Formula 1, Australia: After surviving the corona infection, four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel will start the season late in Australia next week. As announced by his racing team Aston Martin on Thursday, the 34-year-old Hesse is fit to race again. He will compete for the English factory team at the Melbourne Grand Prix on April 10 (7:00 a.m. CEST) together with Canadian Lance Stroll.
Vettel had missed the first two Grands Prix of the year in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia due to a Covid infection. Compatriot Nico Hülkenberg represented the man from Heppenheim, who had stayed in his adopted country of Switzerland, twice and, as expected, has to vacate the cockpit again. From his quarantine, Vettel had to watch idly how Aston Martin had no chance at the start. Stroll and Hülkenberg have not yet been able to score a World Championship point, two twelfth places were the best results of a disappointing start to the season. Only Williams’ backbenchers are currently similarly weak.
Basketball, NBA: The Dallas Mavericks made it to the playoffs. With the 120:112 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers, the team of German national player Maximilian Kleber, who scored six points, can no longer be denied participation in the championship round. The Texans are currently third in the Western Conference. The Boston Celtics, on the other hand, suffered a setback in the race for the most promising play-off places despite a convincing performance from center Daniel Theis. The record champions lost 98:106 to the Miami Heat, who are at the top of the Eastern Conference and, like the Mavs, are already qualified.
The Celtics, for whom Theis scored 15 points without a miss from the field, are fourth. Franz Wagner scored a strong 28 points for Orlando Magic and his brother Moritz added four more points. Nevertheless, it was a 110:127 defeat for the defeated team at the Washington Wizards. The winger was happy about the great praise from Dirk Nowitzki, who described Franz Wagner as an “incredible all-round player at his age”. “Of course he is a huge legend and an inspiration for me and probably for many other German basketball players too,” said Franz Wagner.
Football, Europe: Bayern’s ex-CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge has campaigned for the criticized PSG boss Nasser Al-Khelaifi. The official from Qatar should “under no circumstances” vacate his post at the top Paris football club, Rummenigge told the French sports newspaper “L’Equipe”https://www.sueddeutsche.de/sport/.”Where was PSG before Nasser?” , Rummenigge continued. It took a long time to find the club on the European map. After PSG’s Champions League defeat against Real Madrid, the club boss was criticized, also because of the incidents after the game. Al-Khelaifi and Brazil’s PSG sporting director Leonardo are said to have tried to get into the referee’s cabin.
There is conflicting and so far unconfirmed information about the exact course of events. UEFA initiated disciplinary proceedings against the club and its two top officials. “I was in Nasser’s place and there’s no point in losing your nerve. Nasser is someone who is rational and in control. He’s always friendly, attentive, but football is a lot of emotions,” said Rummenigge: “Next Every time I see him, I advise him not to go to the referee’s booth.” In general, the former vice world champion recommended that the PSG boss be “patient”. The club has an extraordinary team, but no patience. “PSG have to understand that it’s impossible to win the Champions League overnight.”
Football, World Cup: After Canada with Bundesliga professional Alphonso Davies from Bayern Munich, the USA and Mexico have also secured their tickets for the World Cup in Qatar (November 21 to December 18). The USA lost 2-0 to Costa Rica in San Jose, but despite the defeat they finished third in the CONCACAF group. Mexico secured second place in Mexico City with a 2-0 win against El Salvador. Costa Rica go into the play-off against New Zealand, who previously eliminated the Solomon Islands in Oceania qualifiers. “It’s a strange feeling because I hate losing, but I’m really proud and can’t wait to go to the World Cup,” said US captain Christian Pulisic. In 2018, the USA sensationally missed out on qualifying for the World Cup against Trinidad and Tobago, while Mexico have made it to every tournament since 1994.
Bundesliga, spectators: The fan representative Helen Breit expects a “return euphoria at least until the end of the season after the abolition of the audience limits in the Bundesliga. I think that has a lot to do with the overall social situation,” said the chairwoman of the fan organization. Our Curve” of the German Press Agency. “It’s getting warm right now, people want to go outside. Everyone is a bit tired of the pandemic. Football and the cultural sector offer the opportunity to experience normality again as it used to be. Whether that will be the case in football in the long term, that is the question.”
Since March 20th, all clubs have been able to use their stadiums to full capacity again, despite the high incidence figures. All 81,365 tickets for the top Bundesliga game between Borussia Dortmund and RB Leipzig on Saturday have already been sold. Traditional clubs like VfB Stuttgart and FC Schalke 04 were already playing in front of more than 55,000 spectators in the first and second divisions before the international break. Since the beginning of the corona pandemic, there has been much discussion about the alienation of fans from professional football. Breit herself sat in 2020 and 2021 as a representative of the AG Fankulturen in the “Taskforce Future Professional Football” of the German Football League. “When asked what fruits this work has borne, you have to say: It’s disappointing, of course. A lot has been announced. I don’t think anyone can hear the word humility anymore,” said the 34-year-old. In her opinion, the return of many fans does not mean that the critical view of professional football has been lost. “In public, I have never seen the pressure on paid football to behave and position differently than at this time,” she said. “If that stays in the longer term, that would also be a great success: that a critical perspective on this industry has been established.”
