International Soccer

After over two years away from the France national team, Ousmane Dembélé is back in the side and back on the scoresheet in France's 2-0 win over Kazakhstan on Sunday. 

Before this week's World Cup qualifier against Ukraine, the 23-year-old's last appearance for Les Bleus had come in November 2018. A series of injuries and the form of other attackers had seen Didier Deschamps either unable or unwilling to select the Barcelona forward. Since his last appearance in a UEFA Nations League game against the Netherlands, Dembélé has missed more than 50 games through injury. 

This Sergiño Dest goal vs Jamaica deserves to be hung in the Louvre.

The Barcelona defender played out of his mind in the opening 45 minutes of the USMNT’s friendly against Jamaica. Playing in the left back position — as opposed to his typical right back position with Barcelona — didn't faze Dest at all.

After bagging a brace for Barcelona on Sunday against Real Sociedad, Dest kept his shooting boots laced up with this beauty from 25 yards out.

ISTANBUL - Veteran captain Burak Yılmaz netted a hat-trick as Turkey saw off a late rally from the Netherlands to secure a 4-2 home victory on Wednesday at the start of their World Cup qualifying campaign.

Yılmaz opened the scoring in the 14th minute of the Group G match with a deflected shot followed by a penalty 20 minutes later at Istanbul's Atatürk Olympic Stadium to put the Turks 2-0 up at halftime.

The dispute over dual nationality players escalated to a new magnitude before the CONCACAF Olympic Qualifying Championship as five players chose the USMNT over Mexico, although the Mexican federation was able to get Efraín Álvarez to play with Tata Martino's senior side.

United States women's head coach Vlatko Andonovski said on Tuesday he plans to name his squad for the Tokyo Olympics in mid-June as he waits to see how several players recover from injuries.

"We have roughly set the middle of June when we're going to know the (Olympic) roster," Andonovski told reporters after announcing a 23-player, veteran-heavy squad for April when the four-times World Cup winners have friendlies against Sweden and France.

23 strong to take on and !

AMSTERDAM - The Netherlands team hope that this week’s start of the World Cup qualifiers in Europe will highlight the plight of migrant workers in Qatar and help to improve their working conditions.

"A lot of attention is now focused on whether we should go there if we qualify," coach Frank de Boer told a news conference on the eve of his team’s opening Group G match against Turkey in Istanbul, amid growing controversy at home over Qatar’s hosting of the 2022 finals. 

Belize's football federation (FFB) expressed "disappointment and disgust" on Monday after the bus ferrying the squad to their hotel in Haiti was stopped by an armed gang on motorcycles.

The incident occurred shortly after the squad had arrived in the Caribbean nation to play a World Cup qualifier.