NETHERLANDS
Feyenoord thrash Venlo
John Guidetti scored two penalties on Sunday to help Feyenoord rout VVV-Venlo 4-0 and end a two-game losing streak in the Dutch league. Guidetti converted his first spot-kick in the 31st minute after referee Serdar Gozubuyuk ruled that he had been fouled by Ferry de Regt in the area. Gozubuyuk then sent off Venlo’s Ahmed Musa after the Nigerian picked up a second yellow card, before Guidetti doubled the lead in the 50th minute from another penalty. Karim El Ahmadi and Ricky van Haaren added a pair of goals to complete the rout, leaving Venlo still looking for their first win of the season. Feyenoord moved fourth with 17 points, five behind leaders AZ Alkmaar, who drew 2-2 with Ajax on Saturday. PSV Eindhoven and Twente are tied for second with 20 points each. PSV beat Utrecht 1-0 on Saturday, while Twente routed RKC Waalwijk 4-0. Also on Sunday, Roda JC beat ADO The Hague 4-1 with Sanharib Malki scoring two goals, while Mitchell Donald and Ruud Vormer added one each. Robbert Schilder and Anthony Lurling scored in each half to help NAC Breda edge Excelsior Rotterdam 2-0. Giorgi Chanturia netted in the 34th minute in Vitesse Arnhem’s 1-0 victory at NEC Nijmegen.
GREECE
Leto fires Greens to top spot
Sebastian Leto scored twice in the first half and Quincy added another in the second to help Panathinaikos win 3-2 at Xanthi in the Greek league on Sunday. Edimar and Panayiotis Vlachodimos scored in the second half to pull Xanthi back from a 3-0 deficit, but the hosts could not find an equalizer. The win puts Panathinaikos atop the Greek league with 10 points from four games. Four other teams also have 10 points, but Panathinaikos have the best goal-difference — and two games in hand on PAOK and Atromitos. PAOK drew 0-0 at home against OFI, while Atromitos drew 2-2 at Kerkyra on Saturday. Olympiakos and AEK also have 10 points each after a 1-1 draw on Saturday. Also on Sunday, Aris drew 1-1 at Ergotelis and Giannena and Panionios held each other 0-0.
BRAZIL
Sao Paulo sack their coach
Sao Paulo sacked coach Adilson Batista in the changing room right after Sunday’s 3-0 defeat at Atletico Goianiense, their sixth match without a win. It was the 31st coaching change of the year among Brazil’s 20 first division clubs. Sao Paulo have dropped from second to sixth in the Brazilian championship standings, six points adrift of archrivals and leaders Corinthians with eight matches to go. Adilson took charge at Sao Paulo in July and presided over 22 matches in all competitions with seven wins and six defeats. Assistant Milton Cruz will take charge as caretaker for the remainder of the championship and the Copa Sudamericana, the club said on their Web site.
ENGLAND
Suarez ‘upset’ at allegations
Liverpool striker Luis Suarez said he is “upset” at allegations he racially abused Manchester United defender Patrice Evra during their Premier League match on Saturday. The Football Association has launched an investigation after Evra, a black French fullback, told French TV station Canal Plus that Suarez leveled racist insults at him during the 1-1 draw at Anfield. Suarez wrote on Sunday on his official Facebook page that he was “upset by the accusations of racism” made by Evra. The Uruguay international said: “I can only say that I have always respected and respect everybody. We are all the same.” Liverpool said on Saturday that Suarez “categorically denies the allegations.”
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