Connect with us

முக்கியச் செய்திகள்

This was a training game – England & Tuchel now need to get serious

Published

on

Thomas Tuchel's England have scored just twice in their past three matches

England head coach Thomas Tuchel's pre-World Cup experimentation must surely end here and now.

Tuchel's long examination of the options open to him continued on Saturday with the sight of two separate teams, one for each half, tackling a low-key friendly against New Zealand in Tampa's searing heat.

The clock is ticking down to England's opening tournament game against Croatia in Dallas on Wednesday, 17 June.

With the Tampa game out of the way, Tuchel should be ready to reveal more of what he hopes will be his winning hand.

It was perfectly understandable that Tuchel wanted to give England's squad time to get minutes in the bank in testing, strength-sapping conditions.

What it meant was that the 1-0 win – Harry Kane the goalscorer again – came from effectively a glorified training session carried out under the guise of international football.

This was the first time since June 2004, when England played Iceland before leaving for the European Championship in Portugal, that they have played 22 different players in a match.

England play their final friendly before the World Cup starts when they face Costa Rica in Orlando on Wednesday – and that is when Tuchel has the chance to wheel out the big guns.

Tuchel's recent selections have not been anywhere near what could be considered a World Cup starting line-up. In Tampa he was without key Arsenal figures and certain starters Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka, afforded a rest after their Premier League title-winning exertions and the Champions League final loss to Paris St-Germain.

"To put it in context, a lot of our players last played together in November," said Tuchel. "That's half a year ago. We had four training sessions together, then mixed the team up completely."

England beat World Cup's lowest-ranked team New Zealand in warm-up game

Will transfers be a distraction for England at World Cup?

The Debrief: England and Scotland win on American soil

Tuchel has to take his own share of responsibility for this situation, having made some experimental selections leading up to these final preparations, including in the friendlies against Uruguay and Japan at Wembley in March.

Manchester City's Phil Foden played up front against Japan. In the Uruguay game, Tuchel fielded Foden, Everton's James Garner and Spurs striker Dominic Solanke. None of those made his World Cup squad.

Ivan Toney came on for the second half in Tampa after spending a year in the England wilderness, following a three-minute appearance in the friendly defeat against Senegal at the City Ground, Nottingham.

This, in effect, makes it even more important that Tuchel puts a line-up on the pitch against Costa Rica that is as close as possible to the one that will face Croatia. It will be an opportunity to find rhythm and momentum and build combinations before that tournament opener.

Tuchel did, at least, report no injuries from this first warm-up game, while he added: "The better the opponent gets, the better we will get."

Kane's goal came just before half-time, which heralded the mass changes, but Tuchel said: "I was happier with the second half. I thought we had more hunger and more desire. We played better but did not score.

"We didn't play according to our plan in the first half. It slowed the game down, but it was better in the second half.

"We will acclimatise to the humidity and the sun while we are here. Tomorrow will be recovery day, then we have two days to prepare for Costa Rica. Then a chunk of players will get more minutes. The Arsenal players are in now, which is good because it gives us energy and quality, and then we have another one and a half days off.

"Then we go to Kansas and prepare for Croatia."

England's first-half line-up scraped an interval lead thanks to the ever-clinical Kane

For all the permutations Tuchel went through against New Zealand, one indisputable truth remains for England: Kane is the key to all their World Cup aspirations.

He headed the winner seconds before the break, his 79th international goal in 113 appearances.

Once again, the captain made the decisive contribution and England are simply not the same side without him.

In the Costa Rica friendly, Tuchel has the opportunity to shape partnerships in central defence, where John Stones was given 45 minutes alongside Marc Guehi against New Zealand. That followed an injury-troubled final season at Manchester City for Stones.

Perhaps Tuchel will also give the clearest hint on who will take the much-debated number 10 role.

It is a straight fight between Aston Villa's Morgan Rogers and Real Madrid superstar Jude Bellingham. Rogers was first pick in this friendly, but nothing can be read into this as Bellingham took the captain's armband when he came out for the second half.

Regarding the line-ups, Tuchel said after the game there were "no hidden messages".

Ollie Watkins and Toney, who played a half each, did nothing to suggest they will be anything other than understudies to Kane, as expected, while Tuchel will have been pleased Chelsea's Reece James got through 45 minutes at right-back, where he is almost certain to be a World Cup starter.

Not too much of true significance could be gleaned, but Tuchel would have hoped for something a little more convincing against a side ranked 85th in the world, with England creating little, although there was a very lively second-half appearance from Liverpool's 17-year-old Rio Ngumoha.

He is with England in the United States but not as part of the World Cup squad. In becoming the fifth youngest player to represent the Three Lions, he certainly gave Tuchel some interesting food for thought should there be injuries before the tournament starts.

Mr Irreplaceable and Ballon d'Or contender – is this Kane's time?

Former England defender Stephen Warnock told BBC Radio 5 Live: "It's not the performance that many would have wanted.

"Once the players start to adapt to this climate and this weather, we will start to see improved performances from them. We will start to see the players getting sharper."

Warnock added: "You can read into it what you want, but this is just an exercise for Thomas Tuchel to work on a few partnerships and test a few bits out.

"England have been here six days. That's no time to acclimatise. Roughly it takes about two weeks to acclimatise and that is when England play Croatia – and that is when you want to see them looking sharp.

"The most important thing is how they start the tournament. If they win the game against Croatia, nobody will care about these two warm-up games.

"These players are probably playing at around 60% of their maximum capacity at the moment. They are just feeling their way into this climate and these games."

England's squad will be at full strength by the time they face Croatia. And that is when Tuchel can deliver the clearest indication of the route he will take to try to win the World Cup.

Everything you need to know about the World Cup

📰 மூல செய்தி (Source): https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/c3ryd490rz7o?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss

முக்கியச் செய்திகள்

Zelensky criticises 'vile' Chornobyl drone strike ahead of London talks

Published

on

UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer will host Volodymyr Zelensky in Downing Street later on Sunday, alongside French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, for talks on European support for Ukraine.

Ahead of the meeting, Kyiv officials said a Russian drone had hit a storage facility for spent nuclear fuel near the Chornobyl nuclear plant in the north of Ukraine.

They said a fire was put out and there were no injuries, with officials adding that radiation levels remained stable. Zelensky labelled it a deliberate and "vile Russian strike".

Separately, at least three people were killed in a Russian strike in a village outside Zaporizhzhia in the south-east of the country, authorities said.

Zaporizhzhia has come under relentless Russian attacks recently, with at least two people killed there on Saturday.

The Russian strike on Chornobyl "partially destroyed" a spent nuclear fuel storage building, according to Ukraine's state-owned nuclear operator, Enerhoatom.

The operator said there were no injuries, and a fire in the building was put out, adding that radiation remained at a normal level.

The body also criticised Moscow for what it called a deliberate threat to nuclear safety, in words echoed by Zelensky.

"Russia deliberately struck this particular nuclear infrastructure facility," Zelensky said in a post on X, describing the building as an "as extremely critical infrastructure facility" and the attack as "vile".

He went on to detail Russian overnight strikes in 13 regions, adding that Moscow had launched 88 missiles, more than 3,250 drones and 1,800 guided bombs over the past week.

On Saturday, Ukraine targeted St Petersburg and the surrounding area as the city hosted the final day of a major economic forum, in a drone attack described as "unprecedented" by Russian authorities.

Days earlier, Kyiv had attacked the outskirts of the same city – some 1,000km (620 miles) from Ukraine – as Russian President Vladimir Putin's flagship forum was getting started, sending a large plume of black smoke over the city's skyline.

In the four years since Moscow's invasion began, Ukraine has developed its defence sector, with Kyiv now able to regularly hit targets within Russia.

The three Western powers represented at Downing Street – the so-called E3 group – are some of Kyiv's strongest allies. The UK and France lead the "coalition of the willing" initiative to provide security guarantees for Ukraine as part of a future potential peace process.

The group had previously convened in London in December, at a time when the US was pushing hard for Moscow and Kyiv to sign up quickly to a plan to end the war in Ukraine.

Since then US efforts to mediate a truce have petered out, and Washington's focus has shifted to the Iran war.

On Friday, Putin rejected a proposal by Zelensky for face-to-face talks on ending the war, saying he did not see any point in meeting the Ukrainian leader.

Zelensky sent an open letter calling for a direct negotiations, writing that it would be "wrong to simply wait" for the conflict to once again become the focus of US attention.

Speaking at the economic forum on Friday, Putin refused the request for a meeting with Zelensky and reiterated his position that a truce would only allow Ukraine to regroup.

He said he would only end the war when Russia's goals had been met.

📰 மூல செய்தி (Source): https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cr7xr1g3nvvo?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss

Continue Reading

முக்கியச் செய்திகள்

England begin Ashes rebuild with win over New Zealand in first Test

Published

on

Highlights: Atkinson bowls England to 115-run victory over NZ

First Rothesay Test, Lord's (day four of five)

England 140 (Brook 56; Jamieson 5-62) & 226 (Gay 57; N Smith 6-70)

New Zealand 113 (Jamieson 38*; Robinson 5-39,) & 138 (Phillips 44*; Atkinson 5-30)

England won by 115 runs, lead three-match series 1-0

England took less than a session on the fourth day of the first Test against New Zealand to begin their post-Ashes rebuild with a much-needed victory.

In their first Test since their 4-1 defeat in Australia, England exploited the devilishly difficult batting conditions on a poor Lord's pitch to beat the tourists by 115 runs and take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.

From 55-5 overnight in their chase of 254, New Zealand's disappointing week was complete when they were hustled out for 138, thanks chiefly to Gus Atkinson's 5-30.

After Saturday's third day was almost entirely lost to rain, England required only seven deliveries on an overcast Sunday to resume their wicket-taking -Josh Tongue getting one to skid into the prone pads of Tom Blundell.

With the ball moving up and down, and side to side, Glenn Phillips began an overdue New Zealand counter-attack.

Phillips and Devon Conway added 53 for the seventh wicket, helped by Harry Brook putting down Conway at second slip.

But after England captain Ben Stokes induced a miscue from Conway, the end came quickly.

Nathan Smith edged behind, Kyle Jamieson clipped to mid-wicket and last man Matt Henry was bowled, all by Atkinson, giving the Surrey man yet another place on the Lord's honours board.

The rapid, seam-dominated nature of this match followed a recent trend of matches involving England. Two of the Ashes Tests were done in two days, while this was the first Test in this country without a single delivery of spin bowled by either team since 1988.

The hope is the surface for the second Test at The Oval, beginning on 17 June, produces a more satisfactory contest.

'Comebacks don't get much better' – first Test ratings

England beat Black Caps in bowler's paradise at Lord's

England pick up five wickets before lunch on day four for victory over NZ

The 150th Test at Lord's was a poor spectacle because of the pitch. New Zealand were also uncharacteristically sloppy, missing five chances in the field.

England will not care. After the dismal winter, the retained management structure needed any sort of victory to begin to justify the faith that has been shown in them.

Before this match, Stokes said only the result mattered and now England have the opportunity to win the series at The Oval.

Has much been learned in this match? Seamer Ollie Robinson was outstanding on his return to Test cricket, though his skills were never in doubt – particularly in conditions such as these. His challenge is now to prove his durability.

Debutant opener Emilio Gay looked to have the temperament for Test cricket and his second-innings 57 was the highest individual score of the match. The Durham man will be asked to kick on and make the place his own.

Beyond that, the chaotic nature of this match made it hard to draw conclusions. It was concluded in 166 overs – the third-shortest in history where all 40 wickets have fallen.

England have previously thrived in anarchy – their only win in Australia came in two days of pandemonium in Melbourne. Can they now find the technique, resolve and patience to prevail when a more conventional style of Test cricket is required?

Lord's pitch does not benefit Test format – Stokes

Atkinson bowls Henry to seal England victory

Robinson took two important wickets in the 9.4 overs that were possible on Saturday and it was Tongue who struck in the first full over of Sunday. Pinned to the crease, Blundell did not bother with a review.

Robinson and Tongue might have thought of bowling unchanged until England's job was finished, and may have done had Brook not parried Conway's poke off Tongue. England's first fielding blemish of the match gave Conway a life on 24.

Stokes introduced himself and Atkinson, who troubled Phillips with the ball spitting off a length. Just as New Zealand's momentum was building, Stokes found the breakthrough.

The captain reinforced his leg-side catchers to Conway, on 41. From round the wicket, Stokes targeted the pads of the left-hander, whose leading edge was well caught millimetres off the turf by Jacob Bethell at gully.

In the next over, Nathan Smith tickled Atkinson into the gloves of Jamie Smith – the England wicketkeeper has had an encouraging week after a disappointing Ashes.

Atkinson is another who underwhelmed in Australia, yet he is at home at Lord's. In three Tests on this ground, Atkinson's 26 wickets have come at average of 9.5, including four five-wicket hauls and a 10-wicket haul to go with a century.

Tongue gets an early breakthrough as Blundell goes for four

With England vulnerable following the Ashes, New Zealand appeared to be dangerous opponents, only for the Black Caps to be well below their best.

They were hampered by a back injury to key bowler Henry and severely harmed their cause with the dropped chances in the field- vital in a low-scoring game.

New Zealand were also passive with the bat. With run-scoring so difficult, the best approach looked to be to attack the bowling, yet only Phillips and Jamieson seemed willing to be aggressive.

In the past 12 years, the Black Caps are the sole visiting team to win a Test series in this country – a 1-0 triumph in 2021.

Now, New Zealand have lost seven of their past nine Tests against England, all since Kiwi Brendon McCullum took charge of England.

Bethell takes a good low catch to end Conway's resistance

Get cricket news sent straight to your phone

📰 மூல செய்தி (Source): https://www.bbc.com/sport/cricket/articles/cx2k818rdkgo?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss

Continue Reading

முக்கியச் செய்திகள்

M&S launches new traineeship for 1,000 young people

Published

on

Marks and Spencer is launching a new training scheme for young people trying to get on the career ladder in a bid to tackle the "growing youth unemployment challenge".

Aimed at 16 to 24-year olds, it will create 1,000 training places in the UK and Ireland over the next 18 months.

M&S said the paid scheme was intended to help tackle the rising number of young people not in employment, education or training – so-called "Neets".

The latest official figures show more than a million young people are Neets – the highest level in more than 12 years and equating to roughly one in eight young people.

Last month, a key review warned one in six will be Neet in five years if action is not taken.

The review found job and career opportunities for those hoping to enter employment were "not growing, they're shrinking". Its author, former minister Alan Milburn, warned of a potential "lost generation".

It said there was no one single factor causing the crisis, citing the Covid-19 pandemic, smartphones, health issues and the current jobs market, which has seen a sharp drop in the number of entry-level positions.

High Street retailers and hospitality businesses such as restaurants, cafes and pubs often offer the first experience of work for many.

M&S said its new scheme will provide six months of training, with successful participants then receiving further training to become a store manager.

People do not need a degree to be eligible.

Retail director Thinus Keeve said: "We want more young people to see retail not just as a first job, but as a career with real opportunity, real responsibility and real progression…

"This programme is about opening doors for the next generation and giving talented young people the chance to thrive."

It comes as the government announced a partnership with industry and trade unions examining how artificial intelligence (AI) was affecting entry-level roles.

It will look at how entry-level jobs are changing and give businesses advice on how to redesign roles while maintaining routes into the workforce.

The government said 400,000  students in disadvantaged schools in the UK will get AI and tech training to help them into further education, training and employment.

Last year, Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced that young people who had been out of a job or education for 18 months will be offered a guaranteed paid work placement to help them prepare for a full-time job.

📰 மூல செய்தி (Source): https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cr7xr3dvxp9o?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss

Continue Reading

Trending

Copyright © 2024 by 7Tamil Media, All rights reserved.