Frank de Boer has a clear image of what success at Euro 2020 will entail for the Netherlands. “There is only one thing we want to achieve and that is to swim in the canals of Amsterdam having won the final,” the head coach said on Saturday, putting cruise boat companies on early notice. “You don’t become a European champion easily but I think we have the quality to do it if everything fits into place.”

High confidence, and party planning for July, does not mean De Boer and the Dutch are getting ahead of themselves before Sunday’s last-16 tie with the Czech Republic. He accepts there is work to do before the Netherlands’ re-emergence has title-winning substance, but belief is growing for good reason. “I look at how the team is…

I’ve been a professional footballer for more than a decade. In nearly all of my 500 appearances, I’ve had an online casino advert either on my shirt or surrounding me on the pitch.

It’s no surprise. It’s impossible to watch a match in the top five men’s divisions in England without seeing adverts for gambling. My career has not taken me to the Premier League (yet) but these ads can appear more than 700 times a match on television in our top flight, where nearly half the teams have a betting sponsor on the front of their shirts.

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Arne Slot has warned that Manchester United perform when it matters in the biggest matches and wants his players to keep the Old Trafford crowd quiet in his first competitive clash against Liverpool’s bitter rivals as manager.

Slot has overseen two victories to start his Anfield tenure, beating Ipswich and Brentford, but the second trip of his career to Old Trafford on Sunday will be the biggest test since replacing Jürgen Klopp. Liverpool have won two of their past 13 visits to United and Slot’s solitary trip resulted in a 4-0 Europa League defeat in charge of AZ.

McBurnie and McKenna outshine Mbappé to flourish for Las PalmasRead more

“I haven’t experienced this game yet but the players have experienced i…

Anyone who’s ever been to Las Vegas will tell you two nights is the perfect length for a trip, and proceed with caution after the 48-hour mark, or you’ll risk going full James Harden and slapping your buddy outside the club. Three days on the strip is excessive even for the most degenerate of addicts, and at some point, the partying stops being fun because the slots, casino lights, and alcohol beat you into submission to the point that you tap out voluntarily. We’ll see how the expanded College Football Playoff feels after its inaugural run-through in 2024-25, but I’m getting strong too-many-days in Vegas vibes. The dates were released, and the first round is set for the Friday and Saturday before Christmas (Dec. 19 and 20). The quarterfinals are the New Year’s Eve and Day ga…

So Clemson wrecked Ohio State tonight and will face Alabama next week for the national championship. Pray the Tigers win, for the sake of our puppetmasters in Moscow—who, if Russian TV announcers are any indication, bleed orange. …

If the NBA dunk contest has disappointed you in recent years, you might consider tuning into this year's edition. The NBA has instituted a new set of rules for the contest, and they have the potential to make this year's version much more watchable than the boring, craptastic contests we've seen in years past. The worst part about the dunk contest has always been the pockets of cringe-inducing dead air that are produced by one dunker trying and failing to pull off the same dunk over and over again. The new rules should eliminate some of that depressing downtime, because the first round is now a "freestyle" round. It works like this: The six dunkers will be divided into two teams, East and West, and will all participate in the freestyle round simultaneously. Basi…

One should never go into spring break cold. It's important to ease into it with a few warmup public intoxication arrests, as these three Iowa football players can tell you. On the left there is James Ferentz, redshirt freshman center and son of Hawkeyes head coach Kirk Ferentz, who in February signed a contract extension through the 2015 season. But it was Ferentz's buddies, freshman tight end Zach Derby and freshman fullback Tyler Christiansen, who did the most impressive work here. According to criminal complaints and University of Iowa Department of Public Safety Associate Director Bill Searls, Zachary Merlin Derby, 19, and Tyler Allen Christiansen, 19, approached an off-duty UI police officer and attempted to pick a fight with him. The incident happened around 2 a.m. in …

Boston College and Notre Dame continue Atlantic Coast Conference play with their second meeting in as many weeks on Saturday afternoon in South Bend, Ind. The Eagles (11-8, 2-6 ACC) have won three consecutive meetings in the series following a 63-59 home win on Jan. 15. Boston College followed that up by losing two straight games, including Tuesday's 76-71 setback at Virginia Tech. A second-half rally to cut an 11-point halftime deficit down to two in the final minute was not enough for the Eagles on Tuesday. Devin McGlockton collected 19 points and 10 rebounds for his second double-double of the season. "You just find yourself digging out of a hole when you're down 12 or 13 on the road," Boston College coach Earl Grant said. "I thought the second half was real…

data-mm-id=”_plzpbtas2″> Kansas City's Super Bowl hopes took a blow when Patrick Mahomes sustained a knee injury during a Thursday night showdown with the Denver Broncos, a game the Chiefs eventually won 30-6. While the injury is not as serious as once feared, it looks like the Chiefs will still be without Mahomes for a "brief" period of time, and will look to someone else to run the league's most feared offense. For the second half of last night's game, that someone was backup Matt Moore, but the Chiefs might look elsewhere for next week's contest against the Packers.Here are a few ideas. 1. Matt MooreThere's always sticking with Plan A. Moore did an adequate job in relief of Mahomes last night against the Denver Broncos, going 10 of 19 for 117 yards…