Ji So-Yun shines in Reign FC rout of Royals

June 22 - Ji So-Yun had one goal and two assists and Emeri Adames scored two second-half goals to help Seattle Reign FC post a 4-1 victory over the Utah Royals on Saturday afternoon at Sandy, Utah.
Maddie Dahlien also scored as Seattle (6-4-3, 21 points) stretched its unbeaten streak to three matches (2-0-1).
Bianca St-Georges scored on a rebound for last-place Utah (1-10-2, 5 points), which lost its fourth straight match and fell to 0-7-1 over its last eight games.
Ji put the Reign on the board in the sixth minute when she sent a right-footed shot into the left corner of the net. Ten minutes later, Dahlien tapped a right-footed shot toward the net that Royals defender Ana Tejada was unable to keep from going in.
Utah scored in the 31st minute when Ally Sentnor's right-footed shot from outside the box was partially stopped by Seattle's Claudia Dickey and hit the left goalpost. The unchecked St-George easily knocked it in.
Seattle pulled away in the second half as Ji was surrounded by three defenders in the 66th minute and slid a pass to the wide-open Adames, who drilled a left-footed shot into the net. The 19-year-oid Adames added a left-footed penalty-kick goal in the first minute of second-half stoppage time.
Gotham FC 2, Bay City FC 1
Geyse scored the tiebreaking goal and Esther Gonzalez also found the back of the net as Gotham rallied to knock off Bay City at Harrison, N.J.
The go-ahead goal came in the 55th minute after Nealy Martin sent a long pass upfield. Geyse and Gonzalez were both chasing the ball and Geyse got there first and lifted a short right-footer over the hand of Bay City goalkeeper Emmie Allen. The win was the second in a row for Gotham (5-5-3, 18 points).
Penelope Hocking scored for Bay City (4-6-3, 15 points), who lost their second straight game. A wide-open Hocking had a chance for her second goal in the 76th minute, but she sent a right-footer just wide left of the net.
Hocking's goal in the 11th minute gave Bay City a 1-0 edge. She chased a ball close to the net and tipped it past Gotham goalie Ann-Katrin Berger and then tapped it into the net.
Gotham tied the score in the 30th minute after Sarah Schupansky stole the ball inside the Bay City box. She immediately fed Gonzalez, who sent a right-footed shot past Allen. Gonzalez extended her NWSL goal-scoring lead to 10.
Courage 2, Dash 1
Jaedyn Shaw scored the tying goal in the 71st minute and Hannah Betfort provided the winner 10 minutes later as North Carolina rallied for the victory over Houston at Cary, N.C.
Avery Patterson scored for the Dash (3-8-2, 11 points), who lost their third straight match and stand 0-4-1 over their past five games.
Both North Carolina goals came after Houston's Sarah Puntigam drew her second yellow card of the match, exiting in the 69th minute with the automatic upgrade to red and leaving the Dash with just 10 players.
First, Malia Berkely dribbled forward and sent a pass over to Shaw, who drilled a right-footed shot into the right corner of the net. In the 81st minute, Manaka Matsukubo sent a cross toward the net and Betford tipped in into the net as the Courage (5-5-3, 18 points) won their second straight match.
Houston struck in the opening minute as Patterson drove a left-footed shot to the left of North Carolina goalie Casey Murphy.
--Field Level Media

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The Independent

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• The Independent

Is Real Madrid v Pachuca on TV? How to watch Club World Cup game for free

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The Independent

33 minutes ago

• The Independent

Jon Jones officially retires as Tom Aspinall is crowned UFC heavyweight champion

Jon Jones has officially retired from mixed martial arts, with UFC president Dana White declaring Tom Aspinall the promotion's new heavyweight champion. Jones, a former two-time light-heavyweight champion, won the vacant heavyweight belt in March 2023, before Aspinall claimed the interim belt that November, when Jones suffered a torn pectoral muscle. Jones's injury delayed his planned title defence against Stipe Miocic until November 2024, when 'Bones' ultimately returned to the cage and retained his belt with a third-round stoppage. In the meantime, Aspinall made the rare move of defending the interim title, doing so successfully last July. That set Britain's Aspinall, 32, and American Jones, 37, on a collision course. Or so it seemed. A frustrating saga saw Jones refuse to fight the interim champion yet also refuse to retire, with many fans accusing Jones of wasting Aspinall's time and a segment of the Briton's prime. On Saturday, however, Jones officially announced his retirement from MMA, leading White to declare Aspinall the regular heavyweight champion. 'Today, I'm officially announcing my retirement from the UFC,' Jones wrote on X (formerly Twitter). 'This decision comes after a lot of reflection, and I want to take a moment to express my deepest gratitude for the journey I've experienced over the years. 'From the first time I stepped into the Octagon, my goal was to push the boundaries of what was possible in this sport. Becoming the youngest UFC champion in history, defending my title against some of the best fighters in the world, and sharing unforgettable moments with fans across the globe—these are memories I'll cherish forever. 'I've faced incredible highs and some tough lows, but every challenge has taught me something valuable and made me stronger, both as a fighter and as a person [...] To my fellow fighters, thank you for bringing out the best in me and for the respect we've shared inside and outside the cage. 'As I close this chapter of my life, I look forward to new opportunities and challenges ahead. MMA will always be a part of who I am, and I'm excited to see how I can continue to contribute to the sport and inspire others in new ways. Thank you all for being part of this incredible journey with me. The best is yet to come.' Jones is seen by many fans and pundits as the greatest fighter in MMA history, although his career was marred by numerous failed drug tests and run-ins with the law. He was twice stripped of the UFC light-heavyweight title and once stripped of the interim 205lb belt. He has tested positive for both performance-enhancing and recreational substances. Yet many fans cling to Jones's record, with the American having never lost outside of a sole disqualification for using illegal elbows. For years, White attempted to have that result overturned. Jones vacated the light-heavyweight title in 2020 as he eyed a long-awaited move to heavyweight, and after three years out of the cage, he returned to submit Ciryl Gane in round one. With that result, he claimed the vacant heavyweight belt. His delayed defence against Miocic pitted the greatest-ever 205lb fighter against the consensus greatest UFC heavyweight ever. However, Miocic was 42 at the time of their fight, and his previous outing was a devastating knockout loss almost four years prior. Aspinall, meanwhile, has been one of the most electrifying fighters in the UFC since his 2020 debut. The Wigan heavyweight is 8-1 in the UFC with eight stoppage wins, all of them in the first two rounds, while his sole defeat was caused by an injury. Aspinall, who holds the record for the shortest average fight time of a UFC combatant with five or more bouts, won the interim title by knocking out Sergei Pavlovich, before retaining it with a knockout of Curtis Blaydes. His victory over Blaydes saw Aspinall avenge his injury-induced loss from 2022.

Times

40 minutes ago

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Interventionists like Xabi Alonso often fail at Real Madrid. Can he deliver?

Perhaps it should be remembered at this point that Xabi Alonso's first pre-season at Bayer Leverkusen, the one that laid the base for them felling Bayern Munich to win the German title, was a picture of precision and calm. Hidden away in the Saalfelden basin of the Austrian Alps, Alonso's staff and players spent that first week away in the summer of 2023 quietly absorbing the tactical arithmetic of their new coach, surrounded by nothing but pine trees and the craggy peaks of the Steinernes Meer. Their hotel was a scenic walk away, up a rocky path, and the most tempting off-field distractions included a local mining museum and the impressive selection of hiking trails. Two years later, Alonso's first week at Real Madrid has been more a cacophony of head-banging, Hard Rock Stadium noise. That was where Alonso's opening game as head coach was staged on Wednesday — a 1-1 draw against Al-Hilal in the Club World Cup, where Jude Bellingham was trudging through his 60th match, in his eighth competition, in 33C heat, of the never-ending 2024-25 season. On Sunday, he will play his 61st in North Carolina, against the Mexican side Pachuca. Before jetting out to Miami, Real's Fifa-arranged training centre at The Gardens North County District Park had to be hastily upgraded to include temporary gyms, showers and changing rooms, with their hotel a 30-minute bus ride away in Palm Beach. Raúl Asencio, the central defender, was on antibiotics and Kylian Mbappé was admitted to hospital on the morning of the first game with an 'acute case of gastroenteritis' — he returned to training the next day. Alonso's pre-season capsule is no longer encased by woolly clouds or misty peaks, but selfie-hunting fans, cameras, cars and security police. Alonso would not have been surprised by any of this, of course — the 43-year-old who first joined Real as a player in 2009 as part of a transfer frenzy that followed Pep Guardiola's Barcelona winning the Treble. Before his move, Alonso had already played in the Istanbul Champions League final for Liverpool and after he would navigate those ferocious Madrid years with José Mourinho, three finals with Spain and more than 100 games for Bayern Munich. Alonso knows big clubs. He understands Real Madrid. 'He's lived with el monstruo,' said Jorge Valdano, who was Real's general manager when Alonso signed 16 years ago. 'He knows the ins and outs.' For so long, Alonso has been viewed as the perfect fit too, his return to Madrid framed like a destiny fulfilled. The managers he played under — among them Guardiola, Mourinho, Rafael Benítez, Carlo Ancelotti and Vicente del Bosque — would make a decent coaching manual of modern greats. He speaks four languages fluently and grew up in Gipuzkoa, the Basque brain factory where Unai Emery, Andoni Iraola and Mikel Arteta all started out. He even played like a coach, as a deep-lying playmaker, setting the tone and drawing the angles. 'I feel like it's my moment, that it fits in all aspects. That's what they've told me,' Alonso said at his presentation. 'We all knew what your fate would be, as soon as you first sat in the dugout,' Real's president, Florentino Pérez, said. Yet Real managers have not often been like Alonso, at least not the ones who lasted. Alonso is in that mould of coaching obsessives, a details man, who takes training sessions himself, and likes to pull and push his players into his network of revolving positions. At Leverkusen, he was involved in all areas, including recruitment, where the club signed unfancied veterans such as Granit Xhaka and Jonas Hofmann. He was tuned into the vibrations of the dressing room, where he deliberately separated old cliques. His team were tactically agile and well-rehearsed, able to play 3-4-3, with wingbacks, while shifting to a 3-4-2-1 or 3-5-2, or flipping completely to a 4-2-3-1 or 4-5-1. That micro-style of management has not always worked at Real, where players and politics so often take hold. Since Pérez's re-election in 2009, the three coaches who failed to win La Liga or the Champions League — Julen Lopetegui, Benítez and Manuel Pellegrini — were all most comfortable on the training ground while Ancelotti, Zinédine Zidane and Mourinho, who won 11 league and Champions League titles between them, were pragmatists stylistically, who prioritised confidence and command of the dressing room. 'When you work with high-quality players, they know how to manage those periods of games when you're not playing well,' Zidane said. 'My job was to keep people calm.' In Spanish, they call it managing con mano izquierda, with the left hand, like the art of diplomacy or reducing the noise. Interventionists have sometimes faced resistance, like Benítez, who still fields questions about how he told Cristiano Ronaldo how to take free kicks and ordered Luka Modric to stop passing with the outside of his foot. In 2018, Antonio Conte was essentially removed before he started, after it was rumoured that Pérez wanted to appoint the Italian to restore order in the squad. 'Respect is earned, not imposed,' Sergio Ramos said, so Zidane was eventually appointed instead. None of which is to say Alonso won't make it work, not least because he was there with Benítez and played under Ancelotti. More than anyone, he should know where the balance lies. Since his arrival on May 25, Alonso has dodged the sugary questions looking for sentimental answers, as if determined not to look giddy or out of place. He has a younger, and perhaps more malleable squad, than his predecessors and there are signs that even Real see this as a moment for renewal, with more authority conceded so far than might have been expected before. In that sense, Alonso has been allowed a larger backroom team than Ancelotti was given and has brought his own fitness coach, Ismael Camenforte López, which has left the future of Real's long-time fitness guru, Antonio Pintus, in doubt. In the transfer market, Peréz, the chief scout Juni Calafat and chief executive José Ángel Sánchez still call the shots but Alonso's voice is being heard, with Real spending €10million (about £8.4million) just to sign Trent Alexander-Arnold early so he could start training before the Club World Cup. Dean Huijsen, a ball-playing centre back in the Alonso mould, has arrived from Bournemouth, and Real want another central midfielder, left back and a back-up striker. The future of Rodrygo, the Brazil winger admired by Arsenal, will be decided in the coming weeks after talks with Alonso. 'I want to communicate with the club and reach a consensus,' he said. 'It's not that we're coming in with demands, more with the idea of improving.' The challenge will be to weave his methods into a superstar side that has won repeat Champions Leagues on moments and belief in recent years, while growing used to the lighter touch. Bellingham hailed the way Ancelotti let the players 'play with freedom' and be 'off the cuff' but Alonso wants a clearer identity, where they pass with purpose and press high with a carefully choreographed trap. When they won the title under Alonso in 2023-24, Leverkusen won 367 high turnovers, which was 100 more than Real managed last season. Ancelotti regularly faced criticism about his team's stomach for sprinting and at Paris Saint-Germain, Luis Enrique castigated Mbappé for his lack of pressing. Can Alonso make Mbappé, Vinícius Júnior and Rodrygo run? In midfield, Real have been missing a deep-lying connector like the retired Toni Kroos and question marks remain around Bellingham's role. Alonso believes there is room for improvement around Bellingham's 'efficiency' but he has defined him as a midfielder, with the 21-year-old starting against Al-Hilal on the left of the central three, even if his best contributions have so often come closer to goal. Aurélien Tchouaméni in the middle is not a natural distributor and Federico Valverde is being used as a right-sided centre back but has previously been at his best out wide. Alexander-Arnold, whose set pieces have been a particular focus in training, drifted into midfield when Real had the ball on Wednesday but the pace of the passing was ponderous and the options unclear. 'It was slow and full of disconnections,' concluded El País, the Spanish newspaper. 'Like recognising distant relatives at a Christmas gathering.' And for all the stodginess in attack, Real's biggest problem last season was in defence, where Ancelotti was hit hard by injuries and let down by lapses of concentration. In Alonso's first game, Alexander-Arnold started on the right of a back four but he may push forward into a wingback role, with the more dependable Dani Carvajal starting inside, on the right of a back three. Many of the defensive problems also lie further forward. Real were too open off the ball under Ancelotti and it will be up to Alonso to make them more compact, particularly in midfield. His title-winning Leverkusen side conceded 24 goals compared to Real's 38 this season and faced 291 shots to Real's 405. Can a 20-year-old Huijsen lead a serious back line? Can Alexander-Arnold? Certainly, Alonso has the talent in his squad and the tactical acumen to find solutions. He has inherited a Real side that, for the first time in four years, won none of the league, cup or Champions League, which should, in theory, make Ancelotti an easier act to follow. He has revolutionised a team, transformed players and won all the biggest prizes before. If anyone can make this work, Alonso can. The only doubt, really, is whether he can do it on the move; at Real, where rebuilds have to be stirred in with success and adjustments made carefully, in the swirl of egos, pressure and noise. Even this pre-season is doubling up as the defence of a world title, like an omen of what is to come, at a club that belongs more in the Miami heat than the hush of the Austrian Alps.