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JUNE 13, 2015
Iran wins Friendly Against
Uzbekistan
Klinsmann Sets U.S. on Path to
Higher Goals
DUESSELDORF, Germany (Reuters) - After stunning away wins
over two European superpowers, U.S.
coach Juergen Klinsmann’s “gettough” policy of taking on the world’s
best appears to be vindicated as his
side can look to the next World Cup
without an inferiority complex.
Iranian national football team defeated Uzbekistan in a friendly thanks to
an injury time goal by Mehdi Torabi.
TASHKENT (Press TV) - Iran’s newcomer Mehdi Torabi has scored a late goal to give Iran a much needed victory
against Uzbekistan in a warm-up for 2018 world Cup qualifications.
Torabi’s 93rd minute goal poured cold water on the Uzbeks in Tashkent’s Bunyodkor Stadium on Thursday.
The relatively young team assembled by Carlos Queiroz featured some debutants, including Torabi and Mohammad Hossein Kanani Zadegan, showing that the Portuguese is adamantly seeking to refurbish the Team
Melli.
Queiroz, who reached an agreement with Iran on the extension of his contract just recently, has seen his popularity diminish following reports that he demanded wages which did not match his 2014 World Cup performance.
Queiroz was pleased with the score line, saying winning a tough game against Uzbekistan, a powerhouse of
football in Asia, was an achievement for a team of such age and experience.
He said the Iranian team is going through a transition and many of the players do not have the necessary experience for playing in the national jersey.
The victory against Uzbekistan was a boost to Iran’s morale ahead of its June 16 match against Turkmenistan
as part of 2018 World Cup qualifications. Iran is favorite to top the Group D of the games, which also includes
Oman and Guam, two lesser known football outfits in the Asia region.
The U.S. came from behind twice
in the last five days to beat the
Netherlands 4-3 on Friday and then
World Cup winners Germany 2-1 on
Wednesday.
“Now you suddenly face Germany
or Holland or Switzerland in the
World Cup and there’s no fear any
more,” Klinsmann told Reuters.
The former Germany striker has
gone out of his way to schedule
friendlies against difficult opponents
in order to raise his team’s game and
hopes the tough competition will
help at next month’s Gold Cup.
“There’s still respect for the big
teams. You always have respect. But
there’s not too much respect anymore,” he said.
“I think psychologically it was really important for our players to see
that we can play against top teams
like Netherlands and Germany.
We’re not coming to Europe just to
defend. We’re here to take a game to
them and see what happens.”
Klinsmann, who coached Germany
from 2004 to 2006 before taking
over the U.S. job in 2011, knows it
is a perilous business to fill the calendar with matches against the very
best as poor results could give ammunition to critics.
“The only way to get better is to
play against the better teams,” he
said in an interview in Duesseldorf.
Germany, Portugal, Brazil Reach Quarterfinals at U20 WCup
WELLINGTON, New Zealand
(AP) - Former champions Germany,
Portugal and Brazil earned places
in the quarterfinals of the Under-20
World Cup on Thursday, bringing
more familiar names to a last-eight
lineup that includes a number of upstarts.
Mali, Senegal, the United States
and Serbia all made their way into
the quarters on Wednesday, and Uzbekistan became the fifth qualifier
Thursday before the more traditional powers asserted themselves.
Thursday’s round-of-16 matches
began with another upset when
Uzbekistan beat Austria 2-0, but
order was restored when European champion Germany defeated
Nigeria 1-0, two-time champion
Portugal ousted New Zealand 2-1
and five-time champion Brazil
overcame Uruguay 5-4 on penalties.
The tournament had already seen
South American champion Argentina and CONCACAF champion
Mexico fail to progress beyond the
group stage.
And none of the three remaining
powers had it easy Thursday. Germany held on by protecting its lead
for 70 minutes, Portugal needed an
87th-minute goal to advance and
Brazil was held 0-0 before prevailing in the shootout.
Rodrigo Amoral, the second penalty-taker for Uruguay, sent his attempt over the crossbar, while Brazil made all five of its attempts.
In the quarterfinals, Brazil will
play Portugal, Mali faces Germany,
the U.S. takes on Serbia and Uzbekistan will play Senegal.
The match between Germany and
Nigeria had been billed as one of
the best matchups of the tournament
so far, but produced little to make it
memorable.
Levin Oztunali scored the only
goal in the 19th minute as Nigeria,
which has won the Under-17 World
Cup four times, left still searching
for its first title at the U20 level.
The goal came after Marc Stendera dispossessed Kingsley Sokari
and found Oztunali at the edge of
the box. Oztunali, the grandson of
Uwe Seeler, scored with a powerful
left-footed shot.
Portugal advanced after three wins
in group play but was stretched to
its limit by 138th-ranked New Zealand.
Raphael Guzzo put Portugal ahead
after 24 minutes, but New Zealand
thrilled the home fans when Stuart
Holthusen equalized in the 61st.
Gelson Martins won the game for
Portugal when he weaved his way
past two defenders before curling
shot with outside of his boot just
inside the left-hand post from 20
meters.
Dostonbek Khamdamov scored
twice within 10 minutes for Uzbekistan, putting his team ahead in the
second minute of the second half
and adding the second in the 67th.
‘’After the match I told my players
‘thank you, but this is not enough,’’’
Uzbekistan coach Ravsham Khaydarov said. ‘’We’ve only matched our
performance from 2013 (or reaching the quarterfinals). Of course we
came to improve on this result and
all the players know about it.’’
Austria coach Andreas Heraf said
Uzbekistan was ‘’too strong for us
today’’.
‘’They were physically extraordinary and their speed was extraordinary too so we had problems in
these two departments,’’ Heraf said.
‘’They studied us very well from
our group games.’’
Armstrong Optimistic About Return to France
Lance Armstrong expects a welcoming reception when he returns to
France for a charity bike ride next month, despite the hostility he has
faced in the country in previous years.
LONDON (AFP) - Lance Arm- charity bike ride next month, despite
strong expects a welcoming reception when he returns to France for a
the hostility he has faced in the country in previous years.
Armstrong has signed up for former England footballer and fellow
cancer survivor Geoff Thomas’s
‘One Day Ahead’ event, in which
fundraisers will cover each stage
of the 2015 Tour de France a day
before the real race.
Armstrong, stripped of his seven
Tour titles for a litany of doping offences, has been criticized by UCI
president Brian Cookson and Team
Sky general manager Dave Brailsford, among others, for getting involved.
But the controversial American
expects no backlash from cycling
fans in France and cites the doping cases at Kazakh team Astana
as proof that the sport has bigger
problems on its plate.
“I could be wrong -- I’ve been
wrong plenty in my life -- but I’ve
been to France since all this happened and if you walk into a cafe
or a restaurant or walk down the
street, that’s not the reaction I get,”
Armstrong, who plans to take part
in only “two or three” stages of the
charity event, told a small group of
reporters including AFP.
“People think I have this bitter relationship with the country,
with its people. I like going there.
I love France. The people are what
they are. It’s like any place. Some
people are cool, some people aren’t
cool.
“I don’t know Brian Cookson.
I’ve never met him, never really
had a conversation with him, don’t
know what his vision is for the
sport. I don’t know if he is even
able to form a vision. I don’t know
anything about the man.
Coaches Joachim Loew of Germany and Juergen Klinsmann (L) of the U.S. chat
before their international friendly soccer match in Cologne, Germany June 10, 2015.
“Going against big teams on a regu- more.
lar basis is valuable in helping the
The U.S. have now beaten Germaplayers understand what it takes to ny in two of their last three matches
go eye-to-eye against the best.”
over the last three years but lost the
Klinsmann, who sang both the one that mattered most in last year’s
U.S. and Germany national anthems World Cup, 1-0. Both advanced
before the match in Cologne, faced from the
some criticism after his team suf“Group of Death” but the U.S.
fered 3-2 losses against Denmark were eliminated by Belgium.
and Chile.
“When I look back at the World
The merits of friendlies are rela- Cup, I think we had too much retive. To some they matter a lot; to spect for Germany and maybe even
others they are next to meaningless. for Belgium,” he said.
For Klinsmann the experience is preKlinsmann said tough matches
cious while results are secondary.
gave Americans a chance to feel
“The information you get out of the pressure, something the North
these games is so valuable that it’s American-based players might not
definitely worth taking the risks of experience as regularly as his Euronot getting results,” said Klinsmann, pean-based players.
whose team have a 3-1-1 record this
He said his players are in good
year against five teams ranked in form ahead of the Gold Cup which
FIFA’s top 20.
the U.S. co-host with Canada.
Klinsmann has set a lofty goal of
“We feel well-prepared but it’s goreaching the semi-finals of the 2018 ing to be tricky because we’ll most
World Cup and Americans hope to likely be playing against very defenone day win it. Many might have sive minded teams, especially in the
laughed at that once. But not any group phase,” he said.
Fearless Bolt Says Will
Silence Gatlin in Beijing
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Usain
Bolt says he is not yet ready for a
duel with Justin Gatlin but is looking
forward to silencing the confident
American in a Beijing sprint “explosion” at the world championships in
August.
While the Jamaican has eased into
the season after an injury-disrupted
2014, Gatlin has set the fastest times
of the year in both sprints and declared himself the “man to beat”.
“Gatlin has been doing a lot of talking, saying a lot of things,” Bolt told
Reuters with a chuckle in an interview on Thursday ahead of the adidas Grand Prix at Randall’s Island
“He’s proved he’s running fast
times and he’s ready. So it should be
exciting going into the world championship.
“I look forward to competing when
people talk ... because if you don’t
back it up you look really stupid.”
Gatlin, who has served two doping bans, last month ran the fastest
100 metres of 2015 (9.74 seconds)
in Doha and a season-leading 19.68
in the 200 in Eugene 15 days later.
Bolt, who retains the world record
in both events (9.58 and 19.19), is
running only the 200 on Saturday as
he continues to frustrate track fans
eager to see how he would measure
up on the track against Gatlin.
The Jamaican, looking slender in a
black suit and dark blue shirt outside
a reception at Nasdaq headquarters,
said his race selection was nothing
to do with fear of any other athlete.
“Afraid? When people say that,
I laugh. I’ve been in the sport for
years and I’ve never dodged anybody. When it matters, I’ve always
showed up and shown that I’m the
best,” Bolt said.
“Fact is, I’m not in the best of shape
and I’m not going to put myself out
there if I know I’m just coming back
and I need time to get back to where
I need to be.
“When I get to Beijing I’ll be ready
to go and that’s when the showdown
will be.”
Bolt said the suspense of how the
sprinters shaped up against one another could help build interest in the
world championships.
“People can look forward to the
championship. What’s going to happen?” he said.
“Justin is running good, Tyson
(Gay) is running good, Asafa (Powell) is running good, Usain is running good.
“So when we come to the championship, it’s going to be like an explosion.”
Bolt is returning to race in New
York for the first time since setting
his first jaw-dropping 100 metres
world record at the meet in 2008,
presaging his spectacular sprint double at the Beijing Olympics later that
year.
“That night was exciting. It was a
big showdown between me and Tyson at the time,” he recounted.
“There was a thunderstorm. There
were stops and starts ... a false start.
“Just a weird night overall. But in
the end it worked out. It was amazing.
“For me, that was when it really
started. That’s when I really blew up.
People really took note. Everybody
around the world started to watch.
For me, it was a game changer.”
Bolt said his return to New York
seven years later as the established
king of sprinting provided a different script.
“I’m just trying to get to the world
championships, defend my titles,
stay injury free and then go on to the
Olympics and just continue writing
my name in stone of greatness,” he
said.