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.
The New Taipei Kings claimed the inaugural Taiwan Professional Basketball League (TPBL) championship on Sunday, defeating the Kaohsiung FamilyMart Aquas 108-89 in the final. Playing at home, the Kings pulled ahead with Jeremy Lin’s (林書豪) clutch three-pointers, securing their victory over the Aquas in the TPBL final. The Kings came out strong in the first quarter, dominating to build a 35-18 lead. By halftime, they had stretched their advantage to 61-38. In the third quarter, the Aquas narrowed the deficit to 12 points, but Lin stepped up, sinking several tough three- pointers to extend the lead. In the final quarter, the Kings pushed the
In an unlikely Ethiopian outpost of one the most French of pastimes, four men are leaning over their petanque balls, arguing over who is winning. Petanque, the bowling game also known as boules, is more readily associated with French village squares where locals launch metal balls at a jack while enjoying an afternoon drink, but for decades, it has also been a beloved pastime for members of a club near the iconic Meskel Square in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. It was founded in the early 20th century to cater to French railway workers, who built a line connecting Addis Ababa
Taiwanese women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei and Australian teenager Maya Joint on Tuesday eased into the Eastbourne Open quarter-finals in England as Hsieh prepares for the Wimbledon Championships next week. Four-time Wimbledon women’s doubles champion Hsieh and 19-year-old Joint fired two aces and converted five of eight break points to defeat Japan’s Shuko Aoyama and Poland’s Katarzyna Piter 6-3, 6-3 in 58 minutes on the grass court. Hsieh and Joint are today to face fourth seeds Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic and Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko, who advanced on Monday with a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Quinn Gleason of the US and
BEAT THE HEAT: A brutal heat wave in the US has made cooling breaks standard. Dortmund’s coach said the weather could shape the destiny of the tournament Chelsea on Tuesday beat Esperance of Tunisia 3-0 to set up a FIFA Club World Cup last-16 tie against SL Benfica, who earlier defeated Bayern Munich 1-0, as furnace-link heat and the threat of thunder and lightning wreak havoc at the tournament. Elsewhere, minnows Auckland City claimed a memorable draw against Boca Juniors, while Los Angeles bowed out of the tournament with a stalemate against Flamengo. In Charlotte, Andreas Schjelderup scored the only goal for Benfica in their Group C clash with Bayern in front of 33,287 fans, finishing first-time from a cutback by his fellow Norwegian Fredrik Aursnes in the 13th
RSS