Japan's women stun USA in World Cup final Twice behind in the final, Japan fight back to beat favourites on penalties, becoming first Asian side to win the title. Against all the odds, Japan announced themselves to the world as a new force in women's football by defeating the USA in the World Cup final on Sunday. The exciting final in front of a sell-out crowd in Frankfurt was a great showcase for the women's game with the Americans and Japanese battling their way into a penalty shootout. With the score tied at 2-2 after added time, Japan went on to win the shootout 3-1 when Saki Kumagai slotted the final shot high past goalkeeper Hope Solo. While the Americans lashed out from the spot the Japanese showed a calm that has been one of their trademarks throughout the tournament. Japan's passing skills and teamwork has led to people comparing the team to Barcelona and they lived up to this praise in the final stages of the match. Although it certainly was not easy. Japan survived an early onslaught from the United States and then had to twice come from behind to ensure it was a penalty shootout that would decide the victors on the day. Never giving up Japan were outplayed in the first 20 minutes and it looked like the United States would soon be adding another World Cup trophy to their 1991 and 1999 wins. However, it wasn't until the 69th minute that Alex Morgan put the US ahead with a stunning solo effort, stylishly directing the ball into the net. Against the run of play, Japan scored a goal out of nothing in the 81st minute when American defenders Rachel Buehler and Alex Krieger failed to clear a ball, allowing star Japan player Aya Miyama to sneak in and slot home from close range past Solo. Japan came back into the game late in regulation time, but the Americans kept hustling and pressuring and it finally paid off when Alex Morgan sent a pinpoint cross to the towering Wambach in the 104th minute. The forward didn't even have to lift a foot to send her header past goalkeeper Ayumi Kaihori from six yards. The goal gave Wambach four for the tournament, and it looked good enough for the title. She had scored in the last minute of extra time with a header against Brazil, setting up the shootout win in the quarter-finals, and a goal against France in the semi-finals. But in this thrilling final it turned out there was much more to come. With three minutes of extra time left, 32-year-old Japan captain Homare Sawa flicked a corner through a jumble of players and past Solo to equalise and set up the shootout. After coming so far in a tournament they were never expected to feature heavily in, it seemed destined to be that Japan would walk away as champions. As well as fighting to become the first Asian nation to win the women's tournament the team were also fighting to bring some joy to their earthquake-striken nation. "We ran and ran. We were exhausted but we kept running," said Sawa, the top scorer in the tournament with five goals. "Not one of the players gave up,'' coach Norio Sasaki said. It was a fairy tale victory for Japan who have been spurned on in the tournament by the devastation caused to their country by the March earthquake and tsunami. Japan coach Norio Sasaki had shown the players photos of the damage to heighten their focus and determination before they met the hosts Germany in the quarter-finals. It did the trick then, and it seemed to have focused Japan on producing performances that would lift their supporters back at home. The Japanese team have been fighting for much more than a trophy, they have been playing for pride and hope. And after defeating the well-fancied hosts Germany and the USA - a superpower in women's football - they will deservedly return back to Japan as heroes.
AND FINALLY Manchester United Wayne Rooney has described a Malaysian fan who sat in a stand full of Liverpool fans wearing a replica shirt bearing his name as a "legend" on Twitter. Full story: Metro Aly Cissokho to complete £9m Liverpool transfer 'within days' Aly Cissokho is set to complete a £9million transfer from Lyon to Liverpool in the next few days, according to reports in France. Read more: http://www.metro.co.uk/sport/footba...-liverpool-transfer-within-days#ixzz1SVbazcOD
FIFA bans Mohammed bin Hammam for life http://www.smh.com.au/sport/football/fifa-bans-mohammed-bin-hammam-for-life-20110724-1huuk.html Asian football supremo Mohammed bin Hammam was on Saturday banned from the game for life after being found guilty of corruption following a two-day hearing of FIFA's ethics committee. The 62-year-old Qatari, the president of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), had been accused of trying to buy votes in the FIFA presidential election with $US40,000 ($A37,000) cash gifts to Caribbean football officials. "The official Mr Bin Hammam is hereby banned from taking part in any kind of football-related activity at national or international level for life," announced ethics committee deputy chairman Petrus Damaseb. Advertisement: Story continues below Bin Hammam did not attend the hearing, which took place behind closed doors at FIFA headquarters in Zurich, but he told AFP in a telephone conversation on Saturday evening that he intended to appeal. He specified that the first step would consist of making an appeal to FIFA, but he has previously declared that he is prepared to take his case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) and, if necessary, the civil courts. Bin Hammam, the most high-ranking FIFA figure to be convicted of corruption, also reacted to the decision on his blog by publishing a scanned copy of a personal letter sent to him by FIFA president Sepp Blatter in 2008. In the letter, which Blatter addressed to "My dear brother," Bin Hammam highlighted a phrase in which the 75-year-old Swiss had written: "Without you, dear Mohammed, none of this would ever have been possible". Below the letter were the words: "This is only the battle, not the war..." -- suggesting that he holds Blatter at least partly responsible for his fate. The head of Bin Hammam's legal team, Eugene Gulland, read out a statement from him after the verdict was announced. "Mr Bin Hammam rejects the findings of the FIFA ethics committee hearing and maintains his innocence," said Gulland. "He will continue to fight his case through the legal routes that are open to him. "The FIFA ethics committee has apparently based its decision on so-called 'circumstantial evidence', which our case has clearly demonstrated was bogus and founded on lies told by senior FIFA officials." Whistle-blowers said Bin Hammam tried to bribe officials to vote for him by distributing cash-stuffed envelopes during a Caribbean Football Union (CFU) meeting in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, on May 10-11. CFU officials Debbie Minguell and Jason Sylvester, also being investigated by the ethics committee over claims they helped hand out the money, were each banned from football-related activity for a year. In addition, Damaseb revealed that the committee had rejected an accusation of racial discrimination made by CFU members against CONCACAF general secretary Chuck Blazer, who sparked the initial investigation into the bribery claims. However, Blazer was warned over comments he made at a CONCACAF meeting on May 30 that certain CFU members were "under investigation", which FIFA said was "not true". Former FIFA vice-president and CONCACAF president Jack Warner was also charged over his alleged role in the affair, but his resignation from FIFA last month prompted the organisation to drop all the charges against him. Damaseb admitted that Warner's absence from the proceedings was a matter of regret. "Mr Jack Warner chose to resign and by that action he placed himself beyond the jurisdiction of this committee," said Damaseb. "Everyone would have wanted him to appear and face the charges and explain his conduct, but he chose not to do that." Damaseb also said that the evidence reviewed by the committee during the hearing had yielded grounds for investigations into the conduct of other parties, but he did not reveal who they were. Bin Hammam's withdrawal from the presidential election gifted a fourth straight term in office to his former ally Blatter, who made cleaning up FIFA's tarnished image a post-election priority. The Qatari, who had been instrumental in winning the hosting rights of the 2022 World Cup for his tiny Gulf state, had expected to be punished by the ethics committee. "It seems likely that FIFA has already made its decision weeks ago," he wrote on his blog in the build-up to the hearing. "So none of us should be completely surprised if a guilty verdict is returned." Acting AFC president Zhang Jilong, the favourite to succeed Bin Hammam at the head of the organisation, said it was "a sad day for AFC and Asian football." He added: "AFC respects world football governing body FIFA's decision and we also acknowledge former AFC president Mohamed bin Hammam's inalienable right to lodge an appeal against the decision." AFP Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/sport/footbal...am-for-life-20110724-1huuk.html#ixzz1Szj0K57v
No news about the most obvious event yesterday night? Lions mauled the Tigers over the Causeway, 5 - 3. Looking forward to the return leg now, as well as Singapore's return to the Malaysia Cup. Always found the rivalry fiery and full of fire... well at least back then, it was.
A full crowd a stadium BKT Jalil later.. all 85 k tickets were sold out and im looking forward for the clash tonight. WHo will win between the battle of TIGER and LIOn??
Unfortunately ur guess was not correct this time. Our Tigers draw with Chaplang Lions 1-1, and crashed out from the competition..
Call me a dreamer but I hope INA or MAS can qualify. Football is so big in our region, just yesterday INA played in front of 100000 strong crowd.
and we played in front of 90000 strong crowd we might have failed yesterday but we have once again having faith in malaysia XI
Mas fielded 11 local-borned Malaysians. But how many Real Singaporeans were fielded in the match? It's Malaysia National Football team VS. Singapore FC.... Anyway, congrats to the winner. And i am proud of MAS team although they lost the game.
[TABLE] [TR] GROUP E[/TR] [TR="class: oddrow"] [TD]Iran [/TD] [/TR] [TR="class: evenrow"] [TD]Qatar [/TD] [/TR] [TR="class: oddrow"] [TD]Bahrain [/TD] [/TR] [TR="class: evenrow"] [TD]Indonesia [/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] INA will top the group!!
I personally won't use that against them as it is within their rights to although it points out the glaring problem of not having enough local talents coming through.
Winning is the most important thing in a competition. MAS lost to a better team. Congrats and all the best to Singapore.
Mouthwatering ties (on paper) in the U20 World Cup : Argentina - Portugal (playing now, looks set to go into overtime, penalty shootout likely) France - Nigeria Brazil - Spain Columbia - Mexico
