The Guardian

Saints have fallen a long way since being crowned world champions in 2023 with coach vowing to fix things With the midway point of the Super League season now passed the pressure is rising across the competition – but few, if any, clubs have the burden of expectation and history weighing upon them quite like St Helens. This midsummer afternoon’s waltz in the sunshine against a woeful Huddersfield…

Chelsea defender has mad scramble for boots and cuts short holiday after belatedly receiving the message of a lifetime from Thomas Tuchel Trevoh Chalobah has always thought he would be part of an England World Cup squad. In July 2018, the Chelsea centre‑half even put it on the record. “One day … believe,” he posted on social media, alongside a picture of the World Cup trophy. He was 19 and had ju…

The goalkeeper’s 59th-minute save left mouths agape but it’s not the first time he has created an indelible moment for the team As they prepared for the future, the Iran national team looked to its past. Before Sunday’s matchup against a No 9-ranked Belgium with plenty of stars, the team was played a motivational video; a clip containing what midfielder Alireza Jahanbakhsh said were the indelible…

Former world No 4 backs best man at his wedding to reignite Raducanu and hopes to entice Jannik Sinner to join Team Europe at the O2 “Tennis is in a good place, but I think it could be better,” says Tim Henman when asked about the state of the sport that has consumed most of his life. He will soon outline ways tennis could be improved but, first, it helps to remember that the 51-year-old played i…

Czech’s audacious defiance of Sepp Maier in Belgrade has slipped into football folklore: ‘The only disadvantage is that I don’t get any royalties from it’ Antonin Panenka laughs like a bear might, a low rumble, suggesting mischief among the memories. He is sat in an office at Bohemians football club in Prague, recounting the story of his impudent, revolutionary penalty that not only won the 1976 …

Nobody wants more stoppages in the game but it allows us, whether on TV or the touchline, to analyse what we see In the NFL or NBA, a head coach can sometimes affect momentum in the game during a timeout. Even as a head coach in American football you get three timeouts per half. In most cases in soccer, players have to problem-solve and think on their feet. I’m not a fan of the hydration breaks t…

Caluori, Fisilau, Janse van Rensburg, Sela, Kloska selected Fin Smith says he had to ‘fake’ confidence after Lions tour At some stage there will be better times ahead for English rugby. They have an encouraging amount of young talent, a decent age profile and another 15 months to develop prior to the 2027 Rugby World Cup. Get it right – and they have a more than promising draw – and the sunlit up…

⚽️ Kick-off: 12pm local/1pm ET/6pm BST/3am Mon AEST ⚽️ Player guide | Bracketology | Golden Boot | Mail Dominic Romano Schmid may not have been a name familiar to many outside Austria and Germany before this World Cup, but he got his nation’s tournament off to an eye-catching start with a stellar strike from distance against Jordan. He starts on the right-wing today. Swot up on Austria before the…

There are twice as many teams from Caf at this World Cup than in 2022, but their results so far have been hit and miss • Predict the winner | Daily podcast | Download our app On Monday evening local time at New York New Jersey Stadium, Senegal will face Norway in a game that is not only crucial in terms of who qualifies from Group I, but will go a long way in determining how African performance a…

Miguel Almirón’s dismissal was unusual but there’s nothing new about players losing their cool on the biggest stage After a fairly pedestrian first half of the opening match of the 2026 World Cup , the game burst into life in the second period. South Africa midfielder Sphephelo Sithole, who had been at fault for Mexico’s opening goal, compounded his error by being sent off in the 49th minute for …

Mohamed Salah inspired Egypt to their first ever World Cup win as they came from a goal down to beat New Zealand 3-1 with a superb second-half display, moving top of Group G and boosting their hopes of reaching the knockout stage. After a relatively quiet first half in which New Zealand took the lead in the 15th minute, Egypt and Salah turned up the heat in the second period as the 34-year-old fo…

‘No compelling justification’ for not submitting a sample ‘Unpredictable testing is essential to protect clean sport’ The 2023 Wimbledon singles champion Marketa Vondrousova has been suspended from tennis for four years for refusing an anti-doping test. An independent tribunal concluded that there was “no compelling justification” for the 26-year-old Czech to have not submitted a sample when noti…

The major winner has rebuilt both his swing and confidence and learned to function without the approval of the masses On the evening before he won the US Open for a second time in four years, Wyndham Clark marched up the 18th fairway at Shinnecock Hills to put the finishing touches on a third round that would leave him six shots clear of the field. He had spent the past three days patiently defan…

People understand gender differently, and I was taught to respect all ideas. But the vitriol I recently experienced was not a healthy debate For as long as I can remember, I have known I am a girl. That certainty is as instinctive as knowing I am right-handed. It is difficult to explain to someone who has never been transgender or loved someone who is, but I have never lived this way to gain an a…

With Stokes now 35, the ECB needs to identify rising talents with the capacity to be serious people, not just young men having fun with their mates If we learned one thing at the Oval last week, it is that this England team really needs Ben Stokes. So it came as a relief when, a couple of hours after the second Test against New Zealand ended in heavy defeat , he and Gus Atkinson were exonerated b…