Sports Daily: The deal with this soccer thing

What’s the longest putt you’ve ever made?

I’m not an avid golfer, but mine can’t be more than like 10 feet. And it definitely wasn’t a 64-footer to win an otherwise miserable and rain-soaked U.S. Open.

We all stand in awe of J.J. Spaun — even if we didn’t know who he was before the tournament started.

Quick links: Weekend reflections | Braves bullpen fails in finale | Dream keep rolling

KICKING THINGS OFF

FIFA President Gianni Infantino gestures toward the Club World Cup trophy during an April news conference at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

The Club World Cup arrives at Mercedes-Benz Stadium this afternoon, with Los Angeles FC (the MLS team) taking on Chelsea (the English Premier League blue blood).

Weird, right?

And even with the start of local action just hours away, there seems to be a fair bit of confusion about what, exactly, is going on. So how about we attempt to elucidate things?

Is this the World Cup? Nope, that’s next summer. But the two are connected. Sort of.

• FIFA runs the “regular” World Cup, which pits nation against nation. A couple of decades back, it decided it could also be lucrati…, I mean, fun to hold a similar tournament featuring teams from professional confederations all across the globe.
• The 32 competing squads already vie for their respective league championships (and continental titles), so the idea here is to crown a sort of champion of champions. Or whatever other cliche you prefer.

🧐 Doug Roberson, AJC soccer writer extraordinaire, offers more detail (and answers more questions) here.

OK, cool. So Atlanta’s hosting a match? Six, actually.

After today’s LAFC-Chelsea opener (3 p.m. on TBS and some streaming platform called DAZN), the schedule at Mercedes-Benz looks like this:

• Inter Miami (MLS) vs. FC Porto (Portugal) at 3 p.m. Thursday.
• Manchester City (England) vs. Al Ain (United Arab Emirates) at 9 p.m. Sunday.
• Round of 16 matches on June 29 and July 1.
• A quarterfinal match on July 5.

🧐 The tournament final is set for July 13 at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. Here’s a little more intel on the six teams competing in Atlanta.

So it’s going to be insane around town, right? Eh … not so much.

There will be crowds, sure, and they’re taking things like security mighty seriously. But tickets remain available for the matches — and it’s unclear just how much top European clubs (and their fans) are buying in to this thing.

Think of it as more of a warmup for the “real” World Cup, not an opening round.

“We’ll get to do this on the same kind of cadence: a match every three days on natural grass in the building. That’s something we’ll do next summer,” said Adam Fullerton, Mercedes-Benz Stadium’s vice president of operations.

“So you can’t say that we’re not getting good reps out of this one this summer, but they are two very different events.”

🧐 Y’all stay tuned to ajc.com/sports for all the latest as @DougRobersonAJC and @KSugiuraAJC report from this afternoon’s festivities.

THE WEEKEND, BY THE NUMBERS

28: That’s how many Rockies batters Braves starters Spencer Strider and Grant Holmes struck out in the final two games of a weekend series at Truist Park.

• It’s the most ever in back-to-back games by a pair of Braves starters.
• During Sunday’s 10-1 loss (we won’t talk about the bullpen … or the offense), Holmes became just the fourth pitcher in franchise history to record 15 strikeouts in a game.

After failing to sweep lowly Colorado, the Braves are now 31-39. They get a day off before the division-leading Mets come calling Tuesday.

• Bonus link: Braves All-Star candidates

25.5: That was the Atlanta Dream’s average margin of victory over the weekend.

• Allisha Gray scored a career-high 32 in Sunday’s 89-56 drubbing of Washington.
• During Friday night’s 88-70 win over Chicago, Brittney Griner moved to No. 2 on the WNBA’s career blocks list.
• Rhyne Howard also became the fastest player in league history to make 300 3-pointers.

The Dream now sit at 8-3 — the third-best record in the WNBA — heading into a Tuesday night visit with the defending champion New York Liberty.

WEEKEND WONDERPERSON

Pretty sure that's me on the left (we're twins). And not sure why Dad's wearing a Cubs shirt.

Any of the folks listed right above could’ve taken today’s honors. But the winner is Craig Estep.

My dad.

I won’t belabor things, but I did neglect to write about him in our recent Father’s Day Sports Memory Extravaganza. Which my wife made me feel bad about.

So here’s to the guy who introduced me to sports, always stayed until the final out and still knows how to sweet-talk an unsuspecting usher.

May many more years of Falcons tailgates and angry, misspelled text messages about the Braves bullpen lie ahead.

THE NAME GAME

Last week, as part of our discussion about the push to bring the NHL to Forsyth County, I asked y’all to suggest nicknames for the would-be team.

You did not disappoint. A few submissions, in alphabetical order:

• The Flaming Thrashers (respect your history, kids)
• The Forsyth Sith (a “Star Wars” tongue twister)
• The Frozen Peaches (sure, why not!)
• The Shiners (as in moonshiners. And, you know, black eyes.)
• The Silverbacks (R.I.P., Willie B.)

😄 And, finally, my personal favorite: The Cumming Attractions.

ALSO INTERESTING

🏀 Top Hawks assistant Igor Kokoskov is reportedly gearing up to leave Atlanta for the EuroLeague (scroll down in Michael Cunningham’s weekend reflections column).

• NBA Finals Game 5 tips off at 8:30 p.m. on ABC. Oklahoma City and Indiana are both vying for a crucial third win.

🏈 Georgia Tech football continued rambling along the recruiting trail, picking up its 10th commitment of the 2026 class.

😬 Which blockbuster trade was more shocking: The Boston Red Sox sending Rafael Devers to the Giants or the Orlando Magic mortgaging their future for … Desmond Bane?