USA go for gold against Marta’s Brazil in Olympic women’s football final

USA go for gold against Marta’s Brazil in Olympic women’s football final
Members of the US women’s football celebrate their semifinal match against Germany at the Paris 2024 Olympics. (AFP)
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Updated 09 August 2024
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USA go for gold against Marta’s Brazil in Olympic women’s football final

USA go for gold against Marta’s Brazil in Olympic women’s football final
  • The USA came into the Olympics with a rejuvenated squad and a point to prove after a poor showing at last year’s World Cup
  • They are hoping to add to their women’s football record haul of four golds and win the title for the first time since London 2012

PARIS: A resurgent US under new coach Emma Hayes are hoping to establish themselves as the leading force in women’s international football once again by claiming the gold medal in Saturday’s Olympic final against Brazil and their legendary skipper Marta.

The USA came into the Olympics with a rejuvenated squad and a point to prove after a poor showing at last year’s World Cup, when they were eliminated in the last 16.

They also performed below par at each of the last two Olympics, finishing out of the medals at Rio 2016 before taking bronze three years ago in Tokyo.

But the arrival of renowned English coach Hayes from Chelsea has given the USA the boost they needed, and they have been inspired on their way to the final by the exciting attacking trio of Sophia Smith, Mallory Swanson and Trinity Rodman.

They have each scored three goals at the tournament, with the USA winning all three group games against Zambia, Germany and Australia before dispatching both Japan and the Germans in extra time in the knockout rounds.

Now they are hoping to add to their women’s football record haul of four golds and win the title for the first time since London 2012.

“Emma came in so soon before this tournament, so we knew that was going to be a challenge, but she just came in flying and we absolutely love her,” said Smith, the Colorado-born forward who turns 24 on the day of the final.

“She has worked every day to build our trust and show us she cares about us. She is such a great coach and such a great mentor.

“We are a completely different team and a lot of the credit goes to Emma. She has communicated everyone’s roles very clearly. We are really excited for her to be our coach for a really long time.”

The USA’s position as the undisputed global powerhouse of the women’s game looked to be gone for some time following last year’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, when a brilliant Spain team led by Aitana Bonmati were crowned champions.

However, Spain missed out in their bid to add Olympic gold to that title and the UEFA Nations League after they were surprisingly beaten 4-2 by Brazil in Tuesday’s semifinal in Marseille.

Instead it is the Brazilians who will meet the USA in the gold medal match and they will be attempting to make it third time lucky after losing to the same opponents in the Athens final in 2004 and in Beijing in 2008.

Both of those finals were won by the USA in extra time, and both featured Marta, the Brazilian legend and multiple winner of the FIFA world player of the year award.

Now 38, she is appearing at her sixth and likely last Olympics, and is hoping to sign off with gold to go with her two silver medals.

Marta missed both the quarterfinal win against hosts France and the semifinal against Spain due to suspension after being sent off for a reckless challenge in Brazil’s final group game, also against the Spanish.

“Now she will be able to finish her Olympics playing in a final, where she deserves to be. I hope she manages to come away with the gold medal,” said Gabi Portilho, who scored in both the quarter-final and semifinal.

It remains to be seen if the final will turn out to be Marta’s farewell on the international stage for her country, or whether she could be tempted to keep going until the 2027 World Cup which Brazil will host.

“Marta has changed the game of soccer around the world,” said Rodman of Marta, who has spent much of her club career in the United States.

“She is such a talented soccer player but also a great human. I have always looked up to her. She has a legacy forever, but we want that gold.”


Medvedev edges Khachanov in windy Qatar Open

Medvedev edges Khachanov in windy Qatar Open
Updated 54 min 37 sec ago
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Medvedev edges Khachanov in windy Qatar Open

Medvedev edges Khachanov in windy Qatar Open
  • Medvedev, who won the tournament in 2023, scored his first victory over a top-30 player in 2025
  • In match of long rallies, Medvedev did not carve out a break point until the 12th game of the second set

DOHA: World No.6 Daniil Medvedev eliminated compatriot and defending champion Karen Khachanov 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 in the second round of the ATP Qatar Open on Tuesday.
Medvedev, who won the tournament in 2023, scored his first victory over a top-30 player in 2025.
Medvedev, the former world No.1, has not won a tournament since the Rome Masters in spring 2023. He was knocked out in the second round of this year’s Australian Open by teenage American Learner Tien.
In match of long rallies, Medvedev did not carve out a break point until the 12th game of the second set, by which time he was a set down. He took his chance and then went on attack in the third set to win in two hours 30 minutes.


A third Russian former champion, Andrey Rublev, the fifth seed, beat Alexander Bublik 6-3, 6-4.
Alex de Minaur celebrated his birthday by beating Russian Roman Safiullin 6-1, 7-5, even though the Australian did not enjoy the weather.
“They’re tough days, these ones,” said De Minaur. “It’s cold, it’s windy, you probably don’t want to get out of bed. But once you step on court, you have to do everything you can to win. Whether it’s ugly or pretty tennis, you just put the ball in the court, and that’s what I did today.”
“Out went any sort of tactics you had for the match and it was all about surviving more than anything.”
In the evening matches, Novak Djokovic was making his comeback against Matteo Berrettini after his Australian-Open semifinal injury.
Earlier in the day, Djokovic said that Andy Murray would continue as his coach “indefinitely.”
“I expressed my desire to continue the collaboration with him so I am really glad he did accept,” said Djokovic.


F1 drivers gather in London to launch 75th anniversary season

F1 drivers gather in London to launch 75th anniversary season
Updated 18 February 2025
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F1 drivers gather in London to launch 75th anniversary season

F1 drivers gather in London to launch 75th anniversary season
  • The F1 75 Live event at London’s O2 arena marks a new approach by the series
  • Teams will present their 2025 liveries, but don’t have to show off the actual cars they’ll race this season

LONDON: All 20 Formula 1 drivers and the 10 teams are expected in London on Tuesday to kick-start the 2025 season with a new live launch show.
The F1 75 Live event at London’s O2 arena marks a new approach by the series. It’s the first time the sport is hosting its own large-scale launch event, rather than leaving it to the individual teams to present their drivers and cars.
The televised two-hour show includes musical acts like country singer Kane Brown, British band Take That and American rapper MGK, also known as Machine Gun Kelly.
Teams will present their 2025 liveries, but don’t have to show off the actual cars they’ll race this season. Teams are still allowed to hold their own launch events to present their 2025 cars, as McLaren and Williams did last week.
It comes at a time when F1 is keen to expand beyond a sports audience, with races in cities like Miami and Las Vegas, a movie called “F1” starring Brad Pitt releasing in June, and the ongoing popularity of the “Drive To Survive” series on Netflix.
“To have this many fans out shows that we bring the sport together away from the racetrack. There’s a lot of excitement,” McLaren chief executive Zak Brown said Tuesday.
“The Brad Pitt movie will no doubt create a huge amount of awareness for the sport. Netflix, I’m sure, knowing what happened last year, will be a drama-filled television show again, which has been great for all of us. So I think the sport’s going from strength to strength.”
Drivers broadly welcomed the new launch show, though two-time champion Fernando Alonso warned it could be “a little bit of distraction” at a time when drivers and teams are fine-tuning their approach to the season.
F1’s preparations for the new season — which marks the series’ 75th anniversary — continue with preseason testing next week at the Bahrain International Circuit. The first race is the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne on March 16.


Billionaire Jim Ratcliffe’s first year at Man United has not gone to plan

Billionaire Jim Ratcliffe’s first year at Man United has not gone to plan
Updated 18 February 2025
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Billionaire Jim Ratcliffe’s first year at Man United has not gone to plan

Billionaire Jim Ratcliffe’s first year at Man United has not gone to plan
  • Ratcliffe said his investment was “just the beginning of our journey to take Manchester United back to the top of English, European and world football”
  • “Fans should not be paying the price for previous bad ownership & bad management,” Manchester United Supporters Trust posted on X

MANCHESTER: It’s been a year since one of Britain’s richest men bought into its most famous soccer team and vowed to bring the good times back.
So far, it hasn’t gone to plan for Manchester United or Jim Ratcliffe.
The record 20-time English champion are languishing in the bottom half of the Premier League, losing vast sums of money every year and facing fan unrest.
Even head coach Ruben Amorim said recently that this might be the worst team in the club’s storied history.
That’s not all on Ratcliffe, the billionaire owner of petrochemicals giant INEOS, but it has been a rocky start since he paid $1.3 billion for an initial 25 percent stake in United and assumed control of their soccer operations.
There have been high profile hirings and firings, brutal cost cutting, a hike in ticket prices and new lows on the field for a team that had been in decline for more than a decade before he became minority owner.
While there was triumph in the FA Cup last year, that success has been overshadowed by supporter protests, job losses, unconvincing transfers and humbling defeats.
Bold plans
Ratcliffe said his investment was “just the beginning of our journey to take Manchester United back to the top of English, European and world football.”
Those ambitions feel further away now than they have in decades, with United 15th in the standings and closer to the relegation zone than the top six after a woeful campaign. Sunday’s 1-0 loss to Tottenham was the 12th in the league this season and an eighth under Amorim, who only took charge in November.
Amorim said: “I have a lot of problems, my job is so hard, but I am here to continue my job to the next week with my beliefs.”
Major overhaul
He was one of a number of key hires made as part of Ratcliffe’s overhaul of United’s soccer operations.
Omar Berrada was lured away from Manchester City to become CEO and Dan Ashworth left Newcastle to take up the role of sporting director. Jason Wilcox, formerly director of City’s academy, became technical director.
Key figures at Ratcliffe’s Ineos Sport, Dave Brailsford and Jean-Claude Blanc, were appointed to the board and Amorim became the final piece of a new leadership team after former manager Erik ten Hag was fired in October.
But that restructuring has been far from a smooth process.
Ten Hag was fired three months after being handed a one-year contract extension with United having lost four of their opening nine league games.
Ashworth left the club less than six months after taking up his role, and after months of negotiations to take him away from Newcastle.
They were expensive missteps.
In total it cost United 10.4 million pounds ($13.09 million) to pay off Ten Hag and his staff and another 11 million pounds ($13.85 million) to trigger Amorim’s release from Sporting Lisbon.
It was reported it cost between 2 and 3 million pounds ($2.5-3.78 million) to hire Ashworth, who spent five months on gardening leave during negotiations with Newcastle.
Cost cutting
Those numbers make uncomfortable reading at a time when United has implemented cost-saving initiatives that they said included staff redundancies of around 250 roles. More could be on the way, according to reports.
In October it emerged that managerial great Alex Ferguson was not beyond the reach of those measures. He will step down from his lucrative role as club ambassador at the end of the season.
In addition to cuts, United raised their lowest-priced tickets to 66 pounds ($81) partway through the season, up from 40 pounds ($49).
They defended that decision by telling fans it could not sustain their current financial losses and were in danger of breaching league rules if they did not act. United reported losses last year of 113.2 million pounds ($140 million).
“We will get back to a cash positive position as soon as possible and we will have to make some difficult choices to get there,” they said in a letter to fans.
Fan protests
That explanation has not gone down well with supporters.
“Fans should not be paying the price for previous bad ownership & bad management,” Manchester United Supporters Trust posted on X. “The supporters bring far more value than the simple collective ticket revenue.”
Supporters spent years trying to drive out the American Glazer family, which is still majority owner, and there continues to be anger toward them after Ratcliffe’s investment.
There have been jeers for the team while United’s performances on the field have continued to slide.
New lows
Ratcliffe’s first season as co-owner saw United endure their worst league campaign in 34 years when they finished in eighth place.
The end of his first full season could be even worse.
The last time they lost 12 of their first 25 games in a league season was in the 1973-74 campaign when they were relegated from the top flight.
Transfer strategy
United have spent around $260 million on players in the two transfer windows under Ratcliffe, but the squad still looks well short of the quality required to challenge for the title.
Forward Joshua Zirkzee has struggled to adapt to the Premier League and defender Leny Yoro missed a large part of the season through injury.
The pressure of complying with the league’s financial rules has placed uncertainty on United’s ability to spend big in the summer to bring in players to suit Amorim’s preferred system, and there is unlikely to be a quick fix.
Stadium rebuild
Ratcliffe wants a world class stadium, either by way of redeveloping United’s iconic Old Trafford or building one from new.
His plans, which include an ambitious redevelopment of the surrounding area, have been backed by the UK government. Financing them, however, is another issue and it is not yet clear where that money will come from.
The modernization of United’s Carrington training ground is well underway after 50 million pounds ($63 million) of investment.
The future
United haven’t lifted the league title since Ferguson’s last season in 2013 and behind the scenes the focus is on winning it for a record-extending 21st time. But with Liverpool on course to equal United’s haul of 20 this season, it is the club’s great rival from Merseyside that could set that new bar first.
Ratcliffe is a hugely successful businessman but, as he is discovering, that does not guarantee success in soccer.


Babar Azam says a lot has changed since last Champions Trophy, but Pakistan belief remains same

Babar Azam says a lot has changed since last Champions Trophy, but Pakistan belief remains same
Updated 18 February 2025
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Babar Azam says a lot has changed since last Champions Trophy, but Pakistan belief remains same

Babar Azam says a lot has changed since last Champions Trophy, but Pakistan belief remains same
  • Defending champions and hosts Pakistan will face New Zealand in the opening match in Karachi on Wednesday
  • Azam heads into the tournament as the world’s top ranked batter and his form will be crucial for Pakistan

KARACHI: Pakistan’s star batter Babar Azam has said that a lot has changed since they last played the Champions Trophy, but his side’s belief was still the same.
The statement by the former Pakistan skipper came a day ahead of defending champions and hosts Pakistan’s opening match against New Zealand in Karachi.
Babar hit 46 from 52 balls in the 2017 Champions Trophy final against India that helped Pakistan on their way to a 180-run win at The Oval.
However, the right-hander refuses to live in the past and wants to make more memories in front of the adoring Pakistani public in the coming weeks.
“I am very excited. My primary memories of the 2017 final are Fakhar Zaman’s innings [of 114], the spell of Mohammad Amir, Hasan Ali’s spell and the winning moment,” Azam was quoted as saying by the International Cricket Council (ICC).
“Playing against India, that excitement and the nervousness was there but when we won, we enjoyed and celebrated. [But] a lot has changed since the Champions Trophy was held in 2017. We have new players coming, we only have three or four players who were part of that winning team. But the belief, confidence and execution is the same.”
Pakistan-New Zealand clash on Wednesday will include two of biggest names in the competition, with Azam set to go head-to-head with Kiwi star Kane Williamson.
Joe Root, Steve Smith and Virat Kohli are part of the respective England, Australia and India squads but Azam stands in a league of his own in ODI cricket, heading into this competition as the world’s top ranked batter in the 50-over format.
“When you have responsibility as a senior player in any team and the team relies on you and has belief in you, then I take it in a positive way,” he said.
“I try to give my best in every match. I try to perform so that Pakistan win and I enjoy my cricket.”
His form will be crucial if Pakistan are to improve on their recent tournament record. They have been knocked out in the group stage at the last two ICC Men’s Cricket World Cups and suffered the same fate at last year’s ICC Men’s T20 World Cup after losing to co-hosts USA.
But Azam said he does not have any “pressure.”
“What has happened in the past is beyond us. We have discussed mistakes we have made and we have worked on them. So we will try not to do what we have done in the past,” he was quoted as saying.
Azam’s home city of Lahore is among the three Pakistani cities hosting matches and he believes local knowledge will help his side thrive.
“When you play at home you get that edge as you know the conditions,” he said. “You have a knowledge of how the pitch will behave, both in the first and second (innings), but still you have to play good cricket because all other teams are among the best.”


India unveils official Champions Trophy 2025 jersey featuring Pakistan’s name

India unveils official Champions Trophy 2025 jersey featuring Pakistan’s name
Updated 18 February 2025
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India unveils official Champions Trophy 2025 jersey featuring Pakistan’s name

India unveils official Champions Trophy 2025 jersey featuring Pakistan’s name
  • Media reports earlier claimed India would not feature Pakistan’s name on jerseys due to political tensions
  • ICC requires teams participating in any of its tournaments to feature host country’s name on their jerseys

ISLAMABAD: The Indian cricket team this week revealed its official jersey for the upcoming ICC Champions Trophy tournament featuring arch-rival Pakistan’s name on it as the host country, ending weeks of media speculation that it would not. 

India refused to send its cricket team to Pakistan earlier this year due to political tensions and security concerns. The 2024 T20 World Cup winners will play their Champions Trophy matches in Dubai only. 

Indian media reports had speculated that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had refused to feature Pakistan’s name on its official jersey due to tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbors. As per the ICC’s dressing guidelines, all participating members of an ICC tournament are required to feature the name of the host country on their jerseys, even if they play at neutral venues. 

“Game face,” the ICC said in a post on Instagram on Monday, featuring Indian cricketers revealing their official jersey for the tournament. “India are raring to go at Champions Trophy 2025.”

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by ICC (@icc)

The video post showed Indian cricketers Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja, Hardik Pandya, and Arshdeep Singh showcasing their new blue kit with Pakistan’s name imprinted on top right side of the jersey with the Champions Trophy logo.

Pakistan will host the eight-team ICC Champions Trophy in Lahore, Karachi and Rawalpindi later this week. The tournament kicks off with Pakistan locking horns with New Zealand on Feb. 19 at the southern port city of Karachi. 

Pakistan and India will face off in Dubai on Feb. 23 in front of thousands of fans and millions watching at home in what is being regarded as one of the most anticipated cricket contests of the year.

Pakistan won the Champions Trophy in 2017, defeating arch-rivals India by 180 runs in a one-sided final. The last time Pakistan hosted an ICC event was in 1996 when it co-hosted the ICC World Cup with Sri Lanka and India.