Congo remains ahead as England makes substitutions
By Los Angeles Times staff
DR of the Congo 1, England 0, 62nd minute
After an initial flurry by England to find the tying goal, Congo has started to assert itself on offense in an effort to put the match out of reach in Atlanta. England for its part has substituted in forwards Bukayo Saka and Anthony Gordon as the minutes continue to tick away.
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Second half underway in Atlanta as England looks to rally vs. Congo
By Los Angeles Times staff
DR of the Congo 1, England 0, 46th minute
The second half has begun in Atlanta with England looking to rally after falling behind early in this round of 32 match. Winner will face Mexico in the round of 16 on Sunday at Azteca Stadium.
Harry Kane is seen talking with the ref heading into the second half
The England captain went down in the box in the first half and no penalty was called pic.twitter.com/GdS8ONU3Qn
— FOX Sports (@FOXSports) July 1, 2026
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An action-packed end of the first half as Congo stays in front
By Los Angeles Times staff
DR of the Congo 1, England 0, halftime
England pressed for the tying goal but stout defense by Congo and Harry Kane not getting the benefit of the doubt in the box from the referee has kept it a one-goal match. Congo also missed a golden opportunity to double its lead in the 42nd minute when Yoane Wissa’s shot off a cross glanced off the right post.
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Jude Bellingham’s header turned away, Congo maintains lead
Congo goalkeeper Lionel Mpasi saves a header from England’s Jude Bellingham, right, during the World Cup round of 32 match.
(Mike Stewart / Associated Press)
By Los Angeles Times staff
DR of the Congo 1, England 0, 30th minute
England came out of the hydration break energized and playing much better. Jude Bellingham nearly tied it with a header but Congo’s Lionel Mpasi turned it away.
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Congo stays in the lead, England looking out of sorts early
By Los Angeles Times staff
DR of the Congo 1, England 0, 23rd minute
The match has reached its first hydration break with Congo holding on to its lead in Atlanta. England has looked out of sorts since being stunned by Congo’s early goal and Jude Bellingham picked up a yellow card in the 19th minute.
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Congo jumps out to the early lead over England
Congo’s Brian Cipenga (9) celebrates with teammates after scoring their first goal in their World Cup match against England.
(Butch Dill / Associated Press)
By Los Angeles Times staff
DR Republic of the Congo 1, England 0, seventh minute
And just like that, Brian Cipenga has put the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the lead in this round of 32 match in Atlanta.
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England and Democratic Republic of the Congo are underway in Atlanta
England’s Harry Kane is shown on the big screen before the World Cup round of 32 match between England and Congo.
(Colin Hubbard / Ap Photo/colin Hubbard)
By Los Angeles Times staff
England was unbeaten in group play, but it looked sluggish, failing to score in a goalless draw with Ghana then needing two second-half scores to beat Panama. Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham have combined for five of England’s six goals while Jordan Pickford hasn’t given up a goal since the opening half of the first game. The Democratic Republic of the Congo, playing in the World Cup for the first time since 1974, made it out of the group stage for the first time ever by beating Uzbekistan with three second-half goals.
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Harvard alum Matt Freese took an unusual path to starting in goal for U.S. at World Cup
U.S. goalkeeper Matt Freese directs his teammates before Paraguay takes a free kick during a World Cup match at SoFi Stadium on June 12.
(Kelvin Kuo/Los Angeles Times)
Playing in goal for the U.S. men’s national soccer team is a little like playing right field for the Yankees. You’re following a long line of great players, making the comparisons — and the high expectations — unavoidable.
Matt Freese is the latest to be thrown into that crucible. But he considers that pressure to be a privilege, not a problem.
“I wouldn’t say it’s intimidating, I would say it’s inspiring,” he said before the U.S. training session Tuesday morning in Irvine. “It’s a long line of goalkeepers that I’ve looked up to for my whole life — and there were some before my life as well.”
Born in Brooklyn, raised in London, Folarin Balogun lights up the World Cup for the U.S.
U.S. forward Folarin Balogun, left, scored twice against Paraguy during the USMNT’s World Cup group stage opener on Friday, the first American player to score multiple goals in a World Cup match in 96 years.
(Ronaldo Bolanos / Los Angeles Times)
SEATTLE — If a pregnant Nigerian woman had been allowed to board a plane 25 years ago, the U.S. team’s path through this summer’s World Cup may have unfolded much differently. Instead, a gate agent turned her away, insisting it wasn’t safe for her to fly from New York to London.
So Florence Balogun returned to Brooklyn, where she had been visiting relatives, and waited for her second son to be born. And when Folarin arrived a few weeks later, entering the world just hours before Independence Day dawned, he did so as an American citizen.
It was that quirk of fate that allowed Balogun, who lived just two months in the U.S., to represent the country on soccer’s biggest stage.
‘The clear choice by far.’ Why rising U.S. star Alex Freeman chose soccer over the NFL
U.S. defender Alex Freeman, left, and Paraguay forward Julio Enciso battle for control of the ball during the United States’ 4-1 win in its World Cup opener on June 12.
(Kelvin Kuo / Los Angeles Times)
SEATTLE — Growing up the son of an NFL wide receiver, Alex Freeman said he felt a lot of pressure to play the American version of football, not the one the rest of the world plays.
“I always got asked if football was the path,” he said last summer. “But I always had a secret love for soccer.”
And he had to keep it a secret because he wasn’t sure his father Antonio, a Super Bowl winner with the Green Bay Packers, would understand.
L.A. defies the skeptics for a World Cup marked by unity, mutual respect, fearlessness
Fans participate in the wave during the first half of a World Cup group stage match between Iran and New Zealand.
(Kelvin Kuo/Los Angeles Times)
The run-up to the World Cup in Los Angeles was marked by anxiety over how immigration enforcement, travel restrictions and anti-Trump backlash would affect the spirit and attendance of the games.
But on the streets of L.A. over the last week, something very different has happened.
Fans from a kaleidoscope of cultural backgrounds have come together to act out the kind of world — and city — they want to live in.
‘Why not us?’ How Mauricio Pochettino taught the U.S. to believe it could win a World Cup
Mauricio Pochettino is the first U.S. men’s coach to win the group stage of a World Cup in 96 years.
(Ronaldo Bolanos / Los Angeles Times)
A bowl of lemons sits on a table in the conference room Mauricio Pochettino has turned into an office at the U.S. men’s soccer team’s beachfront resort in south Orange County. The citrus fruit, the coach believes, has the spiritual ability to absorb negative energy. On the corner of another table, the flame from a candle flickers.
“I like candles,” says Pochettino, who believes they release therapeutic fragrances and create a calming environment.
But it is the massive, blood-red mural covering the entire south side of the room that truly reveals what Pochettino believes. In the center of the wall, just behind the coach’s desk, white block letters spell out “Why Not” above a script “U.S.,” which, despite the periods, is meant to be read as “us.”
Swanson: From poker pro to World Cup coach: Sergej Barbarez all in with Bosnia-Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina coach Sergej Barbarez shakes hands with one of his players before a loss to Switzerland in the World Cup Group B play at Los Angeles Stadium (SoFi Stadium) on Thursday.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
Imagine it. A neophyte coach, leading a team for the first time at any competitive level, and it being a high-profile assignment on the biggest of big stages.
A self-assured broadcaster, critical and competitive, having his bluff called, being invited to not just talk about it, but to be about it: Walk the walk, why don’t you?
A former player — scorer, shooter — being challenged to step up and right a listing ship while navigating politics and the push and pull of history and high hopes.
Imagine that guy going: “Bet.”
Why this World Cup could do for Canada what 1994 did for soccer in the U.S.
Canada’s Jonathan David celebrates after scoring one of three goals during a 6-0 win over Qatar at the World Cup on Thursday.
(Emilee Chinn / Getty Images)
VANCOUVER, Canada — When the first men’s World Cup game played in Canada kicked off last week, Anthony Totera sat in the stands and wept.
“It was a dream come true,” said Totera, who has spent most of his 57 years on earth promoting Canadian soccer. “I can’t describe the emotions. It was something surreal.”
If the 1994 World Cup, the first held in the U.S., forever altered the direction of American soccer, this summer’s tournament, which Canada is sharing with the U.S. and Mexico, has the potential to do the same for that country.
Pico Rivera’s Cristian Roldan may be last made-in-high-school U.S. World Cup star
U.S. men’s national team player Cristian Roldan, center, and his teammates arrive at SoFi Stadium before the World Cup group stage match between the United States and Paraguay on June 12 in Inglewood.
(Kelvin Kuo / Los Angeles Times)
SEATTLE — Cristian Roldan and Haji Wright grew up less than three years and 30 miles apart, Roldan in Pico Rivera and Wright in Culver City. The odds that they would go on to become teammates on not one, but two, U.S. World Cup teams seem astronomical.
Yet despite starting at the same time and place and arriving together at the same destination, the two players followed completely different paths to get there.
Wright joined the Galaxy’s academy at 14 and signed with Schalke of the top tier German Bundesliga days after his 18th birthday. Roldan was still playing for El Rancho, when he was 17, making him the only member of the U.S. World Cup team to play four years at a public high school.
‘A great vibe.’ Pacific Northwest joins Los Angeles in an embrace of World Cup fever
U.S. fans march outside Lumen Field in Seattle before the U.S.-Australia World Cup game on June 19, 2026.
(Lindsey Wasson / Associated Press)
SEATTLE — Jaysen Dickinson flew to Seattle from Vermont to cross an item off his lengthy bucket list.
“To see the World Cup and the U.S. play in the World Cup,” he said.
Kim Fletcher and her 17-year-old son Kelan caught a 5 a.m. flight from Sacramento last week for the same reason.
“It’s a must-do right now,” she said.
They weren’t alone. Tens of thousands of people poured into Seattle on Friday morning for the U.S. team’s group-stage game with Australia, turning the Emerald City into a sea of red, white and blue. Some had tickets, most did not.
For Sebastian Berhalter, a shot with the U.S. national team was well worth the wait
U.S. midfielder Sebastian Berhalter waves to the crowd during his team’s World Cup match against Turkey at SoFi Stadium last week.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Some kids grow up with video games and summer camp. Sebastian Berhalter grew up with the World Cup.
He was 13 months old when his father, Gregg, played in the tournament for the first time and 5 when his dad was called back. And four years ago, when Sebastian was already a professional in his own right, he went to Qatar to watch his father coach the U.S. to the round of 16.
Yet none of that prepared the younger Berhalter for his own World Cup debut earlier this month.
Swanson: Christian Pulisic is the spark the U.S. will need in the World Cup’s knockout stages
U.S. forward Christian Pulisic returned to World Cup action Thursday against Turkey, entering in the second half and making an impact.
(Kelvin Kuo / Los Angeles Times)
Christian Pulisic is back. Back like Captain America, revived and ready to go after being put on ice for a spell, needed to save the day.
Forget everything else about Thursday’s match against Turkey at SoFi Stadium and marinate on that.
Never mind the United States’ 3-2 loss in their final World Cup Group D match; the result was inconsequential. The Americans knew they were going through to the round of 32, and more, they’d already won the group. No pressure is a privilege, well-earned.
Contributor: U.S.-born Brian Gutiérrez and Obed Vargas signal a new era for Mexico’s national team
Obed Vargas and Brian Gutiérrez are U.S.-born players representing Mexico at the 2026 World Cup
(Photo illustration by Tate Rudisill / Los Angeles Times; photos by Molly Darlington / FIFA)
After the total failure that was Mexico’s participation in the Qatar 2022 World Cup, where they were eliminated in the group stage, the future looked very dire for “El Tri.” By 2024, the situation had worsened after another international failure at the Copa América. The 2026 World Cup co-hosts had even more pressure now. In a crisis-control move, the Mexico Football Federation opted to bring back its proven problem solver, head coach “El Vasco” Javier Aguirre, for a third stint.
In a short time, Aguirre was able to shape “El Tri” into a competitive squad by breaking from his usual approach. The man who shockingly demoted then-24-year-old goalkeeper Guillermo “Memo” Ochoa in favor of a more experienced player prior to the 2010 World Cup was now relying on upstarts.
Mexico ends World Cup knockout round drought, defeats Ecuador to reach Round of 16
Mexico’s Julián Quiñones is thrown in the air by teammates celebrating their World Cup win over Ecuador in Mexico City on Tuesday.
(Ricardo Mazalan / Associated Press)
MEXICO CITY — Mexico once again enjoyed a night of celebration with its fans, this time after defeating an old nemesis — the knockout stage of the World Cup.
El Tri won its first knockout match at a World Cup since 1986, beating Ecuador 2-0 on Tuesday night at the majestic Azteca Stadium packed with 80,824 fans.
From 1994 to 2018, Mexico failed to win a World Cup knockout game and, in 2022, failed to advance past the group stage — its worst showing at a World Cup since 1978.
2026 World Cup knockout round TV schedule, game previews and results
Argentina star Lionel Messi celebrates after scoring against Jordan at the World Cup on June 27. Argentina faces Cape Verde on Friday.
(David Ramos / Getty Images)
Group play is over and it’s knockout time at the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
The round of 32 is in progress, with several teams already moving on the round of 16, including tournament co-hosts Canada and Mexico. The U.S. will be looking to do the same when it faces Bosnia-Herzegovina on Wednesday.
Here’s everything you need to know about World Cup knockout stage matches being played Wednesday, Thursday and Friday across the U.S., Mexico and Canada (all times Pacific).
Looking back at the first 20 days of the World Cup
The first 20 days of the 2026 FIFA World Cup offered plenty of memorable moments.
Check out The Times’ daily recaps ahead of Wednesday’s three-game slate:
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