The Philadelphia Phillies are in talks with the Seattle Mariners about a trade for veteran Jay Bruce, a source told ESPN's Jeff Passan on Saturday.

Bruce is hitting .212 with 14 home runs and 28 RBIs this season. He also has played for the Mets, Indians and Reds during his 12-year career, hitting 300 home runs with 903 RBIs.

He hit home run No. 300 on Friday night while playing first base in a 4-3 victory over the Los Angeles Angels.

"You know, a personal beer shower, that's probably my first one," Bruce said after the game. "It's good. Cold -- it's very cold. If you had told me I was going to hit my 300th home run playing first base for the Seattle Mariners, I probably would have called you crazy."

An outfielder for much of his career, Bruce, 32, became the eighth active player with 300 home runs and 300 doubles (he's got 301), achieved in 1,557 games. That list includes Mariners teammate Edwin Encarnacion and the Angels' Albert Pujols.

Bruce, who joined the Mariners as part of a seven-player trade with the Mets in December, is under contract through the 2020 season, making $14 million both this season and next.

The Mariners, after getting off to a 13-2 start this season, have fallen to 25-35 and are fifth in the AL West standings entering Saturday's game. The Phillies, meanwhile, lead the NL East with a 33-24 mark.

According to ESPN Stats & Information, Bruce has a career .294 batting average at Philadelphia's Citizens Bank Park, which ranks only behind Houston's Minute Maid Park (.309) as his favorite place to hit.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

It would have to be the right team.

That's where the idea starts. The team would need to be successful -- really good, preferably, enough so that in Major League Baseball's June draft, it picks toward the end of the first round. And that success needs to be sustainable, too, because the idea doesn't make much sense otherwise.

So the idea. It's more a plan, actually. It's a little anarchy, a little ingenuity, a little game theory and a lot to gain. It would anger plenty of people, might prompt an investigation but is, as far as anyone can tell, completely legal. It would, at least for a handful or two of players, change the habitual underpayment of domestic amateur talent. And for a team with the combination of cunning, foresight and luck, it would reap incredible and instantaneous dividends.

If all of this sounds interesting, it's because it is. The plan to blow up the MLB Draft -- to use the power of cold, hard cash and land the most talent-rich class in draft history, with a half-dozen or more players with first-round grades going to the same team -- has been discussed in multiple front offices around baseball, bandied about for years over beers and on cocktail napkins. During these discussions, there are nods of agreement and promises to tease out the details of it more, because the details, actually, provide the answer to the only question that really matters.

Would it actually work?

***

MLB's annual draft starts Monday. Teams will select 1,219 players over 40 rounds. By the July signing deadline, teams will have spent upward of $300 million on domestic amateurs. That will be a fraction of the marginal value they reap from them. The heart of this plan is the willingness of a single team to exploit this -- to, in an environment where finding true value gets more difficult by the year, wring every last droplet of it from the draft.

Before unveiling the plan, an important primer on how the draft works. Every pick in the first 10 rounds is assigned a dollar value. The sum of these values constitutes each team's bonus pool. Teams can exceed these pools up to 5% without serious penalty. Between 5% and 10%, they lose the next year's first-round pick, all of which come with at least $2 million in pool money. If they're 10% to 15% over, they lose a first- and second-round pick. And anything above 15% means forfeiture of their next two first-round picks.

Which sounds pretty bad. It's meant to. The disincentive is strong. Just not stronger than the plan.

Here's how it works. Teams must be willing to spend significant amounts of cash, be able to engender trust from players and agents, and be able to keep secrets. Because in order to land five (or even 10) of the best talents in any draft, it's going to take all of those things and more.

The plan starts a year in advance. It's got to, according to a majority of the general managers, scouting directors, area scouts and agents who spoke about it with ESPN, because something so outside the norm would take meticulous planning and widespread buy-in. Team officials would start telling agents that the team wants to spend big on high school players in the draft the following year. Nothing specific. Just planting a seed.

Targeting high schoolers is a vital part of the plan, because executing it will take enormous amounts of leverage played properly. College baseball players have next to no leverage; they are typically not draft-eligible until their junior years, and if their only threat is to return to school for their senior year, teams will laugh, knowing senior baseball players receive paltry signing bonuses compared to their junior counterparts.

High school players, on the other hand, can tell teams they don't want to sign. That they want to go to college unless teams pay them exorbitant amounts of money -- $5 million or $6 million or $10 million. That barring a stunning cash outlay, drafting them would be a waste of a pick.

And that is where the plan begins to take shape. A group of extremely talented high school players and a team willing to nuke the strictures of the system to get them.

The upshot would be mutually beneficial. Only the first five slots in this year's draft are for more than $6 million. The team's plan could be to offer that much to high school players seen more in the picks 10 to 20 range while being willing to spend upward of $10 million -- well over the $8.4 million Baltimore gets for the No. 1 overall pick this year -- on top-tier talent. So the best player says he's not signing for anything under $10 million ... and the team chooses him with its first-round pick. Another says he won't take a penny less than $9 million ... and he goes with the second-round pick. A third players says he'll go to college unless he gets $7 million ... and he goes to the team in the third round. And so on, for as many players as a team can get to agree to this.

It behooves the player, who gets paid far more than he would by teams adhering to slot. And the team can instantaneously build up its farm system and offer itself options: keep the players, develop them and reap the benefits of young, controllable talent, or dangle the players in trades, taking advantage of a far deeper farm system to target instead major league assets.

This is particularly tempting for the most successful teams, not just because the first-round picks they would give up carry significantly less slot value but because for teams in win-now mode, the ability to trade top prospects is a luxury few have. This would afford them that, and the only cost would be cash.

And it would be a lot. Let's not sugarcoat that. The perfect team this season would be the Boston Red Sox, who have a bad farm system, a great core and lots of money. Their bonus pool is an MLB-low $4,788,100. Say they convinced seven players to execute the plan and guaranteed them $50 million total. Their total outlay on those players alone would be closer to $96 million because of penalties.

It's still totally worth it. Seriously. Every executive surveyed said that the value of young players compared to what they get guaranteed in the draft is the single biggest bargain in baseball. If one of the seven players turns into a star, he is worth more than $96 million. If two of them grow into above-average major leaguers, they are worth more than $96 million. And that's to say nothing of their trade value.

The plan, in fact, has been executed on a smaller level. Before MLB instituted a hard cap on money spent on international amateurs, teams would annually blow through their bonus pools and accept the penalty of not being able to spend more than $300,000 on a player for the next two international signing periods. During the 2016-17 signing period, the San Diego Padres went on a frenzy, spending nearly $80 million on international players. When the bidding war over Cuban amateur Yoan Moncada ended, the Red Sox paid $31.5 million to him and happily doubled it because of the penalty.

Not even 18 months later, Boston traded Moncada, top pitching prospect Michael Kopech and two other prospects for Chris Sale, one of the best pitchers in baseball. That's what prospect capital offers. All the pre-arbitration contract extensions signed this winter -- at least a few of them will teem with marginal value, and the organizations with caches of prospects will be in the running to acquire them.

This sort of flexibility offers inherent value itself. Organizations crave the ability to pivot, to be creative, to weigh options, to settle on the best. Using the draft as a conduit to offer choices when rules restrict teams otherwise is a perfectly logical endpoint.

"Theoretically," one American League general manager said, "it makes all the sense in the world."

He paused.

"Theoretically."

***

The theoretical is a wonderful place in baseball. It incubates ideas that have changed the game. It also Turing tests ones that don't pass muster as real.

For all of the good reasons a team should blow up the draft, there are significant roadblocks. Some of these are capable of being traversed. Others would take savvy, instinct and a good bit of fortune to overcome.

1) It's harder to project high school kids

Teams tend to gravitate toward college players in the draft today because they're seen as a surer thing. The near-necessity to execute the plan doesn't make it a nonstarter; it simply complicates things.

"You have to be really confident in your process," one American League GM said. "You have to scout very differently. You're going to take young guys. Going to be a lot of high school guys. They're inherently riskier. You really need to know them well if you're investing that kind of money."

2) Trust issues

This goes both ways. Are executives really inclined to trust an agent whose duty is to get the best deal for their client? Are players really inclined to trust executives who have no ties, no history and no loyalty shown to him? What can a team do to ensure a player it will stick to the plan? What can a player do to show the team it's not simply using it as leverage?

Trust is tricky. But this, too, is capable of reasonable resolution.

3) No one in baseball can keep a secret

Every spring, a few high school players inform teams that they don't want to be drafted. The most prominent this year is Jack Leiter, the right-handed pitcher and son of former major leaguer Al Leiter, who has a strong commitment to play at Vanderbilt.

If a half-dozen or more first-round talents did so in the same year, alarm bells around baseball would sound. Executives would dispatch scouts to do recon in their small circles. The culprit almost certainly would leak out before the draft.

"Amateur scouts gossip too much," one agent said. "No way you could keep it under the radar."

4) Teams will call players' bluffs

Let's say the first three potential roadblocks happen to be nonfactors -- that a GM has deep faith in his scouts and crosscheckers to choose the right players for this experiment, that the GM's reputation is beyond reproach and fosters conviction in players and agents, and that his scouts likewise respect him enough to keep the secret.

The other 29 teams, suspecting something is amiss, may not buy the threat of the player going to college and select him anyway.

"If he's good enough," one agent said, "clubs are going to say: 'Here's your $2 million. Go to college if you don't want it.' "

Particularly with prominent players, there are extra safety valves to protect teams. If a team offers a player drafted within the first three rounds at least 40% of that pick's slot value and he doesn't sign, the team receives a compensatory pick in next year's draft one pick later. The Atlanta Braves didn't sign Carter Stewart, the eighth overall pick last year. Because they offered him 40% of slot, they'll pick ninth this year.

Would it be frustrating to see a top pick go unsigned, particularly when that pick could be developing in the minor leagues? Sure. Does that protection make sliding players down later into the draft, as the plan calls for, that much more difficult? Absolutely.

And by the second round, it will be obvious what's happening. If the team trying to execute the plan chooses one of the don't-choose-me players in the first round, that's a sign. If it doubles up with another in the second round, that's proof. And the possibility of teams making a run on the players in the third, to prevent the plan from working while still protected by compensatory picks, is very real. It also shows the danger for the players, who at that point would be looking at sub-$800,000 slot values rather than multi-million-dollar bonuses for not trying to game the draft.

5) The misery of going halfway

"The worst-case scenario is you get caught in the middle ground, which is a very likely scenario," an NL GM said. "Guys don't get to your picks. You think you've got these guys lined up. They get picked. Then you're scrambling. That middle ground is a terrible outcome and it's too likely to chance."

He's not wrong. It's pretty ugly. Consider what happened above. The team ends up with two players that it has promised a total of $19 million. The rest are gone before the team's third-round pick. If it honors those commitments, it will pay more than $37 million for those two players and lose two first-round picks. If it does not, and simply offers slot or slightly above to prevent future penalties, the breach of trust will hit baseball gossip circles and embarrass the team for failure to execute a plan followed by blatant lying.

This is where the theoretical really starts to scare teams.

6) MLB will investigate

Just to tease this thing out entirely, let's say that teams don't run the risk of losing picks, that the players all fall where the team hoped and that they sign for record-breaking bonuses.

MLB is going to be livid at a team for making a mockery of its system. Other teams will be apoplectic, too. The draft is great for all of them. The talent-acquisition cost is minuscule compared to the production players provide. The draft is baseball's golden goose, and whatever team would do this runs the risk of killing it.

Almost certainly the league would launch an investigation, not to mention eye significant changes to the draft to ensure no team can singlehandedly threaten whatever sanctity it may have. Pre-draft deals are technically not supposed to happen, though MLB's eye toward such things has an enormous cataract. It could suddenly remedy that and hit the offending team with severe punishments.

When the Atlanta Braves ran afoul of the rules on international signings, MLB banned their GM, John Coppolella, from the game and made all the illicitly signed players free agents. It levied future penalties, too. Even if teams are told they can talk with agents about what it might cost to sign a player to gauge whether he's worth selecting, the league could very well render judgment against a team based on intent.

Whatever a team's argument may be, the intent of this plan is, of course, to subvert the draft almost entirely. And it doesn't matter that draft systems can be more about cost control than they are talent distribution. When there is a norm and that norm is flipped on its head, the consequences are a complete unknown. And as great as the plan is theoretically, as logical as it is in a vacuum, the threat of those consequences is powerful enough to scuttle the plan for now.

***

Surely among Major League Baseball's 30 teams is one whose risk tolerance is large enough to stomach the downside of the plan, recognize its massive potential and try to execute it. It's too late this year, unless a team truly has pulled a fast one on the industry. Anyway, the 2020 draft may be an ideal one to try it.

The industry buzz about the talent in the 2020 draft dwarfs this class. Two evaluators said 2020 looks like the best MLB draft since the stacked 2011 draft, with a first round that included Gerrit Cole, Trevor Bauer, Anthony Rendon, Francisco Lindor, Javier Baez, George Springer and Jose Fernandez, Blake Snell and Trevor Story, plus Mookie Betts, Josh Bell, Tyler Glasnow, Blake Treinen and dozens more major leaguers in later rounds. The 2020 draft got even better this week, as Blaze Jordan, a top high school player, told Baseball America he was reclassifying to enter next year's draft as a 17-year-old.

There are worse plans than letting Jordan and the phenomenal right-hander Mick Abel and California outfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong and the rest of the top high schoolers understand that the draft does not necessarily have to be this way. Dissatisfied with it, Carter Stewart -- the first-round pick who did not sign with Atlanta last year -- instead skipped the draft altogether this year and agreed to a six-year deal with the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks in Japan.

It's another leverage point for players to use, to try to get the most they can out of the draft -- or potentially maneuver themselves around so that the plan isn't simply a futile idea buried in a corner of the Internet. There are more nefarious ways to drop in the draft -- completely shut down early in the spring and don't give scouts a single look -- but that would entail a kid abandoning his high school team, and that opens an entirely different can of character worms.

The margins are so small in baseball right now, the shutdown -- a tried-and-true tactic in Latin America -- may well come stateside sooner than later. Teams employ dozens of people to hunt for the tiniest advantages. The plan, if executed, would not provide a tiny advantage. It would be the baseball-team equivalent to a winning Mega Millions ticket.

One GM said it's such good value that it would take getting only four of the top 40 players in a draft to make it worth blowing past the bonus pool and losing two future first-rounders. And if that team did, it could take that draft budget money and put it right back into free agency, where signing a top player would not be nearly as onerous, because the team wouldn't need to give up a first-round pick. Not only does the plan enrich teams with young talent, it's like a coupon for older talent.

This is all well and good, but it's still pure theory, subject to the various levers of life, of human decision-making, of rational and irrational behavior's ceaseless squabble. The only question that matters, really, is the one asked long ago: Would it actually work? Until it's put into practice, one can only hazard a guess to the binary of yes and no. There is a third answer, though, one that may be the best we'll get when it comes to whether a team blowing up the draft would actually work.

It sure would be fun to find out.

Mauricio Pochettino went to great lengths to get his Tottenham team to deal with their "fears" ahead of the Champions League final in Madrid on Saturday.

With the assistance of his friend and motivational coach Xesco Espar, Pochettino had Spurs players go through several exercises to help them overcome fears including walking on hot coals in a training session on Wednesday.

It may sound crazy, but the Tottenham manager, who did the same exercise with Southampton players when he was with Saints, said there is a method to the madness.

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"The thing that's important to say is we all have fear. People without fears don't exist," Pochettino told reporters. "It's not that the players are not going to fear anything, but they are going to be free to work [through them]. There are people that freeze with fear. Successful people have the same fears -- it's just that they take them on.

"The players have learned a lot in these three weeks because we've had the capacity to work in a different way, to create a different plan. When you have only one objective and three weeks to prepare, it's easier than when you play every three days.

"We are going to arrive in a perfect condition and the most important thing is that the players have enjoyed the journey over these three weeks. They'll always remember it. It's been an amazing time to share all together.

"And if you build something special, it is going to be remembered forever. If we win the Champions League, it's going to be a massive example for football -- I think forever."

Pochettino wouldn't be drawn on whether or not Harry Kane would start or play in the final and the Spurs boss faces some tough decisions with Kane back to fitness after seven weeks out and his replacement Lucas Moura having scored a hat trick in the remarkable semifinal win against Ajax.

Pochettino said he would not take any decision on whether to start with Kane or his other selection choices until after Friday's training.

"It's difficult to put yourself in my place," he said. "It's not going to be easy to take a decision tomorrow and every game you need to take a decision. Tomorrow we will have all the information and we will take the best decision to try to win.

"You can use only 11 players from the beginning -- that is the most painful situation. The whole squad will be on the pitch before the game tomorrow.

"Tomorrow is to show togetherness. Tomorrow will show football is a collective sport, the energy even from the players who do not play in the dressing room will be decisive."

Meanwhile, Spurs captain Hugo Lloris said the final was a game where the entire squad would have a role.

"We are going to need everyone," he said. "It's a good mix in the changing room with experienced players and young players. Then you follow the leader, the manager. Every player is important at this stage of the competition. Any player can be decisive."

Lloris said the comeback win in Amsterdam showed the strength of Spurs as a collective unit.

"It was the togetherness -- players with the staff, with the chairman, with the fans. It was one of the best moments in my career," said the French World Cup winning goalkeeper.

"And obviously we want a better moment after the game tomorrow. We know football is a collective sport and we spend so much time together."

Information from Reuters was used in this story.

The Gabba has been locked in for the opening Test of the 2021-22 Ashes but there has been no similar guarantee made for next year's visit by India who did not play at Australia's stronghold on their tour last season.

Australia's Test team are unbeaten in Brisbane in 30 years and it has traditionally been the starting point for the Test summer, but last season the first match against India was played in Adelaide much to the frustration of the players and management.

Instead, Australia played Sri Lanka in a day-night Test in late January which struggled to attract fans and was over well inside three days. Last month it was confirmed that the ground would regain the opening Test for the 2019-20 season against Pakistan with the interests of the Australia players at the forefront but, at the time, there was no confirmation of future years.

The Ashes commitment to the Gabba comes on the back of Queensland Cricket getting state funding for an AUS$35 million upgrade of facilities at the ground and while it is unusual for a fixture confirmation so far ahead of time it was a simpler decision with the traditional five Ashes Tests.

India's next tour in 2020-21 will again consist of four Tests which means one of the big five venues will miss out hosting them. Afghanistan are the other Test visitors that season for their maiden match against Australia.

Outside of Ashes Tests crowd numbers have been a challenge for the Gabba putting its standing as one of the premier venues under threat and it was accepted that significant investment was needed to improve facilities for players and spectators. The former has already been invested in, with the fan experience now key to the ground's future after this funding boost.

The aim is to have the improvements completed in time for the Men's T20 World Cup in late 2020 when Brisbane hosts four matches during that tournament before Afghanistan's brief visit ahead of India's tour. The following season then includes the next Ashes series on Australian soil.

Kevin Roberts, the Cricket Australia CEO, said: "Nothing excites Australian cricket fans like an Ashes series on home soil and the upgrades to the Gabba will ensure that in hosting the first Test of the Ashes series in 2021-22, fans in Queensland will get the first opportunity to enjoy world-class cricket while experiencing the upgraded facilities."

The 2019-2020 men's season includes a two-Test series against Pakistan and three against New Zealand.

Marcus Rashford. Wilfried Zaha. Sane.

Trent is rattling off opponents that have been the most menacing before he zeros in on the tormentor-in-chief. "I played away against Eden Hazard this season for the first time directly and that was incredibly difficult," he says. "I thought he was the most talented winger I've come up against -- special, unbelievable strength and acceleration. He is very hard to keep quiet.

"In the Premier League, most of the time when you're lining up, the opposition's best players are their wingers with a few exceptions. They're the fastest, the most dangerous. Robbo [Andy Robertson] and I always joke that we're fortunate to have Mo [Salah] and Sadio [Mane] on the same team as us, because they can keep full-backs up at night.

"Jordi Alba was really hard to defend against too. In the first half, he just wouldn't stop going, his running was relentless. I've never played against a full-back like that before -- he just kept wanting to go past me and was getting back. It's good to know what makes me feel uncomfortable, so I can use it against other full-backs."

Extended time in Alexander-Arnold's company reinforces Klopp's assertion that he encapsulates the "we're never gonna stop" line in Liverpool's Allez, Allez, Allez Champions League anthem. While his dimpled, soft face still shows the boy, his mindset speaks to his maturity. Trent is engaged, thoughtfully mapping his answers and there is already an intensity about him that could be felt in similar settings with Steven Gerrard. He is serious with a steely determination that drips through every facet of his life.

He doesn't dwell on high points, instead digging through the kind of contests most would want to permanently delete in order to extract lessons from them.

"It's important to realise what you've done well in your good games and hold onto that, but what really shapes you as a player is what you take away from the nightmare matches," he says. "[Academy director] Alex Inglethorpe told me once that the real mistake is not learning from your mistake. If you understand your error and work on it, you gain a strength.

"When I have a bad game, I dissect it in every detail. What did I do during the preparation? What was my mindset going into it?

"It's important for me to understand what works well in terms of routines and how I condition my mind. I'm learning to personalise and perfect my preparation."

Alexander-Arnold's function as a right-back has often been discussed by fans and former players as a short-term solution before he reverts to the centre of the pitch.

But given his excellence on the defensive flank, would he want to remain there and try to become the world's undisputed best in the position?

"I just want to win trophies more than anything and it doesn't matter where I am on the pitch," he says. "Playing for the club I love is more important than any position. I'm a right-back now and I want to be the best at it.

"Just as Ashley Cole did when I was growing up, I want to change the way full-backs are thought of along with Robbo. We want to show that full-backs often influence a game a lot more than positions that are traditionally thought of as the most prestigious. It's a valuable role as Klopp and Guardiola have both said and it's certainly one of the most demanding. We are measured equally by how we attack and how we defend more than any other position. You've got to get assists, you've got to keep clean sheets.

"We have the obligation to get forward and it's non-negotiable to get back -- you have to do both equally well. I hope we can help change the idea that no kids want to grow up and be a fullback."

While the rain stubbornly bucketed down in Kowloon during the preseason tour of Hong Kong in 2017, Klopp issued a challenge to Alexander-Arnold that he privately acknowledged the youngster would weather.

"Trent, what potential!," the 51-year-old said. "He has to improve on his defending now though, that is the aim. Yes, he is a kid, but the moment he can defend like a man, he can play regularly in the Premier League. As long as he defends like a kid and attacks like a man, then you have only half of this amazing talent.

"I cannot change this -- only he can. He knows and is excited about the improvement he can make." Fast forward to 2019 and Alexander-Arnold, who now holds the Premier League assist record for a defender with 12 this season, was part of the meanest rearguard in England's top flight.

"The manager has got so much out of me," he says. "He is demanding and never allows you to get comfortable. He expects to consistently see more from his players, which suits me because I want to go beyond my limits."

Liverpool's backroom team enthuse about Alexander-Arnold's knowledge of when and how to defend on the front foot in midfield areas, jumping tight with a wide man or full-back and protecting the half space -- the areas on the pitch between the wide and central zones that teams in possession look to exploit. They've observed a continual upward trend in how he defends against the ball and closes the last line.

His offensive might is crucial weaponry in Klopp's aggressive blueprint, as is his ability to operate with direction and take responsibility on the pitch.

"I've definitely progressed defensively and I've spent a lot of time working through all the situations I know I can get better in," Alexander-Arnold says. "Playing against some of the best players in the world on a daily basis in training is massive for me, because I'm pushing myself to the maximum in every session. We've got a group that are constantly searching for improvement so I go into training knowing it's an opportunity to get better. I tell myself 'don't waste a day.'

"The senior players have given me the same message -- Milly [James Milner] especially. He always says I should make the most of my talent and get everything out of the game that I can because it all goes so quickly.

"I don't want to look back with regrets. I don't want to think I could have been a better player, that I could've put in more effort."

The Scouser, who finally has a fan chant that references his local heritage, speaks with such authority on the responsibility he feels to win. Having repeatedly declared his ambition to captain his boyhood club in the future, such comments offer a snapshot of someone who is capable, too. "We're at a place where we demand silverware from ourselves," he says. "It's not something we shy away from or are scared of: we're one of the best sides in the world. We can't put too much pressure on our first major season of competing on two big fronts, but ultimately, it's the objective we're striving towards.

"If we don't win a lot of silverware over the next few years then something has gone massively wrong, because with this manager, with the way the team is looking, with the way that we've been playing -- it's just incredible and we will keep going and going and going. That will be rewarded."

As a 6-year-old then already tied to Liverpool's Academy, Alexander-Arnold watched the magic of Istanbul -- "a night no one will forget and that showed the character of Liverpool, the team and the city" -- unfold in the family home, two minutes from Melwood. He remembers the intoxication of the victory parade, after Liverpool's comeback from 3-0 down against Milan, with the Reds winning on penalties, snaking past his three-bedroom duplex and for the first time in this interview, the "An Hour for Others" ambassador allows himself to drink in just how far he has come and how rapidly that has happened.

It is clear that he is not glowing on an individual level, but for the people he gets to share these experiences with. His mother, Diane, has been an "extension of Liverpool's coaching staff," while his father, Michael, has preached education, preparation and strategy. Older brother Tyler, four years his senior, is Alexander-Arnold's "deep-thinking, intelligent" manager. Marcell, three years his junior, was his roommate at the West Derby house, which they only moved out of when he was 17.

"I wouldn't be the person and player I am today without them," Alexander-Arnold says. "I'd be a million miles away from it. They've been so supportive and influential -- and this is no exaggeration -- they have sacrificed everything for me. They have sacrificed themselves: their dreams and their hopes so they could make mine a reality. They've been there for me when times have been hard, when I've been down. And they've celebrated the happiest moments with me as well.

"I never want that to change. I absolutely love going home to them and just being Trent."

Alexander-Arnold thinks about "his people" too. The ones who, like him, devote themselves to Liverpool -- albeit on the terraces. He is fiercely proud of being Scouse and relishes representing his city on a worldwide stage. "There's a difference to this place," he says. "People who aren't from Liverpool probably think we're over the top, but that's because we're really passionate about the things we love. We stand united on important issues and we fight for what we believe in with everything we've got."

He has a tight bond with those who flock to Anfield, realising they possess the power to lift Liverpool and act as kryptonite even to the game's greatest teams and players.

"Without the fans, what we did against Barcelona would have been an impossible task to pull off," Alexander-Arnold says. "The performance was a thank you to them, to show them they are special, that they do make a difference. It was appreciation for every single individual that comes to watch us, that gives up their time and their money to support us around the country and the continent, that love this club and believe in it even during tough times. And for the supporters who can't get to the matches, but wake up at strange times and go out of their way to follow us throughout a season."

The biggest show of gratitude would be Liverpool turning almost into an absolute in Madrid, soaked in champagne and confetti as they pass around the European Cup.

"This time we know what it's all about, we understand everything around the game so we'll be more prepared in that respect," Alexander-Arnold says.

"We're a more complete team. During the course of this season, we've shown a variety of ways to win and to conduct ourselves. When we score first, we're very hard to break down. If we need a late goal, we can produce it. If we need to manage a period of a game and take the sting out of it, we know what to do.

"If we're not at 100 percent, Spurs can hurt us. But we will be leaving everything we've got on that pitch."

MADRID -- The only thing left to settle for the European club season before the summer is the Champions League, and much like the Europa League final, it's an all-English affair in Madrid as Liverpool take on Tottenham. Who will begin their holidays with a trophy and who will spend the offseason wondering what could have been?

Here is what you need to know ahead of Saturday's game, which kicks off at 3 p.m. ET (8 p.m. BST) and is set to be played in hot temperatures.

- Reddy: Alexander-Arnold's road from dreamer to record breaker
- Ogden: Can Tottenham hang on to Pochettino after the final?
- Okwonga: Liverpool, Spurs' secret to success? Systems over stars

BACKSTORY: Liverpool arrive with the greater pedigree. They've won the European Cup five times; only Milan and Real Madrid have more. They reached the final only last season, when they were beaten by Real Madrid in Kiev, Ukraine, and they finished this season a single point off the pace in the Premier League behind Manchester City.

Contrast this with Tottenham. Only Michel Vorm, their third-choice goalkeeper, was even born the most recent time they were in a European final of any kind: the 1984 UEFA Cup final. That was also the most recent time they went beyond the quarterfinals in Europe. Spurs finished fourth in the Premier League and lost 2-1 both times they faced Liverpool this season, though the second clash, at Anfield, was a particularly tight, hard-fought affair that could have gone either way.

CARDIAC COMEBACKS, LIVERPOOL EDITION: If it wasn't for a dramatic victory over Napoli in their final group-stage game in December -- which saw them advance thanks to a tiebreaker -- Liverpool's Champions League quest would have ended before the knockout rounds. Plus, they pulled off the most dramatic of turnarounds at Anfield in the semifinal against Barcelona, winning 4-0 to wipe out a 3-0 first leg defeat.

CARDIAC COMEBACKS, TOTTENHAM EDITION: Tottenham were also headed out of the competition in December until Lucas Moura's goal, with five minutes to go away to Barcelona at the Camp Nou, in the final group game. Even then they only advanced thanks to the tiebreaker as well. Moura, of course, would prove decisive again in the semifinal second-leg comeback against Ajax, notching a hat trick including that buzzer-beater of a winner in injury time. Oh, and in the quarterfinal against heavily favored Manchester City, a dramatic Fernando Llorente deflected goal with minutes to go saw Spurs advance in a seesaw match.

NO SILVERWARE, NO PROBLEM: Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino famously said that trophies "build egos" but league finishes and year-on-year improvement build clubs. While Liverpool's Jurgen Klopp hasn't quite gone that far, he too is living proof that a manager's popularity rests on far more than delivering silverware. Both are immensely loved by their fan bases, yet Pochettino has never won a trophy in his managerial career and Klopp's last major title was in 2012, when he led Borussia Dortmund to the Bundesliga title. His record in finals isn't great, either, having lost six of seven.

Obviously, that will change for one of these two men Saturday ...

TACTICAL CONTRAST: Both managers believe in pressing, directness, high lines and speedy forwards, but Pochettino has been, often by necessity, the more pragmatic and shape-shifting of the two. Where Liverpool's lineup has been relatively settled for much of the season, Tottenham have been hammered by injuries at various stages. As a result, Pochettino has played a variety of lineups and schemes, and going into this game, it's hard to predict how Tottenham will take the field.

WORST-CASE SCENARIO FOLLOWING A DEFEAT, LIVERPOOL: They will be dealt a crushing psychological blow and folks start to murmur that, for all his touchy-feely, cult-of-personality schtick, maybe Klopp really does have issues in getting a team over the line. To miss out on the Premier League by one point and then to fail in Madrid after losing in last season's Champions League final, ending another season empty-handed ... it's a grim thought the players and fans will not want to entertain.

WORST-CASE SCENARIO FOLLOWING A DEFEAT, TOTTENHAM: Given Liverpool are huge favorites, a loss for Spurs wouldn't be a big deal. But there's intrigue here, too. Pochettino says he's taken Tottenham as far as he possibly can and demands further investment in the side in the summer. If it doesn't come -- and, in fact, contract malcontents Christian Eriksen and Toby Alderweireld leave -- Pochettino resigns, too. Not the best way to end a season filled with so much hope.

CENTER-FORWARD CONUNDRUM, LIVERPOOL: Roberto Firmino is an atypical central striker whose contribution is less about goals and more about his movement, passing and work off the ball. He is invaluable to Liverpool's system but suffered muscular injuries late in the season. Klopp says he's fit for the final, but you wonder how a layoff of nearly six weeks since his most recent start is going to affect him.

CENTER-FORWARD CONUNDRUM, TOTTENHAM: Spurs born and bred, Tottenham fans sing that their captain, Harry Kane, is "one of their own." He undoubtedly is, and what's more, he's one of the best center-forwards in the world, having scored 90 goals in the past three years in all competitions. While it appears he's fit again, his most recent appearance for the club was way back on April 9, so rust is bound to be a factor.

Kane's return also poses a dilemma for Pochettino: Does he leave out either Son Heung-Min or Moura, who were heroic in getting Spurs this far, or does he try to cram all three into his starting XI? On paper, it's a risky thing to do ... then again, he's done it five times in the Premier League this season. And each time, Spurs have won.

STAR MAN, LIVERPOOL: Mohamed Salah took Liverpool by storm last season, when he scored 44 goals after joining from Roma, and many expected him to regress to the mean this season. But while his numbers are down (he has 26 this campaign), he's still a constant scoring threat.

STAR MAN, TOTTENHAM: Christian Eriksen is the sort of player soccer connoisseurs love. Neither particularly quick nor athletic, he's hugely clever in finding space and unlocking opposition defenses and is always a threat from long range.

WHERE THE GAME WILL BE WON OR LOST: Both teams love to exploit the flanks, and Liverpool in particular have devastating fullback-winger combinations in Andy Robertson with Sadio Mane on the left and Trent Alexander-Arnold with Salah on the right. How Pochettino defends them will be key since both his full-backs (Kieran Trippier and Danny Rose) are more attack-minded. He might resort to a back three or, more likely, demand more work off the ball from his wide attacking players.

(Side note: Keep your eye on Robertson -- arguably the best crosser of the ball, he could place the ball on a dime in the most dangerous of attacking positions.)

X FACTOR, LIVERPOOL: Liverpool's style means that Virgil Van Dijk is often asked to do a lot of open-field defending. He's one of the best center-backs in the world, and how well he marshals the back four will have a huge impact; so too will the threat he poses at the other end on set pieces.

X FACTOR, TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR: Son has scored more key goals than you can shake a stick at this season, and his combination of strength, tactical nous and energy makes him both a nuisance (for opponents when in possession) and a threat to run behind (when opponents lose possession).

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- O'Hanlon: Alisson is the real reason Liverpool reached UCL final
- Champions League final: ESPN FC coverage

LIVERPOOL WILL WIN BECAUSE ... They simply have more top-to-bottom quality in the lineup, and two key Spurs players are returning from injury (not just Kane but Harry Winks, too). Many of the matchups favor them in different areas of the pitch, particularly out wide. What's more, they have a distinct edge in dead-ball situations -- their goal difference in the Premier League in this department was plus-15, to Spurs' plus-5 -- and that can be decisive in a one-off match.

TOTTENHAM WILL WIN BECAUSE ... Pochettino knows how to be pragmatic, and in a final, the old standby of soaking up pressure and hitting on the counter works well. There's also more pressure on the opposition, and Pochettino is a master at spinning the underdog tale to motivate his players.

PREDICTION: Liverpool 3-1 Tottenham

There's a reason why these two clubs were separated by 26 points in the Premier League this season. Liverpool have more of an edge to them this season -- witness Robertson tackling Lionel Messi at Anfield -- and Klopp has more tactical Plan B options, like Xherdan Shaqiri off the bench or Gini Wijnaldum ghosting into the front three, than he did last season.

ST. LOUIS -- Chicago Cubs manager Joe Maddon didn't hold back in his criticism of plate umpire Laz Diaz after what he thought was a missed strike-three call in the 10th inning of Friday night's 2-1 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals.

With a runner on second base and one out, Cubs reliever Dillon Maples threw a 3-2 slider against the Cardinals' Harrison Bader that appeared to land in the strike zone. According to ESPN Stats & Information research, the pitch is called a strike 92 percent of the time.

"Here's a guy ascending to the major leagues as a relief pitcher, doing a wonderful job, does his job, and doesn't get rewarded for it," Maddon said of Maples. "That's what kind of pisses me off, quite frankly."

Maples was a bit more subdued when he discussed the call afterward.

"I just made a close pitch and obviously didn't get the call I wanted," he said. "So I was a little upset, but you have to move on."

Unfortunately for Maples, he wasn't able to. He walked the next batter on four pitches to load the bases before being pulled. Steve Cishek came on in relief, but two pitches later, the game was over on a bases-loaded bloop single to the left-field corner by Matt Carpenter.

Maddon said he was most concerned with his pitcher's psyche after the missed call.

"That's the kind of thing that bums me out," he said. "To have pitches taken away from him in a crucial moment. ... Now my guy has to go home and feel bad about himself tonight. And it wasn't even a borderline pitch. It was a strike."

Maddon has never been in favor of robot umpires, and didn't waver Friday, even after losing a game on what potentially was a missed call.

"I'm still not advocating an electronic strike zone," Maddon said. "I'm advocating, 'Let's go, you cannot miss that pitch in that situation.'

"He gets that fellow right there, I think it's a pretty high percentage chance he gets the next one, too."

Maddon was also critical of the Cubs' offense, which is mired in an 0-for-25 slump with runners in scoring position, including 0-for-8 on Friday. According to ESPN Stats & Info research, the Cubs are the only team in baseball this season with multiple streaks of 0-for-25 or worse with runners in scoring position. Earlier in May, the team went 0-for-28.

"That stinks," Chicago third baseman Kris Bryant said. "We have to do something to turn it around. It would be nice if this was something we didn't have to talk about."

One thing Bryant couldn't avoid discussing was getting booed all night at Busch Stadium. Cardinals fans let him have it after Bryant called the city of St. Louis "boring" during a comedy sketch last winter.

The Cubs' star expected the boos -- but not necessarily from his own team. Led by first baseman Anthony Rizzo, Bryant's teammates decided to boo right along with the fans when Bryant came to the plate for the first time.

"It was pretty funny," Bryant said. "I wanted to look and see all who was doing it. ... I think he told the bullpen guys to get in on it."

Said Maddon: "I don't think I've ever roundly booed one of my own guys before. I can check that off the list."

As the night went on, the boos became louder each time Bryant batted -- not from the Cubs' dugout, of course, but from the stands.

"They were into it, for sure," Bryant said of Cardinals fans. "It was impressive."

Bryant has maintained he was joking when he called St. Louis boring, though he hesitated when asked what he did on his day off in the city Thursday.

"Do I have to answer that?" Bryant said, smiling. "I didn't do much. I rested. I recovered."

Bryant indicated there were no hard feelings, and that he appreciated Cardinals fans for sticking up for their team and city.

"The stuff I heard wasn't personal," Bryant said. "It was booing. That's what it should be about."

DETROIT – Tony Buffomante claimed the pole for the Trans-Am Series TA2 Muscle Car Challenge at Belle Isle Park on Friday afternoon.

Buffomante and Rafa Matos traded fast times lap after lap during the 30-minute qualifying session for Saturday’s race, as Matos put his newly wrapped No. 88 Lear 3Dimensional Services Group Chevrolet Camaro into qualifying service looking to claim pole.

After pulling in to allow his Pirelli tires to cool, the Illinois-native dropped to mid-pack in the quickly moving session. With a cleaner track and cooler tires, Buffomante’s Mustang turned rocket ship, as he flew back to the top in the final minutes to challenge Matos.

Buffomante set the fastest lap of the day at 1:35.492 seconds, only .288 of a second ahead of the reigning TA2 champion Matos. In 2018, Buffomante drove flag to flag in the Detroit Grand Prix opening TA2 round after winning the pole.

“It’s good to be back,” said Buffomante. “I haven’t raced since Sebring, so I was a little bit rusty, but these Mike Cope Racing guys continued to work on the cars, making them better each round. We went out those last few laps and did what we could do! A driver has to have a good handling car here and be confident in it, because those walls will come out and bite you. It will be an interesting race tomorrow. I’ll be uber-aggressive, since we’re going for wins so we’ll see how things shake out.”

Rookie driver Lawless Alan experienced his best qualifying so far this season. After a troubling couple of practice sessions earlier in the day, Alan finally adapted to the 2.35-mile circuit, sliding into a third-place start for Saturday’s 60-minute feature. This is the 18-year-old’s first time turning laps on a street course.

“The first two sessions, I didn’t have a clue, and I knew I needed to figure out something for qualifying,” said Alan. “I talked to my teammate Tony Buffomante about gearing and how he was picking up some of the corners, and I decided to modify what I was doing to fit that more closely. I picked up a lot of time from that, so I appreciate his help, though I think I could have gone even faster. Coming from short tracks, I’m all too familiar with the wall – and occasionally finding it – so once I got used to how the car handled on this bumpy track, the walls weren’t that much of an issue. As long as I knew I was going to missed them, I didn’t care how close I got.”

MALTA, N.Y. – For the third week in a row, the winning pass was made late in Albany-Saratoga Speedway’s DIRTcar modified feature.

This pass was for the win was the latest yet, as the starter was waving the checkered flag Friday night when Marc Johnson edged ahead of longtime leader Rocky Warner by inches.

Warner had led since lap five after charging from the third row to shoot down polesitter Matt Pupelo.  His journey to the lead was slowed by a red flag for a hard flip by John Bellinger, subbing for son Bodie, on lap two and a backstretch melee two laps later.

Once the green stayed out, Warner blew by Pupelo and ran off to nearly a half track lead, leaving Pupello and Neil Stratton to battle for second.

By halfway in the 35-lapper, the 11th starting Johnson had clawed his way to second and began taking huge bites out of Warner’s lead as they both worked through heavy traffic.

By lap 25 he was a turn behind and as the lapped counter hit 30, he was four car lengths behind the leader.  With the crowd up and roaring, Johnson lost ground in traffic, then got it back to draw even at the flagstand as they received the white flag.

Headed to turn three, Warner had the advantage again but a lapped car slowed his entry to the turn just enough that Johnson got alongside again.  They hit the frontstretch even but Johnson managed to pull the win out by inches as they hit the stripe.

“That was a hell of a race,” quipped the normally laid back Johnson. “The laps were ticking off and I didn’t know if I’d make it.  Rocky and I are good friends and I love seeing him win, but not tonight.”

Stratton was third ahead of 15th-starting Stewart Friesen, Pupelo, CG Morey, Kris Vernold, Matt DeLorenzo, Keith Flach and Brett Hearn.

Derek Bornt claimed the $1,000 Sportsman feature win, followed by Justin Buff and Connor Cleveland.  Pro Stock action saw Robbie Yetman, subbing for Chuckie Dumblewski, drive to the lead from deep in the pack to best Josh Coonradt and Dan Older.