Notice: Home alone tonight?
Topic: Sport
+Anonymous A — 5 months ago #67,981
IRISH GO FOR BOLD TO WIN BULG BATTLE
REPUBLIC OF IRELAND boss Heimir Hallgrimsson has urged his players to be more assertive if they want to complete a Nations League play-off victory over Bulgaria.
First-half headers from Finn Azaz and Matt Doherty secured a deserved 2-1 comeback success in the first leg of the promotion-relegation decider in Plovdiv.
Ireland responded well to the shock of Marin Petkov's sixth-minute opener, but offered little attacking threat in a stop- start second period.
Hallgrimsson's men hope to finish the job and remain in League B when Bulgaria visit the Aviva Stadium in Dublin.
"I don't think we have to change many things, but we obviously need to be a little bit less passive like we were in the second half," he said.
"We gave them a little bit of initiative in the second half, which we should not have done. We need to fix that and improve for the next game. "Maybe because we were winning and we haven't done much of that lately, you automatically tend to get a little bit more passive than we should and we need to correct that."
Victory in front of 1,000 travelling fans at a sparsely-populated Hristo Botev Stadium was a third in seven games since Hallgrimsson was appointed last summer.
The Icelander masterminded wins home and away against Finland during the group phase, but his team failed to score in their other four fixtures. including a 5-0 thrashing against England at Wembley.
"There's not been many wins and not many comebacks." Hallgrimsson said. "I'm pleased with the character and discipline we showed.
" I knew if we would do what we talked about in planning and training that we would have a good game.
"First half we did that: second half we didn't do it as well."
+Anonymous B — 4 months ago, 1 week later[T] [B] #673,954
+Anonymous C — 4 months ago, 1 week later, 2 weeks after the original post[T] [B] #674,165
Woeful Suns show Budenholzer the door
BY DAVID BRANDT
The Phoenix Suns fired coach Mike Budenholzer following one dismal season that featured a fast start before a maddening slide out of postseason contention for a high-priced roster that includes Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and Bradley Beal.
The Suns made the unsurprising announcement Monday, one day after they finished with a 36-46 record that put them 11th in the Western Conference. The Suns lost nine of their last 10 games and failed to qualify for the play-in tournament.
"Competing at the highest level remains our goal, and we failed to meet expectations this season," the team said in a statement. "Our fans deserve better. Change is needed."
Budenholzer, 55, was hired in May, replacing Frank Vogel, who also had a one-year tenure that ended in disappointment. Budenholzer, an Arizona native, won the NBA title with the Milwaukee Bucks in 2021, beating the Suns in six games in the Finals, and the hope was he could bring a title to the desert.
He didn't even come close.
The season began with optimism after the Suns started 8-1, but Durant went down with a calf strain that knocked the team into a tailspin. Even after the 15-time all-star returned a few weeks later, Phoenix was never able to recapture its early momentum. Budenholzer couldn't seem to settle on a regular rotation, with rookies Ryan Dunn and Oso Ighodaro playing big minutes one night before being benched the next. Center Jusuf Nurkic had an awful start to the season and complained about a lack of communication with Budenholzer - before being traded.
Booker and Durant stayed relatively healthy, but Beal had constant injury issues and missed more than 20 games in the regular season for a sixth straight year. The Suns tried to retool at the trade deadline, but Beal's no-trade clause and the team's salary cap status made major moves difficult.
Budenholzer has a 520-363 record (.589) over 11 seasons with the Atlanta Hawks, Bucks and Suns.
- Associated Press
+Anonymous D — 5 days ago, 4 months later, 5 months after the original post[T] [B] #676,344
TO HEAR
The Big Five-0 Live
Cold Chisel fans who cherished the band's powerful 50th anniversary tour last year - or those who missed out - can now experience the musical magic with this CD, vinyl, and DVD release, recorded at Melbourne's Sidney Myer Music Bowl last November. There are 28 songs from the band's rich catalogue - hits and a few deep cuts - and the DVD also features interviews with all the band members along with archival footage from their stellar career.
off the Mediterranean, and a navy-and-white-striped Chanel