Dembele sparkles but Messi needed off bench for rescue

Agencies
January 21, 2019

Barcelona, Jan 21: Ousmane Dembele gave Barcelona a glimpse into the future but Barcelona still needed Lionel Messi to beat Leganes 3-1 and restore their five-point lead at the top of La Liga.

Messi had started on the bench, rested by coach Ernesto Valverde, and for just over an hour at the Camp Nou, Dembele filled the void by scoring the opening goal in a sparkling individual display.

The 21-year-old, however, limped off with a sprained ankle in the 69th minute, shortly after Leganes had equalised through Martin Braithwaite and Valverde responded by introducing Messi.

He needed only seven minutes to make an impact as his bending shot was followed up by Luis Suarez, who poked the ball in ahead of Leganes goalkeeper Pichu Cuellar. Messi then rounded off the win by scoring himself in injury-time.

Leganes had protested against Suarez's finish, convinced that Pichu had been fouled by a high foot.

"It was a clear foul," coach Mauricio Pellegrino said.

"Barca don't need these kind of decisions to help them."

But VAR disagreed and Barca advanced to what was, in truth, a fully deserved victory. It means they regain their hefty advantage over Atletico Madrid at the top of the table, with the difference ahead of Real Madrid also back to 10 points.

Leganes had beaten Barcelona at home in September but that remains the high point of their season. They stay 14th.

Valverde was accused of failing to rest key players last term, to the detriment of their progress in the Champions League, and his gamble to spare his star player just about paid off.

"There are lots of games," Valverde said.

"We talk to the players and decide when it may be good for them to rest." "It was difficult with and without Messi," Pellegrino said.

Barcelona needed him in the end but for a while, Dembele, and the 21-year-old Carles Alena in midfield, had shown there may yet be life after Messi, who turns 32 in June.

Dembele will undergo tests on Monday.

"We will miss him a lot," Valverde said.

"We hope it is not too long."

He was at the heart of everything in the first half, his hips slaloming through the hapless Leganes defence, who swarmed around him in numbers but always seemed a step behind.

A cheeky nutmeg was followed by an audacious scoop, which found Suarez but he poked wide. It was a classy finish for the opener too, although the goal owed more to the collective than individual.

Messi swoops

Gerard Pique started it, driving from deep in defence down the wing. Alena took over and found Dembele, who spread the ball wide to Jordi Alba. When the ball came back, Dembele opened up his body and his right foot, guiding the ball first-time into the bottom corner.

After half-time, Philippe Coutinho fired over after another Dembele flick and it felt like only a matter of time before another goal would come.

It did, but Leganes scored it, with their second shot on target. Alba was caught out and Youssef En-Neysri nipped in. His fizzing cross found Braithwaite, who darted ahead of Pique to prod home.

Messi had been warming up and was quickly introduced. Alena made way and shortly after Dembele followed, his brilliant night cut short. Malcom came on.

Seven minutes passed between Messi's substitution and Suarez's goal. Messi cut in from the right and curled a shot towards the top corner, where Pichu dived to meet it and palmed the ball into the air.

As it dropped, Suarez got there first, stabbing in the rebound at around hip-height before clattering into the keeper's chest. VAR checked and Leganes protested. The goal stood.

Suarez should have scored again but shot straight at Pichu, who gathered, rushed out and barged into the shoulder of the Uruguayan.

Any doubt was dispelled, however, as Messi exchanged with Alba in injury-time. A swoop of the Argentinian's right foot was all it needed.

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News Network
July 1,2020

New Delhi, Jul 1: After being named as India's 'Most Valuable Player' in Test cricket in the 21st century, all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja on Wednesday said that he will always aim to give his best for the country.

His remark came as Jadeja achieved an MVP rating of 97.3 and as a result, he was also rated as the second most valuable player Test player worldwide, only second to Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan.

"Thank you Wisden India for naming me the 'Most Valuable Player'. I would like to thank all my teammates, coaches, fans, and well-wishers for your support as I aim to give my best for our country. Jai Hind," Jadeja tweeted.

Based on CricViz's market-leading analytics, each player in world cricket was awarded an 'MVP rating' by Wisden using a statistical model to rank their 'match impact' compared to their peers.

Jadeja has played in 49 Tests from 2012, managing to score 1,869 runs and has also picked up 213 wickets.

"It might come as a surprise to see Ravindra Jadeja, India's spin-bowling all-rounder, feature as India's number one. After all, he's not even always an automatic pick in their Test team. However, when he does play he is picked as a frontline bowler and has batted as high as No.6 - contributing to a very high match involvement," the official website of Wisden quoted CricViz's Freddie Wilde as saying.

"But Jadeja's position is based on more than simply volume: it's what he does when he's involved that really counts. The 31-year-old's bowling average of 24.62 is better than Shane Warne's and his batting average of 35.26 is better than Shane Watson's. His batting and bowling average differential of 10.62 runs is the second-best of any player this century to have scored more than 1,000 runs and taken 150 wickets. He is an all-rounder of the very highest quality," he added.

With the bat in hand, Jadeja has managed to score one century and 14 fifties in the longest format of the game.

He was last seen in action during India's two-Test series against New Zealand earlier this year.

He would have been in action for the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the IPL had the tournament commenced from March 29.

However, the IPL has been postponed indefinitely due to the coronavirus pandemic.

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Agencies
April 14,2020

Tokyo, Apr 14: Tokyo organizers said Tuesday they have no B Plan in the event the Olympics need to be postponed again because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Masa Takaya, the spokesman for the Tokyo Olympics, said organizers are proceeding under the assumption the Olympics will open on July 23, 2021. The Paralympics follow on Aug. 24.

Those dates were set last month by the International Olympic Committee and Japanese officials after the coronavirus pandemic made it clear the Olympics could not be held as scheduled this summer.

We are working toward the new goal, Takaya said, speaking in English on a teleconference call with journalists.

We don't have a B Plan. The severity of the pandemic and the death toll has raised questions if it will even be feasible to hold the Olympics in just over 15 months. Several Japanese journalists raised the question on the call.

All I can tell you today is that the new games' dates for both the Olympic and Paralympic Games have been just set up, Takaya said.

In that respect, Tokyo 2020 and all concerned parties now are doing their very best effort to deliver the games next year." IOC President Thomas Bach was asked about the possibility of a postponement in an interview published in the German newspaper Die Welt on Sunday.

He did not answer the question directly, but said later that Japanese organizers and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe indicated they could not manage a postponement beyond next summer at the lastest.

The Olympics draw 11,000 athletes and 4,400 Paralympic athletes and large support staffs from 206 national Olympic committees.

There are also questions about frozen travel, rebooking hotels, cramming fans into stadiums and arenas, securing venues, and the massive costs of rescheduling, which is estimated in Japan at 2 billion- 6 billion.

Tokyo 2020 CEO Toshiro Muto addressed the issue in a news conference on Friday. He is likely to be asked about it again on Thursday when local organizers and the IOC hold a teleconferene with media in Japan.

The other major question is the cost of the delay; how much will it be, and who pays? Bach said in the Sunday interview that the IOC would incur several hundred million dollars in added costs. Under the so-called Host City Agreement, Japan is liable for the vast majority of the expenses.

This is impossible to say for now, Takaya, the spokesman said.

It is not very easy to estimate the exact amount of the games' additional costs, which have been impacted by the postponement."

Tokyo says it's spending 12.6 billion to organize the Olympics. But a Japanese government audit published last year says the costs are twice that much. Of the total spending, 5.6 billion in private money. The rest is from Japanese governments.

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Agencies
January 14,2020

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