Sports

Introducing the most dangerous pass in football

Published

1 year ago

December 20, 2024

Introducing the most dangerous pass in football

A sharp, anxious intake of breath, followed by a round of applause that carries a mixture of quiet admiration and, more than anything, relief. On other occasions, it ends with supporters shaking their heads and asking why.

We are talking about the crowd reaction to — and I’m borrowing this description from a colleague who is a regular at Stamford Bridge — “the most dangerous pass in football”.

It’s the short, vertical ball from the goalkeeper to — typically, but not always — the midfield pivot, who is receiving under pressure, back to goal and close to their own penalty area.

Exhibit A: Chelsea’s Robert Sanchez trying, and failing, to pass to Moises Caicedo against Brighton earlier this season, when Carlos Baleba scored.

What a season Carlos is having! 🔥 pic.twitter.com/D7qC37kvwb
— Brighton & Hove Albion (@OfficialBHAFC) September 29, 2024
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It was a case of role reversal for Baleba against Fulham when Alex Iwobi profited from a stray pass from the Brighton goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen.

Forcing the error. 👊 pic.twitter.com/g0Jmd2O2LN
— Fulham Football Club (@FulhamFC) December 6, 2024

As for Chelsea, they got their own back at Southampton, where Noni Madueke read Joe Lumley’s pass (35 seconds onwards in the clip below) to Kyle Walker-Peters and set up Christopher Nkunku for their second goal.

Tune into all of Wednesday night’s action. 📺#CFC | #SOUCHE pic.twitter.com/zY3em5RMBA
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) December 5, 2024

Fulham? It’s a minor miracle they didn’t concede against Newcastle when Bernd Leno signposted a pass to Emile Smith Rowe and Newcastle’s players were left shaking their heads in disbelief after Fabian Schar somehow failed to score.

Brentford had a reprieve against Ipswich, who were perilously close to serving a goal up on a plate to West Ham in October. A VAR offside call rescued Tottenham Hotspur’s Fraser Forster at Bournemouth, whose goalkeeper, Kepa Arrizabalaga, was lucky that Gabriel Martinelli didn’t punish him for a loose straight ball against Arsenal, which is where Mads Hermansen passed Leicester and Harry Winks into trouble (see below) in September.

As for Manchester United, the awful goal they conceded against Viktoria Plzen in the Europa League last week was yet another example.

The list goes on and on and, in many ways, provides fuel for those who wonder why so many teams continue to take such chances playing out from the back and in particular by using this type of pass.

There are probably a few ways to answer that question. The first thing to say is that, on a broader level, the coaches that play this way believe it makes far more sense to attack in a controlled way, in possession, through a mix of established principles and rehearsed movement patterns, even if that leads to the odd mistake, rather than tossing a coin and hoping it lands heads up — which is how they view knocking longer balls forward.

The second point — and this shines through when you discuss some of the incidents highlighted above with coaches who are proponents of this style of play – is that the execution of that bounce pass close to goal, taking in the decision-making around it, the positioning, and the movement and the timing, is the problem when it goes wrong, not the pass itself.

Third, it’s inevitable that the moments when it breaks down will get far more attention than the good passages of play.

Before we look at some more examples, it’s worth pointing out that some Premier League clubs — or maybe that should be ‘some Premier League managers and goalkeepers’ — have little or no inclination to play this game of risk and reward. The goalkeepers at Bournemouth (Arrizabalaga went off-piste against Arsenal), Crystal Palace, Everton, Newcastle United and Nottingham Forest in particular tend to play short sideways passes in build-up or go long.

In fact, even when the No 6 drops deep to receive a vertical ball in space with no sign of any pressure, the pass is often turned down by their goalkeepers. Below is Nottingham Forest’s Danilo, arms outstretched, asking for a ball he was never going to receive from the goalkeeper, Matz Sels.

Newcastle’s Nick Pope does the same (Bruno Guimaraes is pointing out that Sandro Tonali is free below)…

… as does Everton’s Jordan Pickford.

That said, Pickford bizarrely deviated from the script at Arsenal on Saturday. What followed was a car-crash moment between him and James Tarkowski, as the Everton goalkeeper bobbled a pass that the centre-back struggled to control, encouraging Martinelli to press. The expressions on the faces of the two Everton players afterwards said it all.

Time to look at some passages of play that show the reward and not just the risk, beginning with Arsenal’s 1-1 draw at Chelsea in November.

Declan Rice is the player to watch here. He takes up a starting position behind Nicolas Jackson, on the opposite side to the free man (William Saliba) he wants to find after Arsenal have provoked Chelsea’s press with a short goal kick.

Cole Palmer makes the standard run (curved) for any player leading the press in this situation, attempting to force the ball one way. Jackson, meanwhile, is ready to jump to Gabriel if David Raya returns the pass.

Timing and understanding are absolutely key to what happens next. Rice waits until Palmer gets closer to Raya and then runs on the blind side of Jackson to receive a soft pass in front of him that…

… he can play first time to Saliba, and Arsenal are out.

It is a pattern you will see again and again at Arsenal and elsewhere.

Below is an example of Ryan Gravenberch doing the same thing for Liverpool on the opening day at Ipswich.

Gravenberch is an interesting player to watch when receiving straight passes because of his exceptional ability to take the ball under pressure on the half-turn. In the image below, Chelsea’s Romeo Lavia is pressing him.

But Caoimhin Kelleher’s pass is ‘safe side’ (away from where Lavia is approaching), and Gravenberch is a master of getting his body between the opponent and the ball to protect and turn in one motion.

Not only are Arsenal and Liverpool retaining possession in these images, but they’re also taking opposition players out of the game while building an attack.

Take a look at this example of Manchester City playing out against Liverpool at Anfield at the start of December. The image that starts this phase of play is remarkable and, in many ways, captures the modern game: Ruben Dias is playing one-versus-one against Luis Diaz, 10 yards out, with nobody in goal (Stefan Ortega is on the corner of the six-yard box, out of picture).

As soon as Dias passes to Ortega, Manuel Akanji knows he has to connect with the City goalkeeper. Cody Gakpo, circled on the left, is already anticipating the pattern and preparing to press Dias.

The natural thing for Akanji to do — and what happens 99 times out of 100 — would be to pass to Dias.

Indeed, Mario Lemina did exactly that against Liverpool in September. Salah read him like a book but, uncharacteristically for him, shot wide of an open goal.

Akanji, however, scanned prior to receiving from Ortega and, aided by Dias also pointing where to play next, recognised both the need and the opportunity for a different (and much more progressive) pass to Kyle Walker.

As the City right-back travels forward, a line of four Liverpool players are out of the game.

But that’s Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester City, I hear you say. What about clubs outside the traditional ‘Big Six’?

Brentford are a fascinating case study, in part because of their evolution under Thomas Frank. The percentage of long passes from their goalkeepers has dropped by a third in less than two years. Furthermore, the bounce pass to play out has been used frequently this season and with the exception of a mix-up against Ipswich that went unpunished and a slightly nervy moment in the first half against Chelsea on Sunday, it has worked extremely well.

The example below is from Brentford’s game against Villa and starts with Ethan Pinnock passing a goal kick to Mark Flekken. Vitaly Janelt’s clean technique and game intelligence really stand out in these scenarios.

In the image below, Janelt has his right hand outstretched, preaching calm and telling Flekken to wait as Ollie Watkins starts to make that familiar curved run. Clearly, this passage of play asks a lot of Flekken — or any goalkeeper. It’s not just about being good with their feet; they need to be calm, trust their team-mates, and make smart decisions in response to the opposition press.

When Watkins gets closer, Janelt makes his move, arriving at pace and running off the back of John McGinn, who has his eyes on Flekken and Pinnock.

Youri Tielemans leaves Yehor Yarmoliuk and jumps, along with McGinn, to press Janelt. But the Brentford midfielder and Flekken have worked it perfectly and Nathan Collins is ‘out’.

Three Villa players have been bypassed as Collins drives forward and…

… a few seconds later, Yoane Wissa has the ball inside the Villa half and Brentford have a four-versus-four attack.

The instinct is to say that the passages of play highlighted above look relatively straightforward. In reality, they require hours and hours of practice on the training ground as well as players who have both the technical ability and the mental fortitude to handle the ball in these situations and deal with the crowd anxiety. Indeed, that leads into a question that football fans will often ask about their team: are our players good enough to play this way?

Let’s analyse some clips of where it goes wrong.

The clip below is from Manchester United’s game against Tottenham in September. Diogo Dalot, playing the role of auxiliary No 6, receives a straight pass from Onana with his back to goal. Both United centre-backs — Matthijs de Ligt and Lisandro Martinez — are higher than you would expect in this scenario.

Normally, the pass made from the player occupying Dalot’s position here would be first time and with the left foot given where Dejan Kulusevski is pressing. But Dalot takes a touch to control with his right foot…

… turns his whole body around and passes with his right foot, too, allowing Kulusevski to get close to blocking. That extra touch also means Brennan Johnson is able to press Martinez easier (admittedly, Martinez’s lack of depth doesn’t help).

Panicked, Martinez blindly helps the ball on…

… and Pedro Porro is now on the attack for Spurs.

Some coaches are a lot more detailed with their messages than others. They will talk, for example, about the importance of goalkeepers receiving the ball in a neutral position, so that the opponent leading the press doesn’t know which side to jump and also discourage goalkeepers from making sweeping actions with their passes (picture that awkward Pickford ball to Tarkowski at Arsenal) to prevent the ball arriving with a bounce or with spin on it.

In other words, completing a pass to a team-mate isn’t enough when playing out against a press; it’s about giving the player receiving the ball the best possible opportunity of making their next action perfect — after all, multiple passes will often be required. It’s interesting to hear Liverpool players talking about how their manager, Arne Slot, has stopped training sessions because passes have not been played to the back foot of the receiver.

The problem with one sloppy pass is that it often leads to another. In the next photo, the Ipswich goalkeeper, Arijanet Muric, plays a ball around Tottenham’s Dominic Solanke using the outside of his right foot. It’s high risk and comes off, but the pass isn’t easy for Sam Morsy to play first time and that contributes to the next pass being untidy…

… which ends up with Dara O’Shea jumping to try to get the ball under control and encouraging Spurs to press even more.

Ipswich are committed to playing out from the back under Kieran McKenna and their build-up involves a lot of straight passes that they generally execute well — the montage below is from Saturday’s game at Wolves.

McKenna — and this feels important for any coach who wants to play this way — took time to explain his philosophy to the Ipswich fans to try to manage the apprehension that often builds in stadiums during these phases of play.

Away from home can be more challenging, though, and rival supporters will revel in the sort of moment that Ipswich endured at West Ham earlier in the season.

The first thing that jumps out when you watch the passage below is the setup. As well as being very close to the penalty area, both of Ipswich’s defensive midfielders, Morsy and Kalvin Phillips, are marked from behind before the goal kick and that feels like a red flag.

Morsy is unable to arrive at speed or on the blind side of an opponent. As for Phillips, he makes the penalty area more crowded by dropping inside and bringing Lucas Paqueta with him.

In fact, Phillips almost gets in the way of Morsy’s pass…

… which ends up at the feet of Paqueta.

Amid a scene of chaos in the Ipswich penalty area, O’Shea clears off the line.

On the subject of overcrowding, there were 14 players (8 v 6) in a tight space when Southampton tried to play out against Villa this month (see the image below). Southampton survived this one, but they conceded against Liverpool in a not-dissimilar fashion and there was the Chelsea goal, too.

Watching Southampton this season, it was hard to avoid the conclusion that neither Lumley nor Alex McCarthy, both of whom deputised for the injured Aaron Ramsdale, were equipped to play Russell Martin’s brand of football at this level — and maybe they weren’t alone.

Clearly, there are times when the straight pass isn’t on and the goalkeeper needs to adopt a more pragmatic approach. Fulham’s Sander Berge is pictured below signalling to Leno that he should miss him out and go over the top of Brighton’s aggressive press.

Getting caught in two minds is probably the worst position for a goalkeeper to be in and that’s what happened to Tottenham’s Guglielmo Vicario against Brentford (below). It’s almost as if Vicario is so programmed to play that straight pass (it’s central to the way Spurs build up under their manager Ange Postecoglou) that he doesn’t recognise an alternative. Fabio Carvalho capitalised on Vicario’s indecision but, to the Spurs goalkeeper’s credit, he recovered and denied Bryan Mbeumo moments later.

Both Vicario and Forster, his deputy, have had their share of close shaves this season, most recently at Bournemouth a couple of weeks ago, where Kulusevski felt like a sitting duck for Tyler Adams when the straight pass arrived.

On Sunday, against Southampton, Spurs were at it again right from the kick-off.

Four passes later, James Maddison was running through on goal and putting his team 1-0 up.

The risk, Postecoglou and others will argue, is worth the reward.

(Top photos: Getty Images; design: Meech Robinson)

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Sports

High school baseball and softball: Tuesday’s scores

Published

2 minutes ago

March 25, 2026

Press Room

HIGH SCHOOL BASEBALL, SOFTBALL SCORES
Tuesday’s Results

BASEBALL

CITY SECTION
El Camino Real 8, Birmingham 3

SOUTHERN SECTION
AAE 19, Victor Valley Christian 5
Adelanto 11, Silverado 3
Alhambra 8, Bell Gardens 0
Aliso Niguel 7, Tesoro 4
Arcadia 10, Pasadena 0
Alta Loma 6, Colony 5
Beverly Hills 5, Lawndale 4
Buena 4, Ventura 0
Burbank Burroughs 6, Muir 0
Cajon 7, Riverside Prep 3
Calabasas 10, Thousand Oaks 9
Capistrano Valley 14, El Toro 8
Capistrano Valley Christian 6, Western Christian 4
Cathedral 1, Bishop Montgomery 0
Cerritos 7, Artesia 0
Charter Oak 13, Walnut 5
Chino 5, Montclair 4
Chino Hills 12, La Serna 3
CIMSA 12, Silver Valley 5
Claremont 12, Rowland 0
Colton 5, Fontana 2
Culver City 11, Inglewood 3
Damien 8, La Habra 3
Desert Christian 6, Vasquez 1
Desert Hot Springs 5, Banning 4
Diamond Bar 7, Knight 0
Don Lugo 11, Diamond Ranch 1
Downey Calvary Chapel 7, Fairmont Prep 6
El Modena 3, Villa Park 0
Elsinore 9, Temescal Canyon 1
Environmental Charter 17, Compton Early College 7
Fallbrook 8, Rancho Buena Vista 5
Firebaugh 6, Lynwood 5
Fountain Valley 1, Corona del Mar 0
Fullerton 7, Ocean View 5
Glenn 4, Whitney 3
Grace 14, Cate 2
Granite Hills 6, Victor Valley 1
Hawthorne 3, Compton Centennial 2
Irvine 3, Woodbridge 2
Laguna Beach 17, St. Margaret’s 2
Laguna Hills 3, Costa Mesa 1
La Mirada 5, Gahr 1
La Salle 15, Gardena Serra 0
La Sierra 11, West Valley 2
Los Alamitos 4, Marina 0
Los Altos 13, West Covina 2
Los Amigos 15, Santa Ana Valley 9
Magnolia 8, Graden Grove Santiago 4
Maranatha 14, Heritage Christian 2
Mary Star of the Sea 23, St. Genevieve 11
Montebello 13, Mark Keppel 0
Murrieta Valley 6, Murrieta Mesa 5
Newport Harbor 9, Edison 0
Norte Vista 22, Bethel Christian 1
Norwalk 7, Mayfair 4
Nuview Bridge 20, California Military Institute 0
Oaks Christian 5, Newbury Park 2
Oakwood 15, Milken 10
Ontario 5, Chaffey 0
Orange 7, Anaheim 5
Oxnard 3, Santa Barbara 1
Oxnard Pacifica 9, Rio Mesa 2
PACS 14, Faith Baptist 3
Paraclete 13, St. Anthony 1
Paramount 9, Dominguez 6
Riverside North 5, Vista del Lago 1
Rosamond 2, California City 1
Royal 8, Foothill Tech 1
Sage Hill 1, Irvine University 0
San Juan Hills 3, Mission Viejo 2
San Marino 4, Monrovia 1
Santa Monica 10, Leuzinger 1
Savanna 7, Loara 5
Schurr 10, San Gabriel 0
Segerstrom 8, Buena Park 6
Shalhevet 7, Animo leadership 0
Sherman Oaks Notre Dame 10, Crespi 0
Sierra Canyon 8, Chaminade 2
South Hills 4, San Dimas 0
St. Bernard 5, Bishop Amat 4
St. Bonaventure 8, Thacher 3
St. Francis 6, Alemany 4
St. Monica 21, Pasadena Marshall 3
St. Pius X-St. Matthias Academy 19, Verbum Dei 0
Tahquitz 3, San Jacinto 1
Temecula Prep 16, United Christian Academy 4
Temecula Valley 13, Chaparral 0
Trabuco Hills 8, San Clemente 1
Tustin 11, Santa Ana Calvary Chapel 6
Village Christian 13, Valley Christian 11
Vista Murrieta 4, Great Oak 2
Warren 2, Bellflower 0
Westlake 2, Agoura 1
Westminster La Quinta 7, Century 2
Whittier Christian 11, St. Paul 3
YULA 8, Santa Monica Pacifica Christian 7

INTERSECTIONAL
Anza Hamilton 17, Bonsall 7
Bishop Union 11, Frazier Mountain 0
Boron 17, Desert 1
Carson 4, Ramona 3
Eastvale Roosevelt 3, Nevada McQueen 1
Esperanza 14, Arkansas Prairie Grove 4
Grand Terrace 6, Nevada McQueen 0
Immanuel Christian 21, Trona 9
Missouri Lincoln 13, Grand Terrace 1
Northview 10, Spanish Springs 4
Oregon Lakeridge 5, La Palma Kennedy 4
Oregon West Linn 3, Citrus Valley 2

Quartz Hill 15, Oregon Bend 2

SOFTBALL

CITY SECTION
CALS Early College 0, East College Prep 0
Central City Value 40, Discovery 11

SOUTHERN SECTION
Alemany 4, Vasquez 0
Aliso Niguel 11, Redondo Union 4
Anaheim Canyon 7, Segerstrom 1
Ayala 5, Bonita 0
Banning 8, Desert Hot Springs 3
Barstow 14, Ridgecrest Burroughs 7
Beaumont 6, Rancho Cucamonga 2
Bell Gardens 14, San Gabriel 3
Bethel Christian 26, Norte Vista 4
California City 15, Rosamond 3
California Military 21, Nuview Bridge 2
Cantwell-Sacred Heart 9, St. Monica 4
Cerritos 11, El Rancho 4
Channel Islands 15, Carpinteria 4
Chino 11, Montclair 0
Chino Hills 12, Temescal Canyon 5
CIMSA 19, Silver Valley 4
Claremont 6, Northview 4
Cornerstone Christian 14, Packinghouse Christian 8
Corona Santiago 8, Colony 5
Covina 4, Buena Park 3
Cypress 8, El Modena 2
Don Lugo 3, Diamond Ranch 2
Downey 10, Corona 2
Edison 9, Corona del Mar 0
El Dorado 3, Yorba Linda 0
El Toro 2, Tesoro 1
Esperanza 21, Troy 2
Fillmore 5, Santa Paula 4
Hart 11, Golden Valley 1
Hawthorne 15, Compton Centennial 0
Hueneme 11, Nordhoff 5
Huntington Beach 17, Fountain Valley 0
La Habra 9, Garden Grove Pacifica 4
Lakewood 15, Long Beach Cabrillo 1
La Palma Kennedy 2, Gahr 0
La Salle 11, Flintridge Sacred Heart 3
Lawndale 30, Beverly Hills 20
Lennox Academy 14, HMSA 3
Long Beach Poly 15, Long Beach Wilson 5
Los Alamitos 10, Newport Harbor 0
Los Altos 12, Alta Loma 0
Maranatha 15, Duarte 5
Mary Star of the Sea 21, St. Anthony 5
Mira Costa 7, South Torrance 2
Mission Viejo 5, Sunny Hills 3
Montebello 10, Mark Keppel 9
Monrovia 4, San Marino 3
Murrieta Mesa 7, Great Oak 0
Murrieta Valley 13, Temecula Valley 2
Oak Park 16, Royal 12
Oaks Christian 9, Newbury Park 3
Ontario 11, Chaffey 1
Placentia Valencia 8, Tustin 4
Ramona Convent 10, Bishop Conaty-Loreto 0
Rio Hondo Prep 12, Mayfield 8
Rio Mesa 14, Oxnard Pacifica 0
Rosary Academy 7, Irvine University 6
Sacred Heart of Jesus 12, St. Pius X-St. Matthias Academy 1
Santa Ana Foothill 6, Crean Lutheran 1
Santa Clara 4, Foothill Tech 2
Santa Monica 8, Leuzinger 4
Saugus 11, West Ranch 8
Schurr 11, Alhambra 1
Serrano 14, Riverside Notre Dame 4
Sierra Canyon 4, Chaminade 3
Silverado 22, Adelanto 3
Simi Valley 8, Camarillo 2
St. Genevieve 18, St. Bernard 3
St. Paul 14, Bishop Montgomery 2
Temecula Prep 16, Santa Rosa Academy 7
Thousand Oaks 30, Calabasas 0
Valencia 8, Castaic 6
Ventura 12, Buena 7
Victor Valley 8, Granite Hills 4
Westlake 1, Agoura 0
Westminster 15 Long Beach Jordan 5
Whittier Christian 16, Village Christian 5
Wiseburn-Da Vinci 22, Downey Calvary Chapel 1

INTERSECTIONAL
Boron 16, Desert 1
Canyon Country Canyon 15, Arleta 5
Compton Early College 23, Environmental Charter 19
Immanuel Christian 12, Trona 10
Jesuit 5, Trabuco Hills 4
Santa Margarita 1, Jesuit 0

Sports

Trump admin says SJSU now faces ‘impending enforcement’ for transgender volleyball scandal conflict

Published

11 hours ago

March 24, 2026

Press Room

Trump admin says SJSU now faces ‘impending enforcement’ for transgender volleyball scandal conflict

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FIRST ON FOX: President Donald Trump’s Department of Education said it has notified San Jose State University (SJSU) that it faces “impending enforcement action” for its “refusal to comply with Title IX.”

SJSU and the California State University (CSU) system filed a lawsuit earlier in March to challenge an Education Department investigation that determined the university violated Title IX in its handling of a biological male transgender volleyball player on a women’s team from 2022-24.

Now, the administration is cracking down against that resistance.

“We have provided SJSU with multiple opportunities to resolve its Title IX violations with common sense actions: separating male and female athletes based on their biological sex, keeping men out of women’s locker rooms and bathrooms, restoring rightfully-earned titles and accolades to female athletes, and apologizing to the women forced to forfeit competitions to protect themselves,” Kimberly Richey, the department’s assistant secretary for civil rights, said in an announcement.

“Yet, SJSU remains obstinate, choosing a radical ideology over safety, dignity, and fairness for its own students. With today’s action, the Department is putting the university on notice: comply with the law or risk losing its federal funding.”

Fox News Digital has reached out to SJSU and CSU for a response.

Brooke Slusser and Blaire Fleming of the San Jose State Spartans call a play against the Air Force Falcons on Oct. 19, 2024, in Colorado Springs, Colorado. (Andrew Wevers/Getty Images)

The conflict between Trump’s administration and the school stems back to the 2024 season, when a national controversy involving transgender player Blaire Fleming triggered an election-cycle media firestorm, all during Trump’s third White House campaign.

The Education Department’s investigation has claimed, “SJSU actively recruited and allowed a male to compete on the women’s indoor and beach volleyball teams and reportedly instructed members of the coaching staff not to tell the female players that the athlete was a male.”

The investigation added that “on multiple occasions, the male athlete spiked the ball so forcefully that it knocked females on the opposing team to the ground.”

One of the standout details of the investigation’s findings was that a female SJSU player “discovered that the male student had conspired to have a member of the opposing team spike her in the face during an upcoming match. SJSU did not investigate the conspiracy, but later subjected this female athlete to a Title IX complaint for reportedly ‘misgendering’ the male athlete when discussing this incident in online videos and interviews.”

Former SJSU co-captain Brooke Slusser has included those allegations in her ongoing lawsuit against representatives of SJSU and CSU.

UNIVERSITY LEADER ADMITS SCHOOLS ARE ‘NOT A POLITICAL PARTY’ IN WARNING TO ELITE CAMPUSES

After SJSU and CSU announced they were suing the Trump administration to challenge the findings, Slusser, and other former NCAA players, came forward about their alleged experience during the scandal, and how it affected them, in recent interviews with Fox News Digital.

Slusser, who shared an apartment with Fleming at SJSU without knowing the athlete’s birth sex, became the subject of viral debate after her interview reflecting on the experience sharing spaces with Fleming.

“You find out you’re just chilling in a bed with a man that you have no idea about… I [was] unknowingly sharing a bed at that time with a man,” Slusser said, also alleging SJSU volleyball coach Todd Kress encouraged her to live in the same apartment as the trans teammate when another group of players was also looking for a final tenant.

Former Utah State volleyball star Kaylie Ray told Fox News Digital that during matches against SJSU and Fleming in 2022 and ’23, before Fleming’s birth sex was known, she had teammates suffer finger injuries from the trans athlete’s spikes.

“I had teammates who had seriously jammed their fingers, luckily not broken, but a handful of girls who had sustained minor injuries from the male player,” Ray said, adding, “We knew that if the male athlete had a phenomenal game, there was nothing we could do to stop that person.”

Ray’s Utah State team became one of five teams to forfeit at least one game to SJSU in 2024, seemingly in protest of Fleming. She says the forfeit impacted her team’s hopes of winning their fourth straight Mountain West championship.

Meanwhile, the University of Wyoming forfeited two matches to SJSU in 2024. Former Cowgirls player Macey Boggs told Fox News Digital that the decisions to forfeit the games “permanently ruined” friendships among her teammates.

“There were some of the girls who I really enjoyed, and we got along great, and then this situation came up, some conflict came up, and ultimately we went in separate directions because of that… as soon as we played in our last game, we all went in separate directions… it was hard to maintain those relationships,” Boggs said.

SJSU was plagued by a separate Title IX violation in sports that it had to resolve with the Biden administration in 2021. The university ultimately came to a $1.6 million resolution with the Department of Justice in 2021.

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The DOJ found that SJSU failed for more than a decade to respond adequately to reports of sexual harassment, including sexual assault, of female student-athletes by an athletic trainer then working at SJSU, beginning in 2009 when female student-athletes reported that the trainer subjected them to repeated, unwelcome sexual touching.

The department and SJSU entered into a comprehensive agreement to address the findings of the investigation, which began in June 2020 during Trump’s first term.

Now, Trump’s current administration is giving the school 10 more days to comply with a series of resolution agreements to resolve the volleyball situation, or face enforcement action, including referral to the DOJ and termination of SJSU’s federal funding.

Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.

Jackson Thompson is a sports reporter for Fox News Digital covering critical political and cultural issues in sports, with an investigative lens. Jackson’s reporting has been cited in federal government actions related to the enforcement of Title IX, and in legacy media outlets including The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Associated Press and ESPN.com.

Sports

‘I’m back’: Tiger Woods to play in TGL championship match with Masters status still unclear

Published

12 hours ago

March 24, 2026

Press Room

‘I’m back’: Tiger Woods to play in TGL championship match with Masters status still unclear

Some major Tiger Woods news broke Monday night.

It had nothing to do with the Masters — not directly anyway.

The 50-year-old golfing legend will be playing competitively for the first time in more than a year as his Jupiter Links team competes against Los Angeles in the second match of the best-of-three TGL finals Tuesday night in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.

TGL is a high-tech, indoor golf league that uses simulators and real surfaces, founded by Woods, Rory McIlroy and Mike McCarley in 2022. While a TGL match doesn’t present the same physical challenge as a PGA Tour event, the team event could serve as Woods’ first step toward playing at Augusta National on April 9-12.

Woods last played competitively March 4, 2025, in Jupiter’s final TGL match of that season. He missed all of the PGA season last year as he recovered from a 2024 back surgery and surgery in March 2025 for a ruptured Achilles tendon. Last fall, he underwent disk replacement surgery in his lower back.

A five-time Masters winner, most recently in 2019, Woods is listed as a 2026 invitee on the tournament website but has yet to confirm his participation.

Last month at the Genesis Invitational, a reporter asked Woods if the Masters was “off the table” for him this year. Woods answered simply, “No.”

In the opening match of the TGL finals Monday night, Jupiter lost 6-5, with Kevin Kisner narrowly missing a birdie chip from 20 feet that would have won the match. Woods was on hand as a team captain and supporter, roles he has served all season.

After the match, Woods told reporters he felt bad for his players — Tom Kim, Max Homa and Kisner — but expressed optimism that Jupiter could still come back and claim the title. If Jupiter wins Match 2, a third match will take place immediately afterward to determine the TGL champion.

“We have possibly two more matches,” Woods said. “We’re not out of this.”

Woods didn’t mention the possibility of placing himself in the next day’s lineup. After the news conference, however, TGL posted a graphic on X that showed what appears to be Woods’ torso and the words “He’s back,” along with the viewing information for Tuesday’s match.

Moments later, Jupiter Links posted a graphic on X that featured a photo of Woods and the quote, “I’m back.”

Woods will be replacing Kisner in the lineup for at least Match 2. It is unclear if Woods would take part in a possible third match.

Last week, after Jupiter clinched a spot in the finals, Woods told reporters he has been trying to play all season “but it just hasn’t worked out that way.” He added that the players had done well without him and implied that he didn’t foresee any changes ahead of the finals.

“I really don’t want to screw up the lineup,” Woods added. “I just want these guys to keep playing.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.