■ARGENTINA
Buonanotte hurt in car crash
River Plate’s sought-after forward Diego Buonanotte broke his collar bone and damaged a lung in a car crash in which three friends were killed in the early hours of Saturday, police said. The 21-year-old Buonanotte, a member of Argentina’s Olympic gold medal squad last year, and his friends were returning in pouring rain from a night out dancing near his home town of Teodolina when their car hit a tree. The diminutive attacking midfielder was spending the end of year holidays in Teodolina, Santa Fe Province, and was due to return to his club in Buenos Aires for pre-championship training on Friday. European and Mexican clubs have shown interest in Buonanotte, but the new River Plate chairman, former captain and coach Daniel Passarella, who was elected earlier this month, has urged him to stay to help the team out of one of their worst-ever slumps.
■ENGLAND
Replace throw-ins: Wenger
Soccer could be speeded up by replacing throw-ins with kick-ins, Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said on Saturday. The Frenchman believes some clubs gain an unfair advantage simply because they have a player who can propel the ball long distances from throw-ins. “For example at Stoke, for Rory Delap it is like kicking the ball,” the Gunners manager told the club’s official Web site. “It is a little bit of an unfair advantage. He is using a strength that is usually not a strength in football. So [the rule I would change would be] maybe to play throw-ins by foot. Why not? I think it would make the game quicker.”
■PORTUGAL
Former Red joins Sporting
Former Liverpool striker Florent Sinama-Pongolle has agreed to move from struggling Spanish side Atletico Madrid to Sporting, the Portuguese team announced on Saturday. “An agreement in principle has been reached with Atletico Madrid and Florent Sinama-Pongolle in view to a transfer on Jan. 1,” a Sporting statement said. The Diario de Noticias newspaper reported that French international Sinama-Pongolle would cost Sporting, who are fifth in the table and 12 points behind leaders Sporting Braga and Benfica, about 6 million euros (US$8.6 million). Sinama-Pongolle, 25, started his career at Le Havre before spending three years at Liverpool between 2003 and 2006. After two years at Recreativo in Spain, he moved to Atletico Madrid last year, but struggled to hold down a first-team place in the face of competition from Uruguay striker Diego Forlan and Argentina striker Sergio “Kun” Aguero.
■AUSTRALIA
Culina to miss Kuwait trip
Midfielder Jason Culina has been ruled out of Australia’s Asian Cup qualifying clash with Kuwait on Jan. 6 because of a knee injury. Culina sustained the injury during Gold Coast United’s 5-1 win over Brisbane Roar in the Australian A-League on Saturday. Medics say the injury is not severe, with the former PSV Eindhoven player expected to be out of action for only two weeks. Socceroos coach Pim Verbeek has called up Central Coast Mariners player Dean Heffernan as Culina’s replacement for the trip to Kuwait City. Kuwait and Australia are joint leaders of Group B, with both sides needing one more victory to book their place in next year’s tournament, which is being held in Qatar.
Fenerbahce on Thursday earned a rare 2-1 win in England, but were still knocked out of the UEFA Europa League by Nottingham Forest in the playoffs. Forest entered the second leg with a healthy 3-0 lead from the opener in Istanbul — where Vitor Pereira made an impact in his first game in charge — and that proved enough to advance to the round-of-16 with a 4-2 aggregate score. The result was a boost for Forest, struggling at 17th place in the Premier League, in their return to Europe after three decades. They next face Real Betis Balompie or Kerem Akturkoglu gave Fenerbahce
Soccer officials yesterday offered “full support and assistance” to the Iranian team in Australia for the AFC Women’s Asian Cup after the US and Israel launched massive attacks on their homeland. Iran’s 26-strong squad arrived on the Gold Coast days before the strikes on Saturday killed supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as Washington and Tel Aviv seek to topple the Islamic republic. They are due to open their tournament today against South Korea. The AFC in a statement said it “continues to closely monitor the recent developments in the Middle East during this challenging period.” “The AFC’s foremost priority remains the welfare, safety and
ROAD RASH: Marc Marquez retired after a crash, marking the first time after 88 consecutive races stretching back to 2021 that a Ducati bike failed to make the podium Marco Bezzecchi yesterday won the MotoGP season-opening grand prix in Thailand from pole position as defending world champion Marc Marquez retired late with a buckled wheel. Aprilia’s Bezzecchi led from start to finish to top the podium in Buriram, with KTM’s Pedro Acosta second and Trackhouse’s Raul Fernandez third. Ducati’s Marquez is chasing a record-equaling eighth world title this season, but he exited the race in dramatic fashion while in fourth place with five laps to go. The Spaniard, who started from second on the grid, took a corner wide, with the jolt to his bike dislodging the rear tire, badly damaging his
EVERY DAY A VICTORY: Players on the women’s team faced pressure from society just getting out onto the field as they prepare for their first Women’s Asian Cup game today Bangladesh’s national soccer team face daunting odds at their first-ever Women’s Asian Cup, but have already scored a major victory by qualifying. In the South Asian nation of 170 million, social stigma, family expectations, poverty and religious hardliners have long relegated women and girls to sports sidelines. The first women’s soccer league matches took place in 2011 and the squad, known to fans as the Red and Green, have kept pressing forward despite deeply embedded prejudices. “Many more girls would have joined us if the community had been even slightly supportive,” captain Afeida Khandaker told AFP ahead of her side’s March 3
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