Having heard the first ever rendition of their national anthem at a World Cup finals, Panama’s pumped supporters in Sochi, at home and anywhere else they may be, see their team begin their first ever World Cup match. Panama get the ball rolling …
Not long now: The teams march out on to the pitch and line up for the national anthems.
Continue reading…Eddie Jones came out fighting after being backed by the Rugby Football Union following Saturday’s defeat by South Africa. England’s 23-12 Test defeat in Bloemfontein was their fifth in a row and Jones has been under mounting pressure during his side’s summer tour.
“I don’t need any dialogue with the RFU,” Jones told Sky Sports News. “All I need to do is my job and I do my job as well as I can every day. I love the team. I love coaching the team. I’m excited about where we’re going to go.
Continue reading…There is a feeling with VAR that all it is doing is replacing one sort of controversy with another. In days gone by, Swedish fans would have railed against the non-award of a penalty for Kim Min-woo’s lunge on Viktor Claessen and the rest of the world would rapidly have forgotten and moved on. But now, in this happily technological age, South Korean fans can rail against the eventual award of a penalty for the same challenge as the rest of the world rapidly forgets and moves on.
Should it have been a penalty? Maybe. Kim’s challenge was forceful and followed through into the Krasnodar winger but he did seem to get a toe to the ball first. That makes the decision subjective and a judgment call for the Salvadorean referee Joel Aguilar. He had given little impression in the rest of the game that he was an official whose judgment was necessarily to be trusted, but he was in an excellent position not more than seven or eight yards from the incident. If his instinct was that it was not an offence it’s hard to know what he could possibly have seen on the replay to make him change his mind.
Continue reading…When Brazil finally started their World Cup campaign on Sunday it was the start of something new, a chance to break free from those headlines and nightmares from four years ago, when they lost 7-1 to Germany to send a whole country into mourning.
It has been a long journey for Brazilians but month by month we have picked up the pieces and gained confidence from the performances under Tite. Neymar’s injury problems were a concern but it seemed clear from a fairly early stage he would be able to play.
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England’s Chris Woakes appeals during First Test against Pakistan at Lord’s on Thursday, July 14, 2016. Photo: Reuters
LONDON: England all-rounders Chris Woakes and Ben Stokes will miss the remaining three one-day internationals against Australia due to injury, England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) said on Monday.
Woakes suffered a right quad tear which he picked up during the second test against Pakistan at Leeds this month and will also miss the one-dayers against India, beginning July 12.
Stokes, who tore his left hamstring before the Leeds test, will continue his rehabilitation with the English side during the fourth and fifth ODIs and will likely play in the Twenty20 series against India, which begins on July 3.
England, who will play Australia for the third ODI at Nottingham on Tuesday, lead the five match series 2-0.
Germany’s Mario Gomez shoots at goal as Mexico’s Guillermo Ochoa challenges. Photo: Reuters
MOSCOW: Germany’s shock World Cup opening defeat to Mexico on Sunday has left their tournament plans in disarray but coach Joachim Loew sounded confident the world champions would quickly make amends.
Germany were a shadow of their all-conquering self with the Mexicans springing a trap and the 2014 World Cup winners were caught on the break throughout the game.
Loew said while he was not planning to overhaul his plans for the remaining Group F matches against Sweden and South Korea, his team would bounce back.
“We will draw our lessons from this defeat and will do it better next time,” the 58-year-old said. “We will certainly not throw our plans overboard. We will not deviate form our path, we just have to find our strengths again.”
Those strengths are their attacking game and solid defence and both were painfully missing from their game against the Mexicans, who caught them on the break seemingly at will.
“It is an unusual situation for us but one we must accept. We did not play our usual offensive and passing game,” Loew said.
“We will analyse it. The team has enough experience to deal with it and we will rise again.”
The Germans have a stellar tournament record under Loew, having reached at least the semi-finals in every World Cup or Euro tournament since he took over in 2006.
They have also not been eliminated at a World Cup group stage since 1938 when the tournament had a different and smaller format. Since then Germany have managed to qualify for the knockout stage or the second group stage, as was the case in 1978, every time.
But with pressure now mounting and some veiled criticism from his players, including Marco Reus, who said he had been told weeks ago he would not be starting the game despite his current fine form, Loew knows he must deliver.
They next take on Sweden before facing South Korea and they must win both if they are to make sure of a spot in the knockout stage.
“One thing I will not be doing is think about the round of 16. What we need to do now is do our homework and win our next game. We are under pressure.
“It will not happen to us,” he said when asked whether Germany would fall in the group stage. “We will make it.”
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The players emerge from the tunnel to the familiar sound of the White Stripes classic ‘Oh Michael van Gerwen’. It’s a lovely sunny day in Nizhny Novgorod.
An email! “It strikes me that for a long time Sweden had a fairly ordinary side with some attacking quality that elevated it (Ljunberg, Larsson, Ibra) but I don’t really see that anymore,” says Gerry Scott. “For that reason I think I fancy the South Koreans to just nip it one nil. That said my predictions are usually hopelessly, gloriously wrong.”
I know what you mean – but Swedish sides are very good at knowing their limits, and this team are strong defensively. I think they’re the likelier winners, though I’m going for 1-1 because I’ve bet the farm on it. Yesterday’s result has made it really difficult for either team to qualify.
Continue reading…There seems no question of Tommy Fleetwood fretting over what might have been. Not only is that useful for the Englishman’s state of mind, it is perfectly correct in respect of a US Open where he produced a history-matching round to move within a whisker of glory.
Related: Brooks Koepka makes history in holding off Fleetwood to retain US Open title
Continue reading…Swarms of flying bugs are causing chaos for fans and broadcasters around Volgograd with fears they may be a nuisance to England players when they face Tunisia in their opening game of the World Cup on Monday evening.
It is understood the city of Volgograd, which is in the south east of the country, knew that the bugs – a mixture of mosquitoes and midges – would be a nuisance. Two days ago they deployed helicopters to spray the nearby marshland with pesticides.
Fernando Alonso has said he will consider his future in Formula One after his win at the Le Mans 24 Hours has put him within touching distance of achieving motor racing’s triple crown. The Spaniard’s victory, alongside his Monaco wins, means he has secured two of the three to match Graham Hill, the only driver to achieve the feat. Alonso insists that the third and final hurdle, a win at the Indy 500, is now a high priority.
The double F1 world champion won at the Circuit de la Sarthe alongside his Toyota team-mates, Kazuki Nakajima and Sébastien Buemi, who put in a superb team effort to take the 86th edition of the endurance classic. Alonso was in superlative form to chase down the leading sister Toyota during a quadruple stint through the night.
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