Peoples Daily, tuesday, july 1, 2014
PAGE 43
Sports
Argentina may overrun Swiss today
L
ionel Messi’s goals have fired Argentina into the World Cup last 16 but they will look for a better all-round performance when they meet Switzerland today. The diminutive four-time player of the year has finally sparked for his country, hitting four of their six goals as Argentina qualified top of Group F. Argentina needed Messi’s late winner to overcome Iran 1-0 and they also shipped two goals before beating Nigeria 3-2, lowering expectations of a third world title. They will face their toughest opponents yet in Switzerland, who put seven goals past group opponents Ecuador, France and Honduras, including three from Xherdan Shaqiri. “Now we can’t make any mistakes as any error will see us getting knocked out,” Messi warned after Argentina
negotiated the group stage. “There is nothing more beautiful than to be world champion, to achieve that with my country.” In Argentina’s favour is that more than 100 000 of their fans are expected to flood Sao Paulo ahead of Tuesday’s game, including many inside Corinthians Arena. But they will have to cope with the loss of Manchester City forward Sergio Aguero, who is out with a muscle injury after going off in the first half against Nigeria. Both Messi and coach Alejandro Sabella acknowledge that Argentina are a work in progress but they will now hope to raise the heat on their slowburning campaign. Former Bayern Munich coach Ottmar Hitzfeld will relish the clash against one of the pretournament favourites in what he says will be his last hurrah before
Lionel Messi retirement. Despite their 5-2 hammering by France, Switzerland have twice bettered Latin American opposition already after their 2-1 and 3-0 wins over Ecuador and Honduras respectively. Their attack will be spearheaded by one of the revelations of the tournament,
22-year-old Shaqiri, who hit all three goals against Honduras to secure Switzerland’s qualification. The winger, the first Swiss player to score multiple goals in a World Cup match since 1954, has hit the headlines after making just 10 league starts for Bayern Munich this season.
Uruguay president lambasts Fifa over Suarez ban
Luis Suarez
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ruguay is refusing to accept the suspension handed out to Luis Suarez
following the striker’s bite on Italy defender Giorgio Chiellini. The Liverpool forward has
been barred from all footballrelated activity for four months, banned for nine competitive international matches and hit with an €80,000 fine. The punishment took into account the fact that Suarez had been found guilty of ill-discipline on the field on more than one occasion previously, a fact acknowledged by Fifa general secretary Jerome Valcke. Uruguay president Jose Murjica, however, has criticised the ban, calling it “fascist”. “Fifa are a bunch of old sons of bitches,” he said, speaking to a journalist. “They could have punished him, but not given him this fascist ban.”
The 79-year-old echoes the sentiments of his compatriots, including national captain Diego Lugano, who have largely refused to accept Suarez’s sanctions. Suarez was previously banned for seven matches in 2010 for biting PSV’s Otman Bakkal, during his time at Ajax. Most recently, he was suspended for a further 10 games after biting Branislav Ivanovic of Chelsea while playing for Liverpool in the Premier League. The Uruguayan FA have informed Fifa that they will appeal against the ban, while Suarez himself has argued that he lost his balance, making his face collide with Chiellini’s shoulder.
Kaka leaves Milan on Defour to miss USA, mutual agreement Belgium clash
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C Milan has announced that Kaka will leave the club after agreeing to a mutual termination of his contract. The Brazilian returned to San Siro last summer after a disappointing spell at Real Madrid, but was unable to prevent the Rossoneri’s decline as they missed out on qualifying for European football. He has been strongly linked with a move to his homeland or to Major League Soccer and Milan has now confirmed that they will go their separate ways this summer. “AC Milan announce that they have yesterday terminated the contract of Kaka by mutual agreement,” a club statement read. Sao Paulo vice-president Ataide Gil Guerreiro claimed on Monday that the 32-year-old would return to his first club before making a move to MLS outfit Orlando City.
D
efour’s challenge just before the break was the only sour point for Marc Wilmots and co as he was shown a straight red card for a lunge on Kim Shin-wook. FIFA confirmed via their official Twitter acount yesterday: “Decision of FIFA Disciplinary Committee sees Steven Defour of Belgium suspended for one match.” The victory against South Korea saw Defour make his first start at the competition. Victory over Jurgen Klinsmann’s side would set up a quarter-final meeting against either Argentina or Switzerland on Saturday.
FIFA to investigate Robben’s dive against Mexico
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rjen Robben could face retrospective punishment from Fifa after the Netherlands winger admitted diving in their 2-1 World Cup win over Mexico. The 30-year-old said he did not cheat to win a decisive injury-time penalty but told Dutch TV: “I apologise. In the first half I took a dive.” Furious Mexico coach Miguel Herrera accused Robben of diving three times. Fifa, world football’s governing body, states it can “sanction those who violate the principles of fair play”. That section of article 57 of Fifa’s regulations comes into play after Robben admitted his guilt. In February, Fifa president Sepp Blatter called for retrospective action on players who dive, fake injuries and time waste. Blatter expressed disappointment that existing bodies were not using the rules to take retrospective action. In 2012 Fifa vice president Jim Boyce said that diving was becoming “a little bit of a cancer in the game”. Mr Boyce declined to comment when contacted by BBC Sport. The Dutch FA, KNVB, have released a statement claiming Robben’s comments were misinterpreted by the media and that he actually said he “fell too easily”.
Kaka Kaka scored nine goals and set up eight others during his solitary season back at Milan, with whom he had previously won the Champions League.
The Porto midfelder was sent off in the 1-0 win over South Korea on Thursday as Belgium wrapped up their 100 per cent record in Group H.
Arjen Robben