Tottenham without Son Heung-min for Premier League game against Man United

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Tottenham without Son Heung-min for Premier League game against Man United

2024-09-29 23:07 Last Updated At：23:10

MANCHESTER, England (AP) — Son Heung-min will miss Tottenham's Premier League match against Manchester United on Sunday, with manager Ange Postecoglou saying the South Korea forward wasn't available after playing in the Europa League on Thursday.

Son, who started in Spurs' 3-0 win against Qarabag, wasn't named in the squad for the game at Old Trafford.

“Short turnaround, he just wasn’t right for today so we go in without him," Postecoglou said. “We’ve had those things a fair bit. We just have to learn to cope without."

Last week Son joined a growing number of leading figures in soccer to raise concerns about the demands on players, saying there was a “massive” risk of injury.

His comments came after Manchester City midfielder Rodri said last week that players were close to taking strike action. Days later, Rodri sustained knee ligament damage, which has ruled him out for the season.

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

Odermatt finally wins in Gardena as he dominates a World Cup downhill

2024-12-21 21:49 Last Updated At：21:50

SELVA DI VAL GARDENA, Italy (AP) — Marco Odermatt finally conquered the Saslong and the Swiss standout did it in style.

Odermatt put down what he called “one of my best” downhill runs on Saturday to win a World Cup race in Val Gardena as the three-time overall World Cup champion looked like back to his imperious best.

The 27-year-old beat Swiss teammate Franjo von Allmen by 0.45 seconds for his first victory at the resort in the Italian Dolomites. Odermatt had had four podium finishes there — including in Saturday’s super-G — but had never been better than second.

It was Odermatt’s 40th World Cup victory but only his third in downhill.

"It was one of my best downhills," Odermatt said. “If you want to win the downhill, you need the perfect run and today already on the top, which is not really my section, I could ski very well and finally I also jumped well, and then it was really perfect. So yeah, very happy with the run.”

It had also been a less than stellar start to the season for Odermatt — by his lofty standards — and he yelled out in joy several times after crossing the line, before taking off his skis and raising them up and letting out another long shout.

Before Odermatt came down it had been an incredibly tight race, with the top three separated by just 0.02. In the end, American skier Ryan Cochran-Siegle finished third, with Nils Allègre of France missing out on what would have been only his second ever podium finish by one hundredth of a second.

It was Cochrane-Siegle's third podium after also finishing third in Val Gardena four years ago and winning the super-G in Bormio 10 days later.

“It was good skiing, it was fun,” he said. “Gardena is a really challenging hill to ski, in the sense of skiing fast. I’ve had runs here where I thought I’d put down a good one, and it’s been seconds out, so you really never know until you cross the finish line.

"I was just focusing on trying to carry speed as much as possible. When I ski my best I do that — keeping skiing really simple, back to basics.”

Odermatt won the downhill World Cup title last season, as well as the super-G, giant slalom and overall crystal globes.

The only previous downhill this season was in Beaver Creek, where Odermatt finished second to teammate Justin Murisier.

Odermatt moved 78 points above Murisier in the downhill standings and 50 points above Henrik Kristoffersen in the overall.

The circuit moves to nearby Alta Badia where there is a giant slalom on Sunday and a slalom the following day.

Meanwhile, Lindsey Vonn finished 14th in a super-G in St. Moritz, Switzerland to mark her return to World Cup skiing at age 40. Her comeback continues in a super-G in St. Moritz on Sunday.