CONCACAF
Galaxy beat Cartagines
Robbie Keane scored twice in the second half to lift the Los Angeles Galaxy to a 2-0 victory on Tuesday over Costa Rican club CS Cartagines in their group opener in the CONCACAF Champions League. Keane gave the Galaxy the lead in the 66th minute, taking a pass from Landon Donovan and scoring from a tight angle on the left. Donovan gave the last pass again for Keane’s second goal three minutes into stoppage-time. The Galaxy next face off against El Salvador’s AD Isidro Metapan in a home game on Sept. 18. Cartagines play Isidro Metapan at home next week. The winners of the three-team group advance to next year’s eight-team knockout stage.
FRANCE
Three players leave Ligue 1
Ghana international midfielder Mohammed Rabiu has joined Russia’s Kuban Krasnodar from Evian Thonon Gaillard, the French club confirmed. Rabiu, 23, has signed a three-year deal with Kuban, who are due to face Feyenoord in the UEFA Europa League playoffs. In other Ligue 1 transfers, Belgian champions RSC Anderlecht have confirmed the signing of leftback Fabrice N’Sakala from ES Troyes AC on a three-year deal. Capped at under-21 level by France, N’Sakala had been sidelined by Troyes after stating his wish to leave following their relegation from Ligue 1. Cameroon international leftback Gaetan Bong has left Valenciennes to join Greek champions Olympiakos. Valenciennes president Jean-Raymond Legrand said Bong signed a three-year deal after Olympiakos paid a transfer fee of “just over 1 million euros [US$1.34 million].”
TURKEY
National team coach quits
National coach Abdullah Avci has left his post by mutual consent, the Turkish Football federation said in a statement on Tuesday, amid a disappointing World Cup qualifying campaign. Turkey are struggling to reach the 2014 World Cup finals in Brazil and stand fourth in Group D with seven points from six matches, adrift of leaders the Netherlands (18) and second-placed Hungary (11), who are currently in the playoff spot. The 50-year-old Avci, who took charge in November 2011, has been criticized by fans and the media for Turkey’s poor qualifying results, which include a home defeat by Romania. “Just like winning and losing, parting ways is also a part of football. I consider that quitting my post is the right decision,” Avci was quoted as saying by the Hurriyet Daily News Web site.
ENGLAND
Cissokho loaned to Reds
French leftback Aly Cissokho has joined Liverpool on a season-long loan from Valencia, the Premier League club announced on Tuesday. The 25-year-old, who has been capped once by France, joined Valencia from Olympique Lyonnais last year and made 25 league appearances in his debut campaign for the Spanish club, scoring twice. He has also played for Porto. “I’ve always dreamt of one day signing for a really legendary club,” Cissokho told Liverpool’s Web site. “I’ve always said, along with a lot of other French players, that I really love the English league, and although I’ve been fortunate enough to have played at some big clubs, in the back of my mind I’ve always wanted to play in England.” Brendan Rodgers’ side began their league campaign with a 1-0 win at home to Stoke City at the weekend and visit Aston Villa in their next game on Saturday.
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