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Champions League title 'just the start' - Van Dijk

Published in Soccer
Sunday, 02 June 2019 15:33

Virgil van Dijk has said that Liverpool's Champions League triumph is the beginning of a new era for the club.

Liverpool secured their first trophy under Jurgen Klopp with a 2-0 victory over Tottenham on Saturday in Madrid.

"This is just the start," Van Dijk told reporters at the Wanda Metropolitano. "It's not like we're going away. In July, we start again. Everyone starts even, and we go again.

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"We're going to try everything we can to be challenging for the [Premier League] title, challenging for the Champions League, but also for the [domestic] cups.

"We definitely want to have these nights more often, but it's not easy, and the only thing to do is keep believing, keep working hard, stay humble -- and I think we'll definitely be doing that."

Van Dijk, named Man of the Match, said he believes Liverpool have the right age mix to be regular trophy challengers.

"We've got young guys, we have experienced guys, we have players there who can be playing for the next, hopefully, three to four years together at least," he added.

Liverpool missed out on the Premier League title by a point as Manchester City secured the crown on the final day of the season, and Van Dijk said it had been key to bounce back.

"If we didn't get anything, then we would definitely be disappointed because of the way we played during the whole season. We deserved something," he said.

"To be able to win the Champions League, the biggest club competition in football, is something special. To write history for this group of players, the staff, all the fans and everyone who was involved, is something to be proud of. In the end, to lift the trophy was incredible."

Van Dijk said Klopp ensured that his players felt responsibility to everyone associated with Liverpool.

"We want to keep working hard for all of the fans but also for our teammates, for everyone working in the club," he added.

"The people at Melwood [training ground], for example, the people who work at the stadium, everyone who is connected with Liverpool, you want to make them proud, and the manager definitely put that in our heads even more.

"The togetherness -- I've never really experienced it like this. It's very special."

Brazilian police looking at Neymar video release

Published in Soccer
Sunday, 02 June 2019 14:30

Police in Brazil are investigating football star Neymar's video disclosure of a woman who has accused him of rape.

Neymar was accused in Brazil on Friday of raping a woman in Paris last month. Neymar plays professionally for Paris Saint-Germain.

In addressing the accusations in a seven-minute Instagram video Saturday, Neymar showed private communications between him and the woman that included intimate images of her.

"The Office for the Investigation of Cyber Crimes (DRCI) will investigate the alleged video disclosure by the player Neymar," the Civil Police told ESPN Brazil. "The 110th precinct has already taken steps to assist in this investigation."

Neymar may have violated a Brazilian law that deems it illegal to "offer, exchange, provide, transmit, sell or exhibit for sale, distribute, publish or divulge, by any means -- including mass communication or computer or telecommunication -- photograph, visual or other audiovisual record containing a scene of rape or of vulnerable [people] or that makes an apology or induces its practice, or, without the victim's consent, sex scene, nudity or pornography."

If found guilty, Neymar could face up to five years in jail. He has called the rape accusation against him a "setup" and an extortion attempt.

Police in Rio de Janeiro appeared Sunday at the Brazilian national team's training camp headquarters, where the team is preparing for the Copa America.

Neymar Sr., who is his son's agent, appeared on Brazilian television Saturday and said he has evidence that his son was blackmailed, including pictures and witnesses, although he did not show either in the interview. He also said Neymar is preparing his defense for a legal case if needed.

The woman told police that she and Neymar met in France after exchanging Instagram messages. She said a representative of his named Gallo bought her tickets to Paris and booked her a hotel room.

She told police that Neymar arrived "apparently drunk" at the hotel and described to police that they "touched each other, but in a given moment, Neymar became aggressive and, with violence, had sexual intercourse against the victim's will."

The report states the woman left Paris two days later and that she did not file her complaint in Paris because she was shaken.

Neymar implied a sexual encounter took place but denied raping the woman.

"There was a relationship between a man and a woman between four walls," Neymar said in the video. "On the next day, nothing happened. I hope investigators read the messages and see what happened."

The 2018-19 Champions League came to an emotional end on Saturday night in Madrid as Liverpool outlasted Tottenham 2-0 to win and claim their sixth European Cup/Champions League title in the process. This season's edition was notable not just for ending with an all-Premier League final; Nick Miller recaps the most memorable highs and lows from a tournament with plenty of both.

Best goal

Winner: Ivan Rakitic, Barcelona vs. Tottenham, group stage

Picking the best goal from a Champions League season is like trying to choose your favourite star. This season has been no different, with any number of brilliant goals from Mauro Icardi's volley against Tottenham, to David Neres' superb team goal against Real Madrid in the round of 16, to about five of Leo Messi's including his inch-perfect free-kick against Liverpool at the Camp Nou.

But our top choice is Rakitic's superb volley/half-volley against Tottenham at Wembley: The technique required to arrange his whole body so he didn't shank such a difficult, bouncing chance way over the bar was remarkable. The fact that it pinged in off the post was just an aesthetic bonus.

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Best game

Winner: Man City vs. Tottenham, quarterfinal second leg

How could it be anything other than the utterly bananas quarterfinal between two of the Premier League's best teams? After a nervy 1-0 win for Spurs at Wembley in the first leg, the first 21 minutes of the return leg alone would probably qualify for "best game" honors alone: The score was already 3-2 and the lead had changed hands three times before anyone could figure out what was going on.

The denouement, with City convinced they had won it only for the VAR to intervene and find the most marginal offside, added a perfect and probably unrepeatable moment of drama.

Best performance

Winner: Ajax vs. Real Madrid, round of 16 second leg

While Tottenham's comeback in the semifinal was glorious drama, Ajax almost deserved to be in the final simply because of their performance against Real Madrid in the second round. It was the hubris that made it: Real's 2-1 win in the first leg seemed to convince them the tie was in the bag; Sergio Ramos getting booked so he would miss the return confirmed that. But the most thrilling performance imaginable from Ajax blew the holders away in the Bernabeu: from Hakim Ziyech's opener to Lasse Schone's outrageous free-kick to seal it all, this was utterly extraordinary.

Best comeback

Winner: Tottenham vs. Ajax, semifinal second leg

Liverpool might reasonably complain that their brilliant evisceration of Barcelona isn't chosen here, but they at least had a whole game to overturn a 3-0 deficit, starting their scoring early: Tottenham had 55 minutes to stop what looked like an unstoppable Ajax side and score three goals. That they did it, and that the third came deep, deep, deep into injury time, simply added to the magic.

Best player

Winner: Lionel Messi

Sometimes, Messi probably gets pretty annoyed that he is forced to share a pitch with mere footballers. The thing about him is that he often spends long periods of games wandering around and not really doing much, but then he'll do a couple of absolutely otherworldly things and the rest doesn't matter even a tiny little bit. It certainly wasn't his fault that Barcelona did not win a Champions League that, from the round of 16 onwards, certainly looked to be theirs for the taking.

Best XI

There are plenty of Liverpool players represented but equally, some of the heroes who helped get Tottenham to the final and Ajax within minutes of it make the cut.

Allison (Liverpool); Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool), Mathijis De Ligt (Ajax), Virgil Van Dijk (Liverpool), Jordi Alba (Barcelona); Lasse Schone (Ajax), Moussa Sissoko (Tottenham); Hakim Ziyech (Ajax), Son Heung-min (Tottenham), Sadio Mane (Liverpool); Leo Messi (Barcelona)

Most underwhelming team

Winner: Bayern Munich

At least the other giants to flame out this season -- Juventus, Barcelona, Manchester City, Real Madrid -- did so with some drama, but Bayern Munich simply shuffled out with barely a whimper. This is a team in transition and it really showed against Liverpool, who in the second leg of their round of 16 game simply cruised past them without any particular problems. They may dominate the Bundesliga but it might take a while for Bayern to reach that level in Europe again.

Biggest choke

Winner: Paris Saint-Germain

Who knows what the central reason for PSG's apparent mental fragility in the Champions League is, but they keep doing it. When they faced Manchester United in the round of 16, they faced a severely weakened opponent and had a 2-0 lead from the away game, an advantage no team had ever squandered in Champions League history. But they somehow managed to do just that and even if United had some help from the VAR and a harsh interpretation of the handball law, they should have been out of sight well before that.

Unlikeliest hero

Winner: Divock Origi

Last summer, Liverpool were trying to send Divock Origi out on loan to Huddersfield. With no chance of getting in the first-choice front three, he was also probably behind Xherdan Shaqiri, Daniel Sturridge and Dominic Solanke in the pecking order, with youngster Rhian Brewster waiting too. But here he is, having scored twice in the semifinal comeback at Anfield and calmly notching the clinching goal in the Champions League final. There really is nothing like football for redemption stories.

Best assist

Winner: Trent Alexander-Arnold, Liverpool vs. Barcelona

He'll never have to buy a drink in Liverpool again after one of the great corners of all time.

Most ludicrously cool assist

Winner: Dele Alli, Tottenham vs. Ajax

If you're in injury time and know that unless you do something quickly, you won't make the Champions League final, panic would be understandable. But instead Dele Alli summoned some unnatural composure to gently dink a pass with the outside of his boot around an Ajax defender and perfectly into the path of Lucas Moura, who did the rest.

Best quote

Winner: Jurgen Klopp

"They are f---ing giants." After Liverpool's win over Barcelona, Jurgen Klopp either forgot he was on live TV or didn't care. Probably the latter.

Funniest meltdown moment

Winner: Neymar

"This is a disgrace. Four guys who know nothing about football watch a slow-motion replay in front of the television. It was nothing! What can [Kimpembe] do with his hand while his back is turned? Go f--- yourselves!"

Posting on Instagram, the preferred medium for a good rant, Neymar didn't take the decision to give Manchester United a penalty against PSG particularly well, earning him a three-game suspension that means he'll miss half of next season's group stage as a result. Shame.

Police in Brazil are investigating football star Neymar's video disclosure of a woman who has accused him of rape.

Neymar was accused in Brazil on Friday of raping a woman in Paris last month. Neymar plays professionally for Paris Saint-Germain.

In addressing the accusations in a seven-minute Instagram video Saturday, Neymar showed private communications between him and the woman that included intimate images of her.

"The Office for the Investigation of Cyber Crimes (DRCI) will investigate the alleged video disclosure by the player Neymar," the Civil Police told ESPN Brazil. "The 110th precinct has already taken steps to assist in this investigation."

Neymar may have violated a Brazilian law that deems it illegal to "offer, exchange, provide, transmit, sell or exhibit for sale, distribute, publish or divulge, by any means -- including mass communication or computer or telecommunication -- photograph, visual or other audiovisual record containing a scene of rape or of vulnerable [people] or that makes an apology or induces its practice, or, without the victim's consent, sex scene, nudity or pornography."

If found guilty, Neymar could face up to five years in jail. He has called the rape accusation against him a "setup" and an extortion attempt.

Police in Rio de Janeiro appeared Sunday at the Brazilian national team's training camp headquarters, where the team is preparing for the Copa America.

Neymar Sr., who is his son's agent, appeared on Brazilian television Saturday and said he has evidence that his son was blackmailed, including pictures and witnesses, although he did not show either in the interview. He also said Neymar is preparing his defense for a legal case if needed.

The woman told police that she and Neymar met in France after exchanging Instagram messages. She said a representative of his named Gallo bought her tickets to Paris and booked her a hotel room.

She told police that Neymar arrived "apparently drunk" at the hotel and described to police that they "touched each other, but in a given moment, Neymar became aggressive and, with violence, had sexual intercourse against the victim's will."

The report states the woman left Paris two days later and that she did not file her complaint in Paris because she was shaken.

Neymar implied a sexual encounter took place but denied raping the woman.

"There was a relationship between a man and a woman between four walls," Neymar said in the video. "On the next day, nothing happened. I hope investigators read the messages and see what happened."

Sloane Stephens saw off Garbine Muguruza in straight sets to set up a French Open quarter-final against British number one Johanna Konta.

Stephens, runner-up at Roland Garros last year, beat the 2016 champion 6-4 6-3 in one hour 40 minutes in Paris.

The 26-year-old seventh seed needed five match points to close out the final set on Court Philippe Chatrier.

She will now face Konta, who has beaten her twice this year including in the Italian Open third round two weeks ago.

Konta earlier defeated Croatian 23rd seed Donna Vekic 6-2 6-4 to reach her maiden quarter-final at Roland Garros and the last eight of a Grand Slam for the first time since she did so at Wimbledon in 2017.

Muguruza started the brightest as she broke Stephens in her opening game of the match, with the American failing to register a point.

The 25-year-old Spaniard threatened again with five break points in the third game, but Stephens held on and responded with successive breaks of her own.

The momentum continued to switch hands as 2017 Wimbledon champion Muguruza recovered to bring it back to serve before Stephens earned the vital break and managed to close out the opening set.

Stephens, having missed an earlier chance to break, finally took the advantage in the second set as Muguruza fired a volley from close range into the net tape.

It handed the 2017 US Open champion a chance to serve for a place in the last eight, only for Muguruza to save four match points as Stephens struggled to close out.

A battling Muguruza then had a chance to break herself, but an ace from Stephens swung the game back in her favour and this time she made no mistake in closing out to seal victory.

American player Anna Tatishvili has been fined her entire French Open first-round earnings of almost £41,000 for falling below the standard expected of a professional player at a Grand Slam.

Tatishvili, 29, lost 6-0 6-1 to Greek 29th seed Maria Sakkari in 55 minutes.

The former world number 50 was playing her first tour-level match since October 2017.

She used her protected ranking to enter Roland Garros.

Under International Tennis Federation rules, the match referee has the right to dock appearance money if it is felt a player used their protected ranking to play a tournament despite not being fit enough.

"All players are expected to perform to a professional standard in every Grand Slam match," ITF rules state.

Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer stayed on course for a semi-final meeting at the French Open as both coasted into the last eight with straight-set wins.

Eleven-time champion Nadal beat Argentina's Juan Ignacio Londero 6-2 6-3 6-3 in two hours 13 minutes.

Federer beat another Argentine, Leonardo Mayer, by the same scoreline.

He plays Stan Wawrinka next after his fellow Swiss prevailed in a marathon five-set wrestle with Greek sixth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas.

Nadal will face either Japan's Kei Nishikori or France's Benoit Paire.

On past form, Nadal would have greater reason for optimism should he meet Federer in the last four, having won all five of their matches at Roland Garros.

Federer, whose sole Roland Garros title came in 2009, is yet to drop a set in the tournament, after straightforward wins over Lorenzo Sonego, Oscar Otte and Casper Ruud, ranked 74th, 144th and 63rd in the world respectively, and Mayer never looked likely to dent his progress.

Victory assured Federer another piece of tennis history as he matched American great Chris Evert's record of 54 Grand Slam quarter-final singles appearances in the Open era.

Wawrinka digs deep to meet old foe

In contrast to Federer's routine victory, Wawrinka's gruelling 7-6 (8-6) 5-7 6-4 3-6 8-6 victory stretched over five hours and nine minutes as momentum swapped between him and his 20-year-old opponent.

Tsitsipas spurned eight break points in the final set, taking just five of 27 opportunities in the match, as he failed to tee up another meeting with Federer, who the Greek stunned in a dramatic Australian Open last-16 win in January.

Wawrinka saved three break points at 5-5 in the fifth set before converting the second of two match points with a floated backhand that clipped the outside of the line.

It is the longest match of this year's tournament, surpassing French pair Benoit Paire and Pierre-Hugues Herbert's second-round tussle by 36 minutes.

Wawrinka is the last man to beat Federer at the French Open, knocking out his compatriot en route to the title in 2015.

Federer has missed the tournament each year since then in an effort to preserve his body and prolong his career.

Wawrinka has had his own fitness concerns, with a knee injury threatening his career after 2017 Wimbledon. He slipped outside the top 250 after a first-round defeat at last year's French Open but has since fought his way back to his current ranking of 28th.

"It's incredible, lots of emotions Thanks to all the fans for staying and the support," said the Swiss after a victory that featured 123 winners (61 for Tsitsipas and 62 for Wawrinka).

"It's for these kind of emotions that I live for after coming back from injury."

"I have a bad memory of it," said Federer, 37, of their 2015 encounter in the French capital.

"Stan beat me in three sets with his terrible shorts! But he played really great that year."

Dominic Thiem says Serena Williams showed "a bad personality" after he was told to end a French Open news conference to make way for her.

A tournament official told the Austrian fourth seed to leave the room while he was speaking to reporters on Saturday.

"Every player has to wait. It shows a bad personality, in my opinion," Thiem told Eurosport.

Tournament director Guy Forget has apologised to Thiem, who faces Gael Monfils in the fourth round on Monday.

According to French newspaper L'Equipe, 23-time Grand Slam champion Williams was keen to fulfil her media obligations as soon as possible after her surprise third-round loss to fellow American Sofia Kenin, saying "put me in another room, smaller, but now".

Thiem complained to a tournament official at the time of the incident.

"What the hell? But it's a joke, really. What's the point of that, that I have to leave the room because she's coming?" he said.

The 25-year-old added on Sunday that he believed former world number one Williams had contravened the players' usual protocol.

"I wasn't angry or frustrated. Maybe for a couple of minutes or so. It is just the principle," he said. "It doesn't matter if it is me who sits in there, even if a junior is in there.

"I am 100% sure Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal would never do something like that."

Federer said he understood Thiem's frustration, adding that players who had won their match, as Thiem had just done against Uruguay's Pablo Cuevas, are usually given priority over those exiting the tournament.

"I don't know what went wrong but something went wrong for this to happen," the Swiss 20-time Grand Slam champion said.

"If I would have lost today against Leonardo Mayer, I would let him go first or decide when he wants to go to press as he's got a next match. My next match is far, far away. So that's just the way you go about it.

"There must have been a misunderstanding, or maybe they should have kept Serena still in the locker room, not waiting here in the press centre."

Chen Meng maintains ascendancy

Published in Table Tennis
Sunday, 02 June 2019 06:27

Thus Chen Meng maintained her current level of ascendancy over Wang Manyu; last December she prevailed in five games when they met at the quarter-final stage at the Seamaster 2018 ITTF World Tour Grand Finals in Incheon; in January she succeeded in straight games in Hungary in the penultimate round and more recently at the same round in Budapest at the Liebherr 2019 World Championships.

Moreover, always when they have met in an ITTF World Tour women’s singles final, Chen Meng has emerged successful; she prevailed in 2017 in both Qatar and Australia, as well as last year in Austria.

Success against an adversary, who like Chen Meng has an incredible level of consistency, but watch her play and does Wang Manyu not to some extent defy the coaching textbook?

Rewind the final of her matches, rewind the final against Chen Meng and look at the difference when they receive service. Chen Meng is totally orthodox, playing against the right hander when receiving service her feet are at an angle to the table. It is with very subtle variations how a million and one players stand to receive service against an opponent who uses the same hand; it is how they are encouraged by their mentors.

Now watch Wang Manyu receive service, she stands parallel to the table; a player who receives service with her feet at that manner will surely have more problems that most when the opponent directs attacking strokes towards the so-called indecision point, the elbow of the playing arm where the split second decision has to be made whether to play a backhand or forehand.

Yet, Wang Manyu appears able to adapt and most importantly keep her balance; the forehand might not be of the classic variety when the direction of play is changed but for Wang Manyu it works, she executes the stroke with a minimum transfer of weight from the legs and recovers.

It was an area in which Chen Meng focused her early strokes in the rally but my word she was made to work hard; Wang Manyu responded time and time again. Chen Meng prevailed but was the reason more a question of confidence than tactical or technical?

She had won the most recent three encounters surrendering just two games, she started 12-2 ahead.

The mission was to prove that whatever the no.11 seeded spot might have read, he is the best player on planet earth, the mission to extend his record in China, the mission to become the all-time most successful on the ITTF World Tour.

Victory meant, he won the China title for an eighth time, well ahead of his now retired nearest rivals, Wang Liqin who prevailed on six occasions, Ma Lin who emerged victorious five times. More significantly it was his 28th ITTF World Tour men’s singles title since he won in 2007 in Kuwait.

A record, he now moves one ahead of Vladimir Samsonov of Belarus with whom he shared top position prior to the gathering in Shenzhen; Vladimir Samsonov having won his first in 1996 in Italy, the inaugural year of the ITTF World Tour, his most recent in 2017 in Australia.

The records of both stand the test of time but I would suggest that the successes of Ma Long are somewhat very special. China is the powerhouse of that sport; that fact is undeniable, always when Ma Long has competed on the ITTF World Tour, his illustrious colleagues have always been present; to be the best, he has had to beat the best.

Notably of those now 28 wins, there are only four occasions when Ma Long has not beaten a compatriot in the final and those encounters have been against most worthy opponents. He overcame Vladimir Samsonov in the title deciding contest in Singapore in 2008 and in Berlin in 2016; in 2009 in Fredrikshavn he accounted for Germany’s Dimitrij Ovtcharov to secure gold, in 2012 in Budapest his final victim was the Korea Republic’s Joo Saehyuk.

One ahead of Vladimir Samsonov but to secure the overall record, if we add the Challenge Series tournaments, which became a separate entity in 2017, Ma Long has still one to go; in that year Vladimir Samsonov won the men’s singles title on home soil at the ITTF Challenge Belarus Open.

Also, if Ma Long is to match his female counterpart, likewise he has one more rung of the ladder to climb, between 1998 and 2009, compatriot Zhang Yining won 29 ITTF World Tour women’s singles titles.

Furthermore, to be the overall most successful Ma Long has still to make strides. Compatriot Ma Lin is clear of the field, a staggering 59 ITTF World Tour titles. During his illustrious career he won 20 men’s singles titles and with various partners claimed 39 men’s doubles gold medals; for Ma Long he has 22 such men’s doubles top prizes, the overall aggregate 50 in number.

Just a mere 10 to go; the next mission, should not take long!

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