HOUSTON (AP) — Goalkeeper Manuel Neuer has fully recovered from a calf injury he sustained last month and is ready to go for Germany’s World Cup opener against Curaçao on Sunday.
The 40-year-old enters the World Cup having not played for Germany in almost two years after coach Julian Nagelsmann lured him out of international retirement.
“(He’s) definitely fit enough to start the game and he got better and better,” Nagelsmann said Saturday night. “He didn’t really have the rhythm, but now he found the rhythm. He played a lot, we trust him a lot and I think … in order to have a good World Cup, we need Manuel in top performance and I think he can bring that.”
There were questions about his health after he injured his left calf during Bayern’s last Bundesliga game of the season in late May and missed the German Cup final against Stuttgart for what was called “muscular problems in his left calf.”
The Bayern Munich captain is the only remaining member of the World Cup-winning team from 2014 on the Germany squad. This will be his fifth World Cup, which will tie the German record held by Lothar Matthäus.
His return to the national team has been a boost to younger members of the squad who have leaned on him during preparations as Germany tries to bounce back after two successive World Cup group-stage exits.
Midfielder Aleksandar Pavlović, Neuer’s teammate at Bayern, raved about Neuer’s leadership as the 22-year-old prepares to make his World Cup debut.
“Manuel is a world class player,” Pavlović said. “He always gives me tips. He helps me on the pitch and it is very important for me. I am very grateful for any tip he gives me and I’m trying to implement any tip he gives me.”
Four-time champion Germany is a heavy favorite against Curaçao, which is making its debut in the World Cup and is the smallest nation ever to qualify for the tournament. Though they’re the underdogs in the opener, coach Dick Advocaat has plenty of World Cup experience having coached the Netherlands in 1994 and South Korea in 2006.
At 78, he’ll become the oldest head coach in World Cup history on Sunday, while the 38-year-old Nagelsmann is the youngest in this year’s tournament. The 40-year age difference between these coaches is the largest in World Cup history.
“I think he’s a really cool coach,” Nagelsmann said. “I think it’s really cool and a great compliment for his work. I got to know him a few times and he’s always kind. As a young coach I always can learn from people like him.”
But don’t expect Nagelsmann to be coaching in 40 years.
“I like my job, but I hope to do different things with my life at that age,” he said with a laugh.
Advocaat said he’s impressed that Nagelsmann is in this position at such a young age.
“He must have something special and he has that otherwise he wouldn’t be the coach of the national team,” Advocaat said. “He’s an excellent coach.”
AP World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-world-cup
Germany midfielder Aleksandar Pavlović, left, tackles the ball from United States forward Christian Pulisic during the first half of an international friendly soccer match in Chicago, Saturday, June 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
Germany head coach Julian Nagelsmann looks around before an international friendly soccer match against the United States in Chicago, Saturday, June 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
Goalkeeper Manuel Neuer attends a training session of the German national soccer team in Frankfurt, Germany, Monday, June 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)
SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Knowing New York had waited 53 years to see the Knicks hoist the NBA championship trophy, owner James Dolan didn't even wait to be handed the 30-pound gold-plated prize.
He grabbed it and lifted it skyward with a yell.
“I want to say something to New York,” Dolan shouted. “Hey New York! I'm sorry it took so long! But here we are, and hopefully it won't take that long again!”
The New York Knicks are champions of the NBA for the first time since 1973, beating the San Antonio Spurs in five games for this title. The clincher came Saturday night in a 94-90 victory, the Knicks' fourth comeback win of the series.
Some will say it’s the first “major” professional sports championship for New York in more than 14 years; that would be true when counting only Major League Baseball, the NFL, the NHL and the NBA, though it would be wrong to ignore the New York Liberty’s run to the 2024 WNBA title and New York City FC winning the MLS Cup in 2021.
But as far as the teams that have been part of the city’s fabric for generations and generations, yes, this 14-year drought is finally over. The New York Giants won the Super Bowl in 2012, capping the 2011 season.
The Yankees — the most decorated team in U.S. major pro sports history — haven’t won a World Series since 2009. The Mets haven’t brought a World Series title to New York since 1986. The Rangers last hoisted that trophy in 1994, the Islanders in 1983. The New York Jets haven’t won a Super Bowl since 1969.
None of that matters, at least not right now. The Knicks — who won 13 consecutive games at one point in this playoff run and rallied from 29 points down to win Game 4 of the finals at MSG — are the toast of the town.
“Of course I've never seen anything like it, because it'd never happened before,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said of the Game 4 comeback in an interview on NBA TV on Saturday. “But it's been amazing."
The Amazin' Knicks, indeed.
It took them 80 years — the Knicks won the first game in NBA history in 1946, three years before what was then the Basketball Association of America started being known as the National Basketball Association — but the franchise has now become the ninth that can say it has at least three championships.
Boston has 18, the Los Angeles Lakers have 17, Golden State has seven, Chicago has six, San Antonio has five, and Philadelphia, Detroit and Miami all have three.
Welcome to the club, New York.
“I enjoy watching these guys," Knicks legend Larry Johnson said. "The Garden is back. ... It’s back like when we played and made our little run. The city is behind us.”
It's a franchise that has gone through 24 different coaches and more than 400 players since what was, until now, the most recent championship season. Some of the game’s biggest superstars called Madison Square Garden home and couldn’t end the title drought, names like Patrick Ewing, Allan Houston, Bernard King and Carmelo Anthony.
The Knicks lost a Game 7 in the 1994 finals to Hakeem Olajuwon and Houston, then made a miracle run to the 1999 finals in a shortened season only to lose to San Antonio in five games — the first of what became five championships for Gregg Popovich and the Spurs.
“We didn’t get it done. ... I always say the third time is the charm,” former Knicks guard John Starks said.
Starks was right. It took the Knicks 27 years to get back to the finals, had the Spurs again standing in their way, and to fully flip the script, it was New York prevailing in five games.
And finally, the world's most famous arena — which has raised banners for Billy Joel, Elton John and Harry Styles more recently than it had hoisted one for the Knicks — will be adding to the collection swaying from the rafters. If it follows form from the others, the banner will only have the Knicks logo, then 2025-26 World Champions beneath that.
A simple message. Getting to the place where the Knicks could say those words again, that wasn't so simple.
“There are a couple of franchises that are pretty iconic just because of the history that they have, the location that they’re in, sometimes even the building that they’re in,” said Knicks coach Mike Brown, who won this title in his first season with the club. "New York is definitely one of the few that you could say that to in all three facets.
“Everybody goes through their ups and downs. I don’t really think much about the tough times that they had, because everybody has tough times, including individuals. You just want to try the best you can to be a part of whatever you can to bring joy to the city, to the organization. At the end of the day, the chips are going to fall how they fall. I feel blessed, fortunate, lucky, to be a part of what is going on now.”
It is, to put it mildly, an interesting organization. Dolan — who rarely speaks publicly — isn't afraid of clashes, even including ones with former Knicks greats like Charles Oakley, who was at road games in this title run but has remained away from MSG for years. Leon Rose, the team's president, typically doesn't make himself available to reporters either. There is an absolute mystique around the team and how it operates.
It has not always worked. Over a 25-year stretch that ended with the 2021-22 season — not that long ago — the Knicks had the worst record in the NBA. In the four years since, starting with the acquisition of Jalen Brunson from Dallas, the Knicks have the NBA's fifth-best record.
And now, Brunson — the finals MVP — is the best player on the best team in the world.
“It means the world to me,” Brunson said.
And this year, as Frank Sinatra said, the Knicks are king of the hill, top of the heap. Some in the fan base grumbled when the Knicks declined to hang an NBA Cup championship banner after beating San Antonio for the in-season tournament title earlier this season. Turns out, the Knicks were just waiting for something better.
So, the 53-year wait is over. It was a very different league, and a very different game, in 1973.
There were 17 teams in the NBA that season, barely half of the 30 that there are now. Teams called places Buffalo, Baltimore, Kansas City-Omaha and Seattle home then; the league has expanded many times since, adding 13 teams in nine different states, plus Canada and the District of Columbia.
The top salary in the league then was about $380,000, or roughly $2.9 million in today’s dollars. There was no 3-point line then, no multi-billion-dollar television deal, no international players.
The Knicks flew home on a United Airlines flight from the 1973 title clincher in Inglewood, California, and officials at Kennedy Airport expected what was then called a “rabid” crowd of fans present to greet the plane. They braced for “hundreds” of people that day.
This celebration might be a little bigger.
“To have the fans that we have in New York City and be able to bring home a championship after all these years is absolutely amazing,” Brown said. “It’s a surreal feeling.”
AP Sports Writer Stephen Whyno in New York contributed.
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba
The New York Knicks celebrate after defeating the San Antonio Spurs in Game 5 of the NBA Finals basketball series, Saturday, June 13, 2026, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
New York Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns, right, hugs forward Og Anunoby during the after defeating the San Antonio Spurs in Game 5 of the NBA Finals basketball series, Saturday, June 13, 2026, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Darren Abate)
The New York Knicks celebrate after defeating the San Antonio Spurs in Game 5 of the NBA Finals basketball series, Saturday, June 13, 2026, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
The New York Knicks celebrate after defeating the San Antonio Spurs in Game 5 of the NBA Finals basketball series, Saturday, June 13, 2026, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
New York Knicks fans celebrate after winning Game 5 of the NBA Finals basketball series against the San Antonio Spurs, Saturday, June 13, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Heather Khalifa)
