Mourinho fears United succumbing to pressure
Arsenal’s Alexis Sanchez misses penalty during their English Premier League football match against Hull at the KCOM Stadium, Hull, England, on Saturday. LONDON (AP): THE FOOTBALLING divide in Manchester is becoming clearer a month into the season.
On the blue side, Pep Guardiola is thriving at the start of his Manchester City career with five wins out of five in the Premier League.
On the red side, José Mourinho is discovering the toils David Moyes and Louis van Gaal endured trying to live up to Alex Ferguson’s high achievements during his 26-year reign.
After opening the campaign with three successive wins, the record 20time English champions have now lost three games in around a week.
A 3-1 loss at Watford yesterday – ending a 30-year unbeaten run against the club based north of London – followed a losing start to the Europa League on Thursday at Feyenoord in the Netherlands. The miserable sequence started last Saturday by losing the first Manchester derby of the season to Guardiola’s City.
“I feel that some individuals probably feel the pressure and responsibility too much,” Mourinho said at Vicarage Road.
“We started the season very well with (winning) the Community Shield and three victories in a row in the Premier League, the best start that a new manager has had at Manchester United I think.
“But was I thinking that my team was ready, perfect, unbeatable? Not at all. I was completely aware that we were not perfect, with lots of players who are not end products and can make their own mistakes.”
Although 18-year-old Marcus Rashford marked his first start of the season for Mourinho by cancelling out Étienne Capoue’s opener, Watford surged back in front in the 83rd minute SONOMA, California (AP): STEPHEN CURRY grew up just 20 minutes away from one of the showplace tracks in NASCAR.
Despite the proximity, he never made it out to an event at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Some 2,700 miles away, at a road course in California, Curry finally made it to his first race. The two-time NBA MVP paid a visit to Sonoma Raceway yesterday as the supportive husband to wife Ayesha.
It was Ayesha Curry who was named grand marshall of the IndyCar season finale, and Stephen Curry had no at Vicarage Road. Substitute Camilo Zúñiga scored within a minute of coming off the bench and Troy Deeney netted a penalty in the fifth minute of stoppage time. It’s only five games into the Premier League season, but United are already six points behind the leaders – Guardiola’s City. “We have to improve, no doubt, individually and collectively,” Mourinho said. “And that’s my job.” If not, United could be missing out on the top-four again and face another season out of the Champions League. But there’s a long way to go in the season.
Here is a look at yesterday’s other games: TOTTENHAM 1, SUNDERLAND 0 Moyes is trying to revive a reputation tarnished by his time at United at a club renowned for its struggle to stay in the Premier League. Five games into the season and Sunderland only have one point after this fourth loss.
It was a mixed day for Tottenham. Harry Kane scored in consecutive league games for the first time since March by tapping into Sunderland’s goal in the second half. But the league’s top scorer in the last campaign was stretchered off towards the end of the fixture at White Hart Lane with an ankle injury.
Kane left the stadium on crutches and Tottenham is waiting to discover the extent of the injury after scans today. CRYSTAL PALACE 4, STOKE 1 Like Sunderland, Stoke have only a solitary point after being condemned to a fourth straight league loss on a trip to south London.
Stoke collapsed inside 11 minutes at Selhurst Park, with goals from James Tomkins and Scott Dann seizing control of the game. Another goal burst came in the second half when James McArthur and Andros Townsend netted inside AP Ayesha Curry poses for a photograph with her husband, NBA basketball player Stephen Curry, as he sits in an IndyCar driven by Mario Andretti before the Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma in Sonoma, California, yesterday. Ayesha is this year’s Grand Marshall of the Grand Prix of Sonoma.
LONG WAY TO GO
four minutes, while Marko Arnautovic´ got Stoke’s only goal, in stoppage time. SOUTHAMPTON 1, SWANSEA 0 Claude Puel’s wait for a win as Southampton manager is over, thanks to Charlie Austin’s goal. The substitute striker also got the south-coast club’s Europa League campaign off to a bright start on Thursday by netting twice against Sparta Prague. Southampton have five points from five Premier League games, while Swansea are a point behind. problem stepping into the shadow of the budding celebrity chef.
“She’s got a great thing going and I am supportive of the things she’s passionate about: cooking, her lifestyle platform,” Curry said, “so to see that be recognised and give her opportunities like this to just get out and have some fun, I am happy to support her.”
Curry, star guard for the Golden State Warriors and one of the biggest names in the NBA, said his wife was the true celebrity in the family. United manager José Mourinho He’s had fun on social media trying to follow some of her recipes, but said he’s got a long way to go to rival her.
“It’s no lie that I can’t cook for anything. If my family had to choose between me and Ayesha, they’d choose her every day of the week,” Curry said. “When her book came out, I took it and three nights in a row made dinner. It was groundbreaking, but I just got in there and followed the recipes.”
His experiments? Steaks, Italian sausage pasta and bananas foster. SPONSORSHIP IS a major challenge for the development of football in the parish of St Catherine. Despite that, the parish is doing well. That’s the word from Peter Reid, president of the St Catherine Football Association.
Reid says football is on the rise in the nation’s biggest parish despite the financial challenge.
“The lack of sponsorship does not take away from what we are doing because we have played our under13, under-15, under-17 and under-20 (competitions) without sponsorship,” he revealed, “and we have FLOW on board for our major league and our ‘Happy’ Sutherland (KO).”
That latter competition, named for long-serving St Catherine football administrator Lincoln ‘Happy Sutherland, is the parish’s premier knockout tournament.
Despite the strictures, Reid believes the outlook for St Catherine is positive. He pointed out that eight members of the under-15 national girls team came through St Catherine’s football programmes and that St Catherine are national champions in that age group for both boys and girls.
“So, with a small amount of sponsorship, we are doing well,” he accounted, “but we could do with much more sponsorship.”
Stephen Curry steps into wife’s shadow at Sonoma Raceway McCleary scores; apologises for red card
LONDON (CMC): JAMAICA INTERNATIONAL Garath McCleary has apologised for his red card, which left Reading to defend stoutly in order to come away with a 2-1 victory against Barnsley in the English Championship on Saturday.
Playing away at Oakwell, McCleary scored in the ninth minute to hand the visitors the lead before John Swift doubled the lead in the 27th minute.
However, McCleary turned villain when he was given marching orders in the 34th minute after reacting to a tackle on Danny Williams by pushing Barnsley captain Conor Hourihane to the ground.
“I apologise profusely,” McCleary said via online social networking service, Twitter.
“I was defending DW (and) had head loss, which played into their hands. The boys have done excellent for the remaining 60 mins ...”
Reading manager Jaap Stam was sympathetic to McCleary’s misdemeanour, but said the player needed to better handle such situations.
“He was obviously disappointed with what happened. He reacted to the tackle on Danny,” the former Manchester United defender said.
“Of course, he needs to be more clever in that situation, but I think it’s the reaction of their player as well. It was not like he hit him; he pushed him away.”
McCleary had opened the scoring when he tucked home a rebound after his initial penalty shot was saved and then watched as Swift produced a super finish to put Reading in full control.
However, once he was sent off, it left Reading to defending for an hour and the development changed the entire complexion of the game.
“Of course, when Garath got the red card, it was a totally different game,” Stam said. “We had to defend and work very hard for each other and we did that.”
Adam Armstrong finally breached the Reading defence nine minutes from time, but Barsley were unable to find the equaliser to claim a share of the points.
Barnsley are fourth on 15 points, with Reading one point behind in eighth.