SOCCER
Raccoon invades pitch
A raccoon on Wednesday ran on the field and stopped play in the Major League Soccer (MLS) match between the Philadelphia Union and New York City. The game was stopped for about five minutes while stadium security tried to capture the animal and remove it from the pitch. Despite lacking real pace, the mammal, native to North America, showed impressive footwork to evade the lumbering stadium staff, one of whom was trying to collect him in a plastic garbage can. The crowd at the stadium in Chester, Pennsylvania, chanted: “Raccoon, Raccoon,” before the invader was caught and taken away. The Philadelphia Union in a post on X said that the raccoon had been “put in good hands” with a pest control company and “safely released.” Meanwhile, MLS dubbed the raccoon “Raquinha” in a post on X. “Unofficially, Raquinho the Raccoon spent 161 seconds on the field tonight, which was the most by a raccoon in @MLS history,” it said.
GOLF
Woods might skip post
Negotiations between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf backers the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund (PIF) are progressing, Tiger Woods said on Tuesday, but with much work still ahead that could keep him from taking on the job of US Ryder Cup captain. A director on the PGA Tour policy board that is trying to hammer out an agreement with the PIF, Woods has had a very full plate while preparing for this week’s PGA Championship at the Valhalla Golf Club in Kentucky. The 48-year-old has had to juggle several new business ventures along with the possibility of leading the US against Europe when they host the Ryder Cup next year at Bethpage Black in New York. “We’re still talking,” Woods said, about the Ryder Cup. “There’s nothing that has been confirmed yet, we’re still working on what that might look like.”
SOCCER
Celtic win 54th title
Celtic on Wednesday wrapped up their 54th Scottish league title, and 12th in the last 13 seasons, with a game to spare after a 5-0 thrashing of Kilmarnock. The visitors took the lead through Adam Idah five minutes into the game, before Daizen Maeda doubled their advantage seven minutes later and James Forrest added a third before the break. Matt O’Riley scored a second-half double as Celtic sealed the title after moving to 90 points, six clear of second-placed rivals Rangers, who on Tuesday beat Dundee United 5-2.
CYCLING
Milan claims second win
Italian cyclist Jonathan Milan on Wednesday sprinted to victory at the end of the 11th stage of the Giro d’Italia, while Tadej Pogacar kept his firm grip on the leader’s pink jersey. Milan, who rides for the Lidl-Trek team, edged out Tim Merlier and Kaden Groves in a bunch sprint that was made even more chaotic by the headwind at the finish at Francavilla al Mare. It was Milan’s second win in this year’s race and his third overall following last year’s debut Giro win. It was a lengthy slog on Wednesday, but the 207km route featured just one-third-category climb before it headed along the Adriatic coast. The final 4km had some risky road traffic but Pogacar finished safely with the rest of the contenders to maintain his lead of 2 minutes, 40 seconds ahead of Daniel Martinez.
The qualifying round of the World Baseball Classic (WBC) is to be held at the Taipei Dome between Feb. 21 and 25, Major League Baseball (MLB) announced today. Taiwan’s group also includes Spain, Nicaragua and South Africa, with two of the four teams advancing onto the 2026 WBC. Taiwan, currently ranked second in the world in the World Baseball Softball Confederation rankings, are favorites to come out of the group, the MLB said in an article announcing the matchups. Last year, Taiwan finished in a five-way tie in their group with two wins and two losses, but finished last on tiebreakers after giving
North Korea’s FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup-winning team on Saturday received a heroes’ welcome back in the capital, Pyongyang, with hundreds of people on the streets to celebrate their success. They had defeated Spain on penalties after a 1-1 draw in the U17 World Cup final in the Dominican Republic on Nov. 3. It was the second global title in two months for secretive North Korea — largely closed off to the outside world; they also lifted the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup in September. Officials and players’ families gathered at Pyongyang International Airport to wave flowers and North Korea flags as the
For King Faisal, a 20-year-old winger from Ghana, the invitation to move to Brazil to play soccer “was a dream.” “I believed when I came here, it would help me change the life of my family and many other people,” he said in Sao Paulo. For the past year and a half, he has been playing on the under-20s squad for Sao Paulo FC, one of South America’s most prominent clubs. He and a small number of other Africans are tearing across pitches in a country known as the biggest producer and exporter of soccer stars in the world, from Pele to Neymar. For
Coco Gauff of the US on Friday defeated top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 to set up a showdown with Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen in the final of the WTA Finals, while in the doubles, Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching was eliminated. Gauff generated six break points to Belarusian Sabalenka’s four and built on early momentum in the opening set’s tiebreak that she carried through to the second set. She is the youngest player at 20 to make the final at the WTA Finals since Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki in 2010. Zheng earlier defeated Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 7-5 to book
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