United States women's national team head coach Emma Hayes has criticized the Ballon d'Or ceremony being held during a women's FIFA window.

Hayes picked up the inaugural Ballon d'Or for best women's coach on Monday but, along with most players and coaches from the women's game, she was not in Paris to receive the award alongside the rest of the soccer world.

"I mean, it'd be like running an Oscars or a Golden Globes, without having any females present," Hayes said on Tuesday from Louisville, Kentucky, where she is with the USWNT for the last of three games in a week. "It just wouldn't happen. And I think that all too often it's an afterthought, to be honest with you."

Hayes said she is honored to win the award and she is happy to be with her team right now in Louisville, where the USWNT takes on Argentina on Wednesday.

"But I think for those players and coaches, it is the one industry moment they get recognized, and it's disappointing. I did speak to the organizers about it, and they said that that is something that will be changing in the future. Let's hope that is the case."

This year marked the first time that the Ballon d'Or ceremony included coaching awards. Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti won the men's coaching award.

The Ballon d'Or has been awarded to the best men's player in the world since 1956. A women's award was added in 2018 and was immediately surrounded by sexist controversy when the host of the ceremony asked the recipient, Lyon and Norway forward Ada Hegerberg, if she could twerk.

Spain and Barcelona midfielder Aitana Bonmatí won the 2024 women's Ballon d'Or player honor for the second consecutive year.

Five U.S. women's national team players were named to the 30-player shortlist for the 2024 Women's Ballon d'Or. Forward Sophia Smith finished fourth in the voting, while midfielder Lindsey Horan was fifth, forward Mallory Swanson finished sixth and forward Trinity Rodman was ninth. U.S. goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher finished 17th in the final voting.

Hayes said the Ballon d'Or honor is a credit to the quality of her players both at Chelsea, where she coached until May, and the USWNT, which she guided to an Olympic gold medal in August in just her 10th game in charge. She won a fifth straight Women's Super League title about a week before flying to New York to start her USWNT role.

"We are only as good as our players," Hayes said. "And I've been fortunate enough to coach some wonderful players, both at Chelsea and here with the national team, that allows the team to be able to compete at the level that they do. And for that, I'm really, really thankful."

Hayes also won the FIFA Best Coach Award in 2021 while at Chelsea.

She said on Tuesday that individual honors are the "least interesting" thing to her because soccer is a team game. She named Washington Spirit and former Barcelona coach Jonatan Giráldez, and Brazil coach Arthur Elias, as equally worthy of the top coaching honor this year.

The USWNT defeated Brazil in the Olympic gold-medal game. Giráldez guided Barcelona to the past two Champions League titles, defeating Chelsea in the two-leg semifinals both years.

Hayes also said women's soccer needs to be more accessible to more people. She offered a tongue-in-cheek nod to the Ballon d'Or's omission of USWNT center-back Naomi Girma from the 30-player shortlist. Hayes called Girma "the best defender I've ever seen" during the team's Olympic run.

"Yes, we could sit here all day and say Naomi Girma should be there -- which she should --so for that reason, we're still not getting all of those things right in the women's game. But recognizing the talent of our players on the world stage is something that I know our players are extremely proud of, so really good all round for us."

SAN FRANCISCO -- Andrew Wiggins will miss the Golden State Warriors' game against the New Orleans Pelicans on Tuesday due to a lower back strain.

Wiggins was considered questionable heading into the day after his back tightened up after Sunday's loss to the LA Clippers. On Monday, Warriors coach Steve Kerr said there was no play or incident that led to the injury, but that Wiggins' back just tightened up randomly.

The Warriors will also be without Stephen Curry (ankle) and De'Anthony Melton (back).

After Curry exited Sunday's game in the fourth quarter, Wiggins took on the primary scoring responsibility, finishing the game with 29 points on 11-of-15 shooting, including 5-of-8 from three.

The Warriors have been wanting Wiggins to score more -- returning to being a 20-point per game scorer, and becoming the team's secondary scorer behind Curry.

Even though he missed training camp and two preseason games with an illness, the organization has been extremely pleased with Wiggins' conditioning and assertiveness since the season began, priming him for what they believe will be a bounce-back year.

The NBA has fined the Philadelphia 76ers $100,000 for public statements around health status of All-NBA center Joel Embiid.

The NBA's investigation showed that the Sixers did not violate player participation policy with Embiid's missed games, but in fact with the public comments that did not properly reflect his health issues with his knee.

In its statement, the league cited comments made by president of basketball operations Daryl Morey and coach Nick Nurse that were "inconsistent with Joel Embiid's health status and in violation of NBA rules."

The NBA said it has confirmed that Embiid has been unable to play so far this season because of a "left knee condition."

Neither Embiid nor free agent acquisition Paul George have played for Philadelphia this season. George has been dealing with a bone bruise in his left knee. The Sixers said earlier Tuesday that both participated in portions of practice, but have been ruled out for Wednesday's game against the Detroit Pistons.

The Los Angeles Dodgers are one win away from a World Series title after quieting the home crowd with a 4-2 victory on Monday.

Will the Dodgers finish off the sweep at Yankee Stadium or will the New York Yankees force a Game 5?

We've got it all covered, from live updates and analysis during the games to takeaways after the final pitch to what's next for each team.

Jump to: Lineups, matchups | Live updates

Los Angeles Dodgers at New York Yankees, 8:08 p.m. ET

Pitching matchup: Ben Casparius (2-0, 2.16 ERA) vs. Luis Gil (15-7, 3.50 ERA)

Starting lineups:

Dodgers

Shohei Ohtani (L) DH
Mookie Betts (R) RF
Freddie Freeman (L) 1B
Teoscar Hernandez (R) LF
Max Muncy (L) 3B
Enrique Hernandez (R) CF
Gavin Lux (L) 2B
Will Smith (R) C
Tommy Edman (S) SS

Yankees

Gleyber Torres (R) 2B
Juan Soto (L) RF
Aaron Judge (R) CF
Jazz Chisholm Jr. (L) 3B
Giancarlo Stanton (R) DH
Anthony Rizzo (L) 1B
Anthony Volpe (R) SS
Austin Wells (L) C
Alex Verdugo (L) LF

Live updates

Check back at game time for live updates and analysis from Yankee Stadium.

NEW YORK -- Another World Series game, another rough night at the plate for Aaron Judge. After he went 0-for-3 with another strikeout in the New York Yankees' Game 3 loss Monday night, New York finds itself in a familiar spot: waiting for its star slugger to break out.

"He's one swing away," Yankees hitting coach James Rowson told ESPN on Monday. "I know it's a big story, but from my standpoint, this guy is one of the best hitters to ever play the game. On any given night, the whole narrative gets rewritten."

But with the Los Angeles Dodgers one win away from a World Series sweep, New York's superstar slugger is running out of opportunities to flip the script. And those around the sport watching from the scouts' seats, the executive offices or even just in front of their television sets at home see a specific problem that needs to be solved: Judge is chasing too many pitches outside the zone, and L.A. is taking advantage of it.

"The Dodgers are feeding him spin, spin, spin that he is chasing," an American League scout told ESPN. "Then the fastball looks harder than it actually is, so he is out of timing. He needs to stop worrying about the big moment and just go with those sliders and take them into right field and the right-center-field gap."

Handling anything thrown with break or spin has been Judge's Achilles' heel all postseason. According to ESPN Research, he's hitting just .071 on breaking pitches in October, compared to .258 during the regular season. Meanwhile, his strikeout rate on those pitches is a whopping 58.5% compared to 39.8% from March through September.

Every time he flails at another breaking pitch for a strikeout, it allows the Dodgers to keep attacking with the same plan instead of having to challenge him with heat.

Judge is still doing damage off fastballs -- when he sees them. He's hitting .364 with a 1.429 OPS against pitches thrown 95 mph or faster in the playoffs, but so far this month, Judge has seen 6% fewer fastballs than he did during the regular season, and the frustration of not getting pitches he can drive is becoming obvious to observers.

"I think he might be pressing a little bit," 2007 National League MVP Ryan Howard said on the field before Game 3. "Right now, I think he's just in his head. He knows what pitch they're trying to get him out on, and when you're swinging and missing it, you're kind of forcing it. Just have to relax a little."

Despite the struggles, Judge's manager has his back. Boone has made it clear that he is not considering moving Judge up or down in the lineup: "That's our guy, and there's pressure in the Series, whatever spot you're hitting."

One NL executive agreed with Boone's mindset: "If this was the regular season, I could see moving him up to leadoff to get him going, but I don't think Boone should do that. At this time of year, you have to believe in and stick with your best players. He's the best of the best."

So with the season on the line, can Judge rediscover his MVP form? Patience might be the key.

"He needs to get them back in the zone or take some walks," the NL executive said. "How many does he have in the postseason?"

Judge has walked eight times this postseason but only twice in the past seven games after he walked an MLB-leading 133 times during the regular season. But the thing that could most help ignite Judge is about more than drawing free passes to first base -- it's about making pitchers come to him.

"Just wait for that pitch as long as it's in the zone," Howard said of the advice he'd give to Judge.

With the Yankees needing to pull off the seemingly impossible -- winning four straight games to complete a World Series comeback -- maybe Judge will finally get the one pitch that gets him going.

"He's big enough, strong enough, to hit the ball out of any part of the ballpark." an NL scout said. "He's got to use the whole field. When he starts to use the whole field and up the middle, you're going to see the Aaron Judge you saw all year long."

The Yankees just have to hope they'll still be playing long enough to see it happen.

NEW YORK -- For decades, the Los Angeles Dodgers were known for superstar starting pitchers.

These pitchers remain so indelible that surnames largely suffice: Koufax, Drysdale, Valenzuela, Hershiser, Kershaw, all of whom made World Series starts for championship Dodgers teams.

The Dodgers' 4-2 win in Game 3 of the 2024 World Series on Monday put them on the cusp of another championship, with a historically insurmountable three games to none headlock on the New York Yankees. L.A. can clinch in Game 4 on Tuesday -- traditionally a tremendous opportunity in the career of an ambitious starting pitcher.

The Dodgers' Game 4 starter? In the aftermath of Game 3, the answer to that question remained: Relief pitcher TBD. But we do know it's going to be a bullpen game to perhaps win the World Series.

"That would be fun, obviously, to go out and contribute something like that," Dodgers reliever Daniel Hudson said. "I'm not sure what we're going to do, but we'll go out there and get three, four or five outs and get the ball to the next guy."

This postseason has seen the prominence of the 2024 version of bullpen deployment evolve into something new.

In: Relievers used at any point in the game -- including the beginning, as the Dodgers plan to do in Game 4.

Out: Preconceived roles. The fewer of them you have, the better.

"The guys we have down there," righty Ryan Brasier said, "we compete, and we're a super-close-knit group. We have fun, but at the same time, when it's time to lock in, everybody gets on the same end of the rope and pulls."

This is not how the Dodgers drew it up last winter, when they signed Yoshinobu Yamamoto to a massive deal, augmented him with a slightly-less-massive deal for Tyler Glasnow and brought back Clayton Kershaw. Add in returning starters, including a number of young arms, injury returnees such as Game 3 winner Walker Buehler, toss in trade deadline pickup Jack Flaherty, and you've got a starting pitcher bonanza.

Instead, the rotation was beset with so many maladies the Dodgers have had to lean hard on a bullpen that itself seems to have no clear pecking order. The improvisational nature of L.A.'s pitching plan was known from the outset this October. The bullpen roles for the Dodgers were always fluid, but that dynamic was compounded by the shortage of starters. It's been all up for grabs.

"There are five or six guys that have got a save maybe in this season," Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said at the start of the playoffs. "I feel very comfortable. They've all pitched in leverage, whether it be the fifth, the sixth, the seventh or the ninth. Whatever pitcher I feel is best in that particular part of the game, part of the lineup, that's who I'm going to use."

It's turned out to be a feature, not a bug. Try to imagine the Dodgers' relief staff as a 19th-century, Old Hoss Radbourn-style of pitcher who pitched every game. That pitcher has a 3.16 ERA over 68 1/3 innings, 13 holds, four saves and no blown saves. Dodgers starters -- including a few openers -- have a 4.76 ERA in 11 fewer innings.

Roberts and pitching coach Mark Prior have massaged the plan with remarkable acuity.

Consider Blake Treinen, whose stuff has been reminiscent of his best years, when he was one of the more unassailable relievers in the game. In the past, when managers have had a reliever throwing the way Treinen has been, they might stick him in the back of the bullpen and assign him the last three, four or five outs.

Not Treinen. He's had a two-inning save, been pulled after giving up a couple of hits in the ninth, and has gotten outs in the sixth and seventh innings. Brasier has pitched in the first (twice), fourth, sixth and eighth. You can see any reliever at any time if the leverage is right and the matchup against a certain sector of the opposing lineup can be exploited.

The deeper we've gotten into October, the deeper Roberts has been willing to let his recovering starters work. Thus, Yamamoto and Buehler have given him not just efficiency but more length than was anticipated when the series began. This, in turn, reserves resources for things like, say, a bullpen elimination game.

"I'd put our bullpen up with any bullpen that I've ever been on and any bullpen I've ever seen," screwballer Brent Honeywell said. Honeywell, who was one pitcher more or less ruled out to open Game 4, nevertheless might get a shot during what the Dodgers hope will be the last game of the season. "I want to win, and if that's how we've got to do it, that's how we've got to do it."

The Dodgers are not the only team we've seen do this during the postseason. And playoff bullpen games have been around since at least 2019, in the form we know them now, but what we've seen this October has felt different. It's not bullpenning as last resort, it's bullpenning because you can't score on our freaking relievers, no matter who they are so, maybe, just maybe, we're glad we have to do it this way.

The potential pitfall is overexposing your relievers to the same group of hitters too many times over a long series. Roberts is all too aware of that challenge.

"Taking a long and short view of the series kind of weighs into my decision-making," Roberts said. "It's a constant kind of weaving in and out. But my pitching coaches do a great job of helping me to kind of sift through it."

Research done on this topic has suggested this can be a problem, but here's the thing: This is arguably a bigger problem for the traditional setup/setup/closer model of playoff bullpen management than what the Dodgers have been doing. Sure, there is a hierarchy in every bullpen, even this one, and those relievers are going to see the same hitters in a long series. (Though this series might not be a long one, after all.) But the Dodgers are mitigating that by coming at their opponents with so many different arms in so many different circumstances.

That's how it scans now, though, because it's been working. The Dodgers will attempt the ultimate proof-of-concept by rolling out a parade of relievers Tuesday. If it works one more time, the reward will be, well, a parade.

Meanwhile, teams with rock-solid rotations (Philadelphia, Kansas City) and star closers (Cleveland, Milwaukee) have fallen by the wayside. The Dodgers, the team that can buy as much certainty as can possibly exist on a baseball roster, are one win from the ultimate prize, in large part because of how they've embraced their bullpen.

Going into Game 4, you might think there's a little lobbying among the relief group to be the last guy out there. After all, the last-out pitcher of every World Series clincher achieves a measure of instant immortality.

But there is no such lobbying. Not from these Dodgers.

"Nobody here has any kind of ego," Brasier said. "It's just when the phone rings, everybody's ready."

Motor neurone disease is a degenerative condition that affects nerves in the brain and spinal cord, and for which there is no cure.

Billy Twelvetrees, who remains friends with former team-mate Slater and is now a coach at Hartpury, said renaming the ground gives "longevity" to the cause to highlight the impact of MND.

"When I first saw [the sign] I stopped and took a picture and sent it to Ed straight away - he was blown away how big it was," Twelvetrees said.

"It's huge to be in support of 4ED because the rugby community has been behind Ed from the very start of his diagnosis.

"To raise awareness, keep raising awareness for MND because at the moment there is no cure, no treatment and no fix for it.

"The bigger picture was for longevity because the fight of MND is finite, time is finite for people with MND so we wanted it to be a long-term thing."

England have gone through "some heartache" and now it is time to "get over the line" in close Test matches against the world's best sides, says number eight Ben Earl.

Steve Borthwick's side welcome New Zealand to Twickenham's Allianz Stadium on Saturday having narrowly lost two summer Tests against the All Blacks, despite leading for large parts of both games.

They were also beaten by two points by France in their final match of the Six Nations, and Earl feels Saturday's opening game of their Autumn Nations Series is the perfect time to put things right.

"We are growing as a team and it was so close [in the summer against New Zealand]," Earl told BBC Sport.

"But you don't win tight Test matches by being close, so I think the lessons we have learned are valuable ones - how to finish games and keep your discipline in the last quarter, how you always need to be alive and concentrating against a team like the All Blacks.

"It is something that doesn't just happen, you have to go through some heartache to then win a couple. We feel we've done that now.

"We have looked at each other over the last couple of weeks and thought the time is now.

"We can't say we are an inexperienced group now and have had continuity around selection for 18 months or so.

"I think it is time now to get over the line in close games."

Since his move to number eight before last autumn's World Cup, the 26-year-old has shone as one of England's most important players, producing a number of eye-catching performances.

New Zealand number eight and world player of the year Ardie Savea has taken notice, and said Earl was "on fire" after elevating his game over the last two years.

"What struck me most after the games [in New Zealand] was how humble Ardie was," the Saracens back rower added.

"We talked about what we see in each others games and what we enjoyed.

"It is not validation as I don't think I am near a player of Ardie's quality at the moment, but it is something I am striving towards."

The six-team Professional Women's Hockey League is launching its expansion process with plans to add as many as two franchises for the start of the 2025-26 season, a league executive announced Tuesday.

Speaking at the ESPNW Summit in New York, senior vice president of business operations Amy Scheer said the league will begin sending requests for proposals to several markets starting as early as next week, while also accepting applications.

"[We're] looking for the right market size, right fan base, right facilities, right economic opportunity -- so a lot of research to be done over the next couple months," Scheer said, without specifying which markets the league might be targeting. "But yeah, looking to continue to build the league and grow the number of teams."

Among the U.S. expansion candidates are Detroit and Pittsburgh, where the PWHL hosted neutral-site games during its inaugural season last year. Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia would also be regarded as candidates after both were considered before the league established teams in Boston, New York and Minnesota. Denver and Seattle are also considered potential candidates.

In Canada, where the league has teams in Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal, Quebec City has already announced its intention of being a candidate for an expansion franchise. Calgary would be a potential option with the city previously being home to the Inferno from 2011 to 2019, before the Canadian Women's Hockey League folded.

Scheer also announced the league plans to hold neutral site games in nine markets across North America, and is considering holding an outdoor game. Scheer added the league is also working on holding games in Europe, without specifying when that might happen.

The PWHL's second season opens Nov. 30 and features an expanded schedule with each team playing 30 games -- up from 24 last year. The league has yet to announce where it's neutral site games will be played.

Quebec City councilor Jackie Smith announced earlier on Tuesday that the PWHL has agreed to play a neutral site game at the city's Videotron Centre on Jan. 19. The PWHL's schedule has Ottawa playing Montreal on that day, with the site yet to be determined.

Smith called the development the first step in Quebec City landing an expansion team.

Arsenal will remain without captain Martin Ødegaard for Wednesday's Carabao Cup fourth round clash at Preston North End but manager Mikel Arteta said he is hopeful the Norwegian will return to fitness before the start of the November international break.

Arteta has been ruing an ever-growing injury list, with Ødegaard sidelined since September with an ankle injury and defender Riccardo Calafiori suffering a knee injury during their 1-0 Champions League win over Shakhtar Donetsk on Oct. 22.

Calafiori missed Sunday's Premier League clash, a 2-2 draw with Liverpool at the Emirates, where defenders Gabriel Magalhães and Jurriën Timber were both forced off in the second half to leave Arsenal with largely a makeshift backline.

"Ødegaard has been on the grass for a few weeks and hopefully he'll be back before the international break. Calafiori will be out for a few weeks I would say," Arteta told reporters on Tuesday.

Arsenal's last game before the international break is a visit to Chelsea in the Premier League on Nov. 10. During the international break Norway play Slovenia away on Nov. 14 and host Kazakhstan on Nov. 17 in the Nations League B Group 3.

"We're still assessing Gabriel. It doesn't look that bad. He was much better the next day. Too soon to say when he'll be out," Arteta added.

"Jurrien [was] too tired to continue the game but there is no new injury there at all."

After the League Cup match at Preston, Arsenal visit Newcastle United on Saturday in the Premier League.

Information from Reuters contributed to this report.