Today's NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for June 12, #627

Our expert, award-winning staff selects the products we cover and rigorously researches and tests our top picks. If you buy through our links, we may get a commission. Reviews ethics statement Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for June 12, No. 627. Gael Cooper CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s," as well as "The Totally Sweet '90s." She's been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls. Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She's Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she'll be first in line. Expertise , entertainment, lifestyle, travel, food, shopping and deals, product reviews, money and finance, video games, pets, history, books, technology history, and generational studies Credentials Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year"​ award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism. See full bio Gael Cooper June 11, 2026 p. m. PT 2 min read Here are the answers for today's Connections: Sports Edition. James Martin/CNET Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? today's Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles. Today's Connections: Sports Edition features a fun soccer topic that World Cup watchers might appreciate. If you're struggling with the puzzle but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers. Connections: Sports Edition is published , the subscription-based sports journalism site owned . It doesn't appear in the NYT Games app, but it does in The Athletic's own app. Or you can play it for free online. : NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta Hints for today's Connections: Sports Edition groups Here are four hints for the groupings in today's Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group. Yellow group hint: You might build a house with them. Green group hint: Hoops stars. Blue group hint: Start your engines. Purple group hint: World Cup wonders. Answers for today's Connections: Sports Edition groups Yellow group: Boards. Green group: Hall of Fame Spurs. Blue group: Locations of famous auto races.