Pundits and soccer fans have accused Taiwan’s CTFA soccer governing body of negligence and mismanagement, after Taichung Futuro, Taiwan Steel Group (TSG) and AC Taipei began this year’s Taiwan Football Premier League season with big wins on Sunday.
Local soccer enthusiasts are complaining of a lack of match information, inadequate publicity and poor-quality broadcasting, and have said that there were no advertisements from sponsors at the matches.
Supporters and pundits say the CTFA is not providing updates on the top men’s and women’s leagues, with the CTFA’s Web sites carrying last year’s information, with no match listings for this season.
“The CTFA’s leadership and officials are missing in action... We have no updates on new team players, no listings of upcoming games for the season. This is no way to run the nation’s top soccer league,” a sports journalist surnamed Shih said yesterday.
In previous years, the CTFA would organize a news conference to present the clubs and star players, provide booklets and online information on the men’s and women’s team rosters and a match schedule for the upcoming season, he said.
However, none of that has happened this year, said Shih, accusing the CTFA’s leadership of dereliction of duty.
He said that the governing body might be trimming is operating costs to deal with debt.
On Sunday, defending champions TSG played at home in Tainan against Hang Yuan. Neither side could score until late in the first half when TSG’s Marc Fenelus met a long throw-in with a glancing header, catching the Hang Yuan defenders and goalkeeper Lin Chun-hua sleeping.
Ten minutes from time, TSG’s Ange Samuel charged forward, sending a cross to Fenelus, who volleyed in his second goal and secured his team a 2-0 victory.
In Kaohsiung, Taichung Futuro broke through in the second half to beat Leopard Cat 3-0, with Benchy Estama scoring a brace and Lee Mao slotting the ball home in between.
The Taipei Dragons’ Lin Chun-kai opened their account against Taipower FC at the half-hour mark, but Taipower’s Kao Wei-chieh replied with a goal of his own five minutes later.
An hour into the game, Taipower were given a corner, resulting in a goalmouth scramble, and Lin Cheng-yi easily tapped in the winning goal to beat the newly promoted Dragons 2-1.
In Sunday’s evening match, Ming Chuan University (MCU) routed AC Taipei 3-0 at home in Taoyuan.
Huang Sheng-chieh was the first to score while surrounded by three defenders.
Huang Wei-chieh scored MCU’s second goal, and after a turnover 10 minutes from time, he burst forward, selling a dummy to score his second goal of the night.
Boston Red Sox pitcher Connelly Early on Tuesday struck out 11 in five shutout innings to match a franchise record during his MLB debut against the Oakland Athletics. “Pretty sick performance,” teammate Romy Gonzalez said. “It was fun to watch.” The only other Red Sox starter to rack up 11 strikeouts in his first career game was Don Aase versus the Milwaukee Brewers on July 26, 1977. “It was amazing, just to go out there and have that first opportunity,” Early said after getting the win in a 6-0 victory. “A long day of travel yesterday and just getting to the field, seeing
ELEVEN STRIKEOUTS: Blake Snell allowed two singles and two walks against the Rockies as he ended a personal three-game skid with his first win since Aug. 16 Blake Snell on Wednesday struck out a season-high 11 in six innings, while Mookie Betts hit a grand slam in the eighth as the Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the Colorado Rockies 9-0 for their fourth straight win. Helped by their third series sweep of the Rockies this MLB season, the Dodgers increased their National League West lead to three games over the San Diego Padres, who lost 2-1 at home to the Cincinnati Reds. Betts went four for five with five RBIs, capped by his seventh career slam on a 3-0 pitch from reliever Anthony Molina to make it 8-0. Andy Pages and
‘DEVASTATED’: Argentina’s win was a reversal of their 28-24 defeat last week, with Australian forward Fraser McReight adding that ‘we did the same thing last week’ Argentina flyhalf Santiago Carreras punished an undisciplined Australia with 23 points off the tee as the Pumas held on grimly for a 28-26 win in Sydney yesterday to breathe new life into their Rugby Championship campaign. A try-fest beckoned in afternoon sunshine at Sydney Football Stadium, but Argentina needed only one through captain Julian Montoya, with Carreras doing the damage with seven penalties and a conversion in front of a sell-out crowd. A week after letting a 14-point lead slip in a 28-24 defeat to Australia in Townsville, Argentina saw most of a 21-point advantage erased in the final quarter as the
China’s state-run People’s Daily newspaper on Monday published an essay about Chinese basketball it said was written by LeBron James, but a representative for the NBA star said on Thursday that the article was based on a series of interviews. The paper, better known as the mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party, had said James authored the essay, “Basketball is a Bridge that Connects Us,” a tribute to Chinese players and fans of the sport written in the first person. “LeBron James Pens an Article in the People’s Daily,” read a post published on the newspaper’s official WeChat account. On Thursday, a representative
RSS