Tamim Iqbal blasted 85 from 45 deliveries but Bangladesh fell 14 runs short of the target in their first warm-up match against the Australian Institute of Sports at Gardens Oval in Darwin on Monday.
   Chasing 331 on a flat pitch, the visitors were given the perfect start when Tamim took to the Queensland bowlers Grant Sullivan and Ben Cutting. When Tamim fell – the first of three wickets for Moises Henriques – Mohammad Ashraful kept the scoreboard ticking with 71 from 59 deliveries.
   Ashraful guided Bangladesh to a solid platform of 3 for 238 before he was bowled by Jon Holland, the rookie Victoria left-arm spinner, who went on to finish with 4 for 43 from his ten overs.
   The middle order could not capitalise, but spinner Abdur Razzak kept the required run-rate within touchable distance with 33 off 19 and Bangladesh needed 15 from the final over.
   The bowlers were a little more rusty – nobody picked up more than one wicket – and will benefit from the remaining four practice matches before the three-game ODI series with Australia. The AIS posted an imposing 4 for 330 with Peter Forrest (83) and Greg Moller (74) the main contributors, while Henriques had a fine all-round game and remained unbeaten on 69 from 41 balls.
   Bangladesh rested vice-captain Mashrafee bin Murtaza, who survived an injury scare before leaving home, in the game.
   Brief scores: Australian Institute of Sports 4 for 330 (Forrest 83, Moller 74, Henriques 69*, Wade 55, Sakib 1-45, Razzak 1-51, Nazmul 1-62) beat Bangladesh 316 all out (Tamim Iqbal 85, Mohammad Ashraful 71, Roqibul 34, Razzak 33, Farhad 30 not out, Mehrab 24, Holland 4-43, Henriques 3-38) by 14 runs.

Despite being a major tennis playing nation Spain had never won an Olympic gold before the current king of tennis Rafael Nadal defeated Fernando Gonzalez of Chile in the singles final on Sunday night.
   Before Nadal, Joride Arrese and Sergi Bruguera had reached the final but both the Spaniards lost to Mark Rosset of Switzerland and Andre Agassi of the USA respectively in the 1992 and 1996 Olympics. But the unstoppable Nadal made no mistake to clinch the gold, the first for his country, with superb control and power. Nadal was in a joyous mood after his historic triumph.
   You have won the tennis gold, can you say something abut the Olympics?
   Nadal: I am having an unbelievable year and nowhere in my best dreams. I can imagine something like that. And the win here is unbelievable, thank you very much for all the support because I have spent a fantastic time in Beijing. All the Spanish athletes also deserve special thanks.
   After the second set tiebreaker, you raised your level up.
   N: Well for sure, after you win the tie-break and when you are two sets up everything becomes a little bit easier later on…Fernando lost a chance to win the set, I played good tie-break and that was decisive but I think I played a perfect match.
   Titles of Roland Garros, Wimbledon and Olympic gold produce the same feeling or different?
   N: Well, everything has a different feeling, but you know winning here is a little bit special, Grand Slams are important for a tennis player but for a sportsman Olympic Games are more important that anything. I don’t know what different feeling I can express. The thing is I feel like I won for all the people of my country, not for me.
   With the Olympic gold you have also become the world’s No 1 tennis player.
   N: I am very happy to be No 1 of the world but my feelings have not changed very much as I was No 2, for sure it is a satisfaction but I don’t have time to celebrate as I have to stay focused on the US Open.
   You were the most popular athlete in the Olympic village signing autographs every minute.
   N: I was like other athletes in the village but posing for photos and signing autographs with the other star athletes had a great feeling.
   Any extra pressure for being the number one?
   N: Additional pressure? No, I don’t think so, I say for me it does not change too much from two weeks ago and right now. The pressure is the same because as the No 1 I will have to continue winning the same titles that I won when I was No 2. I think the pressure does not change.
   Do you think you can improve your game and if it’s ‘yes’ then how far can you improve?
   N: Always you can improve, if Federer can raise his game I can improve my slice shots and serve hundred per cent, and I have to improve my volley a little bit, for sure I have to continue the improvement.
   Your memorable moment in Beijing?
   N: Every day is special, I have had some special moments in the Olympic village, it is more than a normal tennis tournament, a totally different experience – I love that.

Liu Xiang’s shock withdrawal from the men’s 110m hurdles with an Achilles tendon injury has deprived an expectant China of seeing its most iconic sportsman in action.
   The defending Olympic and world champion pulled up in his first heat on Monday, the Chinese team’s head coach Feng Shuyong later revealing that the hurdler had aggravated the heel injury in training on Saturday.
   Liu became China’s first male Olympic champion in athletics when he tied Colin Jackson’s world mark of 12.91sec to win the 110m hurdles final at the Athens Games in 2004.
   Liu’s Olympic victory in Athens four years ago heralded unbridled opportunities for the hurdler and he has cashed in on his fame to become a popular pitchman and a millionaire in his own right.
   He adorns outdoor advertising boards, promoting everything from cigarettes and soft drinks to clothing - and can incite a near-riot by appearing in public.
   With 91,000 fans packed into the National Stadium on Monday, Liu had been expected to breeze through his heat in his bid to become only the third man to win two successive 110m titles after Americans Lee Calhoun (1956-60) and Roger Kingdom (1984-88).
   But one false start by Qatari Mohammed al-Thawadi later, and Liu - without attacking a hurdle in anger - had ripped off his lane stickers and made a sharp exit from the stadium, to the dismay of the huge crowd and 1.3 billion compatriots.
   Liu, who lost his world record to Cuban favourite Dayron Robles in June, was described by head coach Feng as being able to withstand the intense pressure he comes under on a daily basis.
   ‘Liu Xiang is a great athlete. He stands the pressure like no other athletes can simply stand,’ Feng said of the Shanghai-born athlete who was recruited into a specialist sports school at the age of 12.
   ‘We didn’t realise the injury was so serious and that it would cause the problem it did today.
   ‘Everyone expected him to go well, as well as he did in Athens.
   ‘I think the Chinese people will understand the situation and will enncourage him to come back to the track and perform well.’
   Liu’s coach and mentor for the last 12 years, Sun Haiping, broke down during the press conference to explain Liu’s withdrawal, repeatedly bursting into tears and clutching his face.
   Liu had chosen to stay away from a series of track and field meetings in Europe that served as warm-ups to the August 8-24 Games.
   His last international race was at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon in May, when he was disqualified for a false start.
   His recent Olympic preparations were also troubled by a hamstring injury his coaches insisted had cleared up.
   ‘He has been fighting and fighting until the last moment,’ said the teary Sun.
   ‘The heel injury has been back and forth between intensive training and rest and this is the main problem.’
   Feng added: ‘He has taken effective measures and until Saturday he was in great shape.
   ‘Today’s results is not perfect, especially for Liu Xiang. There is great expectation and a great pressure from all.
   ‘He arrived at the track with the greatest will and he wanted to compete. Liu would not pull out unless the pain was intolerable.’

Sri Lanka (147/2) beat India (146) by 8 wickets
   Mahela Jayawardene cracked a responsible half-century to guide Sri Lanka to a crushing eight-wicket victory over India in the first one-day international here on Monday.
   The Sri Lankan skipper scored an unbeaten 61 for his 47th half-century to help his team achieve a modest 147-run target with more than 15 overs to spare for a 1-0 lead in the five-match series.
   The victory was set up by man-of-the-match Ajantha Mendis and Muttiah Muralitharan, who exposed India’s batting limitations against spin.
   Unorthodox spinner Mendis took 3-21 and off-spinner Muralitharan 3-37 as India were bundled out for 146 after electing to bat on a slow track.
   ‘We knew if we picked early wickets we could control the Indian batting line-up. The wicket had something in it for bowlers,’ said Jayawardene.
   ‘The important thing is to play to your strength. I am happy with the way we are doing at the moment. It was an all-round performance with everybody chipping in, but we need to keep working hard.’
   Sri Lanka lost opener Sanath Jayasuriya (10) and Kumar Sangakkara (19) in seamer Munaf Patel’s opening spell, but Jayawardene and Chamara Kapugedera (45 not out) ensured the win with a 102-run stand for the third wicket.
   Jayawardene hit seven fours in his 82-ball knock and Kapugedera four boundaries in his 72-ball innings.
   India were let down by their batsmen as none could get past 25 in a spineless display against a disciplined Sri Lankan pace-spin combination. Yuvraj Singh was the top scorer with 23.
   The tourists suffered a setback even before the first ball had been bowled as in-form opener Virender Sehwag was ruled out of the match due to an ankle injury, sustained during a practice session on Sunday evening.
   ‘Our bowlers did well, but we never had enough runs to defend,’ said India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
   ‘I would have liked to bowl first, but now that it’s gone you cannot do anything about it.’
   Sri Lanka’s new-ball bowlers Nuwan Kulasekara and Chaminda Vaas did the early damage when they shared three wickets in the opening 12 overs to leave the tourists reeling at 36-3.
   Left-arm seamer Vaas gave his team a dream start when he dismissed opener Gautam Gambhir with the second delivery of the match, which moved in sharply to knock back the off-stump.
   He is now one short of becoming the fourth bowler to complete 400 wickets in one-day internationals.
   Kulasekara (2-23) trapped debutant Virat Kohli (12) leg-before and then got rid of Suresh Raina (17), who drove straight to Chamara Silva in the covers.
   Mendis, who took six wickets for 13 runs in his team’s win over India in the Asia Cup final in Karachi last month, continued to trouble Dhoni’s side as he took two big wickets in his opening spell.
   His first victim was Yuvraj, who inside-edged a delivery onto his stumps after smashing the bowler for a six over long-on in the same over.
   Yuvraj, dropped on five by Jayawardene at second slip off Kulasekara, could not cash in on the chance, adding just 18 more runs before falling in Mendis’s opening over.
   Mendis then removed Dhoni, a stroke-playing batsman like Yuvraj, to make sure the tourists could not get a foothold in the match. Dhoni (six) was caught by Jayawardene at lone slip while trying to cut.
   The lower-order batsmen found Muralitharan too hot to handle as India failed to bat their quota of 50 overs despite a fighting last-wicket stand between Pragyan Ojha (16 not out) and Patel (15).
   The second one-dayer of the five-match series will be played here on Wednesday.

Confusion over gymnastics’ new scoring system overshadowed another golden night for China at the Beijing Olympics Monday.
   China won three of the four gold medals on offer at the National Indoor Stadium, but the United States and France were denied places on top of the podium under a complicated tiebreak system never before used at the Olympics.
   Chen Yibing emerged victorious for China in men’s rings, He Kexin won on women’s uneven bars and He Wenna claimed gold on women’s trampoline, in a national gymnastics dominance unseen since the days of the Soviet Union.
   The reigning world champion on men’s vault, Leszek Blanik of Poland, also added Olympic gold to his collection.
   But the spotlight fell on the new scoring system, under which the old ‘perfect 10’ was replaced with two marks, one a mark out of 10 for execution and another reflecting the difficulty of the routine.
   In the uneven bars final, He and US gymnast Nastia Liukin both scored 9.025 for execution and 7.7 for difficulty, to give each a final score of 16.725.
   But instead of sharing gold, officials implemented a countback system where the highest and lowest of the five judges marks for execution were progressively removed until a winner emerged.
   ‘I don’t know if anybody understands what the hell is going on,’ Liukin’s father and coach Valeri said, pointing out that he tied and shared an Olympic gold on the high bar competing for the Soviet Union in the 1988 Seoul Games.
   ‘I tied in my Olympic Games but I guess they don’t want it now,’ he added.
   His daughter, who won the women’s individual gold medal last Friday, was also at a loss to explain the situation.
   ‘I honestly was in shock,’ she said. ‘I knew I didn’t have my best routine (but) when I saw we got the same score and my name was second, it was weird.’
   The same situation occurred in the men’s vault final, when Blanik and France’s Thomas Bouhail both scored 9.5375 for execution and 7.0 for difficulty for a total of 16.537. This time it was Bouhail who missed out on gold.
   ‘I don’t exactly know why I won,’ Blanik said when asked if the new system was confusing for the public. ‘I think this is a special rules for judges, I don’t know what is different (between himself and Bouhail).’
   There was no scoring controversy involving Chen’s victory on rings, where the reigning world champion was clearly dominant ahead of compatriot Yang Wei and Ukrainian Oleksandr Vorobiov.
   ‘I felt coming first was normal, it was within my expectations,’ he said.
   ‘If I tell you I wasn’t nervous, that’s impossible. To tell you the truth I couldn’t sleep well and I felt like I was collapsing. I was going to bed at three and getting up at five.’
   On the uneven bars, China’s Yang Yilin came third behind He and Liukin, with reigning world champion on the apparatus Ksenia Semenova finishing sixth.
   Pole veteran Blanik’s win on the vault was the first men’s gymnastics event not won by China at the Beijing Games with no gymnasts from the home nation qualifying for the final.
   Blanik kissed a picture of his son after relegating Bouhail to silver and Anton Galotsuskov of Russia to bronze, saying he was looking forward to retirement.
   ‘For me it’s a very big souvenir from the last final of my career. That’s my last and most important final of career,’ Blanik said.

Bangladesh’s opening batsman Nazimuddin has been ruled out of the one-day series, starting in Australia this month, due to a finger injury, the Bangladesh Cricket Board said on Monday.
   ‘Nazim has torn one of the tendons on his left ring finger during the pre-match practice game against the Australian Institute of Sports in Darwin today,’ said the BCB in a statement.
   ‘The injury would require six to eight weeks of immobilisation in a splint,’ it said.
   The batsman has seen an orthopaedic surgeon and had an X-ray. He also went to a specialist for having the splint. He will fly back home and will be replaced by left-handed batsman Junaed Siddique.
   The 23-year-old batsman, who has scored just 90 runs in seven one-day internationals, was included only after fellow opener Shahriar Nafees opted out of tour to take exams.
   Selectors picked Junaed in his place as he was the only other specialist opener left on the stand-by list. ‘We did not need to think much to select Junaed in his place. He played in New Zealand in January and must have some idea about the Australian condition,’ said the chief selector, Rafiqul Alam
   Bangladesh will play five warm-up games ahead of the three-match series, to be played in Darwin on August 30, September 3 and 6.

The Bangladesh Football Federation on Monday revealed the probe committee report on Bangladesh’s failure in the AFC Challenge Cup and South Asian Football Championship.
   The probe body, comprised of Harunur Rashid, Anwarul Haq Helal and Sirajul Islam Bachchu, held coach Abu Yusuf and captain Aminul Haq largely responsible for the twin failures.
   Yusuf was also accused of inciting the players against the team leader and the team manager, which the probe body said was breach of code of conduct. He was also blamed for failing to make the players fit for the 90-minute game.
   The probe body blamed captain Aminul Haq for failing to keep the team united and maintain discipline. He also failed to solve the senior-junior ego problems that nagged the side.
   The probe body also warned assistant coach Golam Rabbani, vice captain Biplob Bhattacharya, defender Hasan Al Mamun, midfielder Aram Aziz and striker Jahid Hasan Emily.

Football legend Diego Maradona is expected to be present at the Beijing Workers Stadium to watch the high-profile semi-final match between Argentina and Brazil starting at 7:00pm BST today.
   Maradona was present in the stadium to cheer Argentina during the quarter-final against the Netherlands. Argentina won 2-1 in extra time.
   Argentina are the defending Olympic champions from the 2004 Athens Games but Brazil have never won an Olympic gold.
   Lionel Messi of Argentina and his former Barcelona team-mate Ronaldinho of Brazil are regarded as the top players of the world and they will take on each other in the semis.
   The match will see several club team-mates up against each other. Liverpool’s Javier Mascherano will play against his Brazilian club-mate Lucas, Marcelo of Brazil will find him in the same situation against his Real Madrid club-mate Gago.

Former national footballer Shafiqul Islam Manik was appointed as the national team’s coach as per the recommendation of the National Team Management Committee, officials said.
   Manik, who signed a three-and-a-half-month deal with the Bangladesh Football Federation on Monday afternoon, has been assigned to lead the national side in the Merdeka Cup in Malaysia, scheduled for October 15-25.
   Chairman of the NTMC Badal Roy said Manik would also take the responsibility of other coaching programmes, conducted by the BFF during his tenure. The former footballer-turned-organiser said the BFF would consider renewing the contract of the coach after the Merdeka Cup.
   ‘I want to thank the BFF for keeping faith on me. I sincerely believe we can go far ahead if we work together,” Manik said at a press conference after signing the agreement.
   Manik was last involved as coach of Mohammedan Sporting Club, who he guided to runners-up position in the inaugural B league in 2007 and championship in 2005 Nitol-Tata National Football League.

Russia’s Yelena Isinbayeva won the gold medal in the Olympic women’s pole vault on Monday and then broke her own world record when she leapt 5.05 meters.
   Jennifer Stuczynski of the United States won silver medal with 4.80m and Svetlana Feofanova took the bronze with a best jump of 4.75m.
   Isinbayeva, who won gold in Athens four years ago and has dominated the sport since, spent most of the competition lying under her towel relaxing and did not take her first jump until 4.70.
   The current world champion, took just her second jump at 4.85m and that was enough for her to retain her Olympic title.
   Isinbayeva then jumped 4.95m at the third attempt and set up the bar to try and defeat her own world record of 5.04m and delighted the crowd when she did so at the third attempt.

China on Monday played down reports that it bought the top-secret training methods of a leading Australian swim coach which helped Liu Zige come from nowhere the win the women’s 200m butterfly.
   Australian newspapers on Sunday said Ken Wood sold his knowhow to Liu’s coach Jin Wei for ‘big money’.
   It sparked a storm Down Under as Wood also coached top Australian 200m butterflyer Jessicah Schipper, who Liu, unknown before the Beijing Olympics, beat into third place, snatching her world record in the process.
   ‘The so called top-secret program was just hype and nonsense,’ Chinese head coach Zhang Yadong told China’s state-run Xinhua news agency.
   ‘She (Liu) trained in Australia before, but a lot of other swimmers did too. It was her ability that made her successful.’
   Liu’s coach Jin said she was able to swim such a fast time because ‘she was really hard on herself’, and only began to gain strength last year as her body developed late.
   It was only China’s third gold since its prime at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, when it won four.
   On Sunday, Woods was quoted as saying of China: ‘They pay good money, big money. I wouldn’t help them for nothing’.
   He denied betraying Schipper, saying he hadn’t trained Liu since Australia’s Olympic trials in March.
   Schipper’s parents, Jenny and Wolfgang, said their daughter only found out about Wood’s actions after winning gold as part of the 4x100m medley women’s relay.
   ‘We didn’t know anything about it, I don’t think Jess knew anything about it either, so that was a little upsetting,’ Mrs Schipper told the Nine Network in Australia.
   Her husband said he was eager to speak to Wood about the reports, but he still held his daughter’s long-term coach in high esteem.
   Schipper herself said in Beijing she had nothing against Liu, who is also known as Lucy.
   ‘I trained before with Lucy and I was well aware of that and she was with us for quite a while with the program that we had going and I’ve got nothing against that at all,’ she said Monday.
   ‘It’s always a surprise to see people go fast but in 2005 I took three seconds off my 200 fly personal best, so sometimes people just do amazing times. Michael Phelps did seven world records this week.’
   Woods runs a high performance swim school north of Brisbane offering a program for elite swimmers on stroke technique, weight training, diet and preparation.
   Liu has trained at the school three times over the past three years.
   Australian Olympic Committee president John Coates has said that training overseas swimmers should not be seen as unpatriotic.

India one-day captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni on Monday conceded it was not easy to read Sri Lanka’s unorthodox spinner Ajantha Mendis.
   ‘When you are playing Mendis, you have to save wickets and get runs as well. It gets a bit tough. Even Murali (Muttiah Muralitharan) was difficult some time back, but Mendis is a bit more unusual than him,’ said Dhoni.
   Mendis played a key role in his team’s eight-wicket win over India in the first one-dayer of the five-match series here, finishing with 3-21 off nine overs to restrict the tourists to 146.
   Sri Lanka achieved the modest target with more than 15 overs to spare, with the man-of-the-match award going to Mendis.
   ‘It’s difficult to pick him (Mendis). He is a very different bowler. Even if you pick him, by the time you realise what ball it is, it gets really late to play a big shot,’ said Dhoni.
   ‘In one-day cricket, it is not only about playing him but also rotating the strike because you don’t want a bowler to end up with 10 overs for 20 runs. We need to find a way to rotate the strike.
   ‘I have not seen any bowler like him. He is an unusual bowler. The only option right now is to play more and more of him and that’s the only way of getting better.’

Spain’s Rafael Nadal has replaced Roger Federer as the new world number one in the ATP rankings released on Monday.
   Federer, 27, relinquishes his hold on the top spot after 237 weeks.
   The Swiss player has struggled all season, while Nadal, 22, has played some of the best tennis of his career, winning eight titles including Roland Garros, Wimbledon and the Olympic gold.
   Asked about his feelings on becoming number one, the Mallorcan left-hander, said: ‘I’m very happy to be number one. But the feeling doesn’t change too much because the last years I did very well, too.
   ‘I was very happy being the number two. So finally I’m number one. For sure there’s satisfaction, but at the same time ... I don’t know. I don’t have time to celebrate. I play New York in one week.’
   He is seeking his third Grand Slam in a row after beating Federer in the finals in Paris and Wimbledon.
   Olympic finalist Fernando Gonzalez of Chile moves up four places to 11th, while Argentine Juan Martin Del Potro, winner of his fourth consecutive title in Washington Sunday after Kitzbuhel, Stuttgart and Los Angeles, moves to 17th.
   ATP rankings
   1. Rafael Nadal (ESP) 6700 (+1)
   2. Roger Federer (SUI) 5930 (-1)
   3. Novak Djokovic (SRB) 5105
   4. David Ferrer (ESP) 2865
   5. Nikolay Davydenko (RUS) 2700
   6. Andy Murray (GBR) 2415
   7. David Nalbandian (ARG) 1975 (+1)
   8. Andy Roddick (USA) 1845 (+1)
   9. James Blake (USA) 1825 (-2)
   10. Stanislas Wawrinka (SUI) 1695

India’s opener Virender Sehwag has been ruled out of the ongoing one-day series against Sri Lanka due to an ankle injury, a top official said here on Monday.
   ‘He (Sehwag) is out of the series,’ said Indian manager Sanjay Desai.
   Sehwag missed the opening one-dayer of the five-match series here on Monday after failing to recover from the injury, sustained during a practice session on Sunday evening.

One of football’s combustible rivalries is rekindled with defending champions Argentina taking on Brazil here today for a place in the Olympic Games final.
   The Argentines, inspired by Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi, have negotiated Ivory Coast, Australia, Serbia and the Netherlands to get to the last four, with Messi scoring two of their seven goals.
   Despite being five-time World Cup winners, Brazil have yet to win the Olympic gold medal, coming up short twice in their final appearances in 1984 and 1988.
   The Brazilians, spearheaded by AC Milan’s Ronaldinho, yet have to concede a goal in putting a total of 11 goals past Belgium, New Zealand, China and former champions Cameroon.
   In 93 internationals, Brazil edge Argentina 35-34 with 24 drawn, but even though the Olympic football competition is geared for under-23 players, teams are allowed to field three over-age players.
   Much will again be at stake for these two South American giants, not only the lure of going on to play for Olympic gold on Saturday, but intense regional pride.
   Barcelona fought hard to prevent Messi playing in Beijing and wanted him back in Spain in time for the Champions League third qualifying round matches, but the all-action 21-year-old has illuminated the tournament as he did when Argentina won in Athens four years ago.
   Messi scored a brilliantly-taken early goal and set up the second for Angel di Maria in a hard-fought 2-1 extra-time win over the Dutch in a Shanghai quarter-final on Sunday.
   ‘He is one of the best football players in the world,’ said Argentina coach Sergio Batista.
   Dutch coach Foppe De Haan has tipped Argentina to beat Brazil, largely on the Messi factor.
   ‘I like Messi, even though he’s on the other team,’ he said. ‘When he gets the ball he is unbelievable. Argentina are better than Brazil, they have a modern passing game.’
   Brazil also needed extra-time to put away belligerent Cameroon 2-0 in Shenyang last Sunday, needing goals from Rafael Sobis and Real Madrid’s Marcelo to go through.
   ‘Many people think the Olympics are not as important to us as the World Cup. But we’re Brazil, and every time we take to the pitch, we do so to win. We want to claim our country’s first gold medal in football,’ coach Carlos Dunga said.
   Brazil’s pragmatic playing style under Dunga has been criticised with the aficionades obsessive about ‘Jogo bonito’ - play beautiful - but Dunga insists he will not change his results-oriented approach against Argentina.
   ‘We have to play against everything, we have to play to win, there’s no other way,’ he said. ‘If the opposition play open football against Brazil, then we can play open and pretty football.’
   In the other semi-final, Nigeria play Belgium, who upset the more-fancied Italy 3-2 in the quarter-finals.
   Belgium played most of the match a man down after defender Thomas Vermaelen was red-carded early but still got through.
   Nigeria have inherited experience from six Olympics and one gold medal in Atlanta in 1996 where they beat Argentina, and coach Samson Siasia said another final appearance was possible.
   ‘Every team who has come to the Olympics wants a gold medal, but it is not easy. There are many obstacles but, of course, having come this far we want the gold now,’ Siasia said.
   ‘The semi-final is going to be very tough, but it is possible.’

Brazil came from a goal down to stun Germany 4-1 Monday and book a place in the women’s Olympic final where they will meet the United States who beat Japan in a six-goal thriller.
   Formiga, Marta and a Cristiane brace did the damage for Brazil, cancelling out a Birgit Prinz strike to avenge their painful defeat to the European powerhouse in last year’s World Cup final.
   The United States also bounced back from a goal down to win a pulsating encounter 4-2 with a double from Angela Hucles, a cracker from Lori Chalupny and Heather O’Reilly after Shinobu Ohno had put Japan ahead.
   Substitute Eriko Arakawa pulled one back for Japan in injury time.
   It set up a enticing replay of the final four years ago in Athens which the United States won 2-1 in extra-time. The USA also defeated Brazil in the third-place play-off in Sydney in 2000.
   ‘My girls are excellent, the fans also helped us,’ said Brazilian coach Jorge Barcellos. ‘But what is important is not to win but just to compete.’
   Cristiane, the tournament’s top scorer with five goals, said gold was all the team cared about.
   ‘The whole team is aiming at the gold medal,’ she said. ‘It’s more important to win the gold for the team than for me to be the top scorer.’
   German coach Silvia Neid said that she hoped they went on to win gold.
   ‘Brazil is a very strong team. Last year in Shanghai we won the World Cup. Now I hope Brazil win the gold medal. They have a good chance.’
   Prinz got the opener for Germany on 10 minutes, making the breakthrough after a nervy start by both sides, using her brute strength to muscle past a defender and into the box before calmly rounding goalkeeper Barbara.
   Rattled, Brazil looked to their three most creative players - Cristiane, Marta and Daniela—for inspiration and they duly delivered.
   Cristiane sent a low cross into the box with three minutes left in the half which was met by the advancing Formiga who smashed the ball into the net from 20 yards.
   Brazil came out after the break just as determined and were ahead within four minutes after Marta picked up the ball just inside her own half and went rampaging down the middle of the park.
   Drawing the defenders, she laid off the ball to Cristiane in acres of space and the 23-year-old made no mistake.
   Brazil had another on 53 minutes when Marta rounded two defenders as she cut into the box on the right before burying the ball with the outside of her left boot.
   Germany’s back line was at fault again for the fourth goal when Cristiane danced past three defenders before cooly placing the ball beyond the oncoming keeper with 14 minutes left.

Chelsea roared into the new English Premiership season in style on Sunday, thrashing Portsmouth 4-0 to open the Luiz Felipe Scolari era with a bang while titleholders Manchester United could only draw 1-1 at home to Newcastle.
   With the Blues swatting the FA Cup winners aside and with Aston Villa, aspiring to break into the top-four this season, beating Manchester City 4-2 aided by a Gabriel Agbonlahor hattrick inside seven minutes, there was pressure on United to start with a similar flourish. The omens appeared good, Newcastle having been woeful in the corresponding fixture last season, when they surrendered 6-0 before finding patches of form to finish in midtable.
   This time, despite the absence of the injured Michael Owen, Kevin Keegan’s side gave as good as they got from the outset against the Premiership and European champions, who were missing last year’s twin inspirations Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez.
   United manager Sir Alex Ferguson opted in their absence for a partnership of Wayne Rooney and Fraizer Campbell in attack but last year’s champions amply demonstrated their need for new offensive options.
   Although the hosts dominated possession they had only Darren Fletcher’s 24th-minute strike to show for their efforts as he cancelled out Obafemi Martins’ towering header 90 seconds earlier for the Magpies. To make matters worse for Ferguson, who has been heavily linked with a move for the Tottenham striker Dimitar Berbatov, he also lost midfielder Michael Carrick to an ankle injury in the first half.
   Ferguson said Carrick would be withdrawing from the England squad and faced three weeks on the sidelines.
   United will take a crumb of comfort from the knowledge that last year they could only manage a scoreless Old Trafford stalemate with Reading on the opening day and then swiftly lost the first Manchester derby before righting themselves and ending two years of Chelsea domination in the league. ‘It was disappointing. I think in the first half we played pretty well, our attacking play was very good, Ferguson told Sky Sports.
   ‘But in the second half we never looked like breaking them down,’ admitted Ferguson, who gave Newcastle credit for their fluency on the counter attack.
   ‘We were the better team - but we didn’t make it count.’
   Newcastle counterpart Kevin Keegan in contrast enthused at how his rejigged side, for whom new boy Gutierrez was outstanding.
   ‘I said to the lads: ‘If we can come here and do that we can go anywhere after a game like that.’
   ‘I think we thoroughly deserved a point here today,’ added Keegan, whose first Newcastle side famously let the title slip from its grasp 12 years ago, with the trophy going to Old Trafford.

Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has revealed that Michael Carrick will miss up to three weeks with an ankle injury and Ryan Giggs can expect a similar spell on the sidelines after picking up a hamstring problem after Sunday’s 1-1 draw with Newcastle.
   The pair limped off at Old Trafford as United started their defence of their Premier League title with dropped home points, with Darren Fletcher’s goal cancelling out Obafemi Martins’ effort.
   Midfielder Carrick limped off in the first half and has been pulled out of the squad for England’s friendly against the Czech Republic on Wednesday, while Ferguson claimed that striker Fraizer Campbell has also picked up an unspecified injury.
   Carlos Tevez will return at Portsmouth next Monday after missing the opening game of the season due to the death of an uncle and Ferguson feels Wayne Rooney, who has been struggling with a virus, will also be better for having played a full 90 minutes.
   ‘Michael has an ankle injury and it has swollen up very badly and he’ll be out for maybe two or three weeks which is unfortunate,’ Ferguson said.
   ‘Ryan’s got a hamstring injury so it was disappointing to get these injuries on top of what we’re missing anyway. I haven’t got too many complaints. We did our best with the resources we had available.

Luiz Felipe Scolari believes Chelsea will have to improve on their awesome 4-0 demolition of Portsmouth if they are to take the Premier League title away from Manchester United.
   Scolari sprinkled stardust on Stamford Bridge in his first Premier League match as goals from Joe Cole, Nicolas Anelka, Frank Lampard and Deco ripped Portsmouth to shreads.
   It was the kind of breathtaking display owner Roman Abramovich has long wished for, but Scolari saw enough flaws to make him realise he still has plenty of fine-tuning to do before the club’s new ‘Blue Brazil’ nickname rings true.
   ‘The players put on the field what we did with them in training. We realised more than the other games in pre-season what we need to do,’ Scolari said. ‘But we’ll need more quality in the future if we want to win the Premier League or Champions League. We’ll need more than this.’
   ‘Lampard is not Brazilian. He’s English. But he touched the ball very well. It was his style. The same with Ballack. We have a style. It’s impossible to say to Deco: ‘Foul people.’ That’s not his style,’ Scolari said.
   ‘I only give the players the freedom to play and allow them to express their style. This is a Chelsea performance not a Scolari performance.’
   While Chelsea’s midfield marauders earned most of the plaudits, Scolari singled out Anelka for praise after the France striker responded to his manager’s pre-match attempt to put more fire into his game.
   Scolari added: ‘I’m happy with Anelka. I said to him: ‘You will have three or four chances. You need to make one or two goals for me and for the people. I want people to believe in you more than before’.

When Michael Phelps was a boy growing up in Baltimore, a popular television advert of the time featured basketball star Michael Jordan together with the slogan ‘I want to be like Mike’.
   Now, when children all across the United States are saying they want to be ‘like Mike’, they mean Phelps after the swimming star rewrote the record books here at the Beijing Olympics by winning eight golds.
   But, despite his success, there remains a schoolboy sports fan lurking inside Phelps that still reveres Jordan.
   ‘Growing up, I always remember the ‘I want to be like Mike’ ads with Jordan. I remember putting my hand on the Gatorade jug (the sports drink the NBA legend was advertsing). If I am able to inspire kids, I’m honoured to do it.
   ‘It’s an amazing feeling,’ he also told reporters here Monday.
   ‘One of the people I’ve always wanted to meet in person is Jordan. I’ve never met him. What he did in the sport of basketball, is what I am trying to do in the sport of swimming. He completely changed the sport of basketball.’
   However, while Jordan may have long ago opted for retirement, the 23-year-old Phelps insists he still has goals he wants to achieve in the pool even though his career haul of 14 gold medals - he collected six in Athens four years ago - is more than anyone else has won in Olympic history.
   As if to signal his intent that his extraordinary career still has some way to run, the undisputed star of the Beijing Games won’t be in the Chinese capital come the closing ceremony but thousands of mile away in London, the host city of the 2012 Olympics.
   ‘I am going to London to do the handover for the next Olympics and hopefully prepare myself the way I did for these Games and be ready to compete in London.
   ‘There are some times I still want to hit before I retire. That’s what’s keeping me going and I want to try some new events.
   ‘Whether it’s the backstroke or the 100 metres free, there are some other things Bob (Bowman, his coach) and I are going to try out and work on over the next four years. It will definitely be fun, a change and be interesting.
   ‘Bob said to me, serious training starts in the New Year.’
   One consolation for Phelps’s rivals is that, having now broken fellow American swimming great Mark Spitz’s record of seven golds at a single Games, set in Munich back in 1972, is that he has no plans to match or even surpass his Beijing mark in four years’ time.
   ‘It would be a lot harder, I’d be older.’
   The poster boy of swimming faced a barrage of questions from the world’s media but one which would have struck a chord with young sports fans all around the globe was, ‘what’s it like to hold eight gold medals at once?’.
   Phelps answered by saying: ‘Today was the first day I held all eight together. It’s pretty cool. I was able to hold eight in Athens but these are all gold.
   ‘It’s just amazing, it’s been a really fun week.’

Michael Phelps, with an epic eight-gold performance, reigned supreme in a Beijing Olympic swimming competition chock full of fast times and fierce racing.
   Phelps made Games history at the Water Cube, capturing two-thirds of the United States’ 12 gold medals as he surpassed the previous record for the greatest golden haul at a single Games - Mark Spitz’s 36-year-old mark of seven set at Munich in 1972.
   Seven of Phelps’s eight golds came in world-record times, as 25 world records tumbled over the nine days of competition.
   ‘It was way faster than expected,’ said US head coach Mark Schubert. ‘I knew there’d be a lot of world records, but the depth of the great performances and competitiveness to win gold medals, we’ve never seen anything quite like that before.’
   The men’s 100m freestyle world record fell three times as Australian Eamon Sullivan and France’s Alain Bernard battled for sprint supremacy - Sullivan emerging with the world record but Bernard capturing the all-important gold that denied Dutch great Pieter van den Hoogenband an unprecedented third straight Olympic title in the prestigious event.
   Rebecca Adlington, 19, became the first British woman since 1960 to capture Olympic swimming gold with a razor-thin victory over American Katie Hoff in the 400m free - then smashed the oldest record on swimming’s books with a convincing triumph in the 800m freestyle.
   Stephanie Rice won three golds with three world records, her 200m and 400m individual medley double and share in Australia’s 4x200m freestyle relay triumph accounting for half of Australia’s six gold - all won by women.
   While familiar names resurfaced - Japan’s Kosuke Kitajima became the first man to complete a second-straight Olympic breaststroke double while Zimbabwe’s Kirsty Coventry and Americans Natalie Coughlin and Aaron Peirsol also retained titles won in Athens - South Korea, Tunisia and Brazil all tasted their first Olympic swimming gold.
   Teenager Park Tae-Hwan struck for South Korea in the men’s 400m freestyle, while Cesar Cielo mined gold for Brazil in the 50m free and Oussama Mellouli ended Aussie Grant Hackett’s treble dream with an upset win in the 1,500m freestyle.
   Federica Pellegrini twice lowered the women’s 200m freestyle world record en route to becoming the first Italian woman to claim Olympic swimming gold.
   China seized their moment to shine, teenagers Liu Zige and Jiao Liuyang finishing one-two in the women’s 200m butterfly as the host nation amassed a total of six medals overall.
   Australian world record-holders Libby Trickett and Leisel Jones made up for Athens disappointments with their first individual Olympic golds. And if there was disappointment that they couldn’t mine more - Trickett was bested by Germany’s Britta Steffen in both the 50m and 100m free - there was consolation in the Australian women’s world record-setting victory in the 4x100m medley relay.
   ‘This Olympics was the fastest, deepest, most incredible Olympics there has ever been,’ said US men’s head coach Eddie Reese. ‘There were so many people from all the countries going fast.
   ‘The number of gold medals were spread all over the world, and the silver medals and bronze medals also spread over the world.
   ‘They weren’t for slow times. It was an incredible experience.’
   As so often before, the United States emerged with the lion’s share - 12 gold, nine silver and 10 bronze for a total of 31.
   Phelps loomed over it all, swimming 17 times in nine days, piling up the gold with one amazing performance after another.
   ‘He’s a phenomenal athlete, you have the absolute respect for his achievement,’ said Australian coach Alan Thompson. ‘I don’t know if I’ll still be alive when they stop talking about this bloke.
   ‘You wonder if you’ll ever see someone as good as that again.’
   Phelps won the 100m and 200m butterfly, 200m and 400m individual medley, the 200m freestyle and three relays - the 4x100m and 4x200m free and 4x100m medley.
   Phelps won seven of his titles in world-record times and he won them in every way imaginable.
   He was untouchable in the 200m freestyle, winning by 1.89sec, while his victory by one one-hundredth of a second over Milorad Cavic in the 100m butterfly had Serbian team officials baying to share the gold.
   Phelps scrambled to a world record in the 200m butterfly despite the ‘wardrobe malfunction’ of water-filled goggles.
   He kept Laszlo Cseh at bay in both individual medleys, making sure the Hungarian’s European-record time in each was good enough only for silver.
   Phelps also showed himself a consummate teammate, his faith in his relay colleagues rewarded when Jason Lezak rallied past Bernard for the 4x100m freestyle win that could have stopped Phelps’s quest for eight almost before it got off the ground.
   ‘You can’t put it in words what he has done here,’ Hackett said. ‘His level of achievement is phenomenal and I don’t think it will ever be seen again.’

Dutchwoman Marianne Vos made up for missing out on Olympic road silverware by being crowned track cycling’s points race champion after a stunning ride in the final here on Monday.
   Yoanka Gonzalez of Cuba secured the silver medal with Leire Olaberria of Spain winning the bronze, both riders securing their medals on the 10th and last of the race’s intermediate sprints.
   Vos, the reigning world champion in the 100-lap race, virtually sealed her first Olympic gold when she put her bike into overdrive to gain a lap on the peloton over six hard laps of riding on her own.
   That gave the 21-year-old Vos a decisive 20 points, a tally of 30 and a 20-point lead over second placed Maria Luisa Calle of Colombia.
   A crash early in the race which took down American Sarah Hammer, Japan’s Satomi Wadami and Trine Schmidt of Denmark caused a scare in the peloton.
   And after just 20 laps Vos was trailing at the back.
   But by lap 63 of the race she had recovered enough to launch an audacious bid to gain a lap on the peloton, which she achieved on lap 69.
   ‘The crash was early in the race and after 20 laps I was already pretty beat,’ said Vos, who failed to live up to her hopes of a medal in the women’s road race and time trial.
   ‘I was just able to gain a lap at the right moment. After that I just tried to recover.’
   Vos is considered something of a cycling phenomenon, having won world titles on the track, on the road and in the hybrid discipline of cyclo-cross.
   In an exciting finale to the race, she simply kept watch on her rivals to make sure none of them imitated her earlier feat.
   A number of attacks came and went, and while Calle and Gonzalez were consistent in searching out the points Vos simply counted down the laps.
   ‘A couple of laps before the end I knew (she had won),’ added the Dutchwoman, who was in tears as she saw her national flag hoisted above the podium.
   It took until the final few laps, however, for the silver and bronze to be decided.
   Gonzalez and Calle sat in joint second going into the last of the 10 sprints, where five, three, two and points are picked up by the first four riders over the line.
   But Gonzalez took command at the front of the peloton to add a further five points, taking her tally to 18.

Shelly-Ann Fraser can thank her mother’s uneasy relationship with the Jamaican police for helping her become an Olympic Games sprint champion.
   Maxine Fraser, who brought up her daughter in one of the Caribbean’s meanest ghettos, believes her quickfire genes have been passed on to the 21-year-old who led a Jamaican cleansweep in the 100m final in Beijing on Sunday.
   Maxine has had to live on her wits all of her life and working as a street vendor she regularly has to put in a blinding turn of pace if police are chasing her for illegal trading.
   ‘This is to show that something good can come out of the ghetto. Ghetto can’t hold you back as long as you have ambition,’ said Maxine after watching her daughter take gold. For Fraser, Olympic success will guarantee an escape from the island’s grinding poverty. Her family still lives in a tenement yard in one of Jamaica’s toughest inner-city communities known as Waterhouse.
   It is a place where zinc fences, bad roads and high levels of crime are a feature.
   The young sprinter does not live there in Waterhouse now. She boards at the University of Technology, where she is a second-year student. Education and sporting prowess are seen as key to a better life.
   ‘In school many people see track as a means of gaining an academic scholarship. There is also more to it,’ said high school coach Michael Oliviera, who trained Olympic medallists Winthrop Graham and Deon Hemmings.
   If an athlete is able to balance track with studies the rewards are great. One good season on the track and you are OK.’
   It’s been estimated that Asafa Powell, the former world record holder who was fifth behind compatriot Usain Bolt in the men’s 100m in China, made approximately 1.5 million US dollars from the track in 2006.
   Jamaica’s track programme starts as early as the kindergarten level with children as young as four running in championships at the country’s national stadium.
   Sprint queen Merlene Ottey, who now runs for Slovenia, first ran at a girls’ championship barefooted before she reached her teens.
   Ottey, along with the likes of Juliet Cuthbert, Herb McKenley, Bert Cameron and Donald Quarrie have all helped to hoist the Jamaican flag.
   But it was not until Jamaica’s dominance in the short sprints that the world was forced to take a serious look at the Caribbean country.
   As always, however, there have been questions over what fuels the recent successes.
   Adrian Lorde, head of the Caribbean Regional Anti-Doping Organization, recently lambasted Jamaica for not doing enough doping tests.
   However, locals have scoffed at suggestions that drugs may be the reason for the country’s recent success. In fact, many argue that the heavy consumption of yam, banana and breadfruit have helped power the sprinters.

Michael Phelps’s astonishing Olympic record of eight gold medals has stretched the barriers for swimmers everywhere and made the impossible possible, Australia’s sprint world record holder Libby Trickett said Monday.
   ‘It’s pretty special to be swimming in an era where clearly the world’s greatest male swimmer is swimming and to be able to watch what he’s been doing over the past week is absolutely amazing,’ said Trickett, who leaves Beijing with four medals, two of them gold.
   ‘Sometimes he absolutely blew his opponents apart
   and sometimes he won by point 01 (1/100th of a
   second), it was absolutely thrilling to watch every single moment.