Global Pulse

分类： sports

  • North Korean women footballers arrive in South Korea: AFP

    North Korean women footballers arrive in South Korea: AFP

    In a landmark moment for inter-Korean sports exchange after nearly a decade of separation, North Korea’s Naegohyang Women’s Football Club touched down in South Korea on Sunday, ahead of their semi-final appearance at the Women’s Asian Champions League. This visit marks the first time a sports delegation from the isolated country has traveled to its southern neighbor since 2016.

    An Agence France-Presse correspondent on the ground at Incheon International Airport reported that the 39-member group, made up of players and coaching staff, stepped out of the arrivals gate clad in matching dark jackets and skirts, greeted by a crowd of cheering South Korean civic activists holding hand-painted welcome banners. “We welcome you!” the supporters shouted as the delegation walked along a security cordoned path, under close supervision from local law enforcement. After clearing the terminal, the team quickly boarded a chartered bus that departed under police escort to their accommodations.

    Based in the North Korean capital Pyongyang, Naegohyang — whose name translates to “My Hometown” in Korean — will face off against host side Suwon FC Women this Wednesday in the tournament’s first semi-final match. Founded in 2012, the club claimed the top title in North Korea’s domestic top-flight league for the 2021-2022 season, and already holds a decisive 3-0 victory over Suwon from the group stage of last year’s competition.

    The delegation traveled to South Korea via Beijing, and will stay at a hotel in Suwon, a city located roughly 30 kilometers south of Seoul. According to local South Korean media reports, organizers have arranged separate dining facilities and transportation routes for the two teams, a measure that will limit unplanned direct interaction between the North Korean and South Korean squads.

    Public excitement around the historic match has surged across South Korea: more than 7,000 tickets to the game sold out within hours of going on sale. South Korea’s Unification Ministry, the government body responsible for inter-Korean relations, has even allocated public funding to South Korean civic groups organizing fan activities for both teams, framing the cross-border sports event as a rare, important opportunity to build connection between the divided Korean people. “This match offers a meaningful chance to boost mutual understanding between the two Koreas,” the ministry noted of its support.

  • Ngannou tells Jones to exit UFC contract after quick KO

    Ngannou tells Jones to exit UFC contract after quick KO

    The landscape of mixed martial arts reached a potential turning point this weekend, as one of the sport’s most recognizable heavyweights delivered a devastating reminder of his dominance on the first MMA card ever broadcast live on Netflix.

    Headlining the undercard for the highly anticipated Ronda Rousey-Gina Carano main event at Los Angeles’ Intuit Dome, Francis Ngannou, the 39-year-old Cameroonian powerhouse, lived up to his billing with a clinical first-round knockout of Brazil’s Philipe Lins. Staged by Most Valuable Promotions, the event marked a landmark moment for MMA, opening the door for a potential challenge to the UFC’s long-standing dominance of the sport if regular streamed events continue under the new model.

    Ngannou, who left the UFC as the promotion’s reigning heavyweight champion in 2023, came into the bout with a eight-fight winning streak, seven of which ended in knockout. He made short work of Lins, who was returning to the heavyweight division after three years competing at light-heavyweight and entered the contest 30 pounds lighter than Ngannou. From the opening bell, Ngannou imposed his will, landing a thudding early leg kick before wearing down his opponent with his signature heavy strikes. As the first round wound down, Lins made a desperate, wild swing, and Ngannou capitalized with a flush, fight-ending left hook that dropped his opponent instantly. Confident the contest was over, Ngannou chose not to follow Lins to the canvas to add further damage, standing over his fallen opponent as the referee stopped the fight.

    The win improves Ngannou’s professional MMA record to 19 wins against just 3 losses, and he used his post-fight interview to push for the biggest bout in the sport: a matchup against former UFC legend Jon Jones, who worked as part of Netflix’s broadcast team for the event. Calling Jones one of the greatest MMA fighters of all time, Ngannou said the fight must happen before both athletes retire, adding a jab that Jones still has room to learn from Ngannou’s business acumen.

    Jones, who retired from active competition in 2025, has expressed enthusiasm for the bout, but significant obstacles stand in the way of the matchup becoming reality. Jones remains bound by his contract with the UFC, and the long-standing frosty relationship between UFC leadership and Ngannou means a sanctioned bout under the promotion’s banner is off the table. Jones noted that the only path forward would be to finalize his exit from his UFC contract and stage the event through Most Valuable Promotions, adding: “If this fight is going to happen, I don’t think Dana [White] is going to do any business with Francis [Ngannou], so doing it with MVP is the only way.”

    Despite the UFC crowning two new heavyweight champions since Ngannou’s departure, a large segment of MMA fans and analysts still recognize Ngannou as the best heavyweight in the world, making his signing with MVP a major breakthrough for the upstart promotion. After the bout, Ngannou doubled down on his claim to the throne, saying: “If someone doesn’t remember who I am, they must have amnesia or something because I made a statement here tonight again.”

    The card’s co-feature, billed by fans as the “people’s main event”, delivered a similarly action-packed result, as American welterweight Mike Perry defeated fan favorite Nate Diaz when the bout was stopped at the end of the second round. Perry dominated the contest from start to finish, landing a barrage of punches, knees and elbows that opened a deep cut above Diaz’s eye, leaving the veteran unable to see as blood poured down his face. The ringside doctor determined Diaz could not continue, bringing the fight to a premature end.

    Diaz, 41, a cult hero among MMA fans for his 15-year UFC career and rebellious persona, ended his tenure with the promotion in 2022 after submitting Tony Ferguson, and spent the intervening years testing the waters in professional boxing. He returned to MMA for the bout seeking high-profile matchups, but was hindered by an early injury. “I think I broke my finger in the first two seconds, and I spent too much time worrying about that rather than focusing on the animal that I am,” Diaz said after the fight, acknowledging the referee’s stoppage was the correct call. “I had blood in my eye. I couldn’t see anything, I wasn’t going to do anything but next time he’s not going to be able to do anything.”

  • Former Canada coach Priestman leads Phoenix to final in return from drone spying ban

    Former Canada coach Priestman leads Phoenix to final in return from drone spying ban

    WELLINGTON, New Zealand — Disgraced former Canadian women’s national soccer head coach Bev Priestman has turned in a remarkable first performance since her one-year FIFA suspension ended, guiding the Wellington Phoenix women’s squad to its first-ever Australian A-League Women grand final, marking a stunning turnaround for both the coach and the underperforming club.

    Priestman’s new side ultimately fell 3-1 to Melbourne Victory in Saturday’s championship decider, but the result masks extraordinary progress that few predicted before the season began. The Phoenix have struggled consistently across their four prior campaigns in the 11-team A-League, finishing dead last in their debut two seasons, then placing eighth and ninth in the following two years. This run to the final represents a quantum leap for the expansion side.

    The Wellington Phoenix head coaching role is Priestman’s first senior position since she completed her 12-month ban from international football handed down by FIFA for violating fair play principles amid a 2024 Paris Olympics drone espionage scandal.

    The England-born coach previously claimed Olympic glory, leading Canada to a gold medal at the 2021 Tokyo Games. But her career hit a crisis ahead of Canada’s opening 2024 Paris Olympic match against New Zealand, when an unauthorized drone was captured flying over a closed New Zealand team training session, in an incident that sparked global condemnation.

    Two Canadian support staff were immediately sent home from the Games, and Priestman voluntarily stepped away from her coaching duties ahead of the team’s first match. Canada Soccer subsequently suspended her, launched a formal investigation, and ultimately terminated her contract as head coach. FIFA later issued a one-year ban over what it called “offensive behavior and violation of the principles of fair play.”

    Priestman received a second chance thousands of miles from her former post, with New Zealand’s Wellington Phoenix offering her a two-year contract to rebuild their underperforming women’s program. At her introductory press conference after signing, the coach expressed gratitude for the opportunity to restart her career.
    “I want to thank the club for having faith in me to return to the game,” Priestman said at the time. “For me, coming back has felt like the right move. Today is a good day.”

    Speaking after Saturday’s final loss, Priestman reflected on a surprisingly successful first season back in top-level soccer, saying the campaign had been an overwhelmingly positive experience. She added that the hunger she witnessed from her young squad had been one of the highlights of the season, and that the narrow defeat would only fuel the team’s ambition for the next campaign.
    “Losing leaves a little bit on us. And in many ways, it might help us next year to push to another level,” Priestman said. “I’ve got an ambitious club. I’m at my best in these moments; the hunger, the desire to push forward. I think everybody will channel that now. When we turn up in pre-season, we’ll all know what could have been.”

  • Svitolina sees off Gauff to win Italian Open, Sinner in men’s title showdown

    Svitolina sees off Gauff to win Italian Open, Sinner in men’s title showdown

    The 2025 Italian Open delivered two days of dramatic, rain-interrupted tennis on Saturday, capped by Elina Svitolina capturing her third WTA 1000 Rome title and Jannik Sinner extending his historic Masters 1000 winning streak to book a spot in the men’s championship match.

    Ukraine’s Svitolina, the tournament’s seventh seed, outlasted American star Coco Gauff in a topsy-turvy three-set clash, finishing the match 6-4, 6-7 (3/7), 6-2 to lift the trophy. Remarkably, the champion’s last WTA 1000 title also came at the Foro Italico, eight years prior, making Saturday’s win a full-circle moment for the veteran.

    Gauff, a two-time Grand Slam champion and pre-tournament favorite who fell just short of the title last year, entered the match aiming to become the first American woman to claim the Rome crown since Serena Williams in 2016. But the serving errors that have long plagued her game reemerged at the worst possible time on the tournament’s centre court. Gauff was broken three times en route to dropping the opening set, hampered by four double faults – two of which came in the pivotal game that gave Svitolina a permanent lead. At 4-5 down on set point, Gauff produced an unusual misstep, hitting a second serve into the wrong half of the court before gifting Svitolina the set with another double fault.

    A visibly frustrated Gauff struck her own head with her racket before storming off court, though she returned shortly after for a heated discussion with coach Jean-Christophe Faurel. The pep talk appeared to work: Gauff sorted out her serve to force a tense second set filled with dynamic, crowd-pleasing rallies, and clawed back to level the match with a tiebreak win. But Svitolina’s steady, consistent play – a hallmark of her run through the entire tournament – proved too much. Two more breaks of Gauff’s serve in the deciding set sealed the champion’s 20th career tournament title, and dashed Gauff’s hopes of claiming her first trophy of the season just one week ahead of her French Open title defense.

    In the men’s semi-final action, world No. 1 Sinner closed out a rain-paused clash against Daniil Medvedev to secure a spot in Sunday’s final. The match was halted overnight on Friday due to Rome’s wet, volatile weather, after the Italian fell ill mid-clash – even vomiting on court and requiring medical treatment for a tight right thigh, as Medvedev pushed him to his toughest test of the entire tournament.

    When play resumed on Saturday, delayed an extra hour by new rainfall and a preceding men’s doubles semi-final, Sinner looked refreshed: he joked and played casual football with his coaching staff during warm-ups under newly emerged spring sun, and carried his momentum through to the finish. Sinner held onto his 4-2 third-set lead from the paused match, closing out a 6-2, 5-7, 6-4 win after two and a half hours of high-stakes play that stretched across two days. The win marked Sinner’s 33rd consecutive victory in Masters 1000 competition, and puts him in position to claim a record-extending sixth straight Masters 1000 title on Sunday.

    Speaking to reporters after the match, Sinner acknowledged his physical struggles from the day prior. “I think it’s normal that not every day we feel 100 percent,” he said. “I tried to play with the best possible energy I have. Yesterday brought me to a point where I was up today. Today I’m very happy that I finished it.”

    Sinner will face Norway’s Casper Ruud in the final, after Ruud delivered a dominant 6-1, 6-1 semi-final win over Luciano Darderi – a match also cut short and restarted due to heavy rain. The 2025 Rome final gives Ruud a chance at revenge: last year at the Foro Italico, Sinner delivered one of the most lopsided wins in tournament history, beating Ruud 6-0, 6-1 in the quarter-finals. Ruud has yet to win a single set across his four career matches against Sinner, but will climb back into the world’s top 20 in the ATP rankings on Monday regardless of Sunday’s result.

  • Semenyo’s magic moment fires Man City to FA Cup final win over Chelsea

    Semenyo’s magic moment fires Man City to FA Cup final win over Chelsea

    The 2025 FA Cup final at Wembley Stadium delivered one of the competition’s most memorable individual moments on Saturday, as Ghanaian winger Antoine Semenyo’s audacious late back-flick handed Manchester City a hard-fought 1-0 win over Chelsea, securing the club’s eighth FA Cup title.

    For much of a cagey, scrappy encounter that reflected both sides’ underwhelming domestic campaigns, neither side could find a breakthrough. Chelsea set up in a deep five-man defensive block, ceding long spells of possession to Pep Guardiola’s side while threatening only on rare counter-attacks. Before half-time, the Blues felt hard done by when referee waved away their penalty appeal after forward Joao Pedro was brought down in the box by City defender Abdukodir Khusanov.

    City carved out several promising chances in the first half, all squandered. Erling Haaland, who would later set up the winning goal, fired wide from a tight angle after stealing possession on the edge of the 18-yard box, and saw a stinging first-half strike parried away by Chelsea keeper Robert Sanchez. Just after the break, Semenyo missed a golden opportunity to open the scoring, heading over from six yards out after meeting a well-placed cross from Nico O’Reilly. Chelsea came close to taking the lead just before the hour mark, when Moises Caicedo’s goalbound header was cleared off the line by City holding midfielder Rodri after keeper James Trafford fumbled a corner.

    The match’s decisive magic arrived in the 72nd minute. Haaland made a sharp run down the right flank of the Chelsea penalty area, cutting a low cross back to the edge of the six-yard box. There, Semenyo improvised a sublime, instinctive back-flick that caressed the ball past Sanchez and into the far corner, capping one of the most iconic goals in FA Cup final history.

    The result is especially poetic for Semenyo: the 26-year-old, signed in a January transfer window move from Bournemouth, was born just minutes from Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge stadium in west London. His match-winning strike places him alongside legends of the competition including Ricky Villa, Michael Owen, Roberto Di Matteo and Steven Gerrard in the ranks of players who have scored iconic FA Cup final goals.

    For Guardiola, the title adds another entry to his already legendary tenure at the Etihad Stadium. This is the third FA Cup win of his 10-year reign as City manager, and the 20th major trophy of his time at the club. It also ends City’s two-match losing streak in FA Cup finals, following back-to-back final defeats to Crystal Palace and Manchester United. The FA Cup is also the second piece of silverware City has claimed this season, following a League Cup final win over Arsenal back in March.

    Now, Guardiola turns his attention to the club’s outside shot at a miraculous Premier League title comeback. City have gone 21 consecutive domestic matches unbeaten, but they will sit five points behind league leaders Arsenal if the Gunners beat relegated Burnley at home on Monday. A win for City against former club Bournemouth in their penultimate league fixture on Tuesday would cut the gap back to two points, but Arsenal can secure their first top-flight title since 2004 with a win away at Crystal Palace on May 24.

    The result adds another disappointing chapter to a turbulent campaign for Chelsea. Under interim manager Calum McFarlane, the Blues put up a battling performance but ultimately lacked cutting edge in front of goal, a reflection of a season that has seen them win just one of their last seven Premier League matches. Currently sat ninth in the league table, Chelsea have all but locked out their chances of qualifying for next season’s Champions League. Frustrated fans protested against club owners BlueCo before kick-off, chanting “we want our Chelsea back” to voice their discontent with the team’s recent form.

    Off the pitch, uncertainty continues to surround Guardiola’s long-term future at City. The 55-year-old has just 12 months remaining on his current contract, and has yet to confirm whether he will stay at the club beyond the end of this season. Ahead of his 24th trip to Wembley with City, the Catalan manager joked he was “so disappointed” he has not yet had a stand named after him at the home of English football. If this cup triumph proves to be one of the final chapters of his tenure, Semenyo’s moment of magic has ensured Guardiola will leave with at least one more unforgettable golden memory.

  • Sinner completes Medvedev win and passage into Italian Open final

    Sinner completes Medvedev win and passage into Italian Open final

    In a drama-filled, rain-interrupted semi-final clash that stretched across two days at Rome’s Foro Italico, home favorite Jannik Sinner delivered a gritty performance to defeat Daniil Medvedev 6-2, 5-7, 6-4 on Saturday, booking his spot in the Italian Open men’s singles final. The world No. 1 will face Norway’s Casper Ruud in Sunday’s title match, where he will chase a historic sixth Masters 1000 crown, a feat that would extend his existing record for the most titles in the elite ATP series this season.

    The semi-final encounter, which spanned two and a half hours of on-court action, had already delivered unprecedented tension on Friday night. During the opening session of the match, Sinner was forced to receive medical attention for a tight right thigh, and even suffered a bout of vomiting mid-match, as Medvedev pushed the Italian to his toughest test of the entire tournament. When persistent rain forced play to be suspended, Sinner held a 4-2 lead in the deciding third set.

    After days of erratic weather, warm spring sunlight finally broke through in Rome on Saturday, but further delays disrupted the schedule. The restart, originally scheduled for 3:00 pm local time, was pushed back an hour by a final late rain shower and the conclusion of the men’s doubles semi-final, which was won by Sinner’s Italian compatriots Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori. When play finally resumed, Sinner looked far fresher than he had on Friday: he had joked and played casual football with his coaching staff during his pre-restart warm-up in the underground spaces of the centre court arena, his good spirits a stark contrast to his physical struggle the previous night.

    Though Medvedev claimed the seventh game of the third set to cut Sinner’s lead, the Italian dominated from that point onward, taking the next game without dropping a point on his own serve before closing out the match in under 20 minutes. The win marks Sinner’s 33rd consecutive victory in ATP Masters 1000 events, extending his incredible unbeaten run in the top-tier tour.

    In the other semi-final held Saturday, Ruud produced a stunning 6-1, 6-1 demolition of Italian wildcard Luciano Darderi, a result that also was interrupted by heavy rain. For Ruud, the final presents a rare opportunity for revenge: he has never taken a single set off Sinner in four previous head-to-head encounters, including a humiliating 6-0, 6-1 defeat in the 2025 Italian Open quarter-finals, one of the most one-sided matches in the venue’s history.

    The women’s singles final will follow the men’s decider on Sunday, with 2024 runner-up Coco Gauff of the United States aiming to go one step further and claim her first Italian Open title against Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina. Gauff, who is preparing to defend her French Open crown at Roland Garros next month, fell short against Italy’s Jasmine Paolini in last year’s Rome final.

  • Teenage captain Celebrini scores 2 and Canada shuts out Italy at ice hockey worlds

    Teenage captain Celebrini scores 2 and Canada shuts out Italy at ice hockey worlds

    The IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship continued its group stage play across Swiss host cities on Saturday, with 19-year-old captain Macklin Celebrini emerging as the breakout star of the day, leading Canada to a dominant 6-0 shutout victory over Italy in Fribourg.

    Celebrini, the tournament’s youngest Canadian captain in recent memory, notched a three-point performance, headlined by two clinical goals that underscored his rising status as one of hockey’s most promising young talents. His first marker of the tournament came with just over three minutes left in the opening frame: after a sharp cross-ice feed from Porter Martone, Celebrini fired a rapid one-timer from the right circle to push Canada’s lead to 3-0. He doubled his personal tally just over two minutes into the second period, lifting a smooth backhand shot into the top corner of the net to extend Canada’s advantage to 4-0, with newly minted post-NHL playoff addition Sidney Crosby picking up the primary assist on the play.

    The lopsided result marked Canada’s second consecutive win to open its Group B campaign, following a tight 5-3 victory over defending contender Sweden on Friday. Other goals came from Dylan Holloway, Fraser Minten, Evan Bouchard and Ryan O’Reilly, while goaltender Cam Talbot turned away all 19 shots Italy sent his way to secure the clean sheet.

    Canada’s scoring surge got started early in the first period, when Holloway and Minten found the back of the net just 47 seconds apart. Holloway converted a cross-crease pass from John Tavares to beat Italian starting goaltender Davide Fadani, before Minten slammed home a rebound to double the lead. Late in the second period, Bouchard scored on a power play, and O’Reilly added another goal 25 seconds later to cap the rout, wrapping up the 6-0 scoreline. Italy, the tournament’s returning competitor that made its way back to the top division for the first time since 2022, was unable to find a breakthrough against Canada’s tight defensive structure.

    In other Group A action held in Zurich, Finland notched its second straight win of the tournament with a 4-1 defeat of Hungary. Florida Panthers star Aleksander Barkov, who made his return to competitive play after missing the entire NHL season through injury, earned two assists to anchor Finland’s offensive push. Another opening-day match in Zurich saw newcomer Britain fall 5-2 to Austria, after the Austrian side jumped out to a commanding three-goal lead within the first 10 minutes of play. Britain fought back with two goals from David Clements and Liam Kirk, scored 37 seconds apart in the first period, but Austria extended its lead with two second-period goals, while limiting Britain to just two total shots on goal in the frame. Peter Schneider led Austria’s offense with two goals on the day.

    Back in Fribourg, Slovakia secured a narrow 2-1 win over Norway, courtesy of Marek Hrivik’s game-winning goal scored midway through the final period. Saturday’s slate of games concluded with two primetime matchups: host Switzerland faced off against Latvia in Zurich, while the Czech Republic took on Slovenia in Fribourg. Canada is set to return to Group B play on Monday, where they will face Denmark.

    This report was compiled from Associated Press sports coverage.

  • SA clubs could withdraw from European competitions

    SA clubs could withdraw from European competitions

    South Africa’s national rugby governing body is set to launch a wide-ranging review of its national teams’ competitive calendar, a process that could reshape both domestic and international rugby schedules across the continent and Europe. The South African Rugby Union (Saru) confirmed it will hold a formal strategic planning session before the end of July to evaluate current scheduling arrangements. While officials note that it is too early to confirm any concrete changes, one of the most significant outcomes under discussion is the potential withdrawal of South Africa’s top professional club sides from the European Rugby Champions Cup and EPCR Challenge Cup.

    Under the current structure, elite South African rugby players face a grueling 12-month competitive season. Since 2020, the country’s four top professional clubs — the Stormers, Bulls, Sharks and Lions — have competed in the United Rugby Championship (URC), a cross-continental league that runs from September through June each year. After wrapping up their URC commitments, elite players who represent the South African national side, the Springboks, enter the annual Rugby Championship — the southern hemisphere’s flagship international tournament held in July and August — leaving little to no time for rest and recovery. Only a small number of Springboks, who play their club rugby in Japan, avoid this packed annual schedule.

    Saru made clear in an official statement that the review was launched to address growing calls for a balanced calendar that protects both player welfare and competitive team performance. “The views of all internal stakeholders will be canvassed and workshopped on the domestic and international playing calendar for South African players,” the statement added.

    South African rugby’s shift into Northern Hemisphere-focused club competition is a relatively recent change. For more than two decades after the founding of Super Rugby in 1996, South African sides competed exclusively in the southern hemisphere-based domestic competition. But Saru officials long pushed for a move to European competitions, citing more aligned time zones that reduce cross-continental travel burdens, and the shift to the URC was completed in 2020. Two years later, South African teams gained entry to the Champions and Challenge Cups, European club rugby’s top two competitions.

    The integration of South African sides into the URC has been widely viewed as a success for both the league and the South African franchises. The Stormers won the URC title in their first full season in the league in 2022, while the Bulls have reached three of the last four tournament finals. All four South African sides are now permanent shareholders in the URC, with league chief executive Martin Anayi confirming in 2025 that the addition of South African teams has been overwhelmingly positive for the competition.

    However, South African participation in the Champions Cup has been far more problematic, both on and off the pitch. While the Sharks claimed the Challenge Cup title in 2024, no South African side has advanced past the quarter-final stage of the top-tier Champions Cup. Constant logistical and travel challenges between South Africa and Europe have also created persistent disruptions for both South African teams and their European opponents.

    The Saru review comes at a time of widespread uncertainty across European club rugby, with multiple major competitions set for potential restructuring. European rugby bosses are already weighing a major overhaul of the Champions Cup, with one leading proposal cutting the tournament field to around 16 teams and holding the entire competition in a single block at the end of the regular season. The long-term structure of the URC is also unresolved, as the Welsh Rugby Union plans to reduce its number of professional franchises from four to three, a shift that will alter the league’s makeup.

    Currently, South Africa’s EPCR shareholder agreement is locked in through 2030, though Saru notes that changes would be possible if all relevant stakeholders reach a consensus. “Should consensus be reached on a potential revision of the calendar, any contractual or constitutional requirements to affect such a revision will be observed,” the Saru statement said.

    If South African sides do withdraw from European club competitions, one widely discussed alternative is expanding and strengthening the country’s historic domestic competition, the Currie Cup, which was first launched in 1891 and remains a beloved part of South African rugby’s sporting identity.

  • Veteran star Son Heung-min will lead South Korea’s World Cup campaign

    Veteran star Son Heung-min will lead South Korea’s World Cup campaign

    South Korea’s 2026 FIFA World Cup campaign will be fronted by veteran talisman Son Heung-min, head coach Hong Myung-bo confirmed Saturday when he announced his final 26-man squad for the expanded 48-team tournament, co-hosted by the United States, Mexico and Canada.

    For 31-year-old Son, this World Cup marks a historic fourth appearance at football’s biggest global stage. The forward ended his decade-long stay in England’s Premier League with Tottenham Hotspur last summer, making the move to Major League Soccer side Los Angeles FC, a change of scenery that has kept him in peak form to lead the Taeguk Warriors once again.

    South Korea’s qualification for 2026 extends an unprecedented run for the East Asian nation: this will be its 11th consecutive World Cup appearance, an unbroken streak dating all the way back to the 1986 tournament in Mexico. Alongside Son, star names including Paris Saint-Germain playmaker Lee Kang-in and Bayern Munich elite defender Kim Min-jae all earned spots in Hong’s final selection. In a show of confidence in his impact, the coach also included Feyenoord influential midfielder Hwang In-beom, despite the star currently managing a nagging ankle injury.

    Speaking to reporters in Seoul, Hong laid out the team’s clear competitive ambitions for the tournament. “Our primary goal is to reach the round of 32,” Hong said. “We do not know what will happen after that. We could go even further than we could have imagined. Our World Cup goal is not the round of 32; our primary goal is the round of 32.”

    South Korea has a history of punching above its weight at recent World Cups. Four years ago in Qatar, the side advanced to the knockout round after a stunning final group stage win over Portugal, before bowing out to five-time tournament champion Brazil. Hong brings unique World Cup pedigree to the role: he captained the iconic 2002 South Korean side that made a historic semi-final run on home soil, and also led the national team at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, where the side picked up just one point from three group matches.

    All three of South Korea’s Group A matches will be held in Mexican cities, with the side kicking off its campaign on June 11 against the Czech Republic. Seven days later, it will face host nation Mexico, before wrapping up group play against South Africa on June 24. The team heads into the tournament with inconsistent recent form, however, suffering a 4-0 thrashing by Ivory Coast in March followed by a narrow 1-0 loss to Austria. To sharpen up ahead of the opener, South Korea will travel to Salt Lake City on Monday to begin final preparations, with warm-up friendlies scheduled against Trinidad and Tobago and El Salvador before the tournament gets underway.

    The full 26-man South Korea squad is as follows:
    Goalkeepers: Jo Hyeon-woo, Kim Seung-gyu, Song Bum-keun
    Defenders: Kim Min-jae, Cho Yu-min, Lee Han-beom, Kim Tae-hyeon, Park Jin-seob, Lee Gi-hyuk, Lee Tae-seok, Seol Young-woo, Jens Castrop, Kim Moon-hwan
    Midfielders: Yang Hyun-jun, Paik Seung-ho, Hwang In-beom, Kim Jin-gyu, Bae Jun-ho, Eom Ji-sung, Hwang Hee-chan, Lee Dong-gyeong, Lee Jae-sung, Lee Kang-in
    Forwards: Oh Hyeon-gyu, Son Heung-min, Cho Gue-sung

  • These women are training to represent the US in an Olympic sport they’d never heard of

    These women are training to represent the US in an Olympic sport they’d never heard of

    When 27-year-old Los Angeles screenwriter Rylee White first stumbled across a TikTok about open tryouts for the U.S. Women’s Olympic Handball Team — a sport she had never even heard of — with no prior experience required, she knew immediately she had to show up. White was far from alone. Buoyed by the video’s viral spread across the platform, more than 150 aspiring female athletes turned out for the January tryouts, marking a five-fold jump in turnout compared to previous recruitment cycles.

    Five months after that fateful open call, White is one of a small group of recruits who have relocated to Florida to join USA Handball’s national residency program, putting everything on hold in pursuit of a spot on the 2028 Summer Olympics roster, to be held right in her home city of Los Angeles.

    Unlike in much of Europe, where handball ranks among the most watched, high-participation competitive sports, it has remained largely obscure in the United States for decades. The fast-paced full-contact sport pits two teams of six outfield players plus a goalkeeper against each other, with athletes using a resin-coated ball to pass and score. Introduced to the Olympic program for men in 1936 and women in 1976, it regularly draws tens of thousands of fans to top matches in powerhouses like Germany, France, Norway, Denmark, and the Balkan nations of Southeastern Europe, which almost always claim the top Olympic medals in the sport.

    As the 2028 host nation, the U.S. automatically qualifies for a spot in every Olympic event, meaning the women’s handball team will return to the Games for the first time since Atlanta 1996. But building a competitive roster from a tiny domestic talent pool has long been a steep challenge; for years, the U.S. team has primarily relied on dual citizens who play professional handball in Europe to fill its ranks. Unlike most Olympic sports where athletes begin training in childhood, U.S. handball recruits almost always switch to the sport later in life, often coming from other competitive athletic backgrounds.

    For White, that switch came after injuries derailed her planned college career playing basketball and lacrosse, requiring multiple knee surgeries that kept her sidelined from high-level competition. Handball offered a second chance to pursue elite sport. “I think a lot of people would describe me as the most competitive person they’d ever met,” White said. “I definitely was raised in a house where we had big, big dreams.” After her tryout, she told head coach Sarah Gascon she was ready to commit fully, telling her partner she would bring him along to Europe if she earned a professional contract overseas, the end goal for many residency athletes. The final 2028 Olympic roster won’t be finalized until a few months before the Games, and only 14 to 18 spots are available out of dozens of current training athletes — making the entire journey a high-stakes gamble.

    Gascon, a long-time veteran of the U.S. women’s national handball team who recently took over as head coach, has made rebuilding the struggling program her top priority. “We’ve had great successes in my career and some really great moments but still didn’t get an opportunity to play in the Olympic Games because we just weren’t good enough,” she explained. Gascon has found that multi-sport athletes make the strongest handball recruits, as the sport borrows core skills from other popular games: basketball builds ball handling, volleyball teaches blocking, and softball or rugby develop throwing technique. “It’s really about their athleticism,” she said. “Do they have a good foundation that we could build upon? And how are they able to adapt with learning something new at 22 or 23 years old?”

    Despite the wave of new enthusiasm sparked by the viral TikTok, the biggest barrier to the program’s success remains a crippling lack of funding. Gascon confirmed that USA Handball is the only national governing body for an Olympic sport that receives no funding from the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee, and the women’s team is entirely cut off from core support including elite athlete health insurance. The USOPC did not respond to a request for comment from the Associated Press on the matter. Gascon and all her coaching staff are unpaid volunteers, and athletes must hold full-time jobs while balancing the demands of elite training. “Some of our best athletes haven’t been able to go to tournaments or go to events because they can’t afford it,” Gascon said.

    For new recruits like 30-year-old Devyn Holbrook, who had also never heard of handball before the viral tryout announcement, the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity is worth the risk. A self-described “queen of side quests” who trained in ballet, soccer, basketball, softball, and javelin throw growing up, Holbrook became obsessed with the sport after just a few days of play. “I just loved it and then I couldn’t stop watching videos online of past Olympic Games,” she said. “You don’t get a lot of chances to do like women’s team sports later in life. There will never be a chance again that I could go to the Olympics in this capacity. So why not give it everything that I have? And if I don’t make it, then I don’t make it.”