
Stay Ahead. Always.
By Online Desk NEW DELHI: In a relief to rebel Shiv Sena lawmakers, the Supreme Court Monday kept in abeyance the disqualification proceedings before the Deputy Speaker of the Maharashtra Assembly till July 11 and sought responses to pleas by rebel MLAs questioning the legality […]
Main Nation<!– –> Maharashtra Minister of Higher and Technical Education Uday Samant with rebel Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde and other supporting MLAs, at Radisson Blu Hotel in Guwahati, Sunday, June 26, 2022. (PTI) Mumbai: Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has handed over portfolios of nine […]
Main Nation Politics(Representational Image/News18) The incident occurred at Chandan Pipariya village under Silwani police station area, some 110 kilometres from the district headquarters PTI Raisen Last Updated:June 26, 2022, 21:24 IST FOLLOW US ON: Three children in the 5-14 age group and a man were killed and […]
NationThank you for voting. Hmm. Something went wrong. We will take a look as soon as we can. Email Comic Share on Facebook Tweet Share on LinkedIn Comments 0 Buy
Andrew Formica, the chief executive officer of Jupiter Fund Management Plc, suddenly announced he’s leaving the £55.3 billion ($67.9 billion) asset manager he joined in 2019. Formica, 51, will leave the position on Oct. 1 and will also resign as a director of the London-based […]
Whether we’ve got the flu or have had too much to drink, most of us have experienced nausea. Unlike other universal sensations such as hunger and thirst, however, scientists still don’t understand the biology behind the feeling—or how to stop it. A new study in […]
Taapsee Pannu is elated to be sharing screen with Shah Rukh Khan for the first time in Rajkumar Hirani’s upcoming film Dunki. Talking to the media, she described that being offered the movie was a golden opportunity for her. Bagging the lead role in Dunki […]
Breyer’s departure paves the way for Ketanji Brown Jackson to start her tenure as the first Black woman on US top court. US Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer will step down this week, setting the stage for Ketanji Brown Jackson to start her tenure as […]
10:36 AM ET The Washington Wizards have finalized a deal to acquire Denver Nuggets guards Will Barton and Monte Morris for guards Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Ish Smith, sources told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski on Wednesday. Barton started all 71 games he played with the Nuggets last […]
10:36 AM ET The Washington Wizards have finalized a deal to acquire Denver Nuggets guards Will Barton and Monte Morris for guards Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Ish Smith, sources told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski on Wednesday. Barton started all 71 games he played with the Nuggets last […]
Main Sports12:47 AM ET The United States women’s national soccer team made hard work out of its 2-0 friendly win over Colombia at Rio Tinto Stadium on Tuesday that included an hourlong delay due to lightning and severe weather in Sandy, Utah. Vlatko Andonovski’s side had […]
Football SportsWhether we’ve got the flu or have had too much to drink, most of us have experienced nausea. Unlike other universal sensations such as hunger and thirst, however, scientists still don’t understand the biology behind the feeling—or how to stop it. A new study in […]
ScienceTributes were also paid by Prof AC Grayling, who called him a “brilliant scientist and a lovely, friendly man”, Prof Richard Dawkins, who said he was a “brilliant communicator of science, highly articulate but never intimidating”, and Prof Jim Al-Khalili, who said he was a […]
ScienceThe chairman, Lord Deben, told BBC News that recent climate extremes were “very, very worrying”. He continued: “The public should be proud of the UK setting best targets but I’m very worried that there’s no convincing programme for delivering policies.
ScienceA few months ago, Teresa Thurston, a cellular microbiologist at Imperial College London, could not have imagined losing her €1.5 million European research grant. But the United Kingdom’s role in the European Union’s €95 billion Horizon Europe funding program is now crumbling thanks to lingering […]
ScienceTen years ago, an athletic 12-year-old from Affton, Missouri, named Mitchell Herndon began to experience muscle weakness that eventually led to him using a wheelchair. After years of visits to specialists failed to diagnose his neurological symptoms, he enrolled in a National Institutes of Health […]
ScienceAlison Avenell spent years collecting evidence that Yoshihiro Sato, a now-deceased nutritional researcher in Japan, was among the most prolific fraudsters known to science. After journals investigated the findings by Avenell, a clinical nutritionist at the University of Aberdeen, and her colleagues, they retracted more […]
ScienceIsha Ambani is set to be named chairman of the Reliance conglomerate’s retail unit in another sign that her father, Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani, is pushing ahead with a plan for succession in one of Asia’s richest families. Isha Ambani is set to be named […]
Business MainIsha Ambani is set to be named chairman of the Reliance conglomerate’s retail unit in another sign that her father, Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani, is pushing ahead with a plan for succession in one of Asia’s richest families.
Isha Ambani is set to be named chairman of the Reliance conglomerate’s retail unit in another sign that her father, Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani, is pushing ahead with a plan for succession in one of Asia’s richest families.
An announcement of Isha Ambani’s elevation could come as early as Wednesday, according to people with knowledge of the matter, who asked not to be identified ahead of a formal statement. She is currently director of Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd.
A representative for the group declined to comment.
Also read: Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance eyeing cosmetics giant Revlon, shares jump
Isha Ambani’s promotion follows that of her twin brother, Akash Ambani, who was appointed on Tuesday as chairman of the telecom unit, Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. Isha and Akash have both been part of teams that negotiated Meta Platforms Inc.’s investment in the group.
Isha, 30, is an alumnus of Yale University. The twins have a younger brother, Anant, 27.
Also read: $1 bn divides Mukesh Ambani, Gautam Adani in race for ‘India’s richest’: Report
Reliance Retail and Reliance Jio are subsidiaries of the family’s oil-to-telecom conglomerate, of which the $217 billion Reliance Industries Ltd. is the flagship firm. Mukesh Ambani is chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries.
Subscribe to our best newsletters
Syndicated From Hindustan Times
Express News Service CHANDIGARH: After days of extremely hot and humid weather, Delhi is likely to get showers between June 30 and July 1, marking the official arrival of southwest monsoon in the city, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Tuesday. Senior IMD scientist […]
Main NationExpress News Service
CHANDIGARH: After days of extremely hot and humid weather, Delhi is likely to get showers between June 30 and July 1, marking the official arrival of southwest monsoon in the city, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Tuesday.
Senior IMD scientist R K Jenamani said in the next 48 hours, conditions will remain favourable for further advance of the southwest monsoon into remaining parts of Arabian Sea and Gujarat, after which it will reach parts of northwest and central India.
“The favourable conditions will reach parts of Rajasthan, remaining parts of Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir; some parts of Punjab, Haryana and Delhi between June 30 and July 1,” said Jenamani.
The usual date for onset of monsoon in Delhi is June 27. “It is slightly behind schedule, but will cover the rain deficit for June by the first week of July,” Jenamani said. Last year, Delhi saw the most delayed monsoon in 19 years, arriving only by July 13.
The IMD has issued an ‘Orange’ alert for light to moderate rain, thunderstorm and gusty winds up to 30-40 kmph while a ‘Yellow’ alert has been issued for July 1. Delhi’s heat index (how hot you actually feel) has been high over the past three days, making people sweat profusely and uncomfortable. Officials attributed this to humidity.
Mercury above normal
On Tuesday, Safdarjung, Delhi’s base weather station, saw a maximum temperature of 41.5 degree Celsius, four notches above normal for this time of the year. The minimum settled at 30.8 degrees Celsius, three degrees above normal. Relative humidity levels oscillated between 45 per cent and 74 per cent, as per IMD.
5:37 PM ET D’Arcy MaineESPN.com LONDON — Serena Williams, playing her first competitive singles match in 364 days, was handed another devastating early exit at Wimbledon with a 7-5, 1-6, 7-6 (10-7) loss to Harmony Tan on Tuesday that took more than three hours and […]
Main SportsD’Arcy MaineESPN.com
LONDON — Serena Williams, playing her first competitive singles match in 364 days, was handed another devastating early exit at Wimbledon with a 7-5, 1-6, 7-6 (10-7) loss to Harmony Tan on Tuesday that took more than three hours and a 10-point third-set tiebreak to decide.
“Today I gave all I could do, you know, today,” a dejected Williams told a packed room of reporters after the match. “Maybe tomorrow I could have gave more. Maybe a week ago I could have gave more. But today was what I could do.
“At some point, you have to be able to be OK with that. And that’s all I can do. I can’t change time or anything, so, that’s all I could do on this particular day.”
Playing Tan — who is ranked No. 115 and was making her main draw debut at the tournament — in front of an adoring crowd on Centre Court, Williams simultaneously showed signs of rust alongside glimpses of her signature brilliance.
When it was over, both players were given a standing ovation from those in the stands. The 40-year-old Williams, the owner of 23 Grand Slam singles titles, waved several times as she walked off the court and twirled before disappearing in the exit. There has been much speculation as to Williams’ retirement, and she didn’t do much to dispel such speculation after Tuesday’s match, giving vague answers to multiple questions about her future.
“That’s a question I can’t answer,” Williams said after the loss. “Like, I don’t know. I feel like, you know, I don’t know. Who knows? Who knows where I’ll pop up.”
Williams hadn’t played competitively at singles since being forced to retire from her first-round match at the All England Club in 2021 due to what she later revealed to be a torn hamstring. While she had initially hoped to return in time for the US Open last year, the recovery was far lengthier than she had anticipated, and she took a break to give herself time to heal.
But she couldn’t escape the lingering disappointment of her 2021 Wimbledon exit.
“It was a lot of motivation, to be honest,” Williams said before this tournament got underway. “It was always something since the match ended that was always on my mind. So it was a tremendous amount of motivation for that.”
She decided in the spring to make a return to the All England Club, after a whirlwind year full of recovery and off-the-court interests and pursuits. She began her competitive comeback last week in doubles at Eastbourne, alongside Ons Jabeur, to great fanfare. The two reached the semifinals before they were forced to withdraw due to a knee injury for Jabeur, but Williams still believed she had gotten some valuable match experience.
Still, Williams needed the first several games of Tuesday’s match against Tan to rediscover her form, and her early play was riddled with errors.
“I had some chances to win that first set,” Williams said. “You know, [it] didn’t work out, so … yeah, it was just, yeah, different, totally different for me.”
But as she has done countless times throughout her career, Williams fought back with a dominant performance in the second set, including winning a marathon 30-point second game.
She looked to be in control in the third, holding a 3-1 lead, but Tan came back to win the next three games. From there, it was a battle in which the crowd seemed to live and breathe with every point, and both players reacted emphatically throughout.
It reached a fever pitch when Williams saved match point at 5-6 to ultimately force a deciding tiebreak.
In the first-to-10 tiebreak, Williams jumped out to a 4-0 lead. However, in the final moments, it slipped out of her control, and Tan dominated.
“I think the last couple points, I was really suffering there,” said Williams, who lost 16 of the 24 rallies in the match that lasted nine or more strokes. “But, yeah, I feel like in just those key points, winning some of those points, is always something mentally that you have to have, that you kind of need. I did pretty good on maybe one or two of ’em, but obviously not enough.”
If this is the end for Williams, it will mark the conclusion of one of the greatest careers in the sport. With 23 major titles, including seven at the All England Club, Williams has the most ever by any player in the Open Era. She has been seeking to tie Margaret Court’s long-standing record of 24, the most in history, since returning from childbirth in 2018. Since then, Williams has played in four finals in those 14 majors, including at Wimbledon in 2018 and 2019, but has fallen short each time.
Williams didn’t completely rule out an appearance at the US Open later this summer, however.
“When you’re at home, especially in New York, and the US Open, that being the first place I’ve won a Grand Slam, is something that’s always super special,” Williams said. “Your first time is always special.
“There’s definitely, you know, lots of motivation to get better and to play at home.”
Tan’s future is a little more clear. The 24-year-old French player now gets the chance to compete in just her third round of 64 at a Grand Slam on Thursday against No. 32 seed Sara Sorribes Tormo of Spain. But Tan didn’t seem ready to start thinking about that just yet after Tuesday’s win.
“It’s a dream because, you know, I saw Serena on the TV when I was young,” Tan said. “My coach, Nathalie Tauziat, played her 20 years ago.
“She’s a legend. I mean, she won 23 Grand Slams. When you play her, I was scared. I mean, I was scared when I was on the court but really happy to be there.”
6:14 PM ET Adrian Wojnarowski Close Senior NBA Insider Host of The Woj Pod Joined ESPN in 2017 Tim MacMahon Close ESPN Staff Writer Joined ESPNDallas.com in September 2009 Covers the Dallas Cowboys and Dallas Mavericks Appears regularly on ESPN Dallas 103.3 FM The New […]
SportsAdrian Wojnarowski
Tim MacMahon
The New York Knicks traded center Nerlens Noel and guard Alec Burks to the Detroit Pistons — clearing $19 million in additional salary-cap space — and they are now able to make an overwhelming contract offer in the neighborhood of $110 million to free-agent guard Jalen Brunson, sources told ESPN.
The Knicks included two future second-round picks and $6 million to incentivize the trade, sources said, and they now have approximately $30 million in cap space to make a massive four-year offer to Brunson. The offloading of players and assets to create the space clearly reflects the Knicks’ confidence they can reach an agreement with Brunson sometime after the opening of free agency.
Brunson, 25, is coming off a breakout season in which he averaged 16.3 points and 4.8 assists, establishing himself as the Dallas Mavericks‘ No. 2 option behind All-NBA guard Luka Doncic, his 2018 draft classmate, after joining the starting lineup on a full-time basis in December.
Brunson helped lead the Mavericks to the Western Conference finals for the first time in 11 years, averaging 21.6 points during the playoffs, highlighted by 41- and 31-point performances in first-round victories over the Utah Jazz while Doncic was sidelined by a strained calf.
Mavs governor Mark Cuban and general manager Nico Harrison ranked Brunson as the franchise’s top offseason priority in the wake of the playoff run. Sources said the Mavs are willing to give Brunson a five-year contract — which only Dallas can offer due to owning his Bird rights — that is comparable to the four-year, $85 million deal that guard Fred VanVleet signed with the Toronto Raptors in 2020.
Brunson, an unrestricted free agent because the fourth season of his rookie deal was non-guaranteed instead of a team option, declined the Mavs’ offer of a four-year, $55.5 million contract extension after the trade deadline, when Dallas forward Dorian Finney-Smith signed an identical deal. By that point, Brunson was confident he would make significantly more as a free agent.
Brunson had informed the Mavs in January that he was willing to sign the extension if it was offered then, his father, Rick Brunson, told ESPN during the playoffs. Dallas made the calculated decision to hold off on discussions until after the trade deadline, in case the Mavs had the opportunity to trade for a star, as an extension would have prevented Brunson from being eligible to be traded before the deadline.
New York had long been expected to emerge as a threat to lure Brunson from the Mavericks in large part because of the Knicks’ deep ties to the Brunson family. Knicks president Leon Rose, a prominent former agent, has known Brunson his entire life. Rose’s first player client was Rick Brunson, and Rose represented Jalen Brunson at the beginning of his career. The Knicks agreed to hire Rick Brunson as an assistant coach this summer, reuniting him with head coach Tom Thibodeau, under whom he served as an assistant with the Chicago Bulls and Minnesota Timberwolves.
The Knicks also can offer Brunson the opportunity to be their primary playmaker, as opposed to deferring to a perennial MVP candidate in Dallas.
“It’s a great fit [in Dallas], but at the end of the day, my son is no different than the next man,” Rick Brunson told ESPN in April. “You try to raise them the right way in terms of understanding the game, but everyone wants what Luka has. I don’t care who you are. Everyone wants that feeling of, ‘Hey, I can do this too.’ I don’t always think the grass is greener on the other side, but we’ll sit down this summer and go through all the pros and cons of staying here or going somewhere else.”
Cassidy Hutchinson, a former top aide to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, filled in the blanks. And she has painted a devastating picture, including an allegation, which Trump denies, that he tried to grab the steering wheel of the car he was travelling […]
Top StoriesCassidy Hutchinson, a former top aide to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, filled in the blanks. And she has painted a devastating picture, including an allegation, which Trump denies, that he tried to grab the steering wheel of the car he was travelling in and wrestled with a Secret Service officer in an attempt to divert his motorcade to the Capitol, where his supporters were gathering.
6:29 PM ET Kali Reis, the WBA and WBO junior welterweight champion, is again heading to Hollywood, cast as one of the leads in Season 4 of “True Detective” on HBO opposite two-time Best Actress Oscar-winner Jodie Foster. The cable network announced the fourth season […]
SportsKali Reis, the WBA and WBO junior welterweight champion, is again heading to Hollywood, cast as one of the leads in Season 4 of “True Detective” on HBO opposite two-time Best Actress Oscar-winner Jodie Foster.
The cable network announced the fourth season of the show, which will be officially called “True Detective: Night Country” and will be filmed in Iceland.
Reis will play Detective Evangeline Navarro alongside Foster’s Detective Liz Danvers as they investigate the disappearance of six men in Ennis, Alaska.
“True Detective” is an anthology crime series that was nominated for seven Emmy Awards in its first season, when Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey were the lead actors. Both Harrelson and McConaughey are executive producers on the show. Issa Lopez is writer, director and showrunner, and Barry Jenkins, who directed and wrote the Oscar-winning film “Moonlight,” is also an executive producer.
This is another big role for Reis, who made her acting debut in the 2021 independent film “Catch the Fair One,” a story she helped write and develop. “Catch the Fair One” won the Audience Award at the Tribeca Film Festival, and Reis was nominated for Best Female Lead at the Independent Spirit Awards.
The 35-year-old Reis (19-7-1, 5 KOs) last fought Nov. 19, 2021, when she beat Jessica Camara by split decision to win the WBO title and retain the WBA title. Reis initially won the WBA title on Nov. 6, 2020, when she beat Kandi Wyatt by unanimous decision.
Reis has won her past six fights after losing to Cecilia Braekhus by unanimous decision for the undisputed welterweight title in 2018. Reis has been boxing professionally since 2008.
The chairman, Lord Deben, told BBC News that recent climate extremes were “very, very worrying”. He continued: “The public should be proud of the UK setting best targets but I’m very worried that there’s no convincing programme for delivering policies.
ScienceThe chairman, Lord Deben, told BBC News that recent climate extremes were “very, very worrying”. He continued: “The public should be proud of the UK setting best targets but I’m very worried that there’s no convincing programme for delivering policies.
Amazon is limiting sales of Plan B and other emergency contraceptives to three units per customer in the wake of increased demand, the company confirmed to several media outlets. Last week’s US Supreme Court overturning of Roe v. Wade prompted a spike in sales of […]
Main TechnologyAmazon is limiting sales of Plan B and other emergency contraceptives to three units per customer in the wake of increased demand, the company confirmed to several media outlets. Last week’s US Supreme Court overturning of Roe v. Wade prompted a spike in sales of Plan B and other generic brands of levonorgestrel morning-after pills.
Customers who order emergency contraception on Amazon still face a bit of a wait. Amazon’s main listing for Plan B (a popular name brand of levonorgestrel made by a company called Foundation Consumer Healthcare) displays an estimated delivery range of July 19 through August 6. MyChoice, a generic brand of levonorgestrel that is cheaper than Plan B displays a delivery date of July 28. Engadget has reached out to Amazon for an estimate on when it will remove its cap on sales, and will update if we hear back.
Rite-Aid is also capping both online and in-person sales of emergency contraception to three per customer. Walmart has a more generous limit of 10 units of Plan B per customer, and Target limits online sales of Plan B to six orders per customer. Following a temporary cap on sales, both Walgreens and CVS have removed purchase limits on Plan B as of Tuesday evening.
“We continue to have ample supply of emergency contraceptives to meet customer needs,” Matt Blanchette, CVS’s senior manager of retail communications told CNN.
Those who don’t want to turn to Amazon or a major drugstore chain have other online options for Plan. Both Instacart and GoPuff also offer Plan B for same-day delivery. A number of telehealth startups such as Wisp, Nurx and Stix sell generic emergency contraceptive pills (though sales are restricted to certain states). Sales of emergency contraceptive products on Wisp spiked by 40 percent following a leak of the court’s decision back in May, Wisp confirmed to Engadget. Furthermore, sales were 25 times the daily average for May on Friday, the day of the court’s ruling.
“We have been able to meet the current surge in demand. We are not putting any restrictions on emergency contraceptive pills,” noted Wisp CEO Ahmad Bani in a statement to Engadget.
All products recommended by Engadget are selected by our editorial team, independent of our parent company. Some of our stories include affiliate links. If you buy something through one of these links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! China slashed the quarantine time for inbound travelers by half on Tuesday, in a major easing of COVID-19 curbs that have deterred cross-border travel and resulted in international flights running at just 2% of pre-pandemic levels. Quarantine […]
Main WorldNEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
China slashed the quarantine time for inbound travelers by half on Tuesday, in a major easing of COVID-19 curbs that have deterred cross-border travel and resulted in international flights running at just 2% of pre-pandemic levels.
Quarantine at centralized facilities has been cut to seven days from 14, and subsequent at-home health monitoring has been reduced to three days from seven, the National Health Commission said.
China’s adherence to strict anti-COVID measures even as the rest of the world tries to live with the virus has battered its economy, frustrated businesses and infuriated many of the millions people caught up in draconian lockdowns in cities like Shanghai.
WHAT TO DO IF YOU GET MONKEYPOX: SYMPTOMS, VACCINATIONS, AND TREATMENTS
In recent months, China has cautiously eased curbs on cross-border travelers, with health officials saying the shorter incubation period of the Omicron variant allows for an adjustment of quarantine time.
And earlier this month, China’s aviation regulator said it had been in touch with some countries to steadily increase flight numbers in the second half of 2022.
The new quarantine rules were welcomed by American, British and European business lobby groups in China.
A worker in a protective suit removes cordon lines near fences amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Beijing, China May 25, 2022. (REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins)
“It will hopefully work towards increasing business exchanges and stemming the outflow of international talent, some of whom are coming up to having had three years of separation from family and friends overseas,” the British Chamber of Commerce in China told Reuters.
While welcoming the change, the European Chamber of Commerce in China cautioned that it remained to be seen whether all local authorities would follow the new, more relaxed rules.
Stock markets rose in Hong Kong and the mainland, with the Hang Seng Index reversing losses and ticking up 0.9% and the CSI300 Index gaining 1%.
Shares in mainland tourism companies jumped more than 5%.
IN THE CLEAR
Beijing and Shanghai reported on Tuesday no new local COVID infections, the first time both cities were in the clear simultaneously since late February.
Their daily caseloads dropped to single digits over the past week, allowing Shanghai to gradually resume eating in at restaurants and Beijing to reopen some leisure venues including the Universal Beijing Resort.
The Walt Disney Co’s Shanghai Disney Resort said on Tuesday that it would reopen the Disneyland theme park on June 30; it had been shut for more than three months.
Authorities, however, were adamant the government’s so-called dynamic zero COVID approach, a signature policy of President Xi Jinping that aims at blocking flare-ups from spreading as they crop up, remains in place.
Beijing would “fight against any new outbreaks at the outset and with speed and resolutely break their transmission channel”, Cai Qi, the city’s top Communist Party chief, was quoted as saying in a report by the party-backed Beijing Daily.
Earlier on Monday, the Beijing Daily apparently misquoted Cai as saying the city would maintain its COVID control effort for “the next five years”.
The newspaper afterwards removed the reference and its chief, Zhao Jingyun, said it was an error but that did not prevent some suspicion among the public.
CHINA’S HARDLINE COVID LOCKDOWNS TAKING BITE OUT OF ECONOMY, HURTING DEMAND
“Surely it wasn’t a mistake! It’s meant to gauge public opinion!” said a user of the Weibo social media platform.
Another Weibo user said even if it was a mistake, “at least the higher-ups are now aware of how helpless we all feel and how we detest the current counter-epidemic policies.”
Syndicated from Fox News
4:30 AM ET Sophie Lawson Sweden came third in the 2019 Women’s World Cup and second in the 2020 Olympics staged in 2021. Could a long-awaited first-place finish at Euro 2022 be next? Ayman Aref/Getty Images Sweden‘s ascension to become one of the favourites at Euro […]
Football SportsSophie Lawson
Sweden‘s ascension to become one of the favourites at Euro 2022 this summer has been, so it seems, a long time coming.
When the sport was waking from its imposed slumber at the start of 1970 after bans on women’s football were lifted, you only had to look to the Scandinavian triumvirate to find some of the best teams in the emerging game. Whereas Norway and Denmark have risen and fallen (and risen again) over the years, Sweden have remained the consistent performers in the region, never failing to qualify for an Olympic Games or World Cup.
The first winner of a women’s European Championships — or as it was called in 1984 in its debut run, “the European Competition for Women’s Football” — Sweden have, despite their consistency, failed to pick up any subsequent winner’s medals. A country that has had a fine production line of players, as well as some incarnation of league since the early 1970s, there is perhaps little surprise to the longevity of Blågult (“the blue-yellow.”)
Yet, with Euro 2022 starting on July 6 — Sweden’s 11th appearance in the competition — they have rarely looked as strong as they do now. Other nations, like hosts England and previous winners Netherlands, will be tabbed as favourites, but after Sweden reached last year’s Olympic final in Japan — losing to Canada on penalties — their time may have finally arrived.
Euro 2022: News and features | Fixtures | Standings | Live on ESPN |
For all the talent in this Sweden team, their current lease on life is all thanks to their coach, Peter Gerhardsson. Named as Pia Sundhage’s successor in 2017, Gerhardsson’s focus with the national team has always been on the attack: he has encouraged his charges to unleash their creative side and lean on their instincts in the box. A former attacker himself, he was instantly keen to drag Sweden from an “old English 4-4-2 style” to something that could breed confidence in offensive passing and positive play.
For those who have followed Sweden, even if only at major tournaments, the gradual progress has been there for all to see. Shifting from the stodgier style of Gerhardsson’s predecessor, Sweden navigated their way through the 2019 World Cup group stage in France with little fuss, before they dispatched with Canada and then Germany, before losing their semifinal in extra time to Netherlands. More of a butterfly emerging from its cocoon in 2019 than a relentless juggernaut, Sweden then earned silver at the 2020 Olympics when the pieces fell almost magnificently into place.
Americans will remember — or may still be trying to forget — the opening group game at last summer’s Olympics due to Sweden’s dominance and the confounded stuttering of their own U.S. national team. Ahead of the tournament, the problem for the Blågult had been converting their chances. Yet, as U.S. goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher repelled all she could in Tokyo, it fast became apparent that, despite her best efforts, she was on the losing side of the battle. Sweden danced their way to a 3-0 win over the world champions and didn’t look like stopping until they lined up against Canada in the final, 16 days and 10 more goals later.
With that attacking approach buoying them, Sweden went from merely a good team going into last year’s Olympics, to tournament favourites to claim gold by the end, with just about the right balance of everything both on and off the pitch.
A midfield three of Kosovare Asllani, Caroline Seger and Filippa Angeldal provided enough creativity, stability, experience and youth in perfect measure. The defence, parked in front of goalkeeper Hedvig Lindahl, saw injury-enforced and game-management rotation as Gerhardsson remained able to go to his bench should his favoured front three of Stina Blackstenius, Fridolina Rolfö and Sofia Jakobsson need refreshing.
The matches in the oppressive Japanese heat at last year’s Olympics should have been energy-zapping — yet, as all else seemed to be wilting, Sweden remained bright and determined until their pre-tournament inability to score returned for the rescheduled final in Yokohama. Sweden’s better chances went begging as the match crawled from regulation time to extra time to spot kicks and, eventually, sudden-death penalties. Canada were victorious, 3-2 on the night, as each team scored only two of their five spot kicks before Jonna Andersson missed and Julia Grosso scored.
While Sweden fell short again in Japan, they were barely recognisable from the team that won silver at the 2016 Olympics under Sundhage’s pragmatic approach, managing just four goals for the entire tournament in Brazil. Whereas Sweden’s first silver in Rio had been a feat of sheer determination and agonising concentration match after match to keep the opposition out — a tactic roundly celebrated — their second was seen by those within the team as a painful reminder of their failure in Yokohama. As Asllani said after the match: “I’m so f—ing tired of having a f—ing silver medal.”
Gerhardsson had brought expressiveness and fun to the team, and throughout his tenure there has been joy in the way the players took to the pitch — in the way they grew and retrained their brains to be confident in being the favourites. Under Gerhardsson, Sweden became underdogs no more.
By the time they took to the pitch in Tokyo, the team was able to balance both world-beating confidence and humility in their minds, such that their tournament-opening win over the world-champion USWNT was both not a surprise but also nothing more than one win.
For the players in the Sweden squad, the Olympic final against Canada had been their first real taste of being clear favourites, of having an expectation on them to do something they never had before. The intention was to claim not just a first-ever Olympic gold in football but to end a 37-year wait for their second major tournament honours. Maybe on another day, the ball bounces slightly differently and Sweden are able to convert more than one of their 30 total shots. Or maybe it was a loss that always needed to happen, to provide a more teachable lesson moving forward.
– Stream ESPN FC Daily on ESPN+ (U.S. only)
– Don’t have ESPN? Get instant access
The cliches are that you learn more from a loss than a win, or that the strife makes the eventual success all the sweeter, or that such a loss is the greatest motivator. Whatever the case, as has been seen over the five years since Gerhardsson took charge, there is little that can be thrown at Sweden’s squad that they can’t take in stride or overcome together.
For the veterans in the team like Seger and Lindahl — the goalkeeper the only player who was alive, albeit toddling, the last time Sweden won the Euros — there are only so many more times they will line up at a major tournament, and there is little more fitting than a golden goodbye.
Drawn into a group at Euro 2022 with Netherlands, Switzerland and Portugal, Sweden are more than familiar with their opposition. Few teams look as strong as the Swedes ahead of the tournament, as they’re unbeaten during regulation time in their last 29 matches, a run stretching back to March 2020. The challenge will be maintaining a consistent level and not peaking too soon.
In their third major tournament under Gerhardsson, perhaps the third time’s the charm.
Cookie | Duration | Description |
---|---|---|
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics | 11 months | This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". |
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional | 11 months | The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". |
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary | 11 months | This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". |
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others | 11 months | This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. |
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance | 11 months | This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". |
viewed_cookie_policy | 11 months | The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data. |