The Guardian

Australia ramp up World Cup preparations with 1-0 victory Ajdin Hrustic has penalty saved after dour first half in Sydney Childhood fans of the venerable Fifa Series (making its debut in Sydney) will not remember the Socceroos 1-0 win over Cameroon as a classic of the genre. It will go down as a game decided when Jordy Bos’ quick wits in the 86th minute allowed him to seize upon a Paul Okon-Engst…

78-year-old replaces Gerhard Struber for rest of season Hodgson last managed second-tier club back in 1982 Roy Hodgson has made a sensational return to management at the age of 78 with Bristol City after Gerhard Struber was sacked by the Championship club. Hodgson, who has been out of work since leaving Crystal Palace in February 2024, will take charge of City for the remaining seven games of the…

The minnows just need to win a playoff against Turkey at home to complete a qualification campaign that has become a rallying cry for national pride They are a World Cup fairytale, a footballing nation barely a decade old with fewer people than South Australia. A Balkan West Virginia, but with a fraction of the area, and a checkered past. Minnows Kosovo are just one game away from their first app…

CEO of a merged team in a US men’s competition shrunk to just six, the ex-Wallaby hooker is still at the sharp end – right where he likes to be One day in March 2012, Adam Freier sat down to write a column for the Sydney Morning Herald. His Melbourne Rebels were on a losing streak and though he had 25 caps at hooker including a World Cup campaign for Australia, he was nearly 32 and staring at the…

Critics say new IOC guidelines violate fundamental human rights AOC backs new rules but accepts issue is ‘challenging and complex’ Over 100 human rights, sports and scientific groups , including the United Nations , have criticised the International Olympic Committee’s new gender eligibility guidelines as “a blunt and discriminatory response that is not supported by science and violates internati…

Sarah Strong has the most jump-off-the-page talent in the women’s game since Caitlin Clark, and UConn greats say she could be the best of them Former WNBA All-Star turned Boston Celtics executive Allison Feaster was recently asked about the differences between high-level female and male hoopers. “This is a very basic example,” the Celtics’ vice-president of team operations and organizational grow…

Five-times Ashes winner has since had a varied coaching career and believes the red ball is still fundamental to the modern player It’s a sunny spring afternoon, a new season looms, and just a short stroll down the road from Knowle & Dorridge Cricket Club, Ian Bell is in his local stressing the importance of County Championship runs. One of the purest Test batters England has produced this centur…

Flamboyant Briton won his first and only world championship in dramatic fashion in Japan in the last race of the 1976 season Niki Lauda once described James Hunt as “one of my few real friends in racing”, the great rivals sharing a genuine bond even as they fought fiercely for the Formula One world championship in 1976. Its destination was decided at the Japanese Grand Prix – where the sport head…

⚽ All the latest football news going into the weekend ⚽ Results and reports | Today’s matches | Mail Luke A familiar tale of World Cup playoff agony awaited the Republic of Ireland in Prague, but this was no hard luck story. Heimir Hallgrímsson’s team twice had the Czech Republic where they wanted them, in normal time and in a penalty shootout, and twice they let them off the hook. Dreams of a fi…

Former England captain seeks inspiration from the pioneering Kevin Pietersen as he heads a 12-strong contingent of compatriots in 2026’s tournament “I will always be grateful for what the IPL gave me,” Kevin Pietersen tells Jos Buttler. “ It gave me a lot of controversy, I earned a lot of money, but it also saved my career because I made trusting relationships that I was able to call upon to give…

The US legend declined a $25,000 offer from shoe firm Clarks to meet the cream of England’s juniors The nine-round Reykjavik Open, which began on Wednesday afternoon at the Harpa Conference Centre and which continued with two rounds on Thursday, is an iconic event. It was first played as an all-play-all in 1964, when Mikhail Tal won, and is close to the Hotel Reykjavik Natura, formerly the Hotel …

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Hawkeyes had already beaten No 1 Florida Alvaro Folgueiras shines again for Iowa No 11 Texas almost shock No 2 Purdue Alvaro Folgueiras converted a critical three-point play when Nebraska only had four defenders on the floor, and ninth-seeded Iowa continued their unpredictable NCAA Tournament run under first-year coach Ben McCollum, beating Nebraska 77-71 in the Sweet Sixteen on Thursday night. B…

Sign up now! Sign up now! Sign up now? Sign up now! It’s Geopolitics World Cup playoff day, dear reader, and Gibraltar are playing Latvia in a winner-takes-all clash. Sadly, for football romantics, that game is the first leg of a Nations League promotion/relegation playoff. Uefa’s scheduling feels a bit cruel, like making some poor flunky do the graveyard shift while Bacchanalia Revisited takes p…

Player says parents paid for their own expenses Daniel and Lisa Bohm deny any wrongdoing Philadelphia Phillies third baseman Alec Bohm has sued his parents for millions of dollars, accusing them of siphoning large amounts of his money into financial accounts they managed for him and then using some of the cash to pay their own expenses. Bohm’s lawsuit, filed on Wednesday in a Philadelphia court, …