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• Colorado Rapids v Sporting Kansas City: Vermes want players to take responsibility ahead of road trip

  Peter Vermes urged his Sporting Kansas City players to take responsibility for their own position ahead of the upcoming MLS road trip to Colorado Rapids.

  SKC ended a three-game losing streak with a 2-0 victory over Austin FC in their last encounter, just their second victory in 15 league games.

  Kansas City are still bottom of the Western Conference and 11 points adrift of the playoff spots, though Vermes is desperate for fighting spirit ahead of a testing schedule.

  "We can't wait, we have a lot of games that are important coming up," SKC head coach Vermes said at his pre-match media availability.

  "Each game has its own importance to it, this all started last week but we need to keep going.

  "We go in with a plan, we have an idea, it sometimes comes down to how the guys recover. Hopefully no one gets injured, but also just minutes – it's going to be really important.

  "Each guy himself has to be ready for the responsibility of the position and knowing what we do when we have the ball, when we don't, they have to go into the game with that.

  "We don't have a lot of training time in between games, so they all have to be ready for that."

  The Burgundy Boys will be out to extend their home unbeaten run to five games in this clash, though they suffered a 3-0 defeat to Los Angeles FC last time out on the road.

  Colorado are fourth in the West standings but nine points adrift of the top two, a gap they will hope to shorten at Dick's Sporting Goods Park.

  PLAYERS TO WATCH

  Colorado Rapids – Rafael Navarro

  Rafael Navarro has scored in each of his last five home appearances for the Rapids, and will fancy his chances of extending an impressive run this time around.

  The only players with a longer streak in regular-season play in Colorado's history are Diego Rubio (six in 2022) and Mark Chung (also six in 2003).

  Sporting Kansas City – William Agada

  Goals have been hard to come by for the Kansas City side, with William Agada leading the way this season in MLS with five strikes.

  Agada has managed that tally from 20 games, averaging a goal every four matches, but will hope to add to his scoring returns in Colorado.

  MATCH PREDICTION – COLORADO RAPIDS WIN

  The Rapids are the favourites for victory on home soil in this clash, owing to a remarkable head-to-head record in meetings between this pair.

  Colorado are unbeaten in 10 straight regular-season home matches against SKC (W5 D5) and have lost only two of their 28 home league matches against them since August 2000 (W13 D13).

  This will also be Colorado’s third Independence Day meeting with Sporting, having won in both 2003 and 2005, with the expectation that history will repeat itself here.

  SKC are hardly in fine form either, having managed just their second win last time out in their previous 15 MLS matches (D2 L11).

  However, they managed the club's first clean sheet since a scoreless draw at LAFC on March 9, and will hope to build on that performance here.

  OPTA WIN PROBABILITY

  Colorado Rapids win – 48.2%

  Draw – 25.9%

  Sporting Kansas City win – 25.9%

• Wimbledon: Sinner ousts fellow Italian Berrettini to battle into third round

  Jannik Sinner battled his way into the Wimbledon third round after overcoming Matteo Berrettini in an all-Italian classic on Wednesday.

  Centre Court was treated to a hard-fought spectacle between the pair as the world number one triumphed 7-6 (7-3) 7-6 (7-4) 2-6 7-6 (7-4).

  The victory marked somewhat of a changing of the guard between the Italian duo, with Sinner rising to the top after a fine year that has also brought Australian Open glory.

  Berrettini is no stranger to the SW19 stage, reaching the final of the grass-court major in 2021 and taking the first set before falling to Novak Djokovic, and proved a tough opponent for Sinner in an enthralling clash.

  The 14-time ATP Tour champion struggled to assert his dominance early on, failing to snatch a set point in the first before eventually triumphing in a tie-breaker with a thumping backhand.

  Sinner repeated the same dose in the second set, trading breaks to leave the clash level at 4-4 before the top seed's forehand exposed Berrettini in another tie-break decider.

  Berrettini responded by breaking twice to take a 4-1 lead in the third, though, striking back to halve the arrears and offering his countryman a stark reminder of his quality on this surface.

  The pair once again exchanged a break apiece in the fourth set before Sinner squandered a glorious match-point chance when 6-5 ahead.

  Yet, as was the case in the first two sets, Berrettini skewed a forehand into the net as Sinner sealed victory on his third match point with another tie-break success, just before the curfew at Wimbledon.

  Data Debrief: Super Sinner downs another Italian

  Sinner, who reached the semi-finals at this tournament last year, is now 14-0 against fellow Italians.

  The 22-year-old is just the third player in the Open Era to win his first 14 ATP matches against compatriots, after Australia's Bob Hewitt and Argentina's Guillermo Vilas.

  Sinner hit 32 winners and committed 25 unforced errors en route to his 40th tour-level win of the season, teeing up a third-round meeting with Miomir Kecmanovic, who overcame Tallon Griekspoor.

• Ronaldo backed by former team-mate Brown for Euro 2024 recovery due to unrivalled mentality

  Cristiano Ronaldo will bounce back from his Euro 2024 disappointment and find form due to his elite mentality, according to former Manchester United team-mate Wes Brown.

  The Portugal captain is the record appearance maker (29) and goalscorer (14) at the Euros, yet has failed to find the back of the net in this edition of the competition.  

  Ronaldo was reduced to tears after his penalty was saved by Jan Oblak in extra time before making amends and scoring in their last-16 penalty shoot-out win over Slovenia.

  That brought questions once more over the veteran forward's ability and influence for Roberto Martinez's side, who face France in the quarter-finals on Friday.

  However, Brown, who spent six years with Ronaldo at Manchester United, believes his former team-mate has the mentality to recover and prove his doubters wrong in Germany.

  "Mentality [wise], there's no one better," Brown said, speaking to Stats Perform at the Home of Adidas football in Berlin. 

  "He'd be disappointed he didn't score the penalty in normal time, that would have frustrated him, but there were a lot of people I was talking to, and they thought he might not even start games.

  "I totally disagreed and thought he's still got it to perform. He will be disappointed he's not scored, but he's a team player, he's won the competition before, and he just wants to do well, helping the team.”

  Though the five-time Ballon d'Or winner has a list of records to his name, he has added some unwanted statistics to his displays after an underwhelming Euro 2024.

  Ronaldo is the biggest expected goals (xG) underperformer in the tournament (0 goals from 2.75 xG), while he has had nine shots on target, which is the joint-highest along with Germany's Kai Havertz.

  No player has had as many shots as Ronaldo during UEFA's flagship international competition either. He is five clear of any other player, while only Havertz has a higher xG (3.6 to Ronaldo’s 2.75).