American midfielder Johnny Cardoso uncertain for CONCACAF Gold Cup quarterfinal against Costa Rica
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — American midfielder Johnny Cardoso is uncertain for Sunday's CONCACAF Gold Cup quarterfinal against Costa Rica because of an ankle injury.
The 23-year-old started friendlies against Turkey and Switzerland this month, didn't dress for the Americans' tournament opener against Trinidad and Tobago and made late-game substitute appearances in group stage games against Saudi Arabia on June 19 and Haiti last Sunday.
'We need to assess,' coach Mauricio Pochettino said Saturday. 'Today, he didn't participate with the team. He suffered a little issue in his ankle, and we'll see tomorrow if he can be on the bench or not.'
The winner of Sunday's game plays Canada or Guatemala on Wednesday in St. Louis.
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Indianapolis Star
an hour ago
- Indianapolis Star
5 thoughts on IndyCar's new car, what it could mean for the sport's future, paddock insight
The new specifics are few, but the news was no less exciting as it rang across the IndyCar paddock: After 16 years of use, IndyCar's combination of its DW12 chassis and 2.2-liter twin-turbo engine will be retired after nearly 270 races of use come the 2027 season finale. For reference, the careers of Bobby Rahal (264 starts) and Dario Franchitti (265) rank within the top-15 lengthiest in American open-wheel racing history dating back to 1946. The car was born out of the testing acumen of the late Dan Wheldon, saw the entry (and soon to follow exit) of a third engine manufacturer in Lotus, welcomed first a manufacturer aero-kit and then a universal one and was the proving ground for IndyCar's aeroscreen and bespoke hybrid system. Among its full-time driver contingent, only Scott Dixon, Will Power and Graham Rahal have raced anything else in their top-level American open-wheel racing careers. 'The DW12 served the series so well, as it provided a combination of phenomenal, wheel-to-wheel racing and critical enhancements to safety,' IndyCar president Doug Boles said. 'But recent significant updates to the car … have helped advance the need for a completely new car. 'We are pleased by what our engineers and Dallara have collaboratively designed and believe it will appear to the fans and paddock, while also upholding our standards of safety and enhancing IndyCar's on-track competition well into the future.' Penske Entertainment's rollout plan announced June 22 included a private audience of owners or executives from all its full-time teams minutes after the end of Practice No. 2 on Saturday, during which sources with direct knowledge of aspects of the meeting said meeting attendees were not shown a mock-up of the new car design, which is said to have undergone a notable redesign since owners were gathered for an offseason meeting in October when talk around the new car around the paddock picked up significantly. Multiple sources with knowledge of meeting said Penske Entertainment leaders didn't dive too deep into the cars' specifics beyond what was laid out in the Saturday afternoon release shortly after their meeting together completed. Here are five thoughts I have in the wake of IndyCar's most substantive statement around its future technical regulations since Penske Entertainment president and CEO Mark Miles sat down with IndyStar at St. Pete in March and elaborated on the process and did his best to dispel rumors and clarify the work that had taken place in the offseason. Miles said one could come 'as early as 2027,' but after a year, though an initial prototype had been developed and seen wind tunnel time, Miles was still not able to offer a hard-and-fast timeline. In fact, he promised that the series would see some level of change to the cars being raced in 2027, planting the idea that some updates could rollout that year with the rest coming by 2028. IndyCar and Penske Entertainment have given no indication why that phased rollout with new technology on track more quickly has been scrapped, but there was no mention of 2027 in Saturday's release. Another delay as it may, the firm road map — as long as it doesn't see delays the likes of the elongated hybrid system rollout — now begins to give teams the makings of a runway on which they can prepare not only for the cost impacts of a new car but the way in which they wind down use of their parts related to the DW12. 'I'm pretty happy with where the whole thing is right now,' Meyer Shank Racing co-owner Mike Shank told IndyStar. 'I think the move to 2028 was really crucial for all of our sakes, and now we can plan around it the best we can. 'And because they moved to 2028, we have a proper, doable plan that allows us to fully depreciated (our DW12s) and run all the parts out as much as we can and end up with worn-out racecars by the end of 2027.' It was already well-understood across the paddock that the car would be made by Dallara and would include low-voltage hybrid technology and a 2.4-liter twin-turbo V6 engine. Maybe the most impactful piece of information IndyCar unveiled was the early makings of a timeline for which the new car would begin on-track testing. That process, according to IndyCar's release, will begin in 'early 2026.' It will allow for a nearly two-year runway of testing and production ahead of the car's on-track debut. By comparison, the DW12 began on-track testing in August 2011, just seven months before it was first used in a race. A test and production window nearly three times the length of that of IndyCar's most recent new chassis should assuage any concerns that Penske Entertainment will be unable to meet its benchmarks along the way, despite the festering wounds of how the hybrid testing and development process went from 2022-24. 'This gives us a lot of time to really develop this, so it's not a cluster-you-know-what, and we'll actually be able to run the car,' Shank said. 'I think Doug Boles has done an awesome job. I was impressed with how he led (the team owners' meeting),' added Prema Racing IndyCar CEO Piers Phillips. 'This is a team sport, and once you get over the pit wall, you want to beat everybody, but I always say, you've got to get to the pit wall together as an organization, and I think the group discussion has been very productive.' It remains a paddock mystery as to who and how many engine manufacturers the sport will have once Honda and Chevy's deal with the sport that runs through 2026 expires. Of the two, Honda Racing Corp. USA is the party those around the paddock are uncertain whether it will re-sign or not in the wake of the company airing its concerns in late 2023 with the state of the sport and the return on investment it offers. 'It's great to see IndyCar moving forward and announcing plans around the new car. That's something fans have been waiting for and teams, drivers and OEMs have been waiting for, so I think that's a really good step forward,' Chuck Schifsky, the national manager of HRC USA's racing endeavors, told IndyStar at Road America, who noted that HRC USA continues to meet 'regularly' with Penske Entertainment executives regarding the future of the sport and the prospect of their involvement in it past 2026 and that those meetings 'have been doing well.' Schifsky offered no specifics as to HRC USA's decision-making timeline, though one has been given to Penske Entertainment. Though it wasn't explicitly stated in the release, one would imagine that new car testing in early 2026 for IndyCar's next technical regulations would involve manufacturer-specific testing — i.e. a 2028 safety cell with updated parts and body kit and manufacturer-specific engines inside. Such a theory would require HRC USA to decide whether or not they plan to stick around long enough ahead to have a 2.4-liter test engine and testing plan prepared, making it reasonable to expect the longtime IndyCar manufacturer's future in the sport (or lack of it) to be solidified in the coming months. Changes coming in IndyCar's new car: Weight reduction, engine formula, more Though specifications around the engine formula are minimal, beyond it being a 2.4-liter twin-turbo V6 internal combustion engine with a low-voltage hybrid component, if that sounds familiar, you're not going crazy. It's the bones of what the series announced in 2019 would be coming in 2022 — after the internal combustion engine side was announced in 2018 for 2021. To me, that signals two things: One, for Chevy and (potentially) Honda, it's like slipping on an old forgotten pair of pants in the back of your closet. For both of them, the 2.4-liter engine formula is a piece of technology both were a good ways down the road with three years ago. In March 2022, just weeks after the 2.4-liter engine and hybrid combo were punted to 2024, the IMS road course hosted both Honda and Chevy for a multi-day test of both camps' 2.4-liter engine. Results of both sides' testing was kept largely private, but we know that Chevy turned 600 miles, and Honda went so far as to embark on an additional test day a couple months later with both the 2.4-liter and a version of the hybrid system. Though both sides ultimately decided to scrap continued development of their respective 2.4-liter engines to pour time, money and energy into helping IndyCar get the hybrid to the finish line, it's not as if those development plans just disappeared into thin air. There's reason to think both could get those engines back up and running with relative ease and that producing a dependable, competitive, track-tested engine with which to compete in IndyCar a couple years down the road isn't a project that requires starting from scratch. In fact, though it's slightly different, the bones of Honda's 2.4-liter engine is currently racing in its Acura GTP cars in IMSA, giving the manufacturer most known to be on the fence something concrete to work off of. The downside to this: Rebooting an engine formula that was in the works for four years previously and one that isn't all too different than what IndyCar is running now doesn't give me great hope that a new manufacturer outside the two competing is coming into the fold any time soon. Though the sport has made some notable gains in its popularity and what it can offer for those who play a major role in the sport, but there's neither been enough of a technological leap nor has the sport gained enough traction for me to think a major racing manufacturer that once turned the sport down is going to circle back around and have a change of heart. The manufacturer arms race in the major racing series around the world is becoming an increasingly crowded and competitive space, with sports like NASCAR offering a massive platform, ones like IMSA and WEC offering a lot of technological freedom and the ability to compete against a bunch of other high-level manufacturers from around the world and ones like Formula 1 that offer maybe the best of both worlds. It's a tough landscape for IndyCar to compete in at the moment, and racing an engine package that has been on the table for years in some form with no new takers doesn't have me thinking one is going to magically pop up any time soon. Setting the record straight: IndyCar CEO Mark Miles details new car development process The word 'horsepower' appeared just once in IndyCar's release about its new car, in noting that the hybrid would offer a gain in that department. In short, the amount of power Indy cars could sport come 2028 is yet to be confirmed, though it's notable that all the descriptions of the 2.4-liter engine and hybrid package that was pursued years ago was said to allow for as much as 900 horsepower when including the internal combustion engine, the hybrid and the push-to-pass boost system. Presently, the cars run around 800 hp at their maximum capacity, according to numbers provided around the time of the hybrid's debut a year ago, meaning a 100 hp gain from various components of the new engine package would mark a notable boost to the power drivers currently have at their fingertips. The downside of that additional power at the time of the addition of the hybrid last summer was that it took the addition of just over 100 pounds of new technology added to the back of the car to produce it, therefore negating that added horsepower boost. The next generation car will come with a drop in weight compared to the car in use between 85 and 100 pounds, making said new car's weight right around the pre-hybrid weight, but one that could be equipped with a significant boost in horsepower. The specifics of all of those will matter a great deal — the weight distribution, after all, matters as much if not more than the car's overall weight — but if a well-balanced car can be had, then a lighter, more powerful one certainly should be something drivers will enjoy competing with far more than the overweight, under-powered one they have now.
San Francisco Chronicle
2 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Oliver Giroud admits he "didn't fit" LAFC, but is eager to "challenge myself one more time" at Lille
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Olivier Giroud admits his brief tenure at Los Angeles FC was disappointing, although he will cherish the friendships and the trophy he gathered during his year in Major League Soccer. The 38-year-old striker is eager to play once again in France after 13 years away, and he confirmed Sunday night that he will join Lille to take on one more challenge in his storied career. The top goal-scorer in the history of the French national team said farewell to LAFC by going scoreless and coming off with what he called tendon pain after 60 minutes in a 1-0 loss to the Vancouver Whitecaps. Giroud had a golden opportunity to score in front of goal early in the second half, but volleyed a pass from Denis Bouanga over the bar. Giroud was still given a standing ovation by the BMO Stadium fans who stayed firmly behind him while he scored just five goals in 38 matches for their club. 'I wish I could have had a bigger impact on the team, on the results,' Giroud said. 'At the end, it was a good experience. Obviously I can't stay longer, so I need a new chapter. I need to challenge myself one more time, and when I had the opportunity to come back (to) France, I just grabbed it. I wish nothing but the best for the club. I tried hard. I tried my best.' Giroud was under contract until the end of the current MLS season, but LAFC and Giroud mutually agreed to part ways so he could leave on a free transfer. He confirmed he will soon join Lille, which finished fifth in Ligue 1 last season to earn a Europa League place. 'I think the French people are happy that Paul Pogba, myself are coming back in the French league,' Giroud said of his Monaco-bound friend and teammate on France's World Cup-winning team in 2018. 'If you would have asked me a few years before, I would have answered you that was not the plan to come back, but you never know, and never say no,' Giroud added. 'I think this club ticked a lot of boxes for me and for my family. (I) hope that I can be helpful for the team, being a leader and a link-up player on the field, but (also) off the pitch between the youngsters and the staff. I'm excited because we also play Europa League. It's very positive. It's a big club in France, Lille. Top five.' Giroud hasn't played in Ligue 1 since 2012, when he left Montpellier for the start of his famed six-year tenure at Arsenal. He subsequently won the Champions League and the Europa League with Chelsea before winning Serie A with AC Milan. Giroud moved to LAFC in July 2024, but he now acknowledges he never fit into the system played by LAFC and its championship-winning coach, Steve Cherundolo — who is also leaving the club this fall. 'If you know football, you understand that in one sense, yeah, I didn't really fit to maybe the game style, I would say,' Giroud said. 'Just being honest. I try to adapt. I try my best one more time, but I can't do something I'm not used to (doing) and I don't know how to do.' Cherundolo favors a transition game emphasizing counterattacks and play up the sides, which doesn't mesh with Giroud's 38-year-old pace up the middle. In a scenario familiar across MLS, LAFC struggled to find a playmaker capable of providing service to an elite goal-scorer like Giroud, who excels on crosses in the box. Giroud was relegated to a substitute role in most matches despite wearing the No. 9 shirt, and he made a major impact in only a handful of outings — most memorably his goal in LAFC's victory in the U.S. Open Cup final last year. 'We did not use the cross a lot, which is my main strength in the box,' Giroud said. 'And yeah, I had the feeling that we would play a lot in transition, so it's not the best for me. ... I know what I can bring to the team, but I know what I can't do also. I think it's time to say goodbye now, and one more time to wish all the best to the boys because I love them. I will miss LA, but on the other hand, I'm really excited to have another challenge.' ___
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Inside the USMNT's ‘badass' win over Costa Rica: ‘It's the American mentality'
MINNEAPOLIS — The moment of truth arrived in the 37th minute, with Malik Tillman's gaze buried in slippery grass, and Max Arfsten's name covered in mud. The U.S. men's national team was slumping toward a 21st-century low, losing 1-0 to Costa Rica in a Gold Cup quarterfinal. Tillman had dragged a penalty off the post; Costa Rican players began 'talking noise,' Arfsten said. And that's when a lingering question burst to the fore. It's a question about attitude and fortitude, about mindset and mental strength. Every professional athlete has some of that, 'but it's when s*** gets hard,' U.S. midfielder Tyler Adams said, that the world gets to see 'if you're gonna step up to the plate.' Advertisement And on Sunday here at U.S. Bank Stadium, 'a lot of guys did that,' Adams said. S*** got hard, and 'we showed great character,' head coach Mauricio Pochettino said after the USMNT scraped past Costa Rica, into the semifinals, 2-2 and 4-3 on penalties. S*** got hard for Tillman when his penalty bobbled wide, and Costa Rica's Kenneth Vargas beelined toward him, hurling taunts into fresh wounds. 'They just screamed in my face,' Tillman said of the Ticos who surrounded him. Diego Luna felt it was 'bad sportsmanship.' U.S. teammates sped toward the scene, and a CONCACAF-y scuffle ensued. Malik Tillman (R) stayed composed after missing from the spot in the first half. (Photo by) (Stephen Maturen via Getty Images) Tillman, at first, simply smiled. But then, as 21 other players skirmished, he drifted away, and bent at his waste, rueful and lonesome. Advertisement And that's when he had a choice. He could crack, as countless teams have over the years under CONCACAF pressure. He could dwell on the miss, and feed epidemic narratives about the Gen-Z USMNT's mental weakness. Or, he could respond. He could 'just keep going,' as he later said. 'It was about lifting my head up.' One by one, teammates saw his body bowed, and escaped from the fracas to help lift him. Goalkeeper Matt Freese, who'd sprinted halfway across the field to support him, picked up his torso. Sebastian Berhalter gave him a handshake and some encouragement. Arfsten patted his shoulder. Their message, Tillman recalled: 'Keep going.' Advertisement And that's what he did. Four minutes later, he eliminated four Costa Ricans with a sweeping pass to Arfsten, who found Luna for the USMNT's equalizer. And 80 seconds into the second half, he skipped past two more defenders, then fed Arfsten again. Up until those points, Arfsten had been the most maligned member of a struggling USMNT. His clumsy 10th-minute tackle had gifted Costa Rica a penalty, and an early lead. His defensive frailties were showing, and surely, fans thought, he cannot be our starting left back. Some speculated that the 24-year-old Californian, who plays for the Columbus Crew, would get yanked at halftime. Advertisement Instead, he assisted Luna's goal, and scored the USMNT's second less than two minutes after the restart. 'It was just all about trying to make my mark on this game, and get my get back,' Arfsten said. 'The performance that he put in after making a mistake,' Adams raved, 'shows elite mentality.' That was the story of the shootout too. Tillman craved another opportunity from the spot; Pochettino gave it to him, and this time, Tillman buried his penalty in the same corner he'd missed earlier. Freese, meanwhile, pulled off three massive saves — exactly a week after making his first major mistake for the national team, in just his third competitive start. Advertisement 'It's badass, man,' Luna said of Freese's heroics. Luna also recalled Costa Rica's taunting of Tillman, and said: 'It's karma, right?' But the words of the day were 'resiliency,' 'attitude' and 'spirit.' U.S. goalkeeper Matthew Freese celebrates after making three saves in the penalty shootout against Costa Rica. (Photo by) (Stephen Maturen via Getty Images) Pochettino spoke about 'the spirit that has grown in the heart of this group.' It is not the most talented group, nor is it the one that will rep the U.S. at the World Cup next summer. But on Sunday, it was 'tested,' as Adams said, and for the first time in a long time, it met the moment. Pochettino, who has spoken repeatedly about attitude, loved it. He loved the 'spirit of being together, of fighting, of competing, of creating that good atmosphere, of knowing that on the field, excuses don't count,' as he said in Spanish. Many observers have bemoaned the diminishing of that spirit in a program that used to scratch and claw for results. On Sunday, a roster full of reserves recalled it. Advertisement 'I think it's the American mentality,' Arfsten said. Pochettino mentioned something that many USMNTs of yore would identify with: 'It's difficult to win with talent alone.' Talent, of course, is necessary, and there are all sorts of valid questions about whether this USMNT, missing seven regulars, has enough of it. Nothing they did in the Gold Cup group stage, or on Sunday in a roller-coaster ride of a quarterfinal, has provided satisfactory answers. No up-and-comer has staked a definitive claim to a place in Pochettino's first-choice starting lineup. But, for themselves and the sake of the program, they needed a win like Sunday's. Advertisement They needed a high-stakes CONCACAF challenge. They needed a topsy-turvy night. They need 'to make the mistakes,' Pochettino said. 'If they don't have this type of experience, how can they improve? It's impossible.' They needed to fail, and no, not all of them got closure. Arfsten got skinned again in the 71st minute, and exposed as Costa Rica equalized. Berhalter sailed his penalty over the crossbar, and nearly cost the U.S. the shootout. Guilt flooded his face. But his teammates spared him, and as he walked off the pitch, after joining celebrations, veteran defender Tim Ream draped an arm around the 24-year-old, like others had done for Tillman hours earlier. Their 'resilience,' multiple players said, is a collective trait, as well as an individual one. Advertisement Tillman, though, 'didn't need too much help,' Pochettino said. 'He's really strong in his mind.' He is 23 and uber-chill, sometimes carefree. But he has endured multiple serious injuries. He has played in the Champions League. He has led comebacks in the Dutch Eredivisie. Along the way, he said, he has learned: 'In life, it's about the next action. You can't change the past.' You can, though, bury it beneath the present.
