More stories

  • in

    Can Anyone in the N.F.C. Stop Tom Brady and the Bucs From Repeating?

    Tampa Bay returns much of its Super Bowl-winning roster, but Aaron Rodgers and Davante Adams have Jordan-and-Pippen-style title dreams for Green Bay.Amid the chaos and reshuffling of an N.F.L. season played during a pandemic, the 2020 season concluded with an all-too-familiar scene: Tom Brady hoisting the Lombardi Trophy.Even at the ripe age of 44, Brady could continue his title-winning ways at the helm of a Tampa Bay team that returns much of its roster. But the Buccaneers’ path to repeat as champion should be tougher, beginning with their Week 1 opponent. The Dallas Cowboys return Dak Prescott, who led all quarterbacks in passing yards through the first five games of last season before suffering a gruesome right ankle injury.Aaron Rodgers, the reigning league most valuable player, and the Packers renewed their vows after having narrowly missed taking down Brady and company in last season’s N.F.C. championship game, thanks to a, umm, notable play call. And the Los Angeles Rams traded with Detroit for the veteran quarterback Matthew Stafford in the off-season, adding fresh blood to the gauntlet that is the N.F.C. West.Will all the retooling around the conference stop another rerun?N.F.C. EastDallas Cowboys (6-10)Key additions: S Keanu Neal, DE Tarell Basham and DE Brent UrbanKey departures: DB Chidobe Awuzie, QB Andy DaltonAfter a disappointing 2020 season, the Cowboys completed their biggest off-season task by signing quarterback Dak Prescott to a four-year, $160 million contract extension. Though it’s risky to guarantee such hefty money, at $126 million, to a quarterback coming off a season-ending broken ankle, Prescott’s absence showed how mightily the Cowboys’ offense depends on him. Running back Ezekiel Elliott is back to his college weight, and Prescott will throw to one of the N.F.L.’s best receiver trifectas in Amari Cooper, Michael Gallup and CeeDee Lamb. But that won’t mean much if Dallas’s aging offensive line can’t buy Prescott time to find them. Dak Prescott, left, and Ezekiel Elliott have to like the Cowboys’ shot at winning the wide open N.F.C. East. Tom Pennington/Getty ImagesNew York Giants (6-10)Key additions: WR Kenny Golladay, WR Kadarius Toney, TE Kyle Rudolph, CB Adoree’ JacksonKey departures: DL Dalvin Tomlinson, RB Wayne Gallman, OT Cameron FlemingQuarterback Daniel Jones slid backward in his second year in the league, but, no pressure, team owner John Mara thinks his quarterback can win a Super Bowl. To back up that assertion, the Giants brought in a true No. 1 receiver in Golladay and took Toney with the 20th pick of this year’s draft, a move that stood out for its sagacity. Those additions, with the return of Pro Bowl running back Saquon Barkley, and the signing of the veteran tight end Kyle Rudolph should all aid Jones’s campaign — if not for a Super Bowl, at least for a contract extension — though they won’t help much if the offensive line continues to struggle. Leonard Williams, who the team signed a three-year, $63 million contract after he posted a career-high 11.5 sacks in 2020, should help generate a pass rush.Philadelphia Eagles (4-11-1)Key additions: WR DeVonta Smith, S Anthony HarrisKey departures: QB Carson Wentz, WR DeSean JacksonThe Eagles are reworking their roster on the run after overhauling the core personnel that had led the team to three straight playoff berths and a Super Bowl victory. Coach Nick Sirianni replaces Doug Pederson, and the team named the second-year quarterback Jalen Hurts, who was 1-3 in four starts last season, their starter. They added the former Jaguars quarterback Gardner Minshew in late August but the essential question for this young team is whether Sirianni — who spent the last three seasons as the Colts’ offensive coordinator — can develop Hurts.Washington Football Team (7-9)Key additions: QB Ryan Fitzpatrick, WR Curtis Samuel, CB William Jackson III, LB Jamin DavisKey departures: OT Morgan Moses, DE Ryan Kerrigan, QB Alex Smith, TE Jordan ReedCoach Ron Rivera has continued his revamp in Washington by adding the speedster Samuel on a three-year, $34.5 million deal (Rivera coached Samuel with the Carolina Panthers) and bolstering the defensive backfield, while parting ways with stalwarts on the offensive and defensive line. In signing Ryan Fitzpatrick, 38, to replace Alex Smith, Rivera also signaled that Washington is closer to finding a new team name than a franchise quarterback.Washington won the N.F.C. East with a losing record last season (and then gave the eventual Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers a scare in the playoffs) but a second consecutive division title should be tough with an improved Dallas in the running.— Ken BelsonN.F.C. NorthChicago Bears (8-8)Key additions: QB Justin Fields, QB Andy Dalton, RB Damien Williams, TE Jesse JamesKey departures: WR Cordarrelle Patterson, CB Kyle Fuller, QB Mitchell Trubisky, DT Roy Robertson-Harris, OT Charles LenoBears fans grew so loud in their anticipation of rookie Justin Fields, right, taking the starting quarterback spot that Fields asked fans not to boo its current occupant, Andy Dalton.Nam Y. Huh/Associated PressC’mon, Chicago. Let Fields throw a regular-season pass before you name a museum after him, OK? Bears fans are acclimating themselves to an alien phenomenon, hope at quarterback, after the team traded up to draft Fields, the former Ohio State star, with the No. 11 pick. Every decision now revolves around his development, but the people making those decisions are largely the same ones who dealt away draft picks, compromising the Bears’ depth at places like, for instance, offensive line.They should have a solid defense and an elite receiver in Allen Robinson, who will be catching passes from Dalton to begin the season — but, probably, for not much longer than that.Detroit Lions (5-11)Key additions: QB Jared Goff, RB Jamaal Williams, WR Tyrell Williams, DE Charles Harris, DT Michael Brockers, OT Penei SewellKey departures: QB Matthew Stafford, WR Kenny Golladay, WR Marvin Jones, DT Danny SheltonFirst-year coach Dan Campbell has said he begins each day by ordering at Starbucks two venti coffees, each with two espresso shots. All that caffeine might not be good for his heart, but then again, neither is watching the Lions. Brad Holmes, the first-year general manager, traded Stafford, the franchise’s career passing leader, to the Rams for Goff, and gutted the roster.But the Lions are building from the offensive and defensive lines out — a sound strategy — and though that might not help them much in 2021, it could a few years from now, when they have a new quarterback.Green Bay Packers (13-3)Key additions: WR Randall Cobb, WR Amari Rodgers, OT Dennis Kelly, LB De’Vondre CampbellKey departures: RB Jamaal Williams, C Corey Linsley, LB Christian KirkseyThe next 18 weeks (and beyond) are going to be captivating theater in Wisconsin, where Aaron Rodgers may or may not be playing his final games with teammates he loves, but for a front office he doesn’t. There’s no reason to doubt this could be, as Rodgers and Davante Adams suggested in dual Instagram posts before training camp started, a fruitful “Last Dance”-y kind of season for the Packers, who have more talent than any team in the conference that doesn’t have “Bay” in its name. Where Rodgers plays next season will be fascinating, clearly. But not as much as how he and his team handle this one.Minnesota Vikings (7-9)Key additions: DT Sheldon Richardson, DT Dalvin Tomlinson, CB Bashaud Breeland, S Xavier WoodsKey departures: RB Mike Boone, TE Kyle Rudolph, OT Riley Reiff, LB Eric WilsonEntering quarterback Kirk Cousins’s fourth season in Minnesota, the Vikings have yet to win the N.F.C. North. Unless the Packers’ team buses get detoured to Idaho every game day, that streak isn’t likely to end. Still, the Vikings have a raft of elite players — running back Dalvin Cook, receiver Justin Jefferson and defensive end Danielle Hunter — and their off-season additions improved a defense that Coach Mike Zimmer last season called the “worst one I’ve ever had.”At the least, Minnesota figures to be average. At best, it could win double-digit games, good enough to snag a wild-card berth.— Ben ShpigelN.F.C. SouthAtlanta Falcons (4-12)Key additions: WR Cordarrelle Patterson, TE Kyle Pitts, RB Mike Davis, S Duron HarmonKey departures: C Alex Mack, WR Julio Jones, S Ricardo Allen, S Keanu Neal, DE Charles Harris, CB Darqueze Dennard.No team imploded as spectacularly — or as often — as the Falcons, who lost nine (!) games that they led last season. In theory, that won’t happen again. Any expectations beyond that? ¯_(ツ)_/¯The Falcons, under new leadership at coach (Arthur Smith) and general manager (Terry Fontenot), are in transition. After trading Jones and bypassing a potential Matt Ryan successor in order to draft Pitts at No. 4 overall, Atlanta seems to be walking up a down escalator. The onus will be on the defensive coordinator, Dean Pees, who was lured out of retirement, to generate loads of pressure — and on Ryan to generate loads of points. With Ryan working in a play-action heavy offense that resembles the one from his 2016 M.V.P. season, it might be possible. In theory.Carolina Panthers (5-11)Key additions: QB Sam Darnold, LB Haason Reddick, OT Cameron Erving, CB Jaycee HornKey departures: WR Curtis Samuel, RB Mike Davis, QB Teddy Bridgewater, LG Chris ReedThe Panthers acquired Darnold from the Jets this spring in the hopes that extricating him from the Jets’ juju — and surrounding him with, you know, better players — might unlock his promise. Bold strategy. In season 2 under Coach Matt Rhule, Carolina’s prospect of contending is rooted in too many hypotheticals (if Darnold can rebound, if running back Christian McCaffrey can stay healthy, if its young defense can coalesce) to take seriously.New Orleans Saints (12-4)Jameis Winston will step into the quarterback spot owned for 15 seasons by Drew Brees when the New Orleans Saints open the season with a “home” game against the Packers in Jacksonville.Derick Hingle/Associated PressKey additions: TE Nick Vannett, DE Tanoh Kpassagnon, DE Payton TurnerKey departures: QB Drew Brees, DE Trey Hendrickson, DT Malcom Brown, CB Janoris Jenkins, CB Patrick RobinsonSweet mercy, the Saints lost a lot of talent in addition to Brees. The team’s viability hinges on whether Coach Sean Payton can coax efficient quarterback play — and respectable ball security — from Jameis Winston over a full season. Either way, Winston is their best internal option, and he should benefit from playing behind a talented offensive line. Payton relishes the chance to put Winston and Taysom Hill on the field together. Good thing, too.The defense powered the Saints last year, and with their overall playmaking cast diminished — the star receiver Michael Thomas is out indefinitely as he recovers from ankle surgery — that unit might need to offset their offensive volatility.Tampa Bay Buccaneers (11-5)Key additions: RB Giovani Bernard, DE Joe Tryon, OT Robert HainseyKey departures: C A.Q. Shipley, LB Deone BucannonMoving some beads around the ol’ abacus, Tampa Bay’s front office performed a modern miracle in this salary-cap era: The Buccaneers managed to retain all 22 starters from the team that dusted Kansas City in the Super Bowl. Their roster, the best in the N.F.L., is loaded with absurd amounts of star power — from receiver Chris Godwin to linebackers Shaquil Barrett and Lavonte David — but also depth at every position except, perhaps, quarterback.That isn’t necessarily a problem, since Tom Brady is fated to start there until the sun collapses. Brady quarterbacked the last team to repeat as champions — the 2004 New England Patriots — and anything less than another title for Tampa Bay, which would be his eighth, would be a disappointment.— Ben ShpigelN.F.C. WestArizona Cardinals (8-8)Key additions: DE J.J. Watt, WR A.J. Green, RB James Conner, LB Zaven CollinsKey departures: CB Patrick Peterson, RB Kenyan DrakeIn two seasons, Coach Kliff Kingsbury has yet to lead the Arizona Cardinals to the playoffs. Should his team fail to reach the postseason in 2021, Kingsbury may be seeking employment elsewhere. The Cardinals return a talented roster led by quarterback Kyler Murray and receiver DeAndre Hopkins. They added veteran contributors on both sides of the ball by signing Watt and Green. Despite strong opposition in the division, any finish less than playing a game on Wild-Card weekend will be a disappointment.For the second season in a row, the Texans’ loss has been the Cardinals’ gain as J.J. Watt joined his former teammate DeAndre Hopkins in Arizona.Rick Scuteri/Associated PressLos Angeles Rams (10-6)Key additions: QB Matthew Stafford, WR DeSean Jackson, RB Sony Michel, WR Tutu AtwellKey Departures: S John Johnson III, CB Troy Hill, TE Gerald Everett, QB Jared GoffStafford’s arrival in Los Angeles dramatically elevates the Rams’ expectations as the team welcomes fans to its $5.5 billion stadium, which will host this season’s Super Bowl. The team returns a stout defense led by Aaron Donald and Jalen Ramsey, but any hope of a championship run depends on Stafford, whose 45,109 career yards rank fifth among active passers, but who, at 33, has not won a playoff game in three tries.Coach Sean McVay will look to unleash the offense behind Stafford and with Sony Michel, whom the team traded for to shore up a running back rotation that lost starter Cam Akers to a torn Achilles’ tendon before training camp.San Francisco 49ers (6-10)Key additions: QB Trey Lance, C Alex Mack, LB Samson EbukamKey departures: WR Kendrick Bourne, RB Tevin Coleman, DE Kerry Hyder Jr., CB Ahkello WitherspoonThe 49ers traded three first-round picks to the Miami Dolphins to draft Lance third overall this spring. He’ll eventually replace Jimmy Garoppolo, but how soon that transition occurs depends on Garoppolo’s health and Lance’s learning curve. Since Garoppolo has played a 16-game season only once with San Francisco, and Lance showed steady improvement in the preseason, figure on his time coming sooner than later.The team returns key starters to a defense that was decimated by injuries and boasts a potent rushing attack based on motion before the snap and passes behind the line of scrimmage.Seattle Seahawks (12-4)Key additions: TE Gerald Everett, OG Gabe Jackson, DT Robert NkemdicheKey departures: CB Shaquill Griffin, RB Carlos Hyde, DT Jarran ReedRussell Wilson, tired of continually being sacked by Aaron Donald and other pass rushers in the N.F.C. West, caused a stir this off-season by asking for more of a say in roster decisions. Despite the fracas, and that the team did not dramatically improve its offensive line, Wilson is back and trying to make it work in Seattle, where his chemistry with DK Metcalf resulted in 1,303 yards receiving, good for sixth among wideouts last season.In August, Seattle made Jamal Adams the highest-paid safety in the league with a four-year extension reportedly worth $70 million, in an effort to improve the defense, which allowed the 11th-most yards in the league.— Emmanuel Morgan More

  • in

    Brazil-Argentina Match Stopped When Health Officials Storm Field

    After a disagreement about quarantine rules, a high-profile match was interrupted by government officials seeking to deport four Argentine players.A World Cup qualification game between Brazil and Argentina, South America’s most successful soccer teams, was halted after only a few minutes on Sunday after Brazilian health authorities walked onto the field during play as part of an effort to deport four Argentine players accused of violating coronavirus quarantine regulations.In chaotic scenes in São Paulo, a group of Brazilian public health officials entered the field minutes into the highly anticipated showdown and ordered Argentina’s players off the field as officials from both sides, a small crowd allowed inside the stadium and a global television audience struggled to comprehend just what was taking place.Brazilian Health Authority officials potentially trying to deport @Argentina players Players going back into the tunnel #BRAvsARG #WCQ #CONMEBOL pic.twitter.com/gIENNTjfZz— fuboTV (@fuboTV) September 5, 2021
    At issue was the status of four members of Argentina’s roster, including three starters who play club soccer in England’s Premier League. According to local regulations, foreign travelers who had spent time in Britain in the previous 14 days are required to quarantine upon arrival in Brazil.Officials from a Brazilian health regulator, Anvisa, said in a statement that they had concluded the Argentine players had lied about being in England on forms when they entered Brazil. Two days of meetings had failed to resolve the issue, the agency said, so it sent staff members to the stadium where Brazil and Argentina had taken the field on Sunday afternoon, to seek the players’ “immediate segregation and transportation to the airport.”Argentina arrived in Brazil on Friday morning with four England-based players. All of the players had first traveled to Venezuela, where Argentina played an earlier qualification game last week, before arriving in Brazil three days ago.In images beamed live around the world, health officials and some of the Argentina players were involved in a brief altercation before the team returned to its locker room. The on-field discussions eventually involved officials from both teams and stars like Lionel Messi and Neymar.Brazil’s Neymar and Argentina’s Lionel Messi sought explanations before leaving the field.Amanda Perobelli/ReutersThe match’s referee eventually suspended the game. Once Argentina retreated to its locker room, Brazil’s players waited on the field before beginning an improvised training session using half of the field to entertain the stunned crowd. Meanwhile, a police motorcade prepared to take Argentina’s players away from the stadium.The decision to abandon the game came on a day of drama in World Cup qualifying around the world. In Africa, Morocco’s team had to flee the capital of Guinea, Conakry, after reports of a military coup in the West African nation a day before those squads were to meet in a qualifying match. And in Tennessee, the United States announced that one of its players had tested positive for the coronavirus and a second, the star midfielder Weston McKennie, had been suspended for violating team policy, which McKennie said on Instagram was Covid protocol.The events in Brazil threaten to further damage relations between FIFA, soccer’s governing body and the organization responsible for the World Cup, and Europe’s top clubs and leagues, who have been embroiled in a dispute over the release of players for the qualification games.Several European leagues and teams had already taken unilateral decisions to prevent their players from traveling to South America for World Cup qualifying games this month, complaining that they had no choice because the players would be forced to miss key league games had they done so. Brazil was missing nine players for the Argentina game, and other nations were also hobbled by clubs’ failures to release players.Tottenham and Aston Villa of the Premier League did allow their Argentines to travel, however. Tottenham Hotspur’s Cristian Romero and Giovani Lo Celso were in the starting team in São Paulo, as was Aston Villa goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez. His teammate Emiliano Buendía was a substitute.Goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez of Aston Villa, left, and Tottenham midfielder Giovani Lo Celso, center, were two of the three England-based players in Argentina’s starting lineup against Brazil.Andre Penner/Associated PressThe incident occurred only hours after the Brazilian health regulator Anvisa said four Argentine players must isolate and could not play in the match. The local news media had reported that the players involved failed to report that they had been in Britain, a charge Argentina’s soccer federation denied.It was unclear why Anvisa did not take action before the game, given Argentina’s team had been in the country for three days and because the agency had earlier said that the four England-based Argentina players must isolate and not participate in the games at the stadium.Some of Argentina’s players, including its captain, Messi, lingered in the tunnel area for several minutes after the match was stopped as officials and players alike tried to make sense of the dispute. Eventually, about an hour after play had first been suspended, South America’s regional soccer body, CONMEBOL, announced the game had been abandoned.CONMEBOL noted that the decision to abandon the game was the referee’s, but noted that FIFA had final authority over the matches.“The World Cup qualifiers are a FIFA competition,” CONMEBOL said in a statement posted on Twitter. “All decisions concerning its organization and development are the exclusive power of that institution.”Lionel Scaloni, Argentina’s coach, said in comments posted on the national team’s Twitter page that the team had not at any point been notified that it could not field the British-based players, and he questioned the timing of the health officials’ raid. “We wanted to play the match, the Brazilian players did, too,” he said.Claudio Tapia, the president of Argentina’s soccer federation, disputed the accusation that any of the team’s players had lied about their travel. He said Brazil’s health authorities had approved the rules under which Argentina’s team had traveled to Brazil.“You cannot talk about any lie here because there is health legislation under which all South American tournaments are played,” Tapia said. “The health authorities of each country approved a protocol that we have been fully complying with.”A Brazilian television commentator reached the head of Anvisa during the live broadcast of what should have been the first half of the game. The Anvisa official, Antonio Barra Torres, said the Argentine players had ignored instructions to remain in isolation while awaiting deportation from the country for failing to declare they had been in Britain.“They moved to the stadium, entered the field and there was a sequence of noncompliances,” he said in comments published by Globo.The interim president of Brazil’s soccer federation, Ednaldo Rodrigues, criticized the timing of the decision by health officials, saying the players could have been sent home after it concluded.“I feel sorry for all the sports fans who wanted to watch the game on television,” Rodrigues told Brazil’s SporTV. “With all due respect to Anvisa, they could have resolved this earlier and not waited for the game to start.” More

  • in

    Keith McCants, Football Star Laid Low by Drugs, Dies at 53

    At one time the N.F.L.’s highest-paid defensive player, he left the league after six seasons and fell into a spiral of addiction, homelessness and desolation.In N.F.L. parlance, Keith McCants was a “can’t miss.” A relentless and powerful athlete, he was a first-team all-American linebacker at Alabama and was drafted fourth overall in 1990 by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. His success seemingly guaranteed, the team made him the highest-paid defensive player in the league.But McCants soon became known by a less flattering N.F.L. moniker: “draft bust.” Days after being chosen by the Buccaneers, he had knee surgery. A year later, he had to learn a new position when he was moved from linebacker to defensive end. The injuries and frustrations mounted as he tried to meet people’s outsized expectations.His promise unfulfilled, the Buccaneers released McCants after three years. He spent three more seasons with the Houston Oilers and Arizona Cardinals before he left the league, his money and celebrity diminished. What remained was an overpowering addiction to painkillers, and eventually to other drugs, that consumed the rest of McCants’s life and turned him into a cautionary tale.After decades of drug abuse, numerous arrests, dozens of surgeries and years living on the street — all punctuated by brief stretches of sobriety — McCants was found dead early Thursday morning at his home in St. Petersburg, Fla. He was 53.The cause appeared to be a drug overdose, but Amanda Sinni, a spokeswoman for the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office, said the department was awaiting a report from the medical examiner’s office.In and out of rehabilitation and eager to share his story to warn others away from drugs, McCants all but predicted his demise in 2015, when he was interviewed by The New York Times.During six seasons in the N.F.L., Keith McCants became addicted to painkillers, and later went to jail, lived on the street and battled depression. He was interviewed by The New York Times in this 2015 video.Josh Ritchie for The New York Times“I live one day at a time; I’m a recovering addict,” he said. “Tomorrow’s not promising. If I die today or tomorrow, I’m all right with that because I’m comfortable with me. My goal is to help people who can’t help themselves, to turn their negatives to positives, to give them hope. That’s what I sell.”McCants did not just talk about his struggles with substance abuse. He pointed the finger squarely at the N.F.L. Coaches, he said, pushed players to perform without regard to their long-term health. Team doctors handed out painkillers like candy to mask injuries and get players on the field. And when players were unable to perform, he said, the league turned its back and focused on younger replacements.“I will continue to tell the truth, how they got me hooked on drugs,” he said. “I feel it’s my duty as a retired player to explain the difference between being hurt and being injured.”McCants in a game against the Indianapolis Colts in 1992, when he was with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He was with Tampa Bay for three seasons before being released, his promise unfulfilled.Scott Halleran/Allsport, via Getty ImagesAlvin Keith McCants was born on April 19, 1968, in Mobile, Ala. His father abandoned him when he was young; he was raised by his stepfather, James Turner, who worked for the city, and his mother, Cinderella Turner, a cook. He is survived by two sons, Keith Jr. and David; two daughters, Aysha and Kera; two brothers, Robert and Anthony; and two sisters, Angie and Denise. He was married and divorced twice.Widely scouted while at Murphy High School in Mobile, McCants enrolled at Alabama, home to one of the country’s premier football programs. He left for the pros after his junior year, a bold but contentious step at the time. He said he opted out of his senior year because he did not want to risk further injuries that might shorten his career, and because he needed to provide for his family while he could.Some experts predicted that McCants could have been chosen first overall in the draft; he was ultimately picked fourth, one slot ahead of Junior Seau, a linebacker from the University of Southern California who played for 20 years and was elected posthumously to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2015. Seau killed himself in 2012 and was later found to have chronic traumatic encephalopathy, the degenerative brain disease linked to repeated hits to the head.The Buccaneers had losing records each of McCants’ three years in Tampa, which heightened the scrutiny of his performance and his paychecks. (He received a record $2.5 million signing bonus as part of a five-year $7.4 million deal.) McCants lived the life of a celebrity player, spending freely. He said that he was preyed upon by financial advisers and others and lost $17 million.He played in 88 games in his career and recorded 13.5 quarterback sacks and one interception.After he left the N.F.L., McCants, who studied criminal law in college, became the first Black marine police officer in Alabama when he joined the state’s Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. He joked that he found it hard to arrest people because they often recognized him from his playing days and said they were fans of his.Yet the power of his addiction proved strong. He lived on the street in Tampa for two years in the early 2000s, worked as a pimp and drug dealer, and spent time in jail, where he once tried to hang himself. He spent stretches in numerous rehabilitation facilities, only to succumb to drugs again once he got out, as he recounted in his 2018 memoir, “My Dark Side of the N.F.L.”In recent years, seemingly at peace with his fate, he tried to warn others by talking about his financial troubles, his run-ins with the law and the pain — emotional as well as physical — that he buried with drugs.“I’m not too much worried about Keith McCants,” he said. “I’m more worried about the people that’s coming after Keith McCants.” More

  • in

    At Least 10 of Deshaun Watson's Accusers Have Filed Police Reports

    The women said Deshaun Watson, the Houston Texans quarterback, sexually assaulted them or touched them inappropriately.The Houston Police Department has spoken to at least 10 women who have accused Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson of crimes from unwanted touching to sexual assault, according to records obtained by The New York Times.The records are heavily redacted, and do not reveal the names of the complainant or the suspect, but they were released in response to a request for all records related to Watson or his home address in Houston.A brief summary of each complaint is one of the few lines left unredacted in the documents. “Complainant stated that the suspect touched her inappropriately and exposed himself,” read one. Another said: “Complainant was sexually assaulted by the suspect. One suspect. No arrest. Complainant willing to prosecute.”Houston police spoke to the women between April 2 and May 20 of this year, and dates of their complaints ranged from September 2019 to December 2020. Watson has not been charged with any crimes.On March 16 of this year, the attorney Tony Buzbee announced that he was filing a lawsuit against Watson, accusing him of misconduct against an unnamed woman. Buzbee now represents 22 women who have sued Watson.In addition to the 10 women who have spoken to Houston police, the F.B.I. is investigating the case, according to Buzbee and Watson’s attorney, Rusty Hardin. Watson has spoken to the F.B.I., and Hardin has said agents are investigating one of Buzbee’s clients for extortion, while Buzbee has said they are investigating Watson’s conduct.The status of the criminal investigations into Watson’s conduct is unclear. Spokespeople for the Harris County District Attorney’s Office and the F.B.I. did not respond to requests for comment, while a Houston police spokesman referred to the department’s statement from April 2 which reads, in part, “As with any allegation, the Houston Police Department is now conducting an investigation and will not comment further during the investigative process.”Last month, a Houston television station reported that a grand jury had been convened in the case. Under Texas law, every potential felony charge goes before a grand jury.Watson has not talked with police investigators, nor has he spoken with N.F.L. investigators about the accusations, Hardin said in an interview Friday. “The police have made no attempt to reach out to Deshaun, and we don’t expect law enforcement to do so until they complete an investigation,” Hardin said, adding that he would be surprised if the police investigation concluded before October.“The prosecutor has told us from the beginning that ultimately when the investigation is over, their findings will be presented to a grand jury,” Hardin said at a news conference last month. “We will be given the opportunity to tell our side, and we will get an evenhanded hearing.”In an interview earlier this week, Hardin said, “Every single week we are finding out more that makes us increasingly more comfortable that none of these cases will lead to valid criminal charges.”Hardin said he will begin questioning the accusers in the civil cases at depositions that will start this month. Watson’s deposition should happen by February, he said.The Times requested the records from the Houston police in April, but they were not provided until Friday.The police department asked the office of the Texas attorney general to rule on whether the records sought were exempt from disclosure. An assistant attorney general wrote in June that information that consists of the “detection, investigation or prosecution of crime” was exempt, but that basic information about an arrested person, an arrest or a crime is not. That basic information was what was released.One party that has not yet spoken to Watson: The N.F.L. has spoken to a number of the women who have sued Watson, according to Buzbee, but Hardin has said league investigators have not yet spoken to Watson. In cases involving criminal investigations, the N.F.L. typically waits until those investigations are completed before interviewing the player.The Texans open their season against the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sept. 12, and it is unclear whether Watson will start at quarterback, or whether he will still be on the team. Watson participated in some of Houston’s training camp, though he did not play in any of the team’s three preseason games. According to numerous reports he has asked to be traded, a request that has been difficult to fulfill given legal and criminal investigations.Juliet Macur More

  • in

    Everton's Women Are 'Not Shy About Being Ambitious'

    A series of changes, big and small, has a strengthened Everton believing it can hold its own with deep-pocketed rivals in England’s Women’s Super League.LIVERPOOL, England — Some of the changes have been small, so small as to be imperceptible, at least from the outside. This summer, for the first time, Everton hired someone specifically to take care of the uniforms of its women’s team. It is the sort of thing that serves as a reminder that, in women’s soccer, many little battles are still being won.Those small changes, though, still have an impact; they still offer a marginal gain. The laundry will no longer have to be done by another staff member, someone who is supposed to be analyzing video or planning coaching sessions, or even by the players themselves. All that time saved can now be put to proper use. Everything can be just a little bit better.And some of the changes have been considerable, like the nine new players who have joined Everton squad over the last few months. There is Toni Duggan, an experienced England international, the German defender Leonie Maier, the Italian midfielder Aurora Galli, and three players signed from Rosengard, Sweden’s champion-in-waiting, dubbed the Swedish House Mafia by their new teammates.The most significant change, though, at least as far as the club’s coach, Willie Kirk, is concerned, is the one that is hardest to describe. It struck him, most clearly, while away with his team on a preseason camp in Scotland last month. Something, he could tell, had clicked.Everton’s coach, Willie Kirk, has found it easier, and cheaper, to close the gap between midtable and the top than his men’s counterparts.Catherine Ivill/Getty Images“Maybe it is self-belief,” he said, trying to put his finger on it. “Maybe it is the feeling of watching another player walk through the doors and thinking: Yep, that’s another quality signing. Maybe it is knowing that not one player can be sure they’re starting in the next game, and that competition driving standards.”Kirk may not be able to name it, not precisely, but he is happy to talk about it. The first time Izzy Christiansen, the club’s vastly experienced midfielder, sat down with Kirk — in the winter of 2019 — her abiding impression was of a coach who had absolutely “no fluff,” she said. He did not try to give her the hard sell as to why she should sign with Everton.“There wasn’t a pitch,” Christiansen said. He simply bought her a coffee — “That’s one way to persuade me to join a club,” she said — and explained how he saw her as a player, what he thought she would bring to the team, and what he, and his club, were trying to do. “It was matter-of-fact,” she said.He is exactly the same when it comes to his intentions for his team. “We are not shy about being ambitious,” Kirk said.It is telling that, when asked if the plan for the season is to challenge the Big Three of England’s Women’s Super League — Chelsea, Manchester City and Arsenal — when the season opens on Saturday, Christiansen recalibrated the question. “That’s what we intend to do,” she said. “To compete, and to surpass. We want to take the club back into the Champions League, where it belongs.”Of course, the landscape of women’s soccer has undergone a seismic shift, both domestically and in Europe, in the decade or so since Everton last graced that competition. At the start of the 2010s, Everton’s rivals for a place were Arsenal, Birmingham City, Liverpool. They were teams mostly populated by British players; few, if any, trained in the same facilities as their respective men’s teams.Chelsea used deep pockets and expensive signings to climb to the top of the Super League last season.John Walton/Press Association, via Associated PressThe W.S.L. of 2021 is starkly different: dominated by the polyglot squads constructed, at lavish expense, by Chelsea, City and Arsenal. The former boasts not only the most expensive women’s player of all time, the striker Pernille Harder, but the highest-paid female player in the world, Sam Kerr.Manchester City can call on the backbone of the England national squad — the captain Steph Houghton, Lucy Bronze, Ellen White, half a dozen others — and has sufficient financial clout that it was able to tempt one of Everton’s best players, the Australian wing Hayley Raso, to Manchester this summer. Arsenal, meanwhile, can lay claim to possessing possibly the world’s best player: the Dutch striker Vivianne Miedema. On Friday, it picked up one of the American star Tobin Heath.Those three teams have stood, almost unchallenged, at the summit of the W.S.L. for some time. They have combined to win the last five titles — Chelsea claiming three — and have accounted for every English spot in the Champions League since 2014. They are, as Kirk admitted, a formidable barrier.And yet the club believes it can break that stranglehold. “I’ve made it clear to the players that to do it we will have to punch above our weight in terms of budget,” he said. “Finance does come into it, but we feel we are there.”He credits the club’s “clever” recruitment, led by its sporting director, Sarvar Ismailov — a nephew of Alisher Usmanov, the business partner of Everton’s majority owner Farhad Moshiri, who has now been appointed to the club’s board — for much of that growth. “We have to be flexible, and we have to be smarter,” Kirk said.Within the club, Ismailov is credited with both having a keen eye for talent and an ability to drive a bargain: There are, Kirk has said previously and approvingly, “not many in the women’s game who like him.” It was Ismailov who led the campaign to land perhaps the most eye-catching of Everton’s summer recruits, the 18-year-old Swedish midfielder Hanna Bennison, the club’s record signing.Anna Anvegard, left, and Hanna Bennison, center, are teammates in Sweden. Everton added them both, as well as Nathalie Björn, with the three players earning the nickname Swedish House Mafia.Jamie Sabau/Getty ImagesBut that is only one element. When she looks back at the club she joined almost two years ago, now, Christiansen sees “something special,” something that Kirk traces not just to the raft of new players.“We have improved our working practices,” he said, a category that doubtless includes the hiring of a uniform attendant. “We have signed a lot of previous winners. We have always had a positive environment, but that breeds a winning culture.”It is a trend he sees across the club. Everton is working on building a new stadium (principally) for its men’s team. The last two coaches of the men’s team, Carlo Ancelotti and Rafa Benítez, are both Champions League winners. The ambition for the women’s team, in Kirk’s eyes, is no different to the ambition for the men’s.Perhaps, though, that relationship does not function quite as it is often presented. Everton has been condemned — through sheer economics as much as anything else — to life in the upper mid-table of the Premier League. It would cost the club hundreds of millions of dollars in transfer fees to even have a hope of overhauling Manchester City’s and Chelsea’s men’s teams.In the women’s game, though, it can now consider itself a force. It can talk of winning a place in the Champions League, and it can think, not entirely idly, of winning a championship. It can contemplate meeting clubs that exist on a different stratum in men’s soccer as something approaching equals in women’s.That has not come cheap — Bennison alone cost a “substantial six-figure sum” to coax from Rosengard — and it has not been straightforward. But Everton, unlike many of its peers in the no-man’s-land below the elite in the Premier League, now has the reward: a chance to compete, to challenge, and perhaps to surpass. That impetus has not flowed from the men’s team to the women’s but, if anything, the other way round.That is what all of those changes, the small and the large alike, have added up to: a club that has a stage on which to be truly ambitious once more, and a team that is not afraid to talk about it. More

  • in

    The Problem When Soccer Clubs See Athletes as Assets

    Chelsea and Manchester City have both found ways to monetize their army of spare signings by loaning them out. But should soccer incentivize that, or limit it?One of the things that appealed most to Manchester City about Marlos Moreno was his flexibility. The club spotted him as a teenager, coming off the back of a breakthrough season in which he helped Atlético Nacional, his hometown club in his native Colombia, win not just a national title but the Copa Libertadores, too.Moreno, then 19, had the air of a rising star. He was the sort of prospect who stood out among the thousands of players around the world whose names and performance data flash in front of the eyes of the scouts and analysts at Europe’s biggest clubs.City’s recruitment team liked what it saw: not just Moreno’s finishing, but his creativity, his ability to play in a variety of places. The club decided to strike, paying Atlético $6 million or so to sign him, and tying Moreno to a five-year contract. Executives were sufficiently excited by the acquisition of a player they felt was one of the most promising in South America to mention his name to Sheikh Mansour, City’s owner.“He’s a versatile player,” City’s director of football, Txiki Begiristain, said when Moreno’s arrival was confirmed. “We believe he has a fantastic future in the game, and with City.”That was five years ago, in August 2016. Moreno, 24, has now completed his initial, five-year deal with City. He has not played a single game for the club. He has, instead, spent the last half-decade on a series of loans. As it turned out, he has needed to be a very versatile player indeed. Just not in the way Begiristain intended.There is, on the surface, little pattern to the arc of Moreno’s journey these last few years, no easy evidence of some grand design at play. Sometimes, he has gone to clubs in Manchester City’s orbit — Girona and Lommel, two of his stops, are owned by City Football Group — and sometimes he has not. There have been spells in Spain, Portugal and Belgium, but also Brazil and Mexico. If there is a rhyme or a reason, it is difficult to discern.Marlos Moreno, left, signed with Manchester City in 2016 but has yet to play for the club.Miguel Sierra/EPA, via ShutterstockThis summer, Moreno left Manchester on loan again. (There has never been official confirmation that he has signed a new contract, but it can only be assumed that City extended his terms beyond their initial expiration date this summer.) He has joined Kortrijk, in Belgium. It is his seventh club in five years.Moreno is not, though, an outlier. There are plenty of players on City’s books who have a similar story to tell. Yangel Herrera, a Venezuelan playmaker, is now on his fourth team in four years since signing with Manchester City. None of them was Manchester City. Patrick Roberts, once considered something of a breakout star in English soccer, is with his sixth team in six years. He has, at least, appeared for Manchester City in a Premier League game. That was in 2015.But this is not simply a Manchester City phenomenon. Chelsea, too, has a troupe of players on loan: 21, in fact, after the closure of the transfer window. Some of them — like Billy Gilmour, the Scottish midfielder lent to Norwich City for the year — are undertaking a vital step in their development. The hope at the club remains that they will come back stronger, better, more experienced and ready to command a place with the first-team squad. Others, like the fullbacks Kenedy and Baba Rahman, are not.Chelsea is often credited — if that is the right word — with pioneering the idea of a soccer club as two separate but linked businesses: one designed to put the best team on the field, with the aim of winning trophies and claiming glory; and one set up to trade players, with the aim of making a profit that can then be reinvested in the other side of the company.Matt Miazga’s Chelsea tenure has been a European tour: He has been lent to clubs in the Netherlands, France, England, Belgium and, most recently, Spain, where he now plays for Alaves.David Aguilar/EPA, via ShutterstockWhether Chelsea invented the idea is a matter of debate. Several Italian teams might suggest they were operating along similar lines long before the current European champion. There is no question, though, that Chelsea has not only industrialized the concept, it has refined it, too.Its approach has two strands. Some players are bought, developed and sold a couple of years later, flipped like real estate. Others, though, are treated as rentals, lent again and again to different clubs, the return on the initial investment spread over several years of loan fees.This practice could, perhaps, be named in honor of goalkeeper Matej Delac, a Croat who spent nine years at Chelsea, and spent each and every one of them at a different club. The whole approach — of effectively spinning off a player-trading business as another part of a club’s identity — could easily be termed the Chelsea model.Except that it is, now, not just Chelsea. It is Manchester City, too, with Moreno and Herrera and others. Liverpool is doing it more frequently. There are players at Juventus and Real Madrid, among others, who have had similar experiences. It is now pretty much standard practice at most of Europe’s elite clubs.There is a reason it has been widely and quickly adopted: It is a good idea. It is a particularly good idea now, when the coronavirus pandemic has ravaged most clubs’ finances and only a handful of teams are able to pay actual transfer fees. The loan market will grow and grow. Having players contracted for that very purpose ensures a steady stream of income: small beer, perhaps, for a team like Manchester City or Chelsea, but perhaps a vital source of funds for the teams expected to compete with them.The impulse behind it is not just economic; it is also, to some extent, sporting. The teams that are good at it — the ones that can identify talent and develop it, the ones that can command a market for those players, the ones that can place them adroitly at teams that allow their value and demand to grow — are the ones that are rewarded by the system. Chelsea can bring in Romelu Lukaku, to some extent, because it has developed an effective transfer strategy to offset some of the costs. That is to its credit.There is only one sticking point. It is a simple question, and it is one that does not traditionally detain soccer for long, but it is worth asking. Is this OK? There is economic sense here. There may be some sporting logic, too. But morally, is the idea of players not as athletes but as assets something we should not just accept but incentivize?The transfer market, as a whole, is underpinned by a deep weirdness. It is rarely mentioned — the soap opera of the market is sufficiently compelling that we, as observers, willingly suspend our disbelief — but it is unusual that an employer can prevent an employee from taking another job, one that is better paid or more appealing, regardless of what that employee wants.Manchester City signed Yangel Herrera as a teenager but has yet to play him. Instead, he has appeared in Major League Soccer and for three Spanish clubs.Savvides Press/EPA, via ShutterstockOf course, plenty of employees have contracts, which bind them to a company. But for the most part, they also have notice periods, giving them some sort of agency over their careers and lives. Perhaps a company might make life difficult should a star employee wish to leave. Perhaps it will place him on some type of gardening leave. There are not many examples where it will keep him until a prospective employer pays a wholly arbitrary sum in compensation.We tolerate this state of affairs in soccer partly because of tradition, partly because it protects sporting integrity; partly because we (wrongly) assume that everyone is extremely well paid anyway; partly because players do jobs we all dream of doing, so we adore them individually but hate them as a concept; and partly because the transfer market is an important and reasonably effective mechanism for wealth distribution.Even by these low and strange standards, though, the use of players as nothing more than assets — to be fattened for sale like livestock or to be rented to the highest bidder — feels like a step too far.It is akin, perhaps, to those complex derivative packages traded on financial markets, the ones that are bets on the outcomes of bets, on and on into eternity. The original purpose has been lost: It is no longer about trading to get better; it is simply about trading to make money. And the things being traded, in this case, are humans, ones who are no longer in control of their own destiny, not really.This is one of those rare problems in soccer that has a relatively easy solution: The authorities who run and, in theory, safeguard the game could quite easily rule that clubs can have only a certain number of senior professionals on their books. They could ban teams from having more than, say, five players on loan at any time.They could, but of course they won’t, which means there will be more cases like Marlos Moreno and Yangel Herrera and Matej Delac and all the others, forever on the move, hired out to whoever will take them, bonded to a club that sees them not for what they can do but for how much they can make.Selling TomorrowAntoine Griezmann completed a round-trip journey to Madrid. Barcelona paid coming and going.Lluis Gene/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesJust as time expired, the money started pouring in. The great bazaar of Barcelona had been open all summer, but it was only in the final couple of days that anyone came through the doors, the buyers and the bargain-hunters, all hoping to take advantage of soccer’s great distressed sellers.If the sale of Emerson Royal to Tottenham was a little strange — he had officially joined Barcelona only a month earlier — it is the departure of Antoine Griezmann that will sting the most: the sheer humiliation of allowing a player signed with great pomp and ceremony two years ago to return, initially on loan, to Atlético Madrid.Still, it could not be helped: Barcelona’s most pressing need was first to save and then to raise money, and at the end of the transfer window it had done just that. Lionel Messi has gone; Sergio Busquets, Gerard Piqué, Jordi Alba and Sergi Roberto have all agreed to reduced terms; Griezmann is off the salary bill. By next summer, when his move to Atlético is made permanent, Barcelona will have generated $115 million in sales.What Barcelona could not do, of course, is sell off the players that it most needs to sell: the high earners, the waning stars, the reminders of its years of folly. Philippe Coutinho, Miralem Pjanic and Samuel Umtiti are all still there. Barcelona does not have a vast amount in common with Real Madrid, but here, perhaps, there is some common ground.Whether Real’s approach (or approaches) to entice Kylian Mbappé this summer was real or not we will never know, not truly: Real Madrid insists it was, Paris St.-Germain is adamant it was not. Either way, the club has spent the last couple of seasons trying to raise the funds necessary to sign the 22-year-old Mbappé: funds that would either have been used as a transfer fee or as a golden handshake.To do that, it would have liked to sell players like Gareth Bale and Isco: big names on money to match. But nobody came forward, and so instead Real Madrid has had to cash in on a suite of promising youngsters: Achraf Hakimi and Sergio Reguilón and Óscar Rodríguez last season and Martin Odegaard this summer.The policy has worked, of course, but it brings with it an unavoidable question: How much brighter would Real Madrid’s future have been, how much more balanced would its side be, if it had been able to add Mbappé to a promising young squad, rather than having to sell off many of those players to finance his eventual arrival?It is the same question that lingers over Barcelona. Emerson, like Junior Firpo and Carles Aleña and Carles Pérez and Arthur before him, might not have made Barcelona great again, but he would, at least, have helped to rejuvenate an aging squad. Instead, he was sold, as they all were, to cover the costs of the mistakes of the past. Barcelona’s finances are in better shape now than they were a month ago. The price is a high one, though: It has had to mortgage tomorrow to pay for yesterday.CorrespondenceThere was an intriguing thought in an email from Jillian Mannarino, touching on the varying fortunes of Arsenal’s two senior teams. “Everyone following the Premier League is talking about how bad Arsenal men’s team is,” she wrote, “but no one seems to be talking about how good Arsenal’s women’s team is: stacked with superstars like Vivianne Miedema, Kim Little, Danielle van de Donk and Beth Mead, and consistently good for the last decade.”Arsenal has at least one team that is making its fans smile.Steven Paston/Press Association, via Associated PressWe will cover the start of this season’s Women’s Super League in England elsewhere this weekend. But it is worth pausing a moment on Arsenal, too, because there is a stark contrast between its two elite divisions.The women’s team recruits sufficiently and consistently well enough — including the arrival of Tobin Heath this week on a free transfer — to punch above its weight: It has not spent quite as much as Chelsea and Manchester City in recent years, but it remains a peer of those teams in a way that it is very much not in the men’s game. How can that be explained? Why can the club make good decisions for its women’s team, but not its men’s? Is it to do with the executives working on the women’s side? And if so, should someone maybe not ask their advice?These are questions I cannot answer — though I will endeavor to do so — but I can, at least, furnish Mary Jo Berman with a response. “Did Barcelona receive nothing in return for Lionel Messi?” she asked. “Couldn’t they have traded him or transferred him for cash?” They couldn’t, for the very simple reason that the club had allowed his contract to expire: He was free to move wherever he wanted. The fact that Barcelona allowed that to happen, too, remains the most interesting aspect of this summer.And Calvin Wagner was quite right to pull me up on a poor turn of phrase last week. “The transfers of Messi, Mbappé and Ronaldo are clearly more driven by the statement of acquiring their star power than footballing fit,” he wrote. “But surely the Lukaku deal has more sporting logic to it? It seems to me that he brings greater marginal gains in sporting quality to Chelsea relative to the other transfers mentioned in your column.”This is, of course, quite right. Lukaku makes complete sense from a sporting perspective — he fills a glaring need that Chelsea has — in a way that Ronaldo, for example, does not, particularly. Lukaku was included simply because of his cost, one that would have been beyond the reach of all but three or four teams this summer, rather than because of the motivations behind the deal, but that should have been made more clear.That’s all for this week. We may now be behind the paywall, huddling against the cold, but the usual rules still apply: Questions go to askrory@nytimes.com, urgent matters go to Twitter, all of the other thoughts I’ve had this week that I could not crowbar into this newsletter are littered throughout Set Piece Menu.Have a great weekend,Rory More

  • in

    U.S. Ties El Salvador in World Cup Qualifying

    As a youthful American team took its first step toward the 2022 World Cup, it rued a few missed opportunities.SAN SALVADOR — The formula for success in World Cup qualifying is written in years of hard lessons, hard games and hard nights: Win your home games. Pick up points on the road. Survive and advance.So it should not have a been a terrible disappointment for the United States men’s soccer team on Thursday when it opened the final round of qualifying with a scoreless tie at El Salvador. A point on the road, after all, is better than the alternative.“If you’re not going to win the game,” United States defender Tim Ream said, “then you can’t lose it.”But some points are harder won, and perhaps harder to accept, than others. Fresh off a summer in which it won two cup finals against archrival Mexico, the United States had started Thursday’s match against El Salvador exactly as it had hoped. It produced three excellent scoring chances — by Gio Reyna, Brendan Aaronson and Miles Robinson — in the first 10 minutes and at times displayed the kind of free-flowing, field-stretching ball movement that has made its youth-infused roster the best team in the region again.But El Salvador, in the midst of its own rebuild under the former United States national team player Hugo Pérez, soon found its footing. Backed by a capacity crowd that had begun streaming through the gates as soon as they opened 11 a.m., nine hours before kickoff, La Selecta lacked only the clinical finishing required to cash in the chances created by its deft footwork and incisive runs. Midfielder Alex Roldan came closest to opening the scoring in the 33rd minute, dropping defender DeAndre Yedlin on the left side before curling in a shot that skimmed the crossbar.“There needs to be a calm that sets in after that initial period, where we really start taking over, and we never got that,” United States Coach Gregg Berhalter said. “It turned into too hectic of a game, and we didn’t manage that well.”Tens of thousands of El Salvador fans packed the Estadio Cuscátlan, creating an electric atmosphere.Rodrigo Sura/EPA, via ShutterstockIn the second half, the game drifted inexorably toward a stalemate amid tired legs, wayward passes and a quick succession of American yellow cards. When the final whistle blew, the United States players trudged off, projecting a sense that they could have won, while El Salvador’s basked in the cheers of an adoring crowd that seemed to feel that its team had.In his final prematch comments on Wednesday, Berhalter had called the game an opportunity, a chance to rewrite the team’s destiny right from the start of the final round of qualifying, and to do so even without the star midfielder Christian Pulisic, who skipped the trip as he continued to recover from a bout with the coronavirus.For a few of his teammates, though, it may have felt like an opportunity lost. Berhalter spoke of a lack of connections, of too much individual play and not enough switching of the point of attack. The United States captain, Tyler Adams, pointed out some of the same concerns, but also a need to be “more ruthless” in finishing chances.“It’s our first game,” Adams admitted grudgingly. “We have to take what we can from it.”The Americans’ coach, Gregg Berhalter, expressed frustration at his team’s inability to retain control of the game.Moises Castillo/Associated PressThe Americans will not have long to linger over Thursday night’s result: Two more qualifiers loom in the coming days, against Canada on Sunday in Nashville and against Honduras on Wednesday in San Pedro Sula. The former may present the tougher competitive test, the latter the more dangerous one, mentally and physically, of this compressed window.Those games will mark the first hurried steps of the final round of qualifying, normally an 18-month slog that has been compressed to a seven-month sprint because of pandemic delays and postponements. That means three games in most windows, rather than the usual two, and less time to revel in victories or wallow in defeats. It means injuries and absences like Pulisic’s may prove more problematic, and disappointing results more costly.It means that for a young United States team, whose starting lineup on Thursday had an average age of 23 years and 282 days, there will be no time to look back and wonder how Thursday might have gone differently. Now that it’s over, the Americans will fly home with their hard-won point, their hopes for three more only a few days away. More

  • in

    USMNT Faces El Salvador in World Cup Qualifying

    Ahead of World Cup qualifying, a young team with a fresh attitude says it is unburdened by the failure of its predecessors to qualify for the tournament.SAN SALVADOR — As drama goes, at least by recent United States World Cup qualifying standards, the news rated a raised eyebrow, not a blaring alarm.Christian Pulisic, still finding his way back to fitness after a positive coronavirus test and 10 days in isolation, had not traveled to El Salvador with his United States teammates on Wednesday, one day before they were to open the final round of qualifying for soccer’s 2022 World Cup. Pulisic would not play in Thursday’s game, the team announced, and neither would goalkeeper Zack Steffen, who was enduring a late-breaking case of back spasms. He had stayed back in Nashville, too, where the United States will return this weekend to face Canada.“We feel like we have a deep team,” Coach Gregg Berhalter said. “Now’s the time to show it.”It was the kind of clipped confidence that has become Berhalter’s signature throughout his coaching career. Losing two starters was not a crisis, but “an opportunity,” he said calmly. Berhalter talks a lot about opportunities. This summer’s Nations League had been an opportunity to prove his best players could go toe to toe with rival Mexico and win, which they did. The Gold Cup that followed had been an opportunity, too, for a different set of U.S. players. The Americans beat Mexico to win that one as well.Christian Pulisic remained in Nashville, where he will train on his own while his teammates face El Salvador on Thursday.Mark Humphrey/Associated PressIt’s a lot easier, Berhalter and his players have found, to talk about opportunities when you’re collecting trophies. For the bulk of the current United States team, though, the eight-team final round of qualifying that begins with three games over the next week is just that: an opportunity to show that a new generation of talents — the current roster’s average age is about 24 — can move away from past disappointments, can rely on new players, can write its own story.“When Greg first came in to the national team, he put a plan in place that I don’t think any national team coach has been willing to take the risk of doing,” midfielder Tyler Adams said. “Basically changing the whole way that the system would work, inside and out, whether it was our tactics, the players that we wanted to have, what certain positions needed to do, the qualities that we needed to have, and basically how we could develop and get better leading up to this point, to our first qualifying game.”He, and they, know there will be stumbles: bad fields, bad weather, bad referees, even bad results. They might come immediately, or they might come in a month or two, but they will probably come. In the last cycle, the United States failed to win a single road qualifier. Then it was the last game, not the first, that had been the biggest opportunity lost.Any assessment of the state of the U.S. team at the start of this qualifying cycle’s final act has to start at the end of the last one: with that crushing loss at Trinidad and Tobago that led the team to miss the World Cup for the first time in a generation.For weeks, Berhalter and his players have been asked about that night. Midfielder Kellyn Acosta’s memory is probably clearer than most — he had entered the match as a second-half substitute and was on the field when his team’s world went dark — but he has learned not to rehash it much in interviews. Midfielder Brendan Aaronson, who was only 16 at the time, struggled to remember if he had seen any of the game live. His teammate Weston McKennie was certain he had not. “I don’t really watch sports,” he said.But the fact that most of the players couldn’t remember the match subtly spoke to something else, something probably more important to them and their coach today: They weren’t there. They weren’t part of it. And they certainly weren’t to blame for it.“I don’t think the group now really sees it as a burden,” McKennie said of the shadow of 2017. “I think it’s more, we’re not really going to focus on what’s happened in the past. Obviously it’s going to be in the back of our heads somewhere, but that’s not going to be our main fuel, our main focus: trying to redeem what happened years ago.“I think right now we’re just trying to create a legacy of our own.”Several of the young stars who could start against El Salvador on Thursday — including Adams, McKennie, Gio Reyna, Josh Sargent and Sergiño Dest — did not make their national team debuts until after the Trinidad defeat. Berhalter wasn’t hired for more than a year after the loss. It was 2019 before he coached his first game.The United States beat Mexico in a cup final in June, then did it again in August. Jack Dempsey/Associated PressNow, though, his team is humming. The summer tournament triumphs gave the players a taste of CONCACAF competition, and of the rough play and hot nights and dubious calls that have often marked World Cup qualifying in the region. And for the first time, the final round will open with three matches in a single window, a clutch of games that should, in theory, favor a Berhalter team that boasts of more depth than the likes of El Salvador, Canada and Honduras.They all know every game matters. For years, the qualifying calculus has been a simple formula: Win your home games and then pick up points on the road. But the new breed is not interested, not really, in how things used to go.“Our mentality is to win all the games we can,” McKennie said. “I don’t think we have a formula where, ‘Let’s win our home games and grab a couple points on the road.’ Our goal is to prove we’re the best in CONCACAF, and I think the only way to do that is to dominate it.”Said Adams: “There’s no Plan B for us. There’s only been a Plan A, and that’s to qualify for the World Cup.” More