Three-time Asian Cup champions Taiwan made a great start to their Group D qualifying campaign for next year’s finals in Japan and the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Canada with a 6-0 victory over hosts Palestine on Tuesday.
Taiwan’s women, who won the Asian Cup in 1977, 1979 and 1981, went a goal up after five minutes at the Faisal al-Husseini Stadium in Al-Ram, the West Bank, when midfielder Lin Ya-han found the back of the Palestine net.
The match remained at 1-0 until a flurry of goals just before the interval saw Taiwan take control.
Photo: EPA
Yu Hsiu-chin made it 2-0 in the 40th minute, Lai Li-chin added a third two minutes later and Lin Kai-ling struck the fourth in first-half stoppage-time.
With a comfortable lead, Lin Ya-han completed her hat-trick in the second half, bagging her second and Taiwan’s fifth 10 minutes after the restart, before completing her treble and sealing the 6-0 triumph after 80 minutes.
In the other Group D match, Myanmar beat India 2-0 to go second in the group behind Taiwan on goal-difference.
Winger Khin Moe Wai crossed to Naw Phaw, who did well to escape her marker and place her shot into the roof of the net in the fifth minute.
Myanmar then doubled their lead in the 26th minute when a swift counterattack led to a goal from Khin Moe Wai.
Taiwan face India in their second qualifier in Al-Ram today, after Myanmar take on Palestine in the early kickoff.
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