By HOWARD FENDRICH

WASHINGTON (AP) — If you listened to the words spoken after the World Cup draw by the various coaches who were at the Kennedy Center on Friday, it would seem impossible for any of them to win next year’s tournament.

Everyone got thrown into the toughest group — or the “Group of Death,” in soccer parlance.

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Everyone was burdened with talented foes for their first three matches — even if a half-dozen participants are yet to be determined and the expanded field means some lesser-quality teams will get in.

And everyone needs to avoid overlooking any other team and be ready for whatever is to come during the tournament from June 11 to July 19 in the United States, Canada and Mexico during the largest World Cup yet, the first with 48 countries participating (there were 32 last time).

“We need to respect all of the opponents. It’s always going to be difficult,” said U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino, whose squad is in Group D and starts off against Paraguay on June 12, then also will face Australia and a still-undetermined playoff qualifier.

“My message to the players is: We need to compete better than Paraguay; that is going to be difficult. Australia is going to be difficult,” Pochettino said. “And the team that is going to join us is going to be difficult.”

Hmmm. Sense a theme?

There is some version of what is often referred to as “coach speak” under nearly every circumstance and in nearly every sport. Just pay attention to what the men in charge of NFL clubs say day after day during that sport’s season.

It’s the classic playbook: Build up opponents. Don’t let your players get complacent. Don’t let your fans — or the people who hired you and can fire you — think success is guaranteed.

Didier Deschamps, a player on France’s championship team in 1998 and the coach of its title winners in 2018 and runners-up to Argentina in 2022, sounded as worried as anyone else.

Coach of France Didier Deschamps attends the draw for the 2026 soccer World Cup at the Kennedy Center in Washington, Friday, Dec. 5, 2025. (Dan Mullan/Pool Photo via AP)

Doesn’t matter that the French are considered one of the favorites — not merely to get out of the round-robin stage but also to once more appear in the final.

“We know this is a very tough group,” Deschamps said Friday. “We cannot rest.”

His country was dropped into Group I alongside Senegal, Norway and a playoff team (those won’t all be set until March).

A little later, Norway’s coach, Ståle Solbakken, for his part, praised the French team as “maybe the strongest in Europe,” and in the next breath — as though perhaps worried someone from another nation might take offense — pointed out: “But there’s two other teams in the group.”

One of which won’t even be known for another three months.

Luis de la Fuente, who led Spain to the 2024 European Championship, finds his team among the World Cup favorites but insisted there is parity in the sport these days.

Spain’s Group H includes Uruguay, Saudi Arabia and Cape Verde.

Brazil’s coach Carlo Ancelotti arrives for the draw for the 2026 soccer World Cup at the Kennedy Center in Washington, Friday, Dec. 5, 2025. (Dan Mullan/Pool Photo via AP)

“People think there are easy groups, but it is a very similar level,” the coach said. “This will be a historic World Cup, because there’s an exceptional level all-round. These games force you to play at your best.”

Players can be just as liable to these sorts of pronouncements.

U.S. midfielder Tyler Adams, speaking to reporters on a video call Friday, said it plainly: “There’s no easy game in the World Cup.”

And then he pointed out that during the last World Cup, when the Americans were eliminated in the round of 16, their two hardest games came “against two of the lesser opponents.”

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

By ISABEL DEBRE and ALMUDENA CALATRAVA

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — The libertarian government of Argentina’s President Javier Milei announced Friday it would issue a dollar bond for the first time in nearly eight years, as the cash-strapped country seeks a return to international markets and faces an enormous sum of debt due in the coming months.

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The dollar-denominated sovereign bond, issued under Argentine law and targeted at foreign and local investors, has an interest rate, or coupon, of 6.5% and matures in November 2029, the Economy Ministry said, without offering details on the size of the offering.

Analysts say the bond auction signals growing confidence in President Milei’s reforms after his party’s landslide midterm election victory reassured bondholders that his government would be able to pay them back.

“It shows they are taking steps — slowly — toward normalizing the market and reducing dependence on international reserves, which is a big concern,” said Fernando Marull, an Argentine economist.

“Ideally, debt should be paid with refinancing, not with scarce reserves. It’s like going to a bank and refinancing your loan instead of paying the whole thing in cash from your pocket. That’s why this is so important.”

Economy Minister Luis Capto said the money would be crucial for settling part of the $4.2 billion in debt that’s coming due on Jan. 9 without tapping reserves. Because the bond won’t be issued under foreign law, he said, it won’t need congressional approval.

“The reopening of foreign currency debt markets will expand the Treasury’s options regarding the instruments available for debt management,” Caputo wrote on social media, attributing the move to Milei’s success in reining in the budget deficit and lifting most capital controls that fenced off its debt markets.

Regaining access to international borrowing markets has been one of Milei’s goals since the radical libertarian economist took office in late 2023 on a bid to lower severe inflation, stabilize Argentina’s troubled economy and reverse years of hefty public spending under left-wing populist governments.

Chronic economic crises have led Argentina to default on its debt nine times, most recently in a 2020 restructuring. As a result, high borrowing costs and legal tussles with restive foreign investors have left the country unable to take on debt abroad for most of the past two decades.

Without tapping global capital markets — which is how many governments around the world borrow or roll over debts — Argentina will struggle to expand its economy, and to repay the more than $40 billion it owes the International Monetary Fund.

Earlier this year, Caputo secured a fresh $20 billion loan from the IMF to help Milei press ahead with fiscal reforms. To unlock successive tranches of funds, Milei’s government committed to building up its net hard-currency reserves to around $5 billion by the year’s end.

IMF spokesperson Julie Kozack told reporters on Thursday that “meeting the end-of-year reserve target will be challenging” for Argentina. Warning that Milei’s current exchange rate policy of propping up the peso slowed reserve accumulation, she added:

“We continue to advocate that the authorities should use the window of opportunity to implement a consistent and robust monetary and foreign exchange framework to help support the accumulation of reserves.”

Milei has diverted billions of dollars from central bank coffers to strengthen the depreciating Argentine peso in recent months.

That strategy was pushed to the extreme in the run-up to the midterm elections as doubts about the trajectory of Milei’s harsh austerity plan triggered a run on the peso. With the official rate of the peso crashing against the dollar, U.S. President Donald Trump stepped in to save his ideological ally with a $20 billion credit line and outright purchases of pesos.

President Donald Trump meets with Argentine President Javier Milei during the United Nations General Assembly, Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

While the electoral win thrilled markets and vindicated Trump, unease remains that nothing can stop Milei from burning through foreign reserves again if he depends on a strong peso to fight inflation — not even this bond auction, which experts say is less attractive to foreign investors for being issued under local law.

“I don’t think this represents a return to international markets,” said Juan Battaglia, chief economist at Cucchiara, a stock brokerage in Buenos Aires.

“The government has made significant progress in normalizing the financial account, but there is still a long way to go.”

By GRAHAM DUNBAR, Associated Press

GENEVA (AP) — Iran will play at least one of its World Cup matches in the United States though the tournament draw on Friday avoided a group-stage clash between the geopolitical rivals.

The Iranian team, representing a country targeted by U.S. airstrikes in June and whose citizens are subject to a travel ban imposed by President Donald Trump’s administration, will open its World Cup campaign against New Zealand in Seattle or Inglewood, California, on June 15.

Iran’s next two games could be played across the Canadian border in Vancouver or in Inglewood and Seattle. FIFA will confirm the detailed game schedule Saturday.

The United States was drawn to play Australia, Paraguay and a third team to be determined in the European playoffs in March.

Iran’s participation in the tournament, co-hosted by the U.S., Canada and Mexico, has already presented diplomatic challenges.

Last week Iran said it would boycott the draw after several officials including soccer federation president Mehdi Taj and general secretary Hedayat Momebeni were denied U.S. travel visas. The federation later modified its stance saying Iran coach Amir Ghalenoei would attend the event at the Kennedy Center in Washington.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether Ghalenoei was present at Friday’s draw.

President Donald Trump, center, speaking to members of the media during his arrival with FIFA President Gianni Infantino, right, at the Kennedy Center for the 2026 FIFA World Cup draw, Friday, Dec. 5, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Security and visas

Iran was among 12 countries subject to a travel ban ordered by Trump’s administration on June 5. A second World Cup nation, Haiti, also is on it.

Exemptions were promised for teams and support staff traveling for the World Cup, but not for fans.

The Trump administration called Iran a “state sponsor of terrorism” and barred visitors except for those already holding visas or coming special visas issued for minorities facing persecution.

Later in June, Trump ordered a bombardment of Iran by so-called “bunker buster” bombs and cruise missiles targeting underground uranium enrichment plants. Within days he declared a ceasefire in a 12-day war between U.S. ally Israel and Iran.

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Asian soccer power

Iran is an established force in soccer, ranked No. 20 in the world by FIFA and second only to Japan among Asian national teams.

Team Melli, as the squad is popularly known, is preparing to play at its seventh World Cup. Its best known player is forward Mehdi Taremi, who has played for Inter Milan, Porto and now Olympiakos.

Iran’s most problematic diplomatic relations among its future World Cup opponents are with Egypt.

Their diplomatic ties were severed in 1979 after Egypt signed a peace treaty with Israel and remained strained until recent years.

New Zealand’s government condemned the death in September 2022 of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of the country’s morality police.

Iran at the last World Cup

Amini’s death just a few weeks before the last World Cup played in nearby Qatar brought domestic politics into the stadiums where Iran played.

The team refused to sign Iran’s national anthem before its opening game in Doha against England, and there were clashes between fans and pro-government supporters at its second game against Wales.

Many fans displayed the “Woman, Life, Freedom” slogan to protest the government before Iran’s World Cup campaign ended with a 1-0 loss to the U.S.

The Forest Lake Area School Board met for nearly eight hours Thursday night and Friday morning, but remains deadlocked 3-3 in the picking of a new school board member.

The lack of a majority vote in favor of any of the candidates meant that all of the agenda items that followed were not resolved either.

That means bills were not paid, the levy was not certified, and the audit was not accepted.

When three board members, Gail Theisen, Jill Christenson and Julie Corcoran, left around 2 a.m., the remaining board members, Board Chairman Curt Rebelein, Tessa Antonson and Mark Kasel, set a special meeting for 6 p.m. Wednesday to continue the meeting.

What happened

The agenda roadblock resulted from the resolution, crafted by Rebelein, regarding next steps for filling the vacant board position.

Adopted by the school board on Nov. 20, it included this language: “The special order of business of adopting a resolution naming one of the selected finalists to fill the seat vacated by former member (Luke) Hagglund shall be scheduled to take place at the December 4, 2025 board meeting.”

A “special order,” under Robert’s Rules of Order, is an important agenda item, set aside for a specific time in a meeting, handled before general business.

Because the board had voted in favor of that resolution on Nov. 20, no other business could be conducted on Thursday night or Friday morning.

“It was a sad night for our district,” said School Board Member Gail Theisen. “Being held hostage in your own boardroom for eight hours was scary. … Robert’s Rules is meant to be a guide. (Rebelein) uses it as a tool to hijack meetings and accomplish his own personal agenda.”

Thiesen said she was disappointed the board didn’t complete its business. “We weren’t doing our due diligence and doing what we’re elected to do: being judicious, paying our vendors.”

Rebelein said he expects the matter to be settled at Wednesday’s meeting.

“We need to get bills (paid) as soon as humanly possible,” he said. “Hopefully, we’ll meet resolution on that, and then we’ll move immediately into board bills. Of course, that all assumes that we are able to obtain a quorum on Wednesday night.”

Appointing someone to fill the vacancy requires a simple-majority vote, he said.

“We did try earlier in the evening to schedule and postpone all business to the 10th, and (Theisen, Corcoran and Christiansen) were unwilling to pass that resolution or that motion, so I do not know if they’re available. I just hope they are.”

As for the addition of the “special order” language, Rebelein said he repeatedly questions members during board meetings “to make sure they understand what they’re voting on.”

“There did not seem to be any concern that evening,” he said. “We had already made an amendment to that resolution, so it was my feeling that the board members – who have roughly 40 years of tenure – understood the basic motion that was in front of them. I did not realize, and none of the other board members expressed, that they had any confusion about what we were doing on November 20th.”

“It is not the board chair’s prerogative to decide what rules to enforce and what rules not to enforce,” he said. “It’s my job to simply adhere to the rules that the board has agreed upon. And I did that to the best of my effort last evening. I plan on doing that again next week.”

Rebelein said the board has several more weeks to certify the levy. He also said there should not be an issues if bills don’t get paid until next week.

“I’m willing to have conversations with every board member who’s willing to reach out to me and propose ideas,” he said. “I threw out a lot of ideas last night, and they seemed to go nowhere.”

Seven interviewed

A slate of seven people interested in filling the vacancy on the school board were interviewed on Wednesday. They included: Andi Courneya, Scot Doboszenski, Princesa Hansen, Paul Pease, Kenneth Rutford, Jim Smith and Daniel Tuott.

Another candidate who was considered was Laura Ndirangu, who was a candidate during the 2024 school board election. The school board voted to include an additional finalist from the pool of people who ran for school board last year but did not win a seat; Ndirangu received nearly 11.8% of the vote in 2024, coming in fifth behind current board member Tessa Antonsen (12.2%). Ndirangu, however, declined to be interviewed.

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Hagglund resigned on Oct. 24, citing a move out of the district. The original plan for appointing Hagglund’s replacement – proposed by Rebelein – was to have the board immediately vote on a resolution appointing Doboszenski to fill the remainder of Hagglund’s term; his term expires on Jan. 4, 2027.

Hagglund told the Pioneer Press that he planned to vote on Doboszenski’s appointment himself.

An attorney for Education Minnesota, however, sent a letter to Rebelein on Oct. 22 stating that the vote would be illegal because Hagglund’s resignation did not take effect until after the meeting.

The board decided against that plan and voted instead to hold a special meeting to determine a different process and timeline to fill the vacancy.

The new board member will serve on the board for the 2026 calendar year.

Rebelein said Friday that Doboszenski remains his top choice to fill the vacant seat.