■ENGLAND
Wayne Rooney injured
England’s impressive 1-0 World Cup win over Slovenia on Wednesday which secured a ticket to the last 16 was tainted by an ankle injury suffered by Wayne Rooney. The Manchester United striker had to come off in the 72nd minute at the Nelson Mandela Bay stadium, with manager Fabio Capello sending on Joe Cole as a substitute. With their next match coming on Sunday against Germany in Bloemfontein, England will be praying one of their most important players will have made a full recovery in time.
■GERMANY
Trio race to fitness
Germany’s Mesut Ozil, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Jerome Boateng face a race against time to be fit to face England in Sunday’s World Cup last 16 clash, coach Joachim Loew said. The team’s win over Ghana came at a price as Ozil, the man-of-the-match, was left bent over at the final whistle, while vice-captain Schweinsteiger came off after 81 minutes with a muscle injury. And defender Boateng had to be replaced on 73 minutes with a back injury.
■SPAIN
Goalie’s girl gets grilling
The journalist girlfriend of Spain’s goalkeeper was accused of breaching professional ethics on Wednesday after she reported on live television from behind the net ahead of the country’s World Cup loss to Switzerland. Sara Carbonero, whose boyfriend is Spain’s No. 1 keeper Iker Casillas, is a television journalist for Spain’s Telecinco channel, part of the network owned by Italy’s Silvio Berlusconi. British newspapers last week showed a picture of her, microphone in hand, reporting from behind the net just a few meters from Casillas during the warm-up for the match against Switzerland. Spain lost the match 1-0, with Casillas at least partly to blame for the goal, and the British papers speculated that her presence may have distracted him. After the game, Carbonero interviewed Casillas on live television.
■UNITED STATES
Clinton celebrates win
Former US president Bill Clinton got to his feet to celebrate his team’s last-gasp goal against Algeria at the World Cup on Wednesday and gave the players a speech about the American spirit afterwards. “He spent 45 minutes in the locker room,” US Soccer president Sunil Gulati told reporters. “He was so proud of the team — they didn’t get frustrated by the fact they missed some chances today and didn’t let the last game affect them,” he said, referring to a 2-2 draw with Slovenia where they had a late goal disallowed. “That’s the American spirit, that’s what president Clinton said in the locker room after the game,” he said.
■NEW ZEALAND
Parliament scotches holiday
An attempt by a New Zealand lawmaker to create a public holiday to mark the achievements of its World Cup soccer team has been rejected by the nation’s Parliament. Labour Party minister Trevor Mallard tried yesterday to introduce a bill to Parliament which would have created a public holiday after New Zealand’s final group match against Paraguay. Government members opposed the introduction of the bill and it was thrown out of the house in barely 15 seconds. The Paraguay match is to be shown in the early hours of the morning New Zealand time and Mallard said loyal football fans deserved a day off as a reward for supporting their team.
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