England vs Germany: How did they do?

Jack Butland: Okay, so the generous assessment: Butland was injured and so couldn’t get down to Toni Kroos’ shot. He left the field in tears and you have to feel sympathy for him.

The reality: Butland’s poor kicking gave possession away on at least three occasions. The last of those three led to the opening goal. Butland was injured, but injured himself diving out to collect an overhit pass that was going out of play two minutes earlier. Why did he not throw the ball out of play then? He also turned down a short pass to kick it long despite being injured, giving away the ball, and was then unable to stop a shot he otherwise should have saved. He left the field in tears and you have to feel sympathy for him.

We’ve long answered the questions about whether Butland should be No. 1 over Joe Hart by shaking our head vigorously. We won’t stop now.




Nathaniel Clyne: My long-held belief on England Clyne is that he reflects the side as a whole, struggling when we’re under pressure and flourishing when we’re on top. That probably indicates that he isn’t a brilliant defender. Completed five passes in the first half and played Mario Gomez onside for the disallowed goal even before losing him at the back post for Germany’s second. Then promptly played superbly as England surged back, including the cross for Jamie Vardy’s equaliser. Walker really does have a chance to usurp him, y’know.



Danny Rose: Hard not to be impressed with how Rose refused to go into his shell despite trailing 2-0 in Germany on his England debut. We’ll always have doubts about his defending against a top-class winger (although his recovery pace helps him out), but no England left-back is perfect. If Luke Shaw isn’t fit, it’s La Vie En Rose in France this summer.



Gary Cahill: Actually pretty chuffed for Cahill, who received a fair bit of pre-match stick for having the temerity to be named England captain in Wayne Rooney’s absence. Defended pretty well for the majority, doing well against Gomez in the air in open play. Central defence is definitely the weakest area of this England team, but Cahill’s hardly a blundering idiot.



Chris Smalling: See this is the thing. Smalling is very much like Vincent Kompany, in that a team looks far more secure for his presence, yet occasionally he will drop a ricket that makes him look utterly foolish. Smalling misjudged the bounce of the ball so badly during an incident the second half that it made him look like a puppy trying to jump up and bite a cloud. Still, John Stones is the only pretender to the throne, and he isn’t starting club matches in central defence.



Jordan Henderson: England’s worst player? Yeah, probably. It’s not that Henderson is abject, it’s that it’s almost indecipherable what he actually does for most of the time. He is England’s jack of all trades, which somehow feels like a waste of a body. Took over responsibility from Wayne Rooney in the ‘shout at everyone for not doing the things that you also aren’t doing’ with effortless ease. Plus point: Excellent corner deliveries, at a time when professional players regularly seem unable to do so.



Eric Dier: It was all going so well, with Dier patrolling the defensive midfield area with grace. But international starting places are not earned by doing most things right, and there is no doubt that Dier stood off Kroos as he prepared to shoot. Still, he’s 22 and this was a big ask against a big team, so still far more ticks than crosses. Added to that summation with his winning goal in stoppage time. Booked.



Dele Alli: England’s best player, hungry when pressing and bright when in possession. Alli did waste a chance when deciding to head at goal from the edge of the area rather than take down the ball and shoot, but otherwise carried on his Tottenham form on the international stage by looking ridiculously well-rounded for a 19-year-old. If, as seems likely, it comes down to a question of Alli or Ross Barkley in this position, we hope Barkley likes wearing a bib. We’ll ignore the horror miss if you will.



Adam Lallana: Lallana was No. 23 on our last ladder, and there is very much that kind of feeling to his performances for England. One moment you watch him beat his man, or press the opposition to win the ball, and think he could be an integral part of Hodgson’s team. Then he goes quiet for five minutes at a time. The best way to describe Lallana is that he’s the type of player who gets given a 5/10 by one paper and 8/10 by another. Impossible to fathom.



Danny Welbeck: Stick by what we say every bloody time: Welbeck’s presence just makes England better. His ambition and desire is infectious, epitomised by the way he chased down a lost cause and robbed Emre Can of the ball in the second half. Welbeck did delay too long over his chance before the break, but his link-up play makes England tick. He’s Das Guy.



Harry Kane: Took his goal superbly well after a quiet night until that point. Still, that’s plenty enough to convince us that he should start ahead of Rooney in France, if only for the mood that having young, ambitious players in the team it provokes. This was the first time Kane has scored as a starter for England, which is a big tick in a previously empty box.



SUBS

Fraser Forster (on for Butland, 44): A quiet evening, having been called into unexpected service. Tipped over a free kick like a tall man easily picking something off a shelf. Honestly, Forster is so big; it’s like a bedside table sat on top of a wardrobe.

Jamie Vardy (on for Welbeck, 71): Oh dear goodness. An astonishing way to score your first England goal, and surely a huge shove for Uncle Roy to give him a seat on the plane. You don’t have to like the man (and I don’t), but you can’t doubt the execution of the shot and rapidity of the rise. Chat Scheisse…

Ross Barkley (on for Lallana, 71): Did nothing wrong, and yet it feels like Barkley is set to be eclipsed by Alli-mania. A pretty great option off the bench, mind.

'They Broke My Bucket': Parents Cause PEZ Easter Egg Hunt Chaos

An annual PEZ Easter egg hunt ended earlier than expected after pushy parents didn't listen to the rules of the game, the general manager told NBC Connecticut.

"I take this personally. I don’t want this to be a reflection of the brand," Shawn Peterson, the general manager of the PEZ visitor's center in Orange, said. "It was a fun thing up until this point."


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Staff had laid out nearly 10,000 eggs over three fields and planned three start times for different age groups. Some parents ignored that plan, rushed the fields early, and things became chaotic.

"By the time I found my 4-year-old, he was hysterically crying," Nicole Welch of West Haven said.


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"Somebody pushed me over and take my eggs and it's very rude of them and they broke my bucket," Vincent Welch said.

Several parents were trampling over signs and shoving other participants at the annual hunt, causing chaos at the family-friendly event. One woman said an adult injured her grandchild's nose.


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"My grandson ended up with a bloody from an ADULT in the 9-12 year old section knocking into him!!!! Where was PEZ personnel?? Where was the safety of our children in your thought process?? And to make matters worse, how about almost getting hit by a vehicle leaving your property, which had parked in your lot and was leaving, in very close proximity to the "egghunt" field"?" Jennifer Barden-Moore wrote on Facebook.

The event had more participants than the venue had expected; there were more than 1,000 people in attendance, Peterson said.


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PEZ said its staff pleaded with parents to follow the rules but its staff was overwhelmed.

On its Facebook page, it commented that:


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"Due to the actions of a few, the good intent quickly turned into a mess. I would like to sincerely apologize to each of our guests...We only wanted to do good for the local community."

Peterson said that this year, the parents "took over."


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This year, parents were on the "kids only" fields and going to the next hunt well before the designated start times. The signs on each field were taken or trampled on, Peterson explained.

Parents stormed the PEZ Facebook page with concerns and frustrations about the lack of order.



Peterson defends that having one employee at each hunt field is how the company has done it for past Easter events with no incident.

One father wrote that his fiancé went to grab his 5-year-old from being trampled by other adults.

"You let all age groups go at the same time. Adults were running on the field after there was no adult signs. Pez had 0 control over the event. My fiancé ran onto the field to grab our 5 yr old in fear for her being trampled, " Talon Hamand commented.

Peterson said the company purposely did not widely advertise the event in order to keep the number of attendants low. When PEZ noticed the number of people, they offered parents free coupons and candy inside the venue.

Happy Easter 2016: Best Bible Quotes, Passages, & Verses

happy easter

Vice President Joe Biden shouts out Syracuse basketball guard Trevor Cooney

Chicago — Vice President Joe Biden, a Syracuse law school graduate and a Delaware native, called out Orange guard Trevor Cooney after SU advanced to the Elite Eight.


Cooney, who grew up in Wilmington, said he's not on Twitter. But some family and friends supplied him with Biden's message.

"It's definitely pretty cool," Cooney said. "My grandfather graduated from high school with him. So we have that connection, too. Joe Biden is a very nice guy. It was definitely special."

A reporter asked Cooney whether the Biden tweet represented the culmination of his Elite Eight experience.

"I don't know if you get much bigger than that," Cooney said with a smile.

He paused.

"Well, I guess you can."

Chasing Cinderella 2016: Gonzaga basketball

Gonzaga isn't a likely candidate for Cinderella status - they're gunning for their second consecutive Elite 8 appearance, beaten some of college basketball's biggest traditional powers, produced the NBA's all-time leader in assists and steals, and earned the respect of media and fans. But in a tournament that's still got blue bloods like Kansas, UNC, and Indiana alive, somebody's got to take on the role of Underdog We As A Country All Rally Around. Thanks a lot, Northern Iowa.

On the other hand, their body of work over the course of the entire season left quite a bit to be desired. They really only snuck into the tourney -- as an 11 seed -- due to having won the West Coast Conference title ... not exactly something to write home about.


Ultimately, it's up to the College Basketball Fairy Godfather to decide: is Gonzaga basketball too accomplished to be considered a Cinderella at this point, or is the glass slipper finding a home in Spokane?

Good Friday won’t fall on March 25 again until 2157. Here’s why that matters.

Today is a religious rarity that will not occur again in our lifetimes. For most Christians in the West, it is Good Friday, the day of Jesus's crucifixion. It is also March 25, the traditional day of observing the Annunciation, when the angel Gabriel came to Mary and told her she would become pregnant with Jesus.

This overlap has happened just three times in the 20th century (1910, 1921, and 1932) and twice in the 21st (2005 and 2016). And it won't occur again until 2157.

It's a rare event because the Christians use different methods to schedule holy days. Fixed feasts, like Christmas (December 25 in the West) and the Annunciation (March 25), fall on the same day every year. And movable feasts, like Easter, fall on different days depending on the lunar calendar.

A March 25 Good Friday presents a tension for Christians: The Annunciation is a day of joy, when believers celebrate the beginning of Jesus's earthly life and Mary's enthusiastic embrace of her role as Christ's mother: "Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word," she told the angel. But Good Friday is the darkest day of the Christian year — the day Christ was beaten, nailed to the cross like a common criminal, abandoned by nearly all of his friends and family, and killed.

Christians over the centuries have dwelled on the tension that a March 25 Good Friday presents. As Eleanor Parker outlines in a terrific post on her blog, the overlap of the Annunciation and Good Friday fascinated medieval artists. Here is a 14th-century illuminated manuscript that shows the crucifixion (on the left) next to the annunciation (on the right):

And when Good Friday fell on March 25 in 1608, John Donne wrote a poem, appropriately titled "Upon the Annunciation and Passion Falling upon One Day." He describes "this doubtful day / Of feast or fast, Christ came and went away."


The difficulty of honoring both days simultaneously is so great that whenever March 25 falls during the week of Easter, the Catholic Church pushes its Annunciation celebration to later in the year. (This year, the church's feast of the Annunciation is April 4.)

Still, as Parker points out, there's a richness in the "paradoxical conjunction of feast and fast." Even when Good Friday doesn't fall on March 25, it is mysterious and tension-filled for Christians. They mourn the death of Jesus but look forward to his resurrection just a few days later. They grieve his suffering but believe this suffering makes way for great joy: the salvation of the world.

Mexico vs. Canada 2016: TV Channel, Live Stream Info, Preview For Vancouver World Cup Qualifier

A record crowd is set to be attendance at BC Place in Vancouver as Canada looks to get valuable World Cup qualifying points on the board and possibly a historic win over Mexico on Friday. More than 54,000, the most ever for a men’s national team game in Canada, is expected for what could be a defining night in the recent history of Canadian soccer.

Canada has only ever qualified for one World Cup, in 1986, and hasn’t even made it into the final round of Concacaf qualifying since 1998. There is renewed hope this time around, however. Benito Floro, a Spanish former coach of Real Madrid, took over coaching duties following a humiliating 8-1 loss in Honduras that ended Canada’s qualifying hopes for the last World Cup in Brazil and has guided the team to an impressive set of results.

The team has lost just two of its last 13 matches, both by a solitary goal. More importantly, Canada began the semifinal round of qualification with a 1-0 win over a Honduras side that has qualified for the last two World Cups. Having followed up that result with a creditable goalless draw in El Salvador, Canada remains on course to earn a top-two spot from the group to progress to the final round Hexagonal. With points on the road likely to be a tricky prospect, however, Friday’s home match with current Concacaf champions Mexicopromises to be a pivotal contest.

“If we can come out here and put in a good performance and get a good result, I think it will be a huge statement,” veteran midfielder Atiba Hutchinson, who plays with Turkish club Beşiktaş, said. “We believe that we can do it, we just need to go out there and show it. So it will be the perfect stage for us to show it.

“It’s going to be a tough game, but saying that I think the boys have a lot of confidence. We’ve been together for a while now. Some new faces have come in as well, but they’ve got some experience. We’re going to have to have a good start to the game, and continue to do what we’ve been doing in the past. Hopefully everything clicks.”

One of the new faces to have joined the squad is Scott Arfield. The Scottish-born midfielder recently switched his allegiance to the birthplace of his father, and brings with him experience of playing in the English Premier League last season with Burnley.

The challenge of taking on Mexico, though, promises to be anything but straightforward. El Tri has gone unbeaten in its last 15 games, winning its last five, including taking maximum points from its first two qualifiers, at home to El Salvador and away in Honduras. Those qualifiers were also the first matches in charge for coach Juan Carlos Osorio, who took over following the short interim spell of Ricardo “Tuca” Ferretti.

Osorio has not called up three of Mexico’s biggest names for the double-header with Canada, which also takes in a return match at the Estadio Azteca next Tuesday, with Carlos Vela, Giovani dos Santos and Guillermo Ochoa all absent. There is, though, still a core of talent currently playing at a high level in Europe, including Javier “Chicharito” Hernández , who has fired 23 goals so far in his debut season with Bayer Leverkusen. Joining them is an exciting crop of young players. As well as the already established Jesús “Tecatico” Corona, pushing for a starting role in Vancouver is fellow winger Hirving Lozano. The 20-year-old Pachuca starlet marked his international debut with an assist against Senegal last month, and comes into this latest squad fresh from scoring a hat-trick for his club last week.

Osorio, though, has made it clear that his focus is on gaining maximum points from the next two matches, which would secure Mexico’s place in the Hexagonal with two games to spare, and before this summer’s Copa America Centenario.