Ederson will reap the rewards from thwarting European soccer’s most potent attacking force, Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola said.
City romped to a 4-1 win over Champions League holders Real Madrid in Los Angeles on Wednesday, after a second-half blitz saw Guardiola’s side secure a first pre-season victory.
However, prior to defender Nicolas Otamendi breaking the deadlock and changing the course of the game with the opening goal early in the second half, City had been indebted to new goalkeeper Ederson making several superb saves.
Ederson, signed for 40 million euros (US$46.9 million) in June, prompted some question marks after a costly error in last week’s defeat against Manchester United.
Yet Guardiola is in no doubt that the 23-year-old is on course to become Brazil’s first-choice stopper.
“Of course it’s important for him,” Guardiola said of the strong performance on Wednesday. “We knew his quality. To make a performance like today, helps us a lot.”
“Sooner or later, he will become the Brazil national team ’keeper,” he said. “He saved many, many balls. He has the quality to read the situations and he put in a good performance.”
Two of City’s four second-half goals in the International Champions Cup tie came from corners, with centerhalves Otamendi and John Stones both scoring.
Those two strikes were sandwiched by a cool finish from substitute Raheem Sterling after the impressive Kevin de Bruyne had a hand in all three goals.
“When Kevin’s mood is optimistic, he puts in performances like this,” Guardiola said. “It’s difficult to find a player with his quality, fight and movement anywhere in the world.”
Teenage substitute Brahim Diaz added a fourth for City with a superb goal, before Oscar Rodriguez grabbed a late consolation for Real with an even better strike.
In Washington, Neymar, serene amid a frenzy of transfer speculation, scored the first-half goal that gave Barcelona a 1-0 victory over Manchester United in their International Champions Cup friendly.
The Brazilian striker, reportedly pondering a 222 million euro move to Paris Saint-Germain, showed why the French club would be willing to pay a world-record price to get him.
He delivered his third goal in two matches in the exhibition tournament as Barcelona handed the English Premier League club their first defeat of the pre-season.
After a bright start Manchester United struggled to contain Barcelona’s star duo of Neymar and Lionel Messi.
Neymar broke through in the 31st minute, stripping the ball from Antonio Valencia, turning and finding the net.
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
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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