For me, it's always important that I'm very transparent with the players. I have a very good relationship with Carlos, Hurzeler told Sky Sports. We speak regularly, we are in touch. I always share my thoughts about his development and my thoughts about his performance. It's important to be very clear about what you expect from players on the pitch, off the pitch. And it's important to build relationships where you can criticise or give personal feedback they might not be happy about, but they understand the intention behind it.
When any basketball coach is raving about an opposing player, that sets off an alarm bell for sportswriters to pay attention and investigate. It turns out all the good things coaches are beginning to say about 6-foot-4 junior guard Donovan Webb of Golden Valley High are true. Canyon Country Canyon coach Ali Monfared said Webb might be the best player in the Foothill League, which held its media day at Canyon on Saturday.
Cole Palmer's emergence as one of Europe's best young players is the result of desire, drive and confidence, according to former Manchester City and England goalkeeper David James. Palmer's first taste of senior football came as an 18-year-old when he played in a fourth-round League Cup clash in September 2020, as he looked to make the transition from promising youngster at the Etihad to a regular first-teamer in one of the planet's most star-packed sides.
A thrilling start to the NBA season came to a screeching halt on Thursday, when Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups and former player and coach Damon Jones were arrested as part of FBI investigations into illegal sports betting and rigged poker games. Questions remain on the status of those investigations. And while those indictments overshadowed the opening days of the NBA's 80th season, its first handful of games showed us plenty about what could be next on the court.
Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca has admitted to recently confronting striker Marc Guiu during training to tell him to improve. The Italian tactician, speaking at his press conference today, as quoted by journalist Fabrizio Romano, says he didn't like the way Guiu was training. It seems Maresca made it very clear to Guiu that he wasn't happy with any aspect of his performances in training sessions, but since then the Spaniard has taken that on board and improved.
This is a brutal October for the Angels, and not just because they are defendants before a jury that must determine whether the team is guilty of negligence or ignorance that contributed to the death of one of its players. On the field, baseball's longest postseason drought extended to 11 years. They just hired their fourth manager in five years and gave him a one-year contract, which makes him a lame duck before he ever manages a game.
On what was only his fifth Chelsea start after a summer move from Palmeiras worth an initial £29 million, Estêvão was impressive throughout and almost capped an all-round action display late on with a fabulous overhead kick which drifted just wide.
"He's unlocked his next level by himself," Kompany said (as captured by @iMiaSanMia). "He's always done that, even when I was playing against him and the years in between. That's the mentality that he's created every year. Maybe it helped that he didn't win a title for a long time, meaning he kept up that hunger. He's felt what his role in our team can be, also among his teammates."
I remember assistant coach Pat Delany mentioning during his session the importance of making defense messy. He stressed that players should keep their arms moving, working on hand activity, staying focused and getting their chin on the ball. While this might sound like a chaotic, spazzy style of defense, Delany offered a key analogy: players need to have a " cobra mentality" instead of a " woodpecker mentality," waiting patiently for the right moment to strike.
Denver Nuggets guard Christian Braun has agreed to a five-year, $125 million rookie contract extension with the franchise, agent Bill Duffy of WME Basketball told ESPN on Monday. Braun, the No. 21 pick in the 2022 NBA draft, has been a developmental find and success for the Nuggets brass. The Nuggets' top executives, Ben Tenzer and Jon Wallace, made it a priority to negotiate a new long-term deal to lock in Braun as part of the franchise's core moving forward.
It was impossible to miss Caluori's aerial ability and eye for the try line at the weekend with the former Lions captain Sam Warburton describing the 6ft 5in tall youngster as almost undefendable and an absolute diamond. England have been aware of his potential for a while and it seems that some game time against Fiji a fortnight on Saturday is not impossible.
For Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra, it appears JJJ is going to be utilized as a Swiss Army knife, filling any gaps at positions 1-4 that the team may need at the start of the regular season. And now that the Heat have cut Precious Achiuwa, there is at least some sense that the team is fairly confident in JJJ heading into the start of the season.
Dave Roberts deserves his flowers. Prior to the Los Angeles Dodgers breaking through last year, he often was criticized by the media and the fan base for his managerial choices. The disgruntlement and criticism has fortunately died down over the last calendar year given the fact he's established himself as one of the most decorated, well-liked, and well-respected skippers in the history of the sport.
The Cardinals are entering what could be a multi-year rebuilding period where they focus more on strengthening their farm system and player development apparatus than winning games at the major league level. That's a pivot that started last winter, but a number of key veteran players with no-trade clauses wanted to stick with the organization for the 2025 season and try to win in St. Louis.
When you cost that much money, everyone only looks at goals and assists. But honestly, he could already have six or seven assists if the finishing had matched his vision. He's been incredibly unlucky. In the Chelsea game, within a minute of coming on, he played this brilliant flick through to Mo Salah. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred that's a goal - well, maybe 98, because the last time Mo had one like that from Florian, against Atletico Madrid, he hit the post.
That was a good pick just from the standpoint that he has a very defined path in the NBA, and it's going to be his combination of his shooting and size," the scout told Robbins.
I look at it like this: When I'm a parent, I got three kids. They all go at a different rate in terms of - I have an expectation of what I think they should do and how I think they should mature. They don't do it at my rate, though. They do it at their own. Players have that same type of mode of operation. It's consistency, it's the standard of work that we approach it with.
A committee working on behalf of U.S. Soccer has recommended that men's college soccer switch to a season that stretches across the full academic year beginning fall 2026. The recommendation comes after U.S. Soccer tasked the 17-person "NexGen College Soccer Committee" with finding solutions to evolve college soccer to, among other things, better prepare players to turn professional and compete at the international level.
Last season, Tsyplakov looked like he was on an upward trajectory, clocking in 35 points and 10 goals across 77 contests along with a plus-4 rating. He was a physical force, with 140 hits, and Tsyplakov also logged middle-six minutes, with an average time on ice of 14:58. Not bad for a first-year player.
He got fouled, and it was frustration play, and I have no problem with it, because he deserved the foul and he was getting fouled quite a bit, Kerr told media after the game, later adding, I love the way he played, I love the fire, the passion. I don't mind the ejection at all. I kind of liked it, actually. I thought JK was terrific.
The jump from La Masia to the first team of Barcelona was relatively straightforward for top young talents in recent years, but was also helped by the fact that those who were picked were the crème de la crème of the academy's names. The likes of Lamine Yamal, Pau Cubarsi, and Marc Bernal all made their way into the senior setup relatively easily, and rightfully so given that they were all the highest-rated names in their respective position in La Masia.
The future of the game will be on full display, and it's more than just matches -- we've got an incredible few days planned with lots of other exciting activities. This is about the next generation. Hope you like it! This is the Messi Cup.
The star of Said El Mala has risen fast. He broke into 3. Liga side Viktoria Köln's first team within months of joining the club as a youth prospect and was snapped up by 1. FC Köln just several months after that. Loaned back to his former side, El Mala enjoyed his first and only full season at Viktoria and used that one season to turn heads and catch the attention of a lot of scouts.
He has great weapons, he's especially very strong in 1v1 and has incredibly good finishing. Logically, the defensive area is not yet one of his strengths, because he always played for dominant teams in his youth and therefore was not often challenged in terms of tackling and physicality. Jonny joined us with the conviction that this was the right place for him to further develop precisely those qualities in which he needed to catch up.
Sarr has all the tools to be a premiere talent in the NBA and his potential is the exact reason Washington was willing to take the high upside swing on the big man last offseason. As a raw prospect, the Wizards front office and coaching staff knew that immediate results were unlikely when it came to Sarr's development. Throughout his rookie campaign, the 7-footer showed plenty of flashes that made the Wizards brass believe he could eventually prove to be a building block.
Aliaksei Protas already has his Washington Capitals coaches and teammates raving about him again, just two games into the 2025-26 season. After a career-best 2024-25 campaign saw him record 66 points (30g, 36a) in 76 games, Protas is right back to racking up points, posting three (2g, 1a) in a 4-2 win over the New York Islanders on Saturday night. The big Belarusian's efforts led the Capitals to their first victory of the year, and Protas is now the team's scoring leader with four points (2g, 2a) through two games.
