NETHERLANDS
Breda stun leaders PSV
Leaders PSV Eindhoven suffered a stunning 4-2 defeat at NAC Breda in the Dutch league on Friday as they missed the chance to go six points clear. Breda twice came from behind before goals by Ali Boussaboun and Matthew Amoah, with his second of the match, wrapped up the victory despite Kees Luijckx being sent off in the 74th. Twente Enschede would move level on 34 points with PSV at the top if they won at NEC Nijmegen yesterday. PSV took the lead through Jonathan Reis after 15 minutes before Amoah set up Leonardo to equalize on the half-hour, but Balazs Dzsudzsak put the visitors in front again in the 33rd. Amoah then headed home his first goal four minutes before the interval to leave the scores level at halftime. Boussaboun put Breda ahead five minutes into the second half and, after Luijckx was dismissed for a second booking, Amoah scored again 11 minutes from time to wrap up the points.
SCOTLAND
Portuguese refs pull out
A group of Portuguese referees has joined Polish match officials in withdrawing from plans to replace striking referees in this weekend’s Scottish Premier League matches. Poland’s football association backed out of an agreement reached on Thursday to send 12 match officials to Scotland to cover for referees who went on strike to protest clubs’ criticism of their recent performances. The Scottish Football Association said on Friday that all six topflight matches were still on, although a First Division game between Greenock Morton and Falkirk has been postponed. However, later Friday, Portuguese referees who had been brought in had also returned home. They were due to officiate in Hibernian’s home game against St Johnstone yesterday and the match today between Motherwell and Hearts. Israeli officials were due to run yesterday’s matches between Hamilton and St Mirren, and Kilmarnock and Aberdeen. A delegation from Luxembourg were to take charge of the weekend’s biggest matches. The officials were to take charge of Celtic’s home match against Inverness yesterday and Rangers’ visit to Dundee United today.
GERMANY
Van Gaal safe: Rummenigge
Bayern Munich coach Louis van Gaal’s job is safe despite the team being 14 points behind Bundesliga leader Borussia Dortmund close to the halfway mark of the season, according to club chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge. “Van Gaal is not wobbling at all,” Rummenigge told yesterday’s edition of Bild newspaper. Rummenigge said the board remains convinced of Van Gaal’s qualities. “We have to go through this difficult stage together. Anything else would not be Bayern-like. After all, we are still on course in the German Cup and the Champions League,” Rummenigge said. Bayern won the domestic double last season and reached the Champions League final but the Bundelsiga title now appears out of reach.
FRANCE
Charisteas quits Arles
Greek striker Angelos Charisteas has agreed to quit Arles-Avignon by mutual consent, having failed to relaunch his career with the French first division strugglers. Charisteas, 30, joined Arles from Bundesliga side Nuremberg in the hope of reigniting his career after two frustrating years. However promoted Arles have won only one match in 14 starts, and the Greek striker failed to make an impact. Charisteas and the club reached agreement to bring his contract, due to expire at the end of the season, to an end with immediate effect.
BASEBALL
Dodgers resign Garland
The Los Angeles Dodgers strengthened their starting rotation on Friday by signing former All-Star pitcher Jon Garland to a one-year contract with a vesting option for 2012. The 31-year-old, who returns to the Dodgers after playing for the San Diego Padres last season, will link up with fellow pitchers Chad Billingsley, Clayton Kershaw, Hiroki Kuroda and Ted Lilly in Los Angeles. “We’re very pleased to have Jon join this group and give us five very strong starters going into spring training,” Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti said in a statement. Each of the quintet won at least 10 games last season, with Garland going 14-12 for the Padres with a 3.47 ERA.
FORMULA ONE
Ricciardo gets reserve spot
Australian Daniel Ricciardo will drive for Toro Rosso in Friday morning free practice sessions as their official reserve at Grand Prix next season, the Formula One team said. Their race lineup of Switzerland’s Sebastien Buemi and Spain’s Jaime Alguersuari will remain unchanged, although each will have to give up a Friday session in turn. “When our team was created, its stated aim was to bring on young drivers from the Red Bull Junior Program, so Daniel’s appointment as our third driver is an obvious one,” team principal Franz Tost said on Friday. “Although Daniel has done some F1 testing already, running on Fridays at the Grand Prix will give him a valuable insight into the additional pressures of doing it for real during a race weekend. I am also sure that having a hungry youngster on the books will keep our current driver pairing nice and sharp.”
CYCLING
Contador submits documents
Three-time Tour de France champion Alberto Contador has submitted documents which he says prove that a piece of contaminated meat is to blame for his failed dope test, a source close to the Spaniard said on Friday. The source, who is not authorized to speak publicly about the case and therefore declined to be named, said Contador handed over all “necessary documents” to the Spanish federation on Friday. Contador, who failed a test for the banned anabolic agent clen-buterol during this year’s Tour, could lose his title if found guilty by the Spanish federation, who are expected to announce a decision within three months. The 27-year-old Contador, one of only five men with victories in all three grand Tours — the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia and the Vuelta a Espana — could face a two-year ban from the sport.
BOBSLED
Machata wins season-opener
Germany’s Manuel Machata drove his two-man bobsled to a win at the first World Cup race of the season in Whistler, British Columbia, on Thursday at the Vancouver Olympic track. Machata — a World Cup rookie — and brakeman Andreas Bredau finished two runs in 1 minute, 44.06 seconds. There was a tie for second with Canada’s Lyndon Rush and brakeman Neville Wright, along with Germany’s Karl Angerer and Christian Friedrich, 0.19 seconds off the pace.
SKELETON
Montgomery edges Bromley
Canada’s Jon Montgomery won the World Cup skeleton season-opener on Friday night in Whistler, British Columbia, sliding to victory on the same track where he won gold at the Vancouver Olympics. Montgomery’s two-run time was 1 minute, 47.56 seconds. Britain’s Kristan Bromley was second, while Alexander Tretyakov of Russia finished third.
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