FRANCE
Japan down ‘Les Bleus’
France suffered an embarrassing 1-0 home defeat by Japan in a friendly on Friday four days before Les Bleus travel to Spain for a World Cup Group I qualifier. Didier Deschamps’ side toiled in a dull encounter at the Stade de France and lost to Japan for the first time after Yasuyuki Konno poked the ball home two minutes from time. France were shaky at the back, toothless up front and failed to stamp their authority on the midfield in the absence of the injured Abou Diaby and Rio Mavuba. The home team could have taken the lead a few minutes before Konno’s goal but Olivier Giroud’s fine volley was superbly parried by goalkeeper Eiji Kawashima. “It’s a bad result. Japan had more opportunities after the break but we also had ours and you can’t win when you don’t score from your chances,” Deschamps told the TF1 television station.
POLAND
Poles leave it late
A late goal from Marcin Komorowski gave injury-hit Poland a 1-0 win over South African in an international friendly on Friday. Polish coach Waldemar Fornalik, who had to do without injured captain Jakub Blaszczykowski and first-choice goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny, also kept striker Robert Lewandowski on the bench. Lewandowski’s replacement, Artur Sobiech, failed to capitalize on a couple of chances before leaving the pitch on a stretcher after a collision with South Africa ’keeper Itumeleng Khune in the second half. Poland had chances throughout the game but could not find a way past Khune until the 81st minute when Kamil Grosicki’s cross found Komorowski who scored with a left-footed drive. South Africa found the net in stoppage time when Siyabonga Sangweni’s header went in but the goal was disallowed for offside.
CANADA
Cuban players go AWOL
Several players went missing from the Cuban team that faced Canada in a World Cup qualifying match on Friday, Cuban coach Alexander Gonzalez said. Gonzalez said he had a squad of 15 players when he left Cuba and that four had since left the team. One of those was sick, he added without elaborating. “As with any Cuban sport team that travels around the world, they are all chasing the American dream,” Gonzalez said after Cuba lost 3-0 to Canada. “It’s difficult to try to keep the team together ... Obviously it’s a difficult situation for the team and it’s tough for me to talk about it.”
ITALY
Zamperini slates Ancelotti
Palermo president Maurizio Zamperini has launched an attack on Paris Saint-German boss Carlo Ancelotti, saying that he knows nothing about soccer. Zamperini, who has a reputation for the outrageous, was responding to suggestions during an interview with Web site calcissimo.com that he had unloaded a flop on PSG when he sold them Argentine midfielder Javier Pastore. He quickly turned his ire on the Champions League-winning Ancelotti. “Pastore is not a flop, Pastore is a phenomenon. Ancelotti does not know anything about football,” Zamperini said. “And do you know what I say? I’m glad that they lost in the Champions League [1-0 away at Porto], and that hopefully he’ll learn not to play Nene in place of Pastore. I don’t rate him as a manager.” Ancelotti is a four-time winner of the European Cup, having won it twice as an AC Milan player and twice as the club’s manager. Zamperini’s volatile relationship with coaches has earned him the nickname “Manager-Eater” and he has fired 41 coaches in 26 years.
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
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
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