Marcelino has said he is "absolutely certain" that winning the Copa del Rey last season triggered his sacking as Valencia coach this week.

The Spaniard, who spent two campaigns at the helm of Los Che, was dismissed on Wednesday despite winning the Copa del Rey and securing Champions League football last season.

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Speaking for the first time since being dismissed, Marcelino told a news conference: "I'm absolutely certain that what triggered this [sacking] was the Copa. During the season, we received direct messages from certain people that we had to reject the Copa [in order to concentrate on La Liga].

"But the fans wanted to fight for it. The players too and so did the coaching staff. Who would have told me that this would trigger this situation?"

Valencia beat La Liga champions Barcelona 2-1 in Seville on May 26 to lift the Copa while they finished fourth in La Liga despite a slow start to the 2018-19 campaign.

"We never received any congratulatory messages from the club owner [Peter Lim] after winning the Copa," Marcelino said.

"When I went to Singapore on July 19, he [Lim] only congratulated me for the Champions League qualification and not for the Copa. You can imagine my surprise."

Marcelino reportedly had a tense relationship with Lim over differences regarding Valencia's summer transfer policy.

However, the former Villarreal coach said he is still upset over the club's decision to dismiss him and appoint Albert Celades as his replacement.

"I was incredulous when they notified me," the 54-year-old said. "I felt helpless.

"I never saw myself out and it came as a surprise. When I met with the club owner on July 19 he told me face-to-face that he had absolute confidence in our work.

"After those comments, how could I think that I would be sacked on Sept. 10? I'm sad but thankful for the messages of support that I've received. I take with me the affection and respect from the players and those that worked with me here. Now I will take some time off."

Valencia, under new coach Celades, play at Barcelona on Saturday before beginning their Champions League campaign away to Chelsea next week.

"Things can turn quickly in football and it is just a matter of time," said Gareth Bale, and he knows. He's been told it, he's seen it, he's lived it. Somehow, somewhere, there's always a way back.

In the late spring of 2018, when he wasn't playing for Real Madrid, when Zinedine Zidane had left him out of every European game since Valentine's Day and had no plans to put it back in, when he was at a loss to explain it all and his manager was in no hurry to explain it to him either, someone said there was only one way the saga could end: with Bale coming on as a sub and scoring the winning goal in the final of the Champions League final.

Of course, that's exactly what happened. Not just any goal, either, but arguably the best goal ever seen in a European Cup final.

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In the late spring of 2019, when Zidane had gone away and come back to Real Madrid -- bad news, Bale knew -- and had left him out of the team repeatedly over the final games of the season, he announced to the media: "It's clear what I have done." They knew. Bale knew even more clearly. There had been a meeting -- short, blunt, no feelings involved -- in which Zidane had told him his time at Madrid was over. At the end of the summer holidays, though, there he was again. You could imagine him walking back into Valdebebas and stifling a giggle as he offered a cheery "alright, mister."

He was still there a couple of weeks later when Zidane publicly announced that Bale was going, "and if it could be tomorrow, then so much the better." But tomorrow never came.

Bale played 104 minutes in the whole preseason -- he spent more time on the golf course at Boadilla del Monte, to everyone's righteous anger -- but then when the league season came, there he was still, starting his seventh season. In which, by the way, he has won four European Cups and scored over 100 goals. And "starting" is the word.

Bale was in the first XI on the first day back at the Bernabéu. The week before, he had provided the assist in Celta Vigo. The week after, he scored twice at Villarreal. That day, the Bernabéu crowd even cheered him when his name was read out; they even applauded a couple of runs. The last time he had been there, they had whistled him relentlessly. It was as if everyone wanted to forget all that, but they can't. Bale certainly can't.

"Things can turn quickly in football," Bale said this week -- "it's just a matter of time." But if that sounds like acceptance, it is not. After he scored that goal in Kiev, the goal someone said he'd get, he came out and admitted that he was "angry," that a solution must be found. That moment didn't mend everything. Zidane's departure didn't either, and Zidane's return certainly didn't.

Of course, Bale's return to the first team and those goals at Villarreal, along with the sense that he may have a role to play this year, doesn't mend everything. Bale does not forget. This week he said so, and he didn't need to. Bale is not usually a man for headlines and big, bold statements, but there was a message there. It was delivered in Wales, his place, almost a kind of refuge, but it was heard in Madrid too.

It was meant to be.

It would have been easy, politically friendly, to have left it there, issuing cliches, football's like that, time conquers everything, and I'm playing now, I'm happy. But he didn't. He said it was "just about keeping your head down" but revealed that it wasn't. He contained some of his anger, his disappointment, just as he had in the spring of last year, just as he did over the summer. "Not ideal," he called it, which was one, pretty mild way of putting it. Yet he showed it hurt, that there were (and are) consequences.

"I was made more of a scapegoat than others," he said. He said he took it with a "pinch of salt, even though" (and this second part was the important part) "it wasn't fully fair."

He wasn't going to let Madrid off entirely or pretend none of it had happened.

And we are talking about Madrid as a whole. This isn't just about Zidane, where the bitterness remains. This is about his feeling that Madrid, at the club level, could have done more to defend him but remained silent. That they sold him out. But didn't sell him: that then when there was a solution, a way out -- to Jiangsu Suning in China -- they reneged on the deal. They left him there. That scars, even if he scores. This isn't over; they can live with this, everyone can, not least because they had to, Zidane especially, but it's not the way anyone wanted it.

Responsibility for resolving that lies with them all, but Bale made it clear that he sees lying above all with the club. Listen to that line: "you'd have to ask Madrid." He wasn't offering to end it there, not anticipating that it would. There was no line drawn under this, and nor should there be.

"There's more turbulence ahead," he said. He is back, starting, assisting and scoring too. The chance for a reconciliation, perhaps, but it's still not right. And that could barely be better expressed than in the simplest of phrases from Bale himself.

"I wouldn't say I'm playing happily, but I am playing."

Bangladesh chose to bowl v Zimbabwe

Shakib Al Hasan won the toss and opted to bowl in the truncated opening match of the T20I tri-series. The start of the match was delayed by almost 90 minutes due to evening showers that left some sections of the outfield water-logged, and as a result the match was also reduced to 18 overs a side.

"With rain around, we're not sure about the weather and not sure about a winning total, so we've put them in to bat," Shakib explained at the toss. "Hopefully we can get some early wickets and put them under pressure. This is a completely different format, and anyone can win the match on a good day."

There are debutants on both sides, with Taijul Islam picked by Bangladesh, and young offspinning-allrounder Tony Munyonga handed a first cap for Zimbabwe.

The groundstaff also had plenty of work to do drying some damp, greasy spots near the crease. With plenty of rain around over the last few days, the pitch had been covered, and neither captain appeared entirely sure what to expect.

"We probably would have bowled as well," admitted Zimbabwe captain Hamilton Masakadza. "The wicket has been under covers, so we're not sure what to expect. We'll take whatever international cricket we can get. We don't get to play much. It's my last series, so hoping to go out with a bang."

Sussex 370 (Salt 64) and 74 for 2 (Salt 30*, van Zyl 30*) beat Gloucestershire 200 (Bracey 61) and 243 (Dent 72) by eight wickets

For some weeks one contest in the final round of Championship matches has leapt from the fixture list: Somerset entertain Essex at Taunton in an anticipated showdown for the First Division title. But it may well be that an alternative West Country game compels equal attention. The meeting of Gloucestershire and Northamptonshire is a potential play-off for promotion from the second tier.

Three counties will go up this summer and only one come down as the ECB switch from an eight to a ten-team first division from 2020. The consequence is that more candidates are still in the frame to be elevated. Even with Lancashire guaranteed one slot - four more points will mean they go up as champions - as many as five counties are realistically contesting places two and three.

Victory for Sussex at Nevil Road enabled them to climb a place to fifth, now 11 points behind Gloucestershire, who duly slipped from second to third. Northamptonshire moved above them, and are 25 points above Glamorgan, sixth. Things are that tight. The remaining games are:

Northamptonshire (161 points): Durham (Northampton) and Gloucestershire (Bristol)

Gloucestershire (156): Worcestershire (Worcester) and Northamptonshire (Bristol)

Durham (147): Northamptonshire (Durham) and Glamorgan (Chester-le-Street)

Sussex (145): Derbyshire (Derby) and Worcestershire (Hove)

Glamorgan (136): Leicestershire (Cardiff) and Durham (Chester-le-Street)

For the first time in two months, momentum will become a factor. Between mid-July and the latest set of matches, all bar Gloucestershire and Worcestershire played only a single Championship match. Now, they have just a two-day break before the penultimate round, with a three-day gap then before the last. Form, along with fitness and stamina, are now critical.

So, after a run of three losses in mid-season, Sussex are coming good again just in time. Jason Gillespie, the head coach, said: "There are always tough challenges at Bristol, and Gloucestershire are a strong side, but we are scoring runs again and winning. When we had that blip we were poor, especially with the bat. It sounds a simple explanation for what has happened, but it's true."

Gloucestershire and Northamptonshire have signed overseas players specifically for the last three weeks, Shannon Gabriel and Doug Bracewell respectively. Interestingly, Northants turned to Bracewell, who has played for the club before, only after failing to secure Gabriel's West Indies new-ball partner, Kemar Roach. Both counties want that something extra to make a difference.

It backfired for Gloucester as Gabriel conceded 121 runs from 20 wicketless overs in the Sussex first innings and did not bowl in the second, when his new team-mates rushed through to get their over-rate back on schedule and avoid a points deduction. Gabriel did not take the field with Richard Dawson, the head coach, suggesting that the bowler was "a bit under the weather".

Sport is not short of cases where a star name is drafted into a side to the detriment of team equilibrium. Faustino Asprilla's ill-fated signing for Newcastle United in 1996 is the prime example. But Dawson offered a sympathetic view. "He steps off a plane, everyone has expectations and obviously he wants to do well," he said. "It is one of those things. He had pace and he bowled balls that went past the outside edge and troubled the batsmen."

Gillespie confirmed that Sussex will not be in the market for overseas help, and it would be surprising if England allow Jofra Archer to play for them in their final game, against Worcestershire at Hove. Gillespie did reveal, however, that Archer wanted to appear for Sussex in their Blast quarter-final last Friday even though it fell on the third day of the Ashes Test at Old Trafford.

"If he is able to play [against Worcester] we will explore that, but I have absolutely no idea at the moment," Gillespie said. "We will see if he is able and willing. He is always willing. He wanted to play in the Blast quarter. I phoned Trev [Trevor Bayliss, the England coach] to say 'any chance, mate' but he just said 'nope'. We had a little laugh about it."

Gloucestershire themselves may have suffered from playing in the fourth and last of those quarter-finals, only three days before entertaining Sussex. The 20-over loss to Derbyshire on home soil, especially in so emphatic a fashion, must have hit them hard, and Dawson thinks they were simply unable to reproduce their standard level of performance back in red-ball mode.

"Up to this point, we have done well by grinding games out and keeping things simple," he said. "Possibly after the excitement of the T20s we need to remember to keep things simple again. We cannot worry about what is going on in the rest of the country, just concentrate on our own game. It is a tight division because all of the teams can pretty much beat each other."

Of the contenders, Gloucestershire and Glamorgan have been out of Division One for the longest, 14 years. Durham were there as recently as 2017 before being demoted by the ECB and handed a 48-point penalty for 2018. Their success has been based around the pace of Chris Rushworth and Ben Raine, who are both ever-presents and have shared 109 wickets. Promotion would be cheered far outside the county border, though Tom Harrison and Colin Graves would doubtless meet a frosty response from members if they went to Chester-le-Street to congratulate them in person.

Glamorgan have not been the same since Marnus Labuschagne was pulled away by Australia. He is still the leading run-scorer in the division. They must be an outside bet, but a single win may prove enough for Northamptonshire as it would simultaneously dent a rival. That is the positive slant on a run-in versus Durham, then that one against Gloucester. At Bristol, they will have the considerable advantage, as visitors, of bowling first. It may make the difference.

Having established himself as a red-ball player over the years, South Africa batsman Temba Bavuma said he was "surprised" by his call-up to the T20I side to play India later this week.

In a post World Cup shake-up, South Africa had made a number of changes to their squad for this tour, including appointing Quinton de Kock as captain, keeping next year's T20 World Cup in mind. Bavuma, who will function as Faf du Plessis' deputy when the Test series begins on October 2, is extremely keen to showcase his white-ball credentials as well.

"I was surprised to be honest," he said at a press conference in Dharamsala. "Back home there's a perception that I'm a red-ball player. I knew at the back of my mind that white-ball cricket was something I wanted to play. Fortunately from my good performances in the past season this opportunity has come. It has come a bit earlier than I thought. I'm here now and I'd like to do the most I can.

"I'm 29 at the moment. I'm sure when I get the debut I'm going to feel I'm 21 again. I think it's just another opportunity to contribute to the team's winning cause."

Bavuma's selection has come as a result of his recent success in domestic T20s. Since the start of 2018, he has made 491 runs in 19 games. Although he had a poor run in in the Mzansi Super League, where he made just five runs in three innings, he finished the third highest scorer in the CSA T20 challenge earlier this year with 326 runs at an average of 46.57. His maiden T20 hundred came in the final, where he led Lions to a win against Warriors.

"Last year I made a conscious effort to improve my white-ball game," Bavuma said. "I tried to play as many as T20 games as I could in amateur cricket and all the other competitions there. Even in our domestic cricket. And these were the goals that I set. Things that I wanted to achieve and not what other people are saying. You only want to be listening to the voice between your ears as an international player and not all the noise out there."

He also said he wasn't bogged down by all the perceptions people had on him, especially one being that he was best suited only for the longer formats. "As a player you are put through a lot of challenges. There's lot of pressure as an international player. People are quick to label you as certain type of player and that could be a good and a bad thing. Proving people wrong is always an extra bit of motivation."

Wide receiver Torrey Smith delivered a heartfelt retirement announcement on social media Friday morning, wrapping up a career that produced 5,141 yards and two Super Bowl titles.

One of the best deep threats over the past decade, Smith entered this season ranked third in yards per catch among active players. His 16.1-yard average was behind DeSean Jackson (17.4) and Josh Gordon (17.3).

Smith, 30, played eight NFL seasons with the Baltimore Ravens, San Francisco 49ers, Philadelphia Eagles and Carolina Panthers. Smith's decision comes 12 days after the Panthers cut him.

He announced his retirement in a video posted on the Twitter account Uninterrupted. It was in the form of a letter to the sport.

For those of you who have been wondering why things have been quiet, it was my decision https://t.co/SBdnwVgPyZ

— Torrey Smith (@TorreySmithWR) September 13, 2019

"Dear football, I knew this day would come, and to be completely honest, I've been preparing for it my entire career," Smith said. "You and I both knew the game for me wouldn't last forever. It's the NFL circle of life and I'm prepared for what's next."

Smith, a 2011 second-round pick of the Ravens, enjoyed his best seasons in Baltimore. He won a Super Bowl title in 2012 and produced his best season in 2013, when he finished with 65 catches for 1,128 yards and four touchdowns. He had a career-high 11 touchdown receptions in 2014, the season before he left the Ravens in free agency.

One of the most emotional moments of Smith's career came in Week 3 of the 2012 season, when his younger brother Tevin Jones died in a motorcycle accident the morning before a Monday Night Football game against the New England Patriots. To honor his late brother, Smith played and led the Ravens to a 31-30 win by catching six passes for 127 yards and two touchdowns.

Smith signed with the 49ers in 2015 and never lived up to expectations of a big-money contract. He bounced around three teams in his final four NFL seasons, but he won his second Super Bowl with the Eagles in 2017.

"God put you in my life for a reason, and I'm sure it wasn't about X's and O's," Smith said. "Every catch, every drop, every win, every loss, every trade, every cut -- all of it -- was a part of my journey. But remember, football is what I did. It's not who I am. I'm looking forward to using the platform you have given me to continue to serve my true purpose -- changing my community for the better."

Doug Pederson, Smith's coach with the Eagles, said, "Just want to congratulate him and his family. It's a great opportunity for him in his next chapter of his life. He helped us win a championship and he is a great man."

Smith has been at the forefront of player activism off the field, especially with at-risk youth in Baltimore. He has held annual charity basketball game there even after leaving the Ravens.

"I can't wait to begin my next phase of my life where my heart is and never left -- Baltimore," Smith said in ending his announcement.

The NFL will not place New England Patriots wide receiver Antonio Brown on the commissioner's exempt list at this point, making him eligible to play Sunday against the Miami Dolphins, sources told ESPN's Adam Schefter.

The league has opened an investigation into Brown that will include interviews with the wide receiver and Britney Taylor, Brown's former trainer who filed a lawsuit in the Southern District of Florida on Tuesday in which she accused him of sexually assaulting her on three occasions in 2017 and 2018.

Taylor has scheduled a meeting with the NFL for next week, a source previously told ESPN.

Sources told Schefter that Brown won't be placed on the exempt list, as there is no criminal investigation into Brown.

Asked Friday whether Brown would play, Patriots coach Bill Belichick answered, "We'll do what's best for the team." He later added that the team is trying to get Brown, who signed Monday, up to speed as quickly as possible.

"Long way to go, obviously. Not familiar with our offense," Belichick said of Brown. "The systems he's been in have been quite different. He's working hard to pick it up and we're working hard to get it to him."

On Thursday, sources told ESPN's Jeremy Fowler that the Patriots and Oakland Raiders had not been aware of the pending lawsuit against Brown, who had been in discussions with Taylor over the past few months. They had agreed that their communication would remain confidential until the filing of Taylor's sexual assault lawsuit, sources told Fowler.

Brown's lawyer, Darren Heitner, said in a statement Tuesday night that his client and Taylor were involved in a "consensual personal relationship."

After the lawsuit's filing, the Patriots said they were taking the allegations seriously but would not comment further during the NFL's investigation.

On Wednesday, Belichick wouldn't commit to Brown playing, saying the team was taking it "day to day." Since then, Brown has participated in two practices -- with a third to come later Friday -- and has impressed his new teammates.

"AB is AB. We all know what he brings to the table. Excited to have him here," safety Duron Harmon said, adding: "He's doing everything the right way."

Said wide receiver Phillip Dorsett: "He is a hard worker, [has] a lot of energy, a playmaker."

MOORESVILLE, N.C. – In order to help as many racers from across the United States, Canada and Mexico make the Grand Nationals, Briggs & Stratton has worked with Cup Karts of North America to develop its first travel assistance program.

One of the things that many racers say prevents them from coming to an event are the travel costs. For racers traveling 500 miles or more, many times their fuel bill is their largest single expense for the weekend.

“A gas card program allows us to offset some of the cost for our Briggs racers who will be coming great distances to compete in one of the best 206 series at one of the best facilities in the country,” said Dave Klaus, director of Briggs & Stratton Motorsports.

Grand Nationals 3, scheduled for Oct. 4-6 at New Castle (Ind.) Motorsports Park, is not only going to be the largest 4-cycle sprint race for karts this season, but it will also feature the best competitors from all of North America at the same track for the first time.

To help us make this the biggest 4-cycle event in a very long time, Briggs has dedicated $8,000 to fund this gas card promotion! Only pre-registered drivers will qualify for a gas card.

Additional details can be found here.