Sochi 2014: The highs, the lows and the haircuts

Best moment?
A poker-faced Russian policeman abandoning his patrol car to lead me happily on foot to my destination, translating on his iPhone as he went, was a welcome early sign that fears the atmosphere would be oppressive and overbearing were misplaced.

But the buzz in the Bolshoy Arena as Russia took on the USA was hard to beat in a match that had everything except victory for the hosts, and the sudden silence as TJ Oshie won an engrossing shootout will stick in the memory.

Likewise the roar that greeted a Russian victory in the 5,000m speed skating relay in the Iceberg Skating Palace. Those who feared the venues would lack for atmosphere were proved definitively wrong.

From a British point of view, it was the pure joy of an unexpected snowboard slopestyle bronze for Jenny Jones in a sport that really imposed itself on the Games over its opening weekend and felt like a breath of fresh air after all the paranoia of the build-up. As she collapsed in hysterics, her watching team-mates – including Lizzy Yarnold – said it set the tone for their Games.

Worst moment?
Aside from arriving at my hotel room at 3am to find it had yet to be finished, it had to be Elise Christie taking her third tumble in the 1,000m short-track speed skating semi-final. Throughout her travails, she had remained honest and self-aware in the mixed zone and, with a redemptive medal a real possibility, was undone by the vagaries of her thrilling sport.

In a similar fashion, it was hard not to sympathise with 15-year-old Russian Yulia Lipnitskaya, who fell on the ice with the weight of her country's expectations on her shoulders. Afterwards, as her coach turned away, she looked crushed.

Funniest moment?
The reaction of snowboarder Billy Morgan, who may have finished only 10th but enjoyed these Games to the maximum, when a colleague in the mixed zone wondered if his run had not been a bit, well, conservative. "Conservative?!" he spluttered with faux indignation, as you might if you'd just performed a series of gravity-defying jumps and spins on a vertiginous course and were then faced with a gaggle of journalists new to the sport whose only experience of a triple was in the bar.

Best tumble?
Best is not the right word, but the audible gasp that went around the Iceberg when Lipnitskaya fell during her Schindler's List skating routine could be heard in Moscow. More entertainingly, the photofinish in the men's ski-cross quarter-final, when three competitors – the Russian Egor Korotkov narrowly beating Sweden's Victor Oehling Norber and Finland's Jouni Pellinen – slid over the line together on the seat of their pants, provided one of the images of the Games and summed up the wackily entertaining appeal of ski-cross.

Best hair?
"Best" might be a relative term, but the Rosa Khutor Extreme Park did not lack out-there hairdos. The British freestyle skier James "Woodsy" Woods, who may lack an imaginative nickname but is the most polite and engaging man in freestyle skiing, sported a particularly impressive effort. But Norway's Magnus Krog topped him by dyeing his hair red, white and blue, bringing some colour to the normally more staid world of cross-country skiing.

Best trick?
The all-American ski slopestyle trio, who swept the podium on a sunny Saturday under cloudless blue skies, took some beating for the range and consistency of their gravity-defying routines. But there can be only one winner: iPod's "yolo". The Russian-born Swiss Iouri "iPod" Podladtchikov deposed the reigning snowboarding halfpipe champion Shaun White by landing the signature trick that he himself invented. White tried to copy it but failed, allowing the younger man to defeat him. After getting his medal, iPod put his own spin on the Sochi slogan: "It's hot, it's cool and it's fucking mine." He then gave a rambling, goofy press conference that took in Kate Moss and photography.

Most memorable kit?
Obvious, maybe, but there cannot be any contender other than Norway's curling trousers. Garish one day, unspeakably loud the next, the joke never wore thin. Though they couldn't help looking slightly incongruous when the bitter reality of sport left them describing their devastation following their last-ditch loss to David Murdoch's British rink in their play-off while wearing clown pants. Russia's omnipresent garish kit was also memorable, for all the wrong reasons.

Top tweet?
If London was a social media Games among those attending, this felt like the first where the participating athletes refused to be disconnected from their laptops and smartphones too – particularly in the new freestyle skiing and snowboarding disciplines. Many of the Brits used Twitter and Instagram to document their Games experience with an endless stream of selfies, never more memorably than when Rowan Cheshire used hers to first show the extent of her injuries after a training accident on the halfpipe, and then to document the hospital visits from team-mates that showed she was OK.

Source: The Guardian
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Sochi closing ceremony: Games end with flourish as protest fears melt away

His ice hockey team failed to follow the script. But just about everything else went to plan for a watching Vladimir Putin as Russia celebrated a rush of medals in Sochi with a triumphant closing ceremony on the shores of the Black Sea.

After spending $51bn (£31bn) to build a mountain ski resort and a cluster of shimmering sports venues from scratch not to mention the roads and railways to link them failure was not an option for the omnipresent Russian president.

At the opening ceremony a fortnight ago, all the talk was of security fears, culls of stray dogs, last-minute glitches and a giant hydraulic snowflake that failed to open.

But by the closing ceremony which featured ballet from the Bolshoi, music by Rachmaninov and tributes to Tolstoy and Kandinsky plus the usual protocol the atmosphere was one of pure celebration swathed in the colours of the Russian flag. International Olympic Committee president, Thomas Bach, declared the most expensive Games in history "a real special experience". He also personally thanked Putin for his contribution to the "extraordinary success of these Winter Games".

The organisers could even afford to laugh at themselves. The early part of the ceremony featured a knowing nod to the failed snowflake, with a shimmering shoal of dancers making up four of the five rings, before belatedly forming the fifth.

The opening ceremony had been a pleasingly offbeat romp through Russian art and culture. With its marching bands and 1,000-strong children's choir singing the national anthem, this was more of a traditional show of strength.

For the Russians who wildly cheered a clean sweep of the podium in the 50km cross country skiing and a second gold in the bobsleigh for Alexander Zubkov on the final day of competition, a surge of sporting success helped it go with a swing.

The Russian ice hockey team had limped out of the competition to Finland at the quarter-final stage, leaving Canada to triumph over Sweden in Sunday's final.

But Russia, who finished an abject 11th in the medal table in Vancouver four years ago, have poured tens of billions of roubles into ensuring they weren't humiliated at their own party.

As in London, a raft of medals for hometown favourites, a tribe of 25,000 helpful volunteers and a well-judged but extensive security operation buoyed the mood.

"The success of the home team is always an important part of the success of the Games overall. This we saw just two years ago with Team GB in London," said Bach.

The Russian deputy prime minister had earlier said the huge price tag had been worth it and claimed that the Games had helped rebrand his country in the eyes of the world.

"The friendly faces, the warm Sochi sun and the glare of the Olympic gold have broken the ice of scepticism towards the new Russia," insisted Dmitry Kozak. "The Games have turned our country, its culture and the people into something that is a lot closer and more appealing and understandable for the rest of the world."

When the Russian team paraded into the stadium to huge cheers and chants of "Russ-ee-aa", even Putin allowed himself a thin smile.

They also had a little help from overseas. The Korean-born speed skater Viktor Ahn, who switched nationality in 2011, won three golds and US-born snowboarder Vic Wild, who acquired Russian citizenship through marriage in 2012, won two.

Not that anyone in the packed Fisht Stadium seemed to care, after the hosts finished the Games with a total of 33 medals, 13 of them gold.

The gold medallist Lizzy Yarnold led a 56-strong team of British athletes that also met expectations, equalling their best ever medal haul of four in 1924.

Billy Morgan, a snowboarder and former acrobat who is one of a clutch of "fridge kids" who have captured the imagination at these Games, flipped his way into the arena in his Team GB tracksuit.

The build-up had been beset by a cocktail of security fears, human rights concerns and unease about the huge cost. They did not go away entirely. Images of Pussy Riot being whipped by Cossack guards while performing a song called Putin Will Teach You How to Love the Motherland in front of the Olympic logo will linger. On the penultimate day, a coalition of 33 human rights groups wrote to the IOC calling on it to demand higher standards of its host cities. But the predicted podium protests failed to materialise and Bach insisted on the closing day that athletes had not been leaned on.

"The Games are not about political disagreements. They are not about political confrontation," said the German, overseeing his first Games as president.

As three giant animatronic mascots and a cast of hundreds of children extinguished the Olympic flame, amid the traditional fireworks, the debate over whether the Games have been worth the huge investment required to build a new city from scratch was only just beginning.

The Russians say they have uses for each of the glittering sports palaces built by the Black Sea and hope Sochi, with its new mountain resort and port, will become a destination for tourists and conferences in summer and winter.

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Manchester United had no choice but to enrich Wayne Rooney

In Germany, Zlatan Ibrahimovic had just smashed in two goals as part of the calling card Paris St-Germain left with Bayer Leverkusen. The second was a peach left-footed, 25 yards, and still rising as it arrowed into the top corner and a reporter asked him about the fact it was his wrong foot. Zlatan's eyes narrowed. "There is no wrong foot," he pointed out.

Cristiano Ronaldo, who probably wishes he had thought of that line, will get his turn in the Champions League next week. Lionel Messi's came against Manchester City and another decisive contribution even on a night when he restricted us to brief flashes of his greatness. Messi clipped his penalty past Joe Hart as though immune to the pressures of his industry, almost as if it was an impostor who needed to hold on to the lectern to control his shaky legs as he collected his first Ballon d'Or. Yet it was actually something that happened in the warm-up that will last longer in the memory.

The sight of Messi playing long‑distance keepie-ups with Dani Alves, from 40 yards, was certainly a mesmerising sideshow. For 10 minutes or so, Messi found a different way to control the ball every time. His thigh, his chest, the outside of his boot, his shoulder, and then the beautifully weighted volley back. Alves barely had to move six feet in any direction during the entire exercise (the Brazilian wasn't too shabby himself). For those of us by that side of the pitch, it was almost hypnotic.

There was a time when English football wanted Wayne Rooney to be this player, enjoying the view from the highest point of his profession. It never quite turned out that way but the new deal Rooney has just signed at Manchester United is a reminder of his position in the sport. It is a superstar's contract and perhaps the most astounding thing is that I would not be entirely surprised if £300,000 a week falls short of the true figure once the basic salary £240,000, I am reliably informed – has image rights and other commercial bonuses added.

Manchester City's information when they wanted Rooney in 2010 and their transfer negotiator at the time, Brian Marwood, goes back years with the player's adviser, Paul Stretford was that the financial package he subsequently got out of United was altogether worth a weekly £300,000. If that is correct, it is not very likely Rooney and Stretford have just negotiated a pay freeze.

What can be said with absolute certainty is that the numbers are astronomical when Rooney is slowly turning towards the downhill curve of his professional life. He is 29 in October and it is a big assumption on United's part that he will still be capable of menacing opponents by the age of 33. In journalism, there is an old saying of never assume. In football, it clearly does not work that way.

United traditionally have offered 12-month contract extensions when a player reaches 30, but that policy appears to have been dismantled. Rooney will take around £86m, or possibly more, over five and a half years, minus the percentage that goes to Stretford. Until recently, Rooney has given the impression he considers Old Trafford a five-star prison. He now reputedly earns more than Messi, who is two years younger with four Ballons d'Or among his portfolio. Stretford, not short of ego already, must think he is out of this world. There are people at Old Trafford who probably wish he was.

Alternatively, Gary Neville makes a legitimate point when he asks how much United would have to fork out for a like-for-like replacement in the current market. Pretty high, one would imagine, if that player is actually out there and available. Bayern Munich already have plans in place, in the form of Robert Lewandowski, but it is not easy predicting what Chelsea and Arsenal, two of the clubs United have to measure themselves against on a weekly basis, will do next.

Chelsea had been pinning their hopes on Rooney one newspaper was informed last summer that it was "only a matter of time" and Mourinho's shoulders tend to slump when the subject turns to where his team might be if they had a more accomplished centre-forward.

As for Arsenal, the most startling point about their defeat by Bayern was not actually the way Mesut Özil's penalty scrambled his mind. It was that Arsène Wenger started an occasion of such significance with a 21-year-old in attack who had previously been restricted to 127 minutes of football all season, without a single goal. Yaya Sanogo's story about almost giving up football to become a postman makes good copy. It is, however, the kind of story more often heard before the third round of the FA Cup than an elite night against the European champions.

United have had to weigh up that if they did cut Rooney free he would have turned up at one of the London clubs, almost certainly Chelsea, when Robin van Persie is now in his 30s, back in the cycle of picking up injuries, and goalscorers are more valuable than ever. Liverpool have Luis Suárez and Daniel Sturridge. City have Sergio Agüero, Álvaro Negredo, Edin Dzeko and Stevan Jovetic. On that basis alone, United had to keep Rooney.

They have certainly done everything they can to fluff up his ego given that the manager, David Moyes, and the chief executive, Ed Woodward, have also let him in on their transfer plans, in complete contrast to the stance Sir Alex Ferguson and David Gill took before his previous contract was signed.

So, why the difference? "We're seventh," was the first reply when I asked that question a while back. Ferguson told Rooney expletives removed – to mind his own business when he requested to be kept in the loop (and suggested Özil was a good signing) in 2010. This time around, there has been a greater understanding at the top of the club that United, with their current issues, have fewer selling points, and that a player of Rooney's status is entitled to ask about their strategy. Don't confuse that with thinking he has the Glazers on speed dial, or that he has a say about what needs to be done. It is, however, still a break from the norm. Nobody else at Old Trafford gets that kind of privileged access.

Yet Rooney will have done, in theory, 15 years as a United player by 2019. To put that into context, Bryan Robson and Roy Keane managed 12, Denis Law 11, George Best 10 and Eric Cantona five. Rooney's goal at Crystal Palace means he needs two more to draw level with Jack Rowley, on 211, as the third-highest scorer in United's history. Denis Law is next, with 237, and Sir Bobby Charlton has 249. At this rate Rooney should be there within two years. That, by any account, constitutes authentic greatness.

OK, that perhaps does not tell all the story. The awkward truth is nobody will be campaigning for a new statue when Rooney overtakes Charlton. Not yet, anyway. His name is sung, loudly, at every game, but his status does not sit easily with everyone at Old Trafford.

At times, with two transfer requests behind him and various dalliances with City and Chelsea, his relationship with the club's supporters has strayed dangerously close to breaking point. Spiteful banners went up in 2010. Men in balaclavas turned up at his door, to ask what was going on with City. He has been fortunate the crowd have been so lenient this season, but the idea that Rooney will eventually become a club ambassador is a remarkable piece of indulgence when, to borrow Ferguson's phrase, he has spent so long trying to find a better cow in the next field.

"It never really works out that way," Ferguson said. "It's probably the same cow, or not even as good as your cow." Instead, Rooney and Stretford have milked United for everything they can. The figures are dizzying. Yet it is still probably a better deal for United than the alternative.

Sheikh missing out on the fun at Manchester City
According to the small group of people inside Sheikh Mansour's circle of trust, nobody could be more enthusiastic about Manchester City's matches. He insists on being wired up wherever he is in the world and, at the Abu Dhabi royal family residence, he often invites friends and business contacts to join him in front of the home cinema. "Just like any other group of mates who support the same club," as an associate once put it.

Even if it is unlikely to imagine the sheikh and his guests chucking peanuts at each other or loudly cursing Michael Owen's co-commentary.

Five and a half years after their takeover, the Abu Dhabi United Group has been around long enough, with £1bn already spent, that nobody should confuse the sheikh's non‑appearance with a lack of interest. Yet it was a shame he could not make it for the Champions League tie against Barcelona. He is obviously a busy man and getting about is not straightforward bearing in mind the security that went into his one visit three and a half years ago. All the same, everything seemed perfectly reasonable when it was reported that his private jet was on its way.

Those surely are the nights when the sheikh should be able to make the most of his investment. As it is, he has not been back since attending the first home game of the 2010-11 season, when Roberto Mancini's team won 3-0 against Liverpool. He has never seen Sergio Agüero, or David Silva, he missed the Mario Balotelli experience, and he was several thousand miles away when Agüero drew back his right boot to change everything against QPR that time. Each to their own, but somebody should tell him it is much better fun in the flesh.

Ravel Morrison's tale strikes cord with Kevin Kilbane
After last week's article about Ravel Morrison wanting to leave West Ham because he felt the manager, Sam Allardyce, and the captain, Kevin Nolan, had allegedly been trying to get him to sign with their agent Mark Curtis – allegations that all the relevant people have denied – I am directed to a passage in Kevin Kilbane's autobiography about when he was a 20-year-old at Preston North End, just after he had won his first Republic of Ireland call-up.

Allardyce had previously been a coach at Preston and, according to Kilbane, got back in touch to suggest the player had a meeting with Curtis. "I was still very much in awe of Big Sam and highly likely to heed any recommendation of his, so I agreed to meet the two men at the Tickled Trout hotel in Preston," Kilbane writes.

"Naively, I couldn't work out why Sam was so keen for me to sign with Mark Curtis. Mark produced a pre-written contract and I think he expected me to sign there and then. However, it didn't feel right to commit myself so quickly and I told him I wasn't sure about it. It felt awkward but part of me didn't want to let Big Sam down."

A second meeting was arranged. "When I looked at the contract more carefully, I realised that by signing the paperwork not only was I agreeing to his fees, but also to handing over a substantial percentage of my earnings for the length of the contract."

Kilbane turned the offer down but Curtis accepted his decision "without too much of an argument". Kilbane read the Morrison column and tweeted: "My ears did prick up more than normal. He's a class act and should be nurtured not sent on loan."

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England coach Roy Hodgson: Euro 2016 schedule will harm national sides

Roy Hodgson has questioned Michel Platini's argument that Uefa's revamped "week of football" scheduling in qualification for Euro 2016 will thrust the international game back into the limelight, and instead insisted the new timetable actually benefits only the clubs.

Uefa, which has increased the number of teams at the finals in France from 16 to 24, has also introduced new six-day international windows running from Thursday to Tuesday, with teams asked to play three double-headers over the qualification campaign. That will involve games taking place every night in those periods and Platini, the Uefa president, has admitted the new programme was "a political decision" aimed at thrusting the international game back into the limelight given the strength of the Champions League and domestic competitions.

Yet Hodgson whose England side have been drawn in Group E with Switzerland, Slovenia, Estonia, Lithuania and San Marino believes the system will actually deprive national managers of even more time to work with their players. "It won't affect the clubs, but it will affect the national teams," he said. "When I was manager of Switzerland [from 1992-95] we had two weeks in every window. Then it went down to 10 days, then eight or nine, and now it could be six days if you're playing Thursday and Sunday. I don't understand how that can be championed as something to help the national teams: if you want to help the national teams, have more time for preparation.

"As far as the clubs are concerned, they'll be rubbing their hands together because they will get the players back quicker. For the national teams, though, you don't have to be a statistician or a rocket scientist to work out it's getting harder for us. We don't really get the time with the players we would like. We want to work with them and do our bit of tactical work as well, not just the club sides."

The greatest concern for Hodgson was a double-header starting with a Thursday evening fixture, potentially just four days after many of his key players might have been involved in televised Premier League games. "That would mean Monday is a write-off, Tuesday too for the older players because they need a two-day recovery, leaving one day, the day before the game, to prepare the team," he said. As it transpired, the qualifying fixtures have given England only one game on a Thursday night against San Marino on 9 October this year – though the issue could remain for other national sides whose players feature in league fixtures on Sundays before international matches.

Group E has handed Hodgson a reunion with Switzerland, whom he led to the 1994 World Cup and steered to Euro 96 before leaving to join Internazionale, and a team currently ranked No6 in the world. Indeed, England's first game in the group will arguably be their toughest, in Switzerland on Monday 8 September. "We won't have any fear and we'll go into every game playing to win," said Vladimir Petkovic, who takes over from Ottmar Hitzfeld after the World Cup to oversee the Swiss campaign.

Estonia are under the stewardship of Magnus Pehrsson, who played briefly alongside Chris Waddle for Bradford City in the mid-1990's and has since worked as an expert analyst for Swedish television alongside Hodgson. The Slovenia head coach, Srecko Katanec, admitted relief at having avoided the heavyweights of "a Spain, Holland or Germany", although the new San Marino manager, Pierangelo Manzaroli, said: "England will be the winner of the group."

There is an irony that Scotland and Republic of Ireland, who had originally proposed in 2007 that the European Championship be swollen to 24 teams, were paired against each other in arguably the hardest qualification section.

Group D is completed by Germany, Poland and Georgia, together with Uefa's 54th member, Gibraltar. "It's the toughest group but it's an exciting one," said Martin O'Neill, who is embarking upon his first competitive campaign as the Republic's manager. "The games against Scotland will be great occasions, I hope. It's tough, and there are other groups we might have preferred to be in, but we'll get on with it."

The Scotland manager, Gordon Strachan, who succeeded O'Neill at Celtic in 2005, insisted there was "a chance of straight qualification".

"Every tie has something in it," he said. "You've got Gibraltar, new to the competition; Germany, one of the best teams in the world; then there is the Republic of Ireland and the two sets of supporters will turn those games into a cup tie. It's a terrific, terrific draw."

Wales were paired in Group B with Belgium, an emerging force driven by a brilliant generation of young players, from the second pot of seeds. "We're a bit gutted that they came out but, generally, it's positive and a good draw for us," said the Welsh manager, Chris Coleman. "It will be a tight section and hard for us, but I think we've got a good chance. We've got to nail the first two games [against Andorra and Bosnia-Herzegovina], but the new format gives us a better chance."

Northern Ireland, seeking a first appearance at a major finals since 1986, were drawn with Greece, Hungary, Romania, Finland and the Faroe Islands. "We have teams in there who I believe we can compete with and take points from," said the manager, Michael O'Neill.

The five-team Group I will be made up by the hosts, France, who will play friendly fixtures against the other nations, though the results will have no bearing on qualification.

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Tomas Rosicky scores in Arsenal win over Sunderland and agrees new deal

Arsène Wenger had contract news and in the absence of him finally confirming that he will prolong his 17½-year association with Arsenal beyond the end of the season, it was probably the next best thing. Tomas Rosicky, the manager said, had reached agreement on a new deal. Like Wenger, Rosicky's current terms are set to expire in June.

"Tomas Rosicky will stay," Wenger said. "We have an agreement with him and it will come out soon. I am absolutely adamant he has to stay at the club."

Rosicky's worth to Arsenal is lost on nobody who watches him regularly, least of all Wenger, who has come to reach for him in the very biggest matches like some sort of charm.


It was a surprise that he omitted him for Wednesday's Champions League last-16 first-leg defeat at home to Bayern Munich, but the Czech Republic international returned here and he was central to the over-running of Sunderland.

His goal was a beauty, stamped with Arsenal's first-time passing that slices through opposing teams when it is in sync, as it also was on Olivier Giroud's opener. Rosicky started the move, which took in contributions from Santi Cazorla and Jack Wilshere before he swapped passes with Giroud and clipped the ball over the advancing Vito Mannone.

It carried shades of Wilshere's goal against Norwich City from October and it technically made the game safe although, in reality, Arsenal were comfortable from the moment that Giroud turned the ball home after incisive work by Lukas Podolski, Rosicky and Wilshere.

Rosicky was billed as "Little Mozart" when he signed in May 2006 from Borussia Dortmund but the 33-year-old has evolved into the all-round midfielder who brings balance, organisation and urgency to the team.

"When he arrived, he was less a tactical player and more the Mozart from Prague," Wenger said. "He was purely a creative, offensive player. But today, he is a real organiser as well. He gives a real structure to the team.

"He is one of the players who plays the game of give-and-move and he is a great accelerator of the game. He always makes things happen, not with individual dribbling but with individual acceleration of his passing and his runs. His goal was one of the top goals we have scored."

Wenger was more forthcoming on Rosicky's contractual situation than he was about his own. When asked whether he could give any update concerning his longer-term future, Wenger replied that there was "nothing at all" before seeking to cut short the briefing. He has fudged the issue since last summer.

Wenger has never left it so late before re-signing and although Ivan Gazidis, the chief executive, has maintained a confidence that the Frenchman will commit to the continuation of another cycle at the club, there are those who question his motives for waiting. What if Arsenal were to win the title? Is Wenger leaving open the possibility of going out on a high? Does the decision even depend on a trophy?

The doubters, though, have been drowned out by the repeated suggestions, and not only from Gazidis, that Wenger is ready to sign. The manager has dropped a couple of hints himself, even if they have come in his carefully qualified language, and as good a time as any might be around the occasion of his 1,000th Arsenal game – the potentially pivotal league fixture at Chelsea on 22 March.

Arsenal's other ongoing contractual drama concerns the 31-year-old Bacary Sagna, whose deal also runs out in June. Wenger is happy to break the general club policy for 30-somethings and give the defender two more years but resolution remains some way away.

Sunderland return to north London on Sunday for the Capital One Cup final against Manchester City at Wembley and Gus Poyet can only hope that his players are more attuned to the occasion. "Sometimes, a good kick in the backside at the right time is good to wake you up," the manager said. "This game changed plenty of things in my mind."

Man of the match Olivier Giroud (Arsenal)

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Euro 2016 qualifying draw: England face Switzerland and Slovenia

England have been handed a straightforward qualifying campaign for Euro 2016 while Scotland and the Republic of Ireland will face each other for a place at the finals in France.

Roy Hodgson's side were drawn in Group E along with Switzerland the team he led to the 1994 World Cup finals – Slovenia, Estonia, Lithuania and San Marino.

England have never played Lithuania, but San Marino have been regular opponents in 1993 they famously scored after only 8.3 seconds against England after an attempted back-pass by Stuart Pearce.

England went on to win 7-1 and have scored at least five goals in the four games they have played. Estonia should also pose little problem, with England playing them twice in 2007 and winning 3-0 home and away. Switzerland will be the biggest challenge, having secured a 2-2 draw at Wembley in qualifying for Euro 2012.


Scotland and the Republic have tough campaigns ahead after being drawn together in Group D along with Germany, Poland and Georgia, as well as Uefa's newest member Gibraltar, who were drawn to Group C with Spain but were switched to D for political reasons.

Wales have a shot at a play-off place or better in Group B, where they will face Bosnia-Herzegovina, Belgium, Israel, Cyprus and Andorra.

It is a similar story for Northern Ireland, who were drawn in Group F with Greece, Hungary, Romania, Finland and the Faroe Islands in a competitive-looking group.

The top two in each group will qualify for the 24-team final tournament along with the hosts France. The best third-placed team will also qualify, with the eight other third-placed sides playing off for the remaining four spots.

This will be the first European Championship with 24 teams and there has been criticism and suggestions that the expanded number of teams will dilute the quality of the tournament.

Hodgson however disagrees, saying the standard of football has improved across Europe.

He told uefa.com: "Going back to the 70s, when you had the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, there was nothing like 54 teams we have today. There was a much smaller pool.

"Now, the tournament's much bigger and qualifying becomes more difficult because the teams who used to be happy just to play the so-called bigger nations and play at San Siro or at the Bernabéu – they come to beat you."

Groups for Euro 2016 qualifying
Group A: Holland, Kazakhstan, Iceland, Latvia, Turkey, Czech Republic

Group B: Bosnia-Herzegovina, Cyprus, Andorra, Wales, Israel, Belgium

Group C: Spain, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Belarus, Slovakia, Ukraine

Group D: Germany, Gibraltar, Georgia, Scotland, Poland, Republic of Ireland

Group E: England, San Marino, Lithuania, Estonia, Slovenia, Switzerland

Group F: Greece, Faroe Islands, Northern Ireland, Finland, Romania, Hungary

Group G: Russia, Liechtenstein, Moldova, Montenegro, Austria, Sweden

Group H: Italy, Malta, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Norway, Croatia

Group I: Portugal, Albania, Armenia, Serbia, Denmark

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Louis van Gaal open to Tottenham move after World Cup with Holland

Louis van Gaal has hinted he would be open to an approach from Tottenham Hotspur once his stewardship of Holland concludes after the summer's World Cup finals, with the London club's 1-0 defeat at Norwich on Sunday having left them six points from the Champions League qualification places.

The Dutchman, whose contract with his country expires after the tournament in Brazil, had spoken directly with the Spurs chairman, Daniel Levy, after the dismissal of André Villas-Boas in December but had made clear his intention to lead the national team to the finals in South America. Levy subsequently firmed up Tim Sherwood's position, the caretaker having made it clear he would not work on an interim basis before signing his own 18-month contract at White Hart Lane.

Yet Spurs' interest in Van Gaal has not waned even in light of Sherwood's impressive impact in his first senior management role. The 62-year-old's desire to coach in the Premier League before he retires makes him an attractive and as a former manager at Barcelona, Ajax and Bayern Munich heavyweight candidate at the end of the current season.

Asked about his future post-Brazil, when Guus Hiddink will again take up the reins with Holland, Van Gaal said: "I will definitely not be in charge for the Euro 2016 qualification campaign. I don't know where I will go next. Normally I go with my pension, and go to live in Portugal [where he owns a property], but maybe there will come a new challenge. I have said before that a challenge should be a club in the Premier League. That's a challenge. Maybe Tottenham are coming but, first, we have to go to Brazil."

Spurs had also sounded out Frank de Boer, currently in charge of Ajax, prior to elevating Sherwood formally from his position as youth co-ordinator at Tottenham, a role to which he has indicated he would not be prepared to return.

Sherwood was understandably downbeat after an unexpected defeat left them still fifth in the Premier League, but now six points behind Liverpool, and with a vastly inferior goal difference. "It's a big gap, a real blow to us," he acknowledged. "It's the first major setback I've had and we need to bounce back and show what we are made of."

Asked if his players were still feeling the effects of the midweek trip to the Ukraine to play Dnipro in the Europa League, the former Spurs midfielder demurred. "We were stronger in the second period, so we can't use Thursday as an excuse," he said.

"In the second half we looked by far the better side. But we've started slowly in quite a lot of games and it was sluggish, sluggish. It was a nothing game in the first half, we took a real blow early in the second, and I think we started playing from there and created a few chances. Unfortunately we couldn't take them.

"We have to bounce back, we have two games now, we have the second leg [against Dnipro] on Thursday and then Cardiff at home next week. We need characters in the dressing room to do that."

Sherwood saw the misfiring Roberto Soldado miss Spurs' best chance when he blazed over the bar from close range shortly after coming on as a second-half substitute. "We're waiting for him to take one [of his opportunities] and then hopefully the confidence will start flooding back," said Sherwood of the Spanish striker, for whom Spurs paid £26m and who has scored just once from open play in the Premier League.

"It's all about scoring on the big stage and we know he can do that. We've seen him do it over the years, and hopefully it'll be sooner rather than later when he starts putting it in the net."

Soldado also missed an excellent chance against Dnipro, prompting the former Spurs chairman Alan Sugar to describe him as a "donkey" in a tweet.

The result means the Norwich manager, Chris Hughton, survived to fight another day after being widely tipped for the sack if the Canaries were beaten. That was down to the chief executive, David McNally, openly admitting in an interview before the game that Norwich were actively examining the market for a potential successor.

Hughton, who came into the game having overseen just one win in 11 league matches, claimed McNally's words had not been in his thoughts. "There's enough goes into the week preparing the players, and this was a performance up there with our best this season," he said. "It feels like a big win.

"My biggest concern is we've had a real good level of performance in the last few games without getting the results we deserve, so I'm pleased for this group of lads, they've been as frustrated as anyone."

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Norwich exploit Tottenham manager Tim Sherwood's lack of a game plan

In a technical and tactical sense this was a poor contest between two unconvincing, tentative sides.

Chris Hughton and Tim Sherwood used similar systems featuring a lone striker, two wide players moving inside and three solid, physical midfielders. The teams appeared to cancel each other out, with a frustrating lack of genuine creativity on show.

Tottenham Hotspur started with Aaron Lennon on the left and Mousa Dembélé right, which encouraged both to move inside and offer support to Emmanuel Adebayor, despite the lack of goalscoring ability being the major shortcoming of both. Nevertheless, a combination between the duo almost proved effective in the sixth minute, when Lennon cut inside and sent a clever through-ball towards Dembélé, who could not bring the ball under control as he sprinted in behind.

The injury suffered by the holding midfielder Étienne Capoue changed things. Nacer Chadli replaced him and played on the left, with Lennon switched to the right and Dembélé brought back into his central role. Lennon was less involved, while Chadli is a wide forward who needs others to provide incisive passes something that simply was not forthcoming from Spurs' midfield.

Lennon's and Chadli's attacking qualities were also nullified by the advances of Norwich's full-backs, who pushed the Spurs pair back into defensive positions. Hughton's team built moves down the right, with the full-back Russell Martin and the winger Robert Snodgrass combining frequently, before switching the play left, where Martin Olsson attempted to sprint forward untracked.

Norwich rarely looked dangerous when crossing the ball, however, because Ricky van Wolfswinkel offers extremely little goal threat. Here he failed to attempt a shot or create a chance for a team-mate, although he did dispossess Nabil Bentaleb in the build-up to Snodgrass's winner. The game's only goal neatly summed up Hughton's approach to win possession and immediately attack down the flanks, and it also justified his continued use of Snodgrass and Nathan Redmond on the "wrong" wings, giving them freedom to cut inside and shoot.

It was highly surprising Sherwood waited until the 65th minute to make a change, although it almost worked instantly. He turned to 4-4-2, with Roberto Soldado joining Adebayor up front, and the two soon combined excellently, only for Soldado to slice wide from a dangerous position.

However, it was astonishing that Sherwood did not use Christian Eriksen. Tottenham desperately required a playmaker with his intelligence, guile and eye for a penetrative pass, and it is difficult to envisage a more fitting situation for his skills considering Spurs were dominating possession clearly, but failing to create chances.

It simply was not clear how Spurs were attempting to break down the Norwich backline and the more Dembélé, Paulinho and Lennon are switched between different roles, the more difficult it will be for Spurs to find familiarity in attack.

Norwich were unspectacular but they had an obvious game plan. The same cannot be said of Spurs under Sherwood and, though his overall impact at the club has been positive, a performance and result like this had somehow been on the cards.

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Projecting When Rob Van Dam Will Return to WWE Programming

Rob Van Dam was backstage at Monday's Raw, apparently to inquire about his future in the company. The show took place in Los Angeles, where he resides.

As Dave Meltzer notes in this week's Wrestling Observer Newsletter (subscription required), the situation between the parties is slightly strained right now due to the circumstances surrounding his departure back in October:

 Van Dam was at the 2/10 Raw show backstage. He came for a meeting with HHH. He wrote on twitter that he’s interested in coming back. Not sure how WWE views it. We know they weren’t happy about him leaving, even though his deal he signed over the summer was a 90-day contract, he fulfilled it, didn’t complain about being buried at the end, but WWE wasn’t happy that he wouldn’t sign a new deal at the time.

So, when will the former WWE champion be back on our screens? Or perhaps the better question will be, is he even coming back?

It seems rather petty if WWE is holding his refusal to sign an extension against him. As Meltzer mentions, he was wholly professional and fulfilled the terms of his contract.

However, I could forgive the company if its reluctance to bring back Van Dam had more to do with his lackluster performances in the summer and autumn of last year.

While Van Dam was hugely over in his first night back with the company at July's Money in the Bank pay-per-view and continued getting decent reactions from the crowd throughout his run, it's hard to say that his promos and in-ring work were all that great.

Did anyone in the world care about his program with Alberto Del Rio?

Oh, he wasn't embarrassingly bad, but it was obvious that the dynamic, super-athletic young man who thrilled audiences in the early 2000's was long gone.

Though aging undoubtedly played its part, it's possible that his lengthy and wholly unremarkable TNA run played its role too.

No matter how hard people work in wrestling’s troubled No. 2 promotion, it rarely makes a difference to the bigger picture. Van Dam, who started out well enough but just looked like a man phoning it in for a paycheck by the end, seemed to have figured this out too.

Is Van Dam now a wrestler who struggles to get motivated?

Even taking out the issues with his contract, in-ring work and interviews, WWE is probably not in any rush to bring back the former ECW wrestler.

As the company heads into WrestleMania, it has more than enough stars: Batista is back. So is Brock Lesnar. The Undertaker will be returning soon. Daniel Bryan is as beloved as ever.

Even if WWE does want to use Van Dam at WrestleMania, what would it have him do? All the top spots are locked up anyway.

Of course, come April 7 the night after WrestleMania the company may feel differently. At that point, the bigger names will be gone and Vince McMahon may realize he’ll need newer guys like Van Dam to help carry the promotion in its post-WrestleMania lull.

Or maybe McMahon will continue to feel he’s not important to the company. It just depends on the state of the roster.

It’s hard to see WWE keeping the 43-year-old out in the cold forever. Management will surely come around and “forgive” his reluctance to sign an extension last year.

Whether or not that and thus his return happens any time soon is another matter entirely.

Source: Bleacherreport
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Kobe Bryant, Even Injured, Center of Attention at 2014 NBA All-Star Game

NEW ORLEANS,

The All-Star stage is meant to be a shared space, a broad platform designed to support the NBA’s greatest talents and egos all at once. Kobe Bryant has never been much for sharing, though.

Sixteen years ago, at age 19, Bryant made his All-Star debut by waving off Karl Malone’s screen and shooting every time he touched the ball.

In 2002, with the game staged in his hometown of Philadelphia, Bryant seized the moment and claimed the Most Valuable Player Award.

Five years later, he took the MVP award again, outshining LeBron James.

Two years after that, Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal his former tag-team partner and frenemy shared the MVP award in a poetic All-Star reunion.

And in 2011, with the game played in his home arena in Los Angeles, Bryant dropped 37 points and grabbed MVP honors again.

No player in NBA history has collected more All-Star MVP awards. (Bob Petit also won four.)

So did anyone really expect Kobe to cede the spotlight here Sunday night? Even injured, even in street clothes, even at 35, he was probably the most compelling figure in the arena. Indeed, the still-balky left knee only made him more compelling.

“It’s coming slowly,” Bryant said during a pregame press conference that was better attended than all of the weekend’s other press conferences combined.

It was standing-room only in the press area for Bryant’s (league-mandated) appearance. He did not disappoint. Over 15 minutes, Bryant was candid, self-effacing, thoughtful and funny—in two languages. (He answered an entire question in Spanish.)

The years have slowed Bryant, but they have also emboldened him. No current NBA star is as consistently, brutally forthright, or seems to enjoy the back-and-forth as much as he does.

He surely did Sunday night, maybe moreso because he realizes there might not be many more of these. This was Bryant’s 16th All-Star appearance. There are no guarantees he will be here again, given his age, his health and the sorry state of the Los Angeles Lakers.

Even Bryant, who generally scoffs at any suggestion of his mortality, gave a measured response when asked if he thinks he will play in another All-Star Game.

“I hope so,” he said twice. “When you play in an All-Star Game, that means you’re one of the best players in the world. So it’s obviously a big goal of mine to be there.”

Even if his game falters, Bryant’s immense global popularity could carry him to a 17th All-Star selection. But he probably wouldn’t want it that way. After playing just six games this season returning from Achilles surgery only to be felled again by a knee injury Bryant practically begged fans not to vote him into this game.

“I'd much rather see the young guys go out there and play in the game,” Bryant said in early January.

Bryant garnered more than 988,000 votes anyway, the fifth-highest total in the league.

So there he was Sunday night, in a crisp shirt and sports coat, peering into a thick crowd of reporters and cameras and quipping at one point, “Half the game is like finding where the question’s coming from.”

Bryant offered no new information about his recovery, saying only that he was “optimistic coming out of the break that I will have some improvements.” He still seems determined to play this season, although the Lakers, at 18-35, have virtually no shot at making the playoffs.

The Lakers are talent-poor as it is, and they could jettison their only other star by the end of the week if they can find a decent return for Pau Gasol before the Thursday trade deadline.

But the most critical time for the Lakers, indeed for Bryant, will come in July, when the free-agent market opens. The Lakers will have enough salary-cap room to sign another star, or several high-caliber role players.

So, someone wondered, would Bryant’s well-earned reputation as a difficult teammate hurt the recruitment process? Bryant smiled and openly embraced the charge, though he assured it would not be a factor.

“No, not necessarily,” he said. “I’m a difficult person to deal with. For people who don’t have the same kind of competitiveness or commitment to winning, then I become an absolute pain in the neck, because I’m going to drag you into the gym every single day. … And for players that have that level of commitment, very, very easy. And we can wind up enhancing the entire group and elevating them to that type of level. But if we don’t have that commitment, man, I’ll absolutely be very, very tough to get along with. No question about it.”

So, free agents, you have been warned.

On other subjects, Bryant was much lighter.

He joked about figuring out the rules to curling. He laughed at the suggestion that he consider playing for the national team in the World Cup this summer.

He indulged the now-perfunctory question about who would be on his basketball Mount Rushmore though only after joking that he didn’t know how many presidents are on Mount Rushmore, because “I’m an Italian kid.” He then named Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Michael Jordan and Bill Russell.

Before long, Bryant will be fading into NBA history with them. But he’s not setting any public retirement dates, and he’s not planning a Kareem Abdul-Jabbar-like retirement tour.

“I don’t really want the rocking chair before the game,” Bryant said, smiling. “It would drive me crazy. But I’ll probably just pop up and just vanish.”

That seems unlikely. Late Saturday night, after watching the other All-Star events, Bryant mused on Twitter that he might sign up for the three-point contest next year. He confirmed it Sunday, saying, “I wouldn’t mind being in one.”

The game next year is at Madison Square Garden, the site of Bryant’s first All-Star appearance. Those bright lights always have treated him well.

Source: Bleacherreport
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Kyrie Irving Named 2014 NBA All-Star Game MVP

In an NBA All-Star Game where the Eastern Conference put up 163 points, the most ever by a single team, Kyrie Irving was the central reason for the East pulling off the win.

Marc J. Spears of Yahoo Sports reported that Irving won the award and what the significance of it is:

Cavaliers guard Kyrie Irving wins the NBA All-Star Game MVP. First Cavalier to win the award since LeBron James in 2008.

Marc J. Spears (@SpearsNBAYahoo) February 17, 2014
According to Mary Schmitt Boyer of The Cleveland Plain Dealer, LeBron James had a few thoughts of his own on the Cavs' newest star:

LeBron James on Kyrie Irving: "Kyrie's special. It's just that simple....He has the total package. I've always known that."

M.S. Boyer/J. Valade (@PDcavsinsider) February 17, 2014
Irving finished the game with 31 points and 14 assists, accounting for a huge portion of the East's offense in a 163-155 win. The victory also turned the tide, as the Western Conference had won the last three All-Star Games.

Sam Amico of FOX Sports Ohio believes this same type of performance from Irving would be possible on a regular basis for the Cavs if their offense catered more to his skill set:

I know it's just All-Star game, but Kyrie's performance, to me, is why #Cavs should be a run-and-gun-and-have-lotsa-fun team first.

Sam Amico (@SamAmicoFSO) February 17, 2014
While Irving's output was miraculous, there was another candidate from the game that could be considered a slight snub. Carmelo Anthony finished the game with 30 points, but didn't have the same type of impact as Irving did for the East.

However, as ESPN Stats & Info notes, Anthony did break a record of his own:

Carmelo Anthony has set a new NBA All-Star Game record for 3-pointers made with 7. Previous record: 6 by Mark Price & LeBron James.

ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) February 17, 2014
Anthony finished the game with eight three-pointers, but it wasn't enough to steal the MVP award away from Irving, who was sensational both as a scorer and facilitator.

In just his third season, Irving has been one of the emerging superstars in the league and proved to any doubters that he had coming into the game that he is plenty capable of holding his own with the other NBA All-Stars.

The next obstacle for Irving might be even more difficult than winning MVP in the All-Star Game over players like James and Kevin Durant, as Cleveland sportscaster Kenny Roda points out:

Next up for @KyrieIrving & most importantly - leading his team, the #Cavs to the playoffs!

Kenny Roda (@TheKennyRoda) February 17, 2014
Irving hasn't been on a great team since being drafted No. 1 overall in 2011, with the Cavaliers never living up to expectations. But after a breakout performance in the All-Star Game and his smooth play helping his Eastern Conference team turn the tables in the second half, his popularity will continue to rise.

Though Cleveland may not be in contention to make the playoffs this season, Irving proved once again why he will be one of the best players in the league for years to come.

The 21-year-old superstar can even outshine some of the biggest names in the game on any given night. Irving confirmed that once again by winning the All-Star Game MVP.

Source: Bleacherreport
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NBA Trade Rumors: Post All-Star Game Buzz Surrounding Top Targets

If the NBA trade market is going to heat up, then it had better get started soon.

With the All-Star Game in the rearview mirror, time's ticking for Thursday's Feb. 20 trade deadline, and the rumor mill is eerily quiet with days remaining.

Ken Berger of CBS Sports elaborates:

Trade talk at All-Star weekend has been 'as slow as it's been in a long time,' said one executive who has not received a single phone call. A lot of teams have made it known which players they are open to moving, but the problem is finding trade partners. Very few teams are willing to part with premium draft picks or take on future salary, which are the two key drivers for trades.

However, that doesn't mean there aren't a few precious scraps of rumor floating around. Here's a look at the latest buzz heading down the home stretch.


Championship Contender Searching for That Final Piece to the Puzzle

The Oklahoma City Thunder have been agonizingly close to winning an NBA championship the past few years, but ultimately, the franchise has fallen short of that goal.

As good as Kevin Durant has been since Michael Westbrook's injury, he's not going to be able to do it all by himself once the playoffs roll around. Teams can really focus on game-planning once the postseason arrives, which makes life difficult for stars without proper support.

For this reason, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reports the Thunder are looking to add a shooter before the deadline:

Armed with trade exceptions, OKC has been active in search for a shooter to fortify them for title run, league sources tell Yahoo.

 Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) February 13, 2014
One player that makes plenty of sense for the Thunder is Chicago Bulls forward Mike Dunleavy, who is more of a perimeter shooter offensively than a guy who operates inside. He's averaging 11.1 points per game this season and has a history of shooting well behind the arc.


Potential Playoff Contender Dreams of Evan Turner

The Charlotte Bobcats are currently hanging on to the No. 8 seed in the Eastern Conference with a record of 23-30, but it's by a mere thread. The Detroit Pistons are just one-half game behind, and the New York Knicks are 2.5 games behind.

Charlotte has never before made it into the postseason, so it's not surprising that the team is reportedly interested in acquiring a key addition to assist its playoff push, per Berger:

The Charlotte Bobcats, clinging to the eighth playoff spot in the East, will be aggressive buyers at the deadline, league sources say. The team's interest in Sixers guard Evan Turner is real. Philadelphia GM Sam Hinkie wants a first-round pick for Turner (and the same for Spencer Hawes). The Bobcats can offer their Detroit pick if they're serious about making a push.

This is a deal Philadelphia would love to make, as Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer recently reported, "The 76ers' focus in the days leading up to Thursday's NBA trade deadline is acquiring draft picks, according to an Eastern Conference executive."

The second overall pick of the 2010 NBA draft, Evans has been slow to develop, but he's having his finest campaign as a pro in his fourth season. He's averaging 17.5 points, 5.9 rebounds, 3.6 assists and one steal per contest.

Adding a player of his caliber to Charlotte's roster would significantly improve the team's chances of finally breaking through with a playoff appearance.


Conflicting Reports on Veteran Guard Andre Miller and the Denver Nuggets

Andre Miller hasn't played for the Denver Nuggets since Dec. 30, 2013, when he got into an argument with coach Brian Shaw, but there's a rumor that the team could bring him back.

Berger has the scoop:

Facing a difficult trade market and a glaring hole at the point guard position, Nuggets officials worked out the banished Andre Miller this week and are considering bringing him back, league sources told CBSSports.com.

Shaw appears ready to bury the hatchet.

"I've always said I can coach any player who is willing to play and do what's best for the team overall," Shaw said, via Terry Frei of The Denver Post. "So if he's willing to do what's best for the team overall, I'm willing to coach him."

However, while Denver could certainly use the help with Ty Lawson and Nate Robinson both out with injuries Marc Spears of Yahoo! Sports paints a different picture:

'The vibe is delusional,' the source said. 'It's a burned bridge. No reconciliation. He's waiting by the door with his bag already packed. The relationship is irreparable. Under no circumstances does he want to come back to Denver.'

Fractured relationships are never easy to deal with, and it seems this one is turning into a complicated mess. In this situation, it appears Miller holds the advantage. Per Berger, he's lost 12 pounds since late December and looks to be in terrific shape.

Rather than try to sign a player who doesn't want to play, the Nuggets might be better off looking elsewhere for their point guard help.

Source: Bleacherreport
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San Francisco 49ers: Free-Agent Options at Backup Quarterback

It may not be their most pressing need, but the San Francisco 49ers find themselves approaching free agency without a backup quarterback.  Colt McCoy is an unrestricted free agent after appearing in only four games for the team this year, completing his only pass attempt and generally being a non-factor.

That leaves only starter Colin Kaepernick and developmental prospect McLeod Bethel-Thompson under contract for 2014.  While Bethel-Thompson’s an intriguing player, he’s not the guy you want sitting behind Kaepernick on a team with Super Bowl aspirations.

The ideal backup quarterback would have some starting experience and be able to step in and keep the ship upright if Kaepernick goes down for a few games in the middle of the season.  They’re not looking for someone to compete for the job, or someone who could lead the 49ers to the playoffs if Kaepernick misses the entire year just a short-term emergency patch.

The 49ers scrounged through a number of quarterbacks last preseason before settling on McCoy, including Scott Tolzien, Seneca Wallace and B.J. Daniels.  They may cycle through a number of targets this year, too.  Here are some of the available free agents they may want to check out.


Colt McCoy

McCoy's been waiting in the wings behind Kaepernick.
The simplest strategy may be to simply re-sign McCoy.  After all, he already knows the playbook and has had a year in the system.  He has some starting experience in Cleveland, though nothing to write home about he’s only 6-15 as a starter, with 21 touchdowns to 20 interceptions.

McCoy didn’t exactly light up the preseason, however.  He threw three interceptions to only one touchdown and only had one game where he completed more than 55 percent of his passes.  He’s entirely non-thrilling more of a warm body than a legitimate option as a starter.  They tried to trade him this preseason and ended up forcing him to take a pay cut to remain with the roster.

McCoy’s likely just a fallback option a choice if other names on this list end up pricing themselves out of contention.


Josh McCown

A McCown-ian performance is what San Francisco would like out of their backup.
Might as well start at the top of the list McCown’s performance in Chicago is precisely what San Francisco would like to have off the bench.  When Jay Cutler went down, McCown stepped in and played wonderfully.  McCown led the Bears to a 3-2 record with a QB rating of over 100 while completing 66.5 percent of his passes.

There was some talk in Chicago about whether or not Cutler should have gotten his job back once healthy that’s the level of play McCown brought to the table.  It was leaps and bounds above what we saw the last time he had a regular starting job, in Oakland in 2007.

The main problem with McCown coming to San Francisco is that he was so good last season, a team might be willing to give him a chance at a starting job the Raiders, for example, might be looking at bringing him back.  Combine that with a relatively weak free-agent class at quarterback, and the bidding for McCown is liable to have him go way over the $580,000 cap hit he brought down last year.

If money were no object, McCown would be the name for the slot.  Sadly, money is quite a significant object, so he’s likely out of the conversation.


Josh Freeman

Could Freeman's career be salvaged?
The saga of Josh Freeman was one of the more bizarre storylines of 2013.  Engaged in a power feud with ex-Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Greg Schiano, Freeman was released and ended up signing a one-year deal with Minnesota an almost unprecedented situation for someone who began the season as a starting quarterback.

Freeman’s time in Minnesota was also a disaster, starting one game with almost no preparation and turning in one of the worst performances in NFL history before becoming a healthy scratch for most of the rest of the season.  All in all, the season seriously damaged Freeman’s stock around the league.

It hasn’t been that long, however, since Freeman was one of the up-and-coming young quarterbacks in the NFL.  He had a quarterback rating of 81.6 in 2012, starting every game of the season and throwing 27 touchdown passes.  The year before that, he was an alternate for the Pro Bowl.

What Freeman needs is a stable situation to rebuild his career and the 49ers would fit that bill.  Coach Jim Harbaugh could help rebuild his confidence and skill set, and there’s definitely some interest there.  It was reported that the 49ers were looking at Freeman just after he was released from Tampa Bay.

If Freeman doesn’t draw interest as a starter, he’d be a very intriguing prospect for a one-year deal to sit behind Kaepernick and rebuild his cache as an NFL quarterback.  He certainly has the best historical production of any the available quarterbacks, and it would be worth gambling that last year was just a bizarre aberration.


Joe Webb

Let’s think outside the box for a moment.

A team has 53 roster spots to play with on their regular-season roster.  During game day, that number drops down even further, down to only 46 slots the other players are listed as inactive and are thus unable to play.

Every roster spot is incredibly valuable.

This might be a bit TOO far outside the box.
Joe Webb was drafted by the Vikings as a quarterback out of Alabama-Birmingham but was moved to wide receiver this most recent season, where he caught only five passes for 33 yards.

As a receiver, Webb’s got size and strength, though a lack of experience.  He also drew attention for his run-blocking skills.  As a quarterback, Webb can run the read-option and hasn’t been a disaster throwing the ball.

With the 49ers in need of depth at wide receiver as well, they could sign Webb to a minimum contract and use him as a fourth receiver and backup quarterback.  It’s not something that’s done generally, for good reasons, but it’s not entirely unprecedented think Kordell Stewart with Pittsburgh at the beginning of his career.

This strategy would be an extremely risky one, especially for a team with Super Bowl aspirations Webb doesn’t have the starting pedigree of many of the other options, and both training and playing the wide receiver position, he’d have less time preparing in case Kaepernick went down.  It would also likely be coupled with a draft pick selecting a quarterback to develop as well.

It would have the advantage of being cheap, as Webb’s not likely to get more than a veteran’s minimum contract.  If the 49ers find themselves bumping up against the salary cap, some outside-the-box thinking might be needed to fill the backup quarterback slot.

Webb would be interesting but, ultimately, not the best choice.


Other Options

Flynn is just one of a number of average backups available on the free market this year.
While Michael Vick is the biggest name out there, there’s no way he’s being signed as a cheap veteran backup quarterback.  Shaun Hill is one of the top backups in the league and played with San Francisco from 2007 to 2009 he’ll be a name under some demand, but his 2013 contract is out of the 49ers’ price range, as are Chad Henne and Matt Cassel.

This leaves the likes of Matt Flynn, Tarvaris Jackson, Kellen Clemens, Dan Orlovsky, Derek Anderson, Luke McCown and Rex Grossman in that third rung of free-agent quarterbacks.

Given those options, they may just stick with McCoy.

Source: Bleacherreport
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Miami Heat Fast Five: Chasing Pacers, Gary Payton on Dwyane Wade and More

Five quick-hitting Miami Heat items from NBA All-Star weekend:

* Erik Spoelstra probably didn't see or hear a thing.

Spoelstra promised to completely disconnect during All-Star weekend, after coaching the East in Houston last February.

But he'll fly with most of his team -- and meet the rest -- in Dallas for a late practice Monday.

And he'll have a decision to make.

How hard to push?

Miami entered the break just two games behind the Indiana Pacers in the loss column, and it was clear during this weekend that the Pacers are still taking that top seed extremely seriously.

Pacers coach Frank Vogel, who said he officially met LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh for the first time when the East gathered, emphasized that he had strong regard for the Heat organization, even if the recent chippiness between the squads hasn't always suggested so.

"I don't think it's any more than they're the champs and we want to be the champs," Vogel said. "I don't think there's this tremendous dislike for them, or them or us. We have the utmost respect for them, for their players individually. Their coach, in particular, I have great respect for. We hope to be able to accomplish the same thing someday."

First, though, they want to accomplish their interim goal: home court advantage throughout the East playoffs.

When was that targeted?

"When we lost Game 7," Vogel said, speaking of the 2013 Eastern Conference finals. "In the locker room, we decided. We just know. We know what the odds are. Look at the odds over history of what Game 7s look like, I think it's 80 percent the home team wins. We just know that can be important. But it's not just about Game 7 either. If you win a game on the road, they've got to win twice in your building. And that's really hard to do. We just felt it could be one of the difference makers. It's not everything, but it could be one of the difference makers."

The sense here is that the Heat don't feel quite so strongly. That's been evident by the way Spoelstra was sorting through his rotation for the first four months, giving chances to Michael Beasley and Rashard Lewis, among others. He's also been working in Greg Oden, while pacing Wade, who has missed 15 games to rest his knees and recover from other (migraine, foot) ailments.

The Heat and Pacers play twice more, on Mar. 26 in Indiana, and on Apr. 11 in Miami.

That last game is the third-to-last of the regular season for the Pacers, and the fourth-to-last for the Heat.

Will it still have significance?

Probably not, with Miami already in cruise control, having ceded the seeding..

But come back in a couple of weeks.

Miami has the much tougher schedule out of the break, with games in Dallas and Oklahoma City, while the Pacers play Atlanta -- and then get six straight games against likely lottery teams.

If the Heat hang close, they might actually choose to chase.


* Alonzo Mourning had an abundance of attributes that made him one of the forces of his era.

None ranked higher, however, than his defiance.

It was that defiance that steeled his spirit in a number of occasions, whether it was throughout his turbulent youth, early in his NBA career, or especially after he was diagnosed with a rare, debilitating kidney disease prior to the 2000-01 season.

So it wasn't a surprise, after he was announced Saturday as a finalist for the 2014 Hall of Fame class, that he stated his case for induction.

Did he believe, when he got sick, that he still had a good chance?

"I had an eight-year stint, where it was 20 (points), 10 (rebounds) and three blocks a game," Mourning said. "Average. You know. And if I didn't get sick, it would have continued to be 20, 10 and three blocks for another eight more years. I would have had that. I kept myself in excellent condition. It was a very humbling experience to have to stop something that you love, and focus on your health, which put life in a totally different perspective. I tell you, that particular experience just made me appreciate the game even more, so when I came back, I played every game like it was my last. Not that I was entitled to it."

Then, after a transplant from his cousin and a detour to the Nets, he returned and won the 2006 championship as a backup to Shaquille O'Neal.

"All I know is, I played the game the right way," Mourning said. "And I feel like I contributed to it the right way. And I think that's all you can ask for, from a player.... Nobody can ever question my work ethic. Nobody can ever question my sacrifice. Because I made the ultimate sacrifice. There was a point in time in my career, where the doctor literally had to stop me from playing because he said your phosphorous levels are so high that you could risk cardiac arrest out there on the court. There's a lot of people that don't know that. I was literally risking my life just to play the game of basketball."

Mourning said it would be "extremely special" to get into the Hall of Fame with fellow finalist Tim Hardaway. Hardaway is in his third year of eligilbility.

"It would only be fitting," Mourning said of the man who shared the Heat spotlight with him for more than five seasons.

Hardaway, like Mourning, was true to form in his own interview.

"Just get me in is good," Hardaway said, smiling. "Just get me in is good."

Then he relented.

"But with Zo, with Mitch (Richmond)," Hardaway said, referring to his former Golden State teammate, "that's special."

The election results will be revealed at the NCAA Final Four in April.


* Dwyane Wade was warned.

At least, that's what Gary Payton said, following the 2014 Hall of Fame press conference on Saturday.

"I told him when he was there, when he was falling so much, that it would take a toll on his body," said Payton, who played for the Heat from 2005 through 2007. "And then he stopped falling after that, but it was already a toll on his body. Now I think he's a guy, who he's just watching not to get hurt. He knows if he gets hurt, it's a bad thing. And it's hard. He's getting older. It's hard for your body to recover like when you're 21, 22 years old. And I think he's understanding that."

Payton said he believes Wade is still among the NBA's elite.

"He just got to get healthy," Payton said. "I like what Spo is doing for him. He's keeping him out of games. He's doing just like what Pop would do with Duncan and Parker and Ginobili. Sit him and rest him. You got a championship you want to win, you want to win three in a row. It doesn't matter, you got probably the best basketball player in the game in LeBron. If (Wade) comes, it just gets a lot better.... I like what he's doing."

Payton had something else of interest to say, when asked about Mourning, a former Heat teammate whom he believes will be a first ballot Hall of Famer. They played together on the 2006 champions.

"I think he was the main reason," Payton said. "Everybody thinks about Dwyane and all of us making shots, and Dwyane having a great Finals. He was the one who blocked big shots. If it wasn't for them, I don't think we would have had a championship, we would have kind of out there, when we were in Dallas. It was amazing to see the things he could do, and the heart he had. We knew Dwyane was the man, but what (Mourning) did Game 6, it was something that we needed."

That memorable night, Mourning had eight points, six rebounds and five blocks in 14 furious minutes.


* LeBron James simply answered a question on the spot.

But there's nothing simple when it comes to the reaction to anything James says.

So, after he told NBATV's Steve Smith that he would put Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and Oscar Robertson on his "Mount Rushmore" -- and those comments made the rounds before the interview aired -- it naturally became a top topic for All-Star weekend.

Kevin Durant said he would go with Jordan, Bird, Johnson "and Kareem. He's the all-time leader in points... How many championships he got? MVP, he got it all, as far as accolades and the championships."

Which is a perfectly fine foursome.

But let's reverse it.

What if Durant had been asked first, and given those four? Would it have created enough of a stir that anybody would have bothered to ask James?

For what it's worth, Kobe Bryant went with Johnson, Bird, Jordan and Bill Russell, while saying it was "impossible to do four, though, man. Come on. That's crazy."

Crazy to make too much of any off-the-cuff comment, one that got twisted in translation.

Many at All-Star weekend mistakenly believed that James had put himself on "Mount Rushmore" at the present time, which is not something that he said.

George Gervin, the former Spurs great, rolled off a list: "Not before Kareem, not before Bill Russell, before Sam Jones. Them guys have won 10, 11 championship. How you gonna jump over them? So what criteria is he using to say he deserves he wants to be on Mount Rushmore. He's just clowning. You know what I'm saying, he's just clowning."

If so, he's not the only one.


* Micky Arison, in an interview with Bleacher Report, spoke highly of Adam Silver just prior to Silver's ascent to NBA commissioner.

And, in his first All-Star press conference with the media, Silver said something that should get Arison's approval. When speaking of market size and competitive balance, Silver used the Heat as an example, but not in the way many have:

"I mean, remember, Miami is not in the top 15 markets in the league and it was only (after) LeBron went to Miami that people started referring to Miami as a big market," Silver said.

This has long been Arison's contention, one he has often made during revenue sharing negotiations -- that Miami, while one of the league's most attractive markets, is actually a mid-market.

Source: Bleacherreport
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What Happened to the NBA's Great Shooting Guards?

NEW ORLEANS,

It is a cherished midseason exercise, a sacred indulgence of fans and commentators alike: the annual selection of NBA All-Stars. Pick your starters, name your reserves and let the barstool debates begin.

Jon Barry was having some trouble this year, though. The ESPN analyst kept scouring rosters, East and West, in search of worthy candidates who stood 6’5” to 6’7”, guys who could shoot and drive and pass with the best of them.

You know, shooting guards.

“We were thinking about it the other day, trying to figure out 2-guards,” Barry said recently. “And there’s no 2-guards.”

The 2-guard still technically exists, of course. They just don’t make them like they used to. Sunday night’s All-Star Game illustrated the point.

There were 14 All-Stars who stood 6’8” or taller forwards and centers, scorers and bruisers. There were six point guards, all skilled scoring machines. But with Kobe Bryant injured, there were just four All-Stars who self-identify as shooting guards: James Harden, Dwyane Wade, Joe Johnson and DeMar DeRozan.

Of that foursome, only Harden, the Houston Rockets’ bearded wonder, was a clear-cut choice. Wade and Johnson are in decline. DeRozan earned his ticket by default.

“Really, Harden’s the only true 2-guard that’s in the West,” Barry said. “And in the East, it’s just like, nobody.”

It wasn’t always this way. Shooting guard was once the NBA’s glamor job, a position stocked with high-flyers, deadeye shooters and daring slashers. They dominated the scoring charts.

In 1997-98, eight of the NBA’s top 20 scorers were shooting guards: Michael Jordan, Mitch Richmond, Allen Iverson, Michael Finley, Steve Smith, Isaiah Rider, Ray Allen and Reggie Miller. Five of those players are either in the Hall of Fame or will be.

At the All-Star break this season, just two shooting guards ranked in the top 20: Harden and DeRozan. Three others fell just outside the top 20: Arron Afflalo, Monta Ellis and Kevin Martin. There isn’t a surefire Hall of Famer in the bunch.

In 1997-98, Jordan was the NBA’s No. 1 scorer, with Richmond fourth and Iverson eighth. This season, Harden is eighth.

In 1996-97, eight shooting guards averaged at least 20 points a game. This season, there are three.

Two of the all-time greats, Bryant and Wade, are still around, but they might not reach an elite level again.

The league is now dominated by powerful small forwards (Kevin Durant, LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Paul George), skilled big men (Kevin Love, Blake Griffin, LaMarcus Aldridge) and potent point guards (Chris Paul, Stephen Curry, Kyrie Irving).

The shooting guard is an afterthought, a role player standing in the corner, waiting for a kickout. The Jordans and Richmonds have given way to the Thabo Sefoloshas and Gerald Hendersons.

Is the elite shooting guard going extinct? Is this the end of the position as we know it? And what the heck happened? Ask 10 experts and you’ll get eight different theories. The other two will shrug.

“Boy, I wish I could (explain it),” said TNT’s Steve Kerr.

“I don’t know,” San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said flatly.

Benny Sieu-USA TODAY Sports
The search for answers starts with the NBA’s rule changes over the last 15 years.

In 2001, the NBA abolished its illegal defense rules, which forced defenders to stay with their man virtually at all times. That rule made it easy to run “clear-outs,” with eight players standing on one side of the court, and one star scorer usually, a quick-footed shooting guard isolating against his defender and taking him off the dribble.

Eliminating illegal defense meant eliminating isolation chances, which meant eliminating a specialty of the old-school shooting guard.

“I think there’s some validity to that,” said Kerr.

Today’s game is now driven heavily by the pick-and-roll, which usually involves a highly skilled point guard who can shoot and drive, and a big man who can hit a mid-range jumper or finish at the rim after setting a screen. It is no coincidence that Harden, currently the highest-scoring off-guard in the league, is also a great pick-and-roll player.

“The majority of the game is pick-and-roll or transition now,” said Sam Presti, the general manager of the Oklahoma City Thunder. “That’s generally happening with a point guard and a big. Those are possessions that are getting cut out (from the shooting guard’s opportunities). ... A lot of those guys were isolation guys.”

In the past, coaches designed entire sets to cater to their shooting guard, with teams setting multiple screens to free them up for a shot. That’s how Miller got open in Indiana, how Allen got his shots off in Seattle and how Richard Hamilton became a star in Detroit. Those sets are rare now.

“The truth is, there are a lot less off-ball screens, a lot less ‘pindowns’ for shots,” said Dallas Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle. “Now the pindowns are for a catch and a penetration and a kickout. Because teams got too good at defending pindowns. That’s why the game has evolved to where it is now.”

The proliferation of the three-point shot has also had an effect. The three-pointer used to be rare and mostly the domain of shooting guards. Now every player shoots them, often.

“There’s still 2-guards that are good one-on-one players and off-ball screens,” Carlisle said, “but what we have is a game that’s healthier to watch, because it now requires movement by all five players on the floor. Because of that, it’s a more fun and energetic and unpredictable game to watch.”

So, to review: The rules evolved, the game evolved, coaches evolved and players evolved. Somehow, this evolution skipped the 6’6” guys, which brings us to our final theory: that colleges have failed to develop them.

Mark Konezny-USA TODAY Sports
Several executives and scouts pointed to the proliferation of two-point guard backcourts in the college game. The players who stand between 6’5” and 6’7” are often pushed into the frontcourt, especially in smaller programs. No one is training them to be NBA shooting guards.

“I don’t think there’s any question that a fundamental like shooting is not being developed and taught quite like maybe it used to be,” said Fran Fraschilla, the ESPN analyst and former college coach. “There are a lot of guys playing shooting guard at the college level who can’t make a jump shot.”

Spurs general manager R.C. Buford said the NCAA’s 35-second shot clock stunts player development, because there are at least 30 fewer possessions per game. Kerr agreed.

One Eastern Conference executive asserted that the shooting guards of the 1990's were “the last generation of skilled scorers” at the position that is to say, players who grew up in structured basketball programs and spent at least two or three years in college.

“College basketball is about the incomplete player,” Fraschilla said.

He pointed to DeRozan, who entered the NBA in 2009 as a hyperathletic but low-skilled player and has only recently blossomed into a reliable shooter.

“His skill level is starting to catch up to his athleticism,” Fraschilla said.

Portland’s Wesley Matthews is another prime example, a player who went undrafted out of Marquette in 2009 but has since become one of the NBA’s better three-point shooters.

Some of this may be simple labeling. The NBA game is evolving, and positions are more fluid. In a prior era, the 6’3” Curry might have been a shooting guard. Buford said the 6’9” Durant is really a shooting guard, given his skill set.

But where is the next Michael Jordan, the next Ray Allen, the next Kobe Bryant, the next Vince Carter? Maybe, as Rockets general manager Daryl Morey said, “It’s cyclical.”

Or maybe we’re just waiting for the next generation to blossom. Optimists will point to Indiana’s Lance Stephenson, Washington’s Bradley Beal, Orlando’s Victor Oladipo and Golden State’s Klay Thompson as potential standard-bearers.

But can any of them carry on the legacy?

“No,” Barry said. “Not when you’re talking Kobe, Michael, Reggie. I don’t see any of that. I don’t see any of those guys. I really don’t.”

The game has changed. There are more scoring point guards now than ever. Today’s big men shoot more three-pointers than yesterday’s off-guards. All of this is true. Yet none of it explains why there is a sudden dearth of players measuring between 6’5” and 6’7” who can average 20 points a game.

Barry shook his head. “I can’t explain it.”

Source: Bleacherreport
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