International soccer is back, and the World Cup stars are heading straight into a new World Cup cycle.<\/p>\n
The first international window since the World Cup is a three-week break in which countries can play up to four matches each, and most soccer leagues will not resume until Oct. 9.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Nations League competition begins Thursday, qualifying for the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations starts, and several new national team coaches take charge of their team for the first time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lionel Messi has one game left for Argentina, Cristiano Ronaldo is still in Portugal’s squad, and the U.S. and Mexico are using the window to give opportunities to teenagers.<\/p>\n
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Messi announced his retirement from international soccer after the World Cup, and Argentina’s federation organized a farewell match for him on Oct. 6 against Benin in Buenos Aires.<\/p>\n
Arranging it took work.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The federation had to find opponents willing to travel to Argentina and deal with a FIFA punishment for the behavior of fans and players at the World Cup, which limits Argentina’s first match of the window, and possibly the second, to half of a stadium’s capacity.<\/p>\n
Messi’s legendary career for Argentina will have one last game. (Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n Messi finished the World Cup with eight goals, did not score in Argentina’s last three games, and lost the final to Spain. He is expected to appear only in the Benin match. The two games before it, against Bolivia and Burkina Faso, will be the first look at Argentina without him.<\/p>\n The question for Lionel Scaloni is who takes the No. 10 role?<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Portugal is the reigning Nations League champion and Cristiano Ronaldo, 41, is in Portugal’s squad for new coach Jorge Jesus’s first games, starting Thursday at home against Wales.\u00a0<\/p>\n New coach Jorge Jesus replaced Roberto Mart\u00ednez and has kept most of the group that lost in the round of 16 at the World Cup.\u00a0<\/p>\n Portugal lost to eventual champion Spain in the World Cup. Ronaldo started at the World Cup, and some pundits have called for Portugal to move on from Ronaldo. He has scored three times for Al-Nassr this season.<\/p>\n Ronaldo has 146 goals for Portugal, and is 21 short of his stated goal of 1,000 career goals. Portugal’s other two opponents in group play are Norway and Denmark, and the Norway matches put Ronaldo opposite Haaland twice, first in Norway on Sept. 27 and then in Portugal in early October.\u00a0<\/p>\n Spain is the team to beat as the Nations League begins, and its opener is a trip to Wembley on Saturday to face England in a repeat of the Euro 2024 final.\u00a0<\/p>\n Spain won the World Cup this summer by beating France in the semifinals and then beating Argentina 1-0 in extra time on a goal by Ferran Torres, and it conceded once in eight matches.\u00a0<\/p>\n The core of the squad has barely changed since Euro 2024, with World Cup golden ball winner Rodri, Marc Cucurella, Pau Cubars\u00ed, and Barcelona standout Lamine Yamal still operating as the base of the team.\u00a0<\/p>\n Spain remains the top team in the world after winning the World Cup. (Photo by Justin Setterfield\/Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n Zidane’s first 23-man squad includes five players earning their first and leaves out N’Golo Kant\u00e9. The opening matches include two Nations League catchups against Belgium, coached by Mark van Bommel, and one against Italy, coached by Roberto Mancini. Both teams who also under new management.<\/p>\n Mexico’s Rafael M\u00e1rquez debuts Saturday against Colombia in Baltimore. Mexico also plays Peru in New Jersey, the U.S. in Phoenix on Oct. 3 and Chile at the Rose Bowl on Oct. 6.\u00a0<\/p>\n Speaking of El Tri, the USA and Mexico meet Oct. 3 in Glendale, Arizona, looking toward the 2030 World Cup after co-hosting the previous edition of the tournament.<\/p>\n Mauricio Pochettino, who signed a new contract through the next World Cup, left Christian Pulisic off the roster and named a group that has no one over 30, 12 players who could make their national team debut and seven teenagers.\u00a0<\/p>\n Pochettino has described the window as a different approach, since the World Cup is four years away, and it also looks toward the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.\u00a0<\/p>\n The U.S. plays Peru on Sept. 26 in Orlando, Chile on Sept. 29 in St. Louis, Mexico on Oct. 3 and Canada on Oct. 6 in St. Paul.<\/p>\n 16-year-old wunderkind Cavan Sullivan is the name that stands out on Pochettino’s latest roster.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Philadelphia Union midfielder became the second-youngest American to receive a senior call-up after Freddy Adu, and has agreed to sign with Manchester City when he turns 18 and his teammate Mathis Albert is the other.\u00a0<\/p>\n The 17-year-old Dortmund winger became the youngest American to play in the Bundesliga at 16 years and 340 days and has the least senior experience in camp.<\/p>\n Gilberto Mora is the future of El Tri. (Ulrik Pedersen\/NurPhoto via Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" BROWSE BY International soccer is back, and the World Cup stars are heading straight into a new World Cup cycle. The first international window since the World Cup is a three-week break in which countries can play up to four matches each, and most soccer leagues will not resume until Oct. 9.\u00a0 The Nations League […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":7354,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7355\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}