The Dallas Cowboys will play the Baltimore Ravens in the NFL’s first game in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the league announced on Friday.

The Cowboys had been announced in early February for the game but not the opponent nor the date, which is Sunday, Sept. 27, at 4:25 p.m. ET at Maracana Stadium. The game will be carried on CBS and Paramount+ as well as the NFL+ app.

The 78,000-seat Maracana Stadium has hosted World Cup matches and the 2016 Olympic opening and closing ceremonies. The league previously announced Rio as one of its new international markets; at least three regular-season games will be played there in the next five years.

“The international expansion of our great game has been remarkable,” Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti said in a press release. “South America is home to some of the world’s most passionate sports fans, including our Ravens Flock in Brazil. We look forward to playing in the iconic Maracana Stadium against the Dallas Cowboys, as our league continues to engage with fans across the globe.”

The NFL came to Brazil for the first time in 2024, and its Sao Paulo games in 2025 and 2026 were played on Friday of Week 1. The Philadelphia Eagles beat the Green Bay Packers in Sao Paulo in 2024 and the Los Angeles Chargers beat the Kansas City Chiefs there this past year at Corinthians Arena.

The league said in Friday’s release that there are more than 36 million NFL fans in Brazil.

“Playing in the legendary Maracana Stadium against the Ravens in front of such a passionate and growing fan base on a global stage will be very special for our team, our entire Cowboys organization and the millions watching back home and around the world,” Cowboys owner, president and general manager Jerry Jones said in the press release.

The NFL has scheduled a record nine international games for 2026 across four continents, seven countries and eight stadiums. The cities are London, Madrid, Melbourne, Mexico City, Munich, Paris and Rio de Janeiro.

The San Francisco 49ers will play the Los Angeles Rams at Melbourne Cricket Ground for the NFL’s first game in Australia, but other matchups have not been announced. The 49ers also will play a regular-season game at Mexico City’s Estadio Banorte.

The NFL will play its first regular-season game in Paris this fall with the New Orleans Saints as one of the participants at Stade de France Stadium. The Atlanta Falcons are ticketed for a regular-season game in Madrid, Spain, at Bernabeu Stadium, while the Detroit Lions will play at FC Bayern Munich Stadium in Germany.

The Jacksonville Jaguars will be designated as the home team for two games in London this year. The games at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and Wembley Stadium will be played in consecutive weeks in October. A second game overseas was added to the Jaguars’ schedule due to the ongoing renovations at EverBank Stadium in Jacksonville.

The league also previously announced that the Washington Commanders will serve as the host team for a game at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

–Field Level Media

After letting a second-half lead slip away in their last outing, the host Chicago Fire renew their rivalry with fellow Midwestern foe Sporting Kansas City on Saturday night.

While the Fire (4-2-2, 14 points) are unbeaten in their last five matches across all competitions (4-0-1), they blew a 3-1 second-half lead against FC Cincinnati on April 18. Evander’s penalty kick in the 79th minute and Dje D’Avilla’s own goal seven minutes later engineered Cincinnati’s 3-3 come-from-behind draw.

“For us, there were a couple things we did wrong, and a lot of that is correctable. We looked at the video and worked on it. It’s something we want to stay focused,” Fire head coach Gregg Berhalter said.

Though Kansas City (1-6-1, 4 points) is currently at the bottom of the Western Conference, that’s “a little bit misleading,” Berhalter said.

“They have played better at times than the results show, and they pose some problems. For us, it’s being really focused on what we’re trying to do, being aggressive and trying to set the team up for success,” he said.

Sporting KC have dropped five in a row across all competitions, including a 3-0 upset loss to USL Championship side Colorado Springs Switchbacks in the U.S. Open Cup Round of 32 on April 14. They have been outscored 16-3 in that span.

It’s far from what SKC head coach Raphael Wicky anticipated, ahead of his first meeting against the club he helmed for just shy of two seasons in 2020 and 2021.

“When you look at all these games, there’s always moments where we’re good, that we’re in the game, and then very quickly we make a mistake or we concede, and then we’re quickly out of the game,” Wicky said. “So that is always frustrating, but that is where I think we have to keep going.”

Chicago forward Jonathan Bamba (personal matters) will remain out against Kansas City, per Berhalter. Defender Leonardo Barroso (lower-body injury) is out as well.

Wicky was 12-26-14 in 52 matches as the Fire’s head coach.

Hugo Cuypers has netted half of Chicago’s 12 goals. Dejan Joveljic has four of SKC’s seven to lead the visitors.

–Field Level Media

Two months into the regular season, Nashville SC built the best record in the Eastern Conference while juggling matches in the CONCACAF Champions Cup.

Now, Nashville will have had a rare full week’s rest when it hosts Charlotte FC on Saturday.

Nashville SC (6-1-1, 19 points) had Wednesday off while much of the league was in action. They also didn’t have a midweek Champions Cup fixture for a change: Nashville beat Club America on aggregate last week and will tussle with Mexican power Tigres UANL in the semifinals beginning April 28.

“I think when you actually get a full week of training, you can really focus on yourself for periods of time,” Nashville head coach B.J. Callaghan said. “Obviously when you’re playing every two days, a lot of it has to do with recovery and thinking about what you’re going to do for the opponent.”

Recovery helps, too. Callaghan said Nashville’s top scorer Sam Surridge, who hasn’t played since April 11 due to a hamstring injury, is back at practice and available for selection. He’s tied with Inter Miami’s Lionel Messi for third in the league with seven goals.

That April 11 match was the first meeting between regional rivals Nashville and Charlotte this year. Edvard Tagseth and Patrick Yazbek scored in either half to lift Nashville to a 2-1 road win.

“We didn’t play well in the first half against Nashville. We never got the ball back,” Charlotte coach Dean Smith said this week. “I didn’t think we pressed as well as we could’ve, with the intensity that we needed to. We certainly need to go and do that.”

Charlotte FC (4-3-2, 14 points) have dropped two of three in league play, most recently taking a 4-1 road loss to Orlando City on Wednesday. That was Charlotte’s highest yield of the season, yet Smith insisted his team played better than in its previous match, a 2-1 win over New York City FC. Defender Morrison Agyemang, 21, had his first career goal.

Smith said defender and U.S. men’s national team captain Tim Ream (adductor) will miss one more match but should be ready for May 2 at the New England Revolution.

“I think they’ve had to make a few adjustments with Tim Ream out,” Callaghan said, “but I think what you always get from Charlotte is a really well-coached team, organized in a lot of phases and again, that highlights a lot of — I would say, some of their individual attacking qualities really are able to come out from that.”

–Field Level Media