■SOCCER
Cacau stars in Stuttgart win
Cacau boosted his chances of a place in Germany’s World Cup squad by scoring the first goal and setting up the second in VfB Stuttgart’s 2-0 victory at relegation-threatened VfL Bochum in the Bundesliga on Friday. The Brazilian-born forward notched his 12th league goal of the season when he scored from close range following good work by Ciprian Marica down the right in the 14th minute. Cacau returned the compliment four minutes later when his neat pass set up the Romanian for Stuttgart’s second goal to give them their sixth win in a row stretching back to the 4-0 Champions League defeat at Barcelona. Bochum’s defeat means only goal difference keeps them ahead of Freiburg, who are 16th and in the relegation playoff spot. Both teams have 28 points, but Freiburg could move above Bochum if they avoid defeat at home to mid-table reigning champions VfL Wolfsburg today. Stuttgart are sixth with 53 points.
■SOCCER
Flamengo coach sacked
Brazilian champions Flamengo sacked coach Andrade and two club officials on Friday, the three men falling victim to the team’s disappointing Libertadores Cup campaign. Flamengo scraped into the knockout phase of South America’s elite club competition on Thursday when, having failed to win their group, they finished sixth and last among the best second-placed teams. “I waited for us to pass to the next phase of the Libertadores, since those people deserve to leave by the club’s front door. After all, they gave the club a national title after 17 years,” club president Patricia Amorim told a news conference at the club’s training ground. Amorim said she would name a new coach over the weekend.
■CYCLING
Vinokourov wins in Italy
Kazakh Alexander Vinokourov of Astana won the 34th edition of the Tour of Trentino on Friday for his first major success of the season, edging out Italy’s Riccardo Ricco of Ceramica Flaminia. Vinokourov squeezed out his rival by just 0.12 seconds after a battle royal over the final kilometer of the fourth and final stage heading for the summit of the Alpe di Pampeago, where Italian Domenico Pozzovivo of Colnago took the stage honors. Vinokourov was unable to keep pace with Ricco, an excellent climber who came in second, just 3 seconds behind Pozzovivo, but the Kazakh was still able to win by the smallest of margins.
■SWIMMING
Li races to 800m victory
Teenager Li Xuanxu has underlined her burgeoning talent by racing to an 800m freestyle victory at the Chinese national championships in the third best time of the year. The 16-year-old, who swam the world’s fastest 400m individual medley time of the year on Thursday, proved she was no slouch at double the distance on Friday by clocking 8 minutes, 24.10 seconds in Shaoxing. Only Britain’s Olympic champion Rebecca Adlington and Australian champion Katie Goldman have swum faster this year.
■GYMNASTICS
Former champion dies at 25
Former Olympic rhythmic gymnastics champion Natalia Lavrova died in a car accident on Friday, the Russian Rhythmic Gymnastics Federation said. Lavrova, 25, was a passenger in a car involved in a head-on collision near the city of Penza, southeast of Moscow, a Penza Province traffic police official said on state-run Rossiya-24 television. Lavrova won gold in the team event at the 2000 and 2004 Olympics.
■ICE HOCKEY
Fans to be charged
Two Canadian hockey fans will be charged after a prank where they replaced a US flag with a Canadian one following Canada’s Olympic gold medal ice hockey victory. US police said Ryan Smith and Matt Seifert would be charged with misdemeanor vandalism and flag desecration. Smith and Seifert celebrated Canada’s gold medal win over the US at the Vancouver Olympics on Feb. 28 by flying the Canadian flag on a California hilltop above the desert town of Palm Springs, but US authorities weren’t amused because they said the US flag was put there to honor the victims of the Sept. 11 terror attacks in New York and Washington eight years ago. Canada became the first host team to win Olympic hockey gold in 30 years when superstar Sidney Crosby scored the winner in overtime to beat the US 3-2.
■BASKETBALL
Ginobili to miss world’s
Argentina’s leading basketball player Manu Ginobili will not play at the world championships in Turkey in August for family reasons, the player said on Friday. The San Antonio Spurs guard, who recently signed a multi-year contract extension with his NBA team, said he wanted to be with his wife who is expecting twins in May and concentrate on the 2012 London Olympic Games. “My two Olympic experiences were the best thing that has happened to me as a sportsman, including [three] NBA titles and I have no doubt in my mind I want to experience it again,” the 32-year-old said in a column in La Nacion online. Ginobili helped Argentina win the basketball gold medal at the Athens Games in 2004 after finishing second at the world championships in the US in 2002.
■BASEBALL
Ramirez put on disabled list
Los Angeles Dodgers slugger Manny Ramirez has been placed on the 15-day disabled list because of a strained right calf muscle, the team said on Friday. “Stan [trainer Stan Conte] called today and told me the nature of the strain, and that Manny felt he needed some time with this thing,” Dodgers manager Joe Torre told Major League Baseball’s official Web site. Ramirez injured the calf muscle during the first week of the season, aggravated it last week and missed two starts before suffering a recurrence of the problem while running to first base in an 8-5 loss to the Cincinnati Reds on Thursday.
■ATHLETICS
Bolt rules out 400m, for now
Usain Bolt says he doesn’t want to move up to running the 400m, but he will do “if it takes that for me to become a legend in sports.” Jamaica’s 100m and 200m Olympic and world champion said he would instead try to defend his titles at the 2012 London Games. Bolt spoke on Friday on a conference call before the start of the Diamond League, a set of 14 races around the world that start on May 14 in Doha. Bolt said he would race at the Diamond League meetings in Shanghai, New York, Paris and Brussels.
■SKIING
Miller waits on US Ski Team
Bode Miller says what he hears from the US Ski Team will play a big role as he decides whether to retire. Miller, fresh from winning gold, silver and bronze at the Vancouver Olympics, said on Friday that he would not decide his future until the team’s preseason camp in August. The 32-year-old Miller said many of the issues that prompted him to start his own team two years ago hadn’t changed when he returned to the US team in the run-up to Vancouver.
‘AWFUL PERFORMANCE’: Golden State were always chasing the game after failing to threaten from long range, making just eight of 33 three-point attempts Aaron Gordon on Monday scored 38 points as the Denver Nuggets shrugged off the absence of Nikola Jokic to halt the Golden State Warriors’ seven-game winning streak with a 114-105 victory over their Western Conference rivals. A dazzling display from Gordon inspired what was ultimately a comfortable win for Denver, who were missing regular starters Jokic and Jamal Murray from their lineup. The absentees were barely felt by Denver, who startled the Warriors early at San Francisco’s Chase Center and led for most of the game. The Warriors threatened to stage a late rally after slashing the Nuggets’ fourth-quarter lead from 15 points
The US’ bid for a fourth consecutive CONCACAF Nations League title came to a stunning end as they fell 1-0 to Panama after a stoppage-time goal from Cecilio Waterman on Thursday in Inglewood, California. Despite dominating possession, the US struggled to break down a resilient Panama side for long periods. Panama spent the bulk of the match defending, but pounced on a giveaway by the US before substitute forward Waterman sent a shot from the right side of the area to the bottom left corner late in stoppage time. Up next for Panama in tomorrow’s final is to be Mexico, who beat
Barcelona’s Ferran Torres scored twice on Sunday to help secure a late 4-2 comeback win at Atletico Madrid in a pulsating La Liga clash that took the Catalan side back to the top of the table. Barca have 60 points and a game in hand after last week’s postponement of their home game with CA Osasuna. They are level on points with Real Madrid, who won 2-1 at Villarreal on Saturday. “I am happy and proud of this team,” Barcelona head coach Hansi Flick told a news conference. “They never give up... It’s a great three points and we are happy to
Chris Wood has fired Nottingham Forest into surprise UEFA Champions League contention and now the striker wants to score the goals to help New Zealand make history at the FIFA World Cup. New Zealand are strong favorites to qualify out of the Oceania region over the next week and reach the World Cup for only the third time. At the country’s two previous appearances at the finals, in 1982 and 2010, they have failed to win a match in six attempts. With Wood captaining the side and leading from the front, he told local media yesterday that the current squad can finally deliver
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