World Cup injury fears steal Premier League spotlight

November 13, 2022

 With the World Cup just days away, the Premier League pauses after this weekend's action, leaving international managers a bag of nerves as they anxiously await fitness reports on their stars.


However, there is still plenty at stake for top-flight teams before their players jet off to Qatar, with Newcastle hoping to consolidate their position in the top four and Arsenal eyeing title reinforcements.

All eyes will be on fitness bulletins from across the Premier League in the last matches before the World Cup shutdown.

Playing the World Cup in the middle of the domestic season for the first time has drastically increased the fear factor over injuries, with good reason.

To make space for the World Cup, which starts on November 20, the group stages of European club competitions were squeezed into a two-month period.

As a result, many clubs will have played 13 times in 42 days before the World Cup, stretching already fatigued players to breaking point.


Chelsea trio N'Golo Kante, Reece James, Ben Chilwell and Liverpool duo Diogo Jota and Arthur Melo are among the Premier League players who will miss the World Cup due to injuries.

Tottenham's Son Heung-min, Manchester United's Raphael Varane and Manchester City pair Kyle Walker and Kalvin Phillips are heading to Qatar despite lingering fitness issues.

With injury concerns mounting, England manager Gareth Southgate must have been especially worried to hear Tottenham manager Antonio Conte admit Harry Kane is "really tired" after his star striker was substituted during a midweek League Cup loss at Nottingham Forest.

No wonder World Cup managers with players in action this weekend will be watching through their fingers whenever one of them takes a tumble.

Newcastle ride momentum

Riding high in third place, Newcastle might lament the World Cup break more than most as they step up their bid to qualify for next season's Champions League.

Eddie Howe's side maintained their momentum on Wednesday when Nick Pope's penalty shoot-out heroics sealed a League Cup third round win against Crystal Palace.

A St James' Park record League Cup crowd of 51,660 watched as Newcastle's extended their unbeaten run in all competitions to 10 games ahead of Saturday's fascinating clash with top four rivals Chelsea on Tyneside.

Funded by their Saudi owners, Newcastle are primed to muscle their way into the Premier League elite and Pope said: "You see the optimism around the club, selling out a third-round cup tie.

"The way the team is playing at the moment it was important for us to carry our momentum forward and have the next round to look forward to."

Arteta eyes January window

Mikel Arteta admits Arsenal could add to their "short squad" in the January transfer window after the Premier League leaders crashed out of the League Cup against Brighton.

Arteta made 10 changes from Arsenal's 1-0 win at Chelsea in the Premier League on Sunday, and the lack of depth in his squad was laid bare as Brighton romped to a 3-1 victory at the Emirates Stadium.

Although Arsenal are two points clear of second placed Manchester City, Arteta believes new recruits may be required in the window to ensure their impressive first half of the season doesn't fizzle out after the World Cup.

"If everyone's available and no one is injured we are okay, but the moment there is, we know what it is. It's nothing new," Arteta said.

"We'll have to discuss the opportunities that we have, the capacity that we have for any changes and be on the market for opportunities. It's a lot of options that are open."

Fixtures (1500 GMT unless stated)

Saturday

Manchester City v Brentford (1230), Bournemouth v Everton, Liverpool v Southampton, Nottingham Forest v Crystal Palace, Tottenham v Leeds, West Ham v Leicester, Newcastle v Chelsea (1730), Wolves v Arsenal (1945)

England beat India by 10 wickets, to face Pakistan in final

November 13, 2022

 India suffered a 10-wicket humiliating defeat at the hands of England in the second semifinal to end their campaign at the T20 World Cup on an embarrassing note in Adelaide on Thursday, report news agencies.


England thus entered the final where they will take on Pakistan at the MCG on Sunday.

Jos Buttler (80) and Alex Hales (86) recorded the highest partnership in the tournament's history as England made 170 without loss.

The pair hunted down the 169 target in impressive fashion to secure a spot in Sunday's final.

Hales got to half a century in 28 balls and ended up hitting seven sixes, while Buttler needed 36 deliveries to get to 50 and rounded off the win by smashing a maximum.

India's innings at the Adelaide Oval saw Hardik Pandya score 63 off 33 balls (including five sizes) as they ended on 168/6. However, it proved too little to set up a game against fierce rivals Pakistan.

England only narrowly made the semi-final after beating Sri Lanka with two balls to spare.


Brief Scores:

India: 168 for 6 in 20 overs (Hardik Pandya 63, Virat Kohli 50; Chris Jordan 3/43, Adil Rashid 1/20).

England: 170 for no loss in 16 overs (Alex Hales 86, Jos Buttler 80; Arshdeep Singh 15/0).

Bangladesh finishes runners-up in SAFF U-15 Women’s Championship

November 13, 2022

 Bangladesh finishes runners-up in SAFF U-15 Women’s Championship

Bangladesh finished runners-up in the SAFF U-15 Women's Championship as they played to a 1-1 goal draw with visiting Nepal in the final league match held today (Friday) at Birshreshtha Shaheed Sepoy Mohammad Mostafa Kamal Stadium in the city’s Kamalapur.   

Nepal goalkeeper Sujata Tamang saved a penalty in the dying minutes of the match as she broke Bangladeshi hearts and helped Nepal to win the first title of their tournament history.

Bangladesh needed full three points to finish ahead of Nepal and win the tournament’s title while Nepal needed to avoid defeat to lift the title while Nepal were needed only a draw to win the title.

Nepal took the lead in the match through Sushila KC’s goal in the 15th minute, but after the breather Bangladesh staged a brilliant fight back as skipper Ruma Akter brought her team back into the game in the 54th minute

Bangladesh produced number of attacks in the remaining proceeding, but they failed to convert any of those into a goal. The home side’s best opportunity came in the 90th minute when referee awarded a spot kick in favor of Bangladesh, but Nepal goalkeeper Sujata Tamang foiled Joynob Bibi Rita's spot kick to help Nepal come away with a point.

Nepal finished the double round-robin tournament with 10 points from four matches. Bangladesh finished second on seven points while Bhutan finished the tournament without securing any point.

Earlier, Bangladesh crushed Bhutan 8-0 in the first leg, but suffered 0-1 defeat to Nepal in their second match.

Bangladesh however bounced back to register a commanding 9-0 drubbing over Bhutan in their third match of the tournament.

On the other hand, Nepal won all three out of their three matches. They thrashed Bhutan 7-0 in the first leg and beat Bangladesh 1-0 in the second match. The Himalaya Kingdom edged past Bhutan 1-0 in their third match of the tournament.

Only three south Asian Nations – Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan -- competed in the tournament.

Bangladesh squad:

Songgita Rani Das, Mahlathui Marma ,Jui Akter, Ritu Akter, Mst Ruma Akter,  Mst Joynob Bibi Rita, Arpita Biswas Arpita, Kanom Akter, Kanon Rani Bahadur,  Aysha Akter, Mst Oeyshi Khatun, Puja Das, Ananna Murmu Bith, Protima Munda, Most Munki Akhter, Nusrat Jahan Mitu, Sree Moti Trishna Rani, Munne, Mst Sultana Akter, Sauravi Akanda Prity, Thuinuye Marma, Umehla Marma And Mst Liva Akter.

FIFA to set up new performance analysis service for World Cup

November 13, 2022

 FIFA will share in-depth match data, graphics and video from every World Cup match in Qatar with all participating teams as well as supporters and media through a new performance analysis service announced on Friday.


The service, led by FIFA's chief of global football development Arsene Wenger and developed by the world governing body's High Performance team, will offer insight on 11 metrics including expected goals, possession control and phases of play, reports Reuters.

"Every match will have its own unique set of in-match and post-match enhanced football intelligence visuals presented as augmented reality and traditional graphics," FIFA said.

"These new statistics break down each area of the game into fine detail and provide operational definitions and multiple video examples to clearly define each action."

FIFA has also set up a specialist coaching website to provide detailed video explanations on each metric.

Former Arsenal manager Wenger said making the data readily available aimed to help "everyone to better understand the game.

"Enhanced football intelligence will be our blueprint for how we analyse football in the future," he added.

"We would like to share our vision of using football data analytics combined with technical expert interpretation to create a new football intelligence.

"My team will continue to provide new and insightful football analysis content to help share new understanding of the game combined with performance data, video examples and technical explanations."

The World Cup kicks off on November 20.

Can South America's giants break Europe's stranglehold on the World Cup?

November 13, 2022

 When Gianni Infantino told a gathering of European football officials in Vienna he hoped the winner of the World Cup came from their continent, the FIFA President quickly stated — with a smile — he adapts the comment to whichever region he’s in.


It’s no laughing matter for the rest of the world.

Seven of the last eight World Cup finalists have come from Europe. Thirteen of the last 16 semifinalists, too, AP reports.

Only three non-European nations — Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay — have reached the World Cup final. Uruguay hasn’t played in the title match since 1950.

And only two non-European nations other than Brazil and Argentina have reached the semifinals since 1970 — South Korea in 2002 and Uruguay in 2010.

No African country has ever gotten to the last four — in part because of Luis Suárez’s last-minute, goal-line handball for Uruguay to deny Ghana in the 2010 quarterfinals — and nobody from North America since the United States in the first World Cup in 1930.

Nations from around the world are invited to the party but, really, it’s mostly the Europeans staying until the end.

“You want the World Cup to be a world tournament,” football author Jonathan Wilson said. “Ideally you’d have a team from every confederation in the quarterfinals.

“You want the best teams, but you want the best teams to come from as many different places as possible. This is a global sport. If it becomes entirely focused on a rich pocket of western Europe, that’s boring for everybody.”

Wilson puts the recent European dominance down to the continent’s top football nations pumping lots of money and resources into the development of young players — what he calls an “industrialization of youth production,” starting with France at its national football centre in the 1990s. That was followed by the likes of Germany, Spain and most recently England doing the same.

These young players are then exposed to their own football leagues, which are the strongest and richest in the world.

“You have the best facilities, the best teachers, the best people to learn from,” Wilson told The Associated Press. “Then you are testing yourself against the best.”

The only nation to have prevented a European triumph at a World Cup since 1994 was Brazil in 2002. Brazil’s coach that year, Luiz Felipe Scolari, said he had a “spectacular generation” — remember its storied front three of Ronaldo, Rivaldo and Ronaldinho? — and that European nations are now producing better players than before, having studied the 1958 Brazil team which earned the country the first of its record five titles.

Speaking to the AP, Scolari said the current European domination is a “phase” which could be ended by Brazil in Qatar or, maybe, in 2026.

After all, Brazil will enter the World Cup as the top-ranked team, undefeated in South American qualifying and with only five losses in 76 matches under coach Tite.

“This class of 2022 is great,” Scolari said. “If we don’t win now, we can do it in 2026 with one of the best teams.

“These kids playing now might give the result we expect but you can’t pressure them to give everything. Maybe in four years, we can because then … they will hit the pinnacle at age 26, 27.”

Typically, it’s Argentina, ranked No. 3 by FIFA and a two-time World Cup champion, rivalling Brazil as the most likely winner from outside Europe. And that should again be the case in Qatar.

While Europe’s best have been struggling — England is winless in six games, France and Germany have won only one of their last six games, Italy hasn’t even qualified — Argentina has gone 35 games unbeaten under Lionel Scaloni, who has a well-balanced team with more than just a slew of star attackers led by Lionel Messi.

There’s a caveat, though. The introduction of UEFA’s Nations League — and, to a certain extent, the impact of COVID-19 — has meant top European teams go head-to-head more often and rarely face Brazil and Argentina.

Only one such game stands out since the 2018 World Cup: the Finalissima, a newly devised match between the European champions and Copa America winners that saw Argentina beat Italy 3-0 in London in June.

Argentina has played three European teams since the last World Cup. Brazil only one.

“It’s pretty hard to get a true read on them,” said Wilson, whose books include “Angels With Dirty Faces: The Footballing History of Argentina.” “It might not be the worst thing that they go into this tournament with confidence, without a sense of inferiority.”

Take away Brazil and Argentina, and it’s hard to look beyond another winner from Europe, which has the other 10 teams in the top 12 of the FIFA rankings and 13 of the 32 nations in Qatar.

There’s even greater depth to the European challenge these days, too, with nations like 2018 World Cup finalist Croatia, Euro 2020 semifinalist Denmark and Switzerland as consistent and hard to beat as the traditional heavyweights, with more of their players sprinkled around Europe’s top clubs.

As for African teams, whose World Cup challenge is fronted by African Cup of Nations champion Senegal, they still seem to be held back by a lack of resources off the field more than a lack of talent on it.

 “(African countries) have so many players playing in Europe at good teams now, I think they should perform better than they do,” Lars Lagerback, who coached Nigeria at the 2010 World Cup, told the AP. “There’s a lot of challenges, so many people involved around the logistics and everything.

“They have the players with the individual skills but you have to have everything around it.”

And that, ultimately, is where Europe has the edge.

MCG gears up for repeat of classic ENG v PAK final

November 13, 2022

 It was more than 30 years ago now, but the 1992 ICC ODI World Cup was an iconic sporting event, most notably for being the first of the five World Cups till then to feature coloured clothing and day/night matches under lights.


It was also the first to be held Down Under, and it ended with Imran Khan leading Pakistan to their first World Cup victory defeating England at arguably cricket's greatest arena, the Melbourne Cricket Ground, known as the MCG.

Thirty years later, with Australia now hosting the T20 World Cup for the first time, Pakistan are all set to take on England at the same venue aiming for another World Cup title on Sunday.

Pakistan marched to the final beating New Zealand in the semi while England locked the final with them thrashing India.

Both Pakistan and England had some downtime during their Super 12 matches. Pakistan lost two close matches to India and Zimbabwe while England lost to Ireland in rain rules. Despite those hard times, both teams resurrected and are now set to prove their T20 prowess at the biggest stage of the format.

Pakistan were on the verge of elimination, but they got the chance to book a place in the semi when the Netherlands beat South Africa, and then Bangladesh failed to prevent Pakistan from marching to the semi. After overcoming that cut-throat situation, Pakistan managed to beat New Zealand and set up a final against England that brought back the memories of 1992.

England were slightly calm during their matches in the Super 12 compared to their brand of white-ball cricket, but when they came to the semi, they pulled themself together and knocked India out of the World Cup in an outstanding fashion.

Ahead of the final, England are in a better position due to their bowling line up which is full of variation. But it is clear that both teams have a quality pace attack. Sam Curran is leading the charge for England while Shaheen Shah Afridi is playing the same role for Pakistan.

Rain might play spoilsport in the final as the weather forecast has suggested so far. According to the latest update, there is a 90% chance of rain when the match is scheduled to start.

The ICC rules say at least 10-over a side is needed to complete the final on the match day and on a reserve day. If the rain doesn't allow that much play, the trophy will be shared by both teams.

Ahead of this final, England and Pakistan met each other twice in the T20 World Cups and England won on both occasions.

Independence Cup Football begins today

November 13, 2022

 The first round of Independence Cup Football will begin Sunday with two matches are billed for the opening day at two separate venues across the country.


Mohammedan Sporting Club Limited take on Bangladesh Navy Football Club at Bir Flight Lieutenant Matiur Rahman Stadium in Munshiganj while Sheikh Russel Krira Chakra Limited face Fortis Football Club Limited in the second match of the opening day's fixture to be held at Shaheed Dhirendranath Datta Stadium in Cumilla.

Both the matches will kick off at 2:00 pm.

Sixteen teams - eleven teams of Bangladesh Premier League and along Bangladesh Champions league's team Uttara Football Club Limited, Fakirerpool Young Men's Club and BFF Elite Football Academy and services teams Bangladesh Navy and Bangladesh Army - split into four groups, are taking part in the tournament.

Grouping

Group A - Mohammedan Sporting Club Limited, Sheikh Russel Krira Chakra Limited, Fortis Football Club Limited and Bangladesh Navy Football Club.

Group B - Bashundhara Kings, Chittagong Abnahani Limited, Azampur Football Club Uttara and Fakirerpool Young Mens Club.

Group C - Abahani Limited, Dhaka, Bangladesh Muktijoddha Sangsad Krira Chakra Bangladesh Air Force Football team and Uttara Football Club Limited.

Group D - Lieutenant Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club Limited, Bangladesh Football Club Rahmatganj Muslim and Friends Society and BFF Elite Football Academy team
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