Under the cover of apparently “doing the right thing,” I think that Diego Simeone shamed himself, his club and LaLiga on Sunday during and after Atlético Madrid’s heated, controversial 1-1 draw with Real Madrid.

By now, you’ve no doubt seen that the derby was temporarily halted because of a hail of objects thrown at Madrid keeper Thibaut Courtois, and that the eyes of the footballing world were turned to how that ugly situation was handled. There was brief danger that the Madrid Derbi, arguably LaLiga’s biggest game of the season to date, would be abandoned — a draconian, historic step, albeit one that, at the height of the ugliness, was beginning to feel merited.

One of the saddest things was not only how Simeone behaved and spoke but the fact there will be nobody (bar you and I) to hold him to account. He’s so central and so important to Atleti that it’s unlikely he’ll be punished or even reprimanded. Yes, it’s true that the Argentine manager talked about the need to expose and expel some of those hooligans who pelted Courtois with lighters and coins, among other things, but both his midmatch actions and his subsequent words deserve critical scrutiny.

Before the frenetic, ferocious match was halted and suspended for over 20 minutes, Madrid’s players drew the attention of referee Mateo Busquets Ferrer to the objects being thrown. Then, as Courtois was about to take a free kick in his own penalty area, he stopped, showed the referee that there was still a shower of lighters being thrown, and that was that. Announcements were made over the sound system to warn the fans that the game was in jeopardy — first, suspending the game and then, if the behaviour continued, a full abandonment — and then the players were sent into the dressing rooms.

Simeone’s unacceptable behaviour began when, after being involved in efforts to persuade fans to stop throwing things, he went to Madrid’s keeper and, with very clear sarcasm, signalled to the stadium that he, Simeone, held Courtois to be partly responsible for what had happened.

The context is this. Before Éder Militão scored for the Spanish champions, some Atleti fans behind the Madrid goalmouth were heard loudly singing “Courtois, we hope you die!” They reportedly said it over and over again. Then, when his team opened the scoring, Courtois punched the air, ran back towards his own goalmouth, leapt up a couple of times and made a couple of “sing what you want, we’ve scored!” gestures.

It was arguably unwise, but also a natural, spur-of-the-moment and wholly understandable act in light of having already been pelted with abuse and objects. Courtois’ actions were well within the bounds of acceptability and comprehension, and nobody was harmed. Nothing he did in any possible way explains dozens of people then launching missiles at him.

When Simeone came back across the pitch, having been behind the Madrid goalmouth to try and negotiate with some of the infamous “Frente Atlético” fans that they stop throwing objects, the Atleti manager confronted Courtois, ironically clapped at him, offered a thumbs-up gesture and blamed him.

Thirty seconds earlier, he was pleading with fans to stop throwing objects that could injure a professional football player, camera operator, photographer, ball boy or ball girl. Awful from the Atleti manager: immediately afterwards pointing the finger of blame at Courtois in front of the eyes of the stadium.

Postmatch, Simeone’s words about needing to weed out and ban those who behaved this way were welcome and appropriate, but again, he immediately invalidated them by passing the blame to Courtois.

The most incendiary phrase was one Simeone gave to broadcasters when, specifically asked to be the voice of Atlético in light of what had happened, he said: “We all have to help. Remember, this has already happened to Courtois in the Bernabéu when he was our player? His head was cut. Possibly we, the protagonists, don’t help when we wind people up, provoke them and people get angry.

“Obviously, [the fans] don’t have any other remedy than to respond in a bad way … which isn’t good, but we the protagonists have to accept our role and seek calm. One can celebrate a goal, but not by looking at the fans behind the goalmouth and gesturing to them, because the fans get angry.”

Asked whether he was justifying what had happened, Simeone denied the claim. “No, I’m not, but nor am I justifying what was done to start things.”

In the postgame news conference, Simeone repeated that the club should single out those who throw things and ban them. (One supporter has already been handed a permanent ban from attending matches.) He then added that “for balance,” those “protagonists involved in the game who incite or provoke the fans into actions like this also need to be punished.” At this point, Simeone thumped the table to, in my opinion, emphasise where he felt the greater culpability lay.

So here, in my view, is the scoreboard.

Thank you, Simeone, for pointing out that those who attend Atleti matches wearing masks, which makes identification and punishment difficult, should be kicked out by the club when they launch dangerous objects towards the pitch. Thank you also for admitting that sanctions for those who provoke fans should apply equally to you when you’re guilty of it.

But the rest of what he said — to the local broadcaster and then in the news conference — was indefensible. It was profoundly ill-judged, will serve as fodder for those committed to engaging in bad behavior, and will go down as a lost opportunity to address this real issue.

Atleti needed much, much better from Simeone, but thankfully there are some who come out of all of this with their reputations enhanced, and first in line is the 30-year-old referee, Mateo Busquets Ferrer.

His appointment for this match was heavily criticised when announced on Thursday. He’s young and inexperienced; this was his first Madrid derbi; and frankly, he had made two pretty big errors a week earlier when Villarreal lost at home to Barcelona. But he’s talented, the referee committee had faith in him and he duly excelled.

Icily calm, Busquets Ferrer followed the protocols to the letter, offered clear communication, behaved decisively and looked as if he was born for crisis management. Full kudos.

And finally, a “thank you” to the real Atleti fans who, when the team went back postmatch to applaud the very section of the ground where the offending fans had been standing behind Courtois’ goal, booed and whistled that section — and the players for going over to them.

The vast majority of Atleti fans are ferocious and loyal, but fair and admirable. If only Simeone had their conscience and realized that the way to keep Atleti mighty, relevant and respected is not to appease the offending fans but to isolate them, hold them culpable and ensure they aren’t allowed back, without seeking to pass the buck to an opponent.

The two-time defending champion Las Vegas Aces are a loss away from elimination after dropping Game 2 88-84 to the New York Liberty in the WNBA semifinals Tuesday at Barclays Center. No WNBA team has come back from an 0-2 deficit to win a best-of-five series, and no defending champion has been in this position.

This series is a rematch of the 2023 Finals, which the Aces won 3-1. Since the championship-sealing 70-69 Game 4 victory in Brooklyn, Las Vegas has lost five games in a row against New York. The skid ties a franchise record for consecutive losses against the same opponent.

The top-seeded Liberty have never won a championship, but they have been to the Finals five times. WNBA teams are 18-0 in playoff history when leading 2-0 in a best-of-five series.

On the other side of the bracket, the Minnesota Lynx evened their series with the Connecticut Sun with a 77-70 victory at Target Center.

The playoffs continue Friday (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN) as the semifinal series shift to Las Vegas and Connecticut.

ESPN looks at how the Liberty moved one win away from sweeping the Aces, and how the Lynx held court against the Sun on Tuesday.

Liberty lead best-of-five series 2-0

It’s worth remembering the sample of WNBA series that started 2-0 is small and reflects many that weren’t this close. New York won these first two games by a combined 14 points, and only four of the previous 18 featured a combined margin that small — including the only time a team rallied to force a Game 5, with the Phoenix Mercury knotting the series against the Seattle Storm during the 2018 semifinals.

When the NBA staged best-of-five series, we saw six 2-0 comebacks, per ESPN Research. By that 5.6% win rate (6-102), we’re overdue for a similar WNBA comeback. We’ll see if Las Vegas can be that team. — Kevin Pelton

When New York’s superteam came together ahead of the 2023 season, the arrival of three high-profile newbies — Breanna Stewart, Jonquel Jones and Courtney Vandersloot — in Brooklyn dominated headlines.

Ionescu, however, has emerged as a dominant offensive force in the 2024 postseason. She led the Liberty with 24 points, 9 rebounds and 5 assists Tuesday, making her the only player in Liberty history with multiple postseason 20-point, 5-rebound, 5-assist games. What made Ionescu’s performance stand out in Game 2 (aside from the super-stuffed stat line) was her impact in the fourth quarter, when she scored or assisted on 16 of New York’s 19 points. The Liberty looked to her to lead, and she delivered. — Katie Barnes

When asked what she appreciated about her team’s play in the first half of Game 2, Liberty coach Sandy Brondello said, “I liked the second quarter.” She should have. That’s when New York won the game. The Aces were the better team for the other 30 minutes, but in the second quarter, New York exhibited why it was the best team in the regular season. The Liberty outscored Las Vegas 24-13. Stewart scored or assisted on 13 of those points, with the strategy of making the two-time MVP a facilitator paying off. (She finished with eight assists.) Five New York players scored, and Ionescu came alive with two massive 3-pointers in the final 1:45 of the half.

The Liberty’s defense also created eight Las Vegas turnovers and gave up only five field goals in the second quarter. — Charlie Creme

Best-of-five series is tied 1-1

Last year, the Sun went into the postseason without a core piece of their identity after Brionna Jones suffered an Achilles injury in June. Having her interior presence back this season, along with bringing in Marina Mabrey, gave the Sun confidence they could finally win a championship.

And yet Jones hasn’t been a presence in this series. In Game 1, she contributed six points and two rebounds in 18 minutes; in Game 2, she played 13 minutes and sat the entire fourth quarter.

The Sun are at their best when Jones is impactful on both ends, and we saw what that looks like in September when she scored at least 17 points in seven consecutive games. Minnesota’s interior defense of Collier, Alanna Smith and Myisha Hines-Allen can be incredibly difficult to face, but if the Sun can find ways for Jones to be a bigger factor down low on offense, it will open up looks for the Sun elsewhere on the court. — Alexa Philippou

If Stephanie White was told before Game 2 her team would hold Napheesa Collier, the league’s MVP runner-up who was averaging 33.0 points through her first three playoff games, to 3-of-14 shooting, Connecticut’s coach probably would have expected her team to win. White ran multiple defenders at Collier, whose nine points equaled a season low. But Connecticut’s offensive output didn’t match the defensive effort, and the Lynx were able to overcome their star’s off night.

Perhaps winning one game on the road to start a best-of-five series accomplishes enough. Yet it still feels as if the Sun — given the job they did to slow down Collier — let a chance to take control of the series slip away. — Creme

On a night when Collier struggled offensively, as Charlie noted, she got the help she needed. Three Minnesota starters were in double figures, and everyone who played for the Lynx scored at least four points in at least 12 minutes. Courtney Williams, who spent most of her career in a Sun uniform, was particularly impactful. She led the Lynx with a team-high 17 points and also had 5 rebounds, 4 assists and a steal.

Minnesota won four championships in seven years, most recently in 2017, with rosters full of future Hall of Famers. This version of the Lynx is constructed differently but is two wins away from returning to the Finals. — Barnes

When the Falcons opened the season with a home loss to the Justin Fields-led Steelers, it felt like the sky was falling. Doubly so when details of the loss came out: Kirk Cousins took exactly one snap from under center and didn’t execute a single play-action fake. The offense was neutralized by Cousins’ limitations coming off Achilles surgery on his right leg — he couldn’t move much in the pocket, and in fact, moved less in the pocket in that game than he ever had in his career, which was a big storyline coming out of Week 1.

Since that loss, the Falcons have been doing a few things: going under center, hitting play-action fakes and winning! Atlanta is 2-1 in their past three games, with a last-second win against the Eagles, another last-second win against the Saints this past Sunday and nearly another against the Chiefs in Week 3. With one divisional win under their belt, and another potentially awaiting on Thursday night against the Bucs (8:15 p.m. ET, Prime Video), it feels like the ship has been righted.

But even as the Falcons put enough points on the board to win games, their offense is far from fixed. They’re right around league average in most measures of efficiency — expected points added (EPA) per play, success rate, down set conversion and DVOA — but they’ve scored five offensive touchdowns on the season. Only the Patriots, Dolphins and Broncos have fewer. Against the Saints, they put up 26 points with a defensive touchdown, a special teams touchdown and four field goals. Getting a divisional win is always nice, but that wasn’t pretty — nor is it sustainable.

Turn on the film of that Saints game, and you’ll see Cousins taking snaps from under center and throwing with play-action — but not a lot. In fact, after the Falcons in Week 2 against the Eagles walked out with a healthy dose of under-center formations and play-action dropbacks, it’s slowly been disappearing from the offense again. Under-center rate is down in each of the past two weeks, and snaps in the pistol have replaced those looks. Play-action rate is down in each of the past two weeks, too.

It feels like coach Raheem Morris and offensive coordinator Zac Robinson sprinkled in enough of the classic Cousins stuff to get the media off their back. And now that the narrative is dead — Cousins can and is, technically, going under center — they’re slowly phasing those features out of the offense again.

That’s because Cousins still can’t do what is required of an under-center quarterback — he’s just barely hanging in there on those snaps. Take this failed exchange with running back Bijan Robinson in Week 2.

Cousins is reverse-pivoting behind the center, opening his body not to the side of the handoff but to the opposite. He has to wheel his whole body around to meet Bijan at the mesh point and get the ball in his belly. But Cousins barely gets any width with his first two steps, and accordingly has to lunge towards Bijan (who is also a little bit wide on his path, for what it’s worth). There’s too much space in the mesh point, and this ball is fumbled.

Cousins is really laboring to get to the mesh point on wide runs right now. He can do it, but it certainly isn’t clean, and he often doesn’t come out of the mesh point with his body under control, which makes it harder to immediately wheel him into a boot (which the Falcons still have not done: no rollouts yet this season) or pop up into a throwing position. Even on those meshes that are executed well, it takes Cousins an extra step to get back there, and the back is often idling for a beat to wait for the ball to get to him.

For whatever reason, the Falcons have not yet tried the easiest solution: pitching the ball. Many teams are increasingly pitching the handoff on under-center runs, as it gets the ball to the back faster, providing more space and time for the back to read out the blocks and determine his path. The drawback of the pitch is that it hurts the efficacy of the play-action fake because the offense doesn’t get that long handoff action that sucks linebackers in — but the Falcons aren’t running play-action anyway, so that wouldn’t cost them too much.

These hyper-specific running game machinations may feel like trivialities, but they aren’t. The Falcons’ running game has actually been solid from an efficiency standpoint (13th in success rate and 11th in EPA per rush), but it doesn’t stack up to the teams that the Falcons were meant to emulate. Look at the top of the rushing charts as measured by success rate and EPA, and you see plenty of teams that go under center, condense the formation and run zone: the Rams, Saints, Lions and Vikings. Heck, even the Bengals have figured out the running game. The Falcons measure up worse than them all.

The fact that the running game is fine but unspectacular puts additional weight on the passing game — and again, we’re seeing limitations there from Cousins. He looked a little better in Week 4 than he did in Week 1, but he still cannot reset his feet in the pocket or drive the football. To win from the pocket — as Cousins did for the last several years in Minnesota — he must be able to stand in the face of oncoming pressure and hammer the football into tight windows. Cousins just does not have that juice right now.

Here’s a good example against the Saints, one of those precious under-center play-action dropbacks. Yank the linebackers down with the play-action fake, get his eyes to the dig and drive that sucker. Watch how light Cousins is on his right leg as he lands on the back foot of his dropback and steps into the throw. Because Cousins doesn’t want to screw that foot into the ground and generate any power from it, he throws this with all arm and his weight falling over his front leg. Look at how hard his body leans over that front left leg on this throw; how that back leg comes swinging off the ground.

This is not how quarterbacks get velocity on a throw like this. Cousins is trying so hard to drive it that it falls into the ground (which isn’t inherently bad, as that can help Drake London protect the catch point) — but it just doesn’t arrive fast enough, which gives the Saints defensive backs plenty of time to affect the throw. Incomplete pass.

Now, this is a really tight window — and in fact, a lot of the windows in Atlanta have been tight. Just over 31% of Cousins’ throws beyond the line of scrimmage have been into tight windows, as charted by NFL Next Gen Stats — that’s throws with the defender within at least one yard of the receiver. Only Dak Prescott is hitting tight windows at a higher rate.

The tight window issue is twofold. Because Cousins is struggling to drive the football, he often turns windows that could have been wider into tough throws, because the ball is a tick late or delivered short. Take the game-winning pass interference from Paulson Adebo in coverage against Darnell Mooney. With a better throw, this is the game-winning touchdown thrown into an open window, but Cousins pulls Mooney back into the Saints defensive back, closing the window.

The other half of the issue is in design — namely, predictable design. The Saints were driving on every route from the Falcons throughout that game. They were waiting on route breaks and baiting throws. Even if Cousins’ lack of velocity is giving them an extra beat to arrive, no team has seven pass breakups from their DBs (as the Saints did on Sunday) unless they know what’s coming down the pipe. Watch not just how quickly the New Orleans’ defenders get to the catch point, but how their bodies and eyes are positioned as the routes develop on these pass attempts.

Now, the Saints are a particularly aggressive defense under coach Dennis Allen, and they play a ton of man coverage, so inherently they’re going to present tighter windows downfield. The out-and-up to Mooney that ended in a DPI was meant to take advantage of Adebo’s aggressive prediction of an out-breaking route, something the Saints corners were anticipating all game.

But over four weeks, Zac Robinson is struggling to get players open on the chalkboard. Robinson joined the NFL coaching ranks in 2019 as Sean McVay’s assistant quarterbacks coach in Los Angeles, and he was on that staff every year before taking the Falcons’ offensive coordinator job this offseason. As such, the Falcons are running a lot of the Rams’ greatest hits in terms of dropback passing design, but some of the roles are miscast, and there’s a concerning lack of both bells and whistles. Take Kyle Pitts. The 6-foot-6 tight end is not a shake-and-bake route runner, yet he’s constantly being asked to run slants, pivots and speed outs — all these are quick-breaking routes through which his long body labors to change direction. Pitts is the worst pass catcher in the league right now by ESPN Analytics’ Open Score metric. Even if you think Pitts is a complete bust, a tight end who runs a 4.44-second 40-yard dash should not be struggling to get open targets by design.

But a player of Pitts’ mold has never been dropped into this offense where tight ends are frequently asked to stay in line, sustain blocks in the running game, and then break into the underneath areas and uncover quickly. That isn’t exactly where Pitts is best — I’d prefer him running vertically off of play-action, a la George Kittle in San Francisco — but getting him the ball with space will allow him to break angles after the catch with speed. But because the Falcons don’t like Pitts as an in line blocker, they can’t figure out how to get him in their play-action passing game. Of Pitts’ 96 routes this season, six have come with a play-action fake. He has one target.

Even the stuff that is supposed to be easy isn’t translating. The easiest button in the McVay offense is getting players open off of motion — snapping the ball while they’re on the run, and then quickly throwing to them while they have an advantage via leverage or speed. In Los Angeles last season, Puka Nacua had three games in which he had at least 50 receiving yards off motion; Cooper Kupp had another two. The Falcons don’t have any player with at least 50 receiving yards off motion in total this season. Kupp has twice as many yards off of motion this season (99) than London does (47), despite the fact that London has played twice as many games.

The Falcons don’t need an under-center running game to make that part of the McVay offense work. It helps, but McVay and Matthew Stafford have been working that from the shotgun dropback game for seasons now. You can argue London isn’t a Kupp-like player (I’d disagree), but Atlanta should still be able to find touches for him off motion. Take Mooney, who was signed by the Falcons to fill the Tutu Atwell role in the offense. He has 46 yards off of motion this season; Atwell has 196.

Whatever the precise calibration of settings is that makes the Rams offense go, the Falcons have not been able to replicate it over four weeks. Cousins’ limitations aren’t the whole story there. The high volume Ray-Ray McCloud III games can’t be the plan. Zero separation for Pitts is unacceptable. The design isn’t working in Atlanta.

This is where Cousins’ physical limitations now become doubly damaging. He hurts the offense in structure, affecting the timing of the under center running game and passing game alike — but then he hurts you again out of structure because he can’t create. The Falcons’ in-structure passing game isn’t perfect, but it’s good enough — the problem is, there’s nothing in the out-of-structure game to salvage those perfectly covered plays.

Cousins has only one scramble this season, but he has never been a prolific scrambler. Rather, it’s the fact he cannot reset the pocket or throw on the move that has the Falcons’ offense in handcuffs. He has attempted a smaller chunk of his passes while on the move than any quarterback this year save for Andy Dalton, and nobody has attempted fewer passes outside of the pocket. The entire passing world for the Falcons offense lives statuesque between the tackles, which allows pass rushers to tee off at a predictable aiming point and emboldens those aggressive defensive backs to close on those routes they anticipate — because hey, even if they’re wrong, Cousins won’t extend the play and punish them.

Now, Cousins is more limited as a pocket mover and play extender than he had been — but the Falcons weren’t exactly expecting prime Patrick Mahomes when they signed the 36-year-old in March. The plan was always that the in-structure passing game was sufficient — but because it isn’t, the out-of-structure worries are being put into sharp relief.

Next up? Todd Bowles and the 3-1 Buccaneers come into town, a team that loves to blitz, disguise and challenge receivers. The windows are going to be tight again. The structure of the play is going to be lost sometimes. And the Bucs’ rushers will be heating up the pocket. I have yet to see Cousins respond well to this, and I’m not convinced that Robinson can beat Bowles on the chalkboard.

In Week 1, the Falcons’ offense looked like an easy fix — get under center, hand the ball off, then hit a play-action fake. Isn’t that the tried-and-true magic of the McVay system, the panacea for any offense’s ills? With a few more weeks under our belt, we can see it won’t be so easy for Robinson and Cousins, who have yet to get the offense off the ground in Atlanta.

London (Reuters):  Liverpool will head into the international break top of the Premier League thanks to a 1-0 win at Crystal Palace before champions Manchester City and Arsenal both recovered from going behind to claim home wins on Saturday.

Diogo Jota’s early goal was enough for Liverpool to maintain their impressive start under new manager Arne Slot who has six wins from his opening seven Premier League games in charge.

Liverpool have 18 points with City and Arsenal on 17.

City trailed at home to Fulham but Mateo Kovacic’s double ensured a 3-2 win. Arsenal were also in trouble against winless Southampton but Kai Havertz scored his sixth goal of the season before Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka sealed a 3-1 victory.

Newcastle United missed the chance to move into the top four as they drew 0-0 at Everton — former Everton player Anthony Gordon having a penalty saved by Jordan Pickford.

Leicester City posted their first Premier League win since gaining promotion, beating Bournemouth 1-0 with a goal by Argentine Facundo Buonanotte.

Brentford maintained their incredible habit of scoring early goals as they beat bottom club Wolverhampton Wanderers 5-3 to pile more pressure on Wolves manager Gary O’Neil.

Unlike their previous three Premier League games when they scored inside the first minute, this time it took Brentford 76 seconds of an incredible six-goal first half in west London to go ahead with a Nathan Collins header.

This is Spain’s Fenix FC. A team consisting entirely of transgender men.

West Ham United got their first home league win of the season as they beat promoted Ipswich Town 4-1.

While the focus has been on another expected title battle between Pep Guardiola’s City and Arteta’s Arsenal, Liverpool have shown that they will be a force to be reckoned with.

Jota’s close-range goal in his 100th appearance for Liverpool was enough for Dutchman Slot to enjoy his ninth win from his first 10 matches in charge since taking over from Juergen Klopp — the best start by a Liverpool manager.