A late header from Hoffenheim’s striker Wellington sealed a 1-1 draw at bottom club Borussia Moenchengladbach on Saturday to keep his side top of the Bundesliga.
Hoffenheim were facing a shock defeat thanks to a first-half goal from Alexander Baumjohann but Wellington’s 89th minute goal saved their blushes.
There was disappointment for Hamburg as Martin Jol’s side allowed a 2-0 lead to slip to a dramatic 3-2 defeat at Karlsruhe dropping them to third. Hamburg were coasting at 2-0 after 48 minutes thanks to goals by Jose Paolo Guerrero and Collin Benjamin. But two goals from Karlsruhe in four minutes early in the second-half leveled the scores until striker Sebastian Freis headed his second goal in injury time to give his side three points to go 15th in the table.
Both sides had been reduced to ten-men when first Hamburg’s Mladen Petric was shown a straight red for a dangerous tackle on 76 minutes before Karlsruhe’s Marco Engelhardt was shown his second yellow on 82 minutes.
Stuttgart are up to sixth after an impressive 4-2 win at Bayer Leverkusen with Mario Gomez scoring either side of half-time.
Leverkusen were reduced to ten men when Arturo Vidal hauled down Gomez on 48 minutes with just the goalkeeper to beat and was shown a straight red.
Cologne and Eintracht Frankfurt are both still in mid-table after their 2-2 draw. Wolfsburg move up to seventh after their 2-0 win at home to VfL Bochum.
Rugby organizers in Taiwan hope that a tournament in Singapore next week would be the catalyst to boost the sport in the nation. However, with a team of mostly university students up against more experienced players from their two opponents, Taiwan face a stern challenge at the first edition of the Unions Cup. Taiwan coach Huang Chi-hsang at a training session at the University of Taipei yesterday said that the other two teams — Singapore and Thailand — can draw on a wider pool of players, including those with overseas experience. Taiwan captain Chien Tzu-fan is one of the older hands on the
An “outstanding” 17-year-old Chinese badminton player died of cardiac arrest after collapsing on court during a tournament in Indonesia, officials said yesterday. Zhang Zhijie was playing a match late Sunday against Japan’s Kazuma Kawano at the Badminton Asia Junior Championships in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. The score was 11-11 in the first game when Zhang fell to the floor between points. The teenager received treatment at the venue and was rushed to hospital in an ambulance, but passed away later that night after repeated efforts to resuscitate him failed. “Medical conclusions ... indicated that the victim experienced sudden cardiac arrest,” Broto Happy, spokesman for
Taiwan will have two pairs vying for the women’s doubles at the Olympic Games’ tennis event in Paris as Chan Hao-ching (詹皓晴) and her older sister Latisha Chan (詹詠然) officially clinched their third straight Olympic berth, the Chinese Taipei Tennis Association said Thursday. According to the association, the International Tennis Federation confirmed Wednesday evening the Chan sisters’ qualification for the event, meaning they will join the duo of Hsieh Su-wei (謝淑薇) and Tsao Chia-yi (曹家宜) to compete in the quadrennial sports jamboree. There are 16 entries in each doubles event. Hsieh, ranked No. 2 in the world on the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA)
ONE GAME LEFT: ‘We 100 percent believe that this is the team,’ Kagiso Rabada said when asked if this team could end South Africa’s long World Cup drought A long, tortuous World Cup title drought is closer than ever to ending for South Africa after a nine-wicket win over first-time semi-finalist Afghanistan at the global T20 World Cup cricket tournament on Wednesday. Marco Jansen and Kagiso Rabada set the foundations for the lopsided victory with destructive opening bursts of pace bowling to have Afghanistan reeling at 20-4 in the fourth over, and eventually all out for a paltry 56. The South Africans lost just one wicket in pursuit of its first semi-final win at a global men’s limited-overs tournament, with Reeza Hendricks hitting a six and a four on consecutive