SOCCER
San Marino end victory wait
San Marino, the world’s worst team according to the FIFA rankings, made history on Thursday by beating Liechtenstein 1-0 in the UEFA Nations League to claim their first-ever competitive win. The tiny country of about 30,000 people, surrounded by Italy, came into the match at their San Marino Stadium looking for a first win of any sort since beating Liechtenstein in a friendly in 2004. Liechtenstein had a goal disallowed for a tight offside in the first half before San Marino pounced on a defensive error to grab the winner in the 53rd minute through Nicko Sensoli. Aged 19, he had not been born when the team who sit 210th and last in the world rankings last won a game The whipping boys of international football had been building up to this having claimed draws in friendly matches against Seychelles, Saint Lucia, and Saint Kitts and Nevis over the past two years. They are in the three-team Group 1 of the bottom tier League D in the UEFA Nations League, with Gibraltar their other opponents.
RUGBY
Fiji into Pacific semis
Fiji booked their place in the Pacific Nations Cup semi-finals yesterday after holding off Tonga to claim a convincing 50-19 win in Nuku’alofa. The visitors finished as Group A winners and would play either Japan or the United States in Tokyo on Saturday next week.
Samoa also went through to the semis as Group A runners-up, which would also be played in the Japanese capital. Almost 100 years to the day since Fiji and Tonga first met in a Test match, Fiji rushed out to an early lead with three tries in the opening 11 minutes. However, a yellow card for Fiji’s Adrea Cocagi — later upgraded to a 20-minute red — turned the tide midway through the first half as Tonga scored three tries to draw level.
Fiji dug in and their quality showed in the second half, eventually running out comfortable winners.
CYCLING
Berrade wins stage 18
Spaniard Urko Berrade soloed to victory on Thursday at the 18th stage of the Vuelta a Espana in the Basque Country as Australia’s Ben O’Connor held the overall race leader’s red jersey with three days to go.
Berrade, 26, gave his Kern Pharma team their third stage win of this year’s race, powering over the line in his home region four seconds ahead of Swiss Mauro Schmid. Another Kern Pharma rider Pau Miquel crossed the line in third.
In a group of pursuers far from the race lead, O’Connor, riding for the Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale team, held his five-second advantage on Slovenian three-time champion Primoz Roglic. Berrade was part of a first peloton of about 40 riders who took off early in the medium mountain stage more than 179.5km from Vitoria-Gasteiz to Maeztu. The rider from Pamplona proved strongest in the closing stages, sealing his first victory to add to teammate Pablo Castrillo’s two stage wins. “For our small team, this Vuelta was very important. It’s a dream what’s happening to us,” said Berrade of his delight at winning “the stage closest to home, with all my family watching me, friends.” Today is to feature another decisive mountain top finish before the final time trial in Madrid tomorrow.
RECORD DEFEAT: The Shanghai-based ‘Oriental Sports Daily’ said the drubbing was so disastrous, and taste so bitter, that all that is left is ‘numbness’ Chinese soccer fans and media rounded on the national team yesterday after they experienced fresh humiliation in a 7-0 thrashing to rivals Japan in their opening Group C match in the third phase of Asian qualifying for the 2026 World Cup. The humiliation in Saitama on Thursday against Asia’s top-ranked team was China’s worst defeat in World Cup qualifying and only a goal short of their record 8-0 loss to Brazil in 2012. Chinese President Xi Jinping once said he wanted China to host and even win the World Cup one day, but that ambition looked further away than ever after a
Taiwanese badminton superstar Lee Yang broke down in tears after publicly retiring from the sport on Sunday. The two-time Olympic gold medalist held a retirement ceremony at the Taipei Arena after the final matches of the Taipei Open. Accompanied by friends, family and former badminton partners, Lee burst into tears while watching a video celebrating key moments in his professional sporting career that also featured messages from international players such as Malaysia’s Teo Ee Yi, Hong Kong’s Tang Chun-man, and Indonesia’s Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan. “I hope that in the future when the world thinks about me, they will
Former Formosa Dreamers player Ilkan Karaman was killed in a traffic accident in Datca, Turkey, Turkish media reported yesterday. He was 34. The former Turkish national team player was reportedly hit by a car, the driver of which was allegedly drunk, while he was standing on a sidewalk, Turkish newspaper Sozcu reported. Karaman and his friends were on their way to the beach town of Dalaman to go scuba diving when they stopped at a gas station to buy gasoline, it reported. Karaman was hit by the car while waiting on a sidewalk as his friends were buying gasoline, it
ANKLE PROBLEM: Taiwan’s Ye Hong-wei and Lee Chia-hsin had a disappointing end to their tournament after an injury forced them out of their mixed doubles semi-final Taiwanese badminton ace Tai Tzu-ying on Friday was knocked out in the women’s singles quarter-finals at her last Taipei Open. The world No. 3 lost 21-18, 16-21, 22-24 to Putri Kusuma Wardani of Indonesia in a match that stretched 68 minutes at the Taipei Arena. Despite her higher ranking, Tai said she was not too sad about the loss, given her struggle with a lingering knee injury. “Wins and losses are just part of the game. Actually, I think I’m going to lose every single match considering my condition now,” said the five-time champion of the Super 300 event, who has announced plans