The Philippines yesterday opened an international soccer tournament at the Taipei Municipal Stadium with a 3-1 win against Laos, while Taiwan held a practice session in the morning after their scheduled opponents East Timor had their travel plans disrupted by a volcanic eruption in Indonesia.
Phil Younghusband, Angel Guirado and Kintaro Miyagi scored to put the Philippines three goals ahead, before Sengvilay Chanthasili got a late consolation for Laos.
Taiwanese soccer officials had to reschedule the program for the competition after receiving the news that East Timor would not arrive in time for Thursday’s pre-tournament news conference.
“The travel arrangements for East Timor have been delayed due to closure of airports after the eruption of Mount Agung in Bali. The team will arrive a few days late, as they transferred flights at an airport in Indonesia,” the Chinese Taipei Football Association (CTFA) said in a statement.
The new schedule for the CTFA International Cup sees Laos take on East Timor at 4pm tomorrow at the Taipei Municipal Stadium, before Taiwan host the Philippines at 7pm.
Taiwan’s match against East Timor is now to take place at 7pm on Monday.
The tournament is to finish on Tuesday when the Philippines take on East Timor at 4pm, before the hosts face Laos at 7pm.
The latest addition to the Taiwan squad is Swedish-Taiwanese teenager Karl Josefsson, who has attracted much fan attention alongside English-Taiwanese player Will Donkin, who plays for English Premier League side Crystal Palace, as both youngsters are expected to see plenty of action in the coming days.
At the pre-tournament news conference, Taiwan manager Gary White said the tournament would give him an opportunity to assess the new players to see whether they could perform in international matches against good opponents.
White admitted that there are still some shortcomings with his squad, saying he would focus on improving the defense as well as the attack.
While all the matches have been scheduled for the Taipei Municipal Stadium, some commentators have suggested that some matches are moved to the artificial pitch at Fu Jen Catholic University, as wet weather could cause problems with the grass pitch at the stadium and it might not cope with hosting matches on three consecutive days.
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