■ARGENTINA
Fans don’t want Maradona
Diego Maradona wants to return as national team coach, but polls released on Saturday suggest nine in 10 Argentines don’t want him back. Maradona said on Friday he wanted to return as coach and would consider getting rid of his much-criticized assistants to get the job back. He was almost pleading in a TV interview, saying: “I’d give my life” to have the job again. In a poll by the newspaper Clarin, 91.1 percent of about 10,000 who responded said they did not want him back. In a similar poll by the newspaper La Nacion, 93 percent of 6,185 who replied were against Maradona’s return. Argentina’s famous No. 10 was dismissed as coach after his players were humiliated by Germany in a 4-0 loss in the quarter-finals of the World Cup. The Argentine Football Association (AFA) said he could keep his job, but only if he got rid of his assistant coaches. Maradona refused, which led the AFA not to renew his contract and hire Sergio Batista as interim coach.
■NETHERLANDS
Ajax stay at summit
Ajax stayed top of the Dutch championship after twice coming from behind to draw 2-2 at Twente Enschede on Saturday. Costa Rican Bryan Ruiz produced a fine lob over the Ajax defense after 11 minutes for Theo Janssen to open the scoring, but four minutes later Mounir El Hamdaoui equalized for the visitors. Twente, who meet Tottenham Hotspur in the Champions League on Wednesday, restored their lead after 62 minutes through Janssen’s second goal. Eyong Enoh, though, hauled Ajax level again six minutes later after the hosts’ defense failed to clear a corner. Ajax have 17 points from seven matches, two ahead of PSV Eindhoven and Groningen, who shared a 1-1 draw. Twente are fourth with 13 points. Swede Ola Toivonen put PSV ahead after 63 minutes, but two minutes before time Gonzalo Garcia salvaged a point for Groningen. Roda JC Kerkrade, fifth on 12 points, staged a second-half comeback to draw 2-2 at Heerenveen. Bas Dost struck twice for Heerenveen before the break. Dmitri Bulykin also hit two goals to earn sixth-placed ADO Den Haag a 3-2 home win over Heracles Almelo.
■GREECE
Olympiakos go top
Olympiakos Piraeus moved to the top of the Greek Super League for the first time this season with a 3-0 win over Asteras Tripolis on Saturday. Goals from Marco Pantelic, David Fuster and a Socrates Fitanidis own-goal allowed Ernesto Valverde’s men to sweep aside their opponents at the Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium and move on to eight points after four matches, one point clear of Athens rivals Panathinaikos. Champions Panathinaikos also won on Saturday, beating Panionios 2-1 at the Olympic Stadium. Greece internationals Sotiris Ninis (44) and Kostas Katsouranis (63) were on target as Panathinaikos kept their unbeaten start to the season going.
■PORTUGAL
Porto victorious again
Porto made it six wins out of six in the Portuguese league by beating Olhanense 2-0 with goals from Nicolas Otamendi and Hulk on Saturday. The win puts Porto on 18 points, seven clear of Academica, Braga and Guimaraes, all level on 11. Champions Benfica continued their improved recent form with a 1-0 win at Maritimo, with Fabio Coentrao scoring the only goal. Benfica’s first away win of the season leaves the Lisbon side fifth on nine points. In the day’s other game, Academica beat Guimaraes 3-1. On Friday, Braga beat Naval 3-1.
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