NETHERLANDS
AZ extend their lead
Rasmus Elm scored the only goal of the game on Sunday to help AZ Alkmaar extend their lead at the top of the Dutch league with a 1-0 win over Roda JC. Elm’s 51st-minute corner went straight into the net for his seventh league goal of the season. Roda’s Mark Jan Fledderus was sent off in the second half after picking up a second yellow card. AZ lead the standings with 25 points from 10 games. PSV Eindhoven and Twente are tied in second place with 21 points each. Elsewhere on Sunday, PSV Eindhoven were held to a 1-1 draw at Vitesse Arnhem after taking the lead through Tim Matavz in the 18th minute. Bony Wilfried equalized for the hosts in the 58th minute. Ola John scored in the 20th minute as Twente salvaged a 1-1 draw at Groningen. Suk Hyun-jun scored Groningen’s goal. Earlier on Sunday, captain Jan Vertonghen scored with a 67th-minute header to give Ajax a 1-1 draw against Feyenoord. Stefan de Vrij had put Feyenoord in front with a close-range effort in the 61st minute. Ajax goalkeeper Kenneth Vermeer had kept his side in the game with a series of saves before he was sent off for a challenge on Guyon Fernandez in the 65th minute, but Vertonghen’s equalizer came two minutes later. De Graafschap beat NAC Breda 3-1 on Friday, while on Saturday it was VVV-Venlo 4, RKC Waalwijk 1; ADO The Hague 1, NEC Nijmegen 0; Excelsior Rotterdam 0, Heracles Almelo 2; and Utrecht 1, SC Heerenveen 4.
RUSSIA
Carlos still waiting for win
Brazilian World Cup winner Roberto Carlos was still waiting for his first win as Makhachkala Anzhi joint manager when the big-spending Russian side slumped to a 5-3 defeat to CSKA Moscow on Sunday. Anzhi got off to a flying start, scoring in the fourth minute through veteran Cameroon international striker Samuel Eto’o, who hit the target after CSKA goalkeeper Sergei Chepchugov parried Kamil Agalarov’s shot. The Red Army side leveled 20 minutes later when Ivory Coast striker Seydou Doumbia hit the first of a hat-trick. It came from a header from 7m out, before he added two more goals after the interval. Brazilian forward Vagner Love and Russia international midfielder Alan Dzagoev added one apiece to make sure of the victory. Anzhi’s Czech forward Jan Holenda netted a double late on, but it was too little, too late. CSKA remain two points behind defending champions Zenit St Petersburg, who enjoyed a 3-1 win at Rostov. Zenit have 57 points from 28 matches, while Dynamo Moscow sit third on 51 points.
PORTUGAL
Leaders Porto hit five
Porto stayed top of the Portuguese league after thrashing Nacional 5-0 on Sunday. Belgian midfielder Steven Defour opened the scoring in the 24th minute when his shot took a deflection off Nacional defender Luis Neto, before Walter added another five minutes before halftime. Fullback Cristian Sapunaru made it 3-0 in the 66th minute, then Kleber and fellow Brazilian Hulk completed the rout with two goals late in the match. Porto’s victory breaks a run of two straight draws and puts them ahead of Benfica in the standings on goal-difference. Also on Sunday, Braga beat Feirense 3-0 to remain third, three points behind Porto. Maritimo edged Setubal 1-0 and they are fourth — level with Braga on points — while Rio Ave beat Leiria 2-0 for their first victory of the season.
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