Yesterday in Sports 06 29 26

Hey, I'm Chris Horvidell and this is Yesterday in Sports. The show that gets you caught up on the biggest things that happened yesterday, why they mattered, and what you need to know before pretending you watched every second of it. Here we go. Welcome to Yesterday in Sports. I'm Chris Horvidell. We've got a fun show today leading off with Canada making World Cup history, the Red Sox stunning the Yankees at Fenway, and one of the wildest WNBA games you're ever going to see. Today's episode is brought to you in part by NordVPN. More on that later. We start at the World Cup where Canada is officially into the last 16 for the first time in program history and they got there in dramatic fashion. Canada beat South Africa 1-0 in Los Angeles on Sunday as Steven Eustachio scored in stoppage time in the 92nd minute to send the co-hosts through. This was not a wide-open end-to-end game. It was tense, cagey, and for long stretches it felt like South Africa were trying to drag it into extra time. Canada had the ball more, more of the intent, and eventually they got their moment. Eustachio took the ball near the edge of the box and drove a right-footed strike low into the corner. It's the kind of goal that instantly becomes part of your country's soccer history. For Canada, this is huge for obvious reasons. They have never been this far at a Men's World Cup. They came into this tournament with real expectations because they're hosting, because Alphonso Davies is a global star, and because Jesse Marsh has brought a real clear identity to them. Davies did return from injury for a late cameo, which was another major piece here. Canada survived the knockout test without needing him to carry them for 90 minutes, and now they go into the next round with their most dangerous player back in the picture. South Africa exits after what was still a historic run for them. Hugo Bros got them into the knockout round, which is a massive achievement, but the late goal was brutal. They were minutes away from extra time, and instead Canada gets the kind of win that can change how a country sees its team. Next up, baseball. And if you're a Red Sox fan, this is one of those wins you're going to remember for a while. Boston beat the Yankees 5-4 in 10 innings on Sunday at Fenway Park, completing a four-game sweep of New York, and this game had everything. Sonny Gray carried a no-hitter into the 8th inning, he struck out nine, walked one, and for most of the night the Yankees had absolutely nothing going offensively. Then, New York finally broke through, rallied late, and even took a 4-3 lead in the top of the 10th. But Boston answered with three runs in the bottom half, and Jalen Duran walked it off with an RBI single that scored Masataka Yoshida. That made it Boston's first four-game sweep of the Yankees since 2018, and it was especially painful for New York because they had found a way back into the game that they were being no-hit in the 8th. For Boston, this kind of series can jolt a season. They haven't been the league's cleanest team, but sweeping the Yankees is never just another weekend, and for New York, this is the kind of series that raises real questions. Not because one bad weekend defines a team, but because the bats were quiet, the late-game execution fell apart, and they had multiple chances to steal that finale and just couldn't close it out. We'll move to basketball because the WNBA gave us arguably the game of the year so far. The Washington Mystics beat the Portland Fire 124-123 in quadruple overtime on Sunday, tying the longest game in WNBA history. This was only the second quadruple overtime game the league has ever seen, and weirdly enough, the other also involved Washington roughly 25 years ago. Sonya Seatron scored 32 points for the Mystics, including the basket that put Washington ahead for good with 21.4 seconds left. Kiki Uriafine added 27 points and 11 rebounds, and Mikayla Onyanwara had 30 points with six threes. For Portland, Karla Leite was terrific as well, scoring 32 points and repeatedly keeping the fire alive, but Washington survived every run, every extension of the game, and every chance for Portland to steal it. The number that jumps out to us is, aside from the four overtimes, the 124-123 final score. That's not just a weird box score, that's fatigue, foul trouble, pressure possessions, and young players having to make grown-up decisions deep in a game that just refused to end. It did also come with a bit of a scary note, Mystics guard Georgia Umar left with right knee soreness, and that is something to monitor, especially because it is the same knee previously tied to her ACL injury. But from a league standpoint, this was one of those regular season games that breaks through. You don't need a rivalry angle or a playoff race angle, a four overtime game does all the work by itself. Now to the NBA where we talk about some rumors centered upon Boston Celtics guard forward Jalen Brown. The Celtics continue to be surrounded by trade buzz and multiple reports have connected Brown to teams around the league. Champs Toronto has reported Boston have been asking certain teams for at least four first round picks in the Brown conversations, while other reporting has tied teams like Portland, Detroit, Denver, the Clippers, Charlotte, Brooklyn, Toronto, and Atlanta to different levels of interest. So to be clear, we're not saying right now Jalen Brown is being traded, this is a Boston is listening, the price appears high, and the market is still being tested. The key part is that the Celtics don't seem to be looking for a teardown. The reporting around the league has suggested Boston would want a player that keeps them competitive in return, to go with Tatum, and White, and the rest of the core. Brown's a star, he's coming off of a season where he averaged 28.7 points, 6.9 rebounds, and 5.1 assists. He's been one of the winningest players in the league over the last decade. So if Boston do decide to move him, it's going to be a franchise shaping decision, not just an accounting move. This is definitely one to watch as free agency gets going because once teams miss out on their first option, that tends to be when the trade market gets louder and there are no shortage of superstars available. We almost went with the Kawhi to Dallas rumor instead of the Jalen Brown stuff today. Let's move to golf, where Heyron Yoo won the KPMG Women's PGA Championship at Hazeltine for her first major title. Yoo won by two shots over Ina Yoon and it's a huge step in her career. She'd already been one of the most consistent players in the LPGA tour, but there's a difference between being in the mix and actually closing a major. The final round had weather delays, pressure, and a major championship set up at Hazeltine, which is not a place that lets you fake your way around the course. Yoo handled it, and now she has a major that changes how her resume looks. For women's golf, it's also a big money week. The KPMG Women's PGA has continued to push prize money forward, and seeing Yoo break through on that stage is exactly the kind of result that gives the tour another international star with a major attached to her name. On the men's side, the Travelers' championship still isn't finished. Scotty Scheffler and Victor Hovland are tied at 21 under after 72 holes, and because of weather delays, they're headed to a Monday playoff. Scheffler forced a playoff with an 8-foot putt late on Sunday, and Hovland's been right there all week, so the weekend gave us drama, just not yet a championship. Now to Formula 1, where George Russell won the Austrian Grand Prix holding off Max Verstappen in a tense finish at the Red Bull Ring. Russell won by just over a second and a half, with Verstappen second and Kimi Antonelli third. For Russell, this is a massive result. It's his second win of the year, and it moves him back into second place in the driver standings. For Verstappen, it was also his best result of the year, and maybe a sign that Red Bull is starting to find something after a rougher stretch than we're used to seeing for them. The interesting part is the title picture, Antonelli is still leading, Mercedes is still in strong position, and Russell just reminded everyone that he's not simply the veteran teammate in the story, he is a real factor. And finally, NASCAR at Sonoma, where Shane Van Gisbergen won the Toyota Save Mart 350 and completed a weekend sweep. It was yet another road course win for a driver whose skill set translates perfectly to those tracks. He held off Chase Briscoe, and every time Van Gisbergen gets into one of these road course races, it feels like the rest of the field almost has to be perfect to beat him. For NASCAR, it's a great storyline. You have a driver with a different background, a different style, and a level of road course comfort that changes the way these races are framed. Sonoma is technical, it's physical, and it punishes mistakes. Van Gisbergen just keeps looking like one of the cleanest road race drivers in the series. And that takes us to NordVPN, because a day like this reminds us how much sports lives online right now. World Cup clips, WNBA highlights, race recaps, trade rumors, box scores, you're bouncing around from site to site all day, and NordVPN is one of the tools that just makes it a little bit safer to be online. Whether you're working, traveling, or just trying to keep up with everything that happens across sports, it's always worth having NordVPN on in the background. I'm Chris Horvidell, and that's it for today's show about what happened yesterday. We'll see you tomorrow.