D2 EZ M2 THE WASHINGTON POST.TUESDAY, JUNE 7 , 2022
SOCCER
France still struggling
in the Nations League
Titleholder France failed t o
rebound from its opening defeat
in the Nations League after it was
held by host Croatia to a 1-1 draw
on Monday in Split.
Midfielder Adrien Rabiot gave
France the lead after t he break,
and substitute Andrej Kramari
equalized from the penalty spot
late for C roatia.
F rance was stunned by
Denmark, 2 -1, in Paris in F riday’s
League A group, and Croatia
started its campaign by losing at
home to Austria, 3-0.
D enmark took the s ole lead of
the group Monday a fter beating
Austria, 2-1, in Vienna. Defender
Jens Stryger s cored s ix minutes
from the end for Denmark. Xaver
Schlager e qualized for the hosts
after Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg ’s
opener.
In L eague B play, Jon Dagur
Thorsteinsson s cored four
minutes into the second half as
Iceland salvaged a 1-1 draw
against visiting Albania in
Reykjavik. Taulant Seferi p ut
Albania ahead in the first half....
B razil defeated Japan, 1-0, in a
friendly, t hanks t o a penalty by
Neymar i n the 77 th minute after
he was tripped in the box on a
rainy night a t Tokyo’s new
National Stadium. It w as
Neymar’s 74th goal for the
national team, three s hort of t he
record held by Pelé....
U. S. national team forward
Catarina Macario i njured her
ACL in a match with French club
team Lyon and will miss World
Cup qualifying next month.
Macario was injured i n Lyon’s
season finale Wednesday, a 4 -0
victory over Issy. The 22-year-old
was Lyon’s t op scorer w ith 23
goals in 35 matches across all
competitions.
Macario will need surgery and
is expected to be sidelined for six
months. She h as eight goals and
two assists in 17 a ppearances for
the United States....
Canada Soccer said its World
Cup-bound men’s t eam returned
to practice after refusing t o play
an exhibition match against
Panama because of strained labor
negotiations.
The nation’s g overning soccer
body announced t hat the two
sides had met the night before.
The team returned to practice in
the afternoon, and future
meetings were scheduled.
Canada is set to play Curaçao
in V ancouver on Thursday in theConcacaf Nations League.
The players said in a brief
statement: “We move forward in
hopes that Canada Soccer will
work with us to resolve t he
situation.”
Sunday’s match against
Panama was called o ff j ust about
two hours before kickoff when
players refused to take the field.
The players, preparing f or
Canada’s first World Cup
appearance since 1 986, did not
practice F riday or Saturday.
The team issued a statement
Sunday outlining its d emands,
including 40 percent of World
Cup prize money, a t ravel
package for friends and relatives
and an “equitable structure with
our women’s n ational team that
shares the same player match
fees, percentage of prize money
earned at o ur respective FIFA
World Cups and the development
of a women’s d omestic league.”COLLEGES
Peyton Graham ’s two-run
homer s parked a four-run eighth
inning, and Oklahoma rallied to
beat h ost Florida, 5-4, to win the
Gainesville R egion of the NCAA
baseball tournament.
The Sooners (40-21) won two
of three a gainst the Gators t o
earn a berth in the superregionals, where they will play a
best-of-three series at V irginia
Tech (44-12) in Blacksburg next
weekend. The winner advances
to the College World Series i n
Omaha....
Courtney Day h it a three-run
homer, Estelle Czech t hrew a
four-hitter, and Texas (46-20-1)
kept its season alive with a 5-0
softball win over O klahoma State
(48-13) at t he Women’s C ollege
World Series semifinals i n
Oklahoma City.
The teams played again l ater
Monday n ight, with the winner
advancing to play d efending
national champion O klahoma in
a best-of-three championship
series starting Wednesday.TENNIS
A merican teenager Coco
Gauff rose to a career-best No. 13
in the WTA rankings a fter her
runner-up finish a t the French
Open.
Gauff, 1 8, jumped 10 spots
after getting to her first Grand
Slam final. Her doubles partner,
Jessica Pegula , moved into the
singles top 10 for the first time,
going from No. 11 to No. 8, thanks
to her run to the quarterfinals.
Rafael Nadal ’s 14th French
Open title lifted him one place to
No. 4 in the world.DIGESTGOLF
Grayson Murray a nd Kevin
Chappell , both past winners on
the PGA Tour, were among four
players who earned slots at n ext
week’s U. S. Open in final
qualifying at Woodmont Country
Club in Rockville.
Also qualifying from the field
of 72 e ntrants were professionals
Joseph Bramlett a nd Andrew
Beckler.
Bramlett, a member of the
PGA Tour, led the group of
qualifiers heading to The
Country Club in Brookline,Mass., for the third major
championship of the season by
shooting 8-under-par 136 over
two rounds. Murray f inished at 6
under, and Chappell and Beckler
were tied at 3 u nder.
U. S. Open final qualifying took
place at n ine venues Monday,
including The Club at A dmiral’s
Cove in Jupiter, Fla., where
former world No. 4 Rickie
Fowler f ailed in his bid to make
it to the U. S. Open, coming up
one stroke short.
— From news services
and staff reportsTELEVISION AND RADIO
MLB
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11 p.m. Colorado at San Francisco » MLB Network (joined in progress)
STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS
8 p.m. Eastern Conference finals, Game 4: New York Rangers at Tampa Bay
» ESPN
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8 p.m. Minnesota at New York » CBS Sports Network
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SOCCER
Noon UEFA Nations League, League B: Montenegro at Finland » Fox Sports 2
Noon Africa Cup of Nations qualifying, Group H: Comoros at Zambia »
beIN Sports
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TENNIS
5 a.m. ATP/WTA: Libéma Open, early rounds;
WTA: Nottingham Open, early rounds » Tennis ChannelASSOCIATED PRESSA rtturi Lehkonen scored 1:19
into overtime, and the visiting Col-
orado Avalanche rallied to beat
the Edmonton Oilers, 6 -5, on Mon-
day night, c ompleting a f our-game
sweep in the Western Conference
finals and reaching the Stanley
Cup finals for the first time since
200 1.
Colorado will take on the win-
ner of the Eastern Conference fi-
nal between the New York Rang-
ers and two-time defending Stan-
ley Cup champion Tampa Bay
Lightning. The Rangers lead that
best-of-seven series 2-1. Game 4 is
Tuesday in Tampa.
Cale Makar, Devon Toews, Ga-
briel Landeskog, Nathan MacKin-non and Mikko Rantanen also
scored for Colorado. Pavel Fran-
couz stopped 30 of 3 5 shots.
“Our main thing is just trying t o
be resilient, making sure that ev-
ery single night we bring that
same game,” Makar said. “Some-
times i t might n ot be pretty, but at
the end of the day we’re just going
to try to get the j ob done.”
Zach Hyman scored twice for
the Oilers. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins,
Connor McDavid and Zack Kas-
sian also scored for Edmonton.
Leon Draisaitl had four assists,
and Mike Smith finished with 36
saves.
The teams combined for six
goals in the t hird p eriod — four by
Colorado, which rallied from a 4 -2
deficit despite b eing outshot 1 5-13.
“It was a great comeback win,
for sure,” Lehkonen said. “We were
talking i n the second intermission
that we just got to find our game
and w e can pull through t his.”The Avalanche improved to 11-2
in the playoffs, including 7 -0 on
the road. Only six other teams in
NHL history have strung together
at least seven consecutive road
victories in a postseason.Bruins part ways with Cassidy
The Boston Bruins f ired coach
Bruce Cassidy, who l ed t hem to the
Stanley Cup finals in 20 19, the b est
record in the NHL the next year
and at least 100 points in each of
his four full non-pandemic sea-
sons behind the bench.
Bruins General Manager Don
Sweeney announced the move
Monday night, three weeks after
the team’s first-round playoff loss
to the C arolina Hurricanes.
The Bruins made the playoffs i n
each of Cassidy’s six seasons after
he took over for Claude Julien in
February 2017. He coached them
within one win of the Stanley Cup
in 2019 against t he St. Louis Blues.But the team hasn’t gotten out
of the second round since then,
including a Game 7 loss to Caro-
lina this spring.
After struggling f or two seasons
with Washington in his first NHL
head coaching job, from 200 2 to
200 4, Cassidy worked his way
back to the NHL with the Bruins’
American Hockey L eague affiliate
in Providence, R.I.
Cassidy, 57, w as 24 5-108-46 with
Boston and is 292-155-9-7 in his
NHL c oaching career.
l MISC.: Winnipeg Jets for-
ward Kyle Connor won the Lady
Byng Tr ophy, given to the NHL’s
most gentlemanly p layer.
Connor tied for the s econd-few-
est minor penalties in the league
during the r egular season. He w as
penalized just twice in over 1,700
minutes of ice time that included
regular shorthanded shifts and
matchups against top offensive
opponents.NHL ROUNDUPColorado rallies for OT win, sweeps into Cup finalsAVALANCHE 6,
OILERS 5 (OT)Most f amously, the s even-time
all-defensive team selection got in
hot w ater at multiple points
during the 2 016 playoffs, twice
kicking O klahoma City Thunder
center Steven A dams below the
belt in the Western Conference
finals b efore getting suspended
for G ame 5 of the NBA Finals for a
swipe to the g roin of Cleveland
Cavaliers star LeBron James.
“We know what D raymond
brings to the g ame,” said C eltics
forward Jayson Tatum, who
played w ith G reen on USA
Basketball’s g old medal-winning
team at t he Tokyo Olympics. “I
love that a bout h im. O bviously, I
played w ith h im. We tried to
match that. I just felt like we
weren’t g etting t he benefit of the
doubt when we were trying t o
play with that p hysicality.”
Green f inished with nine
points, five rebounds and seven
assists in 3 5 minutes, a modest
line that didn’t truly reflect his
impact on G ame 2. A lthough h e
was w histled for just three fouls,
Golden State’s b lowout margin
meant both teams r ested t heir
starters f or long stretches of the
fourth quarter.
In a s trategic t weak, Kerr
deployed Green more o ften as a
primary d efender o n Tatum a nd
Brown in hopes of disrupting the
Celtics’ offensive rhythm. After
scoring 120 p oints i n their Game 1
win, the C eltics managed just 88
in Game 2, t heir fewest of the
postseason. Boston committed 18
turnovers a nd shot just 30 for 80
on the night, and Brown had one
of his worst s hooting
performances of the playoffs,
going 5 for 17 f rom the f ield. The
Celtics will try to regain their
offensive chemistry i n
Wednesday’s Game 3 at T D
Garden.
“[The Warriors] switched t he
lineup,” Brown s aid. “They tried
to put [ Green] on me, b e physical,
muck the game up, p ull me, g rab
me and, overall, raise t he
intensity. I feel like they got away
with a lot of stuff tonight, but I’m
looking f orward to the c hallenge
of the next game. A ll that stuff,
the g immicks, the tricks, we’ve
just got to be the s marter team
and the more p hysical team.”Former NBA referee Steve
Javie endorsed the officials’
decision during the ABC
broadcast, asserting that
awareness of Green’s p revious
technical is “ part of good
officiating.”
“You have to consider that o ne
player definitely has a technical
foul,” Javie said. “Is this enough t o
call a double [technical] and eject
the one p layer? Personally, I
would say nothing and let it
defuse.”
Green, of course, i s no stranger
to operating in g ray areas during
the playoffs. In t he s econd r ound
against t he Memphis Grizzlies, h e
was ejected from Game 1 for a
flagrant foul w hen he yanked
Brandon Clarke out of the air b y
his jersey.surprised a bout.”
Celtics Coach Ime Udoka was
assessed a t echnical foul of his
own midway through the t hird
quarter w hen the referees missed
an apparent reach-in foul on
Green a s he defended Brown on
the perimeter. Udoka s aid he
received the technical “on
purpose” for l etting t he referees
“know how I felt t hroughout t he
game in a d emonstrative way.”
As f or the dust-up before
halftime, Udoka i mplied that
Green’s p rior technical f oul
influenced the d ecision not to
assess double technical fouls o n
Green a nd Brown.
“I w as not s urprised t here
wasn’t a d ouble technical called,”
Udoka said. “Not surprised at a ll,
due to the c ircumstances.”san f rancisco
— Draymond
Green h it the
Chase Center
court for Sunday’s
Game 2 i ntent o n
“setting the tone” d efensively for
the Golden State Warriors. Sure
enough, he wrestled Al Horford to
the hardwood t o force a jump b all
on t he first possession.
The Warriors e vened the NBA
Finals a t one win apiece by
combining Green’s i ntensity w ith
Stephen Curry’s shot-making i n a
107 -88 runaway over t he Boston
Celtics. While C urry sealed the
victory with what Warriors Coach
Steve Kerr called a “breathtaking”
performance in t he third quarter,
Green’s p hysical antics on several
plays got the a ttention of the
referees and the Celtics.
Midway t hrough the f irst
quarter, Green r an through G rant
Williams while heading t o the top
of the key to set a screen, drawing
a foul on the Celtics forward i n
the process. D uring the ensuing
dead ball, G reen received a
technical f oul for repeatedly
pushing Williams away f rom him.
Then, shortly b efore halftime,
Green b ecame entangled w ith
Jaylen Brown as the C eltics guard
attempted a t hree-pointer. Green,
who was called for a d efensive
foul, l anded with his right foot
near B rown’s h ead. When Brown
took e xception to the extra
contact, Green y anked at B rown’s
shorts as he got to his f eet.
The players had to be
separated, though both avoided
extra discipline. Had the referees
issued double technical fouls f or
the minor altercation, Green
would have b een ejected from
what was a o ne-possession game
at h alftime.
“I’m j ust trying to play
basketball,” Brown said. “I feel
like that w as an illegal play. I feel
like they c ould h ave called it, but
they l et i t go i n terms of a
technical e ither w ay. But I don’t
know what I was supposed t o do
there. S omebody g ot their legs on
the top of your h ead, a nd then he
tried to pull my p ants down. I
don’t k now what that w as about.
That’s w hat Draymond G reen
does. He’ ll do whatever it takes to
win. He’ll pull y ou, h e’ ll grab you,
he’ll try to muck the g ame up
because that’s what he does for
their team. I t’s nothing to beWarriors’ Green got under the Celtics’ skin in Game 2On the
NBA
BEN
GOLLIVERJOHN HEFTI/ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Celtics’ Jaylen Brown on the Warriors’ Draymond Green, top
left: “He’ll pull you, he’ll grab you, he’ll try to muck the game up.”bly “facing disciplinary proceed-
ings and legal action.” The Asso-
ciated Press reported that the
manager for Oosthuizen, Sergio
Garcia, Charl Schwartzel and
Branden Grace said they re-
signed from the tour, too.
PGA Tour Commissioner Jay
Monahan h as said any golfer who
joins LIV Golf could be perma-
nently banned, and the tour did
not give its golfers permission to
play in this week’s event. Norman
has countered that Monahan
cannot legally ban players who
wish to play on different tours.
The PGA Tour had granted
releases to several players to play
in the Saudi International, an
Asian Tour event staged in Febru-
ary where Mickelson made his
most recent competitive appear-
ance. While there, he blasted the
PGA Tour for “sitting on hun-
dreds of millions of digital mo-
ments” worth, in his estimation,
many billions of dollars and for
charging h im and other golfers to
use footage of shots they made in
tour events.
“That type of greed is, to me,
beyond obnoxious,” Mickelson
said then.
In his statement Monday,
Mickelson said he intends to
“play the majors,” which are not
operated by the PGA Tour. He is
eligible t o play in next week’s U. S.
Open, but a U. S. Golf Association
official said last week that the
group will decide on player eligi-
bility on a case-by-case basis.
Last week, Royal Bank of Can-
ada announced it was dropping
its sponsorship of Johnson and
2010 U. S. Open winner Graeme
McDowell, who also will play on
the new circuit. Mickelson also
has lost a number of sponsor-
ships since his comments about
the Saudis were made public,
among them KPMG and Amstel
Light.
“I am ready to come back to
play the game I love but after 32
years this new path is a fresh
start, one that is exciting for me
at this stage of my career and is
clearly transformative, not just
for myself, but ideally for the
game and my peers,” Mickelson
said in his statement. “I also love
the progressive format and think
it will be exciting for fans. Just as
importantly, it will provide bal-
ance, allowing me to focus on a
healthier approach to life on and
off the course.
“I am incredibly grateful for
what this game and the PGA Tour
has given me. I would like to
think that I have given back as
well but now I am excited about
this new opportunity.”In a statement Monday, Mick-
elson said: “I have made mistakes
in my c areer in some of the things
I have said and done. Taking time
away and self-reflecting has been
very humbling. I needed to start
prioritizing the people that I love
the most and work on becoming a
better version of myself.”
Financial details of his deal
with LIV Golf were not made
public. Golf Channel reported he
was set to receive approximately
$200 million for his participa-
tion.
Greg Norman, a two-time Brit-
ish Open champion and former
world No. 1 who heads LIV Golf
Investments, echoed some of
Mickelson’s language about the
PGA Tour in declaring Monday
that the new venture “is a once-
in-a-lifetime opportunity” for
many o f the players teeing it up in
the inaugural event.
Describing the 51-year-old
Mickelson as “unequivocally one
of the greatest golfers of this
generation,” Norman stated: “His
contributions to the sport and
connection to fans around the
globe cannot be overstated and
we are grateful to have him. He
strengthens an exciting field for
London where we’re proud to
launch a new era for golf.”
Mickelson will join 47 other
golfers in the LIV Golf event
starting Thursday at Centurion
Club; it will be a 54-hole tourna-
ment that will feature team com-
petitions, shotgun starts and no
cuts. The name “LIV,” which is
pronounced like “give,” refers to
the Roman numerals for 54.
Among the other golfers slated
to compete is two-time major
winner Dustin Johnson, who re-
portedly will receive more than
$100 million, plus any prize mon-
ey h e wins, to join the new league.
At No. 15 in the world rankings,
Johnson will be the highest-
ranked player in the field, but the
72 nd-ranked Mickelson, by vir-
tue of his career accomplish-
ments and his popularity, is per-
haps an even greater asset to the
new operation. In the PGA Tour’s
inaugural Player Impact Pro-
gram, which gives out bonuses
based on performance and mar-
ketability, Mickelson finished
second behind Tiger Woods.
After Johnson, L IV Golf ’s n ext-
highest-ranked player is South
Africa’s Louis Oosthuizen (21),
followed b y fellow American Kev-
in Na (34). A 38-year-old who has
been a regular on the PGA Tour
since 2005, Na s aid he was resign-
ing from the tour to avoid possi-
MICKELSON FROM D1
Mickelson joins LIV Golf
and will play in first event
NBA Finals
Game 3: Warriors at Celtics
Tomorrow, 9 p.m., ABCJOHN MINCHILLO/ASSOCIATED PRESSPhil Mickelson was quoted as saying he was willing to overlook
Saudi Arabia’s human rights record to get LIV Golf off the ground.