Jacks takes two wickets in two balls as England make great start
Will Jacks takes two wickets in two balls as England make a great start in defending their total of 146 in the T20 World Cup Super 8 match against Sri Lanka.
Puyallup outlasts Emerald Ridge, wins first district basketball title since 1991
For the first time since 1991, the Puyallup High School boys basketball team is the West Central District champion.
The Vikings won the Class 4A District 3/4 championship on Saturday, beating Emerald Ridge 61-52. It was the fourth meeting this season between the two programs. Emerald Ridge won the two regular season meetings, but Puyallup took the league tournament championship game.
Add another postseason win for the purple and gold.
“It means a lot, but it means a lot beating that team we just played,” said senior guard Lawson Looker, a guard and also a star receiver on the football team last fall. “Beating that team feels good.”
Puyallup beat Kennedy Catholic in the opening round, Kentridge in the quarterfinals, hammered top-seeded Auburn in the semifinals and then beat Emerald Ridge in the final.
“It feels great,” said 6-foot-7 senior forward Will Nasinec,who scored 14 points. “Just redemption from last year, we lost in the semifinals. We made it past that, we wanted one more. It’s a team we’re familiar with, it’s always a close game with them, took care of business.”
The game went back and forth until late in the fourth quarter, when Puyallup pulled away. Sophomore guard Quamari Costello scored a team-high 18 points, Nasinec had 14, junior forward Mason Sonntag added 10 and Looker scored nine.
Emerald Ridge 6-foot-7 senior forward Jaaize McGriff piled up a game-high 24 points, but no one else for Emerald Ridge scored in double digits. Puyallup’s players figured McGriff would get his points, so limiting the Jaguars’ guard was the major focus.
“You’ve really gotta be on defense the whole time,” Looker said.
Puyallup (21-6) should land in the top eight once the seeding committee releases the state tournament seeds on Sunday, which will guarantee the Vikings a trip to the Tacoma Dome, one season after Puyallup played in the Class 4A state championship game. Puyallup hasn’t lost since falling to Emerald Ridge on Jan. 27, nearly a month ago.
“After Emerald Ridge beat us at home, it was just kind of a wake-up call there,” Puyallup coach Kevin Olson said. “It’s not gonna be easy. … We decided, ‘Hey, we’re a really good team, we’re a couple plays away from winning those games and we needed to execute in the fourth quarter to win.”
Credit Nasinec, a senior, with Puyallup’s confidence in the second half of the season.
“He’s definitely taken the lead of our team and knows that we need him to be really good and to score for us down the stretch,” Olson said. “That was the big challenge coming in, is who’s gonna take those shots at the end without Drew Jones? It took a while to get that worked out. But he’s done a great job, he’s taken ownership of that.”
Emerald Ridge also advances to the state tournament regional round. In total, the 4A SPSL sends four teams through to the state tournament regional round. Olympia beat Kentridge and Sumner beat Union in loser-out, winner-to-state games on Friday.
Nottingham Forest v Liverpool: Premier League – live
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Arne Slot just spoke to Sky, starting with Dominik Szoboszlai at full-back: “He needs to be because that’s what we need. We have our issues, especially in defence. Missing our 2 fullbacks, but Dominic has done that job really well. Last week, Curtis Jones, did his job really well. So that’s the good thing about midfielders, they are usually able to play in more positions than only in the midfields.
“A little bit of a different challenge. because a manager head coach has impact on playing style, but in the end, they’re still the same players. And I think they have a lot of quality players.
Continue reading...Team’s Up – Schmeichel retains place, Oxlade-Chamberlain starts - Yahoo Sports Canada
Columbus Crew's season opener loss to Portland reveals familiar problems
There was no holding back from Henrik Rydstrom as he evaluated the results of his first game as the Crew's head coach.
"There is big potential on the team," Rydstrom said. "How you use these kind of games and these kind of setbacks, that's the key. I love to win, so right now I feel really black inside. When I see my team hide [offensively], I get very, very disappointed. ... I hope this game will work like a wake-up call."
The Crew fell 3-2 to the Portland Timbers on the road to open the 2026 MLS season Feb. 21. The game-winner was scored in the 88th minute off a series of Columbus defensive miscues.
Defender Yevhen Cheberko had attempted a clearance out of Columbus' box with a header, but sent it right back to Portland.
When defender Jimer Fory launched a pass back into the box, both Crew defender Malte Amundsen and Timbers midfielder Kevin Kelsy went down trying to collect it, though only Kelsy got to the ball. He managed to direct it to forward Ariel Lassiter, who took Kelsy's header and scored an uncontested shot.
Ariel Lassiter with the nifty little finish and @TimbersFC grab the lead late 👊 pic.twitter.com/3CABDeA79w
— Major League Soccer (@MLS) February 22, 2026
"That’s not the result we wanted," Crew defender Rudy Camacho said. "We know that we had to do better and we are able to do better. We could win this game because I think we are better, but we didn't show it."
Columbus Crew's problem with counterattacks from last season show in 2026
When Rydstrom watched film of the Crew in 2025, he found the struggle to stop counterattacks to be glaring, and he spent the preseason emphasizing that area needed improvement.
Rydstrom saw the same problem play out in front of him when Portland's two first-half goals were scored on the counterattack.
"Sometimes you lose the ball," Rydstrom said. "But instead of us taking a step forward and locking their players in, we let them get out from situation. We let them drive against us and we let them turn with the ball. It didn't get better in the second half. ... It looked exactly like the last season."
This was particularly a problem against the Timbers, who thrive on creating goals in the counterattack and off cross passes with their speedy frontline.
While Crew defender Sean Zawadzki never felt that speed got the better of the backline, he acknowledged that there were holes in the defensive performance.
"They know how to manipulate the team," Zawadzki said. "I think we had numbers around the ball when the ball went wide, and kind of left the middle a little too open, especially in the first half. I think the first half we played to their strengths. We left the middle open a little bit too much and allowed them to break on the counter."
Columbus Crew's attacking game falls flat following Abou Ali, Rossi goals
The Crew took a step back offensively last season, finishing 12th overall in MLS with 55 regular-season goals and just 37.5% of their 485 shot attempts on target, so Rydstrom wanted more from the attack in Portland.
Striker Wessam Abou Ali had an impact in his first game back since September when he converted a Portland turnover into the first goal at the six-minute mark.
Additionally, forward Diego Rossi notched a goal.
Beyond that, the Crew had nothing else to show for their 16 shot attempts.
"We depended too much on their ability," Rydstrom said. "We had some nice diagonal attacks where we hurt the opponent, but overall, no. Especially our build-up was really below our standard. I'm disappointed."
Wessam Abou Ali played longer than expected vs Portland
Rydstrom had only planned to play Abou Ali for 60 minutes due to this being the 27-year-old's first game since suffering a season-ending hairline fracture in his right ankle.
However, the Crew coach decided to keep Abou Ali on the field until the 82-minute mark, when he was replaced by recently acquired striker Jamal Thiare from Atlanta United.
"I pushed Wes a little bit longer than the plan," Rydstrom said. "He was reaching for his hamstring, also, but I hope it was no big deal."
Along with Abou Ali, Camacho and midfielder Taha Habroune were also on restricted minutes after both dealt with sports hernias last year.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Crew fall vs Timbers in season 2026 MLS opener: 3 takeaways