BOWLING GREEN, Ky. -- Wander Franco, who at 18 years old is already the best prospect in baseball, strode into a suite at Bowling Green Ballpark. Franco smiled, which he does often, and the sunlight beaming into the room reflected off his braces. He sat on a stool in the back-left corner. Following him were his friends and roommates, Tony Pena, Osmy Gregorio and Joel Peguero. Even though Franco is at least three years younger than them, they all call him "El Patrón" -- The Boss.

It was Tuesday, which meant mandatory English class for Latin American players at the Tampa Bay Rays' Class A affiliate. In front of the group stood David Kerr, who works down the street in marketing at Western Kentucky University's English as a second language program and has taught Rays prospects for half a decade.

"Today we're going to learn about sentences," Kerr said. "Does anyone know what a sentence is? Probably not. You know what it means. You just don't know you know what it means. Sentences are important for two reasons. No. 1: That's how people talk. No. 2: They give people details. You know what details are?"

They nodded.

"I want to start with you, Franco," Kerr said. "Tell me about the game last night, and try to use a good sentence."

Franco grew up in the Dominican Republic and dropped out of school after sixth grade so he could train to become a professional baseball player. Four years later, at 16, he signed with the Rays for $3.825 million. Today that is considered a bargain.

Franco is a switch-hitting, home-run-thumping, smooth-fielding, mad-dashing shortstop. In a recent nine-game stretch, he saw 105 pitches and didn't once swing and miss. In a league in which the average age is over 21, a teenager is clearly the alpha -- like Zion Williamson, only with a bat and glove. Franco brings grown men to hyperbole.

"He's human," said Mitch Lukevics, the Rays' farm director who for 45 years has combed the minor leagues cultivating talent, "but sometimes it's tough to tell."

Franco couldn't help but look like a kid during class. He fidgeted with the earbuds in his hands, then tugged at the Jesus medallion hanging from a gold chain around his neck. He wants to learn English before he arrives in the major leagues, and considering when he wants to arrive in the major leagues, he takes the classes seriously. Franco is smart, perceptive and quick to digest instructions, but English is not yet like baseball, in which instinct guides him to the right place. Franco still hunts individual words and arranges them four or five at a time.

"The game last night ... we tied the game after ... como te digo ... after the other team ... the catcher, he hit home run."

"That's a good sentence!" Kerr said. "The catcher on the other team hit a home run. You told me why. You told me how. You guys know those words? What does 'why' mean? What does 'how' mean? What does 'who' mean?

"Like: Who are you, Franco?"

WE'LL GET TO THAT, though doing so requires asking and answering the other questions Kerr posed. Such as: Why Wander Franco? Why, of the more than 7,000 players in the minor leagues this season, will his name top the prospect lists that serve as road maps for the game's future?

There is the inborn: the hand-eye coordination; the wiry body that developed into a muscled 5-foot-10, 190 pounds; the genetic jackpot of his father, also named Wander, who was a decent ballplayer, and his mother, Nancy, whose brothers, Erick and Willy Aybar, played a combined 17 major league seasons. Franco has his family to thank.

Then there is environment, the nurture yang to Franco's nature yin. In Baní, the coastal city in the Dominican Republic where he grew up, Franco spent practically every day from the time he was 6 begging to play baseball with his older brothers, Wander Javier Franco and Wander Alexander Franco. They were good enough to sign with major league organizations. Wander Samuel Franco was something different altogether.

"I saw Vladimir Guerrero [Jr.]. He had the same confidence, the same presence. But I think Wander is better." Rei Ruiz, manager of the Bowling Green Hot Rods

It's because of plate appearances such as one on May 6 that looks entirely innocuous in a play-by-play recap. "Wander Franco walks," it says, and that is accurate. In the ninth inning of a tie game, with runners on first and second, Franco walked to load the bases. The scouts in town to see Franco and the rest of the Bowling Green Hot Rods took away much more. They saw Franco stare at a first-pitch curveball for a strike. Not eager to play hero; self-assured enough to work from behind. They watched him take a changeup that faded from the middle of the strike zone. Good pitch recognition. They marveled at how he handled six consecutive curveballs thereafter: take, foul, take, foul, foul, foul. Swung only at pitches in the zone. They venerated him for spitting on the ninth pitch, finally a fastball, as it sizzled three inches off the outside corner. A big league walk.

"I saw it," Franco said matter-of-factly. "I knew it was going to be a ball."

Franco carries himself with the self-assuredness limited to a subset of the small subset that comprises the world's best players. Greatness can blossom from fear; Franco's comes from certitude. He knows how good he is, how rare it is for a 17-year-old to walk into rookie ball, hit .351, slug 11 home runs in 61 games and walk 50 percent more than he strikes out, as he did last season. He knows, too, that the last player to ambush the Midwest League as an 18-year-old with his combination of power and patience was Vladimir Guerrero Jr., and before that Carlos Correa, and before that Mike Trout.

"I saw Vladimir Guerrero," said Rei Ruiz, Franco's manager in Bowling Green. "He had the same confidence, the same presence. But I think Wander is better."

Apocryphal stories abound. Going nearly two weeks without swinging and missing in baseball's strikeout era sounds impossible. Rays executives still geek out when talking about what Franco did in a home run derby last year. All of Franco's Bowling Green teammates regard his April 25 game with reverence. The opposing pitchers' game plans were obvious: pound Franco, who was hitting left-handed, down and away. He saw three low pitches in the first inning and grounded out to third base. In his second at-bat, he hammered a single to left field. Then he gashed a home run to the opposite field. He followed by homering in his final at-bat, going the other way again.

"He's human, but sometimes it's tough to tell." Mitch Lukevics, Rays farm director

"He does some things you've never seen before on a baseball diamond," Bowling Green third baseman Connor Hollis said. "A barehand play that you wouldn't ever think to barehand -- he makes it look easy. Hits two home runs oppo in the same game. There are some things you don't ever see, and it leaves you astonished. You don't know what to do."

Hollis' vantage point on the baseball world runs in contrast to Franco's. He is 24 years old, signed with Tampa Bay last year as an undrafted free agent from the University of Houston and hit .365, beating Franco for the Appalachian League batting title. Hollis romanticizes the grind -- the endless bus rides he tries to make tolerable with games of chess, the pittance of a salary that falls well below the poverty line, the notion that all the indignities of minor league life will make the major leagues feel that much sweeter. He also recognizes his place and that whereas Franco's ascent to the Rays is a foregone conclusion, Hollis must set an example while playing well enough to advance through the system.

The travel, the autographs, the culture, the tedium -- it's all part of the education system for minor league players. Franco's experience is simply a caffeinated version. Hollis' baseball card goes for $2 on eBay. An autographed Franco card sold in early May for more than $60,000. Two dozen more Franco cards carry $2,000-plus price tags.

This makes Franco laugh. Thousands of dollars for a shiny piece of cardboard on which he scribbled "W. Franco." It's ridiculous, but then so is he: younger than all but three of the first-round picks in last week's draft, hitting .322, slugging .517, walking 25 times compared with 18 strikeouts in low-A at 18. The numbers tell the same story as the scouts' eyes, and they dovetail with what Franco believes of himself.

"I've got the tools to be a superstar," he said. "I want to be in the Hall of Fame."

HOW, WANDER FRANCO? This is a question asked directly. How, Wander, does the kid who came home from school unsure if he would have another meal that day, who grew up poor even for his impoverished country, wind up talking about his Cooperstown aspirations as a teenager? How, Wander, are you so ready for this? Ask this sort of thing enough, and he pulls up the sleeve on his shirt.

"This is my son," Franco said, revealing a tattoo on his left arm and then pulling out his phone to show a picture. Wander Samuel Franco Jr. is 9 months old. Franco last saw him Feb. 12. "I remember the exact date," he said. On Feb. 13, Franco flew to spring training, and since then, it has been nothing but FaceTime conversations with his girlfriend and their son.

"It's a big responsibility," Franco said. "I've got to hit. The kid needs a lot of milk."

Since baseball started plundering the Dominican Republic for talent, some derivation of this aphorism has defined the young prospects' existence. You can't walk your way off the island or I play to provide for my family or The kid needs a lot of milk. Baseball is an opportunity, even if the organizations that crave talent from Latin America are themselves opportunistic. Last season, nearly 55% of minor league baseball players were born outside of the United States, and a majority of those were from the Dominican Republic. Teams nevertheless will spend a combined $300 million in signing bonuses for domestic draft picks this year, compared to the $160 million they've budgeted internationally.

"I've got the tools to be a superstar. I want to be in the Hall of Fame." Wander Franco

In Latin America, the path Franco took is not unique. Thousands of kids drop out of school and train for eight hours a day, six days a week, to play baseball for a living. They swing wood bats. They face superior competition. At 16, they join professional organizations that can control their development. The kids, almost always poor, relish the chance, knowing full well that every year the game chews up and spits out hundreds who couldn't cut it, leaving them unemployed and unschooled. Baseball's relationship with Latin America is its ultimate Faustian bargain.

Franco was 10 years old the first time someone suggested he become a full-time baseball player. At a field in Baní, where grass grows in patches and small scraps of garbage dot the landscape, a local trainer was showcasing a few kids, one of them a 15-year-old pitcher Rudy Santin had come to see. Santin occupies a top spot on the food chain of buscónes, the trainer-agent hybrids who serve as vital middlemen in the Latin American baseball economy. He'll pay smaller academies good money to take over a player's training, knowing his relationships with major league teams can lead to seven-figure deals, of which he takes an exceedingly healthy cut.

Santin had spent more than 25 years as a scout in Latin America for the New York Yankees, San Francisco Giants and Rays. In 2011, he opened the MVP Santin Baseball Academy in Santo Domingo. Nearly every year, it produced a million-dollar signing. The 15-year-old that day wasn't up to Santin's standards. The 10-year-old who kept asking to hit against him, on the other hand?

"He wasn't afraid of anything," Santin said. "You could just tell with his presence and body language. He had that 'it' factor."

When the kid took some ground balls, Santin had to ask again: He's 10? Yes. What's his name? Wander Samuel Franco. "It was like watching a miniature big leaguer," Santin said. Back then, in 2011, the youngest players at his academy were 12 or 13. He wanted Franco at 10 and tracked down his father to ask.

"I'd love to take him now," Santin said.

The reply: "His mother will kill me."

Santin left a glove and a pair of spikes for Franco on the condition that father call when son was ready to train full-time. Every so often, Santin would check in. Franco was growing, still playing with the older boys, such as Jose Ramirez, then a lightly regarded prospect but today a two-time All-Star for the Cleveland Indians. When a river near their houses, Rio Villa Majega, would dry up, they would use the area as a makeshift field, with a ball made of tape wrapped around socks and a smoothed-out branch to whack it. Like Franco, Ramirez's strikeout rate is strikingly low, a testament perhaps to the power of hosiery, adhesive and whittling skills.

Everyone in Baní saw what Santin noticed early. Even in a cradle of excellence -- a municipal area roughly the same size and population as Augusta, Georgia, Baní has produced more than 200 professional players since 2010 -- Wander Samuel stood out. He was going to be better than his brothers, better than his uncles, maybe better than Miguel Tejada, another Baní native, who won an American League MVP award. Franco's father called Santin. At 12 years old, he was ready, the final two years of elementary school be damned.

Santin said he paid $30,000 for Franco's future negotiating rights, 50% more than he'd previously spent on a player. In addition, there was the expectation that until Franco reached 16, Santin would feed, house and clothe him. Upward of 30 kids at a time are under Santin's supervision. They stay at a home he rents in Santo Domingo and sleep on bunk beds. He hires a cook to provide food, someone to clean their uniforms and a bus driver to transport them to and from the field where they practice. It's a low-maintenance operation.

The trick is delivering pro-ready players. Just weeks after Franco turned 13, Santin held a news conference in Santo Domingo to trumpet him as the best player in the international class of 2017-18. Franco wore a black T-shirt and a look of awe. The wine bottles on the wall behind him might have been older than him. Radio hosts pilloried Santin for the stunt. The kid was 13. How could Santin know Franco would be that good?

He couldn't, not for certain, but Santin joined a new generation of trainers who no longer sold players strictly on looks and power displayed in choreographed showcases. Teams want to leverage their international spending as rationally as possible, so buscónes have focused on cultivating plug-and-play players. Ones with triple-digit exit velocities and 90 mph-plus fastballs, the numbers scouts can sell to their brethren as well as their organizations' analytics groups.

Those with the exceptional tools and the wherewithal to match, such as Franco, get fast-tracked. Teams are pushing Latin American players through the minor leagues -- especially the lower minors -- with the rapidity that used to be reserved for American prospects. In 2006, 15 of the 20 youngest players in the Midwest League were from the United States. In 2019, 18 of 20 are from the Dominican Republic or Venezuela. Entering this season, Guerrero and Fernando Tatis Jr. were baseball's consensus top two prospects. Franco, Eloy Jimenez and Victor Robles also were across-the-board top 10. A year earlier, the game's seven best prospects -- Ronald Acuna Jr., Guerrero, Tatis, Jimenez, Robles, Gleyber Torres and Francisco Mejia -- were Dominican or Venezuelan.

Accordingly, when a player of Franco's talent comes along, the feeding frenzy begins. After Santin's news conference, Danny Santana, the Rays' supervisor in the D.R., came to see Franco. Scouts from the Yankees, Boston Red Sox and Blue Jays visited and filed glowing reports. By the time Franco turned 14, teams knew it would take an exorbitant guarantee to sign him, even if his body filled out early and didn't have the projection they coveted. Santin said a team would have paid $6 million, a number confirmed by officials from two clubs. It would have set a record for a 16-year-old Dominican player.

Then in December 2016, the new collective bargaining agreement capped international spending. Latin American amateurs already provided the greatest return on investment in baseball. Now they would come even more cheaply. Without restrictions in 2017, the Yankees were almost certain to spend the $6 million and sign Franco, according to multiple sources. The new rules scuttled that, and Tampa Bay swooped in with the largest bonus in the class.

The repercussions didn't affect just Franco. Ugliness caused inadvertently by capped spending has rippled throughout Latin America. Teams, knowing how much money they have to spend in any given year, have pushed to lock in handshake agreements with the most talented players, even those as young as 13. Some buscónes believe that if teams want 13-year-olds, the kids need to look older to warrant seven-figure bonuses. Rogue trainers, multiple sources in Latin America said, do not hesitate to feed prepubescent kids performance-enhancing drugs.

Again, the league is saying the right things. It is testing earlier for PEDs and blacklisting the buscónes whose players test positive. It's doubling down on an international draft, which it believes will rid the early deals, the incentivization of abhorrent behavior by the worst trainers empowered by a system that enables them. The league wants to clean up Latin America, wants real, substantive change. But does it really? Despite all of the flaws and maybe in part because of them, the international rules create exactly what teams desire: a cost-effective, reliable talent pipeline while the sport struggles to engage many of the best American athletes. It's a chance at more kids like Wander Franco.

"I've got a cousin," Franco said. "He's 9 years old. He's going to be really good."

"WHO ARE YOU, Franco?"

The kid who didn't mind going to Rudy Santin's academy because that meant one fewer mouth his mom needed to feed, who celebrated when he realized he was going to sign for millions of dollars because his mother, he said, "wouldn't go through any problems now." That's who he wants to be. And he is more, of course. The cook at the apartment in Bowling Green who makes his teammates a mean rice and beans and chicken. The clown who jumps on Tony Peña's bed to wake him up. The guy who, at the new house he bought his parents, the one with a pool, pushes a fully clothed Osmy Gregorio into the water late at night just for laughs. Franco is 18 going on 30 until he is 18 going on 10.

There is a story Gregorio likes to tell about Franco. They met in 2015 at a tryout. Gregorio was a late-blooming 17-year-old, Franco a cock-of-the-walk 14-year-old. Gregorio signed the next year with Seattle and was traded to Tampa Bay a few months after Franco joined the organization. They reconnected at instructional league and grew close.

"It's a big responsibility. I've got to hit. The kid needs a lot of milk." Wander Franco on his 9-month-old son in the Dominican Republic, whom he hasn't seen since February.

Gregorio was at Franco's house in Baní last offseason when he got a call from home. Something was wrong. His mom, Monica Rosario, was sick. He rushed to get home, three hours away. Gregorio was an only child. His mom was showing stroke-like symptoms. He needed to take care of her but didn't have any money.

"Wander paid for the doctor and everything," Gregorio said. "He doesn't think like an 18-year-old. He's humble. He cares."

Franco's friends call him El Patrón partly in jest because he does pay for meals and bought a sound system to take on the road to placate Ruiz, the Hot Rods' manager, who loves music and insists it play in the clubhouse. But it's also out of reverence because they knew he would help get Gregorio's mother the medical care she needed to aid in her recovery.

All of it is a lot: being El Patrón, being a father, being the best prospect in baseball. The Rays want to be careful with Franco. They don't doubt that he can juggle everything; one doesn't star at a news conference at 13 and take nothing from it. They also appreciate the fragility of someone such as this. They don't want to be the ones who screwed up Wander Franco.

So they try to temper their enthusiasm, only to fall back into that trap of expectation that Franco has inadvertently built since Santin laid eyes on him as a 10-year-old. Last September, the Rays brought some of their best fall instructional league prospects to Tropicana Field to participate in a home run derby. In the final round, Franco trailed by 10. He chipped away, swing by swing, and then dusted the field. Franco was 17 years old and swatted 15 home runs to beat legitimate prospects Ronaldo Hernandez and Moises Gomez, both three years older, and all of this might sound far-fetched were it not the norm.

This is why the scouts who pass through Bowling Green struggle to be even slightly critical of Franco. Despite his well-above-average speed, he isn't yet a good baserunner. The worst anyone can say is that he's likely to end up at second base because of his size, range and arm strength -- and even then, two scouts came up with the same comparison: Robinson Cano, but as a switch-hitter.

Franco has plenty of time to make eight All-Star teams and $300 million like Cano. For now, he plies his trade at Bowling Green Ballpark, the sort of place where Zoie the Local 6 Weather Dog fetches the first pitch, where weekday games during the school year start at 10:35 a.m. so scores of kids can pile into the stadium and dance together when "Old Town Road" plays on the loudspeaker, where the Ooyee Gooyee Burger goes for $8. Inside the high-ceilinged hall of the building's front entrance is a display featuring photographs of all the Bowling Green Hot Rods who have made the major leagues in the team's 10-year history. Someday soon, Franco will join the wall.

Next comes a promotion to high-A Charlotte, which shouldn't be too far off, not as Franco enters his third month of treating the Midwest League like glorified batting practice. The Rays intend to jump him level to level, like the Blue Jays did Guerrero, though Franco's personal timetable to the major leagues is a touch more accelerated.

"Next year," he said, and unlike almost everything else during an interview in Ruiz's office, this came from his mouth in English. Franco understood the question clearly: When do you expect to be in the major leagues? He didn't need to use a full sentence to make his point. Over the course of the nearly hourlong conversation, Franco defaulted to English just once more. Kerr, his teacher, told him to practice whenever he could, and in this case, the question about why he loves baseball seemed to resonate.

"It is my family," he said. "My country."

The World Championships-bound marathoner on overcoming injury to run a PB in London and why her Doha selection means she’ll be adding to her tattoo collection

Tish Jones ran a big marathon PB in London and qualified for the IAAF World Championships in Doha despite an injury-hit build-up that saw her unable to run during January.

The 33-year-old Belgrave Harrier threw herself into cross training and never lost hope before building back into running in the spring and then nailing a 2:31:00 time on April 28.

“I poured everything into the last eight weeks,” she said, after recovering from a tibia-related problem. “Whether I was on the bike, gym, elliptical or in the pool, London was the goal. Myself and my coach Nick (Anderson) managed to get my long runs back in there and so to get the time made me so happy and my face at the end was one of pure joy.

“I was in a pain cave for quite some time and I could see my pace dropping off and I didn’t know if I was going to finish but everyone goes through bad patches in a race and I was so determined to run through it and was desperate to finish the race and then I was so happy and amazed to get a PB.”

Currently based in Cape Town, South Africa, Jones believes mountain biking has contributed to her endurance.

“For the last three years I’ve been doing about 70% of my training on the bike and up to 400km a week on the bike, which is sometimes more than triathletes do, but it’s partly due to where I live,” she says.

“I’m not that motivated to ride in the UK but here I just want to ride the whole time. I’m passionate about cycling in general and it plays a massive role in my training.

“I’ve always had a thing about Africa. I’ve done some volunteer projects here and every time I came to South Africa I felt a big connection. When I first went to Cape Town I fell in love with it and when I got home I thought ‘screw it, I’m going back’ and then I made a home for myself here.”

She is also gambling on being a full-time athlete at the moment despite not being sponsored. “Sometimes you’ve got to take a leap of faith,” she says.

Jones – whose full name is Letitia – was not a runner at school. “My main activity when I was younger was horse riding and I did that quite a lot for a good 10 years,” she remembers.

“I had a pony and it’s every kid’s dream but it was also hard work and not that glamorous, although I enjoyed it. I also went basketball mad for a while but now running means everything to me – I can do it to feel happy, to escape, to get fit, to feel strong.”

Initially she took part in obstacle course races and when she received her first invitation to race 10,000m on the track she didn’t know how many laps were involved.

But as a runner she won the Cape Town Marathon in 2016 and in London last year clocked 2:33:56 before improving this year.

Jones has a tradition of having a tattoo on her arm in the native language of places she has visited. “I’ve got plenty more to add,” she says. “I’ve been to Doha before but only in the airport! So I don’t have any Arabic on my arm yet but I think it would look really nice.”

Getting a good training build-up is foremost in her mind, though. “I don’t want to be that inconsistent, flakey person who is always injured. I want to be robust, consistent and strong,” she says.

REIMS, France -- They wear the same uniforms. They are around the same age. They occupy the same space on the field, literally the middle ground between those tasked with producing goals and those expected to prevent them. And none of them has been here before, not like this.

Any number of superficial strands connect Julie Ertz, Lindsey Horan, Rose Lavelle and Sam Mewis, the four midfielders who top the United States depth chart and who competed for three starting positions throughout the buildup to this World Cup. But as the middle without which the entire U.S. effort on the field will crumble, the personal bonds that knit together their individual promise are anything but superficial. None of them know what it's like to play in the midfield in a World Cup, but all of them know they aren't alone.

"I call them soul ties," Ertz said. "Because I think when you have history with somebody your bond just is stronger."

The U.S. will play Thailand on Tuesday with a starting midfield that collectively lacks even one World Cup start in midfield. The front line is loaded with experience. The likely starters at forward -- Tobin Heath, Alex Morgan and Megan Rapinoe -- have played 34 World Cup games. The defense, including goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher, has its share of inexperience, but Becky Sauerbrunn is hardly a newcomer in the middle of the back line.

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Among the four midfielders who received most of the minutes in recent years, on the other hand, only Ertz has World Cup experience -- and that as a center back in 2015. Horan played in the midfield in the 2016 Olympics, but started only once in four appearances in Brazil. Lavelle and Mewis have yet to play a minute at any position in any major tournament.

Nowhere did Jill Ellis have more of a blank canvas with which to work after 2016 than in the midfield. What emerged is a reflection of how she wants to play.

"Obviously it's a coach's preference in terms of profile and what they want the function to be," Ellis said of what goes into shaping a midfield. "I think for me it was important to have balance in there. It's not just about [one thing]. It's obviously breaking up plays, but then players that can play the final pass. With the front three, the attacking profile of our forwards, the ability for us to break lines requires players making the final pass in midfield."

She referenced recent Champions League winner Liverpool as an example. Liverpool's collection of "hard, strong, physical, hard-working" midfielders, as Ellis put it, did the work that fed the star-studded front line and aided a back line built around one undeniable talent. It sounds familiar. All of those midfielders fit an athletic profile for an aggressive system. But rather than interchangeable parts, each complemented the others. That's the model.

While Horan got her foot in the lineup during the 2016 Olympics, the midfield truly took shape in the 2017 Tournament of Nations. With the U.S. trailing Brazil in San Diego, Ertz came on as a substitute at the holding midfield position. It wasn't a coincidence that a 3-1 deficit became a signature 4-3 win. Ertz scored a goal in the comeback, but more than that, she brought an energy and intensity to winning back that spread throughout the lineup that day.

The energy is still different when she's out there. And as the U.S. settled on an aggressive 4-3-3 formation, taking cues from her hard-tackling, ball-winning ways, it relied on her even more. They take risks going forward knowing she will throw her body in the way to back them up.

"Just that sort of transitional style and getting after it and always wanting to go forward and push, push, push, she kind of provides that anchor for us," Rapinoe said of Ertz. "She's good box to box and can get up and down, but we want to send the [other two midfielders] and be able to have them go unattached from the back line and get our outside backs forward. So Julie provides that anchor for us and the ability to break up the counterattack."

By her own analysis, Ertz plays the No. 6 with a more defensive mindset than Lauren Holiday, the maestro who retired after the 2015 World Cup (and Morgan Brian, who filled the same role in the later rounds of that tournament with Holiday higher on the field). But Holiday still has a successor in Horan, the 25-year-old NWSL MVP who came into her own for both club and country in 2018, when she was also a finalist for U.S. Soccer Female Player of the Year.

A forward for much of her youth career, including when she signed with Paris Saint-Germain out of high school, Horan developed into a true box-to-box midfielder, the No. 8 who can do everything from a pinpoint 30-yard, switch-of-play pass to a header in the box on set pieces.

"Her presence in the midfield already intimidates other people," Ertz said. "She's fantastic in the air. She is feisty on the ground to be able to win tackles with her strength alone. But not only that. Her foot skills, being both-footed and finessing her passes, I think elevated me, for sure, but elevated the team's standard for being able to pass and build out."

Lavelle was the final piece to fall into place, one that Ellis had to wait patiently for through a series of injury delays, mostly related to a nagging hamstring issue.

"Rose is amazing at changing the tempo of a game," Ertz said. "She is so much faster than I think people realize. She can create these chances out of nothing. Her creativity and her vision, especially in [the final] third, is world class. On top of that, she works so hard to get back, which obviously helps me. Her having that 10 role, more freedom and creativity, has been amazing."

Ellis tossed Lavelle in the deep end for her senior international debut against England in 2017. Yet despite the class of opponent and a wickedly frigid day in New Jersey, the rookie was one of the stars for the U.S. in an otherwise forgettable loss. It didn't hurt that for all the newness, she was surrounded in the lineup that day by Horan and Mallory Pugh, all three teammates on the U.S. team that competed in the 2014 U-20 World Cup, and Mewis, one of her best friends.

"I felt like I came in at a time that was a lot easier for younger players to transition into because we had a lot of each other to lean on," Lavelle said. "The older players were great, but I think having someone you're a little more familiar with off the field definitely made it easier because it is such a competitive environment."

It isn't just those four midfielders who are intertwined. Ertz and defender Crystal Dunn go back years as friends and teammates. They won a U-20 World Cup together, along with Mewis and Morgan Brian. Colorado natives who shared youth rosters and bypassed college in favor of pro soccer, Horan and Pugh are inseparable -- Lavelle often not far removed. Emily Sonnett is in the middle of most everything that goes on for the younger generation. And on and on.

They weren't thrown together as strangers on one of the most competitive teams in the world and forced to find common cause on the fly. They brought their bonds, formed long ago in club soccer, college soccer and youth national teams, to that crucible.

"When you have somebody who has your back, it automatically creates a bond," Ertz said. "The DNA of this team has had that, having each other's backs, fighting to the last whistle. That is what makes this team so dangerous in tournament because people can't touch that.

"You can touch tactics, you can sit back, you can change that stuff. But you won't break somebody's will to fight for each other."

The fourth member of the quartet exemplifies the collective strength best of all, precisely because she may be the odd one out when starters are announced June 11. Mewis has done plenty to merit a place in the starting lineup, coming into her own in 2017 and bouncing back this year after an injury-marred 2018. A powerful presence who can play any midfield role, she will play important minutes in France, starter or not.

"When I'm on the bench, I'm cheering the loudest for Lindsey and Rose, even though they're in front of me and they play my position," Mewis said. "Because their success is my success. We're all working in this together, and it feels really like a team in that way. And of course, it is, but this team is so competitive, and I think that having those strong bonds of support and caring for each other is going to carry us a long way."

The American midfield in 1999 was already full of World Cup winners from eight years earlier. The midfield in 2015 had Olympic champions multiple times over. This group doesn't have that history. But it has its own history. So while the individual parts are what the U.S. needs to play the way it wants to play, the friendships and trust that bind them together are what the U.S. hopes will let them shine.

"It's all there for them," Rapinoe said. "We'll do our best as older players to sort of embolden them and encourage them, but I think [they should] realize that they have everything that they need. Their individual strengths and talents that they have coming out of the midfield is exactly what we need them to do. We don't need them to be anything different than what they are."

And if the middle holds this summer, anything is possible.

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TOP STORY: Manchester clubs to battle for Maguire

Manchester United and Manchester City are set to go head-to-head to land England and Leicester centre-back Harry Maguire, according to Sky Sports.

Sources have told ESPN that United are ready to renew their interest in Maguire, having failed to sign him last summer when Leicester put his price at £80m.

Sky claim that this time around the club won't even name a price for the 26-year-old because they don't want to sell -- though that £80m figure appears again in the story, which would be a world-record fee for a defender after the £75m Liverpool spent on Virgil van Dijk last year.

Maguire has evidently got no major desire to move on, and only signed a new five-year contract in September, though Leicester are lining up Burnley defender James Tarkowski as a replacement should it happen.

LIVE BLOG

08.57 BST: West Ham are unlikely to make a move for Manchester City's Fabian Delph during the transfer window, sources have told ESPN FC.

The England international has been told that he can leave the Etihad Stadium this summer after falling down the pecking order in Pep Guardiola's first team squad.

City want around £15m for the 29-year-old, who is entering the final year of his contract, but the Hammers have been put off by the fee along with the wages that the former Aston Villa and Leeds midfielder would command.

08.37 BST: Superdeporte report that Valencia have contacted Barcelona with a view to acquiring Spanish midfielder Denis Suarez.

Tied to Barcelona until June 2021, the 25-year-old is looking to earn more playing time after a disappointing six-month loan spell at Arsenal where he made just four league appearances.

According to the Valencia-based publication, Barca's asking price of €20m is considered excessive and Valencia will only make a move for Suarez if the Spanish champions lower that figure.

08.05 BST: Joao Felix's future will be decided this week amid interest from Manchester City, Manchester United, Atletico Madrid and Juventus, according to Record.

The rising Benfica star is currently on holiday in Ibiza after winning the UEFA Nations League with Portugal on Sunday. According to Record, talks regarding the sale of Felix will resume today. The 19-year-old winger, reportedly has four offers, including two from clubs that are willing to pay his €120m release clause.

Record claims that Benfica president Luis Filipe Vieira is resigned to losing Felix. However, Benfica are hoping to reach an agreement that would see Felix remain on a season-long loan at the Estadio da Luz. According to Record, Atletico are prepared to offer €60m plus another €20m in variables. They want to convince Felix by creating a project around him in the coming years.

PAPER TALK (by Nick Judd)

Spurs may go in for Marseille's Sakai

Tottenham Hotspur are eyeing Marseille right-back Hiroki Sakai, according to Sky Sports, although the London side may have concerns about the Japanese star's age.

Sakai, 29, could be seen as a suitable replacement should they move on from Kieran Trippier and Serge Aurier. Nonetheless, Mauricio Pochettino may prefer a younger reinforcement.

The former Hannover 96 man has been to two World Cups for Japan, and joined Marseille in 2016.

Everton hoping to secure Dakonam

Everton and Arsenal are both in the running for highly rated Getafe defender Djene Dakonam, but the Toffees look to have the edge when it comes to winning the player's signature, writes the Daily Mail.

Dakonam starred as Getafe finished fifth in La Liga, and Everton boss Marco Silva is looking to reinforce his defensive ranks, particularly as he faces the threat of losing loanee Kurt Zouma.

The 27-year-old is likely to cost the Merseysiders around £30m, a figure that could prove too much for Arsenal and their seemingly limited war chest. The Gunners look set to spend well under £100m this summer, and so they'll need to shop smart in an effort to improve their squad.

Silva, on the other hand, looks set to be well backed as the Blues hierarchy look to challenge for a European place.

Villa ready to splash cash for Butland

Newly promoted Aston Villa are prepared to spend up to £20 million to secure the services of Jack Butland, reports The Sun.

Villa join the race for the popular stopper, who has also been earning admiring glances from the likes of Bournemouth and Crystal Palace.

Stoke City value their man at nearer £25m, a figure that has put off some potential suitors, but Villa boss Dean Smith is keen to start the new season with a top-class keeper with Premier League experience.

Villa's owners have the spending power to afford Butland, while the keeper himself would be keen on a move in an effort to reignite his England career.

Tap ins

- Arsenal are still looking to replace Aaron Ramsey, and Unai Emery has decided that Fiorentina star Jordan Veretout could fit the bill. The 26-year-old is looking for a move this summer and though heavily linked with Napoli, his agent has admitted that his client is still considering options both in Italy and abroad.

- Maurizio Sarri's Chelsea exit could be confirmed this week, with one Chelsea shareholder saying farewell to the Italian boss via his Instagram account. Sarri has been linked with a move away from London form some time, and even Chelsea's Europa League win doesn't seem to have altered the club's plans. Hasan Nagoor's social media post is the latest hint that Sarri is set for a return to Italy.

Justin Langer is confident Australia have the right World Cup game plan despite Sunday's 36-run loss to India and maintained he is prepared to be flexible in team selection and shuffling the batting line up in Australia's remaining matches.

Australia's chase, after conceding 352 runs, was hampered by India's disciplined and probing attack early on and, when Aaron Finch was run out in the 14th over, Steven Smith was promoted up the order above Usman Khawaja. All three batsmen scored at around a run a ball but with David Warner's strike rate of 66.66 the mounting required rate forced the lower order batsmen to take increasingly high risks. But Langer believes the loss of three quick wickets later in the innings was the most significant factor.

"Even at the 38-over mark we still had the same amount of runs, so I'm not worried about our game style," Langer said . "We just lost three wickets in five balls at a stage where they got 113 [116] in the last ten. At The Oval you can get 110 in the last 10 easy. The boys will do it differently. We're not saying to preserve wickets means you've got to block.

"The philosophy is you can't make runs from the change room and if you look at the data there's very little difference in the top 10 overs between most teams, but the wickets are important so you can keep building the platform. I'm really confident in our game plan."

Langer said there was a chance Glenn Maxwell or Marcus Stoinis could be promoted up the order if circumstances dictated a more flexible approach.

"We went left hand and right hand combinations, Steve Smith came in when Aaron Finch came out to hit the spinners," Langer said . "We've got the left-hand right-hand combinations, we've got the flexibility to do that. We did it in India. We did it where Glenn Maxwell would come up earlier if we got off to a really good start. That's where we're so lucky. I have said it since day one of this campaign, we've got so many options, it's great. And there will be times where Maxi comes in or Marcus Stoinis."

Australia's bowling attack struggled to take wickets in an innings that was dominated by a Shikhar Dhawan century and was battered by a late onslaught from Hardik Pandya, who was dropped by Alex Carey on the first ball he faced. Hardik's 48 off 27 helped India add 116 off the final ten overs, but Langer was upbeat about Australia's bowling performance.

"We started off brilliantly I thought," Langer said . "There was some really good stuff. I thought the energy in the first 10 overs, I haven't seen us buzzing like that. There is nothing better than playing India at The Oval in a World Cup game. The boys' energy was up. Brilliant stuff."

"But, yeah, just the things we have been talking about, wickets through the middle overs, wickets in the first ten overs and then how we bowled at the death. It won us the game against the West Indies but we were probably a bit off [against India]. There are areas to improve. We got pretty close. I honestly think it is really good to have a really tough game like that early in the tournament."

Langer said Australia did consider playing Jason Behrendorff instead of Nathan Coulter-Nile, and added there was a possibility the left-armer could join Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins in the attack at some stage in the tournament. Having two left-arm quicks in the line-up will likely depend on individual match-ups with opposition batsmen.

Australia next play Pakistan whose fortunes have swung dramatically from their opening heavy loss to West Indies to their stunning win over England but, while Australia have given the impression of a side still seeking the strongest combinations and form, Langer was confident the team's performances will improve as the tournament wears on.

"You're always searching for the perfect game, you don't want to have the perfect game now," Langer said . "We've got to keep getting better. We've had areas we needed to improve against West Indies, we've had areas in the first game we could get better at, certainly [against India].

"We haven't played the perfect game yet - that's good. Hopefully we'll keep getting better and better and the best games will come at some point."

World Cup Central - May 24 to June 5

June 11

Lasith Malinga will make a short trip back home in between Sri Lanka's World Cup 2019 matches due to the demise of his mother-in-law.

Sri Lanka Cricket said that Malinga would leave the team after their match against Bangladesh, which will take place on Tuesday in Bristol.

The funeral for the late Kanthi Perera will be on Thursday, in Colombo, and Malinga is expected to fly back in time for Sri Lanka's next engagement, against Australia at The Oval on Saturday.

Malinga was one of the stars of Sri Lanka's win against Afghanistan, taking 3 for 39 to hasten victory. Sri Lanka were thrashed by ten wickets in their World Cup opener, against New Zealand, before the win against Afghanistan. They haven't played a match since then, due to a washout against Pakistan in Bristol.

June 10

Gayle's 'Universe Boss' bat sticker got ICC thumbs down too

The ICC's equipment regulations might just have become the most widely read official document in the past week, thanks to MS Dhoni's glove affair. But before Dhoni had to get his equipment right, somebody else had to, too. The Universe Boss.

Chris Gayle wanted to emblazon his bat with the moniker he has coined for himself, but was told that he couldn't.

"ICC couldn't have made an exception for Dhoni as no personal messages are allowed on equipment. Gayle wanted it but when he was refused permission, he accepted it and moved on," PTI reported an ICC spokesperson as saying. "It is not about military symbolism. It is about a simple rule that no personal messages are allowed.

"If ICC did not make an exception for Gayle, then how come they would make it for Dhoni."

Jos Buttler on course after hip bruising

Jos Buttler is expected to resume training on Wednesday ahead of England's next World Cup fixture, against West Indies in Southampton on Friday, after sustaining "heavy bruising on his right hip" during England's victory over Bangladesh in Cardiff on Saturday.

Buttler, who was hobbling noticeably towards the end of his hard-hitting half-century, did not take the field during Bangladesh's innings, with the wicketkeeping duties passing to Jonny Bairstow. Initially it appeared that he had jarred his hip while hitting a back-foot drive for six off Mosaddek Hossain, but Eoin Morgan, England's captain, had played down any long-term concerns at the end of the match.

And now, after being monitored for 48 hours since the injury, the ECB have stated that he was "responding well to treatment and will be reassessed later this week".

"We anticipate he will train with the rest of the squad at the Hampshire Bowl on Wednesday ahead of the match against West Indies on Friday," added an ECB spokesman.

Hardik Pandya reminds Steve Waugh of Lance Klusener from the 1999 World Cup

The win over Australia "in the pressure cooker of a World Cup clash" will give India loads of confidence, but it's the innings from Hardik Pandya that "will send shivers down opposition spines", according to Steve Waugh.

Hardik slammed a 27-ball 48 at No. 4 with four fours and three sixes to provide India the late thrust as they put up 352 for 5, before bowling Australia out for 316.

"This guy might just be the equivalent of Lance Klusener in the 1999 World Cup," Waugh wrote in his column for the ICC. "He has the ability to begin his innings like most finish with clean hitting that no opposing captain can protect."

Unlike Hardik, Glenn Maxwell didn't get a promotion in the batting order, walking in at No. 5 with the scoreboard reading 202 for 3 in 36.4 overs, and scoring 28 in 14 balls. "The cameo of Glenn Maxwell will increase calls for his elevation up the batting order as he is a match-winner that can turn a game in a few overs," Waugh wrote.

'Had a point to prove' against Australia - Kohli

After India sealed a 36-run win over Australia in their second World Cup match, Virat Kohli said that the 3-2 home series defeat against the same opponents before the IPL was precisely the spur the team needed.

"After losing in India, we had a point to prove and that was our motivation," Kohli said.

India's World Cup campaign has begun brightly but New Zealand up next followed by Pakistan. That, according to Kohli, suits the team just fine, but thinking about the knockouts is best left for another day.

"We couldn't ask for a better start against two very strong sides and I like we've got the strongest sides in world cricket early on," he said. "It's far too early to talk about semi-finals, after six games we will be in a better position to think about that but it's not for now."

June 9

Dhawan sustains hand injury during century

India opener Shikhar Dhawan has picked up a hand injury while batting against Australia at The Oval on Sunday. The extent of the injury is not known yet, but Dhawan was seen with an ice pack on his left hand in the dressing room, and did not take the field during Australia's batting. The Indian team manager later said Dhawan would not take the field at all.

Dhawan, who scored a century to help India post 352, was hit on the left hand by a short ball from Pat Cummins off the first ball of the ninth over. Dhawan tried to defend the ball with a straight bat but the ball rose on him and struck his bottom hand before hitting his shoulder and helmet grille. Later in the over, India physio Patrick Farhart came out and used a spray on the opener's left thumb. Dhawan was on 24 off 26 balls then and finished with 117 off 109 balls.

June 8

Rashid Khan is being treated for concussion after taking a blow to the head in Afghanistan's game against New Zealand on Saturday.

He was struck on the helmet by quick bowler Lockie Ferguson, misjudging the length and ducking into a short of a length ball on off stump. The ball also ricocheted onto his stumps and bowled him.

Rashid walked off the field looking very dazed and when he failed two concussion tests, the team management asked him to sit out of the rest of the game as a precautionary measure. Afghanistan next play South Africa on June 15.

June 7

Sarfaraz hopes rain doesn't mess with Pakistan momentum

The forecast promised rain, and rain it did in Bristol, washing out Pakistan's - and Sri Lanka's - hopes of notching up a second win at the World Cup.

For Pakistan, the lost point from the abandonment might perhaps be more frustrating, favourites as they were to beat the Sri Lankans. Their captain Sarfaraz Ahmed, however, was more disappointed at how the team couldn't build on the momentum gained from beating England.

"As a team we really wanted to play this match especially after gaining momentum with the win against England," he said. "It is unfortunate that we were not able to play. We have great team spirit and our confidence is on a high after beating England. We would want to carry the momentum into the remaining games. We won't relax in our remaining six matches."

Pakistan next go up against Australia on June 12 in Taunton, while Sri Lanka's play Bangladesh on June 11, again in Bristol.

Zampa penalised for 'audible obscenity'

Adam Zampa picked up a demerit point, along with an official warning, after on-field umpires Marais Erasmus and Chris Gaffaney, third umpire Ruchira Palliyaguruge and fourth official S Ravi reported him for "audible obscenity" during the Australia v West Indies game at Trent Bridge on June 6.

The incident took place in the 29th over of West Indies' chase of Australia's 288 - they fell short by 15 runs in the end - when Zampa was bowling to Shai Hope and Jason Holder.

Zampa, who sent back Nicholas Pooran on his way to figures of 1 for 58, admitted the offence and accepted the sanction handed out by match referee Jeff Crowe.

Defeat a 'tough pill to swallow' for West Indies

Shai Hope has admitted that defeat against Australia will be a "tough pill to swallow" but thinks that West Indies have sent out another reminder of what they are capable of at the World Cup.

Having rolled Pakistan for 105 in their opening match, West Indies had Australia 38 for 4 and 79 for 5 before they recovered to post 288 through impressive batting from Steven Smith (73) and Nathan Coulter-Nile (92). Still, in the chase West Indies were well placed on 190 for 4 in the 35th over before Hope's wicket shifted the game back to Australia.

"Obviously it's going to be a tough pill to swallow having basically been dominating the game for the majority of it then not being able to cross the line," he said. "When you get wickets with the new ball you always put a team under pressure, it's just unfortunate that we couldn't drive it home and get the tail in a bit earlier. Australia are a quality side and showed us they can rebuild to post a different score."

When asked if West Indies' short-ball tactics had shown a vulnerability in Australia's top order, Hope said: "I think so, yes, but regardless of what plan you throw at them sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't so you always have to be able to adapt to what they throw at you as well."

June 6

Dhoni's army gloves fall foul of ICC

The ICC has asked the BCCI to have the army logo removed off MS Dhoni's wicketkeeping gloves. It has been pointed out to the BCCI that the logo on the gloves contravenes the ICC clothing and equipment regulations, which allow only sponsor logos on them. ESPNcricinfo understands there is no fine or reprimand involved at the moment but the message has been made clear to the BCCI.

Dhoni is an honorary lieutenant colonel of the Parachute Regiment in the Indian territorial army. In India's World Cup opener, against South Africa, Dhoni was seen keeping in gloves that sported the dagger insignia of Dhoni's regiment of the Indian Para Special Forces. This particular insignia - "Balidaan", meaning sacrifice - can only be worn by paramilitary commandos.

During possibly his last international match at his home ground in Ranchi, India played against Australia in army camouflage caps to pay respect to those armymen who lost their lives in the Pulwama terror attacks. The players' earnings from the match went to the families of the martyrs. At that time the ICC cleared the jerseys "as part of charity fund-raising effort".

That India-Australia series was not an ICC event. The World Cup is.

Imran Khan not a fan of "stupid" cricket celebrations

Before they left for the World Cup, one of the farewell meetings the Pakistan team had was with their Prime Minister. He is, of course, the only Prime Minister from among the teams in this competition who has won any World Cups. Actually to be more accurate, he is the only head of state from CWC 2019 to have played a dash of international cricket. When Imran Khan addressed an awed Pakistan squad, among his other pearls of wisdom was this one - to refrain from what he referred to as "stupid" wicket-celebrations. Hasan Ali's starburst may have been the one that got his attention and unfortunately, there is no celebrato-meter to see if there ever was a dip in intensity following that particular remonstration. Not sure what the Wazir e Azam made of the madness at Trent Bridge.

Hendricks hopes to be South Africa's lucky charm

Beuran Hendricks was sitting on his couch, watching TV when he got the call telling him he would be part of South Africa's World Cup squad. He didn't know then he would be Dale Steyn's replacement, but admitted being overwhelmed on finding out that he was replacing arguably the greatest pacer his country had produced. Hendricks joined the squad a day prior to their clash against India, but didn't make the XI. Now, as South Africa fight to stay alive, Hendricks hopes he is the "good luck the team needs."

In December, Hendricks was part of the winning Jozi Stars in the Mzansi Super League. He also helped the Lions claim South Africa's franchise first-class and T20 tournaments. In April, he was a a late call-up to the Mumbai Indians, who went on to win the IPL. Hendricks hopes some of his good fortunes can rub off on South Africa.

"It's been a good year for me personally and for the teams I have been with this year so let's hope I can make it five (trophies) out of five," he said. "I am not going to say I can fill his shoes because its Dale. I come here with my own set of skills and my own ambition in this competition," he said. "It's just about making sure I can fight the good fight and contribute with the set of skills that I have."

'Faf's wicket most special' - Chahal after four-for

Yuzvendra Chahal's 4 for 51 against South Africa played a big role in India's first win of the World Cup. What was most impressive about Chahal's performance was the quality of the batsmen he dismissed: Rassie van der Dussen, Faf du Plessis, David Miller and Andile Phehlukwayo.

After the match, Chahal was asked by his spin partner Kuldeep Yadav on bcci.tv on his favourite scalp of the night, to which he promptly replied: "Faf du Plessis."

"Faf was playing with small forward-steps and I was drifting the ball well," Chahal said. "The previous two balls, I had bowled the legbreak. So for the wicket ball, I chose to bowl on off stump with the ball drifting in sharply. He couldn't pick it, thinking I was bowling the legbreak, and that's why the ball hit the inside of his bat and broke the stumps."

Chahal also praised Rohit Sharma's century against a difficult bowling attack that includes Kagiso Rabada. "He showed the temperament that an experienced batsman has," Chahal said. "It wasn't easy batting there against the new ball, but he stayed and finished the match. That was huge."

Older World Cup Central entries are here

TORONTO -- Bill Russell was in the hallway. The trophy was polished. The stage was ready to roll out. The cameramen had plastic over their gear. The champagne was on ice.

The team doctors' faces were ashen. The general manager was sobbing. The heroes, the guys who hit the big shots and the man who saved the season with a block, had knots in their stomachs, not smiles on their faces.

It was a most terrible win.

There were no victors in Game 5 of the NBA Finals on Monday night. Yes, the Golden State Warriors had 106 points to the Toronto Raptors' 105. But Kevin Durant's right Achilles injury and the circumstances around it, both in the present and future, thudded down on everyone's chest.

"Everybody gets so wrapped up in chasing championships and the greatness that you see on the floor, but life is more important in terms of caring about an individual and what they're going through," said Warriors guard Stephen Curry. The 3-pointer he made to tie the game with 1:22 left and the last of his 31 points were the furthest thing from his mind.

"I just feel so bad for him, to be honest," he continued. "Nobody should have to go through something like that, especially with this stage that we have."

The Raptors lost a six-point lead with three minutes to play, a fact that has the potential to go down in infamy if they fail to win another game in this series -- which they still lead 3-2 as it heads back to Oakland for Game 6 on Thursday.

Kawhi Leonard had two minutes of glory in the fourth quarter -- 10 points in a flash -- that was lined up be a crowning moment in his career.

Kyle Lowry went up for a shot that might've ended up memorialized in bronze someday.

A hundred thousand or so people in a three-block radius were on the edge of having the night of their lives.

Instead, the Warriors finished off one of the most remarkable escape acts in their five-year dynastic run with a cadre of different players having a hand -- or two fingers -- on it.

Draymond Green got just enough of Lowry's last-second shot to send it off target, and he knew it before anyone else, pumping his fist as millions of eyes followed the ball.

Curry and Klay Thompson, who made the eventual game-winning 3-pointer with 58 seconds left, hit breathtaking back-to-back shots that rank among the biggest of their careers.

Each of these events could have defined this incredible game in this serpentine Finals. But all of them faded almost immediately.

Instead, the lasting image will be Durant dumping the ball and falling in the second quarter. He was in the middle of a command performance. He made his first three 3-pointers. He blocked a shot. He took a hard fall over Raptors big man Serge Ibaka that made the Warriors bench grab their chests only to see him pop up as if it didn't even affect him.

But the sight of Durant pinching his Achilles tendon, perhaps to check to see if it was still intact, soured everything. The slow-motion replays of his calf, the same one that had kept him out of the last month, pulsating as he pushed off it to try to make another play made their way around social media.

Durant limped to the back with teammate Andre Iguodala on one side and Rick Celebrini, the Warriors' head of sports medicine, on the other. Curry trailed behind all the way to the locker room. Durant was in there when his teammates came back at halftime in agony, not just from the pain but from the news. The initial diagnosis was the Achilles.

"At halftime when they came out, and I don't know what the official word is, but somebody on the bench said he tore something," said Raptors coach Nick Nurse. "And I know Kyle was on the bench sitting there and was shook up by that, and both Klay and Steph stopped and talked to Kyle there at halftime on our bench about it."

As Lowry explained, "In this league, we're all brothers. At the end of the day, we're all brothers and it's a small brotherhood and you never want to see a competitor like him go down."

Midway through the third quarter, with his teammates in a dogfight for their season, Durant couldn't bear to even remain in the building. With an ugly gray boot on his right foot, he used crutches to limp his way out.

Durant's agent, Rich Kleiman, was behind him with no color in his face. Warriors general manager Bob Myers, his eyes fixed in the dreaded thousand-yard stare, walked alongside Durant. After seeing Durant into a car to take him anywhere but Scotiabank Arena, Myers came back and had to figure out how he was going to tell his owner, his coach, his team and Golden State's fans.

"I don't believe there's anybody to blame, but I understand in this world and if you have to, you can blame me," Myers said through tears. "I don't have all the information on what really the extent of what it all means until we get a MRI, but the people that worked with him and cleared him are good people, they're good people."

Myers has built three championship teams and runs one of the class organizations in pro sports, and he was not only dealing with the agony of a star player suffering a terrible injury, but also trying to manage the reality that clearing him to play in Game 5 had the type of consequences that might affect people for years.

That's what this night was, a struggle to process the gravity of moment and deal with the fallout. Normally after a big road win -- and let's be honest, denying a team a close-out victory in their arena is the biggest of road wins -- means a joyous plane ride and rising belief that the Warriors could pull off a historic reversal.

Instead, they left fearing the dawn, because the bizarre nightmare they just experienced isn't going to be over.

"I just told the team I didn't know what to say, because on the one hand I'm so proud of them, just the amazing heart and grit that they showed, and on the other I'm just devastated for Kevin," Warriors coach Steve Kerr said.

"So it's a bizarre feeling that we all have right now. An incredible win and a horrible loss at the same time."

Tesni Evans battles back for big win over Joelle King
By SEAN REUTHE in Cairo 

Egyptian duo Raneem El Welily and Mohamed ElShorbagy have become the first players to qualify for the semi-finals of the 2018-2019 CIB PSA World Tour Finals after they beat World No.3s Camille Serme and Tarek Momen, respectively, during the second day of action at Cairo’s Mall of Arabia.

El Welily, the women’s World No.1, recovered from a game down to win 10-12, 11-7, 11-5 against France’s Serme, and that victory sees her move three points clear at the summit of Group A, meaning she is guaranteed a second place finish at worst.

The top two from each group qualify for the knockout semi-finals and beyond, with the first four days of group stage fixtures played using a round-robin, best-of-three games format. El Welily, a two-time runner-up at the season-ending tournament, will line up against New Zealand’s Joelle King tomorrow (June 11) in her final group match.

“I think I was a bit patient in that last game,” said 30-year-old El Welily. “She made a few errors. It’s very tough mentally to push ourselves in the last tournament.

“We are all pushing ourselves and working really hard. I’m definitely not going to go off court without leaving everything on here.

“My movement is an aspect of my game that I work on really hard. Not just with my fitness coach, Ahmed Faragallah, but also Haitham Effat – they push me hard when it comes to movement and technique, but I actually think it could be better today.”

Serme and Evans will face off in the other Group A fixture, with that match set to take place on Wednesday June 12. Evans got the better of King by an 11-9, 7-11, 11-8 scoreline in the final women’s match of the day and the winner of her fixture with Serme will join El Welily in the last four.

“I’m really happy with that,” said 26-year-old Evans. “I was a bit disappointed yesterday because I was only on court for 18 minutes [against El Welily]. I know it’s best of three, but I still felt like I could have given it more. I wanted to come out here, no matter what the result, and give it everything I have and I think I did that.”

The other women’s match on day two saw World No.5 Nour El Tayeb avenge her British Open semi-final defeat to eventual tournament-winner Nouran Gohar, as she took a 2-1 lead to move up to second place in Group B, one point behind current leader Sarah-Jane Perry.

In the men’s event, defending champion ElShorbagy booked his spot in the semis after a 2-1 win over Momen saw him move two points clear at the top of Group B.

The reigning British Open winner defeated Peru’s Diego Elias yesterday by a 2-1 scoreline and backed that up again against Momen, winning 11-9, 5-11, 11-6 to continue his title defence as he looks to win his third consecutive World Tour Finals title.

“He has had a great season, the last three years he has been a player who has been a contender for every World Tour event,” said ElShorbagy.

“I’m really happy that he has been playing this quality, he is an inspiration. I’ve seen him for years training hard, having bad losses and coming back stronger, and he’s an example for a lot of juniors to watch of never giving up and always working hard.”

ElShorbagy has guaranteed a top two spot and plays Germany’s Simon Rösner tomorrow in his final match of the group stage. World No.5 Rösner is unable to qualify for the semis after losing 2-1 to Elias, with Elias and Momen wiquare off on Wednesday to decide the final qualifying spot in Group B.

“It’s really tough playing in these conditions,” said Elias after becoming the first Peruvian to win a match at the World Tour Finals.

“After my match yesterday [against ElShorbagy] I didn’t think I was going to recover, especially after that last game. My body felt good today and I think I played well today, it was a really tough battle with Simon. This is my first tournament playing best of three, so I think I like it because usually I get a bit tired towards the end of matches.”

Meanwhile, World No.4 Karim Abdel Gawad and World No.6 Paul Coll got their tournaments under way, with the former winning 11-5, 13-11 to join World No.1 Ali Farag on four points at the top of Group A, while Coll sits bottom alongside Mohamed Abouelghar, neither of whom have a point to their name after the first round of matches in that group.

Group stage action continues today and play begins at 19:00 (GMT+2). All six fixtures from the Mall of Arabia will be broadcast on SQUASHTV (rest of world), Eurosport Player (Europe only) and the official Facebook page of the PSA World Tour. 

CIB PSA World Tour Finals 2019, Mall of Arabia, 6th of October City, Cairo, Egypt.

DAY TWO
Men’s Group A:
[4] Karim Abdel Gawad (EGY) bt [5] Paul Coll (NZL) 2-0: 11-5, 13-11 (40m)

Men’s Group B:
[7] Diego Elias (PER) bt [6] Simon Rösner (GER) 2-1: 5-11, 11-8, 11-9 (57m)
[2] Mohamed ElShorbagy (EGY) bt [3] Tarek Momen (EGY) 2-1: 11-9, 5-11, 11-6 (46m)

Women’s Group A:
[1] Raneem El Welily (EGY) bt [4] Camille Serme (FRA) 2-1: 10-12, 11-7, 11-5 (38m)
[8] Tesni Evans (WAL) bt [5] Joelle King (NZL) 2-1: 11-9, 7-11, 11-8 (38m)

Women’s Group B:
[3] Nour El Tayeb (EGY) bt [6] Nouran Gohar (EGY) 2-1: 11-4, 7-11, 11-8 (40m)

TODAY (June 11)
Men’s Group A:
[1] Ali Farag (EGY) v [4] Karim Abdel Gawad (EGY)
[5] Paul Coll (NZL) v [8] Mohamed Abouelghar (EGY)

Men’s Group B:
[2] Mohamed ElShorbagy (EGY) v [6] Simon Rösner (GER)

Women’s Group A:
[1] Raneem El Welily (EGY) v [5] Joelle King (NZL)

Women’s Group B:
[2] Nour El Sherbini (EGY) v [3] Nour El Tayeb (EGY)
[6] Nouran Gohar (EGY) v [7] Sarah-Jane Perry (ENG) 

Report by SEAN REUTHE (PSA PR and Media Manager). Edited by ALAN THATCHER.

Pictures courtesy of PSA

TORONTO -- When Raptors coach Nick Nurse called timeout with 3:05 remaining and Toronto leading 103-97, it felt like the beginning of a championship celebration north of the border.

Toronto had just gotten 10 straight points from Kawhi Leonard to explode into the lead after trailing since the first quarter, and appeared well on their way to winning the first title for the city in more than two decades.

Only then, in an instant, it wasn't.

The Golden State Warriors ripped off three straight 3-pointers -- first by Klay Thompson, then Stephen Curry and then Thompson again -- to storm back into the lead, and Toronto missed multiple chances to tie or take the lead in the final minute, falling 106-105 Monday night in Game 5 of the NBA Finals.

Golden State now will get a chance to push this series to a seventh game when these teams meet again Thursday night in the last game at Oracle Arena, while Toronto will be hoping to claim that elusive final win to clinch the title.

"We just came across and just decided to give those guys a rest," Nurse said of the timeout. "[We] just thought we could use the extra energy push."

In a rule that was instituted last season, teams can have only two timeouts inside of three minutes remaining in the fourth quarter. Any extra timeouts are lost, causing many coaches to call one in exactly the same spot Nurse did Monday night.

In this case, though, the Raptors found themselves with all the momentum and closing in on a championship. After it, things fell apart.

"At that time I felt that he probably wanted to get us some rest," Leonard said. "You never know. I mean, if we would have won the game, we wouldn't be talking about it."

The Raptors, however, did not win the game -- and didn't in particularly ugly fashion.

Toronto missed five of its final six shots in the last three minutes -- including three 3-pointers -- and committed one costly turnover that led to Curry's game-tying 3 with 1:22 remaining. Golden State, meanwhile, got the shots it needed to take the lead, and then a season-saving block by Draymond Green on Kyle Lowry's potential championship-winning 3-pointer at the buzzer.

"It felt great out of my hand," Lowry said. "He got a piece of it, that's what great defenders do. He got a piece of it and we'll continue to look at it and see how we can be better for the next game."

It was a strange end to a strange game, one that saw all the air taken out of the building early in the second quarter when Kevin Durant planted his right foot and fell in a heap, eventually walking off the court with what was later diagnosed as an Achilles injury.

When it happened, it appeared some fans were cheering Durant going down -- something Lowry and other members of the Raptors immediately began telling them not to do. After the game, Warriors coach Steve Kerr thanked the Raptors for doing that.

"I think that I don't think the fans knew the significance of the injury," Lowry said. "They kind of just seen he went down. In this league we're all brothers. At the end of the day, we're all brothers and it's a small brotherhood and you never want to see a competitor like him go down. You don't know what the circumstances are.

"And for me it was just, listen, we don't want anything to ever happen like that. We don't know what's this or that. So I just kind of -- we don't want that type of stuff. And it didn't change much emotionally. It was just after he went down he went down, and we got on and finished the game."

That finish turned out to be nothing like what anyone expected, however, when Leonard ripped off those 10 straight points to power Toronto in front. Scotiabank Arena -- not to mention the tens of thousands of fans outside it, and across the country that had congregated at various "Jurassic Parks" to watch it -- erupted, and it felt like the Raptors were destined to get over the finish line and win the title.

The Warriors, though, reminded the world why they have won two titles in a row, three of the past four and made it to five straight NBA Finals, by taking Toronto's best shot and coming right back at the Raptors.

"I think that in this day and age, up six with three minutes to go doesn't mean a whole lot," Nurse said.

"You got to keep playing and getting good shots and keep guarding. We have been a really good close-game team this year, both ends of the floor. We really guarded in the second half; we held them to 22 each quarter, and I felt good at that point.

"[We] just needed to make a couple more plays."

DENVER -- In Chicago Cubs manager Joe Maddon's estimation, his team just can't get over the hump on the road, where they dropped another one-run affair on Monday. This time, they fell to the Colorado Rockies after starter Yu Darvish blew an early 4-0 lead, which has been a theme for him of late.

"It sucks, especially after we score four runs with three home runs (in an inning)," Darvish said after the 6-5 loss. "The last five or six starts, every time we score, I give up a run."

The Cubs became the fifth team to hit three home runs in an inning in multiple games this season. They did it on May 28 in Houston, and then again in the third inning on Monday, when David Bote, Kyle Schwarber and Anthony Rizzo all went deep. The common link between the two games? The Cubs lost both of them -- the only one of the five teams to do so.

"We're just not making the big pitch on the road," Cubs reliever Brandon Kintzler said. "At home we're making the pitch. Maybe we're not matching the energy the opposite crowd is bringing. You have to slow the game down in those situations. Right now we're just not getting that pitch."

That thinking would make even more sense if not for the pro-Cubs crowd in the stands at Coors Field. Like most places the Cubs travel, you can't always tell who the home team is simply by listening. The visitors got plenty of support on Monday, including Darvish. He actually pitched well -- but only after giving back the lead just moments after the Cubs gave it to him. The bottom of the third inning featured long balls with a man on by Charlie Blackmon and Nolan Arenado, erasing the 4-run cushion just like that.

"I don't know why," Darvish said. "I have to find out. Next time we score, I will go 120 percent for that inning ... I gave up four runs and no walks and threw a lot of strikes. Just that one inning."

The loss dropped the Cubs to 13-17 on the road and 11-11 in one run games. Four of their last six losses away from Wrigley Field have come by one run so Kintzler's assessment might have some truth to it.

"We're in first place," he said. "Other teams that play us at home are going to bring energy. We have to be able to match it."

Darvish's ERA fell to 4.98 after six innings in which only those four third-inning runs crossed the plate. That's not bad at Coors Field, but it wasn't enough to win the game either. Maddon shook his head when asked if the Cubs road record was misleading at all. After all, seven of their 17 losses came in the opening 10 days of the season.

The Cubs skipper wasn't having any of it.

"You have to somehow win those games," he said. "At the beginning of the year, we scored and lost, and then we didn't score a lot and lost.

"There's not an intimidation factor. We just haven't gotten over other teams on the road. We just have to pick it up a little. I can't tell you we played badly. (We need to) get that winning vibe on the road and move on."