Roundup

Carlos Espí: Real Madrid's New Star

Carlos Espí: Real Madrid's New Star

Carlos Espí (21) saved Levante practically single-handedly during the second part of the season before joining Real Madrid with a 25 million euro clause. His specific playing characteristics had deterred other clubs from making the move until Real Madrid secured his services.

In preseason, Espí demonstrated what he brings to the team, and in his first official match, he scored the winning goal in injury time, marking an impressive start to his career at the Spanish giants. sportbet.reviews

Why McLaren thinks Ferrari is quickest in Zandvoort, but may well be stuck

Ferrari's impressive sprint race at Zandvoort has put its Formula 1 rivals on high alert, but a disappointing qualifying performance may leave the Scuderia unable to use its advantage in the grand prix.
Ferrari looked strong in Saturday's sprint, especially in the hands of Charles Leclerc who was much happier with his set-up direction than team-mate Lewis Hamilton.
As the only frontrunner to ...Keep reading

NFF med flere ut mot Infantino: – Har mistet tilliten til Fifa-presidenten

Søndag kom Norges Fotballforbund (NFF) med en uttalelse på sosiale medier og egen nettside, i samarbeid med de fem andre nordiske fotballforbundene.
Der står det blant annet at NFF ikke lenger har tillit til Fifa-president Gianni Infantino.
– De seks nordiske fotballforbundene har mistet tilliten til Fifa-presidenten og har alvorlige bekymringer knyttet til styringen og beslutningsprosessene på øverste nivå i organisasjonen, står det.
– De nordiske fotballforbundene står samlet og fullt ut bak Uefa og tiltakene som de nasjonale medlemsforbundene har foreslått i fellesskap.
Det har stormet rundt Gianni Infantino og Fifa den siste tiden etter at planen om å åpne opp for private investorer i blant annet gjennomføringen av fotball-VM møtte sterke reaksjoner verden over.
NFF skriver videre at de ber om bindene garantier fra Fifa om at de ikke skal «åpne sin styringsstruktur eller sine konkurranser for privat eierskap».
– Videre oppfordrer vi Fifa til å igangsette en omfattende og uavhengig evaluering av om Fifas styringsmodell faktisk sikrer den uavhengigheten, de kontrollmekanismene, den åpenheten og den ansvarligheten som var hensikten da Fifa vedtok sitt reformprogram i 2016, står det til slutt.

Supercars Ipswich: Broc Feeney secures unlikely Sprint Cup title after second weekend win

Broc Feeney scored victory in the third race of the Queensland Raceway Supercars weekend and with it, took an unlikely Sprint Cup title.
Feeney started from second of the grid alongside Triple Eight driver Will Brown and for most of the opening lap the two Ford Mustangs ran side-by-side, until Feeney seized track position and built a lead of around a second.
By the time the opening pit stop ...Keep reading

Todd Monken closes in on his quarterback decision

The clock is ticking, and midnight has nearly arrived for Todd Monken.

The Cleveland quarterback decision is coming soon. Perhaps as soon as Sunday.

“At some point I’m going to have to decide, right?" Monken told reporters after Saturday's preseason game against the Bills. "I’m saying it kind of jokingly. At some point we’ve got to get that guy the reps, so I’m not going to paint myself into a corner. Optimally, you’d like to give one player all of the reps and you know who the one is, and we’ve done the best we could as a staff trying to work through this. Like at any position."

Monken made it clear that he plans to watch the film on Sunday and then talk to the coaching staff. A review of the entire picture is necessary to understand why things didn't go well, on the occasions when they didn't go well.

"I was looking at things live, and everybody had a hand in it," Monken said. "I already know, looking at it and watching, we had too many issues with us, that had nothing to do with them. We’re playing some guys who just got with us, but alignment, assignment and communication, Browns hurting Browns, really. You’re not going to have a chance when that happens."

The final drive, handled by third-stringer Dillon Gabriel, was a particular disaster. In one three-and-out effort, the Browns had three false starts, pushing them all the way to a third-and-25.

"[A]t the end, it was like, really?" Monken said. "That was some shitty football. I don’t care who goes out there. If I could have taken a knee, I probably would have. I mean, what the shit? I don’t know what to tell you."

The first-year hea coach told the world plenty in his praise of Sanders's ability to control the game with a strong cadence.

"We work on cadence and operation, and we’re going to continue to do it, because you can’t be leading the offense when you’re not leading the cadence," Monken said. "In the first half we did, we had a shot. We got them to jump offside, we wanted to take a shot and we jumped, and we had another time we could’ve tapped. We got them in the neutral zone. That’s one thing Shedeur’s going to continue to get better at. We had a chance on third-and-12 to take a shot, he has to see the flag down, we checked it down but didn’t convert on third-and-eight. We were really good at cadence in the first half, but at the end there, it’s not good enough."

As to Watson, Monken's comments made it even more clear that, even though signs recently were pointing to the veteran as the starter, the tide has perhaps started to turn — sharply.

"I was disappointed for us collectively that we didn’t play well offensively [under Watson], I’ll just put it that way," Monken said. "We had to get back on track a bunch. It happened in the first game. When you’re behind the chains, it’s hard. It’s just hard. You can’t force the defense into certain looks [when you] put yourself behind the chains.

"I’ll have to wait to see the tape, but I’m proud of the way he’s worked to get to where he’s at, and that’s part of it. Right? I know you’ve asked him, 'Hey, how it feels to get booed?' It’s a pretty easy question, it sucks. I don’t want to get booed. It comes with the territory. You don’t want to get booed? Let’s play good football. Let’s play good at quarterback, on offense and as a team, and then you won’t have to worry about all that, because it can turn just like that. Win, play good football, and everybody will be fine."

As to the booing Watson, it's more complicated than playing well. The fans were already wired to boo him, for reasons unrelated to his current level of play. The entire circumstances of his arrival and ongoing presence on the roster point to Browns fans being poised to boo him.

The boos could be heard when Watson took the field in the third quarter, even though the stands seemed to be largely empty. They booed him after the first drive of the second half. The boos were consistent, and unrelated to his play.

Watson said it himself. The boos weren't about his performance. If he's the starter in Week 3, he'll hear it all day long — unless the Browns somehow upset both the Jaguars and Buccaneers on the road to start the season.

There will be plenty of subjectivity and discretion when the time comes to pick a starter between Sanders and Watson. If it's close for Monken, the fact that the customers have made their position loud and clear will make Sanders the only right answer.

In brief

MLB Highlights: Mets 10, White Sox 5 Bo Bichette blasted his 14th homer of the season, Carson Benge racked up three hits and scored two runs, and Luis Robert added two hits and three RBIs as the New York Mets earned a 10-5 win over the Chicago White Sox.

Hampshire v Yorkshire, Somerset v Essex, and more: county cricket day four – live Updates from around the grounds on the final day Australia thrash Bangladesh | Get The Spin | Mail TanyaDurham coach Ryan Campbell giving diamond quotes as usual: “If there’s anyone around the country who doesn’t think that boy can play Test cricket they are absolutely crazy because that pressure he

It's time for the Browns and Deshaun Watson to go their separate ways After Saturday's game and press conference, it's impossible for the Browns to play Watson again.

CeeDee Lamb's house was burglarized wile the Cowboys were in Oxnard With the Cowboys spending training camp in Oxnard, some homes of the players were left unattended.

Patriots rookie QB Behren Morton fills in at punter, then throws game-winning TD As a rookie seventh-round draft pick, Patriots quarterback Behren Morton is no lock to make the 53-man roster.

“It’s just nuts” – Lewis Hamilton baffled by Ferrari’s tyre-warming struggle Lewis Hamilton was left baffled by the Ferrari SF-26 inability to sufficiently warm its tyres up over an out-lap at Formula 1’s Dutch Grand Prix.Both Hamilton and Charles Leclerc required two warm-up laps for their tyres to be in the right temperature window at Zandvoort. They struggled to fifth and