ICE HOCKEY
Deryk Engelland suspended
Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Deryk Engelland has been suspended for three games for an illegal check to the head of Chicago Blackhawks forward Marcus Kruger, the NHL announced on Thursday. Less than nine minutes into Pittsburgh’s 3-2 win on Tuesday, Engelland launched himself into Kruger, driving his forearm to the head of the Chicago forward. Kruger suffered a concussion from the hit. No penalty was assessed on the play, but right after the hit, Blackhawks enforcer John Scott fought Engelland and received an instigator penalty on top of his fighting major and the Penguins scored on the ensuing power play. Engelland will forfeit more than US$9,000 of his salary, which will go to the Players’ Emergency Assistance Fund.
SOCCER
Atletico fire Manzano
Atletico Madrid put Gregorio Manzano out of his misery on Thursday when their unpopular board sacked the coach following the King’s Cup defeat by third-tier Albacete and offered Diego Simeone his job. The 55-year-old Manzano’s departure came after less than a half-season in his second stint at the helm, while former Atletico midfielder Simeone said he was ready to take over after quitting as coach of Racing Club in his native Argentina on Tuesday. Club president Enrique Cerezo told reporters the 42-year-old Simeone, a fan favorite as a player, was enthusiastic about their offer and the club were expecting his response by yesterday. “We have only made an offer to Simeone,” Cerezo added. Known as “the professor,” Manzano has overseen an erratic campaign including a 5-0 league drubbing at Barcelona.
SOCCER
Villarreal promote Molina
Villarreal have promoted former Spain goalkeeper Jose Francisco Molina from B team coach to take charge of the first team following the dismissal of Juan Carlos Garrido, the La Liga club said on Thursday. Villarreal were humbled 2-0 at home by third-tier Mirandes in the King’s Cup on Wednesday, losing the last-32 match 3-1 on aggregate and prompting president Fernando Roig to sack Garrido immediately after the final whistle. He leaves the side hovering just above the La Liga relegation places after 16 rounds of a stuttering campaign that also saw them beaten in all six of their Champions League Group A games, scoring just two goals and conceding 14. Molina, 41, who kept goal for Villarreal, Atletico Madrid and Deportivo Coruna, has agreed a contract until the end of the season, the club said on their Web site.
RUGBY UNION
NZ name assistant coach
World champions New Zealand have named former Waikato Chiefs supremo Ian Foster as assistant coach. Foster, who coached the New Zealand Super rugby side in more than 100 matches between 2004 and this year, will assist recently appointed head coach Steve Hansen, who has been tasked with sustaining the top-ranked side’s success following Graham Henry’s retirement. Foster replaces former assistant coach Wayne Smith, who stepped aside to take up a coaching consultant role with the Chiefs. “This is a great honor to work with the All Blacks. I’m thankful for the faith that Steve Hansen and the board have shown in me,” Foster, a former coach of the Junior All Blacks, said in a statement released by the New Zealand Rugby Union yesterday. The All Blacks have also named Brian McLean, who was an assistant to Samoa at this year’s World Cup, as defense coach, with a skills coach to be named in the new year.
INJURY TURMOIL: Despite stunning French Open champions Paolini and Errani to advance, Chan was forced to pull out after her partner’s tearful women’s singles defeat Last year’s mixed doubles champions Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan and Poland’s Jan Zielinski on Monday crashed out of the quarter-finals at Wimbledon, leaving the Taiwanese star focused on pursuing a fifth women’s doubles title in London, while a partner injury forced compatriot Chan Hao-ching to give up on her doubles campaign. Hsieh and Zielinksi, who last year also won the Australia Open title, narrowly lost their opening set 7-6 (9/7), before Britain’s Joe Salisbury and Brazil’s Luisa Stefani stunned the former champions 6-3 at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club. The Taiwanese-Polish duo had been dominant in the first two
HSIEH ADVANCES: In the women’s doubles, Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei was to play in the second round last night, but Taiwan’s Ray Ho exited in the men’s doubles It is more than 10 years since Grigor Dimitrov reached his sole Wimbledon semi-final and back then it still seemed a reasonable bet that the Bulgarian once dubbed “Baby Federer” would win a Grand Slam title. There were semi-final runs at the US Open and Australian Open after that, but it has never quite happened and despite him still being ranked No. 21, it most likely never will. Dimitrov, 34, remains one of the most stylish players on the circuit though, with his elegant single-handed backhand and smooth all-court game a rare reminder of how tennis was before the power merchants turned
Real Madrid’s FIFA Club World Cup quarter-final against Borussia Dortmund had taken three crazy turns during nine minutes of second-half stoppage time when Marcel Sabitzer chested the ball and sent a right-footed volley toward Thibaut Courtois’ post. Courtois leapt to his right, extended the long arm on his 2m frame and just managed to get his gloved fingertips on the ball, knocking it down. Courtois hit the ground as the ball bounded up. He looked skyward, planted his right hand to regain his balance, grabbed the ball with both hands on the second bounce and fell onto it with his chest. Sabitzer turned
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has overturned French Olympic fencer Ysaora Thibus’ four-year suspension for doping, ruling that her positive test for a banned substance was caused by kissing her then-boyfriend, American fencer Race Imboden. Thibus, a silver medalist in team foil at the Tokyo Games, had tested positive for ostarine, a prohibited muscle-building substance, during a competition in Paris in January last year. However, CAS concluded there was no intentional wrongdoing, finding it scientifically plausible that repeated kissing over several days with Olympic medalist Imboden — who was taking ostarine at the time — led to accidental contamination. The court
RSS