■NETHERLANDS
Twente win and go top
Blaise Nkufo scored a 64th-minute goal to earn Steve McClaren’s Twente Enschede a 1-0 win at ADO Den Haag, a win that put them top of the Dutch league on Saturday. The Englishman guided Twente to second place last season, but has already suffered disappointment this season after Twente were eliminated in Champions League qualification by Portugal’s Sporting. Ronald Koeman’s AZ Alkmaar, last season’s surprise champions, thrashed newcomers RKC Waalwijk 6-0, with Maarten Martens netting twice. Mounir El Hamdaoui opened the scoring after 15 minutes. Belgian international Dembele doubled the lead early in the second half, before an own-goal by Hans Mulder made it 3-0. Martens’ double and Jeremain Lens completed the rout for Alkmaar, who are fourth. Sparta Rotterdam collected their first win by beating Willem II Tilburg 2-1.
■SCOTLAND
Rangers put four past Falkirk
Rangers opened the defense of their Scottish Premier League title on Saturday with a 4-1 win over visiting Falkirk. Falkirk equalized after Lee McCulloch put the home side ahead in the 14th minute, but Kenny Miller struck twice and Steven Naismith rounded off the scoring with seven minutes left to give Rangers a convincing victory. Celtic began their attempt to regain the title from their fiercest rivals with a 3-1 win at Aberdeen. Aiden McGeady scored twice, before Scott McDonald, last season’s leading scorer for the Bhoys, made it 3-0 at halftime. Also on Saturday, Hibernian beat St Mirren 2-1, Kilmarnock beat Hamilton 3-0 and St Johnstone drew 2-2 with visiting Motherwell.
■SPAIN
Messi to skip first game
Lionel Messi will be allowed to skip Barcelona’s first game of the league season to join up with Argentina for their World Cup qualifier against Brazil, coach Pep Guardiola said on Saturday. Barcelona’s La Liga opener at home to Sporting Gijon has been moved to Monday Aug. 31, because the European Super Cup against Shakhtar Donetsk is on Aug. 28. If Messi had played, he would have been late to join Argentina’s preparations for their home match against the South American group leaders on Sept. 5.
■PORTUGAL
Sporting held by Nacional
Sporting started the Portuguese season with a disappointing 1-1 draw at Nacional on Saturday. Joao Aurelio scored from a Nacional counterattack in the 27th minute, but then leveled it with an own-goal in the 75th minute to allow Sporting to leave the Madeira Stadium with a point. Sporting coach Paulo Bento left Ecuadorean striker Felipe Caicedo, the club’s top off-season signing, off the team sheet. Albert Meyong Ze’s 87th-minute goal allowed Braga to beat Academica 1-0. Academica’s Paulo Sergio was sent off in the 90th minute after picking up a second yellow card. Leixoes and Belenenses officially opened the new season on Friday by playing out a 0-0 draw.
■ITALY
Fans to get special ID cards
Fans in Italy will have to obtain a special supporters card from their club to see their team play away from home next year. The government believes the initiative will make it easier to police matches and track down troublemakers, as part of their bid to combat hooliganism in Italian soccer. Authorities already employ a range of measures to prevent trouble, including bans on away fans at high-risk games.
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
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
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