Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson cast an eye over Germany midfielder Mesut Ozil in Werder Bremen’s 5-1 friendly defeat against Fulham on Saturday.
Ferguson has claimed he is happy to give his youngsters a chance this season, but the Scot, in London for yesterday’s Community Shield clash with Chelsea, still turned up at Craven Cottage to look at potential transfer targets.
The Scot has been linked with Ozil since his impressive displays for Germany at the World Cup, but he didn’t have much opportunity to see the 21-year-old at his best as Fulham cruised home thanks to Zoltan Gera’s hat-trick.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Arsenal won an extraordinary friendly clash with Legia Warsaw in Poland as the Gunners came from 3-0 down to win 6-5.
Marouane Chamakh began the comeback and Emmanuel Eboue scored twice in eight second-half minutes to draw Arsene Wenger’s men level.
Kieran Gibbs’ effort put them in front, but it took late goals from Jay Emmanuel-Thomas and Samir Nasri to ensure victory.
Manchester City ended their pre-season program on a high note with a 2-0 victory over Spanish visitors Valencia at Eastlands, with Gareth Barry and Jo on target.
Everton were beaten 2-0 by Steve McClaren’s VfL Wolfsburg in Germany despite a Tim Howard penalty save from Bosnian striker Edin Dzeko.
Tottenham Hotspur forward Robbie Keane scored twice to seal a 3-2 victory over Fiorentina at White Hart Lane.
Harry Redknapp’s men were behind until Keane took center stage, grabbing a stoppage-time winner after Roman Pavlyuchenko also scored for the hosts.
Mame Biram Diouf scored on his debut for Blackburn Rovers to give Sam Allardyce’s men a 1-1 draw at Heart of Midlothian.
Diouf has moved to Ewood Park on loan from Manchester United and the Senegal under-21 striker quickly made an impact after Suso Santana’s deflected effort had given Hearts a first-half lead at Tynecastle.
West Ham United beat Deportivo La Coruna on penalties, Pablo Barrera converting the winner for Avram Grant’s men, who had finished goalless after 90 minutes.
Birmingham City lost their unbeaten record in pre-season as Emilio Nsue’s second-half effort proved enough for Real Mallorca to win 1-0 at St Andrew’s.
Newcastle United, back in the Premier League after a one-year absence, were beaten 2-1 by Scottish champions Rangers at Ibrox.
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