John O’Shea scored a second-half equalizer as 10-man Sunderland rescued a 1-1 draw at home to Stoke City on Monday that moved them three points clear of the Premier League relegation zone.
Jonathan Walters gave the visitors an early lead when he reacted smartly in the box to poke home from close range on nine minutes after his header had been blocked.
Sunderland had a player sent off for the second week running when Craig Gardner was shown a straight red card for a lunging, studs-first tackle on Charlie Adam with only 33 minutes on the clock.
Photo: Reuters
Stoke looked to be cruising to victory in a one-paced and slightly subdued encounter, before defender O’Shea equalized after 63 minutes when he shifted his balance quickly to side-foot home a dangerous Sebastian Larsson corner at the far post.
The Black Cats climbed to 15th, level on 38 points with northeast rivals Newcastle United and Norwich City, and three clear of Wigan Athletic, who are in the relegation zone, but have a game in hand.
“In some way we are a masochistic team,” said Sunderland manager Paolo di Canio, who also watched Stephane Sessegnon being sent off against Aston Villa in his side’s previous match.
“It is a massive point for us, but it wasn’t easy. After 10 minutes we gave an easy goal away, even if we knew before kickoff that they had five or six who are giants compared to our physical presence,” the Italian told Sky Sports. “The first corner-kick we conceded we give a goal away. Then you saw Craig’s bad challenge. We have to be careful and to handle our aggression. We have to make sure we don’t repeat the same mistakes, otherwise we are in real trouble.”
After slumping to a 6-1 defeat by Aston Villa when playmaker Sessegnon was sent off, Sunderland dug deep to find a route back into the match.
They had looked to be dead and buried after the first half when they created little, but came close to winning the match late in the second half when a low shot from Danny Rose grazed the outside of the post.
Stoke stayed 11th on 41 points and should be safe.
“We are pleased that we’ve got that point,” Potters manager Tony Pulis said. “That takes us to 41. There are a lot of teams down there this time around. I’m amazed it isn’t sorted out yet. It’s one of those funny seasons. It seems to have happened at all levels, not just the Premier League.”
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