The Pulse Newsletter 📣 | This is The Athletic’s daily sports newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Pulse directly in your inbox.Good morning! Don’t feel the need to play through extreme temps today. Inside:
World Cupdate: Heavy hitters make World Cup semisWhen the dust settled after 240 minutes of World Cup semifinals (plus stoppage time) yesterday, England and Argentina had joined Spain and France in the final four. It’s as marquee a semifinal crop as possible, and two Saturday escapes made it possible.England’s 2-1 win over Norway in extra time was another entry in this tournament’s collection of chaotic games. “Feels-like” 99-degree temperatures in Miami preceded both Erling Haaland and Jude Bellingham being subbed off in extra time, exhausted. England fell down 1-0 and were outplayed for long stretches. But the Three Lions got two Bellingham goals that might convince even a cynic that, for the first time since 1966, it could be coming home:
The first goal came after a live ball appeared to hit the camera suspended on wire above the field. In that event, the referee should’ve stopped the play, but FIFA says its motion-tracking tech did not reveal the ball touched anything in mid-air. Hmm.
