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Thursday March 29, 2018

AUSTRALIA’S Foreign Minis-ter Julie Bishop clarifi ed some earlier comments yesterday by saying the country had no plans to boycott the soccer World Cup in response to a nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy in Britain.

After Australia expelled two Russian diplomats Tuesday, Bishop said that boycotting the June 14-July 15 tournament in Russia was among “a range” of other options available to the government.

Yesterday, though, she cleared up what she thought had been a misunderstanding over her comments.

“The Australian Government is not considering a boycott of the World Cup,” she told reporters in Canberra.

“When I was asked about it yesterday I was referring to the fact that Britain, for example, pursued an option of announcing that the Royal Family would not be attending the World Cup, but Australia

is not considering a boycott.” The British Government

has blamed Moscow for the attack on the former Rus-sian intelligence offi cer in Salisbury, prompting a series of reprisals against the Kremlin from governments across the Western world.

The United States said it would expel 60 Russian diplo-mats. In total, 100 diplomats are being removed, the biggest Western expulsion since the height of the Cold War.

Bishop said she thought Australia had taken “appropri-ate action” with the removal of the two Russian diplomats.

Football Federation Austra-lia (FFA) said Tuesday that, as far as it was concerned, their Socceroos team would be in Russia in June. “As things stand, all qualifying teams, including the England team, will be taking part in this FIFA event and that continues to be our intention,” read an FFA statement. (SD-Agencies)

WITH Lionel Messi rested, Argentina was crushed 6-1 by Spain on Tuesday, with Real Madrid midfi elder Isco scoring his fi rst career hat trick.

Messi watched from the stands at the Wanda Metropolitano Stadium in Madrid as Spain dealt Argentina a humbling loss in the last match before their coaches pick their squads for this summer’s World Cup.

Spain remained undefeated in 18 matches under Julen Lopetegui and strengthened its credentials as a favorite for the title in Russia.

Lopetegui said he congratu-lated his players, but reminded them that this was only a prepa-ration match.

“The reality is that nothing has started yet. We will begin the World Cup with zero points,” Lopetegui said.

Jorge Sampaoli, however, will face more doubts about Argentina’s chances to fi nally win a World Cup title with Messi after seeing his supporting cast so thoroughly outclassed.

Diego Costa, Thiago Alcantara and half-time substitute Iago Aspas also scored for Spain. Nico-las Otamendi scored Argentina’s goal that made it 2-1 at halftime.

A minor leg problem kept Messi from playing in Argentina’s 2-0 win over Italy in Manchester, England, on Friday.

Sampaoli said Monday that his star player was better and that he expected him to play against Spain, but he left him out of his squad before match time.

ERIC GORDON scored 31 points and tied a career high with eight 3-pointers on a night James Harden sat out to rest, and the Rockets got their 10th straight win with a 118-86 rout of the Chi-cago Bulls on Tuesday night.

Trevor Ariza added 21 points and Chris Paul had 13 points and 10 assists in his return after missing the last three games with a sore hamstring.

“It’s all about energy and play-ing at a high level every night no matter who’s out, and it’s just been fun being around these guys,” Gordon said. “Most teams there might be a lack of interest against teams that are not going to the playoffs, but we still put the pedal to the metal.”

The NBA-leading Rockets became the fi rst team since San Antonio in the lockout-short-ened 2011-12 season to have three winning streaks of at least 10 games in a season. They won 14 in a row from Nov. 16-Dec. 18 and 17 straight from Jan. 28-March 7.

Lauri Markkanen returned after missing Saturday’s game with lower back spasms and had 22 points for the Bulls, who dropped their sixth straight.

“They space the fl oor so well and are shooting from all over, it puts you in such a tough posi-tion,” Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg said. (SD-Agencies)

AMERICAN John Isner upset second-seeded Marin Cilic of Croatia 7-6 (0), 6-3 Tuesday to reach the Miami Open quar-terfi nals.

The 14th-seeded Isner, who reached the Miami Open semifi -nals in 2015, never faced a break point in the match. He made an impressive 73 percent of his fi rst serves to take down Cilic.

“I was in a very good serving rhythm today,” Isner said. “I felt that really from my open-ing serve, the whole match that I knew it was going to be a good serving day. “When I serve like that, I’m certainly tough to beat,” Isner added.

The key to Isner’s victory in the match came when he won all seven points in the fi rst-set tiebreaker.

“In the blink of an eye I was up 5-0 and I was able to win it 7-0, a very good tiebreaker, because prior to that the match was a bit choppy,” Isner said.

“The wind was of course tricky, and it was pretty ugly, but I played a very good tie-breaker.”

The departure of Cilic, the 2014 U.S. Open champion and Australian Open fi nalist in January, leaves fourth-seeded Alexander Zverev of Germany as the highest

seed remaining in the draw.Top-seeded Roger Federer

lost his opening match at the tournament, and third-seeded Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria lost in the third round.

Fifth-seeded Juan Martin del Potro, a defi nite crowd favor-ite in Latin-infl uenced South Florida, moved onto the quar-terfi nals with a 6-4, 6-2 win over 22nd-seeded Filip Krajinovic of Serbia.

“I get too much love from them,” Del Potro said of the fans. “I am excited to keep win-ning, to stay longer and play in this tournament.

“I know it will be the last time

Spain routs Messi-less Argentina

The match was intense and ended in a brief scuffl e after a hard foul by Argentina’s Cristian Pavon to cut down Koke.

Gonzalo Higuain was in Argentina’s squad for the fi rst time since June, but did little to improve his chances of being on Sampaoli’s World Cup list when he tapped a cross by Maximiliano Meza wide from close range eight minutes into the match.

Costa struck fi rst for Spain after Andres Iniesta recovered the ball near Argentina’s area and Marco Asensio slipped a ball

for the Atletico Madrid striker to bundle past goalkeeper Sergio Romero.

Both Costa and Romero briefl y writhed on the turf following their collision, and Romero needed to be substituted 10 minutes later. He was replaced by Willy Cabal-lero.

Asensio again undid the defense when he squared a pass from the right fl ank to meet Isco’s run in from the left side. Isco used one touch of his right boot to slot the ball home.

Meanwhile, Brazil defeated

Germany 1-0 Tuesday to end the World Cup champion’s 22-game unbeaten run and restore some lost pride following the humiliat-ing mismatch between the sides in their previous meeting.

Gabriel Jesus’ fi rst-half header settled the friendly and provided his side with a welcome confi -dence boost some three months before the World Cup. In the absence of the injured Neymar, Brazil didn’t concede during the international break as it also defeated Russia 3-0 in Moscow.

(SD-Agencies)

John Isner of the United States hits a backhand against Marin Cilic of Croatia during their Miami Open match at Crandon Park on Tuesday. SD-Agencies

Spain’s midfi elder Isco (L) scores a goal past Argentina’s defender Nicolas Otamendi (R) during a friendly match between Spain and Argentina at the Wanda Metropolitano Stadium in Madrid on Tuesday. SD-Agencies

Australia says not planning to boycott World Cup

Houston Rockets guard Eric Gordon (R) shoots the ball as Chicago Bulls forward Bobby Portis defends during the third quarter at Toyota Center in Houston on Tuesday. SD-Agencies

Isner upsets Cilic to reach Miami Open quarters

here in Key Biscayne, and I think playing here they make a special tournament for all the South

American players, basically me,” he added, smiling.

(SD-Agencies)

Rockets extend streak to 10 games with win