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Curacao claim shock Gold Cup quarterfinal berth

Published in Soccer
Tuesday, 25 June 2019 23:28

Jurien Gaari scored a stoppage-time equaliser as Curacao held Jamaica 1-1 at the Gold Cup in Los Angeles on Tuesday and booked a surprise quarterfinal for the tiny Caribbean nation.

Curacao had a nervous wait after the early match in Group C, but their progression was confirmed when El Salvador crashed out with a 4-0 loss to Honduras in the late contest.

The latter result put Jamaica top of the group on five points, with Curacao, population 160,000, claiming second on goal difference ahead of third-placed El Salvador.

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Jamaica will play the runner-up of group D, either the United States or Panama, who are locked on six points ahead of their match on Wednesday, the U.S. with a vastly superior goal difference.

Curacao will meet the winner of Group D.

Shamar Nicholson scored for Jamaica in the 14th minute with quick reflexes but could have had a hat-trick by then, having already missed a point-blank header and sent a shot crashing against the post.

Jamaica squandered several other chances, while Jarchinio Antonia missed a great opportunity for Curacao late in the first half when he dragged a shot wide.

Just when it seemed Jamaica would not pay for their profligacy, Curacao equalised in the 93rd minute when defender Gaari smashed a 25-yard strike into the corner after being set up by Leandro Bacuna.

Curacao almost completed a smash-and-grab victory when substitute Elson Hooi missed a long-range shot by millimetres with virtually the last kick of the match.

Trump invites USWNT to WH after Rapinoe barb

Published in Soccer
Wednesday, 26 June 2019 09:22

President Donald Trump has invited the U.S. women's soccer team to the White House, regardless of whether they win the World Cup, after Megan Rapinoe's assertion that she is "not going to the f---ing White House."

Rapinoe, who has described herself as a "walking protest" to Trump's policies, made her recent comments about a potential White House visit to soccer magazine Eight by Eight.

"I'm not going to the f---ing White House," Rapinoe, the team's co-captain, said during the interview, which was posted to the magazine's Twitter account Tuesday. "No. I'm not going to the White House. We're not going to be invited. I doubt it."

Trump responded Wednesday morning with a series of tweets.

Trump called out Rapinoe earlier this week for her protests during the national anthem, telling The Hill in an interview Monday that he disagrees with her actions.

After Rapinoe started kneeling during the anthem, the U.S. Soccer Federation adopted a policy that requires players to stand during it. Now she stands, but she has been criticized for not singing and putting her hand over her heart like other players.

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Rapinoe, who scored two goals Monday against Spain to help the U.S. reach the World Cup quarterfinals, previously stated that she would "absolutely not" visit the White House in an interview last month with Sports Illustrated.

"I am not going to fake it, hobnob with the president, who is clearly against so many of the things that I am (for) and so many of the things that I actually am," Rapinoe told SI. "I have no interest in extending our platform to him."

Fellow U.S. star Alex Morgan also has said she would decline an invitation to the White House, telling Time Magazine that she doesn't "stand for a lot of things the current office stands for."

"We don't have to be put in this little box," Morgan told Time in an interview published last month. "There's the narrative that's been said hundreds of times about any sort of athlete who's spoken out politically. 'Stick to sports.' We're much more than that, OK?"

Rapinoe, Morgan and the U.S. team will face host nation France in a World Cup quarterfinal Friday in Paris. Rapinoe is set to address the media Thursday.

What kind of MLS expansion franchise would you build?

Published in Soccer
Wednesday, 26 June 2019 11:42

With six new franchises joining Major League Soccer since 2015, two more coming online next season and four more joining the league in the years to follow, expansion is a constant in North American soccer. On Saturday, two of the freshest faces in the league (in Minnesota United and FC Cincinnati) will meet (4 p.m. ET, ESPN), providing us a chance to compare the visions of two young ownership groups.

Looking at the strategies and success of MLS' latest expansion clubs, whose blueprint would you use if you were awarded a franchise of your own? Would you prioritize developing promising talent to sell at a profit like Atlanta United? Would you make a splash on the global transfer market like New York City did? Would you build a state-of-the-art stadium like Minnesota's Allianz Field?

Take our quiz below, detailing how you'd build your own expansion franchise from the ground up.

This is the most difficult offseason Chelsea will face in 16 years.

The five-time Premier League champions have sold star attacker Eden Hazard to Real Madrid for a fee starting at £90 million, and while the January capture of 20-year-old American winger Christian Pulisic for £57.6m will help soften the blow, Chelsea won't be able to make any further additions to supplement an aging squad. A transfer ban will prevent the club from signing any players from other clubs over the next 12 months, and while Chelsea are appealing the verdict, the club can't expect to throw around Roman Abramovich's money this summer.

Thankfully, there's an alternative. While the various Chelsea teams play and train in and around London, there is a shadow Chelsea side wearing different kits dispersed throughout Europe.

Every year, owner Roman Abramovich's club sends out dozens of players on loan, many of whom were signed without ever having much of a prayer of making regular appearances at Stamford Bridge. Just about every top-division club sends players out on loan, of course, but Chelsea have weaponized the system to build what amounts to their own player investment vehicle.

The Chelsea Loan Army has likely been a source of significant profit for the club, but it's about to become even more important. With Abramovich no longer a regular presence at home matches, plans to expand the Bridge delayed, and an impending two-window transfer ban, the club may end up depending on some of the players they would typically loan away. With the title-winning squad of 2016-17 aging and dismantled, Chelsea will need the Loan Army to keep the club in the top four.

Since the 2005 season began, Chelsea have sent players out on loan 450 times, or an average of just over 32 loans per season. Compare that to the other Big Six English clubs, who have averaged 20.6 loans per season over that same time frame, with Manchester City (389) the only other Big Six club to top 300 loans over that time frame. That gap is only growing wider; Chelsea has made 278 loans over the past six years against an average of 133 for the other top five sides. Chelsea has relied heavily upon loans to develop young talent for sale. Now they'll need to hope that those same young talents can supplement an aging roster facing a transfer ban.

Let's start by looking back at where this all started: the beginning of the Abramovich era.

The origins

It wasn't too long ago that Chelsea were actually strapped for cash. At the turn of the 21st century, they were one of the most indebted clubs in Europe thanks to a combination of significant wages, an inability to offload players in a temporarily depressed transfer market, and the interest payments on a £75m Eurobond to help develop Chelsea's ground.

By the spring of 2003, Chelsea were £90m in debt and forced to play two matches in 48 hours because they desperately needed the £600,000 from Sky's live coverage of a match at Stamford Bridge. Then-manager Claudio Ranieri was unable to spend any money on transfer fees that year, which was the last time Chelsea would go 12 months without spending any money on fees before their upcoming ban. Reports after the fact suggested Chelsea were about to default on their Eurobond and "plunge into financial crisis." Then Abramovich stepped in and transformed the club overnight, wiping those loans away.

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In an era before Financial Fair Play, there had never really been somebody like Abramovich running a Premier League team. Jack Walker had poured his own millions to win a title with Blackburn Rovers in 1994-95, and Mohamed Al-Fayed did the same with Fulham to help Chelsea's local rivals rise through the lower divisions to the Premier League, but Abramovich's spending utterly transformed the league.

Over the next two years, Abramovich spent £302m on players while making just under £4 million on sales, according to the transfer fees quoted on the website Transfermarkt. The difference amounts to £298 million, which would be equivalent to £450m in 2018 after accounting for inflation. Abramovich spent so much on West Ham's players alone that the Russian reportedly saved the Hammers from going out of business.

Unsurprisingly, Abramovich also made management changes. He sacked Ranieri after one season and replaced him with Jose Mourinho, fresh off a Champions League title with Porto. Mourinho promptly won the Premier League in his first try. For recruitment, Chelsea added legendary scout Piet de Visser before paying around £8m to poach Frank Arnesen away from Tottenham Hotspur after a "purely social" meeting on Abramovich's yacht in June 2005.

With the first team settled and Arnesen holding a reputation as an excellent scout of young talent from his time at PSV and Spurs, it's clear his job was to identify would-be stars and get them to Chelsea before they became prohibitively expensive. It didn't necessarily go well -- Arnesen would become embroiled in multiple tap-up scandals and would eventually leave the club in 2010 -- but the Chelsea Loan Army begins here.

The brigade

In general, Chelsea ship out three different sorts of players on loan each year.

Academy products. While Chelsea can point to John Terry in the past and the hyphenated likes of Callum Hudson-Odoi and Ruben Loftus-Cheek as recent graduates, most of their academy products typically end up struggling to make the grade and often go out on loan.

This includes would-be stars like Josh McEachern and Michael Mancienne, who were often thought of as future Chelsea first-teamers before making moves elsewhere, as well as future Premier League starters like Neil Etheridge, Nathaniel Chalobah and Jack Cork. The latter went on seven different loans with six different clubs before being sold to Southampton for just over £750,000. Now, Transfermarkt projects Cork's transfer value to be somewhere around £15m.

Chelsea have generally not profited a huge amount from selling academy talent, with the £9m they're about to net from Ola Aina's transfer to Torino as a notable exception. They rejected a reported £35m offer from Bayern Munich for Hudson-Odoi before the 18-year-old tore his Achilles, although that move could still be on over the summer if Hudson-Odoi doesn't sign a new deal with the club.

Chelsea have also released several talented academy products, including future Welsh international Chris Mepham, who was let go at 15 before eventually sealing a £12m transfer to Bournemouth. One of the drawbacks of signing dozens of young players without giving them time in your first team is that you struggle to identify who will make the grade or are unable to keep the transcendent talents around, as we'll see in some moves Chelsea would be happy to later on take back.

Established players on the fringes of the first team. Early in the Abramovich era, this was the domain of world superstars like Hernan Crespo, Juan Sebastian Veron and even Andrei Shevchenko after they failed to impress. In more recent years, veterans like Victor Moses and Loic Remy have left on loan.

More often, though, this has been a home for young players who broke out in another country and were brought directly into the first team on a large fee, only to lose their place and leave to further their development. Usually, this coincided with a change in manager given that Chelsea have gone through 12 different managerial appointments in Abramovich's 16 years at the helm.

The most notable of these young players, as any Chelsea supporter will bemoan, is Mohamed Salah. Chelsea signed the Egyptian from Basel for £14.9m in the winter of 2014 after Salah, 21 at the time, scored the only goal in a 1-0 Champions League win over the Blues. Salah then played 501 minutes with the first team during the second half of the season, scoring twice, but when Mourinho observed that the Premier League was too much for Salah, he sent him on loan to Fiorentina and then the following year to Roma, who took up their option to buy Salah for £15m after the season. You know how things have gone since then.

There are several current players on the books who would fit into this category, including Michy Batshuayi, Kurt Zouma and Abdul Rahman. It might feel as if their times at Chelsea are finished but remember that Moses spent three years on loan at Liverpool, Stoke, and West Ham before eventually finding his place under Antonio Conte and then being loaned again when Maurizio Sarri came in last season.

Young players signed and sent on loans, often over and over again. This third group of Chelsea loanees is by far the largest and the most unique element of their Loan Army. Using Transfermarkt data, I can find exactly 100 Chelsea players who were signed from another club at a young age since the summer of 2005; 46 of those players went on two or more loans during their time with the club and 27 of them went on loan at least four different times.

The ultimate example of Chelsea's loan policy is goalkeeper Matej Delac. After an impressive debut season, the Croatian keeper was signed from Inter Zapresic in the summer of 2010 for £2.7m. As an 18-year-old, nobody expected Delac to break through to a Chelsea first team with Petr Cech in goal, but the 6-foot-3 keeper surely couldn't have figured what would happen next.

Delac spent eight years at Chelsea. He went on loan 10 times while making more children (one) than appearances for Chelsea (zero). Seven times, Delac went to preseason training with Chelsea only to leave on loan shortly thereafter. By the time Delac left for AC Horsens on a free transfer in the summer of 2018, he was Chelsea's longest-tenured player without ever once suiting up for the club in a competitive match.

You can imagine how strange this must have been for him. Chelsea have some infrastructure to support their loanees -- they've had Eddie Newton and Joe Edwards as "loan technical coaches" at different points, and there are suggestions former club legend Claude Makelele is in line to take over the job next -- but these are players who essentially have little say in where they're going to play from year to year if they want to grow during their prime years as footballers. The closest contact the players might have with the club or one another is a WhatsApp text group.

Delac is the most extreme example, but he's hardly the only one. Joao Rodriguez signed from Quindio in 2012 and went on loan nine times in seven years across six different countries without making a Chelsea appearance. He was released in January.

Among slightly more notable players, Ryan Bertrand was signed from Gillingham's academy as a 16-year-old in 2005 and went on loan seven times around starting for Chelsea in a Champions League final before eventually leaving for Southampton in a £12m deal. Patrick Bamford and current Chelsea players Tomas Kalas and Kenneth Omeruo also hit the seven-loan mark, although Kalas (Bristol City, Rangers) and Omeruo (Leganes) are both rumored to be leaving Chelsea this offseason.

The most significant players to join this branch of the Army are three global football superstars, all Belgian players signed out of the Jupiler League.

During the summer 2011 transfer window, Chelsea shelled out £13.5m for 18-year-old Anderlecht striker Romelu Lukaku, who had scored 31 goals in the league over the previous two seasons. They also paid a little over £8m for 19-year-old keeper Thibaut Courtois, who had just led Genk to a league title. During the subsequent winter window, Chelsea returned to Genk and paid an additional £7.2m for 21-year-old Kevin de Bruyne, who went back to Genk on loan for the remainder of the campaign.

None of those three are still with the club. Lukaku played 199 minutes in the Premier League with Chelsea as well as loans to West Bromwich Albion and Everton, with the latter signing him permanently for £31.8m. De Bruyne made it into only 132 minutes of action before being loaned to Werder Bremen, and when he failed to impress Mourinho upon his return, Chelsea sold De Bruyne to Wolfsburg for £22m.

Courtois had the longest career with Chelsea, of course, but even the goalkeeper spent nearly as much time on loan with Atletico Madrid as he did with his parent club. Courtois spent three seasons on loan with Atleti -- and ended up playing against Chelsea in the Champions League when a poison pill of £2.5m per match was deemed illegal -- before making his way back to Chelsea to replace Cech. Courtois spent four years with the Blues before forcing his way into a transfer back to Madrid, this time with Real, for £31.5m.

Were these transfers successful? From the financial side, and in the short term, absolutely. Chelsea paid about £28.8m for these three players and sold them for £85.3m, making a profit of £56.5m. In the long term, though, Everton and Wolfsburg sold Lukaku and de Bruyne to the two Manchester clubs for slightly more than £161m in combined transfer fees, far more than Chelsea netted on their own sales.

From a football perspective, it's hard to argue Chelsea wouldn't have been better off holding onto the three Belgian stars and building their team around them and Eden Hazard, whom the club also sold to Real earlier this month. It's easy to blame Mourinho for not valuing De Bruyne and Salah, but while the Portuguese manager certainly deserves criticism, it's also realistic to point out just how difficult it can be to figure out who is going to make the leap from good to great in their early 20s.

We'll see this echoed in the big picture about Chelsea's loanees.

The profits

If we're just looking at that third group of talent, players signed by Chelsea at a young age who went out on loan before becoming regulars in the Chelsea first team, the returns are extraordinary.

Chelsea signed 100 such players and paid a total of £127.3m to bring them to London. When they left, Chelsea took home £193.6m in transfer fees, for a cool £66.3m profit. In addition, Transfermarkt values the players left on Chelsea's books who qualify for that third group as worth £94.6m, including Andreas Christensen (£27m) and the trio of Ethan Ampadu, Marco van Ginkel, and Mario Pasalic, each of whom are valued at £9m. Add in those players and Chelsea have turned a profit of more than £160m in cash and player value on their speculative transfer strategy.

Admittedly, calculating the value of this strategy isn't as simple as counting up Transfermarkt estimates. Some players don't have transfer fees listed, although they're typically more obscure and less likely to have inspired significant sums. More notably, Chelsea have been responsible for paying the wages of these players, which can add up quickly. It's unclear whether Chelsea was able to get the loaning clubs to pay their players' wages when they left, which could make for a significant difference.

On the other hand, while Transfermarkt has some loan fee estimates, there's far less information on loan fees than there are on permanent transfers. I didn't include loan fees in my calculations. Those fees could turn out to be significant; take Charly Musonda's loan to Celtic, which reportedly saw the Scottish champions pay £6m in fees and 100% of Musonda's wages of £40,000 per week. If Chelsea are paying Musonda £45,000 per week to sit on their bench and train in Cobham, they're losing more than £2m per year on his transfer.

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He's surely not the only Chelsea loanee subject to meaningful wages and/or loan fees, which makes this analysis incomplete. Bamford, for one, was reportedly on £40,000 per week and insisted that would-be loaning clubs set him up with Sky Sports in his temporary accommodations. It's unclear whether Chelsea were paying for that during his time with the club.

Chelsea's work also ended up creating transfer opportunities for other clubs. The likes of Fabio Borini, Lassana Diarra, Scott Sinclair and Thorgan Hazard all left the club for modest fees before sealing big-money moves elsewhere. Nemanja Matic was sold to Benfica as a £4.5m makeweight in the David Luiz swap, only for Chelsea to pay £22.5m to bring him back two-and-a-half years later.

Presumably, Chelsea would have secured sell-on fees for some of their departing youngsters, which also isn't factored into our financial analysis, but the club clearly would like to have kept some of those youngsters going on loan before for more money years later.

At the same time, there has been an obvious disconnect between this strategy and actually promoting those players into the first team. Chelsea haven't trusted their young players to actually make the step up, not too unusual among big English clubs, even when the future superstars I've mentioned managed to do so immediately after leaving. During the 2018 season, only two Chelsea players who were signed at a young age and went out on loan as members of the club played at least 500 minutes for the Blues in the Premier League: Loftus-Cheek and Christensen, neither of whom were regular starters. (Christensen started each of Chelsea's 15 Europa League appearances, but strangely started only six times in the Premier League.)

The change

One player who might spur change throughout the market is Jadon Sancho. City failed to open up a spot on the wing for Sancho and while a similarly skilled player in years past might have waited his turn or gone on a series of loans, Sancho instead refused to sign a contract extension. City subsequently sold Sancho in 2017 to Dortmund for just over £7m and in his second season with the club, Sancho scored 12 goals and 14 assists while stealing a starting spot away from Christian Pulisic, who chose to move to Chelsea. Transfermarkt now estimates that Sancho is worth £90m.

As teams have gotten smarter and become more concerned with resale value, teenagers and players in their early 20s have become more valuable to retain and expensive to acquire. In the 1992-93 season, which was the first year of the Premier League, the 20 largest permanent transfers acquired players whose average age was 25.4 years old. Last season, that same figure was down to 23.6 years old.

Prospects like Musonda and Bamford were able to command significant wages and meaningful loan fees before getting into the Chelsea first team. If that continues to be the case, Chelsea will have to change their model. Young players might not be as willing to wait in the reserves for an opportunity or go on a series of loans when the alternative is to move to another league and play competitive football on a weekly basis. The likes of Brahim Diaz have followed in Sancho's footsteps by leaving for foreign clubs, and Hudson-Odoi might be next.

Chelsea have enjoyed financial success with their Loan Army, but they might need to actually start giving their top young talents a clear path to first-team football if they want them to stick around. For several reasons, 2019 is likely to be a year of transition for the club and their youth philosophy.

The future

While Chelsea signed the aforementioned Pulisic in January and immediately loaned him back to Dortmund for the remainder of the season, the American is set to be Chelsea's last notable signing for the next 12 months. Chelsea is appealing a two-window transfer ban laid down by FIFA for 29 incidences of breaching Article 19, which deals specifically with players under the age of 18.

In other words, Chelsea's transfer ban is probably driven by this very transfer model although it seems as if there should be a way to do something such as this legally. Given that the club made hundreds of millions of dollars on transfer fees in the process, they might also have seen a possible two-window transfer ban as an acceptable punishment for tapping up young talent. Other big clubs have dealt with bans, including both Barcelona and Real Madrid.

Of the 20 players who played 100 or more minutes during the title-winning season in 2016-17, six are left, and the only one who won't turn 30 before the 2019 season begins is N'Golo Kante. The club has brought in younger players since, but Antonio Rudiger might miss the start of the season after undergoing knee surgery, while both Hudson-Odoi and Loftus-Cheek have to overcome serious Achilles injuries. Jorginho might follow Sarri back to Italy.

Most importantly, Chelsea sold Hazard to Real. No other player on their team managed more than eight goals a season ago, and while they added Pulisic to take over Hazard's spot on the left wing, he isn't the same caliber of player as the Belgian superstar. The names Chelsea would rely upon for goals -- Olivier Giroud, Pedro or the possible loan return of Gonzalo Higuain -- are past their prime.

Chelsea also need to find a manager after essentially selling Sarri back to Italy for £5m after one difficult-if-successful season. As a club with a penchant for firing managers and no way to upgrade an aging side for 12 months, you can understand why there hasn't been serious interest among the world's most promising managerial candidates. The most frequently rumored candidate is club legend Frank Lampard, whose managerial debut with Derby last year took them within one game of the Premier League. Lampard's assistant was fellow former Blue Jody Morris, who was previously the coach of Chelsea's Under-18 team. Guess where they might look for new talent in the middle of a transfer ban.

The new (or returning) faces

Mason Mount. You have to start with the player who played in the Lampard role while learning from the man himself in the Midlands last season. The comparisons between the two are perhaps a little generous to the 20-year-old, but Mount racked up nine goals and four assists in 3,321 minutes for Derby last season, throwing in two goals in the League Cup for good measure. Assuming that Chelsea are without Loftus-Cheek to start next season, Mount could figure in the squad rotation alongside Ross Barkley as creative options in midfield.

Fikayo Tomori. Chelsea's other Derby loanee, Tomori was named Derby's Player of the Year out of central defense. The 21-year-old took a leap forward in his first full season away from Cobham, using his pace and anticipation to make 702 defensive interventions, which ranked fourth in the division. Central defense isn't quite as pressing of a concern for Chelsea at the moment, though, and Tomori might be a year away from serious first-team consideration.

Kurt Zouma. Signed as a 19-year-old from Saint-Etienne for £12m and inserted into the first team, Zouma struggled and lost his place when Antonio Conte came to town. Chelsea signed Zouma to an extension and then shipped the Frenchman off on loan to Stoke and then Everton, collecting nearly £16m in loan fees in the process. Now 24, Zouma improved during his time on Merseyside, and Everton seem interested in signing Zouma on a permanent transfer.

Under normal circumstances, it might make sense for Zouma to follow in Lukaku's footsteps and make his move to Everton permanent. With Rudiger injured and David Luiz now 32, Chelsea probably will want to bring Zouma back to Stamford Bridge to play alongside Christensen. Even if he's not a regular starter, Chelsea will need depth given their participation in four different competitions over the course of the year. If Zouma does leave, it could indicate Chelsea plans to keep Tomori in the fold.

Tiemoue Bakayoko. A prized capture two years ago from Monaco at £36m, Bakayoko was marginalized by the arrival of Jorginho and shipped off to Milan on a year-long loan. Milan was reportedly so frustrated by Bakayoko in the fall that they considered returning him to Chelsea early, but the Frenchman turned things around and began to impress during his year in Italy. Milan doesn't seem likely to pick up their £31.2m option to buy, and if Chelsea do sell Jorginho, Bakayoko probably would figure into the Blues' midfield rotation. If Jorginho stays, Chelsea could look to loan or sell Bakayoko permanently.

Michy Batshuayi. Still just 25, Batshuayi has now played for five clubs since the beginning of 2016. The Belgian was quietly productive during his initial run with Chelsea, scoring nine goals in 715 minutes across the Premier League and Champions League, but when Batshuayi failed to impress Conte, he was sent on loan to Dortmund during the January 2018 transfer window and promptly scored nine goals in 1,168 minutes.

Batshuayi's 2018-19 was less impressive. He scored only once in 522 minutes with Valencia before his loan was cut short, then chipped in with five goals in 757 minutes for Crystal Palace. Add those figures up and he has scored 24 goals in about 35 games' worth of minutes at the top level. Batshuayi is clearly a capable scorer, but it remains to be seen if he'd be preferred over someone like Giroud, who signed an extension to stay with Chelsea.

Tammy Abraham. Lampard might also lean on his Chelsea and Championship roots to prefer Abraham, who scored 26 goals for Aston Villa in the Championship after racking up 23 for Bristol City during the 2016-17 season. There might be reasonable concerns about Abraham's ability to score at the highest level, given that he scored only five goals in 1,721 Premier League minutes while on loan to Swansea during the 2017-18 campaign, but Abraham's still only 21 and just scored for fun in a lengthy slog of a league. It seems more likely that Chelsea will consider selling Batshuayi while pushing Abraham into the first team, especially if Lampard has a say.

Reece James. Another one of the Championship favorites, James impressed as Wigan's right-back last year. The 19-year-old chipped in from a defensive role with three goals and three assists, and he was named Whoscored's man of the match seven times, a figure topped by only two players. Like Tomori, James won his club's Player of the Year award.

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Marcotti explains why Lampard is 'low risk' for Chelsea

Gab Marcotti says similarities between Frank Lampard and Maurizio Sarri's style's of play would make the Derby County manager a low-risk signing for the Blues.

James is extremely likely to start the season with Chelsea, although it will sadly be for the wrong reasons as he suffered an ankle injury while playing for the England under-20 team and is expected to miss three months. James seems to be in line to compete as the club's eventual replacement for Cesar Azpilicueta, but if the injury keeps him out for months, Chelsea might prefer to send James out on loan in the January window and continue to use Azpilicueta and Davide Zappacosta at right-back instead.

So, will Chelsea be OK next season?

It's easy to look at Chelsea's prospects for 2019-20 and project doom and gloom. They've lost one of the best players in the history of their club, and arguably the best player in the Premier League, and replaced him with a 20-year-old who spent most of the year as a reserve for Dortmund. Their two brightest young stars snapped their Achilles and the club can't sign anyone for 12 months in a league where virtually every one of their rivals for a Champions League berth are likely to spend heavily this summer.

Oh, and if they hire Lampard, they'll have a manager who has all of one year of experience. The owner who bankrolled their success doesn't have an English visa and is no longer paying for his corporate box at Stamford Bridge.

The last time Chelsea were entering a less auspicious offseason was in the summer of 2003, when they were bailed out by Abramovich and turned into the most fascinating club in England. They won't have the same sort of dramatic upheaval this offseason, but as Sancho's success in Germany showed, you can't know whether your prospects are capable of excelling unless you actually give them a shot in the first team. After years of using their checkbook and scouting system to find talent for other teams, Chelsea might finally reap the benefits of their Loan Army for themselves this season.

Their opponents are still technically battling for one of those semi-final spots, but for South Africa the post-mortem has already begun. How did two years of intense planning, which featured serious blooding of hopefuls and all manner of contingencies, including letting David Miller keep for a few games in case Quinton de Kock got injured - how did all that manifest in this train wreck of a campaign?

And what does it mean now that the dream is dead? What happens to the coaches and senior players? South Africa had had success in ODIs in the past year, winning five successive bilateral series, but does that mean anything without a half-decent World Cup to show for it?

Head coach Ottis Gibson's contract runs to September. Who deserves to stay as they attempt to build for the next cycle?

"It's a bit tough for all of us - we haven't performed as well as we would have liked and we have to suffer the consequences of that," assistant coach Malibongwe Maketa said ahead of the match in Durham against Sri Lanka. "We are willing to take responsibility, but hopefully we will be judged on more than what we have done here. A lot of good work was done before. Hopefully that counts for something.

"If heads do roll then we can look back and say we've given it our best shot. We came here to win and it hasn't happened. We want to make sure we leave Cricket South Africa in a better place than when we took over. It might not look like it now, but we think we have contributed."

Although coaching staff are clearly thinking about their jobs right now, there are still two games to play before South Africa return home to face consequences. For the likes of Imran Tahir and JP Duminy, who had announced their ODI retirements before the tournament, the games against Sri Lanka and Australia are a chance to bid farewell on at least a mildly pleasant note. The remainder are attempting to salvage pride and stem negativity.

Senior players - Hashim Amla and Faf du Plessis in particular - may find themselves under the microscope when the tournament ends regardless of what happens in these games. But two wins, perhaps, would temper the scrutiny a little.

"What's left to play for is really ourselves," Maketa said. "We've dedicated the last two years to coming here and win the tournament. We can't let two weeks' work reflect badly on us. We need to make sure we really finish strong. As much as we're playing for millions of people back home. We need to make sure we walk away from this World Cup and justify why we're here.

"The way we see ourselves representing our country, we want to make sure that we finish off on a high. We've got a few players who are finishing after this World Cup. Two victories here will go a long way, rather than just one victory. That will be our legacy of the World Cup, and we don't want to let ourselves down."

Joe Root has admitted England's batsmen "haven't adapted" to the surfaces they have encountered in the World Cup. England have lost their last two matches to leave their hopes of progressing to the semi-finals uncertain. In both cases, they have failed to chase down targets that might, in recent years, have appeared relatively modest.

Now they are in a position where they may have to win both their final group matches, against India on Sunday and New Zealand on Wednesday, to ensure their qualification.

Root, who has led the way with the bat for his team, conceded that pitches in the tournament have not been as good for batting as England expected. But while he accepted there are "a number of things we could have done slightly better" in the campaign to date, he still felt they were "more than capable" of making it into the last four.

"If you look at some of the par scores throughout this tournament, they have been very different to when we have played in bilateral series," Root said. "We have turned up to some venues in this tournament and things have been quite different to when we have played one-day series there in the past.

"We haven't necessarily adapted as well as we could have. It is frustrating and very disappointing that we have played in the manner we have in the last two games. There are a number of things we could have done slightly better.

"I just don't think we have played as well as we can. We have made some basic errors that we want to put right in the next two games. But I strongly believe we are more than capable of qualifying for the semi-finals. We have played both these opposition in the recent past and had huge success. So we have got to look at that, the other stuff we have done well throughout the competition and put it all together."

England defeated India 2-1 in an ODI series at home last summer, and New Zealand 3-2 away in 2017-18. But while they have enjoyed a number of decent individual performances with the bat - notably, Ben Stokes passed 80 in the defeats to Sri Lanka and Australia - Root knows they will have to play better in partnerships if they are to win their next two games. And he urged his side to keep calm and continue to believe in themselves and the methods that helped them enjoy success in recent times.

"When we have done well, we have had two substantial partnerships through the chase," Root said. "But we haven't really managed that in this tournament. We haven't had two guys who have batted for a long enough period of time - for 20 or 25 overs - to put the opposition under pressure. And generally, when we have chased, that is what has served us well.

"We have to be very calm about how we approach the next couple of games. The games themselves might get quite emotional, especially the atmosphere at Edgbaston, so being very clear and precise about the threats the opposition pose is important. And remembering how we look both individually and collectively when we are at our best. Being really strong on the basic stuff has served us well for a long period of time.

"It is almost like we see these two games as quarter-finals which, in a way, should serve us really well. You still have to win big games at some stage in the tournament if you are going to go on and win it. Ours have just come a bit sooner than expected.

"And it doesn't really matter how you get there - to the semi-finals - but when you do, that's when the tournament really starts to kick in."

The reverse of that, of course, is that England could be out before their own World Cup does start to "kick in". But as Root points out, their fate is still in their own hands. And if they can adapt better at Edgbaston on Sunday, they can still progress.

Glamorgan 287 (Selman 73, Labuschagne 65) and 188 for 6 (Labuschagne 82) beat Gloucestershire 313 (Dent 105, Hammond 61, Hogan 3-51) and 161 (Hogan 4-22) by four wickets

Michael Hogan claimed match figures of 7 for 73 as Glamorgan moved to the top of the Specsavers Championship Division Two table with a four-wicket victory over Gloucestershire at Bristol. Hogan added figures of 4 for 22 to his three first-innings wickets to help bowl out the home side for 161 from an overnight 41 for 2.

Gloucestershire lost their last five wickets for just 16 runs after lunch, Graham Wagg taking two of them. James Bracey and Benny Howell each made 33, but a target of 188 from 49 overs made the visitors clear favourites.

So it proved, Marnus Labuschagne continuing his prolific season with 82 and Billy Root contributing 31 as Glamorgan reached 188 for 6 with 6.5 overs to spare. They took 20 points to Gloucestershire's six and overtake Lancashire at the summit of Division Two by a single point, having played one more game.

A draw looked the most likely outcome when the hosts led by 67 at the start of play. But soon both overnight batsmen were out as Hogan had Gareth Roderick caught at second slip for 20 and Bracey's innings was ended when he was lbw to a full delivery from Dan Douthwaite. Jack Taylor made 16 before becoming another leg-before victim, this time for David Lloyd, who then spilled a straightforward catch at first slip to give Howell a life off Marchant de Lange with the score 129 for 5.

Gloucestershire were only 157 ahead at lunch and it looked a potentially costly error. Howell, who had also survived a tougher chance to Nic Selman at second slip, was unbeaten on 27 at the interval. But Lloyd soon atoned. With the total on 145 and the lead 171, he produced a sharp catch to his left to dismiss Ryan Higgins for 6 and give Hogan his third wicket.

Soon it was 149 for 7 as Hogan bowled Howell. David Payne was caught behind trying to withdraw the bat from a delivery by Wagg, who then had Josh Shaw caught at point off a loose shot.

Joined by last man Matt Taylor, Graeme van Buuren went on the attack and edged a catch behind the ball after pulling de Lange for four. Gloucestershire's tail had offered little resistance and, with the sun breaking through, Glamorgan set about their second innings in some of the best batting conditions of the match.

Selman fell cheaply, caught by Jack Taylor at point, cutting at a short ball from Payne. But Labuschagne and Charlie Hemphrey calmed any nerves in the visiting dressing room by adding 50 before tea.

Glamorgan still needed another 132 off 36 overs. In the final session Hemphrey was brilliantly caught by Chris Dent, diving forward at cover, off Shaw, without adding to his score of 15. But Labuschagne moved confidently to his second half-century of the match off 61 balls, with seven fours, before Lloyd was bowled by Matt Taylor off an under edge for 8 with the score on 85.

Not afraid to dance down the wicket to the seamers, Labuschagne showed why he is comfortably the leading run-maker in the Championship this season.

Root, dropped at mid-off by Matt Taylor off van Buuren, was mortified to lift Shaw straight to cover and when Labuschagne was caught behind off the tireless Payne, 35 were still required.

Douthwaite fell to Shaw near the end, but the experienced Wagg calmly saw Glamorgan home. It was Gloucestershire's first defeat in the competition since August last year, a run of 11 games unbeaten.

Babar, Haris and Shaheen's genius keep Pakistan alive

Published in Cricket
Wednesday, 26 June 2019 12:34

Pakistan 241 for 4 (Babar 101*, Sohail 68) beat New Zealand 237 for 6 (Neesham 97*, de Grandhomme 64, Shaheen Afridi 3-28) by six wickets
As it happened

It is incredible how Pakistan find ways of roaring back from hopeless situations. They were written off only a week earlier, languishing at ninth position with a solitary win in five games. They were yet to crack a chase - both above 330 - in two attempts this World Cup. Then when it seemed as if they would finally restrict an opponent to below 300 - New Zealand were 83 for 5 in the 27th over - Colin de Grandhomme (64) and James Neesham (97 not out) put together the side's best sixth-wicket stand in World Cup history to haul them back.

Then chasing 238, against two fast bowlers upfront - one who wickedly swings the ball and another who is often at their throat at 150 clicks - they lost Fakhar Zaman and Imam-ul-Haq. The experienced Mohammad Hafeez played and missed, beaten on the inside and outside. Then, he was hit on the helmet by Lockie Ferguson. Who really gave them a chance?

Watch on Hotstar (India only): Neesham's 97 not out

Yet, amid the chaos, they found some calm in Babar Azam, who sealed victory with an unbeaten tenth ODI century, a pristine 101 that had a capacity crowd, a majority of it Pakistan fans, crooning with 'oohs and aahs'. In Haris Sohail, he found an invaluable ally, the pair conjuring an 126-run fourth-wicket stand to see Pakistan home with five balls to spare. Haris' contribution a noteworthy 68 that built on the 89 against South Africa at Lord's. Pakistan are now within two wins of a possible semi-final berth that will have their fans talking of the eerie similarities between 1992 and 2019 for at least another week.

For large parts of their chase, it was as if they were battling to save a game on a fifth-day surface. Hafeez had a leg gully for the short ball, deep square for the hook or pull, three slips for his open-faced pokes. This was serious pressure, and yet from time-to-time, as if to ask what the fuss was all about, he played delightful pull shots and oozed lazy Rohit Sharma-like elegance in gliding the ball behind point.

Babar showed patience early on, and exhibited enough class to keep putting the bad ball away. When he was attacked with short balls, he was happy to let go of both his ego and ignore them. The pair set out to rebuild the chase, least perturbed with the asking rate, focusing on milking runs and ensuring they wouldn't lose too many wickets going into the last 20 overs, where teams believe they can chase down 150 if it comes to that. Here they only needed 110.

ALSO READ: Sharda Ugra on Babar Azam, who beats himself up just to get better

Even as this strategy played out, New Zealand kept looking to pick up wickets. Invariably, this strategy brings with it the risk of leaking runs. As Mitchell Santner came on, there was grip and square turn. Suddenly, the two batsmen, tailor-made for such surfaces, struggled and New Zealand may have just begun to wonder if they had erred by not picking Ish Sodhi, the legspinner. This was evident when Kane Williamson brought himself on, but he struck gold immediately as Hafeez had a brain fade moment and holed out to deep midwicket.

It broke a 66-run stand that allowed Pakistan to get back on track after the two early strikes threatened to blow the lid off their chase. Fortunately for them, Babar wasn't going to give it away. At the other end, Haris attacked spin and pace alike, muscling Santner first and later the returning Boult for sixes even as Williamson tried his last roll of the dice. This partnership proved to be the ice to Shaheen Afridi's fire earlier in the day, when he ripped the heart out of New Zealand's batting in a searing spell after being introduced first change in the fifth over.

Shaheen's first spell read a magical 4-2-8-2, in which he accounted for the huge scalps of Colin Munro and Ross Taylor. The Taylor wicket in particular was as much because of Sarfaraz as it was Shaheen's angle and late movement.

Sarfaraz deserved credit for two reasons. One for being ultra-aggressive and looking to continuously make inroads, unlike in the past where was been happy to sit back and let the game drift. Two for leading the way with the catching at a time when they are trying to stave off the dubious distinction of being the poorest catching team at the tournament. The Taylor catch was right out of the top drawer, diving full-length to his right and taking it one-handed just as it was about to hit the turf.

Only a week ago, he was unfairly shamed, not just by a stray fan but also by a former cricketer who knows a thing-or-two to of playing in World Cups. Sarfaraz admitted this took a toll on him and his young family. Yet under pressure, this wasn't a bad way of shutting up the haters. In another intangible contribution no scorecard would ever reveal, he kept Shaheen on for a fifth over and he reaped the rewards with a third wicket when he had Tom Latham nicking behind.

This ripper of a spell from Shaheen came on the back of Mohammad Amir's early strike of Martin Guptill, as he chopped on trying to drive with minimal feet movement. In walked Williamson and he looked in control, knowing where the off stump was, and relying on the delicate dabs behind the wicket. If it was pitched up, he was happy to leave, frustrating the bowlers and then suddenly when they erred, he picked them off. Runs didn't exactly flow, but he rebuilt the innings slowly to make 41 off 68, when he was done in by Shadab Khan's mastery - drift, turn and bounce - to have him nicking behind in trying to jab at the ball. It was precisely at this moment you wondered if New Zealand erred by not picking Sodhi.

With half the side back, Sarfaraz slightly allowed the game to drift by introducing Imad Wasim's left-arm darts, when he really could've punted with Amir, who had only bowled four overs in his first spell. And by the time Amir returned, Neesham was well-set. De Grandhomme is a serial six-hitter for New Zealand - but here, he needed to hang in and take the game deep. And that is exactly what he did, until the 40th over, before taking off.

Neesham continued take calculated risks, never giving the impression that he was blindly swinging. After overcoming burst of genuine pace, they second-guessed the bowlers, waited for the slower balls, used the depth of the crease and whacked it downtown or square of the wicket. De Grandhomme's knock of 64 ended in the 48th over when an adventurous second to third man resulted in his run-out. Neesham batted right through, muscling the last ball for six to finish 97. This didn't bring with it the promise of victory, but the position New Zealand found themselves in was heaps better than the 166 they threatened to crash out at one stage (their score in that famous 1992 World Cup group clash). Yet, it came in second-best to Babar's masterclass that continued to give this tournament another wild twirl as it approaches the semi-final stage.

Sussex232 and 59 for 3 (Rushworth 3-11) need a further 378 to beat Durham 384 and 284 for 3 dec (Lees 143, Harte 77)

It was only three summers ago that Alex Lees was praised to the heavens by both Geoffrey Boycott and Dickie Bird yet still seemed certain to play for England. He carried accolades easily and batted as if it were his calling. So when Lees drove Chris Jordan for successive boundaries on this third morning, he disturbed memories of those days when cricket's table was laid out before him. But when he thick-edged Delray Rawlins to the third man boundary in mid-afternoon to bring up his century it was also salutary to note he had reached three figures for only the second time since September 2017.

Lees' batting at a Hove of sun and sea breezes recalled his early years with Yorkshire when the runs flowed from his bat and an England call did indeed seem a matter of time. But time passed and with it went Lees' consistency and application. He would play himself in, only to find a way to get himself out. Before long his place in the Yorkshire side was in jeopardy and his move to Durham last August appeared to make good sense after an early season in which he had scored only 50 runs in four Championship matches for the White Rose.

The geographical cure did not work at once. Lees managed only 256 runs in 11 Championship innings for Durham last season, meaning that his tally in the format that matters most to professionals had more or less halved in each of the two seasons following 2016, when he made 1165 runs. No one with a feeling for the game could take any pleasure in such a decline, so Lees' revival this summer has been greeted with satisfaction far beyond the County Palatine.

That said, the recovery has been relatively modest. Lees had made only 309 runs before this game against Sussex but that total included 63 and 107 in the win against Derbyshire, Durham's only four-day victory of the season, and his 143 this afternoon may well set up a second triumph. Cameron Bancroft's declaration on 284 for 3 challenged Sussex to score 437 in a minimum of 126 overs and by the close they had reached 59 for 3 after 30 wonderfully tense overs.

Sussex's pursuit began atrociously when Chris Rushworth's fifth ball of the innings hit Luke Wells high up on the right pad and the opener was caught by Jack Burnham at third slip. Most people at the1st Central County Ground, including, to judge from his non-involvement in the appeal, Rushworth, thought the ball had hit nothing but the batsman's leg. Umpire Ben Debenham took a different view of matters. Wells was aghast and Rushworth made a mental note to buy an extra couple of lottery tickets.

Four overs later there was a far less controversial dismissal when the wretchedly out-of-form Harry Finch drove a catch back to Rushworth, thereby collecting a pair. But Will Beer and Stiaan van Zyl prevented Durham making further breakthroughs until Beer was leg before wicket to Rushworth when only six balls remained of a long evening session in which Hove was at its glorious best. The sunlight was sharp crystal and the slips' flannels fluttered in the breeze like Eric Morecambe's plus fours. The only thing spoiling home supporters' satisfaction was their team's travails. Even a draw would be a very significant achievement and victory cannot be contemplated. Sussex's batsmen are in the foothills of Shishapangma.

Yet the current plight of the third-placed team in Division Two this season reflects very well on the bottom side, Durham, whose cricketers have dominated this game since midway through the second day. With the second ball of this morning's play the admirable Brydon Carse collected his maiden five-wicket haul in first-class cricket when he bowled Rawlins. Reasonably enough on a good pitch but one taking some turn, Bancroft opted not to enforce the follow-on, and naturally enough, Durham's innings began badly when the skipper played forward to a ball outside his off stump but only edged a catch to Finch at second slip. Not since April 8 have Durham's openers put on more than 14 for the first wicket in a Championship and they have had 11 attempts at it.

The rest of the innings was controlled by Lees and to a lesser degree by Gareth Harte. The pair put on 215 for the second wicket with Harte making 77 before he drove Wells to Rawlins at short cover. The pitch was flat and the bowling unthreatening but Lees maintained his focus on the task of piling up runs. There were times late in his Yorkshire career when he seemed capable of getting out to the Brownies on the beach. This afternoon he batted as if the crease might once again become his kingdom.

UFC's Green faces DUI manslaughter charges

Published in Breaking News
Wednesday, 26 June 2019 12:51

UFC fighter Desmond Green is facing four DUI manslaughter charges for his alleged role in a five-vehicle crash last August that killed two people.

According to Broward County Jail records, Green, 29, was arrested Tuesday. Along with the manslaughter charges, the Broward County Court lists 19 total charges, including DUI causing serious bodily injury (four counts), DUI causing property damage (five counts), operating with a suspended license, and possession of cocaine, marijuana and drug paraphernalia.

His total bond was set at $194,000, according to the jail records.

In August, Alvaro Feola, a spokesman for the Florida Highway Patrol, told reporters that Green lost control of his Dodge Durango just before 6:15 a.m. on Interstate 75 in Davie, Florida. The SUV veered into the path of a tractor-trailer, causing a chain-reaction crash with three other vehicles.

Two people -- Emelina Morfa, 67, and Emma Suarez Hernandez, 76 -- were killed. Two others were seriously hurt. Green suffered minor injuries.

Green (21-7) has fought three times since the crash, winning his last two bouts.

ESPN's Greg Rosenstein contributed to this report.

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