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Netherlands hires Spain great Xavi as first foreign-born coach since 1978 | Football News

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Spain great Xavi Hernandez was hired as Netherlands coach on Wednesday, becoming the first foreign-born leader of the national team in nearly 50 years.


Xavi was a member of the Spain team that beat the Dutch in the World Cup final in 2010, marking their third defeat in the title match.


The 46-year-old Xavi, who has been out of work since leaving his job as Barcelona coach in May 2024, takes over from Ronald Koeman after his departure following the World Cup.


The former midfielder said he felt a “special connection to Dutch football” after coming through a Barcelona academy influenced by Johan Cruyff and Rinus Michels.

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“You could say that I am a bit of a son of Dutch football,” said Xavi, who has signed a deal through to the 2030 World Cup. “Other great coaches, especially Louis van Gaal, under whom I made my debut at Barcelona, ??and Frank Rijkaard, also played an important role in shaping me as a player and coach.”  The last foreign-born coach of the Netherlands was Ernst Happel from 1977-78.


Xavi said the Dutch soccer culture – “attacking football, based on possession, with creativity, passion, and conviction” – appealed to him. 


“Of course, the most important goal is and always will be to win, but I prefer to do so in a way that reflects those characteristics and that people can enjoy,” he said. “The potential for this is there, as well as a solid foundation to build upon.”  Nigel de Jong, director of elite football at the Dutch federation and an opponent of Xavi in the 2010 World Cup final, said Xavi’s vision of “dominant and attractive football, combined with the flexibility that modern elite football demands” would serve the team well.

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“Xavi believes in those basic principles, has embraced that vision, and made it his own,” De Jong said. “All of that, combined with his personality and the way he knows how to connect with players and get the best out of a group, makes him the right choice for the coming years.”  After playing for 17 years at Barcelona, Xavi finished his career at Al Sadd before becoming the Qatari team’s coach from 2019-21.


The Netherlands exited the World Cup in the Round of 32 after losing to Morocco in a penalty shootout.

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Chawinga sisters shine as Malawi reach Women’s Africa Cup of Nations final

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14 August 2026

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Tabitha Chawinga scored twice and sister Temwa Chawinga once as tournament outsiders Malawi beat Algeria 3-1 on Wednesday in Rabat to reach the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations final.

Cameroon will face the giant-killers in the deciding game after defeating hosts Morocco 3-1 on penalties following a 0-0 draw after extra time.

Read moreWomen’s AFCON 2026: Tournament gets underway after months of delay

Malawi are ranked 153rd in the world, 116 places below the pre-WAFCON favourites and record 10-time champions Nigeria, who bowed out in the quarter-finals.

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Debutants Malawi took advantage of Algeria’s Morgane Belkhiter red card for a foul on the last defender midway through the first half to build a 2-0 lead at the break.

Captain Tabitha Chawinga struck with an overhead kick on 33 minutes after a corner, and Temwa Chawinga rounded goalkeeper Chloe N’Gazi to score one minute into added time.

Having scored twice, Malawi were also reduced to 10 players when Rose Kadzere was sent off for a studs-up tackle just before the break.

Algeria pulled one goal back on 60 minutes through Ikram Adjabi only for Tabitha Chawinga to restore the two-goal advantage with a solo goal after 76 minutes.

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Kansas City-based Temwa Chawinga has struck five goals in the marquee African women’s football tournament to be joint leading scorer. Tabitha from French club Lyon has netted four times. 

After conceding a third time, there was no way back for Algeria, who must settle for the third-place play-off against Morocco on Saturday.

On Sunday, Malawi and Cameroon will do battle with a record $2 million first prize on the line.

In the later match, goalkeeper Michaely Bihina, who switched from being a forward because a coach believed her height would make her an outstanding shot-stopper, was the Cameroon heroine.

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Read more‘We want to be champions!’ Academy trains Cameroon’s next generation of women footballers

She saved a Fatima Tagnaout penalty late in extra time, then blocked three consecutive spot-kicks in the shootout.

The agility of Portugal-based Bihina left Cameroon needing to convert one of their last two penalties to win and Myriam Nyadjou duly obliged.

By reaching the semi-finals, Malawi, Algeria, Morocco and Cameroon have qualified for the 2027 Women’s World Cup in Brazil.

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(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

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She made an albatross at her state amateur. Then she conceded one     

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14 August 2026

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Scan Shannon Johnson’s scorecard from her quarterfinal match at the Massachusetts Women’s State Amateur on Thursday and one number will leap out at you: her 2 on the par-5 18th hole.

An albatross. 

The rarest score in golf. A one-in-6 million shot, according to several published estimates.  

But this story isn’t really about Johnson — it’s about her opponent, 19-year-old Lillian Guleserian, who is a rising sophomore at Penn State, where she plays on the women’s golf team. Guleserian, who is from Westwood, Mass., has had herself a nice summer. In early June, she finished 5th at the Women’s Southern GA Amateur, which she quickly followed up with a win at the New England Women’s Amateur Championship. Then, late last month, came a 3rd-place finish at the Francis Ouimet Memorial Tournament. 

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All of which is to say Guleserian was among the favorites when the 123rd Massachusetts Women’s Amateur got under way at Oak Hill CC, just west of Boston, earlier this week. Guleserian blazed through the two rounds of stroke-play qualifying, shooting 72-75 to finish 4th among the 32 players who advanced to match play. In her first-round match, she dusted her opponent, 7 and 6. In the Round of 16, more of the same: a 5-and-4 romp. 

That set up Guleserian’s Thursday-morning quarterfinal showdown with Johnson, a five-time Massachusetts Women’s Mid-Amateur champion and also a five-time winner of the state stroke-play title. Early on, Guleserian cruised, building a 3-up lead through 12 holes. “Felt pretty good the whole match,” Guleserian told GOLF in a phone interview Thursday afternoon. “Then made a few mistakes.”

Those hiccups led to bogies on 15 and 16. When Guleserian and Johnson arrived on the 18th tee, Johnson had cut Guleserian’s lead to one. Johnson stepped in and laced a drive. Guleserian followed with a good one of her own but was 10 yards behind Johnson’s tee shot, meaning Guleserian would play from the fairway first. 

Yardage: about 210 but playing more like 220. 

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Club choice: 4-hybrid. 

“I’d been going for that green pretty much all week, so I knew I felt pretty good there,” Guleserian said. 

She hadn’t hit the green, though, with her nearest attempt creeping onto the fringe.  

The shot came off low and hot and on a good line but, Guleserian thought, seemingly with not enough oomph. “I thought it was going to be short because it landed pretty short of the green,” she said. 

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But the ball refused to quit. It bounced once, twice, three times on the slope in front of the green and, when it arrived on the putting surface, kept enough pace to keep rolling toward the pin. Ten feet . . . 20 feet . . . 30 feet . . .and here, on Mass Golf’s video of the shot that has been making the rounds on social media, you can hear two greenside voices exclaiming, “Oh my god!”

The witnesses sensed what was about to happen.   

After another 10 or so feet of roll, the ball vanished into the hole. 

An albatross. 

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To win a state amateur match. 

Back in the fairway, Johnson’s own second shot had suddenly become moot — but, in a stroke of scorekeeping weirdness, also conceded. A conceded albatross. It’s right there on the card, a pair of matching 2s on the 18th hole. 

Golf match scorecard from the state amateur showing Lillian Guleserian defeating Shannon Johnson 1 up. The scorecard displays scores for each hole, totals (69 for both), and match results per hole—including an impressive albatross on the back nine. Both players’ clubs are also listed.
Two 2s on 18.

Mass Golf

We’d like to tell you that Guleserian rode her high into the finals. She didn’t. In her Thursday-afternoon semifinal match against Molly Smith, Guleserian lost, 5 and 4. “She was making a lot of putts,” Guleserian said of Smith. 

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When Guleserian checked her phone afterward, the gravity of what she’d done on the final hole of her morning match hit her in the form of a crush of messages from friends and loved ones who’d seen the video. Those well-wishers knew the unlikeliness of what Guleserian had accomplished. Guleserian, of course, knows that, too.   

“It’s crazy,” she said. “An albatross. I never thought I would get one.”

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Ghana Complete Comeback to Reach 2027 Women’s World Cup Play-Offs

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14 August 2026

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Ghana’s Black Queens have kept their FIFA Women’s World Cup 2027 hopes alive after coming from behind to defeat Côte d’Ivoire 2-1 in Casablanca.

Côte d’Ivoire took the lead just four minutes into the match when Inès Konan converted a penalty, leaving Ghana with an early setback to overcome. The Black Queens remained in the contest and went into half-time trailing by a single goal.

Ghana came out with greater determination after the break and found the equaliser in the 59th minute through Princess Marfo. The goal shifted the momentum in Ghana’s favour as the Black Queens pushed for a second.

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Their persistence was rewarded in the 72nd minute when Ghana were awarded a penalty. Josephine Bonsu stepped up and calmly converted from the spot to complete the comeback and put Ghana 2-1 ahead.

The result sends Ghana into the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2027 inter-confederation play-offs, keeping alive their hopes of returning to the tournament in Brazil.

For Ghana, the victory is a major response after their disappointing WAFCON quarter-final defeat to Malawi ended their hopes of automatic qualification. They now have another opportunity to fight for a place at the 2027 Women’s World Cup.

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The bleed that started there had nowhere to go

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14 August 2026

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Prichard Colon’s death at 33 has reignited conversations about the catastrophic brain injury that ended the former undefeated prospect’s boxing career in 2015.

Colon died on Aug. 13, 2026, nearly 11 years after suffering a severe brain injury during his bout against Terrel Williams in Fairfax, Virginia. The Puerto Rican boxer entered the contest with a 16-0 record but was repeatedly struck by illegal blows to the back of the head.

Colon complained to the referee during the fight, but the contest continued. Jason R. Williams, an interventional oncologist and board-certified radiologist, explained the medical consequences of those blows in an X post following Colon’s death:

“Prichard Colon was 23 and undefeated when he fought Terrel Williams in 2015. He kept telling the referee about the blows landing on the back of his head. The referee took one point. The fight went on. Those punches land where the spine meets the brainstem, and the skull barely covers that spot. The bleed that started there had nowhere to go. Trapped blood builds pressure. Pressure kills brain tissue. Brain tissue does not come back. Surgeons saved his life that night, but no treatment in medicine could return what the bleed took.”

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He added:

“He spent 221 days in a coma and the next decade unable to walk or speak, while his parents cared for him around the clock. Prichard did what a fighter is supposed to do. He reported the fouls to the one person who could stop them. It didn’t save him. That part has never left me. Boxing learned from him. In 2016 the WBC put a zero tolerance rule on those punches and named it after him. Fighters are safer today because of what he lost. Once brain damage runs this deep, we cannot treat our way out of it. Prevention is the only cure. Rest in peace, Prichard. Praying for his family.”

Check out the X post below:

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Legendary boxing trainer reflects on Prichard Colon’s death and boxing safety concerns

Legendary boxing trainer Robert Garcia recently reflected on Prichard Colon’s death and called it a tragic reminder of the dangers fighters can face in the ring.

Garcia spoke about the uncertainty surrounding whether Colon’s death was directly connected to the injuries he suffered years earlier. However, he mentioned that those complications from the tragic incident could have played a role.

In a recent interview with ES News, he said:

“The fight was five years ago, maybe he had some complications, I don’t know, but it’s tough. It’s tough. He was a promising fighter. But this happened years later, so can it be the same effect on the person? I don’t know, it’s tough. It’s tough.”