loss

Last week, when Amorim said “we have to be brave”, he meant the whole club.

But what are the specifics?

Rasmus Hojlund has been described as “a Championship player” by someone who was part of the dressing room during Sir Alex Ferguson’s latter days. It is a brutal takedown. But that doesn’t necessarily mean it is wrong.

Mason Mount spoke eloquently in the build-up to the game but was anonymous in northern Spain. Amad Diallo threatened but his end product was lacking. There was a huge slice of fortune for Tottenham’s winner. But, once they had the lead, they never truly looked like losing it.

“I am always honest with you guys,” said Amorim. “Tonight, we need to deal with pain of losing this match.”

His first task is Sunday’s meeting with Champions League-chasing Aston Villa and then, after that, two matches in Asia – to generate around £10m in income – which United’s players couldn’t be looking forward to any less.

Leading fan groups threatened to protest around the Villa game well before this latest body blow to club morale.

Amorim must get his players to put on a united front, visually and emotionally.

It was noticeable that as Tottenham celebrated their victory, United’s players, almost to a man, were alone with their thoughts.

Andre Onana sat in his penalty area, Harry Maguire was further upfield, Alejandro Garnacho was inconsolable close to the halfway line.

Amorim was pacing up and down, as he does, looking at the ground.

From this disparate bunch, Amorim must somehow construct a team capable of doing justice to name of the storied club they represent.

National Party and Liberal Party part ways after more than 60-year alliance following election defeat.

Australia’s National Party has split from its conservative coalition partner of more than 60 years, the Liberal Party, citing policy differences over renewable energy and following a resounding loss in the national elections this month.

“It’s time to have a break,” the National leader, David Littleproud, told reporters on Tuesday.

The split shows the pressure on Australia’s conservative parties after Anthony Albanese’s centre-left Labor Party won a historic second term in the May 3 election, powered by a voter backlash against United States President Donald Trump’s policies.

Under the longstanding partnership in state and federal politics, the Liberal and National coalition had shared power in governments, with the Nationals broadly representing the interests of rural communities and the Liberals contesting city seats.

“We will not be re-entering a coalition agreement with the Liberal Party after this election,” Littleproud said, citing policy differences.

Liberal Party leader Sussan Ley, who was installed in the role last week, had pledged to revisit all policies in the wake of the election loss. She said on Tuesday she was disappointed with the Nationals’ decision, which came after they had sought specific commitments.

“As the largest nongovernment political party, the Liberals will form the official opposition,” she added.

The Liberals were reduced to 28 out of 150 seats in the House of Representatives, their worst result, as Labor increased its tally to 94 from 77, registering its largest-ever majority in an election. The National Party retained its 15 seats.

The Liberal Party lost key city seats to independents supporting gender equality and action on climate change.

Ley, a former outback pilot with three finance degrees, was elected as the party’s first female leader after opposition leader Peter Dutton lost his seat in the election.

“She is a leader that needs to rebuild the Liberal Party; they are going on a journey of rediscovery, and this will provide them the opportunity to do that,” said Littleproud.

The Nationals remain committed to “having the door open” for more coalition talks before the next election, but would uphold the interests of rural Australians, he said.

The Nationals had failed to gain a commitment from Ley that her party would continue a policy taken to the election supporting the introduction of nuclear power, and also wanted a crackdown on the market power of Australia’s large supermarkets, and better telecommunications in the Outback.

Australia has the world’s largest uranium reserves but bans nuclear energy.

Littleproud said nuclear power was needed because Australia’s move away from coal to “renewables only” under the Labor government was not reliable.

Wind farm turbines “are tearing up our landscape, they are tearing up your food security”, he said.

Michael Guerin, chief executive of AgForce, representing farmers in Queensland state, said the urban-rural divide was worsening.

“Perhaps we’re seeing that in the political forum,” he said, adding the Liberals and Nationals both needed to rebuild.

Labor Party treasurer Jim Chalmers said the split in the opposition was a “nuclear meltdown”, and the Liberals would have a presence “barely bigger” than the cross-bench of 12 independents and minor parties when Parliament sits.

Dodger Stadium was eerily quiet for much of Monday night. And not just because whole sections of the upper deck sat largely empty.

In a 9-5 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Dodgers didn’t just drop their fourth straight game, but turned in a performance that elicited as many boos as anything else at Chavez Ravine, stumbling to a season-worst losing streak on a night they did little right in any facet of the game.

There was bad defense early. In the first inning, center fielder Hyeseong Kim lost a fly ball in the twilight sky, leading to two runs that would have been unearned had it not been ruled a double. In the second, third baseman Max Muncy spiked a throw to first on a slow-rolling grounder that led to another preventable score, even though his miscue was also ruled a base hit.

The pitching wasn’t great either. Left-handed opener Jack Dreyer followed Muncy’s bad throw with an even wilder pitch to the backstop in the next at-bat, advancing the runner to set up an eventual sacrifice fly. Landon Knack took over in the third and promptly gave up a pair of two-run home runs, one to Lourdes Gurriel Jr. on a down-and-in slider and another to Gabriel Moreno on an inside fastball.

Even the few bright spots offensively weren’t close to being enough.

Mookie Betts hit two home runs in his continued search to break out of a slow start. Shohei Ohtani retook sole possession of the major league lead in long balls by whacking his 17th of the season. But all three blasts came with no one on base. And they represented the Dodgers’ only hits of the night against Arizona right-hander Brandon Pfaadt, who was otherwise unbothered in a six-inning effort that included no strikeouts (or even a single swing-and-miss from a Dodgers hitter) but plenty of fine plays from an athletic defense behind him.

“It’s hard to start games behind before you take an at-bat,” manager Dave Roberts said. “We’ve given up runs in the first inning. We got to put up that zero and kind of get a chance to get the game going.”

While shaky defense and inconsistent production at the plate have been bugaboos for the Dodgers (29-19), it is the team’s increasingly pitching struggles that have stood out most during this four-game skid — the club’s longest since losing five in a row in late May last season.

With the loss to the Diamondbacks (26-22), the Dodgers own a team earned-run average of 4.28, which ranks 22nd in the majors and is their highest at this point in a campaign since 2010.

The main root of the problem is easy to identify. Starters Tyler Glasnow, Blake Snell and Roki Sasaki remain on the injured list, forcing the club into plans such as Monday with a rookie in Dreyer opening for a depth arm in Knack. The bullpen has been shorthanded, too, with Blake Treinen, Evan Phillips and Kirby Yates all injured, as well.

“You go through certain situations like this, it’s just tough to find a way to get back healthy and get our guys back out there,” Betts said. “But we’re battling with what we got.”

Arizona’s Gabriel Moreno, right, celebrates with teammate Josh Naylor after hitting a two-run home run in the third inning Monday.

(Kyusung Gong / Associated Press)

The good news is that several of those sidelined options are on the mend. Glasnow and Snell are both progressing in their throwing programs, with Glasnow “a tick ahead of Blake,” according to Roberts. Sasaki is expected to begin his throwing program during the team’s upcoming road trip. And Ohtani, who has been throwing regular bullpen sessions all season, is beginning to build up his pitch count as the club targets his return to the mound sometime around the All-Star break.

But in the meantime, the Dodgers have still expected more from their currently healthy group.

“It’s not the staff we thought we’d have this season, but I feel that what we still do [have], and have done in the past with injuries, we’re not doing,” Roberts said. “In the sense of getting ahead of hitters, and keeping them in the ballpark.”

And to do that, Roberts cited one place to start.

“On first glance, we need to be better at getting ahead in counts,” he said. “It doesn’t take a deep dive to see we start 1-and-0 quite often. When you do that, it makes pitching tough.”

Indeed, the Dodgers entered the night 24th in the majors with a 59.8% first-strike rate, a problem Roberts believes has led to too many long innings, and too large a workload for the staff.

“The 30-pitch innings just don’t play. It’s not sustainable,” he said. “And that starts with getting strike one. That ultimately goes to our entire pitching staff.”

The Dodgers were better in that area Monday, starting 27 of 49 at-bats with a strike. But it didn’t help. Dreyer needed 38 pitches to get through his two innings. Knack threw 106 to get through the next five (including 16 in one at-bat to Moreno in the fifth).

And when long reliever Matt Sauer took over in the eighth and gave up a two-run home run to Geraldo Perdomo, much of a season-low (and atypically quiet) crowd of 41,372 began streaming for the exits, not sticking around for one of the Dodgers’ flattest showings this year.

New York Knicks take a 3-1 series lead after winning Game 4 against the reigning NBA champions Boston Celtics, who lost Jayson Tatum to injury.

Jalen Brunson scored 26 of his 39 points in the second half, and the New York Knicks became the first home team to win in the series by defeating the Boston Celtics 121-113 to take a 3-1 series lead in their Eastern Conference second-round matchup.

Karl-Anthony Towns added 23 points and 11 rebounds, and Mikal Bridges also scored 23 for the Knicks, who recovered from a 14-point third-quarter deficit on Monday night. OG Anunoby made some key plays late while contributing 20 points.

“They hit us early, and obviously we got into a hole,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said. “I love the way we fought back, and we showed a lot of toughness and more discipline in the second half and timely plays. Everybody worked together on both ends of the floor.”

Boston star Jayson Tatum sustained a possible serious right ankle injury late in the contest. Tatum had 42 points, eight rebounds, four assists and four steals. He knocked down seven 3-pointers for the second-seeded Celtics, who squandered 20-point leads while dropping the first two games in the series.

Tatum was helped off the floor with his right foot kept in the air and was later seen being pushed to the locker room while sitting in a rolling chair.

“I got back there, talked to the medical staff, and they told me it’s a lower-body injury for Jayson Tatum and we’ll get an MRI in the morning,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said.

Derrick White made six 3-pointers and scored 23 points, and Jaylen Brown added 20 points and seven rebounds for Boston. Payton Pritchard added 12 points off the bench.

The Knicks can clinch the best-of-seven series with a win in Game 5 at Boston on Wednesday night.

“It’s not like we planned to be in this situation,” White said. “But we are where we are. We have to find a way to win Game 5.”

Third-quarter explosion lifts Wolves over Warriors

In the other playoff game on Monday, Anthony Edwards poured 11 of his 30 points into a 17-0 third-quarter flurry as the Minnesota Timberwolves moved within one win of a second consecutive berth in the Western Conference finals with a 117-110 road win over the Golden State Warriors in Game 4 in San Francisco.

Julius Randle led the way with 31 points and Jaden McDaniels contributed 10 points and 13 rebounds for the sixth-seeded Timberwolves, who have rallied from a series-opening loss to win three straight from the Stephen Curry-less Warriors.

Minnesota could clinch the best-of-seven series in Game 5 on Wednesday in Minneapolis.

Jonathan Kuminga had a team-high 23 points for seventh-seeded Golden State, which lost Curry to a hamstring injury during its Game 1 win.

The Warriors previously announced that their standout point guard would be re-evaluated before Game 5, with the possibility of Curry returning at that point.

Golden State held a 60-58 halftime lead, and the game was tied 68-all in the fourth minute of the third period before Edwards turned a floater into a three-point play to ignite the decisive run.

Edwards also buried a pair of 3-pointers and a short jumper among his 11 points, while Mike Conley and Donte DiVincenzo drilled shots from deep as part of a burst that lasted more than four minutes.

Edwards finished 6-for-11 on 3-point attempts and Randle 4-for-8, helping the Timberwolves outscore the Warriors 48-24 from beyond the arc. Minnesota shot 16-for-34 (47.1 percent) from beyond the arc, while the Warriors were 8-for-27 (29.6 percent).

“The big third quarter was huge,” Timberwolves coach Chris Finch said. “I thought we came out at halftime with the type of focus and intensity and purpose on offence and attention to detail on defence is what we needed from the start. But for the most part, I thought we were lucky to be just down a bucket at halftime.

“[Edwards] was one of the guys that was most vocal at half time and realised what was going on out there and we needed to be better. It started with him, really, and setting the tone.”

Jimmy Butler III took just nine shots and totalled 14 points with a team-high-tying three assists for the Warriors. Draymond Green also had 14 points to go with seven rebounds, while Buddy Hield scored 13 and Brandin Podziemski had 11 to complement four steals.

“[The Timberwolves] played a great game and obviously took it to us, and we’ve got to bounce back,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “We’ve got a flight to Minneapolis tomorrow and a chance to extend the series, and that’s the plan.”

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