INTERNATIONALS
Argentina see off Ecuador
Javier Pastore scored in the 58th minute to give Argentina a 2-1 victory over Ecuador on Tuesday in a friendly match. The 25-year-old Paris Saint-Germain midfielder provided the difference after Manchester City’s Sergio Aguero scored in the eighth minute and Miller Bolanos equalized in the 24th minute. The match, played before 48,000 spectators on the home field of the NFL’s New York Giants and New York Jets, served as a warm-up for both clubs for the upcoming Copa America this year in Chile. Argentina improved to 18-4 with 10 drawn in the rivalry with Ecuador. Argentina completed a two-game US stand undefeated.
INTERNATIONALS
Mexico defeat Paraguay
Mexico striker Eduardo Herrera scored in the third minute to give El Tri a 1-0 victory over Paraguay on Tuesday in a friendly match. In the home stadium of the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs, the Mexico side won their second match of a US tour. Pumas’ forward Herrera provided all the offensive production Mexico needed thanks to a solid defensive effort. Mexico stretched their lead in the all-time rivalry to 8-5 with four drawn. Mexico were testing talent ahead of July’s Gold Cup, the North American showdown of national teams.
INTERNATIONALS
Slovakia beat Czech Republic
Ondrej Duda scored after the interval to lead Slovakia to a 1-0 victory over the Czech Republic on Tuesday in a friendly match between the two teams that once represented Czechoslovakia. The 20-year-old midfielder struck with a low shot from outside the penalty area in the 49th minute for his second international goal. It was the third victory for Slovakia in the 10th match against the Czech Republic since Czechoslovakia’s split in 1993. The Czech Republic have won five games. Slovakia were more dangerous on a rain-soaked pitch, confirming their good run of form.
TRANSFERS
Hummels denies United link
Borussia Dortmund’s Mats Hummels has shot down reports of a deal with Manchester United coach Louis van Gaal to join the English Premier League club, saying they were invented. The central defender, who won the FIFA World Cup with Germany last year, said: “Just to be clear. This alleged ‘promise’ is simply an invention ... and that is saying it nicely,” he said on his official Twitter account yesterday. Dortmund, German champions in 2010-2011 and 2011-2012, have been struggling this season after a bad first half and are in 10th place, chasing a European spot with eight games left in the campaign. Dortmund take on Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga on Saturday.
ROMANIA
Fans blast sponge tactics
Fans complained the country had been made to look stupid after two men armed with car sponges battled hopelessly to soak up water from a rain-drenched pitch ahead of their Euro 2016 qualifier against the Faroe Islands. Footage of the groundsmen desperately sponging the surface and squeezing tiny amounts of water into buckets ahead of Sunday’s match caused a stir with fans, who took to social media to call the organizers a laughing stock. The game took place, but only after a Ministry of the Interior helicopter was drafted in to hover over the center of the pitch in an effort to disperse surface water at the Ilie Oana Stadium in Ploiesti, 56km north of the capital Bucharest. “It’s unbelievable,” Romania fan Mihai said. “They made us look like idiots.”
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