SOUTH KOREA
Stielike gets coach job
South Korea have hired former Germany international Uli Stielike as the new coach of the national soccer team, the Korea Football Association (KFA) announced yesterday. Stielike, who played 42 times for West Germany and has managed Switzerland and the Ivory Coast, has been given a contract through the 2018 World Cup in Russia. The KFA said Stielike would arrive on Monday, in time for the country’s friendly against Uruguay. Former international Shin Tae-yong and two other local coaches were taking charge of a home friendly against Venezuela yesterday. Stielike replaces Hong Myung-bo, who resigned in July after the country’s first-round exit from the World Cup.
SWEDEN
Ibrahimovic sets record
Captain Zlatan Ibrahimovic struck twice in a 2-0 friendly win over Estonia on Thursday to become Sweden’s all-time leading scorer with 50 goals. The Paris St Germain striker netted a thumping left-footed volley from a corner after three minutes before breaking Sven Rydell’s tally of 49 goals, which had stood since 1932, in the 24th minute with another fine effort. Ibrahimovic swept home Seb Larsson’s cross to claim the record in spectacular style in his 99th appearance for Sweden. The 32-year-old was given a rapturous ovation by the 15,421-strong crowd in the Friends Arena when he left the field just after the hour mark.
BELGIUM
Australia go down
Dries Mertens and Axel Witsel were on target as Belgium marked their first international against Australia by winning their friendly in Liege 2-0 on Thursday. Belgium, beaten by Argentina in this year’s World Cup quarter-finals in Brazil, were the better side in a match of relatively few chances. The opening goal in the 18th minute came when Mertens beat Australia goalkeeper Mat Ryan somewhat fortuitously from a narrow angle after Kevin De Bruyne had struck the bar. Witsel made it 2-0 in the 77th minute, cracking a left-foot shot from the edge of the penalty area into the top corner of the net.
ALGERIA
Broos quits Kabylie job
Belgian coach Hugo Broos has quit Algerian club JS Kabylie after last month’s death of a player killed when a projectile was thrown from the stands, media reported on Thursday. Broos resigned after the death of Albert Ebosse on Aug. 23, but returned to the post days after, only to decide again to leave after two months in the job, Belgian daily La Derniere Heure reported. Cameroon forward Ebosse was struck on the head by an object allegedly thrown from a section of the ground containing his team’s fans as the players left the field after a 2-1 defeat by USM Alger in Tizi Ouzou and died of a head trauma. “Aggressiveness is permanent in Algeria, but that day it was like the Apocalypse. They will never find the culprit, because the infrastructure is at best flawed. There was not even a Red Cross team on hand for the game,” Broos had previously told the newspaper. Algeria suspended all soccer last weekend in memory of Ebosse, closed JSK’s stadium in Tizi-Ouzou and banned the club from playing matches at home this season. The 24-year-old Ebosse, who had netted in the match, was the leading scorer in the Algerian league in this year’s season with 17 goals. Confederation of African Football president Issa Hayatou reacted by calling for member associations to act strongly against fan violence and for the perpetrators of this incident to be dealt with in the strongest possible terms.
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
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB