■ARGENTINA
Buonanotte hurt in car crash
River Plate’s sought-after forward Diego Buonanotte broke his collar bone and damaged a lung in a car crash in which three friends were killed in the early hours of Saturday, police said. The 21-year-old Buonanotte, a member of Argentina’s Olympic gold medal squad last year, and his friends were returning in pouring rain from a night out dancing near his home town of Teodolina when their car hit a tree. The diminutive attacking midfielder was spending the end of year holidays in Teodolina, Santa Fe Province, and was due to return to his club in Buenos Aires for pre-championship training on Friday. European and Mexican clubs have shown interest in Buonanotte, but the new River Plate chairman, former captain and coach Daniel Passarella, who was elected earlier this month, has urged him to stay to help the team out of one of their worst-ever slumps.
■ENGLAND
Replace throw-ins: Wenger
Soccer could be speeded up by replacing throw-ins with kick-ins, Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said on Saturday. The Frenchman believes some clubs gain an unfair advantage simply because they have a player who can propel the ball long distances from throw-ins. “For example at Stoke, for Rory Delap it is like kicking the ball,” the Gunners manager told the club’s official Web site. “It is a little bit of an unfair advantage. He is using a strength that is usually not a strength in football. So [the rule I would change would be] maybe to play throw-ins by foot. Why not? I think it would make the game quicker.”
■PORTUGAL
Former Red joins Sporting
Former Liverpool striker Florent Sinama-Pongolle has agreed to move from struggling Spanish side Atletico Madrid to Sporting, the Portuguese team announced on Saturday. “An agreement in principle has been reached with Atletico Madrid and Florent Sinama-Pongolle in view to a transfer on Jan. 1,” a Sporting statement said. The Diario de Noticias newspaper reported that French international Sinama-Pongolle would cost Sporting, who are fifth in the table and 12 points behind leaders Sporting Braga and Benfica, about 6 million euros (US$8.6 million). Sinama-Pongolle, 25, started his career at Le Havre before spending three years at Liverpool between 2003 and 2006. After two years at Recreativo in Spain, he moved to Atletico Madrid last year, but struggled to hold down a first-team place in the face of competition from Uruguay striker Diego Forlan and Argentina striker Sergio “Kun” Aguero.
■AUSTRALIA
Culina to miss Kuwait trip
Midfielder Jason Culina has been ruled out of Australia’s Asian Cup qualifying clash with Kuwait on Jan. 6 because of a knee injury. Culina sustained the injury during Gold Coast United’s 5-1 win over Brisbane Roar in the Australian A-League on Saturday. Medics say the injury is not severe, with the former PSV Eindhoven player expected to be out of action for only two weeks. Socceroos coach Pim Verbeek has called up Central Coast Mariners player Dean Heffernan as Culina’s replacement for the trip to Kuwait City. Kuwait and Australia are joint leaders of Group B, with both sides needing one more victory to book their place in next year’s tournament, which is being held in Qatar.
The Rakuten Monkeys on Sunday downed the CTBC Brothers 2-1, handing the hosts their second consecutive loss in the best-of-seven CPBL Taiwan Series at the Taipei Dome. Monkeys’ ace starter Pedro Fernandez of the Dominican Republic dominated on the mound, cruising through six scoreless innings before giving up a run on a wild pitch in the bottom of the seventh inning. He gave up only three hits and walked two batters in a 93-pitch outing, giving his Taoyuan-based team an edge. Offensively, the Monkeys’ leadoff batter Lin Li hit Brothers starter Brandon Leibrandt’s pitch over the center-field wall in the game’s first at-bat,
The Ministry of Sports on Wednesday night called for the Chinese Taipei Football Association (CTFA) to address issues in Taiwanese soccer after national manager Huang Che-ming on Tuesday resigned following Taiwan’s elimination in AFC Asian Cup qualifiers. Taiwan on Tuesday were thrashed 6-1 by Thailand in their Group D tie at Taipei Municipal Stadium. Taiwan finished with no points, after losing all four of their matches, eliminating them from qualifying for the 2027 AFC Asian Cup. Huang made his surprise resignation at a post-match news conference, following three losses since he took over the team from English coach Gary White in August. Huang
HIT AND RUN: Toronto manager John Schneider got his wish that his team ‘find some slug in the air out here,’ as the Blue Jays combined to total 611m of homers Tired in Toronto, the Blue Jays slugged in Seattle. Vladimir Guerrero Jr and George Springer on Wednesday woke up the Jays, as Toronto hit five home runs to rebound from an early deficit, routing the Mariners 13-4 and closing to 2-1 in the American League Championship Series (ALCS). Toronto had 18 hits — all within the first three pitches of each at-bat. “If they give us a first pitch, the pitch that we’re looking for, we’re going to attack and we’re going to be aggressive,” Guerrero said. Seattle starter George Kirby gave up eight of the hits. “I wasn’t really executing when they got
Marco Bezzecchi yesterday demolished the Australian MotoGP lap record in setting the standard during second practice, becoming the first rider ever to dip below 1 minute, 27 seconds at Phillip Island. The Italian, who won the Indonesia sprint race two weeks ago before slamming into world champion Marc Marquez during the grand prix, blazed around the waterfront circuit in 1 minute, 26.580 seconds on his Aprilia. His time shattered the previous best of 1 minute, 27.246 seconds set by Jorge Martin in 2023. Not content with that, he then bettered it with a sizzling 1 minute, 26.492 seconds. That left Bezzecchi 0.291 seconds
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