■NETHERLANDS
Twente leapfrog PSV
FC Twente went top of the Dutch league on Sunday after Kenneth Perez scored the winner in a 1-0 victory over RKC Waalwijk. Perez headed home Bryan Ruiz’s curling cross in the 69th minute as Twente took full advantage of PSV Eindhoven’s 2-1 defeat at NAC Breda on Saturday. Twente lead the standings with 67 points, two more than PSV. Ajax, who face PSV in the next round of matches, are third with 61 points after beating Sparta Rotterdam 3-0 earlier on Sunday. “The next goal is to win the next game,” Twente coach Steven McClaren said. “We still have eight games to go. Who knows what will happen? There will be so many twists and turns.” Ajax’s goals came from Siem de Jong, Gregory van der Wiel and Dennis Rommedahl. Sekou Cisse scored twice and created another as Feyenoord topped Roda JC 4-2. Cisse opened scoring in the 14th minute from a rebound, before adding another goal in the 60th minute. He then set up Luigi Bruins for the third in the 71st minute. Substitute Roy Makaay added a fourth in the 82nd minute. Jeanvion Yulu Matondo and Boldizsar Bodor scored for Roda, who had Ruud Vormer sent off for a 20th-minute foul on Leroy Fer. Feyenoord goalkeeper Darley was also ejected in the 84th minute. Also on Sunday, it was FC Groningen 1, VVV-Venlo 0 and FC Utrecht 1, NEC Nijemegen 0.
■PORTUGAL
Benfica go three points clear
Benfica went three points clear at the top of the Portuguese league on Sunday after beating Pacos Ferreira 3-1. Ruben Amorim, Javier Saviola and Oscar Cardozo all scored for the hosts, while William Conceicao cut the deficit for Pacos Ferreira. The result leaves Benfica top on 55 points. Second-place Braga are on 52 points after being held 0-0 at Setubal on Saturday. Also on Sunday, fourth-place Sporting beat Belenenses 4-0 and Maritimo drew 0-0 with Academica. Third-placed Porto drew 2-2 with Olhanense on Saturday.
■CHINA
Corruption probe expands
The wide-ranging crackdown on corruption in soccer has expanded to referees and the women’s game as investigators cast a wider net to clean up the scandal-plagued sport, state press reported yesterday. Following the arrests of several top officials of the China Football Association on match-fixing and bribe-taking charges, numerous referees have gone missing and are believed to be in police custody, the Beijing Times said. “As far as the problems with referees, this is under investigation and it shows that the football industry is orderly and carrying out efforts to strike at match-fixing and gambling,” the paper quoted new CFA head Wei Di as saying. “We are not afraid of these things coming to light — the important thing now is to find out about these problems.” The paper said Shen Huangying, a woman who worked on top women’s matches at China’s National Games last year, was among the missing.
■BRAZIL
Piece of wood kills player
A futsal player has died following a match in Brazil after a piece of the court’s wooden floor came off and struck him in the abdomen. Globo’s G1 Web site says 23-year-old Robson Rocha Costa died of hemorrhagic shock on Sunday, a day after the accident in a friendly match in southern Brazil. Witnesses say Costa was hurt after a sliding tackle near the goal-line. A small piece of the court apparently came off as he was sliding, initially hitting his thigh and then making it to his intestines. Costa was immediately taken to hospital and underwent surgery, but succumbed to his injuries.
South Korean giants T1, led by “Faker,” won their fifth League of Legends (LoL) world championship crown in London on Saturday, beating China’s Bilibili Gaming (BLG) in a thrilling final. The teams were locked at 2-2 at a packed O2 arena, but T1 clinched game five to make it back-to-back titles after nearly four hours of tense action. China’s BLG started strongly, taking the first game before T1 struck back to level. The Chinese team pulled ahead again at 2-1 only for their opponents to hit back again and go on to take the decider. Faker, who won the Most
Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Belgian partner Elise Mertens on Monday notched up their first win in the doubles group stage of the WTA Finals in Riyadh to keep their semi-final hopes alive, while Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russian partner Veronika Kudermetova were aiming to record their first victory after press time last night. Third seeds Hsieh and Mertens came back from a disheartening opening-day loss to Australia’s Ellen Perez and Nicole Melichar-Martinez to defeat top seeds Ukraine’s Lyudmyla Kichenok and Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko, the women’s doubles world No. 3 and 4 respectively. The 6-1, 6-3 victory at King Saud University Indoor Arena
Amber Glenn overcame a fall and her own doubts to win a maiden Grand Prix figure skating title on Saturday at the Grand Prix de France. The American skater had the lead from Friday’s short program. That and the support of the crowd got her through a tough free skate in which she fell on a triple flip and put a hand onto the ice to steady herself on two other jumps. “I didn’t feel that great out there today, but I really tried, and the audience really got me through that last half when I was doubting myself,” Glenn
The Major League Baseball World Series trophy is headed to Los Angeles, but the party is extending all the way to Japan. People milled around local train stations yesterday morning in Tokyo as newspaper extras were ready to roll off the presses, proclaiming Japanese stars Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto as world champions along with their Dodgers teammates after a stirring Game 5 victory over the New York Yankees. The 30-year-old is a national hero in Japan whose face adorns billboards and TV adverts all over the country. Ohtani this year became the first player in history to hit 50 home runs and
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