Raphael Stevens

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    Euro 2020: Italy Bets on Youth, and Fun

    A nation steeped in soccer stopped producing trophies because it stopped producing players. Can a commitment to youth, and fun, bring back the glory days?At one point, for reasons that presumably made sense in context, the coach and one of his assistants spent a few minutes onstage playing padel — a Basque version of tennis — with a set of frying pans. At another, three players were lined up in descending order of height and asked to perform as backing vocalists for someone who, apparently, self-identifies as a rapper.Most of the countries competing in this summer’s European Championship announced their squads in the traditional manner: a list of names and some anodyne quotes in a simple news release or, for those investing a little more effort, a slick graphic released on social media.Italy, though — well, Italy went in a very different direction. It unveiled its players for the tournament during a variety show, broadcast live and late into the night, that did not actually conclude with confirmation of the squad. The federation never quite managed to fit it in, what with all the music and games and cooking equipment. Italy’s list was released on social media a couple of hours later.The proceedings, though, created just the sort of impression Roberto Mancini — the pan-wielding coach — wanted. Italy’s record at major tournaments over the last decade or so has been checkered at best. It reached one final, at Euro 2012, and performed creditably in 2016. In 2010 and 2014, though, the Azzurri slunk home from the World Cup at the end of the group stage. In 2018, for the first time in more than half a century, they did not even qualify.Italy’s players after they failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup. The team’s recent history is filled with devastation.Luca Bruno/Associated PressSo as they prepare for the opening match of the postponed Euro 2020, against Turkey on Friday in Rome, Mancini and his team should be under intense pressure. Major tournaments, ordinarily, are a time of high expectation and hair-trigger tension.This Italy, though? Well, it has gone another way. The variety show was only the first piece of media content the national team will put out over the next few days. There is a fly-on-the-wall documentary, too, and an official song that is one long inside joke. Mancini appears, singing along, in the video for it.The angst and the anguish of recent years have been thoroughly banished. Instead, as Mancini said while he stood onstage that night, broadcasting live to the nation, his frying pan laid to one side, he is going to try something novel.“We will get the fans on board,” he said, “by having fun.”Long ShadowsMarcello Lippi did not hear the bell tolling, not at the time. As he pored over his choice of players to take to the 2010 World Cup, Lippi found himself picking the familiar names, the familiar faces over and over again. The core of the squad was much the same as the one that had won the tournament for him in Germany four years before. The coach chose the players, he would say later, out of “gratitude.”“I realized too late that some had given all they had,” he said.That moment of realization can be timed and placed with unerring accuracy: Ellis Park, Johannesburg, June 24, 2010, when Slovakia — appearing in a World Cup for the first time — beat Italy to send the reigning champion home, violet with indignity.That night, Lippi sat on a raised platform in a media center and described how his team had played with “terror in its heart and its head and its legs.” The responsibility for the national humiliation — there had also been a draw, a few days earlier, against New Zealand — was his, and his alone, he said. He would fall on his sword soon after.Young players like goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma have helped change the face of Italy’s national team.Filippo Monteforte/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesOver the last decade, Italians have grown accustomed to that sort of denouement in a major tournament. In 2014, when Italy was again eliminated at the World Cup’s first hurdle, the coach and the two top executives at the national soccer federation all resigned live on television. Failure to qualify for 2018 cost not only the head of Gian Piero Ventura, the coach, but that of his boss, too. Italy has spent a decade leaping out of frying pans and into fires.At the same time, the explanation offered by Lippi for that failure in 2010 has been internalized on a national level, automatically applied to every disappointment that has followed. “I did not think we would win the World Cup,” he said that night in Johannesburg, not far off heresy for an Italian manager. “But I thought we could perform better than that. This is clearly not a fantastic moment for Italian football.”Heads still rolled, but Italy accepted that its tournament performances were symptoms, rather than causes, of a broader malaise. Lippi suffered because the team that had won the World Cup had grown old. His successors failed because no new generation had emerged to replace them. As the shadow of that glorious team of 2006 grew longer, the darker and deeper the gloom became.There are any number of explanations for why that might be. Massimiliano Allegri, Juventus’s coach of the past and present, argues that youth soccer in Italy is, effectively, too tactical: Coaches are so worried about their jobs that they mask the individual shortcomings of their players with strategy.“Instead of letting kids learn how to defend one-on-one, they give them cover,” Allegri said. “They double up. But that means the kid doesn’t learn. So when they have to play one-on-one, they don’t know how.” That, in his mind, is why “Italy does not produce champions anymore.”Paolo Nicolato, the country’s under-21 coach, contends that Italy’s soccer culture is too intolerant of errors, which he labels “a necessary step of growth.” It suffers from a “bad relationship with the future,” he says. “We are very focused on the present.”That assertion is borne out by facts. Last season, of the 50 youngest teams in Europe’s top 20 leagues, only one was Italian: A.C. Milan. Only three Italian sides appeared in the top 100. More significantly, only five percent of all the minutes Serie A teams played last season were given over to homegrown, academy-reared players. Italian soccer remains a culture that is deeply distrustful of youth.“It is a strange championship,” said Maurizio Costanzi, the head of youth development for one of the few teams to buck the trend: Atalanta. He has spent four decades working with young players in Italy, and he has noticed a definite, incontrovertible change in both the quality and the quantity of emerging prospects.He wonders if that might be related, in part, to the demise of street soccer, or to the rise in athleticism in the sport squeezing out the sorts of players — playmakers and schemers — who long characterized the Italian game. But he is sure that those who do make it are not given a chance either quickly or reliably enough to succeed.“You get cycles in every country, and you can’t plan out when players come through precisely,” he said. “But in Italy one of our problems is that we only think about the result. It puts a limit on us. It means that our players seem to mature more slowly.”Striker Ciro Immobile has been a prolific scorer in Serie A.Filippo Monteforte/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesAs a player, four decades ago, Mancini was an exception to that rule, making his debut at 16, rising to become an international long before he hit 20. Perhaps it was natural, then, that as a coach he should set about trying to change the culture.The problem, to him, was a lack of opportunity, not a lack of ability. “Maybe you are a little afraid to let the young players play,” he said not long after taking the job as national team coach. “It is just a matter of time. You just have to believe it.”Notti MagicheThe high-speed Frecciarossa train that collected Italy’s squad in Florence on Thursday had been specially painted, its bullet-nosed front decked out in a streak of bright blue. The journey to Rome would take only a couple of hours. When the squad disembarked, though, the plan was for the players to find themselves back in 1990.This is the first time since that year’s World Cup that Italy has hosted a major international tournament. Rome may be one of Euro 2020’s side stages — London has more games than anywhere else, including both semifinals and the final — but that has been more than enough to stoke the memory.The authorities have encouraged it: The opening ceremony on Friday will feature the tenor Andrea Bocelli, playing the role of Luciano Pavarotti and singing “Nessun Dorma,” the soundtrack of that Italian World Cup.The media has perpetuated it: Italy will play the opening game, La Gazzetta dello Sport noted this week, in the stadium that was home to so many of what, in 1990, became known as the notti magiche: magical nights. Even Mancini has embraced it, his decision to call up the unheralded Sassuolo striker Giacomo Raspadori seemingly an attempt to unearth his own Totò Schillaci, the captivating icon of that long, sweltering Italian summer three decades ago.For the first time in a long time, the country seems to have a team capable of wearing its history lightly. Mancini’s Italy has not lost in 27 games, since late 2018. At one point, it had won 11 consecutive games, a record. It may not have faced any of its putative rivals for the crown this summer — the Netherlands aside — but the sense of momentum is undeniable.Mancini has created an Italy refreshed and rejuvenated. In the three years of his tenure, he has given international debuts to 35 players. By Italian standards, there is youth shot through his team. Goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma and defender Alessandro Bastoni are both 22. Midfielders Manuel Locatelli and Federico Chiesa are a year older. Nicolò Barella and Lorenzo Pellegrini are 24.The 21-year-old striker Giacomo Raspadori played his first game for Italy last Friday.Darko Bandic/Associated PressThat the squad has the air of a team for the future, not the present, works in its favor. Italy feels young and daring, new and different. It feels like the sort of team a country might find fun. It is, though, a testament to serious, painstaking work.Ever since that defeat in 2010, Italian soccer has been trying to restore its course, to piece together some idea of how it might produce players again. To do so, it commissioned a series of reviews and assessments carried out by some of the sport’s greatest names: Gianni Rivera, Demetrio Albertini, Arrigo Sacchi, Alessandro Costacurta.The key figure in Italy’s reconstruction, though, is an unknown: Maurizio Viscidi, the coordinator of the country’s youth teams. It was Viscidi — initially hired by Sacchi a decade ago — who oversaw a revolution not only in the structure of Italian youth soccer, introducing an under-15 team and reorganizing youth competitions, but also in its mind-set.He has tried to wean the programs he oversees off an addiction to the result, to the here and now, and to make it think more about the players it is developing. He has instituted a policy linking Italy’s youth teams more intrinsically to the senior side, making the step up easier.And in Mancini, he has found a coach after his own heart. A few months after taking the job, Mancini organized a joint training camp involving Italy’s senior team, its under-21s, and its under-20s. The message was clear: Youth would no longer be overlooked. It would, instead, be front and center. The squad he has named for the tournament is made up of his children of the revolution.How that revolution ends is not yet clear. This summer may be the redemptive climax. It may have to wait until Qatar, next year. It may never come at all.To Mancini, though, that is not the point. What matters, now, is that his team and his country have a little fun in finding out. More

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    Stunning Soccer Moments in European Championship History

    UEFA Euro 2020, delayed by the pandemic, will sweep across the continent into July.The 16th European Championship, UEFA Euro 2020, is finally about to start, having been delayed until this year because of the pandemic.The soccer tournament, held every four years, began as a four-team event in 1960, won by the Soviet Union, and was hosted by one or at most two countries. But it has since grown. This year’s event, from Friday to July 11, will be a 24-team Pan-European extravaganza, with 11 host nations staging matches.Six groups of four teams will play a round-robin format, with group winners, runners-up and the four third-place teams with the best records advancing to the single-elimination rounds. Baku, Azerbaijan; Munich; St. Petersburg, Russia; and Rome will host the quarterfinals; the semifinals and the championship game are set for Wembley Stadium in London.And fans will be in the stands. Except for Budapest’s Puskas Arena, which will allow full houses, stadiums will fill only 25 percent to 50 percent of their capacity.Dreamed up by Henri Delaunay, the first head of European soccer’s governing body, UEFA, the European Championship is second in popularity and prestige to only the World Cup.The last UEFA championship, held in 2016, was won by Portugal, even though its star, Cristiano Ronaldo, left the game early with an injury. Here are a handful of the tournament’s most memorable moments.Magic Marco, 1988The Netherlands, the “nearly team” of world soccer, won its first and only title with a 2-0 victory over the Soviet Union in Munich. In the 32nd minute of the final match, the Dutch captain Ruud Gullit took advantage of a poorly cleared corner to head in the return ball. Later, at the other end, goalkeeper Hans van Breukelen gave away and then saved a penalty from Igor Belanov. Both plays were vital but ultimately were overshadowed byGullit’s goal.In the 54th minute, midfielder Arnold Muhren lofted a high cross from the left, a few yards outside the Soviet penalty area. Marco van Basten, level with Muhren when the pass was made, strode down the far right side of the area, met the ball in midair, and swung in a wicked volley from an acute angle that flew over Rinat Dasayev (one of the game’s better keepers) into the far corner for the second goal.The game was effectively over at the point, but the stadium didn’t stop buzzing because a goal like that is rare, especially in a final. It was masterful technique, timing and skill, from the weight and arc of Muhren’s pass, to van Basten’s run and audacious finish. The ball didn’t hit the ground from the moment it left Muhren’s foot until it was pulled out of the net. Rinus Michels, the Dutch coach, covered his eyes in disbelief.John Jensen, right, was an unexpected force for Denmark, a late addition to the 1992 tournament. He scored the Danes’ first goal in a 2-0 victory against Germany in the final.Paul Popper/Popperfoto, via Getty ImagesJensen’s Big Boot, 1992Sweden hosted Euro ’92 with the slogan “Small Is Beautiful.” The tournament also had a fairy tale ending. After Yugoslavia was expelled from the competition in the spring because of an escalating civil war, Denmark was a late addition. The squad wasn’t quite scooped off the beach, but not too far off.The Danes weren’t a ragtag gang, though. They had a smattering of journeymen from the Bundesliga and goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel, in his first year with Manchester United.Denmark’s campaign sparked to life with a late 2-1 win over France that put it in the semifinals against the defending champion, the Netherlands. The Danes won, 5-4, on penalties.Having dispensed with the European champion, Denmark faced the reigning world champion, a reunified Germany (now with added East Germans). Predictably, Germany dominated early, but unpredictably John Jensen gave the Danes the lead. Jensen, for whom self-belief and ambition trumped technique, usually had his shots clear not only the goal, but also the running track and several rows of seats. Not this time. He hit the roof of the German net with a decisive wallop.Denmark defended capably, and Schmeichel rescued the team when it didn’t. After Kim Vilfort added an insurance goal, the Danish fans sang, “Deutschland, Deutschland, Alles ist vorbei” (“Germany, Germany, it’s all over”).Small might have been beautiful, but Euro ’92 was the last eight-team tournament. Four years later in England, the field doubled. And Jensen? He headed to England too, and continued to shoot wildly from distance, finding the net only once in 138 league appearances for Arsenal.Andreas Möller, left, celebrating with Andreas Köpke, Dieter Eilts, Markus Babbel and Thomas Helmer after Germany’s victory in the 1996 final over the Czech Republic.Paul Popper/Popperfoto, via Getty ImagesHome to England, 1996Billed as a return to the game’s spiritual roots, Euro ’96 was in England. “Football’s Coming Home” was the chant featured in the song “Three Lions.”And indeed, the English notched a 4-1 win over the Dutch and beat Spain, with penalty kicks.But the semifinal presented a big impediment: Germany. England played well, but so did Germany. Stefan Kuntz of Germany tied the score after Alan Shearer’s early goal for England. Sure enough, the tie resulted in a shootout. Each team scored five times. Gareth Southgate of England then hit a weak shot that was saved. Amid the general sympathy for Southgate afterward was a notable dissent: from his mother, Barbara. “Why didn’t you just belt it?” she said.Andreas Möller smashed home Germany’s winner, then stood defiantly, hands on hips.Germany won its third title with what is known as a golden goal (in sudden-death overtime), beating the Czech Republic, 2-1. Both goals came from the substitute Oliver Bierhoff, the first a well-directed downward header, the second a low shot that hit off the hand of keeper Petr Kouba and rolled in off the post. It brought to mind the dictum of the former England striker Gary Lineker:“Football is a simple game. Twenty-two men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end, the Germans always win.”Zinedine Zidane, center, during France’s 2-1 victory over Italy in the 2000 final. He carried his team to the title match with a golden-goal penalty against Portugal in the semifinals.Pierre Lahalle/Corbis/VCG, via Getty ImagesZizou’s Light Touch, 2000France’s feel-good home World Cup win in 1998 was hailed as a multicultural phenomenon, Parisian sidewalks spilling over with fans shouting, “Black, Blanc, Beur,” referring to the team’s Black, white and North African players. On the field, defenders got the big goals (Lilian Thuram and Laurent Blanc), and France won without really clicking; not until the final did Zinedine Zidane find his footing.Fast-forward two years, and the team had blossomed into beautiful worldbeaters. Thierry Henry was a star striker, Emmanuel Petit, Patrick Vieira and Didier Deschamps powered the midfield, and Zizou, as Zidane is known, did everything else. He was simply at the top of his game. The strength and acceleration, the close control, the feather-light touch, the ability to pick up a ball and gracefully drag opponents across a field, then shake them off and craft the perfect pass — he was peerless.In the semifinal against Portugal, he was tirelessly inventive. When a move broke down, he demanded the ball and tried something new. And he carried his team into the final with a coolly taken golden-goal penalty.Zidane’s self-belief infused his teammates. Even when they trailed Italy in the final, the French looked as if they would find a way to win. Sylvain Wiltord’s late equalizer disheartened Italy and emboldened France. Then David Trezeguet’s fine volley in the 103rd minute confirmed what everyone knew: France was the best in Europe and world champion, and its midfield maestro was on another planet.An injured Cristiano Ronaldo joined Coach Fernando Santos in directing Portugal to the 2016 championship in the final against France.Mustafa Yalcin/Anadolu Agency, via Getty ImagesCoach Ronnie, 2016He has won a ton of trophies with his clubs, but international success has always eluded Cristiano Ronaldo.At 19, he cried uncontrollably as Greece ruined Portugal’s party when it hosted the tournament in 2004. In 2012, he was an unused penalty taker in a semifinal loss to Spain.In 2016, he was in a mood, seizing a television microphone during a team walk and flinging it into a nearby lake. But Portugal squeaked into the elimination rounds, defeating Croatia, Poland and Wales to get to the final — against the hotly favored host nation, France.The teams emerged to a carpet of moths, drawn by the Stade de France lights. It didn’t take long to end Ronaldo’s night. An ugly collision with Dimitri Payet in the eighth minute left him writhing in pain. He returned with his leg bandaged but collapsed and was carried off.Then the world saw a different Ronaldo. He prowled the sideline, cursed, cheered, shadowed Coach Fernando Santos, barked instructions at his teammates and roared them on, a limping amalgam of coach and superfan. The TV cameras lapped it up.And when Eder scored the winner 20 minutes into overtime, Ronaldo celebrated like the other Portuguese spectators.Often derided as a one-man team, Portugal had accomplished the unthinkable: winning without its talisman.Greece’s Traianos Dellas, left, scored the winner against the Czech Republic in the 2004 semifinals, and later hoisted the trophy with teammates.Tony Marshall/EMPICS, via Getty ImagesKing Otto and His Underdogs, 2004Greece’s 2004 triumph was a giant upset. Make that a series of upsets, as the Greeks twice defeated France, the host nation and reigning champion, and beat Euro 2004’s best team, the Czech Republic, en route to its first international title.A nation that had never won a single game at a major tournament, Greece was regarded as a soft touch and routinely troubled by indiscipline and infighting. But it was transformed by the veteran German coach Otto Rehhagel.“King Otto” instilled organization, discipline and a strong work ethic. The team won ugly, but it was a nightmare to play against. Nothing gave the Greeks more pleasure than watching the air drain out of puffed-up opponents. Faced with banks of blue and white jerseys, harried in the midfield and with dedicated defenders stalking their attackers, other teams were reduced to disaffected spectators.Although Greek scoring chances were rare, the team excelled at the most effective tool of the underdog’s arsenal: the set piece, winning the semifinal and final with headers from corner kicks. In the semifinal, the Greeks took advantage of a silver goal (a form of sudden death that allowed an opponent the remainder of an overtime period to tie the score). Traianos Dellas ghosted between a pair of Czech defenders to head home a corner at the end of the first 15-minute overtime.“I realized when we were given the corner that exactly 14 minutes 36 seconds of overtime had been played,” Dellas said. “I said to myself that now we must do it. Someone heard me.”In the 2008 quarterfinals, Andrei Arshavin of Russia mugged for the camera after his low drive nutmegged the Netherlands goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar in overtime.Laurence Griffiths/Getty ImagesArshavin Sparkles, 2008For the Russia midfielder Andrei Arshavin, Euro 2008 began with a two-game suspension for violent conduct in a qualifier. Guus Hiddink, Russia’s Dutch coach with a reputation for creating overachieving national teams (most recently South Korea and Australia), saw something special in Arshavin, who resembled a cartoon throwback to another era: a bowl haircut, rosy cheeks and uniforms that looked like a big brother’s hand-me-downs.But what talent. He had a low center of gravity, magnetic ball control, a rocket of a shot and a willingness to try anything.Arshavin scored in a 2-0 win over Sweden to secure a quarterfinal matchup with the Netherlands, one of Hiddink’s former employers.“When I’m a traitor, I like to be a very good traitor,” Hiddink said before the game. “I want to be the traitor of the year in Holland.”A late Ruud van Nistelrooy goal for the Netherlands sent the game into overtime at 1-1. Then Arshavin popped up in spectacular fashion. First, he tore down the left flank to the endline, turned and sublimely chipped his defender, giving Dmitri Torbinski the ball to back-heel into the net. Then Arshavin settled matters with a low drive that nutmegged keeper Edwin van der Sar. Arshavin gave a comical shrug for the camera, before pressing an index finger to his lips.Russia lost its semifinal, 3-0, to the eventual champion, Spain, which had a stockpile of midfield tyros of its own. That winter, Arshavin moved from Zenit St. Petersburg to England, treating fans to occasional brilliance before he faded and headed home, where he made headlines exiting a strip club on horseback.Antonin Panenka, kissing the trophy, used a long run-up to loft a penalty kick that sealed Czechoslovakia’s win over West Germany in the 1976 final.Peter Robinson/EMPICS, via Getty ImagesA Panenka, 1976The 1976 European Championship was the last to have only four teams — and the first decided on a penalty shootout.West Germany and Czechoslovakia were deadlocked after 120 minutes. The Czechs went ahead, 4-3, in penalty kicks when Uli Hoeness fired his shot over the bar. Enter Antonin Panenka. He made a long run-up and goalie Sepp Maier committed early; what followed has been variously described as a spoon, a shovel, a slice, a chip or a gently lofted shot that floated over the line and plopped into the back of the net. These days, fans simply call it a Panenka. Czechoslovakia won the tournament.Panenka hadn’t had a sudden inspiration. He had been practicing his specialty during training sessions with his goalkeeper, according to Ben Lyttleton’s book and blog, “Twelve Yards.”“My run-up was always longer to gain a bit of extra time, and faster so the goalkeeper doesn’t have a chance to change direction,” Panenka told Lyttleton. “The shot should not be too fast; you have to chip the ball so it glides.“I always tried to entertain fans, to do something unexpected so they could talk about it after matches,” he said. “And all my goals, all my assists and passes have been forgotten because of this penalty. So, I am obviously proud of the penalty, but also a little bit sorry, too.” More

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    Jim Fassel, Who Coached the Giants to the Super Bowl, Dies at 71

    He predicted that New York would make the playoffs when no one gave them much of a chance. Then they marched to the championship game, only to lose to the Ravens.Jim Fassel, who was a longtime architect of offensive schemes in the pros and collegiate football and reached the pinnacle of his career when he coached the Giants team that reached the 2001 Super Bowl, died on Monday in Las Vegas. He was 71.The Giants reported the death on their website. Fassel’s son John, the special teams coordinator for the Dallas Cowboys, told The Los Angeles Times that the cause was a heart attack.Fassel, who lived in the Las Vegas area for many years, told sportswriters in late November 2000 that he was “shoving my chips to the center of the table” in guaranteeing that his Giants team, 7-4 after a loss to the Detroit Lions, would reach the playoffs.“When I called the staff together the night before to tell them what I was going to say, they thought somebody on the staff was going to be fired,” he told The New York Times. “I just wanted to tell them what I was going to do, and the next day I did it.”The Giants won their last five games of the 2000 regular season, defeated the Philadelphia Eagles in the first round of the playoffs and trounced the favored Minnesota Vikings, 41-0, in the National Football Conference championship game at Giants Stadium. Kerry Collins, one of the many quarterbacks Fassel worked with over the years, threw for five touchdowns, including two to Ike Hilliard and another to Amani Toomer, his prime wide receivers.Fassel was carried off the field by the linemen Michael Strahan and Keith Hamilton, mainstays of the Giants’ defense, along with the linebacker Jessie Armstead.The Giants’ co-owner Wellington Mara, responding to those who might have despaired over the team’s prospects late in the regular season, said: “Today we proved that we’re the worst team to ever win the National Football Conference championship. I’m happy to say that in two weeks we’re going to try to become the worst team to ever to win the Super Bowl.”Fassel on the sidelines during Super Bowl XXXV in 2001 in Tampa, Fla. The Giants made a surprising run through the playoffs but were defeated in the title game by the Baltimore Ravens. Barton Silverman/The New York TimesBut the Giants’ luck — chips or no chips on the table — ran out in January, when they were routed by the Baltimore Ravens, 34-7, in Super Bowl XXXV, the Giants’ first league championship matchup since they defeated the Buffalo Bills in the 1991 Super Bowl.Fassel was an assistant coach with the Giants in 1991 and 1992 and an offensive aide with the Denver Broncos, Oakland Raiders and Arizona Cardinals later in the 1990s before he was named in 1997 to succeed Dan Reeves, the Giants’ head coach for the four previous years.He was named the N.F.L.’s coach of the year that season, when the Giants finished at 10-5-1. In December 1998, they upset the Denver Broncos, who came into the game at 13-0 behind the future Hall of Fame quarterback John Elway.Fassel announced in mid-December 2003 that he would resign at the end of the season, after a pair of losing campaigns that included a crushing loss to the San Francisco 49ers in the 2002 playoffs after the Giants held a 24-3 lead in the third quarter.The Giants went 58-53-1 in Fassel’s seven seasons as head coach and made the playoffs three times.He was a color commentator for Westwood One’s radio coverage of N.F.L. games in 2007 and 2008 and was later head coach of the Las Vegas Locomotives of the United Football League.Fassel was interviewed by at least three N.F.L. teams for a head-coaching post after leaving the Giants, but he was passed over each time. He was an offensive coordinator for the Ravens in 2005 and 2006.Fassel at his home in Henderson, Nev., in 2011. He was named the N.F.L.’s coach of the year in 1997.Isaac Brekken for The New York TimesJames Edward Fassel was born on Aug. 31, 1949, in Anaheim, Calif. He was a quarterback at Anaheim High School, played for Fullerton College and was then the backup quarterback for Southern California’s undefeated Rose Bowl championship team of 1969. He later played for Long Beach State.He played for the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League in 1973, then coached in the World Football League before returning to college football as an offensive coach for Utah; Weber State, also in Utah; and Stanford. He was head coach at Utah from 1985 to 1989.In addition to his son John, Fassel’s survivors include his wife, Kitty, four other children and 16 grandchildren.“Most people will remember his ‘guarantee’ from 2000, which was genius because if he was wrong he’d have been fired and it’d have been forgotten,” the former Giants running back Tiki Barber, who played for Fassel, wrote on Twitter after Fassel’s death. “When he was right, it became legendary.” More

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    Jim Fassel Bridged Giants Eras With a Smile. And, Once, a Rant.

    The Giants coach called Gentleman Jim was best known for smoothly transitioning the team out of the Bill Parcells era, but one uncharacteristic tirade stood out.It was the day before Thanksgiving in 2000, and Giants Coach Jim Fassel, who looked like a librarian and generally behaved like the winsome air-conditioning salesman he once was, had a wild, restless look in his eye.His Giants, two weeks earlier a shoo-in for the N.F.L. playoffs, had been booed off the field after two consecutive ugly home losses. Their postseason prospects were now dim, a mutiny was brewing in the locker room and management was agitated.Fassel, who died of a heart attack on Monday at age 71, stepped to the rostrum for what was normally a pro forma news conference, and in a fiery tone barked: “I’m raising the stakes right now. This is a poker game, and I’m shoving my chips to the middle of the table. I’m raising the ante, and anybody who wants in, get in. Anybody who wants out can get out.”Fassel then guaranteed the Giants were going to the playoffs.“No worries,” he said. “I’ve got no fear. None. Zero.”Or, as I wrote that day: Jim Fassel, the Mister Rogers of football coaches, tore off his cardigan today, tied it around his head and joined the Hell’s Angels.Two days later, standing with Fassel in the bowels of the old Giants Stadium, I wondered what had gotten into the guy nicknamed Gentleman Jim.“If this doesn’t work out, you’re going to get fired,” I said.“I was going to get fired before I did this,” he answered. “Now we’ll see what happens.”The Giants won their next seven games, including a 41-0 rout of the Minnesota Vikings in the N.F.C. championship game — a contest that almost no one thought the Giants could win.They did lose big to the Baltimore Ravens in the ensuing Super Bowl when they couldn’t handle Ray Lewis, which was hardly uncommon back then.Most remembrances of Fassel are short on details after the Super Bowl defeat, and it’s easy to underrate Fassel’s role in bridging the gap from the Giants’ successes between 1986 and 1990 to the Tom Coughlin and Eli Manning championships roughly 20 years later. But Fassel should not be overlooked for leading a pivotal franchise renaissance out of the Giants’ dark period. In the two seasons before he arrived as head coach in 1997, the team was 11-21 and the heyday of Phil Simms and Lawrence Taylor seemed as distant as the days of Frank Gifford and Y.A. Tittle.The year Fassel took over the Giants, the Jets hired Bill Parcells. A national magazine put pictures of both coaches on the cover of its preseason issue, except Parcells took up 90 percent of the page with Fassel appearing in a one-inch head shot positioned over Parcells’s shoulder. He was labeled, “the other guy.”Fassel, pictured at his Nevada home in 2011, is remembered for his active, energetic appearances at ground zero in Lower Manhattan a few days after the Sept. 11 attacks.Isaac Brekken for The New York TimesThe other guy took the Giants to the playoffs and won the 1997 Associated Press Coach of the Year Award. He instilled some accountability, screaming at his team after their first preseason defeat that year.“Nobody could have missed that message,” cornerback Jason Sehorn said. “One preseason loss and he was ballistic.”Fassel’s tactics, however, were usually strategic and thoughtful. Although he was an offensive guru, he let defensive leaders like Jessie Armstead and Michael Strahan take the helm of the team on the sideline because they were outspoken and commanded more respect from their teammates than a coach ever could.At the same time, while Fassel was raised in Southern California and had a laid-back vibe, he understood the territory and landscape of his workplace. Especially in his first few years with the Giants, he grasped that the team was at its best when it reflected the gritty, blue collar ethos promoted by Parcells, the northern New Jersey native. As an assistant for two years to the erudite but miscast Ray Handley, who replaced Parcells as Giants coach in 1991, Fassel had witnessed a failure of style in the Meadowlands.So Fassel went the other way in 1997.“The man has a mean streak,” Armstead, who was no softy, said of Fassel in 1997. “You really don’t want to mess with him. He goes after people. You should see him.”Fassel will also be remembered for his active, energetic appearances at ground zero in Lower Manhattan a few days after the Sept. 11 attacks.“I just walked around talking and shaking hands with the people working down there,” he said at the time. “They looked like they hadn’t slept in days, they were dirty and drained. I stayed as long as I could just saying, ‘Thanks for what you’re doing here.’”In Fassel’s tenure, a wealth of top Giants talent was developed: Amani Toomer, the franchise leader in receptions; Tiki Barber, the team’s career rushing leader; and Kerry Collins, the only quarterback in 96 years of Giants history to throw five touchdowns in a postseason game.An argument could be made that the high-powered 2002 Giants offense that vaulted to a 38-14 third-quarter lead in a wild-card playoff game in San Francisco might have been Fassel’s best team. When they blew the lead and lost by a point, it was as if those Giants, and Fassel, never recovered. The next year’s team won only four games.He resigned with a 58-53-1 record and days later was on the verge of being named the head coach at Washington when Joe Gibbs, who won three Super Bowls there, stunned the team owner Dan Snyder by expressing his desire to come out of retirement at 63.There was never another N.F.L. head coaching job offered to Fassel.He was not cut from classic football coach cloth. He smiled too easily, told corny stories, tried to get away from football when he could and wanted people to like him. But he won a lot of games, made an important contribution to a storied N.F.L. franchise, earned the devotion of scores of players and, in fact, succeeded in winning over most everyone who met him.About 10 years ago, I had breakfast with Fassel and asked him if he saved his notes from his now-famous Thanksgiving eve speech from 2000. You know, the stuff about the poker chips, raising the stakes and having no fear.“I never wrote anything down,” he said, laughing. “I just knew I had to put myself in the cross hairs — and nobody else. I had to kind of cause a distraction. So I just winged it.” More

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    Aaron Rodgers Skips a Packers Camp. Now What?

    The N.F.L.’s most valuable player did not attend the first day of Green Bay’s mandatory minicamp, raising the stakes in his dispute with the team.Aaron Rodgers has been the starting quarterback and the primary face of the Green Bay Packers for 13 years. But over the past year or so, his cozy link to the team and its city has looked threatened.On Tuesday, Rodgers, 37, failed to appear for a mandatory minicamp, upping the ante on his dispute with the team about his future in Green Bay. He faces a fine in the $100,000 range for his decision.It’s the latest in the ongoing fracas between Rodgers, the N.F.L.’s reigning most valuable player, and the Packers, one of the league’s most storied franchises and his N.F.L. home since the team drafted him in 2005.Here’s what has happened to produce the stalemate and how it could end.Matt LaFleur and his team are looking at another off-season camp without their star quarterback.Mark Hoffman/USA Today Sports, via ReutersJan. 7, 2019: A change at the topThe Packers hire Matt LaFleur as head coach. The consensus is that this will provide a fresh start for Rodgers in Green Bay, since he reportedly clashed often with the former coach, Mike McCarthy. Rodgers had been seen mouthing criticism of McCarthy’s sometimes timid calls on the sideline.April 23, 2020: An un-elated RodgersHeading into the 2020 draft, Rodgers — in charge of directing and executing Green Bay’s passing game — decides that the Packers are in need of receivers. On draft day, when the team traded up to the 26th pick in the first round, he later tells a reporter, he “perked up” only to see his team select … a quarterback, Jordan Love of Utah State.By all accounts, Rodgers is not happy.“I was definitely surprised,” he told NFL Media last July. Noting that he had recently become a tequila aficionado, Rodgers adds, “I went to the pantry, I poured myself about four fingers and I knew it was going to be one of those nights where people start calling.”“I wasn’t elated by the pick,” he says, leaving no doubt.Rodgers has been known to quietly dispute team decisions over the years, including the choice of wide receivers and the coaching staff’s play-calling. There is a sense that he feels that the team should have won more than just one Super Bowl during his tenure.(A warning: Much of Rodgers’s discontent has been reported through unnamed sources. He has seldom spoken publicly of any dissatisfaction on the record.)Jan. 24, 2021: Another great year, individuallyAfter a 13-3 season, hopes are high that Green Bay would make the Super Bowl, or win it. But playing at home, the Packers lose the N.F.C. Championship game, 31-26, to Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. With two minutes left in the game, and the Packers at the Bucs 8-yard line and trailing by 8 points, LaFleur chooses to kick a field goal. The decision is much criticized because the Packers never get the ball back. After the game, Rodgers repeats, “It wasn’t my decision.”After a stellar 2020 season where Aaron Rodgers won his third M.V.P. Award and led the N.F.L. in passing touchdowns and passer rating, the quarterback’s relationship with the Packers has continued to fray.Morry Gash/Associated PressThe Buccaneers go on to win the Super Bowl as Rodgers looks back on yet another stellar season in which he won his third M.V.P. Award and led the league in passing touchdowns and passer rating. As the third-stringer, Love is never active on a game day.April 16: A second career?Rodgers completes a two-week stint as guest host of “Jeopardy!”“It would be a dream job for sure, and I’m not shy at all about saying I want the job,” he tells The Ringer. He adds that because of the show’s shooting schedule, he could do the job even while he continues playing in the N.F.L.But he still can’t escape the Packers, or second-guessing. In one memorable moment, a contestant who didn’t know the answer to a final Jeopardy question writes, “Who wanted to kick that field goal?”Rodgers responds with a wry grin.“That is a great question,” he jokes.April 29: Rumbles get louderThe news from the first round of the N.F.L. draft is almost overshadowed by another Rodgers update: ESPN reports that he now wants out of Green Bay.“We are committed to Aaron in 2021 and beyond,” General Manager Brian Gutekunst responds.Meanwhile, the Packers draft a cornerback in the first round and don’t take a receiver until Round 3. But at least they don’t draft another quarterback.A Packers camp in May. Rodgers skipped that one, too.Mark Hoffman/USA Today Sports, via ReutersMay 24: M.I.A. at O.T.A.sRodgers skips the Packers’ organized team activities (O.T.A.s). While the workouts are technically voluntary, Rodgers was scheduled to receive a half-million-dollar bonus for attending, which he forfeits.So what’s next?Quite a few teams would welcome an M.V.P.-winning quarterback, even one in his late 30s. The Broncos (Drew Lock) and the Raiders (Derek Carr) are two of the teams that would see Rodgers as an upgrade. And though it seems unlikely that the Packers would trade Rodgers, moving him became a more affordable option after June 1. Before that date, the team would have faced $38.356 million in dead money on its salary cap for the 2021 season if Rodgers departed. If he goes now, that money can be spread between the 2021 and 2022 salary caps.Rodgers also could retire. Or all the sound and fury could signify nothing, and he could be back under center in Green Bay by Sept. 12, when the Packers will be in New Orleans to play the Saints in Week 1.At least one date is booked: On July 6, he will team with the golfer Bryson DeChambeau to take on Phil Mickelson and Tom Brady in a made-for-TV match.Beyond that, who knows? The next date to watch after that will be July 27, when the Packers officially begin training camp. More

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    U.S. Men Beat Mexico in Final Filled With Plot Twists

    Sunday’s Concacaf Nations League final was a roller-coaster of emotion, a game of goals and fights, flying projectiles and video reviews. It ended with the United States lifting the trophy.You will not find the word Concacaffy in any dictionary, but any soccer fan in North America knows what it means and how to use it in a sentence.It can explain anything from a terrible field to a terrible call to terrible behavior, and the word works just as well as an anguished cry or accompanied by a shrug of the shoulders. Can’t believe that foul wasn’t a red card? That’s so Concacaffy. Field surrounded by a 20-foot moat? That’s so Concacaffy. Were there really just 11 minutes of stoppage time after a 15-minute overtime? Sooooo Concacaffy.Even before the United States men’s national team beat Mexico, 3-2, on Sunday night to win the Concacaf Nations League final on Sunday, the word has been tossed around quite a bit. For fans of the two teams — the twin poles of North American soccer dominance and hand-wringing — the whole night was thrilling and frustrating and exhilarating and maddening.It was also pure, unfiltered Concacaf. Missed it? Here are the highlights. And the lowlights.Jesús Corona intercepted a pass by Mark McKenzie, left, and ripped a shot past Zack Steffen.Jack Dempsey/Associated PressA mistake! And a goal for Mexico.Mexico’s night started wonderfully, with a sizable advantage among fans in the stands in Denver and an early goal. It came courtesy of a giveaway by the young United States defender Mark McKenzie — who made a bad decision in his own penalty area. Just over a minute into the game, Jesús Corona pounced on the error, and Mexico was ahead, 1-0.It gets worse for the U.S.! Oh wait, no, it doesn’t.Mexico’s Héctor Moreno doubled the lead in the 24th minute, threatening to send the United States into a dangerously deep hole. But the referee, John Pitti of Panama, is called to the video-assistant review monitor for a second look at Moreno’s positioning, and he rules the goal was offside.Relief for the U.S.! Reyna gets one back.Gio Reyna corralled a header off the post and slammed in the rebound in the 27th minute.Isaiah J. Downing/USA Today Sports, via ReutersMoments later, the U.S. got to breathe an enormous sigh of relief when three of its brightest young stars teamed up to tie the score.Christian Pulisic started the play, curling in a corner kick toward midfielder Weston McKennie. McKennie won the free ball and sent his header past Mexico’s goalkeeper, Memo Ochoa, but the shot hit the far post. The carom brought it right back into the goal mouth, though, where Gio Reyna turned it effortlessly back into the net. Tie game.In the stands, Reyna’s parents, Claudio and Danielle — who both played for the national team — share a hug.Late Drama! Mexico retakes the lead, and the U.S. answers.The second half was when the game got interesting. The Americans made some tactical changes and started to hold their own, and McKennie kept firing headers at Ochoa, who kept managing to keep them out. United States goalkeeper Zack Steffen was doing the same at the other end until he scrambled out to break up a chance and, untouched, went down with a leg injury. He couldn’t continue, and was replaced by Ethan Horvath in the 69th minute.And this is when the game got really fun.The 20-year-old Mexico star Diego Lainez appeared to win the game in the 79th minute when, seconds after coming on as a substitute, he took a pass on the right, nudged it left and ripped a shot past Horvath to give Mexico a 2-1 lead.But that wasn’t the exclamation point it seemed. Within minutes, the game was even again after McKennie — thwarted by the post and by Ochoa for most of the night — finally sneaked a header over the line.Weston McKennie’s late header sent the final to extra time.John Leyba/USA Today Sports, via ReutersTrouble! A homophobic chant and flying bottles.The game was delayed for about three minutes when the referee stopped play to enforce Concacaf’s anti-discrimination protocols. The rules are in place to address everything from racism to homophobic chants, and they nearly stopped a Mexico-U.S. game in New Jersey in 2019.Mexico’s federation, its stars and its coaches have pleaded with their fans for years to stop the chant that has caused the most trouble, but it is still a common refrain at the team’s games at home and abroad.“Once again, I insist — I asked you guys to stop with that screaming,” Ochoa said during a news conference ahead of the final, and after the team’s win over Costa Rica in the semifinals had been paused because of the protocols. “It doesn’t help us at all. It is affecting us as a matter of fact.”Ochoa pleaded with fans to not repeat the chant in the final “and in the upcoming games in the Gold Cup, in the qualifiers, in Mexico, or abroad,” noting that the team could face escalating punishments, and even ejection from tournaments, if soccer officials ever follow through and enforce its most serious punishments.“All the team players are asking you, please, because in the long run, this could affect us.”Still, for the second time in this tournament, a Mexico match was stopped to address it.Isaiah J. Downing/USA Today Sports, via ReutersThe players gathered at midfield during the delay, and an announcement — a warning that the game could be called off — was read over the stadium loudspeakers. Play soon resumed, but the trouble wasn’t over.As is often the case, bottles and cups became projectiles on several occasions, most notably after the United States celebrated goals, and as players like Pulisic lay on the grass to waste time late in the match.At least one missile sent Reyna down in a heap, clutching his head, after a goal, and another later hit a Mexican player square in the face.Extra time! Two V.A.R. checks, two penalty kicks, one goal.If you weren’t hooked by now, the game was about to go full Concacaf.Early in the second extra session, Pulisic drove into Mexico’s penalty area and went down under a hard challenge from two defenders. On the ground, he waved his arms in the international symbol for “Hey that was a penalty!” but Pitti ignored him. Until, that is, he got a nudge to review the play on the sideline monitor.“It plays with your head a little bit when it takes long for the ref to decide whether it’s a PK or not,” McKennie said.A second look — interrupted briefly so he could red card Mexico’s coach, Tata Martino, for throwing his arm around the referee’s shoulder as he peered at the screen — confirmed for Pitti that the foul was a penalty. He made a dramatic signal to award it, and Pulisic stepped up and buried it. U.S. 3, Mexico 2.Christian Pulisic went down after a hard challenge in the second extra period.Jack Dempsey/Associated PressAfter waiting out a video review, he fired his penalty kick into the top corner.Jack Dempsey/Associated PressBut the final, and Mexico, was not done. Mexico won a corner in the 119th minute and stroked in a cross. A header appeared to hit McKenzie on the arm, and while Pitti did not appear to see it, every Mexican player did. Back to the review screen Pitti went, and off to the spot went Mexico. By this point, even the announcers were laughing.The problem, at least for Mexico, was the job wasn’t done yet. Andrés Guardado stepped up to take the penalty, and tie the score again, and his attempt wasn’t bad. But Horvath had guessed correctly and, diving to his right he pushed it aside.After that, all that was left was bottles thrown from the stands, 11 minutes (11!) of added time and a final whistle that delivered the United States — which had started the inaugural Nations League final with one of its youngest lineups ever — its first trophy since 2017, and its first win over Mexico since 2018.The confetti flew where the bottles had not, the fans (at least those there to support the U.S.) cheered and the American players picked up their medals.And then they braced themselves to possibly do it all over again in a month, when Mexico and the United States will be expected to tangle again in Concacaf’s regional championship: the Gold Cup.Tyler Adams, who taunted the Mexico crowd as it threw bottles, and Gio Reyna, who took one to the head.John Leyba/USA Today Sports, via Reuters More

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    US Men's Soccer 3, Mexico 2: All The Plot Twists

    Sunday’s Concacaf Nations League final was a roller-coaster of emotion, a game of goals and fights, flying projectiles and video reviews. It ended with the United States lifting the trophy.You will not find the word Concacaffy in any dictionary, but any soccer fan in North America knows what it means and how to use it in a sentence.It can explain anything from a terrible field to a terrible call to terrible behavior, and the word works just as well as an anguished cry or accompanied by a shrug of the shoulders. Can’t believe that foul wasn’t a red card? That’s so Concacaffy. Field surrounded by a 20-foot moat? That’s so Concacaffy. Were there really just 11 minutes of stoppage time after a 15-minute overtime? Sooooo Concacaffy.Even before the United States men’s national team beat Mexico, 3-2, on Sunday night to win the Concacaf Nations League final on Sunday, the word has been tossed around quite a bit. For fans of the two teams — the twin poles of North American soccer dominance and hand-wringing — the whole night was thrilling and frustrating and exhilarating and maddening.It was also pure, unfiltered Concacaf. Missed it? Here are the highlights. And the lowlights.Jesús Corona intercepted a pass by Mark McKenzie, left, and ripped a shot past Zack Steffen.Jack Dempsey/Associated PressA mistake! And a goal for Mexico.Mexico’s night started wonderfully, with a sizable advantage among fans in the stands in Denver and an early goal. It came courtesy of a giveaway by the young United States defender Mark McKenzie — who made a bad decision in his own penalty area. Just over a minute into the game, Jesús Corona pounced on the error, and Mexico was ahead, 1-0.It gets worse for the U.S.! Oh wait, no, it doesn’t.Mexico’s Héctor Moreno doubled the lead in the 24th minute, threatening to send the United States into a dangerously deep hole. But the referee, John Pitti of Panama, is called to the video-assistant review monitor for a second look at Moreno’s positioning, and he rules the goal was offside.Relief for the U.S.! Reyna gets one back.Gio Reyna corralled a header off the post and slammed in the rebound in the 27th minute.Isaiah J. Downing/USA Today Sports, via ReutersMoments later, the U.S. got to breathe an enormous sigh of relief when three of its brightest young stars teamed up to tie the score.Christian Pulisic started the play, curling in a corner kick toward midfielder Weston McKennie. McKennie won the free ball and sent his header past Mexico’s goalkeeper, Memo Ochoa, but the shot hit the far post. The carom brought it right back into the goal mouth, though, where Gio Reyna turned it effortlessly back into the net. Tie game.In the stands, Reyna’s parents, Claudio and Danielle — who both played for the national team — share a hug.Late Drama! Mexico retakes the lead, and the U.S. answers.The second half was when the game got interesting. The Americans made some tactical changes and started to hold their own, and McKennie kept firing headers at Ochoa, who kept managing to keep them out. United States goalkeeper Zack Steffen was doing the same at the other end until he scrambled out to break up a chance and, untouched, went down with a leg injury. He couldn’t continue, and was replaced by Ethan Horvath in the 69th minute.And this is when the game got really fun.The 20-year-old Mexico star Diego Lainez appeared to win the game in the 79th minute when, seconds after coming on as a substitute, he took a pass on the right, nudged it left and ripped a shot past Horvath to give Mexico a 2-1 lead.But that wasn’t the exclamation point it seemed. Within minutes, the game was even again after McKennie — thwarted by the post and by Ochoa for most of the night — finally sneaked a header over the line.Weston McKennie’s late header sent the final to extra time.John Leyba/USA Today Sports, via ReutersTrouble! A homophobic chant and flying bottles.The game was delayed for about three minutes when the referee stopped play to enforce Concacaf’s anti-discrimination protocols. The rules are in place to address everything from racism to homophobic chants, and they nearly stopped a Mexico-U.S. game in New Jersey in 2019.Mexico’s federation, its stars and its coaches have pleaded with their fans for years to stop the chant that has caused the most trouble, but it is still a common refrain at the team’s games at home and abroad.“Once again, I insist — I asked you guys to stop with that screaming,” Ochoa said during a news conference ahead of the final, and after the team’s win over Costa Rica in the semifinals had been paused because of the protocols. “It doesn’t help us at all. It is affecting us as a matter of fact.”Ochoa pleaded with fans to not repeat the chant in the final “and in the upcoming games in the Gold Cup, in the qualifiers, in Mexico, or abroad,” noting that the team could face escalating punishments, and even ejection from tournaments, if soccer officials ever follow through and enforce its most serious punishments.“All the team players are asking you, please, because in the long run, this could affect us.”Still, for the second time in this tournament, a Mexico match was stopped to address it.Isaiah J. Downing/USA Today Sports, via ReutersThe players gathered at midfield during the delay, and an announcement — a warning that the game could be called off — was read over the stadium loudspeakers. Play soon resumed, but the trouble wasn’t over.As is often the case, bottles and cups became projectiles on several occasions, most notably after the United States celebrated goals, and as players like Pulisic lay on the grass to waste time late in the match.At least one missile sent Reyna down in a heap, clutching his head, after a goal, and another later hit a Mexican player square in the face.Extra time! Two V.A.R. checks, two penalty kicks, one goal.If you weren’t hooked by now, the game was about to go full Concacaf.Early in the second extra session, Pulisic drove into Mexico’s penalty area and went down under a hard challenge from two defenders. On the ground, he waved his arms in the international symbol for “Hey that was a penalty!” but Pitti ignored him. Until, that is, he got a nudge to review the play on the sideline monitor.“It plays with your head a little bit when it takes long for the ref to decide whether it’s a PK or not,” McKennie said.A second look — interrupted briefly so he could red card Mexico’s coach, Tata Martino, for throwing his arm around the referee’s shoulder as he peered at the screen — confirmed for Pitti that the foul was a penalty. He made a dramatic signal to award it, and Pulisic stepped up and buried it. U.S. 3, Mexico 2.Christian Pulisic went down after a hard challenge in the second extra period.Jack Dempsey/Associated PressAfter waiting out a video review, he fired his penalty kick into the top corner.Jack Dempsey/Associated PressBut the final, and Mexico, was not done. Mexico won a corner in the 119th minute and stroked in a cross. A header appeared to hit McKenzie on the arm, and while Pitti did not appear to see it, every Mexican player did. Back to the review screen Pitti went, and off to the spot went Mexico. By this point, even the announcers were laughing.The problem, at least for Mexico, was the job wasn’t done yet. Andrés Guardado stepped up to take the penalty, and tie the score again, and his attempt wasn’t bad. But Horvath had guessed correctly and, diving to his right he pushed it aside.After that, all that was left was bottles thrown from the stands, 11 minutes (11!) of added time and a final whistle that delivered the United States — which had started the inaugural Nations League final with one of its youngest lineups ever — its first trophy since 2017, and its first win over Mexico since 2018.The confetti flew where the bottles had not, the fans (at least those there to support the U.S.) cheered and the American players picked up their medals.And then they braced themselves to possibly do it all over again in a month, when Mexico and the United States will be expected to tangle again in Concacaf’s regional championship: the Gold Cup.Tyler Adams, who taunted the Mexico crowd as it threw bottles, and Gio Reyna, who took one to the head.John Leyba/USA Today Sports, via Reuters More

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    How Euro 2020 Was Saved

    Pulling off a tournament with games in 11 countries was always going to be difficult. Then the pandemic struck, and the job got even harder.If Aleksander Ceferin has any say on the matter, there will never be another European soccer championship like the one that starts this week. And that decision has nothing to do with the coronavirus.Ceferin, the president of European soccer’s governing body, quickly listed the headaches that came with organizing this summer’s championship. Matches in 11 countries, originally 13, meant finding 11 cities and 11 stadiums capable of hosting them. It meant creating teams to run each site and arranging for dozens of hotels to house everyone who would go. But it also meant navigating legal jurisdictions and linguistic boundaries, tax laws and big politics as well as soccer politics, currency values and visa rules.And that was before the coronavirus made it all exponentially harder.“I would not do it again,” Ceferin said in a phone interview late last month.For the first time in its 61-year history, the European Championship, which begins on Friday with a game between Italy and Turkey in Rome, is being played on a continentwide basis. It will feature big players and small crowds, and host cities as far apart as Seville, Spain, near the southwest tip of the Iberian Peninsula, and Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, nestled on the Caspian Sea. The latter is closer to Tehran and Baghdad than it is to any of the other 10 tournament sites.It will play out using a schedule that had to be fixed enough to ensure several countries would play the bulk of their games on home soil, yet flexible enough that it could change as coronavirus outbreaks and travel restrictions demanded. It meant coming to terms with what Britain’s departure from the European Union amounted to in practice, sometimes before even Britain was sure, and finding solutions after two cities were stripped of their games in April.And it meant that whatever happens over the next month — however many goals are scored, however many thrilling matches are played — that there is certain to be only one overriding sensation for organizers when the final whistle blows on July 11: relief.“It’s very complicated,” Ceferin said in a world-class understatement, “and now it’s even more complicated.”And none of it, he is quick to point out, was his idea. The idea of a pan-continental European championship was the brainchild of Michel Platini, Ceferin’s predecessor as president of UEFA. Platini had proposed the idea of a Europe-wide celebration in 2012, after Turkey, the only bidder for the soccer event, refused to rule out also seeking the hosting rights for the Olympics that would be held in the same summer in 2020.Anatoly Maltsev/EPA, via ShutterstockCrowds, still a rare sight at soccer matches in many countries, were a nonnegotiable requirement for host cities.Joe Klamar/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images“It’s very complicated,” the UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin said, “and now it’s even more complicated.”Alessandra Tarantino/Associated PressNo country, UEFA felt, could pull off the Olympics and the European Championship — a soccer tournament second only to the World Cup in viewership and prominence — in close succession. Spreading the Euros around, Platini decided, could spread the joy of the event, but also serve as a valuable hedge in case Turkey had to choose between the games and the Games.By 2015, though, Platini was gone, one of the soccer officials ousted in a corruption scandal. But his concept lived on. When Ceferin was elevated to the UEFA presidency in 2016, he decided to forge ahead with the multinational concept, which by that stage had announced several host cities.While there were some hiccups — Brussels was forced out in 2017 after it could not guarantee a promised stadium would be ready — organizers believed they had pulled off what they once thought to be a Sisyphean task. By March 2020, almost everything that needed to be in place was in place, and the buzz around the tournament was beginning to grow. Some sponsors had activated their promotions, and Euro 2020 collectibles, cards and sticker albums were in stores.And then the pandemic brought the world to a halt.“Everybody was a little bit lost for a while,” Martin Kallen, the UEFA director responsible for the tournament, said of the feeling when it became clear the tournament would not be played as planned. “‘How are we going to do this? How are we going to go forward?’ Not only football, it was everywhere in society. We didn’t know what will happen next week.”Cancellation, according to Ceferin, would have been a devastating financial blow, imperiling the future of some of the federations that rely on stipends from European soccer’s governing body for their existence.“If you postpone, you can negotiate, and the loss is smaller,” Ceferin said. “But if you say, ‘We will not play at all,’ this is a big, big financial impact.”After a couple of weeks of assessing their options — which included raising and then dismissing the possibility of staging the entire tournament in Russia or England — and discussions involving a dizzying array of partners, from politicians to stadium owners, sponsors and broadcasters, the hard work to save the multinational mosaic started again.The first few calls were easy. Rescheduling the tournament for the same dates a year later solved the scheduling concerns, and since the merchandise with the Euro 2020 branding had been shipped, the tournament’s name would stay, too.By the fall of 2020, in fact, it had been decided to stick as close to the original plan as possible, with one important guarantee: Even amid the pandemic, each host city would have to make provisions to allow fans to attend the matches.The requirement seemed onerous and led to some tense exchanges between UEFA and national and regional governments. The decision, officials said, was partly made out of financial necessity — UEFA’s financial projections for the tournament have been revised downward by at least 300 million euros ($366 million) — but organizers also felt the return of fans, even in reduced capacities, was symbolically important.“We want to come back to normality in life, and we want to come back to normality in football stadiums,” Kallen said. Crowds at a big event like the Euros, UEFA had decided, would send that signal.Karim Benzema and France, one of the tournament favorites, warmed up with a win over Wales.Franck Fife/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesWith the virus raging, though, and several countries struggling with their vaccination programs, the demand for in-person crowds threatened the hosting ability of as many as four cities.In the end, only two cities lost out. Dublin, where politicians had always said it would be impossible to play with fans, was the first to go. It was the easiest, too; Ireland had not qualified for the tournament, and UEFA considered it unlikely many fans would attend the games in Ireland given restrictions on travel. Bilbao, in Spain, was a different matter.The largest city of the Basque region, where separatist feelings remain high, Bilbao was always a strange choice for UEFA. Spain’s national team has not played in the region since 1967, and it appeared to have made the list only because the since-ousted head of Spanish soccer had pushed its candidacy. Many of the city’s soccer-loving public had eventually come around to the idea of hosting other teams, though, and local officials welcomed the chance to take a turn in the international spotlight.When the games were pulled after UEFA felt the conditions required for fans to attend could never be met, furious local officials publicly assailed the decision and vowed to extract damages. Ceferin expressed sympathy and suggested both cities might host future events, but within weeks he and organizers had a new fire to put out.On the morning of the Champions League final in May, members of UEFA’s hierarchy held an emergency meeting at their hotel in Portugal after learning that new rules in Scotland could force an entire team into quarantine if even a single player tested positive there.A decision was quickly taken to scrap team bases in the country for the Czech Republic and Croatia. (Scotland had already announced that it would train in England.) But two days later, Scotland revealed that one of its players had tested positive. He and six teammates were left home from a friendly at the Netherlands, but their absence highlighted another change instituted this year in deference to the pandemic: Teams have been allowed to travel with 26 players instead of the usual 23.UEFA’s leadership will minimize its travel by splitting into two teams for the tournament. Ceferin will lead one group, and his top deputy, Theodore Theodoridis, will lead the other.UefaThe challenges might not be over, either. There is anxiety about a quarterfinal match set for Munich on July 2, since one of the participants will be traveling from England, which is subject to new, harsher travel rules. (The game could still be moved.)“We always have to have a plan, B, C or D,” said Kallen, noting that UEFA was now experienced in adapting to unforeseen circumstances after moving the Champions League on late notice two years in a row.Even UEFA’s leaders have had to recalibrate their travel plans: They will split into two traveling parties in order to visit all 11 host cities, with one headed by Ceferin and the other by his top deputy, Theodore Theodoridis. Their itineraries have been meticulously planned through June 21, a key date the British prime minister, Boris Johnson, has earmarked to “unlock” England from most of the remaining pandemic-related restrictions on social contact.Ceferin said that he had plans to speak with senior British politicians, including Johnson, before the tournament, and that he still hoped to receive the backing of the British government for a full stadium for the final at Wembley Stadium in London in July.“I think it’s possible,” Ceferin said. “Why not?”The signage is up at Wembley Stadium in London, where the Euro 2020 final (fingers crossed) will be played on July 11.Carl Recine/Action Images, via Reuters More