■GERMANY
St Pauli, Hannover stunned
Newly promoted St Pauli slumped to a surprise 1-0 defeat against amateurs Chemnitzer in the German Cup first round on Saturday. St Pauli were joined later in the day by fellow Bundesliga club Hannover 96, who lost 5-4 on penalties to regional league club Elversberg after a 0-0 draw at the end of extra-time. A small group of disappointed Hannover fans caused trouble outside the stadium, before police moved in to break them up. All the other Bundesliga clubs avoided any unpleasant surprises in the tricky one-legged ties to advance to the second round. Chemnitzer, who play in the northern regional league, grabbed a fifth-minute lead through Andreas Richter and managed to fight off waves of attacks to clinch a memorable victory. Last season’s finalists, Werder Bremen, had little trouble ousting third division Rot Weiss Ahlen 4-0 in what may have been midfielder Mesut Ozil’s last game, with Real Madrid negotiating to sign the gifted Germany playmaker. Peruvian Claudio Pizarro fired them into the lead in the 28th minute, before Hugo Almeida and Tim Borowski made sure of their second-round spot with two goals after the interval. Marko Marin added a fourth eight minutes from time. Bayer Leverkusen crushed amateurs FK Pirmasens 11-1, with Patrick Helmes netting a hat-trick.
■NETHERLANDS
PSV score six and go top
Swede Ola Toivonen hit a hat-trick to fire PSV Eindhoven to a 6-0 win over 10-man Graafschap Doetinchem in the Dutch league on Saturday. Ajax came from behind to beat Vitesse Arnhem 4-2 for their first win this season, but champions Twente Enschede were held to a 0-0 draw at home by Heerenveen, their second in a row. PSV top the standings with six points from two games, two ahead of Ajax. Balazs Dzsudzsak converted a fifth-minute penalty to put PSV ahead after Purrell Frankel was sent off and Toivonen hit his first minutes before the interval to double the lead. After the break, the Swedish striker added two more to lift his tally to five in two matches. Late goals by Nordin Amrabat and Ibrahim Afellay completed the rout.
■ENGLAND
RBS set to take over Reds
The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is preparing to take over Liverpool as the search for a buyer looks increasingly likely to end in failure, a newspaper reported yesterday. Negotiations last week, including those with Chinese sports tycoon Kenny Huang and Syrian businessman Yahya Kirdi, proved fruitless, the Sunday Times said. None of the buyers were able to prove they had the money, the paper said, citing sources close to the talks. If a new owner cannot be found, the Premier League club’s main lender RBS — which is 83 percent owned by the British taxpayer following a huge bailout during the financial crisis — may have to take it over. Liverpool owes the bank £237 million (US$370 million) which must be repaid by Oct. 6 or a penalty fee of £60 million will be due.
■ENGLAND
Lions roar to top of table
Promoted Millwall roared to the top of the Championship with a 4-0 thrashing of Hull City on Saturday. The south London outfit demolished Bristol City 3-0 last weekend and they went one better with a four-goal haul against the Tigers. Steve Morison underlined his growing reputation as he opened the scoring in the 14th minute. Hull fell 2-0 down in the 29th minute when Kevin Lisbie headed in. Morison struck again in the 52nd minute and Liam Trotter completed the rout in the 60th minute.
Four-time NBA all-star DeMarcus Cousins arrived in Taiwan with his family early yesterday to finish his renewed contract with the Taiwan Beer Leopards in the T1 League. Cousins initially played a four-game contract with the Leopards in January. On March 18, the Taoyuan-based team announced that Cousins had renewed his contract. “Hi what’s up Leopard fans, I’m back. I’m excited to be back and can’t wait to join the team,” Cousins said in a video posted on the Leopard’s Facebook page. “Most of all, can’t wait to see you guys, the fans, next weekend. So make sure you come out and support the Beer
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