Alphonso Davies has arrived on the global stage.
The 19-year-old Canadian soccer star just wowed fans from around the world setting up a world-class goal in the Champions League quarter-final.
The former Vancouver Whitecaps midfielder who now stars as a left back for Bayern Munich in Germany, Davies’ assist on Bayern’s fifth goal was truly amazing.
🚨 ALPHONSO DAVIES IS WORLD CLASS ALERT 🚨 pic.twitter.com/yjr66geZKD
— DAZN Canada (@DAZN_CA) August 14, 2020
Davies danced past two FC Barcelona players before blowing by a defender and setting up a teammate for Bayern’s fifth goal of the match. I repeat, he did this against FC Barcelona, one of the best teams on the planet.
Bayern won the match 8-2 and will play in the Champions League semi-final on August 19.
It’s been a superb season for Davies, who has taken his game to another level. A key player on Bayern’s Bundesliga championship squad, Davies is now widely considered one of the best left backs in the entire world.
Not only did Davies star on the world stage, he did so playing against one of his idols, Lionel Messi.
This is a dream come true for Davies, who said in 2018 he was most looking forward to playing in Champions League matches prior to making the move to Europe.
“At a very young age, every time you hear that [Champions League] song come on, you know something special is about to happen,” Davies told Daily Hive two years ago.
“Whoever made the Champions League is a brilliant guy… Having the top teams from Spain, England, Germany – all over Europe – to play against each other, it’s exciting to watch.”
He just made it more exciting.
ALPHONSO DAVIES 🔥🔥🔥🤮 sheeesh pic.twitter.com/GcxdRNTClF
— Bryan Zuluaga (@BryanZuluaga11) August 14, 2020
The @MLS academy product Alphonso Davies, is the best left back in the World right now.
7 months after starting in the position full-time for Bayern.
— Stu Holden (@stuholden) August 14, 2020
Alphonso Davies, a ridiculous talent. Absolutely filthy.
— Mod (@CFCMod_) August 14, 2020
Alphonso Davies breaking the internet and Nélson Semedo. All of the filth 🔥
— Melissa Reddy (@MelissaReddy_) August 14, 2020
Alphonso Davies is a generational talent.
That’s one of the best assists you’ll ever see! 🔥🔥🔥
— FootballFunnys (@FootballFunnnys) August 14, 2020
Me wondering how Alphonso Davies just did that to Barcelona defenders…… #FCBFCB #UCL pic.twitter.com/ZKbaQuHznO
— EL CHAPO (@cwethein_) August 14, 2020
Four separate feints/dummies in one assist, from Alphonso Davies
Ridiculous 😭
— Premier League Panel (@PremLeaguePanel) August 14, 2020
Alphonso Davies has been better offensively than Lionel Messi today. He’s a defender.
— Marko (@MarkodoniaFT) August 14, 2020
Lisbon police have an APB on one Alphonso Davies for allegedly “swallowing a man’s soul.”
— Ted Knutson (@mixedknuts) August 14, 2020
Alphonso Davies, take a bow! What a player!
— Eduardo Hagn (@EduardoHagn) August 14, 2020
The best player in the world … Getting helped up by Lionel Messi 😉 pic.twitter.com/YjoZcJ2ffc
— DAZN Canada (@DAZN_CA) August 14, 2020
The Edmonton Oilers wrapped up their regular home season schedule on Tuesday with a 9-2 romp over an over-matched San Jose Sharks.
Along the way, Connor McDavid in his return from a minor injury skated into the National Hockey League record books with his 100th assist of the season.
Article content
Here is the tale of the tape…
STUART SKINNER. 6. Stuart skinner barely broke a sweat in the 1st Period as the Oilers dominated San Jose at the other end. Allowed an uggggly one early in the 2nd. Bast to get those out of the way now before the playoffs arrive. Redeemed himself with a glove save that snatched away a breakaway bid from Givani Smith. Fine stop on a Graf one-timer early in the 3rd. The victim of a twisted-up scramble in front on the 9-2. Wins his 36th game of the season.
Advertisement 2
Article content
CONNOR McDAVID. 8. Returned to the lineup after a three-game absence and scored 13 seconds into his first shift, receiving a nice pass from Nurse, and streaking up the left side before banking it in off a defender for the 1-0. Excellent back-check took away a net side opportunity from Granlund early in the 2nd. Started the play with a steal in his own zone but no assist on the 7-1. He did that on the 9-1. 97 burst into the San Jose zone on a 2-on-1 and sifted a pass across to Zach Hyman who buried his 54th and put his linemate into the NHL record books with 100th assist. Only Gretzky, Lemieux and Orr had done that previously. The Rogers Place subsequently showered their Captain with a thundering chant of “MVP, MVP, MVP.” His grade here is elevated one, full point in recognition of his accomplishment.
ADAM HENRIQUE. 8. A terrific performance while flanking Connor McDavid on the top line. Won the O-Zone faceoff on the 2-0 sequence, then beat two defenders to the net where he found the puck and deposited it behind the netminder for his 6th as an Oiler. Found Holloway in front for the 2-0. Rang another off the post. Lasered a pass across to a hard-charging Cody Ceci for the 7-1. Excellent defensively, although this trio had the puck…a lot! +4.
Headline News
Article content
Advertisement 3
Article content
ZACH HYMAN. 7. Zach Hyman was whistled for an unlucky high sticking call in the 1st. Secondary assist on the 7-1. Then, became a part of history as he shoveled home a perfect pass from Connor McDavid for the 9-1 goal (his 54th) as #97 hit the 100 Assist mark. +3.
DARNELL NURSE. 8. A 3-point night. A stretch pass up the middle to McDavid on the 1-0. Collected a 2nd assist on the Holloway goal after he found Henrique deep in the San Jose zone. Earned his 3rd assist on the 8-1. 3rd Period post. 3 shots, 3hits. Led the team in 5v5 CF at 28-9, 76%. High Dangers 4-2.
CODY CECI. 7. Charged in from the point and potted a perfectly timed Henrique feed for the 7-1. At that point, San Jose’s young goalie was mercifully pulled. High Dangers 55v 5-2.+4.
LEON DRAISAITL. 7. Nifty pass to a pinching Ekholm for a dangerous shot. Won a hard board Battle in his own zone and then dished up a ridiculous one-handed, back-hand pass to a hard-charging Foegele who beat the goaltender 5-hole for the 3-0. Secondary assist on the 5-1. Nice pass to Foegele who stung the post with a wicked wrist shot. 73% on draws. 5v5 CF 71%.
Advertisement 4
Article content
RYAN NUGENT-HOPKINS. 6. Deflection pass to Foegele on the 5-1. Busted his ass in 1 9-1 game to get back and erase a 2-on-1, but the puck continued to pin-ball round and ended up the 9-2.
WARREN FOEGELE. 7. Took a fantastic pass from Draisaitl, broke hard up the left-hand side and beat the Sharks goalie between the pads for the 3-0, his 18th. Corralled his 19th with a hard battle in front finishing with a rebound swatted home to make it 5-1. Rang the post hard mid-way through the 3rd. 8 shots. Led the forwards in 5v5 CF (23-8, 74%).
MATTIAS EKHOLM. 8. Ekholm hammered a slapper off the goalie’s shoulder after a nice feed from Draisaitl. He and Bouchard got crossed up a bit on the 4-1 play, but no one was more at fault than the goaltender. +4. 5v5 CF 28-11, 72%. In terms of 5v5 High Dangers, Mattias Ekholm was a commanding 12-0. Wow.
EVAN BOUCHARD. 8. Earned his 80th point of the season with a secondary assist on the 6-1. Only the great Paul Coffey has achieved that mark for a D-man in Oilers franchise history. Tapped in a dandy pass from Perry. +3. High Danger scoring chances 5v5? Evan Bouchard was 11-0.
Advertisement 5
Article content
RYAN McLEOD. 7. A steal deep in the San Jose zone led to the 8-1. The pivot on a trio that had San Jose on its heels much of the night. McLeod, Holloway, and Perry have some kind of chemistry right now.
DYLAN HOLLOWAY. 8. His first 3-point game of his NHL career. Lowered the boom on Granlund in his own zone with a heavy hit in the 1st. Then, slapped home a slick pass from Henrique late in the 1st from the high slot for the 4-0. Could not quite bury a pass from Corey Perry early in the 2nd. Then, just a terrific feed across to Perry for the 6-1. Great play along the wall helped lead to Bouchard’s goal, the 8-1. 4 shots, 4 hits. Making it a very difficult decision to not play him in Game 1 of the post season.
COREY PERRY. 7. Part of a withering cycle then eventually resulted in the 4-0. A feed to Holloway for a chance early in the 2nd. Slammed home the 6-1 goal off a terrific feed from Holloway. Perfect, feathery-soft pass to Bouchard net side for the 8-1 marker. 3rd Period post. +3.
BRETT KULAK. 5. Fired the shot from the point which Henrique found for the 2-0.
VINCENT DESHARNAIS. 5. Caught up trying to make a play in a 9-1 game. San Jose turned that into a jail break and eventually the 9-1.
Advertisement 6
Article content
SAM CARRICK. 5. 80% on faceoffs. This line got lots of ice with the score being so one-sided. Carrick played 15:21. 1 shot, 2 hits.
MATTIAS JANMARK. 5. Skated miles, solid defensively but his stats line was flat as the prairie horizon: 0-0-0, 0 shots, 0 hits, +/- of 0 in a 9-2 game.
CONNOR BROWN. 5. Did manage 3 shots on net and like Janmark, worked hard.
Edmonton’s record now sits at 49-25-6, 104 points. 3 back of Vancouver in the Pacific with 2 games left.
Find me on Threads @kleavins, on Instagram at LeavinsOnHockey, Mastodon at KurtLeavins@mstdn.social, and X @KurtLeavins.
McCURDY: Oilers bakes into 2nd in the Pacific, who comes up from The Bake?
STAPLES: Edmonton Oilers excellent on D, not on attack versus Canucks
Article content
Tiger Woods hits from the bunker on the 16th hole during final round at the Masters golf tournament at Augusta National Golf Club on April 14 in Augusta, Ga.Charlie Riedel/The Associated Press
Tiger Woods finished the Masters on Sunday with a record he could do without, walking off the course with a 16-over 304, his highest 72-hole score in a career that spans three decades.
Woods’s previous high was 302 at the Memorial in 2015. He has only failed to break 300 one other time at the Masters two years ago when he shot 78-78 on the weekend and finished at 301.
Despite the score, Woods called it a “good week” and said he’s going to begin preparing for the other three majors including the PGA Championship in May, the U.S. Open in June and the British Open in July.
“This is a golf course I knew going into it, so I’m going to do my homework going forward at Pinehurst, Valhalla and Troon,” Woods said. “But that’s kind of the game plan.”
Overall, he wasn’t unhappy with how he played.
“Coming in here, not having played a full tournament in a very long time, it was a good fight on Thursday and Friday,” Woods said. “Unfortunately [Saturday] didn’t quite turn out the way I wanted it to.”
It hardly mattered to the crowd.
The 48-year-old Woods, who is still dealing with the effects of numerous surgeries that have affected his body and limited his playing time on the PGA Tour, received a huge roar from the crowd as he pitched close to the hole on No. 18 and made par.
Wearing his traditional Sunday red, Woods tipped his hat to the crowd.
Woods has played only 24 holes in one tournament going into the Masters
“I’m just going to keep lifting, keep the motor going, keep the body moving, keep getting stronger, keep progressing,” Woods said. “Hopefully the practice sessions will keep getting longer.”
Woods was in last place among the 60 players who made the cut when he finished. The previous time he finished in last place was in the 2020 Genesis Invitational at Riviera.
He played the final 36 holes in 15 over, shooting 77 on Sunday in his 100th career round at the Masters.
A home-and-home with the Detroit Red Wings is all that remains for the Montreal Canadiens in the 2023-2024 season. It’s been a season of improvement, and that’s the simple goal in a rebuild.
This one carried extra excitement as it was the debut of college sensation Lane Hutson. The Canadiens and Red Wings played perhaps the most exciting game of the year.
The Wings kept their playoff hopes alive with a 5-4 overtime win.
If a player moves to a higher level and he can’t do his strengths, that is the first indication that he may be in for some difficult days. It isn’t about weaknesses. It’s what brought the player to the NHL — his strengths. Can he still achieve his best traits at higher levels?
The most obvious example is when a goal scorer has big totals in a junior hockey league, but can’t score at all at the NHL level. Another example would be a playmaker at the college level who has plenty of time to make plays, but at the NHL level, he can’t hold on to the puck to create success.
This is why the first period of game one in the career of Lane Hutson showed right away that he was going to have absolutely no difficulty with his strengths. On the first shift, he had very little time to make a pass to Juraj Slafkovsky and did it perfectly.
More on Sports
On the second shift, he scored his first NHL point already. It was classic Hutson. He danced along the blue line. He was pursued by a checker whom he left in his wake. He then made a feint to beat two more before shooting it on goal. Brendan Gallagher scored on the rebound.
Two shifts later, it was Hutson with a beautiful pass after getting the puck off a draw in the offensive zone. He waited and waited until the shooter found his open lane. It was, once again, gorgeous. Hutson has shown so quickly that he can do exactly what he has always done as a player, offensively.
Defensively, Hutson made an error leading to the Red Wings first goal. There is no disputing that it’s important that Hutson plays good defence as well, but defence is about decisions, and decisions get better with experience. Decisions can be improved far easier than talent can be found.
On that first goal against, Hutson tracked forwards up high, and as a result, he got caught. He couldn’t track back down-low to the goal fast enough, so he ended up watching the puck, instead of taking a man. There will be teaching moments defensively, but as long as he can do offensively what made him one of the best college scoring blue liners in history, he will be an outstanding NHL player.
As the game progressed, it was clear that Hutson was going to have no trouble finding his passes. Sometimes they were stretch passes that freed players. Sometimes they were simple passes to forwards on the other wall. A player must feel that he has time to make a good pass. It’s a good indicator that there is a calmness in the work. Hutson always looked calm in his first game.
In fact, the most striking note is that Hutson looked exactly like he did as a Boston University Terrier. He moved from college hockey to the NHL and his game did not alter. He was able to achieve the same profile in his first NHL game which is remarkable.
As the game progressed, Hutson got stronger defensively. Around his goal, his head was on a swivel. He was looking for his check, and body-positioning well to block out attackers. He also anticipated the play beautifully on defence to be first on loose pucks.
In overtime, 3-on-3, where Hutson will excel, he wheeled and had a chance right in the slot. It was gorgeous. The win was on his stick. However, with Hutson down low, he wasn’t backed-up and the Red Wings came back the other way to win it.
Head coach Martin St. Louis sure liked Hutson’s first NHL game. Hutson had 22:04 of ice time.
There are no goats. There were only outstanding performances.
Brendan Gallagher scored twice. He now has 15 goals on the season. That may not sound like a Gallagher season, but 15 is a respectable number for a player who gets little to no power play time. Gallagher and his contract are not liabilities. In fact, this was a solid season for Gallagher.
It was also a strong night for Rafael Harvey-Pinard, who scored on a terrific pass from Jake Evans. Evans also had a strong season. He was asked to assume a much larger role with the injury to Christian Dvorak, and he shone. There is an NHL spot for Evans on a stronger Canadiens club. Ultimately, when the team is of a higher quality, he would be a fourth-line centre and a good one.
Josh Anderson didn’t make an impression on the scoresheet, but he had a strong game. Anderson has been looking more comfortable finally. He is driving the net like he used to. He may be finding the courage he needs in his game again after his serious high-ankle sprain injury. It says here that Anderson recovers next year to have a strong season putting this year’s woes behind him.
The club is looking quite competitive in game 81. The pieces are coming together.
The Canadiens’ first 100-goal line in 31 years may already be assembled. The century mark in goals is difficult to attain. Generally, there are only five to 10 100-goal lines per season. This year, there are seven.
In Montreal, fans haven’t been able to count on one this century. Even in the high scoring days of Alex Kovalev, the last player to be a point-per-game in Montreal in 2008, no line has been even close to 100 goals.
The last line to achieve the 100-goal mark was Brian Bellows, Vincent Damphousse and Kirk Muller in 1993. That says a lot about how good that cup-winning team was, and even more about how much of a scoring black hole fans have lived through in Montreal for a long, long time.
It may finally be ending. A 100-goal line could actually be a reality as soon as next season. The sample size of Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield and Juraj Slafkovsky is getting solid enough to start dreaming. The arrival of Slafkovsky has changed everything.
In the last 41 games for the Canadiens, Slafkovsky has exploded with 15 goals after attaining only four goals in the first half of the season. Nick Suzuki has also had a tremendous second half as the top goal-getter on the line with 22 goals. Suzuki is playing the best hockey of his career. The laggard by only a small margin, even though he is considered the best sniper of the three, is Cole Caufield. He has 14 goals in the second half of the season.
Add that up and the Canadiens line has 51 goals in 41 games. There is your 100-goal line. Can they duplicate that for an entire season? It promises to be exciting to find out. In their favour is that all three players are still improving, especially Slafkkovsky, whose ceiling seems very high. Also in their favour is that they have a chance to get a little relief in match-ups in the coming years, if the second line can also provide some offence and be a threat.
This is the type of scoring talent not seen in Montreal since 1993. That seems bizarre to say, but the numbers tell the true story. The best scoring teams under head coach Guy Carbonneau did not have a line that scored at the pace of Caufield-Suzuki-Slafkovsky.
Next season should be exciting.
Brian Wilde, a Montreal-based sports writer, brings you Call of the Wilde on globalnews.ca after each Canadiens game.
DJT Stock Plunges After Trump Media Files to Issue Shares
FFAW, ASP Pleased With Resumption of Crab Fishery – VOCM
Marjorie Taylor Greene won’t say what happened to her Trump Media stock
Javier Blas 10 Things Oil Traders Need to Know About Iran's Attack on Israel – OilPrice.com
In cutting out politics, A24 movie 'Civil War' fails viewers – Los Angeles Times
Trump Media plunges amid plan to issue more shares. It's lost $7 billion in value since its peak. – CBS News
Tesla May Be Headed For Massive Layoffs As Woes Mount: Reports – InsideEVs
Trump Media stock slides again to bring it nearly 60% below its peak as euphoria fades – National Post
Comments