Taiwan national team manager Henry Vom on Sunday had a successful debut in charge of Taichung Futuro, winning 3-2 against league leaders Taipower with a goal deep in stoppage-time, which combined with the results from the other matches saw the gaps close at the top of the Taiwan Football Premier League table.
Besides the big win for Futuro, Hang Yuan edged Taitung 1-0, Taiwan Steel dominated National Taiwan University of Sport 4-1 and the Red Lions held Ming Chuan University to a 1-1 draw.
Vom took over Futuro after previous coach Toshiaki Imai returned home to Japan.
Photo courtesy of the CTFA
Imai, who also managed the national team in 2016, had done well with a string of wins early in the season as Futuro and Taipower traded places at the top of the table.
Sunday’s match was also a battle between Taiwan national team coaches, with Vom, who was appointed in February, taking on Taipower’s Chen Kuei-jen, who held the job from 2013 to 2016.
With Taiwan’s FIFA World Cup qualifiers having been suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic and with the future still uncertain, Vom has doubled up on his duties, much the same as Chen when he led Taipower and the national team from 2015 to 2016.
Hosts Taipower took the lead when Lai Chih-hsuan fired home a low shot in the 12th minute at the National Stadium in Kaohsiung.
Futuro’s South Korean striker Joo Ik-seong equalized on the half-hour mark when his dummy bamboozled Taipower goalkeeper Chiu Yu-hung.
Joo then grabbed his second soon after halftime when he received the ball and advanced into the penalty area to beat Chiu once again.
Futuro looked to heading for the victory until Ko Yu-ting lashed home a long-range shot three minutes from time to tie the match 2-2.
Just as it looked as though both sides had settled for the draw, Futuro substitute Lee Cheng-yun, whom Vom had put on in the 82nd minute, latched onto a long pass and headed over Chiu for the winner.
The loss saw leader’s Taipower remain on 26 points from 12 games, while Futuro moved up to 24 points in second, ahead of Hang Yuan only on goals scored after forward Chou Yu-chieh netted the only goal of their game against Tatung in the 86th minute in New Taipei City.
Tatung remain fifth, two points behind Taiwan Steel, but having played an extra game.
National Taiwan University of Sport are sixth on 10 points, while Ming Chuan University with five points are seventh, ahead of the Red Lions on goal-difference.
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