The British 25-year-old is back in the world’s top 10 and her final in Miami offers her an important chance to prove she can live with the bestMartina Navratilova, who is as judicious with her praise as she was with her awesome charge to the net, said before Johanna Konta beat the seven-times slam champion Venus Williams, to reach the final of the Miami Open against Caroline Wozniacki, that the British history-maker was worth her return to the world’s top 10 but had yet to prove she was a top-five player.It is a fair assessment. Of the game’s consistent pace-setters, Konta and Madison Keys are the newcomers at the summit of the WTA rankings with most to prove; however, Britain’s...
Bruce Arena is gone, Keane and Gerrard have gone, and Landon Donovan isn’t coming back. But, reports Matt Pentz, the club’s aim is still the same: successThe five trophies are hard to miss, by placement and sheer number.Walking into the StubHub Center through the players’ entrance, past the tunnel that leads on to the field, they’re off to your left. The two comet-like statuettes commemorate titles from Major League Soccer’s early years, and the three cups that complete the quintet speak to the LA Galaxy’s staying power. Related: Steven Gerrard was a much better tourist than a player in LA Continue reading...
When Pele’s old club announced they were holding open tryouts, I, a 31-year-old journalist with no professional football experience, dared to dreamPele. Franz Beckenbauer. Carlos Alberto.In the 1970s, some of the greatest football players in the world turned out for the New York Cosmos. The team invested a fortune in attracting foreign talent, and won the North American Soccer League in 1977, 1978 and 1980. Related: Are the New York Cosmos dead again, or waiting for another resurrection? I was wearing a grey fisherman’s knit sweater. I’ve never seen Cristiano Ronaldo play in a cardigan Continue reading...
Complaints about the length of ball games have been going on for years but MLB commissioner Rob Manfred’s solutions won’t solve much“Baseball games are too long,” wrote Tracee Hamilton in the Washington Post in 2013, setting off a chorus of complaint. “I never thought I’d say that, but even a baseball lover like me is growing impatient with the pace of the games. And I can’t be the only one.”That year the average Major League Baseball game clocked in at 3hr 7min. In 2014 things got worse with the average time jumping six minutes to 3hr 13min. In 2015, pushed by umpires to speed things up, players and managers finished their business in an average of 12 minutes faster, down...
Bruce Arena will be happy after the USMNT steadied the ship with a win and a draw – and attention came back to a certain Borussia Dortmund player againIn a lot of ways Bruce Arena inherited a very generous brief from Jürgen Klinsmann. After the leaking away of the German’s authority, the two losses that opened World Cup qualifying had reduced the grander ambitions of the Klinsmann project to the stark triage mode of “getting out of the Hex”. Related: USA fail to hit the heights but pick up useful point against Panama Continue reading...