Англи болон Норвеги ДАШТ-ий шөвгийн наймд шалгарлаа

The Pulse Newsletter 📣 | This is The Athletic’s daily sports newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Pulse directly in your inbox.

Good morning! Park the bus today. Inside:

Winners: We’re doing power rankings

Any weekend with World Cup knockout games ensures a compelling experience. But even outside of those — which were scintillating, to be clear — yesterday was a banner day for winners across the sports spectrum.

Let’s simply rank them:

1. England, sheesh
This was slotted at No. 2 until the match unfolded. Excuse the possible hyperbole, but it was one of the best World Cup matches I’ve ever seen.

England held on, 3-2, despite:

• Playing Mexico at the Azteca, where El Tri is basically unbeatable
• Having 10 players for half of the game after a red card in the 54th minute
• Parking the bus — just sitting back on defense — for nearly the final 30 minutes of the game

The tension was unreal, even through the TV screen. Mexico had chance after chance, each swatted away, either by one of England’s superb backline defenders or keeper Jordan Pickford, who was incredible last night.

Jude Bellingham scored two goals in what felt like eight seconds. Harry Kane buried a penalty. And that was enough to send England to the quarterfinals, where Norway and Erling Haaland — who we’ll come back to shortly — await.

1a. Folarin Balogun, easily
In what might be the wildest story in the history of the U.S. men’s national team, the star striker Balogun, who received a straight red card against Bosnia and Herzegovina and thus a one-game suspension, will now be available for the Americans’ game tonight versus Belgium. It is a stunner among stunners as far as updates go.

Two major facets here for me, with a caveat at the end:

• Most rational fans will agree the red card was not justified. We’ve covered this at length since Thursday. While Balogun did step on Tarik Muharemovic’s ankle, it was clear there was no negative intent present on the play. Balogun handled it better than I would have.
  
• The reversal is also quite shady, and rankled non-U.S. supporters, notably Belgium. The red card itself was not rescinded; Balogun’s one-game ban was suspended for a year. The decision came via a FIFA disciplinary committee, which has broad powers to, essentially, do whatever it wants.

The news was so shocking that some American players thought it was AI. But anyone who has observed FIFA for an extended period of time knows this isn’t that unusual. Don’t forget FIFA pulled a similar move so Cristiano Ronaldo could play in this World Cup.

• The Athletic’s Adam Crafton and Dan Sheldon initially reported the news, and late last night followed with the inside story of how intervention efforts from President Donald Trump, commerce secretary Howard Lutnick and others helped address the Balogun suspension and spark a massive controversy. Make time for this today.

And it all comes for the biggest game in USMNT history. Before we see Balogun in action tonight, I wanted to get your thoughts on this, because my phone has been blowing up. Was this reversal:

• The right call
• A bad look
• Both

Head over to the newsletter in your inbox to cast a vote, or leave a comment below.

Cameron Spencer / Getty Images

2. Naomi Osaka, take a bow
The re-ascension of Osaka since returning from pregnancy in 2024 has been remarkable. There have been flashes of brilliance, along with some striking fashion choices, but nothing like what she has put on display this week at Wimbledon.

Osaka, the No. 14 seed, took out top-seeded Aryna Sabalenka in straight sets (6-2, 7-6) yesterday, behind a terror-inducing serve. The funny part? Osaka, 28, has never been elite on grass until now. The numbers in our story are mind-boggling.

• In other Wimbledon news: Coco Gauff is into the quarterfinals here for the first time after beating Belinda Bencic in three sets. Félix Auger-Aliassime and Alejandro Davidovich Fokina also produced what was the best point of the tournament thus far. See the whole day’s recap here.

Let’s take a quick news break before finishing out:

News to Know

Kelley L. Cox / Imagn Images

The boys are fighting
In what has been a strange week of Commanders-related social media, employed Washington quarterback Jayden Daniels and hopeful Washington player Brandon Aiyuk squabbled via Instagram over the weekend, with Aiyuk dissing Daniels in multiple posts. The pair were teammates at Arizona State and apparently friends before all this, and it’s clear from Daniels’ reaction and the general tenor of Aiyuk’s posts that the disgruntled wideout probably won’t be a Commander anytime soon. Catch up on the bizarre saga here.

Robinson finally talks hand injury
Former Knicks center Mitchell Robinson revealed yesterday that he fractured his hand just before the NBA Finals in a “moment of frustration” about a personal matter while banging it on his truck. Mitchell had surgery on his pinkie days before Game 1 of the finals, and had the Knicks lost that series, the injury would’ve loomed large in any lingering fan resentment. Instead, it’s a funny footnote. Read his full account here.

More news:

• Wildfires forced Tour de France organizers to make emergency changes to today’s stage three of the race. Yikes.
  
• Charles Leclerc emerged victorious in a “chaotic” British Grand Prix yesterday. Read our recap.
  
• Cristiano Ronaldo, 41, confirmed this will be his last World Cup appearance. He also thanked his haters.
  
• Chris Gotterup won the John Deere Classic yesterday, his third PGA Tour win of the season. But the story was more about how poor Ben Kohles gave it away on No. 18.
  
• Canadian swimmer Summer McIntosh, 19, broke the longest-standing record in women’s swimming yesterday. Read more.

📰Find more news here 24/7.

Winners, Cont.

Time to finish our ranking with “last” place:

3. Erling Haaland, of course
I’m convinced this man is a genial superhero at this point. What do you mean he scored two goals to eliminate Brazil in the round of 16? For Norway, which hadn’t qualified for a World Cup since 1998 and has only played four World Cups in its history?

Haaland now has seven goals in four career World Cup games, continuing his dominance in any form of elite soccer competition. Say what you want about the state of Brazilian soccer at the moment, but for Haaland and Norway to send such a blue blood home at this stage is no small feat.

More from a wild game here. The ramifications just feel massive.

Almost done:

Watch Guide

📺 World Cup: Round of 16
3 p.m. – 8 p.m. ET on Fox and Telemundo
Another exquisite day of soccer ahead, led by Portugal-Spain at 3 p.m. and U.S.-Belgium at 8 p.m. Did anything of interest happen yesterday with America’s starting XI? Hm. The winners of these two games face each other in the quarterfinals.

📺 Tennis: Wimbledon
6 a.m. – noon ET on ESPN networks
After a weekend of chaos, we still have some big names around playing today. Upstart Alexandra Eala plays at approximately 8:30 a.m. this morning, while No. 2 seed on the men’s side Alexander Zverev plays around noon. Toss it on.

Pulse Picks

Kevin Terrell / Getty Images

Our writers listed one fascinating newcomer per NFL team to watch in training camp. Yes, coaches are included.

One thing (outside of Caitlin Clark directly) that everyone in the WNBA is talking about: officiating issues, again.

Jim Bowden has a nice follow-up to our piece from yesterday, highlighting the top targets for MLB buyers at the trade deadline and, more importantly, which teams should sell. Read his latest buzz.

Of course, it’s high time to look at next year’s NHL Draft. Going No. 1, per Corey Pronman: Michigan’s Landon DuPont. See all the picks.

Most-clicked in the newsletter yesterday: MLB All-Star starters.

Most-read on the website yesterday: The Balogun news, by a mile.