Hualien City on Saturday clinched this year’s Taiwan Mulan Football League title with one game to spare, by beating Taichung Blue Whale 2-1 at Fu Jen Catholic University in New Taipei City.
Hualien City have scored 38 points this season. Blue Whale are second on the scoreboard with 30 points, while Taipei Bravo are third with 23 points. One final round of matches is to be played on Saturday.
It is the fourth league trophy for Hualien City, and ends Blue Whale’s three-year winning streak. Hualien had won the title from 2014 to 2016.
Photo courtesy of CTFA
Both teams defended well, leaving few chances in front of goal through most of the first half, although Blue Whale squandered several good opportunities inside the final third.
In the 42nd minute, attacking midfielder Lin Kai-ling duped the opposition by shooting with her left foot and sent the ball sailing over goalkeeper Lin Yi-han’s hands into the net.
After halftime, Blue Whale picked up the pace, with midfielders Michelle Pao and Lee Hsiu-chin supporting the two forwards up front, but they could not break through Hualien’s back line.
In the 71st minute, Blue Whale goalkeeper Lin fumbled under pressure from Hualien striker Lin Hsiao-yun, which resulted in a goal-mouth scramble, and defender Chen Ya-hui slotted the ball into the goal, taking the score to 2-0.
Pao was active throughout the match, but Hualien’s defenders marked her closely.
In added time, Pao passed a long shot to striker Tsan Pi-han, who scored Blue Whale’s consolation goal, ending the game at 2-1.
“Our coaches encouraged us to take shots from outside, when getting into a good position,” Lin Kai-ling said after the game. “I got the ball and changed from my right to the left, and got past the defender, then I went for a shot from there... Before the game, I had thought about trying to score, and I am very happy I got the goal to help our team to clinch the title.”
Earlier on Saturday, Inter Taoyuan FC’s Ting Chi, a Taiwan national squad regular, scored on either side of halftime against Kaohsiung Sunny Bank.
Sunny Bank forward Wu Ching-kai scored her team’s only goal before halftime, while Taoyuan’s Chen Yen-ping took the final score to 3-1 in added time.
In Hang Yuan FC’s 2-1 win against Taipei Bravo, Fan Yu-hsuan and Chiang Chia-chen scored, while Taipei Bravo’s Su Hsin-yun scored in the second half, but it was not enough.
MEN’S SOCCER
In the Taiwan Football Premier League yesterday, the top three teams — Taichung Futuro, Taipower FC and Taiwan Steel — all won their matches, taking them to a three-way tie atop the table at 33 points each.
Taichung Futuro routed National Taiwan University of Sport 4-0, while Taipower edged Tatung FC 1-0.
Taiwan Steel routed Ming Chuan University 4-1, and Hang Yuan FC drew 2-2 against Red Lions FC.
ANFIELD BLUES: Kylian Mbappe arrived at Anfield on a run of 21 goals in 17 games, but he managed just three attempts in the match, none of them hitting the target Kylian Mbappe has been nearly unstoppable this season, but he hit a roadblock in their UEFA Champions League match at Anfield on Tuesday. For the second year running, the Real Madrid forward had a night to forget at Merseyside as Liverpool won 1-0. Mbappe looked a shadow of the player who has been tearing defenses apart all season. “We were lacking that threat in the final third,” said Madrid coach Xabi Alonso, without naming Mbappe individually. The FIFA World Cup winner for France rarely looked capable of finding a breakthrough against a Liverpool team who have been so defensively fragile for much of the
For almost 30 minutes, Vitomir Maricic did not take a breath. Face down in a pool, surrounded by anxious onlookers, the Croatian freediver fought spasming pain to redefine what doctors thought was possible. When he finally surfaced, he had smashed the previous Guinness World Record for the longest breath-hold underwater by nearly five minutes. However, even with the help of pure oxygen before the attempt, it had pushed him to the limit. “Everything was difficult, just overwhelming,” Maricic, 40, told reporters, reflecting on the record-breaking day on June 14. “When I dive, I completely disconnect from everything, as if I’m not even there.
TIGHT GAME: The Detroit Pistons, the NBA’s second-best team, barely outlasted the Washington Wizards, who fell to an NBA-worst 1-10 with their ninth consecutive loss Cade Cunningham’s triple double, Daniss Jenkins’ three-pointer at the buzzer and Javonte Green’s overtime dunk lifted Detroit past Washington 137-135 on Monday, stretching the Pistons’ win streak to seven games. In an unexpected thriller, the NBA’s second-best team barely outlasted a Wizards club that fell to an NBA-worst 1-10 with their ninth consecutive loss. “We knew how big this game was for us,” Jenkins said. “We wasn’t going to let nothing stop us from getting this W.” Cunningham made 14-of-45 shots and 16-of-18 free throws for a career-high 46 points, and added 12 rebounds, 11 assists, five steals and two
With a hat-trick on Wednesday, Victor Osimhen moved atop the UEFA Champions League scoring table, with the Nigeria striker netting all three goals in Galatasaray’s 3-0 victory over Ajax in Amsterdam. Osimhen moved to six goals this season in Europe’s elite club competition, one more than Harry Kane, Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland. The Istanbul club signed Osimhen to a permanent deal from SSC Napoli in the summer for a record transfer fee in the Turkish League reportedly worth US$86 million. The 26-year-old striker needed less than 20 minutes to complete his first hat-trick in the competition. He headed in the opener in the
RSS