ENGLAND
Reds begin life without Luis
Liverpool started life without Luis Suarez on Wednesday with a 2-1 defeat against Danish side Brondby IF in the club’s opening pre-season friendly. Christian Norgaard gave the hosts the lead from a free-kick midway through the first half, before Liverpool’s Sweden international Kristoffer Peterson leveled early in the second half. Ferhan Hasani hit Brondby’s winner in stoppage-time. Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers shrugged off the loss in the team’s first game since Suarez’s move to Barcelona, preferring to concentrate on the challenges of the new Premier League season which starts on Aug. 16. “This year, we know it’s going to be extremely competitive. Every team will strengthen and we’ll be exactly the same, but the beauty for us is that we’re a young group and we’re bringing in young players that are hungry,” Rodgers said. Also on Wednesday, Chelsea defeated fourth-tier Wycombe Wanderers 5-0, with Patrick Bamford, Izzy Brown (2), John Terry and Branislav Ivanovic on the score sheet. In Austria, Crystal Palace enjoyed a 13-1 romp at Grazer AK, with Stephen Dobbie grabbing four goals, and Glenn Murray, Joe Ledley and Jonathan Williams all netting twice. Yannick Bolasie, Jerome Thomas and Marouane Chamakh finished off the rout.
ENGLAND
Magpies sign striker Riviere
French forward Emmanuel Riviere has joined Newcastle United from AS Monaco for an undisclosed fee, the Premier League club said. “This is an important signing because the striking area is one we really had to improve,” British media quoted Newcastle manager Alan Pardew as saying. “We have looked at Emmanuel for a while and we know he will score goals for us.” Newcastle did not disclose the length of the deal the Martinique-born 24-year-old signed. “When the club spoke to me I said yes immediately. It was an easy decision,” Riviere said. “My dream was always to play in the Premier League and Newcastle have given me the opportunity.”
ARGENTINA
Pope Francis sent shirt
The FIFA World Cup runners-up have sent their compatriot, Pope Francis, a die-hard soccer fan, a jersey signed by the team, midfielder Maximiliano Rodriguez said on Wednesday on Twitter. The player posted a picture of himself holding up the sky blue and white jersey alongside national hero Lionel Messi, winner of the Golden Ball for the best player at the tournament. “This is the present the team sent to our Pope Francis,” Rodriguez wrote. Francis is known as a card-carrying member of Argentine club San Lorenzo, but the Vatican’s chief of ceremonies, Guillermo Karcher, said the pope had refrained from watching Sunday’s final in Rio de Janeiro as “a matter of neutrality.”
UNITED STATES
All-Star lineup announced
Eight players who took part in the World Cup have been named in Major League Soccer’s All-Star team for an exhibition clash with German club Bayern Munich, the league said on Wednesday. The All-Star team is dominated by members of the US national team who reached the round-of-16 in Brazil before losing 2-1 to Belgium. US captain Clint Dempsey is joined by World Cup teammates Michael Bradley, Graham Zusi, Kyle Beckerman, Matt Besler, DeAndre Yedlin, Omar Gonzalez and Nick Rimando, while former US striker Landon Donovan, 1998 World Cup winner Thierry Henry and Nigeria’s Obafemi Martins complete the team. The game is scheduled for Aug. 6 in Portland, Oregon.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later
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