ANTONY CARESSED THE BALL INTO THE FAR CORNER. ]]> Fri, 21 Apr 2023 00:46:50 -0400 admin https://sports.9020blog.com/expanded-2026-world-cup-to-feature-4-team-groups-104-total-matches https://sports.9020blog.com/expanded-2026-world-cup-to-feature-4-team-groups-104-total-matches The expanded 2026 World Cup will feature 12 four-team groups and 104 games in total, FIFA announced Tuesday.

The governing body formally approved the revised format for the supersized event during a council meeting Tuesday in Kigali, Rwanda. The tournament, co-hosted by the United States, Canada, and Mexico, will be the largest World Cup in history with its expansion from 32 to 48 participating nations.

The entire 2026 event will span 56 days between "rest, release, and tournament days," FIFA said. The final will be held on July 19, 2026.

Play itself is expected to take place over 39 days, report Matt Slater and David Ornstein of The Athletic, which would make the 2026 World Cup the longest ever.

To facilitate the inclusion of extra games without making sweeping alterations to the schedule, FIFA will reduce the pre-tournament preparation period from 23 to 16 days, according to Slater and Ornstein.

FIFA initially planned to use 16 three-team groups in 2026, with the top two nations from each section advancing to a 32-team knockout round. Under that format, the tournament would've featured 80 matches in total. The men's World Cup has been a 64-game tournament since 1998.

But concerns over that plan, initially green-lit in 2017, forced FIFA to rethink its approach, particularly after the final set of matches in the existing four-team group format at the recent edition in Qatar generated consistent drama and excitement.

Using groups consisting of just three teams would have eliminated the simultaneous group finales, a popular World Cup feature, and would create an opportunity for two teams to collude if they both needed a specific result in their last group match, just as West Germany and Austria did in the infamous 1982 match dubbed the "Disgrace of Gijon."

"The revised format mitigates the risk of collusion and ensures that all the teams play a minimum of three matches while providing balanced rest time between competing teams," FIFA said of its decision to alter the format.

With 48 teams split into quartets, the eight best third-place finishers will join the top two teams from each group in the 32-team knockout stage.

It's unclear how the allocation of matches between the three host countries will be adjusted; the United States was set to stage 60 games under the previous format, with Canada and Mexico handed 10 each.

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]]> Fri, 21 Apr 2023 00:46:49 -0400 admin https://sports.9020blog.com/introducing-gift-orban-the-nigerian-phenomenon-scoring-goals-like-haaland https://sports.9020blog.com/introducing-gift-orban-the-nigerian-phenomenon-scoring-goals-like-haaland Gift Orban was different from anyone else Patrick Metcalfe had encountered in his career.

"He would literally kill someone to score a goal," Metcalfe, who played with the burgeoning Nigerian striker while at Norwegian club Stabaek, told theScore. "Even if it was in training and someone could play him the ball, and they didn't, and he was in a position where he could score, he would almost be trying to fight the player."

Metcalfe admits Orban's desire to win and score goals could go "over the limit" but believes that's a key reason why the 20-year-old will earn a transfer to the Premier League within a year. While Metcalfe moved on to another Norwegian side in Fredrikstad, Orban took his breathtaking form at Stabaek - where he crammed 20 goals into just 21 starts for the club - and replicated it with Gent in Belgian and European football.

Orban is one of the few players on the globe who's challenging Erling Haaland's punishing scoring rate for Manchester City. The world is starting to take notice.

Orban's record at Gent

Competition	Appearances	Goals	Assists
Belgian Pro League	8	9	2
Europa Conference League	4	5	0

For a relative latecomer to professional football, Orban's training-ground tenacity could be viewed as surprising, as many young players deal with timidness following a sudden leap into the senior ranks or a new team. He was discovered in Nigeria at 19 during one of Stabaek sporting director Torgeir Bjarmann's regular trips to Africa in search of talent. Within a few months, he had forced himself into the club's starting XI.

Orban's determined and perhaps aggressive ascent to first-team consideration didn't lose him many friends. It was quite the opposite. Metcalfe credits Orban for being able to "flip the switch" and be a "really nice guy" when he's off the pitch. The pair still talk regularly today.

Stefan Smet, a journalist who's covered Gent with Belgian publications Het Nieuwsblad and De Gentenaar for 13 years, describes Orban as "a constant ray of light shining in the club." Unlike other foreign players who've joined Gent over the years - like Jonathan David, who Smet still counts as the "most special" footballer he's seen represent the Buffalos - Orban didn't withhold elements of his personality while he acclimated to his new surroundings and got to know his new colleagues.

"He's not only speaking to one or two people," Smet said of Orban's earliest days with Gent, "he's speaking and making jokes with everybody. He's a phenomenon, even off the pitch."

Metcalfe remembers Orban's fondness for Grammy-winning Nigerian singer Burna Boy. "It's like a trigger for him. (It) doesn't matter where he is or what time it is, if he hears Burna Boy come on, he'll start dancing."

Music is an ongoing theme at Gent.

"People sometimes get crazy about the way he starts playing music very loud in the early morning," Smet revealed about Orban's behavior at Gent's training ground. "The more experienced guys have told him, 'No worries, Gift, but a little less loud would be nice.'"

It's not just his own inexperience that could've eroded Orban's ebullience as he strived to make an impact at Gent following his January transfer from Stabaek. There was also the fee. Smet says Gent spent over €3 million - a considerable sum in Belgian football - for a player who had only scored goals in Norway's second division. That level of football was several rungs below the standard Orban was set to encounter in Belgium's top tier and the Europa Conference League.

But any concerns harbored by the local media and Gent supporters were soon dispelled. In his debut, he scored an unorthodox, slingshot-esque volley and grabbed another goal when he ruthlessly rifled the ball into the top corner. He also won a penalty.

And now, just two months into his Gent career, he's already their second-highest scorer of the 2022-23 season with 14 goals across all competitions. Orban fired Gent into the Europa Conference League quarterfinals with a hat-trick in 205 seconds at Istanbul Basaksehir - the fastest treble ever recorded in a UEFA club competition.

Op algemeen verzoek:

]]> Fri, 21 Apr 2023 00:46:48 -0400 admin https://sports.9020blog.com/watch-sportings-pedro-goncalves-stuns-arsenal-with-goal-from-halfway-line https://sports.9020blog.com/watch-sportings-pedro-goncalves-stuns-arsenal-with-goal-from-halfway-line That chip was perfection.

It was a goal reminiscent of Nayim's lob of David Seaman in the 1995 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup final. Sporting CP's Pedro Goncalves spotted Arsenal goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale off his line during Thursday's Europa League clash before executing a sublime lofted finish from the edge of the center circle.

The goal made the second leg 1-1, with the overall score tied 3-3 on aggregate. The Portuguese club eventually went on to win in a shootout and reach the quarterfinals of the competition.

(Available to view in U.S. only)

PEDRO GONÇALVES CAUGHT AARON RAMSDALE OFF OF HIS LINE!

ASTONISHING GOAL! ]]> Fri, 21 Apr 2023 00:46:48 -0400 admin https://sports.9020blog.com/uniteds-martinez-out-for-rest-of-season-varane-to-miss-a-few-weeks https://sports.9020blog.com/uniteds-martinez-out-for-rest-of-season-varane-to-miss-a-few-weeks Manchester United defender Lisandro Martinez will miss the rest of the season due to a right foot injury that requires surgery.

Martinez, 25, suffered the non-contact injury Thursday in the final minutes of United's Europa League match against Sevilla. Sevilla players Marcos Acuna and Gonzalo Montiel, who won the World Cup with fellow Argentinian defender Martinez, carried their countryman off the pitch.

Raphael Varane, who went down with his own foot injury during the 2-2 draw at Old Trafford, is expected to return in a few weeks.

That would still rule him out of Sunday's Premier League contest against Nottingham Forest and next Thursday's second leg in Seville.

"We have very good replacements with Harry Maguire, Victor Lindelof, and Luke Shaw," manager Erik ten Hag said, according to The Guardian's Jamie Jackson. "We have players who can replace them but, of course, it is a miss."

The Red Devils have at least 11 matches remaining in the season, including an FA Cup semifinal on April 23 against Brighton & Hove Albion.

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]]> Fri, 21 Apr 2023 00:46:47 -0400 admin https://sports.9020blog.com/man-united-dumped-from-europa-league-after-error-strewn-loss-to-sevilla https://sports.9020blog.com/man-united-dumped-from-europa-league-after-error-strewn-loss-to-sevilla Manchester United embarrassed themselves in the Europa League on Thursday, exiting the competition with a 3-0 loss to Sevilla in the second leg of their nightmarish quarterfinal.

The Andalusians, who sit just eight points above the relegation zone in La Liga, advanced 5-2 on aggregate.

Harry Maguire and David De Gea were equally to blame for Sevilla's first goal of the night. United's haphazard captain, playing in the absence of injured center-backs Raphael Varane and Lisandro Martinez, mishandled the goalkeeper's pass outside of the area before allowing Youssef En-Nesyri to score in the 14th minute.

De Gea then misjudged Loic Bade's looping header in the 47th minute and humiliated himself again in the 81st when he treated En-Nesyri to an open goal following a poor first touch from about 30 yards out.

(Available to view in U.S. only)

WHAT WAS DAVID DE GEA DOING THERE?!

SEVILLA TAKE ADVATANGE OF HIS UNSERIOUNESS AND HAVE THEIR THIRD.

TIE OVER. ]]> Fri, 21 Apr 2023 00:46:46 -0400 admin https://sports.9020blog.com/west-ham-waltz-into-conference-league-semifinals-fiorentina-avoid-scare https://sports.9020blog.com/west-ham-waltz-into-conference-league-semifinals-fiorentina-avoid-scare West Ham got two goals from Michail Antonio to rout Gent 4-1 and reach the semifinals of a European competition for a second straight year.

The teams were locked at 1-1 after the first leg, with the visitors taking a 1-0 lead through Hugo Cuypers’ goal before Antonio leveled at London Stadium with a header off a Jarrod Bowen free-kick.

Lucas Paqueta and Declan Rice scored after the break and Antonio added his second for the Hammers.

West Ham reached the semifinals of the Europa League last season.

The Premier League club will next meet AZ Alkmaar after the Dutch prevailed in a penalty shootout 4-1 over Anderlecht to reach the last four with a 2-0 home victory. Their quarterfinal matchup was 2-2 on aggregate after regulation and extra time.

AZ Alkmaar center-forward Vangelis Pavlidis scored twice in the opening 13 minutes to erase Anderlecht's 2-0 advantage from the first leg.

Pavlidis scored his first from the penalty spot five minutes into the game and leveled the aggregate score only eight minutes later. He was substituted at halftime due to an injury.

Fiorentina had to rely on late goals by Riccardo Sottil and substitute Gaetano Castrovilli to reach the semifinals of the Europa Conference League despite a 3-2 home loss to Lech Poznan.

The Serie A club advanced 6-4 on aggregate after a comfortable 4-1 advantage from the first leg in Poland to meet Basel.

The visitors pulled even at 4-4 on aggregate when Artur Sobiech scored in the 69th minute in Florence. Afonso Sousa and Kristoffer Velde had scored earlier.

Sottil returned the overall lead to the home team 12 minutes from time, with Castrovilli adding one more in stoppage time.

Basel recovered from a goal down at Nice with a late equalizer sending the game to extra time after they split the first leg 2-2. Defender Kasim Nuhu scored the decider in the 98th.

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