EPL: Today's Matches

Chelsea 2-1 Hull City

goals: (Drogba 37,90) (Hunt 28)

YC: (Drogba ) (Mendy, Barmby)

Points: 3, 0

GD: 1, -1

Aston Villa 0-2 Wigan Athletic

goals: (Martinez 31, Koumas 56)

YC: (Delph, Young) (Bramble, Figueroa)

Points: 0, 3

GD; -2, -2

Blackburn Rovers 0-2 Manchester City

goals: (Adebayor 3, Ireland 90)

YC:(Warnock, Gallaghar) (Richards)

Points: 0, 3

GD: -2, 2

Bolton Wanderers 0-1 Sunderland

goals: (D Bent 5)

YC:(F Muamba, F Davies) (F Campbell)

Points: 0, 3

GD: -1, 1

Portsmouth 0-1 Fulham

goals: (Zamora 13)

YC: (F Mollis, PB Diop, A Mokoena) (D Murphy, A Hughes)

Points: 0, 3

GD: -1, 1

Stoke City 2-0 Burnley

goals: (R Shawcross 19, S Jordan OG 35)

YC:(A. Diangne-Faye) (G Alexander, S Jordan)

Points: 3, 0

GD: 2, -2

Wolverhampton Wanderers 0-2 West Ham

goals:(M Noble22, M Upson 69)

YC: None

Points: 0,3

GD: -2, 2

Everton 1-6 Arsenal

goals: (Denilson 26, Vermealen 37, Gallas 41, Fabregas 48, 69, Eduaurdo 90) (L Saha 90)

YC:None

Points: 0, 3

GD: -5, 5

[football] Chelsea, Manchester City Win Their First Matches

Chelsea won the opening match of the English Premier League defeating Hull City 2-1 in the Stamford Bridge. It was the Hull City who took the goal from a strike from Hunt. However, Chelsea equalised at the 37th minute by the goal of Drogba from a freekick. Drogba got the second goal for him and his club with a perfect strike from the goalline at the end of the match to win the match for Chelsea. Drogba was shown a yellow card just after the goal.

Big spenders Manchester City posted a win in their first match against Blackburn Rovers. New signing Emanuel Adebayor striked the first goal as early as the third minute. They had to wait till the 90th minute to get the second goal which was scored by Ireland.

[hockey] India Loses First Match to Holland 3-5

The Indian hockey team made a disappointing start to their campaign in the final leg of their European tour, losing 3-5 to The Netherlands in the first Test of the two-match series in Amstelveen.

The Dutch toyed with the Indians in the opening half, pumping in five goals at the Wagener Stadium here late last night before the visitors made a failed comeback bid with three goals.

For Holland, Timme Hoyng (second minute), Teun de Nooijer (fourth), Taeke Taekema (17th and 25th) and Rogier Hoffman (32nd minute) were the goal-getters, while Sardar Singh (40th) and Prabhjot Singh (60th and 69th minute) scored the consolations for India.

India play the last match of the European tour against the same team on 16th august.

[football] Juventus Wins Trofeo Tim Trinagular in Italy

Format of the Tournament:

Juventus, Inter Milan and AC Milan participated in the Trofeo Tim Triangular of this year too. The first match was played between Inter Milan and Juventus and the loser of the match playing the next match against AC Milan. The winner was to play the next match against AC Milan. Each match was of one half 45 minutes long. An outright win gives 3 points and a win in penalty shootout gave the winners 2 points with 1 points being given to the losing team. This tournament is being played btween this three teams since 2001.

First Match:

Juventus vs Inter Milan 1-1(6-5)

The Italian champions Inter Milan and their strongest rival this season Juventus faced off in the first match. Inter took the lead at the 26th minute by a goal of Thiago Motta. However Juventus fought back and their efforts almost paid back at the 42nd minute when Materazzi tackled Iaquinta inside the penalty box and Juventus got a penalty. However Julio Ceaser saved the penalty taken by Iacquinta. However Juventus caught a horrible mistake at the Inter defence with Amauri intercepting a weak backpass to the goalkeeper and dodged him to score the equaliser just before the end of time at 44th minute.

The match reached to penalty shootout which Juventus won 6-5. Milito, Ballotelli, Chivu and Salihamidzic, Grygera and Felipe Melo did not make any mistake in the first 3 shots of both teams. Thiago Motta made it 4-3 and then Poulsen hit the post for Juventus. However Walter Samuel missed the next penlaty to give Juve a more chance. Amauri made them at par 4-4. Viera and Iaquinta scored in the next two shots to make it 5-5. And then Davide Santon's shot was saved by Buffon and Legrottaglie di not m,ake any mistake to win the match for Juve.

Second Match:

Inter Milan vs AC Milan 1-0

Inter Milan, the loser of the first match, played the second match against local rivals AC Milan. Inter came close to scoring at the 5th minute when Balotelli's freekick rebounded off the crossbar. At the 18th minute, some of the floodlights stopped working and match had to be stopped for around 10 minutes. After this mini break, Inter got forward with a header from young Mario Balotelli off a Quaresma freekick at the 23rd minute. Inter managed to maintain the lead till the end. Though Milan formed a few attacks they never looked really dangerous. Chivu and Stankovic were shown yellow cards in the process.

Third Match:

Juventus vs AC Milan 2-0

Juventus needed an outright win in the final match with Inter at 4 points and them at 2 ppoints. And they started their campaign with some dazzle that the Rossoneris found hard to stop. Amauri put them forward as early as 13th minute and Iaquinta made their win almost sure at the 33rd minute. Milan got a few freekicks from potentially dangerous positions in both matches but could not make any use of them. Juventus won this match 2-0 and the Cup as well.

This is the first time Juventus won this. In earlier eight editions AC Milan has won 5 times and rest three times going to Inter Milan.

[tennis] Clijsters Continues Her Dream Comeback, Williams Sisters Bow Out

Kim Clijsters continued her blazing run on her comeback tour as she defeated 6th seed Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 in the third round of the WTA tour event in Cincinnati . Clijsters will now face top seed and world no 1 Dinara Safina in the quarter final match. Safina defeated Shuai Peng 6-3, 6-4 in another match.

Flavia Pennetta brought about a big set back when she defeated Venus Williams in another third round tie. She will now face Daniella Hantuchova who got the better of Vera Zvonareva.

The surprise didn't end here in this event as the other Williams sister, Serena, too lost her third round match against Sybille Bammer 7-5, 6-4. Bammer will meet Jelena Jankovic who defeated Victoria Azarenka.

Elena Dementieva faces Caroline Wozniacky in the other quarter final match on friday.

quarter final lineup:

Dinara Safina- Kim Clijsters H2H: 1-6

Sybille Bammer- Jelena Jankovic H2H: 1-7

Flabia Pennetta- Daniella Hantuchova H2H: 0-1

Elena Dementieva- Caroline Wozniacky H2H: 2-2

[tennis] Top 8 in Last Eight in Montreal ATP Event

All the top eight seeds reached the quarter finals of the Roger's Cup in Montreal. The whole tournament lacked any big upset so far and except very few players nobody lost to a person seeded below him. Roger Federer defeated countrymate Stanislas Warwinka 6-3, 7-6(5) while Rafael Nadal got the better of Petzschner 6-3, 6-2. Third seed Andy Murray defeated Juan Carlos Ferrero and Novak Djokovic(4) won against Fernando Gonazalez. Andy Roddick and Juan Martin Del Potro, the finalists last week and seeded 5 and 6 here defeated Fernando Verdasco and Victor Hansecu respectively. Jo Wilfried Tsonga and Nikolay Davydenko completed the final 8 with wins over Giles Simon and Mikhail Youzhny respectively.

quarter final line up:

Roger Federer vs Jo Wilfried Tsonga H2H :1-0

Rafael Nadal vs Juan Martin Del Potro H2H: 4-1

Andy Murray vs Nikolay Davydenko H2H: 4-4

Novak Djokovic vs Andy Roddick H2H: 2-3

[tennis] Top Seeds Sail Smooth in Roger's Cup

All the top seeds had safe trips to the third round of the Roger's Cup ATP tour 1000 event in Montreal. Rafael Nadal had his task cut out as David Ferrer had to retire due to injury while leading 4-3. Novak Djokovic and Juan Martin Del Potro reached the quarter finals with their wins over Mikhail Youzhny and Victor Hansecu respectively.

Yesterday, 13th seed Gael Monfils became the highest seed to fall in second round when he lost to Juan Carlos Ferrero 6-3, 7-6. Ferrero now faces Andy Murray(3) in the third round tie.

However, the case is not so in the women's event in Cincinnati. 12th seed Marion Bartoli and 10th seed and defending champion Nadia Petrova were dumped in the first round only. 11th seed Ana Ivanovic followed them with 13th seed Radwanska in the second round. However the biggest surprise of the event came when 3rd seed Venus Williams lost her third round match against Flavia Pennette 7-6(2), 6-4.
The dream comeback for Kim Clijsters continued as she rolled into third round defeating Marion Bartoli and Patty Schnyder to face 2nd seed Elena Dementieva.

[football] Barcelona Signing Arsenal Defender Eboue

Barcelona are going to sign Arsenal defender Emanuel Eboue, if the rumours are to be believed. The Blaugranas are goin to pay around 8 to 10 million euros for the the player from Ivory Coast. It is believed that Barcelona are signing him as a back up for Dany Alves so that Puyol can concentrate on his central defending role better. The failure to sign either Bruno Alves or Dmitry Chygrinsky might have forced the Catalan club to go for Eboue.

They are already in news for their target of Arsenal's Sapnish midfielder Cesc Fabregas and both the teams seem to be rigid in their stand not to leave Cesc. Arsenal are said to put a cost of 45 millions while Barcelona are ready to pay 30 millions for their own youth product who left for the Gunners six years ago.

FOOTBALL

Nehru Cup: Lebanon Plays Draw With Kyrgyzstan

Real Madrid Drubs Rosenborg 4-0

Nehru Cup: Syria Thrash Sri Lanka 4-0

Barcelona Wins Super Cup Defeating Bilbao 3-0

Inter Held by Bari; Juve Wins

EPL: Today's Matches

India Defeats Kyrgyzstan To Remain In Contention

Syria Pips Kyrgyzstan To Go To Top

Barcelona Loses Gamper to Manchester City

Atletico Madrid Win Away Tie

EPL: Today's Matches

India Loses First Match of the ONGC Nehru Cup

India Starts Nehru Cup Campaign Against Lebanon

Arsenal a Step Closer to Champions League Group Stage

EPL: Today's Matches

Barcelona Wins at Bilbao

EPL: Today's Matches

Liverpool Loses to Spurs; Manchester United Wins

Real Madrid Wins Against Real Sociedad

EPL: Today's Matches

Chelsea, Manchester City Win Their First Matches

Juventus Wins Trofeo Tim Trinagular in Italy

Barcelona Signing Arsenal Defender Eboue

Mexico Defeats USA in the World Cup Qualifiers

Germany, France Win World Cup Qualifiers

Argentina Defeats Russia 3-2 in a Friendly

Nehru Cup in Jeopardy Again

Real Madrid Gets Past DC United

Chelsea Wins Community Shield

Barcelona Fails to Win in Last Match of US Tour

Espanyol Captain Dani Jarques Dead

Atletico Defeats Liverpool, Man City Wins

Inter Loses Super Cup to Lazio 1-2

Celtic Interested in Indian Striker Sunil Chhetri

Villareal Downs Juventus

Wolfsburg Starts Title Defence in Style

Champions League Qualifiers: Arsenal Faces Celtic

India Opens Nehru Cup Campaign Against Palestine

Barca Drubs Seattle Sounders, Manchestester United Beats Valencia

Liverpool Finds Replacement Quickly, Milan Gets Huntelaar

India Down 9 Places in FIFA Rankings

Van der Sar Out For Eight Weeks

Xabi Alonso Deal Confirmed

Aston Villa Wins Peace Cup

Liverpool Loses 0-3 to Espanyol

Arsenal Defeats Rangers 3-0

Barcelona Defeats LA Galaxy 2-1

India Draw Third Match on the Spanish Tour

Arsenal Defeats Atletico Madrid 2-1

Juventus Defeats Real Madrid 2-1

India Wins The Second Practice Match in Barcelona

Bayern Defeats Man U in Penalties

Hleb, Keirrison and Caceres Goes on Loan

Manchester United Face Bayern in Audi Cup Final

Kolo Toure Joins City, Arbeloa Goes Madrid

Ronaldo Scored His First Goal For Real Madrid

Zlatan Eto'o Transfer Complete

Pre Season: Inter Win Milan Derby,Real Madrid Manage Draw

Mexico Wins Gold Cup

Barcelona Wins 4-1

India Draw First Practice Match in Barcelona

Malaga Win, Lyon Draw in Peace Cup

Barcelona Draw Spurs With Their Reserves

USA And Mexico Reach Gold Cup Final

Diego Maradona May Join Portsmouth

Eto'o Deal Finalised

Chelsea defeats Inter milan 2-0

Samir Nasri Injured For At Least 6 Weeks

No Nominations From Football For Arjuna Awards

Real Madrid Defeat Shamrock 1-0, Arsena...

transfer Market Round Up July 20

Hamburg Win T-Home Cup, Man U Win, Live...

Concacaf Gold Cup Round Up

Snehasish Chakrabarty Transfer Saga Con...

Pre Season Matches Round Up

Transfer Market Hotting Up Again

[football] Mexico Defeats USA in the World Cup Qualifiers

Mexico came from behind to win against the USA 2-1 in the World Cup qualifier match in the CONCACAF zone. Davies put the US forward in the 9th minute but the Mexican hit back within 9 more minutes to get on par by a goal by Macias. Just 9 minutes before the final whistle Mexico got their winner when Sabah scored for them. Even after this win Mexico is behind the USA at the 4th position in the CONCACAF zone qualifiers.

Trinidad and Tobago defeated el Salvador 1-0 and Honduras thrashed group topper Costa Rica 4-0. Glen scored the goal for Trinidad while Costly scored a brace and Pavon and Valladarres got one each for Honduras.

Table:

Costa Rica: 12 pts (GD: 0)

Honduras: 10 pts (GD: +4)

USA: 10 pts (GD: +3)

Mexico: 9 pts (GD: -1)

El Salvador: 5 pts (GD: -2)

Trinidad & Tobago: 5pts (GD: -4)

*Each team has played 6 matches.

** 3 teams will qualify directly and the 4th team will play in the play off against the 5th team from South America (CONMEBOL).

[hockey] India Lost Third Test Against Spain 4-5

India lost the final match of the three match series against Spain 4-5 in a dramatic match on 12th august. India lost the first match 2-8 and the won the second match which was deemed unofficial 1-0.

In the last match, Spain were looking likely to repeat the performance of the first day when they started scoring from 8th minute with a penalty corner by Xavi Ribas. Eduard Tubau increased the difference in the 12th minute. Spain were set to repeat the previous result when they scored two more goals at 25th and 27th minutes through David Alegre and Alex Fabregas respectively togo 4-0 up. However Indians started the comeback very soon as Sardara Singh scored the first goal for India at the 28th minute. As the Spanish side relaxed with the lead Vikram Pillay scored two goals in quick succession at the 54th and 57th minute. The comeback was complete 4 minutes from hooter when Indian captain Sandeep Singh scored the fourth from a penalty corner. However, the hosts had the last laugh as Albert Hall scored in the last minute and they won the match 5-4.

India now will travel to Netherlands to play two more matches to complete their Europe tour.

[football] Germany, France Win World Cup Qualifiers

Germany and France posted wins in their respective world cup qualifying campaigns. Germany won in Azerbaijan 2-0 while France got a narrow 1-0 win in Faroe Islands. Schwansteiger put Germany forward at the 12th minue while Klose increased thier lead in the 54th minute. France got their winner from Gignac.

Germany are in top of their group with 2 matches remaining and unless something extraordinary happens will qualify from their group. However even after this win France will remain two points behind group topper Serbia.

In other matches, Norway defeated Scotland 4-0. Cladwel of Scotland saw two red cards at 32nd and 33rd minutes to get suspended from the rest of the match. Riise and Huseklepp scored a goal each for Norway while Pederson scored a brace. Norway still remain at the 4th position in the group behind Netherland, Scotland and Macedonia.

Croatia won in Belarus 3-1 thanks to a brace by Olic and a goal by Eduardo.

Slovenia thrashed San Marino 5-0 with a brace from Koren and Radosavljevic, Kirm and Ljubijankic scoring a goal each.

results:

Azerbaijan 0-2 Germany

Faroe Island 0-1 France

Norway 4-0 Scotland

Belarus 1-3 Croatia

Slovenia 5-0 San Marino

[football] Argentina Defeats Russia 3-2 in a Friendly

Argentina might have come out of the shock of continuous defeatd in the hands of their continent rivals when they defeated Russia 3-2 in a practice match. Argentina was without the service of their star player Lionell Messi, who has got a muscle pain and may even miss the Super Cup match for his club Barcelona. The Russian took the early lead at the 18th minute by Semshov but the South American giants came back to put 2 goals on both sides of the halftime through a wonder strike from Aguero at 45th and a clean shoot from Lopez at the 46th minute. They extended their lead at the 59th minute when Datolo scored another goal for them. However Roman Pavlyuchenko put one back at 79th minute raise some hopes for the home side.

Brazil defeated Estonia by the sole goal of Fabiano at the end of the first half.

England came back from 0-2 down to draw 2-2 against the Netherlands. Kuyt and Van der Vaart put the Dutch forward in th efirst half while Defoe put them back in the second half.

Spain recovered from 0-2 down with two Goran Pandev strikes by scoring three goals in 5 minutes by Torres, Pique and Riera to win the match 3-2.

Results:

Russia 2-3 Argentina

Macedonia 2-3 Spain

Netherlands 2-2 England

Estonia 0-1 Brazil

Czech Rep 3-1 Belgium

Switzerland 0-0 Italy

Ukraine 0-3 Turkey

Liechtenstein 0-3 Portugal

Armenia 1-4 Maldova

Korea 1-0 Paraguay

Oman 2-1 Saudi Arabia

Albania 6-1 Cyprus

South Africa 1-3 Serbia

Bulgaria 1-0 Latvia

DR Congo 1-2 Senegal

Hungary 0-1 Romania

Luxemborg 0-1 Lithuania

Malta 2-0 Georgia

Sweden 1-0 Finland

Singapore 1-1 China

Denmark 1-2 Chile

Austria 0-2 Cameroon

Ireland 0-2 Australia

Bosnia-Herzegovina 2-3 Iran

Montenegro 2-1 Wales

Northern Ireland 1-1 Israel

Iceland 1-1 Slovakia

Poland 2-0 Greece

Algeria 1-0 Uruguay

Morocco 1-1 Congo

Ghana 4-1 Zambia

[tennis] Cilic, Karlovic, Hewitt Shown The Door; Top Seeds Cruise Through

14th seed Marin Cilic was the biggest victim in the first round of Roger's Cup in Montreal as he lost to Mikhail Youzhny 4-6, 7-6(4), 6-1. Gael Monfils improved his 3-0 head to head record over Marat Safin with a 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 win.

Big serving Croat Ivo Karlovic was also shown the door in the first round. Karlovic was defeated by Tommy Haas 4-6, 7-6(6), 6-4 in the first round tie. Lleyton Hewitt also followed Karlovic later when he was defeated by Juan Carlos Ferrero 6-1, 6-4.

Among others to bow out in their first match were Dudi Sela, Thomas Berdych, Feliciano Lopez.

The top seeds played their first matches in the second round and all of Roger Federer, Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic and Nikolay Davydenko won their matches.

[hockey] India Out of Medal Contenders in Junior Women's World Cup

India lost their last group match against Korea 2-3 to end the group E at 5th position and will now fight for the 9-10th position match against New Zealand on august 15. Earlier India defeated Chile 3-1 a day before and had a slight chance of qualifying for the semis if they won and England defeated Australia by a huge margin. Australia drew that match and lost the qualifying spot to Korea on goal difference.Korea is joined by group toppers England in the semis and will play the top two teams from group F.

In group F, New Zealand face South Africa and both teams are out of contention now. The other two matches to be played will decide the fate of the four teams. Group toppers Netherlands(9) will face Germany(8) and China(7) will face Argentina(6). A win to any team will give them a spot in semis while if they draw the calculations will get complex with goal difference being taken into account.

Pool E		P	W	D	L	Goals	P
1.	England	5	3	2	0	9:5	11
2.	Korea	5	3	1	1	15:10	10
3.	Australia	5	3	1	1	10:7	10
4.	USA	5	2	0	3	12:9	6
5.	India	5	2	0	3	10:11	6
6.	Chile	5	0	0	5	2:16	0

Pool F		P	W	D	L	Goals	P
1.	Netherlands	4	3	0	1	12:5	9
2.	Germany	4	2	2	0	9:6	8
3.	China	4	2	1	1	11:4	7
4.	Argentina	4	2	0	2	12:6	6
5.	New Zealand	4	1	1	2	6:10	4
6.	South Africa	4	0	0	4	2:21	0

source:2009womenjuniorworldcup.sportcentric.com

[hockey] India Wins Against Spain 1-0, Match Declared Unofficial

India defeated Spain 1-0 in the match which was scheduled to be the second test between the teams. However, the match was declared unofficial as a lot of players from the Spanish side were injured and could not appear in the match. India scored the goal from a penalty corner. The match was played with two halves of 20 minutes. Santi Freixa, who was injured in the first match by Indian goalkeeper Sreejesh, may miss the European championship to be held from 22nd.

Indian coach Jose Brasa said he was happy with the team's performance till now considering the European teams are preparing for the European Championship in Amsterdam starting from 22 august while India is in a rebuilding phase with the whole style of playing being changed. India has won 1 and lost 2 matches to Britain, won 2 and lost 1 to Belgium and won this match, which is now unofficial, and lost the previous one 8-2 to Spain.

India play the next match on 12th august at 2100 hrs(IST) at the same ground of Terrassa.

[hockey] IPL to Start a Day Before Hockey World Cup

The Indian Premier League III will start on 12th March, 2010, just a day before the final of the Hero Honda FIH World Cup. The FIH preponed the world cup due to fear of the IPL marring the popularity of the Hockey World Cup and the biggest event of hockey being left alone. But still the FIH fears that the IPL may spoil the party on the final day. 13th March being saturday, the IPL may even put two or three matches that day.

However the FIH can't shift the event any more earlier as the Winter Olympics will be taking place the previous week and two olympic sporting event can not be held at the same time. FIH will talk to BCCI and IPL about the situation and may request them to not to place any match on that day.

However if the IPL does not agree on that the hockey world cup final may be a small affair as India has so little chance of qualifying that far. It won't be possible to attract the cricket crazy Indian public to watch a hockey match not involving India. And the FIH won't like it as they have high estimate of financial gain from the event.

Sorry!!!!!

This Blog May Not Be Updated Regularly For A Few Days Currently Due To Certain Problems. Regular Coverage Will Soon Follow.

[tennis] Nehru Cup in Jeopardy Again

The problems with the Nehru Cup are not over yet. After the AIFF had decided to replace Thailand by Palestine now Palestine is being scrapped. Palestine Football board said that they can not send their main team as all the players are holidaying and will come back by the end of this month. They were sending a 'B' team consisting of players from the clubs of in and around Jerusalem. In reaction to this the AIFF decided to remove Palestine from this event. It may be remembered that Thailand was removed from the tournament because they were sending a U-19 team instead of their main team. Read more here.

The tournament will now be of round robin format with 5 teams and the new fixture will be released soon. The teams remainig now are last year's runners up Syria, Kyrgyzstan, Sri Lanka and Lebanon alongwith host and defending champions India.

[tennis] Somdev and Sania Gain in Rankings

The Indian top challengers in the world of tennis, Sania Mirza and Somdev Devvarman gained some places in the rankings. Somdev's third round appearence in the Legg Mason Tennis Classic in Washington helped him gain 13 places to reach 140 in the new rankings released this monday. While Sania gained 9 places to reach 74 by virtue of her final appearence in Vancouver Challenger last week, where she lost to Stephanie Dubois 6-1, 4-6, 4-6.

Washington semifinalist John Isner gained 25 places to reach 55 in the ATP ranking chart while Fernando Gonzalez swapped places with namesake Fernando Verdasco to go in top 10 from 11th position.

There are not many big movers in women's list other than Maria Sharapova who got into top fifty with the 49th position from 61 last week. The top ten in WTA tour remaned unchanged.