Agustín Creevy set to play in Rugby World Cup semifinals at 38. 'Los Pumas are my life,' he says
Kylian Mbappé needs to start scoring goals again for Paris Saint-Germain when the team hosts Strasbourg in the French league on Saturday. Mbappé scored three goals in recent European Championship qualifying matches against the Netherlands and Scotland. They helped Les Bleus clinch a spot at Euro 2024 and took him to 43 international goals at the age of only 24. That’s already two more than France great Michel Platini. Only Olivier Giroud (54), Thierry Henry (51) and Antoine Griezmann (44) are ahead of him. But Mbappé has not scored in his past four games with PSG after finding the net eight times in his first five games this season.
The Ole Miss Rebels are trying to keep their SEC West hopes alive with a visit to struggling Auburn. The 13th-ranked Rebels have won two straight division games since losing to Alabama. Ole Miss is coming off an open date. The Tigers have lost their first three league games and face yet another potent offense after games against Georgia and LSU. They have the league's worst offense statistically. Ole Miss counters with Jaxson Dart, Quinshon Judkins and a talented group of receivers.
Manchester United midfielder Casemiro will miss the Premier League game against Sheffield United because of injury. The Brazil international has remained in his home country to recover from what has been described as a “small issue” while playing for his national team in World Cup qualifying against Venezuela and Uruguay. United says the decision to stay in Brazil was based on the club’s advice “to recover as swiftly as possible.” Casemiro has endured a difficult start to the season and was sent off after conceding a penalty in United’s 3-2 Champions League loss to Galatasaray. He was then substituted at halftime in the 2-1 win over Brentford.
The tables have turned in London. Chelsea has spent the best part of 20 years looking down on its local rivals in England’s capital city after being backed by Russian billions. But no more. Now it is Tottenham and Arsenal leading the way in the Premier League as Chelsea treads an uncomfortable and uncertain path under new owners and yet another new manager. On Saturday, the club that won the Champions League as recently as 2021 hosts Arsenal at Stamford Bridge and aims to build on a recent upturn in results. But it is too soon to say if manager Mauricio Pochettino is on the way to turning Chelsea’s fortunes around and the game against Arsenal could be a reminder of the gap between the teams.
This Date in Baseball, October 20 - Red Sox beat Yankees in Game 7 after being down 3 games to 0 in ALCS
This Date in Baseball-Week Ahead for October 20 - October 26. 2 Takes
This Date in Baseball-Week Ahead for October 20 - October 26. Take 2
Organizers of next year’s Paris Olympics say their headquarters have again been visited by French financial prosecutors who are investigating suspicions of favoritism, conflicts of interest and misuse of funds in the awarding of contracts. The Paris organizing committee says the national financial prosecution service visited its north Paris offices on Wednesday “and obtained all the information it requested.” It says the organizing committee “is cooperating fully with the investigation.” Its offices were first searched in June.
Agustín Creevy has a chance to appear in his first final at his fourth Rugby World Cup. His Argentina team faces New Zealand in the semifinals on Friday in Paris. Creevy will become the oldest player to appear in a semifinal at 38 years, 219 days. That will surpass Victor Matfield for South Africa in 2015. He’s older than Ireland’s just-retired Jonathan Sexton by four months and he’s far from finished. Creevy has been picked up for this season by Sale Sharks. The Pumas backup hooker and former captain says “everything I have done in rugby is to put on the Argentina shirt.”
Seven straight losses in all competitions have brought Union Berlin back to reality after years of over-achievement. Union had only experienced one highlight after another since clinching Bundesliga promotion for the first time in 2019. It culminated in a remarkable fourth-place finish and Champions League qualification last season. But this season hasn’t gone so well. Union coach Urs Fischer says “in the last years we always needed the words ‘surreal’ and ‘crazy.’ Maybe now we need the word ‘reality’ for where we are.” It could get worse. Union next hosts second-place Stuttgart in the Bundesliga on Saturday before facing Italian champion Napoli in the Champions League on Tuesday.
UEFA says Israel will not host any of the governing body's sanctioned soccer matches until further notice. UEFA said it had conducted a “thorough evaluation of the current safety and security situation in the whole territory of Israel” before the decision was made by its Executive Committee. The ruling will impact Israeli teams Maccabi Haifa and Maccabi Tel Aviv in the Europa League and Europa Conference League respectively. Maccabi Haifa’s game at Villarreal on Oct. 26 has been put back to Dec. 6 and Maccabi Tel Aviv’s home game against Zorya Luhansk that had been scheduled for the same day will now be held on Nov. 25. Earlier this month UEFA postponed all matches scheduled to take place in Israel over a two-week period after Hamas’ surprise attack.
Japanese wild-card Shintaro Mochizuki rallied from a set down to eliminate top-seeded Taylor Fritz 0-6, 6-4, 7-6 (2) at the Japan Open for the first win over a top ten player in his career. After losing the first set to love, Mochizuki, ranked No. 215, fought his way back into the game to force a deciding set against the 10th-ranked Fritz and then closed out the match in a nerveless tiebreak. Mochizuki will next play Alexei Popyrin, who rallied from a set and a break down to beat qualifier Cristian Garin 4-6,. 7-6 (3), 6-2. Fourth-seeded Alex de Minaur impressed in his 6-0, 7-5 defeat of Diego Schwartzmann.
Ben Stokes has declared himself ready to play in England's crucial Cricket World Cup match against South Africa after missing the first three games because of injury. Stokes has been struggling with a hip problem sustained a week before the World Cup and missed the losses to New Zealand and Afghanistan, which came either side of a win over Bangladesh. England next faces the Proteas on Saturday with its title defense on the rocks. Stokes has told the BBC, "I think everything is pretty good. I am in a good place.”
Boris Becker is returning to coaching for the first time since the six-time Grand Slam tennis winner’s release from a British prison last year. The 55-year-old German has told broadcaster Eurosport that he will work with sixth-ranked Holger Rune for the rest of the season. The alliance will start at the Swiss Indoors next week. Becker says he will focus on the mental side of the game and describes Rune as “a rough diamond that needs polishing.” Rune is the highest-ranked Danish player ever and has reached the quarterfinals of the French Open and Wimbledon.
A moment of silence will be observed at soccer games in Belgium and Sweden as a tribute to the two Swedish soccer fans killed this week in Brussels ahead of a European Championship qualifier. The Belgian league said that “next matchday all games in Belgian soccer will start with a minute of silence, in honor of the two Swedish football fans who lost their lives in the terrorist attack in Brussels. This minute of silence will take place at both Belgian and Swedish football grounds.” Investigators are still trying to determine the motive for Monday night’s attack, which occurred not far from the King Baudouin stadium where the qualifier took place.
England’s best player at the Rugby World Cup hadn’t started a match for his country until a month before the tournament. Ben Earl was far from assured of being in the squad for France before the World Cup warmup games took place in August. Earl was voted as the best player in the English league in 2022. Yet he was dropped from England’s squad midway through this year’s Six Nations and told by newly hired coach Steve Borthwick to go back to his club and get fitter. Earl’s hopes of making it for the global showpiece looked slim. Now England cannot do without him.
Sergio Ramos helped Real Madrid win 22 titles in a 16-year spell before leaving two years ago. He will face his former team for the first time on Saturday when Madrid visits Sevilla. Ramos re-joined boyhood club Sevilla last month. His new team is struggling and changed coaches during the international break that has just ended. Uruguayan coach Diego Alonso will debut against Madrid. Third-placed Barcelona hosts Athletic Bilbao on Sunday after a judge widened the scope of an investigation into the payment of millions of euros to a refereeing official to include its current president.
Tennessee and Alabama bring two of the Southeastern Conference's better defenses into Saturday's showdown. The 17th-ranked Volunteers visit No. 11 Alabama in a rivalry game that went down to the final play last season. Tennessee broke a 15-year losing streak in the border rivalry with a 52-49 win in the Top 10 matchup. A similar shootout seems unlikely because neither offense has been putting up big numbers. Alabama is led by quarterback Jalen Milroe and the Vols counter with Joe Milton III.
No. 10 North Carolina is hosting Virginia on Saturday in search of a 7-0 start. The Tar Heels are coming off a win against Miami. That game highlighted UNC's season-long trend of making adjustments at halftime then coming out strong in the third quarter. UNC has outscored opponents 71-24 in the third quarter this season. The Tar Heels have scored four touchdowns and a field goal on its first six drives after halftime. Virginia is coming in after an open week. Before that, the Cavaliers beat William & Mary for their first win of the season.
Floyd of Rosedale has a well-worn perch by now among the trophies displayed in the Iowa football building. Minnesota and Iowa have played for the 98-pound bronze pig every year since 1935. Floyd has resided with the 24th-ranked Hawkeyes for eight straight years and 18 of the last 22. The Gophers’ next opportunity to lay claim to Floyd comes Saturday when they visit Kinnick Stadium. They haven't won in Iowa City since 1999. Look for a low-scoring game. The matchup pits two of the nation's worst offenses.
No. 20 Missouri is coming off an uplifting win at Kentucky while South Carolina is smarting from a late blown lead against Florida as the two schools prepare to meet Saturday at Faurot Field. The Tigers outscored the Wildcats 18-0 in the fourth quarter for the bounceback win after a tough loss of their own against LSU. They need to keep winning to keep pace with No. 1 Georgia, which is a game ahead in the SEC East. South Carolina led the Gators with less than 5 minutes to go last Saturday before allowing a pair of touchdown down the stretch in a defeat that left the Gamecocks buried the standings.
Hugh Freeze is set to lead Auburn against his former team for the first time. The slumping Tigers host 13th-ranked Ole Miss on Saturday trying to snap a three-game losing streak. Freeze led the Rebels program for five seasons before leaving amid off-the-field scandals. Lane Kiffin's Rebels have won two straight to remain in SEC West contention. They snapped a six-year losing streak to the Tigers last season and haven't beaten Auburn in back-to-back years since 1952.
There is a rematch this week of last year's Big 12 championship game when TCU plays at Kansas State. The Wildcats won that title game in overtime last December after TCU had an undefeated regular season. Both teams go into Saturday's game coming off bounce-back wins last week. Also in the league this weekend, Oklahoma senior quarterback Dillon Gabriel faces his former team when the sixth-ranked and undefeated Sooners host league newcomer UCF. Gabriel is third nationally with 347 total yards per game. He threw 70 touchdowns in 26 games for UCF from 2019-21 before transferring to Oklahoma.
No. 14 Utah has fared well against No. 18 Southern California since head coach Lincoln Riley took over the Trojans. The Utes are one of three teams to knock off a Riley-led team more than once. The Utes beat the Trojans in the regular season a year ago and again in the Pac-12 championship game. When he was at Oklahoma, the teams that beat him more than once were Iowa State and Kansas State. Another big game in the Pac-12 will be Washington State at No. 9 Oregon. Both are trying to rebound from losses.
No. 11 Alabama likely hasn't forgotten what happened the last time it face No. 19 Tennessee. That's when the Vols defeated the Crimson Tide 52-49 and a sea of happy, Orange-clad fans tore out the goal posts and paraded them out of Neyland Stadium. Alabama hopes for a different outcome at home this time around to highlight play in the Southeastern Conference this week. Alabama slipped out of the Top 10 after falling to No. 9 Texas and a so-so outing in beating South Florida a week later. But the Tide have won four straight behind passer Jalen Milroe.
No. 4 Florida State has another strong test ahead when it hosts No. 16 Duke to highlight ACC action in Week 8 of the season. The Seminoles are 6-0 and off to their best start since 2015. The Blue Devils may get a boost this week with the return of injured quarterback Riley Leonard. Duke coach Mike Elko teased that the team may get their leader back from a high ankle sprain in time to face Florida State. The Seminoles lead the ACC in scoring and have given up the second-fewest points in the league.
No. 7 Penn State at No. 3 Ohio State is the game of the week in the Big Ten. The Nittany Lions carry an 11-game win streak to Columbus. They haven't won there since 2011. Lions coach James Franklin is 1-8 against Ohio State and 0-9 on the road against top 10 opponents. The Floyd of Rosedale trophy is on the line when Minnesota visits 24th-ranked and West-leading Iowa. The Gophers are looking for their first win in Iowa City since 1999. Northwestern is a long shot to watch as an 11 1/2-point underdog at Nebraska.
India all-rounder Hardik Pandya has hobbled off the field with a suspected ankle injury in the Cricket World Cup game against Bangladesh in Pune. Pandya was bowling the ninth over of the innings when he tried to stop a straight drive by Litton Das, twisting his left ankle and tumbling over. He got up and tried walking but fell back to the ground as the Indian medical team rushed in. He got up again and tried a practice run-up before consulting with skipper Rohit Sharma and walking off. Pandya is a key member of India’s team as the host nation attempts to win the competition for a third time.
Jaylen Brown wasn't considered to be a surefire NBA superstar when the was drafted in 2016. As he prepares for his eighth season, his play has forced the narrative about him to be rewritten. Last season was a defining year for Brown, who garnered his second All-Star selection and second-team All-NBA nod while helping lead the Celtics to within a game of back-to-back NBA Finals appearances. This summer he cashed in signing a five-year, $304 million extension. The richest contract in NBA history and immediately thrust him onto a tier reserved for only the league’s most elite stars. Now he says he's ready to provide the voice and leadership for a retooled Celtics roster with championship aspirations.
There are still blue-and-white streamers hanging over alleyways and banners all over the city celebrating Napoli’s first Serie A title since the days when Diego Maradona played for the club. But there hasn’t been much to celebrate lately in the southern city. Napoli has won only four of its opening eight matches and has already lost two with both defeats at home. It's a much slower start than a year ago when Napoli didn’t lose until January and remained unbeaten at home until March. So it’s plain to see why new Napoli coach Rudi Garcia is already under pressure entering Saturday's game at Hellas Verona.
BOULDER, Colo. (AP) — The Pac-12 Conference is having a banner season in the midst of having teams about to scatter in all directions. Attendance is up around the league through the halfway mark, with a big tip of the cap to Colorado coach Deion Sanders for that. Ratings, too, are booming th…
