ITALY
Palermo down Lecce
Palermo got back to winning ways on Thursday with a comfortable 2-0 victory over struggling Lecce in Serie A. Mauricio Pinilla put the home side ahead from the penalty spot in the 27th minute after Nenad Tomovic brought down Abel Hernandez in the area. Lecce had several chances to level, notably at the beginning of the second half when Juan Cuadrado found himself with only the goalkeeper to beat. He was left to rue his profligacy when Hernandez added Palermo’s second to seal victory with 14 minutes left to play. Palermo, who had lost their previous two matches, move up to sixth in the standings, three points behind leaders Juventus, while Lecce remain second from bottom. Lecce had the first real chance of the game in the 14th minute when a shot from Ignacio Piatti flew narrowly over the bar from outside the area. That seemed to spark Palermo into life and they dominated the rest of the half. The home side almost went in front when Federico Balzaretti’s effort was cleared by Lecce defender Tomovic just in front of the line, while goalkeeper Massimiliano Benassi pulled off a stunning save to clear Pinilla’s point-blank header. However, Pinilla made no mistake with his penalty and the Chile international could have doubled Palermo’s lead shortly before halftime, but he could only manage a weak shot after being picked out by Giulio Migliaccio. Hernandez sealed the points after playing a one-two with Eran Zahavi, before managing to squeeze a shot through two Lecce defenders and past Benassi.
ENGLAND
Carlos Tevez’s fine halved
Manchester City on Thursday agreed to halve Carlos Tevez’s fine after the Professional Footballers Association (PFA) said it would not support the original four-week wages sanction. “Manchester City Football Club has received notification from the players’ union [PFA] that it will not support a four-week fine as a penalty for the actions of misconduct of Carlos Tevez,” a City statement said. Tevez was disciplined after coach Roberto Mancini accused the 27-year-old Argentine international striker of refusing to appear as a substitute during City’s 2-0 Champions League defeat at Bayern Munich last month. The player has denied Mancini’s claims, saying the incident was a misunderstanding and that he had only refused to warm-up because he felt it was unnecessary.
ARGENTINA
Saints player attacked
San Lorenzo’s home match with All Boys in the Argentine first division this weekend has been suspended after Saints defender Jonathan Bottinelli was attacked by a fan of his own club. Bottinelli was punched by a San Lorenzo fan after practice on Wednesday as he made his way to the dressing rooms, the player told reporters. “Today, we received notice [from the government’s security commission] that the match between San Lorenzo and All Boys is not to be played [on Sunday] and we will comply with that decision,” the Argentine Football Association said on Thursday. San Lorenzo have been under pressure from fans for their poor results in the Apertura championship.
BRAZIL
Kaka called up by Menezes
Real Madrid’s Kaka is back in the Brazilian squad after coach Mano Menezes called him up on Thursday for next month’s friendlies against Gabon and Egypt. “I always said that when Kaka returns to a good productive level, then he would return to the side and now is a good time for him to do so,” Menezes told a press conference.
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