Messi became the first player in MLS history to score multiple goals in four consecutive league matches on Wednesday, July 9, when he scored two goals to propel Inter Miami 2-1 on the road against the New England Revolution at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts.

Messi scored his brace in an 11-minute span, pouncing on a pour clearance by a defender in the 27^th minute, then finishing a pass from longtime teammate Sergio Busquets with another left strike in the 38^th minute.

Carles Gil scored in the 80^th minute for New England, creating an intense finish in the final minutes. Messi had just two attempts late in the second half, but both were blocked by defenders.

“The first 27 minutes went as planned,” second-year Revolution coach Caleb Porter said. “We’re talking about the best players in the world, and they’ll punish you.”

Two of the four matches in Messi’s historic streak were before Inter Miami’s participation in the FIFA Club World Cup: Messi scored twice at home against CF Montreal on May 28, twice at home against the Columbus Crew on May 31 before the tournament.

Two others have come after the Club World Cup, with Messi scoring twice on the road in Montreal on July 5 before the New England match.

Messi played the entirety of the last two matches since the Club World Cup, in a stretch of seven matches Inter Miami will play until the end of July. Inter Miami coach Javier Mascherano knows he must find some rest for the 38-year-old Argentine World Cup champion.

“We wanted to give them some rest, maybe in this game. But after New England scored the goal, we were under pressure. So, we prefer to keep him on the pitch,” Mascherano said after the win. “It’s not the best situation for us, because we know that maybe in the next games, we have to find the moment to give him some rest.”

Inter Miami has 35 points in the Eastern Conference, moving up to fifth place in the standings behind FC Cincinnati (42), Nashville (41), Philadelphia (40) and Columbus (38).

Inter Miami’s next match is at home against Nashville on Saturday, July 12. They will also face FC Cincinnati twice this month (July 16 and July 26).

Messi has 14 goals in MLS games and 20 across all competitions in 2025. He is Inter Miami’s all-time leader with 54 goals since joining the club in July 2023.

New England is the only club Messi has a hat trick against in his MLS career.

Messi scored three goals at home in the MLS season finale on Oct. 19, 2024, to help Inter Miami secure the Supporters’ Shield and a league-record 74 points during the 2024 season. He has 59 career hat tricks for club in country in his career.

Messi has eight goals in three matches against New England, with Porter having a front-row seat for all of them.

“Messi, it’s been said a million times, he’s the best ever. My opinion, it’s not even close,” Porter said. “I’ve seen it firsthand now three games in this league, and it’s unbelievable that he continues to show up every single game, game after game, three days in between, again and again and again. That’s why he’s the best ever. That’s why.”

USA TODAY Sports provided updates and highlights from the New England vs. Inter Miami match:

Inter Miami vs. New England Revolution highlights

Inter Miami 2, New England 1: Carles Gil scores goal to narrow lead

Carles Gil scored in the 80^th minute for New England, setting up an exciting finish against Messi and Inter Miami.

Inter Miami 2, New England 0: Messi scores second goal (38’)

Two goals in 11 minutes for Lionel Messi, who finished a stellar pass from Sergio Busquets with a stellar goal.

Messi has four braces (scored twice) in each of his last four MLS games.

Inter Miami 1, New England 0: Lionel Messi scores goal (27′)

Lionel Messi pounced on a poor clearance by New England, finding the back of the net with a goal in the 27th minute.

How to watch New England Revolution vs. Inter Miami match live stream?

The match will be available to live stream on MLS Season Pass via Apple TV.

When is the New England Revolution vs. Inter Miami match?

The match begins at 7:30 p.m. ET (8:30 p.m. in Argentina).

Is Messi playing tonight?

Yes, Messi is in the Inter Miami announces its starting lineup.

“In Leo’s case, if Leo is fine and doesn’t have any problems, obviously my idea is always to let him play, because we know that if there’s anyone who knows how to manage himself on the pitch and knows his body, it’s him,” Inter Miami coach Javier Mascherano said a day before the New England match.

New England Revolution vs. Inter Miami betting odds

Here are the betting odds, according to BETMGM.

• New England Revolution: +185
• Draw: +280
• Inter Miami: +115
• Over/under: 3.5 goals

Messi, Inter Miami upcoming schedule in July

• July 9: New England vs. Inter Miami, 7:30 p.m. ET
• July 12: Inter Miami vs. Nashville, 7:30 p.m. ET
• July 16: FC Cincinnati vs. Inter Miami, 7:30 p.m. ET
• July 19: New York Red Bulls vs. Inter Miami, 7:30 p.m. ET
• July 26: Inter Miami vs. FC Cincinnati, 7 p.m. ET
• July 30: Inter Miami vs. Atlas, 7:30 p.m. ET (Leagues Cup)

Will Messi leave MLS? Breaking down rumors surrounding soccer’s GOAT

Lionel Messi and Inter Miami are in continued negotiations to keep the Argentine World Cup champion and eight-time Ballon d’Or winner in Miami, according to a person familiar with the talks.

The person spoke to USA TODAY Sports on the condition of anonymity due to the ongoing nature of contract negotiations.

Terry Bradshaw isn’t afraid to talk about the dollars and cents when it comes to his profession.

The four-time Super Bowl champion and Hall of Fame quarterback has remained involved with the game following his 14 seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers — becoming a familiar face for the NFL on Fox. While the network is transitioning after Jimmy Johnson’s retirement, Bradshaw previously shared his desire to stay on the air until 2029 — when Fox hosts the Super Bowl again.

He would be 80 years old, a number the 76 year old is targeting to wrap up his broadcasting career.

Bradshaw was one of the original members for the NFL on Fox crew that launched in 1994 and he discussed his current employers during an appearance on the ‘To the Point – Home Services Podcast,’ which is a show dedicated to ‘marketing and operational solutions to help your service company grow.’

“Did you see the numbers they did?” Bradshaw asked the audience, in reference to the Super Bowl viewership numbers. “The largest Super Bowl in history. 126 million people. There’s 330 million people in America. That is a ton. The Fox pregame show averaged 28 million for five hours. Who in the world is gonna sit around and watch that mess for five hours? 28 million.’

The former Steeler pointed out those numbers translated to some big money.

“You know how much money they made? God. More money than plumbers, I can assure you that. 28 million. And I guarantee you, if I go in there and ask for a raise, ‘Well, we don’t have any … we’re running a little tight.’ Well, you just paid Tom Brady $37 million a year. I’ll take it. I did some bad deals, that’s what it was.”

Bradshaw also spoke about his early career in football, comparing the contracts to today’s game.

Despite being the No. 1 pick in the 1970 NFL Draft, Bradshaw noted that he made $25,000 in his first season with the Steelers and worked as a used car salesman during the offseason.

Cam Ward, the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, signed a contract worth $48.8 million with the Tennessee Titans. His contract carries an average value of $12.2 million — an indication of how much things have changed in the last 55 years.

Players aren’t the only ones who have seen their value explode over the years. Broadcasters such as Brady have seen their salaries increase exponentially as well.

It’s unclear what Bradshaw’s salary is, but Brady has a sizable lead on ESPN’s Troy Aikman, who checks in at $18 million a year, and NBC’s Cris Collinsworth, who makes around $12.5 million a year.

Brady was often criticized for his performance in the broadcast booth last season, especially when considering the contract Fox awarded him.

The common belief is that no one is tuning into a broadcast to listen to a specific announcer, but companies believe there is value in paying for what they see as the best.

Now that it’s out there, time will tell if Bradshaw’s remarks have any impact on his bottom line.

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Frank Layden, a transformational coach and general manager for the Utah Jazz, has died, the NBA announced. He was 93.

A cause of death has not been disclosed.

‘The NBA mourns the passing of Utah Jazz legend Frank Layden, an award-winning head coach and basketball executive,’ the league said in a statement. ‘His unique sense of humor and genuine kindness made him a beloved figure around the game, including during his time as a WNBA head coach. We extend our heartfelt sympathies to Frank’s family and the Jazz organization.’

Layden was head coach of the Jazz for parts of eight seasons (1981-1988) and drafted both John Stockton and Karl Malone, who would become stalwarts for the franchise, in back-to-back drafts.

The 1984 NBA Coach of the Year and Executive of the Year led the Jazz to the playoffs five times. Utah reached the Western Conference semifinals three times and was eliminated in the first round on the other two occasions. He finished with a 277-294 regular-season record.

Layden resigned as the Jazz’s coach 17 games into the 1988-89 season but remained with the franchise as its general manager and team president. Jerry Sloan was Layden’s replacement and he would lead the Jazz to the NBA Finals in 1997 and 1998 and coached the franchise until 2011.

“He was a loyal guy,” former Jazz player and current broadcaster Thurl Bailey said of Layden in an interview with KUTV 2 News. “It’s a very sad day. We are talking about a man who leaves a huge legacy, and I think he is one of the most important people in Jazz history to help keep this franchise in Utah.’

Layden also spent time as a coach for the WNBA’s Utah Starzz, a franchise that is now the Las Vegas Aces.

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LOS ANGELES — A week after ICE arrested Julio Cesar Chávez Jr., his whereabouts are still unclear.

At times, people detained by ICE don’t show up in the agency’s ‘detainee locator’ for several days while they are being processed into custody. Chávez Jr. has been detained by ICE for a week.

DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told USA TODAY that DHS didn’t have an update to share on Chávez Jr. when asked Wednesday for information on his detention and whether he will be deported — or formally extradited — to Mexico, where he faces weapons and drug trafficking charges.

Attorney Michael Goldstein, who represents Chávez Jr. for a case unrelated to the ICE arrest, told USA TODAY the Mexican boxer is in the custody of DHS. Two days ago, the attorney said he did not know if Chávez Jr. still was in the United States. Goldstein did not provide more information about Chávez Jr. on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, a woman answered the door at Chávez Jr.’s home in Studio City, a Los Angeles neighborhood, and said Chávez Jr.’s wife, Frida, had just left. The woman took a business card from a USA TODAY reporter and said she would give it to Chávez Jr.’s wife, but there has been no response from the Chávez family. No one answered the door at Chávez Jr.’s home Wednesday morning.

On Monday, Chávez Jr. missed a court hearing at the Los Angeles Superior Court Northwest Division stemming from an arrest on gun charges in 2024. Chávez Jr. was expected to ask for early release from a pretrial diversion that allowed him to enter a program for rehabilitative services rather than face prosecution.

Goldstein said he did not expect Chávez Jr. at the hearing because the former world champion had been taken into custody by the Department of Homeland Security the previous week.

Immediately after the hearing, Goldstein said he learned two days earlier that Chávez Jr. was in Hidalgo, Texas in the custody of DHS. When asked if Chávez Jr. is still in the United States, Goldstein told USA TODAY: ‘We have no idea. We have no information, unfortunately.’

Chávez Jr. was arrested July 2 and detained by U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement and was being processed for expedited removal from the United States, according to DHS.

DHS said Chávez Jr. is facing an active arrest warrant in Mexico for charges that include involvement with organized crime.  

Chávez Jr.’s arrest came days after he fought celebrity boxer Jake Paul in Anaheim, California. A former world champion, Chávez Jr. lost by unanimous decision with his father, Hall of Fame boxer Julio Cesar Chávez Sr. in attendance.

USA TODAY reporter Pamela Avila contributed to this report.

In EA Sports College Football 26, it’s been all about improving the product.

The next chapter in the EA Sports’ college football video game series will be fully released Thursday, July 10 after the early access window started three days prior. After the successful return of the franchise in 2024, EA Sports wanted to build on last year’s game, focusing on filling the holes some of the popular features had like dynasty mode while expanding the authenticity of a Saturday in the fall.

USA TODAY Sports was able to play the game ahead of the full release and try out all of the different gameplay options. The game has been out three days, but the early impression is College Football 26 has taken a major step forward from the previous game. 

Is the game perfect? No, but EA Sports really heard the community feedback, and it resulted in an excellent sequel that gives optimism the franchise will just keep getting better and better.

EA College Football 26 gameplay

It almost feels like an entirely new game when it comes to actually playing football. College Football 25 was a nice introduction back to football video games from an 11-year hiatus. In College Football 26, it’s now a completely different ballgame. 

At first, it’s extremely overwhelming to see the overhaul of changes. But over time, it becomes easier to understand. Casual football enjoyers will have to learn deeper game knowledge on things like adjustments and schemes. It’s very noticeable how playbooks have expanded, with each team having a plethora of plays to choose from to where you can easily go an entire game without running the same play twice. 

Being able to sub players in and out at certain points is a big plus since you’re not required to continuously pause the game to do so. However, the feature isn’t exactly as advertised. It can only be done in the pre-snap when the team is already in formation, so it won’t affect the upcoming play and instead will take place in the following snap. It’s helpful in managing injuries and the hot hand, but you’d want it for the next play, not the one after. It would’ve made sense to allow it when selecting a play. Instead, it still requires pausing the game for immediate substitutions.

The player movement is much smoother and the animations feel more realistic. Those interceptions from defenders not looking at the ball don’t happen, and the offensive line actually blocks with better play recognition at the line of scrimmage. The mixture of user skill and player ratings feel like it matters, as it becomes tougher to make plays with a 70 overall quarterback while it’s easy pickings doing it with a signal-caller at 85.

The wear-and-tear also has improvements where players aren’t getting fatigued so easily.

One bug that persisted was getting an injury update after every play, which became annoying and would still appear on the screen in no-huddle, so you couldn’t see everything. Also, some injuries that happened wouldn’t be in effect. Like a player with a broken collarbone was still playing.

Despite some minor issues, the gameplay still is a big step-up. It’s hard at first to grasp, but soon enough, people will get a better understanding of football.

EA Sports College Football 26 dynasty mode

There were only two things dynasty mode needed fixed: trophy and accolades history, and transfer portal revamp. The two issues were addressed and the mode really feels like one of its best iterations. Dynasty mode is the franchise’s money maker, and it cashes in big.

Gamers can adjust how wild the transfer portal gets, which can get pretty ludicrous depending on the program being run. When deciding to coach a small program, it only took a few years before it became dominant. Now even on the regular sliders, it becomes much more difficult to retain players who want a bigger opportunity at higher-level teams. 

While it could decimate teams, players now can fully adopt a strategy to focus on high school recruiting or the transfer portal to make up the roster, much like real life. One element that would make the transfer portal better is seeing the stats of players rather than just ratings, so users can get a sense of who they are really seeking. Imagine knowing a guy that tore up the Sun Belt could join your ACC team?

The mode that benefited most from actual coaches in the game is dynasty. Going against the sport’s coaches adds another layer of realism that last year’s game heavily lacked. Now, teams really adopt the persona of their coach, whether it’s aggressive decision making or run the ball approach. The coaching carousel can also be just insane as the transfer portal, with big name coaches unexpectedly taking other jobs.

EA Sports College Football 26 Road to Glory

If there was one mode that needed to be upgraded, it was road to glory after it missed out on the high school experience last year. It got added in this year’s game, but it isn’t close to being as good as the NCAA Football series had it.

The moments make for a good challenge into boosting your recruiting stock, but it really takes away from having an authentic recruitment. Players shouldn’t get punished if they throw an 80-yard touchdown, but the challenge required a quarterback run for the score. 

It makes sense EA Sports was trying to speed along the high school process so gamers weren’t stuck playing for hours before making it to college, but maybe chose the wrong process to do it. Having players complete certain drives and get graded for how it went would have been a better process to boost your stock, just like how high school athletes actually do. 

And then there’s the ever so controversial equipment topic. The fanbase feels almost split in whether the amount of player customization falls short or doesn’t matter. Both sides of the crowd got points with this. There are more things to change the look of a player with new arm sleeves, but there are also elements missing like leg sleeves. Is it a big deal? It shouldn’t be, but EA Sports should eventually tackle the issue.

But for all the things falling short in the mode, the recruiting process itself is a nice touch. Hearing from coaches about their thoughts on you, seeing schools offer and pull scholarships and gauging who is the right fit is an authentic process. Getting to see what other recruits the school is targeting increases the intrigue in the process, culminating with the iconic hat ceremony every football player dreams of doing.

Other notes

College football is a tradition-rich sport, and after every school had their own quirks in the previous game, it feels much more enhanced this year. The audio is greatly enhanced to where fight songs sound clearer and the crowd is louder, feeling like you’re at the stadium.

The game presentation and graphics got massively upgraded, giving the big game feel to those high-stake matchups. The commentary feels more sequenced and the conversations discussed about the teams, the last game and season performance help it not feel so robotic. 

EA Sports deserves credit for listening to feedback from College Football 25, something production director Christian McLeod previously told USA TODAY Sports the team spends plenty of time doing. It’s noticeable, as last year’s issues were not just addressed, but greatly improved to where it wouldn’t be a consistent issue.

People often argue sequels aren’t better than the original. That isn’t the case with EA Sports College Football 26, giving its loyal fanbase another stellar game to play.