CLUB WORLD CUP
Casablanca win opener
Raja Casablanca scored late into stoppage-time to beat Auckland City 2-1 in the opening match of the annual Club World Cup in Morocco on Wednesday. Abdelilah Hafidi tapped home the winner in the 2nd minute of added time to ensure the host club a winning start at the Agadir Stadium. Raja took a 1-0 lead in the 39th minute through Mouhssine Iajour after he beat goalkeeper Tamati Williams with a shot into the far corner. The New Zealand club rallied through Fijian Krishna, who found himself alone to beat keeper Khalid Askri, after Mohamed Oulhaj and Ismail Benlamalem ran into each other. Raja set up a quarter-final match on Sunday with Mexican club Monterrey after Williams saved Oulhaj’s header, only for it to fall to the foot of Hafidi. Formerly known as the Intercontinental Cup, the Club World Cup is being played in Africa for the first time. European champions Bayern Munich and South America’s Copa Libertadores victor Atletico Mineiro enter from the semi-finals, starting on Tuesday next week.
WORLD CUP
Spain choose Caju as base
Spain have chosen Atletico Paranaense’s Caju training center in the south of Brazil as their base for next year’s competition as they prepare to retain the trophy they won in South Africa. “Caju in Curitiba will be the headquarters at the World Cup,” a Spanish federation spokesperson said. Mild temperatures at the Alfredo Gottardi Center, known locally as Caju, attracted Spain to Curitiba even though they have to play matches in heat and humidity, including their opening game against the Netherlands in Salvador on June 13. The facilities at Caju include eight full-size soccer pitches, a thermal swimming pool and a gym. Spain were well beaten by hosts Brazil in this year’s Confederations Cup final. The experience of playing in the country warned them off choosing a base in the north with higher temperatures.
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
Three Ajax fans stabbed
Three Ajax supporters were stabbed in Milan on Wednesday during fighting before the match against AC Milan and one is seriously hurt, Italian police said. The Ajax fans fought with both opposing supporters and Italians demonstrating against Enrico Letta’s government in running battles throughout the day. The supporter in the worst condition was knifed in the stomach, while the others were wounded in the buttocks and leg, a police spokesman said. “The one with the stomach wound is clearly the most serious, but as far as I understand it’s not life-threatening,” he said. All three were taken to Milan’s San Carlo Hospital, while a local street salesman also suffered a minor knife wound in the scuffles, but was not hospitalized. Three Ajax supporters were arrested in a separate incident for trying to rob a street kiosk.
PREMIER LEAGUE
Hull seek name change
Hull City have applied to the English FA to change their name to Hull Tigers from next season, the BBC reported on Wednesday. Club owner Assem Allam wants to rebrand the 109-year-old Yorkshire club, but the move has provoked a fierce backlash among fans. Egyptian-born businessman Allam changed the name of the club’s holding company from Hull City Association Football Club to Hull City Tigers in August. Allam believes a “Tigers” brand would have more of a “global marketing impact.” Diehard Hull fans have pledged to fight any name change and have formed the campaign group “City Till We Die.”
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