Matthew’s Sports Report!

It’s now the middle of December and this is our last sports report in 2025. I thought it would be a good idea to review some of the highlights of the year and how our teams did. 

 

In baseball The Mets and Yankees had disappointing years. The Mets started the season well and in June they started losing. Pete Alonso and Juan Soto both had a good season but they didn’t make the playoffs. The Mets need to keep Pete Alonso and get better pitchers and we hope they make the playoffs in 2026. The Yankees did make the playoffs but they didn’t go far. They need to make some changes too. If they want to make the playoffs in 2026. 

 

In football the Giants and the Jets are both bad teams. They need good changes if they want to make the playoffs next year in 2026.

 

In hockey the islanders are off to a good start.  Matthew Schaeffer has brought a lot of excitement to this team. This week the islanders won 3 games in a row.  We hope they finish strong in 2026 and make the playoffs.

 

We hope everyone has a great holiday and a Happy New Year,  and we will be back for more sports in 2026. - Matthew

The State of Soccer: Fall 2025 

A special edition of Matthew’s Sports Report (by Joseph A. Lambert)

November 2025 was an important month for both men’s and women’s soccer around the world as it featured both the end of the main phase of qualification for the 2026 FIFA World Cup and the playoffs for both the MLS Cup and the NWSL championship title.

It was the final month of qualification for the FIFA World Cup, which will be hosted across Canada, the United States, and Mexico in the summer of 2026. This tournament will feature 48 teams, including Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Croatia, Ecuador, England, France, Germany, Ghana, Iran, Japan, South Korea, Morocco, the Netherlands, Portugal, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Spain, Switzerland, Tunisia, and Uruguay, all of which have qualified after participating in the previous tournament in 2022, as well as debutants Cape Verde, Curaçao, Jordan, and Uzbekistan. Notable countries returning to the World Cup after a break of one to three tournaments include Algeria, Colombia, Egypt, Ivory Coast, New Zealand, Panama, Paraguay, and South Africa. What is also notable about this tournament is that it will feature the return of Austria, Norway, and Scotland to the global stage after their most recent participations in 1998, while Haiti returns for the first time since 1974. 

While all 39 direct qualification places (minus the hosts) have been secured, there are still six playoff slots up for grabs, four of which are reserved for UEFA teams (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Italy, Northern Ireland, and Wales in path A; Albania, Poland, Sweden, and Ukraine in path B; Kosovo, Romania, Slovakia, and Turkey in path C; Czech Republic, Ireland, Denmark, and North Macedonia in path D). The remaining two slots will be determined in an inter-confederation playoff in the Mexican cities of Guadalajara and Monterrey in March 2026, which will involve the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Jamaica, and New Caledonia in path 1 of the playoff, and Bolivia, Iraq, and Suriname in path 2 of the playoff.

Shifting our attention to the MLS Cup Playoffs and the NWSL championship, NWSL club Gotham FC narrowly made the playoffs by finishing eighth in the NWSL regular season by one point over the North Carolina Courage. They upset the regular season champion Kansas City Current 2-1 in extra time in the quarterfinals on November 9 and defeated the Orlando Pride 1-0 in the semifinals on November 16 to advance to the championship game, where they faced the season runner-up Washington Spirit on November 22. After a scoreless first half, Rose Lavelle scored in the 80th minute to give Gotham FC a 1-0 lead, and this would turn out to be the only goal of the game, securing the club’s second NWSL title, their second championship in a single year (after their continental cup title win), and their fourth championship in franchise history. 

MLS club New York City FC finished in fifth place in the Eastern Conference in the MLS regular season and defeated Charlotte FC 2 games to 1 in the first round of the MLS Cup Playoffs between October 28 and November 7, which included a 0-0 draw coupled with a 6-7 loss on penalties at Yankee Stadium on November 1. Their playoff run would continue with a 1-0 upset win in the quarterfinals over the regular season champion Philadelphia Union on November 23, but they would be eliminated on November 29 after a 5-1 loss to Lionel Messi’s club Inter Miami CF in the semifinals. On December 6, Inter Miami CF defeated the Vancouver Whitecaps 3-1 in the MLS Cup championship game to win their first championship title. Rodrigo De Paul and Tadeo Allende scored in the final 20 minutes of the game to seal the win for Inter Miami CF, and Lionel Messi himself would be named the championship game’s most valuable player as he secured his 20th major title and his first one not involving a European team or his home country of Argentina.

December 5 was the most important day on the global soccer calendar as this was the day where the groups for the 2026 FIFA World Cup were drawn at a special ceremony in the nation’s capital of Washington D.C. The results of the draw were as follows:

Group A: Mexico, South Africa, South Korea, UEFA Playoff Path D

Group B: Canada, UEFA Payoff Path A, Qatar, Switzerland

Group C: Brazil, Morocco, Haiti, Scotland

Group D: United States, Paraguay, Australia, UEFA Playoff Path C

Group E: Germany, Curaçao, Ivory Coast, Ecuador

Group F: Netherlands, Japan, UEFA Playoff Path B

Group G: Belgium, Egypt, Iran, New Zealand

Group H: Spain, Cape Verde, Saudi Arabia, Uruguay

Group I: France, Senegal, FIFA Playoff Path 2, Norway

Group J:  Argentina, Algeria, Austria, Jordan

Group K: Portugal, FIFA Playoff Path 1, Uzbekistan, Colombia

Group L: England, Croatia, Ghana, Panama

 

The final qualification matches for the World Cup will take place in the spring of 2026 to determine the last six countries for the tournament, which runs from June 11 to July 19.

Until then, ¡GOL!

12/1/25

I hope you had a great Thanksgiving. I spent a lot of time with my family and we watched football, I went shopping and I had a great holiday weekend.

We are getting closer to the end of the football season and getting closer to the playoffs. We don’t think the giants or the jets are going to make the playoffs but in a shocking result the jets actually won a game. The giants play tomorrow night and we hope they can get a win also. 

The islanders had a tough week. The islanders lost a few games this week and one of their star players, Kyle Palmieri got hurt and he is out for the season. Get better soon Kyle. 

Basketball season is going strong and the Knicks are off to a great start. We will write more about the knicks in next week’s article. 

The holiday season is here and I am looking forward to a great December of sports. 

-Matthew

 

 

11/23/25

Welcome back to the sports report. We have breaking news starting with the Mets. The Mets traded Brandon Nimmo, he was one of my favorite players. He was one of my favorites because he would play very and very hard. We will miss him a lot. The good news is we got a good player back in the trade. I think the Mets are going to do more in the offseason. Switching over to hockey the Islanders are playing very well. The Islanders went on a long road trip and they did good. After a tough loss on Saturday they won in a shootout on Sunday. Matthew Schaefer and Matthew Barzal are playing very well and they are very exciting. The giants and the jets both lost again. Both teams are having very bad seasons. Maybe next year they can get very good again. Next week we will talk more about the knicks and the nets. Goodbye Brandon Nimmo and we will miss him. 

Welcome back to Matthew’s Sports report. 

Baseball season is over but there is still a lot to talk about. The Mets have a lot of decisions to make if they want to make their team good. The Mets will have to decide what to do with Pete Alonso and Edwin Diaz. They are great players but they want to get more money. I hope they both stay on the Mets. David Stearns is the general manager of the Mets and he has a lot of decisions to make. 

 

The Islanders had a great week. They won 3 overtime games against really good teams. Matthew Schaefer scored the game winner against Utah. Matthew Schaefer is a really great player. 

 

The Jets and Giants both lost again. The Giants were winning and then they lost. It is a really bad year for our Football teams. 

 

At least the Knicks are off to a really great start. We will talk more about the Knicks next week. 

 Matthew

Matthew’s Sports Report!