Jurgen Klopp saluted the "incredible performance" of Adrian despite a lack of preparation time as the goalkeeper's shootout heroics won Liverpool the UEFA Super Cup against Chelsea in Istanbul.

The Spaniard denied Tammy Abraham in the shootout with a trailing leg in the 5-4 victory on penalties at Vodafone Park, with the match level at 2-2 after extra time.

A few weeks ago, Adrian was training with semi-professional side UD Pilas in his country's sixth tier to keep in shape following his release by West Ham United.

He was on the verge of joining Real Valladolid before Liverpool made him an offer to deputise for Alisson as Simon Mignolet joined Club Brugge.

- Chelsea Ratings: Kante gets 8/10, Pulisic 7/10 in cup loss
- Liverpool Ratings: Mane decisive as Reds lift Super Cup

The European champions expected the 32-year-old to have an extended adjustment period following his signing on Aug. 5, but those plans were derailed on the opening day of the Premier League season when Alisson limped off with a calf injury in a win over Norwich.

Klopp saluted the player's big "personality" as a factor in why he has settled so quickly and performed so admirably for Liverpool despite his competitive inactivity.

"He played an incredible game, he had sensational saves," the manager said. "Both goalies had that, but maybe from Adrian it's a bit more surprising because it was without pretty much any preparation. I don't know when he played the last game for West Ham, to be honest, so it's a while ago. Being ready like he was ready tonight is incredible.

"He's not only on the pitch a great person, he showed me already that he's a proper personality in the dressing room as well. He was maybe louder than I was at half-time. I was not loud because I wanted to give some information, but he was really on his toes and that was good. It's important and it helps us. He deserves that.

"Of course in penalty shootouts it's always lucky, but his performance over the 120 minutes was incredible. Making the save for the penalty is the icing on the cake and is wonderful. I saw now one time that he could really grab his towel before he started celebrating. That's special as well, so he's obviously quick in mind and knows what he wants to do. He helped us a lot and he can be really proud of what he did tonight."

Adrian, who last started a game in January while at West Ham, was adjudged to have impeded Abraham in the box during extra time by referee Stephanie Frappart, with Jorginho converting the penalty to take the contest to a shootout.

Klopp did not agree with the decision, but applauded the officiating of the Frenchwoman and her assistants Manuela Nicolosi and Michelle O'Neill after Frappart became the first female ref to take charge of a major UEFA men's competition on Wednesday.

"I told the refereeing team after the game that if we would have played like they whistled, we would have won 6-0," Klopp said. "That was my absolute opinion.

"They reffed a brilliant game. I told her as well that I am not happy with the penalty decision because I'm still not sure that it was a penalty, but it's not important anymore. They were really good.

"Whatever you could have thought before the game, there was pressure on them like hell with an historic moment. Staying calm and do what you have to do, decide very important things in a very difficult and intense game -- I couldn't have more respect, to be honest. It was really a brilliant performance."

Chelsea suffered a penalty shootout defeat to Liverpool in Wednesday's UEFA Super Cup but manager Frank Lampard praised his team's performance in a game which ended 2-2 after extra time.

Lampard's team had suffered a 4-0 defeat at Manchester United on Sunday in Lampard's competitive debut on the bench after taking over from Maurizio Sarri in July, but the former England midfielder said his players had responded in the right way.

- Chelsea Ratings: Kante gets 8/10, Pulisic 7/10 in cup loss
- Liverpool Ratings: Mane decisive as Reds lift Super Cup

"After Sunday, tonight was another level, and we were unlucky not to win. We've got three games now till the international break and we'll try to win them all," said Lampard, whose team host Leicester City in the Premier League on Sunday. "Chelsea's season will be a good one if we play something like we played today.

"I've got nothing but pride in the team and the performance, and confidence in what that means. It was a tough game against a good Liverpool team that [played on Friday and] had extra time to recover after the weekend. But sometimes football comes down to little moments of luck."

Lampard was quick to praise the contributions of two of his younger players, who have returned to the club after loan spells in the second-tier Championship, given the transfer ban which stops Chelsea from bringing in new players.

"Mason Mount and Tammy Abraham added an extra dimension when they came on, and were unlucky not to score. Tammy needs to keep his head up because that's part and parcel of being a top player," he said after the striker missed the decisive final penalty.

But while much focus has been on Chelsea's youthful contingent, Lampard said there had been strong performances across the field.

"People keep talking about the young players at Chelsea. Let's talk about Jorginho and [N'Golo] Kante, and I could name a few others. We've got a quality bunch in there, a really good group, and we're working hard," he said.

"I'm trying to instil the way I want to play and there were so many good things tonight.

"Kante is an amazing player, amazing character. He's a machine on the football field. He hasn't trained much, had a swollen ankle two days ago, but he was desperate to play and you saw what he gave to the team today. He will be hugely important. I am delighted to work with him."

The United State Soccer Federation and members of the women's national team reached an impasse Wednesday in their attempts to mediate the ongoing dispute over equal pay, with a spokesperson for the players saying they "eagerly look forward to a jury trial."

Spokesperson Molly Levinson released the statement on behalf of the U.S. players after mediation ended Wednesday evening.

"We entered this week's mediation with representatives of USSF full of hope," Levinson said in the statement. "Today we must conclude these meetings sorely disappointed in the Federation's determination to perpetuate fundamentally discriminatory workplace conditions and behavior.

"It is clear that USSF, including its Board of Directors and President Carlos Cordeiro, fully intend to continue to compensate women players less than men. They will not succeed. We want all of our fans, sponsors, peers around the world, and women everywhere to know we are undaunted and will eagerly look forward to a jury trial."

U.S. Soccer said in a statement: "We have said numerous times that our goal is to find a resolution, and during mediation we had hoped we would be able to address the issues in a respectful manner and reach an agreement. Unfortunately, instead of allowing mediation to proceed in a considerate manner, plaintiffs' counsel took an aggressive and ultimately unproductive approach that follows months of presenting misleading information to the public in an effort to perpetuate confusion.

"We always know there is more we can do. We value our players and have continually shown that, by providing them with compensation and support that exceeds any other women's team in the world. Despite inflammatory statements from their spokesperson, which are intended to paint our actions inaccurately and unfairly, we are undaunted in our efforts to continue discussions in good faith."

Although equal pay has been a point of contention between the federation and the players for years, with five prominent players filing a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 2016, the current dispute began when 28 members of the national team player pool filed suit this past March alleging gender discrimination.

The two sides subsequently agreed to enter mediation after the Women's World Cup.

Cordeiro released a public letter on July 29 that attempted to make the case that U.S. Soccer had paid members of the women's national team more than their male counterparts over the span of nearly a decade. Representatives of the players argued that the numbers unfairly counted the salaries that women players receive for playing in the National Women's Soccer League.

Asked about Cordeiro's letter before the opening game of the current Victory Tour, Megan Rapinoe said it caught her by surprise because it was her understanding that the two sides wouldn't speak publicly about the matter while mediation was ongoing.

No new mediation is currently scheduled.

"The world looks to the U.S. to lead," Levinson said. "And the players would like to tell the world that the USSF pays women equally to men. The goal is equal pay."

When asked if Wednesday's statement precluded any attempts at further mediation, Levinson pointed to a letter to U.S. Soccer officials dated Aug. 12 and signed by all 28 players involved in the suit that seems to leave open the possibility of resolution out of court.

"For both parties, the risk of not resolving our disagreements over equal treatment that were not addressed either in bargaining or through the EEOC is too high," the letter from the players stated. "U.S. Soccer's reputation, sponsor relations, fan support and federal funding for the 2026 World Cup tournament are all at risk, and that risk continues should we not reach resolution. We have demonstrated that we can perform at high levels on the field even while pursuing equality off the field, but it is certainly not what we want to continue to go through with a new coach and the upcoming Olympic Games if a resolution is possible.

"While we are prepared to take our equal pay fight through a trial if necessary, we believe that both sides would benefit from an equal pay and equal working conditions settlement now."

Major League Soccer will award an expansion franchise to St. Louis, a source close to the prospective ownership group has confirmed to ESPN. The deal is expected to be announced as soon as next Tuesday.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch was first to report that St. Louis will be MLS's 28th team.

The ownership group, MLS4TheLou, declined to directly comment on the reports, issuing the following statement: "Major League Soccer is responsible for the timing of any announcements around League expansion, but we remain confident St. Louis has made a strong case for a team."

MLS didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

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The move by MLS has been expected ever since April, when commissioner Don Garber said that St. Louis was among the cities with which it was in exclusive negotiations to acquire an expansion team. That momentum accelerated through the summer, culminating in a presentation at the MLS Board of Governors meeting two weeks ago.

It was at that meeting that the St. Louis ownership group, led by Carolyn Kindle Betz, president of Enterprise Holdings Foundation, and Jim Kavanaugh, CEO of World Wide Technology, presented a plan that included a downtown stadium that would be financed primarily with private funds, as well as a majority female ownership group.

"We are in very advanced discussions in St. Louis, and we really appreciated the details that they provided," Garber said at the time. "We look forward to continuing those discussions in the weeks and months ahead."

The stadium funding issue was a critical hurdle to overcome. A previous attempt to bring MLS to St. Louis in 2017 died when a referendum that would have provided $60 million in public money towards a venue was rejected by voters.

But MLS has long desired to have a team in St. Louis, given the sport's long history in the Gateway City. Five of the 11 players that defeated England at the 1950 World Cup were from St. Louis, and the city has produced 29 players and coaches who have been inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame.

Now that dream looks to have come to fruition, with the team likely to begin play in 2022.

ISTANBUL -- It was 17 minutes before 1 a.m. when goalkeeper Adrian saved Tammy Abraham's penalty to win the UEFA Super Cup for Liverpool. It was half an hour later by the time captain Jordan Henderson and his teammates had paraded the club's second European trophy in the space of three months around the pitch.

This was football's version of "A Hard Day's Night" for both Liverpool and runners-up Chelsea.

Winning is an intoxicating feeling for any competitor, and the sight of manager Jurgen Klopp and his players sprinting across the turf at Vodafone Park following Adrian's save highlighted just how much victory meant to Liverpool. They appeared as ecstatic in Istanbul as they did in Madrid after beating Tottenham to win the Champions League in June.

But it is only when the dust settles on this 5-4 penalty shootout win against Europa League winners Chelsea, following a 2-2 draw after 90 minutes and extra-time failed to separate the two English rivals, that Liverpool will discover the true cost of this success.

- Chelsea Ratings: Kante gets 8/10, Pulisic 7/10 in cup loss
- Liverpool Ratings: Mane decisive as Reds lift Super Cup

However their season pans out from this point on, the 120 minutes plus penalties in Turkey, when they started on a Wednesday and finished on Thursday, might just prove to be their season in microcosm. It is going to be a tough, long and demanding slog all the way to the finish line. If Liverpool are to build on their Champions League win and end a 30-year wait for the English title in May, they are facing an even greater test of their resolve and fitness than last season, when they came so close to wrestling the Premier League trophy from Manchester City's grasp.

For a start, they must somehow recover their physical and mental freshness in time for Saturday's 3 p.m. local trip to Southampton, after a four-hour return flight to England on Thursday afternoon. Chelsea, who restored pride and showed promise after Sunday's 4-0 defeat at Manchester United, do not play until Sunday, and they also have the benefit of being at home against Leicester rather than travelling again, as Liverpool must do.

The merits of playing the Super Cup in mid-August, just days after the start of the Premier League season, and then forcing the two teams to endure 30 minutes of extra-time before penalties is perhaps a debate for another day, when the wisdom, or otherwise, of playing for two hours is properly scrutinised. Klopp, certainly, was bemused by the decision to play extra-time rather than go straight to penalties at the end of 90 minutes.

"I don't think anyone in the stadium wanted to see twice 15 minutes," Klopp said. "It was really a killer, but that's how it is. Nobody wanted extra-time.

"We play on Saturday and we have to find a way to be ready. At 90 minutes, [Chelsea manager] Frank Lampard asked where and when we play next. I told him Southampton on Saturday, and he laughed and said, 'Congratulations.'"

Yet having won the Champions League last season, this was a taste of what Liverpool must get used to this time around.

They did not have it easy last season by any means, but Liverpool played just 52 competitive games in all competitions last term. They were knocked out of the Carabao Cup after just one game, losing to Chelsea in round three, while Wolves dumped them out of the FA Cup in the third round in January.

Already this season, Liverpool have played, and lost, the Community Shield against City, with this game against Chelsea another fixture they did not have to contend with last season. Winning the Champions League ensures that Liverpool will compete in the FIFA Club World Cup in December, which will involve two games, not to mention the eight-hour flight to Qatar and back.

City played 61 games on their way to a domestic treble last season, and Liverpool must realistically plan to play at least 60 this term, unless they suffer similarly tough draws in the entry rounds of the domestic cup competitions as they landed last year. It is difficult to envisage City giving them any encouragement by making things easier for Liverpool this season, so Klopp and his players might just have to get used to their energy being tested as much as it was in Istanbul, when the likes of Fabinho and Joe Gomez ended the game having treatment for cramp.

Klopp also must find a way to manage the fitness and contribution of key players such as Virgil van Dijk, Georginio Wijnaldum, Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino, who were all involved in international tournaments for their national teams this summer. Twelve months ago, the Liverpool squad started the season after a much lighter World Cup workload than their rivals, but this year, the boot is on the other foot.

But if winning the Super Cup proved to be a greater drain on their resources than Klopp would have wished, Liverpool still emerged victorious, and that is the major positive that the manager will take from this game. His players have proved their ability and desire to go the extra mile once again, but it won't be the last time they are asked to do so this season.

"It was a big fight tonight," Klopp said. "I didn't know how good it will feel if we won it, but it was outstanding. It was brilliant."

It might only be August, but Liverpool already know they must prepare themselves for a marathon.

Those who witnessed Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc in tandem at Worcester got confirmation - if no actual match play evidence - that the former fast man is better suited to Australia's Ashes plan than the latter as the right armer was included in the team for the Lord's Test in place of the rested James Pattinson.

Starc's expensive first spell in the tour game, bowling four overs at a cost of 27 albeit with one wicket, provided a reminder of the regular boundary release balls he is always in danger of bowling in England, while Hazlewood's far more economical effort (4-2-2-2) in the same passage of play late on day one offered all the evidence the tour selectors required to choose him once it became clear that Pattinson still had some residual stiffness from his Edgbaston efforts.

"He's got an outstanding record. He's built up over the past few months," Langer said of Hazlewood. "He missed out on the World Cup because we felt he hadn't played much cricket. We know he's an outstanding bowler, we know that the style of play against England that his best he should execute those plans really well. He has bowled well the last couple of weeks and we hope he does a good job this Test match.

"Just the style of play we want to play here against England, he hits a great length, he's usually pretty miserly with his economy rate, that's what gave him the edge in this game. Don't get me wrong, it was a hard decision. If it comes off we know what we are doing, if it doesn't we don't, that's just the business we are in. It was a tough call."

Less demanding was the discussion with Pattinson that led to his resting, after prior history indicating that asking the 29-year-old to play two Tests in a row can often have highly damaging consequences.Tellingly, Langer indicated that Pattinson needed some assuaging of his own doubts about how he had been managed in the past.

"We collaborated on that one," Langer said. "And I think it's been important for him in his return to cricket, I think in the past he's felt a bit that he had to play and had to play and had to push and had to push and in those instances he usually broke at some point. It was really good collaboration between the two of us, that was our deal in Hampshire when we talked about what his progress would be at Notts and we have had really good communication with Notts as well so yeah he's fine.

"We talked about it. He was a little bit stiff after bowling on Monday morning. We knew he would only bowl one of the two back to back games, and whilst he's had eight or nine days, we knew he couldn't play back to back Test matches. We just felt that having pulled up a little stiff after bowling and we thought it would be common sense to keep getting himself hungry and prepared for the third Test."

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The Pattinson example may be part of a wider evolution of fast bowler management in Australia, coinciding as it does with the appointment of two new Cricket Australia team performance chiefs in Ben Oliver (national teams) and Drew Ginn (high performance). Their predecessor Pat Howard helped advance the conversation on how to manage fast bowlers in the face of plenty of criticism, and a deep Ashes squad of six pacemen capable of being rotated according to fitness and match conditions is part of his legacy.

"It's the first time in however long I've been coaching that we've actually had the luxury of having six high class fast bowlers fit up and running," Langer said. "We're lucky to have the situation to be able to do that but it doesn't happen very often. That's the truth, and maybe that's why a number of bowlers break down over time, because you've got to keep pushing and pushing and pushing, particularly in series, particularly with the schedules as they are now.

"We've got five Test matches in six weeks, plus a couple of county games in between, so if you have got guys fit you're not constantly pushing them, which ultimately leads to breaking them and with the unnatural action of a bowler, if you keep doing the same thing over and over, history will tell you that's what happens. So if we're lucky enough to have guys we can keep bringing in and out and firing, that's a real luxury to have."

As for the first day one of an Ashes Test to be abandoned without a ball bowled since the 1998 Boxing Day Test at the MCG, and the first at Lord's since 1997, Langer said the awkwardness of a possible toss of the coin at 3pm had raised some intriguing conversation.

"We had a joke there for a moment, if the captain tosses the coin and he wins the toss can he ask the opposition to make the choice," Langer said. "I think we decided you can't do that. A couple of the umpires weren't sure, but they checked for us, but you have to make a decisions. It is going to be a tough call. Today would have been tough, we knew there was a bit of rain around, some overhead conditions, the grass is wet and knowing the Dukes ball gets a bit soft when it gets a bit wet. Lucky Tim didn't have to make the decision. We'll see how it pulls up but it looks like a pretty good cricket wicket. Quite dry through underneath.

"At this stage we'll only lose two hours in the Test match so it won't affect too much. Depending on weather, which we can't control, we'll still, there's plenty of time. Two hours in the Test match isn't much in the overall, in the bigger picture of it. There'll be longer sessions we're going to have to deal with but our guys have said all along we have to keep adapting and be ready with whatever the conditions or the situation of the game throws up at us."

Lancashire 160 for 2 (Davies 75*) beat Northamptonshire 157 for 7 by eight wickets

After the rare taste of defeat against Birmingham Bears, normal service resumed as Lancashire Lightning eased home with nine balls to spare on a night on which one sensed they would not have broken into a sweat even had the temperature been 10 degrees warmer.

With Alex Davies dominating with a masterful 75 at the top, finding the boundary 10 times but impressing also with some skilful shot placement backed up with superb running between the wickets, the absence of their leading scorer, Glenn Maxwell, through a minor hamstring injury was barely noticed.

Supported with vigour by Liam Livingstone at the start, with measured calm by Steven Croft through the middle overs and improvisation by Dane Vilas at the end, Davies underlined the depth of resources in the current Lightning squad that sees them with a five-point cushion at the top of the North Group, albeit from a match more than everyone else.

Adam Rossington (40) and Dwaine Pretorius (38) top scored as the Steelbacks posted 157 for 7 but even on a used pitch that gave the slow bowlers something to work with there was a never even a hint of a wobble from their opponents, who surely have one foot in the quarter-finals, not least with Maxwell set to return for Friday's game against Birmingham.

Northamptonshire are not completely out of the picture, even in eighth place, but they will have to go some to qualify from here.

What had been shaping up as a pretty decent powerplay for the home side stalled rather dramatically after a bemused Richard Levi, aiming to chip into the legside field, was caught at third man off a leading edge in the fourth over. Adam Rossington worked a four off his hips in the same over to take the total to 37 for 1 after four but Richard Gleeson conceded only three in the fifth over and Saqib Mahmood just a single in the sixth, in which the Steelbacks lost another big wicket when Josh Cobb holed out to deep square leg without scoring.

Lancashire, who had won the toss and fancied there would be something in the conditions for their bowlers after a miserably wet day, then took the pace off and put the squeeze on some more before Rossington and Alex Wakely eased the pressure with a boundary each as Northamptonshire reached the halfway stage at 69 for 2.

On a slow pitch against disciplined bowling, the Steelbacks struggled to build any momentum, picking up only a couple of boundaries in the next five overs. A full swing of the bat from Wakely sent the ball over the rope at deep midwicket, but in the same over of an impressive spell of legspin by Livingstone came another setback as Rossington failed to clear the fielder at long-on.

Livingstone cleverly bowled Wakely in his next over to finish with a tidy two for 24 before Rob Keogh and Pretorius gave the innings some belated substance with a flurry of big blows, the latter walloping Matt Parkinson for consecutive legside sixes on his way to 38 off 22 balls before the legspinner thudded the next delivery into his pads.

The two had added 52 in five overs, most of them in a furious assault against Mahmood and Parkinson that accrued 37 in 12 deliveries. But James Faulkner tightened things up again with a superb final over that conceded only four and claimed two more wickets as he finished with 3 for 36.

Needing just under eight an over to overhaul the Steelbacks and claim their sixth win after three no-results in their first 10 matches, Lancashire could not have asked for a more emphatic statement of intent from their openers than Davies provided by smashing the first three balls of Ben Sanderson's opening over to the rope.

Livingstone took up the gauntlet, needing little time to loosen up as lofted three of his first nine deliveries for six and though he was out looking for a fourth, well caught at deep mid-wicket, Lancashire were ahead of the game at 55 for 1 after the powerplay, even though the Steelbacks dragged the rate back a little in overs five and six.

The torrent of boundaries had dwindled to a trickle as Lightning reach the halfway point at 83 for 1 after some largely tidy work by Graeme White and Keogh but Davies and Croft were content with ones and twos with wickets in hand and the scoring ahead of the required rate.

Davies took advantage of a couple of loose deliveries from White to raise his boundary count to eight as he passed 50 in 38 balls before Faheem Ashraf checked Lancashire's progress a little by yorking Croft in an excellent over that went for just two singles.

But Davies continued to play splendidly, rarely passing up the opportunity for an easy boundary that came his way all too often and never keen to settle for singles if a two was available as the target came down to 34 off the last five.

By now, the Steelbacks' heads had dropped as Vilas warmed to the task and chopped Sanderson away twice through the offside before the game ended in a manner that aptly reflected the crumbling nature of the home side's cricket as Vilas swatted away a Nathan Buck full toss which Wakely's misfield at deep backward square turned into the winning boundary.

The Committee of Administrators (CoA) has appointed the Cricket Association of Uttarakhand (CAU) as the representative body to run cricket in the state, ending a long-standing dispute in which four different associations (later three, with two of them merging) had pushed their claims to be in charge.

The CoA order on August 13 came after it constituted an Affiliation Committee, consisting of Saba Karim, the BCCI general manger, and Anshuman Gaekwad. On the basis of their report, the CoA determined that CAU was the best placed to take charge of cricket affairs. The CAU will have to comply with the Supreme Court judgment of August 9, 2018, and file a compliance certificate with the CoA, appoint an electoral officer, and conduct elections in accordance with the approved constitution on or before September 14.

With the infighting among associations, the BCCI had constituted a Uttarakhand Cricket Consensus Committee headed by Ratnakar Shetty to run cricket affairs in the state last year, when Uttarakhand made its debut in domestic cricket. The players did exceptionally well on the field, not losing a single game in the Plate Group and qualifying for the quarter-finals, where they lost to eventual champions Vidarbha. Their showing earned them a promotion, and they will be in Group C this year.

The four associations who each staked claim for BCCI recognition were United Cricket Association (UTCA), Uttaranchal Cricket Association (UCA) and Uttarakhand Cricket Association (UKCA), apart from the CAU. In September 2017, UTCA merged with CAU, making it a three-horse race. That was narrowed to two associations - UCA and CAU - with the CoA stating that the documents provided by UKCA to the Affiliate Committee proved "grossly inadequate" to make a fair assessment of the association's ability to run cricket in the state. The CoA also said the infighting within UKCA showed that promoting cricket appeared to be a "secondary objective" for UKCA.

While the Affiliation Committee did not make any recommendation between the two remaining associations (UCA and CAU), the CoA leaned towards CAU due to their superior revenue generation. The CAU's aggregate revenue from the financial years 2005-06 to 2017-18 was INR 25,980,456, while that of UCA was only INR 1,084,028. The CoA found this to be a significant difference in the ability of both associations to carry out cricketing activities in the state, and awarded membership to CAU.

However, the CoA also noted that as per the report prepared by Karim and Gaekwad, UCA had much better administrative infrastructure, more professional management, better connect with former cricketers, and had their documents in order - all of which were lacking in CAU.