PARIS - Paris Saint-Germain coach Laurent Blanc has challenged his players to face up to themselves following Saturdays 4-2 defeat at Bastia, citing their
lack of mental strength and criticizing their propensity to give up at the
slightest difficulty.
Harry
Carson Giants Jersey .Despite boasting one of the best strikers in the
world in Zlatan Ibrahimovic and five players costing €40 million ($47 million)
or more, PSG has lost two and drawn one of its last three league matches to slip
to fourth place in the French title race.Poor defending, a lack of aggression in
midfield, ill-discipline and fragile team spirit has blighted PSG this
season.Saturdays loss came after PSG led 2-0 inside 20 minutes. Prior to the
winter break, PSG lost 1-0 at struggling Guingamp, a team with a minute budget
compared to PSGs.At the slightest difficulty, we give up ... There is a mental
problem, Blanc said. When it comes to the mental aspect, it can affect everyone.
Its very hard for a coach.The pressure is on PSG and Blanc ahead of Tuesdays
League Cup quarterfinal away to Saint-Etienne, which is in third place in the
French league, boasts a strong home record, and knocked PSG out of the
competition at the same stage two seasons ago.The (coaching) staff has accepted
responsibility, Blanc told a news conference Monday. The players havent taken
things on board yet. Theyre the ones who are playing. When they play well, they
get praised, and deservedly so. When results are bad, the coachs (tactics) are
questioned.After a scrappy 3-1 win against Ajax in the Champions League in late
November, Blanc gave assurances that his team would improve significantly in the
ensuing weeks.The opposite happened. A 3-1 loss at Barcelona was followed by the
Guingamp defeat and a tepid 0-0 draw against Montpellier that left home fans
glum-faced.Blanc said he felt anger after the Bastia defeat and considers his
players lucky to have a chance to make amends so soon after, so long as they
beat Saint-Etienne.PSG headed into the winter break in third place behind Lyon
and league leader Marseille.Despite fielding eight homegrown players in its
starting lineup, cash-strapped Lyon now tops the league — four points clear of
big-spending PSG after 20 games — prompting fears of another upset. In the
2011-12 campaign, PSG lost the title to unheralded Montpellier, despite leading
Montpellier by three points at the winter break.Preparations for the second half
of the season started badly when Uruguay forward Edinson Cavani — the clubs most
expensive signing at €64 million ($75.4 million) — and Argentina winger Ezequeil
Lavezzi failed to turn up for training camp.Blanc, Frances former national team
coach, dropped them from the squad for the past two games and excluded them from
training. They have resumed training, but Blanc again left them out for the trip
to Saint-Etienne.He has pledged to be tougher with his players in order to
eradicate a culture of special favours reserved for certain big names at the
club. Ibrahimovic, for example, was allowed to return to his native Sweden to go
hunting, when he was recovering from a heel injury, and was rarely seen cheering
on his teammates at Parc des Princes.Ibrahimovics negative body language against
Bastia and the poor discipline shown by Cavani and Lavezzi, underlines a fragile
team spirit and highlights increasing tensions within the star-studded
squad.Blanc has not ruled out buying or selling during Januarys transfer window,
but says everyone waits until the last minute before doing business.
Jason
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against Baltimore. Robertson was listed retroactive to Monday. Robertson posted
two saves in three games as the replacement for retired Yankees closer
Mariano Rivera before getting hurt.
New
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Financial terms were not released. The Steelers have not announced the addition
of Mitchell.NEW YORK -- Keith Appling scored 27 points and No. 1 Michigan State
had all it could handle from Oklahoma before pulling away in the final minutes
for an 87-76 victory Saturday night in the championship game of the Coaches vs.
Cancer Classic. Appling, who was 8 of 12 from the field, scored eight points in
the final 3:04 after the Sooners got within 75-71. It was another unimpressive
win for the Spartans (6-0) since their victory over then-No. 1 Kentucky moved
them up one spot to the top of the poll. They beat Columbia and Portland but
didnt pull away from either until the final minutes. They did handle Virginia
Tech in the semifinals of this tournament but the championship game wasnt like
that at all. The Sooners (4-1) jumped ahead early, fell behind by as many as 18
points and then found a way to get within four points twice in the final 4
minutes before the Spartans were able to pull away once again. Gary Harris had
21 points and Branden Dawson added 18 points and 10 rebounds for the Spartans,
who shot 50 per cent from the field (29 of 58), but they were 6 of 19 from
3-point range and 23 of 36 from the free throw line and committed 14 turnovers,
five over their season average. Cameron Clark had a career-high 32 points for
Oklahoma, which kept chipping away at deficits after losing their big early
lead. Oklahoma made its first six and nine of its first 11 shots from the field
and took a 22-11 lead. The Spartans tookk advantage when the Sooners finally
cooled down and went up by as many as 14 points by dominating at both ends of
the court.
New York Giants
T-shirts. . They closed the half by outscoring Oklahoma 34-9 over the
final 9 minutes and were up 45-31 at halftime. Almost everyone in Barclays
Center felt it was just a matter of 20 minutes running off the clock to see how
many points the Spartans would win by. The Sooners, who were down 53-35 2
minutes into the second half, werent thinking that and they took advantage of
turnovers and questionable shots to go on another big run -- this one 12-0 to
get within 57-53 with 12:14 to play. Michigan State coach Tom Izzo called a
timeout with 12:03 to play but that didnt help the offence. Appling, the
tournament MVP, finally ended the Spartans 6:17 scoring drought with a
three-point play with 10:01 to go and he followed an Oklahoma miss with a
fast-break dunk to make it 62-53 with 9:35 left. Oklahoma found its way to one
more run to get within 73-69 and 75-71, but Appling came up with enough big
plays down the stretch to keep the Spartans at No. 1 for at least one more week.
The Sooners advanced to the title game with a 7-0 run over the final 32 seconds
to beat Seton Hall 87-86. The Spartans had an easier trip, riding Adreian Paynes
career-high 29 points along with 10 rebounds in a 96-77 victory over Virginia
Tech. Payne had four points on 1-for-6 shooting in the championship game.
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