Major League Soccer and Liga MX have confirmed the creation of an annual Leagues Cup between teams from each competition, as reported by ESPN last February.

The inaugural cup competition will begin in the United States over July 23 and 24 and see Houston Dynamo face Club America, Real Salt Lake host Tigres, Chicago Fire play Cruz Azul and LA Galaxy take on Club Tijuana. The MLS teams will all play at home.

The winners of the quarterfinals advance to the semis, which be played on Aug. 20. MLS clubs will play at home if they face Mexican opposition and the games will be in either BBVA Compass Stadium in Houston or Dignity Health Sports Park in Los Angeles if they are all Liga MX or all MLS affairs.

The final will take place on Sept. 18 in the United States at a location yet to be be announced.

"We are excited to take our partnership with Liga MX to the next level with Leagues Cup," MLS Commissioner Don Garber said in a statement.

"We have an intense rivalry between our national teams, and Leagues Cup provides a terrific opportunity to increase the growing rivalry between MLS and Liga MX clubs."

The tournament has been sanctioned by CONCACAF, with Liga MX and MLS clubs not taking part in the CONCACAF Champions League until the Round of 16 stage in early 2020.

"Alongside our own expanded regional club competitions, which includes the Scotiabank CONCACAF Champions League, the Leagues Cup organized by Liga MX and MLS further strengthens our sport in our Confederation and is a precursor for future collaboration between CONCACAF, Liga MX, MLS and other key stakeholders," said CONCACAF president Victor Montagliani.

Leagues Cup is part of a drive from both MLS and Liga MX to strengthen the working relationship, which was formally cemented in a strategic partnership announced in 2018.

"We are taking this extremely seriously," Real Salt Lake head coach Mike Petke said. "This is not like when we played Manchester United in a summer friendly. Of course, we want to win that too but this is a tournament-style.

"It's something that's going to have a trophy at the end of it, so that's something that we take extremely seriously, and it's something that's going to motivate the players, as it will myself, coaches and staff."

It will be the first time Mexico international and LA Galaxy midfielder Jonathan dos Santos will be competing against a Mexican team in an official competition.

"Yes, for me I think it will be the first time that I will face Mexican teams," Dos Santos, whose Galaxy side will face Tijuana, said.

"It will be a one-of-a-kind experience for me, just like for the club, the league. I think it is important for the growth. I think it is important to be seen worldwide. The Liga MX is growing, too. I think it was a good decision to put this [Leagues Cup] together."

Mexican clubs haven't competed in South America's Copa Libertadores tournament since 2016 and Montagliani said earlier this month that the focus would be on strengthening on regional competition and the CONCACAF Champions League.

Liga MX clubs have dominated CONCACAF's regional club tournament, winning the last 14 editions, although for Leagues Cup the Mexican teams will be coming into the tournament with only one competitive game, with the 2019 Apertura only beginning on July 19.

Current MLS champion Atlanta United will host Club America or Tigres on Aug. 14 in Mercedes-Benz Stadium in the Campeones Cup, another part of the deepening relationship between MLS and Liga MX.

MLS and Liga MX sides used to play the SuperLiga, which included four teams from each league and ran between 2007 and 2010, before it was discontinued.

The only thing left to settle in the 2018-19 club season are the European honors and it begins on Wednesday as Arsenal take on Chelsea for the Europa League title. Gab Marcotti gets you prepared with what you need to know ahead of the game.

BACKSTORY: These two clubs are less than 10 miles apart -- roughly 40 minutes by London Underground -- but they've had to travel nearly 3,000 miles to face off in Baku, Azerbaijan, where they'll contest the Europa League final. Perhaps unsurprisingly, neither team sold out its allocation of about 6,000 tickets each (in a 60,000-seat stadium).

Limited airport capacity and hotel availability also drew criticism from supporters when it came to the choice of venue, but it doesn't end there. Azerbaijan is technically still at war with neighboring Armenia over the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh. Tensions between the two countries run high and Arsenal's Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who is Armenian, elected not to make the trip, citing security concerns.

At stake is the second biggest trophy in European football and, for Arsenal, a place in the Champions League next season. (Chelsea already qualified by finishing third in the Premier League.)

THE ROAD TO BAKU: Both teams breezed through the group stage, often fielding second-string sides, but Arsenal had the tougher run in the knockout phases. They had to come from behind to dispatch BATE Borisov from Belarus and Rennes before hitting their stride and impressively knocking out Napoli and Valencia. It was a photonegative of Chelsea's run, which saw them win home and away in every round until the semifinal, when Eintracht Frankfurt took them all the way to penalty kicks after two draws.

- Sources: Kante set to miss Europa League final
- Premier League: Who qualifies for Europe?
- Toe Poke: The road to Baku -- how fans can make it
- Laurens: How BFFs Lacazette, Aubameyang transformed Arsenal

QUESTION MARK FOR ARSENAL: Goalkeeper Petr Cech started every knockout game in the Europa League and is retiring after Wednesday night, but two factors make you wonder whether he'll get the nod. One is that Bernd Leno has been the first-choice keeper in the league since October. Loyalty and sentimentality are great, but potential revenue from qualifying for the Champions League next season could run into the nine figures. The other is that Cech will reportedly join Chelsea in a front office role when he hangs up his cleats next month. Arsenal boss Unai Emery is giving nothing away, saying he "trusts" both keepers.

QUESTION MARK FOR CHELSEA: N'Golo Kante thought he'd recovered in time from a muscular injury late in the season only to injure his knee in training last week. Chelsea coach Maurizio Sarri says he's 50/50 and his absence would be a massive blow. Kante, a midfield terrier who has developed into an effective two-way player this season, is arguably Chelsea's most important figure not named Eden Hazard. What's more, a season-ending injury to Ruben Loftus-Cheek means Chelsea are down to just three able-bodied midfielders, which is a problem when you play in a 4-3-3 formation.

TACTICAL CONTRAST: Both Emery and Sarri believe in pressing and a pass-oriented game, and both men have occasionally had a rough time from fans and pundits (more so Sarri, to be fair). But where Sarri is a staunch 4-3-3 man, hardly ever deviating from his favored system and (somewhat counterintuitive) style of play, Emery is a tactical chameleon. Back three or back four, midfield three or two, man in the hole or outright wingers or both: he seemingly pulls out a bespoke formation based on availability and opponent for every single match.

NEEDS TO PERFORM FOR ARSENAL: Mesut Ozil was once the poster boy for the all-conquering multicultural German national team, the slight wizard who conjured up oodles of assists for Cristiano Ronaldo at Real Madrid and Arsenal's record signing. He's still the latter but has had a bumpy ride, with Emery benching him at times and questioning his effectiveness away from home -- Baku is very much away from home -- at others. He has the magic to unlock any defence and a big-time pedigree to match. With Aaron Ramsey injured and Mkhitaryan watching from a distance, it will be up to him to link midfield and attack.

NEEDS TO PERFORM FOR CHELSEA: As the Blues' deep-lying playmaker, Jorginho set records for the number of passes in a single game, but as his critics point out, it's purely meaningless stat-padding if the system doesn't work. Too often, it did not. Still, he's the point guard who makes Sarri's motion offense function. If he gets flustered, careless or simply passes the ball sideways endlessly, the whole machine grinds to a halt.

STAR MAN FOR ARSENAL: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is your plug-and-play striker. Whether he lines up in a front two alongside Alexandre Lacazette, up top on his own or placed out wide, his combination of speed and finishing means he'll get his chances. After all, 41 goals in 64 games (all competitions) since joining the club 18 months ago tell their own story. Whatever Arsenal's ills may be, he ain't among them.

STAR MAN FOR CHELSEA: Eden Hazard is appropriately named because when the ball is at his feet, danger is near. Few men in the game can wreak havoc out of seemingly innocuous situations. Fewer still have a body that seems built for what they do: powerful backside, low to the ground, twinkle-toes on his feet. It will be a poignant occasion for him as well. He's a year away from free agency, has refused a contract extension and appears to be on his way to Real Madrid, where he'd join his boyhood idol, Zinedine Zidane.

ARSENAL WILL WIN BECAUSE ... Emery is a cup knockout specialist, particularly in the Europa League, a competition he has already won a record three times. He's pragmatic enough to spot weaknesses and make adjustments during games and with Granit Xhaka and Lucas Torreira, he has the weapons to neutralize and frustrate Chelsea's midfield.

CHELSEA WILL WIN BECAUSE ... Arsenal's defence has a penchant for individual errors and self-destruction like few others and Chelsea have a knack for punishing mistakes. Hazard against Arsenal's fullbacks is a mismatch regardless of whether Emery plays a back three or a back four. And there's the distinct possibility, as sometimes happens, that Ozil shows up in body only.

PREDICTION: Arsenal 2, Chelsea 1 (after extra time, which means this game, kicking off at 11 p.m. local time, will go well into Thursday)

There's very little to separate these two teams but the uncertainty over Kante sways it slightly in Arsenal's favor. There's also the fact that while both teams have plenty of players unavailable (Mkhitaryan, Ramsey and Hector Bellerin for Arsenal, Loftus-Cheek, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Antonio Rudiger for Chelsea), Emery's side have more individual match-winners.

Eoin Morgan believes the World Cup in England can inspire "every young kid in this country" to take up cricket.

While Morgan, the England captain, accepted that the impact of the tournament will be greater if his team "go a long way" in it, he believes that simply hosting the event for the first time since 1999 will capture the public imagination and attract a new generation of supporters. And he drew on the example of England's women's side, who won a home World Cup in 2017, to show the effect a successful side could have.

"The World Cup alone raises the profile of the game," Morgan said. "And provides a platform for every young kid in this country to have a hero or inspiration to pick up a ball or a bat.

ALSO READ: The importance of Moeen and Rashid to England

"The impact of this World Cup is not as big an impact unless we go a long way, but it will have an impact on everybody. We got knocked out of the '99 World Cup early, but I still remember it like it was yesterday.

"The impact of that [women's] World Cup two years ago was amazing. The women's game is thriving. It would mean a huge amount for us to win it. I couldn't imagine what it would do."

While much live coverage of the tournament remains, in England and Wales at least, behind a paywall, the ECB hopes that the publicity generated by it will overflow into the mainstream media and create a similar level of excitement as experienced during the football World Cup last year.

In a reflection of the efforts being made to capture the public imagination, Morgan and all the other World Cup captains have been invited to meet Queen Elizabeth II at a reception at Buckingham Palace on Wednesday evening, while an opening party will take place along the Mall in London.

The England squad also welcomed Gareth Southgate, the manager of the England football side, into their dressing rooms in recent times to share his experience of reaching the semi-finals of last year's World Cup in Russia. And while Morgan recognised the similar challenges facing sides who had struggled in previous tournaments, he did hint that the expectations of the teams were quite different.

"Yes, we did a session with Gareth," Morgan said. "And it was brilliant. He talked about his journey with the team in and around the World Cup and its build-up and how they built bigger expectations and came together more as a group.

"I think everybody who has been involved with our team over the last four years recognised that they are where we were two years ago and we started exactly where they did. We recognised what had happened in the past, tried to do things differently and moved forward.

"Gareth did brilliantly. They got to the semi-final and everybody said it was great. But we got knocked out of the Champions Trophy semi-final and everyone said we were crap."

Morgan, clearly, was joking on that point. However, he was not seeking to play down the expectation upon his team. Having gone into previous tournaments considered no-hopers, he relished the fact his England team are ranked No. 1 in the world and seen by many as favourites for the trophy.

"The level of expectation and favourite tags is there for a reason," he said. "Over the last two years, our form at home, in particular, has been outstanding. That's the reason the expectation is there.

"In a lot of the World Cups I've played in - or in which a couple of the guys in the changing room have played in - we've gone in with very little expectation and not done that well. I'd pick this position over any other.

"There's a lot of belief within the room. The transformation of the team has been brilliant. We're very confident within our own game."

As far as a Plan A goes, South Africa's is a decent one: put Dale Steyn, Kagiso Rabada and Lungi Ngidi into an attack together, throw in Imran Tahir and sit back. As far as not being able to call upon your Plan A goes, two days out from your first match in a World Cup, against the hosts and favourites is not so decent.

South Africa will be without Steyn tomorrow and against the format's pre-eminent batting order, it is difficult to argue against Faf du Plessis' assessment that it is "a big loss". It is perfectly valid to counter that Steyn with the white ball is not quite as inarguably great as Steyn with the red ball. The counter to that counter is that in this squad, it means South Africa choose between Chris Morris and Dwaine Pretorius as replacement. Capable as both are, neither quite fills the X-factor Steyn's presence provides to the pace attack.

"Yeah, it is a big loss to our team," du Plessis said. "We did expect it when we picked the squad. He wasn't quite - probably about 60 per cent when the squad was picked; so we anticipated for this to happen.

"But yeah, Dale Steyn, a fit Dale Steyn, makes our bowling attack a very, very strong one. So tomorrow will be a little bit of chopping and changing to get a balance that we think can take on England."

Scrambling would not be quite the right way to describe South Africa's response - they are making a deal out of how not a big deal this tournament is - but it will require a reshuffle of the XI and, more importantly, strategy.

Coach Ottis Gibson and du Plessis are not alone around the world in thinking that England's batting fire must be combated by bowling fire: attack, look to take wickets, they come hard, you go harder. To that purpose Steyn is still important - his strike rate (31.9) puts him at eighth in the all-time list of ODI bowlers with at least 100 wickets and 100 ODIs.

"As I said, one of our X-factors, potentially we have is a really, really strong attack in terms of pace. Steyn, Rabada, Ngidi is a real, real threat in English conditions. So that changes. That's Plan A for the World Cup in terms of our balance, what we're looking to achieve. Now it's just a real reshuffle and looking to Plan B and C.

"For us as a leadership group, it's trying to find how can we be most attacking and trying to get wickets. Obviously that was with Dale included but that changed now, so we'll look at setting up our team to try to make sure we can get guys on the team that can get wickets."

Either Morris or Pretorius is an adequate fit, and they bring some depth to the batting as well. Morris hasn't played an ODI for South Africa for a year though he is quicker than Pretorius. An outside punt would be Tabraiz Shamsi's weird and wonderful left-arm wristspin, if for nothing else but the element of surprise and especially if you can recall Kuldeep Yadav's 6 for 25 at Trent Bridge less than a year ago.

But England worked him out pretty quickly and in a very limited sample size of eight innings over the last decade, they go over a run-a-ball against that genre of bowling. One of Morris or Pretorius it will be, neither of whom is Steyn.

Big Picture

Four years of planning, four years of preparation. Forty-four years of hurt and counting. And maybe the chance, at long last, for long-overdue World Cup redemption. But which team are we discussing here? England, the hosts, or South Africa, the challengers?

For there could be no more apt contest with which to launch the 12th Cricket World Cup - the fifth on English soil but the first for 20 years - than a match-up between the two sides with arguably the most torrid World Cup histories of them all.

In the (light-) blue corner … the hosts, the favourites, the perpetual laughing stocks. A team that reached three World Cup finals in the first five editions, lost the lot, and have not won a single knock-out fixture in the three decades since - as if the pain of further rejection has superseded any desire to countenance that long-awaited success.

And in the green-with-yellow-tinges corner, the quadrennial accidents waiting to happen. The team that spent the first four editions of the tournament on the outside looking in, but then - welcomed into the fold from 1992 onwards - somehow hit upon new and ever more gruesome ways to screw up their best-laid plans.

From rain-rules (times two), to last-ball sixes, via the single most storied run-out in World Cup history, South Africa - unlike England - have been a team from which great things have been expected, and on which great calamity has endlessly been bestowed.

Have those expectations now been swapped going into the 2019 edition? South Africa are now the team coasting into the competition with expectations at an all-time low, and the squad are consequently in something approaching a chilled-out frame of mind (although the news that SACA has just instigated legal proceedings against the board may yet be the start of a new means to disrupt that sangfroid).

Instead, it is England about whom the entire world is talking … and about whom everyone is doubtless preparing to burst out laughing if they fail to fulfil their destiny this summer. But, tellingly, no matter how wishful the thinking may be on that front, there is no escaping the notes of respect and trepidation that underpin every mention of the world No.1s.

England's four-year journey from no-hopers to world-beaters has been stunning and well-documented - as many as five players still survive from the team that crashed out in the group stages against Bangladesh four years ago, but it is the transformation in mindset that has been stunning and unequivocal.

It began with Eoin Morgan's insistence, after that 2015 debacle, that things had to change - that England had to embrace players who, in the first instance, weren't afraid to fail, in order to free them up to become the attacking team they needed to be.

And it has continued with an almost Olympian pursuit of batting excellence. Citius, altius, fortius has been the message from the top. If in doubt, go for your shots. And if it goes wrong - as it has done on a handful of notable occasions - go again. England have made it their business to embrace their status as favourites, and to absorb the pressure that comes with that status, by wearing their learning lightly and projecting an impenetrable confidence in their overall direction of travel.

There's every possibility that England will once again fall short as they attempt to claim the silverware that eluded the likes of Gooch and Botham, Gatting and Gower. But the round-robin format mitigates against one-off accidents - and two notable notches in this team's recent history stand as testaments to the fact that no contest is over until it is over.

The brutality of England's defeat in the World T20 final in 2016 was followed a year later by the totality of their collapse against Pakistan in the 2017 Champions Trophy. Both matches, however, came earlier than expected in England's journey into the light. Morgan himself had always envisaged a four-year plan when it came to scraping his team off the turf after that dreadful defeat in Adelaide.

As for South Africa … who could forget the shattered minds and bodies that littered the Auckland outfield after that semi-final defeat four years ago? They perhaps felt, in that moment, that their latest and best chance at glory had been snatched by Grant Elliott's scythe through the line. And yet, the core of that squad are back for another go four years on - lessened by the loss of AB de Villiers in the interim, but emboldened perhaps by their relative anonymity and bolstered by a raft of young guns who, as Faf du Plessis pointed out in the pre-match press conference, have experience of winning a World Cup at under-19 level.

And so here we are, at the start of a potential 11 matches on the road to overdue glory. So near, so far. So often. So what's it to be this time?

Form guide

England WWWWL (last five completed matches, most recent first)

South Africa WWWWW

In the spotlight

England are "obsessed" with reaching the 500-mark, says Virat Kohli. And if that statement was merely an exercise in mind games, it nevertheless cut straight to the quick of England's World Cup credentials. They go into the competition as favourites on account of their awesome batting power, and no-one epitomises that better right now than the man who is likely to face their first ball of the tournament. Jason Roy's partnership with Jonny Bairstow is already among the most statistically awesome in ODI history, but on his Surrey home ground, and with a run of two fifties and a hundred in his last three ODI innings, it is Roy who seems best placed to produce the game-shaping onslaught - not least after his dress-rehearsal 89 not out from 46 balls against Afghanistan on this very ground. What is more, he has a point to prove in global events, after his drastic collapse in form during the 2017 Champions Trophy. If it really is to be England's time this time, then Roy is one of the men who must surely shine.

There was a palpable sense of panic in South Africa's ranks when Kagiso Rabada was flown home early from the IPL after sustaining a back niggle. Thoroughbred fast bowlers of his calibre are few and far between, and seeing as their all-time great, Dale Steyn, is going into the tournament with a shoulder injury that is set to rule him out of at least the first two games, the loss of the heir apparent would have been grievous. And yet, CSA's caution appears to have got Rabada to the starting line with no lasting damage. He eased back into action with seven well-directed overs in the warm-up against Sri Lanka - scalping Dimuth Karunaratne with a 140kph bouncer - and a bowler of his pace, skill and reputation is precisely the sort of weapon to rattle England's formidable ball-strikers. Who could forget his most recent appearance in an ODI in England, at Lord's in 2017?

Team news

England's XI has been chosen a full 24 hours in advance, and seeing as Eoin Morgan has declared a "full bill of health", there would seem to be just one strategic call to be made - do they trust Mark Wood, post-ankle scare, to hurtle in at the 90mph pace that he was able to display in his solitary outing against Pakistan earlier this month, despite having bowled just 13.1 competitive overs this season. Or do they revert to the tried-and-tested Liam Plunkett, England's most prolific fast-bowling wicket-taker since the 2015 World Cup, and a man whose very modus operandi is that he will let no-one down?

England: 1 Jason Roy, 2 Jonny Bairstow, 3 Joe Root, 4 Eoin Morgan (capt), 5 Jos Buttler (wk), 6 Ben Stokes, 7 Moeen Ali, 8 Chris Woakes, 9 Adil Rashid, 10 Jofra Archer, 11 Liam Plunkett/Mark Wood.

Steyn, as mentioned, is hors de combat, although it's a scenario that has not caught his captain, Faf du Plessis, unawares - South Africa's spearhead came into the World Cup about "60 percent ready", he explained on the eve of the match. Lungi Ngidi and Rabada will provide ample pace interjections in his absence, while South Africa have a brace of seasoned allrounders to fill the Steyn void. Of the two, Chris Morris seems more likely to get first dibs than Dwayne Pretorius.

South Africa: (possible) 1 Hashim Amla, 2 Quinton de Kock (wk), 3 Faf du Plessis (capt), 4 Rassie van der Dussen, 5 David Miller, 6 JP Duminy, 7 Andile Phehlukwayo, 8 Chris Morris, 9 Kagiso Rabada, 10 Lungi Ngidi, 11 Imran Tahir.

Pitch and conditions

It looks a green and lively surface at this stage of the build-up, and assuming it retains that tinge of grass come the toss, it'll be a no-brainer, bowl-first wicket. England's preference is invariably to chase, but stand by for 40 minutes of hard graft against the new balls for whichever side is asked to take first strike. Thereafter, of course, you can expect normal service to apply. A true-paced batting wicket, brimful of runs. Rain was falling on match eve but the forecast for Thursday is warm, cloudy and dry.

Stats and trivia

• Neither team has lost a match in their most recent five-match ODI series. South Africa crushed Sri Lanka 5-0 on home soil in their final outing in March, while England beat Pakistan 4-0 (with one game, at The Oval, washed out).

• England beat South Africa 2-1 in their most recent ODI encounter, in 2017. However, their one defeat was instructive. Facing up to Rabada on a Lord's greentop, they suffered one of their habitual batting malfunctions, tumbling to 20 for 6 and a seven-wicket defeat.

• Warm-up matches may not count for much in the final analysis, but England certainly enjoyed their preview of the Oval conditions on Monday, battering Afghanistan by nine wickets with 195 balls left unused.

• England fared okay on the last occasion that they hosted a World Cup opener - beating Sri Lanka by eight wickets at Lord's in 1999 - in one of their few highlights of a dismal campaign.

• South Africa, however, had less to write home about when they hosted West Indies in the 2003 curtain-raiser. A Brian Lara special condemned them to a three-run defeat, one that would prove rather costly a few weeks down the line …

Quotes

"The level of expectation and favourite tags is there for a reason. Over the last two years, our form at home, in particular, has been outstanding. That's the reason the expectation is there."
Eoin Morgan embraces England's front-runners status.

"England are the favourites, so if it means on the day there is less pressure on us then we can play freely. We are going in as underdogs and if that releases some players in the team, then that is great."." Faf du Plessis embraces England's front-runners status too.

Joe Denly has put his World Cup disappointment behind him to focus returning to England's ranks for the Ashes.

Denly, who was cut from England's squad for the tournament starting on Thursday in favour of left-arm spinner Liam Dawson, has returned to the County Championship as acting Kent captain in place of the injured Sam Billings. And it is there that he is determined to make his case for a return to the England Test team to face Australia in August and September.

"Before I got the call, I knew that was an avenue they could take and I was fully prepared for it," Denly told BBC Radio Kent of his omission. "Liam Dawson is a fantastic cricketer and deserves his selection.

"There's no point in me moping around. I've got to get on with it now and I'm looking forward to putting in some performances for Kent and getting some County Championship runs under my belt.

"There's a lot of cricket between now and the Ashes, so my focus now is performing well for Kent and if that happens, hopefully the Ashes selection will take care of itself."

Denly made his only two Test appearances during England's winter tour of the Caribbean, making scores of 6, 17, 20 and 69. He was named in a preliminary 17-man squad for the World Cup as a possible back-up spin bowler but returned unremarkable figures - albeit from limited opportunities - during matches against Ireland and Pakistan before England settled on their final 15 for the global tournament.

Despite his disappointment, Denly remained positive about the hosts living up to their billing as favourites to lift the trophy.

"That England white-ball team is a special side and the country should be excited about their chances at the World Cup," he said.

Denly, who also played in the BBL and made one IPL appearance this year, said he had no regrets over his "long-haul" winter or his continued desire to perform in the world's leading T20 competitions.

"I would have liked to play more cricket for sure, but it has been great to be involved in the IPL, BBL and with England," he said.

Denly had scored 20 and taken one wicket during Essex's second innings when rain halted play on day three of their Championship match at Chelmsford on Wednesday.

Get in the World Cup mood with updates from the tournament opening party on the Mall. Refresh the page if the live blog doesn't appear.

The security guard allegedly knocked down by Ezekiel Elliott at a Las Vegas music festival earlier this month says he is still seeking a genuine apology from the Dallas Cowboys running back.

Kyle Johnson, 19, told KCBS-TV in Los Angeles that he wasn't injured in the May 19 incident that led to Elliott being detained but was disappointed by his actions. While trying to access a secure area at the festival, Elliott allegedly used his body to shove Johnson backward and he fell over a security fence.

"I wasn't hurt or anything, but just to have someone that you looked up to shove you on the ground over a metal fence?" Johnson told the station. "It's not the biggest thing in the world, but really, [to say] nothing happened? I mean, come on."

Video of the incident was released by TMZ.

Johnson, who plays football at a California community college, told KCBS that he would like another apology, saying he wasn't satisfied by the one he got at the time.

"I did get an apology from him. It wasn't a sincere apology," Johnson said. "He didn't maintain eye contact. It didn't seem sincere at all."

Johnson declined to press charges against Elliott at the time. He told KCBS he hadn't thought about whether that was the right decision or if he would reconsider.

At the time of Elliott's detainment, Las Vegas police office Laura Meltzer described the possible charge as misdemeanor battery.

On Thursday, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said he didn't believe the NFL would take action against Elliott, who was suspended six games in 2017 for violating the league's personal conduct policy.

The number hovers over these NBA Finals: 31-1 -- the Golden State Warriors' record in their past 32 games with Stephen Curry and without Kevin Durant.

That is the version of Golden State that begins this final chase for a three-peat, and the team's fourth title in five seasons. If Durant returns, this becomes two different series: with him, and without him.

The Warriors can win it without him. That is self-evident. But that 31-1 number does not make them a sure thing against a confident Toronto Raptors team carrying home-court advantage. Golden State compiled that record against the broader NBA. Its opponents in all such games had a collective scoring margin of just plus-0.3 points per game, according to research by ESPN's Kevin Pelton.

The first stretch, coinciding with Durant's knee injury in 2017, came against a soft schedule. The Warriors eked out five-plus quarters against a Houston Rockets team that seemed overwhelmed by its opportunity. The Portland Trail Blazers were thin and gassed.

The deep end of the playoffs is where those records go to die. The Rockets of last season were unbeatable with all three of Chris Paul, James Harden and Clint Capela -- until the Warriors beat them. The Milwaukee Bucks hadn't lost three consecutive games until these Raptors blitzed them in four straight.

Without Durant, the Warriors lose their No. 1 option defending Kawhi Leonard, who has become San Antonio's "pound the rock" ethos incarnate: He makes sure you feel him on every possession, with burrowing shoulder-checks and implausible extended arms and a brick-wall torso not even Giannis Antetokounmpo could move, until you finally crack under the unrelenting pressure.

Leonard is an almost perfect postseason player. He is shooting 55 percent on long 2-pointers in these playoffs. The ability to hit contested, unassisted midrange shots at that rate is the ultimate postseason weapon. It is the skill that makes Durant Golden State's fail-safe. It is insurance against slumps, and elite defenses that take away everything else.

It could allow for Toronto to control tempo the way LeBron's Cavaliers did in toppling the last Golden State team without Durant. The Raptors and Warriors rank as two of the league's best fast-breaking teams. Which team finds more of those chaos points -- without leaking on the offensive glass, where the Warriors have been hungrier in the playoffs -- will play a role determining the championship.

Turnovers lead to those kinds of chaos points, and Golden State's turnover rate could be a bellwether. Toronto has long arms everywhere; the Warriors have a long history of arrogant, casual gaffes.

The Raptors won the possession game against the Bucks, and they have to again here -- against a Warriors team that has ramped up its offensive rebounding. Toronto forces a good number of turnovers, and Golden State is prone to making them.

Kyle Lowry and Pascal Siakam are smart seizing run-out chances. They should continue to, even against the greatest fast-breaking team since the Showtime Lakers -- just as the 2016 Cavs did in defiance of conventional wisdom. But when those chances don't present themselves, Leonard can grind the game to a pace that saps Golden State's verve.

When Toronto has the ball

In the one game Leonard played against Golden State this season, Klay Thompson took the bulk of the Leonard assignment when Durant rested. The bet here is the job falls first to Andre Iguodala, with Thompson taking Lowry, and Curry hiding on Danny Green. That probably leaves Draymond Green on Siakam, and whomever starts at center on Marc Gasol.

It might be time for Steve Kerr to get on with it and start Kevon Looney. The Warriors are wary of overtaxing Looney. They like bringing high-IQ players off the bench to settle reserve units. Looney and Iguodala have nice chemistry.

But Iguodala is starting for now, and Looney is way better than Jordan Bell, Andrew Bogut or Damian Jones. Start him -- even if DeMarcus Cousins returns. A recovering Cousins fits better with Golden State's second units. The Warriors should not risk disrupting the rhythm of the Curry/Thompson/Green trio by plopping in a slower big who needs the ball. Let Cousins mash opposing benches in lineups featuring only Thompson among Golden State's founding stars.

There is an argument for swapping Draymond Green onto Gasol, and Looney onto Siakam -- mimicking what Philadelphia and Milwaukee did. Gasol is the more frequent pick-and-roll partner for Lowry and Leonard; Draymond Green is more agile than Looney switching those plays, or corralling Lowry and Leonard at the arc. The Warriors tried switching their centers onto Leonard, and Leonard destroyed them.

But guarding Siakam allows Draymond Green to roam more freely. Siakam is a canny ball handler in his own right, and Green is better-equipped than Looney to defend that end of a pick-and-roll. The Warriors in this alignment would have Thompson, Iguodala and Draymond Green on Toronto's three best offensive players -- Lowry, Leonard, and Siakam -- and the ability to switch actions involving any two of them. (Green will probably get some chances as Leonard's primary guy.)

Thompson has been stout switching onto Siakam:

Siakam has improved since then. He went at Antetokounmpo with surprising gusto. The Thompson-Siakam battle will be one of those swing games-within-the-game.

Toronto will target Golden State's centers in the pick-and-roll. Golden State would probably live with Thompson and Iguodala switching onto Gasol on those plays. They could front him, and count on backside help.

The problem is on the other end of that switch -- Golden State's centers on Lowry or Leonard. Lowry cannot be passive against that matchup. He has to let the step-back 3-pointers fly, and roast those galoots off the bounce. He has to play with the KLOE swagger every second for Toronto to do this.

Golden State will occasionally trap Leonard with its centers, and that is where Gasol becomes so important. He can act as a release valve, and spray passes in 4-on-3 situations. But trapping Leonard is preferable to switching, and sometimes to dropping back -- a strategy that risks Leonard pulling up for 3s, or pitching to Gasol (and Serge Ibaka) for pick-and-pop triples. (Ibaka is 7-of-32 from deep in the playoffs, and 4-of-27 if you exclude Game 7 against Philly. He has migrated back into midrange. The Raptors will need some 3s from him to win.)

Leonard is stronger than both Iguodala and Thompson. Neither has the length to bother him with extendo-arms the way Durant does. Thompson is tough as hell and will win some battles, but Leonard can overpower him:

Toronto should use cross screens and other methods of getting Leonard deeper touches:

Getting Leonard the ball on the move -- slingshotting him from the corners, around multiple picks -- has been effective all season:

Leonard can hunt backdoor cuts out of those actions, and both Thompson and Iguodala have been aggressive denying the ball against him -- exposing the back door:

There has been tension all season between Nick Nurse's motion offense and Leonard's old-school one-on-one devastation. That tension is not inherently damaging. But Toronto knows how to incorporate Leonard into more elaborate, quick-hitting actions Nurse prefers:

The Raptors are better when they shift between styles. You can't beat Golden State with a steady diet of anything -- not even Leonard isolations and pick-and-rolls against set defenses. The Sixers sent very little help at those. The Bucks sent a lot. Leonard broke both. The Warriors are better than anyone in the middle ground, and at baiting opponents into thinking they see something they don't. Toronto's role players will need to hit open 3s, though they might not get as many naked looks this time around.

Any interaction between Leonard and a smaller teammate brings the possibility of a switch -- and a delicious mismatch. When Curry is stuck on Lowry, the Raptors should lean into Lowry-Leonard two-man stuff. They should run Curry through flare screen actions that surprised Milwaukee:

But after makes, the Warriors will stash Curry on Danny Green. To hunt Curry, the Raptors will have to redirect their offense through Green picks.

That hasn't looked natural. Leonard is not the sort of playmaker who gets rid of the ball early, and Green is not much of a threat beyond pick-and-pop 3s. He is in a vicious slump.

He is also one of the great 3-point shooters in NBA Finals history. Green will snap that slump. But to really punish Curry -- and to give themselves a chance to get him into foul trouble -- the Raptors might need to pair Lowry with Fred VanVleet more, so that Curry has to defend a dangerous ball handler. (Curry will also get some time on Norman Powell.)

When Golden State has the ball

Giving some Danny Green minutes to VanVleet sacrifices size and defense, and you need as much of those as possible to survive Golden State. Green is a popular nominee to defend Curry, with Lowry presumably sliding to Iguodala. Green has three inches on Curry, and five on Lowry. Curry feasts on most smaller guards.

But Green is at a severe quickness disadvantage chasing Curry through Golden State's maze of picks. The Raptors have preferred him on Thompson. Lowry guarding Iguodala also means one of Siakam and Leonard has to defend a Splash Brother, and overdoing any such matchup seems bad.

Leonard, of course, can guard anyone. The Spurs were selective using him as the primary defender on Curry, but Leonard did not look out at sea hounding Curry in open space:

Leonard-on-Curry looms as a crunch-time defensive weapon. Leonard is long enough to challenge Curry from behind, and get his giant magnet hands into passing lanes:

Curry has put Leonard on skates, but he gets everyone eventually:

Toronto won't ask Leonard to defend Curry full time, even with Durant out. (Leonard will get the Durant assignment, with Siakam as Plan B.) It is exhausting. The bet here is that Leonard starts on Draymond Green or Iguodala. I'd try him on Draymond Green -- with Siakam on Iguodala -- even though that assignment is exhausting in its own way.

To beat even the non-Durant Warriors, you have to be able to switch the Curry-Green pick-and-roll. That is just a fundamental truth now. It doesn't matter if injuries chip away at the shooting around those guys: If you blitz Curry over and over, Draymond Green is going to find a way to beat you with his playmaking. You need to vary your strategy, but switching has to be at the core of it.

Leonard can switch onto Curry. The Raptors won't worry about a smaller player jostling with Green on the other side of that switch; Lowry has defended Draymond Green often.

Another potential deployment of Leonard: as Klay-stopper against Golden State's second units. The Raptors have been miserable with both Lowry and Leonard resting, and aiming Leonard at Thompson in those minutes doubles as a way of keeping at least one of Toronto's All-Stars on the floor at all times.

But obsessing over optimal matchups against Golden State is folly, at least with Curry and Thompson both on the floor. On-ball action encompasses only a small portion of what the Warriors do. Toronto's optimal matchups will sustain for about three seconds. Once the Warriors start moving, the Raptors will start switching.

Green and Leonard have a lot of shared experience guarding the Curry-era Warriors. They know how to switch, talk (Leonard points and screams like a non-robot against the Warriors) and make reads on the fly.

There is no catchall answer. It seems smart to sag off Golden State's non-shooters -- until the moment they screen for Thompson and Curry.

Well, then, press those non-shooters, right? Nah. Do that, and everyone cuts for layups.

You have to do everything. You have to toggle from one strategy to the next in a flash, and then back again. You have to help, but not too much, and not at the wrong times. You have to be comfortable living in those in-between spaces -- in a netherworld that feels precarious to all but the very best.

Toronto has the very best -- smart, rangy regulars on the All-Defensive teams. They can track all the shifting variables, and improvise without bumping into one another. Leonard and Siakam are long and quick enough to effectively be in two places at once:

Golden State, of course, can engage in the same predatory simplicity as opponents who hunt Curry. If Durant returns, expect actions -- including the dreaded Curry-Durant two-man game -- designed to get Lowry and VanVleet onto Durant.

Until then, the Warriors can target Gasol and Ibaka. No team has played more centers off the floor. Golden State usually does that by dispensing with its centers, and sliding Green there. The Warriors barely went that route against the Trail Blazers, and have no access to the Death Lineup -- or the Coma Lineup, with Shaun Livingston in Iguodala's place -- with Durant injured.

They could try Curry/Thompson/Livingston/Iguodala/Green, though that group might not have enough shooting to justify the speed-for-size tradeoff. Alfonzo McKinnie could appear in such lineups; he should absorb a few minutes of the Leonard assignment on defense.

Curry can still test Gasol in the pick-and-roll. The occasional screen at half court is especially mean; it gives Curry a long runway and infinite options:

Imagine being Ibaka there? What a nightmare.

Gasol can't stay with Curry on switches. Drop back, and Curry rains fire. Gasol will have to pressure Curry, and force the pass to Looney -- turning Looney into a playmaker. You have to live with something.

But you don't always get to choose. A pick-and-roll presents a narrow range of decisions in a static environment. Pursuing Curry through a forest of off-ball screens is an entirely different thing. Plans are discarded. People panic.

Golden State can also hit Gasol with screen-the-screener actions -- when another Warrior slams Gasol on his way up to the Curry pick-and-roll, pinning Gasol behind the play.

Ibaka is nimbler than Gasol, but Toronto loses something on offense. Nurse has saved one card all season: Siakam at center. The Gasol deal rendered that card almost moot; it is hard to bench two of your six best players.

The absence of OG Anunoby really hurts here, too. He unlocks a lot of lineup possibilities. Nurse might explore Siakam at center anyway.

Prediction

The Raptors have a lot of answers. They have home court. Maybe in getting this far, they shed the mental yips that pockmarked their play at times before the Milwaukee series -- the bouts of hot-potato timidity from Lowry and Gasol.

But the pressure of the Finals is new, more intense. Golden State has lived it many times over. The Warriors are ready. Part of them is excited to start on the road. After all these years, they crave new challenges.

The Warriors' defense has struggled by its standards, and the biggest overarching question is whether Toronto can score enough to keep up; Golden State ranks ninth in points allowed per possession in the playoffs. But the Warriors faced offenses that finished second, third and ninth in the regular season. They locked in against Portland. Losing Durant forced them to dig deeper -- to tap back in to the roaring frenzy of their classic defensive performances.

They won't downshift now. A Durant return seems possible. It is hard to bet against a core that has been through this so many times, and beaten back so many challengers. The Raptors have the goods to take this, or to at least force Golden State to earn it with the rarest of wins: on the road, in Game 7. In fact, let's go there. My initial feel was Warriors in 6, but let's speak a classic into existence: Warriors in 7.

Golden State Warriors superstar Stephen Curry is the betting favorite to be named NBA Finals MVP -- an honor that has eluded the two-time MVP and three-time champion.

Caesars Sportsbook opened Curry as a -150 favorite, but the odds have since lowered to -125, following wagers from respected bettors on Klay Thompson and Draymond Green, each at 9-1 odds. Toronto Raptors star Kawhi Leonard (+275) is the No. 2 favorite.

"The market is not something we take a lot of public action on, so you have to be very careful, especially when you first open markets, to not let yourselves get buried by particular bets," Alan Berg, a senior oddsmaker at Caesars, told ESPN's Doug Kezirian. "If we get the type of action we're looking for from someone we considered to be a great player, then we'd move aggressively."

On Monday, Curry said earning Finals MVP honors is "secondary" to winning the title.

"That's just nitpicking at the end of the day, if I really want to cause a hissy-fit about not winning the Finals MVP with all that we've experienced and all the highs that we've been to," Curry said. "... Everybody has a part in what we do, and whoever wins it this year, it's the same vibe. I could go out and average 50, but without the contributions and the effort and the focus of everybody that steps foot on the floor, we're not putting banners up. Everybody can feel pride in all the individual accolades as well as the team."

Jerry West of the Los Angeles Lakers captured the first Finals MVP award in 1969, and he remains the only player to receive the honor from a team that lost the Finals.

Kevin Durant was the Finals MVP in 2017 and 2018 but is ruled out for Game 1 with a strained right calf. His status for the rest of the series remains unknown. Caesars is offering 18-1 odds on Durant, given he may not even suit up for a single game.

Warriors forward Andre Iguodala won the NBA Finals MVP in 2015, becoming the only award winner to not start every game in the series. Iguodala was in the neighborhood of a 125-1 long shot in offshore betting markets. Finals MVP odds were not offered in Nevada until 2017.

Game 1 of the Finals is Thursday (9 p.m. ET, ABC).