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Cabrera’s return has sparked controversy, with some criticizing his participation while others, including Gary Player, have offered support.
He recently won the PGA Tour Champions’ James Hardie Pro Football Hall of Fame Invitational, his first win in a PGA Tour-sanctioned event in nearly 11 years.

AUGUSTA, Ga. — Angel Cabrera is back on the hallowed grounds of Augusta National to play in his 21st Masters.

That sentence is going to make some people squirm. And others angry.

Cabrera, 55, spent more than two years in prison in Argentina for domestic violence abuse, pleading guilty to charges that included intimidation and harassment of his former girlfriends. He was released in August 2023 and cleared to play in PGA Tour-sanctioned events four months later.

Like the Masters.

Cabrera has a lifetime exemption into the Masters as 2009 champion, winning in a three-way playoff with Kenny Perry and Chad Campbell. He was unable to play in 2024 because of visa issues.

Augusta National Chairman Fred Ridley said last year the club would welcome back “one of our great champions” when asked about Cabrera.

When Cabrera was asked Tuesday if he believes he ‘belongs’ at Augusta he said: ‘I won the Masters, why not?’

Cabrera, who also won the 2007 U.S. Open, arrived Monday after winning PGA Tour Champions’ James Hardie Pro Football Hall of Fame Invitational, Sunday in Boca Raton, Florida. He started refamiliarizing himself with the course Tuesday.

‘Life has given me another opportunity, I got to take advantage of that and I want to do the right things in this second opportunity,’ Cabrera, who returns to Augusta for the first time sine 2019, said through an interpreter.

Cabrera’s victory Sunday at Broken Sound was his first in a PGA Tour-sanctioned event in nearly 11 years. He’s played in 13 Tour Champions events since being released.

Cabrera was arrested in Rio de Janeiro after leaving Argentina illegally following the start of a trial where he faced charges of assault, theft and illegal intimidation. He served 30 months for “causing minor injuries” and “intimidation in a gender-violence context.” According to GolfDigest, Cabrera apologized to the women in the courtroom and paid significant settlements.

‘There was a stage in my life of four, five years that they weren’t the right things I should have done,’ he said. ‘Before that I was okay, so I just have to keep doing what I know I can do right.

‘I regret things that happened and you learn from them. But at the same time those are in the past and we have to look forward what’s coming.’

What’s coming is a second chance, in life and golf. And Cabrera understands he will not be welcomed by all.

A co-founder of Reclaim These Streets, a women’s rights group and social justice organization in the UK, spoke out against Cabrera being welcomed back to professional golf.

‘It seems as long as male athletes can excel at hitting a ball, we excuse those same men hitting women,’ Jamie Klingler told the BBC.

Some golf fans do not want Angel Cabrera playing in the Masters

Cabrera was asked about those who object to him participating in the Masters.

‘I respect their opinion and everybody has their own opinion and I respect that,’ he said.

Cabrera is grateful for the reception he has received from those in the golf world this week.

‘(They) are very great with me and I just appreciated the way they treated me,’ he said after playing a practice round with Venezuelan Jhonattan Vegas. ‘The family of golf, they’re great colleagues and I missed them. I just want to have a great time with them.’

One of those is three-time Masters champion Gary Player. Cabrera has spoken about the support he received from Player while he was incarcerated and said the Jupiter Island resident was the first to greet him Monday.

‘He’s always been in contact with me, always been by my side,’ Cabrera said. ‘He wanted to give me advice that things were going to happen and things would get better, and that’s what’s happened.’

Cabrera will attend Tuesday night’s Masters Champions Dinner, hosted by Scottie Scheffler. He tees off at 10:59 a.m. Thursday in a group that includes Laurie Canter and Adam Schenk.

Cabrera was asked about his golf, and how Augusta suits his game.

‘I don’t know if I’m exactly my game’s back technically,’ he said. ‘I just started to practice a lot and get ready for this moment.

‘It’s obviously playing longer, I don’t have that distance that I used to have, but you never know. It’s the Masters, anything can happen.’

Tom D’Angelo is a senior sports columnist and reporter for The Palm Beach Post. He can be reached at tdangelo@pbpost.com.

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The Denver Nuggets, just days ahead of the NBA playoffs, made a pair of stunning moves.

Coach Michael Malone and general manager Calvin Booth were both fired Tuesday, the Nuggets announced via social media.

David Adelman, who had long been Malone’s top assistant, will assume interim coaching duties for the remainder of the 2024-25 season. Denver has three games left in its regular season.

“This decision was not made lightly and was evaluated very carefully, and we do it only with the intention of giving our group the best chance at competing for the 2025 NBA Championship and delivering another title to Denver and our fans everywhere,” Nuggets president and governor Josh Kroenke said Tuesday in a statement.

“While the timing of this decision is unfortunate, as Coach Malone helped build the foundation of our now championship-level program, it is a necessary step to allow us to compete at the highest level right now.”

Kroenke reiterated that “championship-level standards and expectations remain in place” for this season. He also thanked Malone for his contributions in what Kroenke called “the most successful decade” in franchise history.

The firings come just two seasons after Malone — who leaves the franchise as its winningest coach — led the Nuggets to their first NBA championship.

There had been some friction between Malone and Booth over roster construction. Booth drafted Christian Braun and acquired Julian Strawther and Peyton Watson through the draft, as the Nuggets lost key players (Bruce Brown and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope) from the 2023 championship team.

Malone and Booth tried to find common ground, professing to understand where the other was coming from — Malone wanted to win games with proven veterans while Booth needed to pay attention to team salary while developing draft picks.

For the most part, it worked. After first-place Oklahoma City, the Nuggets have been one of the better teams in the West this season.

The Nuggets, sitting in the No. 4 seed in the Western Conference at 47-32, are on a four-game losing streak and have struggled with consistency, despite having center Nikola Jokić, a three-time Most Valuable Player, posting historic numbers. The Nuggets are currently just a half-game ahead of the play-in.

Adelman had drawn head coaching interviews in recent hiring cycles and had figured to be one of the top assistants available this year. The son of former NBA coach Rick Adelman, David spent the majority of his life around the NBA. Known to be an offensive-minded coach, Adelman has evolved his father’s legacy of turning big men into attacking centerpieces; with Jokić as one of the dominant forces in the NBA, the Nuggets lead the league in points in the paint per game (58.4).

Malone, 53, coached nearly 10 full seasons with the Nuggets, compiling a 471-327 (.590) record. He was hired in 2015, taking over a Denver team that was rebuilding. Malone oversaw moderate improvements in his first three seasons with the Nuggets before a period of sustained success; prior to his firing, Malone was about to lead Denver to seven consecutive playoff appearances. He had led Denver to top-three finishes in the Western Conference in four of the team’s last five seasons.

The Nuggets hired Booth, 48, as their assistant general manager in 2017, before eventually promoting him to general manager in July 2020. His decision in March 2021 to trade for forward Aaron Gordon helped solidify Denver’s roster.

“I want to thank Calvin Booth for leading our front office for the past three years and, most importantly, for helping put the final pieces in place for the roster that delivered Denver and our fans their first NBA Championship,” Kroenke said.

“Calvin’s knowledge of the game, his passion for scouting, and his long history as a player and executive in the NBA helped lift our organization to new heights, which we will continue moving forward. We are grateful to Calvin for his eight years with the Nuggets and know his place in Nuggets history as our first championship-winning GM will be honored for years to come.”

The Nuggets will play their first game with Adelman as interim coach Wednesday night, in Sacramento against the Kings.

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Former MLB pitcher Octavio Dotel died Tuesday, April 8, as one of 66 fatalities in an unfortunate nightclub collapse in the Dominican Republic.

Dotel was a native of Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic’s capital city, and was inside the Jet Set nightclub early Tuesday when the roof fell.  Dotel was recovered from the rubble hours later, but died on the way to the hospital, Dominican National Police spokesperson Diego Pesqueira said.

Dotel, 51, was a 15-year MLB veteran who played from 1999 to 2013 for 13 different clubs, the first player to do so. He was also a crucial part of the St. Louis Cardinals’ bullpen during their World Series run in 2011. Throughout his career, Dotel left a remarkable impression on the league. Here are some reactions from the baseball world:

Baseball world reacts to Octavio Dotel’s death

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U.S. Rep. Lisa McClain (R-Mich.), one of the highest-ranking Republicans in the House, said Tuesday that she has introduced a bill that would prevent college athletes from being employees of their schools, conferences or an athletic association.

McClain said this during a hearing of the Committee on Education and the Workforce’s Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions Subcommittee. The hearing was about college sports, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and the possible impacts of athletes becoming school employees.

McClain is the current House Republican Conference chair, which makes her the GOP’s No. 4-ranking member in the House. As Tuesday’s hearing concluded, subcommittee chair Rick Allen (R-Ga.) said: ‘It’s my hope that my committee colleagues will join this effort …’.

A release from McClain’s office after the hearing included a statement from full committee chair Tim Walberg (R-Mich.) that endorsed the legislation.

The bill comes as U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken weighs final approval of a proposed settlement of three athlete-compensation antitrust cases. It’s introduction also comes amid ongoing lobbying efforts by the NCAA and college conferences for national legislation that would keep athletes from being school employees; create a national framework for athletes’ activities to make money from their name, image and likeness; and grant the association and the schools at least some measure of protection from further antitrust suits.

Power Four conference and school officials and athletes are set to spend Wednesday visiting lawmakers’ offices in Washington in what is being billed as “College Sports Day on The Hill.” 

McClain’s narrowly drawn bill appears similar to one that the Education and Workforce Committee passed last June in a party-line vote. That measure did not receive a vote on the House floor. It came against the backdrop of the NLRB becoming receptive during the Biden Administration to the idea of college athletes as school employees.

Following complaints filed on behalf of athletes, the NLRB pursued cases involving the University of Southern California and Dartmouth that ultimately could have led to college athletes becoming classified as employees and members of unions for collective bargaining with schools. Those efforts were abandoned in late 2024, as Biden’s presidency was winding down and athlete groups feared what could have been precedent-setting rulings against them by a full NLRB under the incoming Trump Administration.

The Trump Administration officially reversed the NLRB’s position on the matter in February.

McClain’s bill is titled the ‘‘Protecting Student Athletes’ Economic Freedom Act of 2025.’’ The four-page text includes just one operative paragraph, with the remainder devoted to definitions of terms used in that paragraph.

Efforts toward further, more comprehensive legislation are ongoing in the Senate. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who now chairs the Commerce Committee, continues to work from a discussion draft of a bill that has been in circulation since August 2023.  

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Octavio Dotel, a veteran of 15 Major League Baseball seasons, died Tuesday at the age of 51 from injuries sustained when the roof of a nightclub in the Dominican Republic collapsed, officials announced.

The accident also claimed the life of former major league player Tony Blanco and Nelsy Cruz, the governor of the northern Monte Cristi province and sister of seven-time MLB All-Star Nelson Cruz.

Blanco appeared in 56 games for the Washington Nationals in 2005 and played eight seasons in Japan.

“Major League Baseball is deeply saddened by the passings of Octavio Dotel, Tony Blanco, Nelsy Cruz, and all the victims of last night’s tragedy in Santo Domingo,’ MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement. ‘The connection between baseball and the Dominican Republic runs deep, and we are thinking of all the Dominican players and fans across the game today.”

Dotel was a native of Santo Domingo who played for 13 teams over his 15 seasons in the majors from 1999 to 2013. Originally signed by the New York Mets, Dotel was traded to the Houston Astros after making his MLB debut in 1999 and he spent five years in Houston – where he developed into one of baseball’s top relief pitchers.

In 2003, he made history when he, Hall of Famer Billy Wagner and four other Astros pitchers combined to no-hit the New York Yankees.

After Wagner’s departure, Dotel took over the closer’s role for the Astros in 2004. In June he was traded to Oakland in a blockbuster three-team deal that sent eventual postseason hero Carlos Beltran to Houston. Dotel finished the year with a career-high 36 saves.

He continued to pitch effectively into his late 30s, finally winning a World Series ring as a member of the 2011 St. Louis Cardinals. He posted a 2.61 ERA with a pair of wins over 12 postseason appearances that season.

And he returned to the World Series the following season with the Detroit Tigers, pitching five scoreless innings over six postseason appearances as the Tigers eventually fell to the San Francisco Giants in the Fall Classic.

When he debuted for the Tigers in 2012, Dotel set the record for most major league teams, Detroit being his 13th different organization. Dotel’s mark was later broken by Edwin Jackson.

This story was updated with new information.

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With the men’s basketball season now concluded, Florida can add one final achievement to its ledger for its championship season. The Gators had not been ranked No. 1 during the season in the USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll. But after cutting down the nets in San Antonio, the Gators wind up at the top in the poll that counts the most.

It is the first No. 1 ranking for Florida since the 2014 season, which also marked the program’s last Final Four appearance. Not surprisingly, the Gators were voted first by all 31 voters, with runner-up Houston the unanimous choice at No. 2.

From there opinions on the ballots began to differ slightly, but Duke will conclude the campaign at No. 3, 17 poll points ahead of Auburn, the fourth semifinalist in the highly accomplished quartet.

LOOKING AHEAD: Our too-early Top 25 for the 2025-26 basketball season

Tennessee checks in at No. 5, the highest finisher among the regional finalists coming up a win short of San Antonio. Alabama finishes sixth, followed by the rest of the Elite Eight, Michigan State and Texas Tech. Maryland lands at No. 9, the first top-10 finish for the Terrapins since their championship season in 2002. St. John’s, the lone top eight seed not to make the round of 16, drops five poll positions but still ends up in the top 10 of the final poll for the first time since 1999.

The Gators’ championship is the culmination of a banner year for the SEC, which wins up with eight teams in the final poll with surprise Sweet 16 participant Arkansas breaking in at No. 25. The Big 12 and Big Ten end up with five ranked teams apiece. The ACC lands three with Clemson holding on at No. 23 despite its first-round tournament exit. The Big East and West Coast each land a pair of teams in the final rankings.

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SAN ANTONIO – Forty-five minutes after the confetti started falling on somebody else, 45 minutes into what should have been their celebration, 45 minutes into a nightmare they will relive in one way or another for the rest of their lives, the door to the Houston locker room finally opened.

A few players sat at their lockers with towels over their heads. Houston’s assistant coaches mostly sat quietly, sobbing. Somewhere in the back, a curling scream and a loud collision could be heard. Reporters swarmed guard Terrance Arceneaux, but he was still struggling to find the right words to say.

The scene after a team loses a national championship game is never pretty. But this one was particularly brutal because it was imbued with the regret of a team that spent more than two hours Monday night winning the game, never considering the possibility of any other outcome, and then suddenly being forced to confront the horror show that unfolded.

“All year, this team has been so good at winning ugly, winning tight, tough, close, gritty games,” said Kellen Sampson, the lead assistant for his father, Kelvin. “Somebody all year has always just kind of stepped up and made the play and got us to the finish line. That’s usually winning time for us.”

“I’m sorry, y’all, my head’s spinning,” said Joseph Tugler, the starting forward who was limited to fewer than 16 minutes due to foul trouble. “Man, bro. It was right there. Right there. Two points.”

Emanuel Sharp was nowhere to be found, but how could you blame him?

All things considered, he’s probably been Houston’s best player: A knockdown three-point shooter, a quintessential Houston guard who can play on or off the ball and the guy you want guarding the other team’s best ballhandler.

But in the championship game, Sharp was edgy and sluggish on offense, forcing shots that weren’t there and struggling to generate looks for anyone else. Maybe it was nerves. Perhaps the strain of trying to slow down Florida’s Walter Clayton Jr., – and successfully so, for most of the game – ate away at his energy.

Whatever the reason, Sharp had the ball in his hands on the two biggest possessions of the game. The first, with Houston trailing for the first time since the early minutes of the first half, he dribbled into a mess of baseline traffic and lost the ball off his leg.

And then, with Houston needing a two to tie or a three to win, Sharp got a clean-enough look from the top of the key. But instead of letting it fly like a great shooter does, he saw Clayton flying at him on a closeout and hesitated for just a split second as he sprung off the ground and dropped the ball.

Sharp immediately realized he had made a massive mistake. Because he had already launched into his shooting motion, he couldn’t touch the ball or it would be a double-dribble. In retrospect, that would have been better because Houston could have at least fouled with a few seconds left or tried to get a turnover on the inbounds pass. But in that quick moment of chaos where instinct takes over, Sharp backed away from the ball, a scramble ensued and Florida won the championship without Houston ever getting a final shot.

“It was great execution, I just wish we got a shot up,” senior guard Mylik Wilson said. “Man, the job (Sharp) did on Clayton in the first half as a group, and him especially, nobody holds a player like that to zero points. You can’t blame the game on one play. You just gotta credit them. They made better plays down the stretch than us. I mean, they won.”

As the referees signaled the end of the game and Florida’s bench ran onto the floor in celebration, Sharp just crouched down near the spot where he lost the ball for the final time. He put his face in his jersey and his hands over his eyes. Teammates Milos Uzan and Ja’Vier Francis tried to console him. Tugler came to pat him on the back. Even Clayton left Florida’s celebration for a moment and whispered something in his ear.

It took Sharp more than a minute to finally get to his feet, and then he bent down again, arms on knees, until more teammates hugged and finally pulled him off the floor as his left hand pinched the top of his lip.

“He’s a really, really good player who’s awesome at reading closeouts,” Kellen Sampson said. “It just didn’t go his way.”

Buy Florida championship book, gear

You can quibble with the way Houston approached that final sequence – clearly, the Cougars should have gone more quickly with 19 seconds left in hopes of generating multiple opportunities or one of their signature offensive rebounds.

But in the end, the Cougars let a championship slip away because their best players shot poorly – Sharp 3-for-11, senior J’Wan Roberts 3-for-13 and Uzan 2-for-9 – and because a team that hadn’t lost a game in regulation since Nov. 9 simply couldn’t execute under pressure the way it had so many times before.

What explains a program built on defense and execution failing to put a hammer lock on the game after building an 11-point lead with 14:07 left? What explains five turnovers in the final 3:24? What explains being unable to get a shot off on the final two possessions?

Was it the moment? Was it Florida’s relentlessness? Was it simply fate for a program that lost a championship in equally brutal fashion 42 years ago when NC State scored the winning bucket at the buzzer?

Houston will have to live with those questions for a long time, because that’s the cruelty of this tournament: You only get one chance.

“Incomprehensible in that situation we couldn’t get a shot,” Kelvin Sampson said. “We got good looks, but Florida was doing a good job running us off the line and forcing us to score it. We just didn’t do a very good job of finishing some shots. At the end you’ve got to get a shot. Got to do better than that.”

When you come so close to winning this tournament and walk away empty-handed, there are endless what-ifs but only one reality that matters. There’s no time limit on that kind of pain.

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Oded Lifshitz was 83 years old when he was ripped from his home in Kibbutz Nir Oz along with his wife, Yocheved, during Hamas’ attacks against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Yocheved returned to Israel alive in October 2023 and has been advocating for other hostages’ release ever since. On Feb. 20, 2025, Oded returned to Israel in a coffin. His family, however, has not given up hope for those who remain in Gaza.

Daniel Lifshitz, Oded and Yocheved’s grandson, told Fox News Digital that, while the hostages who have returned have brought some light back to Kibbutz Nir Oz, nothing can really be done until all the hostages are back. As of the time of this writing, 13 hostages taken from Nir Oz are still in Gaza, and not all of them are alive.

When speaking to Fox News Digital, Daniel described his late grandfather as a ‘warrior of peace,’ explaining that while Oded served in four wars, he also fought for the rights of minorities.

Oded and Yocheved were peace activists who helped Palestinian pediatric cancer patients from Gaza cross into Israel for chemotherapy. In the eulogy she delivered at her husband’s funeral, Yocheved discussed their activism and said they ‘were hit by a terrible attack by those we helped on the other side,’ according to the Times of Israel’s translation.

Daniel explained that his grandmother felt betrayed not by Hamas or Islamic Jihad, but by Palestinian civilians who she and her husband had spent years helping. 

‘After October 7, they didn’t — we didn’t see the Palestinians going to protest outside against Hamas, going to protests for the release of the hostages, which they know if they would release all the hostage is that will be also the end of the war,’ Daniel told Fox News Digital. ‘And they need to show that they don’t want Hamas, and that is where my grandmother she feels really great betrayal because it’s for whom we try.’

Oded’s body was returned alongside those of Ariel and Kfir Bibas. The boys’ mother, Shiri Bibas, was supposed to be in the fourth coffin, but her remains were not there when the coffin arrived in Israel. Her body was returned two days later.

‘… their return together is symbolizing the failure of the international community for me because in those cars came a 9-month-old baby, the only baby held hostage in the world with an 83-year-old great-grandfather, the only great-grandfather health hostage world,’ Daniel told Fox News Digital. 

Daniel grew up with Shiri’s sister, Dana, who told Fox News Digital that she is like a sister to him.
When asked about the differences between the Biden administration and the Trump administration’s handling of the situation, Daniel told Fox News Digital that Trump’s team is ‘more creative.’

‘If one thing doesn’t work, they don’t continue. They try to bring another solution,’ Daniel told Fox News Digital.

In the face of tragedy, the Lifshitz family has refused to give up hope that the remaining hostages, alive and dead, will one day return home to Israel. Daniel also hopes his grandmother will be able to get some rest once she knows the hostages are home.

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The powers-that-be at The Masters didn’t think to ask Jason Day what he was wearing last year. Why should they?

Day had been a regular at Augusta National Golf Club since 2011 and the 37-year-old Australian never stood out for his outfits. He went along with the more reserved look Masters officials prefer based on tradition.

Until 2024. Until he became a brand ambassador for Malbon Golf.

Day made waves on the course last year playing in a group with Tiger Woods because of the clothing choices he and Malbon made for their first major together. Day notably wore a sweater vest with ‘No. 313. Malbon Golf Championship’ in bold blue-and-red lettering across his chest that Augusta National officials eventually asked him to take off. They took pre-emptive measures ahead of the start of the 2025 Masters on Thursday.

Day revealed he had to alter his outfit choices for this year’s tournament when the initial look he and Malbon came up with was not approved.

‘If they would have let us do what we first put the scripting through to them, it would have been a lot crazier than last year,’ Day said during a recent appearance on Skratch’s ‘Dan on Golf Show’ with Dan Rappaport. ‘But it’ll be toned down just because they have a little bit more, they asked to see the scripting before. The funny thing was, they’ve never asked to see scripting of mine because I’ve always been pretty neutral and down the middle. This year they asked, obviously, with what happened last year.’

Day finished in a tie for 30th at last year’s Masters, but his performance will forever be remembered for what he wore. In addition to what Day referred to as a ‘knit vest,’ he also broke out baggy pants that were compared to parachutes as social media and the golf world went wild over his outfits.

Day began his partnership with Malbon Golf at the start of the 2024 PGA Tour season, but his more unorthodox clothing choices gained an entirely new spotlight thanks to the attention paid to The Masters, and to whoever plays with Woods. Malbon Golf considers itself a ‘lifestyle brand’ and signed Day to be the face of its product line.

Day’s on-course attire was a big part of the planned promotion launch. But by the end of the rain-delayed opening rounds last year, Day said, he was approached by Masters officials asking him to ‘take that vest off.’

This week, he has no intention of pushing the boundaries quite like that again.

‘I’m not here to step on anyone’s toes because I know when we go and play The Masters, it’s all about The Masters,’ Day said to Rappaport. ‘It’s about the tone. It always has been about this tournament, so I always try to be as respectful as possible.’

What Day wears, one year later, remains to be seen.

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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Lionel Messi and Inter Miami have their backs against the wall if they plan to further advance in the Concacaf Champions Cup tournament.

Inter Miami will host Los Angeles FC on Wednesday night at Chase Stadium in the second leg of their Champions Cup quarterfinal series – needing to overcome a 1-0 deficit in aggregate score to advance to the semifinals.

They also must do so without a World Cup champion: No, not Messi. He’s healthy and expected to play.

But Inter Miami will be without legendary midfielder Sergio Busquets – the 2010 World Cup champion from Spain who won’t play after picking up his second yellow card in the first leg in Los Angeles last Wednesday, an inherit suspension for the second leg.

It’s a good thing Inter Miami has another legendary midfielder.

Messi scored twice during Inter Miami’s 1-1 draw against Toronto FC on ‘Sunday Night Soccer’ earlier this week, but one goal was disallowed after he tripped a defender.

However, he was held scoreless in Los Angeles last Wednesday, failing to convert on three free-kick opportunities against LAFC in the first leg.

“Obviously, for great players like him, these kinds of matches are an extra motivation,” Inter Miami coach Javier Mascherano said of Messi, his former teammate, Tuesday. “I can imagine that he will try, as always, from his leadership position on the court, to contribute everything he has, not only to be able to contribute to the victory, but also to help his teammates to be able to do so.’

The Champions Cup is one of five trophies Messi and Inter Miami will compete for in 2025, but Inter Miami needs to score at least two goals and keep LAFC scoreless – among several possible outcomes – to advance. They trail after LAFC’s Nathan Ordaz, a 21-year-old homegrown talent, scored a goal in the 57th minute last week.

Inter Miami was eliminated by LIGA MX standout Monterrey in the quarterfinals last year, and have never reached the semifinal or final in the Champions Cup.

“It is the most beautiful thing about football, to be able to play this type of game, knowing that being able to get through this would be a historic event for the club to reach the Champions Cup semifinals in Concacaf for the first time in our history. So, in that sense, I think that rather than pressure, it’s excitement,” Mascherano said Tuesday.

How to watch Inter Miami vs. LAFC Champions Cup on TV, live stream?

The match will be available in English on FS1, and in Spanish via TUDN and ViX.

What time is Inter Miami vs. LAFC Champions Cup match?

The match begins at 8 p.m. ET (5 p.m. PT, 9 p.m. in Argentina).

Is Lionel Messi playing tomorrow?

Yes, Messi is expected to play for Inter Miami in the match.

Inter Miami vs. LAFC Champions Cup scoring scenarios

Inter Miami was scoreless on the road in last Wednesday’s first leg, failing to take advantage of the tournament’s “away goals” tiebreaker rule. Goals scored by the away club count as double in tiebreaking scenarios.

So, if LAFC scores a goal at Inter Miami on Wednesday, Inter Miami would need to score at least three goals to advance.

If the score is 1-1 at the end of regulation, both teams would play two 15-minute periods of extra time and a penalty shootout if necessary.

Here’s a breakdown of how the scores in Wednesday’s match will affect the series:

How are MLS teams doing in Champions Cup?

Major League Soccer has four teams remaining in the Champions Cup: Inter Miami, Los Angeles FC, reigning MLS Cup champion Los Angeles Galaxy and the Vancouver Whitecaps. 

On Tuesday night: The Galaxy will visit Tigres in Monterrey (9 p.m. ET on FS1), after a scoreless draw at home in the first leg. Liga MX’s Club America and Cruz Azul will settle their scoreless quarterfinal at 11:30 p.m. ET on FS1).

After Inter Miami-LAFC, Vancouver will visit Pumas on Wednesday in Mexico City (10:30 p.m. ET on FS1), following a 1-1 draw in the first leg last week.

Inter Miami/LAFC would meet the Vancouver/Pumas winner in the semifinal, while Galaxy/Tigres will see America/Cruz Azul. 

Messi, Inter Miami upcoming schedule

Wednesday: Inter Miami vs. LAFC, 8 p.m. ET (Concacaf Champions Cup)
April 13: Chicago vs. Inter Miami, 4:30 p.m. ET (MLS)
April 19: Columbus vs. Inter Miami, 4:30 p.m. ET (MLS)
April 26: Inter Miami vs. FC Dallas, 7:30 p.m. ET (MLS)

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