RALEIGH. N.C. — The NASCAR Cup Series All-Star Race will remain at North Wilkesboro Speedway in 2024 after this year’s event — the first race for NASCAR there in 27 years — attracted a capacity crowd thrilled to return to stock car roots.

State legislators joined NASCAR and track executives on Thursday at the North Carolina Legislative Building for the announcement, which keeps the .625-mile (1-kilometer) asphalt oval, located almost 160 miles (258 kilometers) west of Raleigh, on the Cup Series schedule for another year.

The May 19 non-points exhibition race remains in its traditional slot on the weekend before the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

NASCAR President Steve Phelps said the All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro and the circuit’s first street race, held in Chicago, were the signature events of 2023 during NASCAR’s 75th anniversary season.

“Neither of those events disappointed,” Phelps said. “We are so thrilled to be coming back with the All-Star Race.”

North Wilkesboro was one of NASCAR’s original venues, hosting more than 90 Cup races before it closed in 1996 as the circuit sought to build popularity in other markets. The oval fell into disrepair until Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr., local boosters, and state officials pushed efforts to rejuvenate the track.

Federal and state funds helped complete renovations, resulting in the September 2022 announcemen t that it would return in 2023.

NASCAR and Speedway Motorsports, which owns both the Charlotte and North Wilkesboro speedways, also said Thursday that North Wilkesboro will be repaved for the first time since 1981 in time for next year’s race.

Kyle Larson dominated this year’s race, which was held before 35,000 fans on the patched-up asphalt track, on the way to the $1 million prize in the winner-take-all event.

The final state budget taking effect next week includes an additional $4 million for the speedway to perform repairs and improvements as long as it agreed to host one more NASCAR Series race there by the end of 2028.

The 2024 All-Star Race satisfies that requirement, according to state Rep. Jason Saine, a top budget-writer.

“It’s right to be in North Carolina. It feels great to have it in North Carolina,” Saine told reporters, “and it means that tourists are going to come from everywhere and spend a week in North Carolina spending dollars.”

Gov. Roy Cooper also has been a big supporter of returning NASCAR to North Wilkesboro and attended this year’s race.

Phelps said that “feeling the love from from the state and its politicians is really important, and it influences decisions that we make.”

It’s unclear whether Thursday’s announcement improves North Wilkesboro’s chances for a return to a regular stop on the points race schedule. Phelps said that holding races in non-traditional markets attracts those who have never attended a NASCAR race before.

“We want to make sure that we stay tied to the history and the DNA and the roots of NASCAR, but continue to push the boundaries on bringing our sport to different places,” he said.

The All-Star Race originally started in 1985 and was held at Charlotte Motor Speedway every year except 1986, when Atlanta Motor Speedway was the venue. The event returned to Charlotte until 2021, when it was held for two years at Texas Motor Speedway.

Speedway Motorsports this year moved it to North Wilkesboro. The All-Star Race has only ever been held at venues owned by Speedway Motorsports.

NEW YORK — Magic Johnson’s love for his Los Angeles Lakers has kept him from considering ownership of any other NBA team.

The New York Knicks would be the one franchise that could make him have second thoughts.

“I think it would be intriguing,” Johnson said Tuesday. “The only team I would actually probably think about is the New York Knicks.”

Johnson arrived in New York for a speaking engagement at a YMCA from Washington, where the member of the Commanders’ new ownership group watched his NFL team lose to the Buffalo Bills on Sunday.

Once back in Los Angeles, he will gear up for his Dodgers to begin play in baseball’s postseason. But the basketball Hall of Famer repeatedly has passed on opportunities for ownership in the sport he knows best.

Johnson named the Golden State Warriors, Detroit Pistons and Atlanta Hawks as teams he turned down, rather than find himself in competition with the Lakers. The Knicks, though, offer something different.

“I think because of the way fans love basketball you might have to think about that one, because I love coming to New York and going to the Garden and watching the Knicks play,” Johnson said in an interview with The Associated Press. “I love being with fans who are so passionate about their team and the Knick fans are, and they’re smart. They’re smart basketball fans and so that one I would have to think about. I think that other than that, I would probably never think about ever being a part of another franchise.”

Johnson said he hasn’t spoken with Madison Square Garden Executive Chairman James Dolan about the idea and isn’t looking for an opportunity, content to watch the Lakers as a fan after serving as their president of basketball operations for two seasons before resigning in 2019.

But if the conversation did happen, Johnson would listen.

“That one you would really have to think about, in terms of being a minority owner of that team,” he said. “But other than that, I would just stay with the Lakers and even with my role now, just being a fan, I’m happy just doing that with the Lakers because, again, I bleed purple and gold.”

Johnson, who was in charge when the Lakers signed LeBron James, believes they can play for a second NBA title in five years.

“I think they’re going to be the best team in the West this year,” Johnson said.

Johnson, 64, had to retire as a Lakers player in 1991 after contracting HIV. Former NBA Commissioner David Stern allowed him to return and play in the 1992 All-Star Game, a decision Johnson believes helped encourage and educate people in the fight against AIDS.

He remains a passionate advocate for health education and on Tuesday led a discussion about the risks of RSV, a contagious virus affecting the lungs and breathing passages that causes an estimated 14,000 deaths annually in adults 65 and over.

“I’ve always talked about, whether it was HIV, AIDS and now RSV, it’s really important that I come to the people,” he said of the “ Sideline RSV ” campaign from GSK, formerly known as GlaxoSmithKline. “It’s one thing to do a commercial, it’s another thing to be live and in person and shake people’s hands and really tell them: ‘Look, get your physicals. If you’re feeling something, go to the doctor,’ because a lot of times what happens, we don’t go when we first feel something, right, and RSV, you can be a healthy person and don’t even know you have it.”

Johnson told the audience that early detection helped him when he was infected with HIV. He said he gets a physical every January and receives recommended vaccinations, with one for RSV now available.

“I’m trying to be here for a long time,” he said, “so sign a brother up.”

This article is part of the 2023 TIME100 Next, our annual list recognizing rising leaders in health, climate, business, sports, the arts, and more. Read more about Jalen Hurts—and see the whole list—here.

Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts and I are huddling on a field at a vacant southern New Jersey athletic facility, discussing his journey to the summit of his pressure-cooked profession. It’s early August, and Hurts is enjoying a rare off-day from training camp, where he and the Eagles are preparing for a potential return trip to the Super Bowl; Philadelphia lost to Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs 38-35 back in February.

Hurts is the lone NFL superstar to assemble an all-female management team to handle his business and communications affairs. He views his mother Pamela, who juggled the coursework needed to earn a master’s degree in education with raising Jalen and his siblings, as an inspiration. He champions women’s empowerment.

So, as the outside world is smack in the middle of “Barbenheimer” mania, yammering on about their preference for one of the two hit movies of the summer, I ask what I figure is a reasonable question: has he seen Barbie?

Hurts shoots me a look as if I’ve asked him to translate works of ancient Roman literature. He’s barely heard of the film, a phenomenon that had grossed $162 million at the domestic box office in its opening weekend not even two weeks earlier. “What is it about?” he asks. 

OK. By chance, has he made time for Oppenheimer? Now Hurts looks like I just asked him to split an atom. He’s not at all understanding my language. At this point in time, Hurts clearly has little brain space for the culture at large.

“I’m in a different mode right now,” says Hurts. 

In what’s surely good news for Eagles fans—and a threat to the rest of the NFL—Hurts is locked in on besting his breakout performance from last season, when in his second full year as a starting quarterback he had a 14-1 record in the regular season, finished second to Mahomes in NFL MVP voting, and nearly clinched for Philadelphia’s crazed fan base the second Super Bowl title in Eagles history. His arm (Hurts threw for 3,701 yards and tossed 22 touchdown passes) and legs (he ran for 760 yards and 13 scores on the ground, a league high for QBs) earned Hurts a five-year, $255 million contract extension in April, making him, for a brief period, the highest-paid player, on an annual basis, in NFL history. Not bad for a guy who, according to his 2020 draft profile that still resides on NFL.com, was likened to flash-in-the-pan Tim Tebow and projected to be “a solid backup with upward mobility.”   

Hurts saw back then that many Eagles fans were apoplectic that the team even drafted him in the second round, considering that Philadelphia already had a franchise quarterback, Carson Wentz, on the roster. Now he knows some people are questioning whether, after just one stellar season, he’s worth his astronomical price tag. 

“I find a thrill in the doubt, the hate, the disbelief,” says Hurts, 25, who in college was forced to transfer schools after being benched during a national championship game. “At this point in my life, it’s something I want you to do. Because it’s always been that way. Why would I want them to change their ways now?” 

Hurts came into this year’s training camp fitter than ever. This summer he and Hall of Famer Peyton Manning texted each other screenshots of plays, scribbled on pieces of paper, during their ongoing exchange of ideas. In mid-August, when I spoke to Manning, he said Hurts had just left him a voice memo that morning, asking about his mindset in the red zone. “You didn’t hear him talk a lot about the contract,” says Manning, who is impressed with Hurts’ curiosity and unselfishness. “It’s ‘let’s go to work.’ You can tell that he’s motivated and not satisfied with a great season. He wants to go back and take that next step. That says a lot about him.”

Hurt’s father, Averion Hurts Sr., has coached football at Channelview High School in the Houston area since 2006, and he’d bring Jalen and his older brother, Averion Jr., to summer preseason practices. “Free daycare,” says Averion Sr. When Hurts was 7 or 8 years old, according to his dad, he’d outlast some varsity players during running drills. His early exposure to football fueled a competitive fire, and in his senior year at Channelview, under his father’s tutelage, Hurts threw for 2,384 yards, ran for 1,391 more, and threw and ran for a combined 51 touchdowns in 11 games. Meanwhile, while in high school Hurts also participatedin powerlifting competitions, which is almost unheard of for a quarterback. He could squat 570 pounds. “You want to separate yourself from the other quarterbacks who are getting recruited,” says Hurts. “So I completely bought into it. This is what makes me different, a breed of his own in terms of strength.”

Alabama offered him a scholarship and he thrived in Tuscaloosa, going 26-2 as a starter in his two seasons at the helm, but at halftime in the national championship game following the 2017 season, with the Crimson Tide trailing 13-0, head coach Nick Saban benched him. Tua Tagovailoa guided Alabama to a comeback, and Hurts spent his junior season backing him up before transferring to Oklahoma for his final college year. As a Sooner, Hurts finished second to Joe Burrow in the 2019 Heisman trophy voting before the Eagles shocked their demanding fanbase by selecting him 53rd overall.

“I think it’s very common for star players, first-round draft picks to come into situations in the NFL where they’ve never really been tested with questions about how good they are,” says veteran Eagles center Jason Kelce, a five-time All-Pro. “You might think of it as a negative, being benched at Alabama and having to transfer. The reality is, these moments of adversity make people stronger. You’ve got to be in a very mature state to enter the NFL and to play in this market especially. Jalen was ready to go.”

“I’ve been at the mountaintop and the valley low,” says Hurts. “The thing that I understand is every year, it resets. Every year is a new challenge. And every year, those new challenges require a new work ethic and a new faith.” 

His work ethic was rewarded his rookie season, when former Eagles coach Doug Pederson benched Wentz near the end of an ugly 4-11-1 campaign, giving Hurts an extended audition for the starting job. Hurts showed enough promise that Philadelphia traded Wentz to Indianapolis after the season. Under new coach Nick Sirianni in 2021, Hurts led Philly to the playoffs, before the Super Bowl appearance a year later. 

Hurts fell for Philadelphia: his go-to cheesesteak spot is Larry’s, which not coincidentally was also favored by Kobe Bryant, who went to high school in the Philadelphia area. Hurts considers Bryant and Michael Jordan his athletic idols. “I’ve wondered, where did Kobe get his way from?” he says. “I did the math. He got it from Mike. I love both of them. I love how they went about their business. For me, that’s the standard.” 

Between them, Jordan and Bryant won 11 NBA championships (six for Jordan, five for Bryant). Hurts had a terrific Super Bowl, statistically: he completed 27 of 38 passes for 304 yards with a touchdown. He also became the first quarterback ever to rush for three scores in a Super Bowl. But at the start of training camp, video surfaced showing Hurts’ cell phone lock screen. It was an image of a dejected Hurts walking off the Super Bowl field in Arizona, confetti at his feet, a reminder of what he still has left to accomplish.

In March, Hurts returned home to Houston and indulged in a favorite hobby: cooking crawfish for family and friends. “Cooking is a great outlet for him,” says Averion Sr. “I’m sitting there watching this NFL quarterback that played in the Super Bowl, who was about to get all this money, boiling crawfish and being as happy as can be. Giddy and so relaxed. In that moment, I’m looking at Jalen Hurts, my son.”

Hurts exudes the same confidence in his chef skills as he does his quarterbacking ability. “Boiled crawfish is not everybody’s fan favorite, but usually when I make it, it becomes a fan favorite,” he says. “My mom likes it. My grandmother loves it. So that’s good enough for me. My girlfriend loves it even more.” 

Still, Hurts isn’t filling up too much on Cajun food. Quite the opposite: his body-fat percentage was down to 7.1 at training camp. “That body fat is not going to get me the things that I want to accomplish tangibly, but it’s just a little piece of investment in my eyes,” Hurts says. “Obviously, everybody has their own journeys and endeavors. But I think it’s important to try and navigate what your process looks like and identify what’s important to you. Set it very clear, in stone, and make a plan to go get it.”

His approach has won over teammates. “He is maniacally obsessed with football,” says Kelce. “When you compile the athletic ability, instincts, and this obsession with being the best in the world, that’s why he’s had this success. It’s hard to have all of those qualities wrapped up in one person.”

In May, Hurts also earned a master’s degree—in human relations, from the University of Oklahoma—just like his mother. “For me, there is no arrival,” says Hurts. “There’s only the journey. I’ve had a very rare and unprecedented journey, and I embrace that. I embrace whatever it is to come.” That includes the high expectations of Eagles fans. “I embrace the enthusiasm of the city,” he says. “I embraced the enthusiasm in Norman, in Tuscaloosa, and now here in Philadelphia. I can guarantee you no one wants it as bad as I do.” 

Barbie will just have to wait.

Luis Rubiales finally caved in after days of intense pressure and quit as head of Spain’s football federation following a scandal over kissing a female player on the lips after the team won the Women’s World Cup.

The move came three weeks after the 46-year-old, who is facing criminal charges in Spain, defiantly rejected calls to step aside, insisting that the player had consented to the kiss. The scandal soured celebrations over the nation’s first triumph in the tournament and highlighted gender inequality in both Spain and in the world’s most popular sport.

Read More: The Head of Spain’s Soccer Federation Is Under Fire for Inappropriate World Cup Celebrations

The Spanish football association announced in a statement late Sunday that Rubiales had presented his resignation. In a TV interview aired earlier in the evening, Rubiales told Piers Morgan that he would step down because “I cannot continue my work.” He said he made the decision after talking with his family and friends. 

He also resigned from his post as vice-president of UEFA, the European governing body of football.

Following the Aug. 20 final in Australia, Rubiales held Jennifer Hermoso’s head in his hands and kissed her on the lips as she and other players received medals for winning the title. He said the player had consented, but Hermoso rejected his explanation as “categorically false” and said that no such conversation had taken place.

Just minutes after the incident on a live Instagram feed in the locker room, Spain’s top scorer told fellow players that she “didn’t like it.” Later, she disputed Rubiales’s claims and said she was the victim of “an impulse-driven sexist.” During the game, the country’s football chief was also seen grabbing his crotch as he celebrated a goal near Spain’s Queen Letizia and one of her daughters.

On Sept. 6, Hermoso filed a criminal complaint against Rubiales in Madrid, and two days later a Spanish prosecutor pressed charges against him.

The scandal had reached the political arena as Spain struggles to form a government following general elections on July 23. The current caretaker administration — a coalition of the Socialists and far-left groups — pledged to do its best to oust him. Victor Francos, Spain’s top sports official, called it the “Me Too” moment for football in the country.

Rubiales’s behavior is proof that “there is still a lot to be done in this country when it comes to gender equality and respect,” Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Aug. 22. “What we saw was unacceptable.”

At a gathering of mostly-male Spanish football officials on Aug. 25, Rubiales surprised friends and foes by rejecting the pressure. He repeated five times that he would not resign. Many members applauded, including the female team’s coach Jorge Vilda, who has since been fired.

But Rubiales’ efforts to undermine Hermoso triggered a wave of condemnation and turned public opinion against him. FIFA, the global governing body, suspended Rubiales on Aug. 26 for 90 days and the entire women’s squad refused to play again for Spain while he remained in his post. He was replaced by a caretaker president. 

A global movement emerged to support Hermoso and her teammates. Outrage in social media coalesced around the phrase “se acabo” — which means “it’s over” — referring both to Rubiales and the broader issue of sexual harassment of women. In central Madrid, hundreds of people marched on Monday evening chanting “it’s not a peck, it’s aggression.”

Spain has strict legislation on sexual consent, outlined in a highly controversial law known as “Only Yes Means Yes,” and legal repercussions may continue. Prosecutors last week filed charges against football chief Luis Rubiales for sexual assault and coercion for the kiss he gave player Jennifer Hermoso last month while celebrating the country’s Women’s World Cup win in Australia.

During the second set of Novak Djokovic’s historic U.S. Open victory over Daniil Medvedev on Sunday night, Djokovic, 36, was starting to show his age. Djokovic and Medvedev played a match that featured a slew of fabulous rallies—36 shots, 31 shots, 28 shots, 27 shots, 26 shots—and they appeared, at times, to be playing like two friends enjoying a hit-around at the park, except for the shots firing like rockets at one another, each man summoning the strength and concentration to return the ball over the net.

Those long points, however, cause fatigue. And Djokovic, more than his 27-year-old opponent, was breathing hard. At one point in that second set, which took a full 104 minutes to complete, Djokovic smacked his legs with his racquet, as if that would energize them. The longer this match went on, the more trouble loomed for Djokovic. Not even Djokovic, perhaps the greatest men’s tennis player of all time, can fight the physics of aging. 

“I was losing air on so many occasions, and my legs, as well,” Djokovic said. “I don’t recall being so exhausted after rallies really as I have been in the second set.”

The set went to a tiebreaker. With Medvedev holding a 5-4 tiebreak lead, Djokovic won the key point. Djokovic kept hitting the ball to Medvedev’s backhand, turning up the head on each shot, making Medvedev lean further and further to his left, until he was so off balance, he puttered a shot wide left. Medvedev couldn’t capitalize. Djokovic was then able to win the next two points to win the set. There would be no opening for the Russian.

Only victory for Djokovic, whose 6-3, 7-6, 6-3 win over Medvedev gave him his 24th Grand Slam title, tying him with Margaret Court for the most singles majors won by a tennis player in history. What’s more, the victory finishes off a stunning transformation for Djokovic. He’s no longer a tennis heel. He’s a hero.

At the start of his run of titles, Djokovic was the cocky upstart from Serbia who crashed the Roger Federer-Rafael Nadal rivalry. Their dual domination would morph into a trio, and fervent Federer and Nadal supporters never forgave him. But now that Federer is retired, and Nadal has said he expects next year to be his last, some Djokovic haters have softened their stance. They have no choice but to admire his all-time greatness.

He also earned many critics during the Covid-19 pandemic. He created a mini-tour that spread the coronavirus in June of 2020. He refused the Covid-19 vaccine, and was deported from Australia in 2022 when he refused to comply with regulations. He could not compete in the U.S. Open last year, since he was not vaccinated. 

His stance may have been maddening for many. But it’s hard to hold it against Djokovic forever, especially now that we’re in a post-pandemic era. 

Plus, he did everything right on Sunday. In the third set, Medvedev fell on his back on the court. He lay still for a few seconds, fiddling with his elbow. Djokovic walked to the other side of the net, to offer encouragement and a helping hand. After the match, he walked into the stands and hugged his six-year-old daughter, Tara, and eight-year-old son, Stefan; credited his parents, who supported his burgeoning tennis career in the 1990s even as war raged in the former Yugoslavia; and disclosed he was wearing a t-shirt honoring his late friend Kobe Bryant (Djokovic’s major tally now matches the No. 24 Bryant wore with the Lakers).

Djokovic used a serve and volley to rattle Medvedev; in the key second set, he won an amazing 21 of 23 points at the net. Two years ago, in the U.S. Open final, Medvedev denied Djokovic a chance to become the first player to win all four major tournaments in a calendar year since Steff Graf in 1988. Djokovic shifted his mindset this time around. 

“I really did my best in the last 48 hours not to allow the importance of the moment and what’s on the line get to my head,” Djokovic said in his post-match press conference. “Because two years ago that’s what happened, and I underperformed and I wasn’t able to be at my best and I was outplayed. So I learned my lesson. My team, my family knew that the last 24 hours, don’t touch me, don’t speak to me about, you know, the history of what’s on the line.”

He can do it all on the court, and is still fit and defying age. He’s now the oldest man to ever win the U.S. Open: since the start of 2021, he’s won 7 of the 10 Grand Slams in which he’s appeared. Next up for 2024: winning a 25th major, and sole possession of the all-time mark. “I’m going to keep going,” Djokovic said on Sunday. “I don’t want to leave this sport if I’m still at the top.” Those cheers you heard filling up Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York—“Novak! Novak! Novak!”— may be surprising, given Djokokvic’s history. But here’s a safe bet: they’ll start to sound mighty familiar going forward.

She was so quick, so consistent, so cool under all the pressure. Throughout her U.S. Open final match on Saturday, American Coco Gauff withstood the screams and grunts and sizzling shots of her opponent, Aryna Sabalenka, this year’s Australian Open champion, who is set to become the top-ranked women’s tennis player in the world. After a shaky first set, Gauff seemed to chase every Sabalenka effort down and send it back to her. Gauff, somehow, stopped making mistakes. She played flawlessly.

And Coco Gauff declared herself, without much debate, the future of American tennis.

Read More: Novak Djokovic and Daniil Medvedev Set for Epic U.S. Open Final

Gauff, 19, defeated Sabalenka in three sets, 2-6, 6-3, 6-2, to win the 2023 U.S. Open and become the youngest American major winner since Serena Williams won her first, the 1999 U.S. Open, at 17. After she dropped the first set, Gauff took a bathroom break—”I was nervous,” she said at a press conference after the match—put some water on her face, and told herself to reset. The match turned in the second set, after Sabalenka double–faulted to give Gauff her first break of serve. Gauff went up 3-1, Gauff got sharper, and Sabalenka continued to pummel shots into the net. At 5-3, a Gauff point at the net sent the crowd into hysterics; Sabalenka sent set point long, another unforced error for the Belarusian. Onto the third.

Gauff raised her game from the start of the decisive stanza. At her second break point of the first game, Gauff got to everything, including a Sabalenka shot that hit the chord and bounced in front of the net. After smashing a forehand winner to break Sabalenka’s serve, Gauff seemed to break Sabalenka’s will. 

Sabalenka ultimately found her serve; thanks to a pair of aces, she finally held at 4-1. But it was a bit too late. She broke Gauff to get to 4-2, but Gauff stayed steady on Sabalenka’s serve. Sabalenka couldn’t push her screaming shots past her unflappable opponent. She again gave into error, double faulting: another Gauff smash gave her a 5-2 lead.

Read More: TIME 100 Next 2019: Coco Gauff

On match point, Gauff hit a passing shot past Sabalenka and fell to the ground. She stood and sobbed. She went into the stands to share an emotional group hug with her father Corey, the college-basketball player who learned how to coach tennis—pretty well, it turns out—and her mother Candi, the educator who helped homeschool Gauff as she pursued tennis. 

Ever since Gauff burst onto the sports scene at Wimbledon four years ago, she’s struggled with expectations thrust upon her. When she was just 15 that summer of 2019, Gauff defeated her idol, Venus Williams, and became the youngest woman to reach the fourth round of Wimbledon since Jennifer Capriati in 1991. Less than three years later, she reached the final of the French Open, facing Iga Swiatek in Roland Garros in 2022.

But she didn’t feel like she belonged. 

“Playing that match, I don’t know, the whole tournament felt like a surprise to me,” Gauff said after her Thursday night semifinal win. “I was really winning and just relieved that I made it to a final because so many people expected a lot of things from me. You know, I think I just didn’t really believe that I had it in me, especially at the time playing Iga, who was on a winning streak and everything.” Swiatek, who won 37 straight matches at one point last year, prevailed 6-4, 6-2.

Gauff made herself watch Swiatek lift the trophy. “I said, I’m not going to take my eyes off her, because I want to feel what that felt like for her,” Gauff said Saturday night. Lifting her own trophy today “felt like craziness.”

After her first-round Wimbledon ouster in July, Gauff said she started to eye 2024. “I wasn’t expecting to do well honestly in this hard-court season,” Gauff said Thursday. “I was really sort of thinking for offseason and preparing for next year.” She still couldn’t shake imposter syndrome. She beat Swiatek in Cincinnati, but thought she caught her on an off day. Gauff beat Karolina Muchova in the final of the Western & Southern Open, but still totally didn’t think she deserved it.

“I felt like she wasn’t physically ready to play that final,” Gauff said. “Then I told myself, I looked in the mirror, ‘I was, like, no, you’re a good player, you can beat her regardless of her physical standard.’”

Read More: For Teen Tennis Phenom Coco Gauff, Wimbledon Is Only the Beginning

“Speaking things into existence is real,” Gauff said. “I’ve been trying to speak more positively of myself and actually telling myself that I’m a great player.”

Gauff said at her post-win press conference that she put too much pressure on herself before that 2022 French Open final. So the night before this final, she relaxed, speaking with her boyfriend until 1 a.m. before falling asleep. But until 10 minutes before the match, she said, she was reading social media comments saying the was going to lose. It fired her up.

Since Capriati’s Australian Open victory in 2002, only two American women not named Serena or Venus Williams have won majors: Sloane Stephens at the 2017 U.S. Open, and now Gauff. Video has recently been making the rounds of an 8-year-old Gauff in the stands at the 2012 U.S. Open, jumping and dancing as Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe” blares over the speaker. Now that little girl is a U.S. Open champ, being handed a $3 million winner’s check.

After her win, Gauff said this was the first time she’d ever seen her father cry. She thanked doubters for fueling her fire. And she chastised her younger brother for doing a very younger-brother thing: he didn’t pick up her FaceTime call after she won the U.S. Open title. 

She’s still a kid. And now a Grand Slam champ.

This won’t be the U.S. Open men’s final the world wanted, or really expected. Tennis fans were thirsting for a Novak Djokovic-Carlos Alcaraz clash at Arthur Ashe Stadium on Sunday. Alcaraz (No. 1) and Djokovic (No. 2) are the world’s top ranked players, and a rematch of their Wimbledon final from July, which Alcaraz won in five sets, seemed inevitable.

That wasn’t to be, as Daniil Medvedev of Russia—the world No. 3 whose emergence has been a bit overshadowed by the budding Alcaraz-Djokovic rivalry at the top of the men’s game—knocked Alcaraz out of the U.S. Open with a clinical 7-6, 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 victory over the young Spanish star in Friday night’s semi final. So it’s Medvedev who will face Djokovic, who held off 20-year-old American upstart Ben Shelton in straight sets in Friday’s other semi, for the 2023 U.S. Open crown. 

As consolation prizes go, Djokovic-Medvedez is a doozy. Djokovic will look to make more history: already the all-time leader in men’s Grand Slam titles, with 23, a win for Djokovic would tie him with Margaret Court for the all-time mark, with 24. Medvedev, meanwhile, is looking to stake his claim as a credible threat to replace Djokovic as the dominant men’s player, when and if Djokovic, 36, finally steps aside.         

What’s more, Medvedev has experience denying Djokovic glory in New York. This is a rematch of the 2021 U.S. Open final, when Djokovic was trying to become the first men’s player since Rod Laver in 1962—and the first player since Steffi Graf in 1988—to win all four majors in the same calendar year. But Medvedev obliterated Djokovic’s dream, via a straight-set blowout. 

Medvedev looks primed to play spoiler once again. He was excellent against Alcaraz, trading shots with him at the net, hustling during rallies to outlast the former world No. 1 (Djokovic will overtake him after the U.S. Open, no matter the result of the final). Medvedev’s creativity makes him an alluring opponent for Djokovic, an all-time shotmaker. 

Djokovic will be the fan favorite, for a host of reasons. Never as beloved as the now-retired Roger Federer or the almost-retired Rafael Nadal—who missed this U.S. Open as he recovers from injury—American crowds have seemingly warmed to Djokovic. They appreciate his greatness, and know it won’t be around forever. At this point, Djokovic is pretty much the last tie to the “Big 3” era that elevated men’s tennis during the last two decades.

Plus, time may have healed the Covid wounds. Djokovic came under fire for hosting a superspreader event at the height of the pandemic. He caused a row at the 2022 Australian Open, eventually being deported from the country for violating vaccination requirements. He couldn’t play at the U.S. Open last year, since he declined to receive the Covid-19 vaccine. 

But the public health emergency is over, officially at least. We’re in a different time. 

And it’d be naive to ignore the geopolitical tension surrounding this final. This is the first Grand Slam final that Medvedev has reached since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February of 2022. Medvedev cannot compete under the Russian flag at tour events and slams: some players from the Ukraine feel that players from Russia and Belarus, which has supported Vladimir Putin’s actions, should not be able to play at all. Medvedev has called the war “very upsetting,” has advocated for peace and expressed sympathy for Ukrainian players competing on tour while their home country is under attack. 

So plenty is at stake on Sunday. Djokovic, for one, is aware of the moment. “At 36, every Grand Slam final could be the last one,” he says. “So I think that I probably value these occasions and opportunities to win another slam  more than I have maybe 10 years ago. Because 10 years ago I felt like, hey, I still have quite a few years ahead of me. I don’t know how many I have ahead of me now. I don’t know how many of the years where I play four slams in the whole season. So of course I am aware of the occasion.”

Sunday will be something else.  

On a suffocating night in New York City, Coco Gauff—playing in her first Grand Slam semifinal, and all of 19 years old—fought herself, fought her opponent, and fought a surprise break in the match caused by climate protesters, to win her tense match against Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic, 6-4, 7-5, and advance to Saturday’s final, marking the arrival of a new American player prepared to take women’s tennis into its future. 

None of this analysis can be called hyperbolic. The full Gauff was on display in New York City, and it’s really something to behold. To wit: Gauff got off to a lightning start against Muchova, racing to a 5-1 lead in the first set. Gauff was on serve, ready to make swift work of this first stanza. She won the first point with her most impressive shot of the match, up to that moment— she’d one-up it later on—a lunging lob that she tucked right in front of the baseline, drawing loud cheers from the partisan crowd.

But Gauff is still 19, and her inexperience showed. With every bit of momentum in her favor, she lost concentration and moxie, and let Muchova back into the match. Gauff inexplicably gave her opponent new life, and Muchova took ample advantage. She broke Gauff, held serve, and then Gauff sent a weak shot into the net to give Muchova another break, and cut Gauff’s advantage to 5-4. 

Gauff, however, reached down deep to quell a disaster. She may be 19, but she’s learned how to win: right before the U.S. Open, in August, she clinched the most important tournament victory of her young career, besting Muchova in the final of the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati. She’s won nine straight matches coming into this semi. 

And it showed in that final game of the first set: Gauff kept her composure, returned Muchova’s serve and kept the ball in play, allowing Muchova to make all the errors. 

Then, one of the more bizarre moments in the U.S. Open history unfolded. Gauff held serve in the first game of the second set, but suddenly a persistent shouting could be heard from the upper level of Arthur Ashe Stadium. A group of spectators protesting climate change disrupted the event: security was able to remove three of the protesters, but a fourth one affixed his bare feet to the floor. Police officers and medical personnel surrounded the protester in the stands: in the chaos in the crowded halls of the stadium, security guards ordered fans to clear a path, even though they were scrunched together, some trying to capture the scene on camera phones, others filling the beer and food lines during the delay.

Gauff and Muchova retreated to their locker rooms. After about 10 minutes, Gauff said, she changed clothes and ate a bar. Finally, the fourth protester was removed: all four were taken into police custody, according to the U.S. Tennis Association, and in all, it took 49 minutes for play to resume. 

This isn’t the first environmental protest to interrupt a Grand Slam: at Wimbledon in July, protesters stopped play by throwing confetti onto a court. Tennis is an ideal forum for such disruption: since fans have to stay silent between points, those who want to shout, like the protesters Thursday, stand out. Plus, the game is played outside, in increasingly hotter temperatures. Arthur Ashe Stadium was a Thursday night sweatbox. Tennis can expect more of these kinds of delays going forward.  

After the match, Gauff said she expected some kind of protest at the U.S. Open, given the action at Wimbledon, but admitted she would have preferred a disruption not come in the middle of her match, when things were going her way.

“I wanted the momentum to keep going,” says Gauff. “But hey, if that’s what they felt like they needed to do to get their voice heard, I can’t really get upset.” 

Perhaps bolstered by the break, in the second set the rallies started to increase in length, and the level of performance, from both players, started to rise. Gauff finally broke Muchova to go up 5-3, with a chance to serve out the match. Gauff got to match point, but a backhand winner from Muchova at the net saved it for her, and an unforced backhand error from Gauff gave Muchova life. 

Once again, Gauff would have to pull this out the hard way. With Muchova serving, trying to force a tiebreaker, Gauff couldn’t take advantage of four more match points. The frustration, however, didn’t stop Gauff from winning the point of the match: back at deuce, Gauff won an incredible 40-shot rally. When Muchova left a drop shot a little too long, Gauff rushed in and slapped a forehand winner past her. The crowd of 23,859 erupted. 

“I know I had the legs and the lungs to outlast her in a rally,” says Gauff. “It was whether I had the mentality and the patience to do it. So 10-15 shots in, I was like, ‘well, this is going to change the match.’ I knew that if I could win that really, that next match point was going to go my way.”  

Gauff was correct. She would not come down from this high. And Muchova couldn’t recover from losing the marathon point: on Gauff’s sixth match point, Muchova left a forehand long, putting Gauff into the final. Gauff screamed and waved and put her hands to her ear, inviting more noise. New York complied. 

Gauff said she was off to watch some anime after the match. “I’m trying to enjoy the moment, but also knowing that I still have more work to do,” says Gauff. “Yes, the final is an incredible achievement. But it’s something I’m not satisfied with.” 

She can finish the job real soon. 

And now, a day off.

There are no games on Monday at the Basketball World Cup, with some teams set to travel to Manila, Philippines, after spending the last couple of weeks in Jakarta, Indonesia, and Okinawa, Japan. The eight teams still alive in the tournament will play three more games each.

But the only way to win the World Cup now is to go 3-0 in the coming days.SCHEDULE 

The Tuesday schedule:

Quarterfinals: Lithuania vs. Serbia, 4:45 a.m. EDT; U.S. vs. Italy, 8:40 a.m. EDT.

The Wednesday schedule:

Quarterfinals: Germany vs. Latvia, 4:45 a.m. EDT; Canada vs. Slovenia, 8:30 a.m. EDT.HOW TO

Watch the Basketball World Cup 2023

— In the U.S.: No plan has been announced yet for broadcasting Tuesday’s game.

— There are streaming options for all games.

Betting Guide

Even after losing to Lithuania to close the second round, the U.S. remains the big favorite to win the World Cup, according to FanDuel Sportsbook. The Americans’ odds were listed at minus-170 (meaning a $170 wager on the Americans would return $270 total, if they won the gold medal). Canada remained the second choice in the betting at plus-370 (a $100 wager would return $370), followed by Germany (plus-950), Serbia (plus-1,600), Lithuania (plus-1,800), Slovenia (plus-1,900), Latvia (plus-3,000) and Italy (plus 7,000).WHAT TO KNOW 

What you need to know about the Basketball World Cup, and the U.S. road to getting here:

— U.S. falls to Lithuania to close second-round play

— Anthony Edwards talks the talk, and more than backs it up for the U.S.

— U.S. rallies past Montenegro to open play in Round 2

— Early U.S. wins: U.S. runs past Jordan to finish perfect in opening group play, U.S. beats Greece in second game, U.S. tops New Zealand in opening game

— The Americans are using lots of depth to their advantage

— For Erik Spoelstra, this trip to Manila is very much like a homecomingUP NEXT 

Quarterfinal-round losers will play Thursday. Semifinals are Friday. Games to decide fifth and seventh place are Saturday and the gold- and bronze-medal games are Sunday.OLYMPIC UPDATE 

Half of the 12 spots for men’s basketball at the Paris Olympics now have been clinched. The U.S. and Canada got the two automatic berths from the Americas Region on Sunday.

The other teams that are in the field: France (host), South Sudan (Africa automatic qualifier), Japan (Asia automatic qualifier) and Australia (Oceania automatic qualifier).

This week, these quarterfinalists from Europe — Serbia, Slovenia, Lithuania, Italy, Latvia and Germany — will contend for two automatic berths from that region.

That will push the Olympic field to eight, and the last four spots will be claimed in qualifying tournaments to be held in early July 2024.STAT OF THE DAY 

Only two teams — Serbia and the U.S. — made the quarterfinals at this year’s World Cup and made the Round of 8 in China four years ago as well. The other six teams that made the quarterfinals in 2019 were Argentina (did not qualify), Poland (did not qualify), Czech Republic (did not qualify), France (failed to make second round), Spain (lost in second round) and Australia (lost in second round).QUOTE OF THE DAY 

“It’s very hard. We got one of the biggest wins in our career, but we don’t have time to celebrate this. Serbia’s waiting and they’re not waiting for us with flowers and the red carpet.” — Lithuania coach Kazys Maksvytis, after his team beat the U.S. on Sunday.

Annoyed spectators at the U.S. Open, a little consolation: Frances Tiafoe, one of America’s top hopes to win a first U.S. male Grand Slam title in two decades, feels your pain.   

Tiafoe, 25, wants you to have more freedom. He doesn’t want you to have to wait in an Arthur Ashe stadium corridor to watch him play, just because you went to the concession stands during a match and can’t re-enter your seats until the next changeover. (Some poor saps were stuck outside for 25 minutes on Monday night, as Coco Gauff and Laura Siegemund played a 30-point game to start the second set. At least they could finish their pizzas.) He knows you paid good money for those tickets and doesn’t think you should miss the point or rally of the match just because you had to use the loo.

So what if someone walks into your line of sight during a serve? Basketball free-throw shooters often have to face hundreds of fans screaming in their faces during high-pressure situations, with no umpire there to shout, “quiet please.” Tiafoe wants tennis to modernize, and allow fans to scream and shout and have a great time the whole way through, just like they do at basketball and football and soccer games around the world.

Read More: What Serena Williams Gave the World

“The game needs to introduce fanfare and more fan engagement,” Tiafoe tells me in August from his home in Washington, D.C., where he was preparing for the U.S. Open; Tiafoe cruised to a 6-2, 7-5, 6-1 first-round win over fellow American Learner Tien at the Open on Monday. “They need to be able to move around, talk a little bit. We need to evolve with the times. Otherwise we’re going to be left behind.”

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A year ago Tiafoe felt firsthand the power of an uproarious New York City crowd. The fans often ignored tennis’ rules of decorum and roared liberally, helping to propel him to a magical run to the semifinals, where he lost to the eventual champion, Carlos Alcaraz, in a five-set classic on an unforgettable Friday night. Along the way, Tiafoe upset Rafael Nadal, the four-time U.S. Open champion, in the round of 16. While Nadal may have been a sentimental favorite during that match, from that moment on, the crowd fell hard for Tiafoe. 

“New Yorkers love great entertainment,” says Tiafoe. “Everyone is tapped into tennis. The energy is second to none. Some people are made for it. Some people aren’t. I feel like I can make that stadium shake.”

Tiafoe is part of a long-awaited American emergence on the men’s side of the game. Andy Roddick was the last American man to win a Grand Slam event, the U.S. Open in 2003. Serbian Novak Djokovic, who is back in the U.S. Open after missing last year’s tournament, and Alcaraz of Spain are clear favorites to meet in the finals (Djokovic has won the Australian and French Opens this year, while Alcaraz triumphed at Wimbledon). But Tiafoe and his fellow Americans remain a threat. While Tiafoe sits at No.10 in the world rankings, Taylor Fritz is ranked No. 9. Tommy Paul, at No. 14, beat Alcaraz in Toronto earlier in the month and made the Australian Open semis. Christopher Eubanks made an impressive run to the Wimbledon quarterfinals, and Ben Shelton, who’s just 20, did the same in Australia. (Along with Tiafoe, Fritz, Paul, Eubanks, and Shelton have all advanced to the second round of the U.S. Open; Tiafoe faces Sebastian Ofner of Austria in the second round on Wednesday.)

The son of immigrants from Sierra Leone, Tiafoe grew up in suburban Washington, D.C. His father was hired as a custodian at the Junior Tennis Champions Center in College Park, Md. Frances and his twin brother, Franklin, would often sleep in the storage room in the tennis center while their mother worked night shifts as a nurse. Spending so much time at the tennis center turned Tiafoe on to the game. “I loved the one-on-one competition of it,” he says. “There’s problem solving. You can’t lean on anyone but yourself. It builds character.”

Read More: The Most Influential People of 2023: Iga Swiatek

Tiafoe is a big NBA fan: he chatted with Kevin Garnett after defeating Tien on Monday, and is good friends with Bradley Beal, the former Washington Wizards star who was traded to the Phoenix Suns this offseason. “But you look at a game of hoops, you talk to 15 guys, and everyone has a different assessment of what’s going on,” says Tiafoe. “There are so many people you can point fingers at. You talk to me after my match, there’s only one thing that happened. Win or lose, it’s on me.” 

He’s trying to get more young Americans, especially those from urban areas, interested in tennis. His foundation, the Frances Tiafoe Fund, aims to increase tennis access for inner-city youth, and one of his sponsors, Clif Bar, just announced a partnership with Tiafoe to bring clinics to places like Atlanta, Houston, Miami, and New York City. “We want to make tennis cool for people in areas that wouldn’t necessarily pick up the game,” he says. “It’s looked at as a country-club sport, rather than a sport for everyone. Kids feel like they have to act a certain way or be a certain way. Honestly, as long as you’re being respectful to the game, you can show your personality and show your emotions. We’re all human.” 

Along those lines, Tiafoe made a bold fashion statement on the court Monday, rocking a loud teal shirt, splashed with turquoise and orange. He looks forward to playing for the New York crowd over the next two weeks–and to one day seeing tennis eradicate its rules on fan movement and fun. Especially at the U.S. Open, where things are already rowdy. “You can’t control 22,000 people,” says Tiafoe. “Seventy percent of the fans are just loaded and just absolutely drunk. You can tell them ‘hush’ as you want.” But unless “they’re off that drink,” he says, crowd control is largely moot anyway. No quiet, please.

SAN JOSE, Calif. — A decade later, Simone Biles is still on top.

The gymnastics star won her record eighth U.S. Championship on Sunday night, 10 years after she first ascended to the top of her sport as a teenage prodigy.

Biles, now a 26-year-old newlywed considered perhaps the greatest of all time, posted an all-around two-day total of 118.40, four points clear of runner-up Shilese Jones. Florida junior Leanne Wong claimed third, bolstering her chances of making a third straight world championship team.

Biles is all but assured of returning to the gym where she captured her first world title in 2013. Over the course of two electric nights at the SAP Center, she served notice that even after a two-year break following the Tokyo Olympics, in gymnastics there is the one referred to as the GOAT and there is everyone else.

Biles became the oldest woman to win a national title since USA Gymnastics began organizing the event in 1963. Her eight crowns moved her past Alfred Jochim, who won seven between 1925-33 when the Amateur Athletics Union ran the championships and the events in men’s competition included rope climbing.

Yes, really.

“I don’t think about numbers,” Biles said. “I think about my performance. And I think overall, I hit 8 for 8. I guess it’s a lucky number this year.”

The sport has come a long way over the last century. No one has spent more time at the far end of the Bell curve than Biles, who has spent 10 years using her singular talents to push boundaries in more ways than one.

Peaks aren’t supposed to last this long. Most elite gymnasts at 26 — at least the ones who haven’t retired — are simply hoping to hold on to what they have.

Biles isn’t interested in that. Never has been. She finds repetition boring. She insists this time she’s doing it “for herself” and her markedly different approach to her job offers tangible proof she’s not lying.

Rather than let the world in to her journey as she eyes a third Olympics, she’s kept most of her training under wraps, more interested in sharing glimpses of her life far away from the gym.

“I like to keep (my goals) personal, just so that I know what I’m aiming for,” Biles said. “I think it’s better that way. I’m trying to move a little bit differently this year than I have in the past. I think it’s working so far, so I’m going to keep it secretive.”

There appears to be more balance in her life, leaning into the “it’s just gymnastics” mantra that helped fuel her rise.

Age hasn’t caught up to her yet, though she played it relatively safe — by her standards — on Sunday. She tweaked her right ankle in training on Saturday, leading her to opt out of doing the Yurchenko double pike vault that she nailed almost flawlessly during the opening night of the competition on Friday.

The 14.850 she received for her Cheng vault was still the highest of the night on the event. So was the 14.8 she earned on beam. The 15.400 that drew a standing ovation when she finished too.

Next stop is Antwerp in late September, where Biles will try to add to the 25 medals — 18 of them gold — she’s captured so far in her unparalleled career.

Jones figures to be on the plane too. The 21-year-old is a marvel on bars, where she thrives despite being tall (5-foot-6ish) for someone who opts to do this for a living. The crowd erupted when she nailed her dismount, her 15.000 score was tops in the meet on the event and put 10 months filled with injuries that have slowed her training firmly behind her.

Who joins Jones and Biles at worlds remains very much up in the air.

Reigning Olympic champion Sunisa Lee, who has spent most of the year battling a kidney issue her doctors are still trying to get a handle on, could have a chance as a specialist after putting together a solid balance beam routine.

Wong, one of several athletes trying to compete at the NCAA and elite levels at the same time, put together two stellar nights that included an elegant bars routine and a floor exercise that makes up for in precision what it lacks in power.

Jade Carey and Jordan Chiles, teammates of Biles’ at the 2020 Olympics, who have also spent the last two years splitting time between college and elite, weren’t quite as sharp. Chiles fell off both the bars and beam. Carey finished in the top 10 on just one event — vault — where the Americans figure to be loaded.

BARCELONA, Spain — One week after the president of the Spanish soccer federation kissed a player during the Women’s World Cup awards ceremony, his reputation is in tatters and he’s out of his job.

Luis Rubiales, whose leadership of Spanish soccer had already been marked by successes tinged with scandal, wrecked his career by offending millions worldwide with his conduct at the final in Sydney, Australia, when he also grabbed his crotch in a victory gesture.

“Rubiales cannot run Spanish soccer again,” Spanish minister María Jesús Montero said Sunday, a day after he was provisionally suspended by FIFA for 90 days.

“We had enough of him when he marred the great triumph of women’s soccer with his intolerable attitude.”

FIFA moved against Rubiales after he refused to step down and defiantly told an emergency assembly of his federation on Friday that he was the victim of a “witch hunt” by “false feminists.”

On a day that will go down as one of the ugliest in Spanish soccer, Rubiales said that forward Jenni Hermoso had consented to the “mutual” kiss. Hermoso replied in two statements to say that was false and that she considered herself the victim of an abuse of power. She also accused the federation of trying to pressure her into supporting Rubiales. The federation hit back by saying she was lying and that it would take legal action against her.

As part of his suspension of Rubiales, FIFA disciplinary judge Jorge Palacio ordered Rubiales and the federation not to contact Hermoso.

Spain’s government is also pursuing his permanent removal in Spain’s Administrative Court for Sports. The court will meet next week to consider the government’s lawsuit for an alleged abuse of power and for allegedly committing acts that tarnished the dignity and decorum of a sporting event. If found guilty, Rubiales could be ruled unfit to hold office.

Spain great Andrés Iniesta, a 2010 World Cup winner, said “after what has happened this week I would like to express my sadness, as a person, as a father of three girls, as a husband and as a soccer player.

“We have had to bear this president who clung to power, didn’t admit that his behavior had been unacceptable and was damaging the image of our country and our soccer before the world,” Iniesta said on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Rubiales was replaced by his vice president Pedro Rocha, who will act as interim chief in his absence. Rocha is considered to be a confidant of Rubiales.

On Sunday, Rocha called an emergency meeting of the regional federation chiefs to discuss the crisis.

Rubiales’ behavior has tarnished not only the greatest feat of Spanish women’s soccer, it has also torn apart his federation.

The only public support Rubiales has received came during Friday’s general assembly when he was applauded several times by parts of the mostly male crowd, which was made up of regional federation officials, coaches, referees and players from lower divisions.

But his refusal to go quietly led to some resignations from his board, including the vice president in charge of women’s soccer.

Those who applauded his diatribe included women’s coach Jorge Vilda — Hermoso’s coach — and Spain’s men’s coach Luis de la Fuente. But once FIFA took down Rubiales, it took only hours for both coaches to issue statements sanctioning their suddenly former boss.

Rubiales is a 46-year-old former player who headed a players’ union – which this week joined the chorus demanding his resignation – before he was elected to run the federation in 2018. He has not shied away from controversy since, but has shored up internal support by boosting revenues.

Rubiales made 339,000 euros ($365,000) in 2021 after taxes, for presiding over the federation with a budget of 382 million euros ($412 million). The federation runs Spain’s men’s and women’s national soccer teams and its semi-professional and amateur soccer leagues. It also organizes the referees. The government maintains some oversight of the entity but it cannot name or remove its executives.

Weeks after becoming the most powerful man in Spanish soccer, Rubiales showed he wouldn’t tolerate any act that he considered disloyal when he fired the coach of Spain’s men’s team just two days before its first match at the 2018 World Cup in Russia. Julen Lopetegui had just agreed to join Real Madrid after the tournament, but Rubiales felt he had betrayed the national team and sacked him.

Rubiales revolutionized the Spanish Super Cup in 2019 by expanding it from two to four teams and taking it to Saudi Arabia – now the big draw for top European talent like Cristiano Ronaldo – in exchange for 40 million dollars a year. The clubs and federation loved the cash, but the move was criticized by women’s and human rights groups for the regime’s treatment of women and minorities. Spanish authorities also scrutinized the deal, and an investigative judge is probing the legality of the Super Cup contracts that apparently included money going to then Barcelona player Gerard Piqué.

In part, Rubiales was tolerated because he was considered better than his predecessor, Ángel Maria Villar, who was in power for nearly three decades before he ended up behind bars for widespread corruption.

Rubiales increased his hold on power by becoming a vice-president with UEFA, which has remained silent on the scandal. Rubiales was spearheadeding what promised to be his greatest prize: a joint bid to host the 2030 men’s World Cup with Portugal, Morocco and possibly Ukraine.

But it seems the greatest sporting achievement of Spanish soccer under his watch has led to his downfall – unless he can successfully fight against both FIFA and Spain’s government.

Not only were his actions deemed out of line, his erratic handling of the scandal — which swerved from insulting his critics, to an awkward apology, and eventually his tirade against feminism — did him in.

The response from Spanish society has been overwhelmingly supportive of Hermoso and against Rubiales.

Her Spain teammates, along with more than 50 others women players, said they would not play for Spain as long as he remains.

Messages in support of the player and condemning Rubiales have poured in from Spanish and foreign players, the most powerful soccer clubs – Real Madrid, Barcelona, Sevilla, Athletic Bilbao, Valencia, among others – and from political parties from the far left to the center right.

“Luis Rubiales is finished,” the president of Spain’s women’s league, Beatriz Álvarez, told The Associated Press. “He has dug his own grave with his acts and his words.”

The Spanish government is taking swift steps to suspend the head of the country’s football federation following widespread criticism of his behavior during celebrations of the women’s national team’s World Cup victory last weekend.

The nation’s sports council — which oversees Spain’s sports associations — said Friday it will file a complaint against Luis Rubiales, the federation president, at a sports tribunal and wants the case to be heard on Monday. If the court accepts the complaint, the sports council will immediately move to suspend him.

At an extraordinary meeting of the federation earlier Friday, Rubiales repeatedly insisted that he doesn’t intend to resign over the incident, in which he grabbed Jennifer Hermoso, a star Spanish player, and kissed her on the lips.

The 46-year-old has also faced a backlash for grabbing his crotch while celebrating a goal in the director’s box during the match, where he was standing next to Spain’s Queen Letizia and one of her daughters.

“We want this to be the ‘Me too’ moment for Spanish football,” Victor Francos, who heads the sports council, said at a news conference in Tarragona. “I apologize to the players, because they did not deserve this week,” he added. “Hopefully we can celebrate again when this storm passes.”

The controversy comes during a period of political deadlock in Spain following an inconclusive national election on July 28. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has retained the job in a caretaker capacity as both he and conservative opposition leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo seek ways to find enough support to win an investiture vote.

Read More: How the Women’s World Cup Evolved Into What It Is Today

Sanchez has repeatedly characterized his government as feminist, and the premier’s three deputies are women. But the administration has also been plagued by gender rights controversies.

Notably, the government pushed through a sexual consent law sponsored by Equality Minister Irene Montero that sought to tighten punishments for sexual abuse, but had the unintended consequence of leading to the release and shortening of sentences of hundreds of convicted offenders.

As part of the legal re-jigging, sentences on certain types of crimes ended up being shorter, and in some cases offenders could request a revision.

Montero was among the public figures who lambasted Rubiales. He mentioned her by name Friday in his speech as one of those who are engaged in what he called a “public murder.” He also said he plans to take politicians who criticize him to court.

“I am willing to be vilified to defend my ideals and to say the truth,” Rubiales said. “For god’s sake, what will a woman think that has really been sexually assaulted?”

A labor union that represents Hermoso called his actions “unacceptable,” while FIFA — the sport’s global governing body — opened disciplinary proceedings against Rubiales.

Several of Hermoso’s team mates, including Alexia Putellas, two time winner of the world’s best player award, signaled their support for Hermoso following Rubiales statement Friday.

Hermoso initially said in a video posted on her Instagram feed that she “did not enjoy” the kiss. A subsequent statement sent by the federation to the news agency EFE quoted her as saying that “it was a mutual gesture, totally spontaneous because of the immense joy that winning a World Cup brings.”

Read More: Extra Time: Pain and Disappointment

Rubiales said Friday that the kiss was consensual as he had asked Hermoso’s permission and she had agreed. “Fake feminism doesn’t seek justice or truth, doesn’t care about people,” he said, adding that he feels like a victim of “a social execution.”

What should have been a moment of pride for the nation of Spain, after its women’s soccer team won the World Cup on Sunday, was left stained by the actions of one man.

The Spanish soccer federation (RFEF) president, Luis Rubiales, has come under fire for apparently forcibly kissing a player on the mouth following the nation’s historic win against England. Rubiales’ behavior, which was circulated in videos on social media, sparked widespread condemnation, including from several Spanish ministers.

Rubiales was captured on camera taking Spanish forward Jenni Hermoso by the head and kissing her during the official post-match ceremony. Rubiales was also seen embracing other players in hugs and kissing them on the cheek, but he did not kiss anyone else on the lips. 

“I didn’t like it,” Hermoso said during a livestream video from the locker room shared afterwards. She has since defended Rubiales, telling media outlets that they have a great working relationship and it was a “natural gesture of affection and gratitude.”

But kissing Hermoso was not his only act that fans say crossed the line. Rubiales was also shown entering the women’s dressing room after the trophy lift, where he reportedly joked that the soccer federation would fly the team to Ibiza, where he would marry Hermoso. He was also filmed next to Queen Letizia of Spain making what appeared to be a gesture involving his crotch.

Rubiales initially dismissed his critics, calling them “idiots,” but he apologized for his behavior on Monday in a video, saying: “I made a mistake, for sure.”

Rubiales noted that he didn’t act with “any bad intention or bad faith, what happened, happened, in a very spontaneous way,” but he said he was sorry, because “this is the biggest success in our history in women’s football, the second World Cup that we’ve won, and this has affected the celebration.”

As fans call on FIFA to take action against Rubiales, here’s what to know about the debate. 

Spanish ministers are calling out Rubiales

Since Sunday, a number of Spanish ministers and politicians have voiced their discomfort with Rubiales’ behavior as well as with subsequent justifications that it was just an act of cordial passion.  

“Let’s not assume that giving a kiss without consent is something ‘that happens.’ It is a form of sexual violence that women suffer on a daily basis and until now invisible, and that we cannot normalize. It is the task of the whole society. Consent in the centre. Only yes is yes,” Irene Montero, Spain’s Equality Minister said in a post on X (the social media platform previously known as Twitter). 

Meanwhile Minister of Social Rights Ione Belarra, joined her colleague in calling out Rubiales’ actions: “We are all thinking: if they do this in front of the whole of Spain, what will they not do in private? Sexual violence against women must end,” she posted on X. 

Socialist politician Adrián Barbón said the gesture was disrespectful and described it as “an abuse that neither the moment, nor the euphoria, nor the joy justifies,” according to the Guardian. Additionally, Marta Lois, the parliamentary spokesperson of left-wing coalition party Sumar, called for Rubiales’ resignation. 

Spanish women’s soccer was already mired in controversy

In 2015, Ignacio Quereda, the former coach of Spain’s national women’s soccer team, was ousted from his role after 27 years when the entire 23-player squad publicly called for his termination. Quereda oversaw the team’s first World Cup qualification, taking them to Canada where they secured just one point in three group games. Following their disappointing performance, players detailed their technical complaints against the coach in a group statement.  

But in 2021, a Spanish documentary titled Breaking the Silence, revealed that there were other problems, too: players had endured sexual coercion, homophobia, and intimidating behavior from Quereda.

It also emerged that the then-RFEF president Ángel María Villar reportedly dismissed player concerns and ignored formal complaints about Quereda over the years, allowing his behavior to carry on. 

Quereda was succeeded by Jorge Vilda in 2015, and though he has successfully led the team to World Cup victory, his tenure has also been controversial. In September, 15 of Spain’s top players expressed dissatisfaction about their “emotional and personal state” under Vilda’s leadership, and they called for him to be fired, saying they would not play for Spain’s national team until their working conditions improved. RFEF, now led by Rubiales, dismissed their concerns and said it will not succumb to pressure from players, and only three of the protesting players joined the tournament squad in Australia this summer. 

These kinds of problems are not unique to Spain

FIFA has long been accused of not taking the women’s game seriously, and in recent years, it has been reckoning with rising complaints of misconduct. Allegations of mistreatment, particularly sexual harassment, have been reported across the globe. 

Last month, it emerged that the former president of Haiti’s football federation, Yves Jean-Bart, 75, would appear in court to address sexual abuse allegations that were originally brought in November 2020. The allegations claimed that Jean-Bart “abused his position and sexually harassed and abused various female players, including minors.” At the time, Jean-Bart, nicknamed Dadou, was banned from soccer for life by FIFA’s ethics committee, but the decision was overturned in February. In July, women’s rights organizations won the right to appeal against the decision to drop the criminal case.  

Similarly, in 2021, former Vancouver Whitecaps coach Hubert Busby Jr, was accused of misusing his position to solicit sex during the recruitment of a former player. That same year, an independent investigation, commissioned by the U.S. soccer federation and overseen by former acting Attorney General Sally Yates,  found that emotional abuse and sexual misconduct were “systemic” in women’s soccer in the U.S. at every level. Yates had said she hoped the probe would discover that abuse allegations against former National Women’s Soccer League coach Paul Riley, which spurred the investigation, were an isolated incident. “Sadly, that is not what we found,” she announced when the report was released.

FIFA pledged this year to take action to support women playing at this year’s World Cup. It hosted pre-tournament educational presentations, and it became a requirement for each national team to select a welfare official who would undertake safeguarding training. The soccer body also vowed that it would create a “victim-centered approach” to any reports of abuse that emerged.

With such a strong focus on protecting women in the sport, soccer fans are now looking on to see how Rubiales will be held accountable—if at all, given his position at the very top of the country’s federation. The incident nods to a dark reality that, despite all the gains made in popularity up to and through this year’s World Cup, women’s soccer still has a long way to go towards achieving gender parity.

This story first appeared in Extra Time, our pop-up newsletter about the 2023 Women’s World Cup. Get it in your inbox by subscribing here.

Thanks for the memories

After Spain’s convincing 1-0 win over England in the World Cup final—soccer may be the only sport where a 1-0 victory can count as dominant—a few reflections on what we’ve witnessed over the past month in Australia and New Zealand: 

European Aggression. For the first time at a women’s World Cup, three European countries placed 1-2-3: Spain, England, and Sweden. For years, we’ve been hearing about how the rest of the world is closing the talent gap with the United States, a singular force in women’s soccer for decades. This World Cup makes it more than official. 

Spain did not offer a domestic professional league until 2021. Spain now also holds the under-17, under-20, and senior World Cup titles at the same time. More European countries are sure to follow the Spanish—and for that matter, English—blueprint, and have top club teams pour academy and other resources into developing women’s soccer talent. The women’s soccer landscape has changed forever.    

New Kids On The Block. We enjoyed watching the breakout players and teams shine. Colombia’s Linda Caicedo, 18, has already overcome ovarian cancer to thrive on the World Cup stage: just watch her amazing shot, again, against Germany. Salma Paralluelo, 19, of Spain will be a force for the next decade (more on her later). England’s Lauren James, 21, was embroiled in an unfortunate controversy for stepping on a Nigerian player in the round of 16. But her bad behavior in that moment shouldn’t overshadow her promise as a player. 

Some surprise teams made noise too. South Africa, making just its second World Cup appearance, made the round of 16. World Cup title contenders Germany and Canada did not even survive the group stage. The Colombia-Jamaica round of 16 game ensured that one team of those teams would make its first-ever quarterfinal appearance: Jamaica, who due to lack of federation and government funding resorted to online fundraising to get the Reggae Girlz down under, was playing in just the second World Cup in its nation’s history. (Colombia won 1-0). Morocco made history on multiple fronts. The Atlas Lionesses, making their first-ever World Cup appearance, became the first Arab or North African nation to advance to the knockout stage in women’s World Cup history. Morocco’s Nouhaila Benzinaalso became the first Muslim woman to wear a hijab at the World Cup. 

Hosts With The Most. Three cheers for Australia. The co-host nation captured the imagination of not only the home fans, but the world: Fox Sports analyst Aly Wagnernamed Sam Kerr’s goal against England in the semifinal as her favorite moment of the tournament, and I’d have to agree with her. I, for one, shouted when she marched downfield and converted the long attempt to tie the game in the second half. Sure, England went on to win 3-1. But when a superstar makes such a superstar play in such a huge moment, you don’t forget it. 

Australia and New Zealand hosted the best-attended tournament in women’s World Cup history. The next host, which will be named in 2024, has a tough act to follow. 

American Crash. America’s near-disastrous performance in the group stage and inability to finish off a game it should have won against Sweden caused considerable consternation back home. “The player of that match was that post,” Carl Lloyd memorably said after Portugal nearly scored late in its final group stage game against the U.S., which would have eliminated the U.S. women’s national team (USWNT) very, very early.

Lloyd pinned the struggles of the U.S. team on off-field distractions, especially the pursuit of endorsements and commercial success. As the tournament wore on, it became more and more apparent that Lloyd’s analysis might have been off. It’s not that the rest of the world has closed the talent gap with the United States; it’s that teams like Spain have exceeded the U.S. in talent. “I don’t even think we have two of the top 25 players in the world,” Wagner tells Extra Time. 

The USWNT needs to get to work. Fast.

Awards season

Your Winner of the Golden Ball … as the tournament’s best player, is Spain’s Aitana Bonmatí, who in the World Cup final won possession back nine times, made two interceptions and won both of her tackles. Against Switzerland in the round of 16, Bonmatí scored twice in Spain’s 5-1 win. She also had two assists in the match, accounting for four of Spain’s five goals. Bonmatí is winning everything in sight this year: with Barcelona last season, she won Liga F, the Women’s Champions League and the Spanish Super Cup.

Your Winner of the Golden Boot … as the tournament’s leading goal scorer, is Japan’s Hinata Miyazawa. Japan got knocked out in the quarters, but Miyazawa still led the field with 5 goals. She scored 2 of the in the group stage, in Japan’s dominant 4-0 trouncing off .. Spain, the eventual World Cup champs. 

Your Winner of the Golden Glove … as the tournament’s top goalkeeper, is Mary Earps, of England. Extra Time contributor and friend Yasmeen Serhan tipped me off to her nickname: “Mary Queen of Stops.” Her penalty shot save against Spain gave England flailing hope in the second half of the final; Earps recorded three clean sheets at this World Cup, and conceded just four goals in seven games.

Rookie of the year

Spain’s Salma Paralluelo was named Young Player of the Tournament: she scored key goals against the Netherlands and Sweden in the quarters and semis, respectively, and earned a start in the final. Although Paralluelo did not score a goal against England, she was a positive presence in the championship game. Up until recently, Paralluelo split her attention among two different sports, track and field and soccer. As a kid, she won a prestigious Barcelona road race, the Jean Bouin , five straight times. She ran the 400-m and 400-m hurdles, and at 15, Paralluelo was the youngest runner on the Spanish team at the European championships. 

Until further notice, Paralluelo is now just sticking to soccer. That’s pretty scary for the rest of the world.

Recommended reading/viewing

Women’s soccer is exploding. The 2023 World Cup proved why. (Front Office Sports)

In case you missed it: highlights of the Spain-England final. (Fox Sports)

Spain celebrates back home after a score. (Guardian)

Parting thought

To all who subscribed to and read Extra Time throughout the tournament: thank you so much. Writing this newsletter was so much fun. In a World Cup filled with so many important and breakthrough moments, there was so much to discuss in each edition. Thanks to everyone who wrote in, even those who strenuously objected to my “Let Lauren James Play” take, and told me so in very direct terms. All feedback was appreciated. Special shoutout to Rose Stepnick, a reader whose careful observations helped inform what we were doing here.  

I hope you found Extra Time informative and entertaining during this World Cup summer. Until next time.

The precision and attack was there all game long. Plus, Spain never made a costly mistake: the La Roja defense never broke down, and never gave England an easy chance. England spent the World Cup final chasing, hoping, and making some key errors.  

So Spain is the World Cup champion.

Spain defeated England 1-0 on Sunday in Sydney, in a tense, entertaining World Cup final to give La Roja its first-ever women’s World Cup title. Olga Carmona scored the deciding goal in the 29th minute, off an assist from Mariona Caldente. Carmona’s artful, diagonal shot snuck inside the right post to give Spain the lead. 

Not even a brilliant penalty kick save in the second half, by Lioness keeper Mary Earpes, could turn the game around for England. Spain’s Jenni Hermoso shot to her right, where Earpes dove to thwart it. “F–k off!” Earpes yelled in front of the world, her lips quite easy to read. That moment offered energy to England. But that infusion of momentum was all too brief.

In the 15th minute of second-half stoppage time, England had a final opportunity, but a corner kick curled into the arms of Spain keeper Cata Coll. She cradled the ball, fell to the ground, and waited for the final whistle. Once it blew, Spanish players piled on one another in the goal box. 

Spain’s victory marks a sea of change in women’s soccer, and sends a searing message to the United States, long the dominant force in the game. Spain, a traditional men’s global soccer power, neglected the women’s game for years. Spain didn’t even qualify for its first World Cup until four years ago. For years, the Spanish soccer federation couldn’t even be bothered to produce jerseys designed for women. Spain finally offered a domestic professional league in 2021. 

But La Roja still raised the championship trophy. The world cares about women’s soccer. The Spains and Englands are here to say going forward. 

The U.S. must raise its game. 

England continues to feel frustration on the global stage. The storyline going into this final centered on “bringing football home” to the place that invented the game. England’s men, all too famously, haven’t  won a World Cup since 1966. Could the women offer some redemption? That’s now a question for another day.   

Spain’s win doesn’t come without an off-field controversy, of the sort that’s still too prevalent in women’s soccer. About a year ago a group of 15 players, tired of coach Jorge Vilda’s reportedly dictatorial and micromanaging style—he ordered his players, according to one report, to keep their hotel doors open so he could make sure they were present in the rooms—demanded change. The federation supported Vilda, and most of the players who protested weren’t on the World Cup roster. 

But Spain’s talent pool is so deep and technically savvy, it didn’t even matter at this event. Spain won anyway. 

England came out strong at the start. An early Lauren Hemp shot looked true; but it hit the top of the post. But Spain began to dominate possession, and with the stellar Spain forward Salma Paralluelo chasing down England star Lucy Bronze near midfield, Bronze dribbled into a buzzsaw of three Spanish players, turning the ball over. On the counterattack, Carmona streaked up the left side to create enough space to put in what would become the winning goal.  

This was the first women’s World Cup where the first-, second-, and third-place finishers—Spain, England and Sweden, who defeated Australia 2-0 on Saturday in the third place game—all came from Europe. Spain now holds the under-17, under-20, and senior World Cup titles at the same time. This was Spain’s World Cup. It just could be the first of many.   

This story first appeared in Extra Time, our pop-up newsletter about the 2023 Women’s World Cup. Get it in your inbox by subscribing here.

Expert analysis

After a pair of scintillating semifinals, it’s time to crown a champion. 

The final is set: England vs. Spain, on Sunday in Sydney, at 6 a.m. ET. Spain and Sweden played a thriller on Tuesday in Auckland, scoring a flurry of goals in the final minutes of the second half: La Roja prevailed, 2-1. And in Sydney on Wednesday, Australia’s Sam Kerr equalized the game against England with a stunning goal in the 63rd minute. The Matilda faithful were feeling mighty good. But England soon got the goal back, and a perfectly-placed Alessia Russo shot in the 86th minute—off a no-look touch from Lauren Hemp—sealed the 3-1 win for the Lionesses. 

Both England and Spain are making their rookie appearances in a women’s World Cup final. Australia faces Sweden, in Brisbane, in the third place game on Saturday at 4 a.m. ET. 

Aly Wagner, the former U.S. women’s national team (USWNT) midfielder and two-time Olympic champion now analyzing games for Fox Sports, had a stadium seat for both these classics—and so many other games during this World Cup. Wagner, along with Fox Sports play-by-play announcer JP Dellacamera, will call her 14th game of this World Cup on Sunday. Wagner bounced around Australia and New Zealand throughout the tournament, and just counted up her flight tally: 14 different trips for this tournament. She was up for 24 hours straight this week, rising at 4 a.m. New Zealand time—and 2 a.m. Sydney time—Wednesday morning to catch a flight to Sydney for England vs. Australia on Wednesday night, and staying up past 2 a.m. in Sydney Thursday morning following the adrenaline rush of that second semi. 

After catching a few winks on Thursday, Wagner hopped on the phone with Extra Time to preview the final, share some thoughts on USWNT, and offer travel tips she’s learned over the past month.  

What has been your favorite moment of the World Cup so far?

Probably watching Sam Kerr score that goal [against England, in the semifinals]. She’s such a magnanimous personality. She was the player who changed what I thought was possible in women’s football, with how dynamic she is. She’s the next generation of football in the women’s space. 

Watching that moment of magic, where the odds are against her (the distance from goal, two defenders), the technique, the thought to do it, the ability to finish it off, and the ecstasy that permeated through that crowd, was something to remember for a lifetime.   

What are some key things, away from the ball, that fans should watch in the final on Sunday? 

From an England standpoint, watch number 4, Keira Walsh. There is this great quote, and it’s about Sergio Busquets on the men’s side: “you can watch a whole game, and never see Sergio Busquets. You can watch Sergio Busquets, and you can see the whole game.” That to me is Keira Walsh. Watch how she moves into space, gets herself free. Every team marks her. Or they shield her from receiving a pass so she can’t be a conductor in midfield. But she always manages to get herself into an area where she can dictate and control the game and possession. 

Spain is going to press high. They’re the number one team in the tournament in regaining possession. The way they go and attack the opponent after they lose the ball is the best and most efficient in the tournament. That’s one of their superpowers.

Who are some of your players to watch from Spain? 

Salma Paralluelo, number 18 from Spain. She’s exceptional. The timing of when [Spain coach Jorge Vilda] uses her will be interesting. The last few matches, where she’s had those important goals, he’s brought her in late in the game. And that’s typically when the game has opened up. She’s got space to exploit. She has such an advantage over England. You saw what Kerr did. She can cause some serious problems for England’s back line. 

Jenni Hermoso [No. 10 on Spain], she’s probably been the difference maker, aside from [left winger Salma] Parraluello. There’s likely going to be a pass, which we call our assist, that leads to the goal. She is likely not playing the assist. She’s likely playing the ball before the assist. That opens everything up. Watch the passes that Jenni Hermoso makes, and the opportunity that springs from that moment.  

So who do you like to win?    

This is England’s game to win. They’ve got the experience in big matches, coming off the Euro 2022 win. They’ve got so many different weapons. They’ve got depth. They’ve got game-changers off the bench. When you play Spain, you’re likely going to give up a goal. Which means you need to score multiple goals to win, if you’re England. They have the players, they have the personalities, they have the capabilities, they have the balance in how they attack their opponents, to be able to score multiple goals.

A few quick things on the USWNT. Vlatko Andonovski resigned as U.S. coach. What do you think of England’s Dutch coach Sarina Wiegman taking his place? 

I would absolutely love Sarina to be our next national team coach. But with one caveat there: if we can’t get her at Bay FC first. 

I’m messing around. She’s a great candidate, being able to take a team, back-to-back, to a World Cup final. So many of these successful programs you see internationally, yes it’s about the manager. It’s also about their staff, and who they have with them. She’s got a very loyal core that she’s traveled with. So many times that’s the secret sauce.   

Your former teammate and Fox Sports colleague, Carli Lloyd, has argued that the U.S. players’ focus on branding and commercial success has taken some of the focus off on-the-feld performance. What did you think of Carli’s remarks? 

I don’t think anything is a singular answer. It’s usually a confluence of events that leads to results. Part of the beauty of the U.S. women’s soccer team over the years has been its ability to brand itself. There is a reason that the United States fell in love with this team, and it was because of the brand that these players put forward. That’s part of the reason why people started to invest in women’s soccer. I absolutely think branding is paramount to the success of our program.

Having said that, juxtapose the visuals. I’ve witnessed this, first-hand, sitting in that booth watching the national team players coming in their suits. The suits look sharp, that’s awesome. But they’ve got sunglasses on, and it’s an 8 p.m. game. And I just went, “gosh, that feels off.” Especially when you haven’t put together a very good performance in this tournament. There is a humbleness that also started this program. And that was lacking.

I saw it with England walking in [Wednesday night]. Guess how they walked in? In sweats, hair in messy ponytails, no sunglasses, all business. To me, that was a very, very relevant juxtaposition.     

Any travel hacks you’ve learned from all this flying around Australia and New Zealand?

Do not listen to anyone on arrival time at the airport. You do not need to get there three hours ahead of time for international travel. 

We actually had no wi-fi on any of our flights. So think ahead, and download whatever you’re going to need for your travel, to be efficient in flight. That was a big one for me to learn. I have my ritual. I grab my sparkling water from whatever shop is there. I need a salty snack, I need a sweet snack, and I need a lounge pass. I’m a big travel snob.

Any last thoughts that are important to bring out? 

This tournament has been something special. We’ll look back on 2023 and realize that this was the moment that the women’s game shifted globally. With attention, with execution, and with entertainment value. The England-Australia game was the best game of the World Cup, given everything that was on the line and the performance of both teams. We’re probably going to see some of the next major superstars in this final. It could be riveting.

A nation’s mood

Esteemed “Friend of Extra Time,” TIME’s Yasmeen Serhan, takes England’s temperature from from London:

Being an England soccer fan is a notoriously miserable affair. So miserable, in fact, that they even have a song about it. It’s not just that their men’s national team hasn’t won a major trophy since 1966. It’s that during seemingly every major tournament, be it a European Championship or a World Cup, England fans manage to lull themselves into the belief that maybe, just maybe, this will be their year—only to have their dreams crushed (and often in the most brutal of forms: penalties). 

England fans did get a reprieve from their decades-long doom loop in 2022, when their women’s team, known affectionately as the Lionesses, won the European Championship at Wembley Stadium against Germany in extra time. This Sunday, they may yet get another reprieve when England face off against Spain in the final of this year’s World Cup.

Should the Lionesses defeat Spain on Sunday, they will not only secure England’s first-ever Women’s World Cup victory, but they will also be credited with bringing football home for a second consecutive time. 

Would that mark the end to England’s soccer misery? 

I’m dubious. Despite the fact that the popularity of women’s soccer has surged in recent years, men’s soccer remains dominant in England, particularly in terms of overall viewership and media coverage. Plus, there’s the fact that England fans are gluttons for the agony of defeat. As one England fan introspectively put it to me, “We love wallowing in self pity.”

The irony, of course, is that if the Lionesses are successful, they will have achieved something far greater than their male counterparts have. Unlike the men’s game, women’s soccer in England has had to endure a 50-year ban and disproportionately less investment and resources, and yet despite competing against historically stronger teams the women have still come out on top. It’s little wonder that England’s soccer governing body is openly tipping Lionesses coach Sarina Wiegman as a candidate to replace the England men’s manager Gareth Southgate, if and when he decides to move on from the role.

Win or lose, I’d argue that the Lionesses have already won. But for England’s sake, here’s hoping they come home with a trophy anyway.

Shootout scholarship

Few soccer fans want to see a World Cup final come down to penalty kicks: the run-of-play should determine the winner. 

But darn if the shootouts aren’t exciting. 

We witnessed this on August 12, when Australia and France needed 10 pressure-backed penalty rounds to finally determine the winner (the Matildas prevailed). As for all the consternation about the USWNT performance at this World Cup, remember that Sophia Smith had an opportunity to clinch the round of 16 game for the Americans in the penalty shootout against Sweden. But her shot sailed wide right, and the U.S. eventually lost. 

Penalty shootouts unfold in a sort of psychological laboratory, with the shooter and keeper staring each other down before the shot, looking for some mental edge. So it comes as no surprise that academics have devoted a fair amount of brainpower to studying penalty kicks. They’re an academic’s dream, a set of controlled actions—kicker kicks, deeper dives—with a finite set of results: goal or no goal. 

After perusing the literature, here are a few things the players might want to keep in mind for Sunday. 

Go nuts after scoring. This might be my favorite finding, from a 2010 study in the Journal of Sports Sciences, and evident in the title, “Emotional contagion in soccer penalty shootouts: Celebration of individual success is associated with ultimate team success.” The researchers studied the association between the degree of celebration after netting a World Cup or European championships penalty and the team’s likelihood of winning, and came to the following incredible conclusion: “Players who engaged in certain celebratory post-shot behaviors were more likely to be in the team that ultimately won the penalty shootout. In particular, celebrations including both arms were associated with winning the shootout.” The study attributed the phenomenon of emotional contagion—essentially, positive vibes spreading from you to to your teammates and enhancing future performance—to the findings. 

So on Sunday, be nervous if your player keeps cool after scoring her penalty. Or heaven forbid, raises just one arm.      

Shut up, coach. Also be nervous if you see a teammate or coach from your favorite team yapping to a penalty kicker before her shot. According to a 2019 study published in Frontiers in Psychology, players who received instructions on where to place the ball before shooting a penalty kick reported higher levels of anxiety, and were more likely to miss, than those who made the decision on their own. “Findings indicate that increased self-control helps coping with the debilitating effects of pressure and can counter performance deteriorations,” the authors write. 

Keepers need to kick. We’ve already seen two goalkeepers take shots in shootouts at this World Cup: Alyssa Naeher of the U.S., who made her attempt against Sweden, and Mackenzie Arnold of Australia, who hit the post, but still managed to stave off Sweden while doing her day job on defense. A 2022 study supports such a strategy, and proposes that even if Spanish goalkeeper Cata Coll and England’s Mary Earps don’t take actual shots in the final, they at least practice scoring goals before Sunday. In a paper published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, researchers propose that practicing what an opponent does will help you better read and react to that opponent’s action. “Based on this notion,” the authors write, “we ran a series of studies on soccer goalkeepers and novices, who predicted the intended direction of penalties being kicked at them in a computerized penalty reading task. In line with hypotheses, extensive practice in penalty kicking improved performance in penalty reading … in sum, it takes practice as a penalty kicker to become a penalty killer.”

Recommended reading/viewing

Meerkats predicted England’s run to the final. (ESPN)

Nearly a year ago, Spain’s players formed a mutiny against coach Jorge Vilda. Amazingly, La Roja are in position to win a title. A good primer on what went down. (Bonus points to the writer for using the word “refusenik”). (AFP)

Can World Cup fever fuel the popularity of Australia’s women’s soccer league? (The Guardian)

Fans are turning to “revenge” video games to engineer the World Cup outcomes they want. (Kotaku)

How to turn a World Cup star into a global brand. (The Athletic)

Parting thought

Australia’s semifinal against England became the most-watched program—sports or otherwise—in the county’s history since the current ratings system was established in 2001. It reached 11.5 million viewers nationally. The game fetched solid numbers in Great Britain too: Australia-England drew a peak audience of 7.3 million to the BBC, while an additional 3.8 million people streamed the game on BBC platforms.   

The Spain-Sweden semi peaked at 3.7 million viewers on Spain’s RTVE’s La 1 channel. At one point, 53.6% of all Spanish TV viewers were tuned into the game. 

The 2023 World Cup continues to set live attendance records. The average crowd for the games across Australia and New Zealand has been 28,900, more than 7,000 above the average for games at the 2019 World Cup in France and more than 4,000 above the average attendance at the eight previous women’s World Cups.

Aly Wagner’s right. The U.S. might be long gone from this tournament. But this World Cup will be remembered for its milestones. The event has marked an undeniable arrival of the women’s game, throughout the world.

On Monday, Michael Oher—a retired NFL star and the subject of the 2009 film The Blind Side—filed a 14-page petition to a probate court in Shelby County, Tenn. The petition contains allegations that Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy—the parents of the wealthy, white family that purportedly adopted Oher as a high school student—never actually did so. Rather, they deceived him into signing a document that placed him in a conservatorship, without his realization. They were then able to make millions at his expense. 

“The lie of Michael’s adoption is one upon which Co-Conservators Leigh Anne Tuohy and Sean Tuohy have enriched themselves at the expense of their Ward, the undersigned Michael Oher,” reads the legal filing. “Michael Oher discovered this lie to his chagrin and embarrassment in February of 2023, when he learned that the Conservatorship to which he consented on the basis that doing so would make him a member of the Tuohy family, in fact provided him no familial relationship with the Tuohys.”

“Since at least August of 2004, Conservators have allowed Michael, specifically, and the public, generally, to believe that Conservators adopted Michael and have used that untruth to gain financial advantages for themselves and the foundations which they own or which they exercise control,” continues the filing. “All monies made in said manner should in all conscience and equity be disgorged and paid over to the said ward, Michael Oher.”

A representative for Leigh Anne Tuohy did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Steve Farese, a lawyer representing the Tuohys, told the Associated Press they plan to file an answer to the allegations in court.

In 2006, author and financial journalist Michael Lewis, a former schoolmate of Sean Tuohy, published The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game, which includes Oher’s story. Three years later, Lewis’ book was adapted into a sports drama film of the same name. The movie told the story of an offensive lineman who overcame a poor upbringing to, with the help of his adoptive parents, to play in the NFL.

“Mike’s relationship with the Tuohy family started to decline when he discovered that he was portrayed in the movie as unintelligent,” Oher’s attorney, J. Gerard Stranch IV, told ESPN. “Their relationship continued to deteriorate as he learned that he was the only member of the family not receiving royalty checks from the movie, and it was permanently fractured when he realized he wasn’t adopted and a part of the family.”

Both the movie and the book found critical and financial success. The former became a #1 New York Times bestseller, while the latter grossed $309 million at the box office, received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Picture, and won the Academy Award for Best Actress for Sandra Bullock’s performance as Leigh Anne Tuohy, Oher’s supposed adoptive mother.

The legal filing states that the Tuohys and their two biological children, Sean and Collins, were each paid $225,000 by the movie, on top of 2.5% of the film’s net proceeds. In a separate contract, according to the legal filing, Oher signed over the rights to his story without any payment. Oher says that he does not remember signing that contract, and that if he did, no one explained what it meant. 

Oher’s second book, When Your Back’s Against the Wall, was released last week. “There has been so much created from The Blind Side that I am grateful for, which is why you might find it as a shock that the experience surrounding the story has also been a large source of some of my deepest hurt and pain over the past 14 years,” he wrote in it. “Beyond the details of the deal, the politics, and the money behind the book and movie, it was the principle of the choices some people made that cut me the deepest.”

This story first appeared in Extra Time, our pop-up newsletter about the 2023 Women’s World Cup. Get it in your inbox by subscribing here.

Best of frenemies

A picture of the British flag sits in the upper-left corner of the Australian one. New South Wales, an Australian state that will host Wednesday’s World Cup semifinal between Australia and England, was founded as a British penal colony in 1788. King Charles III is technically Australia’s head of state.

Australia and England are a pair of places inexorably linked through shared history, language, and culture.

So naturally, they want to beat the pants off each other on the pitch. 

Wednesday’s game, which kicks off at 6 a.m. ET, is a blockbuster dream matchup that will ratchet up the pressure for both teams. England is the defending European champion, desperate to win the nation’s first World Cup since 1966, when the men brought the trophy home to the birthplace of the world’s most popular game. 

Australia, meanwhile, will enter the pitch with nothing but positive momentum. The host country is coming off a dramatic 10-round penalty-shot victory over France in the quarterfinals and has its best player, Sam Kerr, back in the lineup after she missed the tournament’s first three games with a calf injury. The Matildas, as the Aussie women’s team is known, have brought even more exuberance and joy to a nation already plenty passionate about its sports. Australia wants nothing more than to keep this party going.

After England came back from a one-goal deficit on Saturday to defeat Colombia 2-1 in the quarterfinals, Lioness coach Sarina Wiegman, who is from the Netherlands, was asked if she’d be taking a crash course in the Australia-England rivalry. 

“I just think it’s going to be really big,” said Wiegman. “But now I’ve had a couple of questions about that so it’s probably going to be bigger than I imagined.” 

The two teams last met in April, at a friendly in London. Australia ended England’s 30-match unbeaten streak with a 2-0 victory. At the Tokyo Olympics, the Matildas also beat Great Britain—predominately made up of English players—4-3 in the quarterfinals. 

A decade ago, the Guardian published an in-depth guide to the England vs Australia rivalry, which spans across numerous sports, including cricket and rugby. The outlet claimed that the rivalry is guided by “six rules,” including: “brutality is an inevitability,” “eccentricity is a quality to embrace,” and my personal favorite, “defection and affection is common in later life.” (Awwww.) 

The actual participants in the Australian-England semi are playing down the rivalry, which isn’t too surprising. Athletes are prone to tamping down outside noise.   

“I think sort of the biggest internal rivalry is probably New Zealand still. That’s always been our sort of ‘we cannot lose to them and we will not lose to them’,” said Australia midfielder Tameka Yallop. 

“But I think within the team right now, our mindset is to be the best, you’ve got to beat the best. So for us, England are right up there and so are the other teams in the semifinals as well.”

England and Australia faced each other in a cricket series, known as The Ashes, this summer, and Australia defeated England in the women’s Netball World Cup final earlier in the month. 

“I wouldn’t say this is a major rivalry in football,” England’s Keira Walsh said on Sunday. 

Bollocks. That changes on Wednesday.

The philosophy of Peter

Only one team remaining at this World Cup has reached a final before: Sweden, the 2003 runner-up, who in the round of 16 and quarterfinal down under has knocked out the champs of the three previous World Cups, the United States (2015 and 2019) and Japan (2011). Sweden faces Spain on Tuesday at 4 a.m. ET in Auckland; Las Roja are playing in their first-ever World Cup semi.

Sweden’s coach, Peter Gerhardsson, said at his pre-match press conference that he was reading a book, Resonanz, by German sociologist Hartmut Rosa. 

What has he learned from Rosa? “As a human being, know everything,” Gerhardsson said. “It’s not exciting. And that’s why football is so exciting. Because you never know. As a coach, you don’t know what’s going to happen. You can prepare. You can know things. And that’s why football is interesting. For everybody. It’s the greatest sport in the world.”

Moments later, Gerhardsson tried to leave his press conference through a utility closet, before realizing his error and exiting through the proper door.  

I don’t totally understand what Gerhardsson is saying or what this all means. But I admire the guy’s vibe. Sweden will be ready.

Letter from a local

TIME’s Yasmeen Serhan sends this dispatch from London after watching England knock off Colombia 2-1 in the quarterfinals.

Women’s soccer hasn’t always been so popular in Britain, though you wouldn’t necessarily know it by the crowds turning up at pubs for early World Cup matches. On Saturday morning, I arrived at my North London local to find the pub’s front room packed with people who, like me, were hoping to catch a glimpse of what would end up being England’s quarter-final victory over Colombia. As I pushed through the crowd toward a lone seat closest to the screen, I noticed that there were a lot more women than there probably would be on any other given match day. But there were also plenty of men—an indication, perhaps, of just how much women’s soccer fandom has grown in recent years.

One pub goer, a 26-year-old guy from Southampton, told me that he’s been waking up early to catch all of England’s matches this World Cup. But he admits that he wasn’t always a follower of the women’s game. Like so many men and women I spoke with, his interest piqued during last year’s European Championships, which the England women’s team won on their home turf at Wembley Stadium in extra time. It was a huge moment not just for women’s soccer, but for the whole of England, which hadn’t experienced a major trophy win in over half a century.

Of course, not everyone at the pub was a devout women’s soccer fan. Another pub goer sheepishly admitted that he was actually there to watch another match (local Arsenal playing Nottingham Forest). Still, he said he felt like he was following the World Cup—in large part because, unlike previous tournaments, this one feels impossible to ignore. Whether it’s headlining on Sky Sports or being broadcast at the pub, women’s soccer is everywhere like never before. And if England fans are lucky, it may even once again come home.

Recommended reading/viewing

Scenes of Australian celebration never get old. (X) 

The backup goalkeeper who might win the World Cup for Sweden. (WSJ)

Why wouldn’t Spain be nervous before this game? (AP)

Why England must avoid sloppy mistakes if the Lionesses hope to win a first World Cup. (Guardian)

Parting thought

Emerging England star Lauren James will not play in the semifinal, after FIFA gave her a two-game suspension for stepping on Nigeria’s Michelle Alozie in the round of 16. She’ll be available for the Aug. 20 final, should England advance. 

I argued that James should just miss one game, and be available for this semi. My case either did not reach the upper echelons of FIFA—shocking, I know—or was summarily dismissed. Ah well. At least FIFA compromised a little bit, and did not hand the most draconian penalty possible and kick James out for the rest of the tournament. 

The Matildas, however, plan on ending James’ World Cup anyway. 

This game on Wednesday should be a beauty.