A rematch of the 2023 WNBA Finals will determine one of the participants in this year's championship round, as the No. 1-seeded New York Liberty host the fourth-seeded Las Vegas Aces in Game 1 of their best-of-five semifinal series on Sunday in Brooklyn. In the opening round of the playoffs, Las Vegas advanced past Seattle in its quest to become the WNBA's first three-peat champion since the Houston Comets claimed the league's first four championships from 1997 through 2000. This season's unanimous MVP, A'ja Wilson, scored 24 points and grabbed 13 rebounds in Tuesday's series-clinching win over the Storm. With Wilson on one end and Breanna Stewart leading New York on the other, a clash of three- and two-time MVPs headlines this series. The duo has combined …

Mark Noble will bring the curtain down on 18 years of service for West Ham next season. The long-serving midfielder and club captain has signed a new – and final – one-year contract with the Hammers.

Noble, who turns 34 in May, made his debut as a 17-year-old against Southend in the League Cup in 2004. He has made more than 500 appearances in claret and blue and lies seventh on the list of the club’s all-time appearance makers.

Premier League: 10 talking points from the weekend’s actionRead more

Noble, whose previous contract was due to expire in the summer, has been restricted to just three Premier League starts this season due to the form of Declan Rice and Tomas Soucek in central midfield. But manager David Moye…

HARRY’S GAME

More used to surfing into major tournaments on a wave of good performances, excellent results, ultimately misguided optimism and upbeat chat about who they’d rather face in the first knockout round after topping their group, it will be a different England who travel to the Human Rights World Cup in November. Having reached the semi-finals at Russia 2018 and the final of Euro Not 2020, Gareth Southgate has taken the sensible step of quelling optimism by masterminding England’s worst run of results since 1992, overseeing six consecutive games without a win and getting them relegated from the top tier of the Nations League in the process. That HRWC group draw assorted pundits described as being “favourable…

ARSENAL v BOURNEMOUTH

Saturday 12.30pm TNT Sports 1 Venue Emirates Stadium

Referee David Coote This season G15 Y81 R3 5.6 cards/game

View image in fullscreenArsenal v Bournemouth: probable starters, contenders in italics

Arsenal

Subs from Ramsdale, Hein, Kiwior, Zinchenko, Soares, Jorginho, Elneny, Vieira, Smith Rowe, Nelson, Trossard, Jesus, Nketiah

Doubtful None

Injured Timber (knee, unknown)

Suspended None

Form WWLWWW Leading scorer Saka 15

Jürgen Klopp attacks TNT Sports over Premier League’s European strugglesRe…

Kansas City begins the 2024 season where it wrapped last season: atop the NFL power rankings. The Chiefs open defense of consecutive Super Bowls and a bid for an historic three-peat on Thursday at home, facing a team capable of knocking them from the cushioned perch in the AFC, the Baltimore Ravens. Even-keeled Andy Reid and the Chiefs won't get too worked up over holding the top spot in subjective rankings in September, having proved that winning a Super Bowl doesn't mean being your best in the fall. There are contenders new and old in the NFC, bidding to win the Lombardi Trophy in New Orleans in February. But can anyone beat Patrick Mahomes? We asked our NFL writers to help rank-stack the field ahead of Week 1. 32. New England Patriots: Prepared to take lumps in a transit…

"A grand jury has indicted the man accused of killing Los Angeles Angels pitcher Nick Adenhart and two others when a minivan smashed into their car last month. Orange County prosecutors say Andrew Gallo was indicted on three counts of murder and three other felonies for the April crash." [ AP] …

Ah, casual sports fan: We meet again. The 2018 NBA playoffs begin this afternoon! How the hell will you know what is going on in the games, other than like a bunch of sweaty dudes bouncing a ball and throwing it through a pair of rings, if you don’t have some 10,000 words of preview and analysis to scan past in preparation??? I don’t know. I just know that if I don’t publish this blog, it will be hard for me to account for the last couple hours of my time. And for that reason and no others, let’s take a look at the first-round matchups! We’ll start out west, where the teams are good, instead of doing them in the order the games start, because that would make too much sense. Houston Rockets (1) vs. Minnesota Timberwolves (8) credits: Ronald Cortes | source: [object Object] Whe…

For the American sports fan, following soccer means a reorientation about what constitutes success. With the success of the top teams reinforced by Champions League appearances and an enhanced global profile, there is a virtuous cycle to being good that makes it even harder to break into the top. At the other end, there are newly-promoted teams made up of Championship quality players, and teams run by absolutely inept owners. Trapped in between we have seven teams, not good enough to seriously contend for a Champions League spot and in no danger of being relegated. The funny thing is, in some ways the worse of these teams will be judged to have had a more successful season. For some, just staying out of the relegation dogfight and remaining in the Premier League for another season is a s…

After being found on Jan. 5, the secret dossier was given to The Sun newspaper, which gave it back to the police. "Restricted" files spell out the security plans in place at the sites of events and provide minutes of top-level meetings in which ways to beat terrorists were discussed. A spokeswoman for London's Metropolitan Police downplayed the documents' significance. Translation: We're really glad whoever found this gave it to an honest news outlet like . [ FOX Sports] …

Louisville just went up 24-7 on Miami, Michigan looks to be pretty firmly in control of things, and I'm just going to leave you to enjoy those things… if you're the type that likes to see big-name programs get humiliated. Enjoy the big games tonight, too. • I liked Pam Ward a lot better when she announced under her real name: John Saunders. – Smitty (Alright, that is ENOUGH.) • My girlfriend is making me watch Jesus Christ Superstar on the Sundance Channel instead of the Michigan/ND game. It's suprising how little difference there is between the two. – Marcelo
http://www.velvetglove.org • NBC is obviously not very happy that Michigan is dominating this game. They just ran an ad for Michigan State. – JWaldman11 • I've played this season more than five t…