SPAIN
Aspas nets to hand Celta win
A late goal by striker Iago Aspas gave RC Celta de Vigo a 1-0 victory over Real Zaragoza on Monday in La Liga. Aspas connected with a cross from leftback Roberto Lago to beat goalkeeper Roberto Jimenez in the 83rd minute. Celta goalkeeper Javier Varas had been forced to save twice in the 46th minute, first from a powerful shot by Zaragoza forward Victor Rodriguez and then a header by striker Helder Postiga. Aspas came close to having a brace, but his left-foot shot was saved by goalkeeper Roberto Jimenez diving rapidly to his right in the 71st minute. Celta rise to 15th place after 13 matches, while Zaragoza remain 13th in the standings.
SPAIN
Espanyol fire Pochettino
Bottom of La Liga after 13 games, RCD Espanyol have fired both their Argentine coach Mauricio Pochettino and the club’s director of sports, the Barcelona-based club said on Monday. “Pochettino will stop being coach of our first team as of tonight [Monday], after we agreed terms this afternoon to terminate the contract we had,” the Catalan club said. Director of sports Ramon Planes has also been fired by Espanyol. Pochettino had been in the job for three seasons, but with just two wins after 13 games, newly elected club president Joan Collet decided to shake things up. National sports daily Marca suggested on Monday that Espanyol were in negotiations with Mexican coach Javier Aguirre, who has had previous spells in Spain with Atletico Madrid and Real Zaragoza. Espanyol have just nine points so far, but there are five clubs within just three points of them in what looks set to be a relegation dogfight.
BRAZIL
Guardiola talk dismissed
Brazilian Football Confederation president Jose Maria Marin on Monday dismissed reports the five-time world champions are going to sign former Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola to lead their 2014 World Cup campaign. “There is a very little chance it will be a foreign coach. We have won five World Cups with Brazilian coaches and I don’t think it will be necessary,” Marin told the Terra Web site. A source close to Guardiola said on Saturday that Brazil were the only team in the world that Guardiola was ready to coach after Mano Menezes was sacked on Friday. “The past is the past. We must now think about the future and it is the moment to analyze the ideal candidate, who is going to lead a team that has picked up inconsistent results,” Marin said. During his time in charge, Menezes guided Brazil to just 21 wins in 40 matches, including the London Olympics campaign earlier this year where they lost to Mexico in the final.
GERMANY
Stindl praised for fair play
A Hannover 96 player is proving that there is still fair play in soccer. Midfielder Lars Stindl has been suspended for a Bundesliga match after pointing out he should have been banned for getting five yellow cards this season. The 24-year-old Stindl kept count better than German soccer authorities, who failed to register an earlier booking. When Stindl was cautioned on Saturday in a 5-0 loss to leaders Bayern Munich, he told his club it should trigger a one-match ban. Stindl said he was not tempted to exploit the official error, asking: “Why should we hide something?” Hannover published the story on their Web site with the headline: “Hats off, Lars.” Coach Mirko Slomka praised Stindl as “an extremely fair sportsman” — who will watch the home match against struggling SpVgg Greuther Fuerth from the sidelines.
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