DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ For Sweden, the Right Way to Play Is the One That Wins
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-14 | by ( Rory Smith | More About Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

He would have a bite to eat, and then retire to his room at Auckland’s palatial Cordis Hotel to listen to some music. He also wanted to make further inroads into “Resonance,” the German sociologist Hartmut Rosa’s examination of how we interact with the world. He does have a World Cup semifinal to coach on Tuesday, after all. He has, after all, been here before: This is his fourth major tournament in charge of his homeland, and it is the fourth time he has made the semifinals. Sweden finished third in the 2019 World Cup, won the silver medal in the 2020 Olympics, and then reached the last four at last summer’s European Championship.

Persons: Peter Gerhardsson’s, Hartmut Rosa’s, Gerhardsson, Sweden’s Organizations: Sweden Locations: Eden

☆ Australia Outlasts France on Penalties, and a Host Nation Exhales
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-12 | by ( Rory Smith | More About Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Not from the heights that Australia has reached in its home World Cup, beating France to reach a first semifinal, but from the winding, coiling, nauseating road it took to get there. The game itself was fraught enough, the goal-less stalemate of the score line belying more than two hours in which the balance of power hopped back and forth: France started well, composed and inventive, only for Australia to wrestle control. It was not an evening defined by patterns of play so much as storm surges, and the ability to withstand them. France missed its first kick, with Australia goalkeeper Mackenzie Arnold denying Selma Bacha. Ève Périsset, introduced specifically to take a penalty, missed France’s fifth; Arnold, the goalkeeper, stepped up to win it.

Persons: Mackenzie Arnold, Selma Bacha, Solène Durand, —, Steph Catley, Ève Périsset, Arnold, Durand Organizations: Brisbane, Australia Locations: Australia, France

☆ Spain Goes the Distance to Reach Its First Women’s World Cup Semifinal
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-11 | by ( Rory Smith | More About Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

A 19-year-old Spain striker, Paralluelo was a bright prospect in track and field, too, such a gifted runner that she might even have represented her country at the Tokyo Olympics two years ago. Spain’s meeting with the Netherlands on Friday in the quarterfinals of this Women’s World Cup was always likely to be close. Four years ago, that mixture was enough to carry the Netherlands to the World Cup final against the United States. It had finished, most significantly, ahead of the United States. The squad’s confidence was growing sufficiently that forward Lineth Beerensteyn could even afford to take a little swipe at the United States team when she met with reporters before the game.

Persons: Salma Paralluelo, Paralluelo, Andries Jonker’s, Daphne van Domselaar, Vivianne Miedema, everyone, Beerensteyn, “ Organizations: Tokyo Olympics, United States Locations: Spain, Netherlands, United States, South Africa, Sweden

A few days ago, when the U.S. team was eliminated from the FIFA Women’s World Cup, it marked the end of a history-making run. Rory Smith, chief soccer correspondent for The Times, argues that it also marked the end of something even bigger: an entire era that redefined women’s sports.

Persons: Rory Smith Organizations: U.S, FIFA, The Times

☆ Women's World Cup Scores and News
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-08 | by ( Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +6 min

Her Colombia teammates followed in her wake, eating up the ground in the rush to close the distance, to catch her to celebrate the goal that would soon take the country past Jamaica and into the first Women’s World Cup quarterfinal in Colombia’s history. Caicedo’s emergence at this World Cup has not exactly been a surprise. She has long been earmarked as the next big thing: for Colombia, for South America, and increasingly for women’s soccer as a whole. She played in the under-17 World Cup — Colombia finished second — and the under-20 World Cup, reaching the quarterfinals, almost contiguously. This tournament is, in effect, her third World Cup in a year.

Persons: Catalina Usme, Linda Caicedo, Usme, Ana María, Caicedo, —, Hamish Blair, Megan Rapinoe, Christine Sinclair, Alex Morgan, Marta, bookmarked, Italian Giulia Dragoni, Hinata Miyazawa, Sophia Smith, Naomi Girma, Trinity Rodman, Melchie Dumornay, England’s, — Lauren James, Mary Fowler, Sam Kerr, ” Organizations: Copa Libertadores, Copa América, Colombia, Bayern Munich, Chelsea, Real Madrid, world’s, —, Germany, Associated, United, South, England Locations: Colombia, Jamaica, South America, América de Cali, Barcelona, Europe, Real, Madrid, Spain, United States, Nigeria, Germany, Morocco, Australia, New Zealand, Italian, South Korea, Sydney

☆ A Tiny Gap Reveals a Yawning One for the U.S. Women’s Team
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-07 | by ( Rory Smith | More About Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

That solace, though, is an illusion, and so too is the idea that the United States was eliminated by a millimeter. There is a certain irony in the fact that it was against Sweden that the United States, so limp and insipid earlier in the tournament, started to show signs of life. There were glimpses, in Melbourne, Australia, of what this team might one day be. The United States was only in position to be knocked out by Sweden because it had failed to beat both the Netherlands and — more troubling — Portugal in the group stage. The United States, the two-time reigning champion and pretournament favorite and great superpower of women’s soccer, won only one game in Australia and New Zealand, and that was against Vietnam.

Persons: Naomi Girma, Lindsey Horan, Sophia Smith, Trinity Rodman, Lynn Williams Locations: United States, Sweden, Melbourne, Australia, Netherlands, Portugal, New Zealand, Vietnam, Sydney

☆ Netherlands Holds Off South Africa, Squeezing Into World Cup Quarterfinals
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-06 | by ( Rory Smith | More About Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Thembi Kgatlana had time to pull off one more trick, to take one more shot, to send one more jolt of electricity through the crowd. She had been running, by that stage, for roughly 100 minutes, mounting what appeared at times to be a fearsome, one-woman campaign to keep South Africa in the Women’s World Cup for as long as possible. The Netherlands had a two-goal lead, and somewhere in the region of 30 seconds to survive. First, she spun and writhed and twisted away from a defender, leaving her sprawled on the turf. This time, it slithered just wide of Daphne van Domselaar’s goal.

Persons: Thembi Kgatlana, Stefanie van der Gragt, Daphne van Domselaar’s Locations: South Africa, Netherlands

☆ At the World Cup, the Field Thins and the Contenders Expand
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-04 | by ( Rory Smith | More About Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Canada, the Olympic champion, will not add a Women’s World Cup to its list of honors this year. Marta, the Brazilian star, will not end her career with the one international trophy that has eluded her. And Germany, somehow, managed to engineer its own exit despite winning its first game by six goals. At the end of two weeks, this World Cup has incontrovertibly delivered on its stated aim — to provide a stage on which women’s soccer’s simmering revolution might burst into life. That unpredictability, that sense of old hierarchies and longstanding orders being overturned on a daily basis, has illuminated the World Cup, of course.

Persons: Marta, — Organizations: Portugal Locations: Canada, Germany, Nigeria, Australia, Colombia, United States, Jamaica, France

☆ The Gaps Get Smaller as the World Cup Gets Larger
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-30 | by ( Rory Smith | More About Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Given where the journey had started and where it had led, it was no wonder that watching the Philippines win a game at the Women’s World Cup felt as if it defied rational explanation, even to those involved. Now that same team had beaten New Zealand — on home soil, no less — and with the whole world watching. It was impossible to imagine that a team that had been there could ever be here, and vice versa. “Overwhelming, crazy,” said Sarina Bolden, the live-wire forward who had scored her country’s first goal at a World Cup. He started out at “staggering” and went from there, cycling through “miraculous and unbelievable” before landing on “mind-blowing.”

Persons: ”, Sarina Bolden, Alen Stajcic Organizations: Nepal, New Zealand Locations: Philippines

Those deals, though, pale into comparison with its most ambitious target yet: Kylian Mbappé. Over the weekend, one of the Saudi Professional League’s more prominent teams, Al Hilal, submitted an offer worth $332 million for the France striker to his current team, Paris St.-Germain. Should the deal go through, it would make Mbappé the most expensive player in the sport’s history by some distance, dwarfing the $263 million P.S.G. On Tuesday, it was reported by some news outlets that P.S.G. for a team in what was most recently ranked as soccer’s 58th strongest domestic league.

Persons: Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, Al Hilal, Germain, ’, Nasser Al, Al Hilal’s, Fayza Lamari, Mbappé, Ronaldo, Lionel Messi Organizations: Saudi, France, Mbappé Locations: Saudi, Paris St

Canada and the United States both have something to prove in this Women’s World Cup. Canada faces a different sort of pressure: their so-far-unrealized expectations on the World Cup stage. Philippines vs. Switzerland The Philippines, in its first Women’s World Cup, features a roster with 18 American-born players. It will face Switzerland, a team with only one previous Women’s World Cup appearance, in 2015. Spain vs. Costa Rica Spain, whose roster contains several players from the powerhouse European club Barcelona, has lost only once in the last year.

Persons: Phelan M Organizations: Associated Press, Canada, Canada Soccer, Olympic, Africa, Nations, Spain, Costa Rica Spain, Barcelona, Costa Rica, Costa Ricans, Thailand Locations: Canada, United States, Australia, New Zealand, Spain, Nigeria, Philippines, Switzerland, Costa Rica, Costa, Vietnam Vietnam, it’s, United

☆ Australia’s New Queen
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-19 | by ( Rory Smith | More About Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Sam Kerr’s tone barely shifted. She had not, she said, had time to think about it yet. She had other things on which to focus her attention. Westminster Abbey, to act as Australia’s flag-bearer at the coronation of King Charles III. Of course, she said, she was conscious that being handpicked by Australia’s prime minister to carry her country’s flag at the coronation was an “amazing, amazing honor.” It would, she acknowledged, probably be the sort of thing she would “tell my kids about in 10 or 15 years.”

Persons: Sam, Kerr, King Charles III, ” Organizations: Westminster Abbey, Everton Locations: Barcelona, Liverpool

☆ The Curse Stalking Women’s Soccer
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-19 | by ( Rory Smith | More About Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The third time around, Megan Rapinoe’s reaction to a potentially career-ending knee injury went no further than an eye roll. She had torn her anterior cruciate ligament. She had torn the anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee at age 21, when she was a breakout star in her sophomore year at the University of Portland. At that time, she felt what she called “the fear” — the worry that it might all be over before it had begun. A year later, she had done it again: same ligament, same knee, same arduous road back.

Persons: Megan Rapinoe’s, “, ” Organizations: University of Portland Locations: France

☆ Women’s World Cup Contenders
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-17 | by ( Rory Smith | More About Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

The Women’s World Cup, which opens this week, is the biggest in its 32-year history, but it may also be the most open field the tournament has seen. While plenty of the 32 teams descending on Australia and New Zealand probably have modest ambitions for the next month, it is not a stretch to say that almost half of the field might regard themselves as serious title contenders. (Some more accurately than others.) These 10 countries are the most likely to stick around all the way until the end. United States

Locations: Australia, New Zealand, United States

☆ When You Can’t Believe What You’re Seeing
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-14 | by ( Rory Smith | More About Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Nobody is quite sure where the term “kayfabe” originated. It may be a bastardized form of pig Latin, something to do with the actual word “fake.” It may have its roots in the culture of wandering 19th-century carnivals, the world inhabited by P.T. Barnum and the confidence men and the salesmen who sold actual snake oil. Its modern usage, though, is sufficiently specific that only a relatively small proportion of people would even have a sense of what it means. For decades, wrestlers were expected to keep kayfabe even when they were off the clock.

Persons: ”, . Barnum, Abraham Josephine Riesman delineates, Vince McMahon —, Donald Trump Organizations: World, Entertainment Locations: “

The cold calls and text messages started arriving on Jan Van Winckel’s phone a couple of months ago, and they have not stopped. They come at a rate of about 10 a day, he said, a steady stream of hope-you’re-wells and long-time-no-speaks from old acquaintances, archived contacts, friends of friends of friends. That is what makes him valuable to agents, brokers and executives pinging his phone, over and over, all asking for the same thing: an introduction to a Saudi club president, a connection to an official at the Saudi Pro League, the phone number of someone, anyone, who might be able to help them stake their claim in soccer’s new gold rush. In the first week of June, Saudi Arabia’s soccer authorities and its sovereign wealth fund announced an audacious plan to transform the game in the kingdom: The Public Investment Fund, they announced, would take control of four of Saudi Arabia’s most prominent teams, and hundreds of millions of dollars would be made available to buy some of the game’s biggest stars. And in that moment, even before the first checks were cut, the Pro League became one of the most appealing destinations in the world.

Persons: Jan Van Winckel’s, Van Winckel Organizations: United Arab, Saudi Pro League, Public Investment Fund, Saudi, Pro League Locations: United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Saudi

☆ Ukraine Waits for a Tomorrow It Cannot See
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-07 | by ( Rory Smith | More About Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

There are certain things Andriy Shevchenko cannot talk about. The dread instilled by learning just how many missiles had been aimed the previous night at you, your loved ones, your home. The sensation of knowing another swarm of drones is on its way, the only hope that each one can be shot from the sky. When Ukrainian forces, after a monthlong counteroffensive, reclaimed control of the city, they found it scarred beyond recognition. Some estimates had it that 70 percent of its structures had been destroyed or damaged.

Persons: Andriy Shevchenko, Shevchenko, ” Locations: Irpin, Kyiv, Bucha, Ukrainian

☆ Soccer’s Next Big Thing Is Buying in Bulk
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-30 | by ( Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

On Wednesday evening, the Colombian club Atlético Huila decided to treat its players and its coaching staff to what could be best thought of as an office night out. It finished at the bottom of the Apertura, the first half of the Colombian campaign. The host duly offered Huila an invitation to watch its Copa Libertadores game against Argentinos Juniors at its compact, modern stadium. What Huila’s players saw was, first and foremost, rousing entertainment. Thanks to a last-ditch goal from Kevin Rodríguez, Independiente won, 3-2, securing the top spot in its group in the process.

Persons: Atlético Huila, Huila, Kevin Rodríguez Organizations: Colombian, Independiente del Valle, Copa Libertadores, Argentinos Juniors, Independiente, Estadio Banco Guayaquil Locations: Sangolqui, Ecuador’s, Quito

☆ Secrets and Systems, Lost in the Video Age
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-23 | by ( Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Udinese knew about Alexis Sánchez long before he had been called up to play for the Chilean national team. It knew about him before he had played in the Copa Libertadores, before the rest of South America discovered him and before he had caught the acquisitive eyes of Europe’s biggest, richest teams. There is a chance that Udinese knew about Sánchez even before, on April 23, 2005, Jawed Karim stood outside the elephant enclosure at the San Diego Zoo, filming himself for a website he had helped to launch. “The cool thing about these guys,” Karim said, correctly, “is that they have really, really, really long trunks.” It may not have been David Attenborough, but it was the first video uploaded to YouTube. And it would, ultimately, be possibly the most significant event in Udinese’s modern history.

Persons: Alexis Sánchez, Jawed Karim, ” Karim, David Attenborough Organizations: Udinese, Chilean national, Copa Libertadores, San Diego Zoo, YouTube Locations: South America, Calama, Chile’s, Atacama

☆ Luciano Spalletti and the Power of Walking Away
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-16 | by ( Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Luciano Spalletti’s farm sits high on a ridge outside Montaione, a peaceful, strikingly pretty Italian village set on a hilltop an hour or so southwest of Florence. It is picture-perfect Tuscany: cobbled piazzas lined with cafes; echoing, cobbled streets; a panorama of deep blue skies and verdant olive groves on rolling hills. The stretch of the Tuscan countryside Spalletti calls home is not quite so well-touristed as, say, Chianti. But Spalletti grew up here, in the medieval walled city of Certaldo, and he saw in the farm the chance to draw more people to the region. The view stretches all the way from Pisa, in the west, to the Apennines in the east.

Persons: Luciano, Spalletti Locations: Montaione, Florence, Tuscany, Certaldo, Pisa

“We can think about it.” His players, at that point, could “visualize” completing a domestic and European treble. Among English teams, though, only United can lay claim to the genuine article. In the first 54 years of European competition, four teams won the treble. Should City, as expected, beat Inter Milan on Saturday, it would make it six in the last 14 years. Cup carries more historical weight than other domestic cup competitions.

Persons: Pep Guardiola, ”, Guardiola, ure, twitter.com/xVn, Gil l Organizations: Manchester City, League, Premier League, Liverpool, European, Milk, UEFA, Europa League Locations: Real Madrid, Manchester

☆ Manchester City Bends the Story to Its Will
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-09 | by ( Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The writers of “Ted Lasso,” the acclaimed, sugar-sweet Apple TV comedy, never particularly worried about being hidebound by reality. At the end of “Ted Lasso” — in all other aspects a determinedly romantic and uplifting show, an unabashed underdog story of empowerment and personal growth and the overwhelming power of nice — Manchester City still wins the Premier League. Even in fiction, City cannot be dislodged. City is not the villain, not really, in the Lasso Cinematic Universe. That role goes, instead, to a combination of conventional thinking and West Ham.

Persons: “ Ted Lasso, ”, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, West Ham, Ted Lasso ” —, Pep Guardiola Organizations: Apple, Premier League, Manchester City, West Ham Locations: American, West

☆ The Players Are the Trophies Now
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-09 | by ( Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Two things stood out about Karim Benzema’s arrival in Jeddah on Wednesday evening. From the second his private jet touched down at King Abdulaziz International Airport to the moment — an unspecified but apparently inordinate time later — that he finally made it out into the Saudi Arabian night, Benzema looked distinctly baffled. His smile did not waver, but nor did the slight hint of confusion in his eyes. Throughout, Benzema had the countenance of a man who had been recently startled. More striking still, though, was that every single step of his journey was being documented.

Persons: Karim Benzema’s, Benzema, Al, videographers, — Organizations: King Abdulaziz International Airport, Saudi Premier League Locations: Jeddah, Saudi, Ittihad, Al

☆ Inter Milan, Facing Painful Reckoning, Tries to Live in the Now
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-08 | by ( Rory Smith | Tariq Panja | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Barely six weeks ago, Inter Milan defender Milan Skriniar was lying in a hospital bed in France, recovering from spinal surgery. A lumbar issue had been bothering him for some time and, reluctantly, he had decided that endoscopic intervention was required. He had not played a second of competitive soccer since the early days of March, nor has he played since. His teammate Henrikh Mkhitaryan, the veteran Armenian midfielder, has not played for three weeks after picking up an injury in Inter’s semifinal win against A.C. Milan. Still, there is a decent chance that he will be named in the starting lineup for the biggest game club soccer has to offer.

Persons: Milan Skriniar, — Skriniar, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Mkhitaryan Organizations: Inter Milan, Milan, Internazionale, Champions League, Manchester City, A.C Locations: France, Inter’s, Milan

☆ Lionel Messi, Soccer’s Most Coveted Free Agent, Picks Miami
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-07 | by ( Andrew Das | Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Should the deal be finalized, Messi’s signing would be the biggest coup for M.L.S. That deal shifted perceptions of the league’s quality, and its ambitions, around the world; capturing Messi would, if anything, deliver even more attention to the league in the run-up to the 2026 World Cup. Messi admitted, in his interview, that Miami had — perhaps — not been his first choice of destination as his contract at his most recent team, Paris St.-Germain, ran down. He “obviously really wanted to return,” he said, and had discussed the idea with both Xavi Hernández, the club’s manager, and Joan Laporta, its president. Ultimately, though, Barcelona’s financial turmoil forced his hand.

Persons: Beckham, Messi, Germain, “, ”, Hernández, Joan Laporta Organizations: Barcelona Locations: Miami, Paris St, Barcelona, Catalonia, Europe, Argentina

Search resuls for: "Rory Smith"

25 mentions found