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Chiefs to face Sharks in Super 15 final
WELLINGTON: South Africa’s Sharks have crisscrossed
the globe to reach the final of the Super 15 rugby tournament
and now face one last, long journey to take on
the Waikato Chiefs in the first-ever final played in
Hamilton.
The Sharks were forced to travel 11,000 kilometers
(7,000 miles) from Durban to Brisbane for their quarterfinal
against the defending champion Queensland
Reds and, having passed that formidable obstacle, flew
another 11,000 km to Cape Town where on Saturday
they beat the top-ranked Stormers 26-19. Already travel-weary
and with a mounting air points balance, the
Sharks will board another flight this week for a further
11,000 km flight to Auckland followed by a 120 km (80
mile) bus trip to Hamilton on New Zealand’s North
Island where the Chiefs lie in wait.
The Chiefs reached the final for only the second
time in 17 years with a 20-17 win over the seven-time
champion Canterbury Crusaders as both semifinals fell
to the underdogs.
While the Chiefs won the New Zealand conference
and finished second behind the Stormers in the overall
standings they were still underdogs against the powerful
Crusaders, who were playing their 14th semifinal in
17 years and who had never previously lost a playoff
against a New Zealand opponent.
The victories of the Chiefs and Sharks over more
MIAMI GARDENS: Djamel Mesbah No. 15 of AC Milan is challenged by
(center) Eden Hazard No. 17 of Chelsea as (left) Mathieu Flamini
No.16 of AC Milan looks on during the Herbalife World Football
Challenge.—AP
Milan edge Chelsea 1-0
MIAMI: With several offseason player departures
and the absence of a top scorer, Urby
Emanuelson showed how valuable he is to AC
Milan.
Emanuelson scored in the 69th minute to
lift AC Milan to a 1-0 victory over Champions
League winner Chelsea in an exhibition
match Saturday night. “It always feels good to
score,” he said. “Tonight was a good test for
us. We played well and I’m happy that I scored
a goal.”
Emanuelson dribbled unmarked deep
toward the Chelsea penalty area and, as
defenders closed in, he sent a pass toward
the left wing to Stephan El Shaarawy.
Shaarawy returned an immediate pass to
Emanuelson, who beat Chelsea goalkeeper
Petr Cech with a shot near the 6-yard box.
“We were standing good on defense,
when we got the ball there was a lot of space
to go to the goal,” Emanuelson said.
Emanuelson has scored both AC Milan goals
in its two preseason matches. He also scored
the only goal in a 1-0 win over Schalke 04
Tuesday in Germany.
“Last year I played a lot of games and now
it’s a chance to build on that,” Emanuelson
said. “I want to feel important.”
Milan played without star striker Robinho,
who could not leave his native Brazil because
of a passport problem. Robinho is expected
to join the club for an exhibition match
against Real Madrid on Aug. 8 in New York.
“I’m very happy the way the team played,”
Milan coach Massimilano Allegri said. “This is
a team that has to grow and this was a very
good step.”
Eden Hazard had Chelsea’s best attempt to
draw level with 4 minutes remaining but his
free kick near the edge of the box sailed a
couple of feet above the crossbar.
highly-rated opponents led to the least likely of finals
in the least likely of venues. Hamilton, a rural service
and university town 120 kilometers south of Auckland,
is New Zealand’s fifth-largest city and the Chiefs draw
their players from the smallest population base among
the five New Zealand franchises.
On Friday, against all odds and expectations, they
stared down the formidably experienced Crusaders
whose appearance in the playoffs stages each season
is almost a tournament tradition.
In a physical and sometimes spiteful match, in
which clattering tackles led to errors and turnovers
from both sides, the Chiefs emphatically declared they
wouldn’t be intimidated by the Crusaders. They handed
out some rough justice throughout the match when
Canterbury players routinely infringed at rucks and
mauls, particularly targeting the All Blacks captain
Richie McCaw.
The match was punctuated by flare-ups among the
forward packs but South African referee Craig Joubert,
with admirable restraint, kept a lid on emotion and
didn’t issue a single yellow card in a tense match. The
Chiefs outscored the Crusaders two tries to one, with
all three tries coming in the first half. Prop Sona
Taumalolo scored his ninth try of the season in his 50th
match for the Chiefs to remain the leading New
Zealand try scorer in the tournament.
“This is what pre-seasons are for, these are
games to give young players a chance,”
Chelsea head coach Roberto DiMatteo said.
The match at Sun Life Stadium was played
before 57,748 fans, the highest of the 2012
Herbalife World Football Challenge and second-best
for a football game in the stadium’s
history.
“I’m not surprised because the four cities
we went to had great support from the fans,”
DiMatteo said after his team finished its fourmatch,
preseason tour in the U.S.
After a scoreless first half, both teams
sought in an immediate strike in the opening
minutes of the second half. In the 47th
minute, Milan goalkeeper Marco Amelia
stopped Hazard’s shot from 20 yards. Milan
nearly broke through 4 minutes later as
Emanuelson dribbled deep into the goal area
and flicked a shot that required Chelsea goalkeeper
Petr Cech’s diving save.
Amelio was tested again in the 53rd
minute when he stopped Frank Lampard’s
shot from 20 yards. Chelsea had the first scoring
opportunity of the match in the sixth
minute when John Terry’s shot deep in the
penalty area sailed above the crossbar.
The Blues controlled the ball for most of
the first 20 minutes but could not mount
additional scoring threats. Milan came into
the game midway through the first half with
several shots on Cech’s goal.
In the 26th minute, Bakaye Traore blasted
a shot near the large area that sailed a couple
of feet wide right. Boateng had another shot
from a similar distance that also went wide of
the right post. Traore pressured the Chelsea
backline again in the 33rd minute as his shot
from the right wing sailed above the crossbar.
Chelsea ended its North American tour with
just one win from its four matches.—AP
Wenger rues ‘fragile defence’
HONG KONG: Arsenal manager Arsene
Wenger said Sunday his side have “a lot of
work to do” defensively before they are ready
for the upcoming English Premier League
campaign, following a 2-2 draw in Hong
Kong.
The boss of the north London club said he
was disappointed with his “fragile” defence,
adding that several players who had taken
part in the club’s pre-season tour of Asia were
not yet ready to play in England’s top flight.
Wenger’s comments imply he may be
tempted to delve into the transfer market to
strengthen at the back, however he has a
number of experienced defenders at his disposal
who were left out of the tour because
of a lack of fitness.
“Defensively we looked fragile, especially
in the first half. In the second half not so
much because we weren’t challenged,”
Wenger said in the southern Chinese city following
the draw to local outfit Kitchee. “We
have a lot of work to do as a unit to defend
much better,” he added.
The club shipped five goals in their three
games in Asia, including one against a select
Malaysian side on Tuesday and two against
Manchester City in Beijing on Friday, much
more than Wenger would have liked.
“We let everybody play today and some
players are not yet at the level of the Premier
League,” he said. “It’s a learning process. If you
don’t do it in the pre-season, you never do it
you know, to give them a chance to see what
is requested at the top level.
“I played all the defenders during this tour
to see who is ready, who is not ready, and we
have (Bacary) Sagna and (Laurent) Koscielny
at home, (Per) Mertesacker at home, so we
have three experienced defenders at home.”
Arsenal started with a back four of Kieran
Gibbs, Johan Djourou, Ignasi Miquel and
Craig Eastmond. A capacity crowd of 40,000
filled Hong Kong Stadium to cheer on both
sides, in a match that was much more competitive
than some had anticipated.
Kitchee broke the deadlock after only seven
minutes when Spaniard Yago Gonzalez
Lopez neatly slotted the ball into the corner,
giving Arsenal goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny
no chance.
England international Theo Walcott then
pulled the match level on 23 minutes, passing
the ball casually into the net after it broke
kindly for him in the six-yard box.
Undeterred, Kitchee were ahead again
only five minutes later when left-back Daniel
Cancela Rodriguez lashed the ball into the
roof of the goal from around 12 yards, giving
the local side a 2-1 lead at half-time. Arsenal
pressed but their lack of firepower was evident
as they spurned a number of chances,
highlighting how crucial striker Robin van
Persie, left out of the tour after saying he
wanted to leave the club, is to the team.
On 77 minutes Arsenal had their equaliser,
however. Playmaker Gervinho skillfully took
the ball to the byline before cutting it back to
right-winger Thomas Eisfeld for the easiest of
tap-ins.—AFP
BUDAPEST: Lewis Hamilton delivered
a flawless drive from pole position to
the chequered flag to win yesterday’s
Hungarian Grand Prix for McLaren
and revive his challenge for this year’s
Formula One drivers’ world championship.
The 27-year-old Briton took control
of the race from the start and
stayed in front, pit stops apart, as he
resisted strong late pressure to come
home ahead of Finland’s Lotus driver
Kimi Raikkonen.
Hamilton’s win was his second of
the year and the 19th of his career.
Raikkonen pushed hard to find a way
of passing Hamilton in the closing
laps, but the Englishman resisted
despite having to fight to preserve his
worn tyres.
Raikkonen finished a strong second
ahead of his Lotus team-mate,
Frenchman Romain Grosjean, and
defending world champion Sebastian
Vettel of Red Bull. Current world
championship leader Fernando
Alonso of Ferrari came in fifth, with
Hamilton’s McLaren team-mate
Jenson Button finishing sixth. Alonso
stays on top of the drivers’ standings,
but Hamilton closed the gap and his
victory in the much improved
McLaren boosted his team’s hopes of
mounting a challenge for the title in
the second half of the season following
the annual summer break. After
11 of this year’s 20 races, Hamilton is
back in fourth place with 117 points
behind Alonso on 164, Webber on
124 and Vettel on 122. As they
climbed the podium, a grinning
Hamilton said to Raikkonen: “It’s just
like old times, Kimi.” Hamilton added:
When flanker Liam Messam ran onto a short offload
from Sonny Bill Williams to score Waikato’s second try
in the 32nd minute, he gave the Chiefs their largest
leading margin of 11 points at 17-6. But the Crusaders
hit back with a try to center Ryan Crotty on the tick of
halftime, closing the margin to 17-11 at the interval
and setting up a nerve-wracking second half in which
the only points came from penalties. Crusaders flyhalf
Dan Carter kicked two second half penalties for the
Crusaders to one by his All Blacks understudy Aaron
Cruden for the Chiefs. Carter, who surpassed 100
points for the season, had a chance to take the match
to extra time with a penalty four minutes from fulltime
but his attempt, from 45 meters, fell short.
“Their try before halftime certainly made the game
interesting,” Chiefs captain Craig Clarke said. “They talk
about good teams scoring before and after halftime
and we talked about having to come out in the second
half and be strong.”
The Chiefs disrupted Canterbury’s usually fluent
attacking game by dashing up quickly on defense and
placing intense pressure on Carter and scrumhalf Andy
Ellis. Their ability to maintain that intensity throughout
the match, especially in the desperate final minutes
when Carter tried to set up a dropped goal, won the
match.
“From a forward’s point of view, looking up from a
“An amazing day, fantastic work by all
the team and the fans have been fantastic.
Thank you for having us.
“I am looking forward to the continuation
of the championship.
There’s a long way to go and a lot of
work to do but we have shown we
can compete. It is very, very close but
we are going to give it all we can.” A
less than ecstatic Raikkonen said that
a problem with his car’s kinetic energy
recovery system (Kers) was partly
to blame for his inability to catch
Hamilton.
“We came second, it’s not enough,
but we had some problems with the
set piece and seeing our backs getting up and smashing
guys does wonders,” Clarke said.
The Sharks also defended with courage to hold out
a late rally by the Stormers and to book their latest airline
ticket for the final. The Stormers seemed out of the
match when JP Pietersen’s try gave the Sharks a 14
point lead with 20 minutes remaining. But Gio Aplon
scored for the Stormers seven minutes later and the
home team pressed relentlessly for the try that would
have leveled the scores.
The Sharks held on to complete one of the most
astonishing late season rallies in the history of Super
rugby. They seemed almost out of the reckoning with
only weeks remaining in the regular season but they
won three of their last four matches, beating both the
Stormers and three-time champions the Bulls, to grab
the sixth and last playoffs place.
They then toppled the Australian and South African
conference winners to reach the final and must now
beat the New Zealand conference champions to clinch
their first title. Neither the Sharks nor Chiefs have ever
won a Super rugby title.
Coach John Plumtree said the Sharks had resolved
during the break in the Super 15 schedule for June test
matches - three weeks before the end of the regular
season - to throw everything into a last-ditch bid to
make the playoffs.—AP
Kers,” said the Finn. “We had some
speed and we’ll try to win the next
race. At least we are up there all the
time and we put ourselves in a good
position but we are not happy until
we win.” His teammate Grosjean
added: “It was a fantastic race and we
were fighting for the win but we
wanted to get back onto the podium
with the two cars and that’s what we
did.”
On another hot day at the
Hungaroring, where the air temperature
was 32 degrees celsius and the
track temperature 45 degrees,
Hamilton had stayed cool at the start
MONDAY, JULY 30, 2012
Flawless Hamilton
wins Hungary GP
BUDAPEST: British Formula One winner Lewis Hamilton
of McLaren Mercedes (centre) celebrates with the trophy
on the winners’ podium, as second placed Finnish driver
Kimi Raikkonen of Lotus (left) and third placed French
driver Romain Grosjean of Lotus (right) looks on after
the Formula One Hungarian Grand Prix.—AP
when, after one aborted effort
because Michael Schumacher’s
Mercedes failed to start, he pulled
away from pole position and into the
lead. Behind him, with the race
reduced from 70 laps to 69 because of
the aborted first start, Schumacher
started from the pit lane and collected
a drive-through penalty for speeding
when he came in for an early tyre
change.
Schumacher ended a dreadful day
in 24th and last place, seven seconds
adrift of compatriot Timo Glock of
Marussia. Hamilton went on to build
up a lead of 2.1 seconds ahead of
Grosjean, but that lead was cut down
to less than a second as the
Frenchman, on used softer tyres,
closed on Hamilton, running on harder
medium tyres.
In the searing heat, tyre-wear and
management was a major factor and
Hamilton’s teammate Button made a
second pit stop after 35 laps to
change to soft tyres.
McLaren had changed to a “plan B”
for Button, understood to be a threestop
strategy instead of two, although
Hamilton stuck to a two-stop plan.
As Hamilton pitted again,
Raikkonen enjoyed a spell in the lead
before making another stop of his
own in the hope that his fresher tyres
would give him an advantage in the
closing laps.
Hamilton’s lead increased to 4.4
seconds from Raikkonen and
Grosjean with 20 laps remaining and,
although the rapid Finn ate away at
that gap, Hamilton battled successfully
to preserve his tyres and win the
race.—AFP
10 Kuwaiti players shine at Manchester
United’s training program in England
Al-Khudhur recalled by United’s Soccer School for further training
KUWAIT: VIVA, Kuwait’s newest and
most advanced mobile telecommunications
service provider, yesterday
announced the return of the 10 players
who visited and practiced at
Manchester United’s Cardington training
ground in England as part of the
five-season sponsorship agreement
VIVA has with this world leading football
club. All the players enjoyed a fully
funded week-long training camp in
Manchester, being trained by the
team’s best coaches, and playing a
game at Old Trafford, the club’s main
stadium.
Khaled Faisal Al Khudhur was the
star of the trip; his display of football
skills and talents has persuaded MUSS
coaches, to recall him to train at their
facility in the future.
VIVA held an honoring ceremony
for the 10 players at its headquarters
on their return to recognize their
efforts during the training course.
Commenting on the occasion, Eng.
Salman Bin Abdul Aziz Al Badran,
VIVA’s Chief Executive Officer at VIVA
said: “We are very proud of each and
every player who went to MUSS and
demonstrated their skills, and particularly
Khaled Faisal Al Khudhur, whose
unique talents were noted by the distinguished
MUSS coaches.
“We were pleased to support all
these young athletes in bringing them
closer to their dream of becoming
professional football players. VIVA is
very committed to encouraging
young people to develop their talents
and hone their skills, and the
Manchester United program is just
one of the many ways in which we
attempt to do this.”
The top 10 players who trained at
the Manchester United Soccer School
(MUSS) from 8 July to 15 July were:
Abdullah Meshari Al Yehia, Khaled
Faisal Al Khudhur, Ali Mohamed Ali Al
Mutawa, Sayed Abdullah Abdel Reda,
Abdelrahman Adel Al Attar, Ali
Mansour Abdullah Abl Sadeq, Bader
Waleed Bader Al Qanaei, Meteb Fahad
Nahar Al Mutairi, Duaij Al Duaij, and
Mahmoud Mohamed Jawad Abdullah
Sadeq. Each of the players received
practical sessions on football skills and
football tactics, workshops on football
formations, nutrition and psychology.
The training program focused on different
technical areas, such as dribbling,
short passing, turning and finishing.
The programs were also
designed to develop young players’
skills in other fields, such as tactical
understanding, and mental, physical
and social growth. In 2011, VIVA
announced a five-year sponsorship
agreement of Manchester United,
starting with the 2011- 2012 Premier
League season. In August 2011 VIVA
started to provide football fans with
the chance to win VIP tickets to watch
Manchester United play at Old
Trafford in England. To support its
sponsorship, VIVA has also developed
a number of exciting promotional
offers and distinguished gifts, entertaining
programs, interactive competitions,
and organized a number of
activities to provide the subscribers
with chances to watch the club stars
playing matches at Old Trafford.