipstream is pretty large, and you can gain a good amount from that.

“But we know it’s better than Zandvoort, and better than Hungary taking penalties. I hope it’s not the end of my weekend before it started, but I’m still confident we can have a good race.”

Norris’ grid penalty comes after a troubled start to the season for the team that won a drivers’ and constructors’ championship double last year, in both performance and reliability terms.

Technically, the part replaced in Belgium is known as the ‘power electronics’, which is a control computer within the battery module.

Norris failed to start the Chinese Grand Prix in March after a terminal issue with his power electronics unit, and a second example of that part had to be withdrawn after suffering problems in practice at the following race in Japan.

The Japan unit was repaired but suffered a terminal problem in practice in Monaco.

A McLaren statement said: “While the power electronics unit we installed in Japan, and have used in every session since Miami, has worked reliably, Mercedes-AMG High Performance Powertrains (HPP) has since introduced a series of reliability fixes to their new power electronics systems.

“However, in order to take advantage of these improvements, we must incur a 10-place grid penalty on Lando’s car in order to take a new unit.”

The statement added: “We now plan to use this fourth power electronics unit for the remainder of the season, in order to maximise reliability while minimising sporting penalties on Lando.”

McLaren will have a new rear wing design in Spa, which the team hopes will better suit the specific characteristics of the flowing high-speed track around the Ardennes forests.

This wing will have a conventional opening style in straight-line mode, rather than the somersaulting designs introduced this season by Ferrari and Red Bull.

Red Bull have had to revert to a conventional wing this weekend after Max Verstappen suffered high-speed crashes at the previous two races because of issues with the design.

Mercedes have had a series of engine-related reliability issues this year, not all to do with the battery.

Another has emerged with the engine used by championship leader Kimi Antonelli at the British Grand Prix.

That has had to go back to the HPP’s base in Brixworth for investigation and the Italian has a new engine as a result this weekend in Belgium. This is from within his allocation and therefore comes with no penalty.

Depending on the outcome of the investigations, Mercedes hope to be able to put Antonelli’s Silverstone unit back into the pool for use later in the year.

Most hardcore Minnesota Vikings fans wonder if the team will sign an extra linebacker or backup guard in the next two months before the regular season begins, but according to CBS Sports, the club is a little skimpy at safety.

Josh Edwards analyzed every NFL team’s main roster need ahead of training camp, claiming the purple team might need a safety.

Harrison Smith’s Uncertain Status Drives the Concern

Edwards: Vikings Need a Safety

CBS Sports landed on safety, and Edwards opined, “With Harrison Smith not currently in the plans for the 2026 season, safety is a weakness after selecting Florida defensive tackle Caleb Banks in the first round. Joshua Metellus, Jay Ward, Jakobe Thomas and Theo Jackson are competing for those two spots.”

“The interior offensive line needs to stay healthy and Blake Brandel is tasked with filling Ryan Kelly’s shoes post-retirement. Linebacker and cornerback are a few other spots to monitor.”

For 14 years, Smith has held down the fort at safety for the Vikings, and recently, co-pilots like Camryn Bynum and Josh Metellus have faithfully served alongside him. With Smith perhaps retired — although he never explicitly announced it — Edwards is evidently paranoid that the current safety unit isn’t enough.

The Current Group Might Be Enough?

If one assumes that Smith will not return for Year No. 15, the safety section of the depth chart still has a full platoon of names that will probably make the 53-man depth chart at the end of August:

• Josh Metellus
• Jay Ward
• Theo Jackson
• Jakobe Thomas
• Tavierre Thomas

While Smith, in theory, would be missed, most NFL teams get by just fine with five safeties. Edwards must believe the current batch of safeties lacks talent because quantity is not a problem. None of those five is unplayable.

The Smith Angle

Of course, if Smith re-signs with the Vikings for one more year — that’s a real possibility and not a hot take — the safety fears can be set to the side, at least for a year. Even at age 37, Smith would likely play at a serviceable, if not better, level, and in a jiffy, the so-called safety roster need would fall by the wayside.

It’s just that Smith’s status is a mystery, an offseason whodunnit for the 2026 Vikings.

Smith’s longtime teammates, wide receiver Adam Thielen and fullback C.J. Ham, retired in March. The Vikings even made an event of it. That was the perfect spot for Smith to go out with his pals, but he did not, leading fans to speculate further about his future.

Perhaps Smith has chosen to skip the grueling part of the summer for the first time in his career, eyeing a contract sometime in August or later. If not, it will remain bizarre that he walked away without saying goodbye.

The Viking Age‘s Brad Berreman wrote Tuesday about Smith, “The idea that he could wait until into the season to return has been put out there, and that seems like more of a possibility as more time passes without news. Maybe Smith is not as on the fence about retirement as it has seemed he is for the last four months.”

“Maybe ‘plans for retirement’ are a fairly recent development, whatever the reasons are to push it that way. In any case, as everyone waits for an answer about Smith’s future, the trend toward retirement has become hard to ignore.”

The Free Agent Options

Here’s a little secret about the NFL and free agency: there are always a handful of decent safeties on the free-agent wire, usually older veterans. The summer of 2026 is no different:

• Jamal Adams
• Quandre Diggs
• Mike Edwards
• Terrell Edmunds
• Rayshawn Jenkins
• Ifeatu Melifonwu
• Jabrill Peppers
• Jordan Poyer
• Taylor Rapp
• Donovan Wilson
• Xavier Woods

Rather easily, Minnesota could sign a man on the list above, and just like that, the suspect safety depth would evaporate.

Rookie Jakobe Thomas could also see more action if Smith remains retired. NFL writer Trevor Ripley noted this week, “The Vikings selected Thomas out of Miami in this April’s NFL Draft, but it’s hard to start in the NFL as a rookie. It’s even harder to start for Brian Flores as a rookie.

“The Vikings clearly have some options, but how Thomas progresses could be the x-factor in all this. If he’s not able to handle a significant role, Ward or even an outside signing may slide up into the starting rotation.”

The Vikings’ defense ranked third in the league last year per EPA/Play and DVOA.

Dustin Baker is a novelist and political scientist. His second novel, The Invaders , is out now. So is … More about Dustin Baker