Sports
Manchester City and a refused pass that laid bare their myriad problems
Manchester City attempted 683 passes in their 1-1 draw with Everton, but it was one that Nathan Ake refused that revealed the tensions that are gnawing at them.
It came just as another flurry from Pep Guardiola’s side was beginning to settle down. A familiar sense of exasperation was already brewing in the stands — fans reflecting on Iliman Ndiaye’s sensational equaliser, that came from Everton’s first touch in the City box — but after a strong start to the second half, including a rare Erling Haaland penalty miss, adrenaline and indignation was beginning to take hold.
There was a roar as City regained possession deep in their own half, fans urging the team on as Ake ambled forward while Josko Gvardiol careered down the left flank. But as the Dutchman turned back to find Bernardo Silva in midfield, to a collective groan from home fans, Guardiola burst to the edge of his technical area and appealed for calm.
Everton scrambled back into their shape — Guardiola still pleading with his supporters — as a slower attacking move through the middle eventually fizzled out down the opposite side
It could have become the kind of sweeping move that City have struggled to contain throughout their growing winless run — no team have conceded more than their 5.3 expected goals (xG) from fast breaks in the Premier League this season — but it only underlined their aversion to exploiting such situations themselves.
Gvardiol had rushed past Jack Harrison, and clearly had the forward momentum to skip by 36-year-old Seamus Coleman at full-back, but on this occasion, Guardiola’s insistence on controlled build-up prevailed over common sense. City had sufficient numbers back to deal with any loss of possession and a counter-attack the opposite way, and given their current issues controlling such situations even when they are in their desired defensive shape, surely they should have just taken the chance.
It was, of course, just one individual decision in a game of millions. But as City once again looked more threatening when they picked up the pace and were more aggressive in their movement, it poses the question as to whether Guardiola’s side should embrace the disorganisation of a direct forward run that little bit more.
Despite long periods of safe attacking play, City were not completely risk-averse in their approach. Particularly in the opening 15 minutes, they seemed desperate to score the first goal, aware that their opponents had ground out consecutive clean sheets against Arsenal and Chelsea, and were capable of turning this into a 90-minute slog.
City usually bring one of their full-backs into midfield to help with their build-up, but it was noticeable how they pushed both Rico Lewis and Gvardiol high and wide as they came flying out of the blocks, looking to overload Everton’s back four and stretch them across the pitch.
As we can see from the grab below, with Lewis cut from the shot in the bottom right, the approach was practically a 3-0-7 as City piled on the pressure in the early stages.
After Silva nicked the opening goal, however, Lewis was quickly restored to his more central role to offer more control in the build-up and make City more compact should they lose the ball.
Here he is three minutes after the goal, close to Mateo Kovacic in midfield.
It was a conscious decision by Guardiola to take the sting out of the game and revert to a more settled shape, and he may have been vindicated had Ndiaye not produced a moment of brilliance on the break. But with City so susceptible to sucker punches right now, it felt a missed opportunity to see them take their foot off the gas so soon.
One of the side effects of Lewis dropping back into midfield is that his winger — Savinho yesterday — loses support out on the flank. The Brazilian took 15 touches in the quarter of an hour leading up to City’s goal, but only 16 throughout the rest of the half.
Data from SkillCorner helps to paint the picture further: City are the team in Europe’s big five leagues who make fewest overlapping runs per 30 minutes in possession. They have also attempted the fewest passes to find a runner in-behind relative to their possession, taking up around 46 per cent of their opportunities to find those runs when they are made. Unsurprisingly, that’s the lowest such proportion in the Premier League this season.
There are several factors that influence those numbers — the fact that City tend to face teams who sit deep and deny them space in behind being one — but the lack of movement from forward players while the team inches forward has become increasingly apparent in recent weeks. It makes things predictable, as it did for Aston Villa, and only increases the difficulty of finding players in congested central areas, mostly static and with their back to goal.
There was an encouraging example of a positional rotation in their 3-0 win over Nottingham Forest at the start of the month, as Jack Grealish dragged a defender into midfield to allow Gvardiol to steam through for a shot on goal, but City seem reluctant to make such disruptive strides forward as often as they could.
A gloomy way of looking at things is that dropped points don’t matter so much now that City are so far away from the summit. The damage — from a title-chasing perspective, if not perhaps Champions League qualification — has already been done.
But starting a run of three winnable games with another setback feels like a missed opportunity for the team to rebuild confidence in front of goal. Had City been more ruthless in their approach, and gone for the kind of passes that Ake turned down, their firepower might have overridden some of the bad luck.
(Top photo: Carl Recine/Getty Images)
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Israel’s national gymnastics team has suspended all training and team activities amid the recent Iranian counter-attack on the country following the U.S.-assisted strikes on Iran.
The Israel Gymnastics Federation (IGF) provided a statement to Fox News Digital announcing the violence has caused “unavoidable disruptions.”
“The current security situation in our region has resulted in unavoidable disruptions to our regular training schedule and has created significant uncertainty regarding the national teams’ professional plans, particularly as we are at the outset of the international season,” the statement read.
“At this time, all training activities have been temporarily suspended, pending approval from the relevant authorities to safely resume operations. Naturally, the suspension of training and the closure of airspace are causing considerable stress and concern. However, the safety and well-being of our gymnasts and professional staff remain our highest priority. We sincerely hope for safer and calmer days ahead, when we can focus solely on sport.”
A source within the team told Fox News Digital on Saturday that the gymnasts have been moving between bomb shelters since Iran’s counterstrikes began.
Israel’s gymnastics team is considered one of nation’s strongest Olympic programs alongside its Judo and sailing teams. The team is only a week removed from a successful trip at the Artistic Gymnastics World Cup in Germany, where the country’s star Artem Dolgopyat won the gold medal in floor gymnastics.
Now, the team will have to seek safety until the attacks are over.
The U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem has directed all U.S. government employees and their family members to continue to shelter in place either in or near their residences as Iran continues to fire missiles at Israel.
Additionally, the embassy announced that due to the security situation, it would be closed on March 2, and did not give an estimate on when it would be reopening. The closure includes consular sections in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
The embassy also said it is “not in a position at this time to evacuate or directly assist Americans in departing Israel.” It noted that Ben Gurion Airport remains closed and there there are neither commercial nor charter flights operating from the airport.
On Friday, ahead of the launch of Operation Epic Fury, the embassy gave all non-essential workers permission to leave Israel, with reports that U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee urged those looking to leave to do so as soon as possible.
Iranian airstrikes killed at least eight Israelis on Sunday as Tehran’s latest missile barrage landed just miles from Jerusalem.
The strikes landed in the Israeli city of Beit Shemesh. Initial reports said four people were killed when missiles landed in a residential area on Sunday, but that death toll rose to eight, according to Israel’s national emergency service.
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Iran’s military has carried out counterattacks against Israel and U.S. bases in the Middle East after a joint U.S.-Israeli strike killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday.
The strikes also killed several other top Iranian leaders, including the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.
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Local chapters of National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame have begun honoring the top senior football student-athletes, with the Coastal Canyon area banquet set for Sunday in Agoura.
Players are selected based on their grade-point averages and leadership skills, among other attributes, honoring the best of the best.
Such players as James Moffat from Crespi, Mateo Bilaver from Chaminade, Jacob Paisano of Hart, Diego and James Montes from Granada Hills Kennedy will represent their schools on Sunday.
The Los Angeles chapter will hold its gathering in Manhattan Beach on Friday.
Simi Valley coach Jim Benkert has taken over running the Coastal Canyon group with dozens of individual student-athletes set to be honored.
This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.
Sports
US Olympic hockey hero Jack Hughes opens up about support for women’s team amid backlash over Trump’s joke
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Team USA Olympic hockey hero Jack Hughes spoke about his support for his country’s women’s hockey team after his team was the subject of backlash for laughing at a joke by President Donald Trump about the women’s team.
During an interview on ESPN’s “The Pat McAfee Show” Friday, Hughes opened up about his respect for the women’s team after McAfee appeared to reference the controversy by joking that Hughes and his teammates “hate” the women players.
“We are hanging out with them so much, the women’s team. We were supporting them. Like, we were at their games, they were at our games,” Hughes said.
Jack Hughes of the United States celebrates after a gold medal win during against Canadaat Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena during the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic games Feb. 22, 2026, in Milan, Italy. (Elsa/Getty Images)
Hughes then appeared to address the recent criticism of his team for its response to Trump’s joke.
“Like all these people talking, how many of them watched their gold medal game? Me and Quinn Hughes were at the game. We were at the game until like overtime ended on the glass, and we were jumping up and down so excited for these girls, so excited they won,” Hughes said.
“And how many of these people watched the gold medal game, watched their semifinals game? Like 10 of the 10 of our players went to their game in the round-robin. Like, we supported them so much, and we’re so proud of them. We’re so happy that they won, and they brought a gold medal back and that, you know, I said it, the men’s and women’s team both brought gold medals back. So, just unbelievable for USA hockey.”
Hughes, who scored the game-winning overtime goal against Canada to win gold, reflected on his interaction with the player on the U.S. women’s team who did the same, Megan Keller.
“Me and her had a great moment in the cafeteria after her gold medal game. We played Slovakia the next night, and it was like a late game. And we were in the pasta line — me and Megan. They were just getting ready to go out again, and I just gave her a massive hug, and I said, ‘I’m so happy for you. I’m so proud of you,’” Hughes said.
“A couple nights later, saw her again in the [cafeteria], and we took a great picture and, uh, she just gave me a big hug and was so pumped for me as well.”
Hughes told reporters after the game the first thing he thought about when the puck went in was Keller, who scored the golden goal for the United States women’s team against Canada three days earlier.
US WOMEN’S HOCKEY GOLD MEDALIST SAYS IT’S ‘SAD’ MEN’S TEAM HAD TO APOLOGIZE FOR OLYMPICS CONTROVERSY
The controversy surrounding the men’s team stemmed from a locker room phone call between the players and Trump right after their gold medal win over Canada.
Trump told the men’s team after inviting them to Tuesday’s State of the Union address that he’d “have” to invite the women’s team, otherwise “I probably would be impeached.” The team laughed in response, prompting immense backlash.
Several mainstream media outlets penned op-eds condemning the men’s team for laughing at the joke and then visiting the White House to celebrate and Trump’s State of the Union address.
The United States’ Jack Hughes (86), who scored the winning overtime goal, celebrates after defeating Canada in the men’s ice hockey gold medal game at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy Feb. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
U.S. women’s hockey captain Hilary Knight said on Wednesday’s edition of ESPN’s “SportsCenter” that Trump’s “distasteful joke” has “overshadow[ed]” the women’s success.
“I thought it was sort of a distasteful joke, and, unfortunately, that is overshadowing a lot of the success, the success of just women at the Olympics carrying for Team USA and having amazing gold medal feats,” Knight said.
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“We’re just focusing on celebrating the women in our room, the extraordinary efforts, and continue to celebrate three gold medals in program history as well as the double gold for both men’s and women’s at the same time. And really not detract from that with a distasteful joke.”
Hughes’ mother, Ellen, a former Team USA player and current player development staff member, said the players only cared about “bring[ing] so much unity to a group and to a country.”
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