Daily Archives: May 29, 2026

Thousands of tickets remain available for USA World Cup opener vs. Paraguay; Will it sell out?

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“Thousands of tickets remain unsold for the United States’ high-priced World Cup opener, with data captured by The Athletic and other sources suggesting that the game is not on pace to sell out at current prices and purchasing rates. As of Thursday evening, two weeks before the 2026 World Cup begins, there were more than 3,500 tickets available on FIFA’s primary portal for the June 12 match between the U.S. and Paraguay. There were also over 6,500 tickets listed on FIFA’s resale platform, meaning there are over 10,000 tickets available for the match, which was initially billed as one of the tournament’s most attractive games. …”
NYT/ATH (Video)

‘Free Christophe Gleizes’: the campaign to liberate a French football journalist jailed in Algeria

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“If this was a normal World Cup year, Christophe Gleizes would be busy. As a reporter specializing in African football, he would be reading, traveling, talking to people, checking in with sources and looking for offbeat stories around the tournament that he could bring to life in the pages of the Paris-based magazine So Foot. But for Gleizes, this World Cup year has been like no other. With the tournament looming, the 37-year-old Frenchman is languishing in an Algerian prison after being handed a seven-year jail sentence in June 2025 for ‘glorifying terrorism’ and ‘possessing propaganda publications harmful to the national interest’. …”
NYT/ATH (Video)

Lens arranged a friendly against Rouen and donated funds from the game to the campaign for Gleizes’ freedom

The Soccer 100: Gerd Müller — Germany’s greatest goalscorer, Garrincha — The king of the playground

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Gerd Müller
“… Today, it’s the prolific striker, ranked 13th in our original list, who scored for West Germany in the 1974 final. There is one thing every footballer in this book has in common. It’s a bit technical, so apologies for blinding you with jargon here, and please don’t feel too bad if you don’t completely follow, but here it is: They’re all really good at football. … Are those two things different? Maybe not. But Gerd Müller made up for not being stellar at the other stuff, the things we often talk about when we talk about the “greats”, by being maybe the best there ever was at the game’s most fundamental task. …”
NYT/ATH

Garrincha — The king of the playground “Today, it is the Brazilian who came in 14th in our 100, having decorated the national team’s performances for 11 years. Before the hard sell comes a pause. He stands there, briefly upright. It’s as if he is rifling through his mental hard-drive, looking for the right words for a lover or a child or a jury — although, given what we know about him, it’s more than possible he’s just looking at distant clouds. It’s a split second, over in the flap of a bird’s wing, but it seems longer. It feels like just this side of forever. …”
NYT/ATH
Garrincha in full flight against Wales at the 1958 World Cup