Former Brazil manager Luiz Felipe Scolari led Palmeiras to his country’s top-flight title last year.
World Cup-winning coach Luiz Felipe Scolari said he’s been declining requests to be the new Colombia coach, while the Colombian Football Federation maintained it has not been offering him the job.
Scolari said in a news conference on Tuesday the Colombian federation keeps approaching him to succeed Jose Pekerman, who left the job last year.
But Scolari said he wants to stay at Brazilian club Palmeiras.
Ten-man Real Madrid were handed their sixth defeat in La Liga this season and are fifth in the table after a lacklustre performance against Real Sociedad.
Real Madrid coach Santi Solari refused to directly answer questions about his future, following Sunday evening’s 2-0 La Liga defeat at home to Real Sociedad at an angry and one-third empty Bernabeu.
Madrid were behind inside two minutes when La Real striker Willian Jose coolly converted a penalty against his former side, with the Basques wrapping up the three points late on through Ruben Pardo’s close range header.
Having drawn derision in the local media for claiming that Madrid can be happy at fourth position and accept draws in some games, Solari’s team are now fifth in the table after losing at home to opponents in relegation trouble.
Asked directly at the post-game news conference whether he felt he deserved to continue in the position — just over two months after he replaced Julen Lopetegui on the Madrid bench — the former Argentina midfielder replied: “We compete to win the next game.”
With 30 after 18 games, Madrid’s points total is the club’s worst at this point of the season since 2005-06 and Solari responded with a stare after it was suggested that Solari’s public comments about being happy with the team’s form showed he did not understand the standards demanded at the Bernabeu.
“We compete to win, always compete to win,” the former Madrid player and Castilla youth team coach said. “We always fight to win. We never underestimate the competition, never underestimate anybody. The only one who has that luxury is he who has never competed. You can never question our winning character; we showed character today, despite the difficulties. Unforgivable would be to lack that.”
It marked the first game in NBA history in which both teams made at least 20 3-pointers; the Warriors went 21-for-47, and the Kings went 20-for-36.
Warriors coach Steve Kerr was happy with the result and said his team knows that shooting from distance has become the new normal around the league.
“It’s right there for you to see, right?” Kerr said of both teams’ offensive prowess. “Everybody’s shooting 3s. That was just an incredible offensive display by both teams. The problem for us tonight was the turnovers. Every time we turned the ball over, it was a 3 or dunk. That’s what kept them in the game. I thought offensively we got anything we wanted, we did a good job moving the ball. But they got 29 points off our turnovers, a lot of those were 3s.”
The Warriors and Kings eclipsed the previous mark of 40 3-pointers, set in a February 2018 game between the Minnesota Timberwolves (19) and the Cleveland Cavaliers (21).
Warriors star Kevin Durant said he did not believe the 3-point barrage the league has seen in recent years will continue much longer.
“It’s fast,” Durant said of the current pace. “I’d rather play inside the 3-point line, but you got to adapt. I think a lot of players have adapted their games and changed how they play. But I don’t see this lasting too much longer.”
Why not?
“Just the volume of 3s,” Durant said. “The way the game is played, pick-up style. It will cease here in a second, but I think a lot of guys are just adjusting their games to the times. It’s fun for the fans, it’s fun for us at times. But it’s also tough to watch and tough to play against. But hey, that’s what we signed up for.”
The Kings, whose 20 3s set a franchise record, fell short down the stretch in a game that had 18 lead changes.
“It was a crazy game,” said Kings forward Justin Jackson, who went 5-of-7 from 3-point range and scored a career-high 28 points. “It felt every time we went down the court somebody hit a 3. That’s obviously not an every game type of thing, but it shows the types of shooters that both teams have and the ability that both teams have to knock down 3s. It was very good to see a lot of those shots fall for us.”
Warriors swingman Klay Thompson said he had “fun” playing in that kind of shootout but acknowledged just how much the game has changed in recent years.
“So much,” said Thompson, who made three 3-pointers and finished with 20 points. “When I grew up, what I was used to watching was a slower pace. Except teams like the Suns would come around, the Nuggets, but now it’s like [we’re] middle of the pack in pace of play, so that’s incredible to think about. It feels like four or five years ago we were ahead by a huge margin … the Showtime Lakers played like that, but you got to be in great shape. It’s fun to be a part of, honestly.”
Warriors forward Draymond Green, a former Defensive Player of the Year winner, affirmed a point he has made several times throughout the year about how the flow of games has changed.
“You can’t really play defense in the league today,” Green said. “So, I guess that’s what [the league] wanted, right?”
Warriors superstar Stephen Curry finished with 42 points, going 10-for-20 on 3-pointers. With Kings guard Buddy Hield going 8-of-13 on 3s, it marked the first game in NBA history in which multiple players made at least eight 3s, according to ESPN Stats & Information research.
Although Curry and his teammates said they enjoyed the pace of Saturday’s game, Curry also said he knows that when the big games come around later in the season, they will have to do a better job controlling the defensive tempo.
“At the end of the day, we know in order to win championships you got to get stops and we did that in the fourth quarter,” Curry said. “It’s a fun way to play, especially when you’re shooting a high percentage. You can shoot as many 3s as you want to, but shooting a high percentage the way it was tonight on both ends was pretty crazy. Knowing that any breakdown or lapse in effort or decision making, somebody was going to knock down a shot.”
ESPN’s Kevin Arnovitz contributed to this report.
ARLINGTON, Texas — Roger Staubach had made a lot of smart reads in his Hall of Fame prime, and so on the phone one day during Dak Prescott‘s rookie season, his scouting report on Tony Romo‘s replacement sounded as credible as they come. Staubach praised Prescott’s decision-making, his precision with the ball and his ability — at age 23 — to command the respect of his Dallas Cowboys teammates.
“I think we’ve got a wonderful quarterback for the future,” Staubach said that day.
Wonderful? Two seasons later, it sort of depends on your definition of the word. Prescott had won two-thirds of his regular-season starts, or more than any quarterback in that period not named Tom Brady, and had led the Cowboys to two division titles. He also threw for three touchdown passes and more than 300 yards in his one playoff game, a loss to Green Bay defined by an Aaron Rodgersthrow that even the great Staubach couldn’t have made.
But in this pro-football day and age of video-game numbers, Prescott isn’t most fans’ idea of wonderful. Patrick Mahomes? Now that’s more like it. Mahomes threw 50 touchdown passes for Kansas City this season, more than double the number Prescott threw for Dallas.
So the fourth-round pick out of Mississippi State will need to validate his standing as a long-term franchise-quarterback-to-be a different way. Like the way he did it against the Seattle Seahawks on Saturday night, when the 235-pound Prescott showed complete disregard for his body and the fact that Russell Wilson entered AT&T Stadium as the better, more established player.
“He took it on his shoulders,” Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said.
Prescott went head over heels and landed on his shoulders in the process.
“He’s a grown-ass man,” Ezekiel Elliott said. “That’s what it is. That’s how he played today.”
And that’s why the Cowboys nailed down only their fourth playoff victory in the 23 years since they won their fifth Super Bowl title. Down 14-10 in the fourth quarter at the Seattle 10, Prescott reviewed the Seahawks’ formation, walked up to the line and shouted the call to his teammates, and then kept the ball on a run that was initially ruled a touchdown before it was spotted 1 foot short of the end zone on review. Elliott, who would have 30 touches in this game, took care of the rest.
In the final minutes, facing a third-and-14 at the Seattle 17, Prescott again kept the ball and barreled up the middle of the field before he was clipped at the shins and sent into a frightening, airborne flip that had him crash-landing just before the goal line. The acrobatics made John Elway’s helicopter ride in a bygone Super Bowl look tame by comparison. No, Prescott wasn’t about to hand off again to Elliott. He took the next snap over right guard and effectively sealed the victory with 2:08 to play.
“He’s just a rare guy,” said Cowboys coach Jason Garrett, who now has to get his team ready for either the New Orleans Saints or Los Angeles Rams in the divisional round. “His leadership, his toughness, just his way. His spirit, it’s like none other. Somehow, some way, he was going to figure this thing out for us.”
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Dak Prescott takes off for a 16-yard run to set up Dallas at the 1-yard line. Prescott finishes off the drive with a touchdown run.
Garrett desperately needed to win this game, of course, and so did his boss, Jones. Dak Prescott needed it, too, and not because he is eligible for a big-bucks extension this offseason. Prescott needed to prove he could win a playoff game before he could ever persuade anyone that he was good enough to someday win a Super Bowl or two.
He threw a picture-perfect touchdown pass to a covered Michael Gallup in the second quarter, and he finished with a respectable stat line — 22-of-33 for 226 yards and an interception in the end zone off a deflection that probably should’ve drawn a pass-interference call. But Prescott won’t often dazzle and defeat strong opponents with numbers. Despite what he did to the defenseless Giants last Sunday (387 yards, four touchdowns, the decisive two-point conversion pass), Prescott is more likely to keep winning the way he has been winning all along.http://sports-tornado.com/2019/01/06/dak-prescott-took-it-on-his-shoulders/
Shaka Hislop weighs up the latest transfer rumours involving Eden Hazard, Aaron Ramsey, Christian Eriksen, Miguel Almiron and more.
Barcelona are close to finalising a deal to sign Toulouse’s highly rated centre-back Jean-Clair Todibo, sources have told ESPN FC.
Todibo, 19, has not played for Toulouse since November, when negotiations over a new contract broke down. His terms expire in the summer and since the beginning of January he has been free to hold talks with other clubs.
Manchester City and Juventus had also been linked with the French defender, but Barca sporting director Eric Abidal, a former France international, has played a big part in convincing him to make the switch to Camp Nou.
A pre-contract agreement has been reached with the player for him to join in the summer but Barca plan to hold talks with Toulouse with regards to doing a deal this month.
If they can agree on an adequate compensation package with the Ligue 1 club, Todibo will join Barca permanently before heading out on loan for six months, preferably in Spain. It’s seen as a better option than leaving him where he is, where he’s been banished from first-team duty.
Todibo will then have a full preseason with Barcelona’s first team before a decision is made regarding whether he remains with the club next season or heads out on loan.
