SOCCER
‘Chus’ Pereda passes away
Jesus Maria Pereda, known as “Chus” Pereda and one of the heroes of Spain’s 1964 European Championship winning side, died at age 73. Pereda — who played for both Barcelona and bitter rivals Real Madrid — scored and set up Spain’s second in the 2-1 victory over the Soviet Union in the 1964 final. Capped 15 times, Pereda spent time at Madrid in the early stages of his career and was at the Santiago Bernabeu when they won the league and the European Cup in 1958. He later played for Barcelona for eight seasons and won the Spanish Cup — then named after General Franco — during his time at the Camp Nou. After retiring as a player, Pereda most notably coached the national side in 1992.
BASEBALL
Nunez won’t face charges
Authorities in the Dominican Republic said Florida Marlins closer Leo Nunez would not face charges for using false documents to sign a professional baseball contract. Dominican Central Electoral Commission president Roberto Rosario on Tuesday urged any athlete in a similar situation to contact authorities and help identify whoever provides false documents. Dominican authorities detained Hector Pena Diaz last week on suspicion of falsifying Nunez’s documents. A person familiar with Nunez’s immigration status said last week his real name is Juan Carlos Oviedo and that he is 29, a year older than listed in the team media guide.
BASEBALL
Madoff victim could still win
A US federal judge said the trustee trying to recover almost US$300 million for investors in Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme “might well prevail” in court against owners of the New York Mets. However, Jed Rakoff, a US district judge, said on Tuesday Irving Picard must show money that Mets owner Fred Wilpon made came after “the defendants willfully blinded themselves to Madoff’s securities fraud.” “How to determine which profits the trustee can recover remains an open question,” Rakoff said in a ruling that helped clear the mess surrounding the Mets since Picard brought a US$1 billion lawsuit against the major league club. Mets lawyers have denied Picard’s claims that club executives should have known profits from Madoff’s investments were phony.
HOCKEY
Ducks’ Jacques suspended
Anaheim Ducks forward Jean-Francois Jacques has been suspended for the remainder of the preseason and five regular-season games for leaving his team’s bench to start a fight, the NHL said on Tuesday. Jacques left the Anaheim bench late in the third period of Saturday’s game and skated straight toward Vancouver Canucks forward Mike Duco to initiate an altercation, the NHL said in a statement.
BASKETBALL
Atlanta into WNBA finals
Angel McCoughtry scored 26 points and Iziane Castro Marques added 23 as the Atlanta Dream defeated the Indiana Fever 83-67 on Tuesday to win the series 2-1 and advance to the WNBA finals for the second straight year. Lindsey Harding scored 16 points and Sancho Lyttle added 10 points, 11 rebounds and five steals for the Dream. Atlanta will play at Minnesota on Sunday in Game 1 of the best-of-five series. Indiana’s Tamika Catchings, the WNBA Most Valuable Player, had six points, five rebounds and four fouls as a reserve. Katie Douglas had 16 points and nine rebounds, while Tammy Sutton-Brown added 11 points and nine rebounds for top-seeded Indiana.
RUGBY WORLD CUP
Argentina move up
Argentina have leapfrogged Scotland to regain a top-eight place in world rankings, reflecting their progress toward the quarter-finals at the Rugby World Cup. The Pumas beat Scotland 13-12 on Sunday, exchanging places with the Scots on the latest ranking list: moving up to eighth while Scotland dropped back to ninth. Scotland will play England and Argentina will play Georgia in their last Pool B matches and Argentina are seen as having the better chance of progressing to a quarter-final match against New Zealand. Argentina, who finished third at the 2007 World Cup in France, are now only one ranking point behind seventh-placed Wales.
RUGBY WORLD CUP
Russia hooker suspended
Russia hooker Valery Tsnobiladze has been suspended for three weeks for a headbutt in Russia’s World Cup loss to Ireland on Sunday. Tsnobiladze denied the charge at a hearing yesterday, but World Cup judicial officer Jeff Blackett of England watched TV footage, and reviewed evidence from Tsnobiladze and Ireland flanker Sean O’Brien, before ruling that the Russian was not free to play until Oct. 17. Blackett said the incident was reckless and not deliberate and the victim wasn’t injured, and reduced Tsnobiladze’s potential sanction by a week because of his previously good disciplinary record.
RUGBY WORLD CUP
Chips a secret weapon
Ireland fullback Geordan Murphy has a novel way of dealing with Italy prop Martin Castrogiovanni when their teams meet at the Rugby World Cup on Sunday. Murphy says: “I’m thinking of leaving some baskets of chips in the corners ... The amount he eats, it should distract him quite nicely.” However, while the on-field rivalry will be fierce in their crucial Pool C match, it was just a lighthearted insult from Murphy, who co-owns an Italian restaurant with Castrogiovanni, his Leicester Tigers clubmate. The banter is flying both ways. Murphy says “the closer the game gets, I’m receiving more and more text messages from him ... He swears a lot at me in Italian.”
MOTOGP
Simoncelli stays with team
Italian MotoGP rider Marco Simoncelli will stay with the Honda Gresini team next year after they announced a new contract on Tuesday. “Over the past two years together we have been able to appreciate Marco’s qualities as a rider, as a man and as an extroverted communicator, which made us keen to continue our collaboration,” team boss Fausto Gresini said in a statement. Simoncelli has caused almost as much controversy in MotoGP this season as McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton in Formula One, with the frizzy-haired Italian’s aggressive style leading to clashes with other riders.
SWIMMING
Phelps training early
Michael Phelps said he had started training earlier than at any time since 2007, before his record-setting Beijing Olympics. The 16-time medalist said: “There’s a lot more drive inside of me” after the motivation hadn’t always been there the last three years. Phelps said he had been back in the pool for six weeks. He said he was confident he could get into peak shape to achieve his goals at his last Olympics in London next year. Phelps was in Manhattan, New York, on Tuesday to run and swim with eight-time Winter Games medalist Apolo Anton Ohno, who was training for the New York City Marathon.
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
Taiwanese badminton superstar Lee Yang broke down in tears after publicly retiring from the sport on Sunday. The two-time Olympic gold medalist held a retirement ceremony at the Taipei Arena after the final matches of the Taipei Open. Accompanied by friends, family and former badminton partners, Lee burst into tears while watching a video celebrating key moments in his professional sporting career that also featured messages from international players such as Malaysia’s Teo Ee Yi, Hong Kong’s Tang Chun-man, and Indonesia’s Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan. “I hope that in the future when the world thinks about me, they will
Former Formosa Dreamers player Ilkan Karaman was killed in a traffic accident in Datca, Turkey, Turkish media reported yesterday. He was 34. The former Turkish national team player was reportedly hit by a car, the driver of which was allegedly drunk, while he was standing on a sidewalk, Turkish newspaper Sozcu reported. Karaman and his friends were on their way to the beach town of Dalaman to go scuba diving when they stopped at a gas station to buy gasoline, it reported. Karaman was hit by the car while waiting on a sidewalk as his friends were buying gasoline, it
ANKLE PROBLEM: Taiwan’s Ye Hong-wei and Lee Chia-hsin had a disappointing end to their tournament after an injury forced them out of their mixed doubles semi-final Taiwanese badminton ace Tai Tzu-ying on Friday was knocked out in the women’s singles quarter-finals at her last Taipei Open. The world No. 3 lost 21-18, 16-21, 22-24 to Putri Kusuma Wardani of Indonesia in a match that stretched 68 minutes at the Taipei Arena. Despite her higher ranking, Tai said she was not too sad about the loss, given her struggle with a lingering knee injury. “Wins and losses are just part of the game. Actually, I think I’m going to lose every single match considering my condition now,” said the five-time champion of the Super 300 event, who has announced plans
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