ARGENTINA
Messi arrives in Japan
World player of the year Lionel Messi arrived in Japan yesterday ahead of an international friendly that will earn Argentina a US$200,000 cash bonus. The Barcelona forward’s involvement in tomorrow’s match in Saitama, however, remains in doubt after he injured an ankle in a league game last month. Messi swept into Tokyo wearing jeans and a white T-shirt, sporting stubble after the long flight, but signed autographs for waiting fans after clearing customs. The 23-year-old’s friendly appearances for club and country has boosted ticket sales for matches in the Far East and the Japan Football Association are desperate for him to play. Local media reported that the Argentine FA would be paid US$200,000 for bringing Messi to Japan for the game, which will be the home side’s first under new Italian coach Alberto Zaccheroni.
REAL ZARAGOZA
‘No problem with Gay’
Real Zaragoza president Agapito Iglesias in Madrid on Tuesday dismissed speculation that the Spanish club were set to fire coach Jose Aurelio Gay, saying the manager would stay on until the end of the season. “There is no problem with Gay. We are aware of his good work and he is going to stay for the entire season,” he told a news conference. Earlier on Tuesday, sports daily Marca reported that Iglesias had decided to replace Gay in a bid to lift the club out of the relegation zone. Real Zaragoza have earned just three points from their first six matches. The club tied 2-2 against minnows Sporting Gijon on Saturday. Gay was promoted from second team coach in December last year and was successful in retaining Real Zaragoza’s top-flight status last season.
ARGENTINA
Maradona fights for Nobel
Argentine soccer great Diego Maradona asked in a letter to Norway’s parliament on Tuesday that the human rights group Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo be recognized with the Nobel Peace Prize, Argentina’s Sports secretariat in said in Buenos Aires. The former Argentina captain, 49, was quoted as praising the Grandmothers’ “unflinching, serene and brave fight for the restitution [to their rightful families] of children kidnapped by state terrorism.” The group was created to find children abducted under the 1976 to 1983 military regime when 30,000 people disappeared, and to return them to their relatives. Norway’s Noble Committee is due to announce the Peace Prize winner on Friday. Maradona, who led Argentina to victory in the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, lost his post as national team coach after its quarter-final elimination at the South Africa finals in July.
BARCELONA
Krkic will score ‘eventually’
It is only a matter of time before Barcelona striker Bojan Krkic’s goalless streak comes to an end, his teammate David Villa said on Tuesday. Krkic, 20, netted eight goals in the Spanish league last season, but has so far failed to score this season. Spanish champions Barcelona are in fourth place with 13 points, three fewer than Villa’s former club Valencia who are on top after six matches. “They are the strongest team at the moment. But there is still a long way to go,” Villa said. Barcelona signed 28-year-old Villa from Valencia in May on a four-year deal worth 40 million euros (US$55 million). He scored 21 league goals last season with Valencia to finish his fifth consecutive campaign as the club’s top scorer.
FOOTBALL
Dolphins fire Bonamego
John Bonamego was fired as the Miami Dolphins’ special teams coordinator on Tuesday, barely 12 hours after his squad struggled in Miami’s 41-14 home loss to New England. The Patriots blocked a punt and a field goal attempt, returning the latter for a touchdown, and also had Brandon Tate return the second half kickoff 103 yards for a touchdown at the expense of Bonamego’s units. “It’s a hard decision,” Dolphins coach Tony Sparano said. “Nobody works harder than him at what he does. Our players also need to take responsibility.” Darren Rizzi was promoted from assistant special teams coach into the coordinator post.
FORMULA ONE
Sport pays tribute to Warr
Formula One has paid tribute to former Lotus team boss Peter Warr after his death from a heart attack at the age of 72. The sport’s commercial supremo Bernie Ecclestone said in a message on the Formula One Web site (www.formula1.com) that he had lost a good friend. “When Peter was in Formula One, he helped me to build it to what it is today,” he said. Warr, who died on Monday, was Lotus team manager under founder Colin Chapman and went on to run the team for seven years after the Briton’s death in 1982. He attended this year’s season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix to witness the Lotus name return to the sport with Malaysian entrepreneur Tony Fernandes.
BASEBALL
Comeback kings revealed
Pitchers Tim Hudson of Atlanta and Francisco Liriano of Minnesota were named as Major League Baseball’s Comeback Players of the Year on Tuesday after guiding their teams into the playoffs. Hudson captured the Nation League version of the award by going 17-9 with a 2.83 earned-run average and 139 strikeouts over 34 starts after making only seven starts last year following arm surgery. It was the most successful season since 2001 for Hudson, who ranked second in NL starts and fourth in innings pitched with 228 2/3. He had a career-high 13 strikeouts in August against Florida. Liriano, a 26-year-old Dominican who also underwent arm surgery and missed the entire 2007 season, has struggled with arm fatigue over the past two years, but bounced back to claim the American League honor. Liriano went 14-10 with a 3.62 earned-run average in 31 starts, striking out 201 batters over 191 2/3 innings. He ranked fifth in the league in strikeouts and enjoyed an eight-game winning streak from July 16 to Sept. 14.
FOOTBALL
Buffalo trade top rusher
Winless Buffalo traded top rusher Marshawn Lynch to the Seattle Seahawks on Tuesday in exchange for undisclosed future picks in the NFL Draft. The move came eight days after the Bills released former starting quarterback Trent Edwards and with the club scrambling for answers at 0-4. Lynch, sent away two weeks before the NFL trade deadline, had 164 yards on 37 carries and in 45 career games has 2,765 rushing yards and 17 touchdowns plus 670 receiving yards and another touchdown. Fred Jackson, who had replaced Lynch in the Bills’ starting backfield, and rookie C.J. Spiller will see more time in Buffalo’s lineup while the Seahawks hope Lynch will be the answer to their rushing woes. The Seahawks, 2-2 entering a bye week, ranked 27th among 32 NFL clubs, with an average of 79.5 yards rushing a game. Seattle released Julius Jones, their top rusher the past two seasons, to make room on their roster for Lynch. Justin Forsett started last week for the Seahawks, managing only 65 yards on 19 carries.
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