A superstitious top-tier Chinese team repainted their entire stadium gold to bring better luck following a dismal run — and this week duly celebrated a fifth big home win on the bounce.
Guangzhou R&F last month took the drastic action believing that gold made for better feng shui than blue, the color of the Chinese Super League (CSL) team’s strip, badge and originally its home ground, too.
It followed a rotten sequence of just one home win in four months.
Photo: AFP
However, since painstakingly repainting their 20,000-capacity Yuexiushan Stadium in the middle of last month, the team in southern China have seen their fortunes dramatically reverse.
On Wednesday, they beat Fabio Capello’s big-spending Jiangsu Suning 4-2 at home to climb to third in the CSL and make it four home wins on the trot in the CSL, scoring 18 goals in the process.
They also beat city rivals Guangzhou Evergrande in a home cup game.
“After we changed the color of our home stadium, we got five wins and a high goal-scoring rate as well,” R&F coach Dragan Stojkovic said on the team’s Web site.
“I think this is what the fans want to see — beautiful offensive [soccer],” Stojkovic added.
“The gold color of our home stadium is pretty nice, no need to change it now,” the Serbian former international added.
The philosophy of feng shui — literally meaning “wind water” — is influential in many parts of Asia, where people carefully position items in offices and homes to maximize luck and wealth.
Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and partner Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia yesterday advanced to the women’s doubles final at the Australian Open after defeating New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe and Gabriela Dabrowski of Canada 7-6 (7/3), 3-6, 6-3 in their semi-final. Hsieh has won nine Grand Slam doubles titles and has a shot at a 10th tomorrow, when the Latvian-Taiwanese duo are to play Taylor Townsend of the US and Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic in the championship match at the A$96.5 million (US$61 million) outdoor hard court tournament at Melbourne Park. Townsend and Siniakova eliminated Russian pair Diana Shnaider and Mirra Andreeva 6-7
Manchester City have reached do-or-die territory in the UEFA Champions League earlier than expected ahead of what Pep Guardiola has described as a “final” against Club Brugge today. City have disproved the suggestion a new format to Europe’s top club competition would remove any jeopardy for the top clubs as Guardiola stares down the barrel of failing to make the Champions League knockout stages for the first time in his career. The English champions have endured a torrid season both in their English Premier League title defense and on the continent. A run of one win in 13 games, which included Champions League
Things are somewhat out of control at the Australian Open this year, and that has only a little to do with the results on the courts. Yes, there were some upsets, including Madison Keys eliminating No. 2 Iga Swiatek in the women’s singles semi-finals on Thursday. It also was the first time since 1990 that three teenagers beat top-10 men’s seeds at a Grand Slam tennis tournament. The loser of one of those matches, Daniil Medvedev, got fined US$76,000 for behaving badly. Last year’s women’s singles runner-up exited in the first round. However, the real fuss is happening elsewhere. The rowdy fans, for one
The CTBC Brothers from Taiwan’s Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) on Friday announced they reached an agreement with the team’s shortstop Chiang Kun-yu (江坤宇) to extend his contract by 10 years in a deal that could worth up to NT $147.88 million (US$4.5 million). Including a NT$10 million incentive bonus, the 24-year- old’s new contract stipulates that his monthly salary will be NT$660,000 starting this year, increasing to NT$1.2 million from the fifth year of the deal. Chiang’s new agreement also comes with a caveat in the form of a “player option” where he would have the choice to become a free
RSS