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Oct 7, 2026 - Sports

Lionel Messi brought the curtain down on his 21-year international career on Tuesday, bidding farewell to adoring Argentina fans in an emotional final appearance for the former world champions in Buenos Aires.In a perfectly scripted finale, the 39-year-old widely regarded as the greatest football player in history signed off with his 126th international goal in front of 85,000 supporters as Argentina cruised to a 3-0 victory over Benin. Continue reading...

Oct 7, 2026 - Sports

Justin Ellis scored in the first half to cap a perfect elongated international window for Mauricio Pochettino’s side. Jeff is at the game.Meanwhile, Pablo Maurer is following the Messi farewell:Goalkeeper feels like a re-opened competition after shaky halves from World Cup incumbents Matt Freese and Chris Brady, while Diego Kochen shone bright in his first start against Mexico. Brian Schwake will try to make his case from the opening whistle, looking to carry his fine form with Nashville into his second appearance.I was hoping to see Auston Trusty partner with Chris Richards, as he seems like the best partner in a post-Tim Ream US side, but he looks set to deploy at left-back. That said, Alex Freeman will likely advance further up the right, and Trusty could deputize as a wide center-back in build-up phases.Mathis Albert may not yet be a regular with Dortmund’s B-team, much less the senior side, but his dynamism throughout this camp earned him a surprise start over the more polished and proven Zavier Gozo. A fascinating chance to get a long look at another star of the program’s future. Continue reading...

Oct 7, 2026 - Sports

A chippy and at times ugly friendly nonetheless gave Mauricio Pochettino’s side four wins out of four, with another young player making the difference. Before 1878, a referee trying to get players’ attention was left to waive a white handkerchief in the air. It was an imperfect practice, asking an infractor to be self-aware enough to look for a doffed doily after hard contact. The game forever changed when Joseph Hudson, a Birmingham-bred tool maker who founded Acme Whistles, showed up to an FA Cup match in 1878 with his signature product in tow.On Tuesday, nearly 150 years after Hudson’s innovation, referee Steven Madrigal paid the architect a hearty tribute. Continue reading...

Oct 7, 2026 - Sports

The 2022 World Cup champion was given a raucous sendoff with plenty of pomp and circumstance. Read Pablo Iglesias Maurer’s minute-by-minute report. Guardian reader Paul reached out via email and is apparently deep in the comments section of a 20-year-old Messi article we published here at the Guardian. I can only hope Guardian reader “snafuclarke” has fully recovered from such a scorchingly terrible take:don’t kid yourselves. messi is currently hugely overrated. the amount of hype this lad gets has never matched his performances on the pitch the last game aside. Continue reading...

Oct 7, 2026 - Sports

With their season on the brink of ending, the Padres refused to go down quietly.