World Cup live updates: Biggest soccer news, scores and more on Tuesday – USA Today

We’re just two days from kickoff of the 2026 World Cup, with teams continuing to arrive in North America and settle in for the next few weeks of soccer.
On Tuesday, June 9, Lionel Messi and Argentina’s SEC barnstorming tour wraps up with a friendly at Auburn’s Jordan-Hare Stadium against Iceland, with fans hoping to see the GOAT take the field in the defending champions’ final tune-up match.
The U.S. men’s national team begins its tournament in Los Angeles on June 12, a day after the World Cup officially kicks off with Mexico and South Africa facing off at the Estadio Azteca.
Get the latest news, results and behind-the-scenes info from the 2026 World Cup with USA TODAY’s Extra Time newsletter.
Meet Team USA 2026: Get to know the U.S. Men’s National Team
Here is the latest news from Tuesday, June 9.
The threat of SoFi Stadium workers striking during the World Cup is over.
Unite Here Local 11, which represents about 2,000 stadium workers, has reached a deal with stadium operator Legends Global, according to union spokesperson Maria Hernandez.
Eight World Cup soccer games are scheduled to be played at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. The first takes place when the U.S. men’s national team plays Paraguay Friday, June 12 in their opening game of the tournament.
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Winger Jayden Nelson has been called up to Canada’s World Cup squad as a replacement for Marcelo Flores, who was ruled out of the tournament with a torn anterior cruciate ligament, Canada Soccer said on Tuesday. Tigres UANL midfielder Flores, 22, was injured in last month’s Concacaf Champions Cup final.
The 23-year-old Nelson has netted three goals in 14 appearances for Canada.
World Cup co-hosts Canada will open their campaign against Bosnia and Herzegovina on June 12 in Toronto, before taking on Qatar and Switzerland in Group B.
– Reuters
The Democratic Republic of Congo wrapped up a disrupted World Cup warm-up campaign with a 2-1 defeat by Chile in a behind-closed-doors friendly in France on Tuesday.
The match was switched to the French city and played without spectators after authorities in Cadiz, the original host venue, called it off citing public health concerns linked to an Ebola outbreak in the central African nation.
U.S. officials have told teams that players and staff must have been outside the DRC for 21 days and symptom-free before entering the country for the World Cup.
Congo is due to travel to its tournament base in Houston on Thursday and open its Group K campaign against Portugal six days later. They then face Colombia in Guadalajara on June 23 and Uzbekistan in Atlanta on June 27.
– Reuters
Officials at the West African team of Senegal issued a statement downplaying the treatment of the team’s players at an airport in the United States. 
According to the statement, the team’s players underwent security screening on an airport tarmac in an effort to spare them from passing through typical airport security. 
“This procedure allowed players and staff to carry out all security and police checks directly at the foot of the plane, without having to pass through the typical areas of the terminal and boarding areas,” the team said. “This arrangement aimed essentially to optimize the delegation’s travel time and facilitate their boarding a private flight.”
The team’s response comes after a video of the team being searched circulated widely online, fueling speculation that the team was facing discriminatory treatment because they are from a country and region the Trump administration views with suspicion. 
AUBURN, AL — For the Auburn football-involved, a soccer match at Jordan-Hare Stadium certainly raised a few questions. Among the quickest to mind probably pertained to the hedges, but the answer only packed so much punch.
Auburn’s facilities crew only removed about 20 feet’s worth, all of which was set to return to the venue after the Argentina vs. Iceland World Cup friendly on Tuesday, June 9. The better question had to do with an eagle flight – and the short answer was yes.
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– Adam Cole, Montgomery Advertiser
MEXICO CITY — If Brian Gutierrez is overwhelmed, he isn’t showing it. The 22-year-old Illinois native is just days away from representing Mexico at the World Cup.
“I’m happy to be here. I want to support, to do things well and just want to have fun,” he said in Spanish at Mexico’s Centro de Alto Rendimiento before a training session on Tuesday, June 9. “It’s a dream for me, for any player who aspires to play professionally. My teammates and I are really excited, really happy to start.”
Yet, Gutierrez never wavered as he worked to make that dream come true. Asked what he would’ve said had he been told a year and a half ago that he’d be preparing to suit up for Mexico at the World Cup, Gutierrez said he wouldn’t have been surprised, but rather happy to know his work paid off.
Read the full story here
– Jon Arnold, USA TODAY Sports
A group of pro-immigration activists based in Chicago are slamming the Trump administration’s treatment of foreigners visiting the United States for the World Cup, in particular the administration’s treatment of players and staff that could put teams at a disadvantage.
Fasika Alem of the South Side-based United African Organization called the experience certain teams have faced “humiliating” and “deeply troubling.”
“If the US is going to host the world, it must welcome the world,” Alem told a room of reporters in downtown Chicago Tuesday.
In particular, Alem referenced the exclusion of Somali referee Omar Abdulkadir Artan, immigration authorities’ move to search the Senegalese team on an airport tarmac and the delays Breel Embolo, a star Swiss player born in Cameroon, faced in arriving to the U.S. 
“Athletes who have earned the right to participate in the world’s premier sporting event are being forced to go through procedures that question the integrity of the event itself,” said Alem. 
Muhammad Sankari, a director at Arab American Action Network, blasted the treatment players from the Muslim world have faced, including Iraq’s star player being detained at O’Hare International Airport for several hours and the Iranian team being forced to enter and exit the U.S. the same day they are playing their games in the country. 
Cinthya Rodriguez, a director at the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, said the treatment players were facing will serve to give the world a taste of what immigrant communities in the U.S. are facing daily under the Trump administration.
“Stopping traveling players and other World Cup officials is nothing more than a continuation of the violence and disruption that ICE brings to our communities day after day,” Rodriguez said. “This is not about security.”
The top soccer referee in Africa says he’s devastated he won’t be able to officiate in the 2026 World Cup after being denied entry into the United States last Saturday.
Omar Abdulkadir Artan was selected as one of 52 referees for this summer’s tournament and would have been the first referee from Somalia to take part in a World Cup match.
“I am very, very disappointed,” Artan told The New York Times in a telephone interview from Istanbul, Turkey, where he had been diverted after landing in the U.S.
“I’m just simply a referee who’s trying to live his dream, the biggest dream of my life, to come to the World Cup.” — Steve Gardner
Here are the men’s international friendlies today:
Canada has announced that Jayden Nelson of Austin FC will replace the injured Marcelo Flores on its World Cup roster.
Somali referee Omar Artan has been denied entry to the United States for the 2026 World Cup, according to a Somali government official and the U.S. government.
As a result, FIFA has said that Artan will not be able to referee at the World Cup as planned.
Artan was named as a match official for the tournament in April, and had been set to be the first Somali to referee at a World Cup.
– Seth Vertelney, USA TODAY
Every American soccer fan remembers the goal Landon Donovan scored against Algeria putting the U.S into the knockout phase of the 2010 World Cup. It’s one of the most memorable American World Cup moments, with a generation of fans able to remember where they were, who they celebrated with and how they felt as the U.S. found a breakthrough after 90 minutes of trying.
Donovan, of course, is glad it happened, but as he looks back on the memories he made taking part in three World Cup tournaments, it was the off-field ones that stood out.
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France’s Michael Olise offered another glimpse of the influence he could have at the World Cup, netting a hat-trick as France edged Northern Ireland 3-1 in a warm-up game in Lille.
The in-form playmaker continued his rise as one of Les Bleus’ key attacking weapons, but France’s defensive concerns lingered four days after a 2-1 defeat by Ivory Coast with a much-changed side exposed frailties at the back. France open its World Cup campaign against Senegal on June 16 in Group I before facing Iraq and Norway.
– Reuters
Watch all 2026 World Cup games on Fox and FS1. Spanish language broadcasts are available on Telemundo and Peacock
France defender William Saliba started and played the first half of a 3-1 friendly win over Northern Ireland on Monday. That should settle some concerns about the Arsenal man’s status, who is dealing with back issues after a grueling season.
Oldest players in 2026 World Cup
Each group will play a round robin style where teams are awarded three points for a win and one point for a draw. The top two teams in each group advance to the Round of 32 along with the eight best third-place squads. Tiebreakers in the group standings will be resolved using the following criteria:
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