■ Soccer
AC Milan beats Chelsea
Ukrainian striker Andriy Shevchenko curled in an 88th-minute freekick as AC Milan rallied to beat Chelsea 3-2 in a Champions World Series match in Philadelphia on Monday. First half goals from Eidur Gudjohnsen and strike partner Didier Drogba, making his first start for Chelsea, had given Jose Mourinho's English Premier League side a 2-1 halftime lead. However, Alessandro Costacurta equalized for the Italian champions after 76 minutes before Shevchenko's winner consigned Chelsea to their first defeat in three matches on their North American tour. Brazilian wingback Cafu scored Milan's opening goal in the first half. The Champions World Series features 11 friendly matches at eight venues across the US and Canada, involving club sides from England, Italy, Scotland, Portugal, Germany and Turkey.
■ Baseball
Clemens ejected from field
Houston Astros pitcher Roger Clemens spit sunflower seeds at an umpire while complaining about a close call in his son's baseball game and was ejected from the field, a newspaper reported on Monday. Clemens, 41, was a spectator at the game for boys aged 10 and under in Craig, Colorado, on Saturday when he got into an argument over a call that went against son Kacy's Katy Cowboys team and the umpire asked him to leave, the Craig Daily Press said. Clemens, known for his fiery temper and intimidating demeanour, spat sunflower seeds on the umpire's leg, the paper said. A supervisor at the game, Jim Carpenter, said he was asked to intervene and did so by siding with the umpire. "I supported the umpire's decision and he [Clemen] respectfully left," Carpenter said. Clemens, a six-times Cy Young Award winner with 322 career wins, retired from the New York Yankees last year, saying he wanted to spend more time with his family in Houston.
■ Athletics
Liu Xiang sends warning
Star Chinese hurdler Liu Xiang has sent an ominous warning to world champion Allen Johnson just days ahead of the Olympics, equally his own Asian record in the 110m hurdles. Liu is China's best gold medal hope on the track in Athens and is hitting form at the right time. He equalled his own Asian mark of 13.06 seconds at China's National Track and Field Grand Prix in Tianjin on Sunday, the China Daily reported yesterday. He previously set the record in Japan in May, when he claimed Johnson's scalp for the first time The 13.06 is just 0.01 seconds off Johnson's season best. Liu, 21, has come out of the shadows in the past two years, taking bronze in the indoor and outdoor world championships last year. His coach Sun Haiping said Liu would spend the days leading up to the Olympics working on his stamina and technical details.
RECORD DEFEAT: The Shanghai-based ‘Oriental Sports Daily’ said the drubbing was so disastrous, and taste so bitter, that all that is left is ‘numbness’ Chinese soccer fans and media rounded on the national team yesterday after they experienced fresh humiliation in a 7-0 thrashing to rivals Japan in their opening Group C match in the third phase of Asian qualifying for the 2026 World Cup. The humiliation in Saitama on Thursday against Asia’s top-ranked team was China’s worst defeat in World Cup qualifying and only a goal short of their record 8-0 loss to Brazil in 2012. Chinese President Xi Jinping once said he wanted China to host and even win the World Cup one day, but that ambition looked further away than ever after a
‘KHELIFMANIA’: In the weeks since the Algerian boxer won gold in Paris, national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women In the weeks since Algeria’s Imane Khelif won an Olympic gold medal in women’s boxing, athletes and coaches in the North African nation say national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women. Khelif’s image is practically everywhere, featured in advertisements at airports, on highway billboards and in boxing gyms. The 25-year-old welterweight’s success in Paris has vaulted her to national hero status, especially after Algerians rallied behind her in the face of uninformed speculation about her gender and eligibility to compete. Amateur boxer Zougar Amina, a medical student who has been practicing for a year, called Khelif an
Crowds descended on the home of 17-year-old Chinese diver Quan Hongchan after she won two golds at the Paris Olympics while gymnast Zhang Boheng hid in a Beijing airport toilet to escape overzealous throngs of fans. They are just two recent examples of what state media are calling “toxic fandom” and Chinese authorities have vowed to crack down on it. Some of the adulation toward China’s sports stars has been more sinister — fans obsessing over athletes’ personal lives, cyberbullying opponents or slamming supposedly crooked judges. Experts say it mirrors the kind of behavior once reserved for entertainment celebrities before
GOING GLOBAL: The regular season fixture is part of the football league’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the sport to international destinations The US National Football League (NFL) breaks new ground in its global expansion strategy tomorrow when the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers face off in the first-ever grid-iron game staged in Brazil. For one night only, the land of Pele and ‘The Beautiful Game’ will get a rare glimpse into the bone-crunching world of American football as the Packers and Eagles collide at Sao Paulo’s Neo Quimica Arena, the 46,000-seat home of soccer club Corinthians. The regular season fixture is part of the NFL’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the US’ most popular sport to new territories following previous international fixtures
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