Lee Hsiang-wei on Sunday headed Taipower to a 1-0 victory over Taichung Futuro and to the top of the Taiwan Football Premier League table, in a tie with Taiwan Steel on 42 points.
The league’s only match at the weekend was a duel between Taipower manager Chen Kuei-jen and Futuro manager Henry Von, former and current Taiwan national team managers respectively.
The match at the National Stadium in Kaohsiung also featured a battle between two form strikers, Taipower’s Lee and Futuro’s South Korean marksman Joo Ik-seong.
Photo courtesy of the CTFA
The first good chance fell to Futuro after 11 minutes when Joo hit a fierce shot that Taipower goalkeeper Chiu Yu-hung punched away at his near post.
Taipower took the lead in the 27th minute from a corner when Lee outjumped the Futuro defenders and goalkeeper Li Ming-wei to glance a header into the net.
Futuro had a chance to equalize shortly after halftime when midfielder Wang Ruei met a cross in the penalty area, but his weak header was directed straight at Chiu.
Futuro pushed on in search of an equalizer throughout the second half, with Joo hitting most of the best attempts, but Taipower were robust in defense and their hard tackles denied their opponents clear-cut chances.
Futuro’s best chance came five minutes from time when Japanese midfielder Keisuke Yamauchi curled in a cross from a free-kick that found Chen Ting-yang a few meters from goal, but the ball bounced off Chen Ting-yang’s leg and the Taipower goalkeeper made an easy save.
Futuro poured players forward in stoppage-time and created several good chances, but they paid for their wayward shooting as Chiu kept the clean sheet for Taipower.
“Our team put in an outstanding display, they executed my game plan [well] against Futuro, especially in defense,” Chen Kuei-jen said. “We had to set up a new game plan, because in this season’s first encounter we got shut down for a goalless draw. In the second match, Futuro defeated us 3-2. We gave them too much space to operate, so today we went for a more conservative, defensive plan.”
“Also we were ahead in the standings, leading them by three points, so mentally our players were not under as much pressure as the Futuro team,” he said.
Futuro remained in third place on 36 points, six points off the joint leaders with two matches left to play.
Bologna on Thursday advanced past Empoli to reach their first Coppa Italia final in more than half a century. Thijs Dallinga’s 87th-minute header earned Bologna a 2-1 win and his side advanced 5-1 on aggregate. Giovanni Fabbian opened the scoring for Bologna with a header seven minutes in. Then Viktor Kovalenko equalized for Empoli in the 30th minute by turning in a rebound to finish off a counterattack. Bologna won the first leg 3-0. In the May 14 final in Rome, Bologna are to face AC Milan, who eliminated city rivals Inter 4-1 on aggregate following a 3-0 win on Wednesday. Bologna last reached the
The Minnesota Timberwolves, with so many promising performances spoiled by late mistakes fresh in their memory bank, sure timed this strong finish well. Jaden McDaniels scored a career playoff-high 30 points and spearheaded Minnesota’s stifling defense on an ailing Luka Doncic, and the Timberwolves beat the Los Angeles Lakers 116-104 to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven Western Conference first-round series in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Friday night. “Jaden never looks tired. He looks like he could play 48 minutes,” said teammate Anthony Edwards, who had 29 points, eight rebounds and eight assists. Julius Randle added 22 points for the Wolves, who outscored
Inter’s defense of their Italian Serie A title was hit with a setback on Sunday as they lost 1-0 at home to AS Roma, while Scott McTominay netted a brace as SSC Napoli beat Torino 2-0 to go top of the table. No fixtures were played on Friday or Saturday because of the funeral of Pope Francis in Rome, meaning the full round of Serie A matches took place on Sunday and yesterday. Matias Soule’s first-half strike for Roma knocked Inter off top spot earlier in the day before new Napoli opened up a three-point buffer with victory in Sunday’s
Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa yesterday set a women’s only world record of 2 hours, 15 minutes, 50 seconds as she won the London Marathon, while Kenya’s Sabastian Sawe put a star-studded men’s field to the sword. For 28-year-old Assefa it was ample compensation for finishing runner-up in London and the Paris Olympics last year — especially as bitter Dutch rival, the Ethiopia-born Sifan Hassan, finished third. Assefa dropped Kenya’s Joyciline Jepkosgei as the race, played out in blazing sunshine and with thousands lining the route, entered its business end. She came home almost three minutes clear of the Kenyan. Hassan, who beat her in
RSS