#panama-qualification

#panama-qualification

Fabinho recalls the incredible feeling of wearing the Brazil shirt for the first time, especially during his senior debut in Sao Paulo, where family watched him play. He reflects on his journey, stating, 'In the opportunities I've had to play, I think I always did well.'

Iraq hasn't qualified for a World Cup for 40 years, it's a big challenge with a lot of pressure and they are a nation of 46 million that are obsessed with football.

Matt Turner was in goal for the United States for Saturday's friendly against Belgium, raising the possibility he has a chance to regain the Americans' starting job from Matt Freese at the World Cup.

You can never truly be at ease when you aren't winning. Sometimes things come up, things you thought you had already overcome, and a negative result makes you realize that you haven't. We haven't yet reached the place where we want to be.

Honestly, it's hard to put into words. There was so much going on. It's one of those things that you look back at and appreciate it more than when you're in the moment. Everything was so crazy in the moment; there was so much going on. I was able to appreciate it, of course, but there was so much in the moment that you don't even necessarily realize how much it means.

It's in the nature of a tournament played only every four years that the participating teams are at the mercy of timing. And right now, the fickleness of form and injuries and minutes, and every other variable that will go some way in determining how the World Cup co-hosts fare in June, all favor the USMNT.

Only once has Jamaica qualified for the World Cup, but the Caribbean island will likely never get a better chance to do so than the upcoming inter-confederation play-offs. The Jamaicans, under then-first-team coach Steve McClaren, have already spurned one golden opportunity to book their first World Cup appearance since 1998 by failing to qualify from a group featuring Curacao, Bermuda and Trinidad and Tobago.

Colo Colo player Cristian Zavala has been defended by his manager after bizarrely missing a 'Panenka' penalty and then limping to the touchline with an apparent injury in a shootout on Wednesday. In a friendly match against Uruguay's Peñarol where Chilean side Colo Colo emerged victorious 4-3 on penalties, one spot-kick went viral for its oddity. Zavala, days after Brahim Díaz's infamous failed Panenka in the Africa Cup of Nations final, chipped his penalty straight at the goalkeeper -- much like the Moroccan -- before, somewhat comically, going down with an injury, which many on social media believed was fake.

Thomas Tuchel and his squad will fly to Florida at the start of June and take on New Zealand on 6 June and Costa Rica four days later. They will then transfer to the Swope Soccer Village in Kansas City, having identified the city as their preferred location in January 2025. Tuchel could have players in the Champions League final which takes place in Budapest on 30 May and he wants to get over to the US quickly after that to begin acclimatising.