Three-time champion Brazil became the first team to clinch a semifinal berth at the Futsal World Championship on Monday, getting two goals from Simi in a 2-1 victory over South American rival Argentina, while Italy handed Spain its first defeat of the tournament with a 3-2 score.
Brazil has won all five of its games, three in the preliminary round and both in the second round and is assured of advancing to Friday's semifinals. Argentina and Ukraine, which beat the US 3-1 on Monday to eliminate the Americans, will play today to determine the other semifinal berth from Group F.
PHOTO: EPA
Portugal beat the Czech Republic 8-4, and combined with Italy's win, climbed to the top of Group E with four points, just ahead of the Italians on goal difference.
PHOTO: EPA
Spain, the defending champion and the only other country to win the Futsal World Championship besides Brazil in its previous four editions, has three points heading into its final game against Portugal today.
Italy plays the Czechs, who already have been eliminated. The top two teams from each second-round group advance to the semifinals.
Simi scored in the second and sixth minutes to take Brazil to a 2-0 lead before Hernan Garcias replied just before halftime. It was the first goal Brazil had allowed in nearly two-and-a-half matches.
Pellegrini and Fabiano rallied for Italy with goals in the eighth and 19th minutes, after Javi Rodriguez had given Spain the lead in the opening seconds. But it was an own-goal by Orol just before halftime that proved to be the winner for the Italians.
Joel Queiros scored three goals to lead Portugal over the the Czechs. Goncalo scored twice in a four-goal burst over 12 minutes in the second half.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier