NFL | Page 7 GOLF | Page 11 - Gulf Times

AFCAl Ain

El Jaish coach Sabri Lamouchi has stressed his side deserve to be in the semi-fi nals of the 2016 AFC Champions League

as they prepare to take on former champions Al Ain in the fi rst leg of their last four encounter today evening.

The Qatari side saw off Al Nasr from the United Arab Emirates in the quarter-fi nals in controversial circum-stances after being awarded a 3-0 win following the annulment of the fi rst leg due to the fi elding of an ineligible player.

A 1-0 win in the second leg in Dubai secured the result for Lamouchi’s side and they are now setting their sights on reaching the fi nal for the fi rst time in the club’s history.

“We deserve to be here now and hopefully we can continue on our way towards the fi nal of the competition,” said Lamouchi. “We face a strong team with good players but we have a good team as well and we are ready for the match.”

The two teams have already met in this year’s competition, with El Jaish winning both encounters in the group stages as they started the tournament in impressive fashion with striker Ro-marinho in particularly stand-out form.

El Jaish have since added former Barcelona midfi elder Seydou Keita to their line-up and Lamouchi will also have Lucas Mendes available for the fi rst leg after he missed the previous game against Al Nasr due to suspen-sion.

Despite those win earlier in the com-petition, Lamouchi knows the results count for nothing as the two teams prepare to battle it out for a place in the fi nal against either Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors or FC Seoul, both of Korea Re-public.

“We know Al Ain very well and they have great history in the AFC Champi-ons League,’ said Lamouchi of the in-augural tournament winners. “I know that we are a strong side and they have never lost twice in the competition in the same week, which means that we should be expecting a tough match.

“We have previously defeated them

but things now will be harder because they now know how we play and things will not be easy. I’m very confi dent that our players will be able to get a positive result in the two matches.”

‘JAISH EASIER OPPONENT’Meanwhile Zlatko Dalic believes his Al Ain side will have a less troublesome route to the fi nal due to the Qatari club’s unfamiliarity with the two-time fi nalists from the United Arab Emirates.

El Jaish saw off Al Nasr from the United Arab Emirates in the quarter-fi nals with a 4-0 aggregate win earlier in the month, and the Croatian coach is pleased his team will not have to face Al Ain’s rivals from Dubai in the semi-fi nals today evening.

“The match against El Jaish will be very hard for us, but things would have been harder for us had Al Nasr quali-fi ed for the semi-fi nals because they know us very well,” said Dalic. “Both

sides have a lot of ambition in the semi-fi nals as we both want to go to the fi nal.

“I hope that we will be lucky in the match tomorrow so that we can have a good win that will help us before the second leg. We are now close to achieving our target, but at the same time things will be tough if we don’t get a positive result.”

Al Ain qualifi ed for the semi-fi nals with a 1-0 aggregate win over Loko-

motiv Tashkent of Uzbekistan that was secured thanks to an impressive per-formance in the away leg following a 0-0 draw on home soil.

Despite Dalic’s comments, the two teams have met in the competition already this season, with El Jaish win-ning both of their encounters in the group stages as Al Ain made a lacklus-tre start to the competition.

But the coach, who will welcome back Mohammed Fayez after he missed

the second leg against Lokomotiv due to suspension, does not believe those matches will have any bearing on the outcome of the last four meeting.

“These two matches are very impor-tant and we are meeting a strong side against whom we lost twice before,” he said. “But things now should be diff er-ent because we are at a critical stage of the competition and we should avoid any mistakes if we want to qualify for the fi nal.”

Tuesday, September 27, 2016Dhul-Hijja 25, 1437 AH

SPORTGULF TIMES

Arnold Palmer, the people’s champion with aura of greatness

Vikings put brakes on Newton, end Panthers’ run

NFL | Page 7 GOLF | 1

FOOTBALL

Rampant Dortmund will put stuttering Real to testPage 3

Confi dent El Jaish take onAl Ain, aim to make history‘We deserve to be here now and hopefully we can continue on our way towards the final of the competition. We face a strong team with good players but we have a good team as well and we are ready for the match’

AFC CHAMPIONS LEAGUE SEMI-FINAL

Laudrup returns to Qatar as Rayyan coachQATAR STARS LEAGUE

AgenciesDoha

Big-name manager Michael Laudrup will take over the reins of Qatar Stars League champi-ons Al Rayyan, the club’s man-

agement announced yesterday. Former Barcelona and Real Madrid

star Laudrup will replace Jorge Fossati, who was appointed as coach of Qatar’s national team over the weekend.

“The board of Al Rayyan football club have reached an agreement with Denmark’s Michael Laudrup to be the manager of the club,” read a statement on the club’s website.

“It is expected that Laudrup will ar-rive in Doha within the next few hours to offi cially sign the contract.”

Laudrup, previously the coach at English Premier League team Swansea City, beat off competition from former Tottenham manager Christian Gross, according to another statement on the club’s website posted earlier in the day.

With Rayyan returning to the Cham-pions League for this season, Laudrup’s experience with Lekhiwya was seen as vital by the club management.

The 52-year-old had a successful outing with Lekhwiya in his previ-ous stint as a QSL manager. He guided the Red Knights to the QSL title in the 2014-15 season where Lekhwiya wrapped up the title with one match day to spare. They fi nished fi ve points ahead of second-placed Al Sadd and also fi nished with an impressive goal diff erence of 34. In the AFC Champions League, Laudrup’s boys reached the

quarter-fi nals where they lost to Sau-di’s Al Hilal 6-3 over a two-legged tie.

With the appointment of Laudrup, Rayyan have found an able replacement for Fossati. The Uruguayan had deliv-ered the title in emphatic fashion last season, winning their fi rst QSL crown in over 20 years, fi nishing 14 points ahead of second-placed El Jaish.

After that blazing run to the title, Rayyan seem to be suff ering a slump in form and didn’t go on to claim all the silverware available last season, as was expected of them. This season they won their fi rst match comfortably against newly-promoted Shahania. But they were held to a goalless draw against Umm Salal. Two matches and they fi nd themselves two points adrift of the other title contenders – Lekhwiya, El Jaish and Al Sadd, who have a perfect

record so far. Of course, it’s ridiculously early in

the season to be making any sort of in-ference but with the league title seem-ingly a four-horse race all the way to the fi nish, Laudrup will have little or no time getting the defending champions running like a champion mare.

Rayyan fans are a demanding lot and after having made a dramatic re-entry to the QSL last season, they will be ex-pecting a second title and even a strong run in the Asian Champions League which will begin in February 2017.

El Jaish coach Sabri Lamouchi (left). (Right) El Jaish team during their practice session at Hazza Bin Zayed Stadium in Al Ain yesterday ahead of the first leg of their AFC Champions semi-final tie.

File picture of Michael Laudrup during his days as Lekhwiya coach.

AL AIN VS EL JAISH 5:50PM QATAR TIME

“The board of Al Rayyan football club have reached an agreement with Denmark’s Michael Laudrup to be the manager of the club,” read a statement on the club’s website.

To Advertise hereCall: 444 11 300, 444 66 621

AFPMilan

As hard as he tries, Roma coach Luciano Spalletti is unlikely to convince fans this week that

Francesco Totti is just another player for the Serie A giants.

Yesterday Totti turns 40 and the one-club man who is in his 25th and likely last season with the ‘Giallorossi’ (Yellow and Reds) is still, when he gets the chance, producing the magic.

“For me, he’s been the top player in Italy for the past 25 years,” said Sinisa Mihajlovic, whose Torino side upset Totti’s pre-birthday party celebrations by beating Roma 3-1 in Turin on Sunday.

“He’s one of the best ever. It’s amazing to see what he can still do with a ball.”

Known as the ‘Golden Boy’ as a precociously-gifted teen, and revered as the ‘King of Rome’ throughout a storied career that

saw Totti, if not his undera-chieving club, rise to the top, fans expect a fairytale ending this season.

It is over 23 years since Totti made his Roma debut in the fi nal minutes of a 2-0 win at Brescia in March 1993.

And his latest milestone serves as a reminder of how Totti has evolved, adapted to and excelled in a changing game during some of the wonder years of Italy’s top fl ight.

“He is an example for us all and someone we all look up to,” said Cristiano Ronaldo last Feb-ruary as Real Madrid prepared to face Roma in the Champions League.

“If you play at the level he does, it’s good for him, for foot-ball and also for the children, be-cause we give them the idea that football has no limits.”

When Totti took the captain’s armband from Brazilian de-fender Aldair under pioneering Czech coach Zdenek Zeman in 1998, he had answered his call-

ing. Two seasons later, he helped end Roma’s 18-year wait for the Serie A title, in 2001.

When Roma weren’t winning, he was stunning rivals with an astonishing array of ball skills and goals.

Time machine Totti has “purged” bitter city

rivals Lazio on more than one occasion, goaded other rivals with equally provocative mes-sages on T-shirts and, last year, hit the headlines after celebrat-ing a brace against Lazio by run-ning to the ‘Curva Sud’ and us-ing a telephone to take a ‘selfi e’ with thousands of fans in the background.

Totti is unlikely to challenge Silvio Piola’s all-time Serie A record of 274 league goals, which included over 100 for Lazio.

Two days before his birthday, Totti hit his 250th league goal, beating Joe Hart for the second time in two years having scored the leveller in a 1-1 draw against

Manchester City in 2015 to be-come the oldest scorer in the Champions League at 38 and three days.

Even Roma’s stoic coach Spalletti, who has battled to re-mind everyone that Totti is “one of many Roma players”, had to doff his cap.

“I want four or fi ve Tottis in this team,” Spalletti said after he came off the bench to provide an assist for Dzeko and then score the winner from the spot in a dramatic, rain-delayed 3-2 win over Sampdoria last week.

“If I don’t play him, people get annoyed at me but I want to produce another player like him. One great player is not enough.”

As expected, Totti raced to the Curva Sud, ripped off his shirt and was mobbed by the entire Roma bench as he milked the applause.

“That was the fi rst time I felt afraid of taking a penalty,” said Totti. “You just can’t aff ord to miss under the Curva!”

It was just one of many posi-

tive contributions Totti, who has scored six times in his last 11 league games, has made this campaign.

He started his fi rst Roma league game since September 2015 last week at Crotone and repaid Spalletti’s faith by send-ing Bosnian striker Edin Dzeko on his way to his fi rst brace of the season, and a 4-0 win, with a cheeky lob that completely wrong-footed the Crotone back line.

“His intuition is phenom-enal,” gushed Crotone coach Nicola.

As Roma prepare for Totti’s party this week, fans will be constantly reminded of Totti’s achievements in the game.

Although Spalletti won’t stay at the party for long, because “the rest of the squad won’t be happy when I show up”, the Roma coach will honour his in-vitation.

He said: “I can’t buy him a time machine but that shows what I think of him.”

‘He’s one of the best ever. It’s amazing to see what he can still do with a ball’

Totti still magic as Roma icon turns 40

FOCUS

FOOTBALL

Gulf Times Tuesday, September 27, 20162

PSG defender sentenced to jail for police assaultJUDGEMENT

AFPParis

Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) defender Serge Aurier was sentenced to two months in jail yes-

terday for assaulting a police of-fi cer following an incident out-side a Paris nightclub in May.

The court heard that the trou-bled Ivory Coast international refused to cooperate when asked to leave his tinted-glass Porsche Cayenne car which police said was incorrectly parked outside the club in the early hours in an upmarket district of the French capital.

Police said the incident turned violent when an agitated Aurier elbowed one of the offi cers in the chest, causing him to have to take a day off work.

Aurier denied the charge and was allowed to walk free from the court because no order for immediate incarceration was is-

sued, while PSG later confi rmed his lawyer had lodged an

appeal.It means the full-back could

play for PSG in their Champions League tie against Ludogorets in Bulgaria tomorrow.

“The club takes note of his condemnation. An appeal has been lodged at the end of the hearing by the player’s lawyer,” said a PSG statement.

“Serge Aurier will continue to benefi t from the presumption of innocence ahead of the appeal court’s decision.”

The 23-year-old, who has had recent disciplinary problems with his club, rejected the police account of the incident and said he was the victim of violence.

He has fi led a complaint against the police.

The court also ordered him to pay 600 euros ($674) in damages and interest as well as 1,500 eu-ros in court costs.

Aurier, who said in court he earns 200,000 euros a month,

was in trouble with his club last season after making derogatory comments about his then-PSG coach Laurent Blanc and other team-mates, including current Manchester United star Zlatan Ibrahimovic, on a social media video post.

He was suspended by his club for fi ve weeks but owned up to having committed “a stupid mistake”.

But since returning to pre-season training in July, Aurier has impressed his bosses.

“The club wants to underline the player’s professional attitude shown since his return on July 4.”

“At the same time, Paris Saint-Germain reaffi rms our

aff ection and respect for the forces of order and the jobs they do.”

However, his court appear-ance comes on the back of Aurier being sent off in PSG’s 2-0 Ligue 1 defeat at Toulouse on Friday night, their second reverse of the season.

FIFA racism task force achieved its goal, says SamouraAFPManchester, United Kingdom

Nothing sinister should be read into the disbanding of the FIFA task force

on racism as it had simply achieved its goals, FIFA secre-tary-general Fatma Samoura said yesterday.

The 54-year-old Senegalese — recruited to some surprise from the United Nations in May and the fi rst woman and non-European to serve on the FIFA executive — added FIFA could live with the perception by many that it was too soon to end the task force’s work.

“We can live with percep-tion but we are taking very seriously our role as football’s governing body to fi ght dis-crimination, it is well refl ected in the statutes,” said Samoura, who delivered the keynote ad-dress at the Soccerex Global Football Convention.

The task force was estab-lished in 2013 by disgraced former FIFA President Sepp Blatter to eradicate racism in football but was disbanded recently with the world sports body controversially insisting the mission had been a success.

“It had a very specifi c man-date and they came up with very strong recommendations and FIFA is acting on them,” said Samoura.

“There are several cases against teams and based on solid legal grounds we have taken strong measures through the sanctioning body.”

“Coming from the UN we must really be fi rm. It is re-ally on top of the agenda of the FIFA administration. It is zero tolerance to discrimination on grounds of culture, racism colour of the skin and sexual orientation.”

Andy Burnham, formerly Cul-ture, Media and Sport Secretary in former prime minister Tony Blair’s government, had aired his concerns when he opened the convention, addressing Samoura directly saying it was rather worrying with Russia host-

ing the 2018 World Cup as their fans are notorious for their racist chants and attacks.

“It’s not football’s problem alone but it is used as a vehi-cle by extremists in football to try and promote Islamo-phobia and xenophobia,” said Burnham. “We must take the toughest possible line that we are all one and won’t tolerate racism in our great game and give extremists publicity.”

Soccerex is a top sports business conference bringing together more than 3,000 del-egates to Manchester over the coming three days.

Samoura’s appointment triggered scepticism over her lack of knowledge of football, but she insisted she had helped her husband run a football club in Senegal so understood many facets of the game.

She also said she would not have left her role at the UN after 21 years — she worked on the UN World Food Pro-gramme and in several hotspots including Liberia, Sierra Leone and Kosovo — if she had felt FIFA was beyond redemption following s serious of massive scandals.

“The FIFA brand is very sol-id,” she said.

“I had a very comfortable po-sition in the UN but I was con-vinced by the new FIFA presi-dent Gianni Infantino it was time for a change at FIFA.”

“Yes it suff ered reputational damage but my presence here is how to restore trust and confi dence in FIFA. I am ready to take this challenge.”

SPOTLIGHT

Six vie for Asian spots on FIFA council aft er Qatari banned

Six Asian candidates will vie for three seats on the reformed FIFA Council in Goa today after a senior Qatari off icial was barred from the election due to an ongoing investigation into corruption.The FIFA Council has replaced the largely discredited Executive Committee under reforms instituted in the wake of the corrup-tion scandal which has engulfed soccer’s world governing body over the last 16 months.The three successful candidates at today’s Asian Football Confederation extraordinary congress in Goa will represent Asia on the body along with Bahraini vice president Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim al-Khalifah and members from Japan, Malaysia and Kuwait. Saoud al-Mohannadi, vice-president of the Qatar Football Association, had announced his candidature and cleared the necessary FIFA integrity check but was ruled out late on Sunday.“FIFA has advised the Asian Football Confederation that, based on the report of the Investigatory Chamber of the FIFA Ethics Committee, it has decided Mr Saoud A. Aziz al-Mohannadi (Qa-tar) is not eligible to stand in the elections for the FIFA Council,” the AFC said in a statement. A FIFA ethics investigator last month recommended Al-Mohan-nadi be banned from the game for at least two-and-a-half years for refusing to cooperate with an inquiry.

Paris Saint-Germain’s defender Serge Aurier at a courthouse in Paris to answer a charge of elbowing a police off icer. (AFP)

AS Roma’s forward Francesco Totti scores a penalty during the Italian Serie A match against Torino at the ‘Grande Torino’ Stadium in Turin on Sunday. (AFP)

FIFA’s secretary-general Fatma Samoura speaks during the Soccerex Global Convention 2016 in Manchester. (AFP)

ReutersDortmund, Germany

European champions Real Madrid head to rampag-ing Borussia Dortmund for their Champions

League Group F game today in a frazzled state with their buoy-ant start to the season having been punctured by successive La Liga draws.

Real gave away a late equaliser to draw 2-2 at Las Palmas on Sat-urday, after their joint-record 16-game winning streak in La Liga was halted by Wednesday’s 1-1 home stalemate against Vil-larreal, which saw their lead at the top cut to a point.

Dortmund, meanwhile, have been on a sizzling run since los-ing to RB Leipzig on Septem-ber 10, scoring 20 goals in four straight wins against Legia War-saw in the Champions League and Darmstadt, Wolfsburg and Freiburg in the Bundesliga.

Dortmund, who thrashed the Polish club 6-0 away in their opening group game, are second in the German top fl ight and on Friday equalled a club record of 24 games without defeat at home in the Bundesliga with a 3-1 win over Freiburg.

Even in the midst of Real’s sensational winning run, Zined-ine Zidane’s side were criticised by the media for unconvincing performances and their sloppi-ness was punished by Las Pal-mas in their last La Liga outing.

Midfi elder Tana hooked home a poor clearance from Real’s Raphael Varane to cancel out Marco Asensio’s opener and, after Karim Benzema had re-stored Real’s lead, Sergio Araujo sneaked into the box from the left to level in the 85th minute.

Real’s lacklustre displays have been compounded by the absence of midfi eld anchor Casemiro and infl uential left back Marcelo through injury and the form of talisman Cris-tiano Ronaldo.

Ronaldo has endured a diffi -cult start to the season, scoring twice in four games — including against his former club Sporting in Real’s 2-1 home win in their fi rst Champions League group game — while missing three due to injury and illness.

He reacted angrily to being substituted by Zidane with 18 minutes left at Las Palmas.

Striker Alvaro Morata, how-ever, said there were still plenty of reasons to be optimistic.

“We still haven’t lost and we are still top of the league. The important thing is how you fi nish and we have to win all our games if possible,” he told reporters.

“We have to keep working and now focus our minds on the

Champions League.”Eleven-times European

champions Real have a dis-mal record in Germany, having won four out of 30 competitive games in the country, and have lost their last three visits to Dortmund.

Dortmund are waiting on the fi tness of their Spain centre-back Marc Bartra and Colombi-an forward Adrian Ramos, who both missed Friday’s win over Freiburg.

Their hitman Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang fi nished the game with a knock although the Ga-bon striker, who has four goals in his last three games, said it was nothing to worry about.

‘We are still top of the league. The important thing is how you finish and we have to win all our games if possible’

Rampant Dortmund will put stuttering Real to test

PREVIEW

FOOTBALL3Gulf Times

Tuesday, September 27, 2016

AFPBerlin

His nickname ‘Chicharito’ means ‘little pea’, but ex-Manchester United striker Javier Hernan-dez is proving to be a big deal for

Bayer Leverkusen ahead of today’s Cham-pions League match at Monaco.

The 28-year-old netted a hat-trick — his second in Germany’s top fl ight — in helping Leverkusen come from 2-1 down to claim a 3-2 win at Mainz on Saturday.

“Thank God, he’s in form at just the right time,” said Leverkusen’s coach Roger Schmidt after the Mainz fi ghtback.

After fi ve years at Old Traff ord, Chich-arito quit the Red Devils in August 2015 for Leverkusen’s ‘Werkself’ and has banged in 21 goals in 32 league games in Germany’s top fl ight.

Having fractured his arm in an accident at home in August, Hernandez was not fully fi t when he played the fi rst 45 min-utes of Leverkusen’s opening Champions League group match at CSKA Moscow a fortnight ago.

He helped his side to a 2-0 half-time lead, only for the Russians to fi ght back for a 2-2 draw.

The Mexico international is key to Leverkusen’s chances of getting a fi rst win against Monaco at the fourth attempt.

Score to settle

“We have a small score to settle with Monaco,” said striker Stefan Kiessling af-ter three defeats and a draw with the club from the tiny principality in recent years.

Hernandez’s hat-trick at Mainz proves he is back to his best, according to Schmidt.

“He wasn’t fully fi t, but now he’s back on top form. It also helped him that he had a strike partner in the closing stages when Stefan Kiessling came on as that gave him more room to operate,” said Schmidt.

“He doesn’t hesitate when he gets a chance.” He certainly didn’t when the chance came along to bag the winner two minutes into injury time.

“I am obviously very happy, but my thanks go to my team-mates, who had a big game,” said Hernandez.

“We had some luck, but the late goal was a reward for that hard work.”

The victory was important after two re-cent set-backs, for both Leverkusen and Chicharito.

He missed a penalty in their 2-1 defeat at Eintracht Frankfurt ten days ago and

then failed to score in last Wednesday’s goalless draw with Augsburg.

With four league goals this season, he is just one behind Borussia Dortmund’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Bayern Munich’s Robert Lewandowski amongst the Bundesliga’s top scorers.

“He certainly did not win all his battles, but he won the important ones. That dem-onstrates his wily ability to know where the ball should go,” said Leverkusen’s di-rector of sport, ex-Germany international Rudi Voeller.

Chicharito’s stats in Mainz speak vol-umes: he scored three goals and hit the post with his four attempts.

“I don’t know anybody who is as good as he is in front of goal,” marvelled Leverkusen’s Germany forward Kevin Volland.

Signing the Mexican international was a big coup for Bayer.

Hernandez has already played in a Champions League fi nal, when his Man-chester United team lost 3-1 to Barcelona in the 2011 showcase at Wembley.

Leverkusen have yet to progress further than the last 16 of the Champions League since losing the 2002 fi nal to Real Madrid. But with the ‘little pea’ in their ranks, Leverkusen have big ambitions.

‘Little pea’ Chicharito is Bayer’s big dealFOCUS

Dortmund’s head coach Thomas Tuchel talks to players during a training session in Dortmund on the eve of the Champions League first leg match against Real Madrid. (AFP)

Tuchel still wary of Ronaldo despite slow start to seasonBorussia Dortmund coach Thomas Tuchel is not convinced Cristiano Ronaldo is out of form saying he expected the Real Madrid talisman to cause his side plenty of problems in today’s Champions League heavyweight clash. Ronaldo, the all-time top scorer in the competition with 94 goals, has struggled to regain fitness and form since limping off in the Euro 2016 final with a knee in-jury. The prolific Portuguese has averaged over a goal per game in his seven seasons with Real

but has made a slow start to his eighth campaign, missing three games with injury and scoring two goals in four appearances, completing 90 minutes twice. Ronaldo’s angry reaction to be-ing taken off by coach Zinedine Zidane in the 72nd minute of Real’s 2-2 draw at Las Palmas on Sunday has been the subject of much attention in the Spanish media, who are debating wheth-er the 32-year-old is past his best. Dortmund coach Tuchel, however, said his team will not be any less wary of Ronaldo in

Tuesday’s Group F match.“You cannot declare that Cris-tiano Ronaldo is not on form, full stop,” Tuchel told a news conference yesterday. “Who said Cristiano is out of form? And what does that mean? I can’t give a concrete answer but Cristiano is one of the best players in the world. He is an incredible player, a born winner.“He can be decisive for his team in any moment in a game and that’s why we’re expecting to face the best Real Madrid side possible. It’s a Champions

League night in Dortmund and the best players bring their best performances on nights like these.” Real’s strong start to the season has been punctured by two consecutive draws, which interrupted a joint La Liga record of 16 straight wins, and Zidane’s side will have to cope against Dortmund without midfield anchor Casemiro and left-back Marcelo. Casemiro has been ruled out of action for two months with a calf injury, something Tuchel appeared unaware of.

Leicester City will bank on the inside knowledge and goal threat of Porto’s nem-esis Islam Slimani ahead of their Champions League Group G clash today.Slimani, who joined Leices-ter from Sporting Lisbon for a club record fee in the transfer window, scored six goals against Sporting’s arch-rivals Porto during his time in Portugal, earning the nickname “The Dragon slayer”.A brace from Riyad Mahrez helped Leicester to a 3-0 win over Club Bruges on their Champions League debut, but manager Claudio Ranieri expects a tougher fight from the double champions from Portugal.“I spoke with Slimani about Porto. We have a lot of respect for Porto. They’re more experienced in Europe. They play so many matches,” the Italian told reporters yesterday.“They are used to staying at the top of their league. They won six titles. We respect a lot but we try to win. Also Porto try to win,” Ranieri added.“Slimani is going to play tomorrow. He’s a goalscorer against Porto. I’m sure it would be a very good threat to them.”Midfielder Marc Albrighton, who opened the scoring against Bruges, said the English champions, who lost 4-1 at Manchester United on Saturday, must avoid complacency.“Porto will be as tough. We’ve got to be organised and compact. Going into this game we’ve done our work and what we need to know,” he said.“Three points is the aim. We got off to a great start but the bread and butter is at home and you have to win your home games to progress.“In Bruges, it was a surreal feeling to hear the theme tune. It’s special and adds more spice to the game. It makes you want to go further and want more.“Your senior players are im-portant in every game. You need players to have played in the competition before.”Goalkeeper Kasper Sch-meichel has returned to training after recovering from a groin injury.“Schmeichel trained nor-mally today. Let me think tonight. You know I decide the night before to see if he’s available tomorrow,” Ranieri added.

‘Leicester bank on Slimani experience against Porto’

AFPSeville, Spain

Sevilla coach Jorge Sam-paoli believes Manches-ter City loanee Samir Nasri has the talent to

help his side to the latter stages of the Champions League ahead of today’s clash against Lyon.

The Spanish side have won the Europa League for the past three seasons, but have struggled to establish themselves amongst Europe’s elite in the Champions League.

However, after a promising 0-0 draw away to Italian cham-

pions Juventus, Sampaoli is hop-ing Nasri and the fortress Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan can push Sevilla towards to the last 16 for the fi rst time in six years.

“I am very happy that Samir came here,” Sampaoli said on Tuesday after Nasri netted his fi rst Sevilla goal in Saturday’s 3-1 defeat at Athletic Bilbao.

“I think there are very few players in the world with the ability to play like Samir does.”

Defeat in the Basque country continued Sevilla’s awful run of 22 La Liga games on the road without a win.

However, Sampaoli expects a turnaround for the Group H

game back at the Sanchez Piz-juan where they have won 14 of their last 16 European ties and all three La Liga matches so far this season.

“Playing every three days allows you to get over defeat quickly. There is always another game around the corner,” added Sampaoli.

“We need to have more pen-etration in the fi nal third. We will change the system and some players.”

Indeed, Sampaoli is expected to ring the changes as key play-ers Franco Vazquez, Vitolo, Lu-ciano Vietto and Steven N’Zonzi were all left on the bench at the

weekend, while Sergio Rico will return in goal at the expense of Salvatore Sirigu.

However, Sevilla will be with-out French internationals Benoit Tremoulinas and Adil Rami due to injury.

Lyon have injury problems of their own with star striker Al-exandre Lacazette missing out once more due to an ongoing knee injury.

“Alex’s absence is a problem,” admitted Lyon coach Bruno Genesio, who also has an injury doubt over talented youngster Nabil Fekir.

“It is diffi cult for the team to overcome those absences. It

means the whole team has to work to score goals and be as ef-fi cient as possible.

“It is obvious we would prefer to have Alex for these matches.”

Lyon also suff ered defeat at the weekend, going down 1-0 at Lorient to lose for the third time in seven Ligue 1 games this sea-son.

“Although we lost to Lorient this is a diff erent competition,” added Genesio.

“It is the most prestigious club competition in the world and we have to correct what we did wrong on Saturday to put in a good performance.”

‘I think there are very few players in the world with the ability to play like Samir does’

Sampaoli counts on Nasri talent for European run

SPOTLIGHT

FOOTBALL


CSKA play down fan fears at Tottenham clashAFPMoscow

CSKA Moscow coach Leonid Slutsky insisted there would be no repeat of the Euro 2016 fan violence when the Russian

champions host Tottenham Hotspur in the Champions League.

CSKA take on the Londoners in Moscow on Tuesday in the fi rst visit by an English side to the country since fans from the two countries clashed at the summer tournament in France.

“I believe that those English fans who come to Moscow to support their favourites will enjoy a high level of hospitality, not only at the stadium but everywhere,” Slutsky, who man-aged Russia at Euro 2016, said at a press conference.

“I’m confi dent that they’re in no danger. They have no reasons for fears.”

But Slutsky hopes his players won’t be quite so hospitable as they look to heap more misery on a Tottenham side that lost their opening Group E

match at home to Monaco.“Of course we should be very careful in dead ball situations,” Slutsky said.

“The appearance of (Toby) Alder-weireld, (Jan) Vertongen or (Vincent) Janssen in our penalty box will defi -nitely be dangerous.

“But I don’t think that the dead ball situations will be the only or main threat in tomorrow’s match as Totten-ham have a big group of skilled play-ers in their attack and we need to shut them down.”

Last week, CSKA crashed out of of the Russian Cup with a 2-1 away defeat to Yenisei Krasnoyarsk, which put an end to their eight-match unbeaten run in all tournaments.

The Russian champions also dropped points at the weekend after being held 1-1 by Krasnodar.

Slutsky said playmaker Alan Dzago-ev, who missed Saturday’s match with a persistent muscle problem, remains uncertain for the clash with Totten-ham.

“We will fi nalise the decision on him in the morning (Tuesday),” Slut-sky added.

Man City’s Sterling credits Guardiola for rise in formReutersLondon

Raheem Sterling has hailed Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola for help-

ing him turn around his year, in particular for encouraging the winger to “enjoy scoring goals”.

Sterling found the back of the net only six times in 31 Premier League games last season and was vilifi ed by a section of England’s fans after the country’s poor Euro 2016 campaign.

However, the 21-year-old has impressed under Guardi-ola this campaign, scoring four goals in six league games. He was also named the Premier League’s player of the month for August.

“The manager has told me to enjoy scoring goals and see-ing the ball go into the back of the net. He gives everyone the confi dence, not just me,” Ster-ling told British media.

Sterling scored in City’s 3-1 win at Swansea City on Sat-urday, a victory that stretched their early lead at the top of the

table to four points.“He gives everyone the be-

lief and the motivation. His speech before (the game) was fantastic and it means that when you go out on to the pitch you are really fi red up for the game,” Sterling added.

Guardiola, who has guided the club to six straight league wins this season, said Sterling and the rest of the team need-ed to step up in the absence of midfi elder Kevin de Bruyne, who limped off with a ham-string problem at the Liberty Stadium.

“Kevin is not going to play the next games and now we need to keep going and win the games without him. We have to do that,” Guardiola said.

“Raheem feels that. He feels that his team-mates appreci-ate his eff orts — the staff , the coaches — we are so happy about what he has.

“But again this is only Sep-tember. I would like to be in May with one game left but we are in September and we have only played six games. We have a lot of games to play.”

City travel to Tottenham Hotspur, who are second in the table, on Sunday.

EPL

FOCUS

Galaxy denied fi rst crack at making playoff s

The Los Angeles Galaxy were denied a chance to qualify for the Major League Soccer post-season on their first attempt Sunday, losing 4-2 to the Seattle Sounders.Jordan Morris scored back-to-back goals in the second half to keep the Sounders’ playoff hopes alive and spoil the festive atmosphere for the Galaxy and their fans at StubHub Center stadium in south central Los Angele.Toronto FC, New York Red Bulls and New York City FC all punched their tickets to the postseason on Saturday night as the MLS Cup playoff field starts to take shape. The three clubs joined the Western Conference-leading FC Dal-las, who became the first MLS team to secure a playoff spot last weekend.The Sounders took a 2-1 lead when Morris, who is in the running for the MLS rookie-of-the-year award, scored in the 63rd minute off a pass from Alvaro Fernandez.Morris scored his team-leading 12th goal in the 73rd minute to give Seattle a 3-1 lead. Robbie Keane scored both goals for the Galaxy, opening the scoring in the 20th minute and converting a penalty five min-utes from full time after Steven Gerrard was brought down in the box. Five-time MLS Cup champions Galaxy lost for the first time at home this season.They were unbeaten in 15 straight regular season games at the StubHub Center, dating back to a 5-2 loss to the Portland Timbers in October 2015.The Galaxy’s next game is Saturday at FC Dallas.

CSKA Moscow’s coach Leonid Slutsky attends a training session at the CSKA arena in Moscow on the eve of the UEFA Champions League Group E match against Tottenham. (AFP)

Sevilla’s midfielder Argentinian Joaquin Correa (L) and French midfielder Samir Nasri attend a training session at the Ciudad Deportiva training grounds in Sevilla yesterday. (AFP)

Red Knights set the early pace in Qatar Stars League

SPOTLIGHT

Lekhwiya strengthened significantly in the summer, and the signing of Moroccan international Yusef El Arabi looks to be a strong investment from the management

By Sports ReporterDoha

The QSL season is taking a back-seat, ahead of Russia 2018 World Cup Qualifi ers. At QSL online, we have decided to look at the

early season form of the teams in the league. We focus on Lekhwiya, the early pace setters in the Qatar Stars League.

Djamel Belmadi’s side have come fl y-ing out of the traps this season scoring nine goals in just two QSL games. The Red Knights opened up their campaign with a comprehensive 4-0 victory over newly promoted Muaither with two goals in either half.

Whilst in their second tie, Lekhwiya needed a late Nam Tae Hee free kick to secure all three points against Gharafa in a rollercoaster 5-4 victory. One note of concern for head coach Djamel Belmadi will be how the Lekhwiya defense was breeched on four occasions, something that he will be certainly looking to ad-dress during the international break.

Lekhwiya strengthened signifi cantly in the summer, and the signing of Moroccan international Yusef El Arabi looks to be a strong investment from the Lekhwiya management. The former Granada man is tailor made for Lekhwiya and has set-tled well at the club, grabbing three goals in three starts for the Red Knights.

Likewise the club has brought back two youngsters who are primed for a

big debut season with Lekhwiya. Young striker Almoez Ali scored his fi rst ever QSL goal of the season in the victory over Muaither, along with midfi elder Assim Madibo who has enjoyed some impres-sive cameo’s from the bench. The Qatari youth internationals will have to step up this year and will form a vital part of the

squad if Lekhwiya are to compete on all fronts.

Finally Lekhwiya are enjoying fi ne early season form from midfi elder Nam Tae Hee. The South Korean interna-tional has been on sparkling form lately, with a man of the match performance against Al Gharafa on Saturday evening.

Nam already leads the way in the scor-ing charts with a fi ne hat-trick last time out, and head coach Djamel Belmadi will be hoping for more of the same after the international break when Lekhwiya take on second placed Al Sadd in a top of the table round 3 clash. Now to see what hap-pens next.

Asian players shine in Round 2QSL


The second round of QSL action saw plenty of late drama and sumptuous play from four midfi eld

maestro’s who lead the way for their teams. Sardor Rashidov, Hassan al-Haydoos and the South Korean duo of Nam Tae Hee and Kooky Han stood out, scoring six goals between them.

South Korean midfi elder Nam Tae Hee arguably put in the per-formance of the weekend, scor-ing a hat-trick including a stun-ning injury time free kick to give Lekhwiya all three points against Al Gharafa. The diminutive midfi elder ran the show against the Cheetahs and was central to Lekhwiya’s attacking intent during the tie.

Djamel Belmadi will be hoping for more of the same from Nam as the Red Knights look to regain the QSL falcon shield that lost to Al Rayyan last season.

Winger Sardor Rashidov had a

hand in two goals as El Jaish left it late to beat Al Arabi 4-3. Jaish’s number ten was a constant threat on the left hand side in the fi rst half. The Uzbekistan interna-tional delivered a pinpoint pass to Majid Mohammed to open the scoring on the 20th minute.

Whilst in the second half it was Rashidov’s shot from dis-tance, which cannoned off Ahmed Fatehi to give his side a vital equalizer at 3-3. Without the attacking threat of the wing-er, Jaish could have dropped their fi rst points of the season.

Al Sadd attacker Hassan Hay-doos delivered a typically as-sured performance as the Wolves ran out 2-1 winners against Al Ahli. The Qatar international captain opened the scoring from the penalty spot, and turned provider for team mate Bagdad

Bounjah for the winning goal in the second half.

It was another strong per-formance from the attacker, who will be hoping his early season form can aid the Qatar national team in their quest to reach Rus-sia 2018.

Korean midfi elder Kooky Han was identifi ed as a diff erence maker for Al Gharafa by team mate Vladimir Weiss in the build up to the Cheetahs Saturday evening clash against Lekhwiya. The South Korean midfi elder didn’t disappoint, delivering a masterful performance in the center of the park. The former Qatar SC man scored a screamer from outside the box to level the score at 4-4 for his side.

Unfortunately compatriot Nam Tae Hee settled the tie in injury time with a stunning free-kick. Despite the defeat, Ghara-fa boss Pedro Caixinia will be pleased with the eff ort from his summer signing and will know that with more assured per-formances from Han will result in points for Al Gharafa.

Seoul’s goals could stall Motors’ title bid

AFC CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

AFPSeoul

Jeonbuk Hyundai Mo-tors’ bid for a second AFC Champions League title faces a major threat this

week when they come up against free-scoring domestic rivals FC Seoul and their record-seeking striker, Adriano.

The Motors tore apart Sven-Goran Eriksson’s Shanghai SIPG 5-0 in the second leg of their quarter-fi nal as they purred to-wards a second Asian title after lifting the trophy in 2006.

The green-clad South Korean side are the unbeaten runaway K-League leaders by 14 points and they have impeccable pedi-gree in the Champions League, contesting two fi nals and only once failing to reach the knock-out stages.

But they will be wary of FC Seoul, whose Brazilian marks-man Adriano is the tournament’s top-scorer with 12 goals — one away from equalling the single-season record of 13.

Adriano smashed four past Buriram United and got a hat-

trick against Sanfrecce Hiroshi-ma as he lit up the group stages to put the 2013 record set by Guangzhou Evergrande’s Muriq-ui under threat.

He has been used sparingly by coach Hwang Sun-Hong in the competition’s later stages but he is a dangerous impact sub, as shown when he scored off the bench in the fi rst leg of the quarter-fi nal against Shandong Luneng.

Before Jeonbuk host Seoul in the fi rst leg on Wednesday, 2003 champions Al Ain contest today’s West Asian clash at home against surprise contenders El Jaish.

Qatar’s El Jaish lost the fi rst leg of their quarter-fi nal 3-0 to Al Nasr, but the result was reversed when the UAE side was found to have fi elded an ineligible player.

A 1-0 win in the second leg was enough to take El Jaish through to their fi rst ever semi-fi nal in the Asian club competition.

UAE’s Al Ain historically have the better record, winning the Champions League in 2003 and losing in the fi nal two years later, but El Jaish beat them twice in the pool stages this year to fi nish top of Group D.

File picture of Lekhwiya players celebrating after scoring a goal against Al Gharafa in their recent Qatar Stars League encounter.. The Red Knights won the match 5-4.

(L-R) Lekhiwya’s Nam Tae-Hee, El Jaish’s Sardor Rashidov, Al Sadd’s Hassan al-Haydous and Gharafa’s Kooky Han were the stand-out midfield performers during the round 2 of the QSL.

FOOTBALL5Gulf Times


The QSL season heads into a three week break for international football, but none the less the second round of games where crammed full of action including dramatic late goals and high scoring encounters. QSL online attempts to make sense of it all in our weekly talking points feature.

LATE DRAMA FROM TITLE CONTENDERSThe second round of QSL action saw two important late goals for sides that will be looking to be in the title shake up come the end of May.El Jaish needed a stoppage winner from substitute attacker Romarinho to defeat a spirited Al Arabi side 4-3. Gerardo Pelusso’s side showed plenty of character two battle back from two goals behind to take a 3-2 lead in the match. However Sabri Lamouchi’s side kept their composure and scored two goals in the final five minutes, including

an individual strike of real quality from Romarinho to steal the points away from the Dream Team.Likewise Lekhwiya struck in stoppage time to defeat Al Gharafa 5-4 in a nine goal thriller at Al Gharafa stadium. Nam Tae Hee capped off a fine personal performance with a hat-trick including two goals from direct free kicks. Jaish & Lekhwiya management will now be hoping to kick on once the QSL resumes on the 14th of October.

WHAT NOW FOR AL RAYYAN?QSL champions Al Rayyan dropped their first points of the season with a hard hitting 0-0 draw with Umm Salal on Friday evening. The Lions lacked a cutting edge in the final third and failed to break down the resilient midfield and defence of the Orange Fortress.On the basis of this performance it seems that for the top sides in the QSL, have figured out how to play against

Al Rayyan packing the midfield and defence and looking to take the cham-pions on the break. There would have been a big worry for the Rayyan management concerning the replacement for their former head coach Jorge Fossati. The Uruguayan accepted the call of the Qatar National team to replace Jose Carreno who was relieved of his duties. But Rayyan management have moved quickly to find a worthy replacement for the man who gave the Lions their first QSL falcon shield in 21years. They Lions have brought in big-name manager Michael Laudrup to replace Fossati. The Dane has had a successful season with Lekhwiya in 2014-15 where he guided the Red Knights to the title and also to the quarter-finals of the AFC Champions League. This big-name manager could just be the spark that Rayyan need to get back their rhythm.

Talking points after a thrilling second round of the QSL

QFA President backs Qatar players

QFA President Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa bin Ahmed al-Thani has urged Qatar players to keep their confidence going as they take on Korea in a 2018 FIFA World Cup qualify-ing match on October 6.Qatar on Saturday named Jorge Fossati as new coach to replace Daniel Carreno.QFA President watched Qatar players in action during a training session on Sunday. He was accompanied by Khalifa Khamis al-Thawadi while watching the players in training.On Sunday, new coach Fossati named a 26-member squad for the October 6 clash. The QFA President also met with Fossati and his backroom staff members.The QFA chief also addressed the players and urged them to be ‘positive’ for their forth-coming matches.

QSL players head to national team camp

Qatar national team stars have headed to their first training session under the guidance of newly appointed head coach Jorge Fossati. The former Al Rayyan tactician has chosen a 26-man squad for the upcom-ing matches against South Korea and Syria.Current QSL league leaders Lekhwiya lead the way with eight players in the squad, including midfielders Ismaeel Mohammed and Karim Boudiaf whilst Ali Afif also received a call up for the first time in over a year.Al Sadd has contributed seven players to the Al Anabi squad including regulars Ali Asad and national team captain Hassan al-Haydoos. Fossati also turned to his former club Al Rayyan to pick the trio of Saad al-Hadjri in goal along with attacker Sebastian Soria and Rodrigo Tabata.Qatar are set to take on South Korea in Soul on Thursday the 6th of October, before return-ing to Doha to face Syria just five days later on Tuesday the 11th of October. Al Anabi is cur-rently bottom of group A, the final qualification round for the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

Malaysian referee to offi ciate Qatar-Korea qualifying clash

Malaysia’s Mohamed Amir will off iciate the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifying clash between Qatar and Korea. The afore-mentioned 2018 World Cup qualifying game will be held on October 6, 2016 at Suwon World Cup Stadium.Mohamed Yousry will be Amir’s assistant while Moham-med Zine El Abidine has been named the third off icial. Nazmi Mohamed Nasr al-Din is the fourth off icial for the said game.For Qatar’s home game against Syria, Oman’s Ahmed Abu Bakr will be the chief off icial at Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium on October 11.Abu Bakr al-Salem al-Amiri and Rashid Hamid will be Abu Bakr’s assistants.Qatar are attempting to reach the next FIFA World Cup to be held in Russia in 2018.

Al Ahli sign Lekhwiya midfi elder

QSL side Al Ahli has an-nounced the season long loan signing of Lekhwiya midfielder Abdurahman Mohammed.Mohammed was previously on loan last season with Al Wakrah and will be looking for some first team game time at the Brigadiers. Ahli have been busy in the summer transfer window bringing in a total of nine players including profes-sional players Sayed Adnan and Wilfried Yessoh.Al Ahli will now begin prepara-tions in earnest for their third round match against Al Wak-rah on the 15th of September. So far Luka Bonačić’s side has registered an opening day victory against Al Gharafa and a defeat to Al Sadd.

Rehema returns for Al Wakrah

QSL side Al Wakrah have been handed an injury boost ahead of the third round of QSL action when they take Al Ahli on the 15th of October. Iraqi defender Ali Rehema has been cleared to resume training with the Blue Waves after suff ering a heel injury just before the start of the QSL season, in a friendly match against Al Rayyan. The knock has kept the former Iraqi international on the sidlines for Wakrah’s first two games of the season. Both matches saw Mauricio Larriera’s side lose 2-1 to El Jaish and Al Kharaitiyat respectively. The return of Rehema will be seen as a timely boost for Wakrah, who are looking to register their first points of the QSL season. In other team news, Wakrah head coach has yet to decide if his squad will take part in any friendly matches during the break.

SPORT


Promoters of Mexican Grand Prix hope for more races in the US

ReutersLondon

Mexican Grand Prix or-ganisers hope US company Liberty Media’s takeover of Formula One will boost their

event by expanding in the region and eventually creating a North American season similar to Europe’s run of races.

Liberty, owned by cable TV mo-gul John Malone, agreed this month to take control of the global sport in a deal expected to lead to expansion in the US market that Formula One has struggled to crack.

“When we are trying to build new audiences and bring new fans and create a new fan base, it does get a little com-

plicated,” Mexican Grand Prix market-ing director Rodrigo Sanchez said.

“We wish we could have more and more races on prime time on our side of the world and I think the only way we will get that is if, collaboratively, there start being more races in the region in general. It would be great to basically consolidate Formula One in North America.”

Formula One currently has three North American races — in Montreal, the Texas state capital Austin and Mexico City. There is also one in South America, the Brazilian Grand Prix at Sao Paulo’s Interlagos circuit.

Canada’s Circuit Gilles Villeneuve has been on the calendar since 1978, although the contract has yet to be ex-tended beyond next year, and this year

was scheduled between Monaco and Azerbaijan.

Mexico returned to the calendar last year after a 23-year-absence while the United States has tried out 10 diff erent venues over the years and had no race between 2007 and 2012, when Austin made its debut.

Europe has a block of races, Can-ada apart, running from May to Sep-tember. “We need to keep promoting Formula One... amongst the entire continent. We don’t have the luxury as a geographic region that some of the other areas have,” said Sanchez, whose Oct. 30 race is paired with Texas.

“It’s well known that there is just a European part of the season. Having more races within your geographic area, it defi nitely helps to build a good fan base.

“There really hasn’t been any lon-gevity or consistency in the events, whether they change cities or disappear for a few years and come back, especial-ly in the United States,” added Sanchez, whose race has a contract to 2019.

Formula One’s new chairman Chase Carey, an American, has said he sees the United States as a big long-term growth area.

The sport’s 85-year-old chief exec-utive Bernie Ecclestone has long talked about adding a race on the west and east coasts, with a return to Las Vegas considered most likely and Miami also mentioned.

Sanchez said this year’s race was 90% sold out and expected a full house come race weekend. Last year’s race day crowd was put at 135,000 with a

three-day attendance of 336,000. Mexico currently has two drivers

on the starting grid, Force India’s po-dium-chasing Sergio Perez and Haas F1’s Esteban Gutierrez, who has yet to score this season.

The 12th corner of the Hermanos Rodriguez circuit has been renamed after local hero Adrian Fernandez, now an ambassador for the race, who was runner-up in the US CART series in 2000 and ran his own team.

There are also plans to improve the podium ceremony by allowing more of the crowd onto the track.

“You look at Monza and it’s just a beautiful picture of that front stretch full of people. So hopefully we can create something special this year,” said Sanchez.

FORMULA ONE

‘We wish we could have more and more races on prime time on our side of the world and I think the only way we will get that is if, collaboratively, there start being more races in the region in general. It would be great to basically consolidate Formula One in North America’

Brown steps down from CSM, linked to a role in F1ReutersLondon

American marketing executive Zak Brown, who has been linked to a role in Formula One after

Liberty Media’s takeover, announced yesterday he was stepping down from his current role as head of CSM Sport & Entertainment at the end of the year.

Brown said in a statement that he would take his experience “forward to my next chapter in the arena I know best, motorsport”, but could not immedi-ately be reached for further comment.

Formula One is facing a major shake-up after US cable TV mogul John Malone’s Liberty Media agreed this month to take control. The deal is likely to lead to a new push to develop the US market and win fresh audiences.

Media reports have suggested that new Formula One chairman Chase Carey wants to appoint more executives to run the commercial and sporting operations, until now the preserve of 85-year-old supremo Bernie Ecclestone.

CSM said that Brown, whose agency has introduced top sponsors to Formula One, would remain involved in CSM as chairman of its global advisory board and non-executive chairman of its JMI motorsport arm.

The 44-year-old founded JMI sports marketing, which was bought by CSM, a division of Chime Communications, in 2013. IAAF President Sebastian Coe is chairman of CSM.

Liberty Media has acquired an initial 18.7% stake in Formula One from con-trolling shareholder CVC Capital Part-ners and plans to complete a cash and shares deal by the first quarter of 2017.

Brown, who owns a number of old F1 cars including an ex-Ayrton Senna Lotus 98T and Michael Schumacher Benetton B191, said after the deal was announced that he could not think of a better buyer.

“If you had to write down a list of who you would want to buy Formula One, Liberty would be top of that list,” the executive, whose company is also active in US racing series, told Reuters at the time. “They’ve sold it to a strategic buyer as opposed to another financial buyer. So they will be making decisions that are strategic-led, what’s best for the growth of the sport and the fans and the sponsors.”

Brown was also at this month’s Italian Grand Prix at Monza with Coe.

In an interview with Reuters last year, Brown voiced concerns about the sport and said it had lost some of its buzz, with budgets out of control and exces-sive hosting fees and ticket prices.

“The potential for the sport is un-tapped. I think it needs, as an industry, to be much better marketed. It’s not where it needs to be,” he said in that interview.

AFPToulon, France

Mike Ford vowed to bring the excitement back to Tou-lon after being unveiled as the three-time European

champions’ backs coach yesterday. The former Bath head coach said he

would take the misfi ring giants to the “next level” as they attempt to regain the French and European titles.

“First of all, it’s the biggest club in Europe and they’ve been the most suc-cessful of the last four or fi ve years,” said Ford, 50. “So the challenge is an exciting one, to work with a great group of coaches and some world class players — as a coach, that’s all you can ask for.”

Toulon had a poor start to the new Top 14 season but earned a morale-boosting 23-21 win over then-unbeaten Clermont on Sunday that moved them up to fi fth.

The club’s outspoken president Mourad Boudjellal said following that success that he may quit the club due to

press criticism but he has nonetheless moved to boost his coaching resources.

“Mourad rang me up two weeks ago to discuss and talk rugby. He obviously liked the way Bath played,” said Ford. “Initially it was just a conversation about how the game should be played and how does he like to see the game played. Mourad said to me he wants to see an exciting brand of rugby, he wants to win but also he wants to score tries,

and he believes I can add to that.” Ford insisted he has been brought in

to work with, rather than replace, un-der-fi re head coach Diego Dominguez. “Me and Diego have talked several times, he’s the boss, I’m here to help. My skill set is coaching on the fi eld, so I will help with attack, defence and the backs.

“There’s a lot of good things in place already here structure-wise and over the coming weeks I’ll just tweak things to hopefully take the team to the next level.”

Ford believes Toulon have everything they need to be successful again having won three straight European titles from 2013-2015. They also reached the Top 14 fi nal in each of those seasons, although won it only once in 2014.

“It’s a fantastic squad, I’ve coached internationally against many of them so I know Matthew Giteau, Ma’a Nonu very well, Leigh Halfpenny, (Juan Fernandez) Lobbe. When we were at Bath we tried to sign Duane Vermeulen, so there’s a lot of players I know personally and in all the squad there’s a lot of talent.”

Ford will also link up with Toulon’s kicking coach Jonny Wilkinson again.

Ford was an England assistant coach when Wilkinson was at the height of his playing powers.

“Me and Jonny have a good relation-ship and we spoke several times about Toulon — he said it was a perfect place for me to go as a coach,” added Ford.

His main aim, though, will be to get the team scoring tries — they’ve man-aged only 11 in six matches this season.

“I was an international defence coach for 10 years and all you ever do as defence coach is watch other peo-ple’s attack, so over the 10 years I be-came pretty comfortable with the sort of attack that’s diffi cult for defences,” said Ford. “So when I went to Bath I just turned that around and imple-mented an attack structure that I knew from my defensive days was very diffi -cult to defend.” If he can manage that, Boudjellal may abandon all talk of quit-ting the game.

The club hosts third-placed Montpellier on Sunday while they be-gin their European Champions Cup campaign at home to title-holders Saracens on October 15.

Powell hails Dorn in Tigers’ sign-off

Daryl Powell tipped his cap to the re-tiring Luke Dorn as the Australian

veteran signed off from Super League by helping Castleford Tigers to a fi fth-place Super League fi nish courtesy of a 40-26 win over Widnes Vikings.

Denny Solomona’s hat-trick helped the hosts streak away from Widnes, with former Manly Sea Eagles full-back Dorn also dotting down in the fi rst half.

After Ben Crooks, Matt Cook and Paul McShane put Tigers out of sight, two late Corey Thompson and Patrick Ah Van tries made the score more respect-able for the Vikings, although Powell in-sisted the game was all about Dorn.

“It’s great to fi nish fi fth. We needed to win today to do that and it’s been a special eff ort for us to do that under the incredibly tough circumstances we’ve had in terms of injuries,” he said. “Luke has been incredible for us. He’s played outstandingly for three years now and I can’t speak highly enough about him

and what he’s added to the club. “His leadership and his attacking

play in particular is sublime, as is his understanding of the game, and it was fi tting today that we were able to win with him scoring a try.”

Elsewhere, Huddersfi eld Giants avoided the Million Pound Game thanks to a late Danny Brough drop-goal, which was the decisive point in a 23-22 win at Hull KR.

Needing a win to dodge the dreaded play-off , the Giants made head coach Rick Stone sweat as they allowed their hosts to come back from 22-4 down.

And while there were some shouts from the Hull camp that Brough’s drop-goal actually went over the posts, Terry Campese still had time to hit the post with a late attempt of his own with a draw good enough to secure their survival.

At the other end of the table the semi-fi nal fi xtures were decided as Warrington Wolves beat Hull FC to se-cure the League Leader’s shield for the fi rst time since 2011 and a home semi-fi nal clash with St Helens who beat Wakefi eld Wildcats 32-12 on Friday.

New man Ford vows to take Toulon to ‘next level’RUGBY

SPORT

Wozniacki makes strong start at retirement-hit Wuhan

TENNIS

Four players quit mid-match, taking the tally to six in just two days at the Chinese tournament

Vikings put brakes on Newton, end Panthers’ home win streak

NFL

AFPWuhan, China

Former world number one Caroline Woz-niacki made a strong start at the WTA Wuhan Open as the tournament was hit by a wave of retirements yesterday.

Wozniacki — fresh from a title victory at the Pan Pacifi c Open in Tokyo on Sunday — took two sets to secure her place in the second round, as double Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova and Briton Johanna Konta also made convinc-ing starts. Four players quit mid-match, taking the tally to six in just two days at the Chinese tournament, which is also missing injured world number two Serena Williams. Wozniacki was sidelined by injury for nearly three months ear-lier this year but has made a strong late-season comeback, reaching the semi-fi nals of the US Open and bagging her fi rst crown of the season in Tokyo.

The 26-year-old Dane fl ew straight to Wuhan after Sunday’s fi nal where she dispatched Aus-tralian Samantha Stosur in two sets, winning 6-3, 6-2 on an ace. “I’m on a roll, so hopefully I can keep pushing myself and play well,” she told reporters after the match.

Kvitova served six aces — mirrored by her teenage opponent’s six double faults — to sweep to a 6-3, 6-1 victory against Latvian Jelena Os-tapenko. “The beginning of the match was just terrible. Afterwards, I was just more relaxed and more confi dent,” the Czech player told report-ers. “I think the key was kind of attacking her second serve,” she added.

Meanwhile, Konta eased past German Annika Beck 6-1, 6-2 to get her campaign off to a fl y-ing start. “She fought all the way through and we had a lot of close games so I don’t think the scoreline quite refl ects the level of the match,” Konta said after the match. The Australian Open semi-fi nalist will meet Zhang Shuai of China, who beat compatriot Peng Shuai in three tightly fought sets 6-7 (5/7), 6-3, 6-4. The pair last met in Melbourne, where Konta halted qualifi er Zhang’s fairy-tale run in the quarter fi nals.

“We had a great match at the Australian Open and I haven’t played her since so I think

it will be a great battle,” Konta said. But Brit-ain’s Heather Watson, Anastasija Sevastova of Latvia and Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova

all joined the injury list as they retired from their fi rst-round matches. Meanwhile, Irina-Camelia Begu of Romania bowed out in the second set of

her second-round meet with world number fi ve Simona Halep. The late-season tournament, which comes just two weeks after the year’s fi nal

Grand Slam, the US Open, also saw fi ve retire-ments last year — including in the fi nal.

Monday’s pull-outs enabled American Madi-son Brengle, Yulia Putintseva of Kazakstan and Japan’s Misaki Doi to progress to the second round with unexpected ease. An all Czech sec-ond round meet saw US Open fi nalist Karolina Pliskova beat Lucie Safarova in a close two sets, 6-3, 7-5.

Kvitova was able to level her season’s score with Ostapenko, who beat the Olympic bronze medallist twice at the beginning of the year, be-fore the Czech ousted her at the US Open. Illness hampered the start of the 26-year-old Kvitova’s season, which also saw her split with her coach of seven years David Kotyza, and she has slipped to 16th in the rankings — her lowest in fi ve years.

But she won her fi rst Olympic medal at Rio, losing in the semi-fi nals to eventual gold med-allist Monica Puig before beating American Madison Keys for the third podium spot.

Wimbledon quarter-fi nalist Dominika Ci-bulkova took three sets to beat French qualifi er Alize Cornet 6-2, 2-6, 6-3 and next faces Ger-man Laura Siegemund.

RESULTS 2nd round: Simona Halep (ROU x4) bt Irina-Camelia

Begu (ROU) 6-3, 2-0 (ret); Carla Suarez Navarro (ESP

x7) bt Yanina Wickmayer (BEL) 6-4, 6-3; Karolina

Pliskova (CZE x5) bt Lucie Safarova (CZE) 6-3, 7-5

1st round: Petra Kvitova (CZE x14) bt Jelena

Ostapenko (LAT) 6-3, 6-1; Yulia Putintseva (KAZ) bt

Anastasija Sevastova (LAT) 6-1, 4-1 (ret); Dominika

Cibulkova (SVK x10) bt Alize Cornet (FRA) 6-2, 2-6,

6-3; Madison Brengle (USA) bt Heather Watson

(GBR) 6-3, 2-1 (ret); Misaki Doi (JPN) bt Anastasia

Pavlyuchenkova (RUS x15) 6-7 (3/7), 6-4, 3-1 (ret);

Johanna Konta (GBR x11) bt Annika Beck (GER) 6-1,

6-2; Zhang Shuai (CHN) bt Peng Shuai (CHN) 6-7

(5/7), 6-3, 6-4; Kristina Mladenovic (FRA) bt Coco

Vandeweghe (USA) 7-6 (7/5), 6-3; Elina Svitolina

(UKR) bt Bethanie Mattek-Sands (USA) 4-6, 6-3, 6-4;

Barbora Strycova (CZE) bt Sara Errani (ITA) 6-1, 3-6,

6-1; Jelena Jankovic (SRB) bt Daria Gavrilova (AUS)

6-2, 6-2; Caroline Garcia (FRA) bt Mirjana Lucic-

Baroni (CRO) 6-2, 6-4; Daria Kasatkina (RUS) bt Julia

Goerges (GER) 6-0, 6-4; Carolina Wozniacki (DEN) bt

Samantha Stosur (AUS x16) 6-3, 6-2.

AFPLos Angeles

The Minnesota Vikings wrapped up Carolina quarterback Cam Newton, holding the Panthers scoreless for 50 minutes in a 22-

10 NFL victory in Charlotte, where the contest went off without incident despite unrest in recent days.

Vikings quarterback Sam Bradford au-thored three second-half scoring drives and the Minnesota’s defence sacked Newton eight times and intercepted him three times. The result snapped Caro-lina’s franchise-record 14-game home winning streak.

At 1-2 the Panthers have lost one more game than they lost in all of the 2015 reg-ular season.

“Whatever they were doing was eff ec-tive,” said Newton, who received medical attention on the fi eld in the fi rst half, ap-pearing to favour his left foot after a sack. Newton warmed up for the game wear-ing a T-shirt bearing a quote from Martin Luther King Jr: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

In a city where the police shooting of Keith Lamont Scott has sparked violent demonstrations, police in riot gear sur-rounded the stadium as fans made their way in, but the event passed off peaceful-ly. Around the league there continued to be a scattering of pre-game demonstra-tions by players inspired by San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s decision to kneel for the national anthem in protest at social injustice and police methods. In-game action provided more drama however.

In East Rutherford, New Jersey, Kirk Cousins threw two long touchdown passes, Dustin Hopkins converted fi ve fi eld goals and the Washington Redskins sealed a come-from-behind win over the New York Giants with two fourth-quarter interceptions of Eli Manning.

Justin Tucker drilled a 54-yard fi eld goal with 1:02 remaining in the fourth quarter to lift the unbeaten Baltimore Ravens to a 19-17 victory over the winless Jacksonville Jaguars. Super Bowl cham-pions Denver downed the Bengals 29-17 in Cincinnati with Broncos quarterback Trevor Siemian passing for 312 yards and four touchdowns in his fi rst career road start.

Philadelphia quarterback Carson Wentz continued his stellar rookie cam-paign by throwing for two touchdowns in the Eagles’ 34-3 victory over the Pitts-burgh Steelers. Wentz completed 23 of 31 passes for 301 yards, fi nished with a passer rating of 125.9 and has thrown for fi ve touchdowns without a turnover this season.

The second overall selection of the 2016 draft outplayed Steelers’ All-Pro quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who completed 24 of 44 passes for 259 yards and an interception. The Dallas Cowboys’ rookie quarterback Dak Prescott also shone, passing for 248 yards and his fi rst NFL touchdown in a 31-17 victory over the Chicago Bears.

It was a good day as well for Green Bay’s veteran QB Aaron Rodgers, who threw four touchdown passes in the fi rst half as the Packers built a 28-point lead

and held on for a 34-27 victory over the Detroit Lions.

Two-time Most Valuable Player Rodg-ers, emphatically answered the criticism that followed last week’s loss at Min-nesota. “He looked at me after one of the touchdowns and just kind of smiled, head-butted me and said, ‘I’m back,’” right guard TJ Lang said.” So it’s defi nitely good to see him go out there and get back to his dominant fashion.”

The Miami Dolphins worked overtime for their fi rst win of the season, downing the Cleveland Browns 30-24, with run-ning back Jay Ajayi scoring from 11 yards out with 8:26 left in overtime. The Los Angeles Rams, held to just nine points in their fi rst two games, exploded for fi ve touchdowns in a 37-32 victory over the Buccaneers in Tampa Bay.

The teams had to wait out a delay of 69 minutes, during which the stadium was

cleared because of lightning, before a wild fi nish that saw the Buccaneers drive to the Rams’ 15-yard line only to have their comeback bid snuff ed out when quarter-back Jameis Winston was tackled at the fi ve-yard line as time expired.

RESULTSBuff alo 33 Arizona 18

Oakland 17 Tennessee 10

Miami 30 Cleveland 24 (OT)

Baltimore 19 Jacksonville 17

Green Bay 34 Detroit 27

Denver 29 Cincinnati 17

Minnesota 22 Carolina 10

Washington 29 NY Giants 27

Seattle 37 San Francisco 18

Kansas City 24 NY Jets 3

Indianapolis 26 San Diego 22

Philadelphia 34 Pittsburgh 3

Dallas 31 Chicago 17

Los Angeles 37 Tampa Bay 32

SPORT7Gulf Times


‘Boring’ mind control puts Konta on verge

of new landmarksWuhan, China: A “boring” mental technique which allows her to focus on match after match as if nothing else mat-ters has left Johanna Konta (right) knocking on the door of the world’s top 10 — not that she lets herself worry about such things. Konta, 25, burst onto the scene at last year’s US Open and she has gone up another gear this season, winning her first WTA title and rising to 13th in the world. As well as her victory at Stanford, Konta also became the first British woman to reach a Grand Slam semi-final in 33 years at the Australian Open, equalling Virginia Wade and Sue Barker.

She now has a chance of reaching the elite — and lucrative — eight-player WTA Finals in Singapore. But when asked about the season finale, Konta’s response is typically level-headed. “It’s one of those things that’s the result of some-thing else, so there’s not much point in worrying about it or craving it or stressing, because it’s not completely under your control,” she told AFP at the Wuhan Open in China. “All I can do is focus on each match I get to play.”

Even in an era when mind coaches are common, Konta’s fierce commitment to her mental “processes” stands out. She says she owes much to Spanish mind coach Juan Coto, with whom she started work-ing with in 2014, transforming from a nervy player into one with steely focus. When asked about her mental technique, she explained: “It’s basically treating yourself kindly when its hardest to do so. And it’s just a habit to get into.”

“I’ve got my own processes with my team,” said Konta, before adding self-consciously: “Even if it almost sounds mo-notonous and boring, but it’s just trying to get yourself into a mental state of being where you are repeating the kind of things that you should be tell-ing yourself.”

Konta uses deep breathing and visualisation, and repeats

positive phrases to herself to ensure she focuses on the aspects of a match she can control, rather than worrying about possible outcomes or bad shots.

The results are plain to see on court: Konta has soared 137 places since the end of 2014 to 13th in the world, making her the highest ranked British woman since Jo Durie in 1983.

If Konta has an unusual approach to her tennis, she also had an unconventional upbringing: born in Sydney to Hungarian parents, she moved to Spain aged 14 to attend the Sanchez-Casal Tennis Acad-emy, where Andy Murray also trained.

Her parents eventually fol-lowed, swapping Australia for Eastbourne on the south coast of England in order to be closer to their daughter. Konta was also home-schooled, some-thing she credits with teaching her discipline and mental skills which she now uses on court.

“It actually gave me some good skills, time management, also understanding of when I’m tired I still need to be able to switch my mind on in that way. And that’s not always easy,” she said. Konta beat Germany’s Annika Beck in the first round yesterday with a strong run in Wuhan and at next week’s China Open capable of taking her into the top 10 for the first time.

Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic returns during her win over compatriot Lucie Safarova at the Wuhan Open in China’s central Hubei province. (AFP)

Minnesota Vikings running back Jerick McKinnon (left) dives in for a touchdown over Carolina Panthers defensive back Robert McClain and middle linebacker Luke Kuechly (right) during the second half of the NFL game in Charlotte. (USA TODAY Sports)

Clippers’ Pierce to retire at end of season

Los Angeles: Los Angeles Clippers forward Paul Pierce confirmed yester-day he will retire from basketball at the end of the season after nearly two decades in the NBA. Pierce, who turns 39 next month, said on The Players Tribune website he hoped to sign off after 19 seasons with a championship.

“This is it, my final season,” Pierce wrote. “It’s time to move on from the game of basketball. Just like any diff icult decision, I think you’ve got to be at peace with yourself. I’m at peace with retiring, but I’ve got one more ride left. One more season. One more opportunity. With the Clippers, in the city where I grew up, I feel like I have that opportunity on a great team. We’re hungry. We want to win a championship.”

Pierce joined the Clippers last year after spending the bulk of his career at the Boston Celtics, which included an

NBA Championship in 2008. Clippers coach Doc Rivers had hinted Pierce was leaning towards extending his contract earlier this month, insisting the player known as “The Truth” could still play a role for the team.

“If I don’t think they can play, then I tell them that. But I think Paul can play,” Rivers said. “I don’t know how much he’ll play, but he can play. I’ve always thought it’s easy for someone else to tell you to retire; I think that’s something that the player has to come to by himself. I just think Paul loves to play.” Pierce said he planned to savor each moment of his final year in the sport. “It’s hard to believe I’ll be play-ing in each arena for the last time,” he said. “I’m going to enjoy every prac-tice, every bus ride, every team dinner, every time running out through the tunnel. I’m going to do my part to give us a shot at the ultimate goal.”

Ross steals show as Cubs win regular-season home fi nale

MLB

Lester earned his league-leading 19th victory and retiring catcher Ross homered as the champs went 57-24 at home

ReutersChicago

Jon Lester allowed three hits in 6-2/3 in-nings and the Chicago Cubs set a fran-chise record for victories at Wrigley Field in a season as they beat the St. Louis Car-

dinals at the Major League Baseball games on Sunday. Lester earned his league-leading 19th victory and retiring catcher David Ross homer-ed as the National League Central champions went 57-24 at home this season. Chicago won 56 games at the ballpark in 1933 and 1935.

The Cubs also reached 99 victories, which they last accomplished in 1935. Lester (19-4) struck out seven while lowering his ERA to 2.28, second lowest in the majors behind his team-mate Kyle Hendricks (2.06), another candidate for the NL Cy Young Award. Lester exited with two on in the seventh. Carl Edwards Jr. struck out Randal Grichuk to stop the rally. Aroldis Chapman earned his 16th save.

DODGERS 4, ROCKIES 3 (10 ININGS)Charlie Culberson hit a solo home run in the bottom of the 10th inning to give the Los Ange-les Dodgers the National League West champi-onship with a 4-3 win over the Colorado Rock-ies. Reliever Joe Blanton (7-2) earned the victory that gave the Dodgers their fourth successive division title.

With two out in the bottom of the 10th, Cul-berson hit a 91-mph fastball from Boone Logan (2-5) into the stands down the left-fi eld line for his fi rst home run of the season and the sixth career.

PADRES 4, GIANTS 3Wil Myers’ RBI single in the seventh inning lift-ed the San Diego Padres past the San Francisco Giants, who were eliminated from the National League West race after the fi rst-place Los Ange-les Dodgers beat the Colorado Rockies minutes before. San Francisco (82-74) are tied with St. Louis for the second National League wild card pending the result of the Cardinals’ late game against the Chicago Cubs. The New York Mets are a game ahead of the Giants and Cardinals in the fi rst wild-card position.

BLUE JAYS 4, YANKEES 3Edwin Encarnacion hit an infi eld single to sec-ond base to score the winning run as the Toronto Blue Jays came back with two runs in the bottom of the ninth to defeat the New York Yankees.

The Blue Jays (86-69) entered the game oc-cupying the fi rst American League wild-card spot, 1-1/2 games ahead of the Baltimore Ori-oles. The Yankees (79-76) were 4-1/2 games out of a wild-card spot. Jose Bautista homered for the Blue Jays. Didi Gregorius homered for the Yankees.

RED SOX 3, RAYS 2 (10 INNINGS)Veteran designated hitter David Ortiz went 3-for-5 with a double in his fi nal game at Tropi-cana Field, lifting the Boston Red Sox to their 11th straight win with a 3-2 victory in 10 innings over the Tampa Bay Rays.

Boston (92-64) completed the three-game sweep of the Rays to inch closer to an AL East title. The Red Sox are 5-1/2 games ahead of the second-place Toronto Blue Jays. Ortiz hit a dou-ble in the 10th inning off reliever Eddie Gamboa. Dustin Pedroia scored from fi rst when Tampa Bay catcher Luke Maile dropped the ball after applying for the tag.

WHITE SOX 3, INDIANS 0Carlos Rodon pitched eight innings, allowed two hits, striking out 11, as Chicago beat Cleve-land and ruined their chance to clinch the Cen-tral Division title at home. The Indians’ magic

number for clinching the division is at one.Rodon walked three and threw 108 pitches

while David Robertson pitched the ninth to earn his 36th save.

Rodon and Robertson struck out eight of the last nine Indians hitters to end the game.

ROYALS 12, TIGERS 9Salvador Perez, Cheslor Cuthbert, Raul Monde-si and Alex Gordon each hit a home run and the Kansas City Royals pounded out 19 hits in a 12-9 victory over the Detroit Tigers.

The Tigers made it interesting as the game wound down, rallying for two runs off Kevin Herrera in the eighth inning. A sacrifi ce fl y by JD Martinez made it 11-8 and the Royals’ setup man’s wild pitch plated another run before get-ting Erick Aybar on a groundout to strand a run-ner at third. Royals closer Wade Davis notched his 26th save, although he had to strand runners

at fi rst and third with one out to do it.

METS 17, PHILLIES 0Rookie Robert Gsellman threw a career-high seven scoreless innings to lead the New York Mets to a 17-0 rout of the Philadelphia Phillies. The National League wild-card leading Mets (83-73) capped their fi nal homestand of the reg-ular season with the most lopsided shutout win in the franchise’s 55-season history.

Gsellman, who began the season with Dou-ble-A Binghamton, allowed just three hits and two walks while striking out a career-high eight.

ORIOLES 2, DIAMONDBACKS 1Hyun Soo Kim hit an early two-run homer and the Baltimore Orioles fi nished a three-game sweep of Arizona that let the Orioles (85-71) hold on to the second wild-card spot. Baltimore starter Dylan Bundy gave up one run in fi ve in-

nings. Bundy (10-7) allowed that only run in the fourth inning before the Orioles went to the bullpen in the sixth.

NATIONALS 10, PIRATES 7Jayson Werth smacked a pinch-hit, two-run homer to highlight a fi ve-run eighth inning as Washington pulled out a win over Pittsburgh. The four-hour game featured a combined 21 hits, four ties, 45 players used (tied the National League record), 17 pitchers (one shy of the major league record), a benches-clearing incident and two ejections. Nationals outfi elder Bryce Harp-er also left in the third inning with an apparent left thumb injury. There was no immediate word on the exact nature of the injury or a prognosis.

REDS 4, BREWERS 2Brandon Finnegan threw fi ve shutout innings and Scott Schebler had two hits with a pair of RBIs as the Cincinnati Reds beat the Milwaukee Brewers. Finnegan (10-11) struck out four bat-ters and scattered three hits without walking a batter.

ASTROS 4, ANGELS 1Joe Musgrove worked seven strong innings and the Houston Astros belted three solo home runs to off er support in their 4-1 win over the Los Angeles Angels. Musgrove (4-4) He allowed one run on seven hits while recording four strikeouts. He did not walk a batter for the fi rst time in six starts. The Astros (82-74) snapped their three-game skid and kept their slim American League wild card hopes alive. With six games remaining Houston trail Detroit, Seattle and Baltimore in the chase for the fi nal wild card spot behind the Blue Jays.

MARINERS 4, TWINS 3Nelson Cruz hit two solo home runs and Jesus Sucre continued his hot hitting since his recall from Triple-A with a two-run homer as Seattle held on for a win over Minnesota. The Mariners remained 2-1/2 games behind Baltimore for the second wild card.

Taijuan Walker pitched 5-1/3 innings for the Mariners, allowing three runs on nine hits and two walks while striking out seven. Edwin Diaz fi nished with his 17th save in 19 chances.

ATHLETICS 7, RANGERS 1Rookie right-hander Jharel Cotton limited Texas to one run in seven innings in a victory over the American League West champions. Ryon Healy smacked a two-run home run among three hits, and Stephen Vogt ignited a seven-run second inning with a three-run double.

The Rangers fell into a tie with the Boston Red Sox for the best record in the AL heading into the fi nal week of the regular season. The Indians are also still in the chase for the home-fi eld advan-tage throughout the AL playoff s.

Tatar’s overtime winner lift s Europe into World Cup fi nal

WORLD CUP OF HOCKEY

AFPToronto

Tomas Tatar scored his second goal of the game 3:43 into overtime as Team Europe advanced to the fi nal of the World Cup of Hockey with a 3-2 win over Sweden. Tatar,

of Slovakia, scored a controversial goal on Sunday as the puck appeared to go in off his skate and past a startled Swedish goaltender Henrik Lundqvist at the Air Canada Centre arena.

“He created that whole overtime goal,” said Team Europe coach Ralph Krueger of Tatar. “We just con-tinually found ways to do that, and that’s the beauty of this team.”

Team Europe advances to the best-of-three fi -nal against undefeated Canada with the fi rst game scheduled for today in Toronto. Team Sweden chal-lenged the call and it went to video review but offi -cials ruled it a good goal.

Tournament offi cials released a statement after the game with an explanation, saying the goal was allowed because Tatar did not intentionally kick the puck past Lundqvist. “A puck that defl ects into the net off an attacking player’s skate who does not use a distinct kicking motion is a legitimate goal.”

Team Europe was the biggest longshot to get this far in the tournament as they have only been playing together for a few weeks. They are coached by Cana-dian-born Krueger and their roster is made up of a mixture of star players from Europe’s eight smaller hockey nations.

Their outlook appeared even bleaker when they were shut out 4-0 by a young Team North America in their fi rst pre-tournament contest. But eventu-ally European pride and skill took over as they have won three of their last four games with the only loss coming against Canada in group play.

“There’s so much happening here within this group as far as players stepping up at diff erent times to take us to victory, and today it was Tomas,” Krueger said. Tatar also scored just 12 seconds into the third period to give Europe a 2-1 lead.

Sweden’s Erik Karlsson tied it with 4:32 left in the third, setting the stage for Tatar’s overtime winner.

Marian Gaborik also scored for Europe, while Nick-las Backstrom had a fi rst period goal for Sweden.

Swedish coach Rikard Gronborg said was disap-pointed they didn’t reach the fi nal but liked the fi ght in his team.

“We battled back. The chips were down against North America, chips were down tonight and we’re

still battling back,” said Gronborg. “There are things you want to go back and change, but right now I’m content we’re top four, but I’m obviously disap-pointed we’re not top two.”

Jaroslav Halak, of Slovakia, continued his solid play as he stopped 37 of 39 shots for Team Europe. Lundqvist made 28 saves for Sweden.

SPORT8 Gulf Times


Tomas Tatar (right) of Team Europe celebrates his game winning goal in overtime against Team Sweden during the semi-final of the World Cup of Hockey tournament in Toronto on Sunday. (AFP)

Los Angeles Dodgers shortstop Charlie Culberson (left) hits a walk off solo home run during the tenth innings against the Colorado Rockies at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. With the victory, the Dodgers clinched the National League West title on Sunday. (USA TODAY Sports)

Los Angeles Clippers' Paul Pierce (right) said he will retire from basketball at the end of the season after nearly two decades in the NBA. (AFP)

SPORT9Gulf Times


In a league of their own: Rohingya footballers battle prejudice in MalaysiaThomson Reuters FoundationKuala Lumpur

Racing from one end of the football pitch to another, the players in bright yellow and pink jerseys pass the ball be-

tween them, weaving around their op-ponents, tackling each other and occa-sionally, committing a foul.

As a small crowd cheers them on, it looks like any other amateur match taking place on a Sunday afternoon in countless cities around the world. But on this pitch in Malaysia’s capital Kua-la Lumpur, the teams face a challenge like no other.

The players are young refugees from the Rohingya Muslim minority in pre-dominantly Buddhist Myanmar, who are trying to tackle the prejudices they face in society in one of the few arenas they truly feel equal.

For Mohamed Farouque, whose per-ilous journey to Malaysia included a journey on a crowded boat and a stay in people-smuggling camp in the jungle, the sense of liberation is something new.

“Since my birth, I haven’t known freedom,” said Farouque, one of the refugees who runs the Rohingya Football Club in Kuala Lumpur. “We can openly play football here. In Myanmar we are not even allowed to go out of our houses. I had to leave my country to save my life.”

Tens of thousands of Rohingya have fl ed to Muslim-majority Malaysia to escape harsh discrimination in their homeland, where they are not recog-nised as citizens.

After the perilous and sometimes deadly voyage to Malaysia, their prob-lems are far from over.

The 150,700 refugees and asylum-seekers in Malaysia live in the shadows of the society, barred from working of-fi cially or receiving formal education. Often seen as illegal immigrants, they generally have limited contact with Malaysians.

With football, the Rohingya have more than one goal in mind.

They see it as a way of keeping young members of the community out of trouble, as well as a chance to break down barriers with citizens of their adopted homeland.

“In Malaysia, we are not allowed to work and we have no support. We don’t want our young people to get involved in crime, so we encourage them to get to-gether to play football,” said Farouque.

“We want to show the world the Ro-hingya can achieve something great,” added the 23-year-old as he took a break during a match with another Ro-

hingya team from Malaysia’s central state of Malacca.

The Rohingya Football Club was set up in 2015 and its players are aged between 18 and 30. The club so far has taken on a few Malaysian sides in friendly matches, including teams comprised of staff from the state en-ergy fi rm and a private broadcaster.

Their initiative has also inspired the Rohingya community in other cities to set up teams. At the friendly match with the visiting team from Malacca, the two sides fought it out at a com-munity fi eld in Ampang, a neighbour-hood a short drive away from the city

centre, where the iconic Twin Towers dominate the skyline.

About 100 other refugees and locals gathered on the sidelines, watching the game and cheering on the teams.

Malaysian Pannir Selvam, who was refereeing the game, said he found out about the refugee football team after he saw the young men training on the pitch.

As well as volunteering as a referee, he sometimes joins in with matches, and says the refugees have shown a “spirit to strive for excellence”.

“They were having a lot of fun, I en-joyed playing with the them. I am happy and proud of them,” the 60-year-old

said. “We need to do more. We are Ma-laysians, we live with them under the same roof, in the same country, we need to get to know them better,” he added.

Despite their enthusiasm, the Ro-hingya footballers only train once in while due to a lack of money. The club needs about $350 every month to cover costs including the hiring of a venue for training — but it is so far relying on the limited resources the refugees can pull together themselves.

For many refugees, the sport pro-vides a temporary escape from their hardship and a chance to call time on the discrimination they face in their

day to day life. “Playing football is very relaxing,”

said Saiful Shahidul, 18, from the visit-ing Malacca team, who works on a con-struction site to support himself and the family. “I would like to be a profes-sional football player one day,” he add-ed, shyly, saying his favourite player is football star Cristiano Ronaldo.

As for Farouque, his ambitions have entered a whole new league after see-ing the fi rst ever Refugee Team at the Rio Olympics this year.

“Inshallah (God willing) we will be playing at the Olympics one day like the Refugee Team,” he said.

FOOTBALL

‘We are not allowed to work and we have no support. We don’t want our young people to get involved in crime, so we encourage them to get together to play football. We want to show the world the Rohingya can achieve something great’

A group of young refugee players from the Rohingya Football Club pose for a photo before a match in Kuala Lumpur, and (right) the players are seen in action in the friendly match against a local side. (Reuters)

AFPLausitzring, Germany

For Melanie Astles, the only woman pilot to compete in the Red Bull

Air Race, flying low and fast is a childhood dream come true and off ers her the chance to literally go up against some of the best aerobatic pilots in the world.

The race aboard single prop, high-performance aerobatic planes, takes place this year over three continents and eight venues. It started in March, in Abu Dhabi, with 22 competitors and winds up on October 15-16 in Las Vegas, in the United States for the final round after a stop in Indiana-polis on October 1 and 2.

Flying at speeds of 370 km/h (230 miles/hour), pilots launch into a slalom-like obstacle course, winding their way between and around 25-metre-high (82-feet) light-cloth, air-filled pylons, just above water or ground level.

The planes race against the clock, taking off one after an-other and flashing through the obstacles with just 3.5 metres to spare at each wingtip.

“The psychological aspect is really important because you need to be completely fo-cussed for one minute and 30 seconds, 110%, and a mistake of just one millisecond will cost you the race,” says Astles,

who was born in Rugby, Eng-land, to an English father and French mother, but who grew up mainly in France.

For the first time since the Red Bull Air Race was first run 13 years’ ago, a woman is com-peting in this adrenaline-high, male-dominated extreme-sport where you need to be physically fit to cope with the G force accelerations that slam you against the cockpit seat as if on a supercharged fairground ride.

But you also must be fully in tune with your plane, hardly conscious of touching the control stick.

Asked if she ever feels frightened, Astles says she’s much too focused on perform-ance. “I’m very calm in the plane and you can’t be fright-ened, you don’t have time for that,” she says.

Being the only woman in the field does however add to the pressure, she says, but it’s also an opportunity to be a role model for other women pilots.

She once dreamed of be-coming an Air Force pilot, like many of her male competitors in the Red Bull international air race.

But she left school aged 18, uninterested in academics. “I worked at a petrol station, got some money together and, bit by bit, paid for my flying lessons,” she says.

Today, aged 34, she is both a flying instructor and

a five-time French aerobat-ics champion. “I’ve always loved to race, be it car racing, motorbike racing, I’ve always loved that. It’s part of me,” she says, adding her hero is the late Formula One Grand Prix legend Ayrton Senna.

The race is all that and more. “It’s airplane meets motor-

racing, meets downhill skiing,” explains Paul Bonhomme, Astles’ coach, and himself a former Red Bull Air Race champion.

“You might sacrifice a bit of time into one turn, but that will save you more time on the exit, same as car-racing, very similar to downhill slalom ski-ing,” he adds.

Competing at the Lausitzring race-track, in east-ern Germany, the planes come roaring out of the sky, trailing smoke for higher visibility, looping their way around the pylons before candle-climbing away into the sky.

The ground teams — serving pilots in the beginners’ ‘Chal-lenger class’ or top ‘Champion class’ — keenly observe each other as they compete to gain micro-seconds by reducing wing drag, or work up com-puter programmes to analyse the best trajectories.

The number of pilots com-peting in the race is now down to 21 after Austrian pilot Han-nes Arch died in a helicopter crash, in early September, while flying privately at home.

WOMAN ACE TAKES ON MEN IN EXTREME SPORT AIR RACING

SPORT


Ashwin, Jadeja help India win landmark 500th Test

Pakistan target T20 whitewash over West Indies

Two bowlers shared 16 wickets between them as the hosts picked up a comprehensive 197-run win

IND VS NZ, DAY 5, 1ST TEST FOCUS

McIlroy takes home $10mn bonus with Tour Championship win

GOLF

Qatar’s beach volleyball team in action against Pakistan at the Asian Beach Games in Danang, Vietnam, yesterday.Qatar beat their opponents 2-0 on their debut in the event. (Twitter/QOC)

Qatar beat Pakistan at Asian Beach Games

ReutersCary, North Carolina

Northern Irishman Rory McIlroy capped a stunning comeback with a birdie at the fourth playoff hole to

win the season-ending Tour Champi-onship on Sunday, along with FedEx-Cup honours and the mind-boggling $10mn bonus.

McIlroy rolled in a 15-foot putt at East Lake’s par-four 16th to beat American Ryan Moore, sending the large gallery into a frenzy that might more likely be expected at next week’s Ryder Cup.

“It was incredible,” former world number McIlroy said at the victory presentation. “Sorry for the hoarse voice. I sort of lost my voice scream-ing at the end.”

“I feel my game is coming together at the right time. Two wins in the last three feels pretty nice.”

McIlroy, 27, vaulted into the playoff with a barnstorming fi nish to his fi nal round, holing out from 140 yards to eagle the same hole where he would clinch the win 90 minutes later.

He closed his fi nal-round 64 with a tap-in birdie at the par-fi ve 18th and only joined the playoff with American Kevin Chappell (66) and Moore (64) when the latter’s eight-footer to win in regulation lipped out.

McIlroy then squandered a golden chance to win it at the fi rst extra hole when he missed a six-footer. Chappell was eliminated on the fi rst extra hole.

McIlroy looked shell-shocked but regrouped to sink a seven-footer and stave off defeat at the third extra hole, before clinching it at the next.

“It was such a nice one, uphill, just outside the right edge,” McIlroy he said of his winning putt.

“I knew if I hit a good putt it had a great chance of going in. To see that ball drop, everything has come to-gether for me. To be able to come here and pull it off is really special.”

“I’ve won the money list a few times in Europe but never been able

to quite do it here, the FedExCup in the US When you put your mind to it, great things happen.”

McIlroy’s gain was Dustin John-son’s loss as the US Open champion would have won the FedExCup had either Moore or Chappell won the playoff .

Johnson started the fi nal round tied for the lead with Chappell, but strug-gled to a 73 in ideal conditions to plunge to into a tie for sixth at fi ve-under.

So instead it was McIlroy, the only member of the European Ryder Cup team in the fi eld at East Lake, who clinched the season-long points race and $10mn bonus along with $1.53mn for the tournament victory.

AFPKanpur, India

Spin twins Ravichandran Ash-win and Ravindra Jadeja bowled India to a comprehen-sive 197-run victory over New

Zealand yesterday on the fi fth and fi nal day of their country’s landmark 500th Test.

Ashwin claimed six wickets as the visitors, who resumed the day on on 93 for four in pursuit of their unlikely 434-run target, were dismissed for 236 shortly after lunch at Kanpur’s Green Park.

Ashwin, who recorded his 19th fi ve-wicket haul in Tests, and Jadeja shared 16 wickets between them in the match to fl atten the New Zealand batting line-up.

And it was Ashwin who triggered the celebrations in the Indian camp by taking the last wicket, dismissing the lanky off -spinner Neil Wagner lbw for nought to end with overall match fi g-ures of 10-225.

Man of the match Jadeja, who regis-tered a fi ve-wicket haul in the fi rst in-nings, also contributed with unbeaten scores of 42 and 50 in the fi rst and sec-ond innings respectively.

“It’s a memorable Test, it’s been a very good Test,” skipper Virat Kohli said after India became the fourth team to complete 500 Tests. England, Australia and the West Indies had al-ready managed the feat.

“From the second day onwards when New Zealand were batting re-ally well, I and Ashwin were chatting how we had to show good resilience to win it.

“The boys have applied themselves really well. Few moments we were in a spot of bother... But Jadeja and Ash-win (who scored 42) batted really well in the fi rst innings... Makes a psycho-logical diff erence,” said Kohli.

A 102-run partnership between overnight batsmen Luke Ronchi and Mitchell Santner helped New Zea-land put up some resistance in the fi rst hour of play. Ronchi’s fi ghting 80 was laced with nine fours and a six.

But left-arm spinner Jadeja man-aged to break their stand when Ronchi mistimed a fl atter delivery and was caught at point by Ashwin.

Santner, whose valiant 71 included seven fours and two sixes, was snared by Ashwin shortly after lunch when he fell to a virtually unplayable delivery.

The ball pitched well outside the leg-stump and turned and bounced to take the left-handed Santner by sur-prise as he edged the ball to point.

“The way Santner applied himself with bat and ball and the way Ronchi played coming back into the team was fantastic,” said Williamson.

Pace spearhead Mohamed Shami

also claimed two wickets in the in-nings, including wicketkeeper-bats-man BJ Watling for 18.

Ashwin claimed three wickets on Sunday to reduce New Zealand to 56 for four at one stage, after get-ting openers Martin Guptill and Tom Latham in quick succession.

Ashwin also had skipper Kane Wil-

liamson, who top-scored with 75 in the fi rst innings, dismissed lbw to claim his 200th Test wicket on the fourth day to give India a fi rm grip.

India declared their second innings on 377 for fi ve at tea on the fourth day with Rohit Sharma and Jadeja putting on a 100-run unbeaten partnership for the sixth wicket.

Cheteshwar Pujara top-scored for the hosts with 78 and his 133-run sec-ond-wicket partnership with Murali Vijay (76) was the highlight of India’s second innings.

Ashwin and Jadeja had given India the advantage on the third day after bowling out New Zealand for 262 in response to India’s fi rst-innings 318.

“India outplayed us though and if we look back there was a two-session period where the game slipped away from us,” said Williamson.

“It would have been nice to get clos-er to the fi rst innings total, and to start off restricting India to 300 on a good batting wicket was good work.”

SCORECARDIndia 1st innings 318 all outNew Zealand 1st innings 262 all outIndia 2nd innings 377/5 dec.New Zealand 2nd innings (o/n 93/4)T. Latham lbw b Ashwin 2M. Guptill c Vijay b Ashwin 0 K. Williamson lbw b Ashwin 25R. Taylor run out 17L. Ronchi c Ashwin b Jadeja 80M. Santner c Sharma b Ashwin 71BJ. Watling lbw b Shami 18M. Craig b Shami 1I. Sodhi b Ashwin 17T. Boult not out 2N. Wagner lbw b Ashwin 0Extras (lb2, nb1) 3Total (all out; 87.3 overs) 236Fall of wickets: 1-2 (Guptill), 2-3 (Latham), 3-43 (Williamson), 4-56 (Tay-lor), 5-158 (Ronchi), 6-194 (Watling), 7-196 (Craig), 8-223 (Santner), 9-236 (Sodhi), 10-236 (Wagner)Bowling: Shami 8-2-18-2, Ashwin 35.3-5-132-6, Jadeja 34-17-58-1, Yadav 8-1-23-0, Vijay 2-0-3-0

India’s Ravindra Jadeja (centre) celebrates the wicket of New Zealand’s Luke Ronchi with teammates on Day Five of the first Test at Green Park Stadium in Kanpur, India, yesterday. (AFP)

India’s R Ashwin celebrates the wicket of New Zealand’s Ish Sodhi yesterday. (AFP)

AFPAbu Dhabi

Coach Mickey Arthur urged Pakistan to be ruthless and achieve a rare clean sweep against world champions West

Indies in the third and fi nal Twenty20 in Abu Dhabi today.

Pakistan hold an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series after the nine wicket and 16-run victories in the two back-to-back matches in Dubai.

Arthur said the series win is the fi rst step in building a new team, fi ve months after they crashed out of the World Twenty20 in India.

“Without a doubt the series win is the fi rst step in the right direction,” said Arthur yesterday. “We want to win it 3-0 and want to be ruthless with our attitude.”

Pakistan have never won two T20 matches in a three-match series.

Their spin assault saw West Indies crumble for 115 on Friday, with left-arm spinner Imad Wasim grabbing a career best fi ve for 14.

They then scored 160 for four before restricting the West Indies for 144 for nine on Saturday.

Arthur believes his players are achieving targets after losing a one-day series 4-1, but winning the only T20 on their recent tour of England.

“We set ourselves some realistic goals. First of all we want to play the

brand of cricket that’s up with the task, we want players who can do the job and I think we went some way to fi nding out some players in this series who can do that,” said Arthur who replaced Waqar Younis after the World T20.

Arthur was satisfi ed with Pakistan’s batting approach, specially in the pow-er-plays.

“Some of the things we identifi ed in the England series was power play thing and that is pleasing that we have improved on that.

“The dot ball percentage (we play) was always far too high, so we had to rotate the strike more and we particu-larly worked hard to score off good balls and have done good power hitting.”

Arthur hoped dashing batsman Umar Akmal will redeem his career, recalled to the T20 squad after fi ve months and in the one-day team after a year and a half.

“I had a very serious chat with Umar,” said Arthur of Umar being dropped for disciplinary reasons.

“He knows where he stands, but he has been outstanding and has stuck to his work and he is working very hard and I am enjoying working with him.”

Arthur believed West Indies were fi nding life diffi cult against his spinners. “Look, it’s always an area where we try to expose opponents in these conditions and we have done that with spin bowling. These are our conditions so we try to ex-pose them in our conditions and we have been smart in these conditions.”

Pakistan have won the first two matches in Dubai.

Pakistan’s Misbah hopes bilateral ties with India will resume

Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq hopes bilateral cricketing ties with India will resume despite the chief of the neigh-bouring board ruling out the possibil-ity in the near future after the recent attack on an army camp in Kashmir.In a latest setback to relations, Board of Control for Cricket in India presi-dent Anurag Thakur last week ruled out the possibility of reviving ties with Pakistan, saying even consider-ing such a thought in the current situation was not appropriate.“Pakistan is always ready to play against India but what can we do if they do not want to play,” Misbah

said. “If India can play against Paki-stan in ICC events then why not in bilateral series.”Pakistani cricketers played in the inaugural edition of the cash-rich Indian Premier League Twenty20 tournament in 2008, but have been denied permission since due to ten-sions between the rivals following the Mumbai attacks.Pakistan, top of the world Test rank-ings, and India last played a three-Test series at end of 2007, which hosts India won 1-0. India defeated Pakistan in a Super 10 stage match of the World Twenty20 in Kolkata this year.

By Ewan MurrayThe Guardian

Eighteen months ago in the clubhouse at Bay Hill, venue for the Arnold Palmer Invitational and the adopted winter home of this golfi ng icon, Rory

McIlroy was approached. “Rory, if you need anything this week, you just let me know.”

McIlroy’s reply was as swift as it was perti-nent. “Mr Palmer, I will never want for any-thing at all in life. That’s all because of you.”

While sadness, deep sadness, understanda-bly surrounded the confi rmation that Palmer died on Sunday afternoon at the age of 87, there was something poetic about McIlroy’s comment. On Sunday the Northern Irishman had just completed media duties on account of claiming $11.5m on the outskirts of Atlanta when he was apprised of Palmer’s death. McIlroy, like the rest of us, knew this was coming but was still deeply moved. A sport-ing pioneer is no more.

Every player at the top level of golf rec-ognises Palmer’s role in their riches. Almost single-handedly, Palmer hauled golf into fresh commercial territory both with the late 1950s recognition of what television meant and a swashbuckling, risk-taking style which appealed to the masses. So, too, did a low-key background far removed from the snotty-nosed entitlement which has so undermined golf. Palmer, The King, was the people’s champion. He transcended golf, just as he did generations.

Palmer was the fi rst player to earn $1m through on-course pursuits. By 2008, he commanded $30m via off -course projects. Palmer had a drink named after him, an un-mistakable logo and was golf’s maiden brand; a brand which did not just survive decades and playing retirement, it actually grew. For fun, the seven-times major winner was a pilot. His last fl ight was in 2011, aged 81, from California to Orlando.

In this, a Ryder Cup week, it is worth refl ecting upon the emotion and inspira-tion which surrounded the European team in 2012 following the death of Seve Ballesteros. That had been four months before matters got under way at Medinah, which off ers some perspective as to what will resonate in the hearts and minds of the United States players from Friday.

“Arnold leaves an impact on the game and on sports in America that is unmatched,” said Davis Love III, the United States captain. “As we approach the Ryder Cup this week, our team will keep Mr Palmer’s family in our prayers and will draw from his strength and determination to inspire us.”

Palmer played six Ryder Cups, all marked by victory, and captained his nation to comfortable glory in 1975. This was merely refl ective of individual brilliance. Palmer’s professional wins totalled 95. Between 1958 and 1964, 25 major starts saw 16 top fi ves, fi ve runners-up places and those seven triumphs.

“You inspired millions, you changed the game,” said Jordan Spieth. Tiger Woods off ered similar sentiment. “Thanks Arnold for your friendship, counsel and a lot of laughs,” said the 14-times major winner. “Your philanthro-py and humility are part of your legend.”

Everyone involved in golf, from spectator to top-level performer, has their own Palmer story. My own involves sitting inside his clut-tered offi ce at Bay Hill last March, conducting an interview as the legend’s beloved labrador, Mulligan, lay at my feet. Palmer’s health was clearly failing but his handshake remained fi rm.

More notable was that unmistakable aura of greatness, the kind not common even among standard sporting royalty. One poorly-delivered question and I knew Palmer would destroy me in the manner golfers had once been accustomed to. Palmer’s trusted, lifetime lieutenant Doc Giffi n presided over our every word.

Palmer bemoaned the over-tuition of golf-ers of this era (his father had been his only coach), bristled slightly at major-winning comparisons on the basis he could not com-

pete in the US PGA Championship as soon as he turned professional and shook his head when assessing how far modern technology allows the ball to travel. He spoke enthusias-tically about a golf course project in the High-lands of Scotland, which will continue apace, thereby illustrating Palmer’s business savvy even at a point where, privately, he most likely knew the odds against seeing it through.

This year at Augusta National, in realisa-tion of failing health, onlookers realised they

were saying farewell to Palmer as he posed on the 1st tee alongside Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player on the opening day of the Masters. But the truth, the admission of that, was understandably too painful for anybody to say publicly. Palmer donned the Green Jacket four times; between 1957 and 1964 he fi nished no lower than ninth at the fi rst major of the year.

The fi nal words here should belong to Nicklaus, who may be golf’s most decorated major winner but did not have anything even

approaching the commercial savvy which set Palmer apart. “He was one of my best friends, closest friends, and he was for a long, long time. I will miss him greatly,” Nicklaus said. “He was more than a golfer or even great golfer. He was an icon. He was a legend. He took the game from one level to a higher level, virtually by himself.”

Tributes poured in on Sunday evening but, primarily, the message was of thanks. That is the true Arnold Palmer legacy.

SPORT11Gulf Times


Palmer: the people’s champ with an aura of greatness

Moore earns fi nal US Ryder Cup captain’s pick

FOCUS

BOTTOMLINE

Palmer single-handedly hauled golf into the mainstream. Tributes have poured in but primarily the message is of thanks

ReutersCary, North Carolina

Ryan Moore was named the fi nal member of the United States Ryder Cup team on Sunday, a consolation prize

after he lost a playoff two hours earlier at the Tour Championship.

Moore’s clutch putting under pres-sure at the PGA Tour’s season-ending event at East Lake did enough to im-press captain Davis Love, who rounded out his team with his fourth and fi nal wildcard pick for next week’s contest against Europe in Chaska, Minnesota.

Moore was one of a string of play-

ers, also including Bubba Watson, Justin Thomas and Daniel Berger, who arrived at the Tour Championship in the running for the fi nal berth on the American team.

Nobody did more to impress Love than Moore, who sank a clutch 10-foot putt at the fi rst playoff hole to stave off defeat, before fi nally succumbing to Rory McIlroy three holes later.

“Ryan fi ts so well with what we have in place,” Love said in a statement. “He’s an easy-going, thoughtful guy, but don’t be fooled, Ryan’s a great matchplay player with an incredible match-play record.

“He has guts and determination, and everyone saw that today. We are

thrilled to have him with us.”Although he will be making his Ry-

der Cup debut at Hazeltine, Moore is no stranger to representing his coun-try, as he has played in the Walker Cup, Palmer Cup and the World Amateur Team Championship during his career.

Thirteen days ago, Love selected Rickie Fowler, JB Holmes and Matt Kuchar as his fi rst three captain’s picks.

The eight automatic US qualifi ers, confi rmed after last month’s Barclays tournament, are: US Open cham-pion Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth, Phil Mickelson, Patrick Reed, PGA Championship winner Jimmy Walker, Brooks Koepka, Brandt Snedeker and

Zach Johnson.The US will bid to end a dominant

run by the Europeans, who have won three consecutive Ryder Cups and eight of the last 10, when the three-day competition starts on Friday at Hazeltine National.

The selection of Moore means twice Masters champion Watson, the world number seven, will be absent from Hazeltine.

Watson, Thomas and Berger ac-cepted an invitation last Sunday and Monday to visit Hazeltine.

Moore was also invited, but de-clined, saying he wanted to focus on the Tour Championship, a decision that Love appears to have respected.

“Arnold transcended the game of golf. He was more than a golfer or even great golfer. He was an icon. He was a legend. Arnold was someone who was a pioneer in his sport. He took the game from one level to a higher level, virtually by himself.”

— Jack Nicklaus, longtime friend and rival

“Here’s to The King, who was as extraordinary on the links as he was generous to others. Thanks for the memories, Arnold.”

— Barack Obama, US president

“For all who love the game of golf and love to see it played, there has never been a sight quite like Arnold Palmer walking down the fairway toward the 18th green.”

— George W Bush, former US president

“Thanks Arnold for your friendship, counsel and a lot of laughs. Your philanthropy and humility are part of your legend. It’s hard to imagine golf without you or anyone more important to the game than the King.”

— Tiger Woods, former world number one

“So sad to hear Mr Palmer has passed away. He touched us all and was an incredible role model.”

— Jason Day, world number one

“Arnold was the folk hero of golf. Not only was he the greatest personality the game has produced, he was King of the fairways every time he played.”

— Peter Thomson, rival and friend

“If it wasn’t for Arnold Palmer we wouldn’t be playing for the obscene amounts of money we play for every week. What he has been able to do for the game, the players, I think everyone realises that, respects that, I think that is why you see so many guys go to play (the Arnold Palmer Invitational) every year because they want to pay their respects to the man that paved the way for us.”

— Rory McIlroy, four-times Major champion

“When I think of Arnold Palmer, I think of his natural ability to relate to people, the close bond he had with his father, and how when I first came on Tour, he made young profession-als like me feel welcome. Tonight our country lost a great sportsman, a great American. As we approach the Ryder Cup this week, our team will keep Mr Palmer’s family in our prayers and will draw from his strength and determination to inspire us.”

— Davis Love III, United States Ryder Cup captain

“When Arnold came over in the 60s and wins two in a row, that I believe saved the (British) Open championship, or globalised it as you call it now.”— Nick Faldo, British six-times Major champion

“His contribution to The Open Championship was, and remains, immeasurable. He will be missed and forever remembered by all at The R&A and throughout the world of golf as a char-ismatic and global champion of our game.”— Martin Slumbers, chief executive of the R&A

“Not a single modern golf fan would be a fan without him. The King made golf cool.”

— David Duval, American golfer

Five Great Moments from Palmer’s career Palmer won his first of his

seven career major titles at the 1958 Masters, the first of four green jackets he would collect at Augusta National. At age 28, he was the co-leader with Sam Snead entering the final round. An eagle at the par-5 13th hole on Sunday helped push him to a one-shot victory and inspire the naming of the 11th-13th holes as ‘Amen Corner’ by writer Herbert Warren Wind.

In 1960, Palmer won the Masters and then took his only US Open title in astonishing fashion, overcoming a seven-stroke deficit to Mike Souchak at the start of the final round. Palmer birdied six of the first seven holes on his way to a 65, the low final round in US Open history as he held off Ben Hogan and newcomer Jack Nicklaus.

Palmer considered the Brit-

ish Open a vital title in the evolv-ing Grand Slam when many US rivals didn’t and bounced back from his 1960 runner-up showing by winning the Claret Jug in 1961 and 1962. He edged Dai Rees by one stroke at Royal Birkdale to become the first American to win the event since Ben Hogan in 1953. In 1962, he rolled to a six-stroke triumph at Troon.

Palmer won the last of his ma-jor crowns at the 1964 Masters in a runaway. He led by five strokes after 54 holes and won by six over Jack Nicklaus and Dave Marr.

In 1968, Palmer had his best chance to win the PGA Champi-onship, the one major title that eluded him. Palmer missed an eight-foot putt on the 72nd hole that would have tied him for the lead with winner Julius Boros, who became the oldest major winner at age 48.

Palmer with Jack Nicklaus (right)


GULF TIMES SPORT

Aspire welcomes its graduate and Rio silver medallist Barshim

Brazil win Furusiyya FEI Nations Cup, Qatar second

Josoor commences new Training and Development programmes

FOCUS EQUESTRIAN

BOTTOMLINE

‘I hope my presence here today inspires fellow student-athletes to work hard’


Aspire Academy marked the beginning of the new 2016-2017 academic year with a special guest ap-

pearance from one of their most successful graduates, Qatar’s Rio 2016 Olympic medallist, Mutaz Barshim, who returned triumphant from Rio clutching the high jump silver medal last month.

He was welcomed by the Acad-emy students including 56 new stu-dent-athletes at the Academy’s Au-ditorium, sharing the highs and lows on his journey to Olympic glory to help inspire young athletes to follow in his footsteps as they undertake a variety of sporting programmes at the Academy.

Barshim won the country’s fi rst-ever silver medal at Rio this sum-mer. His attendance was greeted by Aspire Academy deputy director general Ali Salem Afi fa and Aspire

Academy management team, in ad-dition to a number of student-ath-letes, coaches and staff .

Speaking at the event, Barshim said, “It’s good to be back here where it all started, at Aspire Acad-emy, which I consider to be my sec-ond home. The Academy , its world-class facilities unlike any other I’ve seen throughout my many travels, has equipped me to be where I am today. It’s a great honour to be greet-

ed with such applause and it feels great to make my country proud by bringing home its fi rst Olympic sil-ver medal.

“I hope my presence here today inspires fellow student-athletes to work hard and take advantage of what the Academy has to off er, to achieve incredible results.”

He told the new student-athletes, “Don’t be afraid of failure as it will help you learn. Don’t overthink,

show dedication, get plenty of rest, and proactively seek your coach’s guidance to achieve your best possi-ble results. Dream big and aim high, Olympic glory and world records come from hard work, dedication and great team around you.”

Commenting on his attendance, Afi fa said, “We are incredibly proud to see one of our bright students rise at an international level. As-pire Academy is always striving to provide the best facilities, coaches and education to help our student-athletes achieve their maximum potential. We hope to see more of them achieve great results at major international tournaments in line with the Academy’s objectives to help Qatar elevate its international portfolio in the sporting arena.”

This new academic year 2016-2017, which has a total number of 265 student-athletes, marked the fi rst academic year after receiving the accreditation by the Council of International Schools. Student-athletes were accepted after suc-

cessfully completing the elaborate talent identifi cation process of the Academy.

Established in 2004, Aspire Acad-emy has two primary aims. First, to identify and transform talented young athletes with real potential into world-renowned champions who represent Qatar in national teams across a wide range of sports. Its second primary aim is to promote a sports culture in Qatar and the re-gion.

Aspire Academy aims to develop students holistically, providing in-dividuals with a comprehensive academic, social and sporting edu-cation. To support student-athletes in fulfi lling their promise, there are fi ve major departments at Aspire Academy that specifi cally look af-ter their development: the Football Department, the Football Perform-ance and Science Department, the Sports Department (non-football), the Sports Science Department, and the Education and Student Care De-partment.

QNABarcelona

Team Brazil won the Longines Challenge Cup to bring the Furusiyya FEI Nations Cup Jumping Final 2016 which concluded in Barcelona, Spain, on Sunday.

The winners from Brazil fi nished with a 12-fault total while Team Qatar lined up second with 16 and Team Colombia claimed third place with a fi nal score line of 18.

The Brazilians won through despite elimination for second-line rider Stephan de Freitas Barcha who parted company with his 14-year-old geld-ing, Landpeter do Feroleto, at the second element of the penultimate double on the 13-fence course.

Qatar’s delegation to the event is headed by Qa-tar Equestrian Federation president Hamad bin Abdulrahman al-Attiyah, who is accompanied by Sheikh Mohamed bin Nasser al-Thani, team di-rector Fahad al-Marri and administrator Hamad Rashid El Ezbah.

Qatar is represented in the event by riders Sheikh Ali bin Khalid al-Thani, Ali Yousef al-Ru-maihi, Bassem Hassan, Hamad Ali al-Attiyah and Khalid Mohammed al-Emadi.

The Rio 2016 Olympic team champions from France fi nished tied-fourth with Spain.

Palmer, whose skill and charisma redefi ned golf, dies at 87ARNOLD PALMER (1929-2016)

AFPWashington

Arnold Palmer, the golf great whose charisma and common touch drew a legion of fans known as “Arnie’s Army” and propelled the

game into the mainstream, died Sunday at the age of 87.

Palmer’s longtime assistant Doc Griffi n confi rmed the player known as “The King” had died at University of Pittsburgh Medi-cal Center Presbyterian Hospital.

No cause of death was immediately giv-en, although the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported he had undergone cardiac tests.

“We just lost one of the incredible peo-ple in the game of golf and in all of sports,” 18-time major champion Jack Nicklaus said.

“He has always been a fi ghter and he never gave up on anything. He didn’t give up even now. Maybe his body did, but I know Arnold’s will and spirit did not.”

Palmer captured seven major tourna-ments during his illustrious career, taking The Masters four times (in 1958, 1960, 1962 and 1964), the British Open twice (in 1961 and 1962) and the US Open once (in 1960).

His go-for-broke style, raw athleticism and unorthodox swing enthralled fans, and he became one of golf’s fi rst television su-perstars, helping make the sport accessible

to a much wider audience.His rise — along with that of Nicklaus

and Gary Player — set the stage for the sport’s huge broadcast rights fees and prize money riches, which were later enhanced by the success of Tiger Woods.

“Thanks Arnold for your friendship, counsel and a lot of laughs,” Woods said on Twitter. “It’s hard to imagine golf without you or anyone more important to the game than the King.”

Palmer looked frail when he joined fel-low icons Player and Nicklaus for the cere-monial fi rst tee shot at the Masters in April.

For the fi rst time in 10 years, he didn’t swing a club, instead sitting in a chair to watch the spectacle.


Josoor Institute started the Septem-ber sessions of its Training and De-velopment programmes that are or-ganised and delivered in partnership

with Leaders, a global event, publishing and consultancy business in sport yesterday. The programmes, which will run between September 26 and 29, include the Advance Leadership Programme, Professional De-velopment Workshops, Masterclass session, Executive Networking sessions and student Outreach sessions.

Josoor Institute is a centre of excellence for the sports and events industries, in-spired and developed by the Supreme Com-mittee for Delivery & Legacy (SC). Its train-

ing and development off erings are set to run each month from September to December and will provide the tools necessary for pro-fessionals in the sports and events indus-tries to grow and advance in their careers. Programmes’ topics range from strategic management to commercial best practices to leadership and venue management.

Addressing over 40 local and regional delegates at the event, Josoor Institute’s ex-ecutive director (acting) Mushtaq al-Waeli, welcomed delegates yesterday and encour-aged them to make the most out of the sessions and engage with the world-class speakers delivering the sessions. Renowned CEOs, COOs and coaches from the NBA, Liverpool FC, the Welsh Football Associa-tion and the Jockey Club have fl own in to Qatar to share their knowledge and wealth of experience with the delegates.

Sheikh Ali bin Khalid al-Thani was one of the riders representing Qatar in the event.

NFL | Page 7 GOLF | Page 11 - Gulf Times

Documents

Transcript of NFL | Page 7 GOLF | Page 11 - Gulf Times