Thursday, October 12, 2017Muharram 22, 1438 AH

SPORTGULF TIMES

Man of the hour Thomas eyes winin Malaysia

Red Wings suff er fi rst loss of season, 4-2 to Stars

NHL| Page 5 GOLF | Page 7

FOOTBALL

Portugal, France clinch Russia spots but Dutch bow outPage 3

Lionel Messi celebrates scoring against Ecuador on Tuesday.

The Messi-ahAFPMontevideo

Lionel Messi fired Argentina into the World Cup with a brilliant hat-trick on Tuesday as South American champi-ons Chile suff ered a shock elimination.

Messi single-handedly resurrected Argen-tina’s hopes in a 3-1 win over Ecuador in Quito that drew a line under a chaotic campaign that had left the two-time champions in danger of failing to qualify.The Barcelona superstar scored twice inside the opening 20 minutes to give Argentina the lead after Ecuador had stunned the visi-tors with an opening goal after from Romario Ibarra after 38 seconds.Messi then completed his hat-trick — the 44th of his dazzling career — with a sublime chip in the second half to seal the victory.The Argentinian superstar can now look for-ward to his fourth appearance at the World Cup at next year’s finals in Russia, where he will attempt once more to lead his country to an elusive major title.Since his country’s defeat to Germany in the 2014 World Cup final, Messi has twice suff ered agony at major tournaments with Argentina, losing the finals of both the 2015 Copa America and the 2016 Copa America Centenario.

Messi, who will turn 31 during next year’s World Cup, now has one, perhaps final, chance to emulate his idol Diego Maradona by lifting the World Cup.Relieved Argentina manager Jorge Sam-paoli — the third coach appointed during the qualifying campaign — could not avoid expressing his gratitude to Messi following Tuesday’s win.“Messi doesn’t owe a World Cup to Argen-tina — football owes a World Cup to Messi,” Sampaoli said.“He’s the best player in history. This is a team victory. They played a brilliant match.”Messi later told reporters the prospect of not qualifying had weighed heavily on the squad.“It would have been crazy for Argentina, for all of us,” he said. “Obviously there was that fear, but today we knew how to play.”The striker said he expects Argentina to improve now the pressure of qualifying has liften.“I think there is going to be a very big change. I think the team will grow much bet-ter now,” he added.Argentina had started the day outside the automatic qualifying positions, needing to secure their first win in Quito since 2001 to be certain of claiming at least a playoff place.It looked as if Argentina’s worst fears were set to become a reality after Ibarra’s opening goal in the first minute.

But it was not long before Messi stamped his authority on the game, hauling his team back into the contest with a composed opening goal.The equaliser came in the 12th minute when Messi darted forward and quickly released Angel Di Maria down the left.The Paris Saint-Germain attacker duly returned the favour as Messi raced into the penalty area to poke home a low finish past Maximo Banguera.Eight minutes later Messi fired Argentina into the lead with another virtuoso strike, lashing into the top corner.Messi then completed his hat-trick with a sublime chip in the 62nd minute to make it 3-1.But while Argentina celebrated, it was a miserable night for Sampaoli’s former team Chile.The Chileans — winners of the Copa America in 2015 and 2016 — were soundly beaten 3-0 by Brazil in Sao Paulo to see themselves eliminated on goal diff erence.Barcelona’s Paulinho opened the scoring be-fore Manchester City’s Gabriel Jesus bagged a brace to secure a win already-qualified Brazil which relegated Chile to sixth place in the standings.

The Chileans finished level on points with Peru, who secured

a two-leg playoff against New

Zealand, but trailed on goal diff erence. Chile coach Juan Antonio Pizzi announced his resignation following the exit.“I take full responsibility,” Pizzi told reporters. “We gave everything but it was not enough. I will not continue.”Peru meanwhile kept alive their hopes of qualifying for the World Cup for the first time since 1982 with a fighting 1-1 draw with Colombia in Lima.Colombia took the lead through James Rodriguez in the 56th minute before veteran striker Paolo Guerrero equalised in the 74th minute. The result saw Colombia qualify alongside Uruguay, 4-2 winners over Bolivia in Montevideo.Uruguay, who finished the standings in second place, were jolted by a Gaston Silva own goal which gave Bolivia the lead on 24 minutes.Martin Caceres and Edinson Cavani scored twice just before half-time to give Uruguay the lead before two goals from Luis Suarez put the hosts 4-1 up. Bolivia re- duced the deficit when Uruguay’s Diego Godin scored the second own goal of the night.

Argentina book Russia berth aft er Barcelona superstar’s hat-trick against Ecuador

Lionel Messi celebrates scoring against Ecuador on Tuesday.

FOOTBALL2 Gulf Times

Thursday, October 12, 2017

‘Thank God for Messi’ says relieved ArgentinaSPOTLIGHT

Panama book their place at World Cup for the first time with a win over Costa Rica

AFPBuenos Aires

A nation exploded with re-lief on Tuesday night as Li-onel Messi single-handedly dragged his Argentina team

into next year’s World Cup fi nals with a spellbinding hat-trick in the thin air of Quito against Ecuador.

“Messi is E.T. He’s from another planet. He’s not from this world,” Mar-co Mouras, a 28-year-old Brazilian said in a crowded Buenos Aires bar as Ar-gentinians around him went wild, beer and pizza spilling onto the fl oor.

Messi gave the world a masterclass of what it would be missing if he didn’t go to Russia 2018, a distinct possibility when Argentina went a goal down in-side the fi rst minute of a match they had to win. A graveyard silence descended on bars, restaurants and homes when Ecuador’s Romario Ibarra struck in the fi rst minute of the game, casting a pall of gloom across Argentina as he scored.

It was proof for the doomsayers that this team was a lost cause. Argentinians had suff ered too much during a lacklus-tre qualifi cation series and this was the last straw. But Messi burst through the gloom to equalize and then soon scored

again to give Argentina the lead.“2-1 was not enough. We couldn’t

be calm,” said Lautaro Gonzalez, 35, celebrating after being put through an emotional wringer by his national team. Beside him a disbelieving Maxi-miliano Lacasa proclaimed himself a devotee of “Saint Messi. Thank God we have him.”

Pride in the shirt was restored when Messi completed his hat-trick in the second half. It was time for Argentin-ians at home to believe again. Pablo Ramos, 34, could hardly take it in. The team is still a misfi ring mess going to the World Cup, he said, “so it’s all suf-fering.”

Even music yielded to Messi when Irish rockers U2 delayed their con-cert by almost two hours to allow fans in the La Plata stadium near Buenos Aires time to watch the match on gi-ant screens. When they fi nally came on stage, they kicked off a giant party.

With seemingly everyone crowded around every available TV set, the streets of Buenos Aires were so empty it seemed like a curfew. People wore the Argentine shirt in the build-up, but not many. The Argentine public had grown tired of believing in vain.

A win seemed a little too fanciful to most, exasperated by a series of under-

whelming performances by the nation-al side. Only a win would do in Quito, where Argentina hadn’t won since 2001. The nation held its breath. No-body here, or anywhere else, wanted to contemplate the unthinkable but very real prospect of Argentina losing.

That would mean next year’s World Cup in Russia would go ahead without Messi, arguably the world’s greatest player. “It’s complicated, I want the team to be at the World Cup in Russia, but only a miracle can save them. I’m going to pray for them,” said Maria Cor-doba, a 64-year-old optician.

Cometh the hour, cometh the man, and now Argentina will bask in the fact that the “Messiah” will lead them to the World Cup fi nals. Team coach Jorge Sampaoli said he had told his players: “Messi doesn’t owe the World Cup to Argentina, football owes the World Cup to Messi. Messi is the best player in his-tory and I’m really excited to be able to be in a group, close to him.”

The main concerns of most Argen-tinians is the economy and the loss of purchasing power, but the torments of the national team has relegated even that into the background. The nation yearns for a return to the glory days of 1978 and 1986 when Argentina won the World Cup. Over to you, Mr Messi.

US knocked out of WC aft er Trinidad defeatAFPCouva, Trinidad and Tobago

The United States failed to qualify for the World Cup for the fi rst time since 1986 on Tuesday night, crashing to a shock 2-1 de-

feat against already-eliminated Trinidad and Tobago. In a result that will be viewed as a catastrophe for football in the United States, Trinidad took all three points via an Omar Gonzalez own goal and a superb strike from Alvin Jones.

US star Christian Pulisic pulled a goal back in the second half, but the increas-ingly desperate Americans were unable to fi nd another to rescue their hopes. Their exit was confi rmed by results in Tues-day’s other CONCACAF qualifi ers, where Panama booked their place at the World Cup for the fi rst time with a 2-1 win over Costa Rica in Panama City.

Honduras then snatched fourth place in the table with a 3-2 win over Mexico, who had already qualifi ed.

The Hondurans will now face Australia in a two-legged playoff next month for a place in the fi nals. But the shock of the night was without a doubt the US failure at the fi nal hurdle. Shellshocked US coach Bruce Arena said his team had “failed.”

“Clearly we are very disappointed. We had everything there for us today. No ex-cuses for us not getting a second goal and coming away with at least a point,” Arena said. “It’s a blemish for us. We should not be staying at home for this World Cup and I take responsibility. It never mattered to us the scores of the other games. We failed on the day. No excuses. We failed today. We should have walked off this fi eld with at least a point.”

Arena’s side had needed only a draw at the Ato Boldon Stadium to secure at least a playoff spot. After thrashing Panama 4-0 last Friday, the Americans had arrived in the Caribbean confi dent of securing the result needed to extend a proud record of qualifying for every World Cup since 1990. Yet it started to go wrong for Arena’s men after 17 minutes when Gonzalez’s sliced clearance looped

high and over the stranded Tim Howard to put Trinidad and Tobago up 1-0. It got worse just after the half-hour mark when Alvin Jones produced a goal out of noth-ing to double the home side’s lead.

Gathering the ball on the right fl ank, roughly 35 yards from goal, Jones let fl y with a ferocious shot which fl ew past Howard to make it 2-0. Pulisic then gave the US hope with a defl ected shot soon after half-time to make it 2-1.

As the changing scores in the other games began to fi lter through to the American ranks, the US became increas-ingly desperate. But despite the despera-tion, Trinidad and Tobago held fi rm for a famous win that is likely to trigger a pro-longed inquest in US soccer.

Grant Wahl, the football writer for Sports Illustrated, described the loss as the “most surreal and embarrassing night in US football history”, accusing the squad of complacency. “This was a team with players acting like they thought they had already qualifi ed for the World Cup, and it showed,” Wahl wrote.

The exit is likely to draw scrutiny to Arena’s position as well as that of Sunil Gulati, the head of the United States Soc-cer Federation. Gulati had rolled the dice by sacking Jurgen Klinsmann early in the qualifying campaign following defeats to Mexico and Costa Rica, replacing him with Arena.

However, Tuesday’s failure makes it likely that serious questions will be asked.

Arena warned against snap decisions. “To make any kind of crazy changes would be foolish,” the veteran coach warned.

Gulati also sought to damp down calls for a wide-ranging post-mortem. “You don’t make wholesale changes on a ball being two inches wide or two inches in. We’ll look at everything,” he said.

RESULTSAt Couva, Trinidad & Tobago: Trinidad &

Tobago 2 (Gonzalez 17-og, Jones 37) United

States 1 (Pulisic 47)

At Panama City: Panama 2 (Torres 52, 88)

Costa Rica 1 (Venegas 36)

At San Pedro Sula, Honduras: Honduras 3

(Elis 34, Ochoa 53-og, Quioto 60) Mexico 2

(Peralta 17, Vela 37)

WORLD CUP QUALIFIER Chile’s paradox: CAS decision may have cost

them the World CupBuenos Aires: The South American qualifiers for Russia 2018 left Chile not only out of the World Cup, but also with a bitter feeling, after their own successful complaint before sports authorities dramatically backfired.

Chile complained to FIFA and the Court of Arbitration for Sport over the improper use by Bolivia of a Paraguay-born defender, Nelson Cabrera, in the qualifier the two teams had drawn 1-1 on September 6.

FIFA agreed that Cabrera was ineligible to play for Bolivia and granted Chile the additional two points, and CAS upheld FIFA’s decision. However, Bolivia had also fielded Cabrera in their 2-0 win over Peru five days earlier. CAS therefore granted Peru three extra points.

By the end of the quali-fiers late Tuesday, Peru and Chile were tied on 26 points. However, Peru had a better goal diff erence and will get to play New Zealand next month for a spot in Russia 2018, while Chile will be missing the World Cup altogether. Without the complaint that Chile initiated, they would have ended on 24 points, 1 point ahead of Peru, and therefore in fifth place in

the standings and in the play-off s. Peru would have been eliminated.

Meanwhile, Juan Antonio Pizzi has confirmed he will stand down as Chile coach, just hours after his team were beaten 3-0 by Brazil to miss out on qualification for the 2018 World Cup Finals, local news reports said.

Pizzi’s contract was due to expire at the conclusion of the qualifiers and after Chile finished sixth in the 10-team group, outside the places for Russia, he said there was no reason to discuss a new deal. “I am ruling myself out of con-tinuing,” Pizzi said in comments reported by Chilean media and confirmed by veteran midfield-er Gary Medel.

Pizzi, 49, led Chile to victory at the 2016 Centenary Copa America but his aging team have struggled in the closing stages of the qualifiers, winning just two of their last six games. Several of the team’s biggest names — including Claudio Bravo, Arturo Vidal and Medel — are already in their 30s and Tuesday’s defeat in Sao Paulo appears to have signaled the end of the most successful team in the country’s history.

Argentina's superstar Lionel Messi leaves Ecuador defenders in their wake as he scores during the 2018 World Cup qualifier football match in Quito, Ecuador, on Tuesday night. (AFP)

A late goal from Roman Torres punched Panama’s ticket to their first World Cup finals with a 2-1 win over Costa Rica. (AFP)

Chile players are dejected after they missed out on a World Cup place after losing to Brazil in Sao Paulo, Brazil. (AFP)

Brazil almost ready for crack at sixth World Cup: Coach TiteReutersSao Paulo

Three years ago Brazil were ham-mered 7-1 by Germany in the semi-fi nals of their home World Cup but after their latest win

coach Tite said they were back to play-ing like Brazil again and almost ready for a crack at claiming a record sixth World Cup.

“I would like to give more players a chance but I can’t, there’s not enough time,” he said after his side, who eas-ily topped the South American qualifying group, beat Chile 3-0. The former Cor-inthians coach has transformed the team since taking over in June last year when Brazil were still suff ering from a World Cup hangover, had just been knocked out

of the Copa America and were sixth in the 10-team South American qualifi ers.

Under his guidance, they have won 10 and drawn two of their qualifi ers since then and fi nished the campaign a remark-able 10 points clear of second-placed Uru-guay. Brazil are producing great football again, with a solid back four, some steel in midfi eld and a deadly front line. “The football this team are playing has made me happy,” Tite said. “It’s won back what I be-lieve football is, linking eff ectiveness with beauty and winning games, and showing that these things aren’t confl ictive.”

“I don’t have the capacity to see what will happen in the future. I don’t know where the limits lie but against every dif-fi culty and every rival the team has shown itself.”

Brazil have a settled fi rst 11 but there

is competition for places in the 23-man squad for next year’s World Cup in Rus-sia. Tite said Marcelo, Filipe Luis and Alex Sandro are all in the frame for the two left-back spots. Gil, Jemerson and Rodrigo Caio are vying to back up regular defensive picks Marquinhos, Miranda and Thiago Silva.

There is also debate over who will be third-choice goalkeeper behind Alisson and Ederson. Douglas Costa, Diego Tardelli and Taison are all hoping to win a place in attack, while in midfi eld Tite must decide whether to take Gremio’s young midfi eld-ers Luan and Artur or opt for the experi-ence of Giuliano, Lucas Lima or Diego.

As part of their World Cup build-up, Brazil face England at Wembley on Nov, 10 and Japan in Lille four days later. They will also take on Germany in Berlin on March 27 next year.

FOCUS

Under Tite's (centre) guidance, Brazil won 10 and drew two of their qualifiers. (AFP)

Portugal, France clinch World Cup spots, Dutch bow out

SPOTLIGHT

The Dutch bowed to the inevitable as they failed to achieve the unlikely 7-0 scoreline over Sweden

AFPParis

Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal and Anto-ine Griezmann’s France booked spots at the 2018 World Cup fi nals on Tuesday night while the Netherlands crashed

out. Portugal beat Switzerland 2-0 in Lisbon thanks to a Johan Djourou own goal and an An-dre Silva strike.

France needed goals from Griezmann and Olivier Giroud in a hard-fought 2-1 win over Belarus at the Stade de France. After a stutter-ing campaign, France’s achievement in beating Bulgaria and Belarus in their fi nal two qualifi ers means they avoid the playoff s having had to go through that route for the last two fi nals.

“We have had a diffi cult route and tonight wasn’t easy either but we’ve achieved our aim,” coach Didier Deschamps said. “We are happy, even if qualifying is logical given the quality of the players I have.”

Giroud said he was delighted to have avoided the tension of the playoff s. “We’re all relieved tonight to have ended the campaign with auto-matic qualifi cation,” the Arsenal forward said. “We chased this game and it wasn’t easy be-cause they were strong and effi cient in attack until the fi nal whistle and we had to roll up our sleeves.”

The Dutch, World Cup fi nalists in South Af-rica in 2010 and semi-fi nalists four years later, bowed to the inevitable as they failed to achieve the unlikely 7-0 scoreline over Sweden they needed to salvage a wretched qualifying eff ort.

Arjen Robben scored twice in a 2-0 win over the Swedes in Amsterdam and said afterwards he was retiring from international football. “I will always remember the 2010 World Cup and 2014. Those are my best memories. During those two competitions we formed a real team,” the 33-year-old Robben said.

In Lisbon, Portugal navigated a potentially fraught fi nal fi xture with Switzerland, who be-come one of the eight European nations who must fi ght through the playoff s for a spot in Russia. The others are Italy, Denmark, Croatia, Sweden, Northern Ireland, Greece and the Re-public of Ireland.

The Swiss can consider themselves unlucky after winning all nine previous qualifi ers but must now overcome a two-legged play-off in November to earn a fourth straight World Cup appearance. Ronaldo, who was injured for the opening qualifying defeat in Basel, returned to the Portuguese line-up after coming off the bench to notch the opening goal in a lacklustre 2-0 win in Andorra on Saturday.

The crowd at the Estadio da Luz erupted when Djourou inadvertently bundled in a dangerous cross from Eliseu four minutes before the break under heavy pressure from Joao Mario. Man-chester City midfi elder Bernardo Silva then ex-changed passes with former Monaco teammate Joao Moutinho, threading through the return pass for an unmarked Andre Silva to poke in at

the far post. “We’ve never pretended to be the best in the world, but we’re capable of going head to head against any opponents,” Portugal

coach Fernando Santos said.Greece locked up second place behind Bel-

gium in Group H courtesy of a 4-0 stroll against

Gibraltar. In Paris, Deschamps paired Atletico Madrid striker Griezmann with Giroud’s aerial threat, and Griezmann eased nerves in the 27th minute as he opened the scoring with a confi -dent low fi nish from Blaise Matuidi’s deft pass.

Six minutes later, Griezmann intercepted a weak pass out of the Belarus defence and fed Gi-roud, who shrugged off two defenders to bundle in his 28th international goal.

But the French defence was caught napping, allowing Belarus to reduce the gap when the lively Anton Saroka swept past Hugo Lloris a minute before half-time.

Saroka gave France another jolt when he shot just wide in the 64th minute, but he was nar-rowly off side. Deschamps brought on Paris Saint-Germain starlet Kylian Mbappe in the second half to inject pace and fresh ideas, but with the seconds ticking down to the fi nal whis-tle, it was Saroka again who slid a shot just wide from close range.

WORLD CUP 2018 QUALIFYING RESULTS IN THE EUROPEAN ZONE

GROUP AAt Paris: France 2 (Griezmann 27, Giroud 33) Belarus

1 (Saroka 44); At Amsterdam: Netherlands 2 (Rob-

ben 16-pen, 40) Sweden 0; At Luxembourg: Luxem-

bourg 1 (Thill 3) Bulgaria 1 (Chochev 68)

GROUP BAt Lisbon: Portugal 2 (Djourou 41-og, Silva 57) Swit-

zerland 0; At Budapest: Hungary 1 (Bode 81) Faroe

Islands 0; At Riga: Latvia 4 (Ikaunieks 11, Sabala 19,

59, Tarasovs 63) Andorra 0

GROUP HAt Brussels: Belgium 4 (Eden Hazard 12, 63-pen,

T. Hazard 52, Lukaku 78) bt Cyprus 0; At Piraeus,

Greece: Greece 4 (Torosidis 32, Mitroglou 61, 63,

Gianniotas 78) bt Gibraltar 0; At Tallinn: Estonia

1 (Antonov 75) lost to Bosnia and Herzegovina 2

(Hajrovic 48, 84)

Aussie coach refuses to deny quit reports

Robben retires from Netherlands dutyN

etherlands captain Arjen Rob-ben signalled the end of his international career on Tuesday night after his country failed to

reach the 2018 World Cup fi nals despite a 2-0 win over Sweden. The Bayern Munich star signed off by scoring both goals in Amsterdam as the Dutch fell well short of the unlikely 7-0 win they needed to make the play-off s after a desperately disappointing qualifying campaign.

The 33-year-old Robben scored 37 times in 96 appearances for the Neth-erlands and helped them reach the 2010 World Cup fi nal where they lost 1-0 to Spain after extra-time. The Dutch also progressed to the last four at the 2014 fi nals before losing to Argentina on penalties.

“Fourteen years, it’s beautiful, mag-nifi cent even,” said Robben, who made his international debut against Portugal in April 2003. “I will always remember the 2010 World Cup and 2014. Those are my best memories. During those two competitions we formed a real team.”

CHILE’S VIDAL RETIRES FROM NATIONAL TEAM

Arturo Vidal says he is retiring from international football with his “soul crushed” after Chile failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup fi nals. Vidal missed Chile’s fi nal shot at qualifi cation on Tuesday through suspension, the South American champions losing 3-0 to Brazil to miss out on the tournament in Russia next year on goal diff erence.

Vidal, 30, announced his intention to step down from the national team on Twitter. “Thank you lads, for everything, for all these years together... for teaching me and for showing a country that with eff ort and work anything is possible in life,” the Bayern Munich midfi elder wrote in Spanish. He said his “soul was crushed” but at the same time spoke of his “pride at players and staff ”.

Vidal with Alexis Sanchez of Arse-nal was part of the golden generation of Chile players that claimed the Copa America in 2015 and 2016. Chile, who were beaten by Brazil in the round of 16 at both the 2010 and 2014 World Cups, were soundly beaten again by Brazil in Sao Paulo on Tuesday.

The Chileans fi nished level on points with Peru, who secured a two-legged playoff against New Zealand, but trailed on goal diff erence to be placed out of the running in sixth in the fi nal South Ameri-can qualifying table. Chile’s Argentinean manager Juan Antonio Pizzi also an-nounced his retirement from the team after Tuesday’s disappointment.

MY FRAGILE TEAM WILL IMPROVE, SAYS DESCHAMPS

France coach Didier Deschamps said on Tuesday he was excited by the challenge of moulding his young team into a true force after they qualifi ed for next year’s World Cup. The French were made to work hard by a lively Belarus team before clinching a 2-1 win at the Stade de France and avoiding the perilous playoff route for the second-placed European teams.

After a bright start at the Stade de France underlined by goals from Antoine Griezmann and Olivier Giroud, Les Bleus appeared to tire in the second half as the exertions of two matches in four days showed following a 1-0 win against Bul-

garia in Sofi a on Saturday.“There was a bit of tiredness and

fragility because a lot was at stake,” Deschamps said. “This is a young team that has many qualities but is young all the same and we were facing an opponent which never gave up and played with intensity and speed.”

Deschamps said he fully recognised that France had made life diffi cult for themselves with baffl ing results like a goalless draw with Luxembourg. “We didn’t control the matches,” he admitted. “I’m not deaf and blind, I can see that.”

With 18-year-old striker Kylian Mbappe the pick of the crop of an excit-ing young squad, Deschamps has a lot of material to work with. “We can make progress in every area,” he said, pointing a fi nger at his leaky defence.

BALE URGES COLEMAN TO STAY ON AS WALES MANAGER

Real Madrid forward Gareth Bale has called for Wales manager Chris Cole-man to continue in his role despite their failure to qualify for the 2018 World Cup fi nals in Russia. Ireland beat Wales 1-0 in their fi nal World Cup qualifi er in Cardiff on Monday to grab the fi nal European playoff spot and end Wales’ hopes of qualifying for the World Cup fi nals for the fi rst time since 1958. Coleman became Wales manager in 2012, after the death of former coach Gary Speed, and led the team to the semi-fi nals of the 2016 European Championships, and Bale believes the 47-year-old was still the best person for the role. “Of course we want him to stay,” Bale said. “What he has done for the team and Welsh football has been amazing... We don’t want to keep on looking back at the Euros, but for everyone it was incredible to be a part of that and we all want that again. It won’t be easy but Chris is the man who can keep us focused and positive and show us how to get the results we need.”

AFPSydney

Australia coach Ange Postecoglou failed to confi rm or deny reports he’s about to quit yes-

terday, raising speculation he’ll walk away even if they qualify for the World Cup. Football Fed-eration Australia chief executive David Gallop also hinted at pos-sible changes when he said the Socceroos needed to “lock in our set-up” after next month’s play-off with Honduras.

Gallop said he had discussed the matter with Postecoglou af-ter media reports said the coach would quit regardless of whether Australia qualify for Russia 2018.

The Asian champions, who have reached the last three World Cups, needed extra time in Syd-ney on Tuesday to beat Syria 3-2 on aggregate and reach the fi nal, two-legged play-off with Hon-duras. “I am aware of reports today suggesting that I will step down as head coach of the Soc-ceroos next month,” Postecoglou said in a FFA statement. “My sole focus is on preparing the team for our fi nal two qualifying matches. I will not let anything compro-mise the team’s journey on get-ting to a fourth consecutive FIFA World Cup.”

Gallop also said he wanted to keep the focus on the play-off games in November, whose dates are yet to be confi rmed by world body FIFA, rather than Postec-oglou’s future. “We have every confi dence that Ange and the

players can get the job done,” Gal-lop said, referring to the play-off .

“Beyond that, should we qualify, there is a period of some months until the World Cup and we agreed that we will need to lock in our set-up as soon as possible to maximise our prepa-ration time,” he added.

The former Brisbane Roar coach took over the Socceroos after Holger Osieck’s sacking in 2013, and signed a fi ve-year con-tract that is due to expire after next year’s World Cup.

Under Postecoglou, Australia exited the 2014 World Cup at the group stage but then lifted the Asian Cup the following year, their fi rst major trophy. The former Brisbane Roar and Young Socceroos coach gave few signs that his departure may be im-minent after Wednesday’s tense victory over Syria in Sydney.

FOCUSROUND-UP

FOOTBALL3Gulf Times

Thursday, October 12, 2017

Italy, Switzerland among 8 European

play-off teamsParis: Four-time World Cup winners Italy and Switzerland, who won nine of their 10 qualifiers for Russia 2018, will be among the four seeded teams for the play-off s in November. Croatia and Denmark will also be seeded for the October 17 draw, which takes place a day after the latest FIFA rank-ings are set to be released.

Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland cannot face each other as both countries will be unseeded, joining Sweden and Greece — who secured a play-off place with a 4-0 win over Gibraltar on Tuesday — in the same pot. Slovakia, who finished second behind England in Group F, were the team to miss out as the worst runner-up of the nine groups once points against the bottom side in each section were deducted.

QUALIFIED TEAMSThe following 22 teams have qualified alongside

the directly entered hosts Russia for the 2018

World Cup, with nine places still up for grabs.

Hosts (1): Russia

Asia (4 from 4.5): Iran, South Korea, Japan,

Saudi Arabia

Africa (2 from 5): Nigeria, Egypt

The other groups will be won by Tunisia/DR

Congo, Morocco/Ivory Coast and Senegal/Burki-

no Faso/Cape Verde/South Africa

North, Central America and Caribbean (3 from

3.5): Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama

South America (4 from 4.5): Brazil, Uruguay,

Argentina, Colombia

Europe (9 from 13): France, Portugal, Germany,

Serbia, Poland, England, Spain, Belgium, Iceland

IN PLAY-OFFSSwitzerland, Italy, Denmark, Croatia, Sweden,

Northern Ireland, Greece, Ireland will be drawn

into four play-off s on October 17, ties to be

played November 9-11 and 12-14 Intercontinental

play-off s on November 6/14: Honduras v Aus-

tralia New Zealand v Peru

France’s players join in celebration with fans after they beat Belarus to confirm their World Cup spot in Saint-Denis, north of Paris, on Tuesday. (AFP)

Portugal’s forward Andre Silva (right) celebrates after scoring against Switzerland during the FIFA World Cup 2018 Group B qualifier in Lisbon on Tuesday night. (AFP)

Arjen Robben scored 37 times in 96 appearances for the Netherlands and helped them reach the 2010 World Cup final where they lost 1-0 to Spain after extra-time. (AFP)

FOOTBALL4 Gulf Times

Thursday, October 12, 2017

Hamdallah brace as Rayyan ease past Sadd

QSL CUP

Both teams fielded second string players and that clearly reflected in the quality of play

By Sports ReporterDoha

Abderrazak Hamdallah scored a brace and pro-vided the assist for an-other goal as Al Rayyan

thrashed Al Sadd 5-1 in the QSL Cup at the Al Khor Stadium yes-terday. Both teams fi elded most-ly second string players and that clearly refl ected in the quality of play with many guilty of some shoddy football.

Al Sadd particularly were all at sea and barely coped as Al Rayyan kept piling on the pres-sure right from the outset. By the time the match was 20 min-utes old, Al Sadd were two goals down, both coming off the boot of Hamdallah. In the 11th minute he showed great anticipation to rise above the defence and nod the ball in after a well-directed free-kick taken from a few yard outside the box on the left fl ank.

The Moroccan was on target again in the 19th minute, his powerful free-kick from 25 yards taking a defl ection from Ghas-san and entering the net. Al Sadd continued to chase shadows and suff ered another setback when Sebastian Soria found the net with a powerful drive from in-side the box after receiving a pass from Hamdallah.

Al Rayyan carried a three-goal cushion into the second ses-sion but didn’t step off the ac-celerator as they continued to dominate. In the 58th minute Mohsinne Moutali made good from the penalty spot to make it 4-0 and six minutes later Ab-dulrahman al-Harazi also helped himself to a goal, also from a penalty, to put the issue beyond doubt. Al Sadd however had the consolation of avoiding a com-plete blanking, with the third penalty of the match put away easily by Meshaal al-Shammari.

Figo becomes UEFA adviser

Al Duhail train ahead of Ahli game

Former world player of the year Luis Figo has joined UEFA as a foot-ball adviser, European football’s governing body said yesterday. The

44-year-old former Portugal star will work with UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin and UEFA’s Football Divison “across a variety of matters including technical as-pects of the game, laws of the game and the overall attractiveness of the sport”.

Figo was FIFA World Player of the Year in 2001, a year after winning the Ballon d’Or. “I have learned so much from football that I am now really looking forward to giving something back,” Figo said. He won the Champions League with Real Madrid in 2002 and added four Spanish La Liga titles — two each with Real and Barcelona — as well as four Italian Serie A crowns with Inter Milan.

He was also part of the Portugal team that lost to Greece in the Euro 2004 fi nal on home soil. He fi nished his international career with 32 goals in 127 appearances, a record at the time until it was broken by Cristiano Ronaldo. “Luis Figo was a fan-tastic player who was exemplary in the way he conducted himself both on and off the pitch,” said Ceferin.

BARCA PROMISE TO TRY AGAIN FOR LIVERPOOL’S COUTINHO

Barcelona are planning a fresh assault on Liverpool’s Philippe Coutinho in the Janu-ary transfer window, the Catalan club’s CEO Oscar Grau promised yesterday. Barca were thwarted in their attempt to prise Coutinho away from Anfi eld during the summer with Liverpool placing a reported 200mn euros ($238mn) asking price on the midfi elder.

Despite the player trying to engineer a move, Liverpool turned down his late trans-fer request during the close season window. But Grau made clear the Spanish giants had not given up the chase. “We are ready to sign Coutinho, or any other player (dur-ing the winter transfer window),” he told a press conference. “We have the money,” Grau said, confi rming the club’s announce-ment in July of record income of 708mn euros ($812.8mn) for 2016/2017 with an after-tax profi t of 18mn euros.

Grau added: “The most important thing is the demands from the management, and we will do everything possible to meet them. We want to have the most competi-tive team possible.”

Barca experienced a tumultuous time during the summer transfer market, losing Coutinho’s compatriot Neymar to Paris Saint-Germain for a world record 222mn

euros, and bringing in Ousmane Dembele from Borussia Dortmund for 105mn euros. But Dembele has endured a nightmare start to life at the Camp Nou. The France international suff ered a hamstring injury on his full La Liga debut ruling him out until January at the earliest. Grau also said Barcelona must remain in Spain’s La Liga, following the signing by Catalan leaders of a declaration of independence. “The budgets are based on participation in La Liga. I think that La Liga and Barca must continue together,” Grau said.

REAL KEEPER NAVAS SUFFERS GROIN INJURY

Real Madrid goalkeeper Keylor Navas suf-fered a groin injury while on international duty with Costa Rica, the La Liga club announced. The European champions con-fi rmed that Navas had a “swollen adductor muscle in his right groin” in a statement on their website, but did not say how long the 30-year-old would be out of action.

He joins a long Real injury list featuring the likes of Gareth Bale, Karim Benzema, Mateo Kovacic and Marcelo, and could miss both Saturday’s La Liga trip to Getafe and Tuesday’s crucial Champions League clash against Tottenham Hotspur at the Santiago Bernabeu. Back-up keeper Kiko Casilla is likely to start at the weekend, with coach Zinedine Zidane’s son Luca set to take his place on the bench. Navas returned to Madrid on Monday before Costa Rica’s fi nal World Cup qualifi er against Panama, having played in the 1-1 draw with Honduras in which his country booked their place for next year’s fi nals in Russia.

FIFA HITS PAKISTAN WITH BAN OVER ‘INTERFERENCE’

FIFA announced yesterday it has suspended the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) for “third-party interference”, in a rare move by the sport’s governing body to issue a blanket ban targeting a country.

The suspension centres on an internal feud at the PFF. This led a court to appoint an administrator to run its aff airs in viola-tion of FIFA requirements that such a body be managed independently.

“The PFF representative and club teams are no longer entitled to take part in inter-national competitions until the suspension is lifted,” FIFA said in a statement.

Senior PFF offi cial Colonel Ahmed Yar Lodhi said he had long anticipated the ban following the government’s intervention in the federation’s aff airs. “We are FIFA’s rec-ognised body but the government interfered in our aff airs and did not let us work,” Lodhi said. “This situation was unacceptable for FIFA and they have now decided to impose a ban on Pakistan membership, which is very unfortunate.”

In 2015, FIFA suspended Indonesia over government meddling in the country’s football association. It lifted the suspen-sion the following year. The ban on Pakistan comes as neighbour and arch-rival India hosts the U17 World Cup. Pakistan boasted a top place in Asian football until the early 1970s, but a lack of government support and poor infrastructure helped push them as low as 200th currently in the FIFA football rankings. The game is growing in popularity once more, however, even in a country obsessed with cricket.

ROUND-UP

SPOTLIGHT

Qatar Football Association President Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa bin Ahmed al-Thani met with Philippine Football Federation President Mariano Araneta (left), who is also a member of the FIFA Council, at QFA’s Al Bidda Tower headquarters yesterday. Araneta was in Doha to watch Philippine’s Asian Cup 2019 qualifier match against Yemen at Al Wakrah Club’s Saoud bin Abdulrahman Stadium. The match ended in a 1-1 draw.

QFA chief meets Philippine counterpart

Abderrazak Hamdallah (right) was in fine form as he scored two goals in Al Rayyan's thumping 5-1 victory over Al Sadd in the QSL Cup at the Al Khor Stadium yesterday. PICTURE: Anas al-samaraee

Al Duhail were back in training yesterday ahead of their QNB Stars League Round 4

home match against Al Ahli on Sunday. Algerian coach Djamel Belmadi supervised the training session, which was missed by Qatar internationals, who were on national duty.

Mohamed Muntari and Nasser Khalfan, who both had long in-jury lay-off s, trained yesterday. League leaders Al Duhail are targeting their fourth victory in a row, having so far defeated Qatar SC, Al Arabi and Al Rayyan.

GREGOR, ABDELKARIM BACK IN AL SAILIYA CAMP

Dragos Gregor of Romania and Abdelkarim Ali of Qatar were back in Al Sailiya camp on Tues-day after doing their national duties. Both players attended the team training session ahead of their QNB Stars League Round 4 match against Al Kharaitiyat at the Al Ahli Stadium on Saturday.

The players trained under the watchful eyes of Tunisian coach Sami Trabelsi and technical staff as Al Sailiya look set to sustain the momentum following their good start to the league cam-paign, which placed them fourth in the standings with six points.

TABATA STARTS PHYSIOTHERAPY SESSIONS

Al Rayyan captain Rodrigo Tabata started his physiotherapy treatment on Tuesday follow-ing a back surgery he had at the Hamad General Hospital. He suff ered the injury after clashing with Al Duhail’s Ismail Mo-hamed during their QNB Stars League Round 3 match.

Tabata, who is out of action for six weeks, is expected to be fi t only by mid-November. His absence is sure to make a big im-pact on Al Rayyan’s results, but the team’s Danish coach Michael Laudrup has many other attack-ing options.

UMM SALAL, ARABI KEEN TO EXTEND WINNING STREAK

The QNB Stars League Round 4 match between Umm Salal and Al Arabi looks to be a tough one because both sides will be keen to extend their winning streak in the competition. Umm Salal had blanked Al Ahli and Al Arabi got the better of Qatar SC in Round 3. The match, which will kick off at the Al Gharafa Stadium at 7:40pm this Saturday, is ex-pected to be full of excitement.

Umm Salal are now third on seven points with victories over Al Kharaitiyat and Al Ahli, and draw versus Al Gharafa. They have scored fi ve goals and con-ceded only one.

Arabi are eighth with three points from one victory, against Qatar SC in Round 3, while they lost to Al Sailiya and Al Duhail.

They have three goals to their credit and six against. However, they are showing signs of im-provement after every game, as was evident from their 1-1 draw with Salal and 2-2 draw against Al Markhiya in the QSL Cup recently. Both teams know each other well and coaches are also sure to know the strengths and weaknesses of the rivals. Umm Salal’s Egyptian coach Mah-moud Jaber has already faced off with Al Arabi’s Tunisian trainer Qais Yaqoubi when he was at the helm of Al Wakrah last season.

Al Duhail coach Djamel Belmadi supervises team's training session.

Four Euro 2020 spots up for grabs in Nations League

FOCUS

AFPParis

Four Euro 2020 places will be on off er during UEFA’s new Nations League tournament, which starts

next year, after European foot-ball’s governing body announced the schedule yesterday. The four-division format means that one of Europe’s 16 lowest-ranked teams is guaranteed to qualify for the Euros. UEFA fi rst approved the tournament in 2014, and has decided to split the 55 countries into four so-called ‘leagues’, based on its co-effi cient rank-ings. The event changes Euro-pean Championship qualifying, with one team from each Nations League division to reach Euro 2020, with the other 20 places going to the top two sides from

the 10 groups of the subsequent, traditional qualifi ers.

The top division is 12 teams strong and will be split into four groups of three, with the win-ners playing the Nations League fi nals in June 2019 to decide an overall winner. The top-four ranked teams from each Nations league that fail to qualify for the Euros in the traditional route will enter play-off s in March 2020 to decide the last four places for the fi rst fi nals to be held across the continent. The top three leagues will see four teams relegated, meaning that it could be an ad-vantage for teams to be demoted to a weaker division before the second edition, with possible 2022 World Cup places at stake.

League A includes the likes of world champs Germany, reign-ing European winners Portugal, France and England.

GROUPINGSLeague A: Germany, Portugal,

Belgium, Spain, France, England,

Switzerland, Italy, Poland, Iceland,

Croatia, Netherlands — one Euro

2020 place on off er

League B: Austria, Wales, Russia,

Slovakia, Sweden, Ukraine, Republic

of Ireland, Bosnia-Herzegovina,

Northern Ireland, Denmark, Czech

Republic, Turkey — one Euro 2020

place on off er

League C: Hungary, Romania,

Scotland, Slovenia, Greece, Serbia,

Albania, Norway, Montenegro,

Israel, Bulgaria, Finland, Cyprus,

Estonia, Lithuania — one Euro 2020

place on off er

League D: Azerbaijan, Macedonia,

Belarus, Georgia, Armenia, Latvia,

Faroe Islands, Luxembourg, Kaza-

khstan, Moldova, Liechtenstein,

Malta, Andorra, Kosovo, San Marino,

Gibraltar — one Euro 2020 place

on off er

By Helene St JamesDetroit Free Press

Petr Mrazek made his season debut as the De-troit Red Wings began their fi rst major road

test of the season. The Wings started off a stretch of three games in four nights by taking on the Dallas Stars on Tuesday at American Airlines Center.

It was not pretty.The Wings started poorly, let

Mrazek get shelled in the fi rst half, generated very little off en-sive zone time and lost defense-man Danny DeKeyser to injury before showing signs of life in the third period. The last 2 min-utes were very exciting, as the Wings pulled their goalie for the extra attacker. Still it all added up to the Wings’ fi rst loss of the season, 4-2.

The Stars added an empty-net goal with 2 seconds left in regulation. They next head out to Arizona for a game Thursday against the Coyotes, then head

into Las Vegas to take on the Golden Knights on Friday.

The Stars had all the off en-sive-zone time the fi rst 5 min-utes of the game as the Wings were unable to break the puck out, or establish any kind of grind time. It took a shift from Henrik Zetterberg’s line to fi -nally broach Ben Bishop. But Mrazek continued to see most of the work, and the Stars took a 1-0 lead at 9:15 when John Klingberg fi red a puck through traffi c that hit the right post then hit Mrazek and went in.

Anthony Mantha was stopped on a breakaway and Martin Frk denied a one-timer on a power play, but otherwise the Wings did not have quality chances.

The Wings fell behind, 2-0, when Tyler Sequin turned his shot on net into a goal, hammer-ing a one-timer off the crossbar with 31 seconds to spare. The Wings were outshot, 11-6, won just 23 percent of faceoff s, and blocked eight shots.

Justin Abdelkader earned his fi rst goal of the season at 3:50

of the second period when he tapped in a shot from the bottom of the left circle during a power play. Zetterberg slowed down to make the pass, fed by Mike Green.

Green had just drawn a penal-ty when Seguin unwisely shoved Green into the boards. It was a good confi dence booster for Ab-delkader, who needs a bounce-back season after reaching just seven goals last season.

Mrazek had faced 20 shots at the game’s midpoint and 27 after 40 minutes, eight of them during power plays.

The Wings had nine shots in the second period; the best one was courtesy of Frk, whose slap shot knocked Bishop on his back. The Wings did better on faceoff s, improving their winning per-centage to 41.

The Wings fi nally skated in the third period, and tested Bishop with regularity. The re-ward was Mantha scoring with 4:49 to play in regulation, when he used his size to play down low and control the puck. It was his second goal of the season, and

Dylan Larkin assisted. Green picked up his sixth assist of the season.

“I didn’t think we had enough guys at that ultra, ultra-compet-itive level,” Detroit Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said.

“Our competitive level can’t be fi ne, it’s got to be outstand-ing. And then I also think we didn’t have enough skating well enough, so we didn’t have enough pressure on them. When we pressured them, we were able to create turnovers.”

Elsewhere, James Neal con-tinued his hot start with a pair of goals and Marc-Andre Fleury picked up his third win in net with 31 saves to lead the Vegas Golden Knights to a 5-2 victory over the Arizona Coyotes in the team’s fi rst home game at T-Mo-bile Arena. The Golden Knights (3-0-0) became the fi rst NHL expansion team to win its fi rst three games.

The California Seals and Los Angeles Kings started their franchises with two wins be-fore they tied each other in

their third game in 1967. Tomas Nosek, Deryk Engelland and Oscar Lindberg also scored for the Golden Knights and Tobias Rieder and Kevin Connauton had the Coyotes goals.

Filip Forsberg scored on the power play at 19:24 of the third period, capping a rally from a two-goal, third-period defi cit as Nashville stunned Philadelphia.

Scott Hartnell tied it on a six-on-three power play at 18:43 af-ter Philadelphia took two minors on the same sequence and the Predators pulled their goalie.

After the goal, Flyers coach Dave Hakstol challenged for off -side and lost, giving the Preda-tors another power play for delay of game under a new rule.

RESULTSGolden Knights 5 Coyotes ...................2Predators ............... 6 Flyers .........................5Blackhawks ..........3 Canadiens ..............1Stars .............................4 Red Wings ...........2Blue Jackets ........2 Hurricanes 1 (OT) Blues ............................3 Rangers ....................1Senators ..................3 Canucks .................2 (shootout)

Detroit Red Wings fall to Dallas Stars

NHL

‘I didn’t think we had enough guys at that ultra, ultra-competitive level’

SPORT5Gulf Times

Thursday, October 12, 2017

Blackhawks beat Canadiens 3-1 as Crawford makes 41 savesBy Chris HineChicago Tribune

At the 2016 NHL en-try draft, the Black-hawks traded the rights of restricted

free agent Andrew Shaw to the Canadiens for a pair of second-round picks. With the fi rst of those picks, the Hawks selected Alex DeBrincat, an undersized but prolifi c winger in the Ontario Hockey League.

Sixteen months later, De-Brincat took the ice for the Hawks across from Shaw and the Canadiens at the Bell Cen-tre - and proceeded to score his fi rst NHL goal.

DeBrincat jolted the Hawks out of a sluggish start and added an assists as he spurred them to a 3-1 victory Tuesday over the Canadiens for their third victory in four games. The Hawks also rode the hot glove of Corey Crawford, who continued his strong play in his hometown of Montreal with 41 saves.

DeBrincat could not crack the goal column despite the Hawks scoring 18 goals in their fi rst three games of the sea-son, but on Tuesday he and linemate Patrick Sharp were hunting that goal early, and they eventually bagged it.

Sharp and DeBrincat missed on a couple developing chanc-es until they struck late in the fi rst period with the Hawks ceding a lot of ice to the Ca-nadiens. Sharp shuffl ed a pass to his left and DeBrincat, in perfect shooting position, rocketed a shot past vaunted Canadiens goaltender Carey Price to net his fi rst NHL goal 17 minutes, 53 seconds into

the game. The Hawks scored on their next shift 19 seconds later when Brandon Saad mus-cled the puck into the off en-sive zone and made it to the net, where Jonathan Toews hit him with a feed to set up Saad’s fi fth goal of the young season.

Those goals were needed for the Hawks allowed a goal 1:19 in to Tomas Plekanec in their third consecutive period of sluggish hockey dating back to Monday’s overtime loss to the Maple Leafs.

In response to loss, coach Joel Quenneville made a change along the blue line for the fi rst time this season, in-serting veteran Cody Franson into the lineup. The surprise was who Quenneville took out – Connor Murphy, the prize of the Niklas Hjalmarsson trade with the Coyotes.

Murphy is signed with for the next fi ve seasons at a cap hit of $3.85 million, but fell out of Quenneville’s favor for the night because of how well Jan Rutta (two goals) had played entering the night. All are right-handed defensemen, so Quenneville wasn’t going to remove a left-handed blue liner like Michal Kempny or Gustav Forsling to make room for Franson - and Quenneville won’t scratch the right-hand-ed Brent Seabrook - so Mur-phy was the odd man out.

Franson and DeBrincat teamed up on the Hawks’ third goal, which came on a second-period power play. Franson started the sequence with a smooth pass to DeBrincat, who one-touched the puck to Artem Anisimov camped out near the net. Anisimov shoved the puck in for his fi rst goal of the season at 10:44.

SPOTLIGHT

Dallas Stars players celebrate after winning against the Detroit Red Wings at American Airlines Centre in Dallas, Texas. (Getty Images/AFP)

ReutersWashington

NFL team owners will consider re-quiring football players to stand for the US national anthem af-ter President Donald Trump on

Tuesday suggested using tax laws to penal-ise the league for players who kneel in pro-test of racial injustice.

Trump, a Republican, escalated his feud with the National Football League in a Twitter post asking if the league should get tax breaks while some athletes kneel in protest when the “Star-Spangled Banner” is played at the start of each game.

“Why is the NFL getting massive tax breaks while at the same time disrespecting our Anthem, Flag and Country? Change tax law!” Trump wrote on Twitter.

The world’s top-grossing sports league gave up its tax-free status two years ago. Its owners are preparing to address the anthem issue at their fall meeting in New York Oc-tober 17-18, NFL chief spokesman Joe Lock-hart told reporters on a conference call on Tuesday.

“Everyone at this point is frustrated by the situation,” Lockhart said. “The com-missioner and the owners do want the players to stand. We think it is an important part of the game.”

The protests, in a league where African-Americans make up the majority of play-

ers, have continued through the season, with some players taking a knee when the anthem is played and others standing arm-in-arm in solidarity.

Current policy calls for players to stand for the anthem and face the fl ag, but no player has been disciplined for a protest, Lockhart said.

“We need to move past this controversy, and we want to do that together with our players,” NFL Commissioner Roger Good-ell wrote in a memo to team owners. The White House supported the idea of asking players to stand, said spokeswoman Sarah Sanders.

“We are glad to see the NFL taking posi-tive steps in that direction,” she said at a news briefi ng.

Asked to explain Trump’s comment on the NFL and taxes, Sanders said, “The fed-eral tax law doesn’t apply here, but certain-ly we know that they receive tax subsidies on a variety of diff erent levels.”

The NFL Players Association, when asked for a reaction to possible changes to anthem rules, said in an email “we do not have a response at this time.”

Trump last month called on NFL team owners to fi re players who kneel during the anthem to protest police violence against black Americans.

Critics contend Trump is fanning the controversy to distract from issues includ-ing devastation in Puerto Rico after Hurri-cane Maria, tensions with North Korea and

diffi culties in pushing healthcare and tax overhauls through the US Congress.

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, speaking on KRLD-FM in Dallas on Tuesday, reiterated his stance that if any of his players chose to demonstrate during the anthem, they would not play.

“If you do not honor and stand for the fl ag in the way that a lot of our fans feel that you should... if that’s not the case, then you won’t play,” said Jones.

“That’s nothing new as far as that being my wish or the way I want the Cowboys. As far as whether or not I will basically insti-tute or do what I said I would just say.... I would ask anybody to look at my record relative to what I say I’m going to do.”

Vice President Mike Pence walked out of a NFL game on Sunday after some players knelt, an action some critics called a pub-licity stunt.

Trump won the presidency with less support from black voters than any other president in at least four decades.

Trump has squared off against the NFL before, having owned a team in the upstart United States Football League in the 1980s. That league folded in 1985 after an antitrust lawsuit against the NFL failed.

Trump has refused to disclose his own tax history, departing from a practice of US presidents going back more than 40 years. Trump has said nobody cares about his tax returns, but critics say they could show confl icts of interest.

NFL wants players to stand during national anthemFOCUS

Los Angeles Rams players during the national anthem before the game against Seattle Seahawks at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles. (Getty Images/AFP)

Chicago Blackhawks goaltender Corey Crawford (left) celebrates his team’s win over with Montreal Canadiens with teammates Patrick Sharp (centre) and Jan Rutta in Montreal. (Getty Images/AFP)

Pedro MouraLos Angeles Times

At 11:20pm Monday, two hours after his home run announced his be-lated arrival as a factor

in the National League division series, Cody Bellinger took ref-uge in a corner of Chase Field’s visiting clubhouse.

He had conducted televi-sion interviews, greeted family friends who drove over from his suburban hometown of Chan-dler, Ariz., and sprayed cham-pagne on his teammates. Now, for a few seconds, he stayed silent, glancing around the cel-ebratory, cork-sprinkled room.

“Hey,” he shouted, a thought occurring to him. “I didn’t get goggles.”

Standing nearby, teammate Tony Cingrani pointed out their location. Bellinger grabbed a pair and re-entered the fray.

He is not Clayton Kershaw, forever insistent that eye pro-tection is unnecessary in club-house celebrations. He is still a 22-year-old kid, experiencing many things for the fi rst time and prone to occasional over-sights.

The fi rst two games of the Dodgers’ NLDS series sweep over the Arizona Diamondbacks represented a continuous string of gaff es. Bellinger struck out six times in 10 unseemly plate appearances. He chased pretty much everything thrown in his general direction.

In the fi rst inning of Game 3 Monday, and again in the third, he batted with runners on the corners. In the fi rst, he tapped a grounder on a 1-and-0 fast-ball for an RBI. In the third, he popped up the fi rst pitch from Arizona starter Zack Greinke.

As Yasiel Puig walked to load the bases, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts approached Bell-inger in the dugout.

“Listen, you picked us up all year,” Bellinger said Roberts told him. “We’ll get you right here. Next at-bat, don’t try to do too much. Take the pressure off yourself.”

That is notably similar to Rob-erts’ recent public comments. Before the game, he noted that Greinke would take advantage of Bellinger’s aggressiveness if the rookie allowed him to expand the strike zone.

“If Cody is disciplined on the edges, it will be a good night,”

Roberts predicted. “If he re-mains free swinging, it’s going to be a tougher night for him.”

Roberts was right, but his news conference observations provided no aid to Bellinger. A 20-second pep talk by the bat rack did, as Bellinger explained between swigs of cheap beer.

“I was pressing a little bit, trying to do too much with every pitch,” he said. “The fi rst two games, they were throwing away, pitching to my aggressiveness. I was running for too much.

“It’s hard to hit like that.”During the regular season,

Bellinger was mostly immune to typical youthful slumps.

He clubbed 39 home runs – a National League record for a rookie – and his lowest on-base-plus-slugging percentage during any one month was .835.

The diff erence, the Dodgers

reasoned, was the postseason.“It’s his fi rst playoff s, and he’s

probably trying really hard to do some big things,” Justin Turner said. “Obviously, he wants to be successful, like he was all season. For him to just settle in, calm down, that’s going to be huge go-ing into the next series. For him to take that swing, hopefully it calms him down a little bit.”

The count was 3-and-1 with two out in the fi fth. Greinke left a changeup higher than he intended, over the outer edge of the plate. With his violent swing, the left-handed-hitting Bellinger pushed it out to the op-posite fi eld. The solo blast gave the Dodgers a 2-0 lead on their way to a 3-1 win, and Bellinger became the youngest player in team history to homer during a playoff game.

“The at-bats he took after

it were pretty darn good too,” Turner said.

Bellinger drew a walk in the seventh. In the ninth, he singled, nearly supplying another run.

Along with his breakout on off ense, he provided three fi ne plays on defense, most memo-rably toppling into the Dodgers’ dugout to secure an inning-end-ing foul popup.

In the next inning, he sharply started a double play to assist reliever Cingrani, then snared a hard grounder by Ketel Marte and tossed to the pitcher cover-ing fi rst.

“Some of the plays he’s made over at fi rst base this whole se-ries have been incredible,” Turn-er said.

He noted Bellinger’s leap into the Dodgers’ dugout and the hard-hit balls swept up near fi rst. However, he was most im-

pressed by Bellinger’s aggressive double-play manoeuvre, when he immediately tried for two.

“Having the wits to go to sec-ond instead of trying to let the pitcher beat the runner to fi rst,” Turner said, “he’s just a smart player, and he learns on the fl y.”

Because he was not identifi ed as a major factor in the Dodg-ers’ September swoon, it went mostly unnoticed, but Bellinger fi nished the last month with a 10-day stretch of silence.

He didn’t homer, he struck out a lot and he felt uncomfort-able. That carried over into the division series, he said, but in the aftermath, he was hopeful that Monday meant he had rediscov-ered success.

“It was far away from me in the past two weeks of the season, leading up to now,” Bellinger said. “But we’re getting there.”

‘I was pressing a little bit, trying to do too much with every pitch’

Bellinger gives Dodgers a lift with his bat and glove

MLB

SPORT

Gulf Times Thursday, October 12, 20176

By Keith PompeyThe Philadelphia Inquirer

For Joel Embiid, all the mon-ey he agreed to in his con-tract is not just about get-ting rich. The 76ers center

has something else that’s always on his mind. It’s his native country of Cameroon, which can use his help.

“Over there, there’s a lot of pover-ty,” Embiid said Tuesday, one day af-ter signing a fi ve-year, $148 million contract extension. “A lot of people don’t have a lot of stuff .”

So the 23-year-old is elated that he’ll have money to go toward his foundation, run by his parents back home, that helps people in need.

The Cameroonians and his fam-ily are the main reasons Embiid didn’t walk away from basketball after his younger brother, Arthur, was killed in an accident on October 14, 2014 back home.

“I feel like I need to do a lot of stuff over there,” he said of using his money gained from the lucrative contract.

He is expected to give fans in Long Island a glimpse of why the Sixers are

heavily invested in him in Wednes-day’s preseason game against the Brooklyn Nets at the Nassau Coli-seum. Embiid is listed as probable for the matchup after missing the fi rst three preseason games while re-habilitating from surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his left knee.

But Sixers fans can mainly thank Embiid’s loyalty to his late brother for remaining a basketball player. He wanted to make Arthur proud. He also wanted to make his family proud. These days, his mother, Christine, has to be beaming. Embiid signed his extension on her birthday. He thinks “that was the best birthday gift ever.”

Embiid received the maximum salary based on the designated rook-ie scale. He could earn $178 million if he meets the super-max criteria, which includes making an all-NBA team or being named league MVP.

The deal, however, is heavily sal-ary-cap protected should Embiid miss signifi cant playing time be-cause of injuries. Even if only 50 per-cent of his contract is guaranteed, the big man will still walk away with $74 million.

“I would term it shared risk,” Six-ers president Bryan Colangelo, de-clining to disclose the protections.

“I talk about fi nding the common ground. We have found the common. Again, I fully anticipate and hope we are paying the entirety of the con-tract.”

Embiid never envisioned even-tually receiving a max-extension when he arrived in America back in 2011. Back then, Embiid was around 100 pounds lighter than his current weight of 285 pounds.

He was a high school junior at Montverde Academy (Fla.), playing on the junior varsity team. In actu-ality, he has played in only three of his six seasons in which he’s been involved with organized basketball.

As a Sixer, Embiid played in only 31 games last season before the team announced on March 1 that he would need season-ending knee surgery. His last game was January 27.

He missed the previous two sea-sons because of two surgeries to re-pair the navicular bone in his right foot.

He also had a stress fracture in his back that kept him out of the Big 12 and NCAA tournaments during his lone season at Kansas in 2013-14. However, he is the unquestioned leader of the Sixers. He’s also the main piece in what the team hopes

will turn into an Eastern Confer-ence title contender in a couple of seasons.

“Joel is a special basketball player, but he’s a special human being; he’s a special person,” said Colangelo, who began contract discussions with Embiid’s representation on July 1.

“You see just the way the team responds to him, the way the fans respond to him. He’s one of these types that don’t come along often.

“Again, we are talking about both what he does on the court, but what he also does off the court. He means a lot to what this organisation has gone through.”

Embiid expects to mean a lot to the organisation for a long time. His goal is to remain a Sixer his entire career. His goal is to play his entire career for one team like Kobe Bryant did for the Los Angeles Lakers from 1996-97 through 2015-16.

He has a love aff air with Sixers fans that’s hard to explain. He wants to continue rewarding them for their support.

“I don’t think without them I get this extension,” Embiid said. “They did a lot for me. Even though, I don’t think they know that, they pushed me a lot.”

Embiid plans to help his native CameroonNBA

Call for athletes to be fi tted with microchips in fi ght against drug cheats

AFPLondon

Athletes should be fi tted with microchips in the same way dogs are to help stamp out doping

in the sport, says the head of an organisation representing more than 100,000 Olympians.

World Olympians Asso-ciation (WOA) chief executive Mike Miller told a conference in London that technology would soon allow an implant to detect performance-enhancing drugs. “We chip our dogs,” he told a seminar on integrity and duty of care in sport, according to Britain’s Daily Telegraph news-paper yesterday.

“We’re prepared to do that and it doesn’t seem to harm them. So why aren’t we pre-pared to chip ourselves?”

“We need to keep in front of the cheats,” he added. “I believe that, in order to stop doping, we need to chip our athletes where the latest tech-nology is there.”

“Some people say it’s an in-vasion of privacy. It’s a club and people don’t have to join the club if they don’t want to follow the rules,” added Miller.

Miller’s organisation rep-resents 100,000 Olympians

across the world but he said he was not speaking on behalf of the WOA but in a personal capacity. Doping has cast a dark shadow over the sport in recent years, with the Russian athletics team banned from the 2016 Rio Olympics following an investigation into a state-sponsored doping programme.

Re-testing of old samples using new methods by the International Olympic Com-mittee has found more than 100 athletes used banned sub-stances at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics. And at least 30 per-cent of those who competed at the 2011 IAAF World Cham-pionships admitted to having used banned substances dur-ing their careers, according to a report recently made public.

Nicole Sapstead, the UK Anti-Doping chief executive, speaking at the same event on Tuesday, welcomed technol-ogy that could help in the fi ght against doping but was wary.

“Can we ever be sure that this type of thing could never be tampered with or even ac-curately monitor all substances and methods on the prohibited list?” she said, according to the Telegraph. “There is a balance to be struck between a right to privacy versus demonstrating that you are clean.”

FOCUS

Nationals game postponed by rainTorrential rain forced Major League Baseball to postpone Tues-day’s NLDS Game 4 between the Chicago Cubs and the Washing-ton Nationals by 24 hours, the league confirmed on Tuesday.The Cubs had been looking to lock up the best-of-five series with victory after taking a 2-1 lead over the Nationals at Wrigley Field on Monday.But steady rain over Chicago delayed the start of Game 4 and with no let-up, league off icials pushed back the game.The Cubs will stick with scheduled starter Jake Arrieta for Game 4 regardless, instead of Game 1 starter Kyle Hendricks, manager Joe Maddon said Tuesday afternoon.Nationals manager Dusty Baker is also staying with his sched-uled starter Tanner Roark, instead of Game 1 starter Stephen Strasburg - who would be on regular rest - in a rather stunning move. But apparently Strasburg is under the weather and didn’t get his usual prep work in. Strasburg was phenomenal in Game 1 for the Nationals, flirting with a no-hitter until the sixth inning, and giving up just three hits, two unearned runs and striking out 10 over seven innings.Should the Nationals force a Game 5, Strasburg will pitch with a squad of arms in relief, including Game 3 starter Max Scherzer.Despite the delay, any fifth game in the series would still take place today. The winner of the series will face the Los Angeles Dodgers in California on Saturday in the opening game of the National League Championship Series.

Los Angeles Dodgers Cody Bellinger in action during their game three of the 2017 NLDS playoff series against Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field. PICTURE: USA TODAY Sports

Chicago Cubs grounds crew roll out the tarp before game four of the 2017 NLDS playoff baseball series against the Washington Nationals at Wrigley Field. (USA TODAY Sports)

ReutersKuala Lumpur

Only weeks after cap-ping his brilliant season with the $10 million bonus as Fed-

ExCup champion, Justin Tho-mas heads back to his happy hunting ground at the CIMB Classic, seeking a ‘threepeat’ of titles in Malaysia.

Much has changed for 24-year-old Thomas since his last trip to TPC Kuala Lumpur, when he was still an unproven, if highly regarded, talent coming off his rookie season.

A three-stroke win to defend his championship underlined his pedigree, however, and was the springboard for a stellar campaign featuring fi ve wins, a maiden major title and last month’s FedExCup triumph.

Once known as “Jordan Spi-eth’s friend”, the Louisville, Kentucky-born golfer returns to Southeast Asia as the PGA Tour’s player of the year and in the wake of an impressive debut for the

United States in their dominant Presidents Cup win.

Repeating his 2016-17 hero-ics will be a stiff challenge but the co-sanctioned CIMB Classic could off er the perfect platform for another productive season for the world number four.

That is, of course, if fatigue can be kept at bay.

Thomas has barely had time to pause for breath after a fre-netic fi nish to the campaign and will take a proper break only af-ter playing next week’s CJ Cup, South Korea’s fi rst PGA Tour-sanctioned event.

“It’s going to be a little bit diff erent this year, just in terms of everything that’s happened and kind of the lack of prepara-tion I’ll probably get as opposed to years prior,” Thomas said last week.

Thomas will also be up against a quality fi eld at the PGA Tour’s second event in the 2017-18 cal-endar, including Japan’s world number three Hideki Mat-suyama, who he pipped for

the circuit’s player of the year award.

Twenty-fi ve-year-old Mat-suyama, another sparkling young talent, was runner-up behind Thomas in Malaysia last year in a breakout season boast-ing three wins and two top-fi ve fi nishes at the majors.

Like most of his International team mates, he had a forgettable Presidents Cup, however, and was unwell upon returning to Japan.

“I just took the week off . To-day’s round was really the fi rst time I’ve picked up a club since the Presidents Cup, but hope-fully I can fi nd my game quickly and somehow make it interest-ing on Sunday,” he said at TPC Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday.

Apart from Thomas, eight other major winners are in the restricted fi eld of 78 at the $7 million tournament, includ-ing Americans Keegan Bradley, Stewart Cink and Jason Dufner, and a trio of South Africans in Ernie Els, Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel.

Other leading names heading to Kuala Lumpur include world No. 15 Paul Casey of England,

19th-ranked Rafa Cabrera Bello of Spain, Europe’s Ryder Cup stalwart Ian Poulter, 2011 Mas-ters Tournament winner Charl Schwartzel, this season’s THE PLAYERS Championship win-ner Si Woo Kim of South Korea and South African star Branden Grace, who wrote golfi ng history at the British Open by becoming the fi rst man to shoot a 62 in a major in July.

The CIMB Classic is also sanctioned by the Asian Tour and Professional Golf Associa-tion of Malaysia (PGAM). The premier Malaysian tournament is also the fi rst of three PGA TOUR events in Asia during the month of October.

With one victory and a tied third at TPC Kuala Lumpur, In-dia’s golf star Anirban Lahiri is also itching to return to the Clas-sic for the sixth time.

“I’m super excited obviously. There was that disappointment last year on Sunday (where he led into the last round and fi nished T3) but there were a lot of posi-tives too, like holding my fi rst 54-hole lead on the PGA Tour,”

said Lahri “I certainly have a lot of good

memories as I won there be-fore (2015 Malaysian Open on the Asian/European Tour). I feel right at home at TPC Kuala Lumpur and the CIMB Classic feels like a good event for me and I get a lot of fantastic support. It’ll be a lovely homecoming and hopefully I’ll be able to go the distance this time.

“I’ve played so many tourna-ments there, from the days of the Malaysian Open to CIMB Classic. I don’t think there’s a hole where I’ve not made birdie on that course. You can draw on that. I know how to navigate the course. You know where you can be aggressive and cautious on. I’ve played in every weath-er condition and played when rough is high or low, greens are soft or hard. It’ll make it easy for me to process my strategy.

“That’s the advantage the PGA Tour pros have on the US cours-es. So this is an event which I feel I have an advantage compared to the other events that I play in the US,” he said.

Thomas hopes for CIMB Classic hat-trick

GOLF

‘It’s going to be a little bit diff erent this year, just in terms of everything that’s happened and kind of the lack of preparation I’ll probably get as opposed to years prior’

SPORT7Gulf Times

Thursday, October 12, 2017

Qatar Touch, HSTRC to host touch rugby rumble on Oct 13

FOCUS

Thirty-six teams consist-ing of over 1,200 players from over 75 diff erent nationalities, will com-

pete for honours in the Qatar Community Football League (QCFL) this season – a league founded and sponsored by the Supreme Committee for Deliv-ery & Legacy (SC).

The league runs from October 1 to 30 April and consists of three divisions. Aspire Foundation has again partnered with the SC to host matches three times a week at the world famous Aspire Park.

SC projects account for 12 teams this season, up from eight in 2016-17. Eight of these teams represent communities who signed a memorandum of under-standing with the SC’s Commu-nity Engagement Division.

Generation Amazing, the SC’s fl agship CSR initiative, and the annual Workers’ Cup, the hugely popular SC-sponsored compe-tition for construction workers, have each provided two teams.

The league was launched to create a bond among Qatar’s resi-dent communities and capitalise on the country’s passion for foot-ball. Tournament organiser Zaid Mosawy, who works in the Sec-retary General’s offi ce at the SC, said the league’s expansion was

good news for Qatari football.“The expansion of the league is

an indication of its success during its inaugural season,” said Mo-sawy. “Social inclusivity and har-mony are the core values which the league promotes. We have players aged from 16 to 45, with

varying levels of football capabil-ities. It’s an illustration of Qatar’s passion for the beautiful game.”

Mosawy added: “The league also promotes the virtues of a healthy lifestyle in a fun-fi lled, competitive environment. Last year’s fi nals day was attended

by more than 500 children, and 3000 fans, which is testament to the role played by the QCFL as one of the future torch-bearers of Qatar’s rich football culture.”

Nasser al-Khater, the SC’s Assistant Secretary General for Tournament Aff airs, said the league complements the social vision enshrined within Qatar’s successful bid to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

“In our bid, we spoke about harnessing the passion for grass-roots football in Qatar through competitive community-based tournaments,” said Al-Khater.

“The SC’s involvement in the QCFL is yet another example of our commitment towards im-plementing our bid promises. We are also involved in other tournaments, such as the Work-ers’ Cup and annual Ramadan matches, and all our initiatives have proven to be

extremely successful for a va-riety of reasons.”

sc.qa

SC-organised Qatar Community Football League returns

SPOTLIGHT

By Sports ReporterDoha

Qatar Touch and the Hurricane Storm Touch Rugby Club (HSTRC) will host

the open men’s touch divi-sion tournament - Hurricane Touch Rumble 2017 - on Oc-tober 13 at the Iranian School, Abu Hamour. Twelve teams representing companies, clubs and schools will take part in the event

Speaking on the occasion, HSTRC president Hans Tho-masz said, “Touch is booming in Qatar and its popularity is growing rapidly. Full credit to Qatar Touch for their ongoing support. We are expecting to welcome a huge infl ux of sup-

porters, families and friends to witness an exciting day of competitive touch rugby.”

The HSTRC was established in 2012 and has won several major titles. Its most recent success was in last February, when they won the National Sports Day Beach Challenge held at Katara.

The one-day event is very popular amongst the Qatar players and this year has at-tracted major sponsorship from reputable Qatari and in-ternational companies such as; Bloomsbury Holiday Re-sort (Platinum Sponsor), Well On Restaurant (Gold Spon-sor), Blue Lake Insurance Bro-kers (Silver Sponsors), Al-Safa Polyclinic, Puncha’s Rent a Car, Total Sports, McDonald’s and Nice Drinking Water.

Qatar futsal team to play friendliesQatar futsal team will play two friendlies against Malaysia at Al Wakrah Hall on Friday and Sunday. The friendlies are part of the Qatar’s preparations for the Asian Cup. The Asian Cup will start in November in Bangkok. The Qatari team will hold a training camp in Thailand before the Asian qualifiers, which is set to start on November 12. Qatar, Jordan and Lebanon are in the same group for the Asian qualifiers. The Qatari squad has been training daily at the Qatar SC Hall to prepare for the continental entitlement. Iran won the title last year defeating Uzbekistan 2-1 in the final.

New water polo season from October 19Qatar Swimming Association announced the start of the new water polo season 2017-18 on October 19. A meeting was held yesterday under the chairmanship of Khalid Abdullah, member of the association’s board of directors and head of the water polo committee, to discuss the upcoming tournaments for the new sports season. The new season includes two champion-ships, the Qatar Cup and the Qatar Shield. Qatar Water Polo Shield will be played on a one-round league system, while the Qatar Cup will be played on the knock-out basis. The number of participating clubs and the rules and conditions for the championships will be announced later by the Qatar Swimming Association.

Salam Technology beat AshghalBy Sports ReporterDoha

Salam Technology came back from behind to register a win over Ashghal in the Inter

Company Division game of the Pinoy Basketball of Qa-tar’s (PIBAQ) 24th Conference recently.

Technology saw Ashghal leading comfortably by 20 points in the fi rst-half as both Carlo Querijero and Ralph Coronel getting their grooves at the off ensive end. It was a diff erent story though in the second-half, as Salam Tech-nology felt the urgency and they crawled back from the huge defi cit through team-work and determination as they were trailing by just fi ve points at the end of the third quarter.

Ashghal regrouped and brought back lead to 12 points, but that Salam’s managed to

equalise the score with only two minutes remaining in the match. Salam Technology took the lead through Roldan Dela Rosa’s conversion with nine seconds left in the game and later escaped with a 64-63 win. Roldan Dela Rosa led Salam Technology with 15 points while Ralph Coronel paced Ashghal with 19 mark-ers.

In the women’s division, Boom Generals proved just too much for the Balleros to handle as Boom Generals cap-italised on their rivals’ lack of ball handlers. Boom Generals employed the full court press right from the world go and forced turnovers.

It was the fi ne shooting of Tara Mitic and the leadership of Pamela Barrozo which ena-bled them to lead comfortably the game. In the end, Boom Generals won with a huge margin 77-12 with Pamela Barrozo leading the way with 21 points.

BASKETBALL

Action from Boom Generals-Balleros match.

Thursday, October 12, 2017

GULF TIMES SPORT

Nadal, Federer ease into third round in Shanghai

TENNIS

Nadal extended his winning streak to 13 with a 6-2, 6-1 rout of Jared Donaldson

Venus eclipsed by Japan’s rising star Naomi Osaka

India reassures Aussies aft er rock thrown at team bus

HONG KONG OPEN

SPOTLIGHT

AFPHong Kong

Venus Williams suff ered a shock exit in the second round of the WTA Hong Kong Open yester-day, comprehensively beaten

7-5, 6-2 by teenager Naomi Osaka.Japan’s top-ranked player reeled off

eight consecutive games at one stage to power into the quarter-fi nals.

It all seemed to be going to plan for second seed Williams when she broke the 19-year-old Osaka in the fi fth game of the opening set.

But then the American’s fi rst serve de-serted her when serving for the set at 5-4.

Two double faults and a series of fi erce ground strokes from Osaka which unerr-ingly kissed the lines enabled the world number 64 to break twice and take the set 7-5. “She played well,” a disappointed 37-year-old Williams told reporters.

“You know, I made a few errors at 5-4 and after that she played pretty fl awless. I can only give her credit.”

Osaka, who made headlines when she knocked Angelique Kerber out of the US Open in the fi rst round last month, con-tinued in the same vein at the start of the second set and raced into a 5-0 lead.

“I felt like I played off ensively and hit really deep hard balls but she had the luck today and could return those balls even harder and deeper,” said Williams.

Williams briefl y rallied to 5-2, but after a pep talk from Osaka’s coach, the Japa-nese refocused and closed out the match on her serve at the second time of asking after an hour and 24 minutes.

“Venus is someone I’ve respected and admired,” said Osaka, who was not born when Williams reached her fi rst Grand Slam fi nal at the 1997 US Open.

“I’ve grown up watching her. Even though she someone I admire, it’s just another opponent at the end of the day so I tried to focus hard.”

Earlier, the seventh seed Daria Gavrilo-va battled into the quarter-fi nals with a 6-1, 2-6, 6-2 win over American Shelby Rogers.

Rogers and Gavrilova renewed their

rivalry at Victoria Park after setting a record for the longest-ever women’s sin-gles match last month, with a three hours and 33 minute epic at the US Open.

“I was really motivated,” said world number 22 Gavrilova after avenging her Flushing Meadows defeat. “She has such

a great serve I knew I had to take my chances on her second serve.”

Rogers had come out on top 7-6, 4-6, 7-6 in their marathon New York encoun-ter but on this occasion Gavrilova raced to victory in the fi rst set 6-1 in just 26 min-utes.

AFPNew Delhi

India’s sports minister yes-terday sought to reassure Australian cricketers about their safety after a rock

shattered a window on the bus taking them to their hotel fol-lowing a series-levelling win in the second Twenty20 interna-tional.

The incident in the northeast-ern Indian city of Guwahati was the second in two months, after Cricket Australia said in Sep-tember that the team’s bus win-dow was broken by a “small rock or stone” in Bangladesh after a Test match.

“Pretty scary having a rock thrown through the team bus window on the way back to the hotel!!,” batsman Aaron Finch tweeted after the eight-wicket win against India.

The photo he posted on Twit-ter showed a shattered window pane with a large hole.

Indian Sports Minister Ra-jyavardhan Rathore, an Olym-pic silver medallist in shooting, said there were tight security arrangements in place for the Australian team as well as for the

players taking part in the Un-der-17 FIFA World Cup.

“Personal security of visiting athletes & teams is extremely important for us,” he tweeted.

“Guwahati stone-throwing incident NOT refl ective of our security measures. Aus team & FIFA are content w/those. India remains a graceful host.”

Two people have been arrest-ed as police investigations into the incident continue, the Press Trust of India reported.

Cricket Australia’s news site cricket.com.au said no one was hurt when the window was bro-ken by a rock roughly the size of a cricket ball, but the Australian players were “understandably shaken up”.

A CA spokesman told AFP they were “satisfi ed with the levels of security provided”.

Top Indian spinner Ravichan-dran Ashwin said guests should be treated with respect and urged restraint from his coun-trymen.

“The stone thrown at the Aussie team bus shows us in bad light, let’s all act more responsi-bly. A vast majority of us are ca-pable of that,” he wrote on Twit-ter. The fi nal T20 game will be played in Hyderabad tomorrow.

ReutersShanghai

Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer resumed their battle for the year-end number one rank-ing with imperious victories to

reach the third round of the Shanghai Masters yesterday.

Top seed Nadal extended his win-ning streak to 13 matches with a 6-2, 6-1 demolition of American Jared Donaldson in the Qi Zhong Stadium before world number two Federer, to the delight of his sizeable Chinese fan club, got the bet-ter of Argentina’s Diego Schwartzman 7-6(4), 6-4.

Nadal, who leads Federer by 2,370 points going into the home straight of a season in which the two old rivals have shared out the game’s biggest prizes, was unstoppable against Donaldson and needed only 54 minutes to prevail.

“It was a very quick match in all as-pects,” Nadal, bidding to end a year on top for the fourth time in his career, said.

“If the year-end ranking happens, it will be, I think, a very important achieve-ment for me.

“With so many years of diff erence I think it’s something very diffi cult. But

there remains work to do.”He last fi nished the year as world

number one in 2013.Federer shows no sign of giving up

the chase but had to battle hard against Schwartzman — letting slip a break in the fi rst set to get dragged into a tiebreak.

The 36-year-old Swiss always had an extra shot in his locker though and, hav-ing taken the opener, broke serve straight away in the second set to move towards victory. He fi nished off the contest with his 14th ace, setting up a third round clash against Ukraine’s Alexandr Dolgopolov.

“It was a good win, very happy with my fi rst match,” Federer said. “I knew he was dangerous. I could have closed the fi rst set out earlier but I started the second set very well.”

Spaniard Nadal, who like Federer has won the Shanghai title once, will face Italy’s Fabio Fognini next.

Eighth seed David Goffi n’s hopes of qualifying for the ATP World Tour Finals suff ered a blow when he lost 7-6(4), 6-3 to Gilles Simon, while sixth seed Grigor Dimitrov had to save match points on the way to beating Ryan Harrison 3-6, 6-3 7-6(6).

Seventh seed Pablo Carreno Busta also went out, losing 7-5, 7-5 to fellow Span-iard Albert Ramos-Vinolas.

Rafael Nadal of Spain hits a return during his 2nd round match against Jared Donaldson of the US at the Shanghai Masters tennis tournament yesterday.

AFPShanghai

Temperamental Aus-tralian Nick Kyrgios was fi ned $10,000 and lost another $21,085

in prize money yesterday after storming off midway through his fi rst-round match at the Shang-hai Masters.

World number one Rafael Nadal meanwhile raced into the third round in just 54 minutes as he attempts to win one of the rare tournaments that has elud-ed him. But it was the 22-year-old Kyrgios who was again in the spotlight following what was just his latest controversy on Tuesday.

The ATP said it had fi ned Kyr-gios for unsportsmanlike con-duct and he will not collect his prize money because he failed to get signed off for a medical after retiring from his match.

Kyrgios’s time at the Shang-hai Masters is over after he also pulled out of his scheduled dou-bles match with Frenchman Lu-cas Pouille yesterday.

He apologised after walking off court on Tuesday, having lost the fi rst-set tie break to the American Steve Johnson.

In a statement posted on Twitter a few hours later he said that he had a “stomach bug” and had hurt his shoulder. The tweet later appeared to have been de-leted. It was a nasty case of deja vu for the world number 21 — a year ago he argued with specta-tors and was accused of giving away points in a defeat at the same Shanghai event.

The talented but fi ery Kyrgios was consequently fi ned and sus-pended.

His immediate future in ten-nis is again under threat follow-ing Tuesday’s incident, when he hastily exited the court with jeers and boos ringing in his ears.

Kyrgios fi ned for storming off court

PUNISHMENT

Fognini fi ned for sexist outburstParis: Italian Fabio Fognini was fined $96,000 (81,000 euros) and hit with a suspended ban from two Grand Slams on Wednesday for having insulted an umpire at the US Open.Fognini was kicked out of the US Open and fined $24,000 at the time for launch-ing a sexist tirade at Swedish female umpire Louise Engzell after a first round defeat to Italian compatriot Stefano Travaglia at the end of August.The world No.28 has been warned that if he re-off ends between now and the end of 2019, he will be banned from two Grand Slams, one of which will be the US Open.However, if he keeps out of trouble his fine will be halved.“Mr Fognini accepts and will not appeal this decision and he has expressed re-morse for his admitted misconduct,” said the Grand Slam Board in a statement.Shortly after being kicked out of the US Open, Fognini, 30, appeared contrite and said already he would accept whatever punishment the Grand Slam Board decided to impose.“Should (the Grand Slam Board) decide

to ban me from the next Australian Open, I will accept the decision, because actions have consequences, and I need to pay for what I did,” Fognini told Italian Sky Sports TV a month ago.“I am aware of the severity of my mis-take, I take full responsibility for it.”

ReutersLondon

Any changes to Test cricket must be in line with in with the sport’s new glo-

bal structure, the head of the international cricket players union (FICA) Tony Irish has said.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) will meet in Auckland this week, where announcements on separate league structures for Tests and 50-over cricket are ex-pected to be made.

Irish, the chief executive of the Federation of Interna-tional Cricketers’ Associa-tions urged stakeholders of the game not to look at ad hoc solutions to Test cricket.

“Any proposed change needs to fit into whatever the new overall global struc-ture is going to be,” he said in quotes published by the Tel-egraph newspaper.

“If one looks at the concept in isolation... then it’s pretty obvious that traditionalists, which includes many players who consider Test cricket as the pinnacle of the game, are not going to be in favour of a change to four days.”

Test matches have wit-nessed a decline in attend-

ances in recent years, throw-ing the door open to a number of means to engage fans, in-cluding the introduction of day-night Tests.

South Africa announced plans to play Zimbabwe in the first four-day test starting on Boxing Day in Port Elizabeth, as part of their home sum-mer calendar for the 2017-18 season.

Cricket South Africa (CSA) are awaiting approval for the four-day, day/night fixture, which would also be their first home ‘pink ball’ Test.

However, Irish was con-cerned that countries trialing four-day tests on a random basis may lead to confusion and uncertainty around the format.

“If the ICC for example is coming up with a new league structure for test cricket then how does playing four-day tests fit into that and what are the advantages and dis-advantages of four days, as opposed to five days, in that structure,” he added.

“If there are not significant advantages in making the structure and schedule better then why change?

“If there are significant advantages then these need to be understood before de-cisions are simply made to change the format.”

Changes to Tests must be in line with new structure, says FICA chief

FOCUS

Sharapova triumphs in Tianjin opener

Tianjin: Maria Sharapova made an impressive start to the Tianjin Open yesterday by beating Romania’s Irina-Camelia Begu in straight sets.Seeded ninth, Begu loomed as a tricky first-round opponent for Sharapova, but the former world number one from Russia swept to a 6-4, 6-2 victory.However, two-time Wimbledon cham-pion Petra Kvitova suff ered a shock defeat, going out to local hope Zhu Lin in three sets. Currently ranked 86th after returning from a 15-month doping ban, Shara-pova — granted a wildcard in Tianjin

— plays unseeded Magda Linette of Poland next.The 30-year-old Sharapova, who returned to tennis in April after serving a suspension for taking the banned substance meldonium, has yet to win a tournament since then.The five-times Grand Slam winner exited the China Open last week in the third round at the hands of Romania’s Simona Halep, the newly crowned world number one.But Sharapova had no such trouble against Begu, seeing off the 57th-ranked Romanian in 82 minutes.