Global Pulse

分类： sports

  • Sinner demolishes Popyrin to stroll into Italian Open last 16

    Sinner demolishes Popyrin to stroll into Italian Open last 16

    The Italian Open delivered two contrasting storylines of dominance and dramatic comeback on Monday, as home favorite Jannik Sinner extended his historic winning streak while Coco Gauff fought off elimination to book a spot in the women’s quarterfinals.

    World No. 1 Sinner delivered a masterclass in controlled aggression to blow past Australian contender Alexei Popyrin in just 61 minutes, clinching a lopsided 6-2, 6-0 straight-sets victory that advances him to the tournament’s round of 16. The 24-year-old Italian has now stretched his consecutive win streak to 25 matches this season across ATP Masters 1000 events, a milestone that places him alongside tennis legend Novak Djokovic as the only two players to open a year with 25 unbeaten Masters 1000 outings – Djokovic holds the all-time record with 31 consecutive wins set back in 2011.

    Popyrin, ranked 60th in the world, never found his rhythm against Sinner’s relentless pressure. The Australian managed to land only 48 percent of his first serves, opening the door for Sinner to convert five of eight break point opportunities. Popyrin also coughed up 23 unforced errors, turning the contest into a one-sided affair. After the match, Sinner acknowledged his strong performance, noting: “He’s a big server so his percentage was not very high, which helped me for sure a little bit, but I’ve been returning very well on the second serves.”

    Up next for Sinner is an unexpected Italian derby against 29-year-old qualifier Andrea Pellegrino. Ranked 155th in the world, Pellegrino pulled off one of the upsets of the tournament so far, defeating 20th seed Frances Tiafoe 7-6(10/8), 6-1 to advance. Remarkably, Pellegrino had never even qualified for the main draw of a Masters 1000 tournament before this year’s Italian Open.

    For Sinner, a Rome title would carry historic significance: he would become the first Italian man to claim the Italian Open crown since Adriano Panatta 50 years ago, and it would also give him a complete collection of Masters 1000 titles. With top rival Carlos Alcaraz sidelined by injury and Djokovic eliminated in an early upset, Sinner enters the remainder of the tournament as the overwhelming favorite, building momentum ahead of next week’s French Open as he chases a career Grand Slam.

    In other men’s draw action, 2019 Rome champion Daniil Medvedev received a walkover into the third round, and will next face Pablo Llamas Ruiz for a spot in the round of 16.

    Over on the women’s side of the draw, top contender Coco Gauff survived a major scare against 19-year-old compatriot Iva Jovic, rallying from a match point down to secure a 5-7, 7-5, 6-2 victory that books her place in the quarterfinals. The three-hour tussle, played on a windy center court, tested the reigning French Open champion, who entered the match having struggled for form on clay this season: Gauff exited the Madrid Open in the round of 16 earlier this month, following a disappointing quarterfinal run in Stuttgart.

    Trailing 5-4 in the second set and facing match point on Jovic’s serve, Gauff saved the championship point before a moment of frustration saw her smack herself in the head to snap out of her slump. The shift in momentum worked, as Gauff reeled off eight of the next nine games to close out the comeback victory. She will next face Mirra Andreeva in the quarterfinals. After the match, Gauff credited her fighting spirit for the win, saying: “It was really hard. I think the conditions made it tough to make some clean tennis. Really proud of how I was able to fight.”

    Upcoming highlights on Tuesday include a highly anticipated showdown between four-time Grand Slam winner Naomi Osaka and three-time Italian Open champion Iga Swiatek. Osaka has had a tough 2025 season, exiting both Indian Wells and Madrid in the round of 16 at the hands of Aryna Sabalenka, and a quarterfinal berth in Rome would mark her best result of the year. Swiatek, meanwhile, has not claimed a clay court title since winning her fourth French Open championship in 2024, and will be looking to find her rhythm ahead of the year’s second Grand Slam.

  • Good news for Spain as Williams and Sancet hamstring injuries not so bad

    Good news for Spain as Williams and Sancet hamstring injuries not so bad

    BILBAO, Spain — Two key Athletic Bilbao players and Spain World Cup hopefuls, forward Nico Williams and midfielder Oihan Sancet, have been confirmed with moderate hamstring injuries, though medical and club projections suggest both will be fit to compete in the upcoming World Cup kicking off in one month. The pair picked up their injuries during Athletic Bilbao’s tense 1-0 La Liga defeat to Valencia on Sunday, forcing both to be substituted off before full time. Nico Williams was forced to exit the pitch before halftime, with his older brother and fellow Athletic attacker Iñaki Williams coming on in his place. Sancet, meanwhile, was pulled from the match in the second half after feeling discomfort in his leg.

    Following the match, both players underwent formal medical assessments on Monday to evaluate the severity of their injuries. In an official statement released after the tests, Athletic Bilbao confirmed that both athletes are scheduled for further observation to monitor their recovery progress. Local Spanish football reporting has indicated that the injury timeline will force the pair to miss Athletic’s final three La Liga matches before the World Cup break, but their recovery trajectories put them on track to regain full fitness in time for the global tournament.

    Speaking after the match about his younger brother’s condition, Iñaki Williams shared the family’s anxiety over the injury, given how close the World Cup squad selection is. “He was limping a lot. He hadn’t felt that type of pain before,” the elder Williams told reporters. “It’s concerning considering the moment we are in right now. Let’s wait and hope for the best possible scenario.”

    Nico Williams, 23, has established himself as a core starter for the Spanish men’s national team, frequently featuring in the attacking line alongside Barcelona teen sensation Lamine Yamal—who is also currently sidelined with an injury of his own. Sancet, by comparison, is a relatively new call-up to the national side, earning only a handful of caps for Spain since he received his first international invitation in late 2023. The injury comes at a critical moment for both players: Spain’s head coach Luis de La Fuente is set to unveil his final 2026 World Cup squad to the public on May 25, leaving little room for extended recovery delays that could knock either player out of contention.

  • BBC tours England and Argentina’s World Cup training grounds

    BBC tours England and Argentina’s World Cup training grounds

    As the 2022 FIFA World Cup approaches, British Broadcasting Corporation has launched an exclusive on-the-ground reporting series that takes football fans behind the scenes of competing nations’ pre-tournament preparation, with a focus on the training facilities built for two leading contenders: England and Argentina.

    In the first installment of the series, BBC sport correspondent Will Grant traveled to Kansas City to inspect and test the playing surface that will serve as England’s primary training base when the Three Lions enter camp ahead of their World Cup campaign. England, captained by star striker Harry Kane who is chasing his first major international trophy following the team’s 2018 World Cup semi-final finish and 2020 European Championship runner-up finish, is widely regarded as one of the top contenders to lift the trophy in Qatar.

    The on-site report from Kansas City gives fans an early look at the conditions the team will experience as they build match fitness and tactical cohesion ahead of their opening group stage match. The BBC also confirmed that additional reporting from Argentina’s secluded training grounds will follow in coming days, giving supporters of both global football powerhouses unprecedented access to their pre-tournament preparations that are typically closed off to the general public.

    For football fans around the world, this behind-the-scenes access builds anticipation for the start of the tournament, offering unique insight into the work that goes into preparing a top national side for the biggest stage in global football.

  • Party’s over: China tells fans to end birthday blowouts for sport idols

    Party’s over: China tells fans to end birthday blowouts for sport idols

    China’s top sports governing body has issued a formal call for sports fans to curb extravagant, large-scale birthday celebrations for elite national athletes, warning that such events carry multiple downsides ranging from resource waste to disruption of competitive preparation. The new guidance comes amid a broader nationwide push to rein in what state outlets have labeled “toxic fandom” — a pattern of obsessive behavior around public figures that has increasingly spilled into the country’s professional sports circuit.

    The trend of over-the-top birthday tributes is not unique to China, with fans across neighboring East Asian markets like South Korea and Japan long organizing large-scale public events to mark favorite celebrities’ special days. In China, this practice has recently extended to popular national sports stars, most notably table tennis world champion Sun Yingsha. When Sun turned 25 in November, fans across the country pulled together a multi-city celebration: dedicated birthday messages were displayed on giant digital billboards in major commercial districts, a custom drone show was staged, and dozens of fan meetups packed public shopping malls.

    But that level of lavish fan activity has now drawn official pushback. On Sunday, state media outlets reported that a senior unnamed manager from China’s General Administration of Sport issued a recent public appeal urging supporters to maintain a rational perspective on their favorite athletes, and to stop organizing or taking part in large-scale organized birthday events.

    “Such activities not only consume large amounts of social and public resources, they also easily interfere with the focused preparations athletes are making for upcoming competitions,” the official stated, according to China’s state-owned national broadcaster CCTV. The official also noted that in many cases, event organizers use athletes’ personal images and likenesses without formal permission, which can violate the athletes’ own publicity and intellectual property rights. Instead of putting together costly offline celebrations, fans should focus on supporting athletes through their performance in official competitions, the official added.

    The guidance is the latest step in a broader crackdown on toxic fandom in China’s sports space. In recent years, growing adoration for high-profile sports stars has led to increasing levels of obsessive fan behavior, including unwanted intrusion into athletes’ private personal lives and recurring cycles of cyberbullying directed at rival fans or even the athletes themselves. State media has repeatedly called out this harmful pattern of behavior, and regulatory authorities have made repeated public vows to rein it in across the entertainment and sports industries.

  • Bangladesh reach 93-2 at lunch on Day 4, lead Pakistan by 115 in first Test

    Bangladesh reach 93-2 at lunch on Day 4, lead Pakistan by 115 in first Test

    On the fourth day of the opening Test cricket fixture between Bangladesh and Pakistan, the hosts entered the lunch interval at 93 runs for the loss of two wickets, extending their overall lead over the visiting side to a solid 115 runs. The steady, determined batting performance from captain Najmul Hossain Shanto and veteran batter Mominul Haque laid the foundation for Bangladesh’s advantageous position after an early collapse put the team on the back foot early in the second innings.

    Bangladesh began the day smoothly, resuming their second innings at 7 runs without any losses. However, Pakistan’s fast bowling attack struck twice in quick succession to flip the early momentum. Pace bowler Mohammad Abbas trapped opener Mahmudul Hasan leg before wicket for a score of 5, breaking the first opening partnership. Shortly after, fellow pacer Hasan Ali claimed the second wicket, dismissing Shadman Islam for 10. Islam was caught off guard by an unexpected extra bounce from the delivery, and Saud Shakeel secured a clean catch at gully to end the batter’s innings. By the 11th over of the second innings, Bangladesh had been reduced to just 23 runs for two wickets, putting the hosts in a precarious position.

    Facing a potential collapse, Shanto and Mominul stepped up to rebuild the innings, repeating the stubborn rearguard performance they had delivered in Bangladesh’s first innings. The pair put together an unbeaten 70-run partnership for the third wicket, frustrating Pakistan’s bowling attack and dragging the hosts back into a commanding position. At the lunch break, Shanto – who had already notched up a century in Bangladesh’s first innings – remained unbeaten on 34 runs, while Mominul was also not out on 37 runs, holding firm against the tourists’ pressure.

    The solid second innings partnership puts Bangladesh on track to set a challenging target for Pakistan to chase in their final innings. Looking back at the match’s earlier proceedings, Bangladesh posted a strong first innings total of 414 after being bowled out, claiming a 27-run first innings lead after dismissing Pakistan for 386. Offspinner Mehidy Hasan was the star of Bangladesh’s first innings bowling performance, taking a five-wicket haul to dismantle the tourists’ batting line-up.

  • Star Aussie bowling trio to sit out of Pakistan and Bangladesh limited overs tour

    Star Aussie bowling trio to sit out of Pakistan and Bangladesh limited overs tour

    SYDNEY – Cricket Australia has announced a reshuffled limited-overs squad for its back-to-back tours of Pakistan and Bangladesh later this month, making the call to rest three of its star fast bowlers: Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, and Josh Hazlewood. The high-profile trio will sit out the entire three-match ODI series against Pakistan, which kicks off in Rawalpindi on May 30, opening the door for a wave of emerging young talent to earn their first senior international call-ups. Uncapped all-rounder Liam Scott and Ollie Peake, former captain of Australia’s Under-19 World Cup side, are the two first-time senior selections for the Pakistan tour, while promising young batter Joel Davies has earned a spot in Australia’s T20 squad for the Bangladesh series set for June.

    Several players with ongoing Indian Premier League commitments – Travis Head, Cooper Connolly, Ben Dwarshuis, and Xavier Bartlett – will link up with the national squad after finishing their franchise commitments in the T20 league. Notably, veteran star all-rounder Glenn Maxwell has been left out of the squads for both tours entirely. All-rounder Mitchell Marsh will lead the Australian side across both tours, as the program forms a key early part of the team’s preparation for the 2025 ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup, scheduled to be co-hosted by South Africa, Namibia, and Zimbabwe in October next year.

    In comments announcing the squad, national selection chairman George Bailey emphasized that these back-to-back subcontinental tours represent a critical development opportunity for Australia’s next generation of cricket talent. “It’s always exciting to see new players get an opportunity to play international cricket and be a part of the national team,” Bailey said. “The blend of experienced players coupled with new or returning players will provide a nice mix for these subcontinent tours. Continuing to provide opportunities for players to develop across a broad range of conditions and experiences is important and will continue to be a focus over the next 18 months to two years.”

    The decision to rest Cummins, Starc and Hazlewood is a strategic one: the three frontline bowlers will use the break to build up fitness and prepare for Australia’s upcoming World Test Championship campaign, which resumes in August with a two-match home test series against Bangladesh.

    Following the Pakistan ODI series, which will continue with matches in Lahore on June 2 and 4, Australia will travel to Bangladesh for three ODIs in Dhaka on June 9, 11 and 14, followed by three T20 Internationals in Chattogram on June 17, 19 and 21.

  • The first 48-team World Cup — more opportunities, less jeopardy?

    The first 48-team World Cup — more opportunities, less jeopardy?

    When the 2026 FIFA World Cup kicks off across North America, it will mark the most transformative change to football’s biggest showcase in four decades: the first-ever 48-team tournament. The expansion, a flagship campaign promise delivered by FIFA president Gianni Infantino just a decade after he took the helm of global football’s governing body, has reignited a fierce debate over whether broadening access to the finals will dilute the high-stakes drama that has made the World Cup a global cultural touchstone.

    Infantino has framed the shift as far more than a simple format tweak, arguing the World Cup must evolve beyond an elite athletic competition to become a truly inclusive global social event. For decades, the World Cup fell far short of its ‘global’ branding, dominated by European and South American nations from its early 16-team format through its 1982 expansion to 24 sides. Historical data underscores this imbalance: between the first World Cup and 1982, the entire African continent sent just four teams total to the finals. Even as late as the 1990 tournament in Italy, 14 of the 24 competing nations came from Europe, while Africa, Asia and the CONCACAF region each received only two slots.

    The 1998 expansion to 32 teams moved the needle toward greater fairness in slot allocation, but gaps remained: at the 2022 Qatar World Cup, Europe still claimed 13 spots while Africa earned just five. The new 48-team format addresses this without stripping established powerhouses of their existing access, reallocating slots to create a far more balanced distribution: Europe retains 16 places, Africa earns 10, Asia claims 9, South America and CONCACAF get six each, with an additional spot reserved for Oceania’s New Zealand.

    FIFA’s chief of global football development, legendary manager Arsene Wenger, has defended the expansion as an inevitable and logical step for the sport’s growth. “It’s a natural evolution. We want to make football global all over the world,” Wenger stated last December, noting 48 teams still accounts for less than 25% of FIFA’s 211 member nations, keeping the qualifying bar appropriately high.

    For underdog and smaller nations, the format shift is a historic breakthrough. Tiny Caribbean island nation Curacao, with a total population of just 160,000, is on track to make its World Cup debut in 2026, joined by other first-time qualifiers including Cape Verde, Jordan and Uzbekistan. Curacao head coach Fred Rutten says his side is already relishing the chance to pull off upset wins against global giants. The new format also gives lower-ranked sides a far better shot at advancing past the group stage into the knockout round: the top two teams from each of 12 groups advance, plus the eight best third-place finishers, meaning just one win in the group stage can often secure progression.

    But critics warn the expanded format comes at a major cost to the tension and jeopardy that has produced some of the World Cup’s most iconic moments. Where top-tier nations once faced immediate elimination after an early bad result – think 2022 when eventual champion Argentina faced elimination after an opening defeat to Saudi Arabia, or Germany’s stunning group-stage exits in both 2018 and 2022 – elite sides now have far more room to recover from a slow start. The historic drama of watching a global powerhouse crash out early in the tournament is likely to become a thing of the past, opponents argue.

    The expanded tournament also brings logistical and physical challenges for players. Where the 32-team format featured 48 group-stage games to eliminate 16 teams, the 48-team format requires 72 group-stage matches to cut the field to the same 16 knockout-round participants. To win the tournament, teams will now need to play eight matches, one more than the previous format, all scheduled for a hot North American summer that will put extra physical strain on top players already stretched by crowded club calendar schedules.

    Noted football author Jonathan Wilson, who wrote *The Power and the Glory: A New History of the World Cup*, says the 32-team format was perfectly balanced. “I see the argument about increasing representation but I think a 32-team finals was perfect,” Wilson explained. “The biggest problem with this is not really the quality, it’s the dilution of spectacle in the first round with eight third-placed teams to go through. The group stage may end up trying peoples’ patience.” He added that the extra knockout round could incentivize more defensive, cautious play, further dulling the tournament’s early excitement.

    Even elite managers acknowledge the new strategic priority for big teams has shifted: where once they needed to avoid any early slip-up, now the focus is simply on grinding out enough results to advance. “You just focus on the group, this is what you do, and make sure you are in the right head space,” England manager Thomas Tuchel said of the new approach. As the 2026 tournament approaches, the football world remains split: while smaller nations celebrate unprecedented access, fans and analysts wait to see whether the expanded format will grow the global love of the game – or erode the high-stakes magic that made the World Cup unmissable.

  • PSG all but secure Ligue 1 title with two games to spare

    PSG all but secure Ligue 1 title with two games to spare

    With just two matches remaining in the 2024-25 Ligue 1 campaign, Paris Saint-Germain has moved to the brink of claiming an unprecedented fifth straight domestic championship, following a tense 1-0 victory over Brest on Sunday. The result leaves Luis Enrique’s side six points clear of second-placed Lens, with an overwhelming 15-goal advantage in goal difference that all but guarantees the title regardless of next week’s result.

    Fresh off a hard-fought Champions League semi-final victory over Bayern Munich just four days prior, PSG made nine changes to their starting lineup to rest key first-team stars, including young French international Desire Doue. The 19-year-old was brought off the bench in the second half, and made an immediate impact, curling home the match-winning strike from the edge of the 18-yard box in the 83rd minute to secure all three points.

    PSG will formally claim their 12th Ligue 1 crown in 14 seasons if they avoid defeat away to Lens this coming Wednesday. Even in the highly unlikely scenario that the Parisians drop points in both remaining fixtures and Lens win out, Lens would need to erase the 15-goal gap in goal difference – a statistical near-impossibility for Pierre Sage’s side.

    Off the pitch, PSG is already looking ahead to a Champions League final against Inter Milan later this month, having edged past Bayern 6-5 on aggregate to secure their spot in the season-ending showpiece.

    For their part, Lens had already secured a guaranteed place in next season’s Champions League group stage with a 1-0 win over Nantes on Friday, and will round out their season ahead of a French Cup final against Nice on May 22.

    The race for the final Champions League spots intensified over the penultimate matchweek, with northern rivals Lille climbing into third place after a 1-0 away win over Monaco on Sunday. An own goal from Monaco captain Denis Zakaria in the second half handed all three points to Lille, who extended their unbeaten run in Ligue 1 to 13 matches. The result pushed Lille above Lyon, who fell to a 2-1 away defeat to Toulouse. After Corentin Tolisso put Lyon ahead following an early equaliser from Dayann Methalie, Warren Kamanzi netted what proved to be the match-winner for the hosts, who held on despite having Aron Donnum sent off late in the game.

    Under Ligue 1’s qualification rules, the top three sides qualify directly for the Champions League league phase, while the fourth-place side must navigate two rounds of two-legged qualifying ties to reach the group stage. Fifth-placed Rennes kept their hopes of a top-three finish alive with a 2-1 come-from-behind win over Paris FC. Division top scorer Esteban Lepaul netted his 20th goal of the season to cancel out an opening strike from Willem Geubbels, before Breel Embolo scored the winner for the home side. Rennes currently sit two points behind third-placed Lille and one point behind fourth-placed Lyon, putting them firmly in contention for a Champions League spot, and are on track to qualify for the Europa League if they hold their current position.

    Sixth-placed Marseille, three points behind Rennes, kept their own European hopes alive with a 1-0 away win over Le Havre, with Mason Greenwood scoring his 16th league goal of the campaign from the penalty spot. After Greenwood’s opener, Le Havre missed a chance to equalise when Sofiane Boufal’s penalty was saved. Marseille will face Rennes away on the final matchday next Sunday, with a win lifting them to fifth, a draw leaving them sixth, and a defeat potentially dropping them as low as seventh behind current seventh-placed Monaco. Sixth place currently earns a spot in the UEFA Conference League, but would upgrade to a Europa League place if Lens lifts the French Cup next week, with seventh inheriting the Conference League spot in that scenario.

    At the bottom of the table, the relegation battle delivered a late twist, as Auxerre climbed out of the relegation play-off spot with a 2-1 come-from-behind win over Nice. Sofiane Diop opened the scoring for Nice, but Sekou Mara equalised for the hosts before Lassine Sinayoko got the winner, leaving Nice below Auxerre on goal difference in the drop play-off spot. Auxerre’s win shook up the bottom of the table, with Metz and Nantes already confirmed as relegated, and Lorient rounding out the matchweek with a 4-0 away win over already-relegated Metz.

    In Ligue 2, Troyes have already been confirmed as champions and will promoted to the top flight next season, while Le Mans is on the cusp of joining them. However, their final match of the season away to Bastia was suspended late in the second half with Le Mans leading 2-0, after crowd trouble broke out in the stands. If the current scoreline is upheld, Le Mans will claim the second automatic promotion spot, and Saint-Etienne will face the relegation play-off against the 18th-placed Ligue 1 side for a spot in the top flight next season.

  • Argentine plazas buzz with World Cup sticker trading fever

    Argentine plazas buzz with World Cup sticker trading fever

    MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay – As countdown clocks tick down to the opening kickoff of the FIFA World Cup, just four weeks away, a beloved quadrennial off-pitch tradition is bringing thousands of soccer fans flooding into public plazas across Argentina: the decades-old ritual of collecting and swapping stickers to complete Panini’s official World Cup sticker album.

    For more than 50 years, Panini sticker albums have been an irreplaceable, cherished cornerstone of the global World Cup experience. Neighborhoods, schools, workplaces, and town squares transform into informal trading hubs, where fans lay out duplicate stickers and negotiate to track down the rare, coveted entries missing from their collections. In South America, where the hobby carries special cultural weight, the tradition has expanded beyond in-person meetups to digital spaces, with hundreds of WhatsApp groups, dedicated mobile apps, and fan-run websites popping up to connect collectors and facilitate swaps.

    This past weekend, crowds packed central Buenos Aires to trade their stacks of multicolored stickers, each emblazoned with the portrait of one of the world’s top soccer stars. Some collectors spread their duplicates across folding tables, dealing cards just like a poker dealer at a casino, while children carefully carry their half-filled albums, waiting to paste their newly acquired stickers in precisely the right spot.

    Juan Valora, an Argentine collector who was trading stickers alongside his girlfriend, highlighted the unique social magic of the physical hobby. “This connects you with the world. Everyone does it,” he explained. “If this was only a virtual activity, you wouldn’t get that face-to-face interaction looking through the stickers and making trades. You’d lose a lot of that human connection that makes it special.”

    For this year’s expanded World Cup – the first to feature 48 participating nations, up from the previous 32 – Panini has released its largest sticker collection to date. Each pack contains seven stickers, retailing for roughly $1.50 in both Argentina and Uruguay. This era of Panini’s iconic stickerbooks will draw to a close after the 2030 World Cup, when global sports retail giant Fanatics takes over as FIFA’s exclusive licensed sticker and collectibles partner. Vintage, completed Panini World Cup albums already command thousands of dollars on the secondary collectibles market, a testament to their enduring cultural value.

    To skip the hassle of trading for rare stickers, many modern collectors now opt to buy pre-packaged bulk boxes of stickers, rather than hunt for individual missing entries. A full box can hold up to 104 packs, priced at $180 with flexible installment payment options, and often includes the album itself. Even the most sought-after rare stickers – featuring global superstars such as Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Kylian Mbappé – can be purchased directly this way, cutting out the need for trades entirely.

    Matías Inglesi, a software developer whose 9-year-old son Lucas is an avid collector, said the bulk-buying approach actually saves money in the long run. “It’s a way to avoid spending extra extra money chasing down that last missing sticker to finally complete the album,” explained Inglesi, who estimates his family spends around $20 a week on the hobby.

    For many young fans, filling the entire sticker album is a more prized goal than watching their home national team lift the World Cup trophy, and many parents pitch in to help their children reach that milestone. Child psychologist Agustina Zerbinatti noted that the hobby offers more than just entertainment: it delivers tangible developmental benefits for children. Beyond being a fun, engaging challenge, collecting and pasting stickers helps kids build fine motor skills, she explained, while teaching them core academic concepts from geography – including learning about each participating nation and its languages – to basic math skills like number sequencing, cardinality, and ordinality.

  • Shane van Gisbergen remains NASCAR’s road-course ace with Watkins Glen win from the pole

    Shane van Gisbergen remains NASCAR’s road-course ace with Watkins Glen win from the pole

    WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. – On a sun-baked Sunday at the iconic Watkins Glen International road course, New Zealand native Shane van Gisbergen put on a driving masterclass that further cemented his reputation as NASCAR’s undisputed king of street and road courses, claiming his second consecutive Cup Series victory at the 2.45-mile track in dominant fashion.

    Starting from pole position in the No. 97 Chevrolet for Trackhouse Racing, van Gisbergen controlled the majority of the 100-lap event, leading 74 laps en route to his seventh career Cup Series win. Remarkably, all seven of his top-series victories have come on road or street layouts, extending his all-time NASCAR record for the most wins by a driver born outside the United States.

    The most stunning chapter of the race unfolded with just 24 laps remaining, when van Gisbergen pitted from the lead under green-flag conditions for a fresh set of four tires, a strategic call orchestrated by crew chief Stephen Doran. When he exited pit road, the Trackhouse driver sat 24th in the running order and nearly 30 seconds behind new race leader Ty Gibbs. What followed was a relentless charge through the field: van Gisberg carved his way past 23 competitors in just 17 laps, retaking the top spot before pulling away to a 7.288-second victory over runner-up Michael McDowell. Gibbs crossed the line third, with Chase Briscoe fourth and reigning points leader Tyler Reddick rounding out the top five.

    Van Gisbergen admitted the outcome looked far more assured than it felt from behind the wheel, noting that his team had struggled for pace in practice before a shock qualifying performance locked him onto pole. “We weren’t very good in practice, and then qualifying was amazing, and then today, what a race car,” van Gisbergen said post-race. “Stephen made great calls. I wasn’t sure how it was going to work, and then to run them down like that, it’s very, very special to do two in a row.”

    Despite the pressure that comes with being labeled the favorite for every road course event, van Gisbergen said he never takes his dominant streak for granted. Dating back to the Mexico City race last June, he has now won six of the last seven road and street course events on the Cup schedule. “It’s not easy,” he emphasized. “Everyone’s really good. McDowell was good. Connor (Zilisch) was good. Tyler Reddick. There were some really good guys and a lot of pressure. So just stoked to execute every facet of our game. And speechless. This is so cool.”

    McDowell, who started second and also fought through the field after dropping to 27th on his final pit stop, said he quickly realized van Gisbergen was pacing him during the race. “It felt like he was just pacing himself off me, and he’d take back off,” McDowell said. “We still got a little work to do, but it’s a good building block.”

    Doran, van Gisbergen’s crew chief, explained the bold late pit strategy that set up the win: unlike most competitors who pitted earlier to save fuel, the team opted for a late stop to give van Gisbergen the aggressive car he prefers. “He’s made it pretty clear, especially at these tracks, he likes to be on offense, so we put him there and just let him go do his thing,” Doran said.

    The win completed a dream weekend for Trackhouse Racing, whose rookie driver Connor Zilisch claimed victory in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race on Saturday. Zilisch was on track for a strong top-five finish in Sunday’s Cup race before a late tire issue dropped him to 20th. “Just frustrating because we had a really good day going,” Zilisch said. “At worst, we were going to get ourselves our first top five and walk out of here with something. But congrats to Shane, Trackhouse and everybody who makes this happen.” The organization’s overall performance was a marked turnaround: entering the weekend, Trackhouse had only secured four top-10 finishes across its three cars in the first 11 races of the season, but qualified all three entries in the top five on Sunday.

    Beyond the on-track action, eight-time NASCAR Most Popular Driver Chase Elliott made a rare public push Saturday for his uncle, engine builder Ernie Elliott, to be inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame. The vote for the 2027 Hall of Fame class is scheduled for May 19, and this year marks Ernie Elliott’s first appearance on the ballot. Ernie built engines for Chase’s father, Hall of Fame driver Bill Elliott, throughout the 1980s and continued to contribute to Chase’s early racing career. “I don’t talk about this stuff a lot, but you don’t have to dig very far into the Elliott racing story to recognize how much of a family effort it was,” Chase Elliott said. “I don’t think the story has the same ending… without Uncle Ernie and what he meant to all of us. He’s meant a lot to my career. There are a lot of very, very deserving names on the list, but he is one of the very deserving that doesn’t get talked about enough for the credit that he deserves.”

    This 2025 May running at Watkins Glen is also expected to be a one-off experiment. NASCAR has already confirmed the series will return to its traditional September date at the road course starting in 2027. The 2024 Cup race at Watkins Glen was held in September, and the previous 42 races at the track all took place in July or August. While next year’s schedule will not be released for several more months, new NASCAR CEO Steve O’Donnell reaffirmed during pre-race coverage on Fox that Homestead-Miami Speedway, which takes over as the season finale from Phoenix Raceway this year, will likely remain the final event on the Cup calendar in 2027.

    Up next on the NASCAR schedule is the All-Star Race, which makes its debut at Dover Motor Speedway on May 17. Christopher Bell enters as the defending champion of the exhibition event, which was held at North Wilkesboro Speedway for the past three seasons.