分类： sports

In what will go down as one of the most dramatic comeback victories in State of Origin history, NSW’s Blues stole a 22-20 opening round win over Queensland’s Maroons at Sydney’s Accor Stadium on Wednesday, capping a stunning second-half turnaround with a last-minute match-winning try from NSW captain James Tedesco that left the rain-soaked home crowd in delirium.

Just 20 minutes into the match, the result looked all but decided. The Maroons charged out of the gate to build an insurmountable-looking 20-0 lead, with Blues fans and pundits already voicing fierce criticism of the team’s selection choices and coaching staff. Calls for head coach Laurie Daley’s dismissal were growing louder, critics questioned star halfback Nathan Cleary’s suitability for the Origin arena, and many argued rookie Dylan Edwards should have been selected ahead of Tedesco in the starting side. Even the Blues’ early play supported the skepticism: forward Mitch Barnes knocked a cold drop on the opening set, while established stars Stephen Crichton and Brian To’o posted three uncharacteristic errors apiece, leaving NSW facing what looked like a humiliating home defeat.

Queensland’s first-half dominance was led by rookie halfback Sam Walker, who stepped into the starting side seamlessly after reigning Wally Lewis Medal winner Tom Dearden withdrew through injury. Walker delivered a masterclass in the opening 40 minutes, setting up the Maroons’ opening try for Robert Toia with a deft grubber kick, then throwing the final pass for Tom Flegler’s emotional try on his return to Origin, following a sharp dummy-half run from hooker Harry Grant. By the 20th minute, Cameron Munster had set up Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow for Queensland’s fourth try, putting the visitors firmly in control of the series opener.

That all changed in the 57th minute, when Maroons fullback Kalyn Ponga was sent off for a high shoulder charge on Blues winger Tolu Koula, reducing Queensland to 12 men for the final 23 minutes of play. The red card completely flipped the momentum of the match, allowing the Blues’ halves pairing of Cleary and last-minute call-up Ethan Strange to seize control of the field.

Strange’s Origin debut will go down in folklore: the Canberra Raiders star was only promoted to the starting five-eighth role 24 hours before kickoff, after regular starter Mitch Moses pulled out with a hamstring injury. From the moment play restarted after Ponga’s send-off, Strange was unstoppable: he forced Queensland’s first error of the night with a bone-rattling tackle on Cameron Munster, had an earlier try disallowed for obstruction, then backed up a break from Stephen Crichton to cross for the Blues’ first try of the night, kickstarting the comeback. Cleary followed with a try of his own and nailed a crucial 40/20 kick, mirroring the clutch play he delivered to lift Penrith to the 2023 NRL Grand Final title. The pair dragged the Blues back into contention, cutting Queensland’s lead to just two points with 10 minutes left on the clock.

The Blues wasted multiple chances to take the lead in the final stages, including a glaring overlap that ended with a dropped pass from Haumole Olakau’atu after a slightly off-target throw from Tedesco. But with just 60 seconds left on the clock, Cleary launched a towering bomb toward the Queensland try line, and Tedesco – recalled to the starting side for his first Origin appearance in two years – soared above the Maroons’ defensive line to claim the ball one-handed, juggling it before securing the hold and grounding it for the match-winning try.

The stunning result mirrors the come-from-behind wins the Maroons have built their decades-long Origin legacy on, delivering the Blues one of the unlikeliest victories in the history of the interstate rivalry. For Queensland, the loss means they must now win game two in Melbourne to level the series, and force a decider at Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium on July 8 to keep their hopes of an Origin crown alive.

As the Carlton Blues prepare for one of the most challenging matches of their Australian Football League season, the club is holding out hope that star key defender Jacob Weitering will make a timely return from injury ahead of Friday night’s high-stakes clash against Geelong at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

Weitering has been sidelined for weeks with a calf injury, but interim head coach Josh Fraser confirmed on Wednesday that the veteran backline leader is on track to prove his fitness for the blockbuster matchup. The 2024 Blues’ season has seen a sudden shift in momentum over the past fortnight: two consecutive wins have followed the abrupt departure of former senior coach Michael Voss, and the team is now gearing up to test its improved form against a powerhouse Geelong side armed with one of the league’s most dangerous forward groups.

Fraser shared that Weitering completed a full training session while the team was in Adelaide over the weekend, and the club will make a final call on his availability following a Thursday main training session. “He’s important to us – not only through his on-field performances but also his leadership,” Fraser told reporters, noting that Weitering’s presence would be critical to shutting down Geelong’s premiership-caliber attacking line, headlined by star forward Jeremy Cameron.

Alongside the anticipated return of Weitering, Fraser has highlighted the impressive early contributions of first-year defender Harry Dean, while arguing that the young talent has not received enough external recognition for his impact this season. Dean has featured in nine senior matches in his debut campaign, already taking on defensive assignments that most first-year players rarely handle. The 19-year-old has stepped up in high-pressure matchups week after week, and Fraser said his mature approach to the game has been a revelation for the club.

“I’m not sure Harry is getting enough credit externally, I think he’s been outstanding,” Fraser said. “He had a big job last week, he’s had a big job most weeks, and he’s doing a terrific amount of work for us. He plays with a maturity above his age, he brings a competitive edge to what we’re doing on-field. I’ve loved the start to his career, I think Carlton supporters should be pretty excited about the way his career is going to unfold.”

When asked about the team’s recent two-game winning streak – a better result than the club notched in its first nine rounds under Voss – Fraser pushed back on the narrative that a complete systemic overhaul has driven the turnaround. Instead, he framed the improvement as a gradual evolution of the club’s existing game plan and off-field structures, rather than a full reset.

“I like to think we’ve evolved more than we’ve changed,” he explained. “When you evolve, there are natural changes with what you do, but there’s been a strong foundation built. We’ve been able to consider what that looks like moving forward: some of the changes have been on game day, some of it has happened Monday to Friday with where we’re putting our energy and where we’re educating. It’s evolving. We’ve got a lot more steps in front of us, but there have been encouraging signs so far.”

Friday’s clash at the MCG will be the clearest test yet of whether Carlton’s recent improvement is sustainable, with a win over the top-tier Cats cementing the club’s rising status in the 2024 AFL competition.

A stunning behind-the-scenes revelation from a recently ousted AFL coach has sent ripples through Australian Rules football, with Hawthorn head coach Sam Mitchell breaking his silence on the bombshell.

Brad Scott, who left his role as Essendon senior coach earlier this week following a dismal stretch of just one win from 24 matches in charge, dropped the unexpected bombshell during an appearance on the *Agenda Setters* podcast Tuesday night. In the interview, Scott confirmed that he had personally supported trading star Essendon midfielder Zach Merrett to Hawthorn during the last trade period, a move that ultimately fell through and left Merrett at the club.

The failed trade attempt came amid growing tension at Essendon, linked to the club’s underwhelming on-field performance that ultimately cost Scott his job. Hawthorn had been openly targeting Merrett in a bid to bolster their list and strengthen their premiership push last season, a push that never came to fruition.

Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Mitchell declined to dive into deep discussion of Essendon’s internal dynamics, noting the timing of Scott’s departure made the situation sensitive. Still, the Hawks coach admitted he found Scott’s public admission intriguing.

“It was an interesting comment when you hear a coach say he wanted a different outcome than what the football club ultimately went with,” Mitchell said. “It’s not completely unexpected, I suppose, but hearing it laid out publicly like that was interesting. We obviously had a fair bit of interest in Zach at that period of time, and that didn’t come to fruition, which we felt was out of our control. We’ll soldier on with this year, focus on giving ourselves the best possible chance to compete, and look for opportunities to improve our list down the line. The dynamic between how coaches and list management departments work together — it was just interesting, same as everyone else, I thought it made for good TV.”

Beyond the Merrett trade talk, Mitchell also provided injury updates for his squad, ahead of Hawthorn’s crucial Thursday night clash against St Kilda. The coach remained tight-lipped on the selection status of fan favorites Will Day and Jack Gunston, but opened up on the frustrating injury run of key defender Jack Scrimshaw, who was a critical contributor to Hawthorn’s finals run last season.

Scrimshaw has been hampered by persistent minor injuries and a dip in form in recent weeks, before suffering a fresh knock to his opposite knee at training. Mitchell said the utility has been left frustrated by the string of setbacks, but remains optimistic that Scrimshaw will return to senior selection in the very near future.

“He was managing a little bit of knee soreness for a couple of weeks and then ended up falling out of the side,” Mitchell explained. “Then his other knee got a jarring hit at training, so he wasn’t available for AFL selection this week with our match on Thursday. If he gets through the next few days without any issues, he’ll get some game minutes in with Box Hill on Saturday, and should be available for senior selection after that. It’s been a really frustrating block for Jack because he’s such an important player for us, he just slipped out of a bit of form because he was carrying a few niggles, and now he can’t get out on the park. But if he comes through these next few days problem-free, he should have gotten past the worst of it and be back to full fitness soon.”

Deep in the working-class hills of Ecuador’s Mujer Trabajadora neighborhood, 24-year-old Chelsea star Moises Caicedo lifted his very first piece of silverware decades ago: a dented golden plastic cup, borrowed from a neighbor just to let a ragtag group of local kids experience the thrill of victory. That humble moment, captured in a faded childhood photograph, remains one of the most cherished keepsakes of Jeremy Cedeno, Caicedo’s lifelong friend and now a local paramedic.

The photo shows a young, grinning Caicedo kneeling surrounded by five small teammates, his small hands clamped around the toy trophy from an informal neighborhood tournament played on unmarked dirt. There were no referees, no line markers, and no proper gear—Cedeno recalled to AFP that tackles were brutal, and players often took the field barefoot. Today, that same wide, victorious smile is one that millions of football fans around the world recognize, as Caicedo prepares to represent Ecuador at his second consecutive World Cup, kicking off in June 2026.

Caicedo’s journey from a poor youngest child in a family of 10 to one of the most expensive footballers in English Premier League history is a story of relentless grit. As a child, he supplemented his family’s income by selling flowers in a local cemetery, and he often helped his youth coach park cars in the city’s entertainment district to earn small change for club equipment. His first coach Ivan Guerra, who still runs the same local football school that gave Caicedo his start, remembers the primitive pitch where the star cut his teeth: a rough expanse of mud, stones, sand, and scattered broken glass. Today, Guerra uses Caicedo’s story to teach every young player at the academy that hard work is the only path to turning dreams into reality.

Darwin Castillo, who coached Caicedo as a teenager at Jaipadida club, recalled a quiet, shy young man who blended in with his peers but already stood out for his unmatched discipline and natural physical ability. That discipline, Castillo says, came from Caicedo’s humble upbringing: a tight-knit poor family that said grace before every meal, and that instilled core values of gratitude and humility that the star has never lost.

Caicedo made the breakthrough to top-tier European football in 2023, when his British record 115 million pound ($147 million) transfer from Brighton & Hove Albion to Chelsea made him the most expensive player in Ecuador’s national team history. He notched 50 appearances for the Blues in his first full season, scoring five goals and lifting the Club World Cup trophy with the club in the United States in July 2025. On that special day, he tied an Ecuadorian flag around his waist, a quiet tribute to the country and neighborhood that made him. He has since earned a national medal for sporting merit from the Ecuadorian National Assembly, where he reaffirmed his commitment to staying the same humble kid who never forgot his roots.

Castillo says Caicedo has kept that promise. Today, the star’s face adorns murals across his hometown of Santo Domingo, printed on youth jerseys and even emblazoned on the shin guards of local kids like 9-year-old Julian Hidalgo, who dreams of following in Caicedo’s footsteps and plays under the same coach Guerra. When Caicedo returns home for holidays, he spends his days just as he did as a kid: hitting the beach, riding local Ferris wheels, and kicking a ball around the neighborhood with his former coaches and childhood friends, slipping right back into being the barefoot kid who just loved to play.

With his second World Cup just weeks away, Caicedo’s journey remains far from over. From that borrowed plastic trophy to global stardom, the driving force that pushed him out of poverty is still pushing him forward to chase more silverware.

Against a backdrop of back-to-back historic upsets over global football powerhouses Brazil and England, Japan men’s national football team head coach Hajime Moriyasu remains unshaken in his bold goal of lifting the 2026 FIFA World Cup trophy — even as a devastating hamstring injury rules out star winger Kaoru Mitoma just days before the squad announcement.

The 28-year-old Brighton & Hove Albion speedster, who was entering a career peak form ahead of the tournament and scored the match-winning goal against England at Wembley earlier this year, will miss the global showpiece. Mitoma’s absence marks the second high-profile injury blow for Japan, following Monaco attacker Takumi Minamino’s December knee ligament tear that also ruled him out of the competition. Yet Moriyasu argues that his squad’s deep strength in depth, built on a core of players plying their trade at top European clubs, is more than capable of filling the gap left by the in-form winger.

History shows just that: when Japan claimed their first ever win over five-time World Cup champions Brazil last October, overturning a 2-0 half-time deficit to seal a dramatic 3-2 victory in Tokyo, Mitoma was already sidelined. “That reflects the team concept, that anyone can come into the line-up and the team still performs,” Moriyasu noted of the squad’s collective ethos. The historic result against Brazil was followed by another first for Japanese football in March, when they became the first Asian men’s national team to beat England on home soil, a 1-0 win that cemented growing belief in the side’s ability to compete with the world’s best.

Japan, the first nation to qualify for the 2026 tournament, has been drawn into Group F alongside the Netherlands, Sweden and Tunisia, kicking off their campaign against the Dutch in Dallas on June 14. Unlike past squads that heavily relied on domestic league talent, Moriyasu’s 2026 roster features only three players from Japan’s top-flight J.League, with the remaining 23 spots filled by players competing across Europe’s top competitions. Key stars that have overcome long-term injury layoffs to make the squad include Liverpool defensive midfielder Wataru Endo and Arsenal defender Takehiro Tomiyasu, while Feyenoord striker Ayase Ueda brings consistent goalscoring threat, with Crystal Palace’s Daichi Kamada and Real Sociedad’s Takefusa Kubo rounding out the attacking core.

Half of the current squad already has experience at the 2022 Qatar World Cup, where Japan pulled off two of the biggest upsets in tournament history: back-to-back 2-1 wins over four-time champions Germany and 2010 winners Spain to top their group, before bowing out to Croatia in a penalty shootout in the round of 16. That run extended Japan’s pattern of reaching the last 16 four times in their World Cup history — but they have never advanced past that stage to the quarter-finals. Moriyasu is targeting an unprecedented run all the way to the title this time around, and Mitoma’s injury has done nothing to change that goal.

“We have more players with World Cup experience and that will help us in terms of the team’s composure,” Moriyasu said. “It will help us perform effectively in a variety of situations.”

Japan cruised through the Asian qualifying stage, securing their spot with three matches to spare and dropping only three points before their final dead-rubber loss. This tournament marks their eighth consecutive World Cup appearance, dating back to their debut in 1998. Moriyasu, Japan’s longest-serving national team head coach who took the reins after the 2018 World Cup, brings a wealth of high-level experience himself, having led Japan at two Asian Cups, the Tokyo Olympics, and the 2022 World Cup after winning three J.League titles with club side Sanfrecce Hiroshima.

“The target doesn’t change,” he insisted of the World Cup glory goal. “But it’s not just about that target, it’s about raising our level as individuals and as a team. It’s not just about my own experience. The managers that have gone before me, both foreign and Japanese, and my staff also have experience of the World Cup. I want to use that experience and knowledge to increase our chances, no matter how slightly.”

Ahead of one of the most anticipated fixtures of the Australian Football League season, Melbourne Demons interim coach Steven King has outlined his game plan for facing former club superstar Clayton Oliver, now plying his trade with the Greater Western Sydney Giants: a unified team approach from his midfield unit, rather than focusing on shutting down the high-flying ex-teammate individually.

This weekend’s encounter marks the first time Melbourne will share the field with Oliver since the high-profile star’s off-season departure at the end of 2025, a split that also saw fellow Demons champion Christian Petracca exit the club. Since making the switch to GWS, Oliver has recaptured the elite form that made him a fan favourite in Melbourne, turning in a standout performance last week that anchored the Giants’ dominant 14-goal third quarter upset over reigning premiers the Brisbane Lions.

While King acknowledged Oliver’s red-hot current form and the respect the current Melbourne squad holds for their former premiership teammate, he stressed that containing Oliver will be a group responsibility rather than a job for any single player. “A lot of our midfield group were premiership teammates with Clarry, and they respect him enormously,” King told reporters ahead of the clash. “He’s playing at an incredibly high level right now, and it’s up to our entire unit to step up and respond as one.”

The call for a collective response comes off the back of a disappointing heavy defeat for the Demons against the Western Bulldogs in their most recent outing. King noted that the need for a turnaround extends far beyond just matching Oliver’s output, with the entire GWS midfield posing a threat that Melbourne must answer as a group. “We were beaten pretty convincingly last week, so we need to get back on track as a group, not just against Clarry but against their whole midfield unit,” he said. “As a collective, we need to find our rhythm again, and this should be a great contest to watch.”

Despite the high-profile departures of two of the club’s greatest recent players, the Demons have exceeded expectations under King’s leadership this season, climbing rapidly up the AFL ladder. King framed the split as a mutually beneficial outcome for all parties, noting that both Oliver and Petracca have continued to deliver strong performances at their new clubs, while the roster overhaul has created opportunities for young Melbourne players to step into key roles.

“I think whenever you can get a win-win outcome, that’s great for the whole competition,” King said. “I genuinely want Clarry and Christian to go really well in their new homes. It was clear internally that we needed a change, so we don’t waste energy worrying about how they’re going – our focus is on how we perform here. They’re both great players and legends of this club, so it’s no surprise they’re still playing elite footy. For us, the biggest positive has been the opportunity this has given our young guys to step up, and that’s been really satisfying to watch.”

In team selection news, the Demons are set to welcome back key forward Brody Mihocek from a hamstring injury, while versatile midfielder Latrelle Pickett will be available after being managed in the previous round. For defender Jake Lever, who is sidelined with concussion, experienced utility Tom McDonald is lined up as a likely replacement for the GWS clash.