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Tottenham must answer tough questions to emulate Liverpool's success
Published in
Soccer
Saturday, 01 June 2019 18:42
MADRID -- Defeat on the biggest stage can trigger two responses: The losers either allow the disappointment to drag them down to the realms of the also-rans, or use it as inspiration to go again and come back stronger.
Liverpool, having suffered a painful and comprehensive 3-1 defeat against Real Madrid in last season's Champions League final, took the latter option. The Anfield club invested wisely in the likes of Alisson and Fabinho and, having almost won the Premier League with 97 points, ended this campaign with a 2-0 victory over Tottenham Hotspur that delivered the club's sixth European Cup.
Tottenham face that same fork in the road, but there are too many question marks hanging over Mauricio Pochettino's team -- not least that of the manager's own future -- to suggest with any conviction that the North London outfit will follow Liverpool's example this summer. In the aftermath of this defeat, deep inside the Wanda Metropolitano, Pochettino was again careful not to banish the questions marks.
"I think it's not a moment now to talk too much," he said. "You can interpret things in different ways. After five years in Tottenham, it was so clear the project. Our ambition was amazing and the commitment of our players amazing, providing us with our first ever Champions League final. But now it's time to be calm, change our mind and have time to talk."
Pochettino has three years to run on his contract at Tottenham, but recent non-committal remarks about whether he will stay or go after five years in charge have created doubt where there needs to be absolute certainty.
If he does leave, then Tottenham will be back to the drawing board, but even if Pochettino can be persuaded to stay for another crack at turning the club into trophy winners, the job he faces will be a big one, both in terms of finance and ambition.
Tottenham must somehow square a circle that has seen initial projections of the club's new stadium costing £400 million, rise to an eventual £1 billion. They have to pay for the ground at the same time as investing in a squad that has not had a penny spent on it since Lucas Moura arrived from Paris Saint-Germain for £25m in January 2018.
Pochettino's ability as a coach has seen him work wonders overcoming that competitive disadvantage, guiding Tottenham to this final and a top-four finish in the Premier League once again. However, the lack of investment is why his line-up in Madrid featured two half-fit Harrys -- Kane and Winks -- and out-of-form right-back Kieran Trippier, whose dip since the World Cup last summer has seen him dropped from England's squad for next week's Nations League finals in Portugal.
"We looked at the qualities of our players, but it would have been incredible to have won this trophy because Tottenham prioritised their stadium and spent zero on transfers," Pochettino said. "We're not the smartest in the class but not the stupidest either."
- Marcotti: Journey for Liverpool's European champions is not over
- Liverpool ratings: 8/10 Alisson, Van Dijk set foundation for victory
- Tottenham ratings: 5/10 Kane, Alli struggle as Spurs fall short
Tottenham maximised every resource to reach the Champions League final, but if this run is to act as a springboard, rather than a high watermark, things have to change. They must spend to build, but also show the ambition that will convince the likes of Kane, Son Heung-Min and Dele Alli that they can win silverware.
Kane, who will turn 26 next month, is approaching the peak years of his career, yet the man who won the Golden Boot at last year's World Cup does not have a winners' medal of any description to his name.
Tottenham's homegrown poster-boy tasted the biggest stage as a runner-up in Madrid, albeit short of fitness following a seven-week injury layoff, and Kane has to decide whether he wants to fast-track himself to the winners' podium by following the likes of Gareth Bale and Luka Modric from North London to a club of Real Madrid's stature.
The same applies to Alli -- younger than Kane at 23 -- and Son, 26. Both have their admirers, even though Alli has had a disappointing season, and Tottenham could face a battle to convince both that they should reject interest from elsewhere to stay. Meanwhile, Christian Eriksen is refusing to sign a new contract to replace his current deal that expires in June 2020 and might be the first to move on.
One way to banish doubts over the futures of star players and manager would be for Daniel Levy to sanction the major spending required to maintain an upward trajectory. The chairman has never put the club's financial well-being in jeopardy, though, so if the numbers do not add up, big spending will not happen any time soon.
Liverpool never looked like being a team at the end of its journey last year, but it is hard to see how Tottenham can emulate them by bouncing back to win the Champions League in Istanbul 12 months from now. After the biggest night in club history, arguably their biggest summer lies ahead.
"We need to be clever now and, after a very painful game like this, it's about building for the next period of your life," Pochettino said. "Of course it's going to be tough."
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DETROIT – Juan Pablo Montoya and Dane Cameron, co-drivers of the No. 6 Acura Team Penske ARX-05 DPi, accomplished something in Saturday’s Chevrolet Sports Car Classic that hadn’t been done since IMSA began racing on Detroit’s Belle Isle Park.
Before Saturday, General Motors race cars won their class in all nine IMSA races held on Belle Isle from 2007 through 2018, including overall victories from 2012 through last year.
On Saturday Montoya and Cameron came away with their second consecutive IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship victory in a tight, 100-minute battle on the 2.3-mile street circuit.
RELATED: Hawksworth & Heistand Stand Tall In Belle Isle Brawl
After claiming the Motul Pole Award in qualifying Friday, Montoya got a fantastic jump at the start to take the lead, which he held for the first 19 laps of what would be a 58-lap race before pitting under the second of the race’s five full-course caution periods to turn the car over to Cameron. Montoya’s stop turned the lead over to Tristan Nunez, who was on a different pit-stop strategy in the No. 77 Mazda Team Joest RT24-P DPi.
Following the ensuing restart, however, Cameron picked up where Montoya left off, taking the lead away from Nunez on the first green-flag lap. Cameron surrendered the lead for one more lap when he came in for his final pit stop but retook the lead on lap 35.
Cameron led the field to the green flag for the final restart with just under 22 minutes remaining, but he quickly had last year’s Detroit winner, Felipe Nasr in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi-V.R, right on his tail. Nasr filled Cameron’s mirrors all the way to the checkered flag, but never could get quite close enough as Cameron crossed the stripe .820 of a second ahead of the No. 31 to take the victory.
“Certainly, we’ll take that,” said Cameron, who won at Detroit in 2015 in the Whelen Engineering Corvette DP with then-co-driver Eric Curran. “It’s a little bit unexpected for us. Usually the street course is pretty good for the Cadillac, so we knew they were going to competitive here, but obviously we were looking for more of a podium than wins here and get some good points.
“I’m super excited to win here and get two in a row. Lots of people who get two wins in a row get championships, so hopefully that’s a good omen for the balance of the season.”
Cameron and Montoya also won last month’s Acura Sports Car Challenge at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. It was Acura’s second overall victory in Detroit, the first coming in the 2008 American Le Mans Series (ALMS) race on Belle Isle when James Rossiter and Franck Montagny won for Andretti-Green Racing.
It was Montoya’s fifth IMSA win (two WeatherTech Championship and three Grand-Am) and was Cameron’s 14th (12 WeatherTech Championship, one Grand-Am, one ALMS).
“To win in Detroit finally, it’s good,” said Montoya. “It’s nice to be here. It’s nice to be here with Acura – it’s an amazing program – and Team Penske. [Team owner] Roger [Penske]’s home race. I felt yesterday I did a really good job in qualifying. To convert that into a win, Dane did an amazing job out there today too. We did everything we needed to do again. We just need to keep doing that every week.”
The victory moved Cameron and Montoya into second in the WeatherTech Championship DPi standings, but Nasr and co-driver Pipo Derani slightly extended their lead to five, 152-147, with the runner-up result. The No. 31 duo came up just short of extending General Motors’ hometown win streak.
The run included back-to-back American Le Mans Series GT1 class wins by Corvette Racing in 2007 and 2008. Corvette Daytona Prototypes won overall in the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series in 2012 and 2013, as well as IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship races from 2014 through 2016. Cadillac DPi race cars won in both 2017 and 2018.
Helio Castroneves and Ricky Taylor picked up their third podium result in five races this season and made it two Acura Team Penske DPis in the top three with a third-place showing. They are third in the DPi championship standings at the halfway point of the 10-race season for the DPi class, trailing Montoya and Cameron by just one point.
Simon Trummer and Stephen Simpson came home fourth in the No. 84 JDC-Miller Motorsports Cadillac DPi-V.R for their best result of the season to date. Misha Goikhberg and Tristan Vautier finished one spot behind their JDC-Miller teammates with a fifth-place showing in the No. 85 Cadillac DPi.
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LEXINGTON, Ohio – Summer arrived in full force on Saturday at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course for the Hoosier Racing Tire SCCA Super Tour, hosted by the Ohio Valley Region SCCA, where temperatures stretched into the upper 80s under a hot sun.
Michael Lavigne opened the afternoon with a win in his No. 42 Auto Re-Nu-It Auto Body Ford Mustang GT. Lavigne had to clear Rob Huffmaster’s Super Touring® Under class-winning and overall polesitting Honda S2000, then hold off the field again following an early caution period. Aaron Kaplan tried to make it a fight with his BMW M3, but Lavigne used the traffic to clear Kaplan again and take a 2.273-second win.
“That was a great race today,” Lavigne said. “Aaron finally made his move and got to me. We had good racing for a few laps and I put some distance on him. It was a real good day for us.”
Typically, with a few exceptions, the cross-country battles are reserved for the season-ending SCCA National Championship Runoffs. But a gang of talented Spec Racer Ford Gen3 drivers are barnstorming across the country this summer, with stops at Mid-Ohio, Road America and Watkins Glen. By the looks of it, they plan to pillage their East Coast hosts of all of their trophies.
San Francisco Region’s John Black held off Michigan’s Bobby Sak and his West Coast counterpart T.J. Acker to stand on top of the podium on Saturday. The trio were battling from flag-to-flag, along with road trip ringleader Mike Miserendino in fourth.
“That was a tough one,” Black said. “It was a real race, all the way to the last lap. We were two-wide there for a while. It was a heck of a race. We thought we’d come back and hit some really good tracks. We’ve been talking about it for a couple of years, and I guess it worked out!”
Kevin Ruck used his home track knowledge and his National Championship-winning F Production No. 73 Hoosier/Honda Acura Integra to take an overall win in a group three race that also included E Production, H Production, GT-Lite and B-Spec. Ruck and E Production winner Breton Williams were 17 seconds ahead of third overall Charlie Campbell in the Mid-Ohio sun.
“The track was real quick for the first five or six laps,” Ruck said. “I had a good race with Breton right at the start. It was a pretty big field with a huge speed disparity, so the second half of the race was a lot of where are you going to put your car and being predictable. That became the name of the game.”
Jim Drago held off a charging Brian Henderson in Spec Miata, with Jared Thomas and Jonathan Davis completing the top-four in a nose to tail battle. Drago started on pole and took care of business in the No. 2 East Street Racing Mazda Miata by 0.326-second over 12th starting Henderson. The race included a duel with Thomas, with hard racing and side-to-side contact on more than one occasion.
Daniel Richardson ran his “toughest race ever” in a battle with Steven Ott on his way to an American Sedan® win in the No. 5 Gentium Tech/Hoosier Chevrolet Camaro. Richardson was Ott’s driver coach when he got started five years ago, and the pair have maintained a tight friendship.
“There was a spin on the start and everyone went every direction they could,” Richardson said. “Steve got by me. He was flying and I got really lucky with some traffic. I got by him on the back straight and we raced nose to tail the entire race. Side by side, door to door, nonstop. We got by Andy McDermid at the end. It was the best race I’ve ever had in American Sedan.”
Saturday concluded with a participant party at Mid-Ohio’s Honda Pavilion, where volunteers, friends, drivers, crew and family ducked under the picnic shelter for food, drinks and door prizes. On Sunday, racing begins again at 8:40 a.m. ET with 21-lap or 35-minute races. Follow all the action live at www.scca.com/live.
Below are provisional race results from Saturday’s Hoosier SCCA Super Tour from Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course with Class: Name, Hometown, Region and Car.
-American Sedan: Daniel Richardson, Derwood, Md., Washington DC Region, Chevrolet Camaro
-B-Spec: Fritz Wilke, Chelsea, Mich., Detroit Region, Ford Fiesta
-E Production: Breton Williams, Clinton, Iowa, Great River Region, Mazda MX-5
-F Production: Kevin Ruck, Marysville, Ohio, Ohio Valley Region, Acura Integra
-H Production: Eric Vickerman, Howell, Mich., Detroit Region, Austin Healey Sprite
-Formula 500: David Lapham, Waterfod, Mich., New York Region, Novacar J-10
-Formula 1000: Yarin Stern, Austin, Texas, Lonestar Region, Griiip G1
-Formula Atlantic®: Ahsen Yelkin, Canfield, Ohio, Steel Cities Region, Swift 014/Toyota
-Formula Continental: Reece Everard, Lake Orion, Mich., Detroit Region, Van Dieman/Ford
-Formula Enterprises: Jim Libecco, Solon, Ohio, NEOhio Region, Formula Enterprises/Mazda
-Formula Enterprises 2: Liam Snyder, Southlake, Texas, Texas Region, Formula Enterprises/Mazda
-Formula F: Alex Scaler, Flemington, N.J., South Jersey Region, Mygale M13/Honda
-Formula Mazda: Owen McAllister, Mooresville, N.C., Texas Region, Formula Mazda
-Formula Vee: Andrew Whitston, Neenah, Wis., Milwaukee Region, Protoform P2/Volkswagen
-GT-1: Ryan McManus, Westfield Center, Ohio, NEOhio Region, Chevrolet Corvette
-GT-2: Aaron Quine, Wadsworth, Ohio, NEOhio Region, Chevrolet Camaro
-GT-3: Joe Kristensen, London, Ontario, Detroit Region, Honda Civic
-GT-Lite: Graham Fuller, Martinsburg, W.Va., Washington DC Region, Honda CRX
-GT-X: Larry Funk, Oberlin, Ohio, NEOhio Region, Ford FP350S
-Prototype 1: Gary Peck, Rockford, Ill., Blackhawk Valley Region, Stohr WF1
-Prototype 2: Mike Reupert, Hubertus, Wis., Milwaukee Region, Nostendo 1
-Spec Miata: Jim Drago, Memphis, Tenn., Mid South Region, Mazda Miata
-Spec Racer Ford 3: John Black, Olympic Valley, Calif., San Francisco Region, Spec Racer Ford
-Super Touring Lite: Garret Dunn, Commerce Township, Mich., Detroit Region, Honda CRX Si
-Super Touring Under: Rob Huffmaster, Clarkston, Mich., Detroit Region, Honda S2000
-Touring 1: Bill Baten, Indianapolis, Ind., Indianapolis Region, Chevrolet Camaro
-Touring 2: Michael Lavigne, Hooksett, N.H., New England Region, Ford Mustang GT
-Touring 3: Dan March, Boiling Springs, Pa., Susquehanna Region, BMW M3
-Touring 4: John Heinricy, Clarkston, Mich., Detroit Region, Toyota 86
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STE-CROIX, Quebec – The American-Canadian Tour Jean-Paul Cabana 125 scheduled for Sunday has been postponed due to an inclement weather forecast.
The event has been rescheduled for Sunday, Aug. 18.
The postponement creates a new American-Canadian Tour Quebec doubleheader later in the season. ACT will sanction the $10,000 CAD-to-win Bacon Bowl 200 at Autodrome Chaudiere on Saturday, Aug. 17 and the $5,000 CAD-to-win Jean-Paul Cabana 125 the following day.
The ACT Late Model Tour is racing at Autodrome Chaudiere Saturday for the Claude Leclerc 150 to open the Summer Kickoff Series.
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Amateur Lee hit with slow-play penalty at U.S. Women's Open
Published in
Golf
Saturday, 01 June 2019 11:42
Amateur Andrea Lee was assessed a one-shot penalty for slow play during the third round of the U.S. Women's Open on Saturday.
With rounds approaching six hours at the Country Club of Charleston, the Stanford junior and fourth-ranked amateur in the world was the only player in the field singled out for slow play.
Lee was 5 over on her round when she was informed of the penalty, which was preceded by a warning.
Given the pace of the entire event, and considering Lee was only player penalized, the social media reaction was not kind, with the USGA (yet again) drawing criticism:
Lee would go on to sign for a 7-over 79 that left her 8 over for the week, in 66th place.
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Spieth (69) on progress: 'Night-and-day' difference since Byron Nelson
Published in
Golf
Saturday, 01 June 2019 12:14
DUBLIN, Ohio – The comeback continues for Jordan Spieth.
Starting the day one shot off the lead at the Memorial, Spieth was slow out of the gates, and on No. 3 he suffered his first three-putt in 137 holes. But he bounced back down the stretch, including a pair of late birdies and a clutch par save on No. 18 to close out a third-round 69 that left him in a tie for third, four shots behind Martin Kaymer.
Spieth didn’t benefit from a highlight reel of hole-outs like he did en route to an opening-round 66, but he’s still very much in the mix for what would be his first victory since the 2017 Open at Royal Birkdale.
“That was a grind. I had a little bit of a two-way miss with the irons today which left me in some tough spots,” Spieth said. “I thought 3 under in the wind would leave me within two or maybe three of the lead, but looks like it’s going to be four.”
Spieth’s stint in Ohio continues a steady progression of form that dates back to the AT&T Byron Nelson three weeks ago. He has played four straight events, and after a Sunday fade at Trinity Forest he followed a T-3 at the PGA Championship with a T-8 result last week at Colonial.
It’s a welcome stretch of positivity for a player who largely struggled with both his game and confidence through the first half of the season but now appears poised for further success, even if a coveted handshake with tournament host Jack Nicklaus on the 72nd green remains outside his grasp this weekend.
“All in all I’m pleased with the progress that’s been made,” Spieth said. “If I look back three weeks from the Byron Nelson to now, it’s night and day in my opinion about how I feel about my game and how it’s actually producing. So I’m pleased with that, and I’m just trying to make a little bit more progress tomorrow.”
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Kaymer (66) 'not apologizing' for drastically improved putting
Published in
Golf
Saturday, 01 June 2019 12:28
DUBLIN, Ohio – As his friend Adam Scott explained, Martin Kaymer is very direct, so when the German was asked about his drastically improved putting this week at the Memorial, his answer was predictably to the point.
“I think I read them well and I stroke them well,” said Kaymer, who extended his lead to two strokes Saturday with a third-round 66. “I think it's one of those times, similar to Pinehurst [2014 U.S. Open], where I didn't miss many putts within 10, 12 feet. Obviously, you need that in order to win on the PGA Tour.”
If that sounds overly simple, consider that Kaymer ranks 128th this season in strokes gained: putting and 194th in putting average.
By comparison, he’s first this week in the field in strokes gained: putting, picking up 9.377 shots on the field on the greens. During the third round, he converted three putts over 10 feet, and he’s one of 18 players without a three-putt.
“I didn't know that I was plus nine shots on the greens. But I don't really care about that,” Kaymer said. “I worked really hard on the short game. I worked really hard on the putting over the last two or three years, and particularly over the last four or five months, so I'm not apologizing.”
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Trust the process: Kaymer, Scott could get back to winning ways at Memorial
Published in
Golf
Saturday, 01 June 2019 12:45
DUBLIN, Ohio – In a game that’s increasingly tilted toward the young in recent years Martin Kaymer and Adam Scott are poised to prove that there is life after 30.
The grizzled duo has gone a combined 123 starts on the PGA Tour since their last victory, but they'll set out in Sunday afternoon's final group in what is very much a throwback twosome.
2014 called, it want its tournament back.
Kaymer’s last victory on Tour was at the 2014 U.S. Open while Scott hasn't seen the winner's circle since ’16, but they’ll begin the final round first and second, respectively, on the Memorial leaderboard.
In a game that can become fixated on winning, Kaymer and Scott are lessons in patience and perseverance.
For Kaymer, this is something of a payoff following five difficult years since he was collecting major championships, not that the thoughtful German would ever allow himself to be lulled into the self-destructive cycle of a results-driven mindset.
It was 2010 when Kaymer won his first major at the PGA Championship. Early the next year he became No. 1 in the world ranking and in ’14 he doubled down on that status with two victories (The Players and U.S. Open) in three starts. That was the last time he finished inside the top 3 at a Tour event and he’s since plummeted to 186th in the world.
He became a cautionary tale other Tour players would whisper about in private. What happened to Martin Kaymer?
As is always the case with these things there is no shortage reasons. There were injuries like a shoulder ailment in 2017 and a predictable loss of confidence along the way that led to frustration. He was putting in the work but his scorecard told a different tale.
But as he slogged his way through his swoon the 34-year-old discovered that it wasn’t some sort of lost art that he was seeking so much as it was peace.
“At the beginning you don't really know if you're capable of becoming No. 1,” Kaymer explained. “All of a sudden you see yourself being No. 1 in the world and you're in the middle of it. And it's a very, very proud moment. And afterwards it's just a number. Number next to your name. It didn't mean that much.”
Kaymer’s bogey-free 66 on Day 3 won’t deliver eternal happiness, either. Nor will a victory on Sunday at Jack’s Place, but it certainly will give him a more favorable perch to savor the moment.
Following three consecutive rounds in the 60s, he’s at 15 under and two shots clear of Scott thanks to his performance on the greens that has left him first in the field in strokes gained: putting. For Kaymer, Sunday isn’t a chance to win or lose, it’s simply the opportunity he’s been working toward for five years.
“Once you lead a golf tournament, it's so much about how much can you handle yourself,” Kaymer said. “Obviously if somebody takes a run at you, it is what it is. But the game plan doesn't really change. For me it's pure enjoyment the way I play right now.”
Scott’s career has been a similar roller coaster since he ascended to No. 1 in the world in the summer of 2014. He became the first Australian to win the Masters in 2013, became a regular contender on Tour and even weathered the decision to ban anchoring.
But in 2017 he failed to advance to the third round of the playoffs and his chances to win waned. His struggles lingered until last year when he arrived at the Memorial just hoping to avoid Monday’s 36-hole U.S. Open qualifier following two of the most unproductive years of his career. Like Kaymer, it wasn’t the missing limelight or the holes in an otherwise stellar resume that motivated Scott, it was the intrinsic desire to improve, however incrementally, every day.
“It's been a while since we've both won out here. I'm sure going out tomorrow we're both really going to want to play well and come away with a win,” said Scott, whose third-round 66 moved him to 13 under. “It's one of those events that you'd really love to have on your résumé before your career is over. I'm excited for the chance tomorrow.”
Perhaps more than any other player in the field not named Tiger Woods - who was tied for 25thin what has essentially become a U.S. Open tune-up - Scott can appreciate Kaymer’s journey back to Sunday relevance.
“He's an incredibly hard worker,” Scott said of his Sunday playing partner. “If you don't see it from the wins he's had of how gritty and tough he is, I can tell you he's pretty gritty and tough working through the down times. I expect it to be very difficult to get past him tomorrow.”
Scott also talked of dinners with Kaymer over the years and conversations that only those who have reached the top of the competitive mountain can have. About life after the victories and the struggle of not letting what you do for a living define you as a person.
“We've had some pretty honest discussions,” Scott said.
There won’t be any of those deep dives on Sunday at Muirfield Village. Being in contention during the final round of a tournament is no place to unpack such esoteric thoughts and there’s really no need. They both know everything they’ve had to overcome and the ebb and flow of a fickle game. As Kaymer said, this is pure enjoyment.
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Former Duke teammates Liu, Boutier share 54-hole lead at U.S. Women's Open
Published in
Golf
Saturday, 01 June 2019 12:43
CHARLESTON, S.C. – Former Duke championship teammates Yu Liu and Celine Boutier were tied for the lead after three rounds of the U.S. Women's Open.
Liu had a 5-under 66 to match Boutier at 7 under at the Country Club of Charleston. Boutier shot 69.
The pair of Blue Devils, good friends and starters on the 2014 NCAA championship team, were a stroke in front of Lexi Thompson, Jaye Marie Green and Mamiko Higa, the surprise leader the first two rounds.
Boutier held the lead at 8 under until she made her only bogey of the round on No. 16 after stubbing a chip and needing a 21-footer to limit the damage. She won the Vic Open in February in Australia for her first LPGA tour title.
Liu, in her first U.S. Women's Open, made six birdies in a 13-hole stretch to move up after starting four shots off the lead. She's winless on the tour.
Thompson powered her way into contention, going eagle-birdie on the 15th and 16th holes for a 68.
Green shot 68, her second sub-70 showing this week after entering with just one round in the 60s in five Open appearances.
Higa had an up-and-down round of three birdies and three bogeys to lose the lead she's held much of the week. She finished with her second straight 71.
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Neymar has been accused of raping a woman in Paris last month, according to a Brazilian police document. Meanwhile, the soccer player's father called the incident "a setup" against his son.
According to the document, obtained by ESPN Brasil, the unidentified woman said the assault took place on May 15 at 8:20 p.m. local time in a hotel room. The woman reported it to Sao Paulo police on Friday.
The woman told police that she and the Brazilian star met in France, where Neymar plays for Paris Saint-Germain, after exchanging Instagram messages. She said a representative of his named Gallo bought her tickets to Paris and booked her a hotel room.
She said Neymar arrived "apparently drunk" at the hotel and described to police that they "touched each other, but in a given moment Neymar became aggressive and, with violence, had sexual intercourse against the victim's will."
The report also states the woman left Paris two days later and that she did not file her complaint in Paris because she was shaken.
According to the police document, the woman was to go through medical examinations as part of the investigation.
Neymar's father and agent, Neymar Sr., defended his son Saturday on Brazilian television station Bandeirantes and shared messages between his son and the woman that he said absolves Neymar.
"This is a tough moment. If we can't show the truth quickly it will be a snowball. If we have to show Neymar's WhatsApp messages and the conversations with this lady, we will," he said.
Neymar is in Brazil preparing with the national team for the Copa America, which starts next week.
"I know that my son can be accused of many things, but I know the boy that he is, the man that he is, the son of a father and a mother," Neymar Sr. said. "We will push for justice to be served as quickly as possible."
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
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