Category Sports News

Rudi Johnson, a former Cincinnati Bengals running back, passed away at the age of 45.

Johnson, who was selected in the fourth round of the 2001 NFL Draft, helped the Bengals break the franchise’s single-season record with 1,458 rushing yards in 2005 by setting a franchise record with his seven seasons.

He made his NFL debut with 5, 979 rushing yards and 51 touchdowns in 2008, and he made his NFL debut for one more season with the Detroit Lions.

Johnson was a “fine person and an excellent running back for us,” according to Bengals president Mike Brown.

He continued, “He was very popular among his team-mates and reliable as a player.” Everyone admired him and referred to him as a close friend. His passing has deeply sadden us.

Noni Madueke’s knee injury, which was sustained in Arsenal’s 1-1 draw with Manchester City on Sunday, will cause him to miss six to eight weeks.

However, it is not believed that the England winger, 23, had an ACL injury.

The Chelsea summer signing has been going through tests to determine the extent of the problem, having been replaced at half-time of the Premier League game against City.

Noni appears to be out for a few weeks, but we won’t know for sure until next week, according to Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta on Tuesday.

Let’s see if he felt something at the start of the match and attempted to continue but it was too sore.

When pressed to say whether Madueke would be missed for weeks or months, Arteta said, “We hope so. We need to scan him once more to determine the extent of the injury, as I previously mentioned, but it doesn’t look all that bad.

On Wednesday, Arsenal will face Port Vale in the third round of the Carabao Cup.

According to sources, doctors were anticipating a temporary improvement in the swelling before making a diagnosis of the injury, but it is now believed that Madueke will be sidelined for at least six weeks, despite the assumption that this will be the best-case scenario.

Given Madueke’s promising start to the season, the news has dealt Arteta and England head coach Thomas Tuchel a major blow.

Madueke will miss a number of important domestic and international games for the Gunners if the initial forecast is confirmed, which would preclude him from playing until at least November.

The attacker is expected to miss England’s upcoming games against Wales and Latvia, but he is also expected to miss Serbia and Albania’s mid-November World Cup qualifiers.

After the home draw with City, Arteta received criticism for his prudent play, with Martin Zubimendi, Declan Rice, and Mikel Merino forforming a midfield trio with the signing of summer signing Eberechi Eze on the bench.

According to Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher, the Spaniard shares traits with former Liverpool managers Gerard Houllier and Rafa Benitez, who he played under, and that Arsenal may sometimes have the same “handbrake on” mindset as the ex-Reds bosses.

Arteta responded, “I don’t read it, but if you tell me that this is the main narrative], I’m surprised because I know how to analyze a football game,” and I’m not surprised.

Because it was impossible for anyone to foresee such a dominance from Arsenal throughout the 96 minutes, Pep Guardiola never did it under his leadership.

What word was used to describe the word “so if the story goes somewhere else and we’re talking about dominance, how can you be dominant against such a team if you have?” a handbrake

So far, so good.

If at any point in the past year England had been offered the Ashes squad they were able to name on Tuesday, they would have played an extra 18 holes to celebrate.

Moves to assemble this group of players started in the summer of 2024. This will be England’s first James Andersonless Ashes tour in more than 20 years. No matter how great a bowler he has been, the absence of an Anderson-style bowler is a sign England’s plan has come together.

Too often England have arrived at an Australian gunfight armed only with knives.

Now, Mark Wood, Jofra Archer, Josh Tongue, Gus Atkinson, Brydon Carse, Matthew Potts and Ben Stokes can fight fire with fire. It is probably the most hostile group of fast bowlers England have sent down under since John Snow and Bob Willis were at the forefront of victory in 1970-71, the last time England beat a strong Australia team in Australia.

The first Test on a spicy Perth pitch, then the pink-ball Test in Brisbane will not be for the faint-hearted. England might not opt for a spinner in either and will hope to unleash Wood and Archer together in Perth at least.

England say Stokes will recover from his shoulder injury by 21 November, but there will be huge concern over the talismanic skipper’s ability to get through the whole series – he has not played a full part in any of England’s past four.

Without Stokes, chances of returning with the urn dwindle to almost nothing. Protecting the captain could be another reason to play four frontline seamers in Perth.

The case of Wood is a curious one. The fastest bowler in the world has not played a Test since last August because of elbow and knee injuries. A comeback has been gradually pushed back to the point where he has not played at all this summer. Wood states he is best when fresh and there is a body of evidence to support his theory. He will certainly be fresh in Perth.

Stokes and Wood are the only two bowlers in the squad that have played a Test in Australia – overall only five players survive from the previous tour four years ago, a churn that is to be expected when England’s record down under is so wretched.

There are arguably questions about the durability of the entire attack, as all of Archer, Atkinson, Carse and Tongue have had injury problems in the recent past. It was ever thus. Fast bowling is hard work. Archer, the trump card, has shown a recent robustness. It is a collective England could only have imagined in their wildest dreams.

Will Jacks’ inclusion as the cover for Shoaib Bashir perhaps reveals the part, or lack of it, spin will play in the series.

Jacks is a batting all-rounder who played two Tests three years ago and has taken only five first-class wickets this year. In being a tall off-spinner, he mimics the qualities of Bashir and the multi-dimensional aspects of his game give England options. He could, for example, cover for an injured Stokes and still allow for the inclusion of four seamers.

Harry Brook’s elevation to vice-captain was foreshadowed by coach Brendon McCullum more than a week ago. Though entirely logical given Brook is Stokes’ most likely successor as Test captain, it is a blow for Ollie Pope, who now has less to protect him from the challenge of Jacob Bethell.

The Pope-Bethell debate could rumble all the way to Perth, mainly because England missed the opportunity to put it to bed in the summer. They know nothing more about either man than they did in April – Pope missed his chance to nail down the spot and Bethell barely played.

Pope has a career Test average of 35 and almost matched that with 34 in the five home Tests against India. If he does the same against Australia, it would be perfectly adequate.

The rest of the batting line-up is England’s strength. They have pumped coins into the Zak Crawley fruit machine in the hope he pays out in Australia and Ben Duckett is among the premier openers in the world.

Brook has the ability to play a defining role and Jamie Smith’s challenge is to stay the course after fading against India, his first five-Test series as a wicketkeeper.

As usual, plenty will depend on Joe Root, who will have to cope with the noise of not possessing a Test hundred in Australia until he finally has one. In Root’s defence, on his first tour he was a rookie exposed to a rampaging Mitchell Johnson, and in his next two he was an over-worked captain.

He will arrive in Australia unburdened of leadership, totally at ease with his game and unquestionably the best batter in the world.

Australia legend Matthew Hayden has promised to walk around the Melbourne Cricket Ground naked if Root does not make a century. That leaves pressure on Root, because no one needs to see Haydos striding around the ‘G wearing only his cowboy hat.

Much will be made of England’s preparation, or lack of it, playing only one red-ball match against the Lions before the first Test.

The low-key approach has served Stokes and McCullum well. England have won the first Test in all of the five away tours in the Bazball era. Finishing has been the problem – they have lost the last Test in four of those five trips. The plan in Australia must be to get ahead, then hold on.

England could be helped by the questions hanging over the Australians. The early rounds of the Sheffield Shield will be used to identify a top three, while there are huge worries over Pat Cummins’ back injury. The Ashes could be decided by which captains’ body breaks first.

This could be the last Ashes series for all of Steve Smith, Usman Khawaja, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc. The mood of a potential Sydney farewell will be dictated by the destination of the urn.

As for England, who knows what might happen after the Ashes? It could be Bazball’s finest hour or failure of a finale. Depending on the result and fitness there are some, Stokes included, who may not pull on the Three Lions again.

So, there we have it. Sixteen men charged with bringing the urn home. A captain born in New Zealand, fast bowlers from Barbados, South Africa and Ashington. A public-school opening pair, a middle-order forged in Yorkshire and a spinner discovered on social media.

November

13-15 v England Lions, Perth (Lilac Hill)

21-25 1st Test, Perth (Optus Stadium) (02:30 GMT)

29-30 v Prime Minister’s XI, Canberra

December

4-8 2nd Test, Brisbane (d/n) (04:30 GMT)

17-21 3rd Test, Adelaide (00:00 GMT)

26-30 4th Test, Melbourne (23:30 GMT, 25-29 Dec)

January

Asia Cup, Super Four, Abu Dhabi

Sri Lanka 133-8 (20 overs): Kamindu 50 (44); Shaheen 3-28

Pakistan 138-5 (18 overs): Nawaz 38 (24), Talat 32 (30)

Pakistan won by five wickets with 12 balls remaining

Pakistan boosted their hopes of reaching the Asia Cup final by edging to a five-wicket victory against Sri Lanka in Abu Dhabi.

After their disappointing and controversial defeats by rivals India, Pakistan slipped to 80-5 in pursuit of 134 before a partnership of 58 between Hussain Talat and Mohammad Nawaz rescued them.

Needing 46 from 40 balls, Nawaz hit Wanindu Hasaranga, who had 2-5 after his first two overs, for back-to-back boundaries and when the leg-spinner returned to bowl the 17th over Talat struck another two fours.

That swung the equation from 26 runs needed from 24 balls, to 14 from 18, and left-hander Nawaz added three more sixes to seal victory with two overs to spare.

Nawaz finished 38 not out, with Talat unbeaten on 32.

While Pakistan would not have been eliminated with defeat, they would have needed a series of other results to go their way – the situation now facing Sri Lanka.

They had earlier done well to restrict Sri Lanka to 133-8, with left-armer Shaheen Afridi taking 3-28.

Sri Lanka took 53 runs from the powerplay but lost three wickets in doing so and were 58-5 when Charith Asalanka and Dasun Shanaka fell in consecutive deliveries in the eighth over.

Kamindu Mendis led a recovery with 50 but he was pinned in front in the penultimate over by Shaheen – who had earlier dismissed Kusal Mendis with the second ball of the match – denying Sri Lanka a big finish.

India and Bangladesh, who both won their opening Super Four games, meet in Dubai on Wednesday.

2025 Ryder Cup

Venue: Bethpage Black, New York Dates: 26-28 September

The pairings for Friday’s opening Ryder Cup matches will be announced at 21:00 BST on Thursday despite the opening ceremony being moved to Wednesday because of the threat of inclement weather in New York.

Storms are forecast to hit Bethpage Black around the same time as the traditional curtain-raiser, so organisers are taking no chances of the event being interrupted.

An hour-long pre-show will now begin at 20:00 on Wednesday, with the ceremony, which will see both teams formally introduced, following that.

Usually, both captains reveal their pairings for Friday morning’s opening matches during the ceremony.

Ex-Liverpool player Natasha Dowie reflected on the influence her former manager had on her career and said Matt Beard “made you feel like the best football player in the world.”

Few players were as close to Dowie as they were to Beard, who passed away on Saturday at age 47.

Before eventually reuniting with the Reds again in a loan spell before calling it quits her career in September 2023, the former England striker joined the Beard on four separate occasions, moving from Charlton Athletic to Liverpool and the Boston Breakers.

He understood that I would run through a brick wall for him and that I would do the same. Because he was the kind of manager that made you feel that way, I would do anything for him.

Dowie was a member of Beard’s Liverpool team that won back-to-back Women’s Super League titles in 2013 and 2014, putting an end to Arsenal’s nine-year dominance of women’s soccer.

Anyone who had played under Beard would have said he was one of the best managers they had ever worked with and that those two years “were the best of my life.”

Dowie will remember him as a pioneer who “always did it for the love of the game.”

The 37-year-old continued, “It wasn’t long ago, three years ago, when I was playing at Liverpool that Beardy was watering the pitches at Tranmere.”

That’s what I admired most about him. He never attempted to fit in with the situation and try to be a different person. He never attempted to do so. He was referred to as old-fashioned. He was simply Beardy, not him.

Before each Sunday’s WSL and WSL2 games, there was a minute’s silence before kickoff.

Before Liverpool’s men’s side played Southampton on Tuesday in the third round of the Carabao Cup at Anfield and Burnley, where Beard had most recently been manager, other tributes were held.

Former Germany international Julia Simic, who now coaches the West Ham youth team and trains with Eintracht Frankfurt, wants to apply what she learned from Beard to her own methods.

According to Simic, “Matthew’s strongest arm was the player management,” the consideration he gave to everyone. There are many ways to become a good manager, including developing the best environment, managing effectively, and being tactically very strong.

Simic, 36, fondly recalls her time working for Beard, particularly when they reached the Women’s FA Cup final together in 2019.

She said, “I remember him saying he wanted us to reach the FA Cup final when we were sitting in front of our brand-new team.”

We ultimately made it to Wembley and faced Manchester City as the only underdogs. We lost the final, but after speaking with him, I asked, “Matt, why didn’t we win?” and he responded, “I made a mistake because I said we wanted to win the final, but I didn’t say we wanted to win the final.”

“The journey was finished or the goal was reached with us being in the final.” He was always trying to please himself by demanding everything from us and himself.