International Soccer

BUENOS AIRES — Lionel Messi scored his 10th international hat-trick and had a hand in two more goals as Argentina thrashed Bolivia 6-0 in South American qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup in front of an adoring home crowd at the Monumental Stadium on Tuesday.

Lionel Messi vs Bolivia highlights

Making only his second international appearance since recovering from an injury sustained at the Copa America in July, Messi capitalized on a mistake by defender Marcelo Suarez to open the scoring in the 19th minute.

Jiménez is having an outstanding start to the 2024/25 Premier League season and the Mexican striker has translated his good form to the national team. And what a way to do it.

Raul Jimenez free kick goal vs. USMNT

Raúl Jiménez scored the opener during the international friendly between Mexico and the U.S. men’s national team on Tuesday, beating USMNT’s Matt Turner with an insane long-range free kick.

The Libyan Football Federation (LFF) said Nigeria were to blame for the postponement of Tuesday's scheduled Africa Cup of Nations qualifier in Benghazi after the visitors refused to play the match citing mistreatment on arrival in the country.

Nigerian players and officials were kept in a locked airport for over 16 hours almost 150 miles away from their intended destination after their charter flight was redirected while on approach to Benghazi and instead landed in Bayda.

BRUSSELS, Oct 14 (Reuters) - Players have never been closer to going on strike amid growing discontent towards soccer's governing bodies, notably FIFA and its revamped Club World Cup that is being compared to a 'Super League', the head of players' union FIFPRO Europe said on Monday.

David Terrier was speaking to Reuters after FIFPRO Europe, the European Leagues association and Spain's LaLiga accused FIFA of "abuse" as they filed a joint complaint about the global governing body's international match schedule to European Union antitrust regulators.

Christian Pulisic is one of five United States men’s national team players being sent back to their club ahead of Tuesday’s friendly. For fans asking why is Pulisic not playing vs Mexico, the USMNT star is going back to AC Milan to manage his workload.

The other four USMNT players heading back to their clubs have picked up minor injuries.

Weston McKennie, Ricardo Pepi, Zack Steffen and Marlon Fossey have all left the USMNT October camp.

Why is Pulisic not playing vs Mexico

The Mauricio Pochettino era is officially underway as the United States men’s national team defeated Panama 2-0 on Saturday in a friendly. We’re winning the damn World Cup.

Saturday’s victory at Q2 Stadium in Austin, Texas, was the first win for the USMNT in four months as the team had a brutal skid and transition from the Gregg Berhalter era. Prior to the win vs. Panama, the U.S. had won just one of their previous seven games.

WARSAW — First-half goals from Bernardo Silva and Cristiano Ronaldo helped group leaders Portugal to a comfortable 3-1 victory away to Poland in the Nations League on Saturday as they continued their perfect start to the competition with three wins.

Silva put Portugal in front after 26 minutes, netting from Bruno Fernandes' headed assist, before Ronaldo doubled their lead 11 minutes later with a low, first-time shot.

Cristiano Ronaldo goal vs Poland

SIUUUU

Venezuela pulled off a fantastic result in CONMEBOL World Cup qualifying with a 1-1 draw vs. Argentina on Thursday. During a pause in the game for an injury there was a small skirmish between Lionel Messi and Venezuela’s Yeferson Soteldo.

When we say “small skirmish” we’re not talking about the heights of the players as Soteldo stands at 5 feet 3 inches tall and Messi is 5 feet 7 inches.

LONDON — Greece beat England for the first time as striker Vangelis Pavlidis earned the visitors a richly-deserved 2-1 victory to put them in control of Nations League Group B2 at Wembley on Thursday.

While Pavlidis's winner in the fourth minute of stoppage time sparked wild celebrations among the Greek fans, England stand-in manager Lee Carsley got a sobering reality check.

Two victories since Gareth Southgate stood down had raised Carsley's stock as a likely full-time option, but after a ragged defeat at the hands of Greece, his hopes may have dwindled.

New United States men’s national team head coach Mauricio Pochettino is overseeing his first training camp with the players as the squad prepares for two October friendlies. Veteran defender Tim Ream says that Pochettino’s sessions are another level of demanding.

Ream appeared on the ”Player / Manager” podcast and shared what the first few days have been like working under Pochettino.

Tim Ream Pochettino comments

“It’s INTENSE…the longest training session in my 14 years.”