SPORTThursday 12 October 2017

Ronaldo’s Portugal, France through to

Russia 2018

James returns, Cavaliers debut new

starting line-up

PAGE | 31 PAGE | 32-33 PAGE | 34

Man United better than last year: Mourinho

QSL Cup: Al Rayyan trounce Al SaddArmstrong Vas The Peninsula

A full-strength Al Rayyan trounced an experimental youth team of Al Sadd 5-1 in the QSL Cup

Group B league match at Al Khor Stadium yesterday.

Al Rayyan now have two wins from an equal number of matches. The Lions, who began their campaign in the QSL Cup with an emphatic 2-0 win over Al Alhi, now have six points in the six-team group.

Yesterday at Al Khor Sta-dium, Al Rayyan meant business from kick off and pressed the panic buttons in the Al Sadd ranks, which lacked the experi-ence and the fire power of their rivals.

After keeping the young guns in the Al Sadd ranks guessing, Al Rayyan stuck in the 11th minute with Abderrazzaq Hamedallah heading home a free kick to give his team the lead.

Eight minutes later, Hamdal-lah struck again to make it 2-0 off a dead ball situation.

The striker’s 35-yard free kick landed into the back of the nets as a Al Sadd defender while trying to clear the ball away from the goal ended into his own goal.

Experienced striker Sebes-tian Soria joined the goal scoring feast by getting his name on the scorers list in the 38th minute.

Soria packed enough power behind his angular shot which

eluded the leaping Meshaal Issa Barshm under Al Sadd goal, 3-0.

Al Rayyan could not add more goals in the first half going into the break with three goal lead.

In the second half, Al Rayyan added a fourth one with Mohs-sine Moutuali making no mistake from the penalty spot in the 59th minute.

The referee awarded the spot kick as Al Rayyan’s Hamedallah was adjudged to have brought down unfairly by an Al Sadd player.

Moutuali made no mistake from the spot sending the rival keeper the wrong way his try to take the score to 4-0 and make is increasingly difficult form Al Sadd to make a late surge back.

Al Sadd were penalized with a second spot kick in the 64th minute and this time it was substitute Abdulrahman Mohammed Al Harazi who slotted the ball past the keeper to make it 5-0 for Al Rayyan.

Al Rayyan got the penalty as Hamedallah was found to have been brought down by an Al Sadd player.

The Wolves managed to pull one back to salvage some pride in the 76th minute through a penalty conversion from Mashaal Qassim Al Shammari, 5-1.

Both the teams could not add more goals thereafter.

The next round matches will be held in November.

Al Rayyan player Mohssine Moutuali (left) scores from the penalty spot against Al Sadd in their QSL Cup yesterday.

Action from the QSL Cup match between Al Sadd and Al Rayyan at Al Khor Stadium yesterday.Photo:Kammutty VP/The Peninsula

Football: QFA President meets Philippine counterpartDoha

QNA

Qatar Football Association (QFA) Presi-dent Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa bin Ahmed Al-Thani met yesrterday the

Philippine Football Federation (PFF) Presi-dent Mariano Araneta, who is also a member of the FIFA Council, at QFA’s Al Bidda Tower headquarters.

The meeting reviewed issues of mutual interest between the two federations and the importance of activating and developing them in the coming phase so as to serve the football system in Qatar and Philippines and enhance joint cooperation between them.

In addition, they discussed several issues related to football and touched on means of boosting them in order to benefit all parties

and ensure the development of football at the domestic and Asian levels and, conse-quently, the international level.

At the end, QFA president and his Phil-ippine counterpart reiterated the need to continue cooperation between the two asso-ciations and develop these ties. Araneta praised the attention that QFA president pays to football issues between the two countries, hoping for more fruitful and constructive cooperation in the next phase.

The PFF President was in Doha as the Philippine national team was playing a qual-ifier for the AFC Asian Cup UAE 2019 against Yemen, which was held on Tuesday at Al Wakrah Stadium

Meanwhile, thirty-six teams consisting of over 1,200 players from over 75 different nationalities, will compete for honours in the

Qatar Community Football League (QCFL) this season – a league founded and spon-sored by the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy (SC).

The league runs till April 30 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 sea-son, up from eight in 2016/17. Eight of these teams represent communities who signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the SC’s Community Engagement Division. Genera-tion Amazing, the SC’s flagship CSR initiative, and the annual Workers’ Cup, the hugely popular SC-sponsored competition for con-struction workers, have each provided two teams.

The President of the Qatar Football Association (QFA), Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa bin Ahmed Al Thani receives the President of the Philippine Football Federation (FPP) and FIFA Executive Committee Member, Mariano Araneta yesterday at QFA’s headquarters at Al Bidda Tower.

Fawad Hussain The Peninsula

Umm Salal – the only unbeaten side so far along with leaders Al

Duhail and Al Sadd in the new season – will be looking to continue their fine run, eyeing a victory against spir-ited Al Arabi as QNB Stars League (QSL) resumes on Saturday after a two-week break.

Umm Salal, who have gained 7 points from their previous three rounds, can leapfrog to the top of QSL standings, albeit for a short period, if they manage a vic-tory over Al Arabi at Al Gharafa Stadium. Both Al Duhail and Al Sadd, who have full nine points will play their matches on the follow-ing day.

However, Al Arabi will be a tough nut to crack for Umm Salal as the side have shown good performance in the third round, beating Qatar SC to take maximum points.

Al Arabi have managed just 3 points from as many matches. But, the ‘Dream

Team’ is showing signs of improvement after every game, as was evident from their 1-1 draw with Umm Salal and 2-2 draw against Al Markhiya in the QSL Cup recently. Umm Salal are cur-rently on third on the points table behind Al Duhail and Al Sadd, with victories over Al Kharaitiyat and Al Ahli, and draw versus Al Gharafa. They have scored five goals and conceded only one.

Both Umm Salal and Al Arabi know each other well and coaches are also sure to know the strengths and weaknesses of the rivals. Umm Salal’s Egyptian coach Mahmoud Jaber has already faced off with Al Arabi’s Tuni-sian trainer Qais Yaqoubi when he was at the helm of Al Wakrah last season.

Both sides have key players in different posi-tions as Umm Salal rely on a strong frontline led by Ivorian Yannick Sagbo, Syr-ian Mahmoud Al Mawas, Maher Yossef and Ismail Mahmoud, with Youssef Sikor in the midfield and Adel Rahili at the rear.

QSL: Umm Salal aim to extend unbeaten run

Al Gharafa’s Khaled Abdelraouf Al Zrigi (left) and Dheyab Hassan Al Inabi vie for the ball possession during their QNB Stars League (QSL) match at Al Gharafa Stadium in this September 22 file picture.

30 THURSDAY 12 OCTOBER 2017SPORT

Rafael Nadal of Spain hits a return during his men’s 2nd round match against Jared Donaldson of the US at the Shanghai Masters in Shanghai, yesterday. RIGHT: Roger Federer of Switzerland celebrates after winning his match against Diego Schwartzman of Argentina at the Shanghai Masters yesterday.

Nadal and Federer enter third round in Shanghai Shanghai

Reuters

Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer resumed their battle for the year-end number one ranking with

imperious victories to reach the third round of the Shanghai Mas-ters yesterday.

Top seed Nadal extended his winning 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 better of Argen-tina’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 aspects,” 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 achievement for me.

“With so many years of

difference I think it’s something very difficult. But there remains work to do.”

He last finished the year as

world number one in 2013. Fed-erer shows no sign of giving up the chase but had to battle hard against Schwartzman -- letting

slip a break in the first set to get dragged into a tiebreak.

The 36-year-old Swiss always had an extra shot in his locker though and, having taken the opener, broke serve straight away in the second set to move towards victory.

He finished off the contest with his 14th ace, setting up a third round clash against U k r a i n e ’ s A l e x a n d r Dolgopolov.

“It was a good win, very happy with my first match,” Fed-erer said.

“I knew he was dangerous. I could have closed the first set out earlier but I started the sec-ond set very well.”

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

Eighth seed David Goffin’s hopes of qualifying for the ATP World Tour Finals suffered 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 beat-ing Ryan Harrison 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(6). Seventh seed Pablo Car-reno Busta also went out, losing 7-5 7-5 to fellow Spaniard Albert Ramos-Vinolas.

12-John Isner (US) beat Stefanos Tsitsipas (Greece) 7-6(2), 7-6(9)

Alexandr Dolgopolov (Ukraine) beat Feliciano Lopez (Spain) 7-6(4), 1-6, 6-4

2-Roger Federer (Switzerland) beat Diego Schwartzman (Argentina) 7-6(4), 6-4

Steve Johnson (US) beat Wu Di (China) 6-2, 6-1

Jan-Lennard Struff (Germany) beat 11-Kevin Anderson (South Africa) 7-6(5), 7-6(2)

1-Rafa Nadal (Spain) beat Jared Donaldson (US) 6-2, 6-1

Gilles Simon (France) beat 8-David Goffin (Belgium) 7-6(4), 6-3

10-Sam Querrey (US) beat Frances Tiafoe (US) 6-3, 7-6(7)

3-Alexander Zverev (Germany) beat Aljaz Bedene (Britain) 4-0 (Bedene retired)

6-Grigor Dimitrov (Bulgaria) beat Ryan Harrison (US) 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(6)

SHANGHAI MASTERS: ROUND 2 RESULTS

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

Kyrgios fined $10,000 for Shanghai walk-off

Fognini gets suspended two Grand Slams ban

London

Reuters

Australia’s Nick Kyrgios has been fined $10,000 and deducted his

$21,000 first-round losers’ cheque following his decision to walk off after losing the first set against Steve John-son in the Shanghai Masters on Tuesday.

The tempestuous Kyrgios had just been beaten in a tie-break against Johnson when he walked to the net, offered his hand to the American and stormed off court to the bemusement of his opponent and chair umpire Fergus Murphy.

Kyrgios, 22, was booed off court by the crowd.

The ATP said yesterday that Kyrgios had been pun-ished for “unsportsmanlike conduct”, saying he had failed to complete a medical visit to explain his actions.

Kyrgios, ranked 21 in the world, said later on Twitter that he had been suffering with a stomach bug and a shoulder problem.

“I’ve been battling a stomach bug for the past 24 hours and I tried to be ready but I was really struggling on the court today which I think was pretty evident from the first point,” Kyrgios said.

“My shoulder started to hurt in the practice which didn’t help either and once I lost the first set I was just not strong enough to continue. I’ve not eaten much in the past 24 hours.”

Last year, Kyrgios was fined $16,500 and banned for eight weeks for deliberately throwing a game during his second-round defeat by Mis-cha Zverev in Shanghai.

The ban for “conduct con-trary to the integrity of the game” was reduced to three weeks after he agreed to a “care plan” under the direc-tion of a sports psychologist.

He was also docked a penalty point against world number one Rafael Nadal in the China Open final last week following a disagree-ment with the chair umpire.

London

Reuters

Italy’s Fabio Fognini (pic-tured below) was provisionally suspended

for two Grand Slam tourna-ments and fined $96,000 for his outburst at this year’s US Open, the Grand Slam Board said yesterday.

Fognini directed vulgar language towards Swedish chair umpire Louise Engzell during his first-round loss to compatriot Stefano Travaglia and was subsequently dis-qual i f ied from the tournament in which he was also playing men’s doubles.

A statement from the Grand Slam Board, an inde-pendent body responsible for the establishment and enforce-ment of the Grand Slam rules, said it had found Fognini guilty of “Aggravated Behaviour and Conduct Contrary to the Integ-rity of the Game”.

One of the two Grand Slam tournaments the 30-year-old faces a ban from must be the US Open, although the sanction will only be imposed if he is found guilty of another Grand Slam Major Offence during the next two years.

The fine will also be halved if the hot-headed Fognini, who was fined $24,000 at Flushing Mead-ows for his antics, stays out of trouble over the next two years.

“Mr Fognini accepts and will not appeal this decision and he has expressed remorse for his admitted misconduct,” the statement said.

“He has confidence that he will meet the conditions necessary to reduce his finan-cial penalty and to lift his Grand Slam tournament sus-pensions in the future.”

Venus eclipsed by Japan’s rising star Osaka Hong Kong

AFP

Venus Williams suffered a shock exit in the second round of the WTA Hong

Kong Open yesterday, compre-hensively 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-finals.

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

But then the American’s first serve deserted her when serv-ing for the set at 5-4. Two double faults and a series of fierce

ground strokes from Osaka which unerringly kissed the lines enabled the world number 64 to break twice and take the set 7-5.

“She played well,” a disap-pointed 37-year-old Williams told reporters.

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

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

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

Williams briefly rallied to 5-2, but after a pep talk from Osaka’s coach, the Japanese refocused and closed out the match on her serve at the sec-ond 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 first Grand Slam final at the 1997 US Open.

“I’ve grown up watching her.

Even though she someone I admire, it’s just another oppo-nent at the end of the day so I tried to focus hard.”

Earlier, the seventh seed Daria Gavrilova battled into the quarter-finals with a 6-1, 2-6, 6-2 win over American Shelby Rogers.

Rogers and Gavrilova renewed their rivalry at Victo-ria 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 encounter but on this occasion Gavrilova raced to vic-tory in the first set 6-1 in just 26

minutes. Rogers, ranked 55, hit back immediately to take the second 6-2 in a scrappy encoun-ter littered with errors.

With both players coming under pressure on their serve in the final set, it seemed a matter of who would crack first.

And at 2-2 and 0-30 it was Rogers who blinked, serving back-to-back double faults to hand the Russian-born Austral-ian the crucial break.

Another followed and the Australian closed out the match in an hour and 44 minutes.

Sam Stosur ensured there would be two Australians in the last eight when she came from a set down to oust fourth seed Agnieszka Radwanska in the final match of the evening 3-6, 6-4, 6-0. The Polish world number 18 started strongly and was a set and break up before Stosur struck back to level at 3-3 in the second.

From then on the Australian constantly pressured the Radwan-ska serve, and a second break in the ninth game of the second set also broke the Pole’s resolve.

Stosur, the 2011 US Open champion, raced through the final set to love to take her career record against Radwanska to four wins in five meetings.

Naomi Osaka of Japan reacts after winning against Angelique Kerber of Germany in their first round match of US Open in this August 29, 2017 file photo.

Second roundDaria Gavrilova (AUS x7) bt Shelby Rog-

ers (USA) 6-1, 2-6, 6-2

Sam Stosur (AUS) bt Agnieszka Rad-

wanska (POL x4) 3-6, 6-4, 6-0

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (RUS x6) bt

Jacqueline Cako (USA) 7-6 (7/3), 6-1

Naomi Osaka (JPN) bt Venus Williams

(USA x2) 7-5, 6-2

HONG KONG OPEN RESULTS

Sharapova wins Tianjin opener Tianjin, China

AFP

Maria Sharapova made an impressive start to the Tianjin Open yes-

terday 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 Wim-bledon champion Petra Kvitova suffered 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 opening matches of the Tianjin Open have been badly disrupted because of rain and Sharapova said she was glad to finally get into action.“It’s been a long wait for everyone, it hasn’t been easy,” the Russian said.

31THURSDAY 12 OCTOBER 2017 SPORT

FIFA hits Pakistan with ban Islamabad

AFP

FIFA announced yes-terday it has suspended the Paki-

stan Football Federation (PFF) for “third-party interference”, in a rare move by the sport’s gov-erning body to issue a blanket ban targetting a country.

The suspension cen-tres on an internal feud at the PFF. This led a court to appoint an administrator to run its affairs in violation of FIFA requirements that such a body be managed independently.

“The PFF represent-ative and club teams are no longer entitled to take part in international competitions until the sus-pension is lifted,” FIFA said in a statement.

Senior PFF official Colonel Ahmed Yar Lodhi said he had long antici-pated the ban following the government’s inter-vention in the federation’s affairs.

“We are FIFA’s recog-nised body but the government interfered in our affairs and did not let us work,” Lodhi told AFP.

“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 sus-pended Indonesia over government meddling in the country’s football association. It lifted the suspension 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 sup-p o r t a n d p o o r infrastructure helped push them as low as 200th cur-rently in the FIFA football rankings.

The game is growing in popularity once more, however, even in a coun-try obsessed with cricket.

Brazil almost ready for sixth title: Tite Sao Paulo

Reuters

Three years ago Brazil were ham-mered 7-1 by Germany in the semi-finals of

their home World Cup but after their latest win, coach Tite said they were back to playing 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 easily topped the South American qualifying group, beat Chile 3-0.

The former Corinthians coach has transformed the team since taking over in June last year when Brazil were still suffering from a World Cup hangover, had

just been knocked out of the Copa America and were sixth in the 10-team South American qualifiers.

Under his guidance, they have won 10 and drawn two of their qualifi-ers since then and finished the campaign a remarkable 10 points clear of second-placed Uruguay.

Brazil are producing great football again, with a solid back four, some steel in midfield and a deadly front line.

“The football this team are playing has made me happy,” Tite said. “It’s won back what I believe football is, linking effectiveness with beauty and winning games, and showing that these things aren’t conflictive.”

“I don’t have the capac-ity to see what will happen in the future. I don’t know where the limits lie but

against every difficulty and every rival the team has shown itself.”

Brazil have a settled first 11 but there is competition for places in the 23-man squad for next year’s World Cup in Russia.

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 regu-lar 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 midfield Tite must decide whether to take Gremio’s young midfielders Luan and Artur or opt for the experience 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.

London

AFP

Jose Mourinho (pictured) says his Manches-ter United team are better than they were last year, playing down injury concerns as

he prepares for a blockbuster Premier League clash against Liverpool.

High-flying United travel to face their fierce rivals at Anfield on Saturday looking to maintain a rich vein of form that leaves them trailing Manchester City only on goal difference at the top of the table.

Mourinho had a mixed first season at Old Trafford, finishing a disappointing sixth in the League but winning the Europa League and League Cup.

But big-money summer signings Romelu Lukaku and Nemanja Matic have impressed in the early weeks of the season, enabling United to keep pace with free-scoring City.

“I think we are a better team (than we were),” Mourinho told Sky Sports. “You can say, like some people do, we have not played one of the top five teams but last season we did not beat West Ham at home, last season we did not beat Everton at home or South-ampton away.

“I think it would be unfair to say (Romelu) Lukaku and (Nemanja) Matic did not make an impact. We have to admit that and give them what they deserve.

“But also the team give Matic and Lukaku the conditions to arrive the way they have.

“Globally we are a better team. Does that mean we are going to be as successful as last season, winning two titles? I don’t know. But we are better.”

Mourinho, already without France mid-fielder Paul Pogba, shrugged off the loss of muscular midfielder Marouane Fellaini, who suffered a knee injury while on international duty for Belgium.

Asked about the Fellaini injury, Mour-inho told Sky Sports: “No blow, no problem. We don’t cry with injuries. We may cry with the process that leads to the injuries but we don’t cry with the injuries. We just trust the players that are going to play.”

United have also had concerns over the fitness of striker Lukaku, who has netted 11 times since his move from Everton, but he came off the bench and scored in Belgium’s 4-0 win over Cyprus on Tuesday.

Mourinho said he was relishing the clash with Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool, who have struggled in recent weeks and are seventh in the table and have injury problems of their own, with forward Sadio Mane out for up to six weeks with a hamstring injury.

The Portuguese manager said he was relishing the trip to Anfield, where United played out a 0-0 draw last season.

“I like to play against the best teams, I like to play

against the best clubs and I like to play at the best stadiums -- the stadiums with more his-

tory,” said Mourinho.“At Anfield I’ve had

great moments and I’ve had bad moments,” he added. “They have had happiness against me, they have had very sad moments against me.

er team. Does thats successful as last? I don’t know. But

hout France mid-ged off the loss of

ane Fellaini, whoe on international

ini injury, Mour-blow, no problem. We may cry with

he injuries but we. We just trust thelay.”concerns over thewho has netted 11

m Everton, but he ored in Belgium’s

uesday. relishing the verpool, who

eeks and are have injuryth forward six weeks

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against the best clubs and I like to play at thebest stadiums -- the stadiums with more his-

tory,” said Mourinho.“At Anfield I’ve had

great moments andI’ve had badmoments,” headded. “They havehad happiness against me, theyhave had very sadmoments against me.

Man United better than last year: Mourinho

Paris

AFP

Arturo Vidal says he is retiring from inter-national football with his “soul crushed” after Chile failed to qualify for the 2018

World Cup finals.Vidal missed Chile’s final shot at qualifi-

cation on Tuesday through suspension, the South American champions losing 3-0 to Bra-zil to miss out on the tournament in Russia next year on goal difference.

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 effort and work anything is possible in life,” the Bayern Munich midfielder 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 Arsenal 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 finished level on points with Peru, who secured a two-legged playoff against New Zealand, but trailed on goal difference to be placed out of the running in sixth in the final South American qualifying table.

Chile’s Argentinean manager Juan Anto-nio Pizzi also announced his retirement from the team after Tuesday’s disappointment.

Vidal retires from national duty

Bayern Munich’s Chilian midfielder Arturo Vidal walks beside his new headcoach Jupp Heynckes (right) during a team training at the club area in Munich, southern Germany, on Monday.

LIVERPOOL VSMANCHESTER UNITED

* A win will give sec-

ond-placed United their best

tally (22 points) after the

first eight games of a Pre-

mier League season.

* Seventh-placed Liver-

pool have not beaten United

in six games, their worst run

against their bitter rivals

since going eight games

without victory between

2004 and 2008.

* Romelu Lukaku could

become the first player to

score eight goals in eight

appearances for the club.

BURNLEY VS WEST HAM UNITED

* Burnley are on their

longest unbeaten Premier

League run of five games

and are sixth in the league

with 12 points.

* West Ham, who are

15th in the league standings,

are yet to win on the road

this season losing three out

of four games.

* Burnley have lost their

last four Premier League

meetings with West Ham.

CRYSTAL PALACE VS CHELSEA

* Chelsea have won 11

of the last 16 Premier

League games against Crys-

tal Palace.

* Bottom-placed Palace

are yet to post a win in the

Premier League this season

and have let in 17 goals

without response.

* Palace have won only

one of their last eight

matches against Chelsea at

Selhurst Park.

MANCHESTER CITY VS STOKE CITY

* Manchester City, who

have won six and drawn

once in seven Premier

League games so far, will

look to extend their

unbeaten run against Stoke.

* The league leaders’

current goal difference of

20 is bettered only by Chel-

sea’s (21) after seven games

in the 2010-11 season.

* Stoke have shut out

Manchester City three times

in their past six meetings.

But they have also con-

ceded four goals in each of

the other three games.

SWANSEA CITY VSHUDDERSFIELD TOWN

* Victory in their first

Premier League clash

against Huddersfield could

lift Swansea out of the rel-

egation zone but they have

only one win from the last

six games against promoted

sides.

* The Welsh side have

struggled for firepower up

front this term, with two out

of the three goals they have

scored this season coming

in the win over Crystal

Palace.

TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR VS BOURNEMOUTH* Third-placed Totten-

ham are five points adrift of

both Manchester clubs at

the top of the table.

* The London side have

never lost to Bournemouth

in the Premier League in

four meetings, winning

three.

WATFORD VS ARSENAL* Watford have made

their best start to a Premier

League campaign after

seven games and are eighth

in the standings with 12

points.

* Watford have just one

win against Arsenal in eight

Premier League meetings.

The London club have won

the other seven.

Key points ahead of Saturday’s EPL matches

Valcke at CAS to appeal ban Lausanne

AFP

FIFA’s former secretary gen-eral Jerome Valcke was at the Court of Arbitration for

Sport in Lausanne yesterday to appeal his 10-year ban from football.

Valcke was given an initial 12-year ban, reduced by two years on appeal, by FIFA’s ethics committee over a ticket scam at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

“I don’t know whether a sen-tence is unfair but I have come here to defend myself and obtain a fairer decision,” the former chief lieutenant to disgraced ex-FIFA boss Sepp Blatter told the press before his hearing.

“The objective today is to ask for the ban to be lifted,” added one of his lawyers, Stephane Cec-caldi. “Mr Valcke is not allowed to have any contact with football for the next ten years, a sanction that is in itself particularly questionable.

The 56-year-old Frenchman, employed by FIFA from 2003 to January 2016, was sacked by foot-ball’s ruling body over his involvement in black market ticket sales and misconduct in tel-evision deals.

Head coach of Brazil, Tite greets Neymar after their team won the 2018 World Cup Qualifier against Chile.

The football this team are playing has made me happy. It’s won back what I believe football is, linking effectiveness with beauty and winning games, and showing that these things aren’t conflictive: Tite

Paris

AFP

Four-time World Cup winners Italy and Switzerland, who won nine of their 10 qualifi-

ers for Russia 2018, will be among the four seeded teams for the play-offs in November.

Croatia and Denmark will also be seeded for the October 17 draw, which takes place a day after the latest FIFA rankings 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.

Couva, Trinidad and Tobago

AFP

The United States failed to qualify for the World Cup for the first time since 1986 on

Tuesday, crashing to a shock 2-1 defeat against already-eliminated Trinidad and Tobago.

In a result that will be viewed as a catastrophe for soccer 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 increasingly desperate Amer-icans were unable to find another to rescue their hopes.

Their exit was confirmed by results in Tuesday’s other CON-CACAF qualifiers, where Panama booked their place at the World Cup for the first 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 qualified.

The Hondurans will now face Australia in a two-legged playoff next month for a place in the finals.

But the shock of the night was without a doubt the US failure at the final hurdle.

Bruce Arena’s side had needed only a draw at the Ato Boldon Sta-dium to be virtually certain of securing at least a playoff spot.

After thrashing Panama 4-0 last Friday, the Americans had arrived in the Caribbean confident of securing the result needed to extend a proud record of qualify-ing 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 1-0 up.

It got worse just after the half-hour mark when Alvin Jones produced a goal out of nothing to double the home side’s lead.

Gathering the ball on the right flank, roughly 35 yards from goal, Jones let fly with a ferocious shot which flew past Howard to make it 2-0.

Pulisic then gave the US hope with a deflected shot soon after half-time to make it 2-1.

As the changing scores in the other games began to filter through to the American ranks, the US became increasingly desperate.

But despite the desperation, Trinidad and Tobago held firm for a famous win that is likely to trig-ger a prolonged inquest in US soccer.

32 THURSDAY 12 OCTOBER 2017SPORT 33THURSDAY 12 OCTOBER 2017 SPORT

Magical Messi guides Argentina

to World Cup finals as Chile exitMontevideo

AFP

Lionel Messi fired Argentina into the World Cup with a brilliant hat-trick on Tuesday as South American champions Chile suf-fered a shock elimination.

Messi single-handedly resurrected Argentina’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 visitors 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 suffered agony at major tournaments with Argentina, los-ing 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 emu-late his idol Diego Maradona by lifting the World Cup.

Relieved Argentina manager Jorge Sampaoli -- the third coach appointed during the qualifying campaign -- could not avoid expressing his grati-tude to Messi following Tuesday’s win.

“Messi doesn’t owe a World Cup to Argentina -- 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 better now,” he added.

Argentina had started the day outside the auto-matic qualifying positions, needing to secure their first win in Quito since 2001 to be certain of claim-ing 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 sub-lime chip in the 62nd minute to make it 3-1.

But while Argentina celebrated, it was a miser-able 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 difference.

Barcelona’s Paulinho opened the scoring before Manchester City’s Gabriel Jesus bagged a brace to secure a win already-qualified Brazil which rele-gated Chile to sixth place in the standings.

Peru meanwhile kept alive their hopes of qual-ifying 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 Rod-riguez 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 reduced the deficit when Uruguay’s Diego Godin scored the second own goal of the night.

In the day’s other game, Paraguay’s hopes of qualification evaporated in a 1-0 loss to Venezuela in Asuncion.

Ronaldo’s Portugal, France through to Russia 2018

Paris

AFP

Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal and Anto-ine Griezmann’s

France booked spots at the 2018 World Cup finals on Tuesday while the Netherlands crashed out.

Portugal beat Switzerland 2-0 in Lisbon thanks to a Johan Djourou own goal and an Andre

Silva strike.France needed goals

from Griezmann and Olivier Gir-oud in a hard-fought 2-1 win over Belarus at the Stade de France.

After a stuttering campaign, France’s achievement in beating Bulgaria and Belarus in their final two qualifiers means they avoid the playoffs having had to go through that route for the last two finals.

“We have had a difficult route and tonight wasn’t easy either but we’ve achieved our aim,” coach Didier Deschamps said.

“We are happy, even if quali-fying is logical given the quality of the players I have.”

Giroud said he was delighted to have avoided the tension of the playoffs.

“We’re all relieved tonight to have ended the campaign with automatic qualification,” the Arse-nal forward said.

“We chased this game and it wasn’t easy because they were strong and efficient in attack until the final whistle and we had to roll up our sleeves.”

The Dutch, World Cup finalists in South Africa in 2010 and semi-finalists four years later, bowed to the inevitable as they failed to achieve the unlikely 7-0 scoreline over Sweden they needed to sal-vage a wretched qualifying effort.

Arjen Robben scored twice in a 2-0 win over the Swedes in Amster-dam 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 Rob-ben said.

In Lisbon, Portugal navigated a potentially fraught final fixture with Switzerland, who become one of the eight European nations who must fight through the playoffs for a spot in Russia.

The others are Italy, Denmark, Croatia, Sweden, Northern Ireland, Greece and the Republic of Ireland.

The Swiss can consider them-selves unlucky after winning all nine previous qualifiers 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 lack-lustre 2-0 win in Andorra on Saturday.

US pop star Madonna was among the crowd at the Estadio da Luz which erupted when Djourou inadvertently bundled in a dan-gerous cross from Eliseu four minutes before the break under heavy pressure from Joao Mario.

Manchester City midfielder Bernardo Silva then exchanged passes with former Monaco team-mate 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 Belgium in Group H cour-tesy 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 scor-ing with a confident low finish from Blaise Matuidi’s deft pass.

Six minutes later, Griezmann intercepted a weak pass out of the Belarus defence and fed Giroud, 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 narrowly offside.

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 final whistle, it was Saroka again who slid a shot just wide from close range.

Paris

AFP

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from Griezmoud in a harBelarus at t

After a France’s acBulgaria antwo qualifithe playofthrough thafinals.

“We haand tonightwe’ve achiDidier Desc

“We arefying is logithe players

Syria coach hails ‘miracle’ campaign despite defeat against Australia Sydney

Reuters

Syria coach Ayman Hakeem said his team’s unlikely bid for a maiden spot in the

World Cup finals, which was brought to an end by Australia on Tuesday, had been a “miracle” given the odds stacked against them.

Hakeem’s team, forced to play all their “home” qualifiers in Malaysia because of the security situation in Syria and without five key players in the match against the Socceroos, came within the width of a goalpost of keeping the run alive in Sydney.

Had Omar Al Somah’s 120th minute free kick gone into the net rather than hitting the woodwork, it would have been Syria not Aus-tralia who would now be preparing to take on Honduras next month in another playoff for a berth in Russia.

“I’m very proud of our team and was proud of them from the

beginning,” Hakeem said after the 3-2 aggregate defeat in the Asian playoff.

“Our team has achieved a mir-acle. Honestly, no other team has had it so tough.

“We are suffering, we are play-ing outside our home turf so to lose 2-1 to Australia with extra time and with only 10 players that’s nothing short of a miracle.

“We really wanted to achieve our dream but to have reached so far is a miracle.

“There were some mistakes but I thank our players, they were up to the responsibility placed upon them and I thank the supporters of the Syrian Team, a team that was working with determination towards qualification.

“However, we cannot not blame ourselves.”

Hakeem laid plenty of blame on the referee, who dismissed Mahmoud Al Mawa for a second yellow card in the first period of extra time. He also attracted some ire in Australia by refusing to shake

the hand of his Socceroos counter-part Ange Postecoglou.

His insistence that Syria was not a divided country despite the savage civil war was also under-mined by the relief with which some of his compatriots greeted the defeat, happy that President Bashar al-Assad could not capital-ise on a success.

Veteran striker Firas Al Khatib, whose appearance as a substitute in the second half of the first leg against the Australians played a large part in Syria securing a 1-1 draw, said he hoped the run would prove a catalyst for the team.

“I want to apologise to the Syr-ian fans on behalf of all my team mates and all Syrians everywhere. We wanted to make them happy and put smiles on their faces but we couldn’t manage it as luck was against us.

“Hopefully things will be bet-ter for Syrian football in the future and, if the coaches think Firas Al Khatib is capable of playing on, I will be available.”

Australia coach ready to quit: Reports Sydney

AFP

Australia coach Ange Postec-oglou failed to confirm or deny reports he’s about to quit

today, raising speculation he’ll walk away even if they qualify for the World Cup.

Football Federation Australia chief executive David Gallop also hinted at possible 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 after rival media groups News Ltd and Fairfax said the coach would quit regard-less of whether Australia qualify for Russia 2018.

The Asian champions, who have reached the last three World Cups, needed extra time in Sydney on Wednesday to beat Syria 3-2 on aggregate and reach the final, two-legged play-off with Honduras.

“I am aware of reports today suggesting that I will step down as head coach of the Socceroos next month,” Postecoglou said in an FFA statement.

“My sole focus is on preparing the team for our final two qualify-ing matches. I will not let anything compromise the team’s journey on getting 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 confirmed by world body FIFA, rather than Postecoglou’s future.

“We have every confidence that Ange and the players can get the job done,” Gallop said, referring to the play-off.

“Beyond that, should we qual-ify, 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 preparation time,” he added.

News Ltd’s Herald Sun said Postecoglou was irritated by criti-cism during Australia’s laboured qualifying campaign, while the Syd-ney Morning Herald said he wanted to join a club overseas.

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

“He hasn’t got a job lined up, he would be flying blind,” the Sydney Morning Herald quoted a source as saying.

“It’s simply the fact he has been in this job for more than four years, he has been to a World Cup, he has helped raise the standard of the Aus-tralian game. He has brought the country its first major silverware with the Asian Cup win.

“He now wants to return to the day-to-day involvement at club level overseas. He feels he has raised the reputation of Australian players on the pitch and now he wants to do the same for Australian coaches.”

Under Postecoglou, Australia exited the 2014 World Cup at the group stage but then lifted the Asian Cup the following year, their first major trophy.

The former Brisbane Roar and Young Socceroos coach gave few signs that his departure may be imminent after Wednesday’s tense victory over Syria in Sydney.

“I’ve had confidence all the way. The nature of this qualifying proc-ess is we’ve done things in a difficult way the whole time,” Postecoglou told reporters.

“Maybe it’s not a bad thing. I’ve got full faith in these guys.

“Whenever it’s needed, they keep delivering and keep believ-ing and working hard. I’ve got no doubt come those two games in November, they’ll do what’s needed again.”

Syrian football fans cheer on their national team at the Umayyad Square in Damascus as they watch a live broadcast of the World Cup 2018 qualifier betwen Syria and Australia on Tuesday. Australia’s veteran striker Tim Cahill scored deep into extra time to take Australia a big step closer to next year’s World Cup and end war-torn Syria’s fairytale run in the play-offs.

Italy, Switzerland among European play-off teams

Shock defeatknocks US out

Argentina’s Lionel Messi (centre) scores his third goal against Ecuador during their 2018 World Cup qualifier in Quito, on Tuesday.

Portugal’s midfielder Cristiano Ronaldo applauds after winning the FIFA World Cup 2018 Group B qualifier against Switzerland at the Luz Stadium in Lisbon on Tuesday.

34 THURSDAY 12 OCTOBER 2017SPORT

NHL: Nashville rally for win over Flyers; Knights reign Nashville

AP

Filip Forsberg scored his second goal with 35.6 seconds left and the Nashville Predators rallied by scoring twice

in the final 1:17 to beat the Phil-adelphia Flyers 6-5 in the NHL on Tuesday.

On the night they raised their Western Conference champion-ship banner, the Predators blew a 3-0 lead as the Flyers scored five straight goals.

But then Forsberg scored his first of the game 50 seconds after the Flyers took a 5-3 lead, and Scott Hartnell scored his second goal on a 5-on-3 with 1:17 left to tie it. When Philadelphia coach Dave Hakstol challenged for off-side and lost, the Predators had the man advantage, and Fors-berg scored the winning goal.

Craig Smith and Nick Bon-ino also scored, and P.K. Subban had three assists for Nashville. Forsberg also had an assist on Hartnell’s tying goal as Nashville won its fifth straight home opener.

Valtteri Filppula scored twice for the Flyers, and Andrew McDonald, Nolan Patrick and Travis Konecny each added a goal. Philadelphia finished 2-2 on its first four-game road trip to open a season since 1971.

Knights 5, Coyotes 2James Neal scored twice dur-

ing a thrilling four-goal first period and the Golden Knights remained unbeaten three games into their inaugural season.

Tomas Nosek scored the first home goal in franchise history just 2:31 into the first period, and

Deryk Engelland added his first goal for his adopted hometown’s new team moments later.

Marc-Andre Fleury made 31 saves for the Golden Knights, who became the first team in NHL history to begin their debut season with three straight wins.

Just nine days after the Las Vegas Strip shooting massacre, the Golden Knights reverently honored the victims and heroes before the long-awaited home debut of the city’s first major professional sports franchise.

The Knights held a pregame ceremony during which the names of the shooting victims were projected in gold onto the ice during 58 seconds of silence.

Engelland spoke eloquently to the crowd.

Blues 3, Rangers 1Carter Hutton made 16 of his

32 saves in the third period to help St. Louis remain unbeaten with a win over New York.

Carl Gunnarsson and Brayden Schenn scored first-period goals for the Blues, who improved to 4-0. Jaden Schwartz added an empty-netter with 1:47 left.

Trailing 2-1, the Rangers pressured an injury-depleted Blues squad in the third period, outshooting St. Louis 16-8. New York outshot the Blues 32-23 overall but dropped to 1-3.

Gunnarsson scored 15

seconds into the game. Mika Zibanejad scored his fifth goal of the season for the Rangers on a power play.

Blackhawks 3, Canadiens 1Alex DeBrincat scored his

first NHL goal and set up one for Artem Anisimov to help Chicago spoil Montreal’s home opener.

Brandon Saad also scored for the Blackhawks (3-0-1), who were coming off an overtime loss Monday night in Toronto. Corey Crawford made 41 saves and outplayed Montreal goalie Carey Price, who stopped 22 shots.

Tomas Plekanec scored for Montreal (1-3-0), which has lost three in a row and scored only four goals overall. The Canadiens

went 0 for 5 on the power play and are 0 for 14 this season.

Montreal outshot the Black-hawks 42-25.

Jackets 2, Hurricanes 1North Carolina (AP) — Sonny

Milano scored two goals, includ-ing the game-winner on a breakaway with 22 seconds left in overtime to give Columbus a victory over Carolina.

Milano scored midway through the third period before Jeff Skinner tied it late in regu-lation with Carolina’s net empty. Sergei Bobrovsky, last season’s Vezina Trophy winner as the NHL’s top goalie, made 37 saves for the Blue Jackets.

Scott Darling, obtained in an offseason trade with Chicago, stopped 25 shots for the Hurricanes.

Stars 4, Red Wings 2John Klingberg and Tyler

Seguin scored in the first period, and Dallas beat Detroit for its first win of the season.

Ben Bishop made 23 saves for the Stars (1-2). Mattias Jan-mark scored in the second period and Martin Hanzal put the puck into an empty net with 2 seconds remaining.

The Stars (2-1) got goals from Justin Abdelkader in the second period and Anthony Mantha in the third. Petr Mrazek stopped 29 shots.

Ottawa 3 Vancouver 2

Las Vegas 5 Arizona 2

Dallas 4 Detroit 2

Nashville 6 Philadelphia 5

Chicago 3 Montreal 1

St. Louis 3 NY Rangers 1

Columbus 2 Carolina 1

NHL RESULTS

Nashville Predators left wing Filip Forsberg (left) celebrates after scoring the game-winning goal against the Philadelphia Flyers during the third period of their NHL game at Bridgestone Arena on Tuesday.

Encarnacion could play in Game 5 of ALDS Cleveland

AP

Indians slugger Edwin Encarnacion might be back in Cleveland’s line-

up for Game 5 of the AL Division Series against the Yankees.

Encarnacion sprained his right ankle in Game 2 and missed both ALDS games in New York.

Indians manager Terry Francona said “I think so” when asked if Encarnacion will be available for today’s game against the Yankees, who have come back from 2-0 to tie the series.

E n c a r n a c i o n w a s expected to run during Wednesday’s workout. He jammed his ankle while scrambling to get back to sec-ond base on Friday. At the time, it appeared his series — and maybe his season — were over, but Cleveland’s cleanup hitter could be back for the decisive series finale.

Francona said he has four possible lineups for Thurs-day’s game.

Encarnacion hit 38 hom-ers and drove in 107 runs during the regular season.

Meanwhile, Japanese baseball player Shohei Otani will have right ankle surgery today. He is likely to leave Japan and sign with a Major League Baseball team through the posting system in the off-season.

The 23-year-old Otani ini-tially injured his ankle while running the bases during the Japan Series last October, and ended up having to withdraw from the World Baseball Clas-sic in March.

James returns, Cavaliers debut new starting line-up New York

AP

The King has returned.LeBron James made

his preseason debut on Tuesday after missing Cleve-land’s first three games with a sprained left ankle. He scored 17 points, but also had eight turnovers in the 108-94 loss to the Chicago Bulls.

It was the first chance for James to play with close friend and former Miami Heat team-mate Dwyane Wade as the Cavaliers showed off their new starting line-up.

Cavs coach Tyronn Lue brought out his new starting group for the first time now that James is back. He was joined by Wade, Kevin Love and newcom-ers Derrick Rose and Jae Crowder. Lue announced the lineup, which includes three former MVPs on Monday. James and Rose have won regular-sea-son MVPs and Wade was the 2006 Finals MVP.

Rose finished with 13 points and Iman Shumpert added 12.

“Tonight, I was off. I could feel it,” James said.

“It’s just my first action since the Finals and my timing was a little off and turnovers, I think, just trickled down to everybody. So, I made everyone’s timing off.”

The starting five was expect-edly rusty with the group having spent little time together. Wade was just bought out by the Bulls on September 24.

Crowder and Isaiah Thomas went to Cleveland as part of the

Kyrie Irving trade on Aug. 30. And Love was just recently informed that he’d be moving to center with the unit from power forward.

Love and Wade were a com-bined 2 for 19 on Tuesday.

“I don’t think we’ll be the team we want to be in a week,” James said. “It’s going to be for the whole season. We’re going to have changes, we’re going to make changes, we’re going to become a better team as the games go on. So, the team open-ing night will not be the team that we know we can be.”

Raptors 116, Pistons 94The Raptors never trailed as

newcomer CJ Miles scored 19 points off the bench, including a 5-for-8 effort from 3-point range.

Ish Smith led the Pistons

with a game-high 22 points off the bench as the starting five struggled.

Langston Galloway scored 16 off the bench and Andre Drummond finished with 14 points and 11 points. Detroit’s starters shot just 13 for 39 (33.3 percent) from the floor.

Jonas Valanciunas scored 18 and grabbed 11 rebounds in the victory. Serge Ibaka added 14 and DeMar DeRozan chipped in 13.

Pacers 108, Haifa 89Newly acquired Victor Olad-

ipo did a little bit of everything for the Pacers as he scored 18, grabbed five rebounds, handed out four assists and had five steals.

Former Atlanta Hawk Josh Smith scored 16 and pulled down seven rebounds in the loss.

Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James (right) drives to the basket against Chicago Bulls guard Paul Zipser (16) during the first half of their game at Quicken Loans Arena on Tuesday.

35THURSDAY 12 OCTOBER 2017 SPORT

Australia shaken after rock attack at team bus Melbourne

Reuters

The Australia cricket team suffered a scare following their Twenty20 interna-

tional win over India in Guwahati on Tuesday after a rock was thrown at their team bus, shattering one of the win-dows, governing body Cricket Australia (CA) said.

Players and staff were trav-elling from Barsapara Stadium back to their team hotel in the eastern city when the rock pierced the window on the right-hand side of the bus, CA said on its website (cricket.com.au).

The board said the rock was “believed to be roughly the size

of a cricket ball” and had ended up inside the bus. “In a remark-able piece of good fortune, no one was sitting on the seat next to the window when it was bro-ken,” CA’s report said.

“While no one was injured, the Australian players were understandably shaken up by the incident.”

Assam chief minister Sarba-nanda Sonowal said the incident had damaged the state’s repu-tation as a reliable host for major sporting events and that state police had identified two suspects.

“Really unfortunate incident after a great game aimed to tar-nish Guwahati’s reputation as an emerging sports hub. We strongly condemn it,” Sonowal

said on his official Twitter account. “Investigation is on full swing & Police have already picked up 2 suspects.

“Whoever got indulged in the hooliganism did it with the sole objective of defaming Assam & derailing its journey towards the top... the culprits will face the full force of the law & g i v e n e x e m p l a r y punishment.”

India’s sports minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore said the incident was not reflec-tive of the security measures.

“Have spoken to Sarba-nanda Sonowalji about the Guwahati incident. Personal security of visiting athletes & teams is extremely important for us,” Rathore said

on his official Twitter account. Australia’s team bus was also struck by a rock in Bangladesh five weeks ago as it travelled back to a hotel following the first day’s play of the second and final test against the home side in Chittagong.

That prompted authorities to tighten security around the Australia team. Australia open-ing batsman Aaron Finch posted a photo of a shattered window on a bus on Twitter.

“Pretty scary having a rock thrown through the team bus window on the way back to the hotel!!” he tweeted.

Australia are scheduled to play India in the third and final Twenty20 of the series in Hyderabad tomorrow.

A photo of shattered window of team’s bus shared by Australian batsman Aaron Finch on his Twitter account.

Thomas hopes for CIMB Classic hat-trick in KL Kuala Lumpur Agencies

Justin Thomas said yester-day he hoped to ride a wave of recent success to the “unbelievable achieve-ment” of a third victory in

a row at the CIMB Classic in Malaysia.

The American is the man of the moment after a superb season during which he racked up five wins including a maiden major victory and was named the 2017 PGA Tour Player of the Year.

“It would be an unbe-lievable achievement.” he said.

“It’s so hard to win out here and there’s so many great players -- it would be awesome.”

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 com-ing off his rookie season.

A three-stroke win to defend his championship underlined his pedigree, how-ever, and was the springboard for a stellar campaign featur-ing five wins, a maiden major

title and last month’s FedEx-Cup triumph. Once known as “Jordan Spieth’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 heroics will be a stiff chal-lenge but the co-sanctioned CIMB Classic could offer 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 frenetic finish to the cam-paign and will take a proper break only after playing next week’s CJ Cup, South Korea’s first PGA Tour-sanctioned event.

“It’s going to be a little bit different this year, just in terms of everything that’s happened and kind of the lack of prepa-ration I’ll probably get as opposed to years prior,” Tho-mas said last week.

Thomas will also be up against a quality field at the PGA Tour’s second event in the 2017-18 calendar, including

Japan’s world number three Hideki Matsuyama, who he pipped for the circuit’s player of the year award.

Twenty-five-year-old Matsuyama, another sparkling young talent, was runner-up behind Thomas in Malaysia last year in a breakout season boasting three wins and two top-five finishes at the majors.

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

“I just took the week off. Today’s round was really the first time I’ve picked up a club since the Presidents Cup, but hopefully I can find my game quickly and somehow make it interesting on Sunday,” he said at TPC Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday.

Apart from Thomas, eight other major winners are in the restricted field of 78 at the $7m tournament, including Americans Keegan Bradley, Stewart Cink and Jason Duf-ner, and a trio of South Africans in Ernie Els, Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel.

It’s going to be a little bit different 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: Thomas

US golfer Justin Thomas hopes to ride a wave of recent success to the “unbelievable achievement” of a third victory in a row at the CIMB Classic in Malaysia.

‘I always wanted to return to Argentina’ Buenos Aires

Agencies

Former Argentina hooker Mario Ledesma said it had always been his goal to

coach in his home country when he was confirmed on Tuesday as coach of the Jaguares Super Rugby franchise.

Australia coach Michael Cheika broke the news at the weekend when his Wallabies beat Argentina 37-20 in a Rugby Championship test in Mendoza. Ledesma has been Cheika’s assistant.

Ledesma will work with Aus-tralia for one more test, against New Zealand in the third Bledis-loe Cup clash of the season on Oct. 21, before returning home to begin his new job.

“I always wanted to return. Since I began coaching... my goal was to do so in Argentina,” said Ledesma, who spent most of his playing career in France and went to four World Cups, includ-ing being part of the team that memorably finished third in France in 2007.

“If I’ve have decided to return now it’s because I think I have the necessary tools to train

(a team), not only technically, which I never considered a prob-lem, but also on a human level... how to get my message across to the players,” added Ledesma, who replaces departing coach Raul Perez.

Ledesma’s coaching experi-ence has been mainly linked to Cheika, first as his assistant at Stade Francais then at the War-atahs before joining him with the Australia team in 2015.

Two former Pumas team mates will assist Ledesma -- Martin Gaitan, who remains on the staff after being involved since the Jaguares’ debut season in 2016, and Nicolas Fernandez Miranda, who will leave his job as coach of top Buenos Aires club Hindu.

The Jaguares, who are effec-tively the Argentina squad, won seven and lost eight of their 15 matches in their second season of Super Rugby this year.

Meanwhile, England assist-ant coach Denis Betts warned Zak Hardaker needs to clean up his act after the Castleford star was left out of his country’s World Cup squad following a failed drugs test.

Hardaker was dropped by

Castleford for last Saturday’s Super League Grand Final and then axed by England after test-ing positive for cocaine.

Speaking at the England media day ahead of the squad’s departure for the World Cup in Australia, Betts said Hardaker

must overhaul his lifestyle if he wants to salvage his career.

It’s one of those tough things to deal with. You’ve got to sort out what you can control and I can’t control individuals,” Betts said.

“I’ve no malice towards these

lads because they’re just kids who’ve made mistakes and done something stupid.

“His integrity and his moral-ity needs to get back into kilt because of what he’s done and how he’s let people down,” he said.

This file photo taken on October 30, 2015 shows

Australia’s assistant coach Mario Ledesma playing with a ball during the captain’s run at London’s Twickenham

Stadium on the eve of the Rugby Union World Cup 2015 final against

New Zealand.

Embiid seals $148m 76ers deal: Reports Los Angeles

AFP

Philadelphia 76ers cen-tre Joel Embiid sealed a five-year contract

extension on Tuesday, with the injury-plagued Cam-eroon-born star saying he hoped to finish his career with the team.

The 76ers did not confirm the financial terms of the deal but several US media outlets reported that Embiid stands to earn $148m (125.3m euros) over the course of the extension.

If confirmed, that would mean Embiid, 23, is being paid the maximum allowed under the rookie wage scale, having played only 31 games over three seasons.

“Joel Embiid is a trans-formative young talent that you rarely come across in our game,” 76ers president of basketball operations Bryan Colangelo said in a statement.

“I’m so thrilled to be in this position,” Embiid said.

36 THURSDAY 12 OCTOBER 2017SPORT

Aspire Academy holds meet with parentsThe Peninsula

Aspire Academy concluded its first Parents’ Meeting for the Academic Year

2017-2018 yesterday. Parents of new students were

welcomed by Ali Salem Afifa, Academy Deputy Director Gen-eral, Badr Jassim Al Hay, Director of Education and Student Care, and Jassim Al Jaber, School Prin-cipal, in addition to other faculty members. During the meeting, parents engaged with faculty members and department rep-resentatives in lively face to face discussions.

In his welcome speech. Ali Salem Afifa, said: “At the begin-ning of each new academic year, Aspire Academy regularly organ-ises such meetings to open channels of communication with parents so they are kept informed of their children’s path during the academic year, have a chance to discuss their chil-dren’s performance with us, and get answers to their questions. Open communication channels are crucial to the educational process. We need to work in cooperation to help develop our student-athletes into ambassa-dors for Qatar to the world.”

Following welcoming for-malities, parents watched several presentations delivered by the heads of the Academy

departments of Sports, Sports Science, Football, Education and Student Affairs, and the Aspire Health Centre. They were then invited to an open Q&A session

and a panel discussion with the Academy’s senior officials and teachers.

“The Academy is really interactive in a positive way. This

meeting has clearly defined the roles of each department and how to get in touch with the offi-cials. As a parent and a former footballer, I discussed all issues

that occupying my mind with them and I can see that our chil-dren are in the right place for their development. They really spare no effort in providing a

world-class education for our kids,” Faisal al-Dosari, one of the parents and a former profes-sional footballer.

Meanwhile, Jassim Al Jaber, Aspire Academy’s School Principal, said: “What’s remarkable about this aca-demic year is we will start implementing a new program for enhancing positive behav-iour amongst student-athletes, as well as a number of mod-ern applications for classifying their educational perform-ance. There will always be new ideas, but the most important question will remain how to tailor them to achieve our objectives in accordance with our rich culture”.

Aspire Academy aims to develop students holistically, providing individuals with a comprehensive academic, social and sporting education.

To support student-athletes in fulfilling their promise, there are five major departments at Aspire Academy that specifi-cally look after their development: the Football Department, the Football Per-formance and Science Department, the Sports Depart-ment (non-football), the Sports Science Department and the Education and Student Care Department.

A group photo taken at Aspire Academy yesterday. Aspire Academy concluded its first Parents’ Meeting for the Academic Year 2017-2018. Parents of new students were welcomed by Ali Salem Afifa, Academy Deputy Director General, Badr Jassim Al Hay, Director of Education and Student Care, and Jassim Al Jaber, School Principal, in addition to other faculty members. During the meeting, parents engaged with faculty members and department representatives in lively face to face discussions.

Stage set for Hathab at Al Shaqab ArenaThe Peninsula

The inaugural edition of the QR1m league ‘Hathab’ will kick off at Al Shaqab this weekend with

competitions set to be held in four cat-egories in the opening round.

The Qatar Equestrian Federation (QEF) and Al Shaqab have joined hands to launch the new 12-leg series aimed at encouraging young riding talent in the country to scale new heights in showjumping.

Today veterinary check and Indoor Technical Meeting will take place which will be followed by two days of action.

It will be the first time that a points system will be implemented with defined participants for each class of competition.

In addition, prize money will be awarded to horse owners in order to encourage horse ownership and more Qataris to be involved with the sport.

Male and female riders will be allowed to compete together.

The vision for ‘Hathab’ is to be a national series of equestrian com-petitions to inspire Qatar’s next

generation of international champions.

This will be a series for local rid-ers to improve and become international competitors and will be the perfect platform to achieve that goal.

There will be a total of 12 compe-titions in the series which will be held either at Al Shaqab or Qatar Equestrian Federation premises. Seven events will be held at Al Shaqab and five at QEF’s Outdoor Arena.

The results of the competition will

be used in the selection process of rid-ers to represent Qatar in future international competitions.

In the Futures Riders Programme there will be competitions in two classes - showjumping and dressage.

Based on how the league unfolds,

the organisers will increase the number of dressage competitions. FEI rules and regulations will be applied during all the competitions.

The series will be broadcast on Al Kass Sports Channel who are the media partners.

File pictures of events at Al Shaqab Arena. The inaugural edition of the QR1m league ‘Hathab’ will kick off at Al Shaqab this weekend with competitions set to be held in four categories in the opening round.