Miroslav Klose equaled Brazil icon Ronaldo’s record of 15 World Cup goals to spare Germany’s blushes by salvaging a 2-2 draw in their Group G match against Ghana on Saturday.
Mario Goetze gave Germany the lead before goals from Andre Ayew and Asamoah Gyan turned the game on its head and threatened to cause a major upset for the Black Stars in Fortaleza. Yet Klose had the last laugh with a poacher’s goal just 19 minutes from time.
“It doesn’t matter whether I play from the start or come off the bench: All games are important and 15 goals in 20 World Cup games isn’t bad,” the SS Lazio striker said.
Photo: EPA
Klose claimed a record before flying to Brazil when he became Germany’s all-time top scorer and his goal against Ghana extended his tally to 70 goals in 133 internationals.
Germany captain Phillip Lahm refused to use the sweltering conditions at the Arena Castelao as a reason for their performance.
“It was a grueling 90 minutes, the weather can’t be an excuse, we were not as aggressive and gave them too much room,” Lahm said.
Photo: Reuters
Gyan, whose goal saw him join Cameroon legend Roger Milla as Africa’s leading all-time scorer with five goals, said they played much better than in the 2-1 loss to the US.
“We believed in ourselves today,” the 28-year-old told the BBC. “I think tactically we were perfect today. Now we definitely have to beat Portugal. We will have to focus, but we believe we can beat them.”
The result breathes life back into Ghana’s hopes of reaching the last 16, while the Mannschaft could be knocked from top of the group and must beat Jurgen Klinsmann’s Stars and Stripes in Recife on Thursday to be sure of reaching the last 16.
Having at times bossed the first half and only denied by two superb Manuel Neuer saves from Sulley Muntari and Christian Atsu, Ghana switched off in the second.
Thomas Mueller picked out Goetze, who mistimed his header, but the ball sto;; went in off his knee before rebounding past Ghana goalkeeper Abdul-Fatawu Dauda. However, the lead lasted only three minutes.
Harrison Afful crossed into the box and Ayew climbed above Shkodran Mustafi and the static Per Mertesacker to flick a header beyond Neuer. Nine minutes later things got even better for Ghana as Muntari dispossessed Lahm and slid the ball through to Black Stars captain Gyan to smash it past Neuer.
Ghana broke out into impressive dancing after Gyan’s goal and were running riot as Germany barely clung on, until an inspired substitution by coach Joachim Loew brought Klose into the fray.
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