Saudi footballers shun media due to Qatar news channels
KUWAIT: Politics has overshadowed football on the eve of a Gulf football tournament after Saudi Arabia’s team refused to talk to the press due to the presence of Qatar-based news channels.
The Gulf Cup is a bi-annual tournament for eight nations in the region. This year’s event was originally scheduled to be held in Qatar but was moved to Kuwait amid the Gulf’s worst diplomatic crisis in decades.
Saudi Arabi, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain – as well as Egypt – cut diplomatic and trade ties with Qatar on June 5, accusing it of financing “terrorism” and maintaining close ties with their regional rival, Iran. Doha denies the allegations.
On Thursday, the Saudi team arrived at a press conference in Kuwait City 40 minutes later than scheduled. After a short photo session, the players left the room without taking questions from the waiting reporters.
Sana Hamouche a private media correspondent, who was present at the press briefing, said everything seemed normal until Saudi officials took to the stage.
“The Saudi team came in, had photos taken and stormed out of the conference room,” said Hamouche. “When journalists asked the Kuwaiti media official for the reason, he couldn’t give anyone an answer.
“I spoke to him later, and he said the Saudi officials requested microphones of the Qatar-based channels to be removed.
Kuwait’s football association later issued a statement saying that “a suitable solution has been reached for the upcoming press conference that will appease all parties”.
Saudi Arabia is scheduled to open the tournament against the hosts on Friday. The UAE team also withdrew from its press conference later on Thursday.
Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Oman and Kuwait are in Group A, while Qatar, Bahrain, Iraq and Yemen form Group B.
Qatar is scheduled to take on Bahrain on December 29.
Syracuse basketball drops OT game to St. Bonaventure
Syracuse, N.Y. -- After squandering a 13-point second-half lead, the St. Bonaventure Bonnies regained their composure and pulled out a 60-57 overtime victory over Syracuse on Friday night at the Carrier Dome.
>>Box score | SU schedule
The Bonnies didn't make a single field goal in the overtime. All their scoring came at the foul line. They went 7-for-8 at the free throw line in the extra five minutes.
Syracuse out-scored St. Bonaventure 15-2 in the last 11 minutes of regulation to force overtime.
The Bonnies didn't score after Amadi Ikepeze's dunk with 7:17 left in the game gave them a 53-44 lead.
But after taking a 55-53 lead on Marek Dolezaj's driving basket to start the overtime, St. Bonaventure hit five out of six free throws to take a 58-55 lead. Syracuse scored again on Oshae Brissett's tip-in.
The Orange then got the ball back down 1 after St. Bonaventure's LaDarien Griffin missed a jumper from the free-throw line.
Brissett made a driving basket, but he charged into St. Bonaventure's Courtney Stockard with 11.9 seconds left and the basket was waved off.
Syracuse fouled Jaylen Adams with 6.9 seconds left.
Adams, who hadn't scored since putting up 21 first-half points, calmly swished both free throws for a 60-57 lead.
Hyeon Chung ready to ditch obscurity for tennis fame
Like most players, Hyeon Chung wonders what it might be like to be 18-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer. Who wouldn't want to be the beloved king of tennis who is as wildly popular today as ever.
But do you think Federer ever wonders what it's like to be Chung -- an extremely successful, yet unrecognized player with his entire career in front of him?
Chung, a 21-year-old from Suwon, South Korea, recently won the ATP Next Gen Finals in Milan (a year-end event modeled on the ATP World Tour Finals, but restricted to players 21 and under). But his nationality, halting English, and utter lack of a social media presence -- or any other body of biographical data -- have kept him from connecting fully with Western tennis fans.
Chung doesn't have a Twitter account; he doesn't post on Facebook. By today's standards, Chung seems invisible. But despite being the only Korean in the top 100, he claims he isn't lonely.
"Now in my tour life, I can see many Western and Asian players," Chung told ESPN.com, from his current training base in Thailand. "I can have relations with my fellow players and coaches so I am not alone. But I would like to see more Asian players on the tour in the future."
The one memorable detail about Chung -- the story of how his parents steered him to tennis in order to improve his poor eyesight -- is getting worn out. But he feels no obligation to add to his bio. He's focused on a blossoming career that has carried his ranking as high as No. 44. He's NO. 58 now, but No. 7 among players not yet 22 years old.
"To tell the truth, nobody thought he would get where he is today," famed coach Nick Bollettieri told ESPN.com. Chung trained for two years at Bollettieri's IMG Tennis Academy in Bradenton, Florida, after he won the 12-and-under division of the Eddie Herr and Orange Bowl tournaments in 2009. "He was sort of small, but he was a good hustler. He was a little overshadowed by Kei [Nishikori]."
Although Chung was more outgoing than the introverted Japanese star, Nishikori, he was all business on the court. Bollettieri said that Chung's attitude toward the game, combined with the image created by his omnipresent glasses, led the staff at the academy to dub him, "The Scientist."
"I have high-level astigmatism," Chung said of his eyesight. "I have to wear the glasses all the time. By now they're part of my body so it's not difficult to play wearing them."
The glasses are probably less of a handicap than his second serve and his sometimes erratic forehand that Chung has been working hard to improve. His game is based on the wheels and counter-punching ability that enabled him to break through on the pro tour in 2015, when he won four Challenger titles and a handful of main-tour matches, including a run to the semifinals in Shenzhen. He finished the year No. 51, and, still just 19, he won the ATP's Most Improved Player award.
MADRID: Real Madrid realistically need to end Barcelona´s 24-match unbeaten run to maintain hopes of retaining their La Liga title when Spanish football´s two behemoths meet in El Clasico on Saturday (1200GMT). Barca lead fourth-placed Madrid by 11 points at the top of the table, albeit Real do have a game in hand. However, it was at the Santiago Bernabeu that Barca last tasted defeat in August as Real cruised to a 5-1 aggregate win in the Spanish Super Cup. Here, AFP Sports looks at five keys to deciding who will end the year victorious.
Messi-Alba connection
Barca have overcome Neymar´s departure with relative ease thanks to left-back Jordi Alba´s return to form, in large part caused by the Brazilian´s absence on the left side of Barca´s attack. “I have a lot more room to go forward and in all honesty for me it is much better,” admitted the Spanish international. Lionel Messi has also benefited with three of Alba´s six assists this season setting up the Argentine.
The Alba-Messi connection also gave Barca a famous 3-2 win as Messi scored with the last kick of the ball at the Bernabeu in April when Neymar was suspended. Madrid right-back Dani Carvajal has played just five games since September due to a long-term virus and a lack of cover offered by Madrid´s narrow four-man midfield could give Alba plenty of space to exploit.
´BBC´ finally fit to return?
Madrid´s famed ´BBC´ front three of Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and Gareth Bale have yet to play a single minute of action together this season, largely due to Bale´s injury problems. However, the Welshman scored on his return to action to help Real win the Club World Cup last week leaving Zinedine Zidane spoilt for choice with his starting line-up. Zidane is expected to stay loyal to the side that started the Champions League final in May with Bale only featuring from the bench. Yet, the pace offered by Bale and Marco Asensio, who has scored in his last three matches against Barca, could prove decisive in the second-half.
Ronaldo and Suarez back in form
Between them Ronaldo and Barca´s Luis Suarez had a pitiful return of a combined four goals in La Liga until mid-November as age appeared to be taking hold of both now in their 30s. However, Ronaldo and Suarez now look like their old selves to add plenty more firepower to a fixture never short on goals.
Ronaldo has eight in his last seven games, including the winner in the Club World Cup final last weekend. Suarez, meanwhile is now La Liga´s joint third highest scorer thanks to six in his last five league games.
Is Barca´s new defence for real?
Ernesto Valverde´s version of Barca may lack the same spark as those coached by Pep Guardiola and Luis Enrique over the past decade, but the results are just as good thanks to an exceptionally mean defence backed up by the brilliance of Marc-Andre ter Stegen in goal. Valverde´s men have kept 17 clean sheets and conceded only eight goals in total on their 24-game unbeaten run. The real test, though, comes at the Bernabeu, especially with Thomas Vermaelen expected to deputise for the injured Samuel Umtiti at centre-back. Barca have kept just one clean sheet against Madrid in their last 24 meetings.
Brazilian brute force
Of all the stars on show, Brazilian international duo Casemiro and Paulinho may not be the most pleasing on the eye but both bring a physical edge to the midfield battle that make them vital components to their respective sides.
Casemiro is Madrid´s destroyer who creates the platform for Toni Kroos, Luka Modric and Isco to create. However, he will have to keep a close eye on his compatriot, whose ability to time his runs into the opposition area has seen him register six goals in 15 La Liga appearances and quickly quieten the critics who questioned his 40 million euro signing from Chinese side Guangzhou Evergrande.
Smith vows no let-up on bouncers to England’s tail
MELBOURNE: Australia captain Steve Smith says his fast bowlers will continue to bombard England’s tailenders with short-pitched deliveries despite claims their beleaguered batsmen deserve more protection from the umpires.
Smith’s uncompromising stance comes after former England captain Mike Atherton called on umpires to better enforce the game’s laws around bouncers which are designed to shield batsmen down the order.
Australia trounced the tourists by an innings and 41 runs in Perth on Monday to reclaim the Ashes and hold an unassailable 3-0 lead with two Tests to play in Melbourne and Sydney.
In the three Tests so far, Australia’s pace battery has targeted England’s tailenders with short-pitched deliveries.
Last man in James Anderson was struck a fearsome blow on the helmet grille by a brutal bouncer from Pat Cummins in Perth which drew criticism from Atherton, writing in The Times.
Atherton said he was dismayed by the continued attacks on the England tail, which included six bouncers to Anderson in the last rites of that Test.
But Smith said there would be no let-up in the fourth Test starting in Melbourne on Boxing Day, adding that it was a strategy England would employ themselves if they could.
“We obviously had a plan from the start of the series that we were going to bowl a lot of short stuff to those guys, much like we did back in 2013,” he told reporters late Thursday.
“And no doubt if they have the kind of pace our bowlers could generate they would probably do the same thing.”
Former pace spearhead Mitchell Johnson, who put England to the sword in that 2013 home series, said rather than worry about the laws the tourists should just “learn to bat”.
“Isn’t it two short balls in an over? That’s the rules. If it’s not over their heads or the shoulder restriction, how is it dangerous?,” Johnson told Fox Sports.
“I don’t see the issue with it — yeah, some guys struggle to hold the bat. But whose fault is that? That’s not the fault of the Australian quicks. (England) should be working on their batting.”
Another former Australia Test quick Trent Copeland tweeted: “What’s missing from this (Atherton) article?
“The fact that ENG would do exactly the same IF they were fast enough to do so, and the Aussie lower order players work hard enough at their batting so that it’s not an issue. Sorry, but its TEST cricket. Suck it up.”
Gerard Pique believes Barcelona will beat Real Madrid because of Cristiano Ronaldo
Barcelona take on Real Madrid on Saturday (12pm) sitting 11 points ahead of them in La Liga.
Barca were badly hurt by their 5-1 Spanish Super Cup loss to Real in August, the same month they lost superstar Neymar to Paris Saint-Germain.
But Ernesto Valverde's men have hit back with 13 wins, three draws and no domestic defeats to top the table going into the latest El Clasico.
And Spanish outlet Don Balon say Barca defender Pique is in buoyant mood ahead of the derby and thinks Ronaldo's injury problems mean they will triumph.
Jinder Mahal's WWE Year in Review: Full Breakdown and Grade for 2017
Jinder Mahal exploded into wrestling conscious in 2017, becoming the most improbable main event star in years and the most unlikely WWE champion since John Bradshaw Layfield but as the year comes to an end and he is no longer the top dog on SmackDown Live, there is very real reflection on his year and whether or not it was as great as it should have been.
He competed in marquee matches and headlined pay-per-views but a serious lack of faith in him by WWE Creative ultimately doomed him to mediocrity.
Find out exactly what kind of year Mahal had creatively, historically and from an in-ring perspective with this recap of his last 12 months.
