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Understated Mainoo Vital as England Reach Euro 2024 Final

England midfielder Kobbie Mainoo (R) put in a superb display as his team beat the Netherlands to reach the Euro 2024 final. INA FASSBENDER / AFP
England midfielder Kobbie Mainoo (R) put in a superb display as his team beat the Netherlands to reach the Euro 2024 final. INA FASSBENDER / AFP
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Understated Mainoo Vital as England Reach Euro 2024 Final

England midfielder Kobbie Mainoo (R) put in a superb display as his team beat the Netherlands to reach the Euro 2024 final. INA FASSBENDER / AFP
England midfielder Kobbie Mainoo (R) put in a superb display as his team beat the Netherlands to reach the Euro 2024 final. INA FASSBENDER / AFP

Spain youngster Lamine Yamal showered himself in glory by firing his team into the Euro 2024 final but England had their own, rather more understated, teenager to thank in Kobbie Mainoo for helping secure a berth in the Berlin showpiece on Sunday.
The 19-year-old's sterling performance ensured England reached a second consecutive Euros final with a 2-1 semi-final win over the Netherlands in Dortmund on Wednesday, AFP said.
Mainoo played a vital role in England's midfield as the Three Lions produced their finest performance in Germany this summer.
Bidding to win their first major trophy since the 1966 World Cup, Gareth Southgate's side desperately needed to improve after scraping into the final four.
Finding his footing at the core of the team is Manchester United midfielder Mainoo.
He made his Premier League debut in January 2023 at 17, only breaking through in the 2023-24 season with his club.
Mainoo became the youngest ever England player to play in the semi-finals of a major tournament and showed exactly why Southgate has put his faith in him.
He began the tournament as third choice for the position -- after the coach dropped Trent Alexander-Arnold, he turned to Chelsea's Connor Gallagher against Slovenia in England's third group game.
It was not working at half-time so Southgate turned to Mainoo and hasn't looked back.
The midfielder has become Southgate's solution to a problem position, having previously lamented the lack of a new Kalvin Phillips or Jordan Henderson.
Mainoo put in assured performances against Slovakia and Switzerland but his best display so far -- and not coincidentally, England's -- was against the Dutch in Dortmund.
"I think all of his performances have been exceptional, especially when you consider his age," Southgate told reporters.
"We haven't really had a player like him until now. It makes such a difference when your midfield players can receive (while being) pressed, turn with the ball so easily and comfortably.
"I thought him, Phil (Foden) popping up in spaces, Jude (Bellingham), our movement was really good. It caused a lot of problems and them to adapt without the ball."
Futsal background
Mainoo, who attributes his slick ability on the ball to his past playing futsal, the five-a-side small-pitch game requiring high levels of technique and skill, helped England dominate their opponents in the first half.
The Manchester United midfielder pinned the Netherlands deep in their own territory by aggressively putting heavy pressure on the ball every time they tried to break loose.
England benefitted from a slice of luck after Xavi Simons blasted Netherlands ahead when Harry Kane won a soft penalty, but after the England captain converted it to level the score, their superiority was evident.
With Mainoo pulling the strings in midfield it was hard for the Dutch to win the ball back and England boasted a higher possession at full time, with Ollie Watkins' 91st-minute strike saving them from a third successive period of extra-time.
"It will be, I would imagine, a long time since -- or if ever -- an English side had 60 percent of the ball against a side from the Netherlands," said Southgate.
"It shows the more modern England way and the resilience and the character of the group."
Mainoo's rise to prominence has even surprised those close to him by its speed.
Luke Shaw, his team-mate for club and country, said ahead of the Netherlands game that his "growth is scary" and that Mainoo has "the world at his feet".
That was laid bare on a heady night in Dortmund which propelled him to new heights, with the biggest game of his career awaiting in Berlin on Sunday.
Mainoo will have his work cut out against the team-of-the-tournament Spain in the final. La Roja midfielders Rodri Hernandez and Fabian Ruiz have been two of the stars of the summer.
However, Mainoo and Manchester United got the better of Pep Guardiola's Manchester City in the FA Cup final in May, with the young midfielder scoring what proved to be the winner.
Asking for a repeat of that would be too much but Southgate will be delighted if he can just reproduce his near flawless display against the Netherlands.

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Sha’Carri Richardson’s Comeback Halted by Julien Alfred, Who Brings 1st Olympic Medal to St. Lucia

St. Lucia's Julien Alfred celebrates after winning the women's 100m final of the athletics event at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at Stade de France in Saint-Denis, north of Paris, on August 3, 2024. (AFP)
St. Lucia's Julien Alfred celebrates after winning the women's 100m final of the athletics event at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at Stade de France in Saint-Denis, north of Paris, on August 3, 2024. (AFP)
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Sha’Carri Richardson’s Comeback Halted by Julien Alfred, Who Brings 1st Olympic Medal to St. Lucia

St. Lucia's Julien Alfred celebrates after winning the women's 100m final of the athletics event at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at Stade de France in Saint-Denis, north of Paris, on August 3, 2024. (AFP)
St. Lucia's Julien Alfred celebrates after winning the women's 100m final of the athletics event at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at Stade de France in Saint-Denis, north of Paris, on August 3, 2024. (AFP)

There were small signs for anyone willing to look that the sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson might not quite match the person she has become.

The wobbly starts. The little details. The meek exit from the Olympic trials earlier this summer after such a promising start.

All the hype aside, Richardson was never a sure thing to win an Olympic gold medal Saturday in the 100 meters. On a rainy and odd evening at the Stade de France, 23-year-old Julien Alfred from St. Lucia showed there’s more than one inspirational story, and more than one great sprinter, at this Olympic track meet.

Alfred romped through the puddles and past Richardson and the rest of a largely depleted field, finishing in 10.72 seconds to throw a brick wall in front of what was supposed to be one of the best stories in Paris.

She beat Richardson by .15 seconds — the biggest margin in the Olympic 100 since 2008 — to bring home the first medal of any color to the small eastern Caribbean island of St. Lucia.

Alfred’s victory completed a journey that included her father’s death in 2013 and a move to Jamaica as a teenager, alone, in hopes of training to become a great sprinter.

“He believed I could do it,” Alfred said, crying as she talked about her dad. “He couldn’t get to see me on the biggest stage of my career.”

Richardson was left with silver — a nice color but certainly not the point of all this after what she’s been through the last three years. Her training partner, Melissa Jefferson, finished third in 10.92 seconds.

Richardson came in as the favorite even though she has hardly been flawless this summer.

Her opening race on the road to Paris included a terrible start at Olympic trials in an event she won with an untied shoelace.

Those starts got marginally better, but after she won the US title in the 100, it was a bit of a shock when she failed to qualify for the 200, thus denying herself a chance at double gold in Paris.

On the gold-medal day in the 100, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce abruptly withdrew from the event before the semifinal, leaving all three Jamaicans who swept the podium at the Tokyo Games on the sideline for what, at one point, had been billed as the marquee race of the Olympics.

All of which seemed to set up perfectly for Richardson — only when she lined up in the semifinal, she was right next to Alfred, the only other woman in the Olympic field to crack 10.8 this year.

Richardson lumbered out of the blocks and lost that race by .05 seconds. It was a harbinger of things to come, though Alfred said she barely noticed who was in the lane next to her — it was Richardson again — when the final rolled around 90 minutes later.

“Sometimes when I do, I tend to panic,” Alfred said. “So far this year (not paying attention) has been such a good strategy.“

Neither the specter of Richardson on her right again nor the downpour that started about 10 minutes before the race began could slow down Alfred in the final.

Alfred’s opening burst played big when she won the world indoor title earlier this year at 60 meters, and she started strong in this one, with two steps on the entire field at the 40-meter mark. Richardson, as has happened before this summer, labored to get to full speed.

The American, her arms pumping wide in Lane 7, looked to be making up a bit of ground when Alfred leaned into the finish line. But there was too big a gap between them, and the real contest was the one between Richardson and Jefferson for second.

“I’m a baby in this sport,” said the 23-year-old Jefferson, who won the 2022 US title while Richardson was still fashioning her comeback. “I have a lot of learning and growth to do.”

A centerpiece of NBC’s pre-Games’ coverage and the star of a Netflix documentary about track, Richardson did not show up for interviews after her second-place finish. It was a rarely seen breach of Olympic protocol and a move destined to keep the world guessing about a star who has stayed very much on message since her luck started changing this time last year.

In the few interviews she did in the leadup to the Games, she leaned into personal growth, and how she had become a more thoughtful, mindful person since her lowest point in 2021, shortly after she learned of the death of her biological mother.

That triggered a bout with depression, which left her alone in her hotel room in 2021 at Olympic trials, which is where she said she used marijuana. That cost her the trip to Tokyo. It took two years for her to climb back to the pinnacle, and it turns out, the high point came last year at worlds in Hungary, when she won the 100-meter title.

Given where she was at the last Olympics, a silver medal at these ones, with a chance for more next week in the 4x100 relays, isn’t bad.

But hardly anyone had her playing second fiddle to the sprinter from St. Lucia.

Alfred said on race days, she usually wakes up early on to jot down thoughts in her journal.

On Saturday, she kept it simple. “I wrote down ‘Julien Alfred: Olympic champion,’” she said.

Short. Simple. And 100% on target, a lot like the race she ran to become one.

America’s lone gold medal of the day came from Ryan Crouser, who earned a three-peat in the shot put. Another American silver went to the 4x400 mixed relay team, which got reeled in by Femke Bol of the Netherlands in the anchor lap.

Jasmine Moore won a bronze medal in the triple jump competition, won by Thea Lafond, who brought the first Olympic medal to Dominica.

Moore set herself up for a possible double when she competes in long jump later this week.

“Tomorrow, I think I’ll eat, lift, eat some more and enjoy it,” Moore said. “And when long jump comes, just try to have some fun.”

Earlier in the day, Noah Lyles finished second (10.04) in a sluggish first-round qualifying heat to make the semifinals in the men’s 100. The semifinals and finals for that are set for Sunday.