[football] Arsenal Defeats Atletico Madrid 2-1

Arsenal defeated Atletico Madrid 2-1 in the Emirates cup on Saturday. Arsenal dominated the first half even without Fabregas and Arshavin. However they could not find the opportunity to score any goal in the first 45 minutes. In the second half Atletico came back into the match and showed some classy football with a lots of passing. However Arsenal got the first goal of the match at the 83rd minute with Arshavin knocking in from a Fabregas pass, both of whom came to the pitch in the second half. Atletico drew level within 3 minutes with German Pacheco beat the goalkeeper in a one-on-one after recieving a great through ball. Within next 3 minutes Arshavin took advantage of a defensive lapse when he intercepted a back pass to the goalkeeper Sergio Asenjo and scored a spectacular goal from almost the goal line after taking a great first touch.

In the other match Rangers defeated Paris Saint German 1-0 with Bougherra scoring the goal at the 76th minute.

Tomorrow Atletico will play PSG and Arsenal will face Rangers in th second round of matches.

Chelsea scored two goals at 89th and 90th minutes to draw 2-2 from 0-2 down at Reading. Manchester City also came back by a Petrov goal to draw 1-1 at Barnley.

Later tonight Barcelona faces LA Galaxy in their USA tour.

[tennis] ATP Tour: Semi Final Line up

ATP Studena Croatia Open, Gstaad:

Juan Carlos Ferreo(esp,5) vs Andreas Seppi(ita,7) Head-to-head: 0-2

Nikolay Davydenko(rus,1) vs Jurgen Melzer(aut,4) Head-to-head: 4-1

Allianz Suiss Open, Umag:

Marcos Daniel(bra) vs Andreas Beck(ger) Head-to-head: 0-0

Thomaz Bellucci(bra,Q) vs Igor Andreev(rus,5) Head-to-head: 0-0

LA Tennis Open, Los Angeles:

Carsten Ball(aus,Q) vs Leonardo Mayer(arg) Head-to-head: 0-0

Tommy Haas(ger,1) vs Sam Query(USA,6) Head-to-head: 3-1

[tennis] Serena Loses to Stosur in Stanford

Top seeded Serena Williams lost to Samantha Stosur 2-6,6-3,2-6 in the Quarter Final match of the Bank of West Classic in Stanford. Stosur will now meet the Marion Bartoli who defeated 3-6,7-6(3),6-3. In the other semifinal third seed Elena Dementieva will meet Venus Williams. Dementieva defeated Daniela Huntuchova 6-2,6-4 while Venus defeated Maria Sharapova 6-2,6-2.

In Istanbul Vera Dushevina, Andrea Petkovic, Lucie Hradecka and Timea Bascinszky reached the semifinals.

semi final line up:

Bank of West classic, Stanford:

Venus Williams(2) vs Elena Dementieva(3)

Samantha Stosur vs Marion Bartoli(8)

Istanbul Cup:

Timea Bascinszky vs Vera Dushevina(5)

Lucie Hradecka(8) vs Andrea Petkovic

[football] Juventus Defeats Real Madrid 2-1

Juventus will face Aston Villa in the final of the Peace Cup on 2nd of August. Juventus defeated Real Madrid in the second semifinal 2-1 while Aston Villa got the better of Porto by the same margin earlier.

Juventus started the match on high as they got their first goal in the 4th minute by a header of Cannavaro of a Del Piero free kick. They got close to scoring the second in the first half only when Amauri's shot on goal was stopped on the goalline by Metzelder. On the rebound Amauri dodged past the goalkeeper but was stopped by a last moment tackle by Pepe. Real Madrid put their whole effort and were rewarded at the 41st minute when Raul earned a penalty when tackled by Chiellini in the box. Ronaldo converted the penalty to score his second penalty conversion in last two matches. However just at the beginning of the second half as Salihmidzic found the net heading on a corner kick. Real Madrid searched for an equaliser as Drenthe led the attack from the left side and Ronaldo showed some flashes of brilliance. But the performance of the defence line will remain a headache for coach Pellegrini as both the goals could be stopped by a more alert defence.

Earlier Aston Villa took a frist half lead of 2-0 with Heskey and Sidwell scoring. In the second half Heskey was sent off but Porto could not take full advantage of their number as they ggot their goal in the 90th minute only by a penalty conversion by Hulk. But that was not enough for them to win the match.

lineup Real Madrid - Juvenus:

RM: dudek; torres, pepe, metzelder, drenthe; granero, diara, guti(gago); raul(Negredo), ronaldo, benzema(Higuain).

Juve: buffon ; grygera, chiellini, cannavaro(legrotaglie), salihmidzic; giovinco(zantti), felipe melo, thiago, cameronessi; amauri,del piero(marrone)

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[football] India Wins The Second Practice Match in Barcelona

Finally the Indian football team got the taste of winning as beat Spanish third division club AE Prata 2-0 on thursday. Both the goals were scored by Abhishek Yadav in the second half. Abhishek scored goals from the passes of Renedy Singh and Deepak Mondal in the 60th and 71st minutes.

India next play Esportiu Europa on saturday.

After coming back from Spain Indian team will play in the Nehru Cup as the defending champions.

India Lineup: Subrata Pal, Surkumar Singh (Deepak Mondal 46’), Anwar (Govin Singh 46’), Gouramangi Singh (Mahesh Gawli 46’), N.S.Manju (N.Mohanraj 46’), Steven Dias (Renedy Singh 46’), Climax Lawrence (Mehrajuddin Wadoo 46’), N.P.Pradeep (Jagpreet Singh 46’), Anthony Pereira (Clifford Miranda 46’), Sushil Kumar Singh (Syed Rahim Nabi 46’), Bhaichung Bhutia (Abhishek Yadav 46’)

source: goal.com

[football] Bayern Defeats Man U in Penalties

Bayern Munich won the Audi Cup in their home ground defeating Manchester United 7-6 in the penalties after the 90 minutes ended goalless. Bayern dominated the proceeding throughout the match but couold not find the net. Manchester United also got a few chances but the match was destined to go for a shootout. It was in the 8th shot that Jonathan Evans missed and Van Buyten scored Bayern got their win. Earlier Patrice Evra and Daniel Pranjic missed their shots. It was Man U's first loss in all their pre season matches this summer. They won all the previous matches last month.

In the match for the third position AC Milan faced another defeat in the hands of Boca Juniors. This match also went to the penalty shootouts as Viatri equalised for Boca at the 83rd minute after Thiago put Milan forward in the 23rd minute. Milan is still to win a match in their pre-season tour this year. In the shootout Pato and Pirlo missed their shots as Boca won 4-3.

In the Peace Cup Real Madrid faces Juvetus today in the first semifinal while Aston Villa will face Porto in the other.

[football] Hleb, Keirrison and Caceres Goes on Loan

Aliaksandre Hleb, Keirrison and Martin Caceres will leave the Nou Camp for a year on loan with various clubs. Hleb, who couldn't find a place in the starting eleven in the last year was linked with the Ibrahimovic-Eto'o deal. However the Belarussian decided to go back to his previous club VFB Stutgart where he played 5 years (2000-05). Keirrison, Barcelona's new Brazilian signing will leave on loan to Benfica for some exposure before ho rejoins the club. While defender Martin Caceres is going to join Juventus for their campaign to gain the Serie A title with a lot of new faces like Diego and Felipe Melo.

Meanwhile the rivals Real Madrid looks all set to sell Gabriel Heinze to trim their expanding squad. With Xabi Alonso putting the appeal to be transferred, their chances of getting him looks better now. Heinze is set to move to Olympique Marseile who already signed another player from the liga, Fernando Morientes.

[hockey] India Lost to Britain 3-1

The Indian team lost the first match on the European tour 3-1 against Great Britain. The British player started scoring goals from the first minute with Ben Hawes sounding the board. India retaliated in the 8th minute and scored through Dhananjay Mahadhik. However Britain scored two more goals in 18th and 68th minutes with Barry middleton and Richard Smith. britain got 10 penalty corners in the match. India missed a lot of chances and penalty corners. The next match is to be played on friday in Birmingham.

next matches:

vs Britain:

31st July, 2nd August

vs Belgium:

4th,5th and 7th August

vs Spain:

9th, 10th and 12th August

vs Netherlands:

14th and 16th August

[football] Manchester United Face Bayern in Audi Cup Final

Manchester United will face hosts Bayern Munich in the Audi Cup final on thursday. Manchester United defeated Boca Juniors 2-1 with Anderson and Valencia scoring for them while Insua scored for Argentine side. In another match Bayern Munich thrashed AC Milan 4-1. Muller scored twice for the Bavarians and Schwensteiger and Sosa found the net once in the match. For Milan Pirlo scored the only goal. AC Milan has not yet won any of their pre season matches yet.

In the Bernabeau stadium Aston Villa and Porto qualified for the semis. Villa needed a win by 2 goals and managed to win 3-1. While Porto drew 0-0 and qualified as the group topper. They join Real Madrid and Juventus in the semifinals to be played on 31st July.

Mary Kom, Vijender and Sushil Get Rajiv Khel Ratna

Four time world champion boxer MC Mary Kom, Olympic Bronze medallists boxer Vijender Kumar and Wrestler Sushil Kumar jointly won the Rajiv Khelratna Award. It is the first time that this award is shared by 3 people. Earlier in 1996-97 and 2002-03 two players shared this. This year Mary Kom was nominated by the award panel but due to the controversy arising from neglecting the Olympic Bronze winners in the award list, the ministry of sports affairs included the names of Vijender and Sushil.

List of awardees:

Rajiv Khel Ratna: M.C. Marykom (boxer), Vijender Kumar (boxer) and Sushil Kumar (wrestling)

Arjuna Award: Mangal Singh Champia (archery), Sinimol Paulose (athletics), Saina Nehwal (badminton), L. Saritha Devi (boxing), Tania Sachdeva (chess), Gautam Gambhir (cricket), Ignatius Tirkey (hockey), Surinder Kaur (hockey), Pankaj Shirsat (kabaddi), B. Prabhu (physically challenged), Satish Joshi (rowing), Ranjan Sodhi (shooting), Poulami Ghatak (table tennis), Yogeshwar Dutt (wrestling), G.L. Yadav (yatching)

Dronacharya Award: Baldev Singh (hockey), Jaidev Bisht (boxing), Satpal (wrestling), Pullela Gopichand (badminton) and Udaikumar (kabaddi).

[football] Kolo Toure Joins City, Arbeloa Goes Madrid

Kolo Toure is joining the Eastlands revolutions to join his teammate Adebayour there. It is heard Toure is joining Manchester City with a transfer fee of 16 million pounds. And this takes the summer spending of City to a whooping 95 million pounds. Toure is expected to sign a four year deal if he passes the medical test there. The Citizens are looking at their backline after strenghthening their forward line to one of the best in EPL. After their failed bid to sign John Terry they will try their luck on Everton centre back Lescott. With all these spendings Manchester City is becoming a heavy contender for at least a top four finish which had been locked between the so-called big four in the last few years. Arsenal is expected to sell Emanuel Ebou too and try for Real Madrid outcast Klas Jan Huntelaar.

In another move from a top EPL club, Liverpool right back Alvaro Arbeloa will go back to his childhood club Real Madrid. Arbeloa is said to have passed the medical there. He joins the biggest spender of the summer who have already signed Ronaldo, Kaka , Benzema and Albiol and pondering over Arbeloa's teammate Xabi Alonso. The Arbeloa deal is around 4 million euro.

Peter Crouch joined Tottenham Hotspurs from Portsmouth.

source:goal.com

[football] Ronaldo Scored His First Goal For Madrid

Cristiano Ronaldo scored his first goal for his new club Real Madrid through a penalty conversion in the 50th minute in the Peace Cup group league match on tuesday. Real won the match 4-2 against LDU with Alvaro Negredo also finding the net. However they did not play their other big signing Kaka in this match too. In another match Juventus won 3-0 against the Korean side Seongam Alhwa. Both Real and Juventus qualified for the semis. In the other groups Porto needs a draw against Besiktas while Aston Villa must win by the margin of 2 goals against Atlanta today. Olympic Lyon and Malaga have no chance of reaching the semis from these groups.

[hockey] Hero Honda Title Sponsor of Hockey World Cup 2010

Hero Honda will be he title sponsor for the 2010 hockey world cup to be held in Delhi in March next year. FIH president Leandro Negre said the deal is around 1 million dollar and the trophy will be named 'Hero Honda FIH World Cup 2010'.

World Cup is won by just 5 teams with Pakistan leading the pack with 4 and Netherlands following with 3. Last times champions Germany won two while India and Australia won once each. 12 teams will be in fray next year to win the 12 world cup next year.

Mr Negre said there is no concern on the security in India.

He also said the FIH is thinking of giving India and Pakistan wild card entry in the top level events becuse of their blazing past. However they will not get any ranking points for the wild card tournaments.

It seems a bit of money can bring India in the driver's seat of FIH like the case of ICC.

[football] Zlatan Eto'o Transfer Complete

At last it is now official and Samuel Eto'o and Zlatan Ibrahimovic are presented in each others club. It is said that Eto'o was priced at 20 million euro while Zlatan was sold for 67.5 million euro. Barcelona paid 43.25 m in cash along with Samuel Eto'o and also included Alex Hleb for a one year loan. It is heard that the Blaugranas will pay 70 per cent of Hleb's fees while he plays for Inter.

While Zlatan said he is not in Barca to replace Eto'o, the Cameroonian also reflected similar views that he should not be marked as next Ibra for Inter.

However the Barca fans may not see Ibra in action with the team untill mid-august as he is going to have a surgery on his rist fractured during practice match against Chelsea. It is expected he will be on field against Manchester City in the gamper Cup on 19th August.

It is a big debate which team is in profit from this transfer with both performing well for their teams. But finally one of the most talked about transfer of the season was completed at last.

The players on whom we can still put eye are Xabi Alonso, Arbeloa, Kolo Toure and most probably Cesc Fabregas.

[tennis] WTA: This Week Preview

Bank Of The West Classic

Tier: International

Prize Money: $700,000

Surface: Hard

Top Seeds:

1.Serena Williams,2

2.Venus Williams,3

3.Elena Dementieva,4

Other Top Players:

Jelena Jankovic, Nadia Petrova, Dominika Cibulkova, Agneiska Radwanska, Marion Bartoli, Maria Sharapova.

Official Website:

http://www.bankofthewestclassic.com/site4.aspx

Istanbul Cup

Tier: International

Prize Money: $220,000

Surface: Hard

Top Seeds:

1.Vera Zonareva,7

2.Patty Schnyder,19

3.Anabel Garriguess Medina,20

Other Top Players:

Aravane Rezai,Yaroslava Shvedova.

Official Website:

http://www.istanbulcup.com/ENG_Default.aspx

[tennis] ATP Tour: This Week Preview

Allianz Suisse Open

Category: ATP World Tour 250

Place: Gstaad, Switzerland

Date: 26.07.2009-02.08.2009

Surface: Clay

Prize Money: $ 450,000

Top Seeds:

1.Stanislas Warwinka,18

2.Phillip Kohlschreibber,24

3.Igor Andreev,28

Other Top Players:

Victor Hansecu, Nicolas Kiefer, Paul-Henry Mathieu, Mikhail Youzhny, Gaston Gaudio.

Defending Champion:

Victor Hansecu.

Official Website:

http://www.allianzsuisseopengstaad.com/en/

LA Tennis Open

Category: ATP World Tour 250

Place: Los Angeles, U.S.A.

Date: 27.07.2009-02.08.2009

Surface: Hard

Prize Money: $ 700,000

Top Seeds:

1.Tommy Haas ,20

2.Mardy Fish,22

3.Dmitry Tursunov,27

4.Dudi Sela,29

Other Top Players:

Marat Safin, Sam Querry, Benjamin Becker.

Defending Champion:

Juan Martin Del Potro.

Official Website:

http://www.latennisopen.com/

ATP Studena Croatia Open

Category: ATP World Tour 250

Place: Umag, Croatia

Date: 27.07.2009-02.08.2009

Surface: Clay

Prize Money: $ 450,000

Top Seeds:

1.Nikolay Davydenko,12

2.David Ferrer,23

3.Viktor Troicki,26

Other Top Players:

Jurgen Melzer, Juan Carlos Ferrero.

Defending Champion:

Fernando Verdasco.

Official Website:

http://www.croatiaopen.hr/daily-news---/today.aspx

[tennis] Safina And Petkovic Wins Finals

World number one Dinara Safina won her third title of the year by defeating Sara Errani in a close match in the final of Banka Kober Slovenia Open. Safina won the match in 2 hour and 53 minutes 6-7(5), 6-1, 7-5.

In Portoroz, Andrea Petkovic defeated Romanian Ioana Raluca Olaru 6-2,6-3 in 1 hour 29 minutes to win the Nurnberger Gaastein Ladies title. Before coming to this tournament her tour record was 3-8 with just 3 wins in the Grand Slam first rounds in Paris and US in 2007 and in Australia this year. This win shooted her to 61st rank from 98 last week.

Andrea Petkovic.

[tennis] Davydenko, Ginepri Win in Hamburg and Indianapolis

Russian Nikolay Davydenko won his first title in over a year by defeating Paul-Henry Mathieu 6-4,6-2 in the final of the International German Open. The win keeps the world no 12 in contention for the year end ATP Tour Final, previously known as Sanghai Masters.

While in Indianapolis Robby Ginepri defeated 3rd seed Sam Querry 6-2,6-4 in the all American final on Sunday. This is the third ATP tour title for the American. For Querry it was second consecuive lose in final as he lost to Rajeev Ram in the New Port two weeks ago.

The losers in the finals were the biggest gainers in the ranking list coming out this week. Sam Querry jumped 5 places to 32 while Paul-Henry Mathieu jumped 11 places to 28.

Indian top ranked player Somdev Dev Varman slipped 25 places to 152 after the new rankings came out.

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

With both Milan teams coming to play the last match of the pre season tournament wihtout a win, Inter managed to salvage some pride by defeating the city rivals 2-0. Both the goals were scored by Diego Milito at 4th and 75th minute. AC Milan created some chances through Ronaldinho and Pirlo but could not manage to get past the goalkeeper.

Real Madrid could just manage to draw against Saudi side Al Ittihad in the Peace Cup. The match ended 1-1 with Raul opening the scoreline for Real at 55th minute and Aboucharoune levelling in just 8 minutes.

While Sevilla was stopped for a goalless draw by Seongam Ilhwa.

In other places, Atletico Madrid lost 0-2 to Sunderland while Ajax lost 2-3 against Benfica.

[football] Mexico Wins Gold Cup

After a very close first half Mexico showed an extravagant effort to score 5 goals in the second half of the CONCACAF Gold Cup final against USA. The introduction of Carlos Vela in the second half gave them more attacking option and soon they were in control of the match. Clicking the scoreline at 55th minute through a penalty by Torrado they continued their dominance till the 90th minute when Franco scored.

goal scorers: G. Torrado 55th, Giovanni 62nd, C. Vela 66th, J Castro 78th, G Franco 89th.

Watch the goals here

[football] Barcelona Wins 4-1

FC Barcelona defeats Al Ahly 4-1 in the Wembley Cup in the Wembley Stadium on Sunday. Barcelona fans saw Lionell Messi in action in the second half. Bojan, Ruedo, Jeffren and Pedro scored for the Catalan side while El Egezi was the only scorer from the other side.

Tottenham Hotspurs are trailing again in todays match against Celtic after letting in 2 goals in the first half.

Manchester United and Liverpool recorded thumping win over Asian side with the scorelines reading 8-2 and 5-0 respectively.

[tennis] Safina in the Final

World no 1 Dinara Safina set up a final clash with defending champion Sara Errani in the Banka Koper Slovenia Open.

Safina defeated 29 year old Alberta Brianti 6-4,6-3 while Sara blew away 19 year old Stefanie Voegele 6-1,6-2.

Sara, who has 9-0 record at Portoroz, will have to reverse the result of their only previous to make it a perfect ten.

In Bad Gaastein WTA is going to have a first time titlist as both Romania's Ioana Raluca Olaru and German Andrea Petkovic will be playing their first WTA tour final. Petkovic defeated Shvedova 6-2,6-1 in the semis while Olaru got the better of top seed Alize Cornet 3-6,7-5,6-2 in the other.

[tennis] Paes is the Most Valued Player in WTT

Indian tennis ace Leander Paes, playing for Washington Kastels in the World Team Tennis in the USA was adjudged as the Most Valued Player(MVP) of the WTT. Its a great achievement for the Indian as the WTT boasts of names like Serena and Venus Williams, John McEnroe, Michael Chang Sharapova and Andre Agassi.

Paes' team Kastels will play Springfield Lasers in the final after defeating John McEnroe's New York Sportimes 22-19. While the Lasers defeated Maria Sharapova's New Port Beach Breakers 20-19.

It may be remebered that McEnroe had a verbal duel with Paes when one of his shots hit Robert Kendrick in the doubles match.

The final will be played on 26th July, 5 pm EST.

source:timesofindia.indiatimes.com

[football] India Draw First Practice Match in Barcelona

The Indian football team drew 1-1 against a Spanish third division club FC Casteldefels in barcelona. India opened the scoreline with Surkumar Singh scoring the goal in 24th minute. But a penalty caused by NS Manju cost them them the lead at the 56th minute.

India play the next match on 27th.

team:

Subrata Pal, Surkumar Singh (Deepak Mondal 46'), Gouramangi Singh (Mahesh Gawli 46'), Anwar (Mehrajuddin Wadoo 46'), N.S. Manju (N.Mohanraj 73'), Steven Dias (Renedy Singh 46'), N.P. Pradeep (Baldeep Singh Jr. 46', Climax Lawrence (Rakesh Masih 46'), Anthony Pereira (Clifford Miranda 46'), Bhaichung Bhuita (Abhishek Yadav 46'), Sushil Kumar Singh (Syed Rahim Nabi 46')

source: goal.com

[football] Malaga Win, Lyon Draw in Peace Cup

Malaga defeated Aston Villa 1-0 by the only goal of Fernando at 77th minute in the Peace Cup in Madrid on saturday.

In the other match, Olympique Lyon drew 1-1 with Besiktas with Kallstorm(Lyon,65th min) and Nobre(85th min) scoring the goals for them.

Elsewhere Valencia drew 1-1 against Borrussia with Jordi Alba findin the net for them and Fellipe Santana finding for the opponents

Marseille drew 1-1 versus Toluose FC in Marseille.

[tennis] Its Mathieu vs Davydenko in Hamburg

World No. 39 Paul-Henry Mathieu reached his first ATP World Tour final since October 2008 after fighting past Uruguayan qualifier Pablo Cuevas 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 in the semi-finals of the International German Open, an ATP World Tour 500 tennis tournament in Hamburg.

In the final Mathieu will meet Russian No. 2 seed Nikolay Davydenko, who edged past Spaniard David Ferrer 7-5, 7-6(2). It was a match of missed opportunities for the sixth-seeded Ferrer, who served for both the first and second sets at 5-3 but was unable to capitalise on his chances as Davydenko fought back each time to claim victory after two hours and 13 minutes and improve to a 2-1 career lead against the Spaniard.

World No. 12 Davydenko will contest his first ATP World Tour final since November 2008, when he finished runner-up to Novak Djokovic at Tennis Masters Cup Shanghai – now the Barclays ATP Tour finals to be held at the O2 Arena in London. The right-hander has a 14-5 mark in ATP World Tour finals and takes a 3-3 head-to-head record into the clash with Mathieu, whom he lost to in their most recent clash at the Beijing Olympics in August 2008.

[tennis] Query And Ginepri Set up All American Final At Indianapolis

Big-serving American Sam Queryadvanced to his second consecutive final – and third of the 2009 ATP World Tour season – by defeating Canadian Frank Dancevic 6-4, 6-4 at theIndianapolis Tennis Championship Saturday.

Sunday's Indianapolis final will be an all-American affair, with Querrey meeting Robby Ginepri, who took out 6' 9" countryman John Isner 6-4, 6-3. Ginepri blunted Isner’s powerful first serve with consistently strong returns, and saved all five break points he faced on his own serve while breaking Isner twice. Ginepri clipped 20 winners and made just seven unforced errors.

Ginepri did not play an ATP World Tour event between Memphis in mid February and the ARAG ATP World Tour Championships in mid May after being hospitalised for nine days in March with appendicitis, which saw him lose 30 pounds.