[ad_1]
Washington Commanders assistant Jack Del Rio addressed the team to apologize for his comments about protests in the summer of 2020 and the Jan. 6 riot at the US Capitol, coach Ron Rivera said Tuesday. Rivera said Del Rio also met individually with some players to discuss his remarks last week, which drew a $100,000 fine from the team. “He was very open, very forthright, very contrite and apologized and opened himself up to questions or opportunities for any players to come in and meet with him,” Rivera told reporters before the team’s first minicamp practice. “He’s already met with some of our players and talked to some of them about what was said. I’ve been told those meetings went very, very well. And so I’m very pleased with that.” Del Rio apologized hours later for calling the deadly insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021 “a dust-up at the Capitol.” Rivera said the fine made it clear the organization would not tolerate equivalating the riot to the protests in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd. Rivera said he and the team wanted to move on from the comments now to focus on football. “I’m about reconciliation,” Rivera said. “We have to understand that when we do things like this, it impacts the community as well. We got to make sure the community understands that we understand and we get it. That’s important. So this was really about taking accountability and holding ourselves accountable, and then going forward and trying to reconcile with things.”
TENNIS
Top-seeded Ruud loses opening-round match at Queen’s Club
Casper Ruud endured a tough transition from clay to the grass courts, with the top seed losing his opening-round match at the Queen’s Club in straight sets to an opponent ranked No. 180. Nine days after playing — and losing — to Rafael Nadal in the French Open final, Ruud was beaten 7-6 (4), 7-6 (2) by little-known Briton Ryan Peniston, a 26-year-old in his first ATP Tour main draw. It was only the seventh time the top seed has lost a first-round match at Queen’s in the Open era, with the Norwegian joining an illustrious list containing Andy Murray, Pete Sampras, and Jimmy Connors. “I can’t really believe it,” Peniston said. “It feels like a dream. I didn’t get much sleep last night, it doesn’t feel real. Obviously Casper is an unreal player, he did so well at the French Open so I knew it was a tough ask. But you have to step on the court knowing you’ve got a chance to win — so that’s what I did.” Ruud is a clay-court specialist who has a pretty low opinion of the grass. He recently said “grass is for golf players” and that he felt “more comfortable on the golf course than the tennis courts on grass for now.”
SOCCER
Liverpool completes $78m purchase of Benfica’s Darwin Núñez
Liverpool has taken another of Portuguese soccer’s best players to strengthen its forward line, with Uruguay striker Darwin Núñez completing his move to Anfield from Benfica for an initial fee of 75 million euros ($78 million). Núñez’s arrival comes six months after Colombia winger Luis Diaz joined from Porto, Benfica’s big rival, and had an instant impact at Liverpool in the second half of last season. Núñez is expected to become Liverpool’s starting striker as a replacement for Sadio Mané, who has been heavily linked with a move to Bayern Munich. It is an immediate response by Liverpool to the signing of another of European soccer’s top strikers, Erling Haaland, by Premier League title rival Manchester City on Monday. In a brief statement to the Portuguese stock market, Benfica said Monday the transfer sum for Núñez could rise to 100 million euros ($104 million) based on variables. The transfer is subject to the successful granting of a work permit and international clearance.
England slumps to historic loss to Hungary in Nations League
England suffered its worst home defeat since 1928 with a 4-0 loss to Hungary in the Nations League. Less than a year after reaching the European Championship final on home soil to raucous celebrations, England was booed by its own fans after a heavy loss to an unheralded Hungary team that completed a double after upsetting England last week. European champion Italy had it little better as it was beaten 5-2 by Germany. England’s last game of the long 2021-22 season will ensure plenty of reflection before the World Cup in Qatar in five months’ time. Manager Gareth Southgate, a national hero during Euro 2020, had to endure chants of “you don’t know what you’re doing.” “It’s our first big defeat in a long time,” England captain Harry Kane told broadcaster Channel 4. “Our defense has been the structure behind our success over the last four or five years. It was a night to forget of course but we’ve got to take it on the chin and move forward. At the end of the day we’re preparing for what’s going to be a big World Cup. That’s the most important thing. We’ll learn from it.”
Costa Rica going to World Cup, beats New Zealand in playoff
Costa Rica’s core of stars like Keylor Navas, Joel Campbell, and Bryan Ruiz created national soccer history in a memorable run to the 2014 World Cup quarterfinals. They were all still there, all with more than 100 appearances, all key to a 1-0 win over New Zealand in a World Cup intercontinental playoff in Qatar. All earned a ticket back to Doha for Costa Rica in November and their third straight World Cup tournament together. “Today is a joyful day,” said Navas, the captain and goalkeeper whose saves late in the game preserved the lead earned by Campbell’s third-minute goal. “We played many finals to be here, we played many matches in which we knew we couldn’t make any mistakes. And today was another one of those.” Costa Rica completed a 32-nation World Cup lineup by withstanding a New Zealand team that rallied from the early setback to dominate possession and create more and better scoring chances. New Zealand pressed, and Navas responded, even after going down to 10 men for the last quarter of the match in the air-conditioned Ahmad bin Ali Stadium on the outskirts of Doha.
[ad_2]
Source link