Afghanistan, June 26 -- Roughly $18,000 of England's gear briefly went missing in transit to Kansas City. The team barely noticed, the items were recovered, and two men now face a charge they are presumed innocent of.
KANSAS CITY, Missouri - Among the equipment England packed for its 2026 World Cup base were the predictable essentials, such as cleats, jerseys and goalkeeper gloves, alongside a few less obvious items: two stuffed lion mascots and a LEGO set modeled on a Nike sneaker. For a brief stretch this month, those and roughly $18,000 of the team's gear went missing somewhere between Florida and Missouri, producing one of the more curious subplots of the tournament's opening days.
The story ended quickly and, for England, harmlessly....