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Monday June 25, 2018

Germany stuns Sweden in final seconds

CHINESE sprinter Su Bingtian has moved 0.08 seconds closer to the men’s 100 meters world record held by Jamaican legend Usain Bolt after he leveled the Asian record of 9.91 seconds at the 2018 IAAF World Challenge Meeting in Madrid on Friday.

The 28-year-old won the title with a tail wind of 0.2 meters per second, also refreshing China’s national record set by Xie Zhenye at the Meeting de Montreuil three days ago, by six hundredths of a second.

Su’s previous personal best was 9.99 seconds, which he clocked twice at the 2015 IAAF Diamond League Eugene meet-ing and the World Champion-ships in the same year as the fi rst Asian-born athlete to run under 10 seconds.

Su also led China to second place of the men’s 4x100m relay at the 2015 Beijing World Cham-pionships. (Xinhua)

AFTER reaching his fi rst ATP Tour fi nal in almost a year, Novak Djokovic still appeared far from content.

The 12-time Grand Slam champion set up a meeting with Marin Cilic by defeating Jeremy Chardy 7-6 (5), 6-4 at Queen’s Club on Saturday.

Djokovic’s last fi nal — and title — also came on a British grass court when he defeated Gael Monfi ls in Eastbourne last July.

“I’m just self-critical, I guess, at times,” Djokovic said. “I maybe don’t show the satisfaction or exhilaration when maybe it’s expected or vice versa, or other emotions.

“It’s just sometimes, you’re pumped and frustrated. Some-times you just want to keep it to yourself. I’m just glad to keep this going, and I don’t want to celebrate too much. You know, even though I’m really happy I’m in the fi nals, I just want to keep building this momentum.”

The in-form Chardy had won 12 of his previous 13 matches but the Frenchman was still left without a win — or even a set — against Djokovic after their 11th career meeting.

(SD-Agencies)

MEXICO moved closer to quali-fying for the last 16 of the 2018 FIFA World Cup after beating South Korea 2-1 at the Rostov Arena in Russia on Saturday.

A Carlos Vela penalty and a 50th international goal for Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez saw El Tri top Group F with a second win in a row following the 1-0 victory over holder Germany last time out.

Mexico can qualify for the knockout phase if Germany fails to beat Sweden in a later match.

Meanwhile, South Korea play-ers were condemned to an early exit after losing their opening two matches despite Son Heung-min scoring a spectacular consolation strike in stoppage time.

It’s taken him a while, but 29-year-old Carlos Vela fi nally appears ready to realize his obvious potential. The former Arsenal attacker has always possessed terrifi c pace, excel-lent technique, natural fl air and a keen eye for goal.

South Korea had their moments but spent too long chasing shadows.

(SD-Agencies)

THE desperate world cham-pions from Germany were seconds from losing control of their World Cup fate when Toni Kroos whispered to Marco Reus just outside Sweden’s penalty area.

With the score tied in the fi fth minute of stoppage time, Kroos seemed to remind Reus of a tricky set play from training that will live in World Cup lore.

Down to 10 men after Jerome Boateng was given a second yellow card, Germany rallied for a 2-1 victory over Sweden on Sat-urday to suddenly revive its title defense thanks to a strike from Kroos that caught the Swedes by surprise and won’t soon be forgotten in Germany.

“The fact Toni Kroos put it away is just incredible,” Reus said. “He’s shown that talent on previous occasions but really in this case it was practically the very last opportunity to win this match.”

Kroos lined up for a free kick as if he was going for goal but just tapped the ball to Reus, who held it with his toe as the defenders paused. Kroos swung his right foot, curling the ball past a spin-ning Sebastian Larsson and over the outstretched hand of diving goalkeeper Robin Olsen.

The Swedes watched the ball go in, mouths open in disbelief.

The Germans ran to Kroos and erupted in emotional relief.

“Happy of course. It was a tough game again today for us,” Kroos said. “We suffered. ... If you don’t score an early goal and we have the chances then it’s going to be diffi cult until the end. It was, but now of course

we’re happy because I think we also deserved the victory.”

Coming off an opening loss to Mexico, Germany fell behind again when Kroos’ early mistake led to Ola Toivonen’s goal in the 32nd minute. Reus equalized in the 48th. A point for a draw would have been enough to stay alive for the knockout stage, but the Germans would have needed help on the fi nal day.

Now Germany has some con-trol of what happens. Mexico leads Group F with six points, and Germany and Sweden both have three. Mexico faces Sweden and Germany takes on winless South Korea

in the fi nal group matches.“Of course this was a thriller,

full of emotions and a roller-coaster ride right up until the fi nal whistle,” Germany coach Joachim Loew said.

Crazy as it seems, all four teams still have a chance to advance on the fi nal day.

“There’s nothing strange to get ready for that match,” Sweden coach Janne Andersson said. “We still have an excellent opportunity to qualify.”

For 90-plus minutes, Ger-many looked as if it would enter the fi nal match facing the same possible fate as Spain and Italy and potentially become the third

straight defending champion to fail to reach the knockout stage. They played the fi nal 10 minutes without Boateng.

Toivonen gave Sweden the lead, but Germany controlled every aspect by playing aggres-sive and attacking soccer. Ger-many forced Sweden to play defensively for almost the entire second half and eventually the attack paid off.

“Something that I did appreci-ate today was that we didn’t lose our nerve, we didn’t panic after going down after conceding a goal,” Loew said. “We kept a level head.”

(SD-Agencies)

BELGIUM striker Romelu Lukaku scored his second World Cup double in as many matches Saturday to draw level with Cris-tiano Ronaldo in the race for the Golden Boot.

Lukaku was under pressure coming into the tournament to prove himself on soccer’s big-gest stage after a disappointing campaign in Brazil in 2014 and squandering vital chances in Belgium’s exit from Euro 2016.

The Manchester United for-ward has answered his critics in spectacular fashion in Russia, scoring twice in Belgium’s open-ing match against Panama then two as they thumped Tunisia 5-2 in Moscow.

He is the fi rst player from any nation to score two goals in con-secutive matches at the World Cup since Argentine great Diego Maradona in 1986, a tournament the South Americans went on to win.

The powerful striker is Belgium’s record scorer with 40 goals in 71 appearances but is aware he has his doubters, who accuse him of going missing in big matches.

Even his skipper Eden Hazard — who scored two goals of his

Lukaku doubles up again to rival Ronaldo

own against Tunisia — remarked that Lukaku appeared to be “hiding” up front during the fi rst half of the opening match against Panama, although he later played down the comment.

Hazard was full of prise for the 25-year-old after his display against Tunisia.

“He’s working hard and scor-ing a lot of goals,” he said. “When we pass the ball to Romelu in front of the goal he’ll never miss at the moment. He’s in

good form and I hope he’ll score more goals.”

In the lead-up to the match, Lukaku had spoken of the pres-sure he felt in 2014 and said he planned to adopt a more carefree attitude in Russia.

“I’m going to remember to have fun this time,” he said. “Life is too short for the stress and the drama. People can say whatever they want about our team and about me.”

(SD-Agencies)

Su Bingtian

China’s Su moves closer to 100m world record

Djokovic to face Cilic in Queen’s Club fi nal Mexico beats

South Korea

Romelu Lukaku (top) of Belgium scores a goal during the match against Tunisia in Moscow, Russia, on Saturday. Xinhua

Germany’s Marco Reus (R) misses a chance to score against Sweden during their match in Sochi, Russia, on Saturday. SD-Agencies