Scoreboard leaders Hualien City and second-ranked Taichung Blue Whale won their Taiwan Mulan Football League matches on Saturday, with five points now separating them, while Hang Yuan FC and Inter Taoyuan finished with a scoreless draw.
In the first match, Hualien City beat Kaohsiung Sunny Bank 3-0 to maintain their winning streak this season.
Striker Tan Wen-lin opened the account in the 38th minute by slotting the ball into an empty net, as there was confusion between Kaohsiung goalkeeper Lee Ya-ting and the defense.
Photo courtesy of the CTFA
In the 70th minute, Lin Hsiao-yun took possession during a scramble inside goal area, and curved a shot inside the far post.
Two minutes later, striker Wu Shih-ping scored on a header, taking her season tally to 16 goals.
Wu is the league’s top scorer, just one goal ahead of Taichung Blue Whale’s Michelle Pao.
Pao took to the field against Taipei Bravo in the second match of the day, but did not score.
After only the first minute of play, Blue Whale defender Lai Wei-ju drilled the ball home from short range, taking her team into the lead.
Midfield dynamo Pao posed a danger in leading the offense, and in the 37th minute she broke through the opposition’s defense, sending a long cross-field pass to the edge of the goal area.
The ball reached striker Lai Li-chin, who doubled Blue Whale’s lead by firing a half-volley into the top corner of the net.
Taipei Bravo got back into the game nine minutes into the second half. Midfielder Lin Hsin-hui surged up from the right flank, delivering a cross, which forward Su Hsin-yun headed into the goal, reducing their deficit to 2-1.
Taipei Bravo missed some chances in search of an equalizer, but Blue Whale were closest to finding the net, especially with Pao directing the attack.
However, Bravo goalkeeper Hsu Yuan-ting made some crucial saves to prevent any more goals from being scored.
“We still have a chance of seizing the title, and our aim is to win all three remaining matches, but I want my players to enjoy their games,” Blue Whale manager Lu Kuei-hua said.
“We know that Hualien City have been outstanding this season ... and it will be difficult to overtake them, but our team will challenge them to the end,” Lu said.
“We had a good start to the game, but after 10 minutes our rhythm was disrupted by the opposition and we kept on losing possession,” Lu said. “Our team settled down and found good chances in the second half ... which enabled us to prevail.”
In the third match, hosts Hang Yuan FC piled on the pressure against Inter Taoyuan, with about 300 boisterous fans showing their support at Fu Jen Catholic University in New Taipei City.
Hang Yuan forwards had their chances in front of goal, but Inter Taoyuan’s centerback Pitsamai Sornsai from Thailand showed solid defense, teaming up well with goalkeeper Chu Fang-yi to hold them to a 0-0 draw.
‘BOWLINE’ AND ‘ARCTOS’: Roy Quaden was hit on the head by a boom, while Nick Smith was struck by the main sheet and thrown across the boat amid rough seas Two sailors have been killed in separate incidents in the treacherous Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, officials said yesterday, as a string of yachts retired in powerful winds and high seas. One of the crew members, 55-year-old Roy Quaden on Flying Fish Arctos, was hit on the head by a boom as the fleet raced down the New South Wales coast, race organizers said. The other man, 65-year-old Nick Smith, was struck by the main sheet aboard Bowline and thrown across the boat, said David Jacobs, vice commodore of the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia. “Unfortunately, he hit his head on the winch, and
Champagne corks often pop and loud, boisterous cheers are usually heard around Constitution Dock when the Sydney Hobart Yacht Race line honors winner finishes in the Tasmanian state capital. There were no such celebrations this year when the defending champions on board LawConnect won the race in the early hours of yesterday morning, as it came about 24 hours after two sailors died on separate boats in sail boom accidents two hours apart on a storm-ravaged first night of the race. LawConnect, a 100-foot super maxi skippered by Australian tech millionaire Christian Beck, sailed up the River Derwent at just after 2:30am.
Liverpool on Thursday powered seven points clear at the top of the Premier League as the title favorites survived a scare in their 3-1 win against Leicester City, while Bruno Fernandes was sent off in Manchester United’s dismal 2-0 defeat against Wolverhampton Wanderers. Erling Haaland missed a penalty as crisis-torn Manchester City failed to end their dismal run with a 1-1 draw against Everton, but it was United’s travails and Liverpool’s remarkable run that took center-stage. Arne Slot’s side were shocked by Jordan Ayew’s early strike at Anfield, but the leaders recovered their composure to equalize just before the interval through Cody
HAT-TRICK PREP: World No. 1 Sabalenka clinched her first win of the season, as she aims to become the first woman in 20 years to win three Australian Opens in succession Coco Gauff, Jasmine Paolini and Taylor Fritz yesterday all clocked impressive wins as tennis powerhouses Italy and the US surged into the quarter-finals of the mixed-team United Cup. World No. 3 Gauff swept past Croatia’s Donna Vekic 6-4, 6-2 to avenge a loss at the Paris Olympics, while Fritz took care of Borna Coric 6-3, 6-2 in searing Perth heat. That was enough to put the Americans — last year’s winners — into a last-eight clash with China today, while Elena Rybakina’s Kazakhstan today are to meet defending champions Germany, led by Alexander Zverev, in the other Perth quarter-final. In Sydney, the in-form
RSS