Darwin Núñez and Cody Gakpo inspire Liverpool to 6-1 win over Sparta Prague
This was an unadulterated duck shoot for Liverpool and the apt way to send a shudder through Manchester United before Sunday’s FA Cup quarter-final at Old Trafford.
Jürgen Klopp’s admirable side are into Friday’s Europa League quarterfinal draw via a goal-fest that almost required an abacus to keep count, because when Cody Gakpo touched in his second on 55 minutes that was 6-1 on the night and 11-2 on aggregate.
Mohamed Salah’s successful return to the XI for the first time since New Year’s Day is the headline news before the Cup tie versus United. His contribution: a goal, three assists, the completion of the match and 20 goals for a seventh successive campaign – becoming the first player to achieve that feat for Liverpool.
“An outstanding player,” said Klopp. “The plan was not for him to play 90 minutes, but Bobby [Clark] felt something so we have to take him off [instead]. I told him to stop defending – the first time I ever said this to a player – by the way Mo, it’s different on Sunday.”
Within seven minutes Sparta Prague were breached – as they were three more times before the quarterhour. Dominik Szoboszlai was fed along the right and he pulled the ball back for Darwin Núñez to drive home.
The next came straight from the kick-off in a defensive horror show. Ladislav Krejci was robbed by Salah, he found Bobby Clark, and the midfielder beat Peter Vindahl for a first senior goal. Seven-one soon became 8-1 overall. This time Jaroslav Zeleny was the visitors’ culprit as Clark dispossessed the centre-back and tapped to Salah, who swept home.
Shell-shocked already, Sparta soon felt worse. Salah was the provider, the Egyptian allowed an age to find Gakpo, who made no mistake, for 9-1 and tie over, with United enjoying this as much as those in black.
A yawning 20 minutes passed before Vindahl’s goal was seriously threatened again. Salah miscued a shot, the ball bobbled to Núñez, and from close range he skied the effort, provoking a Klopp chortle. Clark, inspired, next went close, selling a dummy in Sparta’s area that allowed him to unleash a piledriver Vindahl repelled.
Salah ended the period beating his hands in frustration at not being able to add to the score; Brian Priske, Sparta’s manager, was sighted clapping at Veljko Birmancevic’s strike, the midfielder beating Caoimhín Kelleher to the keeper’s left.
For the second half Klopp changed Joe Gomez, Núñez and Wataru Endo for Kostas Tsimikas, Harvey Elliott and James McConnell and soon it was 5-1, Szoboszlai’s strike coming at a canter. The No 8 wandered along an insideright diagonal and shot, the ball pinging off Krejci and past Vindahl to his left.
Salah had the assist once more but the question was how long might the Egyptian magician last before Klopp removed him. Long enough for him to witness Elliott power the effort that enabled Gakpo to flick beyond Vindahl to tee the Dutchman up for the chance of a hat-trick.
As the hour passed on came Virgil van Dijk for a run-out before Sunday’s trip up the M62 – Klopp replacing
Jarell Quansah, though not before the German drew a yellow card for a touch of sideline dissent after the young defender had been booked. The manager greeted this with a grin to the bench, then hugged Quansah, who might have observed the contest from a deckchair.
Klopp said in the buildup that it would be silly to consider him having a rethink on departing his post. Sure – but he would not be human if there were no secret second thoughts given the vibrant squad his successor will inherit.
“Big respect to
Priske.
Liverpool,” said
the country to stiff-arm Florida’s public universities altogether. But this is easier said than done.
For one thing the NAACP statement specifies that students reconsider “any potential decision to attend, and compete at a predominantly white institution in the state of Florida”, a nuance that will surely be lost in translation. For another, standing on principle was so much easier in Smith’s day, when exposure (on network TV, to pro scouts, to marketing execs) was the only thing that truly mattered in college sports. But now student-athletes don’t have just that to choose from; they have more power than ever over their name, image and likeness – and more opportunity to make serious money while still in school. This new economy, the result of a landmark lawsuit that compelled a rewrite of NCAA bylaws, has flat-footed college coaches – for too long the main beneficiaries under the old scheme, with top college football coaches earning almost $11m per year.
Nick Saban retired as football coach at the University of Alabama in January, not least because he’d have to work harder to recruit. Earlier this week, he joined Texas Republican senator Ted Cruz on a Capitol Hill panel to discuss prospective antitrust legislation that would standardize and cap athlete compensation. This comes a week after Dartmouth men’s basketball players voted to unionize and several active antitrust lawsuits are challenging NCAA compensation caps and whether athletes should have employee status. “All the things I believed in for all these years, 50 years of coaching, no longer exist in college athletics,” said Saban, who was making almost $12m a year at Alabama. “It’s whoever wants to pay the most money, raise the most money, buy the most players is going to have the best opportunity to win. And I don’t think that’s the spirit of college athletics, and I don’t think it’s ever been the spirit of what we want college athletics to be.”
Altogether, the NCAA and Power Five conferences spent $2.97m on lobbying efforts in 2023, according to the Associated Press. (Cruz gave his deeply divided Congress a “50-50” chance of passing meaningful legislation on NILs by year’s end.) But Florida is a school that can pay to keep playing the game as is. Their athletics department, with more than $190m in revenues last year, ranks among the most resourced in the country, their alums give generously to the cause, and the school is a charter member of the SEC – college sports’ primo conference. There’s little reason to believe that Florida won’t continue to compete with upstate rival Florida State for the most fertile crop of college prospects outside of Texas. And there’s little reason to believe that a talented high schooler won’t sign on to the school that provides the best access to plum NIL deals, especially if the price is high enough to help themselves and their families, particularly those athletes who won’t go on to play professionally.
If any Florida school figures to feel the squeeze in Florida’s DEI ban, it’s Florida A&M University (or Famu for short), the historically Black college (HBCU) affected by the state’s DEI ban. With a budget of around $10m, Famu already struggles to compete for talent, exposure, facilities and fundraising support. When the NIL era kicked off three years ago, some thought it would lead more top recruits to consider HBCUs like Famu, especially after Deion Sanders kicked off his college football coaching career at Jackson State University in Mississippi. But that optimism came and went when Coach Prime pulled up stakes for Colorado, where he has demonstrated a particular knack for exploiting the current system. With those strong headwinds, Famu will have to work even harder to remain an HBCU sports leader when it is in a state whose governor seems intent on codifying anti-Black policies.
All of which is to say: this may be the hardest wall Smith has run up against. And he should be commended for standing up to the state that launched him. But it’s going to take more than the greatest running back alive diving into the fray in support of Florida’s woke warriors to see the error of their ways. It’s going to take rivals from other states denigrating Florida colleges, athletics boosters withholding support and the Sunshine State’s other athletic greats backing Smith. Putting the onus on student-athletes to solve this feels like too big an ask. Besides, it’s not their fix to get over the line.
athletes playing pickleball, but not in competition. Some of them are taking it seriously but others are doing it for exercise.”
Steve Rose, a former multi-racket sport player who took up pickleball eight years ago, said after teaming with Lendl to win a 60-and-over pro event, that tennis players are seeing a less daunting path to success in pickleball.
“At the beginning, the tennis players didn’t want to come over to pickleball,” said Rose. “Now, you get people like Ivan and Jack Sock and they’re definitely attracting other tennis players, which is raising the entire level of the game, the popularity of the game and [bringing] more recognizable names to the masses.”
Lendl doesn’t look at his status as a tennis legend helping grow the game’s popularity as the reason for playing.
“I’m bringing fun for myself and my friends,” Lendl said after helping Rose win their riveting down-to-thewire gold medal match in February. “To me, whether I play here or in the backyard makes no difference. It was that way in tennis. I enjoyed playing tennis in my backyard. If I was hitting the ball well, it gave me a lot of satisfaction.”
Foster said that Lendl made his debut in the Boca Masters because of its location, not far from his new home in Vero Beach. His victory came more than four decades after Lendl won his first ATP tournament in Houston at age 20. There would be 93 more, including eight grand slams.
“He said he’ll never forget Boca as his first [pickleball] title.” said Foster, who is trying to get Lendl to join his professional team later this year.
Though not serious about the game himself, McEnroe said that it’s a great outlet for older former athletes who still like to be pushed competitively.
“There are crazy lunatics like Rick Barry who compete at signing his name [while giving autographs],” McEnroe said with a smile.
Rose, who has seen Barry play at tournaments, said, “A lot of the older professionals like Rick Barry, now have an outlet and go back and win again.”
Unlike his pro basketball career, which included 13 All-Star selections between the NBA (eight) and ABA (five) as well as being named as one of the NBA’s 50 greatest players on its 50th and 75th anniversary teams, Barry is competing in near anonymity except for the looks of slight or even startled recognition among some opponents.
Barry, who led the Golden State Warriors to a four-game sweep of the Washington Bullets in 1975 and was named NBA finals MVP, is as feisty as he was 50 years ago when it comes to his – and others’ – newfound obsession. The only issue now is finding fellow octogenarians to play against. The pickleball equivalent of Elgin Baylor or Julius Erving is not walking on the court, waiting to dink rather than dunk Barry into submission.
Barry will keep playing, even if it’s against players decades younger.
“I’ve won some tournaments playing against 50-year-olds, I love the competition,” Barry said. “It’s a nice social thing for people to do, but for me, if I step on the court or do anything athletically, I’m out there to try to win.”