By Mohamed Yossry

June 22 – Portuguese club Porto’s squad for the Club World Cup includes midfielder Stephen Eustaquio, the captain of Canada, who is also listed in his national team’s roster for the ongoing CONCACAF Gold Cup being held in the United States.

Having a player represent both his club and national team in two official competitions at the same time is a rare occurrence in football history.

Porto began their campaign in the revamped tournament with a goalless draw against Brazil’s Palmeiras last Monday in East Rutherford, just one day before Canada’s Gold Cup opener in Vancouver.

With the Gold Cup jointly hosted by Canada and the U.S., and the Canadian team moving on to Houston, for the rest of their group stage matches, the possibility of Eustaquio joining the squad became realistic, provided Porto’s journey in the Club World Cup ends.

The flight from East Rutherford to Houston takes about three hours.

” allowed by FIFA and CONCACAF,” Canada’s media office told Reuters.

“Eustaquio was named to both rosters a few weeks back, and if fit and able, he will join Canada Soccer’s Men’s National Team following Porto’s conclusion at the Club World Cup,” the national team added in an email.

The inclusion of the 28-year-old Eustaquio in both squads comes at a time when many players are wary of fatigue at the end of the season.

Porto did not respond to Reuters’ request for comment.

The Portuguese side wraps up the group stage with a match against Egypt’s Al Ahly on Monday. It remains unclear whether they will progress to the knockout rounds.

Canada, meanwhile, crushed Honduras 6–0, and drew 1-1 with Curacao on Sunday. They conclude the group stage against El Salvador on June 24.

Eustaquio came off the bench in the draw against Palmeiras and the 2–1 loss to Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami.

The Canadian team said: “We want him to do well in the Club World Cup and we also would welcome him back into the men’s run at the Gold Cup.”

This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.

Portuguese club Porto’s squad for the Club World Cup includes midfielder Stephen Eustaquio, the captain of Canada, who is also listed in his national team’s roster for the ongoing CONCACAF Gold Cup being held in the United States.

Having a player represent both his club and national team in two official competitions at the same time is a rare occurrence in football history.

Porto began its campaign in the revamped tournament with a goalless draw against Brazil’s Palmeiras last Monday in East Rutherford, just one day before Canada’s Gold Cup opener in Vancouver.

With the Gold Cup jointly hosted by Canada and the U.S., and the Canadian team moving on to Houston, for the rest of its group stage matches, the possibility of Eustaquio joining the squad became realistic, provided Porto’s journey in the Club World Cup ends.

The flight from East Rutherford to Houston takes about three hours.

“(It’s) allowed by FIFA and CONCACAF,” Canada’s media office told Reuters.

“Eustaquio was named to both rosters a few weeks back, and if fit and able, he will join Canada Soccer’s Men’s National Team following Porto’s conclusion at the Club World Cup,” the national team added in an email.

READ: Haji Wright will miss rest of CONCACAF Gold Cup with Achilles injury

The inclusion of the 28-year-old Eustaquio in both squads comes at a time when many players are wary of fatigue at the end of the season.

Porto did not respond to Reuters’ request for comment.

The Portuguese side wraps up the group stage with a match against Egypt’s Al Ahly on Monday. It remains unclear whether it will progress to the knockout rounds.

Canada, meanwhile, crushed Honduras 6–0 and drew 1–1 with Curacao on Sunday. It concludes the group stage against El Salvador on June 24.

Eustaquio came off the bench in the draw against Palmeiras and the 2–1 loss to Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami.

The Canadian team said: “We want him to do well in the Club World Cup and we also would welcome him back into the men’s run at the Gold Cup.”

Leeds, Jasprit Bumrah is undoubtedly the world’s best bowler and extremely hard to face when he “comes in down the hill with lights on and swinging both ways”, feels England opener Ben Duckett after the India pace spearhead tormented the host batters in the opening Test here.

Bumrah was exceptional, grabbing all the England wickets that fell on Day 2, including that of the dangerous Joe Root. England, though, recovered from the early loss of opener Zak Crawley to end the day on 209 for 3 in reply to India’s first innings total of 471.

One-down Ollie Pope was holding fort on unbeaten 100 with England still trailing by 262 runs.

“He is the best bowler in the world. He’s extremely hard to face, good in any conditions, and when he’s coming in down the hill with the lights on and it’s swinging both ways, it’s tough,” Duckett said after play on Day 2 Saturday.

“His ability to bowl three or four different balls with no cue you don’t know if he’s bowling a bouncer, or a slow ball, a yorker, an away-swinger or an inswinger until it comes out of his hand. You’ve got to watch the ball so hard with him, it’s very difficult to pick up Jasprit.”

Pope survived Bumrah onslaught to lead the England fightback and hit his ninth Test ton under trying conditions, and Duckett said the one-drop batter “stayed true to the way he plays”.

“He was just so calm coming out. He probably couldn’t come out in tougher conditions, with Jasprit Bumrah running down the hill with the lights on. I don’t know what’s inside his head, but he’s just stayed true to the way he plays,” said Duckett who made 62 before becoming Bumrah’s second victim.

“There’s no better feeling than that, scoring a hundred against that attack, coming out in the first over. You could see it in the way he celebrated, and it didn’t just mean a lot to him, it meant a huge amount in the dressing room as well. I had goosebumps for him.”

There was speculation about Pope’s place in the team despite his 171 in the one-off Test against Zimbabwe last month, but the century under pressure and against a fiery Bumrah may silence the sceptics for a while at least.

“We’re very good at keeping things in the dressing room, but obviously you can hear the noise from outside of it. There’s noise outside the dressing room but there’s no noise in it. We’re not having discussions about who’s going to play,” said Duckett.

“It seemed pretty clear coming into this Test match that if a bloke scores 171 a few weeks ago he’s going to play this one. The way Pope has dealt with that has just been superb and just sums up and proves why he’s England’s No 3 and doing the things that he’s doing.”

This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.