KENT, Wash. – Greg Anderson is already the only driver in Pro Stock history to sweep the famed NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series Western Swing.

But heading into this weekend’s 32nd annual Magic Dry Organic Absorbent NHRA Northwest Nationals at Pacific Raceways, the four-time world champ has a chance for a first in NHRA history.

Anderson won the arduous three-race Western Swing in 2004, and after sweeping Denver and Sonoma the past two weeks in his Summit Racing Equipment Chevrolet Camaro, the veteran can become the first driver in NHRA history to sweep the Western Swing twice if he wins this weekend in Seattle.

That indicates just how difficult it is to win this set of three straight races and Anderson fondly recalls the first time he did it, knowing how special it would be to repeat the feat in 2019.

“I can remember the feeling of how cool it was like it was yesterday,” Anderson said. “You realize after years of trying to do it again just how difficult it is. It’s a tough deal. To do it twice, it would be pretty awesome, but I’m getting ahead of myself because it’s so dang hard to win these things anymore. Seattle is a cool place, but it’s definitely a tough place to win.”

Antron Brown (Top Fuel), Ron Capps (Funny Car) and Tanner Gray (Pro Stock) were last year’s winners of the event. It marks the 10th of 18 races during the NHRA Pro Stock season and Anderson will look to continue the impressive momentum he’s built during the last two weeks.

After going a year between wins, Anderson went back-to-back in his Camaro thanks to a series of consistent performances. It moved him to 93 career wins and second in the points standings, and put him in prime position to make history at Pacific Raceways. He’s been solid in qualifying and then spectacular during eliminations, but he doesn’t head to Seattle feeling any extra pressure.

“I think it’s exciting and I don’t look at it as pressure,” Anderson said. “I’m definitely going to be excited to give it go, give it a try and it seems like our team is doing a good job. My car is a lot better and we’re finding ways to win we weren’t finding earlier in the year. We’ve definitely gotten better as a race team throughout the summer months, without a doubt.”

In the long run, that may be most important factor, at least when it comes to winning another championship. Anderson seems to be hitting his stride as the Mello Yello Countdown to the Championship approaches, which makes him a dangerous contender again racing against top names in the class like points leader Bo Butner, Deric Kramer, five-time world champion Jeg Coughlin Jr., Erica Enders, longtime teammate Jason Line, Alex Laughlin, who Anderson beat in the Sonoma final, Denver runner-up Matt Hartford and Chris McGaha.

He hopes to see that trend continue in a major way in Seattle, but there’s no denying Anderson hit the ground running after Pro Stock’s six-week break early in the season.

“It was a question of who was going to come out of that break looking like they did the best with their off-time,” Anderson said. “It seems like we came out of that break stronger than we were. We started the season horrible and when we came back from that break, we were contenders again. You could tell we were definitely building towards winning again. It’s been a momentum-builder ever since that break, and it’s time to peak right now. I think we’re close to that.”

Those who dedicate their lives to piloting race cars often have a difficult wake-up call when the alarm goes off signaling the end of a career.

Craig Dollansky was no different when the buzzer sounded last summer. Actually, it pulsed through his body, piercing with every movement he made after his second serious back injury eventually became too much to overcome.

“There was a time I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go back to racing when I was done,” he said.

Dollansky reached a breaking point in his illustrious career in March 2018 when he announced his retirement following more than 20 years of being a professional winged sprint car driver. The decision came on the heels of a failed medical procedure to fix a broken L4 vertebra he incurred in 2016. Approximately 13 years prior, he was sidelined because of a burst fracture of his L1 vertebra.

“I kept trying to race with it, but it was getting progressively worse,” he said. “In 2017, we were racing in Elma, Wash. Jayme Barnes was giving me a ride to the airport and we had to stop. I needed to pull over because of the pain. We ended up having surgery in July of last year. They found that half of that vertebra was dead. I should have addressed that sooner.

“It’s intense, very intense. Initially, we tried to do a vertebroplasty,” Dollansky explained. “They tried to put cement in it. It pushed out and failed and destroyed my discs above and below it. My surgeon said it’d be like having a major rock in your shoe and trying to walk with it. It’s not like a broken foot where you can just put it up. You’re using it all the time. It’s a difficult part of your body to injure.

“As intense as the pain was I felt like I had to address it. It was starting to affect me behind the wheel of a race car as well as my personal life. We had to start exploring options.”

The failed surgery was also met with bad news regarding Dollansky’s bone density.

“Initially, we got some bad information,” he said. “They did a bone density test and tested my spine. It already had metal in there from my incident in 2003. They said my bone was weakening.”

The devastating news was met with only one option — stop racing and focus on rehabilitation.

Fortunately, a different doctor found that Dollansky’s original bone density reading was false and that his bone density was strong. Another surgery was scheduled in July 2018.

“My bone density was strong,” he said. “It was a contributing factor to the mindset that if the surgery goes well we’re going back racing.”

The surgery was a success, but the recovery has been an ongoing process throughout the last year.

“It’s been pretty intense and lengthy,” Dollansky said. “They said it would be a year before we started feeling better. The surgery went good. Physical therapy went good. I continue to work and strengthen it as best as I can. I don’t have the bone pain. It’s more muscle pain where they cut through you to do the surgery.”

Continue reading the story on the next page.

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BRNO, Czech Republic — Petronas Yamaha SRT rider Fabio Quartararo made a late flyer payoff, grabbing the top spot during free practice for the Czech Grand Prix on Friday.

The Frenchman found himself 17^thon the grid when he hit the track for a final run. The 20-year-old found 1.7 seconds from his previous lap and knocked point leader Marc Marquez from the top spot with a lap of 1:55.802.

Marquez wound up second, .023 seconds behind on his Repsol Honda.

Jack Miller was third for Pramac Racing with Andrea Dovizioso on a Ducati and Yamaha rider Maverick Vinales rounding out the top five.

BUDAPEST, Hungary — Pierre Gasly made the best of drizzly conditions to lead a Red Bull one-two sweep of the top spots during Friday’s practice for the Hungarian Grand Prix at the Hungaroring.

Gasly clocked a best lap of one minute and 17.854 seconds, to edge teammate Max Verstappen by a mere .055 seconds.

“I think Mercedes are really fast in FP1 and also in FP2,” Gasly said. “Ferrari, I don’t really think they showed their true pace, but we know they are going to be there in qualifying.

“I think it’s going to be pretty tight tomorrow but with the conditions the same and quite unpredictable, not too much to think about now – we’ll see tomorrow what happens tomorrow.”

Formula One point leader Lewis Hamilton was third for Mercedes with his teammate, Valtteri Bottas turning the fourth quickest lap.

Daniel Ricciardo was fifth for Renault.

Ferrari drivers Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel were seventh and 13^th, respectively

Toro Rosso driver Alex Albon crashed with less than five minutes gone during the second session.

KAUKAUNA, Wis. – Standing on the front straight of Wisconsin Int’l Raceway, Maxwell Schultz proudly proclaimed, “This one is mine.”

Schultz withstood a challenge from Casey Johnson in the waning laps and got a bit of luck to hold on and win the 48th Red-White-Blue State Championship series at Wisconsin Int’l Raceway.

Going into the finale, which was a pair of 35-lap features that were swept by Ty Majeski, Schultz led Johnson by eight points.

Schultz finished sixth and second in the features, while Johnson was second and fourth, only making up one point in the standings.

“It means a lot,” Schultz said about winning the title. “There’s a lot of good drivers that come along here from the years of (Dick) Trickle, (Matt) Kenseth, (Joe) Shear, (Mark) Martin. You walk in here and see all the names. It’s really cool.”

The thing is his name is already on the Red-White-Blue champions board near the main entrance gate at Wisconsin Int’l Raceway. But not in the way he’d like it to be.

Five years ago, Schultz had to share the Red-White-Blue championship with Brett Piontek. In a bit of irony, Piontek is now on Schultz’s pit crew. So, in a sense, they’ll still share this title, but it’ll be Schultz’s name that will go on the champions board, alone.

“To have it up there by myself is a little more special,” Schultz said.

Now with the Red-White-Blue series finished, Johnson and Schultz are locked in another tight championship fight – the weekly track championship.

Johnson, the defending champion, led Schultz by six points heading into Thursday night and after the Red-White-Blue, there are four races remaining. Schultz is chasing his first weekly track championship.

“We just got to bunker down and go get both,” Schultz said. “It’s cool to win one, but not many people win both in the same year. It’ll be pretty special to do it.”

Pep Guardiola has said he is bothered by Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp's claim that Manchester City live in "fantasia land" in the transfer window.

City broke their club transfer record this summer with the signing of midfielder Rodri from Atletico Madrid for €70 million.

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Klopp said his side were unable to match City's spending power but Guardiola rejected this speaking ahead of the Community Shield clash on Sunday.

"It bothers me because it's not true that we spend hundreds of millions every transfer window," he said at a news conference.

"It's Liverpool, 'You'll Never Walk Alone'. It's not a small team. It's Liverpool. Of course I don't like it because it's not true. Last season we spent £17m -- one seven -- on just one player.

"We cannot spend £200m every season. That is the reality. Other managers can say what they say but I can only say that is not true."

Earlier, City's Chief Operating Officer Omar Berrada also questioned the validity of Klopp's comments.

"I don't know why they would make these comments," Berrada said. "I don't know why they would look at other clubs. "It's not frustration or anger, we just find it curious that they'd be highlighting our spending.

"Saying us, PSG, Real Madrid and Barcelona always invest £200m is not correct."

Guardiola also said forward Leroy Sane is not close to the signing a contract extension but insisted they want the player to remain at the club.

"It's impossible for me to convince any player to stay when he wants to leave but the player did not tell me anything," Guardiola added. "If he says he wants to leave, we will speak to the club. He didn't tell me that.

"We want him to stay, we have tried to extend the contract for more than a year. We were quite close and now it's a little bit different but that's the reality, I can't say any more."

Bayern Munich are interested in signing Sane this summer and boss Niko Kovac was forced to apologise after saying the Bundesliga club were close to completing a deal.

Guardiola added that Fernandinho is the only player not in the squad for the curtain-raiser against Liverpool at Wembley.

Benjamin Mendy has returned to training and Guardiola said he will be back next week.

Christian Pulisic is but 20 years old and the number of effusive words already written about him is staggering.

His classic speed. His majestic acceleration. His touch, which allows him to keep the ball so close to his feet that defenders can only trip or wave at him as he flies past. The near clairvoyance with which he finds space amid a thicket of defenders near the goal. The way he shoots, like an archer. The way he sets his jaw, like a bouncer.

To be clear, the enthusiasm is warranted. Christian Pulisic is the most talented player in American soccer history. And, should he pull it off, what he is about to do -- that is, play for Chelsea in the English Premier League -- will be one of the most impressive feats in American sports history. Yes, Tim Howard played for Manchester United, but he was a goalkeeper; and yes, Clint Dempsey and Landon Donovan made the move to the EPL as well, but they debuted at smaller clubs in Fulham and Everton.

Pulisic is different. By joining Chelsea, he is the first American aiming to star for one of the game's largest clubs. Nearly half the population of the planet watches the Premier League, more than 3 billion people a season. If Pulisic, a young, fresh-faced American, succeeds -- if he scores and dazzles and captivates fans in the U.S. and Europe and China and India and all over Africa -- it changes the calculus on him. His ceiling isn't Landon Donovan anymore. It's Lionel Messi.

On a dank day in Dortmund, Germany, this spring, I meet Pulisic at a restaurant in the city center. He is dressed Euro-casual, in tight jeans and a black hoodie. I notice the sweatshirt right away because it has words written in circles on the sleeves.

"It's from the Uninterrupted guys," he says. "LeBron started this thing with 'More Than an Athlete,' and they sent me one."

Pulisic typically has presented himself as more quiet than brash, but knowing the move he's about to make, the sweatshirt makes me wonder if something has changed. It wouldn't be crazy. Science tells us that if a person picks up two objects at the same time and they have identical weights but different sizes, the larger object is the one that will actually seem lighter. (It's true: Try it with an iPhone and a Kindle.)

This phenomenon has to do with the incredible power of human expectations: We expect the bigger thing to be heavier, so it feels lighter. In sports, the work of becoming a legend is the same either way, but if you make it look bigger, then actually doing the lifting might feel easier. Many superstars have done it this way: Tiger Woods when he said "Hello, world"; LeBron when he welcomed comparisons to Michael Jordan before he was out of high school.

So maybe Pulisic has decided he wants the attention and limelight and microphones that will come at Chelsea. Maybe he is ready to stand up and make a grander statement on, say, pay equity in soccer or the development model in the United States. Maybe he wants to speak.

"You're part of it then?" I ask Pulisic about Uninterrupted. His forehead crinkles. His eyes drop.

"Um, not like part of it," he says. "I support it, I guess you could say." Later, he explains that the fame and the platform might be the bit about his Chelsea move that most challenges him, because he doesn't particularly like being famous.

Fair enough, I tell him, except he just made a career move that guarantees the greatest scrutiny an American soccer player has ever received. He sighs.

"It's definitely one of the hardest parts of my life," he says, stressing that he really does appreciate having fans who support him and really does understand why people stop him for a selfie or an autograph.

"I just hope people realize it's tougher for some of us," he says. His voice lowers. "At times, you just want to be alone."

I have schnitzel, Pulisic has a salad, and then he leads me through the Borussia Dortmund locker room at the team's stadium. He stops in front of his locker and explains, with a touch of wistfulness, that when he saw his jersey hanging there for the first time in 2016, it was the "coolest thing in the world."

Outside on the field, standing in front of the towering south stand where 25,000 fans crowd together to form the so-called Yellow Wall during games, he almost giggles as he reminisces about the noise in the stadium after a goal.

"You hear the stadium announcer yell 'Christian!' and then everyone yells your last name back," he says, cocking his head as though it is echoing right now. "I mean, scoring a last-minute goal in front of this wall, and you see the beer flying everywhere and ..."

His voice trails off. Leaving for Chelsea might have been a fairly straightforward business decision for Pulisic, but the departure from Dortmund is difficult. Dortmund was a haven for Pulisic, a place to develop his game and discover how he wanted to present himself as an athlete. In soccer terms, Dortmund was Pulisic's boyhood home.

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Club scouts found him when he was 15, smitten after watching Pulisic play at a U.S. youth national team tournament in Turkey. They saw then what Chelsea officials see now: a soft, silken touch more European than American. For Dortmund, which has a renowned youth development academy, he seemed a perfect fit.

"We only sign players from foreign countries if we're extremely confident that he's becoming a player for the professional team," Lars Ricken, Dortmund's youth coordinator, tells me at the team's training facility, adding that he sees Pulisic as one of the club's biggest success stories.

Pulisic arrived in Germany from Hershey, Pennsylvania, when he was 16. He initially struggled with school -- to this day, he says, he's still not sure what classes he attended at first since he didn't understand a word of German at the time -- but blossomed quickly on the field.

Many soccer analysts say success at the highest levels of the sport comes down to millimeters. If the space between the ball and a player's foot is much wider than that, he isn't truly in control of it. Pulisic's gap, even as a teenager and even when he was sprinting, was minuscule. He was called up to Dortmund's first team in less than a year. "We don't buy stars," Ricken says now, with obvious pride. "We build them."

Pulisic became the youngest non-German to ever score in the Bundesliga (he celebrated by dabbing). Then he became the youngest Dortmund player to ever play in the Champions League. He appeared in 127 games over four seasons for Dortmund and helped the team win the German Cup in 2017.

Along the way, he hung on to plenty of his American tendencies -- "I remember him driving like two hours to Frankfurt to get burritos sometimes," says Dortmund winger Jacob Bruun Larsen, his former roommate -- but he also worked to connect with the city and the fans. Instead of sloughing off the language barrier, he embraced it, practicing his German to the point where he was able to do interviews on television. His grammar wasn't perfect, but the effort endeared him to the team's supporters.

They loved that he tried, loved that he put his head down and grinded in the blue-collar image of Dortmund players who came before him. He trained rigorously and diligently. He battled against juggernaut Bayern Munich. He scored important goals, like the gorgeous lob over Benfica's goalkeeper in the Champions League. He also suffered through one of the worst weeks in the club's history. In 2017, as the team traveled from its hotel to the stadium, its bus was struck by explosives planted by a deranged fan.

Pulisic has rarely spoken about that episode, and his eyes soften as he recounts the fear he felt when the windows of the bus exploded and rockets of glass flew everywhere. "We were just going to a normal game, like always, and there was just a really loud bang," he says. "It was so loud, I couldn't hear anything. I was confused."

He pauses. "I just remember [Dortmund goalkeeper] Roman Burki next to me grabbed me and pulled me under the table because he probably recognized what was going on before I did. We were just so scared."

Pulisic looks away, his voice slowing down. "And then I hear Marc screaming. ... He was right across from me. ... And I see blood. ... And he's yelling for the doctor. And everyone's screaming at the bus driver, 'Driver, keep going!'"

Marc Bartra, a defender, was struck by the glass and had shards embedded in his arm. He underwent emergency surgery that night. There were no other serious physical injuries among the players, but the emotional fallout from the episode was significant. Pulisic was 18, living on his own in Germany.

He had to deal with knowing someone had tried to kill him and his friends. He had to deal with staying at the same hotel before another game. He had to deal with getting back on the team bus without feeling his skin crawl. He had to figure out how to process it.

It was a hyperintense event within a hyperspeed maturation. Pulisic learned how to shop for groceries in Dortmund, how to cook for himself in Dortmund, how to get ready for work each day in Dortmund. After the bus attack, he learned how to confront his own demons and move on from a nightmare in Dortmund.

"I've changed a lot," he says at one point, "a lot on the soccer field but maybe even more off the field."

As we walk back up from the locker room, he looks around and says, "In a lot of ways, I grew up here."

Pulisic decided to leave Dortmund on Jan. 2. Chelsea shipped $73 million to the German club, making Pulisic the most expensive American player sold in soccer history. (It's not close either: Defender John Brooks is second after his $22.5 million jump from Hertha Berlin to Wolfsburg in 2017; Dempsey's shift from Fulham to Tottenham in 2012 cost Spurs only $9.6 million.)

To Pulisic, the move is part of a progression, the obvious next step on his path. It is natural to him, expected even. In fact, the most animated I see him get over the course of our conversations is when I mention how he has often been called a "wonderboy" by broadcasters and fans and analysts, a term that was originally flattering but now seems to strike him as borderline demeaning.

"The reason I just don't like to hear it anymore is because I feel like now I've been a part of this enough," he says. "And I think I've earned my spots in teams and shouldn't just be looked at as just a prodigy."

He takes a breath. "I don't see myself as that label anymore. It's just not how I feel."

Pulisic is 20. Kylian Mbappe, star of France's 2018 World Cup win, is also 20 and isn't called a wonderboy or a prodigy -- he's just a superstar. At this stage of his career, Pulisic says, he doesn't want to be compared to other players his age; he just wants to be compared to other players.

That, I assure him, will happen quickly and often in the Premier League. But Pulisic will always reckon with a different contextual comparison because of his nationality. It doesn't especially matter that Mbappe is French when considering his value as a player; France has produced plenty of international stars and will produce more. Pulisic, though, is playing as the face (and legs and feet) of American soccer. If he fails, it isn't clear when another American will have a chance like this.

That reality is no doubt part of why the initial reaction to Pulisic's Chelsea move, at least from outsiders, has been tempered with a fair bit of caution. While Chelsea is a club teeming with stature and success, it is nonetheless known as one of Europe's great powder kegs. Its owner, Roman Abramovich, is a notoriously erratic Russian oligarch who has made 14 managerial changes in 16 years and has cultivated a culture of turnover at Chelsea that a former team employee once described to me as a "combustible nightmare."

What that means for Pulisic is that he will be playing under (no surprise) another new Chelsea manager, Frank Lampard, who was a longtime star player for the club but has only one season of coaching experience. Pulisic also will be charged, at least in part, with replacing Eden Hazard, a Belgian wizard who is generally considered one of the 10 best players in the game. (Hazard left Chelsea for Real Madrid after seven seasons.)

Add in a transfer ban that means Chelsea isn't allowed to sign more players for a year -- ratcheting up the heat on the current crop even more -- and it creates a set of circumstances that are, as Donovan says when we meet up this spring to talk about Pulisic, "concerning to me."

Donovan had a solid spell playing abroad himself, but he really built his legacy on his work with the U.S. national team and in Major League Soccer. Pulisic's task, he says, is something far greater. "I can see it being a massive home run for him," Donovan says. "[But] Chelsea spends a lot of money on a lot of players. They have money forever. They can spend $70 million to bring in Pulisic, and if it doesn't work right away, it's no problem. They can move on to the next player."

He shrugs. "He's not going to be afforded as much leeway if things don't go well as he would at a different club."

Stu Holden, a former national team forward who played with Bolton Wanderers for four years, says the same, calling Chelsea a club with "rich history and tradition" that is also "unstable" and "a bit of a mess."

Even Jurgen Klinsmann, the German legend and former U.S. national team head coach who gave Pulisic his first international call-up, isn't totally sold. He praises Pulisic for "jumping into the colder water" but then adds, "I thought maybe another one or two years in Dortmund wouldn't have been wrong."

What they are all expressing, in one way or another, is the uncomfortable certainty that it will not be enough for Pulisic just to shine with Chelsea; he will have to shine quickly. As Donovan says, there is little doubt about Pulisic's place when it comes to the U.S. national team -- "For the next decade, he's going to be the most important player" -- but it is not so easy to say the same for Chelsea.

Could Pulisic step right in and thrive? Absolutely. Lampard says Pulisic is the kind of player "who wants to take people on, the sort of player the fans are going to like," while longtime defender David Luiz says he believes Pulisic "is going to have a great future with us." And maybe it really will be that easy. But could Pulisic struggle or get injured or find himself on the bench or out on loan to some smaller club? Could we look up next spring and wonder where he went? The list of talented young players who went to England and had that result isn't exactly short.

Nevertheless, Pulisic seems undaunted. He talks about normal nerves and overwhelming excitement and confidence and verve, delivering the sort of steely assurance that is both accepting and dismissive at the same time. Even when I mention the notoriously harsh British news media, he barely wavers.

Pulisic sees this move in soccer terms and little else, and that perspective is probably both healthy and correct. Even the notion that his nationality matters, that being American might help Chelsea sell a few (thousand) more jerseys in the U.S., might be overblown. Chelsea signed Pulisic for the same reason any club signs any player: They think he can help them win. They see his creativity and his ability to play far up the field in Lampard's expected formation. They see the way he chases in the attacking third and the way he pings passes from sideline to sideline.

"I know what kind of player I am," Pulisic says. "And they know exactly the same."

Could he have waited? Could he have stayed in Dortmund? Could he have held out for a situation that didn't involve an unpredictable Russian owner and a superstar whose departure dials up the pressure? Maybe. But it's also hard to say that with a straight face.

"Nobody would turn down that offer, right?" Donovan says.

Done with being compared to his own potential, Pulisic is going to Chelsea to stand on his own. "I know I'm ready for this," he says.

The game ended on an October night in 2017, and Christian Pulisic saw an assistant coach walking toward him. His throat was sore from shouting. It was steamy at the stadium in Couva, Trinidad, the air hanging heavy. The rain-soaked field was so waterlogged, he heard the squish of the coach's shoes.

The United States had just lost a game it should have won, a game in which it needed only a tie to qualify for the World Cup. Pulisic didn't know whether other teams might have bailed out the Americans by losing too. He looked at the approaching assistant hopefully.

"We're not going," the coach said. Fast. Blunt. Brutal. Pulisic rocked back. In the locker room, team staffers rushed to move out the champagne and beer that were supposed to be part of the celebration. On the field, Pulisic crouched down and cried.

He had scored. He had pushed. He had run. He had never considered, not for a second, that it wouldn't be enough. He had never considered, not for a second, that he wouldn't be playing for his country in the biggest tournament in sports.

As he changed out of his uniform, teammates cried around him. On the flight the next morning, there were wet eyes again. The wound from that evening blistered over and lingered, jabbing at Pulisic for weeks.

"It was," he says now, "the worst night of my pro career, by far."

Nearly two years later, though, the images from that night's failure -- Pulisic burying his head in his hands, pulling his jersey over his eyes, tears streaming down his face -- seem blurred by time and circumstance.

In July, instead of going on the post-Gold Cup vacation that many other top players take, Pulisic joins his Chelsea teammates in Japan on a preseason tour. He signs autographs and takes selfies with fans outside the team hotel. He makes an appearance at a local store with Lampard. He laughs during pre-practice stretching with Luiz. He juggles a ball while wearing a new style of studs that have his name splashed across the heel. The coverage, not surprisingly, is breathless: There are articles about his jersey number (he picks 24) and even a full recap, with video, of a thundering goal he scores during a practice drill.

On the field, Lampard eases Pulisic into the group. He comes on as a substitute and plays a half-hour against a Japanese team, making a few good runs without real result. A few days later, against Barcelona, he is a dervish, whipping runs from both sides and showing no fear as he goes up against the world's most celebrated side. In Austria a week later, he gives Chelsea fans an early glimpse of what's to come: He wins a penalty, pulls off a glorious nutmeg and scores two goals, showing off his superior touch as Chelsea goes up 3-0 inside 28 minutes.

These are only friendlies. The real run of show begins next week, when Pulisic officially enters the most watched soap opera in the world. The fans will be thrumming, Lampard will be stalking the touchline and supernovas like Paul Pogba will be on the opposite side, whizzing along at breakneck pace and demanding a level of excellence from Pulisic that he has never needed to reach so often. It will be fierce. It will be ambitious. It will be daring. "I'm going to go in there," he says, "and play with my same attacking style. I think I'm going to fit in really well."

Two years ago, after that awful Trinidad game, a belief like that felt so far away. At 19, it was hard to be patient, and Pulisic left that night frustrated and antsy, wanting to know how the loss would affect the U.S. team, wanting to know what all of it meant for his chances to move to a bigger club. Two years ago, he wanted to know if his moment would ever come.

Manchester United are set to sign Harry Maguire after reaching a breakthrough with Leicester on Friday morning, sources have told ESPN FC.

According to the sources, United have agreed a world-record fee for a defender -- around £80 million plus add-ons -- to pry Maguire away from the King Power Stadium.

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The 26-year-old is set to undergo a medical on Saturday before signing a five-year contract in the next few days and will be eligible to make his United debut against Chelsea at Old Trafford on Aug. 11.

Big Picture

One of the things Virat Kohli spoke about in his press conference before leaving India was the opportunity the cricket calendar - with three forms of the game - afforded in getting over defeats that sting. India have had almost a month to lick their wounds after the loss against New Zealand in the World Cup 2019 semi-final. Now, with the World Test Championship getting underway and the T20 World Cup in 14 months, there are already fresh challenges to prepare for.

Their tour of the Caribbean begins with the three-match T20I series, with the first two matches in Lauderhill. The last time these teams played at Lauderhill, one match was rained out, and the other ended in a thrilling manner, with West Indies winning by just one run. Three years on, the current series forms an interesting clash of cricketing ethos. While India have often brought an ODI approach to 20-overs cricket, West Indies played large tracts of the World Cup as if in T20 mode.

These games could be the first ones in which each team begins putting together pieces for the T20 World Cup next year. India have an influx of younger players, with some changes enforced by absence and injury. West Indies are without Chris Gayle, whose international future even in the medium term seems uncertain at best. That could be a blessing, because it will allows West Indies to try out a replacement, keeping the T20 World Cup in mind.

Form guide

India LLLWL (last five completed matches, most recent first)

West Indies LLLWL

In the spotlight

You could argue that there is never a moment when Virat Kohli is not under the spotlight, but there are a couple of factors that could intensify the focus on him. The rumblings about a rift with vice-captain Rohit Sharma had kept swirling, until Kohli emphatically denied them. Whether there is a rift or not, or a bromance, or a normal disagreement between colleagues that is commonplace and transient - there will be extra meaning attached every time Kohli and Rohit come within each other's radius. India are without MS Dhoni for this tour. Ever since Kohli became the full-time limited-overs captain in early 2017, he has played just four T20Is and three ODIs without Dhoni in the team. But with Dhoni's future uncertain, the Indian think-tank might need to get used to life without the senior pro, and that puts greater onus on Kohli, the captain.

The last time Sunil Narine played for West Indies was back in September 2017. Since then Narine has been part of various T20 leagues - the Indian Premier League, Pakistan Super League, the Bangladesh Premier League and the Caribbean Premier League - but hasn't played an international match. He's even played List A matches in the Super50 Cup in the Caribbean. He opted out of selection for the World Cup, citing concerns about his fitness to last 50 overs and bowl his full quota of 10, but he's back in national colours for his favourite format. Narine has also evolved as a potent batting force, though he's unlikely to get to bat in the Powerplay, where his hitting has been at its most effective.

Team news

India have some new faces in the squad, but there's still an abundance of options who are most at home batting in the top three. Regular openers Rohit and Shikhar Dhawan are back together with Dhawan having recovered from his broken finger, and there's Kohli. In addition, they have KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer and Manish Pandey. At least two of those three seem certain to bat out of position, which can be a distinct contrast in a 20-overs game. The wristspinning duo of Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav have been rested, which should give the team management the option to try a number of exciting options.

India XI (probable): 1 Rohit Sharma, 2 Shikhar Dhawan, 3 Virat Kohli (capt), 4 KL Rahul, 5 Manish Pandey/Shreyas Iyer, 6 Rishabh Pant (wk), 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 Deepak Chahar/Navdeep Saini, 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 10 Khaleel Ahmed, 11 Rahul Chahar

Andre Russell was expected to be one of the players igniting West Indies' World Cup campaign, but the only things that flared up were his knees. He has since had surgery and was named in the T20I squad, subject to a fitness test. On the eve of the first T20I, Cricket West Indies said the allrounder experienced some discomfort during the GLT20 Canada, and has been replaced by Jason Mohammed. Even without Russell, captain Carlos Brathwaite has plenty of power - hitting and bowling - at his disposal.

West Indies XI (probable): 1 John Campbell, 2 Evin Lewis, 3 Nicholas Pooran (wk), 4 Shimron Hetmyer, 5 Kieron Pollard, 6 Rovman Powell, 7 Carlos Brathwaite (capt), 8 Sunil Narine, 9 Khary Pierre, 10 Sheldon Cottrell, 11 Keemo Paul/Oshane Thomas

Stats and trivia

• In three T20Is against India, Evin Lewis has hit two hundreds. One of them came at this very venue, in 2016. Lewis hasn't hit a T20I hundred against any other opposition.

• Rohit Sharma became India's leading six-hitter in ODIs during the World Cup. He now has the chance to become the world's top six-hitting batsman in T20Is. Rohit has hit 102 sixes in T20Is, easily the most for India, and is just three shy of Chris Gayle's mark of 105, which is the current record.