Taichung Futuro on Sunday beat Tainan TSG 3-0 to take the top spot in the Taiwan Football Premier League standings with 20 points, while Hang Yuan bested Taipower 2-0 to rise to second place with 19 points in a tight title race.
Taichung scored all three of their goals in the first half in a rainy afternoon match in Tainan, with Haitian striker Benchy Estama opening the scoring at seven minutes, passing to Turkish-born forward Onur Dogan, who clipped the ball over Tainan goalkeeper Tuan Hsuan.
Futuro doubled the lead after Tuan blocked a free-kick at 21 minutes that was completed by Japanese defender Takeo Miyazaki.
Photo: Screen grab from Taichung Futuro’s Facebook page
At about 30 minutes in, defender Su Te-tsai slipped on a long incoming pass, giving Estama the chance to take possession and sprint into the box to score with a high side shot past Tuan.
In lieu of celebrating, Estama held up his hands for a few seconds, which his teammates later said was to show his gratitude to Tainan, with whom he spent two seasons, playing a pivotal role in their two league titles. He left with three other players to join Futuro.
Futuro kept up the pressure on the waterlogged pitch, preventing Tainan from finding the net.
Futuro manager Henry Von told the Taipei Times that his team were prepared for the weather.
“We checked the forecast, and seeing as it was likely to rain, we came to Tainan prepared. We made sure to have the right equipment, and brought the proper shoes to ensure firm footing on a rainy, slick field,” he said.
He also told players not to make short passes, as it is difficult to control the ball, but instead to seek long passes to push into the opposition’s territory quickly and put pressure on their defense, Von said.
In Kaohsiung, Hang Yuan also scored their winning goals against Taipower before half-time.
About 30 minutes in, Hang Yuan forward Liu Chih-wen blasted in a rebound from a blocked shot by South Korean striker Joo Ik-seong to take the lead.
Just before half-time, midfielder Huang Yu-wei scored with a header off a corner-kick.
“Our forwards and midfielders did a good job on attack, and also helping on defense,” Hang Yuan manager Hong Ching-huai said after the game. “We won this game by making good on the few presented chances, and grabbing a goal from the corner-kick was key.”
In Taoyuan, the Taipei-based Leopard Cat and AC Taipei ended their match in a 2-2 draw.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but