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TAMPERE, Finland -- The United States routed France 9-0 on Sunday to keep its perfect record at the ice hockey world championship.
Cutter Gauthier led with a hat trick; Drew O'Connor got two goals; and Scott Perunovich, T.J. Tynan, Rocco Grimaldi and Conor Garland added one apiece at Nokia Arena for the Americans to dominate Group A with six wins from six games.
Goaltender Cal Petersen made 13 saves for the shutout.
Nico Sturm scored twice as Germany thrashed Hungary 7-2 to keep alive its hopes of advancing to the quarterfinals from Group A.
In the Latvian capital of Riga, Switzerland beat the Czech Republic 4-2 to lead Group B with six victories from six games.
Andres Ambuhl scored two goals and Tanner Richard and Romain Loeffel contributed one each for Switzerland, while Roman Cervenka and Dominik Kubalik scored for the Czechs.
Slovakia edged Slovenia 1-0 in Group B to stay in contention for a place in the knockout stage. Slovenia lost six straight games and will be relegated from the top division.
Zach Johnson grilled by reporter Sunday regarding LIV players in Ryder Cup
Brooks Koepka hadn’t even made the turn at Oak Hill and his performance at the year’s first two major championships had already taken hold of the Ryder Cup narrative.
Whatever hypotheticals about this year’s U.S. team and whether players who joined LIV Golf would be welcome back became exceedingly practical following Koepka’s performance at the Masters, where he finished second, and at the PGA Championship, where he closed with a 67 for a two-stroke victory. That reality landed on this year’s U.S. captain Zach Johnson, who was asked if he would feel “comfortable” with a LIV player on the team.
“I don't know. I can't answer that,” Johnson said. “I'll say this: The guys that are on the PGA Tour that make that team, they have direct ownership in that collectively. For me to stand here and say that I would feel comfortable or uncomfortable with it would be, I would think, irresponsible on my behalf because it's not my team.”
In a spirited interview following his round at Oak Hill, Johnson largely deflected most questions about LIV’s potential impact on this year’s matches, but there was one telling exchange when he was asked if he planned to attend any LIV events prior to the Ryder Cup to scout potential players.
“Are you expecting me to go to LIV events and spectate?” Johnson asked. “I don't need to be present. I'm not in the U.S. Open, and given my travel schedule and what I have behind that and in front of that, there's no reason for me to go out there and spectate when I can watch on television.”
That answer, however, didn’t satisfy the reporter, who pressed, asking if Johnson was worried about the “perception” from the LIV players that he’s “too busy” to attend events on the breakaway circuit.
“Again, that’s your opinion. You’re making something up,” he said.
Koepka began the week 22nd on the U.S. points list and is projected to move to No. 2 with his victory at the PGA. The top 6 players on the list on Aug. 20 will automatically qualify for the matches and Johnson will have six captain’s picks.
“We'd be lying to ourselves and say that they [LIV players] don't want to be on the team, right. I've heard that narrative. I mean, I get it, too. I'm an American. I want to be on my own team. That's your goal every two years,” Johnson said.
Brooks Koepka wins third Wanamaker Trophy, fifth major title at PGA Championship
Brooks Koepka promised Sunday at Oak Hill would not be a reprise of Sunday at Augusta National.
Koepka held true to his word, shooting 3-under 67 to win the PGA Championship, finishing at 9 under, two in front of Scottie Scheffler (65) and Viktor Hovland (68).
Koepka and Hovland, playing together in the final pairing, were separated by one stroke at the par-4 16th, when Hovland hit his tee shot into a fairway bunker on the right. The previous day, leader Corey Conners was in the same spot and drilled his approach into the face of the bunker. He had to take an unplayable lie and made double bogey, losing the lead for good.
Incredibly, Hovland did the same thing on Sunday, losing any chance he had at his first major title.
Koepka, for his part, birdied the 16th and led by four shots with two to play. He closed with an innocuous bogey at the 17th and a par at the 18th.
This was Kopeka’s fifth major championship win and his third Wanamaker Trophy (2018, ’19). He joined James Braid, John Henry Taylor, Byron Nelson, Peter Thomson and Seve Ballesteros at 15th on the all-time major-victory list.
It marked his ninth career PGA Tour title and first since February 2021.
It was in that same month, a year later, that Koepka made clear his intention to remain on the PGA Tour, saying of the fledgling Saudi-led rival league, “They’ll get their guys. Somebody will sell out and go to it."
Four months later, Koepka was one of those guys.
Koepka claimed his first of two LIV titles in October and the second in April, the week before the Masters Tournament. It was in the season’s first major where Koepka led by two shots entering the final round (after completing a delayed Round 3 early that Sunday) but closed in 75 to finish T-2 behind Jon Rahm.
This Saturday, once again with a lead through 54 holes of a major, Koepka was confident – though, coy with his reasons why – that this championship would end differently.
Or, similarly, to that of Bellerive and Bethpage Black.
It appeared that the 105th edition of the PGA was over 45 minutes after the final group teed off in the final round.
Koepka birdied three of his first four holes and led by three shots.
He was perfection personified, expertly positioning his tee shots and precisely hitting his irons. But a sliced drive off the sixth tee led to bogey and he made another at the seventh. By the turn, he was at 7 under par, one clear of Hovland with Scheffler at 4 under through 11 holes.
Scheffler managed to reach 7 under par for the championship, but never got closer than within two strokes.
It was ultimately a battle between the final two men on the course, with Koepka consistently managed to stay out front. He went birdie-bogey-birdie to start the inward half as Hovland strung together a trio of pars. The Norwegian birdied the par-5 13th and could have drawn even, but Koepka converted a slick, downhill, 10-footer for par to remain one up.
Both men made birdie at the drivable, 320-yard, par-4 14th and both men parred 15.
Then came the 16th, where Hovland thinned his second shot from the fairway sand into the bottom portion of the bunker lip. His ball embedded, Hovland took a penalty stroke and a drop. His double bogey, combined with Koepka’s birdie, ended all of the drama.
But Oak Hill was not devoid of cheers Sunday evening. Club pro Michael Block, playing alongside Rory McIlroy, had a slam-dunk hole-in-one at the par-3 15th and then made an incredible par save from well left of the 18th green. His closing 1-over 71 placed him in a tie for 15th and earned him a spot in next year’s field at Valhalla.
"The most surreal moment I’ve ever had in my life,” Block said. “I’m living a dream and making sure I’m enjoying the moment. Not getting any better than this — no way in hell.”
The last time the Louisville, Kentucky course hosted a PGA, McIlroy claimed his second Wanamaker Trophy and his fourth – and most recent – major. The Northern Irishman energized the western New York crowd this Sunday by sticking his approach shot at the first hole to a foot. The birdie got him within four of the lead, but he short-sided himself – from the fairway – at No. 2 and immediately gave the shot back. McIlroy shot 1-under 69 and tied for seventh.
"I feel sort of close but also so far away at the same time," McIlroy said. "It's hard to explain."
While his major wait will extend to Los Angeles Country Club in June, Koepka will arrive looking for a third U.S. Open title.
And after his performances in the first two majors of the season, he will likely be the favorite.
WATCH: Club pro Michael Block continues magical PGA with hole-in-one
The Michael Block Cinderella story just keeps getting better.
The club pro has already had an improbable week, finding himself paired with Rory McIlroy in the PGA Championship's final round. Then, with his magical four rounds winding down, Block stepped up to Oak Hill's 151-yard, par-3 15th with a 7-iron — and that was the only swing he'd need on the hole.
Just like his reaction on Saturday night when he found out he'd be playing with McIlroy on Sunday, Block was in disbelief that he just dunked a hole-in-one.
"No, way ... Rory, did it go in?" Block said moments afterward.
The ace moved the 46-year-old Californian to even par.
"It was an amazing golf shot," McIlroy said afterward. "That hole has sort of given me fits all week. I haven't really liked the look of it, and Michael stands up and hits this lovely little drawback into off the left wind, and you know, ball goes straight in the hole. It was I guess sort of when it's your week, it's your week in a way, and you know, I think with the way the week's went for him, it was a fitting way to cap off his PGA Championship."
No matter how he fared on his final three holes, Block's week would still forever live in major championship lore. However, he had one more heroic in him — which notched him a top 15 finish to qualify for next year's PGA at Valhalla.
Block's approach on his 72nd hole landed in the gallery, left of the hole. He then knocked his chip several feet from the hole and made a clutch par putt to place T-15.
Now, Block hopes to continue his Cinderella run next year in Kentucky.
'Disappointing' T-7 at PGA Championship leaves Rory McIlroy searching
“I feel sort of close but also so far away at the same time. It’s hard to explain.”
Much about Rory McIlroy’s 2023 has been hard to explain.
The Northern Irishman came into the year as the No. 1 player in the world and maintained the top spot until Scottie Scheffler won the WM Phoenix Open for the second consecutive year. Still, McIlroy’s game seemed like it was in a good place as major championship season approached.
Then, beginning with a missed cut at The Players Championship, Rory McIlroy started to look less and less like Rory McIlroy on the golf course.
There was hope that he had righted the ship after a third-place finish at the WGC-Match Play, then came another free weekend after missing the cut at the Masters.
It was then that McIlroy decided to head home and take a couple weeks away from golf despite the $3 million penalty he incurred by doing so.
His only start between the Masters and the PGA Championship was a T-47 at Wells Fargo, and even McIlroy didn’t like his chances coming into the week at Oak Hill.
“I honestly didn't feel like I had a chance of winning this week,” McIlroy said after Sunday’s final round. “So it was just about going out there and playing the best I could and trying to make the most of it.”
There were signs over the last four days that perhaps McIlroy would put it all together and make a charge, but just like Sunday when he opened his final round with a birdie only to follow with a bogey at the second from the middle of the fairway, it just felt as if he was swimming upstream in Allen’s Creek on his way to a T-7 finish.
So what’s to be made of another top 10 in a major where it never actually felt as if the 23-time PGA Tour winner would be the one holding the trophy?
“I would say a top-10 finish, I would have been pretty happy with that at the start of the week,” McIlroy said. “But then once you're in there and you actually feel like you could have done a little better, it starts to become disappointing. But if I think back to myself on Wednesday, say, just before the tournament started, and someone said, ‘You're going to finish T-7 this week,’ I would say, actually, that's probably not a bad week for me with how I'm feeling about everything.”
T-7 in a major certainly isn’t a bad week, but “disappointing” seems like an appropriate way to describe McIlroy’s 2023 up to this point.
Diego Lopez struck in the first half to give Valencia a precious win over Real Madrid on Sunday that moved them further away from the relegation zone in a game marred by racist chanting and a red card for Vinicius Junior.
With three games to go, Valencia are 13th in LaLiga on 40th points, five clear of the relegation spots. Madrid are third on 71 points, 14 behind champions Barcelona, who secured the title last week with four games to spare.
Madrid had nothing to play for after exiting the Champions League following a 4-0 thrashing at Manchester City on Wednesday in their semifinal, second leg.
Valencia, however, are still fighting to avoid the drop and found the net in the 33rd minute when Lopez scored from close range.
Real played the last few minutes with 10 men after Vinicius was sent off following a scuffle with Valencia players.
The Brazil winger had faced racist chants from fans at the Mestalla, which led to the game being halted for a few minutes in the second half.
"I don't want to talk about football today, there is no meaning in talking about football today," Real manager Carlo Ancelotti told Movistar Plus.
"What we saw today is unacceptable. An entire stadium chanting racist slurs, I told the referee that he should have stopped the match."
Ancelotti said Vinicius's reaction was "understandable" in the circumstances.
"I asked him if he wanted to keep playing, and he stayed in the game," the Italian said.
"LaLiga have a problem here. For me Vinicius is the most important player in the world. LaLiga has a problem, these episodes of racism have to stop the match.
"It's the entire stadium that is insulting a player with racist chants and the match has to stop. I would say the same if we were winning 3-0, there is no other way.
"Vinicius is very sad, he is angry. Something like this can't happen in the world we live in."
Manchester United have taken the Women's Super League title fight all the way to the last day of the season after Lucia Garcia scored a stoppage time winner to beat 10-player Manchester City 2-1 at Leigh Sports Village.
The hosts needed to win or else Chelsea, 2-0 winners over Arsenal earlier in the day, would have clinched the trophy before the final round of matches.
- Stream on ESPN+: LaLiga, Bundesliga, more (U.S.)
Playing like a team with their entire season on the line, United fired out of the blocks and were quickly rewarded for their positive play when a half-clearance dropped to Hayley Ladd to curl her effort into the top right corner.
Despite their advantage, or maybe because of it, the hosts eased off of the throttle to open the game up and rode their luck when Chloe Kelly could only cannon Bunny Shaw's blocked effort off of the upright.
Having grown into the game, City drew another sterling block in the box, this time from Hannah Blundell to deny Filippa Angeldahl.
Heading into half-time a goal down but well in the game, City's chances of turning the tide took a meaty blow when Ellie Roebuck came steaming out of her box and cleared Nikita Parris out, prompting a straight red card from referee Rebecca Welch.
Just as she had in the first half, Kelly saw an effort, albeit a deflected one, bounce off of the woodwork moments before Shaw was denied a clear penalty when Ladd kicked her boot, rather than the ball, in the box.
A flurry of chances came the way of the hosts, but, just like last time out, they failed to take those presented and their title challenge looked doomed when Angeldahl's cross-shot snuck under the bar in the 68th minute.
With the three points crucial to both team's seasons, the sides amped up the pressure to go for a winner as the clock ticked down and not long after City sub Hayley Raso sent an effort just wide of Mary Earps' post, the United players that came off the bench combined to snatch a dramatic stoppage-time winner.
From Blundell's deep cross, Vilde Boe Risa nodded the ball back into the mixer for Garcia to get out of her feet and lash home, beating 18-year-old Khiara Keating in the City goal.
The result means United still have a chance of claiming the WSL title next week away to Liverpool should Chelsea either lose to Reading or if Chelsea draw and United find more than five unanswered goals.
For City, the loss keeps them in fourth and needing a jaw-dropping win against Everton next week as well as an Arsenal loss, if they are to climb into the third European berth.
Striker Sebastien Haller scored twice as Borussia Dortmund beat 10-man Augsburg 3-0 on Sunday to take control of the Bundesliga title race going into next week's season finale.
Haller broke the deadlock in the 58th minute and tapped in his second goal of the afternoon six minutes before the end to seal the win that lifted them above Bayern Munich and into top spot.
- Stream on ESPN+: LaLiga, Bundesliga, more (U.S.)
Julian Brandt completed the win with a stoppage-time goal.
The Ruhr valley club, whose last title win came in 2012 under then coach Jurgen Klopp, are two ahead of Bayern on 70 points.
The Bavarians suffered a shock 3-1 home loss to RB Leipzig on Saturday.
"We have suffered and we had to sweat a lot, not only this season," said Dortmund coach Edin Terzic. "Now it is about taking that last step together with our fans in our stadium in our city and bring the league trophy finally back to Dortmund.
"This has not been the season of missed chances, but the season of setbacks. It is now about taking that last step."
In a one-sided first half Dortmund had 16 shots on goal to Augsburg's one and also hit the post through Niklas Sule, but could not score even when the hosts were left with 10 men following the dismissal of Felix Uduokhai in the 38th.
Emre Can also hit the woodwork after the restart, but they finally broke the deadlock through Haller when he slotted in off the post.
Augsburg instantly responded with a chance of their own but Dortmund keeper Gregor Kobel did well to stop Irvin Cardona's shot from 10 metres.
Haller, who had missed much of the season after being diagnosed with testicular cancer last year, settled Dortmund's nerves with a tap-in before Brandt completed their win.
Dortmund host Mainz on the last matchday while Bayern, who have won the last 10 league titles, travel to Cologne in their season finale.
"If some told me six months ago that I would be in this situation today I would not have believed them," Haller, who underwent surgery and chemotherapy before his return to action in 2023, said.
"We have invested a lot and now we have a chance to achieve something big. There is no magic. It is about investing. Then it comes."
Heather Knight, Fran Wilson put Western Storm on the board in 155-run chase
Western Storm 155 for 4 (Knight 62, Wilson 53) beat Thunder 154 for 7 (Lamb 36) by six wickets
Set 155 to win, Storm chased down their target with four balls to spare thanks to superbly-judged knocks of 62 and 53 from Knight and Wilson respectively, the third-wicket pair calling upon all their vast experience to make amends for last week's defeat at the hands of Northern Diamonds.
Dani Gibson was outstanding in conceding just 22 runs from four overs and claiming the key wicket of Deandra Dottin, while Storm effected two run outs to cap an impressive display in the field.
The Bristolian also contributed a useful 20 runs at the top of the order to give Storm's reply lift-off before being bowled by Sophie Ecclestone. If Thunder felt they were in the game after reducing the hosts to 27 for 2, they were eventually disabused of the idea by former England team-mates Knight and Wilson, whose partnership initially proved measured rather than spectacular.
Wilson was given a life on 17 in the tenth over, dropped on the square leg boundary by Heap off the bowling of Naomi Dattani. How Thunder must have regretted their profligacy as the third wicket stand realised 50 in 6.5 overs, Knight and Wilson slowly applying more pressure as they upped the rate.
Although Tara Norris and Mahika Gaur kept things reasonably tight, Ecclestone's slow left arm represented Thunder's best chance of victory. But Knight and Wilson safely negotiated the England spinner, raising 100 in the 14th over as they began to accelerate.
Knight was first to 50, lifting Dottin over square leg for six and then driving the next delivery into the covers to go to her half century from 35 balls. Wilson went to 50 via 42 balls with her seventh four as Storm closed in on their target, aided and abetted by some ragged fielding from the visitors.
By the time Knight holed out in the deep off the bowling of Ecclestone in the 17th over, the hosts were virtually home and dry. Wilson departed in the penultimate over, caught at cow corner off the bowling of Gaur, leaving Prendergast and Sophie Luff to finish the job.
Thunder had earlier elected to bat and were quick out of the blocks, Lamb and Heap taking advantage of the fielding restrictions to raise 10 boundaries between them in a useful opening stand of 65 in 7.2 overs.
Teenager Heap plundered fours either side of the wicket at the expense of Gibson and afforded Lauren Filer the same treatment in the second over as the Burnley-born teenager hit the ground running. England batter Lamb was on one when she offered an eminently presentable chance, clipping a ball from Filer straight to mid-wicket where Sophie Luff, recently recovered from a broken thumb, uncharacteristically fumbled.
Lamb made good her escape, taking the aerial route to plunder the first six of the innings off Orla Prendergast.
Thunder's smooth progress while the restrictions were in place foundered upon the introduction of spin, Chloe Skelton removing the dangerous Lamb with her second delivery to effect the breakthrough Storm so badly needed. Coming forward and over-reaching, Lamb was deftly stumped by Nat Wraith, having accrued 5 fours and a six.
New batter Dottin greeted Sophia Smale's slow left arm by hoisting her over mid-wicket for a huge six, but the visitors lost crucial momentum during the middle overs, Heap chancing her arm in pursuit of a single and being run out for 22 by Niamh Holland's brilliant pick-up-and-throw from square leg. When Dottin was bowled for 10 by a cleverly-disguised slower ball from Gibson, Thunder had slipped from 65 without loss to 79-3 in the space of 3.5 overs.
Dattani and Sophie Ecclestone attempted to repair the damage in a fourth wicket stand of 30 in 3.5 overs, only to fall to successive deliveries in the 15th over, sent down by Filer. Slow to set off for a single, Dattani was run out by Prendergast's throw from mid-on, while England all-rounder Ecclestone was bowled for 22 as Thunder further subsided to 109 for 5.
Needing to pick up the cudgels if they were to regain the initiative, Danni Collins and Fi Morris found themselves effectively shackled by a combination of the wily Gibson, Alex Griffiths and Prendergast as Storm turned the screw at the death. Prendergast accounted for Morris and Ellie Threlkeld during the final over to finish with 2 for 36 and, although Collins scored 15 not out at a run-a-ball, Thunder's middle order mustered just three boundaries in the final five overs.
Kohli: 'A lot of people feel my T20 cricket is declining, I don't feel that at all'
When asked by Ravi Shastri after the innings how he'd felt at the crease, Kohli said: "Ya, I felt great. A lot of people feel my T20 cricket is declining, but I don't feel like that at all. I feel I am playing my best T20 cricket again. I'm just enjoying myself, this is how I play T20 cricket. I look to hit gaps, hit a lot of boundaries and the big ones in the end if the situation allows me to.
"Strike rates, all those kind of things like I said in the past as well... You have to read the situation and rise up to the occasion when the situation demands, and that's something I take a lot of pride in doing, and I've been doing it for a while now. I feel really good with my game at the moment and how I'm batting out there in the middle."
"Spin wasn't easy to get away and I think the strength of a lot of our fast bowlers is also taking pace off," Kohli said of the score they finished on and the conditions. "There's enough in this pitch for our bowlers to make a dent through the [chase], and hitting big shots as you saw in the middle overs wasn't as easy when the field spread out. So you have to hit a lot of gaps and run twos. If we can cut down those boundaries and now allow them to run twos from those gaps, then it'll be a very difficult chase."
But Gill's unbeaten 104 off 52 made sure that was not the case, knocking RCB out of the tournament as Titans chased down their target in 19.1 overs.
"Obviously very disappointed," du Plessis said after the game. "You get to the last game of the campaign, you want to make sure you get through. But we played a very strong team tonight, Shubman Gill played an amazing innings to get a hundred. We were a little bit off in one or two areas and when you are playing a team like this, they will capitalise on it.
"The conditions were really wet in the second innings but I think it was also wet in the first innings with a lot of moisture from the rain [which delayed the start by 55 minutes]. So we changed the ball three times, there wasn't a lot of grip in the second innings. But I thought 195 was a good score, Virat played an unbelievable knock to give us a chance, but we needed that wicket of Shubman to feel like we were really in the game."
One of the biggest positives for RCB this season was the opening partnership of Kohli and du Plessis. The pair added 939 runs in 14 innings, equalling Kohli and AB de Villiers' record of most runs by a pair in a T20 tournament, set in IPL 2016.
"He [Kohli] has played really good cricket throughout the season," du Plessis said, "and as a partnership, I think there was not one game where we didn't score 40 for the opening stand [they failed to add 40 in four out of 14 innings]. So that was really pleasing for both of us that we got the team off to a really good start. But it just shows you Virat has got a lot left in the tank in T20 cricket; he is playing really well still."
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