The US has a squad full of players from Europe’s top leagues. But Gregg Berhalter’s side have continually struggled against top competition

• Sign up to Jonathan’s weekly newsletter here

The theory always was that what the USMNT needed was for more of their players to be playing with the best in Europe. Good, tough, regular competition, proper professional training, exposure to best practice at the highest level the game has ever known. That was what would transform the raw material the US produces into a genuinely top-level side that might be able to compete regularly with the world’s elite. Practice is never that straightforward.

The friendly against Colombia earlier this month was the first time the US had been able to field a starting XI all of whom play in the top flight of the Big Five European leagues (there’s a quibble over whether France can really be included in that grouping or whether Portugal or the Netherlands is more worthy, but let’s go with it for now as a useful shorthand to denote high European level). Was this then to be the breakout, the moment at which the US finally became a major world power in the men’s game?

This is an extract from Soccer with Jonathan Wilson, a weekly look from the Guardian US at the game in Europe and beyond. Subscribe for free here. Have a question for Jonathan? Email soccerwithjw@theguardian.com, and he’ll answer the best in a future edition

Continue reading...

💾

© Composite: Getty

💾

© Composite: Getty

Country asks Argentina to identify rioters’ whereabouts and status before deciding to request extraditions

Brazil has asked Argentina for information about dozens of supporters of former president Jair Bolsonaro seeking refuge in the neighboring country to avoid legal consequences for rioting in Brasília last year as part of an alleged coup attempt.

Brazilian police officials said the request was a precursor to possible extradition requests.

Continue reading...

💾

© Photograph: Sérgio Lima/AFP/Getty Images

💾

© Photograph: Sérgio Lima/AFP/Getty Images

Eight tonnes of cocaine seized and 40 people arrested after four-year investigation led by Spain’s Guardia Civil

• How big is Europe’s cocaine problem – and what is the human cost?

Forty people have been arrested and eight tonnes of cocaine have been seized as a result of a four-year international police operation targeting a criminal network that trafficked large quantities of the drug from South America to Europe via west Africa and the Canary Islands.

The long-running investigation – which was led by Spain’s Guardia Civil force and coordinated by Europol’s operational taskforce – discovered that a Balkan cartel was using logistical hubs in west Africa and the Canaries to smuggle cocaine from Colombia, Brazil and Ecuador into EU countries.

Continue reading...

💾

© Photograph: Thomas Coex/AFP/Getty Images

💾

© Photograph: Thomas Coex/AFP/Getty Images

Porto Alegre’s poorest neighborhoods, often closest to rivers and with the worst infrastructure, bore brunt of crisis

It had been raining for nearly a week when the floodwaters first reached Marcelo Moreira Ferreira’s home in Porto Alegre, the capital of Brazil’s southernmost state, Rio Grande do Sul.

His wife and their four children left to seek shelter with relatives, but Ferreira, 51, wanted to stay: his father had built the modest one-storey structure and he had lived there his entire life.

Continue reading...

💾

© Photograph: Anselmo Cunha/AFP/Getty Images

💾

© Photograph: Anselmo Cunha/AFP/Getty Images

Aston Villa midfielder on club’s ascent to Champions League, Emi Martínez’s antics and his recall for Brazil

Douglas Luiz could have given up many times during his career. The same football that provided him with a way out of a difficult life in Rio de Janeiro also put him in a complicated situation as soon as he left Brazil for Europe at the age of 18. Bought by Manchester City in 2017, he had his work permit rejected and his dream of success in England was stalled.

“I took that blow, that stab, can you understand? I left Vasco where I played every game and was a team’s star. So I went to Man City and Girona [on loan], and didn’t play that year. That was a stab. That’s a moment when you realise how difficult Europe is, how complicated it is to adapt so quickly. You need time to learn the language, to communicate with your teammates. I fell down, but I worked so hard to bounce back [helped by] my parents and my family,” Douglas Luiz tells the Guardian.

Continue reading...

💾

© Photograph: Rui Vieira/Reuters

💾

© Photograph: Rui Vieira/Reuters

They have zero loyalty, even to the people who feed them every single day. Dogs napped too much and were susceptible to bribes, so the warden of a Brazilian prison turned to feathered allies to prevent escapes.

Huge die-offs of elephant seals occurred after the virus gained nearly 20 troublesome new mutations, scientists found.

Elon Musk’s Starlink has connected an isolated tribe to the outside world — and divided it from within.

© Victor Moriyama for The New York Times

Mr. Musk has built a constellation of like-minded heads of state — including Argentina’s Javier Milei and India’s Narendra Modi — to push his own politics and expand his business empire.

© Cristiana Couceiro

A gift from abroad of more than 1,100 Brazilian fossils aims to step up efforts to rebuild the country’s National Museum, which suffered major fire damage in 2018.