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Previous failures haunt Portugal, Holland
Hosts keen to avoid curse of blessed
Ruud
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Americanised cricket set to make debut Teenage upstarts upstaged at Wimbledon
Doping scandal rocks Pak; India to gain
Pak thrash India 6-1
Varsity suspends football coach
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Previous failures haunt Portugal, Holland
Lisbon, June 29 The Dutch have settled on their best team, led by Arjen Robben and Ruud van Nistelrooy in a classy forward partnership, and feel a repeat of their 1988 European Championship win is on the cards. Portugal, inspired by the artistry of Deco and bolstered by the defensive partnership of Jorge Andrade and Ricardo Carvalho, have quality running through their side and the benefit of passionate home support. Tomorrow’s game at the Jose Alvalade stadium will be as much a test of nerve as a trial of skill, though, as the two beaten semi-finalists from the last European Championship bid to avoid a similar fate. This will be the fifth semifinal for the Dutch and they have won just one, when they went on to take the title in 1988. Portugal have lost both their previous semifinals and they are well aware that the hosts have gone out at the semifinal stage in the past four championships. These factors, coupled with the blazing heat in Lisbon, could lead to an over-cautious approach and there is a distinct air of tension in the Portuguese camp, perhaps primed by the enormous expectations of the country’s 10 million people. “I believe we’ll go on to reach the final because I think we are a better side,’’ Deco told reporters. “It would be a huge disappointment to miss out on the final now, or to reach the final only to lose it.’’ The Portuguese do have some history on their side, with the Dutch having won only one of their eight previous meetings. Pauleta is available again after suspension but Nuno Gomes is likely to continue up front in an unchanged team. Deco, Carvalho and defensive midfielder Costinha are just a yellow card away from missing the final if they do make it after being booked in the quarter-final win over England. Dutch coach Dick Advocaat will be forced to make at least one change, with centre-back and captain Frank de Boer out after suffering an ankle injury in the penalty shoot-out win over Sweden in the quarter-finals. Wilfred Bouma is the logical choice to partner Jaap Stam while Andy van der Meyde’s poor performance could see him replaced by Marc Overmars. Johnny Heitinga, another option in defence, believes Luis Figo remains the main threat to Dutch hopes, even if his recent form has not been spectacular. “Figo is an excellent player and he still has the ability to decide a match in one moment,’’ Heitinga said. Van der Meyde and substitute striker Roy Makaay have yellow cards and are in danger of missing the final through suspension.
—Reuters |
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Hosts keen to avoid curse of blessed Ruud
Lisbon, June 29 With the hosts’ hopes of finally claiming the major trophy they have long believed to be their birthright running at fever pitch, the build-up to Wednesday’s match has been dominated by one recurring question: how do we stop van Nistelrooy? The Manchester United striker has scored four of his side’s six goals in their four matches so far, as well as a nerveless first penalty in the shoot-out that the Dutch won to eliminate Sweden and book their place in the last four. Having missed Euro 2000 as a result of a career threatening injury and then missing out on the last World Cup because of the Netherlands’ failure to qualify, van Nistelrooy has played the role of a man in a hurry to make up for lost time to perfection. Advocaat, understandably, is delighted. “In my opinion Ruud’s the best striker around — it’s incredible how he’s playing,” the former Rangers boss said. Ruud’s thirst for success has also been duly noted by Ricardo Carvalho and Jorge Andrade, the central defenders who will be given the task of shackling him as effectively as they snuffed out the threat posed by Spain’s Raul and England’s Michael Owen. “The defence will have a big responsibility but I’m used to that and I can deal with it,” says Andrade, who is expected to recover from his ankle injury to extend his run as the only outfield player to have played every minute of every match for Portugal. “But it is not Jorge Andrade against Ruud van Nistelrooy, it’s Portugal against Holland,” he stressed. “It is not only my job to stop van Nistelrooy. It is the whole team that has to work together to stop the best players of our opponents. “We have very good wide players who can keep Holland under pressure and we know they are the same, so we have to worry about them as well, not just van Nistelrooy in the middle. “Whoever wins it should be a good game for the public because we are two of the countries in Europe who love the ball the most.” — AFP
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Jiranek out LISBON: Czech right back Martin Jiranek has been ruled out of Thursday’s Euro 2004 semifinal against Greece with a muscle injury to his right thigh.
Meier’s woes EXPINHO: Swiss referee Urs Meier’s family has been hounded by the English Press over his decision to disallow Sol Campbell’s header which would have given England victory over Portugal in the Euro 2004 quarterfinal, UEFA said on Monday. British tabloids have accused 45-year-old Meier of showing bias to the Portuguese for ruling out the headed goal.
— AFP
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Dravid expects tough
Asia Cup campaign New Delhi, June 29 But Dravid said India were well-prepared to take on any opposition. He said the conditioning camp in Bangalore and the coaching camp in Chennai would fully equip the players to deal with any situation. “We are very confident of doing well in the coming season. We are confident, but not over-confident,” Dravid observed. Dravid, who is in Delhi to receive the Padma Shri, along with captain Sourav Ganguly, from President APJ Abdul Kalam tomorrow, also utilised the occasion to felicitate the 10 Hutch users who emerged winners in Rahul XI Mobile Gaming, launched by Hutch two months ago. Hutch will be global partners of the ICC Trophy till 2007, and will be a major player in the 2006 cricket World Cup. Dravid said the camps in Bangalore and Chennai would tremendously help the players to fine-tune themselves, as there was a hectic season ahead. After the Asia Cup, there will be the ICC Trophy, followed by the Test and one-day series against Australia and South Africa at home. Dravid said he would be happy with the team selected by the captain and the selectors. “I follow what the selection committee and the captain say”. He refused to comment on Sourav’s assertion that he would plumb for Yuvraj Singh as an opener to partner Virender Sehwag in the Test series. “The Test matches are four months away, and I don’t want to comment on the team selection,” he explained. Dravid also termed as a “hypothetical question” whether he would continue to don the gloves in ODIs. “I don’t have an answer to this question”, he said. Dravid also discounted the possibility of his eyeing the captain’s job. “Sourav is doing a fantastic job. I haven’t looked that far ahead. My immediate goal is to do well in the Asia Cup in Sri Lanka. I have to achieve much more as a batsman”. |
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Americanised cricket set to make debut Washington, June 29 Nearly 30 years after Pele came to the USA in a similar bid to boost football fortunes, American Pro Cricket (APC) will bring about 40 global standouts to US cities during a two-month debut season that begins on Friday. “This is going to be an action-packed game. We’re going to see a lot of fours and sixes,” promises Kal Patel, commissioner of the eight-team league. Australian Colin Miller, India’s Ajay Jadeja, Nikhil Chopra and Rahul Sanghvi and West Indies players Darren Ganga and Mervyn Dillon will be featured in the first matches using an adapted Twenty20 format.
— AFP |
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Teenage upstarts upstaged at Wimbledon London, June 29 Holder and top seed Serena Williams and fellow former world No 1 Lindsay Davenport both swatted teenagers aside while Jennifer Capriati stomped on young Russian Nadia Petrova. But 17-year-old Siberian sensation Maria Sharapova bucked the trend, beating Japanese 11th seed Ai Sugiyama 5-7, 7-5, 6-1 to reach the semifinals of a Grand Slam for the first time. The 13th seed, left out of the Russian Fed Cup team earlier on Tuesday, said: "This moment ... I am speechless, really... I always wanted to play on Centre Court but never thought about reaching the semifinals." She will face 1999 champion and fifth seed Davenport in the last four after the 28-year-old American thrashed Croatian teenager Karolina Sprem 6-2, 6-2. Rain delays earlier in the tournament meant the top half of the draw were a round behind, playing to reach the quarterfinals, and Serena meted out the most one-sided scoreline of the day. The twice champion flattened 16-year-old French girl Tatiana Golovin 6-2, 6-1 to reach the last eight. Serena pummelled the fastest serve ever by a woman at Wimbledon — a 202.8 kph scorcher — and gave Golovin the runaround from the start. But still she felt she could have done better. "I really didn't think I played well today," she mused. "I thought I didn't do some things that I wanted to do, so... I don't know. I guess I can't complain too much, huh?" Golovin claimed she had been neither overawed nor overpowered and that next time she would beat Serena, although how much of that can be put down to 16-year-old bravado is debatable. "I thought I was going to be a little bit more nervous than I was, but I felt really good out there," she said. "I played well. Playing Serena ... of course, beating her for the first time, would be really amazing. But I'll do it next time. I'm getting used to the big courts." However, it will take more than a familiarity with the world's showcourts to enable Golovin to beat Serena. Someone with a much better chance of wrestling Serena's crown from her is Jennifer Capriati, the fellow American who beat her in the quarterfinals of the French Open last month and who plays her next. Capriati swatted aside Russia's 10th seed Nadia Petrova 6-4, 6-4 in the fourth round. "First, I served well and returned well enough, just solid," she said. "I just played solid. You know, I just tried to keep the balls long, deep. And then also I did mix it up. "I think I just hung in there pretty good and did everything just a little bit better and really was just more solid out there." Also in the top half French fourth seed Amelie Mauresmo moved into the quarterfinals, outfoxing Italy's Silvia Farina Elia 7-5, 6-3. She will face Paola Suarez next after the Argentine beat Italy's Rita Grande.
— Reuters |
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Doping scandal rocks Pak; India to gain Lahore, June 29 Pakistan Olympic Association chairman Arif Hasan told reporters that the weightlifters were being stripped of their SAF Games gold medals, which would be given to their Indian opponents. Accordingly, Indian lifters Sukhjinder Singh and Vipin Kumar, who had won a silver each, will get the gold, four months after the conclusion of the SAF Games in Islamabad. The three lifters, Akbar Ali (+62kg), Hassan Alam (94kg) and Alam Dar Kakar (+105kg), will now have to hand over their gold medals to Chand Nimal Ramage of Sri Lanka, Sukhjinder and Vipin respectively.
—UNI |
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Pak thrash India 6-1
Amsterdam, June 29 This was the second successive defeat for India. The rudderless Indians trailed 1-3 at half time. Shakeel Abbasi (7th), Sohail Abbas (30th and 43rd), Shabbir Hussain (33rd), Kasif Jawwad (55th) and skipper Muhammed Nadeem (64th) were the goalgetters for Pakistan while Deepak Thakur (32nd) scored the only goal for India. India were completely outclassed in every department of the game and their poster boys Gagan Ajit Singh, Prabhjot Singh and Deepak Thakur let the team down. They kept running around without making any worthwhile move while the Pakistanis made mincemeat of the Indian defence. With a clueless forwardline, shaky and tentative midfield and defence, the Indians should consider themselved lucky to have got away with a 1-6 drubbing. There was no evidence of any improvement the Indians were supposed to have gained after the three-week training camp at Arizona in the USA. On the other hand, the Indians looked totally jaded and rusty. From the very start, the Indians were off-colour with their forwards, especially Gagan Ajit Singh, Deepak Thakur and Prabhjot Singh bereft of any idea or strategy of how to put pressure on rival defence. Pakistan, after the 0-6 drubbing from Germany in their opener, seemed to have learnt their lesson and displayed better collective game today. The four-time world champions attacked the Indian citadel from the very start and earned the breakthrough in the seventh minute when Shakeel Abbasi cashede in on a defensive lapse and slammed home a goal. The goal was due to a collective failure of fullbacks — Dilip Tirkey, Sandeep Singh and goalkeeper Devesh Chauhan and it exposed the chinks in the Indian defence. The Indian attack lacked punch and it was left to the old Dhanraj Pillay and to some extent Baljit Singh Dhillon to add some teeth to their counter moves.
— UNI
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Varsity suspends football coach Patiala, June 29 The football coach had surrendered to the police on May 31. Presently he is lodged in the maximum security Nabha jail. The suspension order has been delayed somewhat with the university earlier claiming that it could not find the record pertaining to Mr Randhawa’s recruitment. The university has a policy of suspending anyone involved in a criminal case. Mr Randhawa is accused of being involved in the killing of the Excise and Taxation Commissioner in 1992. At that time he was a student in the Physicial Education College. Subsequently he was able to get recruited as a football coach in Punjabi University in 1993. He has been working as a coach in the institution since then. The university had asked Mr Randhawa to explain accusations that he was named in the FIR registered following the death of the Excise Commissioner and that he had also been declared a proclaimed offender in the case in 1994 following an anonymous complaint submitted to it. Mr Randhawa had claimed that he had been issued a character certificate by the then SSP before being employed in the Punjabi University.
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