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Riqui Puig goes supernova for LA Galaxy: "He deserves everything"
Riqui Puig goes supernova for LA Galaxy: "He deserves everything"
Justin Ruderman
Friday, Nov 1, 2024, 10:45 PM
The sweep is complete.
Led by another standout performance from Riqui Puig, LA Galaxy advanced to the Western Conference Semifinals by blowing out the Colorado Rapids for a second straight game – this time a 4-1 rout at Dick's Sporting Goods Park to wrap up their Round One Best-of-3 Series in just two matches.
Puig produced his second straight brace of the Audi 2024 MLS Cup Playoffs with two second-half stoppage time goals, while attacking partners Gabriel Pec and Joseph Paintsil also got on the scoresheet. Additionally, Friday's result secured the Galaxy's status as an early frontrunner to reach MLS Cup presented by Audi on Dec. 7.
“We knew it was going to be a challenging game: altitude, opposition at home, playing for their season,” head coach Greg Vanney said postmatch. “We knew they had to win today and we needed to try to play against that a little bit.
"At times we went too fast. At times it was fine. But at the end of the day in the playoffs, it doesn't really matter. You get through and you move on to the next round.”
Riqui's MVP form
Paintsil, who scored the eventual game-winning goal just before halftime, had nothing but praise for Puig.
“I think he deserves everything,” Paintsil said of the FC Barcelona-formed playmaker, whose 13g/15a on the season propelled the league's third-best offense of 2024 (69 goals). However, those numbers weren't enough to make him a finalist for this year's Landon Donovan MLS MVP award.
"If people don't see it, we as players, as a team, we see it for ourselves," Paintsil added. "We are a team and even if he doesn't really [get] recognized as the MVP and everything, I think for him it doesn't matter.
"The most important thing that is really in his mind is to win the league. That is [more] important than winning MVP. MVP is a plus for a player, but winning the league is much more important than everything for a player or a club."
Despite being snubbed from the MVP shortlist, Puig has responded on the pitch when it matters most. By scoring four (and assisting another) of his team’s nine goals in their Round One sweep, Puig looks poised to lead the Galaxy on a quest for silverware.
“[My form] doesn't happen if I don't have the team that I have,” Puig said. “I need to say thank you to all my teammates, the staff, the coach. We are making an amazing season, but we need to finish really good and hopefully we can win this MLS [Cup] because it's what we want.”
For Vanney, Puig's red-hot form has come at the perfect time.
“He's an important player for us. He drives our team from possessions to attacks," Vanney said. "He finishes things for us. I think Riqui, on any day, would trade in the opportunity to win an MLS Cup before an MVP trophy. He's continued to develop inside of our team. He continues to be the engine and the motor inside of our group.
"... I'm happy that Riqui's playing great now because this is the stage in which you make the biggest statement right now, not during the regular season.”
Championship mentality
After becoming the first team to advance to the Conference Semifinals, the Galaxy now await the winner of the Real Salt Lake-Minnesota United FC series in the next round. Whichever opponent emerges, LA will host the match at Dignity Health Sports Park as they chase a historic sixth MLS Cup title.
“We do [have a championship mentality],” Paintsil said. “We take every game at a time and as you can see we're doing everything possible to have that kind of mentality, as we have been always having [since] the beginning of the season.
"There are little doubts about people towards us, but we don't really care about what people say. We just go game by game and then we will just see what happens," Paintsil said. "But our goal is to be in the final.”
Justin Ruderman -
@JustinRuderman_
Los Angeles Dodgers, all of them, are World Series champs
Los Angeles Dodgers, all of them, are World Series champs
Bradford Doolittle, ESPN Staff Writer
Oct 31, 2024, 02:32 AM ET
NEW YORK -- The 2024 World Series is over: Shohei Ohtani and the Los Angeles Dodgers are champions in five games, the first title for him and, for the team, the eighth in franchise history.
There were heroes and goats, as there are in every Fall Classic, but no storybook showdown of Ohtani versus Aaron Judge. There were dramatic grand slams, stunning comebacks and horrible defensive miscues. The New York Yankees' title drought reached 15 years, and their captain, Judge, faced struggles that sometimes reached nightmarish levels.
In the end, what we got was a pure baseball matchup decided by baseball factors, and mostly by the fact the Dodgers had more good players than their opponent. They earned it -- as a group.
"They were the better team in this series," Yankees manager Aaron Boone said, while praising his own heartbroken club.
This championship, and the way Los Angeles achieved it, is less about the names on the marquee and more because of the ensemble. It belongs to them all, as much to the supporting cast of Teoscar Hernandez, Gavin Lux and Max Muncy as to Ohtani and fellow stars Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts. To anonymous relievers as much as more heralded starters such as Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Jack Flaherty. None of this is by accident. The Dodgers won this way because they were built to win this way.
Every season, the Dodgers rank near the top of the majors in categories such as rookie WAR and in total appearances on the transaction wire. Think about that: With all of the resources poured into the L.A. payroll -- the Dodgers spent more than $1 billion this past offseason -- the Andrew Friedman-led front office never stops tweaking the roster mix, addressing needs both immediate and imagined. The Dodgers excel at turning other teams' excesses into gold, with journeymen such as Ryan Brasier, Brent Honeywell and Anthony Banda becoming crucial contributors to the bullpen. Every bit as much attention is paid to the bottom 10 slots on the 40-man roster as it is to the top three.
"It's about getting the right players, the right people," Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. "Talent is a lot, but it's not everything. You still have to be cohesive. I just think we do a great job of getting the right players in our clubhouse."
The Dodgers have as much star power as any team we've seen in recent years, but they could never be accused of taking a stars-and-scrubs approach, or constructing a top-heavy roster. Depth or stars? We'll have both, thank you.
"We have a culture here at the big league level," Roberts said. "But the scouting and player development is second to none."
After a second title in five years, the Dodgers, from top to bottom, are what Roberts says -- second to none.
Los Angeles Dodgers: 2024 World Series Champions
NEW YORK -- To win it all, the Dodgers had to give it all. Had to stare down an ugly early deficit. Had to empty their bullpen. Had to rally against Gerrit Cole and then against the Yankees’ best relievers. Had to get a World Series-clinching save from starter Walker Buehler, of all people.
With an unflappable team effort, the Dodgers claimed their second World Series title in the last five years and their first in a full season since 1988 by beating the Yankees in Game 5 on Wednesday night at Yankee Stadium.
And in this 7-6 victory, they earned their champagne celebration the hard way, becoming the first team in a World Series-clinching win to come back from five or more runs.
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San Bernardino Valley College cancels football?
Inland college notes: Players respond following cancellation of San Bernardino Valley College football season
SBVC administration, in collaboration with team staff and players, pulled the plug on the season Oct. 3.
By Dennis Pope | preps@pressenterprise.com | Press-Enterprise
PUBLISHED: October 23, 2024 at 12:37 p.m.
Following the unprecedented cancellation of their season after just two lopsided losses, members of the San Bernardino Valley College football team voiced their frustration at the situation.
The short-handed Wolverines, who have already endured back-to-back 0-10 seasons, came into Week 1 with fewer than 40 active players.
Three weeks, several injuries, and one missed game later, SBVC administration, in collaboration with team staff and players, pulled the plug on Oct. 3.
“They cancelled it because of the low numbers,” said new head coach Nate Turner, who did not arrive on campus until July. “We couldn’t hit the ground running with recruiting like we wanted to so after the first two games we realized we’d lost even more numbers, and at that point it wasn’t going to benefit our student-athletes, so we’ve decided to regroup and bring it back next year.”
Turner, on a one-year contract, said it is his intention to recruit and prepare SBVC’s football program for the 2025 season.
“I’m still employed and I’m still the football coach here,” Turner said. “We have to take care of what we can control so I’m going to recruit the local talent. I don’t think about any decisions that I don’t have any control over.”
Sophomore Kaleb McNeal, a Cajon High graduate, said it became clear as early as June that this team was going to have issues.
“They insisted that we were going to have a 10-game season, and everything was going to be good, but we had seen it coming,” McNeal said. “I’m desperate to get out so I kept playing in it.”
After review by the CCCAA, it was determined that this season will not count against any of the SBVC players’ eligibility.
“We were able to get our year back so I’m not too, too worried about it,” McNeal said. “I’m just ready to work and go where I go from here.”
Among the players already drawing interest from other schools, McNeal intends to transfer after finishing off his associate’s degree in the spring.
“I’ll be transferring. I don’t know where yet, but I’ll be transferring,” he said.
Sophomore Antonio Calleros, a Ramona High grad, wanted to use this season to springboard to an NCAA scholarship. Undecided on whether he’ll return, Calleros said he does not want to go back under the same conditions.
“They fired six or seven coaches right before the season. I didn’t have an offensive line coach,” Calleros said. “I want to return but there are some people there that don’t really care, and some people even faked injuries to keep from playing. There were some people there that didn’t want to have a season.”
“A few guys would leave or be late, or fake injuries or be concussed out of nowhere so they’d get a medical redshirt and get their year back,” added sophomore Ian Beauregard. “I think there were some people who took advantage of the situation.”
Beauregard, a Cajon grad who transferred into SBVC from Mt. San Jacinto College, wants to continue playing but does not plan to return to San Bernardino for football.
“Oh no,” Beauregard said. “I hope they get the help they need to succeed, but I won’t be going back.”
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New York Liberty: 2024 WNBA Champions
The long wait for the Liberty is over.
After 28 years and five previous Finals appearances, New York are now champions.
In front of a raucous Brooklyn crowd at the Barclays Center, the Liberty defeated a relentless Minnesota Lynx team 67-62 in overtime in a winner-take-all Game 5 of the Finals.
It wasn’t so joyful for the Lynx, as a debatable foul decision left the team’s head coach, Cheryl Reeve, fuming after the final whistle.
With the Lynx up 60-58 and under six seconds remaining in regulation, officials whistled a foul on Minnesota’s Alanna Smith on Liberty forward Breanna Stewart. The two-time league MVP was driving to the hoop and appeared to have minimal contact with Smith as she took a shot.
The Lynx challenged the call, but the decision was upheld after a video review.
“I’m sorry but that wasn’t a foul! Let the damn players dictate the outcome of a close battled tested game,” NBA superstar LeBron James posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Reeve said the call “decided the game,” adding the game – and WNBA championship – was “stolen from us.”
“The officials during the game should have a third party because that was not a foul. That call should have been reversed on that challenge,” she told reporters.
“I know all the headlines will be ‘Reeve Cries Foul.’ Bring it on, right. Bring it on,” Reeve said. “Because this sh*t was stolen from us. Bring it on.”
When asked about Reeve’s complaints, Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello told reporters that she respected both her counterpart and the entire Lynx team.
“I thought they were pretty fair,” she said laughing, when asked what she thought about the officials. “I have so much respect for Cheryl and I have so much respect for that Minnesota Lynx team because, man, it was ugly, but we found a way to win.”
Brondello had been highly critical of the officiating after a Game 4 Liberty loss that forced the title decider.
The face of the NY franchise still needed to come up big to force overtime.
Without Stewart, the Lynx may have found themselves dancing to their famed celebratory “Electric Slide” at the buzzer had it not been for two-time Finals MVP.
Stewart stood at the free throw line with nerves of steel-like composure and calmly stroked both charity stripe buckets like no one was watching.
Nyara Sabally was New York’s unexpected star.
Coming into Sunday, she averaged 2.8 points per game in the Finals but came alive to score a crucial 13 points in Game 5.
The former Oregon star made an impact beyond her unforeseen offensive impact. She grabbed seven rebounds and had a key block in OT, stuffing Lynx star Napheesa Collier at the hoop when Minnesota attempted to tie the game late.
The rejection was not lost on anyone after the game. After all, Collier led the WNBA playoffs in points, rebounds, blocks, and steals.
Her teammate Stewart praised Sabally after the game.
“We were trying to do whatever we could. We needed, like a spark and she was that. She continued to trust the process and we are so proud of Ny. So proud,” she said.
How valuable was the German national team member? The typical roleplayer was often matched up to guard Collier and played the entire overtime session.
“That’s what I’ve been working for my all my career - moments like these,” she said after the game during the trophy presentation.
“And to be able to come in here and do this in a Game 5 at home, it just means the world.”
The new star then hugged her sister as tears started to well up in her eyes.
Regardless of the foul controversy, Stewart was a force on the boards, grabbing 15 rebounds to go with her 13 points.
The Liberty’s other big star, Sabrina Ionescu, struggled mightily in the game, scoring just five points on 1-of-19 shooting.
New York’s Jonquel Jones was named the Finals MVP.
The Bahamian was steady Sunday while her teammates couldn’t find their rhythm.
She scored 12 points in two quarters, nearly half of the Liberty’s production. Jones finished with 17 points and six rebounds.
Jones was modest after being handed the prestigious award and the crowd shouting ‘MVP.’
“None of this happens without my teammates and without the people that have poured into me,” she said while acknowledging her mother, her fiancé and others.
The Lynx were up 34-27 at the half. If not for Jones, NY would have been in serious trouble.
The Liberty started stone cold with the Lynx opening the game on a 6-0 run. Jones finally hit a bucket to settle New York’s nerves.
Collier started hot with slashing moves to the basket for several lay-ins. After a Collier bucket to stretch the lead to 19-10 in the first quarter, Brondello called a timeout to stop the momentum. Collier finished the opening quarter with 8 points and a game-high 22 points overall.
With the Lynx up 10, Stewart finally scored her first points in the second quarter.
Despite her shooting woes, Ionescu never relented and dished out key assists.
After the Lynx emerged from their locker room cold, the former University of Oregon guard found Sabally for back-to-back buckets - the second of which put the Liberty up 40-38 and the team’s first lead.
Ionescu was pumped up after the moment – flexing as the buoyant Brooklyn crowd showered her with support.
After the win, Ionescu gave credit to her team.
“[I] just did whatever it took to win. [I] believed in my teammates, believed in this entire organization. It takes everyone; you don’t do this alone.
“God, we did it in New York,” she screamed, much to the delight of the fans.
Those same supporters have a parade to attend.
After the Liberty’s 3-2 series win, New York City Mayor Eric Adams posted on social media that “City Hall and other city buildings will be lit up seafoam in their honor. But that’s not all. We’re throwing these incredible athletes a parade to celebrate all their hard work this season.”
The first WNBA Championship in franchise history will get a ticker tape parade, which is set to start at 10 a.m. ET Thursday.
Organizers said the procession will begin at Battery Park and run north through lower Broadway’s so-called “Canyon of Heroes.”
Following the parade, City Hall will host a ceremony before the team hosts a fan event at Barclays Center that night.
Brisbane Lions: 2024 AFL Premiers
THESE will forever be Brisbane's kings of the pride.
After last year's heartbreak, a 0-3 start to the season, five season-ending knee reconstructions, missing out on the top four, three finals on the road, a semi-final win for the ages and storylines everywhere you looked, Brisbane is the premier for 2024 after a Toyota AFL Grand Final dismantling of Sydney.
In the redemption cup – the Lions looking to go one better than their four-point loss to Collingwood and Sydney hoping to overturn its disastrous 2022 decider – it was Chris Fagan's men who saluted by 60 points in an MCG masterclass in front of 100,013 fans.
The 18.12 (120) to 9.6 (60) win delivered the Lions their first flag since 2003 and 12th through its Fitzroy history as Fagan lifted the cup in his eighth season at the helm.
This was a rough welcome to the jungle for the Swans – everywhere Sydney turned, Brisbane was there. Every way the Swans looked, the Lions had them covered.
It would have been a terrible case of deja vu for the Swans, with the club now losing its past four Grand Finals since 2012. Three of them have been thrashings.
Where to start with Brisbane's band of heroes? It was a Lions' share: Lachie Neale, carrying an ankle injury, was sensational as he saluted with a flag in his third Grand Final attempt with 34 disposals and nine clearances.
Kai Lohmann lit the fuse early and finished with four and Callum Ah Chee kept the flame alive throughout with four majors. Will Ashcroft, having missed last year's decider with his knee injury, was superb and showed again he is a champion in the making with 30 disposals and a goal. Joe Daniher is considering retirement but showed he is at the top of his game, with only inaccuracy potentially costing him a Norm Smith Medal.
But where the Lions were hot, Sydney brought the cold. It was difficult to find a winner for the Swans, who had their star-studded midfield nullified, their forward line shut down and their back half picked apart.
Katy Perry started the day with a roar, but the Lions added a mighty to it. Sydney struck first with the opening two goals, the first from Will Hayward and the second a superb snap from Tom Papley. But that mini lead didn't quite sum up the contest after the Lions' early inaccuracy.
Lohmann quickly changed that. The eye-catching Lion kicked their first, and then their second a minute later on his left foot to give Brisbane the energy it needed, his tongue-out celebration a spirit boost to match his side's ascendancy.
They continued to control the play with their uncontested marking game as Hugh McCluggage cruised into a third goal, with the gun midfielder tallying nine opening-quarter disposals.
James Rowbottom's long set shot was a steadier for the Swans, who were preferring their shorter forward targets than their key position options, but Charlie Cameron's snap from the boundary – and subsequent bow to the crowd – restored Brisbane's eight-point lead at the first change.
Brisbane's premiership was won in an exhilarating second quarter. The Lions kicked seven goals to one for the term and they came from everywhere as the Swans, for the second time in three years, were pounded.
Lohmann kicked his third from the pocket, Cameron spotted Daniher cleverly for another, Ah Chee's brilliant finals series continued with two for the term, Jarrod Berry capitalised on Nick Blakey's turnover to slot a long goal and Eric Hipwood kicked one of the great Grand Final goals from the boundary line after dodging Dane Rampe, slotting the goal and reprising three-time Lions premiership star Jason Akermanis' pseudo shocked celebration afterwards.
When Logan Morris booted their 11th, the Lions had leapt to a 46-point lead for half-time as their youth, speed and hardened run into the flag decider proved beneficial.
Where the Lions' big names and lesser lights all stood up – from first-year player Morris to champion two-time Brownlow medallist Neale – Sydney couldn't find a winner as its midfield was battered, its defence under siege and forward line ineffective.
Party time started early as Neale continued to dominate the midfield battle in the third quarter, with Daniher also showing up the Swans defence. If it is to be Daniher's last game of an enigmatic career – the 30-year-old is weighing his future – then he went out on a high, kicking 2.4 but proving pivotal to the Lions.
His forward presence, as well as important around-the-ground ruck efforts, helped a fleet of smaller Lions capitalise time after time.
Lions fans spent most of the second half rejoicing, as more highlights came their way: the Cam Rayner hanger, Ah Chee enjoying a day out, one last Lohmann flying grab and, of course, a Daniher left-foot snap to close things out. The pride of Brisbane town – and beyond.
SYDNEY 3.1 4.3 5.4 9.6 (60)
BRISBANE 4.3 11.7 16.11 18.12 (120)
GOALS
Sydney: Parker 3, Warner, Rowbottom, Papley, Heeney, Hayward, Fox
Brisbane: Lohmann 4, Ah Chee 4, Morris 2, Daniher 2, Rayner, McCluggage, Hipwood, Cameron, Berry, Ashcroft
INJURIES
Sydney: McDonald (ankle)
Brisbane: Nil
SUBSTITUTES
Sydney: Braeden Campbell (replaced Logan McDonald in the third quarter)
Brisbane: Conor McKenna (replaced Logan Morris in the final quarter)
Crowd: 100,013 at the MCG
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