ECUADOR
Benitez’s funeral arranged
With questions still lingering over how international striker Christian Benitez died, the president of his country’s soccer federation said on Tuesday that a private plane had been hired to bring the player’s body home. Autopsy results have not been released by Benitez’s Qatari club, El Jaish, which has refused to say how the 27-year-old forward died on Monday, but Ecuadoran soccer chief Luis Chiriboga said he was told the player had been taken to a hospital with sharp stomach pains, developed peritonitis and died of cardiorespiratory arrest. The team was awaiting a medical report expected yesterday and has promised to pay all expenses to transport the body home. Efforts to repatriate Benitez’s body were being held up by paperwork on Tuesday, but officials said the funeral was planned for today in Quito and that a tribute would be held in the General Ruminahui Coliseum, which holds 16,000 people.
BRAZIL
Scolari picks same squad
Luiz Felipe Scolari has picked the same squad that won the FIFA Confederations Cup for the team’s friendly against Switzerland later this month. Scolari selected 20 players for the match in Basel on Aug. 14, with 19 of them drawn from the Cup squad. Paris Saint-Germain fullback Maxwell is the only newcomer. The starting XI from the victory against Spain in the final of the World Cup warm-up tournament in June were summoned, including strikers Neymar and Fred, midfielder Oscar, and defenders Thiago Silva and David Luiz.
ARGENTINA
Aguero to miss Italy match
Striker Sergio Aguero is missing from an all foreign-based squad coach Alejandro Sabella named on Tuesday for his side’s friendly against Italy in Rome later this month. Aguero, who is nursing an injury, will miss the Aug. 14 match at the Stadio Olimpico in honor of Pope Francis, who will receive the two squads at the Vatican on the eve of the match.
BRAZIL
Fluminense hire Luxemburgo
Champions Fluminense have hired coach Vanderlei Luxemburgo to try to put the team back on track after five straight losses in the league. The signing of the former Brazil and Real Madrid coach was announced on Tuesday, a day after Abel Braga was fired following a 2-0 loss to Gremio that left the team in the relegation zone with only nine points from as many matches. The 61-year-old Luxemburgo signed a contract with Fluminense until the end of the year. Luxemburgo is the coach with the most Brazilian league titles — five. He led Brazil to the 1999 Copa America title, but left the national team in 2000.
ENGLAND
Beckham to release book
Former international captain David Beckham plans to release a picture book in October featuring images from his playing career in a deal with a UK publishing unit of French media company Lagardere. The former Manchester United and Real Madrid midfielder, who retired from soccer in May after a brief spell with French champions Paris Saint-Germain, is expected to release the book on Oct. 31 with Lagardere’s UK-based Headline Publishing Group. Beckham earned 115 caps for England, a record for an outfield player, and won the UEFA Champions League, six Premier League titles and two FA Cups with Manchester United.
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