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“What we’re trying to create at Liverpool, and it’s going to take a little while, is to have the best pressing team in Europe.”The statement is deliberately bold from Gareth Taylor. It’s prefaced with all the usual caveats: time, investment, the right recruitment decisions. But the new Reds boss is clear in his intention to transform Liverpool. This will not be an easy task. Taylor lost his first two Women’s Super League matches in charge while shipping five goals – as Manchester City head coach it took the Englishman 24 league games to suffer multiple defeats. And trying to embed…

Bill ConnellySep 19, 2025, 07:00 AM ETCloseBill Connelly is a writer for ESPN. He covers college football, soccer and tennis. He has been at ESPN since 2019.One of the lessons we learned in last season’s Champions League league phase was that there’s little sense in playing for draws. Twenty-six teams won at least three of their eight matches, and 24 advanced. Feyenoord lost by scores of 4-0 and 6-1, but advanced with three wins. Club Brugge lost by scores of 3-0, 3-1 and 3-1 and advanced. Hell, three wins for Dinamo Zagreb damn near overcame a 9-2 first-matchday loss to…

Sep 19, 2025, 06:54 AM ETJoão Pedro said his partnership with Chelsea teammate Cole Palmer is working and hopes it continues to flourish.Palmer and Pedro were two of Chelsea’s standout players at the FIFA Club World Cup, scoring three goals each to help their team lift the trophy.Pedro, who joined Chelsea this summer from Brighton & Hove Albion, has scored two league goals and has three assists, including setting up Palmer in Saturday’s 2-2 league draw at Brentford.”Cole is a very different player because he thinks very fast,” Pedro told ESPN Brasil. “He manages to make decisions that we often…

The problem with Islam, a Hindu classical musician in India once quipped, was “that it has downgraded music”.  Devout Muslim and maestro of the north Indian oboe, Ustad Bismillah Khan, responded with a twinkle in his eye.  “As you know, most of the best classical musicians of north India are Muslims,” Khan said. “Can you imagine what would have happened if Islam had upgraded music?” All of those present, Hindu and Muslim alike, roared with laughter. Islam’s complex relationship with music has greatly influenced the art form in South Asia. It helped shape the music industry in India, but in neighbouring Pakistan it has…

It’s usually not until December or January and after a series of tumbles, twisted knees, torn ACLs and worse that the debate over safety in World Cup skiing becomes an annual topic.Not this season.The death of Italian skier Matteo Franzoso this week following a crash in preseason training in Chile has resurfaced concerns over how to limit risks in the high-speed sport more than a month before the racing even starts.The debate also comes less than five months before the Milan-Cortina Olympics.Franzoso, who was 25, became the third rising Italian skier to die in less than a year.Matilde Lorenzi, who…

Sep 19, 2025, 06:35 AM ETWomen’s Champions League holders Arsenal will take on OL Lyonnes and Bayern Munich in the league phase of this year’s competition, while Chelsea have been drawn against Barcelona and Wolfsburg.The new format for the competition follows the same system as the men’s, albeit with fewer teams. Eighteen clubs were drawn to play six games each — three at home and three away — with two opponents drawn from each of the three six-team pots, which were ranked by UEFA club coefficient.Disney+ becomes new home of Women’s Champions League in EuropeDisney+ will be the only place…

GÜIRIA, Venezuela (AP) — On Venezuela’s Paria Peninsula, an idyllic stretch of Caribbean coast, it is an open secret that boats departing from its ports transport both drugs and fish.Residents claim not to know who owns the illegal cargo, but they can tell when business is doing well because people eat out, get their hair and nails done and buy expensive meat. They also admit that none of this has happened since the U.S. military struck on one of those boats earlier this month.Few details are known about the deadly Sept. 2 strike on a boat the Trump administration claims…

Barcelona have announced their Champions League game against Paris Saint-Germain will be played at the Olympic Stadium as uncertainty persists regarding their return to Spotify Camp Nou.Barça have opened the LaLiga season at the 6,000-capacity Estadi Johan Cruyff and will host Getafe there on Sunday.They have still not officially ruled out a return to Camp Nou, which is undergoing a €1.5 billion ($1.76bn) refurbishment, against Real Sociedad on Sept. 28, but will definitely not face PSG there three days later.”Barcelona announce that the second match of the Champions League group stage, scheduled for Oct. 1 against Paris Saint-Germain, will be…

ATLANTA (AP) — Access to COVID-19 shots is the big question as Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s new vaccine advisers meet again Friday, after putting off a controversial vote on a different vaccine for newborns.People in many states already are reporting frustration as they they try to determine, or prove, if they qualify for updated COVID-19 vaccines — even as infections have climbed over the past month.The Food and Drug Administration recently put new restrictions on this year’s shots from Pfizer, Moderna and Novavax, reserving them for people over 65 or younger ones who are deemed at higher risk…

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Treasury Department is moving closer to making President Donald Trump’s “ no tax on tips ” promise a reality. But new guidance released Friday tends to limit the number of tipped workers who will be able to claim the benefit. The agency on Friday submitted proposed regulations to the Federal Register that includes greater detail on the occupations covered by the rule and who will qualify and what counts as a “qualified tip.”The “no tax on tips” provision in Republicans’ massive tax and spending law signed by Trump in July eliminates federal income taxes on tips…