Taichung Blue Whale on Saturday trounced Inter Taoyuan 4-0 to clinch the Taiwan Mulan Football League title, while defending champions Hualien City faltered in a 0-1 defeat to Hang Yuan FC.
In the closest race since the Mulan league started in 2014, three teams were in the running for the title heading into the weekend, with Blue Whale and Hualien tied at the top of the table and Kaohsiung Sunny Bank trailing by three points.
Blue Whale entered their home match with fierce offense from striker Lai Li-chin and Japanese midfielder Maho Tanaka. They were joined by two Thai players new to the club this season: forward Pitsamai Sornsai, a former Thai international player, and goalkeeper Nattaruja Muthtanawech.
Photo courtesy of the Chinese Taipei Football Association
From the start, Blue Whale pressured Inter Taoyuan on goal, with repeated shots from Lai and Tanaka. At 16 minutes, Blue Whale were rewarded a penalty kick after Lai was tackled inside the penalty area.
Tanaka, who had scored in each of her previous three games, took the spot-kick with a hard drive toward the left side to record the game’s opening goal.
Second-half substitute Su Yu-hsuan chalked up a late goal with 10 minutes remaining, as Blue Whale cruised to the 4-0 victory and the season title.
Meanwhile, Hualien faced rain and tough opposition at home, as Hang Yuan held them scoreless in the first half.
Ten minutes into the second half, Hang Yuan striker Chen Yen-ping put her team ahead, with a shot from outside the penalty area and over Hualien’s goalkeeper.
Hang Yuan kept up the pressure, and their defense held to deny Hualien chances for a back-to-back title win.
Kaohsiung Sunny Bank beat Taipei Bravo Bear 2-0, with Japanese midfielder Minori Wakabayashi again leading her team and scoring an early header. Lee Hsiun-chin secured the win with a late goal with 10 minutes left.
It was Sunny Bank’s best showing, as they ended the season tied with Hualien at 20 points and were third on goal difference.
An “outstanding” 17-year-old Chinese badminton player died of cardiac arrest after collapsing on court during a tournament in Indonesia, officials said yesterday. Zhang Zhijie was playing a match late Sunday against Japan’s Kazuma Kawano at the Badminton Asia Junior Championships in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. The score was 11-11 in the first game when Zhang fell to the floor between points. The teenager received treatment at the venue and was rushed to hospital in an ambulance, but passed away later that night after repeated efforts to resuscitate him failed. “Medical conclusions ... indicated that the victim experienced sudden cardiac arrest,” Broto Happy, spokesman for
Taiwan will have two pairs vying for the women’s doubles at the Olympic Games’ tennis event in Paris as Chan Hao-ching (詹皓晴) and her older sister Latisha Chan (詹詠然) officially clinched their third straight Olympic berth, the Chinese Taipei Tennis Association said Thursday. According to the association, the International Tennis Federation confirmed Wednesday evening the Chan sisters’ qualification for the event, meaning they will join the duo of Hsieh Su-wei (謝淑薇) and Tsao Chia-yi (曹家宜) to compete in the quadrennial sports jamboree. There are 16 entries in each doubles event. Hsieh, ranked No. 2 in the world on the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA)
Taiwan’s men’s national basketball team is set to upgrade its depth in the paint after signing Brandon Gilbeck of the P.League+’s Formosa Dreamers to a naturalized player’s contract. The 27-year-old big man from the US landed in Taoyuan early on Monday, where he was welcomed by Chinese Taipei Basketball Association deputy secretary-general Chang Cheng-chung. The two signed the deal, which still has to be approved by the Sports Administration and the Ministry of the Interior. Chang said he is confident that “the proceedings would go smoothly.” If approved, Gilbeck would become the third naturalized basketball player in Taiwan, following the New Taipei Kings’ Quincy
ONE GAME LEFT: ‘We 100 percent believe that this is the team,’ Kagiso Rabada said when asked if this team could end South Africa’s long World Cup drought A long, tortuous World Cup title drought is closer than ever to ending for South Africa after a nine-wicket win over first-time semi-finalist Afghanistan at the global T20 World Cup cricket tournament on Wednesday. Marco Jansen and Kagiso Rabada set the foundations for the lopsided victory with destructive opening bursts of pace bowling to have Afghanistan reeling at 20-4 in the fourth over, and eventually all out for a paltry 56. The South Africans lost just one wicket in pursuit of its first semi-final win at a global men’s limited-overs tournament, with Reeza Hendricks hitting a six and a four on consecutive