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How Trump’s Presidency Looks from Rural Wisconsin

September 23, 2019 | News | No Comments

It’s Chippewa Valley Farm-City Day, and hundreds of schoolchildren are swarming the grounds of Denmark Dairy, which stretches for nearly a mile along County Road B in Dunn County, in western Wisconsin. They are laughing and chattering to one another and petting young calves. The dairy, one of the largest in the region, sustains a herd of twenty-four hundred cows on more than four thousand acres, each milked by machine three times a day. Some of that milk finds its way up the road to the Swiss Miss plant, in Menomonie, which makes more than fifty million boxes of hot-cocoa powder every year, among other sugary delights. Each kid receives a small container of Swiss Miss vanilla pudding while making the rounds.

Dennis Kragness, who is seventy, has been farming here since 1973, expanding in hard times that have bankrupted other families. In the past fifteen years, nearly half of the state’s dairy farms have shut their doors. Farm bankruptcies in Wisconsin last year were higher than in any other state, triggered by years of low commodity prices. As Karen Gefvert, the Wisconsin Farm Bureau’s government-relations director, put it, farmers “get up every morning and they lose money.” Adding to the stress, President Trump’s trade battles and the stalled replacement for NAFTA are limiting access to foreign markets while his demonization of undocumented immigrants stymies efforts to secure a badly needed labor force. At Denmark Dairy, which Kragness runs with his son, Karl, half of the forty-person staff arrived from Latin America, presenting papers that the farm keeps on file. Kragness wishes that he could recruit workers in their home countries and see them obtain documents allowing them to travel back and forth. “Let them cross the border legally. If they could set up a green-card system,” he told me. “We need these people. They’re good people. I don’t know how we would run the farm without them.”

Yet you won’t hear Kragness criticizing Trump. “I don’t have any issues with the President, with what he’s done or what he’s said. If others would work with him, he could solve it,” he said, seated at a folding table beneath a white party tent set up for Farm-City Day. He’s glad that Trump is challenging China on trade, which “had to be corrected.” He praises his attacks on the Federal Reserve chairman, Jerome Powell, which aim to drive interest rates lower and strengthen economic growth ahead of the 2020 election. Nor will you see him considering any of the Democratic Presidential candidates. “I’m not in favor of any kind of socialism,” he said. “We’re a capitalist farm.”

Kragness is just one voter. But, as Republicans and Democrats look for clues about the rural vote leading up to the election, his views reflect the loyalty of Trump’s staunchest supporters and reveal the challenge facing Democrats aiming to seize the narrative from a skilled political showman. In interviews this month with more than two dozen people in Dunn County and in neighboring towns, I found that both parties are gearing up earlier than ever, vowing to contest counties that voted for Barack Obama, in 2008 and 2012, before lurching to Trump, in 2016, helping him win the state by twenty-two thousand votes out of three million cast. “Is it backfiring?” Mark Hagedorn, a dairy expert at the University of Wisconsin-Extension, asked about farmers’ decision to back Trump. “I think we can argue that six ways to Sunday.”

Wisconsin has a history of close Presidential elections, with Obama’s thrashing of John McCain, in 2008, and Mitt Romney, in 2012, the exceptions. Al Gore won the state by a scant six thousand votes, in 2000, and John Kerry won by eleven thousand, four years later. Even Trump’s surprising victory offers warning signs for Republicans. He received fewer votes than Romney, but benefitted from a desultory Democratic campaign effort and voters’ antipathy toward Hillary Clinton. To overcome Democrats’ advantages in Milwaukee and Madison, and their strength in an increasing number of suburbs, Republicans need to run up the score in rural counties like Dunn. That’s what happened in 2016, when the state’s forty-six rural counties supported Trump over Clinton by nineteen points, according to a tabulation by Craig Gilbert, the Washington bureau chief of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. He found that more than five hundred localities, with a median population of less than eight hundred, chose Trump after voting for Obama four years earlier. Brian Reisinger, a Republican strategist, told me, “The past several elections show clear as a bell that there is no room for error.”

The late-summer landscape of Dunn County could not look more bountiful, with acres of tall corn and leafy soybean plants that stretch across rolling hills toward the horizon. The potato and kidney-bean harvest is well under way, soybeans are next, and farmers are already beginning to consider what next year’s market will bear. One morning, when the sunlight was golden and the day not yet hot, I drove along winding two-lane roads to see Jim Holte, who farms about four hundred and fifty acres near the town of Elk Mound. Holte started, in the mid-seventies, with dairy cows, then switched to a beef herd. This season, he planted two types of soybeans, for seed and for non-G.M.O. food, aiming to squeeze a price premium in a year made tough by trade uncertainty and the worst spring weather he had seen in forty years. Technology and experience are making farmers better than ever at growing things, he said, “But the margins are smaller. If I had to make a living on what I can grow on four hundred and fifty acres, it’s not possible.”

Holte draws a paycheck as the president of the Wisconsin Farm Bureau, a role he has had for nearly seven years. He has seen how American farmers keep producing more than the U.S. market will bear, forcing prices lower, a phenomenon that long predates Trump. That’s one reason that foreign markets are so important. “We’re too good at what we do,” he said.

A dozen miles away sits the Holm Boys Dairy, where Doran and Mariann Holm, a husband-and-wife team, no longer produce milk for sale, an all-too-common circumstance with milk prices just starting to emerge from a devastating five-year trough. The Holms raise organic dairy cows for others, and both work outside the farm. Mariann inspects organic farms and Doran works at Organic Valley, a vast dairy coöperative that collects more than a billion dollars in annual revenue. After we toured the barn, where Mariann showed me the idle milking equipment, we sat at the kitchen table to talk politics. “Why did everybody vote for Trump? They wanted somebody who talks plain, who cuts through the B.S,” she told me. “I don’t think they blame him for what’s going on, though he may be exacerbating things. They’re praying to God that anything he does will work out.”

Holm has never voted for the Democratic Presidential candidate in a general election, but she voted in the 2016 primary for Senator Bernie Sanders. “I don’t know if I’m so far on the right I’m on the left. Or so far on the left I’m on the right,” she said. A few months ago, she travelled five hours to Storm Lake, Iowa, not to see Republicans but Democrats. Four Presidential candidates were talking about the rural economy, and she wanted to hear how Senator Elizabeth Warren and others would fix a system that seems stacked against small farmers and businesses. “We need Teddy Roosevelt!” she exclaimed. “We need people to break up the trusts. We need people to get the money out. That should be a Republican issue. I don’t think this comes across as fringe or loony-bin. Now I think people recognize it. In our criminal-justice system, who gets off and who goes to prison?” To her, voting for President too often seems to be a matter of choosing the lesser evil. “Give me an option,” she said. “If it’s not going to be Trump, who’s it going to be?”

Democrats struggled for years in Wisconsin, losing three gubernatorial elections to Scott Walker, an anti-union, socially conservative Republican who made it harder to vote and helped produce a gerrymandered electoral map that strongly favors the G.O.P. But the Party surged back in 2018, reëlecting Senator Tammy Baldwin and capturing all statewide offices, including the governorship, narrowly defeating Walker. The new Democratic chairman, elected in June, is Ben Wikler, a well-connected activist. Now thirty-eight, he returned home to Madison after serving as the Washington director of MoveOn.org. He has been travelling the state three or four days a week, urging Democrats to seek votes everywhere, not least among residents of the state’s rural reaches who feel neglected by Washington and by Madison. I asked Wikler to describe his message. “Fundamentally, it’s ‘We have your back,’ ” he said. “From health care, to fighting the deadly combination of monopoly and a misbegotten trade war, to water you feel safe putting in your kids’ Thermos, Democrats understand what people face, and side with regular people against powerful interests.”

In Dunn County, home to about forty-five thousand people, with a median household income of fifty-four thousand dollars, the new Democratic chair is the thirty-nine-year-old Bill Hogseth, who works for the Wisconsin Farmers Union. He describes himself as a “rural progressive populist” and displays “Bernie” and “Warren” stickers on his Pontiac. When we spoke, he recalled that, in 2008, local campaign offices pulsed with volunteers for Obama, while a deathly lull marked Clinton’s campaign four years later. “I was never asked to knock on a door,” he said. “What were they thinking?” He wonders what propelled Trump’s win. “Was the flip to Trump about Trump? Or was it the lack of organizing? Or the lack of people willing to work for that campaign?” Trump collected twelve hundred more votes than Romney in the county. Clinton received twenty-three hundred fewer votes than Obama.

When Hogseth took over, earlier this year, he asked several dozen politically active Dunn County voters, not all of whom were Democrats, why they had stayed on the sidelines. No one had asked for their help, they said, and they didn’t know how to get involved. Those things he could easily fix. He gathered about forty people who were leaning toward activism and led a two-hour meeting, advising them to tell their stories with a focus on values, not partisanship. “You find this common ground rather than, ‘What do you think about the tariffs or Medicare for All?’ ” He was gratified when fifteen people committed to holding meetings in their homes. “I really feel like organizing is what’s going to get us out of this mess,” he said.

Wisconsin Republicans, who caught the Democrats by surprise in winning a state Supreme Court seat in April, are not sitting on their hands. They’ve held training sessions for volunteers, and they’re working with a recently appointed state director for Trump Victory, a combined effort of the Republican National Committee and the Trump campaign. Mandi Merritt, an R.N.C. spokesperson in Washington, said that the national Party has invested more than three hundred million dollars in its data program and ground game since 2013. She told me that the Party and the campaign started “earlier than ever” and will build a “grassroots army” two million volunteers strong. “Try as they might,” she said, of Democrats, “that’s not something they’re going to be able to compete with.”

I caught up with with Bill Arndt, the seventy-three-year-old chair of the Dunn County Republicans. He described the local Party as just starting to get organized, and he was rather less effusive than Merritt. “We’re a pretty low-budget county here,” Arndt told me. “We have to watch what we’re spending.” He explained that he’s getting some help from the state G.O.P. and expects more support next year, and he’s not worried. Trump is in good shape with voters, Arndt said, given “his tax reduction, his border, and his law and order.” He pointed to the help-wanted signs that seem to be everywhere in Menomonie and said that the Democrats have alienated many voters. “The far left have really went off the edge, in their Green New Deal and probably their stance on illegal migration,” he said. “Hillary would be a moderate compared with what they’re running now.” The G.O.P. is relentless in its messaging, portraying Democrats as left-wing ideologues, in texts, e-mails, digital ads, and on social media, not to mention the President’s tweets and speeches. “The Democrats STILL can’t get it through their tiny brains that Americans, LIKE YOU, are rejecting their radical SOCIALIST agenda,” a mid-September e-mail from the Republican National Committee and the Trump 2020 campaign read.

Democrats have about ten months before they hold their national convention in Milwaukee, across the state, to decide which candidate is best positioned, and best equipped, to respond to the Republican onslaught. From Farm-City Day at Denmark Dairy, I drove two hours to La Crosse, to ask Representative Ron Kind, a Democratic moderate, for his thoughts. His sprawling district stretches more than two hundred miles along the Mississippi River and includes Dunn County. The occasion was Kind’s eighteenth annual corn roast at the county fairgrounds, where several hundred fans showed up on a Friday night to eat corn and bratwurst and drink beer while listening to a polka band. Kind, who is fifty-six, has navigated the shifting political currents to win twelve straight congressional elections, drawing votes from ticket-splitters. Lately, he has been hammering Trump’s tariffs as a “reckless” burden on farmers. His current worry, he told me as he worked the crowd, is that Trump is “going to give the store away, just for 2020. He’s capable of cutting a bad deal, just for his electoral chances.” In Kind’s view, “a lot of these voters are up for grabs, especially given the crisis in the rural economy, the farm-commodity prices, and the President’s trade war.” Pointing to September’s sluggish employment numbers, he said, “If this economy continues to soften, it’s game over.”

Kind believes that Democrats can’t rely on Democratic enthusiasm alone but must collect some swing voters, whom he described as pragmatic. “I’m not sensing a whole lot of ‘We need to blow up the place,’ as opposed to ‘We really need to get this guy out of office.’ What I hear more than ever is people are tired. They’re exhausted with the high drama coming out of the White House, the daily tweets, the polarization. They kind of want to take a deep, collective breath and right the ship again, and start being America again.” As Kind took the stage beneath fluorescent lights, facing five long rows of picnic tables adorned with blue and white helium balloons, he declared, “Folks, next year is going to be huge in Wisconsin. Whatever Presidential candidate carries my district will be the next President of the United States.”

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WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—In a shakeup that White House insiders said was a long time coming, one of the voices in Rudy Giuliani’s head has resigned.

The resignation, which was officially tendered on Saturday morning, seemed inevitable after the former New York mayor made an appearance on CNN Thursday evening in which two of the voices in his head appeared to be in open warfare with each other.

“When that happened, it was clear that Rudy’s head was not big enough for the both of them,” a White House insider said. “And Rudy has an extremely big head.”

In an official statement, Giuliani thanked the departing voice for its service, and said that he was confident that the four remaining voices in his head would work well together.

As for the former voice in Giuliani’s head, it was rumored to be applying for a position inside Kellyanne Conway’s head.

The former FC Dallas winger wishes he’d stayed in MLS longer but is finding his old form as he works with coach Oscar Pareja once again

You can never go back and redo choices in life, but sometimes you get a second chance. 

Club Tijuana winger Fabian Castillo feels he’s been blessed with another opportunity after making a poor choice just two years ago. Castillo forced an exit from FC Dallas in 2016, leaving behind Oscar Pareja’s team midseason to go to Turkey. Now he’s been reunited with Pareja and is set to play a key role in Tijuana’s playoff push.

The 26-year-old returned to the field for Tijuana in Saturday’s 1-0 victory over Monterrey after missing the previous three matches with a foot injury suffered against Veracruz.

He’s felt like himself again since Pareja arrived in the winter to take the Tijuana gig. Castillo had returned to North America months earlier to join Xolos and was surprised to learn he’d once again be working with his former coach.

Pareja and his staff, including former Tijuana strength and conditioning coach Fabian Bazan who helped connect the Liga MX club staff with Pareja and his brother ex-FCD assistant Josema Bazan, have made Castillo feel at home and have the winger’s confidence high once again.

“I’m really thankful to God for giving me this position, the return. I was in a tough time in my career, I was a bit confused about what I really wanted and what I really could give to Xolos. Fortunately, (Pareja) arrived, and I think I’m rediscovering my level,” Castillo told Goal.

“I’m really thankful for the opportunities he’s given to me, and I have to respond to the confidence with good results and by supporting the team.”

You can understand why it would’ve been a surprise for Castillo to hear that he’d be reunited with Pareja. The coach looked after Castillo almost like a son when the former Deportivo Cali star arrived at FC Dallas. But the player forced through a move to Turkey in the summer of 2016, stunning Pareja and the club’s front office, which had assured the player it would look to sell him to a European club after the 2016 campaign.

Instead, the club blinked first in the standoff and sold Castillo to Trabzonspor in Turkey, where he scored just three goals over two years and had to follow along on social media as his former FCD teammates lifted the U.S. Open Cup and the Supporters’ Shield that season.

A treble may have been attainable had Castillo stayed around. Without Castillo, there were few attacking weapons to deploy once playmaker Mauro Diaz went down with an Achilles injury in the penultimate match of the regular season.

While going to Europe was the only thought in Castillo’s mind at the time, in hindsight he said he wishes he’d seen out the season with FCD.

“Yes, yes, yes, yes. If I could turn back time, I think I would have stayed six more months in Dallas,” he said. “But you can’t regret anything in life. It was a great challenge and now I’m here in Xolos enjoying my talents coming back and that’s really the only thing that’s important.”

Castillo is deadly on the wing, getting to the byline like few players in the Americas can. The final product isn’t as strong, but Castillo’s return had a positive effect on a Xolos team that was looking to bounce back from a 4-0 trouncing against Pachuca the last time out.

With an improved defensive effort and more chances created, Xolos came away with a 1-0 victory that generates momentum for the team heading into the international break.

“I’m really thankful to the coaching staff for giving me this chance,” Castillo said. “The important thing was the team, trying to get the result. I think we bounced back really well after such a tough loss against Pachuca. We had to find ourselves again, and I think this result helps show us we’re a good team and can fight for the league.”

With six matches remaining in the regular season, Tijuana controls its own destiny to get into the Liguilla. Getting that playoff spot would be a success and a healthy Castillo should help a Tijuana side that has been limited in the attack. The Colombian is nearly back to 100 per cent and is ready to play full matches after the international break.

“I felt good. At the end, I was talking with the manager. He told me he was going to give me five minutes more,” he said. “We’d planned to do 75 minutes because I felt like I couldn’t do everything he was asking. He made the change, but I did all I could. Now I want to take advantage of the break that’s coming to get on the right path back.”

A fit Castillo plus continued contributions from winter signings Gustavo Bou and Ariel Nahuelpan may be just what Tijuana needs to be back where it wants to be. For now, Castillo knows he’s where he wants to be, too.

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The five-time Ballon d’Or winner says he “would love” to end his career in South America, but leaving Barcelona is not yet on his radar

Barcelona captain Lionel Messi has admitted he could return to boyhood club Newell’s Old Boys one day, as he begins to approach the twilight years of his illustrious career.

The 31-year-old has spent his entire senior career at the Camp Nou, having been signed by the club as a youth player in his early teens.

Barca scouts recognised his unique talent while he was on the books of Argentine giants Newell’s and he has since fulfilled his potential by becoming one of the greatest players in the history of the game.

Messi has won 30 major trophies over the course of his 15 years at the club – including nine La Liga titles and four Champions League crowns – along with a whole host of individual awards.

The diminutive superstar is also Barcelona and Argentina’s all-time record goalscorer, with over 600 career goals to his name to date.

The 2018-19 campaign has seen Messi continue to spearhead the Blaugrana’s relentless pursuit of silverware, with another treble still on the cards for the club come May.

While the Argentine talisman is unlikely to hang up his boots any time soon, he has admitted that he could end leaving Barcelona for a final goodbye at Newell’s in the future.

“I would love that but it won’t be easy, for all that it means going back to Argentina,” Messi told Argentinian radio station Club Octubre 94.7 FM. “I must think about the kids and Thiago is starting to become a big boy, so he takes decisions together with us.

“Of course I would like to play for Newell’s but I really don’t know what is going to happen.”

Barcelona resume their La Liga campaign this Saturday with a huge clash against local rivals Espanyol and Messi is in line to start after recovering from a groin injury.

He picked up the knock while on international duty with Argentina last week, but he has already returned to full-training despite initial fears he could miss an upcoming Champions League quarter-final against Manchester United.

Messi’s continued presence in Ernesto Valverde’s starting XI will be crucial as Barca aim to overcome the Red Devils in Europe while also maintaining their 10 point lead over Atletico Madrid at the top of La Liga.

A Copa del Rey final against Valencia is also on the cards in May, and Messi will be aiming to add to his haul of vital goals on the big stage during that busy period.

The legendary attacker concluded by revealing which three goals he considers to be the finest of his entire career, naming the infamous solo strike against Real Madrid in the 2011 Champions League semi-finals as his personal favourite.

Messi added: “I loved the one I scored vs Madrid in the Champions League semi-finals. The one with the head vs Man Utd I like for the importance, not for the beauty.”

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The Netherlands centre-back is living in the Norwegian’s home in Cheshire but will not be thrown out early after the latter’s new job was confirmed

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer says he will not have to throw Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk out of his home after the coach was appointed permanent Manchester United manager.

The Norwegian, who joined United in December on a caretaker basis, signed a three-year contract to confirm he will remain in charge beyond this season.

The 46-year-old plans to move into the house he bought 12 years ago in his final year as a United player, but Van Dijk has been living there since he joined Liverpool from Southampton in January 2018.

Although Solskjaer is excited to finally take up residence in the Cheshire home, he suggested at a press conference on Thursday that he will not force the Dutch defender out prematurely.

Asked if he has told Van Dijk he needs to leave, Solskjaer replied: “No, I haven’t. We’ve got a contract there.”

Solskjaer’s family have been living in Norway because of the former striker’s short-term deal at Old Trafford, but he told MUTV that they will soon be reunited.

“We’ve really enjoyed the last eight years living in Norway. It’s going to be a change for them but we’re looking forward to it,” he said.

“The six months that we agreed on [until the end of the season] as a family we agreed to do it separately as there was no need to move them over. That’s gone now. Now we’re moving together.

“We built a house, or I started it in 2007, but finally maybe in 2019 we can move into it – that’s long planning!”

United have won 14 of the 19 games they have played since Solskjaer replaced Jose Mourinho at the helm, reviving their challenge for a top-four finish in the Premier League and progressing to the last-16 of the Champions League.

The former Molde boss has set his sights on leading United to a Premier League title and says the club will start working on strengthening the squad through summer transfers before the end of the season.

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Though he has already coached his squad in a pair of friendlies, the new coach has some of his star names with him for the first time against Ecuador

Gregg Berhalter may not like labels like ‘A team’ and ‘B team’ nor ‘first-choice’ and ‘second-choice’ players, but there is no disputing the reality that Thursday’s friendly against Ecuador will be his first opportunity to lead a U.S. national team that resembles his best possible group.

Christian Pulisic, Weston McKennie and Tyler Adams lead the contingent of European-based USMNT players set for their first chance to play in Berhalter’s possession-based system. The moment is a defining one as it signals the serious work of Berhalter implementing his system, as well as the first step for a generation of top young talents to show they are ready to help the USMNT rebound from the disappointment of missing the 2018 World Cup.

“One of the goals we have as a national team right now is to change the way that people look at American soccer, the way that they look at the U.S. men’s national team,” McKennie said on Tuesday. “Yes, we want to also be known as a team with a typical American style, the ones that work all the time and never give up. But we also want to be known as a team that can play and compete at the highest level.”

“I want (opponents) to think of (us) as a real world force, a team that has a chance against anyone in the world,” Pulisic said. “I don’t want them to just see them as, ‘Oh , it’s just the U.S.’ I want them to fear (us) like a big team. That’s our goal.

“We want to be respected around the world. We’re going to continue to work at that. Obviously, we feel we still have a long way to go, but we’re going to continue to learn and grow as a team.”

Before the Americans can become world-beaters, they must first learn Berhalter’s system, and the U.S. coach’s efforts to teach his team have included everything from detailed video conferences to regular communications with his foreign-based players before they ever set foot in their first camp with him in charge. The result is a group that is not walking in blind to what to expect from their new USMNT coach. 

“In terms of laying a foundation, setting a foundation for what he wants, for what he wants the environment to be like, for what he wants the football to look like, I think he and his staff have done an amazing job of that in a short amount of time,” Michael Bradley said.

The match against Ecuador will feature the deployment of Pulisic and McKennie in attacking midfield roles, while Adams will be utilized in a hybrid right back/defensive midfield position. 

DeAndre Yedlin will also be working in a new role, as a right winger rather than his traditional right back role. With so many players in new roles, and in a new system, Berhalter is not expecting things to go smoothly right away. 

“We know it’s not going to be perfect, this game, but it’s important to start,” Berhalter said. “It’s important to begin implementing our ideas across the board. 

“We spent some time between camps talking to the players, showing them video, but it’s one thing then to do it on the field. We’ve started to do that now in training, in the short time we’ve had together, and we’ll do that in the game. We’ll use the game as an evaluation period for what we need to work on and improve on.” 

The USMNT is back in Orlando for the first time since its World Cup qualifying victory against Panama in October of 2017, the final match before the fateful loss to Trinidad & Tobago that cost the United States a place at the 2018 World Cup. A win against Ecuador will not help erase those lingering bad memories, but it will serve as a true fresh start for a program that has been in limbo for almost a year and a half. 

“When you’ve had the year or two that we’ve had, then there’s real motivation from every guy to start to put all of that right,” Bradley said. “To play well, to win, to show individually what you’re about and what part you can play in things going forward. 

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“But, on the flip side, it’s March of 2019, in the big picture these are friendly games,” he continued. “It’s still important that we’re building a team. It’s still important that everybody has the right amount of patience and understanding with what Gregg is trying to do with some of the younger players, and the team as a whole. Saying that doesn’t take the two games and make them any less important. 

“When you look at the big picture, it’s still important for everybody to realize that this is one of the first steps along the way.” 

The first step it might be, but a momentous one all the same. Berhalter’s USMNT project starts now. 

The forward scored twice off the bench as his side won Tuesday’s friendly and suggested Tite’s line-up made things more difficult

Gabriel Jesus was Brazil’s saviour but thought Tite’s changes were to blame for their struggles in an unconvincing 3-1 victory over the Czech Republic on Tuesday.

Brazil head coach Tite made six amendments to the starting XI that kicked off a surprise 1-1 draw against Panama on Saturday, with only Casemiro, Lucas Paqueta, Philippe Coutinho, Richarlison and Roberto Firmino retaining their places.

The Selecao boss said in the build-up to the game in Prague that he wanted to maintain consistency with his attacking unit despite the drab performance against Panama, but hooked Paqueta after Brazil went into half-time behind following David Pavelka’s opener.

Roberto Firmino struck an opportunistic equaliser before Jesus, who replaced Coutinho in the 72nd minute, scored a late double to snatch the win.

“I think we played a good game. It’s not easy when there are a lot of changes, we were lacking a bit of coherency, but we are Brazil and we have to overcome such adversity,” Jesus told TV Globo.

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“We managed to create more in the second half, we were happy and we got the win.

“At times the opposition defended well, which was the case against Panama. We could have created more, attacked more, but I’m used to playing against a five-man backline in England. Panama had six in the second half. It’s difficult and we aren’t used to that, but we worked on it afterwards.

“Today, in the first half, it’s normal for the home team to come out strongly. We conceded a goal, but we managed to focus on what was required and turn it around.”

Tite, for his part, said Jesus should be pleased with his effort despite pushing him into a wide area rather than his usual place in the centre of the attack. 

“He should be very happy with it,: the manager said. “He left the box too much on the previous match, we talked among the staff and decided to try him from the flanks, it could provide more chances than overflowing the middle.

I’m happy he had those chances, not only on creating than but also finishing.”

The Brazil boss also knows he’ll come under pressure from the two showings through this international window, but says he’s ready to deal with it. 

“Criticism can come from everyone, I’m exposed in my line of work and I must know how to deal with it. I just can’t deal with situations regarding moral or education, the rest is ok. I’m exposed and I have no intent of hitting back. No hypocrisy.”

The Bluebirds have still not paid the fee for the fallen striker and his family are calling for answers as investigations continue

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The mother of Emiliano Sala has taken aim at Cardiff for refusing to pay Nantes the £15 million transfer fee for her late son as she called for justice to be served amid ongoing enquiries into the player’s death.

The striker went missing, along with pilot David Ibbotson, on January 21 when the aircraft carrying the pair from France to Wales crashed into the English Channel.

Sala’s body has since been recovered from the wreckage but the cause of the tragedy is still unknown.

As such, Cardiff have refused to pay the fee owed to Nantes until investigations are concluded, but controversy remains over the planning, handling and overall legality of the flight itself.

Regardless, Mercedes Taffarel, Sala’s mother, feels strongly that the Bluebirds should pay the fee and that a refusal to do so dishonours her son.

“Emiliano signed in front of the press, in front of everyone, so they have to pay,” Ms Taffarel told L’Equipe.

“Do I see this as a sign of disrespect towards my family? Yes, I think so. It would have been different if he had not really signed.

“Of course, they are also conducting their own investigation to find out what happened, that seems logical to me, but they must honour their word. His signature cannot be rubbed out.

“I am angry, yes, that is certain. They did not take care of him. A player worth that much money… they did not take care of him like he deserved.”

While the subject of the transfer fee now lies in the hands of Cardiff and Nantes, Sala’s mother is more concerned about seeing justice served after what happened to her son.

Finding out the truth of the tragedy would represent a small piece of closure in an otherwise bleak situation.

“The enquiry is ongoing,” she said. “I think at some point from now until the end of the year we will know what happened. We have to be confident. I want justice for Emiliano.

“Therefore I have to have confidence. We are waiting to understand why and how he died. In what circumstances did he die? Is it the fault of negligence by the airport? The pilot? The agent?

“I simply want justice for my son. The truth. Let justice determine whether there has been negligence, if someone had made a mistake and has to pay.

“We have talked about a lot of things. People said that one pilot did not show up and another came in his place, and so on. These are questions that we have asked to the British police.

“These are questions to which we still have no answers.”

The Frenchman has admitted that the Blancos are a “dream” for any player, but his current boss is expecting him to stick around at Old Trafford

Paul Pogba is “happy” at Manchester United and has a “big part” to play in the club’s future, says Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, despite the France international seeing a possible switch to Real Madrid hinted at.

During the recent international break, the France international admitted that the Liga giants are “a dream for anyone”.

The 26-year-old also aired his admiration for current Blancos boss and fellow World Cup winner Zinedine Zidane, saying: “Like I’ve always said, Real Madrid is a dream for anyone. It’s one of the biggest clubs in the world.

“There is also Zidane as a coach and it’s a dream for anybody who likes football.

“For now, I’m at Manchester. We don’t know what the future holds. I’m at Manchester and I’m happy.”

Those kind words for a fellow countryman were reciprocated when Zidane said of links to an all-action midfielder: “I really like Pogba and you know that.

“I know him very well, he’s a different kind of player and he can provide many things because of his skills. He knows how to attack and defend.

“However, he’s not my player. He plays for United and we have to respect that. He’s always said that he likes Madrid.”

Such comments have sparked talk of an imminent move to Santiago Bernabeu for Pogba, but his current boss insists nobody at Old Trafford is planning to sanction the sale of a prized asset.

The Red Devils boss, who has helped to bring the best out of a player who struggled under Jose Mourinho early in the 2018-19 campaign, has said: “I don’t like to talk about other team’s players of course but this is another challenge with international breaks because players are available all the time and it’s a different environment, a general talk.

“Paul is a very nice and polite man who answered a general question on Zidane as an icon in France, a fantastic manager, he used to be a fantastic player and he’s just politely answered that question.

“But Paul’s happy here, he’s going to be a big, big part [of future plans].

“You like to build your team around him and that hasn’t changed at all.”

Solskjaer, who hinted at a possible change of role for Pogba following a sloppy display from United in a 2-1 win over Watford, has already stated that he intends to make an £89 million ($116m) performer an “influential” part of his plans.

A coach now tied to a three-year contract at Old Trafford has said: “We want Paul to be both on and off the ball a good player for us.

“We want him to be influential with the way we play. Sometimes that means up as an eight into the box, sometimes to control the game, drop down deeper.

“We haven’t really nailed down one way of playing. We’ve got three or four different ways of playing. That’s the beauty of Paul – that he can do both.”

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The Blues boss thinks that expectations are too high from the fan base and he has urged them to be patient, as he needs more time for his magic

Maurizio Sarri admits that he needs a strong finish to the season to turn around fan opinion but remains confused about why sizable sections of Chelsea’s support have turned against him so soon. 

Chelsea will play a maximum of 12 more games between now and the end of the season, as they look to qualify for the Champions League either through a top-four finish in the Premier League or by winning the Europa League. 

However, it is clear that Sarri has a more toxic atmosphere around him from his club’s fan base than any of the other teams battling for similar aims to side’s, and he has called on fans to ease off and help their team by being more positive. 

“I know only one way: we have to win matches. We have to try to win a trophy. I know only this way,” Sarri told reporters. 

“I don’t know [why fans aren’t on my side]. Probably we did something wrong. 

“I don’t know what. Probably we have to win more matches. I don’t know. But we have the chance to take our target. We can arrive at the end of the season in the top four. We can try to take the final in the Europa League. And so, in the end, our season can become a very good season. 

“Probably our fans thought that it would be an easy season for us. In the Premier League, I think that it’s not easy. Every match is very difficult, every team is really very strong. It’s really very difficult to be in the top four in this championship. 

“As I said in every press conference. We had to face difficulties because we have some. We started very well, a bit lucky in some matches with a very great level of enthusiasm. But I knew very well that it wasn’t easy and, sooner or later, we’d have to face big difficulties. 

“Probably, in the last seasons, they were used to winning. So probably they thought that it was normal to continue to win. But it’s not normal. I think that the other teams, in the last seasons, have improved a lot from all points of view. 

“So now, the Premier League is really, really very difficult, even for a big club like Chelsea.” 

Much of the discontent with Sarri has been around his style of play, which many pundits have described as boring. The 60-year-old, by his own admission, says that his side has not picked up his football philosophy quickly.

The complaints come as Chelsea switch from counter-attacking football to a possession-based game. The issues are that Chelsea now look more vulnerable to be hit on the break, while Sarri’s predictable lineup choices have seen managers copy each other’s tactics when facing the Blues.

Part of the problem, he believes, is the lack of time he has had on the training pitch to get his ideas across and he admits that his team hasn’t grasped them yet.

“I think that, at the moment, we are not playing very well our football,” he said. “We need to improve playing our way of football.

“So we are trying to do this, but it’s not easy. It’s not easy, especially in the first season because we started to work only in the middle of July.

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“At the beginning of August, we played the first official match. Then we worked for a couple of weeks and then we started to play every three days. So it’s not easy for me to play my football. No [I won’t change], because I need to believe in what I do.

“Otherwise, for me, it’s impossible for me to pass my ideas to the players. It’s not easy for them [the players], I think. They are improving. My feeling is they are improving in being a group. They are improving in character.

“Now we need to improve in playing our football, in performances. Then the results will be a consequence. I need to work, I think. And in the first season, it was impossible to work.”

Chelsea face Brighton on Wednesday evening and then they welcome West Ham to Stamford Bridge, before their Europa League quarter-final match.