■EGYPT
Brazil get off to a flyer
Brazil got off to a dream start at the under-20 World Cup on Sunday, with Alan Kardec scoring twice in a 5-0 win over Costa Rica. Also in Group E, the Czech Republic prevailed 2-1 over Australia in a game that saw two late penalties and the 89th-minute sending off of Australian defender Ryan McGowan. There was more late drama in Group F, where the United Arab Emirates scored twice in injury-time for a surprise 2-2 draw with South Africa, and Mario Martinez struck two brilliant goals as Honduras beat Hungary 3-0 in Alexandria. With Argentina absent from the youth tournament, four-time winners Brazil are the hot favorites and they quickly established dominance over the energetic Costa Ricans. Kardec headed home from a corner in the 24th minute and Giuliano followed up with an expert lob over Costa Rica goalkeeper Esteban Alvarado to make it 2-0. Kardec got his second in the 44th, pouncing on a loose ball in the goalmouth following a Giuliano free-kick. Alex Teixeira tapped home Brazil’s fourth in the 75th minute after Douglas slipped through the Costa Rica defense and struck the post with his shot. Substitute Boquita completed the rout in the 89th minute.
■NETHERLANDS
Ajax keep in touch with PSV
Ajax beat ADO The Hague 3-0 on Sunday to stay within a point of Dutch league leaders PSV Eindhoven and FC Twente. Demy de Zeeuw gave Ajax the lead by blasting a 20m shot in the 25th minute, before newcomer Marko Pantelic doubled the lead in the 71st minute, converting Luis Suarez’s pinpoint pass from 10m. After Suarez had missed a dozen chances for Ajax, substitute Siem de Jong netted the third from Dennis Rommedahl’s cross in the 89th minute. Andwele Slory scored on his 27th birthday and Leroy Fer added another in Feyenoord’s 2-0 win over NAC Breda, while Paulo Henrique and Viktor Elm scored to help SC Heerenveen beat Sparta Rotterdam by the same score. Danny Holla’s 26th-minute goal was all FC Groningen needed to see off Vitesse Arnhem 1-0 and secure their first home win of the season. Bas Dost and Everton scored first-half goals to give Heracles Almelo a 2-0 win at NEC Nijmegen.
■BRAZIL
Palmeiras go clear at top
On-loan defender Danilo justified the US$55,000 Palmeiras had to pay to field him against Atletico Paranaense, who hold his registration, by scoring the winner in their 2-1 victory in the Brazilian championship. Chilean full back Luis Figueroa had put Palmeiras ahead and Chico equalized, before Danilo scored the winner from a corner 20 minutes from time on Saturday to send Palmeiras five points clear in the standings. Palmeiras now have 50 points, while second placed Goias have 45 after their 2-1 win over Gremio and are ahead of Sao Paulo having scored more goals, with Internacional fourth on 44 points after a 0-0 draw at home to Flamengo. Corinthians striker Ronaldo scored one goal and could have had another in their 1-1 draw with local rivals Sao Paulo on Sunday. Substitute Washington equalized for the champions.
■ENGLAND
Whole squad put up for sale
Micky Adams, the manager of English fourth-tier side Port Vale, said on Sunday he was putting his entire squad up for sale following a 3-1 defeat to Notts County. Adams told the BBC: “I’ve told them that the whole squad will be transfer listed on Monday morning. It’s not a personal thing. I could make excuses for them and their performance on Saturday, but that would just be papering over the cracks. The fans deserve better and I want to give them better.”
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