The head coach of the US women’s national soccer team, Vlatko Andonovski, has resigned from his position after the US made an early exit from the Women’s World Cup, unnamed sources tell ESPN and The Athletic.

The US lost to Sweden in a dramatic penalty shootout in the round-of-16 earlier this month, ending the dreams of an unprecedented three-peat. The four-time Women’s World Cup winner failed to reach at least the semifinals of the tournament for the first time in its history.

The 46-year-old coach said after the match, “We showed everything we could to win the game and, unfortunately, soccer can be cruel sometimes.”

Andonovski was named the ninth coach in team history in October 2019 and set the US women’s record for best start in history after winning his first 11 games at the helm. He managed the team during its run to a bronze medal in the Tokyo Olympics.

Australia may have had its dream of Women’s World Cup glory end on Wednesday following a 3-1 defeat to England, but that did not stop captain Sam Kerr from calling for more soccer funding in the country as it looks to take advantage of the boom in interest in the sport following the tournament.

“The comparison to other sports isn’t really good enough, and hopefully, this tournament kind of changes that because that’s the legacy you leave – not what you do on the pitch.

“The legacy is what you do off the pitch. And hopefully, I mean, it’s hard to talk about now, but hopefully, this is the start of something new,” Kerr added, according to Seven.

The Australian women’s team made national history at the tournament, becoming the first team – men’s or women’s – to reach a soccer World Cup semifinal.

The impact of the Matildas’ run is evidenced by the record-breaking viewing figures shared by the Seven Network who broadcasted the co-host’s games in Australia. Seven said the semifinal’s audience reached 11.15 million in Australia, with a national average audience of 7.13 million.

Those figures make the game the most watched TV program since the inception of OzTAM, Australia’s audience measurement system, Seven added.

According to Seven, the network’s coverage of the Women’s World Cup as a whole had reached 14.04 million viewers on broadcast alone, as well as a further 3.4 million via its streaming platform, 7plus.

Kerr’s vice-captain Steph Catley furthered the striker’s calls for better financial support of the sport. “When you look at football in general in Australia, football is very much not funded the way it should be,” she said after the match, Seven reported.

“There’s no argument now that people aren’t interested; people are interested. The numbers are there. Kids are playing. People want to be watching the sport.

“So yeah, hopefully, this has just been enough to prove that and to create the argument and to improve facilities, improve standards for women in football, football in general,” Catley added.

Australia manager Tony Gustavsson agreed with his players’ pleas for improved funding.

“This is not the end of something, this needs to be the start of something, and with that comes money as well,” Gustavsson told reporters.

Sarina Wiegman, the Dutch manager of England’s Lionesses, was also asked how Australia could take advantage of the team’s successful World Cup run.

“Now is where (Australia) has to take the next step,” Wiegman said. “What does this bring? I don’t have all the context, but how can Australia grow the game for little kids? (For) boys and girls, especially girls from six to adult players?

“How can they support that and get better situations and better facilities for everyone? And the professional game, of course. This gives a boost and gets people interested in supporting the women’s game.”

Tropical Storm Hilary formed Wednesday southwest of Mexico and is on track to pass along Mexico’s Baja Peninsula before it could bring possible impacts to western parts of the US.

As of Wednesday evening, it was too early to determine the magnitude of rainfall and wind impacts to the US. But the storm is expected to rapidly intensify, forecasters at the National Hurricane Center warned.

It’s projected to become a hurricane by Thursday afternoon and potentially strengthen to at least a Category 3 hurricane (with winds of at least 111 mph) in the upcoming two to three days as it churns over the Pacific Ocean.

Hilary was about 390 miles south of Manzanillo, Mexico, whipping maximum sustained winds of 50 mph, according to a Wednesday night update from the National Hurricane Center.

Although the storm is forecast to weaken as it crosses much cooler water off the central and northern Baja Peninsula, it could potentially bring significant impacts to portions of California and the southwest.

Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California at Los Angeles, said “multiple years’ worth of precipitation” could potentially fall in some of California’s driest areas.

With an uncertain forecast, a wide range of outcomes is still possible as Hilary will be moving parallel to the Baja Peninsula. Small deviations in the track will lead to significant shifts in rainfall amounts and impacts.

“This does have the potential to be a very high impact event for portions of Southern California,” the San Diego National Weather Service said. “There is still a degree of uncertainty in the forecast and more details will come on exact timing, location, and magnitude of impacts in the coming days.”

Rail journeys across the Swiss Alps will take longer for the next few months after a major derailment has left the record-breaking 35-mile (57-kilometer) Gotthard Base Tunnel partially out of action.

The world’s longest tunnel was closed last week when a freight train jumped the tracks, derailing 16 carriages and damaging about five miles of rail lines, Swiss national rail operator SBB said in a statement.

SBB said the tunnel will reopen partially on August 23, with one of the two lines through the mountains unaffected by the incident. But the reduced capacity will mean re-routing passenger trains via a scenic railway that takes up to two hours longer until early 2024.

“Until further notice, passenger trains will be diverted via the panorama route,” the SBB statement said. “The journey time is extended by 60 minutes in national traffic and between 60 and 12 minutes in international traffic.”

The company said it was examining whether passengers could be safely transported with only one track in operation but for the time being it would be closed to non-freight traffic until further notice.

Opened in 2016 after 17 years of construction, the Gotthard Base Tunnel has become a vital railway link between northern and southern Europe, as well as a destination for rail enthusiasts wanting to traverse the world’s longest and – at almost 1.5 miles below the surface – deepest tunnel.

Rail corridor

The structure runs between Erstfeld on the northern side and Bodio in the south, connecting rail traffic between the Swiss city of Zurich and Milan in Italy. It also completes a freight rail corridor between Rotterdam in the Netherlands and the Mediterranean Italian port of Genoa.

SBB said that passenger services will be running at reduced capacity until the tunnel fully reopens because the panoramic route over the mountains cannot handle double-decker trains. Additional trains would also not be running at peak times.

Swiss rail investigators are currently trying to establish the cause of the accident in which no one was injured.

“The Gotthard Base Tunnel is one of the safest in the world,” SBB CEO Vincent Ducrot told reporters on Wednesday. “The fact that such an accident could still happen hits us hard. Luckily there were no injuries but there was a lot of property damage.”

He said the company was aware that the accident would lead to inconvenience for travelers and freight customers.

“We would like to apologize for this and ask for your understanding. The teams deployed are doing everything they can to ensure that safe rail traffic through the Gotthard Base tunnel is possible again as quickly as possible.”

Driving through the tiny village of Nahwa in the United Arab Emirate of Sharjah, you’d be hard-pressed to notice anything unusual.

The local architecture and landscape looks pretty similar to that found all over the Hajar mountains, a rocky ridge that runs all along the eastern seaboard of the UAE and Oman.

To discover Nahwa’s very special attribute that it shares with only one other place on Earth, you’ll have to take a close look at a map. Zoom out on your phone and you’ll see several donut-like concentric circles appear. These represent national borders stacked on top of each other.

That’s because Nahwa is one of only two counter-enclaves that exist in the world.

What’s a counter-enclave?

So, an enclave you’re probably familiar with. That’s a portion of one country’s sovereign territory that’s entirely surrounded by land belonging to another country. Famous examples include Vatican City and San Marino, both microstates inside Italy. A counter-enclave adds a further layer of complexity: it’s an enclave within an enclave.

Nahwa is part of Sharjah in the UAE, but it’s inside the Omani enclave of Madha, whose borders are fully enclosed by three of the UAE’s emirates: Fujairah, Sharjah and Ras al-Khaimah. It’s like Matryoshka dolls, but with countries.

Madha sits about halfway between the Omani mainland, some 50 kilometers to the south, and the rest of the Musandam Governorate, an exclave of Oman on the shores of the Strait of Hormuz, to which it belongs.

To complicate things even further, as well as being an international counter-enclave, Nahwa is also a domestic enclave within the UAE. That’s because it’s part of the Khor Fakkan district of Sharjah, which is separated from its own emirate’s mainland by the territory Fujairah and Ras-al-Khaimah.

The other counter-enclave

So, when did Nahwa’s geography get as twisted as a Christopher Nolan movie plot? At the roots of this complex territorial setup is a decision taken by the inhabitants of these hamlets sometime in the first half of the 20th century.

As the rulers of this region started to consolidate borders to give rise to independent modern nation states, the inhabitants of Madha swore allegiance to the sultan of Oman, while those of Nawha opted for the Al Qawasim rulers of Sharjah.

Old allegiances are also at the root of the world’s only other counter-enclave: Baarle-Nassau / Baarle-Hertog, on the Dutch-Belgian border.

When, in 1843, Belgium and the Netherlands agreed on the demarcation of their common border, the Baarle sector proved difficult to ratify due to the pre-existing arrangements dating back to the Middle Ages.

Therefore, the border was apportioned between the two countries pretty much on a property-by-property basis. The result is an intricate border layout that created several enclaves and counter-enclaved plots of land, some of them just a few square meters in size. We’re talking about what amounts to a full-on enclave archipelago.

The administrative complexity of Baarle and Nahwa, however, pales in comparison to what was, until very recently, the most dramatic case of counter-enclaves anywhere in the world.

Until 2015, the year India and Bangladesh signed an international treaty to simplify their common border, the Koch Bihar area contained hundreds of enclaves, dozens of counter enclaves and a truly unique case of a counter-counter enclave (also known as third-order enclave), Dahala Khagrabari. In this Matryoshka-doll-style border spot, a plot of Indian land was located within a Bangladeshi counter-enclave, itself located within an Indian enclave within Bangladesh.

After India and Bangladesh exchanged territories, only one Bangladeshi enclave remained, Dahagram-Angarpota, which is linked to its mainland by a narrow land corridor that India agreed to lease to Bangladesh.

Life in Nahwa

There’s no apparent need for such a corridor in Nahwa, as there are no physical barriers or passport controls of any sort when crossing the Omani border at Madha and, then, the Emirati one at Nahwa. The same is true if you continue westwards, as you again cross the Emirati and Omani borders before re-entering the UAE mainland.

“We are all like one family here,” one local told me while filling their tank at Madha’s gas station.

Perhaps the closest you get here to a tangible manifestation of the changing jurisdictions is the line at the pumps, which hug the border line. The constant stream of cars coming from the Emirati side in order to take advantage of better fuel prices makes Madha’s gas station one of the busiest spots in town.

The border layout is, undoubtedly, this place’s most distinctive feature and a powerful draw for visitors from all over the world, but you don’t need to be a border geek to enjoy a trip to Nahwa and the surrounding area.

The rocky, almost lunar, landscape of this narrow mountain valley makes for an interesting contrast when driving from the densely populated, resort-strewn coastline just a few miles away.

The landscape may be majestic, but – you have been warned – the state of the road, not so much. Although it is in good condition until you reach Al-Nahwa, as soon as you leave this village behind it turns into a dirt track running through rather uneven terrain that, at some points, is barely passable by regular cars.

In fact, the ruggedness of the road is in part due to the wadi drainage channels and mountain streams that crisscross the area. It is precisely the presence of water that has made it possible for palm groves and agriculture to flourish at the bottom of the valley and it has also ensured the continuous habitation of this area for many centuries.

The old hamlet of Nahwa, however, was abandoned in the 1990s. Most of the 300 or so inhabitants of the counter-enclave now live in New Nahwa, a modern village built on higher ground a few hundred meters off the main road.

A line of Emirati flags leaves you in no doubt about the sovereignty of the Al Nahwa Archaeology Center, one of the few structures you come across by the roadside when travelling through the enclaves.

This recently inaugurated facility aims to offer a glimpse of Nahwa’s heritage as well as services to visitors. From there, several trails take you to points of historical interest in the surrounding hills, such as the remains of old watchtowers as well as some ancient rock carvings.

From this point it is barely four miles and another stretch of Omani land until you rejoin the UAE road network at the recreational area of Wadi Shees and, a bit further to the west of it, the motorway leading to another multinational entrepot, albeit of a very different sort, the urban continuum formed by Sharjah and Dubai.

Argentina’s voters punished the country’s two main political forces in a primary election on Sunday, pushing a rock-singing libertarian outsider candidate into first place in a huge shake-up in the race towards presidential elections in October.

With some 90% of ballots counted, far-right libertarian economist Javier Milei had 30.5% of the vote, far higher than predicted, with the main conservative opposition bloc behind on 28% and the ruling Peronist coalition in third place on 27%.

The result is a stinging rebuke to the center-left Peronist coalition and the main Together for Change conservative opposition bloc with inflation at 116% and a cost-of-living crisis leaving four in 10 people in poverty.

“We are the true opposition,” Milei said in a bullish speech after the results. “A different Argentina is impossible with the same old things that have always failed.”

Voting in the primaries is obligatory for most adults and each person gets one vote, making it in effect a dress rehearsal for the October 22 general election and giving a clear indication of who is the favorite to win the presidency.

The October election will be key for policy affecting Argentina’s huge farm sector, one of the world’s top exporters of soy, corn and beef, the peso currency and bonds, and ongoing talks over a $44 billion debt deal with the International Monetary Fund.

The economic crisis has left many Argentines disillusioned with the main political parties and opened the door for Milei, who struck a chord especially with the young.

“Inflation is killing us and job uncertainty doesn’t let you plan your life,” said Adriana Alonso, a 42-year-old housewife.

As polls closed in the early evening after voting system glitches caused long lines in capital Buenos Aires, all the talk in campaign hubs was about Milei, a brash outsider who has pledged to shutter the central bank and dollarize the economy.

“Milei’s growth is a surprise. This speaks of people’s anger with politics,” said former conservative President Mauricio Macri as he arrived at Together for Change’s election bunker.

Conservative Bullrich beats moderate Larreta

In the most important leadership race, within the Together for Change coalition, hard-line conservative Patricia Bullrich, a former security minister, beat out moderate Buenos Aires Mayor Horacio Larreta, who pledged to get behind her campaign.

Economy Minister Sergio Massa won the nomination for the ruling Peronist coalition, as expected, and could perform more strongly in October if he can win over more moderate voters.

The unpredictable factor had been Milei, whose loud rock-style rallies are reminiscent of ex-US President Donald Trump, but he far outperformed all forecasts. Most polls had given him just shy of one-fifth of the likely vote, though were also badly wrong four years ago in the 2019 primaries.

Turnout was under 70%, the lowest for a primary election since they started to be held in Argentina over a decade ago.

Whoever wins in October, or more likely in a November runoff, will have big decisions to make on rebuilding depleted foreign reserves, boosting grains exports, reining in inflation and on how to unwind a thicket of currency controls.

Jorge Boloco, 58, a merchant, said Argentina needs a “course into the future,” but no party offered a clear way forward.

Maria Fernanda Medina, a 47-year-old teacher, said she had also lost some optimism about politicians truly bringing change after many years of revolving economic crises.

“I don’t have much hope because in every election I feel a little disappointed,” she said as she cast her ballot in Tigre, on the outskirts of Buenos Aires. “But hey, we can’t lose all hope, right?”

Saudi Arabia has appointed its first ambassador to the Palestinians, in a move that comes amid talks with the United States over a possible deal to normalize relations between the Gulf kingdom and Israel.

In a show of support to Palestinians, Saudi Arabia named its ambassador to Jordan, Naif bin Bandar Al-Sudairi, as “Non-resident ambassador to the State of Palestine and Consul General in Jerusalem.”

A ceremony took place Saturday in the Jordanian capital Amman, where Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s diplomatic adviser received Al-Sudairi’s credentials, reported the Saudi state news agency (SPA).

The Palestinian Authority welcomed the appointment, saying that the “timing of the decision reflects the interest of the brotherly Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the Palestinian cause,” the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates said in a statement Sunday.

Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen told Tel Aviv’s 103 FM radio station Sunday that Israel was aware of Saudi Arabia’s planned appointment, but that the kingdom did not coordinate with Israel on the matter.

“They didn’t coordinate with us and they didn’t have to coordinate with us,” Cohen said, adding that the Saudi ambassador’s appointment comes amid “the advancement of talks between the US and the Saudis regarding Israel.”

“The Saudis wanted to send a message to the Palestinians that they didn’t forget them,” Cohen said.

The Israeli official however added that Israel would not permit the opening of any diplomatic representations for the Palestinians in Jerusalem.

Israel considers Jerusalem to be its capital, despite the United Nations not recognizing it as such. Palestinians maintain that the eastern part of the city should serve as the future capital of a Palestinian state. The US recognized Jerusalem as the Israeli capital in 2017 under then-President Donald Trump, a decision that was adamantly opposed by Palestinians.

This is Saudi Arabia’s first ambassadorial appointment to the Palestinian Authority. The kingdom has had diplomatic relations with the PA, but the level of representation and the nature of the relationship between the two have varied over time.

All members of the Arab bloc, including Saudi Arabia, recognize Palestinian statehood and the kingdom maintains a Palestinian embassy in the capital Riyadh.

Historically, Saudi Arabia has been supportive of the Palestinian cause and has provided financial aid to the PA. Riyadh proposed an “Arab Peace initiative” in 2002, which broadly offered Israel security and “normal relations” in exchange for its withdrawal from occupied Palestinian territories and the creation of an independent Palestinian state. Israel rejected the initiative.

The move comes amid reports of a normalization deal in the works between Saudi Arabia and Israel, with the Unites States involved in the rapprochement. The details and timing of the agreement are not yet known.

Miller’s comments came after a Wall Street Journal report saying that the US and Saudi Arabia had agreed on the “broad contours” of a normalization deal.

A mandatory evacuation has been ordered for the Ukrainian city of Kupyansk and its surrounding areas, as Russia intensified shelling of Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region and claimed to have captured Ukrainian positions near the city on Thursday.

Kupyansk, which lies close to the Russian border, fell to Moscow’s forces within the first week of their invasion in February last year. It remained under Russian control for several months, before a swift Ukrainian offensive liberated the city in September, along with a number of other settlements in the region.

But in recent weeks Russia has stepped up its efforts to capture the city for a second time. A local Ukrainian official said Thursday that substantial Russian reinforcements had turned the northern front of Kharkiv region into the “epicenter” of hostilities, “where the enemy is concentrating its main efforts.”

Kupyansk authorities estimated that around 12,000 people, including more than 600 children, are now subject to evacuation orders.

Evacuations of this scale are infrequent. Russian-appointed officials organized partial evacuations of the occupied Zaporizhzhia region in May, amid shelling around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. Thousands were also evacuated from the Kherson region in June, after the breach of the Nova Kakhovka dam caused severe flooding.

But Ukrainian authorities have not ordered an evacuation of this scale since October last year, when they launched an offensive to reclaim territories captured by Russian forces in Kherson and sought to protect civilians by removing them first.

The Kupyansk evacuation order includes settlements to the north and east of the city – on both sides of the Oskil river. Ukrainian forces have held onto positions on the east bank, but are getting pummeled by dozens of air strikes and artillery barrages every day.

Andriy Kanashevych, acting head of the Kupyansk District Military Administration, said it was difficult to say how many people had already left, because it was unclear how many had remained in Kupyansk after it was liberated last year.

Kanashevych told Ukrainian television he expected those affected by the order to “pack up and leave,” but added “we realize that not everyone will want to do so.”

However, he warned that Russian assaults had markedly intensified this week, saying that “more powerful weapons are being used” and warning of “a significant threat to local residents.”

“Russian terrorists are becoming even more cynical and completely indifferent to human life. As a result, almost every day we have dead and wounded among the civilian population,” he said.

The new ‘epicenter’

Russia has been preparing to mount an advance on Kupyansk for several weeks.

In July, Serhii Cherevatyi, a Ukrainian spokesman for the Eastern Military Grouping, warned that Russia had dramatically bolstered its forces in the region.

“The enemy has concentrated a very powerful grouping on the Lyman-Kupyansk direction, with over 100,000 personnel, over 900 tanks, and over 370 MLRS (rocket launchers),” Cherevatyi said, adding that Russian forces were “putting everything into breaking through our defense.”

Earlier this week, Ukrainian authorities had urged Kupyansk residents to evacuate children and those with limited mobility. At least three civilians were killed and nine others injured in a Russian missile attack near the city on Tuesday.

The strikes intensified throughout this week, with the city council building in Kupyansk targeted in an airstrike overnight Wednesday, which killed two people.

“Over the past 24 hours, Russians massively shelled settlements of Bohodukhiv, Kharkiv, Chuhuiv, Izium and Kupyansk districts with guided aerial bombs and other weapons,” said Oleh Syniehubov, head of the Kharkiv regional military administration.

The Russian Defense Ministry claimed Thursday that its forces had captured Ukrainian positions and observation points around the village of Vilshana, northeast of Kupyansk, adding that its forces had defeated up to a platoon of infantry in the area (between 20-50 soldiers).

By concentrating their efforts on Kupyansk and the surrounding area, Russia is hoping to fix Ukrainian troops in the region, preventing them from assisting in Kyiv’s counteroffensive elsewhere – especially in attempts to reclaim territory around Bakhmut, south of Kupyansk in Donetsk region.

This strategy also aims to bring Russia closer to one of its stated goals – of securing all of the eastern Luhansk region and possibly reaching the natural barrier of the Oskil.

Russia may also have attempted to exploit potential vulnerabilities in Ukrainian defenses where it suspected units may be weaker.

Since recapturing Kupyansk and other parts of Kharkiv region in September last year, Ukraine has embarked on an ambitious offensive in the south. Its forces are stretched at multiple points, along a front line extending nearly 1,000 kilometers. Ukrainian officials say that Russian forces expended half a million rounds of munitions in one recent week on the Kupyansk-Svatove front alone.

Ruslan Muzychuk, a Ukrainian National Guard spokesman, told Ukrainian television Thursday that “the Kupyansk direction remains the epicenter of hostilities, where the enemy is concentrating its main efforts.”

“The number of enemy forces and means and its recent activation in this area of the front are aimed at trying to turn the tide in this section of the front.”

NBA star James Harden expressed disbelief after Chinese fans snapped up 10,000 bottles of his own-branded wine in seconds, demonstrating the massive reach of livestreaming in the country, where basketball is loved by millions.

The veteran Philadelphia 76ers guard on Tuesday joined the livestream of online celebrity Crazy Brother Yang to promote his J-Harden brand wine as 15 million viewers tuned in, state-run tabloid Global Times reported.

“How many bottles do you usually sell in a day … from one store?” Yang asked Harden, who replied: “A few cases.”

Yang then told the star to watch how quickly they could sell them. “Show me,” Harden replied, sitting back with his arms crossed.

“Ready? Go!” Yang told viewers. Just 14 seconds later, he shouted: “Stop!”

With 5,000 orders placed at $60 for two bottles, according to Global Times, the quick-as-a-flash sales raked in $300,000.

“No way!” Harden said, as he checked a computer monitor before bursting into laughter and applause.

Livestream shopping has exploded in popularity in China in recent years, becoming a multibillion-dollar industry. It combines entertainment and e-commerce, with the host offering viewers flash deals or discount coupons in real time. Viewers can instantly buy goods from streamers and click to send their favorite stars virtual “gifts.”

The streamers sell everything from makeup and skincare to laundry detergent, and top hosts can earn millions of dollars a year – prompting many to quit their full-time jobs in the hopes of becoming an online star.

Harden’s livestream quickly trended on Chinese social media, with some fans joking that he should play in China rather than the NBA and reap the benefits of his fan base there.

Basketball is enormously popular in China, in no small part thanks to Chinese legend Yao Ming’s Hall of Fame NBA career. The league also has a long history in the country, having spent several decades and millions of dollars to build courts, bring stars over for preseason games and initially give broadcast rights away for free.

That popularity among hundreds of millions of Chinese fans translates to lucrative sponsorship deals for the league and its star players. Before the pandemic, China made up at least 10% of the league’s current revenue, according to one analyst.

But there’s also risk to doing business in China, which the NBA was forced to face in 2019 after becoming embroiled in political controversy when then-Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey tweeted his support for Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protests.

In response, the NBA’s Chinese partners suspended ties with the league, state broadcaster CCTV halted all broadcasts of matches, and the Chinese government said the NBA needed to show “mutual respect.”

Morey apologized and deleted the tweet, and the NBA said his comments were “regrettable” – but that sparked a backlash from fans in the United States and Hong Kong, who accused the league of censorship and bowing to Beijing.

Harden, who was with the Rockets at the time, also said sorry for the controversy. “We apologize, we love China, we love playing here,” he told reporters a few days after Morey’s tweet. “We love everything they are about. We appreciate the support they give us individually and as an organization.”

This week, Harden lashed out at Morey – now president of the 76ers – amid ongoing trade speculation surrounding the 2018 NBA Most Valuable Player.

“Daryl Morey is a liar and I will never be a part of an organization that he’s a part of,” Harden said during an event in China.

Footage of Harden’s comments has been widely circulated on social media. The comments were in response to a question from the crowd about ending trade talks, according to NBA.com.

No matter what happened in Wednesday’s semifinal, history was going to be made one way or another inside Stadium Australia.

Neither Australia nor England had ever reached a Women’s World Cup final and it was the latter’s aspirations which were realized in the end.

The Lionesses looked brilliant against the co-host and fully deserved their 3-1 victory, setting up a title-deciding clash against Spain in the process.

Although reaching a World Cup final was new ground for all the England players, it was familiar territory for their head coach.

Sarina Wiegman is a specialist in major tournament success and is now the first coach, male or female, to reach a World Cup final with two different nations having already done so with the Netherlands in 2019.

It’s not just at the World Cup that Wiegman has enjoyed success. The 53-year-old also led the Netherlands and England to European Championships glory in 2017 and 2022 respectively.

When asked how she felt about building on her already remarkable record, Wiegman said it felt like she was “in the middle of a fairytale.”

“I can hardly describe how proud I am of the team, they’ve adapted before the tournament, during the tournament and now in this game again. How we came through and found a way to win again, it’s so incredible,” she told reporters.

“This team has ruthlessness. Whether it’s up front or in defense, we really want to keep the ball out of the net, we really want to win and we stick together and we stick to the plan, and it worked again.”

Prince William praise

Under Wiegman, the Lionesses have captured the imagination of their nation and the semifinal victory was even given the royal seal of approval.

Prince William, who is president of England’s Football Association, led the celebrations after watching the reigning European champion book its ticket for Sunday’s final.

“What a phenomenal performance from the @Lionesses – on to the final!” William said in a post from Kensington Palace on X, formerly known as Twitter.

“Commiserations to @TheMatildas, you’ve played brilliantly and been fantastic co-hosts of this World Cup.”

Sporting royalty also joined in with the celebrations, with former England men’s captain David Beckham sending his praise.

“Amazing achievement, congratulations @lionesses,” he wrote on Instagram.

While England will rightly attract the majority of attention for its record-breaking achievement, the Australian team will be proud of the part it played.

The Matildas have inspired a new generation of soccer fans with their run at the tournament and the players gave all they had against England.

The game will always be remembered for Sam Kerr’s stunning equalizer but also for the atmosphere generated by over 75,000 people inside the stadium.

The crowd was a living, breathing example of what this Australian team has done for soccer in the country.

Almost all the players, from both sides, commentated on the atmosphere as they walked off the pitch.

Australia captain Kerr was particularly dejected after the full-time whistle, but still praised the fans for what they produced inside the stadium.

“We can’t thank the fans enough, they’ve been amazing,” the striker told reporters.

“We felt the love all over the country. Just to see the support we’ve had has really pushed us on. Hopefully, this stays around because this has been amazing for us.”

Special atmosphere

It was an achievement recognized by one of Australia’s most internationally recognized athletes, Cathy Freeman.

The gold medal-winning athlete herself inspired the nation with her memorable and unifying victory in the 400 meters at the Sydney Olympics in 2000.

“So incredibly proud of our girls! You gave it everything and inspired an entire nation! Hold your head up high and here’s to the future,” she wrote on X.

While England will play for a maiden World Cup title against La Roja on Sunday, Australia will battle Sweden in the third-place playoff on Saturday.

It’s not the final match that the squad was hoping for, but Australia’s head coach Tony Gustavsson said the team can still look back fondly on its campaign.

“I am proud, but I’m also sad that we could have made them even prouder tonight with a win,” he told reporters after the game.

“I feel for so many tonight when you look at this. The players left it all out there. I think that’s why the fans are thanking them.”

While one nation laments what could have been, another dreams of that which could be – the heartbreak and elation of sport encapsulated in 90 hard-fought minutes in Sydney.