26 NEWS
THE WEEK 17 August 2019SportFootballManchester United
beat Chelsea 4-0. Tottenham
beat Aston Villa 3-1. Arsenal
beat Newcastle 1-0.
Rugby unionAustralia scored
six tries in their 47-26 win
over New Zealand–their
biggest-ever victory against
the All Blacks.
GymnasticsSimone Biles
won her sixth all-around
title at the US Gymnastics
Championships, equalling the
record set by Clara Schroth
Lomady in 1952.
TennisRafael Nadal retained
his Rogers Cup title with a
straight-sets victory over
Daniil Medvedev.“It is the biggest revolution in football in more
thanacentury,” said Martyn Ziegler in The
Times. And last week, in the opening weekend of
the season, video assistant referee technology –
known as VAR–arrived in the Premier League.
For the first time, each match is being watched by
officials onascreen, fromahub in London. And
if they think the referee on the pitch has made the
wrong call ona“match-changing situation”–a
goal,apenalty, an offence that meritsared card
–then they can alert him, giving him the chance
to amend his decision. VAR checked 40 incidents
in its maiden weekend; in three of those instances
–twice in Manchester City’s 5-0 win over West
Ham, once in Wolves’ 0-0 draw with Leicester –
the original decision was overturned.Everyone should be pleased with how VAR fared, said former
referee Keith Hackett in The Daily Telegraph. “The process was
generally quick, the right decisions made.” Try telling that to the
fans, said Sam Wallace in The Sunday Telegraph. At the West
Ham-City game, the crowd made their feelings clear, chanting,
“VAR is f******g shit”. And they haveapoint: something about
this technology “feels wrong”. The problem isn’t the decisions,
said Martin Samuel in the Daily Mail. Nobody is disputing that
they were “correct”, if pedantic–City hadagoal ruled out
because Raheem Sterling was offside by an armpit. But in itshunger for “clinical accuracy”, the sport has
“sacrificedalittle of its soul”: VAR “erases the
special moments that form the emotional peaks
of the game”. After all, it’s hard to celebrate a
goal when you don’t know if it will stand. Worst
of all, VAR makes football dull, said Matthew
Syed in The Times. There’s so much waiting
while remote officials trawl through “stills and
replays”: almost two minutes passed before
that City goal was overturned. It can’t be long
before “broadcasters pump out commercials
during the downtime”.But VAR isn’t the only thing making the
Premier League boring, said Tom Morgan in
The Daily Telegraph. Man City’s “near-perfect
demonstrations of ruthless attacking intent” are also having a
stifling effect. West Ham are meant to be challenging foratop-six
place this season, yet they were crushed by the Sky Blues–attheir
own ground. City have now won 15 Premier League games in a
row, three short of the Premier League record they set two years
ago. And Liverpool, the European champions, are almost as
dominant: having lost just one match last season, they began
their new campaign with an impressive 4-1 win over Norwich
City. “It all adds up to new standards in excellence, but where is
the jeopardy, the sense that anything can happen, and anyone can
beat anyone, in England’s top tier?”The Premier League returns“This was supposed to be Wales’s big moment,”
said Robert Kitson in The Guardian. Last Saturday,
the day before they faced England in their first
warm-up for the World Cup, they had leapfrogged
the All Blacks in the rankings to become the No. 1
rugby team in the world. Buta33-19 defeat at
Twickenham sent them tumbling down to earth
–and back to the No.2spot. This was effectively
the EnglandBteam against the WalesAteam, said
Owen Slot in The Times. Warren Gatland, the Wales
head coach, settled on his preferred starting XV a
long time ago; his England counterpart, Eddie Jones,
keeps experimenting with line-ups. The “psychology
of the contest may have playedapart” in the result:
the Welsh side knew they would be going to the
World Cup, which starts in Japan in September, whereas many of
the English players were competing foraplace in their squad. But
the England performance was encouraging nonetheless. Againand again in recent matches they have thrown away
abig lead. Not this time: after Wales scored two tries
in six minutes in the second half, England just
“played sensible rugby” and slowed the game down.Still, England’s World Cup preparations leavealot to
be desired, said Stephen Jones in The Sunday Times.
In Jones’s four seasons as head coach, he has picked
no fewer than 70 different players–“an incredible
number”–while afurther 59 have trained with the
squad. And his selections continue to be “scatter-
gun”: his 31-man squad for the World Cup, which
was announced on Monday, includes two players
(Willi Heinz and Lewis Ludlam) who only made
their England debuts on Sunday, and another,
Bath wing Ruaridh McConnochie, who has never played for the
national side. Even now, with justamonth until the World Cup
begins, “no one is quite sure” what England’s best team is.Rugby union: experimental England beat WalesSterling: offside by an armpitHeinz: untested?Murray: “looking long-term” Sporting headlinesSeven months ago, Andy
Murray’s career appeared to be
finished, said Simon Briggs in
The Daily Telegraph. When he
gaveateary press conference at
the Australian Open, admitting
he was in so much pain that
he might not play another
tournament, it was easy to
think we’d never see him on
atennis court again. But since
undergoing hip-resurfacing
surgery later that month, the 32-year-old has
madea“remarkable” comeback. First there
was his triumphant return to Queen’s, in June,
when he claimed the men’s doubles title with
Feliciano López. And on Monday, in the opening
round of the Cincinnati Masters, he played his
first singles match since his operation. He may
have lost 6-4, 6-4 to Richard Gasquet, but itwas an encouraging
performance nonetheless. After
an understandably tentative
start, Murray got into his
stride, giving glimpses of the
man who once “stood at No. 1
in the world”.
Murray isa“walking advert
for hip-resurfacing surgery”,
said Stuart Fraser in The Times.
For 18 months he was barely
capable of tying his own
shoelaces; now, after havingametal cap fitted
over the head of his thigh bone, he is “free of
pain”, and is able to “dash” around the court
again. He has decided not to compete in the
singles at the US Open (though he will be in the
men’s and mixed doubles), but that should be
considered an encouraging sign: it shows that
Murray is, once again, “looking long-term”.Murray: “remarkable”