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(Reuters) – Australian forward Harry Kewell was suspended for one match by FIFA’s disciplinary panel on Sunday following his red card against Ghana on Saturday, FIFA said in a statement.
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He will miss Australia’s next Group D match against Serbia on June 23.
Kewell handled the ball on the line to deny Ghana a certain goal in the 24th minute of Saturday’s game at Rustenburg which ended in a 1-1 draw. Ghana scored from the resulting penalty.
(Editing by Jon Bramley)
(Reuters) – Germany will face tougher World Cup opponents than Australia and must keep their feet on the ground despite crushing the Socceroos 4-0 in their opening match, coach Joachim Loew said Sunday.
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The team’s defense was excellent and he was very happy with the attacking play, Loew said, but he felt Germany’s youngest World Cup squad for three-quarters of a century could have closed down spaces in the middle of the field better.
“This was the first match of our tournament and we know that Australia is not going to be the ultimate benchmark,” Loew told a news conference.
“There will be more difficult opponents to play. So this was a good warm-up. We will be happy about this win,” he said.
Germany face Serbia on June 18 and Loew said they could provide stiffer competition, given they lost to Ghana Sunday and will need to win to get their campaign back on track.
“Serbia lost today, so they will be quite a different benchmark,” he said. “What we need to do is remain focused.”
Loew defended his decision to play Lukas Podolski and Miroslav Klose, despite their goal drought last season. Both came through for their coach, each scoring to put Germany 2-0 up by half time.
“I didn’t have to stick to these players, they didn’t have to deliver on any promises,” he said.
“I simply know that I can fully rely on these players even though they might not score in one match, even if they go through a bad patch. I have full confidence in them.”
Australia’s resolute and well-organized defense had been expected to pose problems for the German attack, but Loew said he told his players to focus on pushing low balls forward to create gaps — a tactic that paid off well in the game.
“The way we set up our attacks, the way we passed balls to and fro, is something we have been working on very intensively,” he said. “We tried to play long straight passes … and keep the ball low. And that created problems for the Australians.”
“Everybody expects things to kick off nicely and well after a long preparation so we can be happy and confident,” he said.
“We want to reach the round of 16 at least so we can be satisfied.”
(Editing by Ossian Shine)
(Reuters) – Serbia players could not hear their fans over the incessant din of vuvuzelas, had trouble controlling the World Cup ball and lost their concentration to give away a ‘stupid’ penalty and lose 1-0 to Ghana.
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That was the verdict of the dejected-looking players as they traipsed past reporters, having to keep answering questions about why Sunday’s Group D opener had gone wrong for them.
Their coach Radomir Antic had a different gripe, saying Aleksandar Lukovic’s dismissal for a second yellow in the 74th minute had been too harsh and had turned the game.
Nine minutes after that setback, substitute Zdravko Kuzmanovic’s raised arm struck a ball hit across the area to give away the penalty that put Ghana ahead and triggered wild celebrations from the already noisy African crowd.
“I think that it is not easy to control the ball in the air,” defender Nemanja Vidic told reporters when asked if the ball had contributed to the penalty because it looked as if Kuzmanovic had thought it would fly over him.
Many players have criticized the ball, branding it a “beachball,” “inadequate” and like one purchased in a supermarket among other complaints.
“It’s very quick, more in the air than at the feet. I think if the ball hits the ground you get good control. But all the teams have problems with the ball so it is not an excuse,” added Vidic.
Apart from the ball, players are also having to get used to the noisy vuvuzelas, which do not stop during a match and create a constant racket unlike anything heard at matches on other continents.
“Because of the vuvzelas we couldn’t hear the Serbian fans,” forward Marko Pantelic told reporters.
“Our fans were cheering but the only noise was the vuvuzelas.”
Defender Bransilav Ivanovic said they had lost concentration to give away the penalty, which Danko Lazovic said was “stupid,” while Serbia were knocked off their stride by Lukovic’s sending off before that.
“The sending off of Lukovic was too harsh and it turned the match their way,” Antic told a news conference.
“In a tight match like this a simple error by Kuzmanovic made the difference but I have no complaints about my team’s effort.”
(Additional reporting by Zoran Milosavljevic; Editing by Nigel Hunt)
(Reuters) – Ghana’s Serbian coach Milovan Rajevac reshuffled his starting line-up for their opening World Cup Group D match against his compatriots on Sunday after leaving out stalwarts Stephen Appiah and Sulley Muntari.
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Rajevac has opted for an attacking 4-4-2 formation with Prince Tagoe and Dede Ayew on the flanks while Anthony Annan and Kevin-Prince Boateng have been deployed in a holding role to protect the back four.
Hans Sarpei returns in the right back slot while Asamoah Gyan will lead the line up front, with Kwandwo Asamoah playing in a deeper role behind him.
There are no surprises in Serbia’s starting line-up as coach Radomir Antic has deployed his preferred 4-4-2 formation with a flat midfield and two out-and-out strikers.
Aleksandar Kolarov was picked ahead of Ivan Obradovic at left back while center-back Nemanja Vidic starts his first World Cup match after missing the entire 2006 tournament through suspension and injury.
(Editing by Jon Bramley)
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM, Jun 11 (MARKET WIRE) —
Football mad bettors across the world are set to gamble over EUR1.5
billion on the outcome of the World Cup in South Africa, according to
Europe’s leading on-line bookmaker williamhill.com.
Spain are the 5.00 favourites to win the tournament, with Brazil the 5.50
second favourites. Other teams who are prominent in the betting include
Argentina, England, and Holland.
‘Spain and Brazil have been the two best backed teams in the tournament.
However, we’re starting to see a lot of money for England and Holland to
win this year’s World Cup,” said williamhill.com spokesman Tony Kenny
“There is no doubt that as the tournament gets nearer to kick off
there will be hefty bets placed on all of the leading contenders,”
said Kenny
The biggest bet that williamhill.com have taken so far is a EUR75,000 bet
on France to win the World Cup at odds of 21.00, and he stands to make a
profit of EUR1.5 million if ‘les bleus’ win the tournament.
WILLIAMHILL.COM’S LATEST WORLD CUP ODDS: 5.00 Spain, 5.50 Brazil, 7.50
Argentina, 9.00 England,9.00 Holland,15.00 Germany, 17.00 Italy, 19.00
France, 26.00 Portugal, 41.00 Ivory Coast, 67.00 Serbia, 67.00 Chile,
81.00 Mexico, 81.00 USA, 101.00 Cameroon, 101.00 Paraguay, 101.00
Uruguay, 101.00 Ghana, 126.00 Nigeria, 151.00 South Africa, 151.00
Australia, 151.00 Denmark, 201.00 Greece, 251.00 Switzerland, 251.00
South Korea, 301.00 Slovakia, 401.00 Japan, 401.00 Slovenia, 501.00
Algeria, 1001.00 Honduras, 2001.00 New Zealand, 2001.00 North Korea
Contacts:
William Hill
Tony Kenny
Head of public relations
+353 868589276
tkenny@williamhill.ie
Copyright 2010, Market Wire, All rights reserved.
Canadian Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia beat Leander Paes of India and Czech Lukas Dlouhy 7-5 6-2 on Saturday to win the French Open men’s doubles and clinch their third grand-slam title together.
The second seeds added the French Open to the Wimbledon crowns they captured in 2008 and 2009.
“I think it’s nice we won here,” said Nestor who has lifted seven grand-slam doubles titles including one mixed.
The Canadian said he and Zimonjic, who won the French Open mixed doubles with Slovenia’s Katarina Srebotnik on Thursday, would look to maintain their form at Wimbledon this month.
“Obviously Wimbledon has been great to us,” said Nestor. “I think that’s still our best surface. It would be nice to try and win three in a row there.”
(Editing by Neil Maidment; to query or comment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)
Montenegro, June 4 (Reuters) – The Greek financial helped restrict Serbia’s first quarter economic growth to 0.5 percent, the Serbian finance minister said on Friday.
“I think that impact of the Greek crisis is actually a slower growth than we expected,” Diana Dragutinovic told Reuters in an interview. “We expected growth of two percent (in 2010) but in the first quarter we actually experienced only 0.5 percent.”
Dragutinovic said Serbia planned to issue dinar T-bills with two-year maturity in the last quarter of 2010. (Reporting by Daria Sito-Sucic; editing by Adam Tanner and Jason Webb)
Chelsea midfielder Michael Ballack limped off in the first half of Saturday’s FA Cup final against Portsmouth at Wembley Stadium leaving Germany coach Joachim Loew with an anxious wait on his captain’s fitness.
Ballack, who is out of contract at the west London club at the end of the season and could have been making his last appearance for the Premier League champions, took a heavy knock on his ankle after a late tackle by Kevin-Prince Boateng.
The 33-year-old Ballack, who has 98 international caps, has already been named in Germany’s preliminary squad for the World Cup finals in South Africa which start on June 11.
The visibly distressed Ballack was replaced by Brazilian Juliano Belletti after 44 minutes with the score at 0-0.
Germany will face Australia, Serbia and Ghana in Group D at the World Cup finals.
(Reporting by Neil Maidment; Editing by Ken Ferris
To query or comment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)
Cameroon have added a May 25 fixture with Georgia to their warm-up schedule for the World Cup in South Africa.
The Cameroon Football Federation said the game will take place in Linz, Austria, where Cameroon will be training ahead of the World Cup finals which begin on June 11.
Cameroon have already fixed matches with fellow World Cup finalists Slovakia in Klagenfurt, Austria on May 29, Portugal in Covilha on June 1 and Serbia in Belgrade on June 5.
The Indomitable Lions open their World Cup campaign against Japan on June 14 in Bloemfontein.
(Editing by Alastair Himmer;
To query or comment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)
Injury-prone playmaker Harry Kewell is battling to secure a place in Australia’s World Cup squad but believes he has overcome the worst of a groin strain that has sidelined him for three months.
The former Liverpool winger, who has not played since December, expects to return for Turkish club Galatasaray this weekend but has only a handful of games in which to prove his fitness before the South Africa finals start on June 11.
“This injury has come at a bad time for me so I’ve got to work hard to try to secure myself,” said Kewell, who underwent surgery on the groin earlier this year.
“Basically I’ve got one of the biggest tournaments coming up now. It’s a chance for me to show this club what I’m capable of doing.
“I feel like I can do that. I just needed a little rest to get my body back into shape and now it’s back into shape and it’s nearly there, so I’m really looking forward to this World Cup.”
A fully fit Kewell would be a major boost for the Socceroos, who despite enjoying a smooth qualifying campaign, have struggled to score in the absence of key striker Mark Viduka, who has all but retired from professional soccer.
The 31-year-old Kewell said he still believed his best football was ahead of him.
“Obviously as a youngster I did well enough to achieve certain things, but I still feel like I’ve got more in me to produce better football now than what I did when I was younger,” he said.
“So hopefully the good achievements haven’t even started with me yet.”
Australia plays its opening Group D match against Germany in Durban on June 13.
Serbia and Ghana are the other teams in the group.
Serbia’s Parliament has approved a historic resolution condemning the massacre of thousands of Bosnian Muslims at Srebrenica in 1995.
For many years, Serbian politicians denied the scale of the massacre, which was regarded elsewhere as the worst mass killing on European soil since World War II.
In July 1995 about 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were executed and buried in mass graves by Bosnian-Serb troops under the command of Ratko Mladic.
The massacre has cast a shadow over the Balkans for years and still deeply divides the Serbian community, but after 13 hours of heated debate, the country’s parliament finally agreed to pass this resolution:
“The Parliament of Serbia strongly condemns the crime committed against the Bosnian Muslim population of Srebrenica in July 1995, as determined by the International Court of Justice ruling.”
The resolution also acknowledges that not enough was done to prevent the tragedy.
The international courts have ruled that the Srebrenica massacre was a genocide but the resolution stops short of that.
Just more than half the 250 Members of Parliament voted to pass the resolution.
Konstanine Samofalov from the ruling Democratic Party says he hopes the apology will allow the country to move on.
“This way we are removing the guilt from the Serbian people because this terrible crime that happened in Srebrenica cannot be defined as the guilt of the whole Serbian people. It is clearly an individual guilt,” he said.
“We are also expressing our profound respect towards the victims of this crime and condolences to their families.”
Survivors of the massacre are divided over the apology. Some say it will help them heal but many are angry the word “genocide” has been left out.
Others, like Emir Sulhagic, say the apology will only stoke tensions in the region.
“I’ve never actually asked for an apology from Serbia. I don’t care for an apology from Serbia,” he said.
“All I am saying is that this apology comes at a time when nationalist politicians in Bosnia will again use Srebrenica as a sort of issue to mobilise.
“We are in an election year and this will be sort of mobilising platform for nationalist politicians in Bosnia to go under.”
The timing of the declaration coincides with Serbia’s push to join the European Union, which requires all members to fully cooperate with the international courts.
Australian defender Patrick Kisnorbo is set to miss the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa due to an Achilles tendon injury, according to his Leeds United club manager Simon Grayson.
The Socceroos defender was carried off in the early stages of his side’s 2-0 defeat to Millwall at Elland Road on Monday.
Grayson said the 28-year-old former Hearts and Leicester defender, who has been on the fringes of the Australia squad, now had little chance of featuring for Pim Verbeek’s team in South Africa.
“Unfortunately for Paddy, he has got a severe Achilles injury, which will rule him out of the rest of the season and probably the World Cup as well,” Grayson said.
“He’s been outstanding for us all season and I’m gutted for him because his dream was to play in the World Cup and it looks like it has been shattered.”
Australia has been drawn in Group D with Germany, Serbia and Ghana for the June 11-July 11 finals in South Africa.
-Reuters
London, June 27 (ANI): British tennis star Andy Murray is using an improved serve to blast his way into the second week of Wimbledon.
The No.3 seed, who faces Serbia’s Viktor Troicki in the third round on Centre Court today, has acquired quite a reputation for being a decent tactician and an extremely good returner of the serve.
Over the last six months, Murray’s serve is giving his opponents major problems, particularly on grass.
During his match against Ernests Gulbis in the second round on Thursday, Murray lost just one point on his serve.
“I have become physically stronger, I’m now a lot more balanced throughout the whole serving motion. Before, my legs were stronger than my upper body and I would collapse a little bit. And when you do that you hit a lot of serves long and it’s not as good. Now, I’m staying taller for longer and it’s less effort to hit a hard serve than it used to be,” The Sun quoted Murray, as saying.
“I have always practised my serve a lot. Maybe I spend a little bit more time on it than before but it’s always been a very important part of my game. If you can take care of your own service game then it puts an awful lot of pressure on your opponent, and I have done that since I first came on the tour, I have tried to improve it,” he added.
Murray should not have too many problems against 30th seed Troicki. (ANI)
Munich – Travellers planning a trip across the European continent should be aware of huge disparities on motorway fees in some countries that can be very confusing, Germany’s motorists association ADAC has warned.
Generally there are two tariff systems on European motorways. Either motorists have to buy a sticker that is valid for a year or fees are calculated in a toll system according to the number of kilometres travelled.
The sticker system applies to all motorways in Switzerland, Austria, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia and the Czech Republic. The toll system applies to Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Croatia, Serbia, Macedonia and Poland.
Some countries, such as Slovakia, impose heavy fines on motorists without the sticker that can amount to up to ten times the price of the sticker (365 euros/493 dollars). If the case goes to court in the Czech Republic the fine can amount to as much as 19,000 euros (25,700 dollars), the ADAC warns. (dpa)
New Delhi, May 26 (ANI): In the recent years emphasis on river rafting has gained prominence in India and the Army rafting team, which has been dominating the national scene for the past six years, has been invited by International Rafting Federation to represent the country in R6 World Cup 2009, being held in Serbia on May 30-31.
Army rafting team comprising of seven members led by Captain Sachin Nikam will represent India in this prestigious event.
The R6 World Cup is a prestigious event wherein 37 teams from all over the world participate.
In past, Army Rafting team also represented India in World Rafting Championship 2005 at Equador and World Rafting Championship 2007 at South Korea.
Having won numerous national level championships and after securing overall first position in the first Kashmir Cup (5th India Cup) held at Sonamarg (Jammu and Kashmir) in 2008, the Army Rafting team has been invited by International Rafting Federation to represent India. (ANI)
Dusseldorf, Germany – Serbia won the ARAG World Team Championship on its first try Saturday as a singles sweep secured the tie over Germany 2-0.
The newest tennis powerhouse nation showed its pedigree on the clay at the eight-nation French Open tuneup as the Balkan country played for the first time at an event which began in 1978.
Viktor Troicki preyed upon Wimbledon semi-finalist Rainer Schuettler to start the momentum 6-4, 7-6 (7-5). Janko Tipsarevic followed up as he defeated Philip Kohlschreiber 6-2, 6-4 to clinch the tie with meaningless doubles still to be contested.
The victory for the Serbs was only the second for a country playing for the first time. Yugoslavia won out of the box 1990 shortly before the breakup of the nation and Croatia reached the 1995 final.
The Serbs went undefeated throughout the week. (dpa)
BELGRADE: The father of tennis star Jelena Dokic has been charged over threatening the Australian ambassador to Serbia and illegal possession of firearms, his lawyer said Friday.
“He is accused of jeopardizing security and illegal possession of weapons. If found guilty he could be sentenced to up to eight years in prison,” lawyer Bosiljka Djukic told AFP by telephone.
Earlier this month police arrested Damir Dokic in Vrdnik, northwest Serbia, because of threats he had made to the Australian ambassador Clare Birgin published in Serbian daily Blic.
It quoted Dokic as saying he had “called the embassy and threatened to throw a bomb at the ambassador’s car if she did not react” to allegations in the Australian press that he had physically mistreated his daughter.
Dokic, who now plays for Australia, was quoted in an interview with the Australian magazine Sport and Style as saying that she left her family in 2002 because her father had mistreated her.
The comments have been reported in the Serbian media.