MANCHESTER, England (AP) — Casemiro was put out of his misery early at Old Trafford on Sunday.
The Brazil international was substituted by Manchester United at halftime of its 3-0 loss to Liverpool in the Premier League at Old Trafford, having been at fault for both of the goals scored by the visitors in the first half.
Casemiro gave the ball away to spark the attack that led to Luis Diaz heading in the opening goal in the 35th minute.
Diaz scored the second goal, too, after dispossessing Casemiro in United's half and then getting on the end of Mohamed Salah's pass in the ensuing counterattack.
The 32-year-old Casemiro didn't get on the field for the second half because he was replaced by 20-year-old Toby Collyer.
“It was what the team needed,” United manager Erik ten Hag said.
United signed Manuel Ugarte from Paris Saint-Germain on Friday, with the Uruguay defensive midfielder likely the long-term replacement for Casemiro, who joined from Real Madrid in August 2022.
“He knows the game. He will go on, we will go on, it's a great player,” Ten Hag said of Casemiro. "We will continue this season, improve the team but also improve the players.
“He showed so often he is a great character and we all have seen great moments from him, be decisive for us in the midfield, and he will show it again. I'm sure he will bounce back.”
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Liverpool's Alexis Mac Allister, centre, challenges for the ball with Manchester United's Casemiro during the English Premier League soccer match between Manchester United and Liverpool at Old Trafford, Sunday, Sept. 1, 2024, in Manchester, England. (AP Photo/Dave Thompson)
Liverpool's Dominik Szoboszlai, left, challenges for the ball with Manchester United's Casemiro during the English Premier League soccer match between Manchester United and Liverpool at Old Trafford, Sunday, Sept. 1, 2024, in Manchester, England. (AP Photo/Dave Thompson)
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A billionaire spacewalker returned to Earth with his crew on Sunday, ending a five-day trip that lifted them higher than anyone has traveled since NASA’s moonwalkers.
SpaceX’s capsule splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico near Florida's Dry Tortugas in the predawn darkness, carrying tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, two SpaceX engineers and a former Air Force Thunderbird pilot.
They pulled off the first private spacewalk while orbiting nearly 460 miles (740 kilometers) above Earth, higher than the International Space Station and Hubble Space Telescope. Their spacecraft hit a peak altitude of 875 miles (1,408 kilometers) following Tuesday’s liftoff.
Isaacman became only the 264th person to perform a spacewalk since the former Soviet Union scored the first in 1965, and SpaceX’s Sarah Gillis the 265th. Until now, all spacewalks were done by professional astronauts.
“We are mission complete,” Isaacman radioed as the capsule bobbed in the water, awaiting the recovery team.
During Thursday's commercial spacewalk, the Dragon capsule’s hatch was open barely a half-hour. Isaacman emerged only up to his waist to briefly test SpaceX’s brand new spacesuit followed by Gillis, who was knee high as she flexed her arms and legs for several minutes. Gillis, a classically trained violinist, also held a performance in orbit earlier in the week.
The spacewalk lasted less than two hours, considerably shorter than those at the International Space Station. Most of that time was needed to depressurize the entire capsule and then restore the cabin air. Even SpaceX's Anna Menon and Scott “Kidd” Poteet, who remained strapped in, wore spacesuits.
SpaceX considers the brief exercise a starting point to test spacesuit technology for future, longer missions to Mars.
This was Isaacman’s second chartered flight with SpaceX, with two more still ahead under his personally financed space exploration program named Polaris after the North Star. He paid an undisclosed sum for his first spaceflight in 2021, taking along contest winners and a pediatric cancer survivor while raising more than $250 million for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
For the just completed so-called Polaris Dawn mission, the founder and CEO of the Shift4 credit card-processing company shared the cost with SpaceX. Isaacman won’t divulge how much he spent.
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
This image made from a SpaceX video shows the start of the first private spacewalk led by tech billionaire Jared Isaacman Thursday Sept. 12, 2024. (SpaceX via AP)
