Calgary Wild FC struggles 'to get a foothold' at home, gets blanked by Ottawa Rapid FC
Ottawa's trio of tallies in the Northern Super League match came from two set pieces and one that ricocheted off Wild FC goalkeeper Stephanie Bukovec.
'I think that while the set pieces dictated the score of the game, they didn't dictate the game,' said Wild FC head coach Lydia Bedford. 'We are obviously really upset to concede two set pieces, but our play didn't create that much, and they did dictate the tempo of the game.'
Florence Belzille got the visitors on the board first, scoring her first goal in her first match at the 12-minute mark. Forward Delaney Bale Pridham doubled things up before halftime when she became the first NSL player to reach the 10-goal mark.
'We really struggled to get a foothold. I think the players kept fighting which is important. They tried to solve problems at the half, but just were less successful, and too far off it on the whole today.'
Ottawa put the game away with an own-goal three minutes into the second half.
Wild FC's record drops to 4-6-2 at the midway point of the 25-game inaugural season.
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New York Times
31 minutes ago
- New York Times
Yankees' trade deadline strategy clouded by Cam Schlittler's hot start
TORONTO — Cam Schlittler pounded his glove with his fist one time — an understated celebration for a big moment. The New York Yankees rookie had just forced Vladimir Guerrero Jr., the Toronto Blue Jays' $500-million slugger, to pop out to third base with the bases loaded to end the second inning. He did it not with his overpowering fastball, which touched 99.5 mph, but with his little-used sweeper, forcing Guerrero off balance. Advertisement It was another example of how Schlittler might complicate things for the Yankees as general manager Brian Cashman formulates plans for the July 31 trade deadline. Cashman must decide whether to keep Schilttler, who carried the Yankees for five innings and gave up two earned runs in a 5-4 win at the Rogers Centre. He's already got fans in the Yankees' clubhouse. 'He's dominant, man,' second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. said. 'Slow heartbeat,' left fielder Cody Bellinger said. 'Poised.' exhale — Talkin' Yanks (@TalkinYanks) July 22, 2025 Cashman will look to fill several needs for the Yankees, who could use multiple relievers and a third baseman. They also likely need starting rotation help. They'll spend the rest of the season without righties Gerrit Cole and Clark Schmidt due to Tommy John surgery. Luis Gil hasn't pitched yet this season thanks to a right lat strain, though he could return in less than a week. Ryan Yarbrough's recovery from an oblique strain has been slow. And while they have gotten more than 20 starts each from ace Max Fried, All-Star Carlos Rodón and rookie Will Warren, reasons for concern exist with each. Fried and Rodón have lengthy injury histories and are on pace to approach personal regular-season records for innings pitched. Warren will almost surely blow past his previous career-high of innings pitched in a season. An argument could be made that the Yankees should aim high on the trade market to bring in a pitcher capable of starting a playoff game should Fried, Rodón or Gil get hurt or stumble in the second half. That leaves the question of Schlittler, who soared through the Yankees' minor leagues and prospect rankings, and helped the team win in each of his first two big-league starts. The Yankees need to decide if they're comfortable trading his potentially bright future for present upgrades. If they keep him, they may look to rely on him the rest of the regular season and could possibly push Yarbrough back to the bullpen. Schlittler pitched a career-high 120 2/3 innings in 2024. He's already at 87 innings between the minors and majors this season. Advertisement Schlittler's stuff has already played well in the bigs. In his first MLB start, he touched 100 mph for the first time. He began the season as The Athletic's No. 8 overall Yankees prospect. And the 2022 seventh-round pick had to work on Tuesday. He scattered seven hits, all of them singles, while walking three and striking out three. 'Just kind of battling,' he said. Manager Aaron Boone said, 'You really see his stuff play.' 'He walked a few guys while throwing a lot of strikes,' Boone said. 'That's the one part he would probably like back. But to give us five strong innings there, put us in position to win. I thought he was really good, and after not pitching now for whatever it's been 10 days or whatever, I didn't feel like there was any rust or anything.' Boone added that Schlittler displayed impressive confidence on the mound. 'His trust in what he's doing out there,' Boone said, 'and he feels he's got stuff to handle it. That shows. That shows with the way he carries himself. It shows in the way he attacks. He's not afraid.' 'Big fastball,' Chisholm said. 'Big breaking ball. To just sit behind him and watch him work is great.' 'I think his stuff is electric, as everyone can see,' Bellinger said. Everyone also saw Schlittler work out of trouble against Guerrero. Schlittler also gave up a run in the first inning but got Alejandro Kirk to strike out swinging on a high fastball with runners on first and second to end the inning. In the fifth, Schlittler gave up consecutive singles to start the inning, got bailed out by a pretty double play turn from Anthony Volpe and Chisholm, and after surrendering an RBI single to Addison Barger, he ended his night getting Kirk to fly out and finish the fifth. 'The heartbeat seems to be very good,' Bellinger said, 'and I'm very confident in his ability.' Teams will be interested in trading for Schlittler. The Yankees may be further intrigued to keep him. It's setting up for a tough question for the Yankees as the trade deadline approaches.


New York Times
31 minutes ago
- New York Times
NHL offseason concern-o-meter: Erik Karlsson trade market, Connor McDavid contract, more
After weeks and months of teasing an exciting summer, the NHL offseason fizzled out quickly. Trade buzz rarely came to fruition, free agency underwhelmed and there are few legitimate offer-sheet candidates left. With little NHL news and excitement coming out, the dog days of summer can become the prime time to debate, dissect and overreact. So why not add to the discourse? Let's dust off the concern-o-meter™️to analyze a few red flags that have emerged this summer. Concern-o-meter: 5/10 It's never easy to take a step back and start looking toward the future, so the Bruins deserve credit for making that decision at the trade deadline. Trading for draft picks and prospects such as Fraser Minten will help this team replenish its prospect pipeline. Bets on reclamation projects such as Casey Mittelstadt at the deadline, along with Viktor Arvidsson this summer, could pay off, too. Advertisement As promising as that all is, the real question is whether Don Sweeney has the vision to retool the Bruins into a contender around David Pastrnak and Charlie McAvoy. His track record of drafting and developing players is suspect at best, and this summer's direction emphasizing hard-nosed players and size only adds to that concern. The Tanner Jeannot contract may not be that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things, since it only carries a $3.4 million cap hit. However, it represents Sweeney's willingness to commit to a five-year deal with a player who brings size, but not nearly enough skill. It's too early to sound the alarms in Boston, but there are some concerning trends worth keeping an eye on. Concern-o-meter: 6/10 The Blackhawks may have gone into the offseason with a ton of cap space, but the reality is that the team isn't in the position to land a big-name free agent just yet. As tempting as it could have been to offer Mitch Marner $14 million AAV, his timeline doesn't line up with Chicago's. There is a difference between accelerating the process and rushing it, and that would have fallen into the latter category. Taking the slow and patient approach isn't perfect, either. Sometimes teams don't build the right support system to ease their young guns into a lineup. It can put too much pressure on franchise cornerstones to jump into meaningful roles, which can derail their development. While the Blackhawks already have some veterans on the roster, including Jason Dickinson, Nick Foligno and Connor Murphy, management has to be sure those players can provide enough support to their rising core. That starts at the top with Connor Bedard — who still looks to be on the Jack Eichel and Clayton Keller path, but could always slip to the tier below if Chicago doesn't play this right — and trickles down to the likes of Frank Nazar, Alex Vlasic and Sam Rinzel. Rebuilding can be a painful process, so taking this quiet of an offseason approach is somewhat risky. Advertisement Concern-o-meter: 6.5/10 There is time over the next year and a half for a Karlsson trade, so the Penguins don't have to rush anything this offseason. But how will starting the year in Pittsburgh affect his value? A few factors could influence that, including the aging process. Karlsson may have defied typical aging curves, but Father Time eventually comes for everyone — and that can be further exposed depending on his usage and the support around him. So moving Karlsson this summer could be the best path, if there is an available buyer. It's just that the options have dwindled over the last couple of weeks. The Hurricanes may not have signed a clear Brent Burns replacement, but management may not want to take another massive swing on defense after acquiring (and signing) K'Andre Miller. The Panthers are out after extending Aaron Ekblad. The Senators should probably see what Jordan Spence has to offer before committing to Karlsson's contract. Vegas appears to be a better landing spot for Rasmus Andersson. Concern-o-meter: 7/10 The league is right in one thing: the game can sell itself. At its core, hockey is an exciting sport that can attract even the most casual fans. The problem is that the NHL doesn't do enough to get eyeballs on the game, and the 2025-26 schedule is the prime example of that. The NHL is shifting more toward games starting at 7:00 p.m. local time, instead of on the half hour. That makes sense during the week, to ensure an early enough ending for fans on work/school nights. But when games are unevenly distributed throughout the week, with clusters on Tuesdays and Thursdays, it leads to a lot of overlap. It leans into the assumption that fans only want to watch their own team and aren't interested in a league-wide view. The data probably backs that up, but it's flawed because of the usual schedule structure. Fans can't bounce around to watch other games on busier nights. And lighter nights don't always have eye-catching marquee matchups. So if the idea is to have a standardized local starting time, there should be more balance across the week so there aren't seven or eight games starting at once every Tuesday and Thursday. Advertisement The 4 Nations Face-Off tournament proved there can be a lot of interest in hockey. But the league failed to build on that down the stretch and into the playoffs. Add in a discombobulated, drawn-out decentralized draft, and the season's TV coverage ended on a sour note. With the 2025-26 season opening up with a matchup between the Panthers and Blackhawks, since Chicago's market size and Bedard's star power were prioritized over actual rivalries, the league looks on track to repeat the same mistakes that keep it behind other major professional leagues. Concern-o-meter: 7.5/10 When the Kings' playoff window started to close a few years ago, management changed its approach. Los Angeles blended an aging core, led by Anze Kopitar and Drew Doughty, with some up-and-coming talent. First, Adrian Kempe and Mikey Anderson emerged as key players. Then the next wave came, with Alex Laferriere and Quinton Byfield breaking out. And now Brandt Clarke, Alex Turcotte and Akil Thomas look poised to play more meaningful roles. But around that infusion of youth, the Kings opted to get older and slower this summer. That is especially glaring on defense, with Cody Ceci and Brian Dumoulin replacing Spence and Vladislav Gavrikov. Despite no changes in dollars and cents, this defensive swap cost the team 18 goals in Dom Luszczyszyn's model, which landed the Kings dead last in our offseason improvement round-up. Ken Holland's dealings were already questionable in his later years in Detroit. There were quite a few lows in Edmonton that outweighed some of the highs. So the Kings shouldn't exactly be surprised that this is the direction he's taking for his newest team. Maybe L.A.'s system will be strong enough to maximize Ceci and Dumoulin's defensive games, but maintaining that structure with weaker players operating within it could be a challenge. Concern-o-meter: 8/10 Two things held the Maple Leafs back this past season: their stars didn't shine bright enough in the playoffs and there wasn't enough bottom-six support. Matias Maccelli adds a middle-six playmaking presence to the Maple Leafs at a low cost. Nicolas Roy and Dakota Joshua add positional flexibility to the bottom six. If the Maple Leafs can channel the best from these three, after each experienced a tough 2024-25 campaign, that should solve one problem. But there is still a Mitch Marner-sized hole in the top six. As flawed as his Maple Leafs tenure was, and though his regular-season caliber didn't translate to a postseason environment consistently enough, he was still capable of putting up 100 points in the regular season. And there were some glimpses of that star potential in the playoffs. Advertisement That's something management has not replaced at this point in the offseason. The bottom-six support helps. So will another year of progress from Matthew Knies, John Tavares at a much more reasonable price, plus Auston Matthews and William Nylander. But for a team facing the pressure to finally go on a deep run, the offseason feels incomplete with that glaring hole in the top six. Concern-o-meter: 8.5/10 In a vacuum, it isn't that concerning that McDavid hasn't signed his next contract just yet. Sure, he signed his last contract on July 5, four days after being eligible to extend for the 2018-19 season. But none of the stars heading the 2026 class of free agents have extended, either — Kirill Kaprizov, Jack Eichel and Kyle Connor all have yet to ink new contracts. Leon Draisaitl waited a couple of months after his eligibility opened up last summer, too. That situation wasn't without its own pressure points. Draisaitl, like McDavid, said he needed time to figure out what both he and the team wanted. But an extension was signed in September 2024. As much as teams may want to have certainty on their franchise cornerstones sooner rather than later, players should take the time to contemplate their next steps. While a short-term contract should be on the table more often for elite players, the assumption should be that this will be McDavid's career-defining contract. It will likely be his richest deal financially and tie him to a team for the rest of his prime. While trades are always a possibility down the line, players don't sign seven or eight-year contracts thinking about that. So it makes perfect sense for McDavid to take the time after another painfully disappointing finish to consider what is best for him moving forward. But there is something about his parting comments that hits differently. 'If I feel that there's a good window to win here over and over again, then signing is no problem,' McDavid said, as reported by The Athletic's Daniel Nugent-Bowman. Already, the team has Draisaitl extended for another eight years, four more years of Evan Bouchard, plus another season of Jake Walman to work around. It's a solid foundation for McDavid to be a part of in Edmonton, but it's far from the full picture. Advertisement The goaltending situation remains unresolved and volatile. While the team managed to clear out cap with the Evander Kane and Arvidsson trades, Edmonton also lost Connor Brown to free agency. Andrew Mangiapane appears to be a solid middle-six fit. Ike Howard and Matt Savoie also have long-term potential and should help balance the books with their entry-level contracts. But those changes may not be enough to replace what was lost and push this team further along. If not, does Stan Bowman have the vision and creativity to change that? Asking any general manager to build a contender in a cap world is a challenge. Navigating around core contracts such as those for Draisaitl, Bouchard and Darnell Nurse adds another element of difficulty. But Bowman's track record and decision-making don't inspire much confidence. The Trent Frederic extension shows some of the shortcomings in his cap management. The offseason is far from over, so while the alarm is not sounding for McDavid's contract situation just yet, the Oilers' future under Bowman is a growing concern. — Data via Evolving-Hockey, HockeyViz, Hockey Stat Cards, All Three Zones, Dom Luszczyszyn, The Stanley Cap and Natural Stat Trick. This story relies on shot-based metrics; here is a primer on these numbers. (Top photos of Erik Karlsson and Connor McDavid: Patrick Smith and Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Zverev works with tennis great Nadal ahead of hard court season
Alexander Zverev feels that working with tennis legend Rafael Nadal and his uncle Toni has given him a boost for the upcoming hard court tournaments and the US Open. "It very beautiful, very good week. Obviously with a lot of help from Toni and from Rafa as well" Zverev said in a video posted on Tuesday on X by the Rafael Nadal Academy, where he has been training. "It was fantastic seeing the two of them again. I enjoyed my time, I'm ready to go to the United States now," he said. After a shocking first-round exit at Wimbledon last month, Zverev is the top favourite at the Canadian Open, which starts on Sunday, after Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic pulled out of the competition. The US Open, which is the final Grand Slam of the year, starts on August 24.