Sports

The Toronto Maple Leafs re-signed goaltender Matt Murray to a one-year, $875,000 deal on Tuesday. Murray, 30, missed all of last season following bilateral hip surgery in October. It was the final year of his four-year, $25 million contract he signed with Ottawa in 2020. Murray played just 26 games with Toronto in 2022-23, finishing 14-8-2 with a one shutout, a 3.01 goals-against average and a .903 save percentage. He last played April 2. A two-time Stanley Cup champion with Pittsburgh, Murray is 146-86-24 with a .910 save percentage, a 2.79 GAA and 15 shutouts with the Penguins (2015-20), Senators (2020-22) and Maple Leafs. He also is 29-21 with a .921 save percentage and 2.18 GAA in 51 playoff games (50 starts). Toronto acquired Murray in July 2022 from the Senators. –Field Level…

Steve Guppy is the one everyone remembers. Most dedicated followers of English football in the late 1990s and early 2000s would also be able to name Jason Wilcox and Steve Froggatt. Then you have your David Dunns, your Alan Thompsons, your Chris Powells. Two decades on, the infamous “England left-sided problem” tends to be evoked more as an exercise in nostalgia, a display of performative recall, than as a long-term failure of systems and imagination that Gareth Southgate may just be in danger of repeating.

A “left-sided David Beckham” was Kevin Keegan’s memorable description of Guppy ahead of his England debut, which sadly would also turn out to be his England swansong, against Belgium in 1999. And over the years, as the tournamen…

Terry Neill, who has died aged 80, was an influential footballer at Arsenal in the 1960s and later managed the club to three successive FA Cup finals, from 1978 to 1980, winning one and losing two. He was also a longstanding player for Northern Ireland, winning 59 caps between 1961 and 1973 – a record at the time – and serving for four years as their manager.

Although Neill’s achievements as a player and manager at Arsenal were modest in terms of the team’s illustrious history, he was held in great affection by fans there for his overall contribution to the club, and was even forgiven for becoming manager of their north London rivals, Tottenham, for a two-year spell immediately after finishing as a player.

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If former Tottenham goalkeeper Hugo Lloris had hoped to segue into a sunny semi-retirement after his move to Los Angeles, his debut for LAFC would have felt especially satisfying. The 36-year-old World Cup winner made a club-record seven saves in a victory over the Seattle Sounders beneath the California sun on the opening weekend of the 2024 MLS season.

A week later, however, in his first away match since moving to the US, Lloris experienced a less comfortable time. With his goalkeeper’s gloves acting more as a barrier against frostbite than a shot-stopping aid, he was forced to pluck a fluorescent orange match ball from his net three times in the first half after a sudden snowstorm and near-freezing temperatures descended upon Real Salt …