Bayern downs PSG for 6th European Cup; Capitals fire Reirden
LISBON, PORTUGAL »
Kingsley Coman headed Bayern Munich to a sixth European Cup title on Sunday, scoring against boyhood club Paris Saint-Germain to seal a 1-0 victory in the first Champions League final to be played without fans.
While Bayern won its first final since 2013, PSG has yet to lift the European Cup despite more than $1 billion being spent on players in nine years.
More than $500 million was spent on Neymar, Kylian Mbappé and Angel Di Maria but PSG looked far from formidable or threatening against the Bavarian giants who felt more assured on European club football’s biggest stage.
As the costly front three were frustrated in front of goal, it was instead a winger who was born in Paris and started his career at PSG who inflicted the blow.
The 24-year-old Coman ghosted in at the far post unchecked by the PSG defense and was ready to meet a cross from Joshua Kimmich in the 59th minute.
It was Bayern’s 43rd goal of a perfect European campaign that has seen Bayern become the first team to win all 11 Champions League matches.
CAPITALS REIRDEN »
FIRE COACH
Back-to-back early playoff exits were enough to make the Washington Capitals realize they made a mistake.
In the two years since promoting top assistant Todd Reirden instead of giving Stanley Cup-winning coach Barry Trotz a raise, they’ve been knocked out of the playoffs in the first round. On Sunday, the team fired Reirden days after losing a five-game series to Trotz’s New York Islanders and moved toward hiring the seventh coach since Alex Ovechkin entered the NHL.
“We have higher expectations for our team, and we felt a fresh approach in leadership was necessary,” general manager Brian MacLellan said. “Todd has been a big part of our team for more than half a decade, including our Stanley Cup run in 2018, and we wish him and his family all the best moving forward.”
Dismissing Reirden is an acknowledgement that the longtime assistant wasn’t able to make the most out of a team built to continue contending for championships with Ovechkin, centers Nicklas Backstrom and Evgeny Kuznetsov, wingers Tom Wilson and T.J. Oshie and defensemen John Carlson and Dmitry Orlov in the prime of their careers.
RAVENS RELEASE PRO BOWL SAFETY EARL THOMAS »
The Baltimore Ravens have terminated the contract of seven-time Pro Bowl safety Earl Thomas, who got involved in a fight with a teammate Friday and did not attend practice Saturday.
According to a statement released Sunday by the team, Thomas was released “for personal conduct that adversely affected the Baltimore Ravens.”
The action steams from Thomas’ fray with defensive back Chuck Clark at practice after Thomas admittedly blew a coverage assignment. Although the Ravens don’t have someone else with his talent at free safety, keeping Thomas would have created the potential for poor chemistry on a team with aspirations of playing in the Super Bowl.
If Thomas was released outright, Baltimore would have taken a $15 million salary-cap hit this year and $10 million in 2021. By voiding his $10 million guaranteed salary for conduct detrimental to the team, he will count $5 million against the cap this season and $10 million next year.
NFL POSITIVE COVID-19 TESTS FROM NJ LAB COULD BE FALSE »
The NFL revealed Sunday that several positive COVID-19 tests were found a day earlier by one of its testing partners. Among teams reporting false positives, the Minnesota Vikings said they had 12, the New York Jets 10 and the Chicago Bears nine.
The league has asked the New Jersey lab BioReference to investigate the results “while the clubs work to confirm or rule out the positive tests.” The NFL did not identify the teams or say how many tests altogether were positive.
The Jets canceled a walkthrough on Saturday night but had a full practice Sunday morning after the previously positive tests came back negative. The Bears moved their practice scheduled for Sunday morning to the afternoon.
The Pittsburgh Steelers said they had six false positives and those players will be back at practice Monday. The Philadelphia
Eagles held out four players from working out Sunday. The Cleveland Browns called off their workout altogether.
The number of positive COVID-19 tests from a specific facility that might actually be false demonstrates the precarious position the NFL is in less than three weeks from the regular-season opener.
“Definitely probably better that this happened now than three weeks from now,” said Buffalo Bills general manager Brandon Beane, whose club had some of those positive results. “But it seems like every few weeks, or even every week, something’s going on. Who know what the next curveball will be?”
Beane said tests in the Northeast had gone “haywire,” and called it “a lab issue and not a true issue with our guys currently” after several Bills were held out of practice.
BRISCOE WINS XFINITY RACE AT DOVER »
Chase Briscoe called his shot at Dover.
He rang up his wife, Marissa, early Sunday and delivered the message: “I’m going to win this race today.”
Briscoe delivered in a backup car, rallying from the back of the field at Dover International Speedway on Sunday to win his sixth Xfinity Series race of the season.
“Maybe I need to start doing it every week,” he said of his guarantee. “I don’t know what the reason is why I have a feeling. Hopefully I start feeling that feeling a lot more.”
Briscoe had bad feeling Saturday when he damaged his No. 98 Ford in the first of two Xfinity races at the Monster Mile. That forced him into a backup car Sunday and he had to drop to the rear of the field.
No worries. Briscoe said his backup car was substantially better than his primary Ford and he had confidence early that he could back up his promise of a victory. He won the second stage and held on down the stretch to win his eighth career Xfinity race.