“Over the last five or six years, man-to-man pressure has become bigger,” Kane says.
“European football is physical and top teams are trying to win the ball back high, trusting their defenders and midfielders to defend man for man to win their battles.”
Given that change, the best teams have recruited physical athletes and brilliant dribblers who can beat their man when the game becomes a series of one-against-ones.
Kane, not known for his dribbling – and by his own admission “not the fastest”, has thrived on his own terms.
Against Dortmund, there was a specific moment Kane dropped deep, looking to arrive in space unmarked. Recognising the danger, two players converged on the Englishman.
Kane’s dribbling is cerebral. His speed of thought provides him solutions to problems others would attempt to solve with their feet alone.
After getting low and using his strength to shrug centre-back Waldemar Anton off him, Kane rose, slightly adjusting his body to the right. These micro-adjustments are a hallmark of his game and through them he is able to shift an entire team’s momentum.
Fooled by this feint, Daniel Svensson and Jobe Bellingham found themselves wrong-footed as Kane snapped the ball back the other way, opening up the entire pitch from within Bayern’s half.
RAIN is on the way and whether you’re excited for the end of the heatwave or not, indoor play is back on the cards.
Here are some of the top indoor attractions to keep the kids occupied when bad weather strikes from indoor gaming to trampolining and soft play.
If you need ideas on how to occupy the kids during the rain, check out spots like Gravity MaxCredit: UnknownPlay Factore in Manchester her an enormous climbing areaCredit: Supplied
The Playhive, North Yorkshire
The Playhive at Stockeld Park is one of the UK’s biggest indoor playgroundsCredit: Supplied
Play Factore in Manchester is where you’ll find the tallest standing indoor slideCredit: Play Factore
Play Factore in Manchester has the tallest standing indoor slide in the UK as well as a laser tag arena.
Kids can enjoy a bounce on the interactive ValoJump trampolines, the zip wire and play frame which has network of tunnels, slides and obstacles.
In the Toddler Area, there are two floors of play designed for kids under the age of five.
Tickets to Play Factore in Manchester range from £3.95 to £21.95pp.
Riverside Hub, Northampton
The Riverside Hub has a huge climbing frame and toddler zonesCredit: facbook
The Riverside Hub will keep children entertained for hours with lots of different zones to explore and an enormous climbing frame with a huge beanstalk climbing wall.
There’s a Role Play Village too where kids can use their imagination to explore a make-believe world, with a cafe, shop, witch’s house and tooth fairy dentist.
Inside is also a football pitch and a dedicated zone for toddlers with ball pits and activity walls.
Tickets to the Riverside Hub start from £7.45 for adults and £12.50 for children.
Flip Out
Kids can jump about to their heart’s content at Flip OutCredit: Flip Out
Flip Out are family-friendly trampoline and adventure parks filled with more activities than you can imagine.
The facilities vary depending on location, but most have a whole floor of trampolines for bouncing about, as well as inflatable obstacle courses and even a Ninja playground.
Some venues also have soft play centres and ones dedicated to toddlers.
There are over 30 Flip Out venues across the UK too so one is bound to be near you – tickets start from £8.
Gravity Max
Gravity Max has laser tag, go-karting and an arcadeCredit: Instagram/Gravity Max
These massive entertainment venues are great for a rainy day with lots of activities to try out.
There’s electric go-karts, digital darts, street golf, karaoke, an arcade with lots of classic games and even AR bowling.
At the sports bar there are food stalls and live sporting events are shown on the TV.
There are Gravity Max venues in Liverpool, Cardiff, Yorkshire and London and tickets vary in cost depending on activities but start from £10.99.
Junkyard Golf Club
Junkyard Golf Club has specially designed golf courses
Anyone who is a fan of crazy golf should head to one of the putting venues of Junkyard Golf Club – of which there are six in the UK.
The venues are known for their uniquely designed courses which are all made from reclaimed items.
The very creative golf course themes go from Circus Fear-Ground to Polluted Paradise, 90s Garage Scrapyard and Basement Horror.
Arcade Club is a spot for any kid gamersCredit: Unknown
Arcade Club is the perfect spot for gamers where you can return to the golden age of gaming with these classics.
From pinball machines to Astro Blaster and Pac-Man, it’s the best place for a bit of pixel nostalgia – the arcades can be found in Blackpool, Leeds and Bury.
They also have food and drink on site, offering pizzas, burgers, hot dogs and nachos at their restaurants.
Adult tickets to Arcade Club are £18 with children under 16s being able to get their game on for £10.
WASHINGTON — President Trump played White House tour guide on Wednesday, showing off the helipad he is building on the lawn before leaning over to autograph a piece of it and bragging about the ballroom he’s rushing to complete despite legal challenges.
Trump gushed for several uninterrupted minutes about granite being laid and said the chopper landing area would leave visiting foreign leaders “very impressed” — including Chinese President Xi Jinping, who is coming next month.
At times, he sounded almost like a construction manager, singing the praises of granite over asphalt in painstaking detail and noting for reporters he brought out for the show that the stone could withstand 35,000 pounds per square inch of pressure.
“That’s stone that, if you took a hammer and you started hammering right now — all day long — you wouldn’t see a mark on it, literally, that’s the kind of power it is,” Trump said, at times straining to be heard over the thrum of ongoing work behind him.
The president also revealed for the first time that he has replaced the walkway from the White House’s diplomatic entrance along with a portion of the asphalt driveway around the South Lawn with white granite.
“One thing I know how to do is build,” he said, asserting that asphalt is “not appropriate for a great house, or a great place like the White House.” He said that, had he instead merely used “really powerful concrete,” it would have supported ”just a tiny fraction of that in terms of strength.”
Trump relishes being the builder-in-chief
The president is called upon to fill many roles as president, but embraces none with as much zeal as managing various building projects to mold the White House and large swatches of Washington in his own image, seeming happiest recalling his days as a real estate developer.
Trump also likes to show off his handiwork and having the White House press pool on hand at all times gives him a readymade audience. Last year, he made an appearance on the roof of the briefing room to survey a future work site, and earlier this summer, he took reporters for a closer look at the ballroom construction site.
It suggests Trump remains focused on such projects, even as his war in Iran nears the six-month mark, his approval ratings sink with just 2 1/2 months to go before critical midterm elections, and as voters are increasingly worried about a weakening economy.
Trump drove home just how important the construction projects are to him, calling the work “very exciting.”
“This will be here long after we’re gone,” Trump said of the projects. “No matter what happens with the world.”
But whether it will endure after he leaves office remains to be seen. Trump once suggested that his refurbishing of the Lincoln Memorial’s Reflecting Pool would last a century, only for the paint to fade and its liner to peel away in chunks just days after it was laid.
Trump again says his ballroom will have security value
The president has increasingly insisted that the $400 million ballroom will add security to the White House and include things like anti-drone technology. His administration even unsuccessfully sought $1 billion in congressional funding to make military improvements to the structure.
“This will be the greatest military complex slash ballroom anywhere in the world,” he said.
Trump also scoffed at court orders seeking to block its construction without congressional approval, saying work is continuing regardless and predicting that the Supreme Court will eventually side with him and allow the project to be completed.
The president found time to talk again about one of his favorite subjects of late — grass — and praised at length Scotts-Miracle Gro. The company’s former CEO is a Trump supporter, and it donated $1 million to repair the grass on the White House lawn after it was damaged by Trump’s UFC fight marking his 80th birthday in June and by the helipad construction.
At one point on Wednesday, Trump signed the back of one of the granite stones that was marked “Donald Trump 45-47 president” for the occasion. Its front is shaped like an eagle and will be laid into the helipad’s presidential seal once work is completed.
“I thought this would be a little different kind of a news conference,” the president said. “We were going to sign this privately and just put it in. I said, ‘This is something I think the press should see,’ and I hope you liked it.”
Trump had some of the construction workers sign the granite, too, and joked about leaving it upside-down so that his signature would be visible for future generations.
“Nice job, fellas,” he told the workers. “Does anybody know the word media?”
Trump also confirmed Wednesday that he’d delayed ongoing work on the helipad to ensure the project could be regraded to lay flatter.
He said that the granite used “has a million-year life” and predicted that it “will never break. It will never leak. It will never do anything” — which would mark a departure from the problem-plagued Reflecting Pool project.
“Nature is stronger than what the human can produce,” Trump said of the granite. “It’s really pretty amazing.”
Weissert and Binkley write for the Associated Press. AP writer Darlene Superville contributed to this report.
