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.
Rangers on Wednesday bowed out of the UEFA Champions League playoffs with a humiliating 6-0 defeat at the hands of Club Brugge which piles further pressure on head coach Russell Martin, while SL Benfica secured a place in the competition proper at the expense of Jose Mourinho’s Fenerbahce. The Glasgow giants traveled to Belgium right up against it after losing 3-1 at home in last week’s first leg, when they conceded three times in the opening 20 minutes. They never looked like turning the tie around as Club Brugge took the lead inside five minutes at the Jan Breydelstadion through Nicolo Tresoldi
Australian Alex de Minaur reached the second week of the US Open for the third year in a row with little fanfare on Saturday and said he intended to keep winning until the tournament organizers were forced to give him better billing. Despite being the eighth seed and a quarter-finalist last year at Flushing Meadows, De Minaur’s third-round match against German Daniel Altmaier was scheduled for Court 17 — the smallest of the four stadium venues in the precinct. “It is a little bit of a headscratcher for me. I’m not gonna lie,” he told reporters after progressing 6-7 (9/7), 6-3, 6-4,
Noah Lyles on Thursday warmed up for the upcoming athletics world championships by chasing down Olympic champion Letsile Tebogo to win the 200m at the Diamond League final. Lyles trailed Tebogo at the start, but gradually erased the deficit over the final 100m and pipped the Botswana sprinter to the line by centimeters. Lyles, the Olympic 100m champion and reigning world champion in both the 100m and 200m, clocked 19.74 seconds in a slight headwind. Tebogo was 0.02 seconds behind. It was Lyles’ sixth Diamond League title, a record for track athletes. “Six, that’s a big number,” Lyles said. “Shoot, that’s another record on
Brentford striker Yoane Wissa says he wants to leave the English Premier League club and that it is “unduly standing in my way.” A day before the end of soccer’s summer transfer period, Wissa posted a lengthy statement on social media yesterday criticizing Brentford for rejecting an apparent offer from another Premier League club despite his willingness to switch between the teams. Wissa, a reported target for Newcastle, is yet to play for Brentford this season and had already removed any association with the club from his Instagram account. Yesterday, the 28-year-old DR Congo international took it a step further on the social
RSS