There was a sombre moment just before kick-off as both teams — and the whole stadium — paid tribute to Baldock, who died this week at the age of 31.
The away team emerged with a white Greece home shirt sporting ‘BALDOCK 2’ on the back. Baldock, who was born in England but qualified for Greece through his grandmother, was capped 12 times.
Then, with the stadium’s big screens showing a photo of Baldock, the England players applauded on the edge of the centre circle while the Greece team stood arm-in-arm. Following announcements in English and Greek, the whole stadium then held still in silence — a minute’s respect that was perfectly observed.
There was even a Greece flag with a Sheffield United badge held up among the England fans, one of many tributes paid to the former Milton Keynes Dons, Sheffield United and Panathinaikos defender.
Those continued during the game itself, with Pavlidis holding up a black armband as he celebrated opening the scoring. His team-mates gathered to lift the same ‘BALDOCK 2’ shirt to the heavens, ensuring the full-back would not be forgotten.
Cissy Houston, the mother of the late Whitney Houston and a two-time Grammy winner who performed alongside superstar musicians like Elvis Presley and Aretha Franklin, has died, CBS News confirmed. She was 91.
Houston died Monday morning in her New Jersey home while under hospice care for Alzheimer’s disease, her daughter-in-law Pat Houston said in a statement. The acclaimed gospel singer was surrounded by her family.
“Our hearts are filled with pain and sadness,” Pat Houston said in the statement, calling her mother-in-law “the matriarch of our family.” She said Cissy Houston’s contributions to popular music and culture are “unparalleled.”
“Mother Cissy has been a strong and towering figure in our lives. A woman of deep faith and conviction, who cared greatly about family, ministry, and community. Her more than seven-decade career in music and entertainment will remain at the forefront of our hearts.”
A church performer from an early age, Houston was part of a family gospel act before breaking through in popular music in the 1960s as a member of the prominent backing group The Sweet Inspirations with Doris Troy and her niece Dee Dee Warwick. The group sang backup for a variety of soul singers including Otis Redding, Lou Rawls, The Drifters and Dionne Warwick.
Houston’s many credits included Franklin’s “Think” and “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman,” Van Morrison’s “Brown Eyed Girl” and Dusty Springfield’s “Son of a Preacher Man.” The Sweet Inspirations also sang on stage with Presley, whom Houston would remember fondly for singing gospel during rehearsal breaks and telling her that she was “squirrelly.”
“At the end of our engagement with him, he gave me a bracelet inscribed with my name on the outside,” she wrote in her memoir “How Sweet the Sound,” published in 1998. “On the inside of the bracelet he had inscribed his nickname for me: Squirrelly.”
The Sweet Inspirations had their own top 20 single with the soul-rock “Sweet Inspiration,” made in the Memphis studio where Franklin and Springfield among others recorded hits and released four albums just in the late ’60s. The group appeared on Van Morrison’s “Brown Eyed Girl” and sang background vocals for The Jimi Hendrix Experience on the song “Burning of the Midnight Lamp” in 1967.
Houston’s last performance with the Sweet Inspirations came after the group hit the stage with Presley in a Las Vegas show in 1969. Her final recording session with the group turned into their biggest R&B hit “(Gotta Find) A Brand New Lover,” a composition by the production team of Gamble & Huff, who appeared on the group’s fifth album, “Sweet Sweet Soul.”
American singer Cissy Houston is seen in 1977.
Gems/Redferns/Getty Images
During that time, the group occasionally performed live concert dates with Franklin. After the group’s success and four albums together, Houston left The Sweet Inspirations to pursue a solo career where she flourished.
Houston became an in-demand session singer and recorded more than 600 songs in multiple genres throughout her career. Her vocals can heard on tracks alongside a wide range of artists including Chaka Khan, Donny Hathaway, Jimi Hendrix, Luther Vandross, Beyoncé, Paul Simon, Roberta Flack and her daughter.
Houston went on to complete several records, including “Presenting Cissy Houston,” the disco-era “Think It Over” and the Grammy-winning gospel albums “Face to Face” and “He Leadeth Me.”
In 1971, Houston’s signature vocals were featured on Burt Bacharach‘s solo album, which includes “Mexican Divorce,” “All Kinds of People” and “One Less Bell to Answer.” She performed various standards including Barbra Streisand’s hit song, “Evergreen.”
Never far from her native New Jersey or musical origins, Houston presided for decades over the 200-member Youth Inspirational Choir at Newark’s New Hope Baptist Church, where Whitney Houston sang as a child.
Cissy Houston would say that she had discouraged her daughter from show business, but they were joined in music for much of Whitney’s life, from church to stage performances to television and film and the recording studio. Whitney’s rise seemed inevitable, not only because of her obvious talents, but because of her background: Dionne and Dee Dee Warwick were cousins, Leontyne Price a cousin once removed, Franklin a close family friend.
Whitney Houston made her debut on national television when she and Cissy Houston sang a medley of Franklin hits on “The Merv Griffin Show.” Cissy Houston sang backup on Whitney’s eponymous, multiplatinum first album, and the two shared the lead on “I Know Him So Well,” from the 1987 megaseller “Whitney.”
They would sing together often in concert and appeared in the 1996 film “The Preacher’s Wife.” Their most indelible moments likely came from the video for one of Whitney’s biggest hits from the mid-1980s, “Greatest Love of All.” It was filmed as a mother-daughter homage, ending with a joyous Whitney exiting the stage of Harlem’s Apollo Theater and embracing Cissy Houston, who stood in the wings.
On Feb. 11, 2012, Whitney Houston was found dead — from what was ruled as an accidental drowning — in a Beverly Hills bathtub. Cissy Houston would write about her daughter in the memoir “Remembering Whitney: A Mother’s Story of Life, Loss and The Night The Music Stopped.”
In 2015, Cissy Houston was grieving again when granddaughter Bobbi Kristina Brown, the only child of Bobby Brown and Whitney Houston, was found unconscious in a bathtub, spent months in a coma and died at age 22. The family was back in the news in 2018 with the release of the documentary “Whitney,” which included allegations that Dee Dee Warwick (who died in 2008) had molested Whitney when she was a girl.
Cissy Houston was briefly married to Freddie Garland in the 1950s; their son, Gary Garland, was a guard for the Denver Nuggets and later sang on many of Whitney Houston’s tours. Cissy Houston was married to Whitney’s father, entertainment executive John Russell Houston, from 1959-1990. In addition to Whitney, the Houstons also had a son, Michael.
Cissy Houston was born Emily Drinkard in Newark, the youngest of eight children of a factory worker and a housewife. She was just 5 when she and three siblings founded the Drinkard Singers, a gospel group that lasted 30 years, performing on the same bill as Mahalia Jackson among others and releasing the 1959 album “A Joyful Noise.”
She later said she would have been happy to remain in gospel, but John Houston encouraged her to take on studio work. When rockabilly star Ronnie Hawkins (along with drummer Levon Helm and other future members of The Band) needed an extra voice, Cissy Houston stepped in.
“I wanted to get my work done, and get it done quickly. I was there, but I didn’t have to be part of them. I was in the world, but I wasn’t of the world, as St. Paul put it,” Houston wrote in “How Sweet the Sound,” remembering how she soon began working with the Drifters and other singers.
“At least in the recording studio we were living together as God intended us to. Some days, we spent 12 or 15 hours together there,” she wrote. “The skin-deep barriers of race seemed to fall away as we toiled side by side creating our little pop masterpieces.”
Pat Houston said she is thankful for the many valuable lessons learned from her mother-in-law. She said the family feels “blessed and grateful” that God allowed Cissy to spend so many years with them.
“We are touched by your generous support, and your outpouring of love during our profound time of grief,” Houston said on behalf of the family. “We respectfully request our privacy during this difficult time.”
Visa Cash App RB Formula One Team (RB) have announced that Daniel Ricciardo has left the team with immediate effect.
He will be replaced by Red Bull junior driver Liam Lawson in a move that brings weeks of speculation to an end.
After being left without a seat for the 2023 season following his departure from McLaren, Ricciardo joined RB (then named Alpha Tauri) in the middle of that year to replace Nyck De Vries, who was adjudged to be underperforming.
Ricciardo was out of contract with the team at the end of the current season and had been linked with a return to Red Bull, but RB – the sister team to Red Bull – took the decision to replace the Aussie early.
“To the teams and individuals that have played their part, thank you. To the fans who love the sport sometimes more than me … thank you. It’ll always have its highs and lows but it’s been fun and truth be told I wouldn’t change it.
“Until the next adventure.”
RB Team Principal Laurent Mekies thanked Ricciardo for his efforts across the last two seasons.
“He has brought a lot of experience and talent to the Team with a fantastic attitude, which has helped everyone to develop and foster a tight team spirit,” he said in a statement. “Daniel has been a true gentleman both on and off the track and never without that smile. He will be missed, but will always hold a special place within the Red Bull family.”
Ricciardo has put together quite the resumé over his 14 seasons in F1. He is an eight-time race winner who has finished on the podium 32 times – good enough for 35th on the all-time list – and has placed in the top three of the World Drivers’ Championship twice. He scored 1,329 points across 257 races.
He last raced at Sunday’s Singapore Grand Prix, where he finished 18th.
Ricciardo joined the Red Bull Academy as a teenager, making his F1 debut for Spanish outfit HRT in 2011 before joining Red Bull’s sister team, then called Toro Rosso, the following year. He was called up to the main team in 2014 and spent five seasons with the Austrian manufacturer, taking eight wins.
“When I got into the sport and moved to Europe, I was – maybe some people would find it hard to believe – I was quite a shy, not the most confident individual,” he said, sitting down exclusively with CNN Sport recently. “And I think I was also … just quite young and immature. So getting signed up by the Red Bull program when I was 18 … having that responsibility, that pressure, all of that, it forced me to grow up.”
He moved to Renault for 2019 before jumping to McLaren in 2021. He struggled during his tenure with the British team, although he did take a memorable – and what is likely to be his final – victory at the 2021 Italian Grand Prix.
“I’m proud. Like, don’t get me wrong, if (my F1 career) ended today, I would be proud of what I’ve done,” Ricciardo told CNN prior to Thursday’s announcement. “But on the same note, you’re never fully satisfied because the reason I got into Formula One was to try to become world champion.
“I can still be proud without it because I’ve put the effort in. But yeah, I still want to add that. That would give me 100% the full picture of happiness and satisfaction,” he added.
Only time will tell whether Ricciardo will make another spectacular return to the sport, but fans will have to get to grips with a grid without the Aussie as RB embraces the youth movement.
The team has served as a development ground for future Red Bull drivers in the past, but no driver has received the call-up since Alex Albon in 2019.
The 22-year-old Lawson has some F1 experience. He stepped in for Ricciardo for five races in 2023 when Ricciardo suffered a wrist injury and has served as the reserve driver for both Red Bull and RB.
The New Zealand native is set to make his debut as a full-time racer at the US Grand Prix in Austin, Texas next month.
A first half Robert Lewandowski goal was enough for Barcelona to continue their perfect start to La Liga with a 1-0 victory against Getafe.
Hansi Flick’s young side almost rued missing a host of chances as with the last kick of the match Getafe substitute Borja Mayoral fired wide.
Polish forward Lewandowski could have doubled his side’s lead before the break only to be denied by the visitors’ goalkeeper David Soria.
Soria was also on hand to tip a glorious effort from teenage sensation Lamine Yamal over the crossbar in the second half.
Yamal also hit the crossbar as he capitalised on a tiring Getafe defence and Barcelona skipper Raphinha also had chances to secure the points.
However, Barcelona will breathe a sigh of relief as they sit four points clear at the summit of La Liga.
Despite controlling possession Flick’s young side showed weaknesses in defence as they head to Osasuna looking to make it eight league wins on the bounce.
Meanwhile, Getafe have just four points to their name from seven matches but will be encouraged by another strong defensive performance.
Getafe have home games against Alaves and Osasuna when they will hope to pick up a first league win.
Keegan Bradley went from the last man in the BMW Championship to a winner Sunday, closing with an even-par 72 for a one-shot victory that opened up all sorts of possibilities he never imagined possible a week ago.
Bradley pulled away from mistake-prone Adam Scott early on the back nine and delivered a clutch shot into the par-5 17th that all but sealed the seventh victory of his PGA Tour career, and the most unlikely.
He was biting his nails a week ago, needing help just to finish at No. 50 in the FedEx Cup and qualify for the second postseason event. And then he managed the mile-high air, the wind and the Sunday pressure to win at Castle Pines.
“It just shows why you’ve got to grind it out because you never know how fast it can switch,” Bradley said on the 18th green, where he stood alongside his father. Mark Bradley, a longtime club professional, had never seen his 38-year-old son win in person.
The victory moved Bradley from No. 50 to No. 4 in the FedEx Cup, sending him to the Tour Championship where he will start four shots behind Scottie Scheffler in a 72-hole chase for the $25 million prize.
There’s also another cup in play. Bradley, the first Ryder Cup captain to win a PGA Tour event since Davis Love III nine years ago, moved to No. 10 in the Presidents Cup standings. The top six after the BMW Championship automatically qualified, and Jim Furyk gets six captain’s picks. Bradley will surely be in the conversation after winning for the third straight year.
Bradley heard plenty of “U-S-A! “U-S-A!”” chants as he went along the back nine at Castle Pines, the loudest coming on the 18th when thousands of spectators were allowed to encircle the green for the final touch of a big week.
Scott, a runner-up at the Scottish Open last month, was tied for the lead until starting the back nine with three soft bogeys, two of them with a wedge in his hand from the fairway. He birdied the closing par 5s, but lost a big chance when he overshot the 15th green from 101 yards.
He closed with a 72, though it also moved him into the top 30 who qualifying for East Lake.
Sam Burns finished with a Sunday-best 65, including a bogey on the par-5 14th, and shared second place with Scott and Ludvig Aberg of Sweden, who let another good chance get away with too many Sunday mistakes.
Aberg was 12 under on the par 5s going into the final round, and he played them at even par. He closed with a 71.
Justin Thomas somehow made it to East Lake for the Tour Championship, even though he was already home in Florida in the same nail-biting spot as Bradley was a week ago.
Thomas needed plenty of help to get the 30th spot, and it came from former British Open champion Brian Harman and Alex Noren. Harman needed a par on the last hole to stay in the top 30 and made double bogey.
Noren, who has never made it to East Lake, was poised to finish in the top 30 when he holed a 25-foot par putt on the 13th hole and made birdie on the 14th. But he finished with three straight bogeys, the most damaging on the par-5 17th, the easiest hole at Castle Pines. He had to lay up from a drive in the rough and hit wedge into a bunker. He shot 75.
The 17th is where Bradley, who finished at 12-under 276, all but sealed it.
Burns had posted at 277. Aberg and Scott remained closed. Bradley hit a 5-iron between two bunkers to a back left pin on a firm green to 16 feet, the closest shot of the day. He missed the eagle chance, but it gave him a two-shot lead going to the 18th.
And while he missed a 4-foot par putt that only determined the margin, he reacted with energy that has come to be expected from the 38-year-old New Englander. He thrust his arm in the air and soaked up the “U-S-A! U-S-A!” chants.
Bradley earned $4 million for his second title in the BMW Championship, also winning at Aronimink in 2018 when he was the No. 52 seed in what was then a 70-man field.
Bradley and Scott joined Tommy Fleetwood (69) and Chris Kirk (69) who moved into the top 30 to qualifying for the Tour Championship. They bumped out Harman, Jason Day, Davis Thompson and Denny McCarthy.
She quit her venture capitalist job in 2021 to pursue training full time. She won the 2024 U.S. Pro Road Race and only had three Grand Tour stage wins over the past two years, not nearly as many as her competitors that surrounded her at the end of the women’s race in Paris.
Even though she liked road cycling more and rides professionally for EF Education-Cannondale, it was track cycling that initially qualified her for the Olympics. USA Cycling invited her to Colorado Springs in 2023 to evaluate her potential for the team pursuit program. After that, she competed in a race in February 2024 with the team pursuit squad and was named to the track cycling team after that.
Attempting to qualify for one of the two road race positions available for Americans at the Paris Games, Faulkner just narrowly missed the cut when she lost to Knibb by 11 seconds at the U.S. Road Cycling Time Trial Championships. Knibb, a triathlete, shocked everyone when she won the race — just her second road cycling race of her professional career.
Faulkner doesn’t just excel on the bike. She graduated from Harvard University in 2016 with a degree in computer science. She was a varsity rower for two years in college and currently holds Harvard’s record for the fastest 2k erg (indoor rowing machine) time for lightweight women.
In terms of her personal life, she grew up in Homer, Alaska, and is proud to be from the fishing town. She is also passionate about gender equality and supporting more women in technology and entrepreneurship.
Faulkner will have a chance to win a second medal at the Games when she hits the track on Tuesday August 6th at 11:30 a.m. ET, in the women’s team pursuit.
