Sports

(NEW YORK) — After years of controversy around its location, the 2022 World Cup is underway in Qatar.

There have been allegations of payoffs to FIFA members to earn the bid, criticism of Qatar’s laws against women and LGBTQ individuals, the deaths of migrants used to build the sparkling new stadiums and even last-second controversy over beer sales. The tournament was also moved from its usual summer timeframe to the holiday season to avoid Qatar’s intensely hot weather.

But on the field, the best players in the world — such as Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar — are ready to go. And the U.S. is back with a hungry, youngteam after failing to qualify for the last World Cup.

Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:

Nov 23, 10:16 AM EST
Japan shocks Germany with 2 goals in final 15 minutes

Germany controlled possession throughout the first half and appeared ready to cruise to a opening game victory. Then Japan turned it on in a shocking final 15 minutes to steal the win.

German Ilkay Gundogan scored on a penalty kick in the 33rd minute, and thought they had added a second late in the first half before a review took it off the board.

In the second, Ritsu Doan tied the game at 1-1 in the 75th minute after coming on the pitch just four minutes earlier. Eight minutes later, Takuma Asano gave Japan the 2-1 lead and held on for the win.

Nov 23, 10:14 AM EST
German players cover mouths in protest

The starting 11 for Germany posed for photos covering their mouths before the match with Japan in a sign of protest.

Several European team captains had planned to wear “OneLove” armbands during the tournament as a protest against Qatar’s anti-LGBTQ laws. However, FIFA cracked down on the teams’ decision and promised to immediately hand out yellow cards to any player violating the rules on uniform.

Also, German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser was pictured wearing the armband while watching in the stands, alongside embattled FIFA President Gianni Infantino. She had previously said she might not even attend the World Cup due to concerns over human rights.

Nov 23, 7:04 AM EST
Croatia and Morocco draw 0-0

Croatia and Morocco failed to score in their match, which ended up being the third 0-0 draw in the 2022 World Cup so far.

The other two teams in the group, Canada and Belgium, will face off later today at Ahmad bin Ali Stadium — popularly known as the Al-Rayyan Stadium — in Al Rayyan, Qatar. It will be Canada’s first World Cup match in 36 years and only their second ever appearance at the tournament.

Nov 23, 6:57 AM EST
Morocco and Croatia battle to 0-0 draw at halftime

Croatia controlled possession of the ball 51% of the time to Morocco’s 36% in the first half of the Group F match at Al-Bayt Stadium in Al Khor, Qatar.

Croatia had two corner kick opportunities but were unable to capitalize on those opportunities to score while Morocco had one less foul in the first half than the European side.

Nov 23, 5:08 AM EST
Match between 2018 World Cup runners-up and Morocco kicks off

Croatia, runners-up to France in the 2018 World Cup, has taken the field against the second-best team in Africa, Morocco, in Group F’s first match of the tournament.

Morocco has not won a World Cup match since 1998 and has only ever emerged from the qualifying rounds in the tournament once, 36 years ago in 1986.

Nov 22, 4:23 PM EST
Soccer powers take the stage on Wednesday

Germany, Spain and Belgium take to the field on Wednesday as they each look to open the tournament with a win — and deliver a message that they are in World Cup-winning form. Germany and Spain won the World Cup in 2014 and 2010, respectively, while Belgium is No. 2 in the FIFA world rankings.

Our neighbors to the north, Canada, also get their World Cup underway. This is just the second time Canada has appeared in the World Cup and certainly want to do better than that appearance in 1986 when they went 0-3 in the group stage.

Here’s the schedule for Wednesday:

• Morocco vs. Croatia, 5 a.m., FS1
• Germany vs. Japan, 8 a.m., FS1
• Spain vs. Costa Rica, 11 a.m., Fox
• Belgium vs. Canada, 2 p.m., Fox

Nov 22, 4:07 PM EST
Defending champion France routs Australia

Just nine minutes into France’s opening round match with Australia they trailed 1-0 behind a goal from Craig Goodwin.

But any thoughts of the defending World Cup champions stumbling to a loss in their opener — like Argentina earlier in the day — were erased by Adrien Rabiot in the 28th minute. Five minutes later, Olivier Giroud banged one home to take the lead.

The rout was on in the second half when 23-year-old French star Kylian Mbappe headed one home in the 68th minute. Giroud scored a brace with his second goal in the 71st minute. The goal tied him with legend Thierry Henry for the most international goals in French history.

France finished with 23 shots to Australia’s four. The Aussies had just one shot on goal.

Nov 22, 1:11 PM EST
Mexico, Poland go scoreless after Lewandowski misses penalty

Mexico and Poland, both teams hoping to advance to the knockout stage, finished 0-0 in their opening match after Polish star Robert Lewandowski missed a penalty kick in the second half.

Mexican keeper Guillermo Ochoa came up with a big stop in the 58th minute Tuesday. Mexico, meanwhile, dominated possession — 61% to 39% — and had 11 shots but couldn’t break through.

Lewandowski, one of his generation’s great forwards, has not scored a World Cup goal in four matches.

Nov 22, 11:12 AM EST
Fans show off team pride with crazy costumes

Win or lose, you can always count on fans to show up — often in the most outlandish outfits.

-ABC News’ Moe Zoyari

Nov 22, 10:04 AM EST
Denmark, Tunisia settle for scoreless draw

Denmark, one of the sleeper picks to win the tournament, settled for a 0-0 draw with Tunisia in their first game in Group D. It was the first scoreless draw of the tournament and only the second draw — after the U.S.-Wales on Monday.

The Danes are ranked 10th in the world, while Tunisia is ranked 30th.

Denmark held its collective breath in the 93rd minute when the referee was called over to look at VAR for a hand ball, but the ruling came back with no penalty.

Nov 22, 9:35 AM EST
World Cup’s New High-Tech Ball Will Change Soccer Forever: FiveThirtyEight

When the 2022 World Cup made its debut on Sunday, it kicked off one of the most significant in-game uses of technology in sports history.

All tournament long, match balls will contain a sensor that collects spatial positioning data in real time — the first World Cup to employ such a ball-tracking mechanism. This, combined with existing optical tracking tools, will make VAR (video assistant referees) and programs like offside reviews more accurate and streamlined than they’ve ever been.

Combining these two forms of tracking has long been a holy grail of sorts in technology circles, and FIFA’s use of the ball sensor in particular will serve as a highly public test case over the next four weeks.

For more on the technology and how it will affect the World Cup, read FiveThirtyEight’s in-depth investigation.

Nov 22, 9:16 AM EST
Budweiser plans celebration with unused beer

With millions of dollars in unused beer sitting in Qatar, the company AB InBev says it will be bringing the beer to the winning country for an “ultimate” celebration.

“Where there is a celebration, there is always a Budweiser. In that spirit, Budweiser wants to bring this celebration from the FIFA World Cup stadiums to the winning country’s fans,” the company said in a statement. “We will host the ultimate championship celebration for the winning country. Because, for the winning fans, they’ve taken the world. More details will be shared when we get closer to the finals.”

Nov 22, 9:03 AM EST
Saudi Arabia stuns Argentina

Lionel Messi and Argentina were stunned by Saudi Arabia on Tuesday as the Saudis rallied to beat one of the tournament’s favorites, 2-1.

Messi, one of the sport’s all-time greats, scored in the 10th minute on a penalty kick. But Saudi Arabia came out strong in the second half with goals in the 48th minute by Saleh Al-Shehri and in the 53rd minute by Salem Al-Dawsari.

 

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(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Tuesday’s sports events:

NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION
Philadelphia 115, Brooklyn 106
Sacramento 113, Memphis 109
Detroit 110, Denver 108
Phoenix 115, LA Lakers 105

NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE
Buffalo 7, Montreal 2
NY Rangers 5, Los Angeles 3

TOP-25 COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Creighton 90, Arkansas 87
Auburn 85, Bradley 64
Texas Tech 70, Louisville 38
Arizona 87, San Diego St. 70

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — After years of controversy around its location, the 2022 World Cup is underway in Qatar.

There have been allegations of payoffs to FIFA members to earn the bid, criticism of Qatar’s laws against women and LGBTQ individuals, the deaths of migrants used to build the sparkling new stadiums and even last-second controversy over beer sales. The tournament was also moved from its usual summer timeframe to the holiday season to avoid Qatar’s intensely hot weather.

But on the field, the best players in the world — such as Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar — are ready to go. And the U.S. is back with a hungry, young team after failing to qualify for the last World Cup.

Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:

Nov 22, 9:16 AM EST
Budweiser plans celebration with unused beer

With millions of dollars in unused beer sitting in Qatar, the company AB InBev says it will be bringing the beer to the winning country for an “ultimate” celebration.

“Where there is a celebration, there is always a Budweiser. In that spirit, Budweiser wants to bring this celebration from the FIFA World Cup stadiums to the winning country’s fans,” the company said in a statement. “We will host the ultimate championship celebration for the winning country. Because, for the winning fans, they’ve taken the world. More details will be shared when we get closer to the finals.”

Nov 22, 9:03 AM EST
Saudi Arabia stuns Argentina

Lionel Messi and Argentina were stunned by Saudi Arabia on Tuesday as the Saudis rallied to beat one of the tournament’s favorites, 2-1.

Messi, one of the sport’s all-time greats, scored in the 10th minute on a penalty kick. But Saudi Arabia came out strong in the second half with goals in the 48th minute by Saleh Al-Shehri and in the 53rd minute by Salem Al-Dawsari.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — As the World Cup matches are underway, human rights activists and others have been protesting the games and Qatar officials over what they say are human rights issues for the hundreds of workers who have been on the ground for the last couple of months.

According to some activists, everyone from construction workers to hotel employees has been allegedly forced to work long hours in the heat with little pay and, in some cases, subtle threats.

Grant Wahl, a longtime sports journalist who has covered soccer for various outlets, including Sports Illustrated, investigated some of these allegations and reported that many workers face unfair conditions.

Wahl, who hosts the podcast “Fútbol with Grant Wahl,” spoke with ABC News’ “Start Here” Monday about what he found when he arrived in Qatar.

START HERE: Grant, unlike a lot of journalists who flew to Qatar last week, you spent time there earlier this year amid these construction projects. Why were you going to look at a bunch of empty stadiums and hotels?

GRANT WAHL: I knew I was going to go to the World Cup, come here and cover.. focusing entirely on the soccer once the tournament started. But before that, I wanted to do a story and do some actual reporting on the topic of migrant workers in Qatar. Nearly 90% of the workforce in Qatar is not Qatari. They’re coming from East Africa, West Africa, the Indian subcontinent [and] the Far East. And they’re taking on jobs of construction, working in domestic situations and houses, hotel workers [and] all sorts of things that migrant workers are doing in Qatar. But the history is that they’re not paid well. They’re not treated well. A lot of people have died.

Human rights organizations who study this stuff very closely say that the Qataris really don’t care, and they’ve shown they don’t care by [not] trying to find out actual reasons people have died. The vast majority of deaths are just classified as natural causes. But, obviously, there’s a tremendous amount of heat in Qatar year-round.

There are a lot of deaths of migrant workers that have taken place due to the heat and the body’s responses to that.

New laws have been passed by the Qatari government under pressure. They were announced in 2019 and the Qatari government made a lot of fanfare about it, saying we have ended this ‘kafala’ system in which employers are allowed to keep the passports of their migrant workers and essentially preventing them from leaving the country, even if they’re being treated badly. So there was a minimum wage established.

It was no longer allowed for workers to pay recruitment fees, either in their country or in Qatar to get to Qatar and get a job there. After these new laws were announced, workers were allowed for the first time to choose to change jobs within Qatar without having to leave the country and come back.

But what I was doing on the ground; I decided I was going to go to 14 FIFA hotels, and I was going to speak to at least one worker at each FIFA hotel and give them anonymity, and really find out what their experience has been like and whether these laws have been followed on the ground in Qatar.

A pattern quickly emerged as I talked to more and more workers, and I talked to nearly two dozen at all of these 14 different FIFA hotels, which is that a lot of these new laws are not being followed. Some of the workers that I spoke to didn’t have their passports.

START HERE: They hold on to your passport as if to be like ‘follow what we’re telling you to do or else you don’t get home’? Is that the implication there?

WAHL: Correct. You literally cannot leave the country if you don’t have your passport, and so there’s an element of freedom attached to that.

A bunch, including someone at the hotel where the U.S. team is staying in Qatar, told me that they had to pay big recruitment fees to come to the country, which puts them in debt from the moment they get there. One thing that did appear to be being followed was the new minimum wage, which I thought was interesting. But keep in mind, the new minimum wage is about $1.25 an hour.

START HERE: But the question then is…what is the responsibility of everyone who’s participating? The U.S. actually held a nice friendly game with some migrant workers the other day almost to say “we see you, folks,” but what about all of us back home? I’ve seen people contemplating whether to boycott these games. Do you think people will connect the dots with, between these issues they hear about in the news and the game they love on their screen?

WAHL: So the U.S. English language broadcaster of this World Cup is Fox Sports and they have said publicly we are not going to cover any of these so-called controversial issues like the migrant worker situation in Qatar or LGBTQ rights or women’s rights, which are all things that U.S. soccer, by the way, is educating its players on and taking time to look into and a lot of other journalistic outlets are discussing. And so Fox has decided not just for this World Cup, but previously when the World Cup was in Russia in 2018, that they were not going to touch this. And that’s certainly a decision they’ve made.

If people, fans, in the U.S. decide they want to boycott the World Cup and not watch it, I understand that.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Monday’s sports events:

NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION
Cleveland 114, Atlanta 102
Indiana 123, Orlando 102
Chicago 121, Boston 107
New Orleans 128, Golden State 83
New York 129, Oklahoma City 119
Milwaukee 119, Portland 111
Minnesota 105, Miami 101
LA Clippers 121, Utah 114

NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE
Calgary 5, Philadelphia 2
New Jersey 5, Edmonton 2
Boston 5, Tampa Bay 3
Winnipeg 4, Carolina 3 (OT)
NY Islanders 3, Toronto 2 (OT)
St. Louis 3, Anaheim 1
Nashville 4, Arizona 3 (SO)
Colorado 3, Dallas 2 (SO)
San Jose 5, Ottawa 1
Vegas 5, Vancouver 4

NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE
San Francisco 38, Arizona 10

TOP-25 COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Texas 73, N. Arizona 48
Duke 74, Bellarmine 57
Arkansas 80, Louisville 54
Creighton 76, Texas Tech 65
San Diego St. 88, Ohio St. 77
Iowa 100, Omaha 64
Arizona 101, Cincinnati 93

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — Christian Pulisic is poised to become a household name as the U.S. men’s national soccer team prepares to take the field against Wales for their first World Cup match in eight years.

Ahead of his World Cup debut, Pulisic spoke to ABC News’ Good Morning America about the international tournament and what it means to be on this stage four years after the team failed to qualify.

“My No. 1 dream was to play for Team USA in a World Cup. So you can imagine, when that really hit, that we wouldn’t be there, I couldn’t understand why it happened. I was obviously so upset, so emotional,” he said. “But, you know, looking back on it, that motivated me that much more.”

He continued, “It’s all in front of us, all that to play for and being in a World Cup. I still just can’t wait for that feeling.”

The 24-year-old all-world forward from Hershey, Pennsylvania, is on pace to score the most goals in U.S. men’s national team history.

“I think they should expect a very hungry team, a young team, and one that’s just willing to go to battle and do anything that we can to win,” Pulisic said.

The 12-year run-up to this World Cup has been fraught with human rights abuse allegations against host country Qatar and accusations that some officials from FIFA, world soccer’s governing body, took bribes to vote in favor of Qatar’s host bid.

“We’re not the United Nations, we’re not the world police, we are not, I don’t know, the blue helmets. The only weapon that we have is this, it’s the ball,” FIFA President Gianni Infantino said in part of a lengthy defense on the eve of the tournament.

On Sunday, Qatar became the first host country to lose an opening match when they fell 2-0 to Ecuador.

Pulisic, a prodigy who began playing in Europe’s best leagues as a teenager, will lead the young American squad with dreams of World Cup glory.

“I like the quote, ‘If you play for the badge on the front of your jersey, people remember the name on the back,'” Pulisic said.

“I think being American, it means something to a lot of people around the world,” he continued. “That’s why every time I put on that jersey, I hope that I can inspire people back home. I hope that they can watch and say, ‘You know what, this kid is fighting. He’s giving everything that he has. If he can do it, I can do it, too.’ And at the end of the day, for me, that’s what it means to be American.”

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(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Sunday’s sports events:

NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION
Phoenix 116, New York 95
Washington 106, Charlotte 102
Sacramento 137, Detroit 129
Cleveland 113, Miami 87
Golden State 127, Houston 120
Brooklyn 127, Memphis 115
Denver 98, Dallas 97
LA Lakers 123, San Antonio 92

NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE
Columbus 5, Florida 3
Pittsburgh 5, Chicago 3

NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE
Atlanta 27, Chicago 24
Baltimore 13, Carolina 3
Buffalo 31, Cleveland 23
Detroit 31, NY Giants 18
New England 10, NY Jets 3
New Orleans 27, LA Rams 20
Philadelphia 17, Indianapolis 16
Washington 23, Houston 10
Las Vegas 22, Denver 16 (OT)
Cincinnati 37, Pittsburgh 30
Dallas 40, Minnesota 3
Kansas City 30, LA Chargers 27

TOP-25 COLLEGE BASKETBALL
(1)North Carolina 80, James Madison 64
(2)Gonzaga 88, (4)Kentucky 72
(5)Baylor 80, (8)UCLA 75
(12)Indiana 86, Miami (Ohio) 56
(16)Virginia 70, (19)Illinois 61
(20)Michigan 70, Ohio 66
(24)Texas A&M 67, Loyola Chicago 51
(25)UConn 95, Delaware St. 60
(3)Houston 66, Oregon 56

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(LONDON) — The sale of beer and other alcoholic beverages at the 2022 World Cup stadiums in Qatar was banned on Friday, just two days before the international soccer tournament kicks off.

Non-alcoholic beer will still be sold to fans at the eight stadiums during the 64 matches. The decision was confirmed by FIFA, the tournament’s owner.

“Following discussions between host country authorities and FIFA, a decision has been made to focus the sale of alcoholic beverages on the FIFA Fan Festival, other fan destinations and licensed venues, removing sales points of beer from Qatar’s FIFA World Cup 2022 stadium perimeters,” FIFA said in a statement Friday. “There is no impact to the sale of Bud Zero which will remain available at all Qatar’s World Cup stadiums.”

A spokesperson for Anheuser-Busch InBev, the parent company of World Cup beer sponsor Budweiser, told ABC News in a statement on Friday, when asked for comment: “As partners of FIFA for over three decades, we look forward to our activations of FIFA World Cup campaigns around the world to celebrate football with our consumers. Some of the planned stadium activations cannot move forward due to circumstances beyond our control.”

“Host country authorities and FIFA will continue to ensure that the stadiums and surrounding areas provide an enjoyable, respectful and pleasant experience for all fans,” FIFA added. “The tournament organisers appreciate AB InBev’s understanding and continuous support to our joint commitment to cater for everyone during the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.”

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Thursday’s sports events:

NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION
New Jersey 109, Portland 107
Sacramento 130, San Antonio 112
LA Clippers 96, Detroit 91

NATIONAL HOCKY LEAGUE
Boston 4, Philadelphia 1
Dallas 6, Florida 4
New Jersey 3, Toronto 2 (OT)
Colorado 3, Carolina 2 (OT)
Columbus 6, Montreal 4
Tampa Bay 4, Calgary 1
St. Louis 5, Washington 4 (SO)
Winnipeg 3, Anaheim 2
Nashville 5, NY Islanders 4
Pittsburgh 6, Minnesota 4
Vegas 4, Arizona 1
Seattle 3, NY Rangers 2 (OT)
Detroit 7, San Jose 4

NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE
Tennessee 27, Green Bay 17

NCAA FOOTBALL
Tulane 59, SMU 24

TOP-25 COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Murray State 88, Texas A&M 79
Kentucky 106, SC State 63
TCU 95, LA-Monroe 60
Creighton 80, Riverside 51
Arizona 104, Utah Tech 77
Arizona State 87, Michigan 62

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(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Wednesday’s sports events:

NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION
Minnesota 126, Orlando 108
Indiana 125, Charlotte 113
Oklahoma City 121, Washington 120
Boston 126, Atlanta 101
Toronto 112, Miami 104
Milwaukee 113, Cleveland 98
New Orleans 124, Chicago 110
Houston 101, Dallas 92
Phoenix 130, Golden State 119
New York 106, Denver 103

NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE
Ottawa 4, Buffalo 1
Final St. Louis 5, Chicago 2
Los Angeles 3, Edmonton 1

TOP-25 COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Texas 93, Gonzaga 74
Houston 83, Texas Southern 48
Arkansas 71, S. Dakota St. 56
Michigan 91, Pittsburgh 60
Tennessee 81, Florida Gulf Coast 50

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