Fernando Torres was yesterday left out of the Spain squad for the team’s upcoming friendly with Uruguay.
Last year, Spain coach Vicente del Bosque dropped the Chelsea striker for friendlies against Venezuela and Panama. Torres has made the squad for all three of Spain’s World Cup qualifiers, but has only played in one, coming on late against France before the French equalized for a draw.
Del Bosque called up Malaga forward Francisco “Isco” Alarcon and Chelsea defender Cesar Azpilicueta in the only slight surprises in a squad filled with regular faces.
Del Bosque did not include Swansea forward Miguel “Michu” Perez or promising Celta Vigo striker Iago Aspas despite speculation they would get their first call ups.
The former Real Madrid coach said that Michu had earned the right to play for Spain after his excellent debut in the Premier League, but that Spain’s abundance of attacking midfielders like Andres Iniesta, Cesc Fabregas and David Silva kept him out.
“We recognize [Michu’s] work and goals, but we didn’t find space for him,” Del Bosque said. “There is a lot of competition in his position. It is impossible to make changes unless we leave out another who has already earned his spot on the team.”
Isco and Azpilicueta have yet to play for Spain.
“We could have experimented more since it is a friendly, but we have two tough games against Finland and France that will mark the future of our World Cup qualifying, so we have to consider this a preparation match against a tough rival,” Del Bosque said.
Spain play Uruguay in Doha on Wednesday in a warm-up for upcoming World Cup qualifiers against Finland on March 22 and France three days later.
Barcelona defender Carles Puyol made the squad for the first time since missing last year’s European Championship because of injury. The game against Uruguay will be his 100th for Spain.
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