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BBC's look at Andy Burnham, whom it calls "King of the North" having won 60% of the vote as Mayor of Greater Manchester for three successive terms. A brief look at Andy Burnham's life. His father was a BT enginee and his mother a GP receptionist both strong Labour party supporters. He studied for a Masters degree in English at Cambridge. BBC says he was inspired to join Labour at age 14 years after seeing a documentary "Boys from the Blackstuff,"' about life in the city of Liverpool for the disadvantaged. He is a soccer player and Everton soccer team fan, who played for Lancashire schoolboys cricket team. He starts out as ajournalist working for trade magazines, then as researcher for the MP for Duwich, later joining the Blair movement that returned Labour to power. Under Blair he was junior minister, then MP for Leigh in the Manchester area. He moved to Cabinet Minister under Gordon Brown as chief secretary to the Treasury and Health Secretary. With Conservatives in power he was Shadow Home Secretary under Jeremy Corbyn in the Opposition. He ran against Jeremy Corbyn and Ed Milliband for the leadership of the Labour Party before being elected as Mayor of Greater Manchester three times with 60% of the vote. As Mayor he put the bus and transport system back under government control and built the Bee Network, which is one of his success stories in Manchester. He is seen as the only Labour leader who enjoys confidence of the British public from the way he ran the large local government of Manchester. With UK Reform winning local elections he is seen as the leader who can bring confidence back to Labour, and to Britain as it navigates the post Brexit environment and strives for renewal of Britain, its economy and role in Europe. ...

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In a high energy game with Liverpool constantly on offense in the second half, the Manchester city Liverpool soccer match ends at 1-1. Kevin Bruyne, Haaland and Foden could not make headway against Liverpool's energetic play.

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Liverpool fans sing this song on Portugal's Diogo Jota from Clearwater Revival, the lines are-

"Oh, he wears the No 20 / He will take us to victory / And when he’s running down the left wing / He’ll cut inside and score for LFC / He’s a lad from Portugal / Better than Figo don’t you know / Oh, his name is Diogo!”

The roaring fans of the Liverpool Football Club in England remember Diogo Jota, the Portugal soccer player who won people's hearts. He died in a car accident.

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Two British teams Liverpool and Manchester City and two Spanish teams are all that remain in the semifinals of the Champions League soccer. Manchester City face Real on April 26, May 4, and May 28. Pep Guardiola says it is an honor to play a side like Real Madrid.

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Raheem Sterling, Manchester City soccer striker takes England to the quarterfinals of Euro Soccer 2021 with his goal in the game against Germany. In that 2-0 game the second goal came from Harvey Kane.

The Guardian gives this story of Raheem growing up in a difficult neighborhood in Kingston, Jamaica. His mother, a nurse, moved to London after losing his father to gang violence. There he played for teams before he was 14, then moving to Liverpool Club, in the north of England. He showed real determination at an early age, and concern for kids growing up near Wembley stadium where he once lived, who had no chance to watch soccer or participate in the game.

 

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Going up - Arsenal, Inter and Bayern Munich. Going down Leverkusen, Benefica and Paris Saint-Germain in the last 16 of Champions League soccer 2025. Inter beat a Dutch team and Bayern beat Leverkusen. Barcelona beat Benefica. Paris lost to Liverpool.

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Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp on how his team plays soccer and does not cover the whole field. He wants Alexander Arnold to play further up making it hard to cover defense fully. But that is the way his team plays, and it is his responsibility, says Klopp.

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Real Madrid player Rodrygo is a product of training at Brazil's club Santos. His father is a manager of soccer teams in Brazil, and retired to focus on Rodrygo's career. He was just 11 when he signed with Nike ,a younger age than Neymar at age 13 who is also a product of Santos club training. The support of his dad has played a large part in his development as a player.

He is expected to play a big role in the Champions League final with Liverpool.

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Argentine soccer star Diego Maradona who died at 60 after health problems. Many controversies surround Maradona, unlike Messi and Reynaldo, two of the prominent players at this time from Argentina and Portugal. Unlike the period when Pele and Maradona dominated, today there are many good players and many good coaches such as the coaches of Liverpool and Manchester City teams from Germany and Spain, each having made soccer the single largest worldwide sport in history. New younger players are also taking the place of older players as seen in the Spanish and German teams in the Nations League soccer games. Coaches and team owners shun the publicity that drives the cost of players up and prefer to give younger unknown players a chance, which is itself a good thing for the game.

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The story of how Jurgen Klopp took Liverpool to the Champions League and Premier League titles in 2020. For all the illusion that the titles were a procession Liverpool started out with problematic losses to Dortmund, Seville, Napoli. It was the hard work and rigorous practice, self discipline, and renewal, the always focussing on the next step and how to do better regardless of how things look- this has helped Klopp get the team to where it is in world soccer. Continuous improvement setting your own bar of what it is to be to do the work right. In a small town overlooking Lake Geneva soccer practice takes place every day at 7 am, 11 am, 5 pm, in preseason. No distractions, no commercial obligations. Only the coach, players, and staff. Steudtner, German surfer invited by Klopp helped the team cool down in training by focussing underwater on happier places, taking a lot of the stress off the minds of the players. Hold for 30, 40, 60 seconds. Soon everyone could do it. The aim to cool down each player's mindset. A form of meditation. ...

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Huge save by Donnarumma gets PSG into the final 8 in European soccer Champions League. Donarumma saved two of 3 penalties of Liverpool in a rematch. Over his career Donnarumma who started at AC Milan has saved 23% of penalties.

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The carefully prepared rules and strict implementation are good news for UEFA soccer after the closing of Stade Francais in rugby with 25 players testing positive and the playing squads and coaching staff put into isolation. Some of the rules as eight teams leave for the quarter finals in Lisbon. All 8 teams in the elite of European soccer are required to read and follow the 31 page document on the rules for health safety during the coronavirus. Players cannot leave the hotel without prior agreement and cannot meet people outside their group. The all get tested before they leave and the day before each game. In the hotels a private access route and a private dining area, food prepared by the team's own staff. Laundry, clothes and equipment only to be handled by team's own staff. VIP arrival areas are only one's used at airports. Everything has to be disinfected in advance. Very little is left to chance. It is similar to hospitals that have setup a rigorous defense. So far its working and hundreds of millions of fans have watched teams like Real Madrid, Manchester City and Liverpool on television. Only two tested positive when teams left for Lisbon showing that soccer teams are taking it seriously for the fans which is a good thing, a very good thing to give fans something to watch from home in these days of the pandemic. ...

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This in depth look by the BBC shows what makes soccer coach Jurgen Klopp approach work in building the best team in Europe- hard work, careful preparation, rigorous training, development of young talent and faith within oneself. As Liverpool coach Jurgen Klopp takes his team to the Premier League and world titles it is not just his enthusiastic manner in support of his players, energy and outgoing style that has brought results. The training ground and training sessions are what make the difference. This is Klopp's view- it is all about the hard work at training to which he gives all his attention. Training sessions are meticulously planned and this is where tactics are tested analytical details, and details of the game get tested and tried out. This report looks at how he has recruited new players such as Dijk and Salah and how he is developing new talent from within the system. And how Klopp and his assistants conduct training on the field. ...

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The German approach to soccer with fans running the sport is seen with envy in Britain, Italy and Spain, now that the Super League plan to split off the richer well known teams into a Super League has failed miserably. It did not last 48 hours before the organizers, a Liverpool billionaire and others apologized. Fans were angry that the clubs built into their local communities in London, Manchester and other British cities were being taken away from them. Noteworthy is that German teams and French teams at the top of world soccer never joined in the Super League plan. In fact Borussia Dortmund made a vigorous protest. Bayern Munich stayed out, so did Paris St Germain. Klopp and Guardiola were the first to protest. In this report Uli Hesse of The Guardian tells us why German clubs are rooted in their communities. German clubs started as amateur clubs run by volunteers and remained that way till some professionalism was brought in by 1963. The communities and fans are very much a part of German clubs, which are not seen as part of the larger entertainment industry as in the US and Britain. The clubs are still run as part of the communities and fans in the local area. There are some Austrian entrepreneurs, but owned by locals and fans, and nothing like what is happening in the British or American approach to soccer. Most of the clubs were set up in Germany to support multiple sports in their communities. So that track and field was part of Dortmund, and chess was part of Bayern Munich Club sports. After the disaster with the fans British prime minister Boris Johnson has called for a review, and this includes bringing back the original spirit of the sport as community based and owned by fans or the local community, not business interests and billionaires from outside. ...

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Tennis player from Serbia is disqualified for hitting the line umpire with a tennis ball. Djokovic was behind 6-5 to Carren Busta of Spain and lost his serve when this happened. Once before in that match he hit a ball at the stands in frustration. The Organizers of the U.S. Open decided there were clear reasons for him to be disqualified and lose all points he had earned at the U.S. Open. Djokovic had earlier come under criticism for his playing in events where there was no social distancing. Tennis has lost much of the graceful behaviour from the time when players like Althea Gibson, Ken Rosewall and Rod Laver played the game in an earlier era. Too much of the money is focused on prize money, television advertising, star status and number of grand slams won, bringing the game down to a level where the fans enjoying a good game is left behind and focus is all on individual players. The same is true for soccer where so much focus was placed on Barcelona and Messi and the 700 million transfer fee. The message from reality comes from the 7-2 win by Bayern Munich over Barcelona with a traditional approach to the game based on using new players costing far less money, a good dose of common sense and hard work. Coaches at Manchester City and Liverpool, and Real Madrid all attributed their success in the game to hard work and discipline of players, with every player playing for the team and for fans, and not for star status. ...