Category: International Sports

by Ben Ayuko

{image by Formula1}

Oscar Piastri secured his 1st ever win in Formula 1 after some hullabaloo involving his McLaren teammate, Lando Norris.

It proved to be a very volatile atmosphere as both the McLaren and the Red Bull Racing team engineers had to rein in their respective drivers and ensure they brought the car home in one piece.

The action began as soon as the 1st corner as both Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen launched off the line and ran up alongside pole sitter Lando Norris right into the right hander. They were lined up 3 abreast going into the corner but for Oscar, having the advantage of the inside line meant that he would emerge out of the corner in the lead. Verstappen took 2nd place by going around the outside of Norris but was adjudged to have gained an advantage by going off the track and therefore he had to give the place back to the Mclaren driver, despite his protestations to the team.

This incident wound up winding him up and for the rest of the race he was almost on his own personal charge as though looking to prove something.

The real fireworks flew after the 2nd round of pitstops on lap 50.

The McLaren team decide to pit Norris ahead of teammate Oscar who was leading the race. Norris came back out with fresh tyres and as a result, managed to overtake his teammate after he made his own pitstop in the following lap. This was a bad look.

McLaren issued team orders to Norris telling him to switch positions back with Oscar. Norris was reluctant to do this. After all, he was sat in 2nd place in the overall driver championships standings, and it would have served him best to take advantage of the situation.

This debate went on, over the very public team radio, for over 10 laps as Norris built his lead over Oscar. As heartbreaking as it would be for Oscar to lose the chance to win his first race in this manner, questions like “Well why didn’t you pit him first?” or “Tell him to catch up…”  would prove difficult to argue against Norris for his convictions.

Verstappen was already not enjoying his best race and his 2nd pitstop left him with an even bigger mountain to climb should he be looking to win the race, a point he made sure to put forward with some rather colourful language on the team radio. His frustrations at being stuck behind Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) in 4th place finally boiled over as he elected to send his car from deep and divebomb Hamilton at the first corner. He overshot it. He made contact with Hamilton. His car was sent flying into the air and, miraculously, avoided taking any damage. He did lose a position to Charles Leclerc though.

Alas, with 3 laps to go, Norris yielded, allowing Oscar to claim first place back and take his race victory. Norris in a disgruntled 2nd place, Hamilton and Leclerc in rather fortunate 3rd and 4th respectively as Verstappen finished in 5th.

Oscar became the 7th different driver to win a race in 2024.

by Ben Ayuko

{image by DAZN}

Pre-Season friendlies are officially underway as the premier league look to get back into gear ahead of the opening game of the new premier league campaign.

Manchester United took on Norwegian side Rosenborg. It looked to be a dead rubber until Noah Emmanuel popped up in the box in the 93rd minute to win the game for Rosenborg as Man United kicked off their season with a loss.

Aston Villa took on Walsall. It was relatively new signing Morgan Rodgers who take center stage as his first half brace gave the Aston Villa the lead into the break. A second half goal from Louie Barry sealed the win for Aston Villa, A good way to start the season.

Tottenham Hotspur demolished Hearts in their first friendly. It was a tale of 2 halves as Spurs struggled to break down their opposition. They went into the break lucky to have a 1-0 lead. At halftime, manager Big Ange changed the whole team and introduced some of the academy products. They completely dominated the game, winning it 5-1. Some peculiar questions for Ange Postecoglou to find answers for.

West Ham came back from 2 goals down to salvage a draw against Ferencváros. Key moment a classy free kick from Danny Ings and a wonder goal from Alexandre Pešić.

Elsewhere, Nottingham Forest comfortably beat Chesterfield 3-0 while Wolverhampton Wanderers beat Italian side Como 1907 1-0.

by Ben Ayuko

{image by FPL}

Fantasy Premier League is back, and we can barely contain our excitement.

Many changes have been made for this season’s edition in order to make the game more competitive and we can only give a nod of approval to the organizers for doing so much.

First off, the price changes. Erling Haaland comes in at £15.0m which makes him the most expensive FPL asset ever. Mo Salah maintains his value at £12.5m after another decent outing last season.

Cole Palmer perhaps has the biggest price rise after he burst onto the scene last season, more than doubling his value as he moves up from £5.0m to £10.5m. Saka also moves up to £10.0m while Heung-min Son moves back up again to £10.0m. Defenders like William Saliba, Gabriel Magalhães, Virgil van Dijk and Joško Gvardiol all come in at £6.0m while Trent Alexander-Arnold keeps his place as the priciest defender at £7.0m

This makes it very difficult to pick the same players as the £100m budget cannot be spread to cover every single valuable player. Some decisions will have to be made along with regrets realized.

The Bonus Point System has also been revamped, admittedly, favouring the attacking players more than the defensive. Additional points in the Bonus Point System for occurrences such as Number of times Fouled, Shots on target, etc. will surely only benefit the forward players while making life difficult for the Goalkeepers in particular.

Goalkeepers, though, have had their own upgrade as should your chosen Keeper pull an Alisson and score a 90th minute winner, he would receive 10 points rather the usual 6. This, in turn, is intended to give you more of a headache when choosing your players as more variables have been added to the player criteria.

With the transfer window still very much wide open, there’s still a lot of movement yet to be done. So, who knows what kind of headaches we are going to have by the time the season is kicking off.

by Ben Ayuko

{image by Sportsfile}

Ireland met South Africa in the second round of their test match series looking for revenge after they lost their first round.

And they quickly flew applying pressure on the South Africa defensive line, pushing them back further and further into their own half. A collision left South Africa veteran Eben Etzebeth with a gash in his forehead meaning he had to be substituted in order to take care of it.

It was 13 minutes when Ireland got points on the board. Neat interplay between the Irish backs saw them break through South Africa’s defensive line. There was some decent ball juggling by fullback James Osborne and 2 offloads later, the ball was in the hands of scrumhalf, Conor Murray as he sailed over the South Africa try line for the first points of the game. Some traded penalties between Ireland’s Jack Crowley and South Africa’s Handre Pollard meant that the scores read 16-6 to Ireland going into the half-time break.

South Africa came out of the dressing room with fire in their belly like they had something to prove to their home crowd as they firmly took control of the game. An early offense by the Irish captain of the day, Caelan Doris, saw him sent to the sin bin which only aided South Africa’s efforts in asserting their dominance.

Some more traded penalties saw South Africa wrestle the lead from Ireland with the score at 24-19. Needing some inspiration off the bench, Ireland introduced Ciarán Frawley. And he did just that.

First, he received the ball off a 22-metre drop out by Pollard near the halfway line and wasted no time in returning the drop kick straight through the posts to bring the score to within 2 points.

Then, for his final trick, with just about the final kick of the game, he lined himself up for another drop goal attempt at around the same mark near the halfway line, this time to snatch back the lead for Ireland and win the game. A sensational recovery after being under pressure for majority of the second half and somewhat of a punch in the face for the World Champions after doing so well to wrestle back the command of the game.

What a moment from one of the next in line to take over from Retired Legend, Johnny Sexton.

by Ben Ayuko

{image by thetimes}

Gareth Southgate already said that it might be his last tournament as England manager. What a story it would have been had he managed to sign off with that ever-elusive trophy for the England National Team. Alas, what was looking to be a fairytale ending has quickly fizzled out into an unceremonious hobble off the stage whilst spectators, in unison, toss rotten eggs and tomatoes at his head (his own people no less).

There was a lot of mixed emotions in the England camp as they progressed through the tournament. At first, it was ruthlessly unaccommodating in the group stage, e.g. “Southgate out!“, “What kind of Football is this?“, “Not my manager“. This evolved through the knockout rounds to a more positive tone in the knock-out rounds to “He should get Knighted if he wins it‘, “Nobody cares about the football“, “It’s Coming Home.” This level of optimistic enthusiasm was rife throughout the fandom up until the final whistle of the final game of the tournament, sending sentiment straight back down to; “Southgate out!“, “What kind of Football is this?”, “Not my manager“.

He has managed to split the English fanbase completely in half. One side thinks that despite not winning anything, he has been the 3 Lion’s most successful coach, while the other thinks he should have been able to win something if he is so good.

Well, as it turns out, he wasn’t going to wait for the higher-ups to ring him up. He decided to go out on his own steam. And who can blame him? It must be a difficult job for one to try to attain the unattainable- year in, year out- all the while receiving a steaming pile of hatred from the people who you are trying to attain it for. It must take a lot of spirit to keep going for so long, falling just short every time, then receiving the barrage of abuse that comes with failure.

Southgate has had a fine run, getting to 2 European Finals and a World Cup semi-final.

And well, after 8 years, now he can rest as he hands over the baton of abuse to yet another poor unfortunate soul.

“As a proud Englishman, it has been the honour of my life to play for England and to manage England. It has meant everything to me, and I have given it my all…” 

by Ben Ayuko

{image by AFP}

The AllBlacks prevailed over a determined England side to win the 2nd test match in Auckland, New Zealand.

It was a straight fight from the off as both teams took turns counterattacking each other right after kick-off. Swinging and missing, they were like 2 enthusiastic boxers still trying to find their footing properly. It was as early as the 10th minute when New Zealand opened the scoring, winger Mark Telea, sneakily picking up the ball from the blindside of the ruck and lunging to score a try at the far end of the try box. The angle proved no challenged for flyhalf Damien McKenzie, as he then stuck it between the uprights for the conversion. England, not to be outdone, needed only 3minutes for their riposte. Some ingenuity from flyhalf, Marcus Smith, saw him launch the ball across the pitch with an accurate kick right into the arms of the awaiting Immanuel Feyi-Waboso. The winger’s fine footwork saw him dance between 2 defenders before touching down for England’s first points of the day. A conversion by Smith leveled the score.

A couple of penalties from McKenzie saw New Zealand stretch out their lead. England, however, hit back just before the halftime claxon. They say, “If ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” This was the case as Marcus Smith, once again, sent a long diagonal over everybody’s head to the sideline, this time, right into the hands of Tommy Freeman. The winger beat Mark Telea in the air, catching the ball and crashing into the New Zealand penalty box for a try. Smith added 2 points to give England the lead going into the break.

England came out of the dressing room with vim and vigour as they took the game to the home team. A penalty conversion saw them stretch out their lead as they kept pushing the New Zealand further and farther back into their own 22metre area. New Zealand was in desperate need of some inspiration. Step up Beauden Barrett from the bench. The New Zealand veteran came onto the pitch and introduced some more speed and ingenuity in attack. He changed the whole course of the game as whenever he had the ball, New Zealand looked to pirce through the heart of the English defense. This was evident in the try New Zealand scored as Barrett received the ball in space and simply powered through the English defensive line. He then offloaded the ball to Telea who touched down near the sideline once more.

McKenzie did miss the conversion, but he later slotted in 2 penalties to put New Zealand out of reach. England tried to hit back but they ran out of time. 24-17 it ended with the All Blacks taking their 2nd victory in the test match series.

by Ben Ayuko

{image by AFP}

Spain were finally crowned champions at the European Championships 2024 to put a thoroughly deserved seal on the otherwise perfect tournament they had. England really did put up a fight, but Harry Kane and co. will have to fight another day to win a continental trophy.

It was a very tentative first half as neither team looked to give anything away very early on. Both teams were tiptoeing around the occasion, almost as if trying not to be noticed by the other until later in the game. England’s tactic of hitting the opposition on the counterattack was working a treat as they opted to let Spain have the ball and pounced on any mistake they made. Spain, however, showed their resolute defense and were not so easily penetrated. 0-0 at the break in an enticing deadlock of a game.

Whatever team talk La Roja were given at halftime probably sounded like the Sermon on the Mount because Spain came out flying at England. They more or less caught the 3 Lions by surprise by immediately upping the tempo from the first half and could have easily scored 2 goals in the opening 5 minutes of the second half. Alas, they had to settle for just the one. Neat interplay between Dani Carvajal and youngster, Lamine Yamal allowed the latter to drive into the box and set up Nico Williams on the far side of the penalty box. Williams, one of the players of the tournament, sent a low drive shot off his left foot, past Jordan Pickford, and into the England net to give Spain the lead just 2min after the break.

Spain then proceeded to lay siege to England goalmouth. It was such a dramatic shift from the more tactical approach in the first half. This was all guns blazing and the spectators were loving every minute of it. This shift in tone prompted Gareth Southgate to make 2 changes. First taking off Captain Harry Kane, and second introducing Chelsea’s star boy, Cole Palmer.

Southgate’s long-standing tradition of having substitutes who make a difference once again paid dividends as Palmer ran onto a setup by Jude Bellingham and, rather gently, place the ball in the bottom corner of the Spanish net. Unai Simone stretched as much as he could to try to save it, but to no avail. With 73minutes of the clock, the score was now 1-1.

It looked as though this thrilling game was destined for extra time. That was, for sure, what every neutral fan wanted given. It was therefore a little melancholic to see Spain take back the lead with mere minutes to spare in the game. 4 minutes in fact. This is because Spanish substitute Mikel Oyarzabal latched onto a low cross into the box by Marc Cucurella and converted it into the England net from close range, breaking England hearts.

Without enough time to mount a riposte, 2-1 is how the game ended with La Roja lifting the coveted trophy yet again.

by Ben Ayuko

{image by Getty Images}

It took Extra-time for Argentina to put Colombia to bed and retain their Copa América title.

Messi and co. were made to wait to get proceedings under way due to the unrest caused outside the stadium. In fact, the game was delayed by a whole hour just so the organizers could get a hold of the situation at hand. The passionate fans outside the stadium seemed to spark something in Colombia because as soon as the game started, they flew straight out of the box. They may have been the underdogs, but they sure did not look like it. They were brave and front footed, taking the game to Argentina and putting pressure on them from the onset, clearly showing their intent as the spectators gleefully cheered them on. Jhon Córdoba, the Colombian centre-forward, probably came the closest after his volleyed effort bounced off the right-hand post.

After a halftime performance by the indelible Shakira, spirits were certainly high in the stadium and both teams upped their levels to try and steal a march on the other. There were many stars on show on the day, the likes of James Rodriguez and Angel di Maria showing their quality for their teams. The former in particular being at the centre of his teams every move. Spirits in the Argentina camp, however, definitely took a hit after their talisman and star man, Lionel Messi, went down with an innocuous injury. He could only break into tears as he was being substituted out of what may be his final appearance for his national team. They held on, though, without their Captain as the game ended 0-0.

Extra-time is always a tentative occasion as both teams are very aware of the fact that all it takes is one mistake to lose an entire tournament. And that is exactly how it went, until the inevitable happened. Kevin Castaño was driving forward with the ball, trying to lead a one-man counterattack for Los Cafeteros when he was intercepted by Rodrigo de Paul in the heart of midfield. Being out of his position, he could only watch as 2 passes later, Giovanni lo Celso had played in Lautaro Martinez through on goal one-on-one with the keeper, who made no mistake placing the ball into the top corner and sealing the victory for Argentina.

1-0 the game ended as La Albiceleste maintained their period of international dominance, winning their 3rd trophy in 5 years.

by Ben Ayuko

{image by GOLPERU}

Who will be the Kings of the Americas?

That is the question…in question and it will be answered on Saturday night as Argentina face Colombia in the final of the Copa América tournament 2024.

Argentina, fresh off a World Cup victory in the last international tournament anyone has played in (save for the Africa Cup of Nations scheduled in mid-February, for some reason), will be looking to cap off a period of international success with yet another trophy in their cabinet, retaining the Copa trophy they currently hold. And they will be feeling really confident about doing so because, while Colombia is one of the better sides in the tournament, they were never really classed among the favourites. There is a clear gap in quality in certain areas of the pitch. That, coupled with the fact that La Albiceleste boast, in their ranks, a person whom many consider the greatest footballer who has ever played the game, Captain Lionel Messi, it is looking almost like a formality for Argentina to add to their trophy cabinet.

The Colombians, though, should not be underestimated as they too have enjoyed a really good tournament. Having gone toe-to-toe with the likes of Brazil and beating other tournament favourites Uruguay with 10-men in the semi-final, they will feel that they definitely have a chance to cause a major upset and lift the coveted trophy themselves. Legendary Star man and captain James Rodrigeuz will be looking to partner with mercurial winger, Luis Diaz, in order to run the Argentina defense ragged and give their team the advantage.

Both teams will have the chance to double the number of Copas they hold as they have each only won it once before. Therefore, in terms of tournament history, Los Cafeteros have just as much of chance of winning as Argentina.

It is a classic tale of the underdog, with the backs to the wall, coming up against a Goliath of an opponent.

Will Argentina add another notch to their metaphorical belt, or will Colombia rise to the occasion and become the pride of a nation?

by Ben Ayuko

{image by SkySports}

Spain will meet England in the Final of the European Championship 2024. This will be more than just a game of football. It will be a clash of nations, a clash of ideologies, a gauntlet for the whole footballing world to judge.

La Roja will be looking to cap off their, otherwise perfect, tournament, having reached the final by winning every single game (6) they played while conceding just 3 goals. They have graced the tournament with their classic Spanish flair that reminded of us of their period of dominance in the early 2010s. With veteran Dani Carvajal having served his suspension in the semi-final, their squad will be back to its strongest level, save for Pedri who remains sidelined after his clash with, now retired, Toni Kroos.

The 3 Lions will be looking to show that they deserve to be victors, especially after they stumbled on penalties in the last Euros Final. They have come through the tournament in direct contrasting fashion to Spain. Whereas Spain have always looked like the assured winners in every game they have played, England have always looked very unsure of how to play their game. Of the 2 sides, Spain definitely had the harder draw, playing the likes of Croatia and Italy in their group stage, and then progressing to the likes of Germany and France in the knockouts. And in every single game, it is only Germany who made them go the distance. England could only manage 1 win in their group stage and very nearly went out in the knockout rounds against Slovenia and then against Switzerland, needing some late heroics in both games, including penalties in the latter, to stay their course.

If it is a question of who deserves to lift the trophy, the answer, without a shadow of a doubt, is obviously England. Okay I’m joking, but how scandalized were you? No, Spain has, by far and away, been the best team at the tournament thus far. It is rare that a team plays the most entertaining football while also dispatching all of the other tournament favourites so effortlessly. If it came down to vote, it wouldn’t even be close.

But in life, one rarely gets what they deserve. Therefore, the victor of this tournament will simply be the one who wants it more. The one who is willing to risk losing anything to gain everything.

It is sure to be a memorable occasion.