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Tuesday February 27, 2018

AFTER fi nishing his fi rst season in England empty-handed, Pep Guardiola fi nally collected his fi rst trophy with Manchester City on Sunday.

Thanks to some familiar faces.

Despite recruiting more than US$600 million in talent in around 18 months, Guardiola relied on City’s old guard to pro-duce the 3-0 victory over Arse-nal in the League Cup fi nal.

Sergio Aguero, Vincent Kompany and David Silva, who formed the backbone of City’s Premier League title wins in 2012 and 2014, scored the goals at Wembley Stadium that lifted a burden off Guardiola.

“It’s special they scored,” the manager said. “They help us to understand what it means in the club to win titles. Because they won titles, they put pressure on us to continue to win titles.”

The victory, aided by Arsenal’s brittle defending, allowed City to quickly restore order after Mon-day’s surprise exit from the FA Cup at Wigan. The pursuit of a quadruple was extinguished by the third-tier side, but City is now one step closer to a treble.

The Premier League seems a formality for City, with a 13-

point lead and a game in hand over Manchester United, which beat Chelsea 2-1 on Sunday. A place in the Champions League quarterfi nals also looks certain with Basel beaten 4-0 in the last-16 fi rst leg.

For all the investment in play-ers during the decade under Abu Dhabi ownership, the return in silverware seems relatively sparse. Still, the six trophies won since 2011 represents a greater haul than in the previ-ous 50 years for a team fi nally emerging from the shadows of its more illustrious neighbor, United.

Kompany is the ever-present, with the 31-year-old captain col-lecting his sixth winners medal with City on Sunday.

“An incredible moment for us,” said the Belgian defender, whose playing time has been limited by injuries in recent years. “You don’t want it to stop. Every little bit of hardship you go through, it is worth it.”

Guardiola had never gone a season in management without a trophy in his previous jobs at Barcelona and Bayern Munich until last year.

Now he is starting to deliver, albeit in the least signifi cant

competition for the club.“I cannot forget how they

took care of me last (season),” Guardiola refl ected on the Abu Dhabi ownership. “I will always remember how ... Sheik Man-sour was the fi rst one and told all the people to support me.”

For Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, this is the latest chap-

ter of gloom in a season that saw the FA Cup defense end at the fi rst hurdle and the team slump to sixth in the league. And the Gunners have to face City again in the league on Thursday.

“I feel that a little bit every-thing went against us today,” Wenger said, “and we self-infl icted our punishment.”

Only fl eetingly at Wembley did Arsenal threaten against a City side that is so imposing as Guardiola’s vision starts to come together in England. Kyle Walker made the decisive sliding challenge that thwarted Arsenal record signing Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

(SD-Agencies)

Man City gets 1st trophy under Pep Guardiola

J U S T I N THOMAS was down to his last chance when he deliv-ered his most clutch shot of the fi nal round in the Honda Classic.

Turns out he wasn’t fi nished.Thomas nearly holed a gap

wedge on the par-5 18th hole for a birdie to force a playoff with Luke List. Moments later, he hit 5-wood over the water, urged it to keep going and lost it momen-tarily in the darkening sky over PGA National.

“All I was looking at was the water to see if it splashed,” Thomas said. “And it didn’t. So I fi gured I was in the bunker, and then people started clapping and I could kind of see some little white dot on the green.”

That set up a two-putt birdie that made him a winner when List, who hit his own bold shot in regulation to the 18th to set up birdie, could only manage par in the playoff.

Thomas closed with a 2-under 68 and won for the second time this season. He also won in a playoff at the CJ Cup in South Korea last fall. With eight career victories, including seven in his last 31 starts on the PGA Tour, he moved to No. 3 in the world. He is one spot ahead of longtime friend Jordan Spieth for the fi rst time, which was of little signifi -cance to Thomas. (SD-Agencies)

Thomas wins Honda in playoff

THE Houston Rockets had not been in many close games lately, though they showed they’re capable of winning those, too.

James Harden had 41 points and eight rebounds, Chris Paul scored 23 points and the Rock-ets beat the Nuggets 119-114 on Sunday night for their 12th straight victory.

Harden had 27 in the fi rst half and seven in the fourth quarter, when the Rockets held off a late Denver rally. Harden has scored 40 or more points nine times this season. He fi nished with seven assists.

“We haven’t been in too many close games but it was cool to have that feel,’’ Paul said.

The Rockets are 21-4 since Dec. 29 and own the best record (46-13) in the NBA. They are outscoring teams by an aver-age of 12.5 points during the 12-game winning streak. The fi ve-point win Sunday was their closest game during the streak,

although Houston was up big early in the fourth.

“Having a 17-point lead in the fourth quarter, we’ve got to fi nish games off like that,’’ Harden said, “It was a good thing we fi nished the game off the right way down the stretch. We got stops when we needed to and we made shots.’’

Nikola Jokic had 21 points and 14 rebounds for Denver, which had its four-game winning streak snapped. Will Barton added 25 points.

“Obviously the fi rst two times we played that team the game was not even close, so to make it a game and to fi ght all the way to

the end was great to see,’’ Nug-gets coach Michael Malone said. “I thought the game was decided in the last two minutes of the fi rst quarter.’’

That was when Harden took over. He scored 14 points in the last 2:47 of the period and assisted on Houston’s other two baskets to end the period, when the Rockets extended the lead from fi ve to 13.

Houston led by as many as 18 but Denver rallied in the fourth. Jokic’s tip with 2:12 left made it 110-106 and after Joe Johnson missed from the corner, Gary Harris had a chance to cut it to a point with a 3-pointer. But the Nuggets’ leading scorer, who fi n-ished with six points on 2-of-12 shooting, misfi red and Harden hit two more free throws to make it 112-106 with 1:17 left.

His step-back jumper with 46 seconds left clinched it for Houston.

(SD-Agencies)

Houston Rockets beat Nuggets 119-114 for 12th straight win

Guard James Harden of the Houston Rockets calls out a play against the Denver Nuggets at Pepsi Center on Sunday, Colorado. SD-Agencies

Man City players celebrate after they won the League Cup fi nal soccer match at Wembley stadium in London, on Sunday. SD-Agencies

Justin Thomas

FRANCES TIAFOE won the Delray Beach Open, with father Frances Sr. watching, on Sunday for his fi rst ATP Tour title.

The 91st-ranked Tiafoe, the fi rst wild-card recipient to win the title in its 26-year history, had consecutive aces on the fi nal two points for a 6-1, 6-4 victory over Peter Gojowczyk of Germany.

At 20, Tiafoe is the youngest American to win a title since Andy Roddick at 19 in 2002 in Houston.

Tiafoe fell on his back in cel-ebration and cried as he hugged

his father.“Now I’m in

a position not only to help myself, but help fund my family,” Tiafoe said. “It’s an unbelievable place to be in and it’s bigger than tennis.”

Tiafoe’s parents moved from Sierra Leone to the United States looking for a better life. The elder Tiafoe ended up work-ing as a maintenance worker at

a Maryland tennis club where the American-born Frances fell in love with the game. His twin brother, Franklin, wasn’t inter-ested in the sport.

“It’s unbelievable,” said Fran-ces Sr., who now frequently trav-els the tour with his son. “I told them since they were little, work hard and you can achieve your goal. I told him whatever you put your mind to you can do it.”

Tiafoe, who should move up to approximately No. 61 in Mon-day’s new rankings, was playing in his fi rst career tour-level fi nal

at Delray Beach. He entered last week’s New York Open, where he reached the quarterfi nals, with nine total career ATP tour-level match victories.

In the last two-weeks he has won seven tour matches. Among those recent victories is a second-round win over 10th-ranked Juan Martin del Potro this week.

Tiafoe was the last American to defeat Gojowczyk, which took place at the 2016 Winnetka, Illi-nois Challenger event.

(SD-Agencies)

Frances Tiafoe wins 1st career ATP title at Delray Beach

Frances Tiafoe