SPAIN
Getafe rally to claim win
A late goal by Pablo Sarabia gave Getafe a 2-1 comeback win against RC Celta de Vigo in La Liga on Monday. Charles had given the visitors the lead when he latched on to a long throw-in and beat Getafe goalkeeper Jordi Codina in the 15th minute. Alvaro Vazquez leveled with his third goal of the season by running up the right flank after collecting Sarabia’s pass and shooting past goalkeeper Sergio Alvarez in the 19th. Diego Castro missed a penalty for Getafe in the 78th minute, but Sarabia beat Alvarez in the 86th for the winner after being set up by a back-heel from Croatian midfielder Jorge Sammir. Getafe climbed to 14th place on 20 points, while Elche are 17th on 17.
ENGLAND
Magpies stick with Carver
Newcastle United have put caretaker manager John Carver in charge for the rest of the season, the club said on Monday. The 50-year-old has been at the helm for four matches since Alan Pardew left to join Premier League rivals Crystal Palace. Newcastle, who are 11th in the table, extended Carver’s deal, despite the fact he has yet to win a game. “At the beginning of this process it was my desire and intention to appoint an individual to the position of head coach, who would be available to start immediately,” managing director Lee Charnley told the club’s Web site. “Having now explored at some length the options available to us at this time, the decision has been taken to defer the appointment of a permanent head coach until the end of the season. The head coach will be a long-term appointment that will play a major role in shaping the future on-field progression of Newcastle United and it is vitally important that we get the right individual.” Newcastle travel to Hull City on Saturday.
ITALY
Parma end Cassano contract
Antonio Cassano is on the look out for yet another club as Serie A’s bottom side Parma ripped up his contract on Monday after the striker asked for unpaid wages. A club statement said the agreement had been mutual. The former AS Roma, Real Madrid, UC Sampdoria, AC Milan and Inter player has been the one shining light for Parma this season, with the northern Italian club on only nine points from 20 games and 10 points from safety. Cassano, 32, has scored five league goals, but his request for unpaid wages did not go down well with the club, who underwent a takeover last month. He went to talk to fans after Sunday’s home defeat by AC Cesena, but was threatened by one supporter. The colorful former Italy international has had run-ins with many clubs down the years, but Italian media have sympathized with him this time and hometown club Bari 1908 in Serie B are favorites to sign him.
ITALY
El Shaarawy out injured
Versatile forward Stephan El Shaarawy’s bid for a move away from AC Milan has been scuppered after he was sidelined for at least six weeks on Monday with a fractured foot. El Shaarawy has been tipped for a move to England, possibly Everton, in a bid to relaunch his career as the fallen Serie A giants continue to struggle in Italy’s top flight. El Shaarawy, who only returned to the Milan fray earlier this season following a lengthy injury layoff, suffered the injury late in Milan’s 3-1 defeat to SS Lazio on Saturday. He underwent medical tests in Amsterdam, which revealed he had “fractured the base of his fifth metatarsal bone in his right foot,” Milan said. El Shaarawy will have to undergo “conservative treatment... for about six weeks,” the statement said.
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