Cameroon striker Mohamadou Idrissou was both goal-scorer and provider for Borussia Moenchengladbach as they upset Bayer Leverkusen 6-3 on Sunday in a nine-goal thriller on a weekend of shock results in the Bundesliga.
Leverkusen’s Germany goalkeeper Rene Adler had a day to forget as his defense capitulated, leaving coach Jupp Heynckes furious.
“’Gladbach played very well,” Heynckes said. “We made a mess of our defensive organization. We invited them to the party and they punished us.”
After Bayern Munich were beaten at Kaiserslautern on Friday, VfL Wolfsburg allowed a 3-0 lead to slip to a 4-3 defeat by FSV Mainz 05 on Saturday as Schalke 04 went down at home to Hannover 96 on a bad weekend for the Bundesliga’s top teams.
Leverkusen fielded Germany star midfielder Michael Ballack — who was booed off when he was replaced in the second-half — as well as Adler and striker Stefan Kiessling, but they were out-played by ’Gladbach as midfielder Patrick Herrmann netted twice for the guests, both of which were set up by Idrissou, who scored himself in the second half.
“This is an extraordinary day for us,” coach Michael Frontzeck said. “We took everything possible from this game and everything worked out for us, but our objective will not change, we want to build on last season.”
On Sunday evening, VfB Stuttgart’s poor start continued as they were well beaten 3-1 at home by Borussia Dortmund.
The visitors raced into a 3-0 lead after just 37 minutes as Christian Gross-coached Stuttgart suffered their second consecutive defeat.
“We played an outstanding first half,” Dortmund coach Juergen Klopp said.
It started when defender Marcel Schmelzer fired in a cross which deflected off Dutch defender Khalid Boulahrouz and into the net after five minutes.
Striker Lucas Barrios and midfielder Mario Goetze then both netted, before Germany striker Cacau pulled a consolation goal back on 69 minutes for Stuttgart.
“The way we played in the first half, we had no spark at all,” Cacau said. “The goal and our fighting spirit came too late.”
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB