After two cagey rounds of games at the Copa America, save for Argentina’s swatting of Costa Rica, the championship burst into life on Wednesday as Brazil hit four goals against Ecuador to reach the quarter-finals.
While the Samba Stars were finally getting their act together with a 4-2 win thanks to doubles from Neymar and Pato their Group B rivals Venezuela, not to be outdone, served up even more of a thriller in sharing six goals with Paraguay.
In the shakeout of those two results, reigning champions Brazil won the group by the scruff of their necks, by a goal difference of plus two to plus one for the Venezuelans.
Photo: EPA
The Brazilians, who were in ominous attacking mode from the start, on Sunday now face the Paraguayans, who go through as one of the two best third-placed finishers.
Venezuela will take on Chile, hosts Argentina meet Uruguay in a battle at Santa Fe between two sides with 14 crowns apiece — to eight for Brazil — while 2001 champions Colombia joust with Peru at Cordoba.
“That was the game we wanted to play. We wanted to win and to take top spot,” Pato said.
Photo: Reuters
“When we lose, we all lose, and when we, win we all win together. The whole team played really well — it’s a great result,” the AC Milan striker said.
Ecuador’s Felipe Caicedo, who grabbed both his side’s goals, said he and his teammates were downcast after giving it their best shot — but coming rock bottom of the group with a solitary point.
“We’re a bit sad — we gave it all we had. It hurts. We wanted to make history, but we hope the experience will stand us in good stead for the World Cup qualifiers,” Caicedo said.
Photo: AFP
Coach Mano Menezes brought back Robinho for an attacking line-up having dropped the AC Milan man for the draw with Paraguay and he responded with a hard-running showing, while Ganso and Andre Santos also starred at the hub of the side as the jogo bonito returned to the Brazilian game.
Robino had an effort chalked off for offside late on but by then it was academic.
Pato’s opening header on 28 minutes set the tone — although Caicedo leveled seven minutes before the interval with a low shot which embarrassed Julio Cesar in the Brazilian goal.
Photo: EPA
Santos starlet Neymar smacked the favorites back in front four minutes after combat resumed and although Caicedo promptly responded with another low effort, the Brazilians then raced through the gears against rivals who had little more to give.
On the hour Neymar shot, keeper Marcelo Elizaga emulated Cesar in making a fumble of his own and Pato bundled in before Maicon hared down the right and Neymar clipped in from 4m out with 18 minutes remaining.
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