As much as things have changed for Ike Opara, at the office, it's business as usual. Last season, he shepherded a defense that ranked fourth in Major League Soccer in both goals against and expected goals against. This season, the back line he leads ranks fourth in goals against and seventh in expected goals against.

What has changed is that those defenses are on two different teams: Sporting Kansas City in 2018 and Minnesota United this season. And the change in fortunes of those clubs -- Minnesota's expected goals against has improved from 22nd in the league, while SKC's goals against has dropped to 20th in MLS -- reveals just how invaluable Opara is. All of which is ironic, considering that it is value that led him to leave Kansas City for the Twin Cities.

Twelve months removed from winning MLS' Defender of the Year Award in 2017, Opara was Sporting's third-highest-paid center-back, with his $342,916 annual salary lagging well behind new signing Andreu Fontas' $999,999 and Matt Besler's $783,250.

"I think if you just look around the league," Opara said in an exclusive interview with ESPN FC, "I think objectively I had a very undervalued contract."

So he asked for a new deal, a year after signing a contract that improved his 2017 salary by nearly $200,000.

"We had a discussion to see if we could make this happen," SKC manager and sporting director Peter Vermes told the Kansas City Star last offseason about Opara's request. "Our statement and comment to the player was that we had some targets that we had already identified prior to the end of the season that we were going to work on first, and if there were monies left over, we'd be willing to have a conversation.

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"But it went public immediately, and that changed the way this would be dealt with."

After conceding 141 goals in its first two seasons in MLS, Minnesota had set out last winter to add an experienced center-back, ideally someone familiar with the league. By Jan. 28, Opara was a Loon.

"It was a challenge that I was willing to accept," Opara said ahead of facing his former side on Thursday (9:30 p.m. ET, ESPN). "[The Loons] were ready to right the past two years, because no one wants to give up 70-plus goals a year. These guys were sick and tired of hearing it."

So United parted with $1 million in Targeted Allocation Money to bring the now-30-year-old to Minnesota.

"One or two people raised a few eyebrows and thought we overpaid for him," Minnesota manager Adrian Heath told ESPN FC. "But as I've said since we've got him: We got him cheap."

It has been money well spent. Minnesota United finished ninth in the Western Conference in each of its first two seasons in MLS; but with Opara anchoring the back line, the Loons are second in 2019 with a goal differential that has gone from minus-12 at this point last year to plus-eight.

Of course, Opara can't take all the credit. The club's front office signed former Seattle Sounders captain Osvaldo Alonso (who has shown few signs of slowing down at age 33), midfielder Jan Gregus (who is among the league's leading creators from deep), right-back Romain Metanire (who was selected to the All-Star team last month) and goalkeeper Vito Mannone (who has the third-most clean sheets in the league). They also added left-back Chase Gasper and midfielder Hassani Dotson with their second and third picks in the SuperDraft, a pair that is in in the conversation for rookie of the year.

But central to the club's improbable rise up the table has been a vastly improved defense, where Opara's physical abilities and leadership qualities have had a tangible effect on everyone around him -- old Loons and new Loons alike. And while his new club thrives in his presence, his old one has faltered without him.

SKC are in jeopardy of missing the postseason for the first time since 2010, sitting 10th in the West, six points out of the conference's final playoff place.

To say that Sporting's downturn is solely a result of Opara's departure would be misleading. The club has been beset by injuries in 2019, losing 141 man games to injury this season, with 74 of those coming from players across the back line. Besler and Fontas, the center-back pairing who earned more money than Opara in Kansas City last season, have been absent 12 times this term.

Ultimately, it has led to defending that Vermes has called "terrible," defending that "embarrassed" him.

"It's stuff that this team does not do, but unfortunately, we're doing it," he was quoted as saying by journalist Andy Edwards. "And that's a problem."

Amid its rash of injuries, Sporting is desperate for the sort of defensive depth that the 2017 Defender of the Year would've offered. And with Opara on course to contend for this season's award, he'll have the opportunity to show his former club precisely what it is missing when he and Minnesota travel to Kansas City on Thursday.

"It's hard to compare those two seasons across two different teams, but in some ways, I think I am [playing better than in 2017]," Opara said. "That's always something I've been striving for, is to be recognized as one of the best defenders in this league."

That recognition is likely to arrive sooner rather than later. Considering Opara's request for a greater contract before joining Minnesota, and the club's dramatic turnaround since his arrival, it would be foolish not to reward him financially. The adoration of his coach suggests a long-term deal with the Loons is in Opara's future, and Heath also has campaigned for his center-back to add a second Defender of the Year award in three seasons.

"I haven't seen anybody better, I really haven't," Heath said. "If there's somebody who's going to beat him to Defender of the Year, he's going to have to have had some year to have a better year than Ike Opara's had."

The 2019-20 Premier League season has had two games to show us what we can expect, so we have some wild predictions based on what we have learned so far.

Only VAR can stop Manchester City's title march

Permit us to jump ahead to the final day of the Premier League season on May 17: Manchester City have hogged 78% of the possession against Norwich, while raining in 30 shots on goal. Victory will seal them the title and they need it, with Liverpool cruising home against an already-relegated Newcastle.

City have done everything but score and the game seems up. But then, in the 95th minute, Sergio Aguero blasts in an exact replica of his title-winning moment from 2012. Shirts are removed, limbs flung around in ecstasy, strangers hugged; City have won their third league title in a row.

But hang on: two minutes later their joy turns to abject agony as VAR finds that the ball flicked off Raheem Sterling's thumb as he challenged Timm Klose in the buildup. None of the Norwich players appealed and to the naked eye Aguero's goal was good, but it doesn't matter: the super slow-mo says "No" and, high up in the stands at St James' Park, Liverpool's stunned supporters wildly celebrate a first title in 28 years.

If any of that sounds unrealistic, you haven't been watching the first two weeks of the season properly.

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Teemu Pukki will win the Golden Boot

Move over, Mo Salah; step aside, Aguero. There's a new gunslinger in town: it's the flying Finn from Norwich, Teemu Pukki, who will prove unstoppable in the race for the Golden Boot.

Pukki struggled in Scotland's top flight and barely made a dent in the Bundesliga; the Premier League is another matter, though, and the 29-year-old looks utterly lethal. He might have missed a couple of early opportunities against Newcastle but Norwich's free-flowing side create chances for fun, and the three he subsequently put away were worthy of the division's very best.

At 43 minutes per goal and with 73% of his shots hitting the target, only Raheem Sterling has a comparable record to the four-goal striker so far. Pukki and Norwich face a porous Chelsea next and, should he put further daylight between himself and his challengers on Saturday, the question will be whether any of them can possibly reel him in.

Arsenal will become kings of north London again

What was all the fuss about a power shift in north London? Arsenal are back in the driver's seat and there to stay, with the Premier League's most lethal centre-forward double-act (Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette) backed up by a balanced, energetic midfield and a bolstered back line.

Unai Emery has turned his side from stodgy to sleek, introducing the excellent Real Madrid loanee Dani Ceballos -- whose tenacity set up Aubameyang's winner against Burnley -- and showing faith in exciting homegrown midfielder Joe Willock.

It has given them a shot of energy that will surely create more chances for Aubameyang, who already has two goals to his name, and Lacazette. Given that £72m summer signing Nicolas Pepe is still being eased in, not to mention the fact that attacking left-back Kieran Tierney is still returning to fitness, Arsenal will only become more potent -- and the two-point gap they have already established over Spurs, whose attacking depth still seems light, will prove crucial by the end of the campaign.

Mike Ashley's luck at Newcastle will run out

Steve Bruce needed a good start at Newcastle to ensure that, through all the discord and backbiting, a "local hero" narrative might at least carry some goodwill for the new manager.

But they have begun with two tepid performances and their display at Norwich -- listless up front, joyless in midfield, desperately sloppy at the back -- bore all the hallmarks of relegation fodder.

With journeys to Spurs and Liverpool coming up in the next three-and-a-half weeks, things are unlikely to get better. For all of Bruce's experience, Newcastle don't have a top-class manager in Rafa Benitez to turn things around this time and it's hard to see anything but a third relegation under Sports Direct mogul Mike Ashley's tenure.

Ashley Barnes will make a £40m move in January

A bruising striker who menaces defenders and fits perfectly into Sean Dyche's aggressive brand of football would do nicely for the teams on the fringe of the Champions League and Europa League spots in January. Which is why many of them will do battle for Ashley Barnes' signature in an effort to land a "Plan B" option who can drag them over the line.

Leicester, Everton, Wolves and his old club Brighton will go as high as £40m and who can blame them? Barnes, who turns 30 in October, has for so long been derided, even if the tide turned slightly with a 12-goal haul last term.

But a flying start for Burnley, who look set to make the preseason predictions look foolish once again, means he is the obvious choice for anyone seeking a little more presence and know-how in their attack. This winter he will get the once-in-a-lifetime big-money move he deserves.

Brighton will sneak into the Europa League

Having stayed up by the skin of their teeth last season (in fact they should have been relegated according to the ESPN Luck Index), then sacked the cautious Chris Hughton days after the final game, Brighton look like a team liberated from self-doubt and are playing a brand of fresh, attacking football that will give anyone a game under new boss Graham Potter.

As a result, they will ride the wave of momentum from their 3-0 win over Watford on opening day and finish seventh to earn a spot in next season's Europa League qualifiers.

They will get a helping hand from one of the top four to claim the place usually given to the League Cup winners, but their early-season form suggests they will deserve it. Potter will of course then be linked with all the top-level jobs going -- including that of Chelsea, where Frank Lampard's rocky first season in charge will see them finish only just above Brighton, in sixth.

Former England batsmen Mark Ramprakash and Jonathan Trott have emerged as high-profile candidates for the role of India's batting coach as the BCCI interviews numerous aspirants to appoint support staff this week. The board has started the recruitment process to find batting, bowling and fielding coaches for the men's team and the interviews are scheduled to take place from Monday to Thursday.

Ramprakash and Trott are understood to have been interviewed along with other candidates that include Thilan Samaraweera, Pravin Amre, Amol Muzumdar, Hrishikesh Kanitkar and Vikram Rathour. Former South Africa batsman Jonty Rhodes, who was the fielding coach of Mumbai Indians in the IPL until recently, and Ant Botha, who represented South Africa Under-19s before moving to England, have applied for the post of fielding coach. For the bowling coach position, Venkatesh Prasad, Sunil Joshi, Amit Bhandari and Paras Mhambrey are understood to have applied.

The contracts of the head coach and the assistant coaches ended after the World Cup in July before they were all given extensions for the ongoing tour of the USA and the West Indies. The BCCI has since extended Ravi Shastri's contract as head coach for another two years.

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The selection panel will send its shortlist of the final choices for the three positions to the board, which can involve the head coach before making the appointment. It is believed that Shastri is likely to stick with his existing support staff - Sanjay Bangar (assistant coach), Bharat Arun (bowling) and R Sridhar (fielding) - all three being automatic entries in the recruitment process. These three men were handpicked by Shastri in 2014 when he joined the Indian dressing room as the team director. All three continued to hold on to their positions even during Shastri's one-year absence in 2016-17 when Anil Kumble was the head coach.

Trott, meanwhile, has been invited to apply for the batting coach role with England Under-19s and England Lions. He is currently in a temporary role as batting coach at Kent, though he had a brief stint with the England Test side ahead of the Test against Ireland at Lord's a few weeks ago.

Interest in Ramprakash and Trott comes at a time when English coaches appear to be somewhat undervalued at home. The status of England coaches, however, does appear higher overseas. Paul Farbrace, the former England assistant coach, was also approached by both Sri Lanka and Bangladesh - he declined both - while Michael Yardy, the former England allrounder, was recently appointed as New South Wales' batting coach. Peter Moores is also understood to have been the subject of interest from South Africa in recent weeks, though he has declined to confirm the approach.

With additional inputs from Nagraj Gollapudi

Test match batting is in decline. Those are the words of India's captain Virat Kohli in an age when pitches have become result-oriented and bowlers have raised their game several-fold.

In just the last two years, various teams have suffered outrageous collapses. England were knocked over for 58 by New Zealand's swing and seam. New Zealand were sucker punched from 61 for 1 to 90 all out by Pakistan's spin. India themselves were brushed aside on a lush green pitch at Lord's, making only 107 after promising so much more during their tour of England in 2018.

Pitched a question by Ian Bishop during Cricket West Indies' awards night about whether modern-day batsmen are doing enough, Kohli replied: "Well, if I have to be brutally honest, I don't think us batsmen have lived up to the standard. We have travelled a lot over the past year and a half and it's been challenging. We lost in England but won in Australia because the batsmen pulled up."

"People have been talking about Test cricket not being relevant or dying down but for me the competition has gone up at least two-fold over the last couple of years" Virat Kohli

That was when Cheteshwar Pujara, the team's mainstay at No. 3, had the series of his life, scoring 521 runs in seven innings, including three centuries, against a bowling attack that featured Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon.

"As much as individuals standout," Kohli said, "I think it's about batting well as a team and every team wants to put up a strong total on the board for the bowlers to come in and capitalise."

Meanwhile, West Indies captain Jason Holder hoped he and his fast bowling team-mates could continue the good work shown during their last Test series, a 2-1 victory over England in February 2019.

"I think over the last two-three years, our fast bowlers have really led us. They've done everything I can ask of them, particularly Kemar Roach and Shannon Gabriel, who have probably led our bowling attack for the last two-three years. It's just a matter for them to stay hungry and stay fit and I think they've set a really good example for the other fast bowlers to follow.

"We've had young Alzarri Joseph playing in the last series. Unfortunately he got injured, but even he came into his own and really showed some promising signs as a very very young fast bowler. You know, I had an interesting conversation with a few other team-mates before about how impressive he was and the maturity he showed in that series and I think it's all due to the fact that people like Kemar and Shannon have been really leading the way for them, nurturing them in their journey in Test cricket. So once we continue to build as a side and players get more confidence and obviously the experience of playing Test cricket, then we can probably keep rising and go up the rankings."

Kohli responded with the batsman's perspective, saying there were tough times ahead. Case in point is the ongoing Ashes series, which has shown that bowlers who are still very early in their careers have mad skills. Twenty-four-year old Jofra Archer looks every bit the leader of England's attack after only one Test while on the opposite side 26-year old Pat Cummins is ranked No. 1 with 914 rating points. Only four other men in the history of Test cricket have managed to accrue more.

"As you rightly said the bowlers have really come into their own," Kohli said. "And as Jason mentioned their bowling attack is as lethal as anyone's in home conditions. So we know we're up against a big challenge here in red-ball cricket. It's always going to be hard work, especially in Test cricket, when the bowling group knows what they're doing and that happens to be the case with all teams around the world.

"People have been talking about Test cricket not being relevant or dying down but for me the competition has gone up at least two-fold over the last couple of years. It's really up to the players to take the challenge up and go for victories. That's obviously going to be the essence of this Test championship as well. There'll hardly be any boring draws, there'll be exciting draws because everyone is gonna want those extra points. So yeah, I think batsmanship is always going to be hard at Test level but even harder now in the Test championship because every decision is going to count in the larger scheme of things."

Australia's coach Justin Langer insists his team will refuse to allow themselves to be drawn into a battle of fire-and-brimstone pace for the Ashes in the wake of Jofra Archer's trail of destruction at Lord's, forcing Steven Smith out of the Headingley Test with concussion and generally shaking up the touring batsmen in ways they had not fully expected prior to the series.

Langer's words underlined how deeply Australia have committed to a blueprint for winning the urn in England for the first time since 2001, and also suggested that Mitchell Starc's fiery spell in the nets at Leeds, clean bowling David Warner and then striking Marnus Labuschagne in the helmet grill after the fashion of Archer on the final day at Lord's, would not push him ahead of James Pattinson in the queue of fast men to refresh the touring attack.

At the same time it also offered the possibility of retention for Cameron Bancroft as Warner's partner, with Labuschagne's fully fledged inclusion the only change to the batting line-up. "We know what our plans are to beat England. What we're not going to do is get caught up in an emotional battle of who's going to bowl the quickest bouncers," Langer said. "We're here to win the Test match, not to see how many helmets we can hit. And that's the truth, we are literally here to win the Test match and we have our plans on how we think we can beat England.

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"Mike Atherton said a really interesting thing to me the other day: 'It seems a really different Australian team, in the past you puff your chests out, you grow your beards and you're all tough and see if you can bowl as fast as you want. This isn't as macho as before.' We're here to win the Test match, not to see how many bruises we can give, that's not winning Test matches, trust me, you can't get out with a bruise on your arm.

"So we'll pick the team we think will win it, this is a different ground, we think the wicket will be quite slow, it's not going to be as fast as some of the other wickets we've seen, my understanding of everything we've been told about playing here. So I'm sure the bouncer will still be part of every bowler's armoury, if it helps us get batsmen out then we'll use it, otherwise we'll keep sticking to the plan."

One of the hardest things for a touring team to do in an Ashes series is to stay the course of whatever plans had been set, in the face of on-field pressures, internal demons and the unrivalled level of outside "noise" emanating from former players, media and the public. "We keep talking about it ... you've got to play on skill, not emotion,' Langer said. "And it's hard for young players, even senior players.

"You can get caught up in the atmosphere, you can get caught up in the contest. But it's not an ego game - you've got to just keep trusting your skill, keep watching the ball like a hawk. I keep saying simplify as much as possible so we're winning on skill not emotion. But it is a challenge. That's the challenge of mental toughness, that's the challenge of concentration, that's the challenge of what the champion players do over the good players. The only way you get better at it is by being exposed to it and I'm sure we'll be exposed to it this series."

That being said, Langer did concede that Archer's pace had made a difference to the series in that it now meant Australia's batsmen in particular would need to, at times, fall back on the lessons learned from playing many matches against fast bowlers on bouncy pitches back home, as opposed to the seam and swing challenges billed before the series as being the touring team's biggest obstacle to success.

"Our guys play a lot of short-ball cricket in Australia. We tend to play on bouncy wickets. We play on the WACA, we play on the Gabba," Langer said. "So they're used to playing off the back foot, and I'm sure they'll prepare accordingly. England will be the same, I'm sure they've got plans how they'll get our batsmen out, not just knock them out, so they're working hard on it. We know Jofra's a very good bowler, we saw what he can do the other day.

"We know Stuart Broad's a brilliant bowler, we know Chris Woakes is really hard work, we've seen how Stokes comes in and runs in with that energy and passion every time he plays, so we know we're up against it, and we're really going to be ready for that. We have to be, otherwise we won't win the series. We're expecting James Anderson to swing the ball, seam the ball and we're going to have to be really tight in our defence.

"He [Archer] certainly brings a different dimension to the game and we saw he bowled quick, but also his economy rate was incredible, I think he went for just over one run an over, that is unbelievable bowling, it's skilful bowling and he bowled some fast bouncers in between. That's Test cricket, that's what we love about it, that's what gets you, you know you're awake, you know you're alive when you're facing fast bowling. That's what Test cricket's all about, it's bloody brilliant."

The other significant change to the series at Lord's was the inclusion of Jack Leach as England's spin bowler, with his resultant combination of economy and wickets allowing Joe Root to turn up the pressure on the Australians to a huge degree. Moeen Ali's eclipse by Nathan Lyon had given Australia a marked advantage both batting and in the field, but Leach's Lord's effort meant that Lyon was outbowled by an England spinner for a rare occasion since the retirement of Graeme Swann.

"He gives them another dimension, England, with a specialist bowler," Langer said of Leach. "I mentioned before the second Test match I thought the Lord's wicket looked very dry. I think this will be similar actually. With the footmarks that will come at our left-handers they're going to have to be on top of their game. Again, like facing Jofra's bouncers, we're going to have to have a really good plan of how we're going to face him bowling out of the rough. That's all part of the test of playing Test match cricket."

Mark Robinson is to leave his role as head coach of England women's team. Robinson oversaw England's victory in the 2017 World Cup but has subsequently seen his side overwhelmed by Australia in the Ashes amid criticism that few young players have established themselves in the side.

Appointed in late 2015, Robinson created waves with his decision to drop Charlotte Edwards, his side's captain and senior player, after a disappointing showing in the 2016 World T20. But when his new appointment, Heather Knight, led the side to victory at Lord's in 2017, it seemed English cricket could be at the start of a bright new era.

It was not to be. A lack of depth in the game and improvements in the development programmes of other nations saw England's results falter, with a 12-4 defeat to Australia this summer suggesting a chasm had grown between the sides. Like many coaches before him, Robinson has found that Ashes failure will not be tolerated. England are currently third in the ODI rankings and second in the T20I rankings.

"Mark can reflect on his time as England coach with a great deal of pride," Clare Connor, the ECB's managing director of women's cricket, said. "Winning the Women's World Cup in 2017 in front of a packed Lord's was a landmark moment for the whole game and his leadership and professionalism were an integral part of our success.

"He drove high standards across young players to become the best team in the world as well as coaching them to understand the demands of professional sport.

"Mark passionately championed the development of the women's game during his time in this role and we thank him for all he has contributed to England women's cricket during such an exciting stage of our journey. However, after discussions with Mark, we have agreed that now is the right time for him to step down as England Women's Head Coach.

"It is important that we give Mark's successor time to shape the team's future direction and to begin to develop strong relationships with the players as we plan for the next phase of our international calendar."

Assistant coach, Alastair Maiden, will take temporary charge of the team, whose next commitment is an ICC Women's Championship series against Pakistan in December. The first task for Robinson's successor will be to oversee England's campaign at the 2020 Women's World T20, taking place in Australia early next year.

"Although the recent Ashes was a difficult series, a few hard weeks doesn't take anything away from what has been a wonderful four years," Robinson said. "I've had so many highlights and memorable moments with the team.

"Nothing could ever surpass winning the Women's World Cup on home soil, but from a pure coaching perspective, reaching the T20 final last November - with a depleted team, three non-contracted players and three players twenty years old or younger - is a huge personal highlight.

"It's been exciting to watch so many players grow and to watch so many records broken, but it feels the right time for me to take on a new challenge and to allow a different voice to come in before the next T20 World Cup in Australia. We have put a lot of groundwork in place, and this, coupled with the new investment into the women's game will make a huge difference in time.

"I would like to thank everyone associated with England Women for all the kindness and support they have shown me and wish Heather and the team all the best for the future."

Worcestershire 186 (Leach 53*, Hutton 6 for 57) and 48 for 4 (Sanderson 4 for 13) trail Northamptonshire 376 (Wakely 102, Pretorius 111) by 148 runs

Moeen Ali resorted to bowling two overs of medium pace as he endured a difficult return to first-class cricket following his omission from England's Ashes squad.

After a torrid Test match at Edgbaston, Moeen took a "short break" from cricket - which lasted all of two Vitality Blast matches - having been left out of England's squad for Lord's.

He bowled 39.1 overs, but only managed three tail-end wickets against Northamptonshire, and surprised many by bowling two overs of seam-up swing bowling with the wicketkeeper standing back shortly before tea.

As Moeen struggled, centuries from Dwaine Pretorius and Alex Wakely and an irresistible new ball spell from Ben Sanderson set Northamptonshire firmly on course for victory.

Pretorius made 111 on his Championship debut and Wakely 102 - his first hundred of the summer - to help Northants take a first-innings lead of 190 before Sanderson claimed 4 for 13 in nine overs to leave Worcestershire 42 for 4 at the close, trailing by 148.

It was a second dominant day for the home side who ground out 123.1 overs with the bat to make 376 before Sanderson seized his chance with the new ball in 17 overs Worcestershire were left at the end of the day.

He drew edges from Daryl Mitchell to second slip for 4 and from Jack Haynes to the wicketkeeper for 19. Another one nipped away to flick the off stump of Callum Ferguson for a four-ball duck before he brought one back to pin Alex Milton lbw for an eight-ball duck.

It was a wonderful spell of nine overs, five maidens, 4 for 13 which left Worcestershire with much to do to avoid an innings defeat.

Northants' day was set up in the morning session by Wakely and Pretorius, who arrived at the wicket for the start of play after Nathan Buck was removed from the game after being struck on the head on the first evening.

Pretorius got off the mark straight driving Wayne Parnell for four and went back to cut Moeen's first ball of the day past extra-cover. He slog-swept Moeen over midwicket for six but then should have been held on 25 when he lifted the offspinner to mid-off but Joe Leach spilled a straightforward chance.

Moeen then went round the wicket and Pretorius sent him over deep midwicket again and drove him wide of point to put Northants into the lead. A short-arm pull past mid-on for four and a flashing drive through cover point brought him a seventh four an fifty in 67 balls.

Resuming after lunch on 70, Pretorius lustily drove Parnell through cover point and next ball flicked him past midwicket for another boundary. Leach bowled short and wide and was cut hard past extra cover to take Pretorius into the 90s.

A flick against Parnell past mid-on for four brought him closer to three figures, which he reached with a push into midwicket in 136 balls with 14 fours and those two slog-swept sixes against Moeen. He swung Ed Barnard to point soon after, becoming Worcestershire's third wicket with the second new ball.

The first of those was Wakely but only after a hard-earned ninth first-class century.

Wakely resigned the captaincy back in May and has enjoyed some reasonable form since but this was his first major contribution to a Championship match.

Returning on 63, he began his work for day two with a crunching back-foot drive for four off Parnell and two clipped threes through midwicket. An on-drive against Parnell took him past his highest score this season before a nudged single wide of mid-off brought him three figures.

It was a grinding effort on a slow wicket in 233 balls with nine fours and a six and Wakely's delight was obvious. But he could only add one to his lunchtime score before shouldering arms to a Parnell inswinger and losing his off stump.

Adam Rossington also lost his off stump for 1 from a beauty from Leach and after losing Pretorius, Northants got stuck, failing to reach a fourth batting point despite only needing 26 in 11 overs. It was the only disappointing element to their day.

MLS announced on Tuesday that it has awarded an expansion team to the city of St. Louis, swelling the leagues ranks to 28 clubs.

St. Louis' ownership group includes Enterprise Holdings Foundation president Carolyn Kindle Betz and other female members of the Taylor family, making it the first female majority-owned team in MLS history. The investor group is rounded out by World Wide Technology CEO Jim Kavanaugh, and Enterprise Holdings Executive Chairman Andy Taylor. The team will begin play in 2022 and the process for selecting the team name, badge and colors will begin immediately.

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"It is with great pride that we welcome St. Louis to Major League Soccer," MLS commissioner Don Garber said. "St. Louis is a city with a rich soccer tradition, and it is a market we have considered since the league's inception.

"Our league becomes stronger today with the addition of the city's deeply dedicated soccer fans, and the committed and innovative local ownership group led by Carolyn Kindle Betz, the Taylor family, and Jim Kavanaugh."

The announcement caps a process that amounted to a rollercoaster ride. The St. Louis bid looked dead back in 2017 when a city referendum that would have directed $60 million in new tax proceeds towards the construction of a stadium was defeated by voters. That setback led Paul Edgerley, who headed the investment group at the time, to cease his efforts to bring a team to St. Louis.

But last October, Kindle-Betz and other members of the Taylor Family got on board alongside Kavanaugh, who was part of the previous investor group. Thanks to a willingness to fund stadium construction almost entirely with private funds, and with a site located in the Downtown West district, St. Louis was back in the game. MLS announced in April that it had entered exclusive negotiations with St. Louis, and following a series of presentations, the last of which came three weeks ago at the MLS All-Star Game in Orlando, the decision was made to bring the Gateway City into the MLS fold.

"Our ownership group has come a long way since we first announced our bid last October at Mathews-Dickey Boys and Girls Club, and it's an incredible feeling to now be able to say, St. Louis is home to the first official majority female-led ownership group in MLS," Kindle Betz said. "Our MLS team and stadium will only add to St. Louis' renaissance currently underway and will provide us with a great opportunity to bring together many different segments of the community, uniting people in their love for the game."

The stadium is part of a major development project, which will include mixed-use retail and restaurants. According to the ownership group, no Tax Increment Financing (TIF) or any direct citywide tax investment will be needed to finance the stadium project. The stadium proposal specifies that only those purchasing tickets and items at the stadium will be paying any tax. The team will pay for all stadium maintenance, repair and upkeep.

MLS has long desired to have a team in St. Louis, given the sport's long history in the Gateway City. Five of the 11 players that defeated England at the 1950 World Cup were from St. Louis, and the city has produced 29 players and coaches who have been inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame.

The area's youth programs have helped develop several players into professionals, including MLS players Will Bruin (Seattle Sounders) and Joe Willis (Houston Dynamo), Tim Ream (Fulham) of the English Championship, rising star Josh Sargent (Werder Bremen) of the Bundesliga, and Becky Sauerbrunn (Utah Royals) of the NWSL and the FIFA World Cup champion with the U.S. Women's National Team.

In addition, many former MLS players are from St. Louis, including Taylor Twellman, Brad Davis, Chris Klein and Steve Ralston.

Include Baker Mayfield as another person surprised by the New York Giants' decision to draft quarterback Daniel Jones earlier this year.

"Blows my mind," the Cleveland Browns quarterback told GQ in a wide-ranging interview released Tuesday. "Some people overthink it. That's where people go wrong. They forget you've gotta win."

Jones finished with a 17-19 record at Duke before the Giants made him the No. 6 overall pick.

Mayfield wasn't the consensus No. 1 overall quarterback prospect before the 2018 draft despite going 34-6 at Oklahoma. But he was at the top of the Browns' draft chart as they selected him No. 1 overall and watched him lead the franchise to a 7-8-1 record after going 0-16 the previous season.

"Either you have a history of winning and being that guy for your team or you don't," he told GQ.

Mayfield covered several other topics in the interview, including when he planted the Oklahoma flag at midfield in Ohio Stadium after the Sooners defeated Ohio State in 2017. Mayfield said that the "higher-ups" at OU asking him to apologize for it was "just jaw-dropping" to him.

"Actually we won. That's what we're about. I had done so much and worked so hard to play for that school, I was just kinda ... almost embarrassed for them to tell me to apologize," said Mayfield, who, when asked how heartfelt that apology actually was on a scale of 1 to 10, replied, "zero."

"Which might hurt some Ohio fans' feelings," he added. "But I think we're all good now."

Mayfield wasn't the only Browns player to criticize the Giants in a story published Tuesday.

Wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr., who has been outspoken about the Giants since they traded him to the Browns in March, told Sports Illustrated that he believes the trade was "personal." Beckham told the magazine that he believes the Giants had better offers from other teams but traded him to the Browns hoping to stifle his career.

"This wasn't no business move. This was personal. They thought they'd send me here to die," he said.

The Giants declined to comment when contacted by SI about Beckham's remarks.

In the aftermath of DeMarcus Cousins' knee injury, the Los Angeles Lakers are bringing in two former All-Star centers -- Joakim Noah and Dwight Howard -- to evaluate in individual workouts in Los Angeles, league sources told ESPN on Tuesday.

The workouts will also include veteran Mo Speights, league sources said.

Another center under consideration, per sources: Marcin Gortat, who is currently overseas in Europe.

Howard is under contract with the Memphis Grizzlies, but the team has given him permission to explore opportunities elsewhere in the NBA. He has a $5.6 million expiring contract that could be useful as a trade asset, or he could work out a contract buyout with the Grizzlies. It is unlikely that he will play a game for the franchise, league sources said.

Cousins suffered a torn left ACL in a workout last week, likely leaving the Lakers without him for the duration of his one-year, $3.5 million deal with the franchise.

The Lakers have JaVale McGee and will try to cobble together a center rotation that will include Anthony Davis, with the organization still preferring that he play a majority of his minutes at power forward and not center.