The Bundesliga will be very different when it resumes Saturday following a two-month suspension caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
There will be no children to accompany players onto the field, no contact between rivals in the tunnel before games, no handshakes with the referee or match officials, substitutes will have to wear masks and sit apart, and even goals in the empty stadiums will be sombre affairs — players have been warned to keep their emotions in check.
Coaches will be permitted to remove their masks to shout instructions at their players – as long as they stay at least 1.5 metres (yards) away.
To compensate for the lack of atmosphere, Sky TV says it will offer viewers a new audio option with prerecorded fan chants, singing and reactions based on the games. Borussia Mönchengladbach will have artificial cutouts of real supporters in the stands for its remaining home matches.
Most fans don’t even want the league to resume — the latest polls from German broadcasters show a growing majority are against it — but soccer authorities were desperate to get back on track with several clubs, including Bundesliga club Schalke, already on the brink financially.
Chancellor Angela Merkel finally gave the go-ahead to restart the season on May 6 after taking note of Germany’s dropping rate in new infections for COVID-19, though she made it clear that soccer was low down on her list of priorities.
The last Bundesliga game was played on March 11 as the virus was beginning to take hold in Germany. Unaware, or perhaps indifferent to the danger, hundreds of Borussia Mönchengladbach fans gathered outside their closed stadium as their team defeated Cologne 2-1. Gladbach players even celebrated with supporters afterward in scenes that authorities are determined won’t be repeated.
“ We’re playing on probation,” league CEO Christian Seifert said.
Local authorities have the power to derail the clubs’ stated aim to finish the regular season by the end of June.
Second-division club Dynamo Dresden is undergoing 14 days of quarantine after two more players tested positive for COVID-19 last Saturday, placing its participation in the league in doubt.
Efforts to restart the third division are being hampered because clubs like Carl Zeiss Jena, Magdeburg and Hallescher FC are not allowed to train. A spat has developed with the German soccer federation, which wanted the division to resume on May 26.
The country’s top clubs don’t face such issues.
With nine games of the season remaining, Bayern Munich plays at Union Berlin on Sunday with a four-point lead at the top of the standings.
Second-place Borussia Dortmund hosts Schalke for the Ruhr derby on Saturday. Third-place Leipzig, which is a point further behind, hosts Freiburg, and Gladbach, another point back, visits Frankfurt, also Saturday.
But there’s no guarantee that all nine remaining rounds will be played.
The league has put off a decision on what will happen if play is suspended again or the rest of the season is called off. The standings would most likely stand, with the top team named champion and the bottom two relegated.
Teams were preparing for the restart in quarantine conditions this week. Augsburg coach Heiko Herrlich was due to make his debut in charge against Wolfsburg on Saturday, but he will miss the game after breaking quarantine restrictions to buy toiletries. Herrlich will only return after twice testing negative for COVID-19.
More than 20,000 tests for the virus will be carried out on players, coaching staff and other team officials as part of the league’s hygiene plan to complete the season.
But that hasn’t stopped some from outlining concerns. Cologne midfielder Birger Verstraete criticized the club for its handing of three positive cases of the virus, and Union Berlin defender Neven Subotic said that it was a “precarious situation” for all the players.
“It is going to be impossible to come out of the league with positive remarks,” Subotic said in a BBC interview.
Karlsruher SC midfielder Marc Lorenz was even more critical, saying the league hadn’t considered players’ health “at all” in its rush to get back in action.
“The players will be exhausted after 60 minutes,” Lorenz told the Badische Neueste Nachrichten newspaper. “The five substitutions that were just decided won’t help there. Fatigue will come and then the serious injuries.”
The league is allowing five substitutions instead of the usual three to help teams following two months without play.
The second division is also resuming Saturday, albeit without quarantined last-place Dresden.
The Bundesliga is the first of the five major leagues in Europe to resume. The French league has been called off. Now the Premier League, Serie A and Spanish league will be watching closely to see how German authorities deal with the risk factors that could lead to another shutdown.
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Ciarán Fahey on Twitter: https://twitter.com/cfaheyAP
CLEVELAND (AP) — Restricted free agent forward Isaac Okoro has agreed to re-sign with the Cleveland Cavaliers on a three-year contract, a person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press on Saturday.
Okoro’s new deal is worth $38 million, according to the person who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the contract has not been signed or announced by the team.
ESPN.com first reported the agreement, citing Okoro’s representation.
The fifth overall pick in the 2020 NBA draft, Okoro is Cleveland’s best perimeter defender, often drawing the assignment of guarding the opponent’s top scorer. Okoro also has worked to improve his offensive game.
The 23-year-old averaged 9.4 points and 3.0 rebounds in 69 games — 42 starts — last season for the Cavs, who beat Orlando in the opening round of the playoffs before losing to eventual champion Boston.
Okoro shot a career-best 39% on 3-pointers, forcing teams to come out and guard him.
His agreement caps an extraordinarily busy summer for the Cavs that began with coach J.B. Bickerstaff being fired and replaced by Kenny Atkinson. All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell signed a three-year, $150 million extension in July, ending months of speculation that he wanted out of Cleveland.
Also, power forward Evan Mobley signed a five-year, $224 deal and center Jarrett Allen signed a three-year, $91 million extension.
GUADALAJARA, Mexico – Canada’s Marina Stakusic fell 6-4, 6-3 to Poland’s Magdalena Frech in the quarterfinals of the Guadalajara Open tennis tournament on Friday.
The 19-year-old from Mississauga, Ont., won 61 per cent of her first-serve points and broke on just one of her six opportunities.
Stakusic had upset top-seeded Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (0) on Thursday night to advance.
In the opening round, Stakusic defeated Slovakia’s Anna Karolína Schmiedlová 6-2, 6-4 on Tuesday.
The fifth-seeded Frech won 62 per cent of her first-serve points and converted on three of her nine break point opportunities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
TORONTO – Alejandro Kirk’s long single with the bases loaded provided the Toronto Blue Jays with a walk-off 4-3 win in the 11th inning of their series opener against the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday.
With the Cardinals outfield in, Kirk drove a shot off the base of the left-field wall to give the Blue Jays (70-78) their fourth win in 11 outings and halt the Cardinals’ (74-73) two-game win streak before 30,380 at Rogers Centre.
Kirk enjoyed a two-hit, two-RBI outing.
Erik Swanson (2-2) pitched a perfect 11th inning for the win, while Cardinals reliever Ryan Fernandez (1-5) took the loss.
Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman enjoyed a seven-inning, 104-pitch outing. He surrendered his two runs on nine hits and two walks and fanned only two Cardinals.
He gave way to reliever Genesis Cabrera, who gave up a one-out homer to Thomas Saggese, his first in 2024, that tied the game in the eighth.
The Cardinals started swiftly with four straight singles to open the game. But they exited the first inning with only two runs on an RBI single to centre from Nolan Arendao and a fielder’s choice from Saggese.
Gausman required 28 pitches to escape the first inning but settled down to allow his teammates to snatch the lead in the fourth.
He also deftly pitched out of threats from the visitors in the fifth, sixth and seventh thanks to some solid defence, including Will Wagner’s diving stop, which led to a double play to end the fifth inning.
George Springer led off with a walk and stole second base. He advanced to third on Nathan Lukes’s single and scored when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. knocked in his 95th run with a double off the left-field wall.
Lukes scored on a sacrifice fly to left field from Spencer Horwitz. Guerrero touched home on Kirk’s two-out single to right.
In the ninth, Guerrero made a critical diving catch on an Arenado grounder to throw out the Cardinals’ infielder, with reliever Tommy Nance covering first. The defensive gem ended the inning with a runner on second base.
St. Louis starter Erick Fedde faced the minimum night batters in the first three innings thanks to a pair of double plays. He lasted five innings, giving up three runs on six hits and a walk with three strikeouts.
ON DECK
Toronto ace Jose Berrios (15-9) will start the second of the three-game series on Saturday. He has a six-game win streak.
The Cardinals will counter with righty Kyle Gibson (8-6).
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
