Posts by BirSaNN

Portugal knocked out host South Korea 3-1 in the round of 16, while Venezuela beat Japan 1-0 after extra time to make the quarterfinals for the first time. But the Portuguese killed the game midway through the second half.

Portugal and Venezuela advanced to the Under-20 World Cup quarterfinals at the expense of Asia’s last two hopes on Tuesday.

Portugal knocked out host South Korea 3-1 in the round of 16, while Venezuela beat Japan 1-0 after extra time to make the quarterfinals for the first time.

The South Koreans targeted the quarterfinals after group wins over Guinea and Argentina, and enjoyed support from a capacity crowd in Cheonan.

But the Portuguese killed the game midway through the second half when Bruno Xadas dribbled past two defenders on the edge of the area to shoot past Song Bum-keun for his second goal and his team’s third.

Venezuela, perfect in the group stage with three wins and no goals conceded, couldn’t break the Japanese, and the match went to extra time.

The winning goal came after 107 minutes, when Yangel Herrera rose in the penalty area to head Ronaldo Lucena’s corner past diving goalkeeper Ryosuke Kojima.

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Gareth Bale has won two Champions Leagues with Real Madrid, scoring in the 4-1 win over Atletico Madrid in Lisbon in 2014 and converting a penalty in the shoot-out victory over Atletico in Milan in 2016. Bale said he would accept whatever decision Zidane made.

Real Madrid forward Gareth Bale said on Tuesday he regretted rushing back from ankle surgery earlier in the season and admitted he was not fully fit for the Champions League final against Juventus in his home city of Cardiff.

Bale missed almost three months with an ankle injury he suffered in November against Sporting Lisbon and has spent the last six weeks recovering from two separate calf problems. He said he was not yet fully recovered and appeared resigned to not starting what should have been a dream final.

“I’m not 100 percent,” Bale told reporters on Tuesday. “I haven’t played in six or seven weeks. I had my ankle operation, which still hasn’t really recovered. I’d been in a lot of pain in training and have taken tablets to get through games.

“Obviously, any surgery is difficult, but in the middle of a season it’s always that bit more difficult. You want to come back as soon as possible. In hindsight, I should have stayed out a bit longer and let it heal and strengthen. But obviously that wasn’t the case. I’ll live and I’ll learn.”

Bale has won two Champions Leagues with Real, scoring in the 4-1 win over Atletico Madrid in Lisbon in 2014 and converting a penalty in the shoot-out victory over Atletico in Milan in 2016.

The question of whether Zinedine Zidane will field Bale at the Millenium Stadium or high-flying Spanish midfielder Isco has dominated the Spanish media before Saturday’s final, where Real are bidding to become the first team to successfully defend the European Cup since AC Milan in 1990.

Bale said he would accept whatever decision Zidane made. Isco, who has scored five goals and notched three assists in his last eight games, was in a strong position to start ahead of him, he said.

“If I’m called upon to start, I will start, obviously. But to last 90 minutes – I haven’t played a lot of football this year since my operation, so that would be difficult,” said Bale, who joined Real from Tottenham Hotspur for a then-world record 100 million euros in 2013.

“Isco has been playing fantastically well for us in the end of the season, so whatever the manager decides I will .

Obviously, if I am picked to start, I will start. If not, I will be doing that as well. It has been quite a difficult year for me, with injuries. I’ve been very unlucky with my ankle to require surgery, so it has been very frustrating.

“Now I feel finally it is healing. It is right there, almost at 100 percent, but whatever the manager requires of me I will be there to do it.”

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This was an outcome of a joint decision by Mohun Bagan and East Bengal officials who joined hands in their tirade against the Football Sports Development Limited and threatened to disrupt the ISL if their demands of franchise fee waiver and money from central pool were not met.

Continuing its tirade against the ISL organisers, the Indian Football Association has shot off a letter to AIFF seeking another round of meeting with Mohun Bagan and East Bengal before the stakeholders meet with the AFC at Kuala Lumpur on June 7.

“I’ve sent the letter and waiting for a response,” IFA secretary Utpal Ganguli said as they have sought to know the

roadmap of Indian football as promised to them by the AIFF in an earlier meeting.

This was an outcome of a joint decision by Mohun Bagan and East Bengal officials who joined hands in their tirade

against the Football Sports Development Limited and threatened to disrupt the ISL if their demands of franchise fee waiver and money from central pool were not met.

It is understood that both East Bengal and Mohun Bagan will boycott the AFC meeting if the AIFF president turns down the proposal for another meeting.

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The popular league, now into its fifth season, will now have a team from Tamil Nadu, co-owned by a consortium - Iquest Enterprises Private Limited, which comprises Indian cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar and serial entrepreneur N Prasad.

As Tamil Nadu gears up for its debut in the forthcoming season five of Pro Kabaddi League (PKL), the team’s coach K Baskaran said the goal is “to at least reach the play-offs.”

The pre-season camp will be important and the team, with a blend of experience and youth, looks capable of doing well in the League, he said.

“We are confident about ourselves and the goal is to make the play-offs in the first season,” Baskaran told PTI.

The popular league, now into its fifth season, will now have a team from Tamil Nadu, co-owned by a consortium – Iquest Enterprises Private Limited, which comprises Indian cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar and serial entrepreneur N Prasad.

The franchise’s CEO Varun Tripuraneni said, “I will call it a natural progression. Having bought teams in Indian Super League (football) and Premier Badminton League, we were always looking to expand to other sports. When we thought of owning a team in the PKL and Chennai was the first preference.”

“We were fairly new to the sport and we didn’t have a lot of time since our franchise was formed. So getting Baskaran on board as coach was a plus as he has enough knowledge to mentor the players, having been a part in four previous editions of PKL (with Jaipur Pink Panthers for three years and one year with Puneri Paltan),” Tripuraneni said.

He said now that the auctions had been completed and the roster set, the focus would be on pre-season training. Once the team’s name and logo are finalised, the management would hit the ground running with regard to organising training camps and promotions.

The franchise has gone in for a mix of experience and youth and coach Baskaran had the task of getting the players ready for Season-5, he added.

There are several players from Tamil Nadu in the squad and this, he said, could help draw crowds when the team plays in Chennai.

Tripuraneni said he expected Tendulkar to be fairly involved with the team as with the ISL team (Kerala Blasters) for which he provided key inputs.

“Think he (Tendulkar) will be involved in decision making,” the CEO said.

He also outlined plans to reach out to kabaddi-lovers across the State and programmes to unearth talent at the grass-root level.

On his part, Baskaran said he was glad to have been made coach of the Chennai team and added, “it is a homecoming of sorts for me.”

“I had always been asked why there was no team from Chennai in PKL and now that one is in place, there will be more excitement in the league,” he said.

Stating that the management had opted for a balanced squad with a good mix of seniors and young players, he said training ahead of the season would be important.

“If we are well prepared, we can expect good results. The pre-season camp will be held either in Coimbatore or Chennai.”

Also, he said keeping the long season in mind due to the inclusion of four additional franchises, the Chennai team’s management had gone for a 25-man squad, to enable provide players enough chances and rest too.

He said Amit Hooda (the franchise’s costliest pick at Rs 63 lakh) and Ajay Thakur were the only well-known players apart from C Arun, a TN player, but expected the young bunch to gel together and produce good results.

Baskaran also picked Bhavani Rajput, who hails from Madhya Pradesh and Korean player Dong Ju Hong to be the surprise packets for the team.

“There are eight Tamil Nadu players in our squad while a total of 19 from the State are in various teams, which is an indication of the standard of kabbadi here,” he said.

The Nehru indoor stadium, which is likely to be the home venue for the Tamil Nadu franchise, is one of the best stadiums, the coach said, adding, “we expect the crowd’s whole-hearted support.”

The franchise is also planning to embark on a talent hunt across the State once the PKL season winds up, said Baskaran, who hails from Sooliyakkottai in Thanjavur district.

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When the flight actually crosses German airspace and flies over the North Sea and the various English towns start showing up on the Virtual Map, you almost feel like you’ve been there before.

ENGLAND IS probably the one country we hear about the most while growing up in India. The places, the history—of which there is no dearth—the towns, the atmosphere and even the weather. So when the flight actually crosses German airspace and flies over the North Sea — the same route taken during the German blitzkrieg as we learnt from the history books — and the various English towns start showing up on the Virtual Map, you almost feel like you’ve been there before. Everything somehow feels very familiar.

There are of course those—from Watford to Reading—that you recognize from the eponymous football clubs that they represent or those from cricketing folklore, Tunbridge Wells, where of course Kapil Dev scored his unbeaten 175 against Zimbabwe from a position of 17/5. There are others that ring a bell from more pop-culture references—Aldershot features in one of Sherlock Holmes’ more thrilling adventures, the one with the crooked man.

And once you’re done with the lengthy underground journey from Heathrow, you start marking everything that you expect out of England. Gloomy skies? Check. A nip in the air? Check. A polite almost apologetic drizzle in the air? Check. Red-brick houses lining streets that seem eerily calm? Check. And since it is London, everyone seems to be in a hurry, even at the odd hour. And once you get to the Oval, the first course of action is spotting the famous Gasholders, which isn’t too tough nor is the massive banner advertising the Women’s World Cup that hangs off it.

But that’s where the Englishness ends on Tuesday. You actually walk around the ground a few times to spot a few locals, for everyone in and around the Oval, from cricketers to fans to even the stewards, seems to be from the subcontinent.

The only English lot are those behind the many food stalls selling everything from the local brew to pies. And it’s a scene you expect to encounter over the next few weeks as the cricket moves to Birmingham and back to London, at least when the Asian teams are in action—there are close to 30 media personnel from Bangladesh and India respectively, for the record.

For good measure, as the India and Bangladesh match petered out towards a facile finish, one section of the Indian contingent suddenly erupted with a chant of “Gully, gully mein shor hai, Pakistan chor hai,”, and the Oval had turned into Wankhede, adding to the prevailing familiarity.

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Welcome !

Welcome ! 

 - psd te rog, esti ripper ;) sunt lucrarile la altu la fel ca si :

I gave this photo to my brother called ~Enver~

Marc-Andre ter Stegen, who has signed a new agreement which has a buyout clause of 180 million euros, has played 93 matches with Barcelona, conceding 90 goals in 71 wins, 10 draws and 12 losses and helping it win nine titles in three seasons

Barcelona says it has reached a deal to extend the contract of goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen until June 2022.

The club said the new agreement, which has a buyout clause of 180 million euros ($201 million), will be signed on Tuesday.

Ter Stegen has been with the club since 2014, helping it win nine titles in three seasons. The German goalkeeper has played 93 matches with Barcelona, conceding 90 goals in 71 wins, 10 draws and 12 losses.

Barcelona has already renewed the contracts of Javier Mascherano, Luis Suarez, Neymar, Sergio Busquets and Ivan Rakitic. It is still working on new deals for Andres Iniesta and Lionel Messi.

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