Manchester United on Sunday clinched their first major trophy for six years with a ruthless 2-0 win against Newcastle United in the EFL Cup final at Wembley.
Manager Erik ten Hag’s side took control by halftime thanks to Casemiro’s header and a Sven Botman own-goal, and held firm despite Newcastle’s second-half pressure.
“We played really well between both boxes. I can’t fault the players’ efforts, but we didn’t defend the free-kick well enough for the first goal. That’s what we will regret,” Newcastle manager Eddie Howe said.
Photo: AFP
Manchester’s first silverware since 2017, when they won the EFL Cup and the UEFA Europa League in the Jose Mourinho era, was just reward for a mature display that underlined the impressive work done by Dutchman Ten Hag since he arrived from AFC Ajax last year.
The celebrations that accompanied Manchester’s sixth EFL Cup triumph could be the first of many trophy parades on the evidence of Ten Hag’s transformative first season.
“You have to win the first one, and that is what we did today,” Ten Hag said. “We can get a lot of inspiration from this and more confidence that we can do it.”
“We are still at the start of restoring Manchester United to where we belong — winning trophies,” he added.
Manchester remain challengers on three other fronts, sitting third in the English Premier League and with an FA Cup fifth-round tie against West Ham United tomorrow followed by a Europa League last-16 tie against Real Betis Balompie next month.
After 10 years in the wilderness since Alex Ferguson retired having led them to their last Premier League title in 2013, Manchester are finally emerging from one of the darkest periods in the club’s illustrious history.
Manchester finished a dismal sixth in the Premier League last season, but Ten Hag has swiftly masterminded their return to relevance. It was fitting that his maiden trophy success with Manchester came after he met Ferguson for dinner recently and with the Scot watching from the Wembley stands.
Marloon Herrera was crying — happy tears. With Cuba trailing in the fifth inning of its Little League World Series (LLWS) opener on Thursday, Herrera lined a two-run double to give his team the lead. When the Czech Republic, representing Europe-Africa, made a pitching change, he ran over to give his third base coach a hug. Cuba went on to win 4-1. It was the first game at this year’s tournament for both sides, but it was also the beginning of Cuba’s second appearance in the series ever — and it was emotional. “You breathe baseball in Cuba,” manager Everaldo Machado said on
Taiwan on Friday beat Australia 11-0 at the Little League World Series in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Taiwan are represented at the tournament by Taoyuan’s Gueishan Elementary School, who won the Asia-Pacific regional tournament to earn the trip to the US. Australia are represented by the Hills Red team from Sydney. Taiwan advanced to a game tomorrow against Santa Clara, representing Cuba, who won 4-1 against the Czech Republic’s Brno, the Europe-Africa regional qualifiers. Australian starter Sayre Howick had a tough time controlling his pitches at Volunteer Stadium, one of which allowed Taiwan to open their account. They scored six in the inning and
World Boxing, an international amateur boxing organization formed last year after a breakdown in relations between the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Boxing Association (IBA), has announced the admission of Taiwan, along with four other nations, into its growing list of members. In a statement released on its Web site on Friday, the Swiss- based organization said that in addition to Taiwan, admitted as Chinese Taipei, Bhutan, Ecuador, Fiji and Pakistan have also become members. The new members all have well-rounded national and international boxing programs as well as transparency in the leadership and management of their national boxing programs,
COOLED DOWN: Du Plessis apologized after the fight for comments about his Nigerian-born opponent, after Adesanya said he planned to take the belt back to Africa South African Dricus du Plessis yesterday took a flurry of body hits across four rounds before defeating Israel Adesanya by submission to retain his middleweight championship at UFC 305. After scoring some early takedowns, Du Plessis (22-2) had to withstand a flurry of body strikes from Adesanya through the middle rounds, which appeared to be taking a toll on the 30-year-old South African as the fight progressed. However, a left hook followed by three rights helped bring Adesanya down, giving Du Plessis the opening he wanted as he swiftly got the choke hold that forced the Nigerian-born New Zealander to tap out