St. Louis Shock Sweep Home Major League Pickleball Event To Go Top Of The Table
There's no rest for the weary; just a few days after the exciting Mid-Season tournament in Grand Rapids finished up, a handful of Major League Pickleball (MLP)'s teams headed right to St. Louis for the eighth of ten regular season events. The St. Louis Shock played host to the weekend's festivities, which they held at the Chaifetz Arena on the grounds of St. Louis University. The arena is named for the Chaifetz family, who also happen to be the owners of the hosting St. Louis Shock team, and who personally guaranteed this event to be the 'biggest event of the season." One thing is for sure; the setup of the Arena made this look more like a full-on professional sporting event than the league has ever had before; even at our nicest facilities, most pickleball tournaments are held at Country Clubs or parks where temporary stands are built; in St. Louis the arena look and feel really showed what MLP's founders intended; a home-supported team event where tickets are sold and fans show up just to watch, and not also to play in the event.
Key Links for tracking the event this weekend, which featured livestreams from the two primary courts at the facility on MLP's YouTube channel and on PickleballTV.com.
Transaction Recap
See my separate story from earlier discussing the massive Ben Johns trade and its implications for the title race and the league in general.
Premier League Recap
Day 1 Observations
Day 2 Observations
Day 3 Observations
Quite the entrance for ST. Louis' captain Anna Bright.
Day 4 Observations
CJ Klinger (L) teamed up with Columbus partner Andre Daescu (R) to help clinch 4th place, for now.
Challenger League Recap
Day 1 Observations
Day 2 Observations
Day 3 Observations
Day 4 Observations
Team Standings Update post Event
Here's the teams who made moves up or down the Standings in this event.
In Premier
In ChallengerWhat did we learn this weekend?
What were our top three Takeaways from the competition this weekend?
Media Pick' Em Contest Update
MLP Super-Fan Matty Pickles (aka Matt Klitch) runs a season-long Media MLP Pick'em Contest on Twitter, where all the pundits in the sport are participating. Here's how we did this week, and where we stand overall.
Summary: I had my worst week predicting matches yet. I missed four matches outright, including both Dallas losses, and took a penalty point as well for missing my 'lock of the week' when Brooklyn shocked Columbus on Sunday afternoon. I maintain a very small lead over Jim Kloss, aka 'the smartest man in pickleball," for the season long competition.
Next up on the Pickleball Calendar? According to my Master Pickleball Schedule, we're right back into Week 9 of MLP, this time heading to Dallas.
The Dallas field is loaded. All three of the league's top teams are there (NJ, STL, Dallas) along with the dangerous Texas Ranchers. Lastly the LA Mad Drops and their new acquisition Johns will be in action for the first time, which should make for a super-interesting weekend.
All match stats quoted in this article are courtesy of PickleWave. Visit picklewave.com for the premier source of Pro Pickleball data, including match replays, highlights, stats, and discussion. PickleWave has more than 22,000 matches in its database across all the pro tours.
Also, a great thanks to The Dink's Erik Tice, who maintains a fantastic MLP detailed data breakdown and makes it publicly available at this Google XLS link. Tice's data has proved invaluable this year as MLP does not make match data available at this detailed level at present.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Times
5 minutes ago
- New York Times
Dele Alli to leave Como but plans to continue playing
Contrary to reports in Italy, Dele is not planning to retire from playing on leaving Como. He made just one appearance, playing 10 minutes as he was shown a red card after coming on as an 80th-minute substitute in the 2-1 defeat to AC Milan in March. The two-time PFA young player of the year has not featured in any of Como's three pre-season friendlies and has struggled to maintain consistent game time after his departure from Spurs in January 2022. Advertisement He has since had spells at Everton and Turkish side Besiktas but has not played more than 20 games in a season since the 2021-22 season, having missed the entirety of the 2023-24 season while contracted with Everton with various injuries. Dele joined Tottenham in 2015 from MK Dons and was one of the brightest prospects in the Premier League at that time. He recorded 10 goals and 10 assists in his debut season at the north London club and earned his England debut in October 2015, before going on to gain 37 caps for the national team. In 2o23, Dele spoke in an interview with Gary Neville on The Overlap about his mental health, saying he went to rehab after struggling with a sleeping pill addiction. 'Everton were amazing about it, they were always supportive of me 100 per cent and I'll be grateful for them forever,' he said at the time. 'Whatever happens in the future, for them to be so open, honest and understanding, I couldn't have asked for anything more in that time when I was probably making the biggest decision of my life, something I was scared to do.' Among his 269 appearances for Tottenham, Dele played a leading role in their second-placed Premier League finish in the 2016-17 campaign. He scored 22 goals (18 in the Premier League) and made 13 assists as Spurs recorded their highest top-flight finish since 1962-63. Despite suffering from hamstring injuries in the 2018-19 season, Dele made eight appearances in Spurs' run to the Champions League final and started in the 2-0 defeat to Liverpool in Madrid. Dele was also a part of Gareth Southgate's England squad which reached the World Cup semi-final in 2018 and scored in the 2-0 quarter-final victory over Sweden. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Play today's puzzle
New York Times
5 minutes ago
- New York Times
Manchester United's new £200m attack: How Benjamin Sesko fits with Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo
Good things come in threes — or at least Ruben Amorim will be hoping so. The Manchester United head coach is set to completely refresh his forward line with the addition of three exciting new attacking options. Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo joined earlier in the window and now the club have agreed a deal with RB Leipzig for centre-forward Benjamin Sesko that will take their spending on a new attack past £200m ($268m). Advertisement It's a tantalising prospect for United fans. While their defence was found sorely wanting last season, shipping 54 goals, United have still managed to finish sixth on three occasions in the past decade conceding this number or more. Instead, it was their stuttering attack that proved more damaging: United scored just 44 goals in 2024-25, their lowest-ever return in a Premier League season. It's an area that clearly demanded a reboot, but can the new trio gel and flourish within Amorim's system? Projecting how an individual player will perform at a new club is always fraught with uncertainty. The crystal ball becomes murkier still when trying to anticipate the chemistry of an entirely rebuilt forward line. Still, the roles and performances of the trio at their respective clubs in recent seasons offer encouraging signs that they can complement and even elevate each other's strengths. The most basic test of this fluidity is positional: will they get in each other's way? We don't know what exact configuration Amorim will settle on next season — Sesko has yet to sign while Mbeumo and Cunha have played just 45 minutes together in a preseason friendly against Everton — but on paper the trio appear well-balanced. Looking at their touch maps from last season, Mbeumo shows a strong preference for the right flank, Cunha drifts inside from the left rather than hugging the touchline, and Sesko typically operates through the middle, making it entirely feasible to start all three in their favoured positions. But simply slotting three talented players in their favoured roles is no guarantee of chemistry. What matters most is how they interact. Does the centre-forward make the kind of runs the wide players like to pick out? Do they play the passes he thrives on? Do they press as a coherent unit? Cunha and Mbeumo profile as near mirror images of one another, which should allow them to dovetail naturally and play off each other. Both excel at driving their teams up the pitch with surging ball carries and progressive passes — the kind of attacking profiles United sorely lacked last season, as shown in the graphic below. Cunha also brings the added benefit of having played as a left-sided No 10 for Wolves in a 3-4-2-1 system, the same setup Amorim is steadfastly committed to at United. What's less clear is how these wide attackers will link up with Sesko. Part of that uncertainty stems from the Slovenian's relative inexperience, coupled with two contrasting campaigns at Leipzig that muddy the waters when it comes to identifying his natural playing style. When Sesko signed for Leipzig, he was deployed as a classic penalty-box striker — playing on the shoulder of the last defender, with most of his touches concentrated in advanced areas. But last season, as Leipzig's form cratered and their attacking issues began to resemble United's, the creative supply line faltered. Sesko was often forced to drop deeper to get involved. Advertisement To get a better sense of how he might fit, we can look at the kind of centre-forward Cunha and Mbeumo have thrived alongside in the past, what Amorim typically demands from his strikers, and how well Sesko matches that profile. While they share stylistic traits, Mbeumo and Cunha tend to look for slightly different things from their centre-forward. For starters, Mbeumo enjoyed a much stronger partnership with Yoane Wissa at Brentford last season than Cunha did with Jorgen Strand Larsen at Wolves. Mbeumo combined with Wissa 166 times, compared to just 80 passes between Cunha and Strand Larsen. But for the Cameroonian international, it wasn't just about this link-up play. He thrived just as much on Wissa's tireless off-ball movement, which intelligently created space for him to exploit. The sight of Wissa dragging a defender away with an overlapping or underlapping run, allowing Mbeumo to cut inside and curl one in with his left foot, became a regular feature at the Gtech Community Stadium last season. By contrast, Cunha typically looked for Strand Larsen to drop deep, using the Norwegian's imposing physical frame to play quick wall passes that allowed Cunha to burst towards the edge of the box as he cut inside from the left. One such sequence is shown below, taken from Wolves' 3-0 home win against Leicester last season. Across both seasons at Leipzig, Sesko has shown this willingness to drop deep and link up with the midfield. According to tracking data from SkillCorner, he has ranked highly among European strikers for both runs coming short and runs that support the ball carrier in each of his Bundesliga campaigns. This suggests that he can offer Cunha and Mbeumo a platform for quick, fluid, short-passing combinations. But it's long, direct runs into the channels that Amorim truly prizes in his centre-forwards — movements that stretch defences and open up space for the two No 10s to attack. Sesko made more of these runs during his debut campaign, but they became less frequent as Leipzig's overall form declined. By contrast, existing forward Rasmus Hojlund has consistently shown a willingness to make these runs, even if he often remains peripheral in build-up play. Advertisement United's style under the Portuguese coach is built on slow, patient build-up — only Manchester City recorded a lower direct speed in the league last season, but long passes into the channels for the striker remain a key tactical outlet. While Hojlund may be more eager to make these kinds of movements, the issue lies in what happens when the ball is actually played into him. Despite standing at 6ft 3in, Hojlund struggles in the air, winning just 25 per cent of his aerial duels last season — a figure that ranks him near the bottom among strikers across Europe. What Sesko may lack in movement, he makes up for with his ability to make the ball stick. The scatter plot below highlights just how much more aerially dominant he is than Hojlund. He also far outstrips the Dane for successful take-ons per 90 minutes — an important trait for when long balls are lumped forward and the striker must fend off defenders while waiting for the attacking cavalry to arrive. United don't yet have the structure behind the attack to support a Haaland-type forward — one who loiters around the box, waiting for the opportune moment to strike. Their No 9 needs to roll up their sleeves, get their shorts muddy, and get involved. And there's plenty of evidence that Sesko is more than willing to do just that. But perhaps most encouraging is his Haaland-like knack for finding and finishing chances, regardless of what's going on behind him. Leipzig have endured two topsy-turvy campaigns, yet Sesko hit double figures for goals in both. In fact, all three of United's new forwards scored more than 10 goals last season. The easiest and quickest way for them to build chemistry and confidence is to carry that trait over to Old Trafford. (Top photos: Getty Images) Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Play today's puzzle
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Newcastle United exit confirmed as departing star tells of 'delight' at move
MARTIN Dubravka has told of his delight after completing his permanent move to Burnley. The goalkeeper has left Newcastle after seven-and-a-half years at the club, signing a one-year contract with the Clarets, and replacing James Trafford, who left for Manchester City. Dubravka will wear the No.1 shirt at Turf Moor. "I'm delighted to be here," said Dúbravka. "It's a really exciting time to be joining this club, ahead of our return to the Premier League. "I've only heard really positive things about the club, the culture and the environment we work in, so I'm excited about getting going with the season kicking off next weekend." "Burnley had a fantastic campaign last season, built on a superb defensive record, and I can't wait to come in and add my experience and quality to what looks an exciting squad of players. "I'm really looking forward to playing for the club in front of our passionate fans." Dubravka made 179 appearances for Newcastle after joining, initially on loan, in January 2018. He played a key role in last season's Carabao Cup triumph, making four appearances and keeping three clean sheets, including in each leg of the semi-final victory over Arsenal. He also featured 10 times during the last Premier League campaign, keeping five clean sheets to help the club achieve UEFA Champions League qualification. Newcastle said in a statement: "Everyone at the club would like to thank Martin for his efforts while with Newcastle United and wishes him well for the future." Odysseas Vlachodimos could also leave Newcastle this summer, with a loan move being lined up for the Greek goalkeeper. Aaron Ramsdale joined from Southampton last week and compete with Nick Pope for the gloves.
