TAIWAN
Women avoid wooden spoon
Taiwan’s women’s national team avoided picking up the wooden spoon in East Asian Cup qualifying in Shenzhen on Saturday by edging Hong Kong to finish in third place in the four-team tournament. Hosts China edged favorites Australia, also 2-1, to win the tournament and qualify for next year’s finals in South Korea, where they are set to face the hosts, North Korea and Japan. China’s Pu Wei won the tournament’s Most Valuable Player award, while Australia’s Kathryn Gill finished as the top scorer.
SPAIN
Barca could go French
Should Catalan voters back an independence drive then FC Barcelona may consider competing in the French league, city mayor Javier Trias said. He said that the club could continue to play on in the Spanish league or “perhaps, in the French league.” “We do not have the possibility of a competitive league” for Catalonia, which has a population just over seven million, Trias said. “There would be very few teams and we would have to join another league — we could adhere to the Spanish league or perhaps the French league,” he said. Asked if the club itself had a political facet, Trias said that that had been more the case in the past. “Years back, in the time of the [Franco] dictatorship, the club was a reference point for everyone in Catalonia and it was said that Barca was more than a club.”
SOUTH SUDAN
New boys lose to Ethiopia
South Sudan, the world’s newest soccer nation, lost their first competitive game 1-0 to Ethiopia in the opening match of the East and Central African Senior Challenge Cup in Uganda on Saturday. Yonathan Kebede’s second-half goal condemned the nation to defeat at the start of the regional competition in Kampala. South Sudan had only played one match before — a 2-2 draw with Uganda in a July friendly. However, they delivered a solid performance until a defensive error allowed Kebede to score after an hour. Hosts Uganda beat Kenya 1-0 in the second Group A game on Saturday.
GERMANY
Klinsmann eyes US passport
Jurgen Klinsmann is considering taking US citizenship despite having played in West Germany’s 1990 World Cup-winning team and later coaching the Germany national side, he has said. The 48-year-old, who has been the coach of the US national team since July last year, lives with his family in California. “It is quite possible that in the future I will take American citizenship,” he told German daily Bild. “I need to have plenty of time for it, it’s a lengthy process. [Soccer] here may have caught up with other sports, but it is not the top sport here and I can still live here relatively anonymously.”
ITALY
Palermo win Sicilian derby
US Citta di Palermo’s Fabrizio Miccoli scored his 100th Serie A goal and Josip Ilicic netted twice in a 3-1 win over in-form Sicilian rivals Catania. Palermo took the lead in the ninth minute when Catania’s Nicolas Spolli slipped while trying to cut out a cross, wrong-footing defender Nicola Legrottaglie in the process and allowing Miccoli space and time to place his shot into the net from the edge of the box. Ilicic made it 2-0 in the 48th minute, scoring with a right-foot shot from just inside the area. On the hour mark the Slovenian ran from the halfway line and hit an angled drive past the Mariano Andujar in the visitors’ goal. Francesco Lodi’s powerful 70th-minute free-kick provided Catania with a consolation goal.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
Japanese players are moving to English soccer in record numbers and more look set to follow with clubs attracted by their quality, strong work ethic and value for money. Kaoru Mitoma is the standout talent of five Japanese players in the English Premier League, with eight more in the Championship and two in League One. Liverpool midfielder Wataru Endo, the captain of Japan, believes his compatriots are “being held in higher esteem” by English clubs compared with the past. “The staff at Liverpool ask me about lots of Japanese players, not necessarily with a view to a transfer, but just saying this or
Taiwan yesterday survived Bosnia and Herzegovina to win their Davis Cup World Group I tie at the Taipei Tennis Center. The tight series started on Saturday with world No. 123 Jason Tseng losing 3-6, 7-5, 6-4 to Mirza Basic in the opening singles matchup. However, teammate Tony Wu kept the tie even, dominating world No. 86 Damir Dzumhur 6-2, 6-1. Yesterday, 24-year-old Ray Ho and partner 25-year-old Hsu Yu-hsiou kept up the momentum, making short work of Basic and Nerman Fatic, winning 6-3, 6-4. Tseng then suffered another defeat, losing 6-4, 2-6, 6-2 to Dzumhur in a brutal match that lasted more than two