FRIENDLY
Paraguay defeat Cameroon
Stalwart striker Roque Santa Cruz scored the winner as Paraguay beat World Cup qualifiers Cameroon 2-1 in a friendly in Kufstein, Austria, on Thursday. Paraguay, who missed out on Brazil after playing at the previous four World Cup tournaments, went ahead with Oscar Romero’s first goal for his country in the fifth minute. Former Bayern Munich, Blackburn Rovers and Manchester City striker Santa Cruz put the South Americans further ahead when he tapped in from close range in the 68th minute, the 32-year-old’s 29th international goal. Eric-Maxim Choupo-Moting pulled one back for the Indomitable Lions with 15 minutes remaining and Mohamadou Idrissou wasted a chance to equalize when his 87th-minute penalty was saved by Paraguay’s substitute goalkeeper Victor Centurion. Cameroon, who beat Macedonia 2-0 on Monday and are to meet Germany tomorrow, have Croatia, Mexico and Brazil in their pool at the World Cup.
FRIENDLY
Honduras lose to Turkey
Honduras made a poor start to their World Cup warm-up campaign suffering a 2-0 defeat to Turkey in Washington on Thursday. Second-half goals from Mevlut Erding and Caner Erkin secured victory for a young Turkey team, who dominated after the break. Honduras have been drawn in Group E with France, Switzerland and Ecuador and will need to raise their performance in their next friendlies against Israel tomorrow and England on June 7 if they are to have a chance of progressing at the World Cup. The Hondurans lacked penetration in attack, but their real problems in the second half were at the other end of the field as their defense struggled to deal with a wave of Turkey attacks. Erding had a golden chance to open the scoring in the 56th minute when Erkin found him just 5m out, but he shot straight at Valladares before he made amends 14 minutes later when he slotted home. Erding then turned provider for the second goal seven minutes from the end when Erkin blasted home a powerful diagonal drive into the far corner.
IVORY COAST
Ministry urges support
The Ministry of Sport on Thursday launched an official campaign to drum up support in the troubled west African country for the national soccer team at the World Cup. Under the slogan “win for the Ivory Coast,” the ministry appealed for the nation to rally around the Elephants as they prepare to head to the finals in Brazil. The ministry urged the population to rally behind captain Didier Drogba and his teammates by “disregarding political, religious and other divides to unite as one to push ‘our Elephants’ towards victory.” The World Cup campaign should be “a time of gathering, mixing of populations and exchanges to put the spotlight on the national team and support it, but also to allow Ivorians to communicate in public and in neighborhoods.
COSTA RICA
Striker ruled out of Cup
The nation’s World Cup hopes suffered a major blow on Thursday when striker Alvaro Saborio was ruled out of next month’s finals with a fractured metatarsal. Saborio suffered the injury in a closed-door training session on Thursday morning, and coach Jorge Luis Pinto later told a news conference his first-choice forward would miss the entire tournament. Costa Rica are to face England, Italy and Uruguay in Group D in Brazil. The 32-year-old Saborio, who plays for Real Salt Lake in Major League Soccer, has scored 32 goals in 93 games for his country.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
HSIEH MAKES QUARTERS: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens of Belgium won in the women’s doubles and face Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sofia Kenin of the US Top-ranked Iga Swiatek and US Open champion Coco Gauff were knocked out of the women’s singles at the Miami Open on Monday, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced in the women’s doubles. Swiatek lost to Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-2, hours after third seed Gauff fell in three sets to No. 23 Caroline Garcia 6-3, 1-6, 6-2. Alexandrova beat a top-ranked player for the first time and advanced to face Jessica Pegula, a 7-6 (7/1), 6-3 winner over Emma Navarro, in the quarter-finals. Alexandrova recorded her second win over Swiatek, following a 2021 victory in Melbourne. Swiatek had won their three matches since. “We played quite