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Arsenal hosts Wolverhampton
on Saturday after sliding to fifth
in the Premier League by col-
lecting only one point from its
past two games. That came from
a draw against Crystal Palace
after throwing away a lead and
seeing captain Granit Xhaka run
into dispute with his own Arse-
nal fans.
North London rival Totten-
ham is faring even worse, trav-
elling back to Merseyside on
Sunday to play Everton after
losing at Liverpool a week earli-
er to remain winless on the road
in the league since January and
in 11th place.
Leader Liverpool is at Aston
Villa on Saturday holding a
six-point lead over defending
champion Manchester City,
which plays host to Southamp-
ton.SPAIN
With Lionel Messi coming off
his best performance of the
season, Barcelona is at Levante
on Saturday chasing a sixth
consecutive league win.
Messi scored twice and had
two assists in the champion’s 5-1
rout of Valladolid on Tuesday.
Barcelona is one point in front
of Real Madrid at the top of the
standings.
Real Madrid plays host to
Real Betis on Saturday when
fourth-place Atletico Madrid
visits fifth-place Sevilla.FRANCE
Edinson Cavani could make his
first start since late August
when league-leader Paris Saint-
Germain travels to struggling
Dijon on Friday. He needs just
five more goals to reach 200 for
PSG and, if selected ahead of
Mauro Icardi, the club’s all-time
leading scorer will be confident
of getting chances against the
league’s last-place side.
Cavani came on as a sub-
stitute in Sunday’s 4-0 home
win against Marseille, but has
not started a game since sus-
taining a hip injury on Aug. 25.
Although PSG has already lost
two league games, there is little
competition at the top and the
defending champion has an
eight-point lead over second-
place Nantes.GERMANY
Promoted Union Berlin plays
host to Hertha Berlin in the
highlight of the German league’s
10th round on Saturday. It’s the
first meeting of the capital’s
biggest clubs in the Bundesliga
and it comes one week before
the city celebrates 30 years since
the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Union warmed up with a 3-1
win at Freiburg in the German
Cup on Tuesday, while Hertha
has a day less to recover after a
penalty shootout win over
Dynamo Dresden on Wednes-
day.
League-leader Borussia Mon-
chengladbach visits Bayer Lev-
erkusen, also Saturday, when
defending champion Bayern
Munich visits coach Niko Ko-
vac’s former side Eintracht
Frankfurt and Borussia Dort-
mund plays host to Wolfsburg,
the only unbeaten side remain-
ing in the league.
THEASSOCIATEDPRESSWHATTOWATCHINTHE
LEADINGSOCCERLEAGUES
INEUROPETHISWEEKENDT
he Chiefs aren’t the only ones who
hope Patrick Mahomes plays
against Minnesota on Sunday.
Vikings counterpart Kirk Cou-
sins does, too.
“At the end of the day, I just want to see
players healthy, out on the field. You want
to play against their best,” Cousins said.
“You don’t necessarily want free passes on
anything.”
Then again, Cousins isn’t the one who
would be tasked with slowing down the
league MVP on Sunday.
And if figuring out a way to stop Ma-
homes – who has been recovering from a
dislocated kneecap – wasn’t a big enough
task for Vikings coach Mike Zimmer and
his staff, the will he-or-won’t he question
compounds problems.
Backup quarterback Matt Moore, who
played well in the Chiefs’ 31-24 loss to
Green Bay, is different enough from Ma-
homes that they require significant tweaks
to the game plan.
“I think you’ll have calls based on the of-
fence that you feel good about. Then
you’re going to have other calls based on
that quarterback, other calls based on this
quarterback,” Zimmer said. “So you kind
of put together your base plan and then
you have plans if he plays and if he
doesn’t.”
There is no question who will be under
centre for Minnesota (6-2) when it travels
to Arrowhead Stadium for the first time
since 2011 and tries to pull off what the
Packers did a week ago.
After hearing plenty of doubters, Cou-
sins has been on a tear the past four weeks,
putting up a league-leading 137.1 rating. He
also leads the NFL in yards per attempt.
It helps his cause to have running back
Dalvin Cook, the league’s leading rusher,
and wide receiver Stefon Diggs. And he al-
so could have Adam Thielen back on the
field after the wide receiver hurt his
hamstring against Detroit and was held
out of last week’s win over Washington.
“If it comes down to it, we’ve just got to
go score points,” Cook said. “Don’t worry
about what they do. Don’t worry how
many points they score. We’ve just got to
go out and execute every drive that we’re
out there and try to get some points out of
every drive.”
That could be important given the po-
tent playmakers the Chiefs also have on of-
fence: running back LeSean McCoy, wide
receiver Tyreek Hill and Sammy Watkins
and tight end Travis Kelce.
They’ll be ready regardless who is under
centre for them.
“It’s hard to say they’re not at the top of
the list,” Moore said, when asked about
supporting casts he’s played with over 10
years spent in Carolina and Miami. “I’ve
played with a lot of good guys over the
years, and been fortunate to have great
teammates, but you can’t overlook these
guys.”
Or count them out, even if their biggest
star is sidelined another week.
“We’ll see how it goes,” Chiefs coach An-
dy Reid said. “I’m taking it day by day here.
I’m going to watch them do their thing and
just see how they do.”DEFENDING HOMEThe Chiefs have lost all three games at Ar-
rowhead Stadium this year, following a
strange leaguewide trend of teams strug-
gling at home.
Of course, their opponents have beentwo first-place teams in Indianapolis and
Green Bay and a second-place team in
Houston. Those three have a combined re-
cord of 17-6 heading into this week’s
games.
“We know what we have to do. We know
what we need to improve,” Chiefs wide re-
ceiver Mecole Hardman said. “It’s our do-
main. It’s our home. We’ve got to get back
on track here.”BRINGING THE BLITZThe Chiefs have 13 sacks for 128 yards over
the past two games, and an increase in
pressure dialled up by new defensive co-
ordinator Steve Spagnuolo has been a big
reason for it. “When you start getting 16, 17,
18 blitzes in a row, it could be their identi-
ty,” Zimmer said.
Cousins historically performs well on
plays facing five or more pass rushers.
“It obviously keeps the running back in
a lot,” Cook said. “But we’ve got to identify
guys and pick it up and give Kirk a chance
to get the ball to these playmakers.”PLAYOFF RACEIt’s not too early to start looking at the
standings, particularly for two teams in the
running for division titles, home-field ad-
vantage and first-round playoff byes.
“If you want to be a good team, you’ve
got to beat a good team,” Diggs said.
“That’s what we prepare for, that’s what we
are trying to do at all times. They definitely
are a contender.
“They’ve been well for the past couple of
years.”THEASSOCIATEDPRESSDAVE SKRETTAKANSASCITY
Vikings,Chiefsbothawait
wordonMahomes’sstatus
It takes a certain kind of resilience to be
part of the All Blacks’ coaching crew for
four Rugby World Cups.
After the last of his 93 wins from 107
tests as coach of New Zealand, Steve Han-
sen clearly isn’t ready to stop defending
his turf.
Six days after the All Blacks’ bid for a
third straight World Cup title ended in a
semi-final loss to England, Hansen man-
aged to get his squad up again to win the
third-place playoff 40-17 against Wales on
Friday.
He was emotional as he clapped his
hands above his head during a postmatch
interview, applauding his All Blacks and
acknowledging a rousing crowd of close
to 49,000.
It was a night before his wishful exit as
coach, and the colour of the medal was
not the same as the All Blacks delivered in
2011 and ’15, but it was a winning ending
all the same.
Not long after, Hansen was asked about
the potential future power shift in the
game and how it may affect the All
Blacks, with the money on offer for play-
ers in Europe leading to predictions of an
exodus from the south.
Ever combative, Hansen turned de-
fence into attack.
“Firstly, the northern hemisphere has
always had the say about what happens.
Six Nations has been doing that for
years,” he said. “That’s one of the issues
with our game. We need to become a
global game and make decisions that are
right for the game, rather than what’s
right for one region.
“That’s the challenge for our game, to
put our own personal desires to the side
and actually do what’s right with the
game.”
He was talking about the failure to
agree on global windows for international
rugby, but having said that, Hansen ac-
knowledged the All Blacks responded
from adversity to win unprecedented con-
secutive World Cups, and he was confi-
dent they can do it again from the ashes
of this campaign.
He was an assistant coach to Graham
Henry in 2007, when the All
Blacks had a shocking quar-
ter-final loss to France in
Cardiff. Both coaches kept
their jobs, against all expec-
tations. Four years later, they
delivered New Zealand’s sec-
ond World Cup title, 24 years
after the first.
Hansen took over as head
coach and led the successful
title defence in 2015 in En-
gland. The All Blacks were
unbeaten in 18 World Cup
matches, and there were
two-time world champions in the squad
who had never lost a game at the global
tournament until that semi-final loss to
England.
Preparing to lift for the Wales game was
a real test of character, Hansen said.
“It’s easy to have character when you’re
winning all the time because it’s not test-
ed; our character’s been tested this week,”
he said. “The most important thing we
can do now is show that if your charac-
ter’s tested, you can stand up to it. That’s
the greatest success we can take out of
this tournament. It’s the greatest success
we can show young people in New Zeal-
and who want to be aspiring All Blacks or
aspiring anything. You’ve got to have
character.”The New Zealanders scored six tries to
two against Wales, and were dominant
from the start, extending an unbeaten
streak in head-to-heads that dates back to
1963.
England and South Africa meet in Sat-
urday’s final, and Hansen said those
teams deserved to be called the global
leaders. The All Blacks, dominant for a
decade, were among the chasers.
“I know with my time finishing, the All
Blacks will continue to
strive to be better,” Hansen
said. “The young men that
are going to come back have
a personal pain. It’s now
personal. That’ll make them
a little bit more dangerous.”
Players and coaches re-
spected Hansen’s under-
standing of what it was to
represent the All Blacks, a
revered position in a coun-
try where rugby is a passion.
“He’s been a massive
driver behind the standards
we’ve been chasing,” assistant coach Ian
Foster said. “He’s added to a legacy that
means a lot to him, and he’s added his
own little special chapter.”
For Hansen, heading toward a club job
in Japan, that means he won’t turn pun-
dit, and he warned anyone thinking of
calling him looking for criticism of the
future All Blacks will be disappointed.
“It’ll be pretty good, I reckon. Beer in
one hand, and access to another one in
the other hand. No pressure,” he said of
watching coming test matches. “You’ll al-
ways be connected to the team. It’s like a
family and you’ll always want it to do
well.”THE ASSOCIATED PRESSNew Zealand’s Ben Smith breaks past Dillon Lewis of Wales at the Rugby World Cup in Tokyo on Friday. After a disappointing semi-final loss
to England last Saturday, the All Blacks settled by defeating Wales 40-17 for a bronze-medal finish.STUFORSTER/GETTYIMAGES
AllBlackscoachfirespartingshotafterbronzewin
JOHN PYETOKYO
Thenorthern
hemispherehas
alwayshadthesay
aboutwhathappens.
SixNationshasbeen
doingthatforyears.STEVE HANSEN
DEPARTINGHEADCOACH,
NEWZEALANDALLBLACKSSPORTS |