Defending Champions Japan frustrated pre-tournament favourites Australia 5-4 (regular time 1-1) after the penalty shootout to reach the last four in the most heavyweight clash of the ongoing AFC Asian Cup up to now on July 21.
In-form keeper Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi made two crucial saves in the shootout to deny Harry Kewell and Lucas Neill’s first two kicks, before veteran defender Yuji Nakazawa converted in the fifth one calmly to get the victory.
Alaves hitman John Aloisi ghosted in the far post before poking in substitute Harry Kewell’s low corner unerringly on 69 minutes.
Frankfort striker Naohiro Takahara levelled for Japan minutes later, he rounded his marker inside the box with a quick cut and drilled into the net with a left-foot strike.
The Socceroos had to struggle with 10 men in the 75th minute when midfielder Vincenzo Grella was sent off directly by the referee with a purposely blow on Takahara’s head.
Japan dominated the extra time and squandered several great chances to score in the last 10 minutes.
If Yao Ming sprains his ankle at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, which hospital will he be rushed to?
Silly question, one may think. But the NBA star is all of 2.26 meters tall, and a standard hospital bed is only 2 meters long.
Thankfully, Yao and other exceptionally tall athletes can take comfort.
“There’s no need to worry because we have ordered up to ten 2.4-m beds from a US company. They will be here in two months,” director of China-Japan Friendship Hospital’s international medical department Xu Shuo said yesterday. The special beds cost about $20,000 each.
The Beijing health bureau selected 21 hospitals earlier this year to provide medical care during the Games, and the China-Japan hospital was chosen to treat international athletes and coaches.
“We are really honored to have been selected and our preparations are well under way,” Peng Mingqiang, hospital vice-president and head of the Olympic medical service, said.
The hospital will spend 20-30 million yuan ($2.6-$4 million) to update a range of facilities and services, including redecorating wards and purchasing new equipment.
Thirty-one rooms will be used exclusively for athletes and coaches during the Olympics, Xu said. “We will do everything we can to make them comfortable.”
All the rooms will have Internet connection, and athletes or coaches will have their walls decorated with their national flags, Xu said.
“Patients will be able to read English language newspapers and even enjoy their own cuisine.”
The hospital is discussing with the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG) what types of dishes should be served, he said.
Utmost care will be taken to offer a good selection of quality food, Xu said. “All food and medical services will be provided according to the strict requirements of BOCOG.”
More than 400 doctors and nurses have already undergone language and other special training, Peng said. Some other employees, too, will be trained in foreign languages and customs of other nations.
“Since the establishment of the hospital, we have provided medical services to people from 160 countries and regions, so we are confident of fulfilling our duty,” he said.
The China-Japan Friendship Hospital opened in 1984 and is a leading international hospitals in Beijing. It employs about 1,600 medical staff, from which a 400-strong specialist Olympic team will be selected.
Iraqi fans have been stocking up on petrol and ammunition in preparation for their national soccer team’s Asian Cup semi-final against South Korea on Wednesday.
Ibrahim al-Musawi said he had already brought 20 litres of petrol to make sure he could fuel his small generator to watch the whole match as Iraq’s national power grid provides electricity for only a few hours a day.
“This is one of the strongest Iraqi sides ever and they fill us with pride,” Musawi told Reuters.
“We are tired of the sadness that always surrounds us. I sometimes wish we are always playing in international tournaments so we can remain happy.”
A convincing 3-1 victory over pre-tournament favourites Australia helped Iraq top Group A before a 2-0 victory knocked out Vietnam, one of the four co-hosts, in the quarter-finals.
Each time Iraq have played the streets back home have almost emptied with a scattering of pedestrians left outside standing to watch at the nearest shop displaying the game on small televisions. Each time the final whistle has triggered euphoric, ear-shattering celebrations.
Youths drape themselves and their cars in large Iraqi flags and parade around the streets to loud music and dancing.
Others prefer the tribal tradition of firing their weapons into the air in deafening, often deadly barrages.
Three people died and about 50 were wounded when bullets fired in celebration of Iraq’s victory over Vietnam on Saturday came back down at lethal speed.
The enthusiasm and optimism back home will increase the pressure on the Iraq team ahead of the showdown with twice Asian champions South Korea, with the players hoping to bring some much-needed relief to their chaotic homeland.
Goalkeeper Noor Sabri Abbas said the players were aware of the football fever gripping their country after contacting friends and relatives.
“We really want to do well for the people of Iraq,” he said.
“We have a really good chance to make history for Iraqi football and the whole country is behind us.”
Two suicide car bombings struck Iraqi soccer fans taking to the streets to celebrate Iraqi football team’s victory in Baghdad on Wednesday, killing at least 55 people and injuring 135 others, police said.
An attacker detonated his explosives-laden car among a crowd of jubilant Iraqi football fans celebrating in Mansour district in western Baghdad after Iraq defeated South Korea 4-3 on penalties and made it into the 14th Asian Cup final, a police source told Xinhua.
The deadly bombing killed at least 30 people and wounding 75 others, according to the source. Earlier, the source put the death toll at 10, with 60 others injured.
In eastern Baghdad, another suicide car bombing attacked an Iraqi Army checkpoint in Ghader district, killing at least 25 people and injuring 60 other, the source said, adding that most of the victims are soccer fans.
The historic victory of Iraqi football team sparked wild celebrations in Baghdad. Many citizens rushed into the streets and fired in the air while motorists honking their horns. Thousands of fans gathered in central Baghdad to celebrate, singing and chanting “Iraq, Iraq!”
After Iraqi football players entered the semi-finals of the Asia Cup on July 21, gunfire of celebrations killed two people and wounded 15 others in Baghdad.
Chinese young player Liu Xiangrong claimed the title of women’s shot put, increasing gold medals for Chinese team to four.
Liu ranked first after finishing the event with a 17.65-meter throw at the Amman International Stadium.
Chinese coach Sun You said China plays a leading role at the event of women’s shot put in Asia, who has a result of two silver medals at Olympics.
Sun said some of China’s leading player didn’t come here for competition due to strained agenda to participate in the upcoming world athletics championships in Japan.
Earlier on Thursday morning, Chinese athlete Cui Zhide grabs the gold medal of men’s 20km race walking at the Asian championships.
The competition, which began early in the morning to avoid the hot wave in the day, was mainly among walkers from China, South Korea and Kazakhstan.
Cui ranked first with finishing the race in one hour 30 minutes 21.3 seconds. South Korea’s Shin Il-Yong won the silver and the bronze went to Rustem Kuwatov from Kazakhstan.
One day before, Cui’s female teammate Jiang Qiuyan won the gold medal of women’s 20km road walk, which is the first gold medal of the 17th Asian Athletics Championships that kicked off in the Jordanian captial on Wednesday.
During the first day’s competition of the championships, China also won the gold medal of women’s hammer throw.
Before the competition, Chinese team leader Kan Fulin said that the Chinese players are leading the event of hammer throw in Asia.
Liao Xiaoyan, 23, won the gold medal of women’s hammer throw on Wednesday at the Amman International Stadium with a throw of 60.58 meters.
After two days’ competition, Gulf state Qatar ranked second on the medal standings with two golds, one silver and two bronzes.
Samuel A. Francis from the Qatari team ranked first at men’s 100m race with 9.99 seconds, breaking the Asian record of 10.00 seconds.
Another Qatari athlete Ahmad Hassan Abdullah got the gold medal at the event of men’s 10,000 meters race in 29 minutes 45.95 seconds.
Saudi Arabia ranked third at the medal standing table on Thursday with two golds.
Meanwhile, two sports giants in Asia, namely South Korea and Japan, still have no gold medals after two days competitions of the championships. South Korea has got four silvers while Japan one silver and three bronzes as of Thursday.
About 450 athletes from 33 countries and regions in Asia have registered to participate in the competition from July 25 to 29.
Jorvan Vieira said he always knew there was something special about the Iraqi team he had been asked to coach when he first met them at a training camp in Jordan.
The Brazilian had been charged with one of the most difficult challenges any coach had ever taken on: to mould a team of Shi’ite, Sunni and Kurdish players into a championship winning unit in the space of two months.
Vieira had his initial doubts when only a handful of players turned up to the first training session but soon discovered a rare quality about his squad.
“We all know the problems in Iraq but I have learnt that they are a fantastic people. They have an extraordinary power,” he told a news conference after their 1-0 win over Saudi Arabia in Sunday’s final.
“We did not have much time so we had to work quickly. We sometimes fought, we sometimes argued, but we got the work done.
“It was very difficult but I am very proud of these boys.”
Vieira, who confirmed he was not seeking an extension to his two month contract after the final, knew his players had all been touched by the war and it wasn’t long until he too was affected.
“Our team physio, he was a good man. He was killed in a bomb blast last minth. He left behind a wife and four kids,” Vieira said.
The Iraqi players were able to mask their grief throughout the tournament although there were constant reminders of the sectarian violence at home.
The entire squad wore black armbands during the final in memory of the 50 people killed by suicide bombers after Wednesday’s semi-final win over South Korea.
The Iraqi captain Younis Mahmoud, who was named best player of the tournament after scoring the winning goal in the final, said the team had been determined to win after watching a television report from Iraq with the mother of one of the victims.
“There was this mother who had seen her little boy killed by a bomb after the match and she was saying he had been sacrificed so that we would win the match,” Mahmoud said.
“We knew we had to win the match for her and so many other people.”
Hamed Ehadadi scored 18 points and got eight rebounds to lead Iran to defeat defending champion China 77-68 here on Monday at the final match of the group round of the 2007 Asia men’s basketball championship.
With the victory, Iran, who kept an unbeaten record, topped Group A, which was called “Group of Death”.
Having the bench players for the first two quarters, Iran sent its main center Ehadadi at the start of the third and he changed the game totally.
He scored 18 points in 15 minutes and added eight rebounds, including four each offense and defense. The Chinese players could not stop him on the court but tried to prevent him from holding the ball.
As a result, Iran played a more fluent game than they had earlier and rallied to the final victory with a 10-0 run in the third quarter.
Bian Qiang scored 15 points for China, Chen Chen added 13 points while Yang Ming 11.
Iran will face Chinese Taipei on Tuesday in the quarter-final, while China will clash with Hong Kong, China in the play-off.
China’s Olympic coach Ratomir Dujkovic wants to take over the country’s senior squad after next year’s Beijing Games, according to local media.
Zhu Guanghu, who presided over a dismal Asian Cup campaign, has not yet left the post but the Chinese Football Association (CFA) is reported to have already started searching for a new man to take the team through the 2010 World Cup qualifying campaign.
“If I can achieve a satisfactory result for everybody at the Olympics, I would like to coach the senior team to the South Africa World Cup,” sina.com quoted the Serbian as telling the media in the northeastern city Shenyang.
Having led Ghana to the knockout stages of the 2006 World Cup finals, Dujkovic is amply qualified.
The CFA, however, might not be prepared to wait until next August as their World Cup qualification campaign is likely to get underway in February.
“I think to guide China’s top national squad is a dream and glory for a coach, but as the Olympic team coach I will take the Olympic team as first priority,” Dujkovic said.
Dujkovic’s team is joining Botswana, Japan, and North Korea for a four-nation invitational tournament in Shenyang this week and the 61-year-old said his aim was to win, as it would be next August in Beijing.
“My aim is the Olympic gold medal,” he said. “As long as my players work hard I think we can fulfill our goal.”
There were no cheering crowds or ticker tape parade Friday along the dangerous airport road to greet Iraq’s Asian Cup soccer champs. And the team’s captain, a Sunni who scored the winning goal, didn’t even return because he feared for his life.
But several hundred fans waved Iraqi flags and scuffled with police as they pushed through airport security to greet the country’s soccer heroes as they stepped off a charter plane about 7 p.m. Police wielded truncheons against some in the crowd who were trying to touch goalkeeper Nour Sabri. He was hoisted onto the teammates’ shoulders and carried to a waiting bus, which took the team into central Baghdad for a meeting with the prime minister at his Green Zone office.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki gave each a diplomatic passport and put a wreath of flowers around their necks.
Tight security in the heart of the capital ¡ª and the team’s late arrival ¡ª prevented many Baghdad residents from celebrating in the streets.
“It is an incomplete joy, because all other people welcome their winning teams in the streets of their capitals and we in Iraq had to be the last ones to receive them,” said 40-year-old Naeem Abdullah.
There was therefore no repeat of the deadly bombings that marred celebrations after the team’s semifinal victory last month.
While violence was much diminished Friday among Iraqis, the U.S. military reported four more American soldiers were killed in Baghdad ¡ª three in a single roadside bombing.
And in Najaf, the holy Shiite city south of the capital, yet another aide to the country’s top Shiite spiritual leader was gunned down. Iraqi authorities tightened security around the residence and office of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani after the killing, the second slaying of one of his aides in less than two weeks.
A huge line of cars trailed behind the bus that sped the soccer team into Baghdad. It shot past Iraqi army security checkpoints lining the dangerous route. Hundreds more Iraqis danced and waved their national flag in the streets of the Green Zone.
Al-Maliki, whose beleaguered government was desperate for good news, appeared with team live on state television, smiling broadly and kissing each man three times on the cheek as they filed past him in warm-up suits.
“Greetings to the Lions of the Two Rivers who unified all Iraqis,” al-Maliki said. “I say to the soccer team that you returned the smiles to Iraqi faces, while terrorists try to steal them.”
The team, named the Lions of the Two Rivers, hasn’t played a home game in 17 years because of fears of violence and U.N. sanctions under Saddam Hussein.
Besides handing out the coveted diplomatic travel documents, al-Maliki had already announced a $10,000 bonus for each man.
The team was then feted at a dinner attended by lawmakers and Cabinet members, as well as relatives of victims of two car bombings that struck revelers in Baghdad after the semifinals.
