■ENGLAND
Gerrard to miss Berlin clash
Steven Gerrard has been ruled out of the friendly against Germany in Berlin tomorrow because of a torn leg muscle. Liverpool said the midfielder picked up the injury in the club’s 2-0 victory at Bolton on Saturday. The absence of Gerrard is another blow for England coach Fabio Capello, who has also lost Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney and defender Rio Ferdinand to injuries. Chelsea’s Joe and Ashley Cole and Wigan striker Emile Heskey had already been ruled out. Backup goalkeeper Joe Hart also pulled out of the Berlin game after he injured his ankle in Manchester City’s 2-2 draw at Hull on Sunday. Chelsea also said that centerback John Terry is to have a scan on a foot injury to determine whether he can go to Berlin.
■AFRICA
Al-Ahly set new record
Al-Ahly of Egypt won a record African Champions League title on Sunday after drawing 2-2 with Cotonsport Garoua of Cameroon in the second leg of the final. Ahly, title favorites from the start of the competition, triumphed 4-2 on aggregate after winning the first leg 2-0 in Cairo two weeks ago. Success for the Cairo “Red Devils” earned them US$1 million and brought a place beside Manchester United in the FIFA Club World Cup in Japan next month. Ahmed Hassan gave Ahly a 38th-minute lead, Lassina Karim leveled in first half stoppage time, Ousmaila Baba edged Cotonsport in front on 63 minutes and captain Shady Mohamed restored equality from a last-minute penalty. Cotonsport dominated a high-tempo match in baking heat only to waste many chances with Baba the biggest culprit. It was the third time in four years Ahly have conquered Africa.
■BRAZIL
Palmeiras problems mount
Palmeiras’ problems mounted on Sunday when they lost 5-2 to Flamengo in the championship, two days after coach Vanderlei Luxemburgo was attacked by the club’s own fans. Luxemburgo appeared on the touchline before the game with his right arm in a cast and revealed he had broken it in a clash with supporters at Sao Paulo airport on Friday evening when the team travelled to Rio for the game. “It was the attitude of vandals,” Luxemburgo told reporters before kick-off. “It was an act of cowardice, an ambush. But I’m not going to let them get away with it. If you don’t win the championship or a match, you run the risk of the supporters invading the airport and beating everyone up,” said the former Brazil coach. After the match, Luxemburgo said the team had received phone calls threatening more trouble on their return to Sao Paulo. Media said police had set up a special security operation and the players would go straight from the plane to a bus without entering the terminal. Sunday’s defeat effectively ended Palmeiras’ title chances as they dropped to fifth place, seven points behind leaders Sao Paulo with three games to go.
■GERMANY
Bremen beat Cologne
Werder Bremen rediscovered their scoring touch on Sunday to beat Cologne 3-1. Werder, surprisingly held to a goalless draw with Bochum last weekend, had no such problems in attack once Diego had put them ahead with a penalty in the 15th minute. It was only Werder’s fifth league win but it was enough to take them up to seventh place with 20 points from 13 games.“It wasn’t our best performance but it will give us a boost in confidence,” goalkeeper Tim Wiese told Premiere TV.
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