Two goals from man-of-the-match Luiz Fabiano and one from Manchester City’s new signing Robinho put Brazil’s World Cup qualification back on track on Sunday with a 3-0 win over Chile.
The five-times World Cup winners had been languishing in fifth place in the 10-team South American zone qualifying, one place outside of assuring one of the four automatic places for the 2010 finals in South Africa. With coach Dunga under constant criticism for recent poor performances, including at the Beijing Olympics, the trip to Santiago had loomed as a potential disaster.
Chile opened well and dominated proceedings, but it was Sevilla striker Fabiano who opened the scoring against the run of play in the 20th minute when he headed home a Ronaldinho cross.
The AC Milan midfielder, showing glimpses of his top form, had the chance to make it 2-0 after Diego was downed in the box in the 34th minute, but he missed his penalty kick.
Ten minutes later and on the stroke of halftime though, Fabiano made an opening for former Real Madrid star Robinho and he made no mistake to make it 2-0.
Cheered on by a capacity 70,000 crowd, the Chileans flung everything into attack at the start of the second half and, with tempers flaring, both Brazil’s Kleber Anderson and Chile’s Jorge Valvidia were sent off.
With Brazil content to sit back on their lead, the home side pressed forward and were caught out eight minutes from time when Fabiano struck for his second goal of the match.
The win hoisted Brazil into second place in the standings, level on 12 points from seven games with eternal rivals Argentina, but ahead on goal difference.
Paraguay remain top on 14 points ahead of Wednesday’s games, which see Brazil host bottom dogs Bolivia and Argentina travel to second-bottom Peru.
Paraguay have a match-up against third from bottom Venezuela.
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
HSIEH MAKES QUARTERS: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens of Belgium won in the women’s doubles and face Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sofia Kenin of the US Top-ranked Iga Swiatek and US Open champion Coco Gauff were knocked out of the women’s singles at the Miami Open on Monday, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced in the women’s doubles. Swiatek lost to Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-2, hours after third seed Gauff fell in three sets to No. 23 Caroline Garcia 6-3, 1-6, 6-2. Alexandrova beat a top-ranked player for the first time and advanced to face Jessica Pegula, a 7-6 (7/1), 6-3 winner over Emma Navarro, in the quarter-finals. Alexandrova recorded her second win over Swiatek, following a 2021 victory in Melbourne. Swiatek had won their three matches since. “We played quite