Defense Gareth McAuley today claimed West Bromas aBand of Brothersa have impressed his remarkable form as he makes for the chance of more awards. The Northern Ireland global is favourite in my experience named the Baggiesa player of the year on Sunday at Birminghamas ICC when the club maintain their end-of-season dinner. And the centre-back, who was simply named player of the season by the Baggiesa disabled fans membership, says his connection together with his team-mates is responsible. He said: aI want to help keep on experiencing it since playing with these lads is like playing with your partners and you only donat want to allow them down."
Wednesday, June 5, 2013
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson hints at Robert Lewandowski swoop - ESPN.co.uk
Sir Alex Ferguson has suggested Manchester United may yet sign Robert Lewandowski, despite reports the Borussia Dortmund striker is bound for Bayern Munich.
Lewandowski stole the headlines midweek, scoring four goals against Real Madrid in the Champions League semi-finals. The Poland international has become one of the hottest strikers in Europe as a result.
Ferguson believes that, following the announcement that Bayern have signed Mario Gotze for next season, Lewandowski may not be allowed to make the same move, and could instead transfer to Old Trafford.
"If the right player comes along you have to be prepared to make a move," Ferguson said. "I can find room for anybody here as long as they have the required quality.
"I am not sure Lewandowski will be sold to Bayern now. The Dortmund fans are not going to be happy [about the Gotze transfer] and I don't think they will sell to their main rivals.
Bayern, meanwhile, moved to quash reports from Bild that Lewandowski had agreed to terms with the Bundesliga leaders. The club "has no contract with Robert Lewandowski", a statement read.
Hatem Ben Arfa upbeat on Newcastle United future - ChronicleLive
And the French international also feels that United have a team to be envied – when they are able to name a full-strength XI.
And his only frustration now is that the games have run out for the Magpies in what has been a season of trials and tribulations.
However, the ex-Marseille star is confident that if Newcastle retain stars like Yohan Cabaye, Cheick Tiote, Moussa Sissoko, Papiss Cisse and Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa, they can push for a top-six finish in the Premier League again next term.
Ben Arfa – who turned in a good performance against QPR at the weekend and netted a goal from the penalty spot to bag three crucial points – told the Chronicle: "I think when you look at the individual players we already have, there are some fantastic talented players on that list.
"A few new players also came in during January and needed some time. But when we are all together next season we can really do well.
Ben Arfa missed large chunks of the campaign with a hamstring problem that ruled him out at key stages of the season.
But he responded well to an allotted rest period after United's 0-0 draw in Moscow in the Europa League against Anzhi Makhachkala.
A quick glance at Ben Arfa's top-flight stats this season shows he now has four goals and two assists in 18 matches, and it is clear that his absence has been a big factor in Newcastle's struggle.
Now the Frenchman just wants to look forward – and while staving off relegation is hardly a major achievement, the 26-year-old said: "We wanted to stay up and that's all that matters.
Ben Arfa, though, will first be hoping to sign off with a big finish against Arsenal in Sunday's last game of the season.
The finale will take place in front of another full house, and the possibility of finishing 10th in the table is still up for grabs.
Belmont Stakes 2013: Predicting Top 3 Finishers in Triple Crown's Final Leg
In what can be described as nothing short of a stunning display of dominance, Oxbow led from start to finish en route to a victory at the 2013 Preakness Stakes. With the win, Orb's pursuit of the Triple Crown was crushed and Oxbow entered his name into the hat of favorites for the Belmont Stakes.
Orb entered the race as the odds-on favorite, but it was Oxbow that was led by multi-time Preakness Stakes winners in jockey Gary Stevens and trainer D. Wayne Lukas. Stevens took home his third career Preakness Stakes crown, while Lukas corralled his sixth.
Just don't sell the field short before the action even begins; some horses that ran well in the Kentucky Derby but skipped the Preakness might contend as well.
Oxbow enters the race in fierce competition with Orb to own the label of the favorite, as both have won major races this season. With Oxbow taking the Preakness Stakes and Orb earning the Kentucky Derby nod, the top two contenders at the Belmont Stakes could be the previous winners.
Orb may have finished in fourth at the 2013 Preakness Stakes, but he was starting off of the rail in the No. 1 post. Not only is that unfavorable position, but it's a sign of things to come—no horse has won the event from the rail since 1994.
With this in mind, there's no reason to believe that Joel Rosario will be unable to ride Orb to yet another victory. After all, legendary trainer Claude R. "Shug" McGaughey has won at this event before, taking home the 1989 Belmont Stakes title.
If Orb starts in favorable position, there's a powerful possibility that he walks away with the victory. With that being said, confidence and focus is a key here, and Orb cannot be thrilled with the way the Preakness turned out.
Fresh off of a win at the Preakness Stakes, it's not hard to see why Oxbow will be a favorite at the 2013 Belmont Stakes. It certainly doesn't hurt that Oxbow has the supporting cast to lead a charge toward a victory.
Stevens enters this race having won the Belmont Stakes in 1995, 1998 and 2001. For what it's worth, the 1995 title came alongside none other than Lukas.
Individually, Lukas has won the Belmont Stakes on four separate occasions. He won the Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes consecutively in 1994 and 1995.
One of the most surprising finishes at the 2013 Preakness Stakes was held by Mylute. Starting out of the No. 5 post, Mylute ended up finishing third and surprising the field by finishing ahead of Orb by a relatively wide margin.
Mylute is guided by jockey Rosie Napravnik, a 25-year-old from Morristown, N.J. Not only is she one of the fastest-rising jockeys in the world, but she's on pace to reach the height of legends with a win at Belmont.
Napravnik and trainer Tom Amoss appear to have limitless potential together, which will shine through in Elmont, New York. Together, they could join the ranks of history and place Napravnik in a class of her own in terms of modern riders.
Link: The IOC officially approves the 2004 for Manolo Martinez-Olympic bronze
Scouting Rumoured Manchester City Transfer Target, Malaga's Isco - Bleacher Report
If Málaga allow Manuel Pellegrini to leave for the vacant Manchester City job, per Sky Sports, then 21-year-old attacking midfielder Isco becomes a prime target for the Sky Blues, according to Danny Griffiths at The Metro.
Rather than have their answer to Andrea Pirlo, Valencia management were punting on Éver Banega as a playmaker, a role he's had varied success in.
Alejandro Domínguez never lived up to expectations after dominating in Russia, and he constantly went missing under Unai Emery.
Emery claimed Isco's fluctuating weight (something Cazorla struggled with early in his career) was the reason why the youngster never made it at Valencia, per AS.com:
AS.com: Have you heard about Unai Emery's comments about you in his book 'Winning mentality'? He said you had a tendency to put on weight.
Isco: Emery can say what he wants. I think he made a big mistake with me, not just in not giving me confidence, but also in the way he treated me. Perhaps he didn't give me confidence because I didn't win over his confidence.
Despite the setback, Isco knew his self-worth with the FIFA Technical Study Group highlighting him as an outstanding player during the 2009 U-17 FIFA World Cup and 2011 U-20 World Cup.
Two years later, Al Thani, frustrated by the lack of equality in La Liga, stopped funding Málaga, leaving the club in the red and incurring a one-year ban from European competitions.
The first few games of Isco's Málaga career must have been surreal knowing he was playing alongside a masterful technician in Santi Cazorla, one of the best players in the world.
With Cazorla moving to Arsenal last summer, Isco was handed the reigns, and he's had more freedom to operate in his second season for the Andalusian club.
A 7.9 shots per league goal is not even in the ballpark of Real Valladolid's crafty 30-year-old, Óscar, whose SPLG is 3.9.
Though, Isco has repeatedly shown exceptional positional awareness, especially against struggling defenders like Pepe, who was outwitted by the Spaniard's smartness.
When the Málaga midfielder is on song, he takes over games as evidenced with braces vs. Zenit Saint Petersburg and Levante.
It's not just the goals, he can conjure up moments of sheer brilliance, and he was No. 1 in dribbles per game (4.8) during the group stages of the UEFA Champions League.
He has the passing range and the aptitude to seamlessly switch to a midfield conductor, which is what Andrés Iniesta does for Barcelona.
If Málaga wanted to keep Isco, they would have inserted a €90 million buyout clause, which is what Barcelona did with Thiago Alcântara.
Isco's €35 million buyout clause, via his recent contract extension, is pleading for a prospective buyer to trigger it this summer.
When Pellegrini became the Málaga manager, after being unceremoniously ousted at Real Madrid, he requested his former Villarreal player Cazorla, the current Arsenal star, who is finally receiving the world-wide recognition he should have always had.
23-year-old Japanese international Hiroshi Kiyotake, of Nuremberg, doesn't just have vast marketing value, but he has more league assists with inferior players (10) than David Silva (8), who plays alongside some of the most expensive strikers in the world.
Atlético Madrid's 21-year-old midfielder Koke is a more complete footballer, averaging more tackles per game (2.3) than Isco (1.4) and threads more penetrating passes, hence why the Atléti midfielder has seven more assists.
If Mancini was still the manager, then buying Isco is unnecessary as the chances of him being lost in the shuffle is high.
However, if Pellegrini is the manager, you have to project that he'll put Isco, who has FIFA Ballon d'Or potential, in the best situation to succeed.
Via: The IOC officially approves the 2004 for Manolo Martinez-Olympic bronze
2013 Preakness Payout: How Top Favorites and Longshots Made out
The owners of Affirmed can crack the proverbial champagne, as the Triple Crown drought will continue pushing into its fourth decade after Saturday's 138th Preakness Stakes.
Starting from the sixth post, underdog Oxbow came from 16-1 pre-race odds (via Bovada) to end Orb's quest for history. The Kentucky Derby winner was unable to find that extra gear against the nine-horse field, getting lost in a sea of horses down the stretch en route to finishing fourth.
But Saturday's story was all about Oxbow. Jockeyed by Gary Stevens and trained by D. Wayne Lukas, Oxbow got off to a roaring start. The three-year-old colt took the lead from the opening gate and never once relinquished the advantage for a wire-to-wire triumph. You can take a look at the full results of Saturday's race on the video embedded below.
Meanwhile, the run was one of disappointment for Orb, who burst onto the scene with a dominant performance at Churchill Downs. Shug McGaughey's top colt came in as the heaviest favorite in a Preakness since Big Brown and was thought of as a legitimate Triple Crown threat.
However, it was clear that the horse didn't have an extra gear to come from behind as the folks at Pimlico Race Course saw one of the more shocking upsets in the sport's recent history.
As always is the case in major horse-racing upsets, the payout fallout is often as intriguing as the race itself. With that in mind, here is a look at the complete results for the 2013 Preakness Stakes along with the payout for each of the three top finishers:
Of the horses thought most likely to prevent Orb's run at a Triple Crown, Oxbow was at or near the bottom of the list. The D. Wayne Lukas-trained horse was one of three thoroughbreds ending the event for the legendary racing figure and had the second-highest odds of any entrant in Saturday's race.
Then the race started, and it became clear just what fine form Oxbow was in on Saturday. The colt burst out of the starting gate and was dominant from the outset. Oxbow's wire-to-wire win was the first time since Aloma's Ruler captured the 1982 Preakness that any horse has led the entire way, per Derby Contenders' Twitter feed:
Perhaps, we should have seen this coming, though. The 77-year-old Lukas is arguably the greatest trainer in the sports history, a man now with a record 14 Triple Crown victories. Speaking on NBC's telecast after the race, Lukas noted his penchant for shocking the world.
And while it's easy to have 20/20 hindsight, Oxbow's post draw also indicated a strong impending performance. As ESPN Stats & Information points out, the No. 6 post has produced the most Preakness winners in the storied race's history:
For those who had faith in history repeating itself from a gambling standpoint, Oxbow was obviously a major win for anyone who took a chance. The $32.80 payout for a win bet is one of the largest in history and a signal that anything truly does happen in horse racing.
Oxbow's scamper to a dominant win may have shocked the world, but Orb's fall from grace disappointed it. The Kentucky Derby winner came into Saturday's race with the largest hype of any horse in a half-decade and it felt anticlimactic seeing Orb drop from contention down the stretch.
Granted, Orb was racing against a good bit of history. There hadn't been a Preakness winner from the inside post since Tabasco Cat in 1994—and that's the only one over the past five-plus decades. Even in smaller fields, the inside post is a death knell for plenty of top-notch horses, as opponents scamper to get inside position.
And as Chris Brown's Smart Football Twitter feed pointed out, starting on the inside gate left Orb squeezed a little too tight at a couple different points:
Nevertheless, it was obvious Orb did not have that extra gear on Saturday. Even when Joel Rosario finally got his horse some breathing room, the burst to the front was just not there. A horse that came in as -500 to finish inside the top three (per Bovada) came up one spot short.
Speaking after the race, trainer Shug McGaughey said he was disappointed mostly because of the fan letdown, per John Clay of the Lexington Herald-Leader:
It's a great sentiment from McGaughey, who is one of the sport's most beloved faces. But as we begin the lead-up to the Belmont Stakes, the sport again feels like something major is missing. There was no second triumph for McGaughey, Orb or any of the folks who spent countless dollars riding the hot hand.
Mylute was a fast-riser up the odds boards heading into Saturday's race, and it was likely a little puzzling for those who hadn't been paying attention. The three-year-old colt had run 10 races in its short career and only won twice—and not once during this calendar year.
Mylute's biggest banner performance of the 2013 racing season was a fifth-place spot in the Kentucky Derby. And while that made the Tom Amoss-trained horse the second-highest Derby finisher in this Preakness field, that was something of a backhanded compliment. This field had three different new shooters at the starting gate, all of which put this field in massive flux prior to Saturday.
However, the major reason Mylute being bet hard made sense was the presence of jockey Rosie Napravnik. The 25-year-old Napravnik came into the Preakness Stakes with an intricate knowledge of how Pimlico works. Her first victory was at the legendary track, where the New Jersey native spent much of her youth building up a strong reputation.
You could see that familiarity on display throughout Saturday's festivities. Napravnik expertly navigated Mylute through a sea of horses midway through the race, emerging and blowing past Orb en route to a third-place finish.
While not quite the history-making victory Napravnik was hoping for, she did become the highest-finishing female jockey in Preakness history. And as Amoss points out, Mylute looks like he's only going to get better going forward, per Derby Contenders' Twitter feed:
Link: The Barca beats Espanyol the Catalonia Cup on penalties
NBA Business Rumors: Latest Buzz Heading into Draft Lottery.
With the NBA draft lottery impending, there is plenty with buzz regarding what teams may or may well not do with their first-round possibilities. Even though the draft order has yet to remain determined, that hasn't stopped squads from inquiring about possible moves and getting prepared in advance.
There is usually some sort of flurry of trades around draft amount of time in the NBA, so it's interesting to remember that teams are presently posturing. Whether or not rumors come to fruition is anyone's guess as there's a simple lot that goes into at your residence trade, but it's certainly fun to take a position.
The Orlando Magic include the best odds concerning securing the No. 1 overall pick at 25 %, according to SI. com, but it is far from a guarantee. The Charlotte Bobcats, Cleveland Cavaliers, Phoenix Suns and Brand-new Orleans Hornets round out the highest five. All of all those teams have different must have and mindsets, but it's certainly possible that some of them could trade out of your top spot if they ensure it is.
According to Sam Amico from FOX Sports, with so much uncertainty surrounding the the top draft this year, it wouldn't be surprising to find the No. 1 pick get traded.
While trading the pick obviously depends on who wins the lottery, Amico's assessment makes a whole lot of sense. There is commonly a surefire top options, but things aren't quite so paper this year. Most guessed that Kentucky center Nerlens Noel would probably go first, but he might out until Christmas thanks to his ACL injury. Kansas guard Ben McLemore is a other option, but he just doesn't feel like No. 1 pick material a result of the amount of holes inside his game.
There is usually very little drama concerning the top pick, so a trade or at least talk of a exchange is welcomed. Every team has different opinions in regards to a guy like Noel, so although the team that gets the superior selection may not prefer him, there's another team that might be willing to give upward a king's ransom in order to draft him. Whatever the result, this promises to be about the most intriguing drafts in recent memory.
Things didn't go as reported by plan for the Portland Trail Blazers this coming year as they missed the playoffs and are slated to pick Virtually no. 10 if the lottery is chalk, but they have been in a pretty positive position.
They already have a legitimate star in electricity forward LaMarcus Aldridge, and Rookie of 12 months Damian Lillard figures being a big-time point guard for a few years to come. With a lot of youth and talent already relating to the roster, Portland has choices when it comes to the condensation.
According to Joe Kotoch from ProBasketballDraft. com, the Blazers need center depth and may just be willing to part making use of their lottery pick if the appropriate deal comes along.
Portland already has a starting five fitting to a playoff team with Aldridge, Lillard, Wesley Matthews, Nicolas Batum and additionally J. J. Hickson, but depth is certainly a problem and the main reason why the Blazers only journeyed 33-49. Hickson had a great year as he averaged nearly 13 points and 10 rebounds per game, but he isn't a traditional center at only just 6'9".
The Blazers accomplish have 2012 first-round decide on Meyers Leonard behind her, but they are taking their time concerning developing the talented seven-footer. Developing another center could a smart move for Portland, especially since it's unlikely an immediate-impact player is available around the No. 10 go with. It is unclear which often centers the Blazers will be targeting, but it is probably worth monitoring.
Perhaps no team is more firmly entrenched around no man's land as opposed to the Utah Jazz. Utah narrowly missed the postseason and has now the lowest odds involving any lottery team in regards to landing the No. 1 pick. They also own a Golden State Warriors' Virtually no. 21 selection, so they certainly have some options.
In order for Utah to seriously become a player inside Western Conference, it needs to manufacture a big splash on condensation night.
According to Bill Oram of the Salt Lake Tribune, Jazz overall manager Dennis Lindsey is usually weighing all options, including potentially moving up in order to nab a desired person.
The Jazz already have a lot of depth in their top court with players such as Al Jefferson, Paul Millsap, Enes Kanter, Derrick Wedding favors and Marvin Williams. Utah's guard play suffered this year, though, so it could certainly work with a bona-fide point guard as well as a shooting guard who may take over games. It's unclear if those categories of players exist in this approach class, but the Jazz won't find them at Certainly no. 14 or No. 7.
If Utah can potentially get into the top 10, then probably Michigan's Trey Burke or simply Indiana's Victor Oladipo end up options. The Jazz have to have a player who can part of and contribute immediately for guard, and trading up is probably the easiest way to make that happen.
More Info: The boat falls in Miribilla in a final heart attack
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