Miroslav Klose regained his scoring touch on Sunday as Werder Bremen kept up the pressure on leaders Schalke by winning 2-0 at Borussia Dortmund in the Bundesliga.
Also on Sunday, defending champions Bayern Munich beat Bayer Leverkusen 2-1.
All four top teams won over the weekend, leaving the league standings unchanged.
PHOTO: REUTERS
With five games remaining, Schalke lead with 59 points, followed by Bremen with 57, VfB Stuttgart with 55 and Bayern with 53.
On Saturday, Schalke stayed on course for their first title in 49 years by winning 3-0 at Mainz while Stuttgart struggled to beat Hannover 2-1.
Bremen cruised through the game in Dortmund
Klose set up Diego with a good cross in the 20th minute but Dortmund goalkeeper Roman Weidenfeller made a reflex save.
In the 28th, Klose scored his first goal in the Bundesliga since the end of January. Patrick Owomoyela won a ball in midfield, sprinted down the left side and sent a cross into Dortmund's area. Aaron Hunt failed to connect with a header but Klose was at the far post to tap the ball home.
On the other side, Tinga fired wide with Bremen goalkeeper Tim Wiese caught on the wrong foot.
Diego made it 2-0 in the 39th, firing over Dortmund's wall with a free kick from 20m.
Bremen missed several opportunities in the second half against Dortmund, who are only two points away from the relegation zone.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB