NETHERLANDS
Feyenoord claim first points
Graziano Pelle scored a hat-trick as Feyenoord ended their worst-ever start to a season by winning their first points of the new Dutch campaign with a 3-1 home victory over NAC on Sunday. The Rotterdam club had lost their opening three league matches and a Europa League tie in Russia last week, but bounced back with the flamboyant Italian scoring twice in two minutes in the first half and completing his treble in the 53rd. Feyenoord started slowly in a tense atmosphere at Rotterdam’s De Kuip Stadium, but once Pelle had got his head to a Jordy Clasie free-kick to open the scoring the mood lifted dramatically and the team were rarely troubled on their way to victory. Relief for Feyenoord was matched in Utrecht, where Belgian Steve de Ridder netted both goals as the home side also posted their first win of the season by beating AZ 2-0. Japan international Mike Havenaar scored the only goal with a first-half header as Vitesse beat Twente to join their opponents and another four clubs on seven points, five behind early leaders PEC Zwolle. Marnix Kolder twice scored for Go Ahead Eagles, but they were held to a 3-3 draw by Groningen, who ensured an away point with an 87th-minute equalizer from substitute Genero Zeefuik.
RUSSIA
Cisse brace boosts Kuban
A double by French striker Djibril Cisse helped Kuban Krasnodar up to sixth in the Russian Premier League with a 3-2 home win over promoted Ural Sverdlovsk Oblast on Sunday. Midfielder Arsen Khubulov put the hosts 1-0 up in the eighth minute, but Ural fullback Alexander Yerokhin leveled the scores just five minutes later. In the 27th minute, Cisse put Kuban back in front from the spot with his maiden goal in the Russian league, after Serbian Milan Vjestica had played volleyball in his box, but Ural’s Chilean midfielder Gerson Acevedo leveled again in the 35th minute, also with a spot-kick after Alexander Shanitsyn was fouled in the area. Cisse netted Kuban’s winning goal two minutes before the break, shooting home from fellow Frenchman Charles Kabore’s pass. Kuban have nine points from six matches, five points behind leaders CSKA Moscow. Earlier on Sunday, Rubin Kazan missed the chance to close in on the leaders as they were held to a 1-1 draw by Krylia Sovetov Samara.
PORTUGAL
Benfica grab last-gasp win
SL Benfica scored twice in stoppage-time to snatch a dramatic 2-1 win over Gil Vicente on Sunday for their first league victory of the season. Gil Vicente went ahead through Diogo Viana’s 69th-minute goal and looked set to get the away win until Benfica’s Lazar Markovic scored two minutes into stoppage-time from a pass by fellow Serbian substitute Filip Djuricic. Striker Lima completed the comeback a minute later when he headed in substitute Miralem Sulejmani’s cross. Also on Sunday, defending champions Porto eased to a 3-0 win at home over CS Maritimo.
GREECE
Olympiakos edge Atromitos
Javier Saviola scored the winner with a header in the 54th minute to give Olympiakos a 2-1 victory over visiting Atromitos on Sunday. Stefano Napoleoni gave Atromitos the lead in the 47th minute, but David Fuster equalized in the 51st for the defending champions. Olympiakos top the standings with six points from two games. Also on Sunday, Skoda Xanthi beat Panthrakikos 1-0, Kalloni Lekanopedio notched their first ever top-tier win, 2-0 at Aris, while Athlitikos Omilos Platania Chanion drew 1-1 at PAE Asteras Tripolis.
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