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The Padres dropped a winner-take-all Game 3 in the National League wild-card series to the Cubs on Thursday night. And while the Padres' ninth-inning rally fell just short, the club may be left stewing all winter long about a different moment.

After a leadoff home run from Padres outfielder Jackson Merrill cut the Cubs' lead to 3-1, shortstop Xander Bogaerts stepped up to the plate. Working the count full, Bogaerts took a 3-2 fastball on the lower outer half of the plate, a pitch he surely felt was ball four. But home-plate umpire D.J. Reyburn called it strike three, leaving Bogaerts incensed.

Cubs relief pitcher Brad Keller proceeded to hit Ryan O'Hearn and Bryce Johnson on consecutive pitches, giving San Diego hope that they could potentially tie the game. But it was not to be, as Jake Cronenworth grounded out and Freddy Fermin flied out, ending the Padres' season.

And the club's players were still fuming about the called strike after the game, as the likes of Bogaerts and Jose Iglesias angrily confronted the umpires as they left the field and filed past the visitor's dugout.

Two things. Number one, it doesn't seem like the best idea logistics-wise to have the umpires' only path off the field and back to the locker room take them past the visitor's dugout. It's a disaster waiting to happen.

Secondly, the Padres certainly have a right to be angry. The pitch seemed to be one that, had the Automated Ball-Strike challenge system been in play this season (it will be next year), could have been overturned to a ball. Plus, Umpire Scorecards, which uses MLB's advanced pitch tracking data to rate the accuracy of home-plate umpires and the impact of their calls on games, determined that Reyburn's called strike three was the most impactful missed ball-and-strike call in the contest.

But while the Padres and their fans have every right to be angry about the missed call, there's something else that should make them even angrier. The likes of Fernando Tatis Jr., Luis Arraez, and Manny Machado, three of the club's most productive hitters, combined to go 0-for-11 with three strikeouts and a walk in a winner-take-all elimination game.

If he makes his debut, Brendan Doggett will become just the third Indigenous man after Jason Gillespie and Scott Boland to play Test cricket for Australia

AAP16-Nov-2025Seven years after Brendan Doggett was first picked in an Australia squad, the ultimate late-bloomer is poised to become the country’s 472nd Test cricketer.After the untimely hamstring injury to in-form quick Josh Hazlewood, Doggett is set to make his debut when the Ashes gets underway at Optus Stadium in Perth on Friday. The 31-year-old will slot into Australia’s fast-bowling attack alongside Mitchell Starc and Scott Boland, a man with many similarities to his journey.Just two Indigenous men – Boland and Jason Gillespie – have represented Australia in almost 150 years of Test cricket. But Doggett is set to become the third, learning more about his Aboriginal heritage in his 20s after first earning a contract with Queensland Bulls.Related

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Proudly from Toowoomba, the man with 190 first-class wickets has spent the last four seasons helping South Australia rise from perennial battlers to Sheffield Shield champions.Doggett first received a call-up to an Australia squad in 2018, just months after the ball-tampering scandal in South Africa. Injuries slowed him down, but a move to South Australia in 2021 to become the leader of their attack has paid off.He has been consistently named in Australian squads over the past 18 months, stuck behind Starc, Hazlewood and captain Pat Cummins. But with Cummins and Hazlewood both injured for the start of the Ashes defence, the three-time Shield winner should get his shot.”He’s one of the quicker bowlers in Australia,” Gillespie, who coached Doggett for South Australia, told ABC Radio on Sunday. “Got a good motor, he’s a greyhound and is as fit as a fiddle. He’s ready to go.

“His path to a potential Baggy Green is not a common one in the modern game. It just shows the value of our local competitions, plying away and working on your craft”Jason Gillespie on Brendan Doggett

“England will sniff an opportunity [without Cummins and Hazlewood], but I’m confident the Australian seam attack is good enough to get the job done.”Doggett’s selection will only prompt further “Dad’s Army” jibes from England.Like Tasmania allrounder Beau Webster did in January, Doggett will join a small club to have made their Test debuts for Australia without having played a white-ball international in their 20s. Before Webster was brought in for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy decider, Bryce McGain was the only member of that group. If Jake Weatherald is selected to open the batting with Usman Khawaja in Perth, he will also be making his international debut at 31.If Jake Weatherald plays the Perth Test, Australia will have two 30-plus debutants in the same game•Getty ImagesDoggett never made any representative team until he was in his 20s, eventually making his domestic debut for the former Cricket Australia XI that played in the One-Day Cup in October 2016.He was plucked out of local cricket in his 20s, after dominating for Toowoomba Souths.”His path to a potential Baggy Green is not a common one in the modern game,” Gillespie said. “It just shows the value of our local competitions, plying away and working on your craft.”Doggett’s former Queensland team-mate Michael Neser was added to the squad on Saturday when Hazlewood was ruled out. If Hazlewood and Cummins still aren’t fit for the second Test at the Gabba, Neser could join Doggett in the XI.The only two Tests of Neser’s career were with the pink ball, with Australia preferring to play four quicks instead of veteran spinner Nathan Lyon when they last played a day-nighter.

Lionel Messi and Thomas Müller meet in an MLS Cup final full of storylines, from farewells to uncertainty, driving what should be a strong match this Saturday.

So, here we are: the MLS Cup final. Forget the hipster picks, ignore the insiders – this is the matchup everyone secretly wanted when the playoffs began. Miami-Vancouver (LAFC wouldn’t have been a bad shout, but still). Two elite teams, one trophy. This is what it’s all about.

In most circumstances, you’d back Miami without hesitation. This is Lionel Messi’s team, and they don’t seem capable of losing right now.

But…

Vancouver are scorching hot in their own right. They also have this guy called Thomas Muller – one of the most decorated players of all time – who just so happens to have a winning record against Messi. That’s something. And if you want another wrinkle: they’ve beaten Miami already this season.

So maybe this is a little closer than anyone’s pretending. GOAL previews the MLS Cup final ahead of what should be a terrific contest.

Getty Images SportKey storylines

And so we have our dream MLS Cup final. But this is about more than just the fact that Messi will be playing against his supposed kryptonite. Muller does has a good record against him, but there's plenty of other stuff to follow:

The last dance for the Barça boys

Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba have already announced they’ll retire after the final. This is their last professional game. Luis Suárez could join them, even if he hasn’t said so publicly. One more trophy would be quite the goodbye.

Vancouver’s future is uncertain

The Whitecaps confirmed before the season that they were interested in selling the team and with that has come speculation over relocation. Their lease at BC Place ends this year, and while a soccer-specific stadium has been discussed, nothing is close to done. It’s not impossible that this version of Vancouver is gone in two years. One final run? Maybe.

First-year coaches on center stage

Vancouver's Jesper Sørensen arrived with little name recognition. Javier Mascherano arrived with doubts after a tough first stint in management with the Argentina U23s at the Olympics. Yet both managers have guided their teams to the biggest game of the season. One of them will lift a trophy at the end.

AdvertisementGetty Images SportInter Miami and the keys to victory

Why Inter Miami will win it

Yes, it starts with Messi. If he catches fire, Miami are almost impossible to stop. But the key may be what happens behind him. Miami’s defense has tightened up in recent weeks. They’re still vulnerable in central areas and at right back, yet if they keep things tidy and limit Vancouver’s chances, they’ll give Messi and the attack enough platform to win it.

Why Inter Miami won’t win it

They can get outrun. Messi and Sergio Busquets no longer cover the ground they once did, and Vancouver bring relentless energy from the opening whistle. In a one-off final, that could matter. Miami also have a tendency to start slowly, and an early barrage from Vancouver could put them in a hole they can’t climb out of.

AFPKey player for Inter Miami

There's no need to intellectualize this. The key player is Messi. There have been some real impressive performances around him in recent weeks, especially from Tadeo Allende, who has gotten red hot in the playoffs. But Miami live and die by their star man. It's a good thing he's on fire then, averaging well over two goal contributions per 90 minutes. If he bags a couple (he will), then Miami will have a chance – no matter their weaknesses elsewhere. 

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Getty Images SportVancouver Whitecaps

Why they will win it – They're a better all-around team than Miami. Muller is on fire, and he has given an already solid team an extra cutting edge. There are no real weaknesses here. They are strong in midfield, lethal up front, and good enough at the back to see out games. And perhaps more crucially, they are well-balanced. This is a team that likes to have the ball, but they also don't mind defending, either. They don't have a Messi, but they have 11 guys who can come together and nullify his best. 

Why they won't win it – No one can stop Messi. End of. 

Tottenham Hotspur manager Thomas Frank, in particular, will have been delighted with Saturday’s 2-0 win over his former club Brentford in the Premier League.

Goals from Richarlison, signed for £60m, and Xavi Simons, signed for £52m, secured all three points for the Lilywhites, as two of their most-expensive signings start to show their quality.

An expensive signing who is not offering too much to the team at the moment, though, is £47.5m addition Brennan Johnson, who was an unused substitute against Brentford.

Why Brennan Johnson has not been a waste of money for Spurs

The Wales international has not scored in the Premier League since August, with four goals in all competitions this season, and has not been used off the bench in two of the last three matches, per Sofascore.

Signed for £47.5m from Nottingham Forest in 2023, Johnson does not currently look like good value for money, given his struggles this term, but he has not been a waste of money on the evidence of his overall time at the club so far.

The 24-year-old attacker has delivered 27 goals and 18 assists in 104 games for the Lilywhites, per Transfermarkt, including the winner in the Europa League final last season.

You could argue that his winning goal in that final was worth the £47.5m on its own because of the memories that it created, as the club’s first trophy in 17 years.

Meanwhile, there is another expensive signing in the Spurs squad who should be sold, as he has been a bigger flop than Johnson and has yet to justify his price tag.

The Spurs player who should be sold in January

Dominic Solanke has been out with an ankle injury since August, with no return date given by Frank, but he should be ruthlessly sold in the January transfer window.

Spurs splashed a club-record transfer fee of £65m to sign the English striker from Bournemouth in the summer of 2024, and his performances on the pitch have not reflected that huge outlay.

For a 27-year-old, now 28, who was brought in as a Premier League-proven star in the prime years of his career, Solanke has not offered enough in front of goal to suggest that he has been worth the money, with just nine league goals for the club to date, per Sofascore.

In April, pundit Micah Richards claimed that the £65m signing had “been a disappointment all season” in the 2024/25 campaign, and it is hard to disagree with that assessment when you look at his statistics, notably costing them around £4m per goal so far.

Appearances

27

13

xG

10.97

5.58

Goals

9

5

Big chances missed

12

4

Minutes per goal

245

161

As you can see in the table above, Solanke underperformed against his xG in both the Premier League and the Europa League last term, missing more ‘big chances’ than he scored goals in the former.

Johnson, meanwhile, hit double figures for goals with 11 Premier League strikes for the Lilywhites, which means that he has scored four more league goals for Spurs than Solanke since the start of last season, per Sofascore.

This shows that the Welshman, who plays on the wing rather than as a striker, has been more productive than the ex-Bournemouth man in the Premier League, whilst also being more impactful overall, given his trophy-clinching goal.

Solanke has simply not done enough on the pitch since signing for the club to prove that the Lilywhites were right to splash £65m on him, which is why they should cut their losses and cash in on him in January.

His current injury issues only add further fuel to the fire because Spurs now do not know if they can rely on him to be fit and available, whilst they also do not know if they can rely on him to be efficient in front of goal as their number nine.

Richarlison’s return of six goals and two assists in nine Premier League starts so far this season, per Sofascore, also suggests that Solanke will not be the first-choice number nine when he is back fit.

Fewer touches than Vicario & 88% duels lost: Spurs flop must now be dropped

One Tottenham Hotspur player may need to be dropped despite yesterday’s win over Brentford.

ByEthan Lamb 5 days ago

That is further reason for the club to cash in on the big-money flop in January to invest in a new signing in that position, as the Englishman’s move to North London has not worked out so far.