Second-placed Werder Bremen won 2-1 at Hansa Rostock on Tuesday night to reduce their deficit to seven points behind leaders Bayern Munich in the German Bundesliga.
Three days after thrashing third-placed Schalke 04, Werder came up against a hardworking Rostock who are battling to avoid relegation. Germany international Torsten Frings opened the scoring with a 57th minute shot for his first league goal since November 2006, but Rostock drew level in the 76th minute through Sebastian Haehnge.
Bremen got the winner with eight minutes to go however. A penalty kick was saved by the Rostock keeper, but the ball fell nicely to Ivan Klasnic who made no mistake with the rebound.
PHOTO: AFP
Werder have really come back into form following a poor run last month, with three victories in a row — two of them away from home — however, unless Bayern severely slip up the best they can realistically hope for is second spot.
“The main thing was to get the three points, not necessarily to play beautiful football,” said Frings, who is nearly back to his best after a season curtailed by a recurring right knee injury.
However, Bremen are only two points ahead of third-placed Schalke who showed their fighting spirit with a 5-1 win over lowly Energie Cottbus, including four goals from Kevin Kuranyi.
It was hard to say if the Ruhr club had benefited from the axing of coach Mirko Slomka and the fielding of two interim coaches, or whether it was merely the poor showing of Cottbus.
Kuranyi, who had been out of form since the beginning of the year and had not been on good terms with Slomka, has certainly regained his form in front of goal.
“It was great to score four goals, but I’m also happy with the football we played today. We were in fighting mood and gelled well as a team. It was important to find our feet again after the Bremen defeat,” Kuranyi said.
Mike Buskens, one of Schalke’s two stand-in coaches, said: “We tried to speak with the players a lot since our arrival by telling them ‘You have had a lot of pressure these last few days, but football is above all about enjoying yourself.’”
Fourth-placed Hamburg could only get one point following their goalless draw at Hertha Berlin, but would have won if Ivica Olic had not messed up his penalty kick.
Tainan TSG Hawks slugger Steven Moya, who is leading the CPBL in home runs, has withdrawn from this weekend’s All-Star Game after the unexpected death of his wife. Moya’s wife began feeling severely unwell aboard a plane that landed at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Friday evening. She was rushed to a hospital, but passed away, the Hawks said in a statement yesterday. The franchise is assisting Moya with funeral arrangements and hopes fans who were looking forward to seeing him at the All-Star Game can understand his decision to withdraw. According to Landseed Medical Clinic, whose staff attempted to save Moya’s wife,
Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt yesterday backed Nick Champion de Crespigny to be the team’s “roving scavenger” after handing him a shock debut in the opening Test against the British and Irish Lions Test in Brisbane. Hard man Champion de Crespigny, who spent three seasons at French side Castres before moving to the Western Force this year, is to get his chance tomorrow with first-choice blindside flanker Rob Valetini not fully fit. His elevation is an eye-opener, preferred to Tom Hooper, but Schmidt said he had no doubt about his abilities. “I keep an eye on the Top 14 having coached there many years
ON A KNEE: In the MLB’s equivalent of soccer’s penalty-kicks shoot-out, the game was decided by three batters from each side taking three swings each off coaches Kyle Schwarber was nervous. He had played in Game 7 of the MLB World Series and homered for the US in the World Baseball Classic (WBC), but he had never walked up to the plate in an All-Star Game swing-off. No one had. “That’s kind of like the baseball version of a shoot-out,” Schwarber said after homering on all three of his swings, going down to his left knee on the final one, to overcome a two-homer deficit. That held up when Jonathan Aranda fell short on the American League’s final three swings, giving the National League a 4-3 swing-off win after
Seattle’s Cal Raleigh defeated Tampa Bay’s Junior Caminero 18-15 in Monday’s final to become the first catcher to win the Major League Baseball Home Run Derby. The 28-year-old switch-hitter, who leads MLB with 38 homers this season, won US$1 million by capturing the special event for sluggers at Atlanta’s Truist Park ahead of yesterday’s MLB All-Star Game. “It means the world,” Raleigh said. “I could have hit zero home runs and had just as much fun. I just can’t believe I won. It’s unbelievable.” Raleigh, who advanced from the first round by less than 25mm on a longest homer tiebreaker, had his father
RSS