MACON, Ill. — Gordy Gundaker goes back-to-back in the Herald & Review 100 at Macon Speedway after getting around Bobby Pierce on a last-lap pass to win his second Summer Nationals event.

The St. Charles, Mo., racer won it on the bottom in 2018 and did it again in a thrilling finish, bringing fans to their feet in the final corner.

Twenty-four DIRTcar Late Models checked in on Thursday night at the fifth-mile as the fans packed the stands for the 4th of July special. Two-time event winner Pierce sat on the front row with five-time Herald & Review 100 winner Shannon Babb. On the start, Pierce quickly threw a slider on Babb for the lead to get to the top, but Babb crossed Pierce over to retain the top spot.

Babb lead almost the entire way with several cautions mixed in through 100 laps. Three different leaders in the final three laps set the stage for an epic finish. Heading into turn three on lap 98, Pierce threw a bonzai slide job on Babb for the lead that resulted in Babb making contact with the wall, putting him out of the race with significant right-front damage.

Babb, who led 97 laps until that point, drew the caution and eventually retired from the race.

Pierce then led the field to green on the restart with Brian Shirley and Gundaker following. Pierce ran away to a commanding half-straightaway lead on the white flag lap, as Gundaker passed defending Summer Nationals champion Shirley for second.

It seemed as though Pierce won the race as he powered off of turn four towards the checkered flag, but the caution was thrown.
Ryan Unzicker and Dennis Erb Jr. came together on the back straightaway, putting Unzicker in a very dangerous position. Officials called the yellow for Unzicker, parked on the back straightaway. This led to a single-file restart with 99 laps complete and $5,000 on the line.

Pierce threw it in very hard on the top of turns one and two on the restart and was almost completely sideways upon corner exit, leaving the bottom door open for Gundaker.

Pierce pushed in the middle of three and four, shooting his momentum down, allowing Gundaker to slip by underneath and collect his second career Hell Tour victory.

The finish

Feature (100 Laps) – 1. 11-Gordy Gundaker [6]; 2. 32-Bobby Pierce [1]; 3. 3S-Brian Shirley [5]; 4. 25F-Jason Feger [7]; 5. 28-Dennis Erb, Jr. [3]; 6. 99JR-Frank Heckenast, Jr. [9]; 7. CJ1-Rusty Schlenk [11]; 8. 51-Dean Carpenter [12]; 9. 16-Rusty Griffaw [10]; 10. 24-Ryan Unzicker [4]; 11. 10S-Taylor Scheffler [15]; 12. 13-David Jaeger [17]; 13. 27-Greg Kimmons [20]; 14. 32M-Cody Maguire [18]; 15. 33H-Roben Huffman [19]; 16. 18-Shannon Babb [2]; 17. 31AUS-Paul Stubber [14]; 18. 16H-Mike Hammerle [23]; 19. 25H-Chuck Hummer [21]; 20. 33B-Billy Hough [13]; 21. 18W-Trent Workman [16]; 22. 25W-Allen Weisser [8]; 23. 82B-Jason Milam [22]; 24. 48T-Phil Taylor [24]; KSE Hard Charger Award: 27-Greg Kimmons[+7]

CANANDAIGUA, N.Y. — It took 99-and-a-half laps, but the packed grandstands at Land of Legends Raceway saw a huge Fourth of July fireworks display in the middle of turns three and four on Thursday night when Max McLaughlin and Erick Rudolph made heavy contact in a final-turn battle for the checkered flag.

McLaughlin had led 99 laps, but Rudolph closed quickly as the two passed the white flag and went off into turn one. Some contact between the two in the first corner became huge contact when they exited turn three. Rudolph was on top and edged ahead, lapped cars raced on the bottom leaving McLaughlin a slight spot in the middle. It was too slight and he sailed it off and collected Rudolph as the two spun to a stop.

Only a couple of laps earlier, Matt Sheppard made a stunning three-wide move going into turn three to swipe third place. As it turned out, that was the winning move because when Sheppard raced around the corner on that final lap, he saw the two leaders piled on top of each other. Billy Dunn chased Sheppard across the finish line in second after spending a majority of the race battling wheel-to-wheel in the top three. In third place was outside pole sitter Just Wright, who simply kept his nose clean for his impressive finish.

It was Sheppard’s fourth series victory of the season.

“I wasn’t particularly happy with my race car,” Sheppard said. “I am at a loss for words. I don’t know what to say. It was around lap 65 or 70 and we were riding around in seventh. We were just trying to hold on to salvage something at the end. On a restart, I got around a couple guys and got up to fifth. Billy [Dunn] and Peter [Britten] made some contact and that opened up a door for me. I got up to third but Max [McLaughlin] and Erick [Rudolph] were gone.”

Sheppard was in the right place at the right time.

“At the end, I saw the white flag and if I can hold off Billy and finish third tonight, I’ll take it because this thing was garbage. The next thing I know I got into turn three and I see those guys parked on top of each other. I was like, “What just happened?”

At the conclusion of the Liberty 100, both Max McLaughlin and Erick Rudolph loaded up their race cars in haste so neither were available for comment. McLaughlin took to social media to make a statement, saying the No. 25R ran him up the track off of turn number two.

McLaughlin then entered turn three too hard and pushed up the track making heavy contact with Rudolph’s left rear. He said he “feels terrible” and “didn’t have any intentions to dump him. Mistakes made. Learned.”

Home track hero Dunn had a great finish on the second step of the podium.

“It was a challenging track,” Dunn said. “I would have five or 10 laps where I would feel like I was just as good as anybody in front of me, and then I struggled on the restarts until I put some heat in the tires.”

Wright put together 100 laps of strong, competitive racing and was rewarded with a third-place finish.

“I am at a loss for words,” Wright said. “Usually in 100-lappers we don’t do very well. We pull off and get out of the way. If you had told me this morning that I would be in third place tonight … I had the best car in the top five, but probably the worst driver. We’re figuring it out. Speechless.”

The finish:

Feature (100 Laps) – 1. 9s-Matt Sheppard [11]; 2. 49-Billy Dunn [3]; 3. 19W-Justin Wright [2]; 4. 98H-Jimmy Phelps [20]; 5. 21A-Peter Britten [5]; 6. 99L-Larry Wight [10]; 7. 27J-Danny Johnson [13]; 8. 19-Tim Fuller [9]; 9. 91-Billy Decker [12]; 10. 42p-Pat Ward [7]; 11. 88-Mat Williamson [6]; 12. 5H-Chris Hile [17]; 13. 35-Mike Mahaney [4]; 14. 3-Justin Haers [15]; 15. 7F-Matt Farnham [21]; 16. 111-Demetrios Drellos [23]; 17. 23-Kyle Coffey [24]; 18. 25-Erick Rudolph [8]; 19. 26-Ryan Godown [16]; 20. 12X-Dillon Grover [14]; 21. 6H-Max McLaughlin [1]; 22. 2L-Jack Lehner [25]; 23. 18-Anthony Perrego [28]; 24. R2-Rusty Smith [26]; 25. 17-Marcus Dinkins [27]; 26. 14j-Alan Johnson [18]; 27. M1-Dave Marcuccilli [22]; 28. 11R-Rob Bellinger [19]

PORTSMOUTH, Ohio — Mike Marlar ran away with the Independence 50 on Thursday night at Portsmouth Raceway Park, earning his third Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series win of the season.

Marlar sprinted to a comfortable lead and held the point for the entire race. Marlar had to withstand a five-lap shootout to the finish with second-place running Josh Richards and Jimmy Owens after a lap-45 caution.

Richards moved into the second spot on lap four and tried to stay within striking distance of Marlar, but at stages during the race Marlar held a more than a straightaway advantage over Richards.

Owens, who started sixth moved into third past Hudson O’Neal on lap 33 as he tried to track down Richards inside the last ten laps of the race before settling for the third spot. O’Neal and Jonathan Davenport completed the top five.

“I want to thank Jimmy for running me clean in that heat race,” Marlar said. “We went back-and-forth for most of the race. It was probably one of the best heat races you will ever see. Jimmy could be standing here right now if he would’ve won that race. He had a really good race car tonight as well.”

Owens finished second.

“We have been coming here a long time and I would say it’s the best I have seen this place,” he said. “I had a good race with Hudson and then I thought I could catch Josh then that caution with five to go came out. I am not sure if it helped me or not. But we hung in there and got another good finish.”

The finish:

Mike Marlar, Josh Richards, Jimmy Owens, Hudson O’Neal, Jonathan Davenport, Zack Dohm, Tyler Erb, Tim McCreadie, Shanon Buckingham, Michael Norris, Doug Drown, Jacob Hawkins, Rod Conley, Billy Moyer Jr., Devin Moran, Earl Pearson Jr., Kyle Bronson, Shannon Thornsberry, Stormy Scott, Chris Ferguson, Steve Casebolt, R.J. Conley, Gregg Satterlee, Jason Jameson, Jackie Boggs.

This is the velocity of an offer sheet.

Within a span of 24 hours, Montreal Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin went from lauded maverick to short-sighted dupe. Sebastian Aho, the 21-year-old Carolina Hurricanes center he signed to a five-year, $42.27 million contract offer sheet, went from traitorous opportunist to naïve soul manipulated by his nefarious agent. The Carolina Hurricanes went from a poaching ground for an Original Six legacy franchise to laughing off this hostile takeover like it was a sneering critique of their victory celebrations from Don Cherry.

"It was so ridiculous in terms of probability of succeeding. If it was a test, it was quite an easy one," said Canes owner Tom Dundon.

Ouch. And you wonder why offer sheets in the NHL happen with the frequency of a unicorn staring at Halley's Comet while eating a McRib.

I have an unpopular opinion -- shocking, I know -- about the Canadiens' failed offer sheet on Aho: it was very much a worthy effort rather than the "waste of time" that Dundon labelled it.

They went fishing, got a bite, but couldn't reel the Aho tuna into the boat. Should they have added some bait to the hook, a.k.a. gone up a level on salary and draft pick compensation to the Hurricanes? Sure, that's a fair argument. But that wasn't really their gambit. They were trying to get Aho in at a certain price, with a certain compensation, and were hoping that a combination of factors -- the $21 million of bonus money in the first 12 months and the term that marches him to unrestricted free agency and the line they were selling about Aho "wanting to play for Montreal" -- would somehow jar him loose. It didn't, but the only real damage here for the Canadiens is not having those draft pick assets available for a week. Otherwise, they took a shot, they missed, and life goes on.

As hockey fans, we've been begging for someone to tender an offer sheet to a player, and to have that player sign one. Literally begging. Then it happens, and most of us are like, "no, wait, we meant a successful offer sheet" while ridiculing Montreal for whiffing.

Sorry, but don't we want to see these fishing expeditions every summer? Don't we want that moment of exhilaration when one team attempts to raid another, even if the effort is foolhardy? Don't we want that one out of, like, a dozen times when this actually works?

(Hint to future offer-sheeters: Go for the third-liner in their early 20s on a cap-strapped team instead.)

Instead, we're reminded why we never see them, which is that they're more trouble than they're worth.

So instead of getting applauded for the effort, Bergevin gets slaughtered by the Montreal Gazette, which called his strategy a "massive fail" and wrote: "This is just one more spin from the cynical Canadiens management team. It's an effort to distract fans from the fact that they were unable to sign the guy they really wanted, Matt Duchene."

No, they weren't. That's because you have to have a player who wants to actually sign with your team. Matt Duchene wanted to play for the Nashville Predators. This was the worst-kept secret in hockey. He has a house there now. They traded P.K. Subban to create cap room to sign him. He was never coming to Montreal. It's a non-starter.

Sebastian Aho, meanwhile? He wanted to play for Montreal. Full stop. You don't sign an offer sheet if you don't want to play for the team that tendered it. So Dundon doth protest too much. "If [Aho] said it, it would be different. But he didn't. The fact that an agent said it means there's no credibility to it," said the Carolina owner. C'mon, man. That's not how this works.

Does that mean he doesn't want to play for the Hurricanes? Of course not. One can be of two minds: 'If they don't match, it's cool, because I get to play for a franchise I fancy; if they do match, it's cool, because I really enjoy playing for my current team as well.'

Which is essentially what Shea Weber said back in 2012.

"We utilized the CBA the best way we could with the way it is. It worked out great. I love in Nashville. The team stepped up," he said at the time.

Oh, his agent said other things, like Aho's did. Mean things. Calling the Predators a rebuilding team, and claiming Weber much preferred the upward trajectory of the Philadelphia Flyers, whose offer sheet he signed. Hoping that the 14-year, $110 million deal with the $52 million dollars in bonus money in the first four seasons would prove too rich for them to match.

It wasn't. The Preds had already lost Ryan Suter as a free agent to the Minnesota Wild. They weren't going to lose Weber too. So they pushed aside four first-round picks to make a statement and bring him back, at great cost. Well, until they traded him four years later.

There have been only two offers sheets signed by a player since then: Ryan O'Reilly in 2013, and then Aho on Monday. As much as we criticize the "old boys" in the general manager's chairs for not utilizing offer sheets, in the end, players still have to sign them. And they don't: Brayden Point wants to stay in Tampa, Kasperi Kapenen wants to be a Leaf (and already signed a new deal), and so on.

Perceptions change for a general manager if they fail to snag a restricted free agent they've offer-sheeted. Do perceptions change for the player?

I asked Scott Barry, the Predators super fan who dresses in a luchador mask as "The Ultimate Predator," about how he remembered the Weber offer sheet.

"I was never upset at Webs for the offer sheet. I don't think many Preds fans were, to be honest. Offer sheets happen. If anything, we were more upset with the team for letting it get that far," he recalled.

"Everyone knew Shea was going to get paid, so why not just pay the man? When the offer sheet hit, I was more worried that Nashville might not match. At that time, we weren't exactly flush with money or making huge contracts. As far as affecting my thoughts on Shea, he had to do what was best for his family, and if Nashville wasn't going to pay, as much as I would have hated it, I'd still be a fan, truly -- I think most of Nashville would. He and Pekka [Rinne] were the faces of the franchise for a long time, it'd take a very heinous act, in my opinion, for Nashville to feel the way about Webs as we do about say, Suter or [Alexander] Radulov."

(Radulov, please recall, took his talents to the KHL after three years in Nashville.)

Things were different with O'Reilly, last seen hoisting the Conn Smythe and the Stanley Cup with the St. Louis Blues. As an RFA of the Colorado Avalanche, he signed an offer sheet in 2013 with the Flames for two years and $10 million.

"The ROR saga was extremely divisive in the fan base," recalled a long-time Avs blogger who goes by the moniker 'Jibblescribbits.' "I was in the minority, but I was glad he flexed his financial muscle a little. At the time, the Avs had gone full-blown cheapskate and were coasting. But I'd say the vast majority of the fan base turned on him and thought he was being greedy. His dad inserted himself via Twitter and it just gave the whole proceeding a weird flavor. I'd say most Avs fans do not like him at all. They see him as being all about the money. I didn't though, but I am more player-sided in contracts than most fans, I think."

So what about Aho?

The smartest thing Dundon did, besides quickly matching an offer sheet for a player that the Hurricanes would spend the next five years trying to replace, was to completely exonerate the player who signed with another team by tossing his agent under the bus. "The question is 'do you think you should believe an agent?' and you guys can figure that out," he said.

But Tom Edwards, a Hurricanes season-ticket holder who contributes to the Section 328 podcast, said he doesn't have any ill will towards agent Gerry Johannson nor to his client.

"They had a number in mind. The negotiation was going to take probably the entire summer at this rate. Montreal's offer was what they were looking for," he told me.

When it comes to offer sheets and perceptions, the most important one to Edwards is that his franchise is no longer one to be taken for granted.

"I think that Dundon's message helped a bit, because after years of [owner Peter] Karmanos, it was nice to be in a position where there wasn't a thought that we'd take the cheap way out. If this happens three or four years ago, I don't know if Aho gets matched."

Heck, maybe next time it'll be the Hurricanes casting the offer sheet line.

Oh and FYI: Canadiens forward Max Domi is a restricted free agent next summer, followed by Jesperi Kotkaniemi in 2021.

Three things about NHL free agency

1. Through 4:51 p.m. on July 1, NHL teams had signed 86 players to 173 contract years and $556,835,000. Meanwhile, in the NBA, the contracts signed by Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, Kemba Walker and Jimmy Butler totaled $589,000,000, with 16 contract years. Just in case you were wondering how the other half lives.

2. My favorite big signing: Joe Pavelski to the Dallas Stars at three years and $21 million. My favorite little signing: Joonas Donskoi to the Colorado Avalanche for four years and $15.6 million. My least favorite signing: Tyler Myers to the Vancouver Canucks for five years and $30 million (though I'm pleasantly surprised the average annual value wasn't even higher). The signing I can't wrap my brain around no matter how many times I try: Brandon Tanev for six years and $21 million to the Penguins.

3. When the Avalanche win the Stanley Cup sometime in the next three years, the Matt Duchene trade is going to be seen at the turning point of the organization. Another branch on that trade tree: Getting defenseman Samuel Girard from the Predators in that three-way deal, and using the Senators' pick last month to draft another defenseman in Bowen Byram. Having both gave them the flexibility to move defenseman Tyson Barrie to the Maple Leafs for Nazem Kardri, who dramatically upgrades their center depth in a conference that demands it.

Listen to ESPN On Ice

ESPN's prospect and draft analyst Chris Peters joined us in Bristol to analyze the first few hours of free agency in alphabetic team order. Maple Leafs center Auston Matthews talked to me about being an EA Sports NHL 20 cover boy, growing the game of hockey, and expectations for next season (31:22). Aleksander Barkov talked to Emily Kaplan about the new look Panthers (57:45). Listen to the whole thing here.

Puck headlines

Fun look back at the history of the Canucks' jerseys. Can't wait to purchase an Elias Pettersson 'Electric Skate' sweater this season.

What's going to happen with Alabama-Huntsville hockey now that the WCHA is fracturing?

Good piece on Wyatt Russell, a.k.a. the best part of that second "Goon" movie.

The top 10 bounce-back candidates after free agency. Not holding my breath on that Cam Talbot one.

Ryan Lambert was not a fan on that offer sheet from the Canadiens.

Looking forward to the Capitals' tough free-agent calls, like Braden Holtby.

Do the Blackhawks have the best goalie tandem in the NHL?

P.K. Subban plus July 4 equals ... this.

What can I tell you... It's become a 4th of July tradition ??? ??‍♂️? @lindseyvonn pic.twitter.com/zoyP7zC8JG

— P.K. Subban (@PKSubban1) July 4, 2019

Hockey tl;dr (too long; didn't read)

Women's hockey is thriving on the grassroots level, even as the pros struggle towards a path to the future. ($)

In case you missed this from your friends at ESPN

Free-agent frenzy winners and losers.

Nemanja Matic is seeking talks with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer over his Manchester United future after being made aware of interest from Inter Milan and AC Milan, sources have told ESPN FC.

Sources have told ESPN FC that Inter, who are also pursuing United forward Romelu Lukaku, have indicated a willingness to offer £10 million plus Belgium midfielder Radja Nainggolan for Matic, who cost United £40m when signed from Chelsea in July 2017.

- Premier League fixtures 2019-20 in full
- Who has qualified for Europe from the Premier League?
- When does the transfer window close?

After making an impressive start to life at United under Jose Mourinho, Matic's form has since dipped and Solsjkaer has identified Newcastle youngster Sean Longstaff as a potential replacement for the 30-year-old Serbia international.

Sources have told ESPN FC that Matic is keen to discuss the Italian interest with Solskjaer in order to assess whether he has a future under the Norwegian at Old Trafford.

The United squad are due to fly to Perth, Australia on Sunday for the first leg of their three week preseason tour, which also involves games in Singapore and China.

Matic is expected to travel with the rest of the team to Perth, but his long term prospects now rest with Solskjaer.

Meanwhile, midfielder Andreas Pereira and defender Axel Tuanzebe signed contract extensions at United until 2023 and 2022 respectively.

LYON, France -- Alex Morgan hit back at critics of her goal celebration against England in the World Cup semifinal, saying the controversy is proof of a double standard for female athletes.

After Morgan scored what proved to be the decisive goal in a 2-1 win against England on Tuesday, she ran toward a corner flag and mimicked drinking a cup of tea.

Speaking to the media Friday, Morgan said the celebration was partly an homage to English actress Sophie Turner. The former "Game of Thrones" star is known for Instagram stories in which she offers opinions or commentary on current events and signs off with the phrase "And that's the tea," before sipping from a cup.

As Morgan also said immediately after Tuesday's game, she reiterated Friday that the celebration was about telling a story -- in this case, of the team taking everything thrown at it during the tournament.

"I feel that there is some sort of double standard for females in sports," Morgan said, "to feel like we have to be humble in our successes and have to celebrate, but not too much or in a limited fashion. You see men celebrating all over the world in big tournaments, grabbing their sacks or whatever it is. And when I look at sipping a cup of tea, I am a little taken aback by the criticism."

Morgan also said she was disappointed that former NWSL teammate Lianne Sanderson was among those criticizing the American forward. A former England international who is working for beIn Sports during the World Cup, Sanderson said the celebration was "distasteful."

In other stories involving the ongoing theme of English displeasure with the American team, U.S. midfielder Lindsey Horan said she reached out to England captain Steph Houghton to apologize for unintentionally interrupting a postgame interview. Houghton cut short an interview with talkSport after Horan was heard yelling congratulations to U.S. goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher in the background.

Naeher saved Houghton's penalty kick in the 84th minute to preserve the American lead.

"I had no intention of it," Horan said. "Obviously, emotions arise after a game, and I was so excited for Alyssa. It was the biggest save of her life, and I saw [Naeher] doing an interview, and I wanted to rile her up again. I had no idea what was around me, so hopefully Steph knows that."

On the home front, Morgan was also asked about the team's plans for a White House visit. In months-old comments released during the World Cup, Megan Rapinoe said she would not visit the White House if invited. Rapinoe added in a subsequent statement that she would encourage teammates to "think hard" about accepting such an invitation from the current administration.

Morgan and Rapinoe are two of three U.S. captains, along with Carli Lloyd.

"I think we'll make that decision after we finish Sunday's game," Morgan said. "I think there's been a lot of talk prematurely about the White House and [President Donald] Trump, but first we have to do business. But [as far as going], I think you guys know the answer to that anyways."

After Rapinoe's comments were released, President Trump criticized her in a series of tweets and invited the entire team regardless of the tournament outcome.

The U.S. will try to win its fourth World Cup title when it plays the Netherlands in Sunday's final.

Veljko Paunovic's hot seat in Chicago could become a scorcher with a loss at Sporting Kansas City, while the mystique of Matias Almeyda continues to grow in San Jose, who welcome in Real Salt Lake. Plus, Columbus will look to kick-start their attack against Seattle.

Heat's on for Pauno in Chicago

Only one team in MLS this season is yet to win away from home, and it's not FC Cincinnati or Colorado. Sitting eighth in the Eastern Conference, the Chicago Fire have proved incapable of coming home with three points from a road trip but get a 10th crack at it on Saturday at Sporting Kansas City.

Expectations were high going into the season in the Windy City, especially with the arrival of Nicolas Gaitan, but the Fire continue to stall in the Eastern Conference and coach Veljko Paunovic's job appears to be hanging by a thread.

What is clear is that Chicago have never really clicked playing under the Serbian, outside of the first half of the 2017 season when it was one of the top teams in the East. Otherwise, it has been a middling experience and this season's record reflects that: 5W-7D-7L, 31 goals scored, 28 conceded. Yawn City.

Luckily for Paunovic, Wednesday's 5-1 home win over Atlanta will allow some breathing room, but judging by Chicago's play this season, it's doubtful the team will maintain that level, beginning with Saturday's visit to Sporting Kansas City (8:30 p.m. ET, ESPN+). Peter Vermes's men were humiliated at home by LAFC on Wednesday 5-1 and so a strong reaction will be expected.

Matias the magic man in San Jose

Before the season, if you had said the San Jose Earthquakes would be in the mix for a playoff spot in the Western Conference after 18 games, nobody would have believed it. Yet here they are after overcoming a four-loss start to 2019, and it's all thanks to coach Matias Almeyda.

It's amazing that the Argentine elected to come to MLS over the winter and manage one of the league's worst teams in recent seasons. Last week was another example of how he has completely turned around the Quakes, as they drilled "Cali Clasico" rivals Los Angeles Galaxy 3-0.

They'll only improve once winger Carlos Fierro joins next week, but before then there will be a home date with Real Salt Lake on Saturday (10:30 p.m. ET, ESPN+).

Despite the 3-1 loss in Minnesota on Wednesday, San Jose will be ready. Almeyda is a stickler for fitness, as that was one of the main priorities in preseason. If any team is equipped to handle playing on two days' rest, it is San Jose. Their balance and depth at all positions, plus an insatiable work rate, could well turn them into a title contender, and with a coach who knows a thing or two about winning trophies.

RSL is one of those teams battling the Quakes for a postseason berth, so three points here could well make the difference by week 34.

Columbus attack in search of kick-start

It has been a rough year in Columbus. Key injuries have stripped the Crew of some of their main attacking ingredients: namely flying full-back Milton Valenzuela and playmaker Federico Higuain. The result has been a meagre 16 goals in 19 games, only one better than last-place FC Cincinnati.

Unlike some of his struggling counterparts, Columbus boss Caleb Porter will be afforded more time to right the ship. New arrivals forward Romario Williams and winger Luis Diaz will help, but maybe, just maybe, the time is right for Columbus to make a push for the other Higuain. That is, of course, Federico's younger brother Gonzalo Higuain, 31, who is rumored to be on the way out of Juventus.

It would be a massive get for a team that normally doesn't spend big, but the allure of family could well bring the former River Plate, Real Madrid, Napoli and Chelsea man into the mix. For now, the task at hand is Saturday's home clash with Seattle (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN+) in which both teams need something positive after poor midweek losses.

This is the time of year when Seattle start to kick things into gear, so perhaps former Portland coach Porter can learn a thing or two from his former nemesis and do the same in Columbus. Adding Gonzalo this summer might lead to a 'Nicolas Lodeiro in 2016' type of push.

The Cricket World Cup final on July 14 could become the first men's international fixture to be televised on free-to-air TV in the UK since the 2005 Ashes, after Sky Sports reneged on its previous stance and announced that it would be lowering its paywall in the event of England making it through next week's semi-final at Edgbaston.

England's victory over New Zealand at Chester-le-Street last week guaranteed Eoin Morgan's men a place in the World Cup semi-finals for the first time since 1992, when they beat South Africa at Sydney but went on to lose in the final against Pakistan at Melbourne.

England have not contested a final on home soil since 1979, when they lost to West Indies at Lord's, and Sky's executives have recognised the historic opportunity that this contest could represent, to spread the sport to as broad an audience as possible.

Sky UK and Ireland Chief Executive Stephen van Rooyen said: "We are proud to be the broadcaster for a home Cricket World Cup - one of the world's biggest and most exciting sporting events.

"Our aim has always been to celebrate what could be a 'once in a generation' moment of a home team in a big final on home soil. So, if England reach the final, we will make the match available to everyone so the whole country can be part of a rare and special big sporting moment."

Sky's decision comes after their coverage of the tournament had been overshadowed in the UK by the women's football World Cup, which has been broadcast throughout by the BBC. England's semi-final against the USA on Tuesday drew 11.7 million viewers, the BBC's biggest television audience of the year. England's World Cup cricket fixtures, by contrast, have drawn an average of 450,000.

The contrast was addressed earlier this week by the England fast bowler, Liam Plunkett, who was asked on BBC 5 Live whether he would support calls for the final to be made more accessible to the English public.

"I'm not sure they're going to do it, but it would great for everybody to be able to watch that," Plunkett said. "Playing for England, you're the pride of the country and you want people to be able to access that and watch that. I'm not sure it's going to happen but for the guys, you want as many people to watch it as possible.

"It's always nice to be on a bigger platform," Plunkett added. "Hopefully people tune in to watch that game. It would obviously be great to have as many people watching as possible, we feel like we've built something special here as a team. It would be nice to go all the way and to have big numbers watching that final if we get through and win, that would be huge."

A proportion of free-to-air cricket access was already set to be reinstated from next year onwards, with the advent of the ECB's new 100-ball competition, after Sky agreed to cede some of its exclusivity to the BBC as part of a new £1.1billion rights deal from 2020-2024.

Tom Harrison, the ECB chief executive who brokered the deal, recently described Sky as "cricket's best friend" - the broadcaster has been involved in cricket since 1990 and has been the exclusive partner for home internationals since 2006 - and Plunkett later tweeted to clarify his remarks.

"Sky Cricket are an incredible partner for the game and have been for the past 20+ years," he wrote. "I was asked a question & I never said that it should be on FTA. My words have been twisted & the headline is misleading. The whole country is behind us. Keep believing."

There are no details yet as to where the match would be broadcast if England did make it through. The BBC and Channel 4, the last two free-to-air channels to broadcast international cricket, would be options, although Sky might also consider making the match available via YouTube, which was the approach taken by BT Sport for the all-English Champions League final between Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur last month.