Uruguay must find a way to cope with the attacking Dutch midfield trio of Wesley Sneijder, Dirk Kuyt and Arjen Robben if they are to record their first World Cup win over European opposition since 1970. The Dutch will have to put the shackles on striker Diego Forlan.
■DEFENSE
Dutch center-back John Heitinga knows Forlan well as they played together at Atletico Madrid.
Heitinga’s partnership with Joris Mathijsen has turned out to be one of the Dutch team’s strong points. They have conceded only one goal from open play and two penalties so far.
Right-back Gregory van der Wiel is suspended but Khalid Boulahrouz, his likely replacement, is also strong both going forward and defensively. Giovanni van Bronckhorst at left-back is naturally a midfielder.
Uruguay have only conceded two goals but the suspension of left-back Jorge Fucile is a blow.
Mauricio Victorino should keep his place and partner Diego Godin, who returns from injury, in central defense. However, based in Chile and with only eight caps, he lacks experience at this level and could find Robin van Persie a handful.
Right-back Maximiliano Pereira is solid defensively but does not add much to the attack. Martin Caceres should get his first start at left-back. He was a regular in the qualifiers but an injury last year set his career back.
■MIDFIELD
The game is likely to turn on how well Uruguay’s midfield handle Robben, Kuyt and Sneijder.
Robben is only a threat if he can get onto his left foot and the Uruguayans are experienced and wily enough to keep him on his right.
Demy de Zeeuw will partner Mark van Bommel in front of the Netherlands defense, an important role given the way the full-backs push forward.
Diego Perez is the Uruguay midfield strongman while Walter Gargano is also a holding player. Egidio Arevalo should be the playmaker while Alvaro Pereira adds width on the left.
■ATTACK
Van Persie is the lone Dutch striker.
Forlan poses the biggest threat to the Netherlands. His pace, work rate and skill, not to mention deadly long-range shooting, have made him one of the top players at the World Cup.
Edinson Cavani is likely to partner Forlan in attack.
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