Real Madrid stars Casemiro and Karim Benzema are suggesting that Los Blancos players want caretaker manager Santiago Solari to stay in the managerial hot seat for the foreseeable future.
Solari has had an immediate impact since taking over on a temporary basis from sacked boss Julen Lopetegui at the end of October, winning his first three games in all competitions by a combined score of 11-0.
The 42-year-old, who spent five years at the Bernabeu as a player in the early 2000s, has been a coach with the capital club in various roles since 2013, most recently overseeing the team’s reserve side, Castilla.
Real Madrid’s performances and results have won Solari the early faith of supporters, and it appears the players are united behind him, too.
“We are facing up with Solari as coach of Madrid,” Casemiro said after Wednesday’s 5-0 Champions League win over Viktoria Plzen, according to ESPN’s Dermot Corrigan. “People can talk about whether someone else is coming or not, but we are showing him respect as Madrid’s first team coach. If things are going well, why not give him a chance?”
Benzema, who has played under six permanent managers at Real since his arrival in 2009, added: “Julen is a great coach but we are with Solari now, and playing with more confidence. For me, he should stay until the end (of the season).”
It remains to be seen whether Real president Florentino Perez will agree with his players. Real were thought to be seeking a big-name boss, but in Solari, they have a man who knows the club inside out.
A report earlier this week suggested the club is chasing former AS Monaco head coach Leonardo Jardim as a full-time appointment.
ARLINGTON, Texas — On the second play from scrimmage, Amari Cooper caught his first pass with the Dallas Cowboys for an 11-yard gain, leading the fans to yell, “Coooooop.” By the end of the third quarter, the “Coooop” had turned to boos.
The Cowboys are only at the midway point of the season, but Monday’s 28-14 loss to the Tennessee Titans seemed crushing.
The Cowboys felt energized by the trade with the Oakland Raiders for Cooper as well as the change from Paul Alexander to Marc Colombo at offensive line coach. Coming off the bye week, they felt like they had a solid week of preparation with quarterback Dak Prescott calling it “chippy,” but in a good way.
Jason Garrett and Dak Prescott can’t afford another non-playoff season if they want to stay in Dallas. AP Photo/Ron Jenkins
To come up empty at AT&T Stadium, where they had been perfect thus far this season, can be viewed only as deflating. With eight games left, the Cowboys (3-5) still have a mathematical chance to win the NFC East or earn a wild-card bid, but all of their faults were on display against the Titans.
“When you’ve played eight games and only won three, that’s a cause for concern,” said owner and general manager Jerry Jones, who added there is no scenario in which he would make an in-season head-coaching change with Jason Garrett.
On the Cowboys’ third possession, Prescott forced a pass to a double-covered Cooper in the end zone from the Tennessee 6-yard line on second down. Instead of another chance on third down or a chip-shot field goal, Prescott went to his new weapon haphazardly and was intercepted.
The Titans answered with a 15-play, 80-yard drive to tie the score.
“That was the difference, simple as that,” Prescott said. “Our defense gets us a turnover there. We’re up seven points. We go down there and I try to force the ball and give it right back to them. That’s a 14-point swing. They go back down the other end and get a touchdown and tie it up. It’s 14-0 if we convert on that. So I mean that’s the difference right there, 14 points.”
It was the fourth lost fumble Prescott has had in eight games. He had three lost fumbles last season and four as a rookie.
A Cowboys defense that started fast wilted. Dallas allowed touchdown drives of 80 and 69 yards in the first half and saw Marcus Mariota do to them what the Cowboys want Prescott to do. The Titans converted 11 of 14 third-down tries. Mariota was methodical in the passing game (21 of 29, 240 yards, two touchdowns) and ended the Cowboys’ chances with a 9-yard touchdown run with 4 minutes, 38 seconds to play.
There is only a one-game difference between 3-5 and 4-4, but mentally those records are miles apart.
With road games coming up against the Philadelphia Eagles, who are coming off their bye week, and the Atlanta Falcons, who have won three in a row, the Cowboys find themselves with their season the line. Oh, the Cowboys are winless away from home, matching the loss total (four) they had away from home in Prescott’s first two seasons as the starter.
For Prescott and Garrett, more than the season might be on the line. Their futures — short- and long-term — are on the line.
“It’s disappointing,” Prescott said. “We didn’t get the job done. It starts with me. Starting with me first and all the way throughout this whole team. Very disappointing coming off the bye week — cleaned things up, felt good going into this one. To come out with this loss, being 3-5 is very disappointing.”
Barcelona became the first team to qualify for the knockout stages of this season’s Champions League despite conceding late in Tuesday’s 1-1 draw with Inter.
The Blaugrana cannot drop out of the top two places in Group B due to a superior head-to-head record over the Nerazzurri. They can, however, finish as group winners with a win at PSV Eindhoven on Matchday 5.
#
P
W
D
L
GD
Pts
1
Barcelona
4
3
1
0
8
10
2
Inter
4
2
1
1
0
7
3
Tottenham
4
1
1
2
-2
4
4
PSV
4
0
1
3
-6
1
Mauro Icardi denied the visitors a fourth win out of four with another one of his trademark finishes from close range. He’s made a habit of rescuing Inter this season in the final quarter of regular time. On this occasion, he popped up in the 87th minute to slide home a loose ball in the penalty area.
The prolific Argentine canceled out Malcom’s first goal for Barcelona, which he scored just minutes after replacing Ousmane Dembele.
It was the least Barcelona deserved for a thoroughly dominant performance at the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza. Ernesto Valverde’s side fired 26 shots toward goal, forcing phenomenal Inter goalkeeper Samir Handanovic into seven saves.
Handanovic denied several attempts from the in-form Luis Suarez and Philippe Coutinho and blocked a point-blank effort from midfielder Ivan Rakitic midway through the second half.
The resistance ended when Malcom froze Inter defender Kwadwo Asamoah with a slick drop of the shoulder and a quick release. The goal capped a wonderful move that began with Barcelona ‘keeper Marc-Andre Ter Stegen only seconds earlier.
As he’s wont to do, Icardi emerged from the shadows and made an impact. Although he was ineffective for the majority of the 90 minutes, he stepped forward when Inter needed him most.
The draw keeps Inter in second place in Group B with seven points, just three ahead of third-placed Tottenham after their own 2-1 comeback win over PSV.
Spurs host the Serie A outfit at Wembley Stadium on Nov. 28 in a match that will determine the fate of each side.
ARLINGTON, Texas — Dallas Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones had a one-word answer when asked if there was any scenario in which he would make an in-season head-coaching change in 2018 following his team’s 28-14 loss to the Tennessee Titans on Monday night.
“No,” Jones said.
Jones has made only one in-season head-coaching change since purchasing the Cowboys in 1989 and that was elevating Jason Garrett to his current role in favor of Wade Phillips after the Cowboys got off to a 1-7 start to the 2010 season.
The loss to the Titans dropped the Cowboys to 3-5 at the midway point of the season, leaving them two games behind the NFC East-leading Washington Redskins. The Cowboys play the 4-4 Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday at Lincoln Financial Field.
“I think we realize we have eight games to go, we’ve got a long way to go in this season,” Jones said. “We want to play better than we played tonight, so I certainly think each individual and coach and front-office person is going to have to do better, including me.”
At the bye, Jones traded for wide receiver Amari Cooper, sending the Cowboys’ first-round pick in 2019 to the Oakland Raiders, and Garrett opted to make a change with the offensive line coach, moving on from Paul Alexander in favor of Marc Colombo.
When asked if there could be a change with offensive coordinator Scott Linehan, Jones said, “I’m not anticipating any more coaching changes.”
The Cowboys hoped those moves would energize them coming into the Tennessee game, but the Cowboys failed to score a point in the second half.
“I very candidly didn’t see this coming,” Jones said. “I thought we would be sitting here with a positive result. This is a surprise to me and is a setback. Now when you’re halfway through the season, losing a ballgame in the NFL, if that causes you to be deterred or to not think that there’s a future ahead of you, then you’ve picked the wrong world to operate in. That’s not the life we’ve chosen.”
Since taking over for Phillips, Garrett has posted a 70-58 record with just two playoff appearances and one postseason victory. He was named the NFL’s Coach of the Year in 2016 after the Cowboys went 4-12 in 2015, their worst mark since Jones’ first year when they went 1-15.
“I don’t like the way we played tonight,” Jones said. “Had we played a lot better tonight and had the loss, then I would be more positive about that. We’ve got to play better. We’re not in anything if we don’t play better. We have to play better. We did not play good for whatever reason after that first spurt of energy in the early part of the game. We just didn’t play very well.”
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