SOCCER
Villarreal rout 10-man Rayo
With a UEFA Europa League berth already secured, Villarreal rolled to a 4-0 win over 10-man Rayo Vallecano de Madrid in their last home game of the season on Saturday. Ikechuwku Uche and Bruno Soriano scored in the first half, before Jonathan Pereira struck in the 55th minute in the romp at El Madrigal. Rayo were left with 10 men when Anaitz Arbilla earned a direct red card for fouling Moi Gomez, who had only the goalkeeper to beat in the 63rd minute. Jaume Costa capped the demolition a minute later. Villarreal are in seventh place, two points behind Real Sociedad. If Villarreal finish above Sociedad they will avoid a playoff to reach the Europa League group phase. Also on Saturday, Levante UD beat Valencia 2-0 to sit one round away from finishing above their city rivals for the first time in history. Angel Rodriguez opened in the 70th minute, before Andreas Ivanschitz added the second in the 81st and the hosts hung on, despite Pedro Lopez’s red card with two minutes remaining. Levante are eighth, two points above Valencia.
FOOTBALL
Rams’ Sam makes history
Michael Sam made history on Saturday as the St Louis Rams made him the first openly gay player to be drafted into the NFL. Sam had an agonizingly long wait for the milestone moment, which came as the seventh and final round of the three-day draft was winding down. “I knew I was going to get picked somewhere,” said Sam, who starred as a defensive end for the University of Missouri and went public with his sexuality in February. “Every team that passed me, I was thinking how I’m going to sack their quarterback.” The 24-year-old was taken with the 249th overall selection in the annual allocation of new talent for the US’ most popular sport — seven spots before the draft concluded with pick No. 256.
GOLF
Fog forces Madeira rethink
Persistent fog problems forced organizers to reduce the Madeira Islands Open to 36 holes on Saturday as the European Tour’s 1,500th event suffered more frustration. After the first day was abandoned due to heavy fog, the first round suffered a delayed start and early finish on Friday at the venue which stands at 700m above sea level. That left more than half of the 144-player field yet to start their opening rounds. After more delays on Saturday and with play only starting at midday, it was decided to make the event a 36-hole tournament. The remainder of the first round was set to resume yesterday with Scott Henry still holding the lead having carded a five-under opening round of 67 on Friday.
RUGBY UNION
NZ claim 12th sevens title
New Zealand won the Rugby Sevens World Series for a 12th time in 15 seasons, but a pool loss to England sent the Kiwis on the hard road to defending their season-ending London title on Saturday. Pool wins in the morning against Argentina (40-10) and Wales (49-0) before a sold-out Twickenham crowd of 75,000 ensured New Zealand reached the knockout stage and secured the title a fourth straight time with an unassailable points lead over South Africa. The Kiwis have won a series-leading four tournaments this season, twice as many as next-best South Africa and Fiji, and they have yet to lose before the semi-finals. That record was on the line after a 15-12 loss to England put New Zealand into a quarter-final against South Africa, unbeaten pool winners along with England, Samoa and Australia, all previous champions in London.
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
Crowds descended on the home of 17-year-old Chinese diver Quan Hongchan after she won two golds at the Paris Olympics while gymnast Zhang Boheng hid in a Beijing airport toilet to escape overzealous throngs of fans. They are just two recent examples of what state media are calling “toxic fandom” and Chinese authorities have vowed to crack down on it. Some of the adulation toward China’s sports stars has been more sinister — fans obsessing over athletes’ personal lives, cyberbullying opponents or slamming supposedly crooked judges. Experts say it mirrors the kind of behavior once reserved for entertainment celebrities before
‘KHELIFMANIA’: In the weeks since the Algerian boxer won gold in Paris, national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women In the weeks since Algeria’s Imane Khelif won an Olympic gold medal in women’s boxing, athletes and coaches in the North African nation say national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women. Khelif’s image is practically everywhere, featured in advertisements at airports, on highway billboards and in boxing gyms. The 25-year-old welterweight’s success in Paris has vaulted her to national hero status, especially after Algerians rallied behind her in the face of uninformed speculation about her gender and eligibility to compete. Amateur boxer Zougar Amina, a medical student who has been practicing for a year, called Khelif an
GOING GLOBAL: The regular season fixture is part of the football league’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the sport to international destinations The US National Football League (NFL) breaks new ground in its global expansion strategy tomorrow when the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers face off in the first-ever grid-iron game staged in Brazil. For one night only, the land of Pele and ‘The Beautiful Game’ will get a rare glimpse into the bone-crunching world of American football as the Packers and Eagles collide at Sao Paulo’s Neo Quimica Arena, the 46,000-seat home of soccer club Corinthians. The regular season fixture is part of the NFL’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the US’ most popular sport to new territories following previous international fixtures
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