Los Angeles’ newest MLS team has celebrity backing as well as a vice-president of soccer operations who learned under Sir Alex FergusonGraduates of the Sir Alex Ferguson university of football continue to reap the rewards from their education.Earlier this season, Jaap Stam became the 31st player of Ferguson’s United era to step into management. Fringe players to first-team fixtures have studied under English football’s most successful manager and then gone on to patrol the touchline themselves. Related: MLS expansion: why cities are deciding stadiums are 'welfare for millionaires' Continue reading...
The former F1 world champion has ambitions to complete motorsport’s triple crown but the decision is also revealing about his relationship with the teamSo Fernando Alonso is to miss the Monaco Grand Prix to compete in this year’s Indy 500. After McLaren’s shock at the start of this season, when discovering their Honda power unit was woefully underperforming for the third year in succession, the team have turned the tables with a surprise of their own that has rather knocked those travails into a cocked hat. Perhaps that was partly the point but it also informs as to where the team are now, about Alonso, his future and relationship with McLaren. Equally, whatever the motives, it is a decision for...
The US, Mexico and Canada have submitted a joint bid to host the tournament. But is it a fair deal for fans across the three countries?David Rudin, Toronto based football writer: Good news – Canada’s only liable for 12.5% of this boondoggle. If that sounds like damning with faint praise, you have located the central tension of this joint bid. Insofar as Fifa hosting rights are really just an excuse to sacrifice much of a nation’s sovereignty for a month and spend ungodly sums, Canada has dodged a bullet here. The nation would have to waste a lot of money on soccer-specific stadia to host 80 matches, so this bid is definitely preferable to the alternative of Canada hosting on...
After 73 failed attempts to win a major the Spaniard finally came good at Augusta National having seemingly thrown his challenge away once againOn reflection it was wrong to say we had been waiting for this since 1999. It was not a thing in 1999 at all. When the precocious 19-year-old charmer Sergio García announced himself by manufacturing a six iron to the green from behind a tree at that year’s US PGA Championship, sprinting up the fairway after it, then running Tiger Woods close in a near-miracle at Medinah, it was simply assumed he would go on insouciantly to gather up armfuls of major titles – just like Tiger. But it did not work out like that.Since then Todd...
Teams will often play in a snowstorm one week, and blazing sun the next. Does any other league in the world present such challenges?Playing on the road in Major League Soccer is notoriously difficult.Especially for players coming in from foreign leagues where travel is comparatively condensed, the mileage piled up over the course of a season can take its toll. That issue is only exacerbated by league rules limiting how many charter flights each team can take per year – during Ashley Cole’s first year with the Galaxy, he missed a match because his back locked up during a long flight spent in coach. Related: LA Galaxy ditch their ageing stars – but can they still be successful? pic.twitter.com/a2CjzS48dZ Continue reading...