NETHERLANDS
PSV go on the rampage
Belgium’s Dries Mertens scored a hat-trick as PSV Eindhoven crushed Excelsior Rotterdam in a 6-1 rampage in the Dutch league on Sunday. PSV moved into third with nine points after four matches, three behind leaders Twente, who beat VVV Venlo 4-1 on Saturday. Ajax, 4-1 winners over Vitesse Arnhem on Friday, are second with 10 points. Mertens opened the scoring for PSV after 30 minutes, but Mitchell te Vrede equalized for Excelsior six minutes before the interval. PSV sealed their third straight win in the first six minutes after the break, with Ola Toivonen and Mertens on target, before Jeremain Lens and Toivonen with his second completed the rout. AZ Alkmaar cruised to a 3-0 win at Groningen to move into fourth with nine points. Feyenoord slipped to fifth after being held to a 2-2 draw by nine-man Heerenveen.
SWITZERLAND
Neuchatel players petrified
Players from Swiss Championship side Neuchatel Xamax have admitted to being petrified by the club’s Chechen owner, with one of them claiming he feared for his life, according to the Web site 20minutes.ch on Sunday. The players were reacting after Bulat Chagaev had stormed into the changing room following Neuchatel’s draw with Lausanne on Saturday and terrorized them, while he had to be physically restrained by his armed bodyguards from assaulting coach Joaquin Caparros. “This cannot go on like this,” a player told the Web site — which also cited a player saying that he feared for his life — under condition of anonymity. “It is impossible to work under these conditions. Everyone’s confidence is completely shot. It has reached a point where if we make a bad pass or we fail to control the ball, that we are afraid of the consequences. Today [Saturday night], there was almost a punch-up with the coach. Mr Caparros answered him [Chagaev] back and the bodyguards prevented Chagaev from throttling him.”
ENGLAND
Spurs to offload Palacios
Tottenham Hotspur manager Harry Redknapp says midfielder Wilson Palacios has undergone a medical examination at Stoke City. The Honduras international has not played for Spurs this season and the transfer window closes tomorrow. While confirming Palacios’ impending move, Redknapp said he did not want Peter Crouch to follow him to Stoke, with the striker also linked with a transfer to the Britannia Stadium. “People say we want to sell Crouch to Stoke and it’s in the papers every day ... as far as I know he is staying,” Redknapp said. England midfielder Scott Parker could be joining Spurs after West Ham United manager Sam Allardyce confirmed that “there are some negotiations going on.”
BRAZIL
Fans shot, coach has stroke
Two supporters of Palmeiras suffered gunshot wounds and were taken to hospital on Sunday after fighting between fans and police that marred the team’s 2-1 victory over Corinthians in a Sao Paulo derby. In further drama to hit the Brazilian championship, Vasco da Gama’s young coach Ricardo Gomes had emergency surgery in hospital after suffering a stroke during his team’s 0-0 draw with Flamengo. “Two fans of a supporters’ organization who came from the city of Sao Paulo were shot,” an officer of the Sao Paulo State police said after the incident. The match at the Engenhao was interrupted during the second half when the 46-year-old Ricardo suffered pains while on the bench and was taken to hospital, where the diagnosis was a stroke with hemorrhaging.
North Korea’s FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup-winning team on Saturday received a heroes’ welcome back in the capital, Pyongyang, with hundreds of people on the streets to celebrate their success. They had defeated Spain on penalties after a 1-1 draw in the U17 World Cup final in the Dominican Republic on Nov. 3. It was the second global title in two months for secretive North Korea — largely closed off to the outside world; they also lifted the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup in September. Officials and players’ families gathered at Pyongyang International Airport to wave flowers and North Korea flags as the
Taiwan’s top table tennis player Lin Yun-ju made his debut in the US professional table tennis scene by taking on a new role as a team’s co-owner. On Wednesday, Major League Table Tennis (MLTT), founded in September last year, announced on its official Web site that Lin had become part of the ownership group of the Princeton Revolution, one of the league’s eight teams. MLTT chief executive officer Flint Lane described Lin’s investment as “another great milestone for table tennis in America,” saying that the league’s “commitment to growth and innovation is drawing attention from the best in the sport, and we’re
Coco Gauff of the US on Friday defeated top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 to set up a showdown with Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen in the final of the WTA Finals, while in the doubles, Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching was eliminated. Gauff generated six break points to Belarusian Sabalenka’s four and built on early momentum in the opening set’s tiebreak that she carried through to the second set. She is the youngest player at 20 to make the final at the WTA Finals since Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki in 2010. Zheng earlier defeated Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 7-5 to book
For King Faisal, a 20-year-old winger from Ghana, the invitation to move to Brazil to play soccer “was a dream.” “I believed when I came here, it would help me change the life of my family and many other people,” he said in Sao Paulo. For the past year and a half, he has been playing on the under-20s squad for Sao Paulo FC, one of South America’s most prominent clubs. He and a small number of other Africans are tearing across pitches in a country known as the biggest producer and exporter of soccer stars in the world, from Pele to Neymar. For