Familiar talking points arose from the win at Newcastle but its key figure embodied the manic unscripted drama we loveChaos. Chaos in the first half, chaos in the second half. Chaos in the Liverpool defence and chaos in the Newcastle defence. Chaos in Trent Alexander-Arnold’s mind, in Virgil van Dijk’s mind, perhaps in the referee’s mind. Chaos so thoroughly chaotic that it rendered the most chaotic Premier League player of all into a clanking totem of clinically icy finishing.Football is a sport we try to rationalise. We try to explain it with data and diagrams. We try to reduce the random by having referees’ decisions checked in slow motion and by endlessly rewriting the laws. But sometimes the random just...
With motivation and passion undimmed, senior players serve up a constant reminder of their longstanding greatnessVeronika Kudermetova is 26. Having spent 11 years as a tennis professional, scaling the top 10 in singles and doubles, she is not far from being classed as a veteran of her sport. And yet, still, last week in Cincinnati the No 14 was toppled by an opponent whose career long precedes her entire existence.In the year Kudermetova was born, 1997, Venus Williams reached her first grand slam final at the US Open. Now 43, her passion for the sport is so great that her motivation is undimmed. Williams trailed by a double break in both sets, 1-4 in the first set and 1-5 in...
Both teams are desperately lacking a holding midfielder with discipline and this encounter was fun but worryingly open If, as free-market orthodoxy tells us, price is dependent on the interaction between demand and supply, Brighton and Southampton should probably be thinking of adding a few million to the fees of both Moisés Caicedo and Roméo Lavia. There is only one of each and both Liverpool and Chelsea are in desperate need of players who can add discipline and muscularity to their midfields.There were stories during the hyperinflation in Zimbabwe of golfers who would pay for their drinks before a round because by the time they got to the bar the price would have gone up. Having signed Jude Bellingham for...
The world No 2 described his performance as ‘solid’ but suspect putting means major drought will enter a 10th yearNine years; 3,288 days. That’s the length of time which has now elapsed since Rory McIlroy won a major championship. The omens had been good coming into Hoylake, the expectation as high as ever, but in the end a final round of 68 left him seven shots behind the winner, Brian Harman.There were moments, early in rounds three and four, where it looked as if McIlroy might make a charge. But in the end any promise sputtered out in the rain and seasoned Rory watchers will have seen this movie before. In a way it’s like the Godfather 3, only inverted....
He may not capture the imagination of spectators but the new Open champion deserved his first win for six yearsBrian Harman is the champion golfer of the year. But who exactly is pleased for him? Certainly not the soaked crowd at Royal Liverpool on Sunday, who booed Harman on the first tee and didn’t give the American his dues until his even wetter walk down the 18th fairway.Probably not the American television broadcasters, NBC, who set up a “Waggle Counter” to poke fun at the number of Harman’s practice swings, of which there were often a dozen or more. A sort of unofficial shot clock – a device more familiar in the NBA at the free-throw line – goading Harman...