There was a large crowd at the Yingfeng Sports Park in Taipei yesterday morning for the final match in Group B of the Deaflympics women’s soccer competition, as the group’s unbeaten teams, Russia and Great Britain, faced off.
Both had already qualified for the semis, but there was more than pride at stake. Members of the US squad were in the crowd, watching to see who they would be playing, and both teams wanted to win to avoid the winners of Group A.
Britain took the lead in the 13th minute through Danielle Evans.
A crazy four-minute period just after the half-hour mark put Russia on top as they scored three times, two for captain Svetlana Gagarina and the other from Margarita Sayfutdinova.
Britain were given hope again two minutes into the second half when a defensive mixup left the goal at the mercy of Camilla Willis, who made no mistake.
Russia reimposed their superiority in the 55th minute when Veronika Nazina scored with a shot from the edge of the area that just dipped under the crossbar and past Britain ’keeper Carly Waters. Three minutes later, skipper Gagarina notched her hat-trick in style with a bicycle-kick from the edge of the penalty area that flew into the back of the net.
Russia completed their 6-2 victory in the 74th minute when Waters couldn’t collect at the feet of the onrushing Irina Degtyareva and the ball rebounded off the Russian and into the net.
The result meant Britain will face the US, while Russia will play Germany, who won a dour match against Denmark 1-0 to finish as runners-up in Group B. Stefanie Ziegler scored the only goal of the game for Germany.
In yesterday’s other match, Japan grabbed their only victory of the tournament with a 5-0 win over Thailand. Nami Terai scored two and Nana Kawabata, Rie Hamada and Minami Aizu one each. The result meant that Thailand finished pointless and goalless having conceded 43 in three matches.
■BEACH VOLLEYBALL
STAFF WRITER, WITH CNA
The Taiwanese men’s and women’s duos were both defeated yesterday at the Taipei Deaflympics beach volleyball tournament at the Pacific Green Bay Beach Resort in Wanli, Taipei County.
The women’s team — Chou Pei and Yu Tzu-hsuan — lost to Israeli duo Evgenya Matvienko and Tatiana Lavrov in straight sets, 14-21,13-21.
The pair are scheduled to face the Japanese duo of Nozomi Hirai and Satoko Emoto today, the last day of the preliminary round.
In the men’s competition, Chu Chun-pu and Lin Shin-te lost to Germany’s Stephan Schafer and David Bednarek 18-21, 22-24, and face US duo Steven Haynie and Josh Malasheskie today.
Shohei Ohtani and Clayton Kershaw on Friday joined their Los Angeles Dodgers teammates in sticking their fists out to show off their glittering World Series rings at a ceremony. “There’s just a lot of excitement, probably more than I can ever recall with the Dodger fan base and our players,” manager Dave Roberts said before Los Angeles rallied to beat the Detroit Tigers 8-5 in 10 innings. “What a way to cap off the first two days of celebrations,” Roberts said afterward. “By far the best opening week I’ve ever experienced. I just couldn’t have scripted it any better.” A choir in the
The famously raucous Hong Kong Sevens are to start today in a big test for a shiny new stadium at the heart of a major US$3.85 billion sports park in the territory. Officials are keeping their fingers crossed that the premier event in Hong Kong’s sporting and social calendar goes off without a hitch at the 50,000-seat Kai Tak Stadium. They hope to entice major European soccer teams to visit in the next few months, with reports in December last year saying that Liverpool were in talks about a pre-season tour. Coldplay are to perform there next month, all part of Hong Kong’s
Shohei Ohtani, Teoscar Hernandez and Tommy Edman on Thursday smashed home runs to give the reigning World Series champions the Los Angeles Dodgers a 5-4 victory over Detroit on the MLB’s opening day in the US. The Dodgers, who won two season-opening games in Tokyo last week, raised their championship banner on a day when 28 clubs launched the season in the US. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts shuffled his batting lineup with all four leadoff hitters finally healthy as Ohtani was followed by Mookie Betts, then Hernandez and Freddie Freeman in the cleanup spot, switching places with Hernandez. “There’s a Teoscar tax to
Matvei Michkov did not score on Monday, but the Philadelphia rookie had a hand in both goals as hosts the Flyers earned a 2-1 victory over the Nashville Predators. Ryan Poehling and Jamie Drysdale got the goals for the Flyers (31-36-9, 71 points), who won their third straight. Michkov and Travis Konecny assisted on both. Ivan Fedotov stopped 28 shots to earn his first win since March 1, ending a personal six-game losing streak. Zachary L’Heureux got the lone goal for Nashville. Michael McCarron and Brady Skjei got the assists for the Predators (27-39-8, 62 points), who have just four goals in their
RSS