■NETHERLANDS
ADO The Hague top the table
Midfielder Ibrahim Afellay scored in the 58th minute on Saturday to give defending champions PSV Eindhoven a 1-0 win over Sparta Rotterdam in the Dutch league. It was Afellay’s third goal in two games, giving PSV a perfect six points and a share of the lead with ADO The Hague. ADO beat AZ Alkmaar 3-0 and lead PSV on goal difference to top the standings for the first time since January 1971. In Rotterdam, Jon Dahl Tomasson scored on penalties in the 14th minute and 30th minute to help Feyenoord rout newcomers FC Volendam 5-0. Substitute Diego Biseswar also netted a second-half double, before Michael Mols added a goal in the 90th minute as Feyenoord secured their first three points of the season. FC Twente drew 1-1 with NEC Nijmegen and former England coach Steve Mclaren is still looking for his first win with the club after an identical result last weekend. NEC substitute Joel Tshibamba canceled Eljero Elia’s first-half goal with an 88th-minute strike. Heerenveen fired 25 shots on target in their 2-2 draw against Heracles Almelo on Friday.
■ROMANIA
Timisoara play despite threat
First division team FC Timisoara fulfilled their fixture against Universitatea Craiova on Saturday despite the club’s owner threatening to boycott matches after they were docked six points. A Court of Arbitration for Sport ruling in 2006 found the club were wrongfully using the name and violet colors of the original FC Politehnica Timisoara and they were ordered to stop, but they agreed only to change the team name. World soccer’s governing body FIFA threatened to suspend the Romania Federation (FRF) unless FC Timisoara were docked points and soon after club owner Marian Iancu said the FRF decision, which he labeled “illegal,” meant the end of his “former club.” He added that his team “will [therefore] be kicked out of the competition” for not playing anymore. However, FC Timisoara, whose players wore yellow and black instead of their traditional violet shirts, turned up on Saturday and won 3-1 with three goals in the last eight minutes. The result leaves them on 10 points from seven matches.
■GREECE
Panathinaikos boost morale
Panathinaikos prepared for tomorrow’s Champions League opener against Inter by easing to a 3-0 win over Panthrakikos in the Greek Super League on Saturday. After losing their opening league game to AEK Athens, Panathinaikos delivered a morale-boosting performance against the newly promoted side from the northeastern city of Komotini. Brazil striker Souza opened the scoring after just 14 minutes and 33-year-old Greece defender Ioannis Goumas added a second 10 minutes before halftime. The Greens were cruising when Austria captain Andreas Ivanschitz fired in number three. Champions Olympiakos Piraeus, who face Danish side Nordsjaelland in the first round of the UEFA Cup tomorrow, had to work hard for a 1-0 win at Xanthi.
■PORTUGAL
Ronaldo gets Golden Boot
Manchester United’s Portugese winger Cristiano Ronaldo received the European Golden Boot trophy at a ceremony in his native Madeira on Saturday. It took place at a hotel on the mid-Atlantic island, fulfilling Ronaldo’s wish to receive the award where he was born as a tribute to his late father Diniz Aveiro. The European Footballer of the Year, who scored 31 goals in the Premier League last season, has been sidelined since surgery on his right ankle in July.
RECORD DEFEAT: The Shanghai-based ‘Oriental Sports Daily’ said the drubbing was so disastrous, and taste so bitter, that all that is left is ‘numbness’ Chinese soccer fans and media rounded on the national team yesterday after they experienced fresh humiliation in a 7-0 thrashing to rivals Japan in their opening Group C match in the third phase of Asian qualifying for the 2026 World Cup. The humiliation in Saitama on Thursday against Asia’s top-ranked team was China’s worst defeat in World Cup qualifying and only a goal short of their record 8-0 loss to Brazil in 2012. Chinese President Xi Jinping once said he wanted China to host and even win the World Cup one day, but that ambition looked further away than ever after a
‘KHELIFMANIA’: In the weeks since the Algerian boxer won gold in Paris, national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women In the weeks since Algeria’s Imane Khelif won an Olympic gold medal in women’s boxing, athletes and coaches in the North African nation say national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women. Khelif’s image is practically everywhere, featured in advertisements at airports, on highway billboards and in boxing gyms. The 25-year-old welterweight’s success in Paris has vaulted her to national hero status, especially after Algerians rallied behind her in the face of uninformed speculation about her gender and eligibility to compete. Amateur boxer Zougar Amina, a medical student who has been practicing for a year, called Khelif an
Taiwanese badminton superstar Lee Yang broke down in tears after publicly retiring from the sport on Sunday. The two-time Olympic gold medalist held a retirement ceremony at the Taipei Arena after the final matches of the Taipei Open. Accompanied by friends, family and former badminton partners, Lee burst into tears while watching a video celebrating key moments in his professional sporting career that also featured messages from international players such as Malaysia’s Teo Ee Yi, Hong Kong’s Tang Chun-man, and Indonesia’s Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan. “I hope that in the future when the world thinks about me, they will
GOING GLOBAL: The regular season fixture is part of the football league’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the sport to international destinations The US National Football League (NFL) breaks new ground in its global expansion strategy tomorrow when the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers face off in the first-ever grid-iron game staged in Brazil. For one night only, the land of Pele and ‘The Beautiful Game’ will get a rare glimpse into the bone-crunching world of American football as the Packers and Eagles collide at Sao Paulo’s Neo Quimica Arena, the 46,000-seat home of soccer club Corinthians. The regular season fixture is part of the NFL’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the US’ most popular sport to new territories following previous international fixtures