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Soccer

Inferiority complex haunts Bayern in latest Bernabeu breakdown

A different year, a different manager, and a different group of players, but the same old story for Bayern Munich. Just like in 2017, it came to the Bernabeu in the Champions League semi-finals needing to overturn a 2-1 deficit from the home leg. Just like in 2017, Bayern outplayed its host but ultimately came up just short.

It was Bayern’s honorary president, Franz Beckenbauer, who confessed before kick-off that “I fear we have a complex with Madrid.” Such a claim might have been laughed off if it had come from the mouth of a fan or journalist. From a man who helped the team to three European Cups as a player, those words carry a little more weight.

This was the 26th time that Bayern had faced Real Madrid in UEFA competition – a record that no other pair of clubs could match. An enduring rivalry between two of the continent’s elite and also, historically speaking, a very balanced one. Before Tuesday, Madrid had won 12 times and Munich 11, with the remaining two ending as draws.

The Spaniards, though, had won the past six. Jupp Heynckes had made light of that truth in his pregame press conference, reminding us of all the ways that things had changed just in the last 12 months. His starting lineup included just five of the 11 players who were on the pitch at kick-off for last year’s semi-final, back when Carlo Ancelotti was still in charge. (Several, admittedly, were absent due to injury.)

Related: By the numbers – Kimmich stars despite Bayern’s elimination to Madrid

And yet, this game felt all-too familiar. Bayern was better than Madrid, as it had been in the first leg of the tie. At the same time, Bayern was also infuriatingly wasteful.

“Bayern’s DNA is that we always score goals,” Heynckes had insisted before kickoff. They did not disprove him here, finding the net twice, yet it felt telling that neither strike came from the players who the team would typically look to.

Only Cristiano Ronaldo has scored more times than Robert Lewandowski and Thomas Muller in the knockout stages of the Champions League in the past five years. That he has more than both of them put together is indicative of his otherworldly talent, yet these are still two elite players in their own right. So why do neither seem capable of demonstrating their quality against these specific opponents?

Muller has never scored against Madrid, and despite a robust work rate, never came closer to breaking that duck here than a weak shot on the turn just after the half-hour mark, easily smothered by Keylor Navas in the Madrid goal. Lewandowski should have done better with a near-post drive just moments later, and otherwise flattered to deceive despite plenty of service from his teammates.

More is needed from the Polish striker in particular, on nights such as this. Lewandowski racked up more than 40 goals in each of the past two seasons, and only needs one more to break that threshold again this time around. Yet he has failed to score in any of his last five Champions League outings.

The man who fired Borussia Dortmund through to the final of this competition in 2013 was supposed to be the missing link for a team seeking to validate its domestic dominance with success on the continental stage. Instead, ironically, Bayern has not lifted the big-eared trophy since facing off against Lewandowski and his former club at Wembley five years ago.

What will make this latest defeat all the more painful for Bayern is the knowledge of how much else it got right. The Germans dominated Madrid in midfield, taking full advantage of the extra midfielder that Heynckes’ 4-5-1 had granted them against opponents lining up in an all-too-predictable 4-4-2.

Related: Frequent fall guy Navas silences doubters with prodigious performance

With Thiago Alcantara dictating the tempo from his deep-lying role, Corentin Tolisso and James Rodriguez could take turns to range forward and support the attack. A goal was the least that the former Madrid man deserved for his excellent performances across the two legs.

Similar might be said for Joshua Kimmich, who opened the scoring after just three minutes, having already grabbed Bayern’s only goal in Munich. Here, undeniably, is a player with that Bayern DNA referenced by Heynckes. The 23-year-old has contributed six goals and 14 assists this season, playing at full-back.

His performances over the two legs might provide some crumb of comfort to Bayern, a reminder that despite this disappointment they remain a club rich with talent – even at a position where they might have been expected to feel a void following the retirement of Philipp Lahm. Kimmich, at least, showed no sign of an inferiority complex against Madrid.

Yet it takes a team effort to get through on a night such as this one. In general, it also requires not doing needlessly self-destructive things. Tolisso’s decision to play a blind ball back to his goalkeeper at the start of the second half was reckless, and Sven Ulreich’s subsequent slip, calamitous. Karim Benzema, having already cancelled out Kimmich’s early strike, was only too happy to accept this gift they had given him.

You could call that a manifestation of what Beckenbauer was talking about: an inability to hold nerve and do the simple things right when the pressure is highest. Or you could call it a moment of madness. In either case, the outcome is the same: Bayern exiting the Champions League in the semi-finals, with a grim sense of history repeating.

NFL

Pats' Brady confirms he plans to play in 2018

New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady confirmed his plans to play in 2018 and repeated his goal to extend his career into his mid-40s during an appearance Monday at the Milken Institute Global Conference in California, while detailing why he’s taking a different approach this offseason, staying away from the team’s voluntary offseason program.

“Part of this offseason for me is certainly about still preparing for what’s ahead in my next journey, my next mountain to climb with this group of teammates, but it’s also [acknowledging] that a lot of people are getting the short end of the stick in my life — certainly my wife and my kids,” Brady said in an hourlong conversation with moderator Jim Gray.

“Football is year-round for me. It’s a lot of thought, a lot of energy and emotion put into it, but I need to invest in them, too. My kids are 10, 8 and 5. They’re not getting younger, so I need to take time so I can be available to them, too. … I’ve really spent the last two or three months doing those things, and I think I’m really trying to fill my tank up so that when I do go back, I can go back and I think I’ll actually be, in my mind, a better player, a better teammate, because I’ll be really rejuvenated.”

As for why he plans to keep playing, Brady said, “I have personal goals. I want to keep playing. I’ve said for a long time I want to play to my mid-40s. I was told three years, when I was 36-37, ‘You can’t keep playing; no one wins Super Bowls [at that age].’ It’s a great challenge for me. I think I’ve been challenged my whole life. I feel like I can do it.”

In talking about extending his career, the 40-year-old Brady noted how his routine has evolved over time, and that he feels he can keep playing because he loves the game, is willing to make the commitment, and believes in his plan.

“I have a great system in place that works well for me in order to keep me performing at my highest level,” he said, referring to the TB12 Training Method which he called “part of the second career of my life.”

“What I want to do in the meantime is I want to inspire people through my action. Not tell them what to do, but just show it,” he said.

In the final episode of Brady’s docuseries “Tom vs. Time”, Brady’s wife, Gisele Bundchen, said she wanted Brady to feel happy and appreciated, a topic that came up during Brady’s conversation at the Milken Institute Global Conference.

Asked if he was happy, Brady said, “I have my moments.”

Asked if he is happy with the people he works with and for, Brady said, “Yeah. I would say absolutely. And in general, I’m a very happy person. I’m a very positive person. It’s just my personality, I always look at things as the glass is half full. I think there are different times; when you’ve been on the same team for a long time, you have relationships for a long time, they ebb and flow like every relationship. But there are no people I’d rather play for or be committed to than the team I’ve been with for a long time, and really the fans and the community.”

Asked if he feels appreciated by coach Bill Belichick and owner Robert Kraft, and if they have the appropriate gratitude for what he has achieved, Brady said, “I plead the fifth!”

That sparked laughter from the crowd.

“Man, that is a tough question,” Brady continued. “I think everybody in general wants to be appreciated more in their professional life, but there’s a lot of people that appreciate me way more than I ever thought was possible as part of my life. You have different influences in your life and the people I work with, they’re trying to get the best out of me. So they’re trying to treat me in the way they feel is going to get the best out of me, and I’ve got to get the best out of myself.

“I think what I’m learning, as you get older, it comes from within — the joy, the happiness, those things come from inside. To seek that from others, to seek that from outside influences, people you work with, people that cheer against you or cheer with you, I feel like it comes from within for me. So I’m trying to build up what’s within me, so that I can be the best for me, so that I can be the best for other people. That’s part of growing. I’m learning these things, too.”

Of his connection with Belichick, he said, “We’ve had a great relationship, a very respectful relationship for a long time. I feel like he’s the best coach in the history of the NFL. He has a management style [with] players, and he would say, ‘Look, I’m not the easiest coach to play for.’ I agree. He’s not the easiest coach to play for.

“But he’s the best for me. I think what he’s proven is that whatever talent he has, he maximizes his talent. What more could you ask of a coach than that? That’s what I want as a player. … He’s been an incredible coach, he’s been an incredible mentor to me. He’s taught me so much football. To be a 22-year-old kid and come and learn from him, I wouldn’t be sitting here without his coaching. I wouldn’t have the success without how incredibly talented he was, along with a lot of the other coaches, a lot of the other players, a lot of the other people in the organization. Because it takes everybody to do it.”

Soccer

Liverpool fan Sean Cox to be revived from induced coma

The Liverpool fan who was severely injured ahead of the Reds’ Champions League win over AS Roma last week is expected to be revived from his induced coma Monday.

Sean Cox suffered serious head injuries when he was attacked near Anfield, outside of The Albert pub in Walton Breck Road.

The assault, which occurred 10 minutes before kick-off last Tuesday, was allegedly carried out by a pair Roma fans, Filippo Lombardi (20) and Daniele Sciusco (29), who have since been charged with violent disorder. Lombardi was also charged with inflicting grievous bodily harm.

The 53-year-old Irishman is being treated at the Walton Neurological Centre, where he underwent surgery and was placed in an induced coma.

A Merseyside Police officer said Monday that Cox’s condition has not changed, but there’s hope that his condition could improve when doctors revive him, according to Sorcha Pollak of the Irish Times.

The incident was condemned by both clubs, as well as UEFA, and has triggered increased security measures for travelling Liverpool supporters ahead of the return leg in Rome on Wednesday.

Among the many tributes that have poured in since the attack, Liverpool honoured Cox by displaying his name on the digital boards at Anfield during Sunday’s draw with Stoke City.

NFL

Shaquem Griffin on emotional day: 'It was like I was dreaming'
9:59 PM ET

  • Brady HendersonESPN

RENTON, Wash. — Shaquill Griffin wasn’t going to let his twin brother, Shaquem Griffin, miss the best phone call of his life, even if it meant barging into a bathroom to make sure he didn’t.

It was a few minutes before 11 a.m. PT Saturday when Shaquem, watching the NFL draft from a hotel in Dallas along with several family members, got up and exited the room, leaving his phone behind. Shaquill sprang into action when it began to ring, knowing exactly what it meant once he recognized the 425 area code on the screen.

With the Seattle Seahawks calling, the dream they’ve had since they were 5 years old of playing together in the NFL was coming true.

“When I saw that, I grabbed the phone and jumped over everybody else on the floor and went to the bathroom,” said Shaquill, the second-year Seahawks cornerback. “I checked to see if he locked the door; he didn’t lock the door. I said, ‘You have to grab this!’ I said, ‘You don’t have time for this!’ I handed him the phone, and that’s how it went.”

Said Shaquem: “I looked, and that’s when tears just started pouring down.”

He was hardly alone. The Seahawks’ selection of Griffin in the fifth round was a highly emotional moment for all involved.

It was for Shaquem and Shaquill, who will reunite after the former made history as the first player with only one hand to be drafted in the NFL’s modern era.

It was for Seahawks fans. There were many who had been clamoring for the team to pair the two in Seattle’s defense, wanting it so bad that they almost seemed disappointed when the Seahawks instead addressed much more pressing needs than outside linebacker in the third and fourth rounds.

And it was emotional for the Seahawks organization, including the top two decision-makers, even though they had more time than anyone to brace for it.

GM John Schneider and coach Pete Carroll have now selected 86 players over their nine drafts together in Seattle. None of the congratulatory phone calls to any of the previous draft picks could match this one.

“It was emotional for all the obvious reasons,” Carroll said. “We love Shaquill and knowing what could come of this. My partner here was kind of a mess, to tell you the truth, when he handed me the phone.”

Schneider didn’t dispute that, saying he had to get off the phone quickly.

How could you blame him? The scenario — Shaquem not only overcoming the longest of odds to reach the pros, but also rejoining his twin brother on the same team — is the stuff of Hollywood movie scripts, not NFL reality.

“I had a feeling [it could happen],” Shaquem said, “but the chances are really low.”

The brothers spoke with Seattle-area reporters on a conference call while making their way from the hotel room back to the draft at AT&T Stadium. Shaquem said the first thing Shaquill asked him after he got the call from the Seahawks was, “So are you living with me or no?”

“We may have to knock some walls down,” Shaquill joked on the conference call, “but we’ll figure it out.”

To be sure, the Seahawks wouldn’t have drafted Griffin if they didn’t believe he could help their team, but this almost-too-good-to-be-true story comes at a time when Seattle could really use one.

The Seahawks are coming off their first non-playoff season since 2011, which gave way to an offseason of big-name departures. That included moving on from two of the most important and popular players in franchise history — Richard Sherman and Michael Bennett. Two more (Kam Chancellor, Cliff Avril) may not return from injuries. Losing other starters in free agency (Jimmy Graham, Paul Richardson, Sheldon Richardson), while making only stop-gap additions, has further dampened the hopes of a swift bounce-back.

Schneider was asked if the Seahawks felt any pressure to draft Griffin knowing how many fans wanted it to happen.

“No,” he said. “We knew it was a cool story, but no.”

What a story it is, and what a day it was.

“It was like I was dreaming,” Shaquem said. “Magical stuff started happening. It’s unexplainable, the emotions, everything that was going through my mind. It was crazy.”

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Soccer