The Morung Express SPORTS Saturday 5 March 2011 10 Dimapur MADRID, MARCH 4 (AFP): Cristiano Ronaldo scored a second half hat-trick to make it 27 league goals for the season as Real Madrid crushed hapless Malaga 7-0 at the Santiago Bernabeu on Thursday to close the gap on league leaders Barcelona to seven points. Barcelona won 1-0 at Va- lencia on Wednesday to put the pressure on Real who had drawn 0-0 at Deportivo La Coruna in their last match, but Jose Mourinho's side responded by maintain- ing their 100 percent home record with their biggest win of the season. Ronaldo had gone four games in all competitions without a goal - a drought by his high standards - but the Portuguese star hit the goal trail as Real ran riot. First half goals from French forward Karim Benzema, Argentine winger An- gel di Maria and Brazilian full back Mar- celo put Real into a commanding first half lead before Ronaldo took centre stage in the second half to give Manuel Pellegrini a horrid return to the Bernabeu. Malaga coach Pellegrini guided Real to a record 96 points in the league last season only to be sacked after one season to pave the way for Mourinho's arrival. Benzema started the match ahead of Togo striker Emmanuel Adebayor and re- paid the faith by opening the scoring on 27 minutes. Xabi Alonso delivered a free-kick into the box and Malaga defended it poorly allowing Benzema to stay onside and the Frenchman used the outside of his right boot to steer a volley into the roof of the net. Benzema had a second goal ruled out for offside minutes later after Mesut Ozil had crashed a left-footed free-kick off the post. Real were looking menacing and scored again on 35 minutes as Malaga were blitzed on the counter attack. The visitors were attacking with a corner but Madrid cleared and launched a speedy attack and some woeful defending allowed di Maria to run clean though on goal. The Argentine showed good composure to side- foot home and then played a key role in the third goal on the stroke of half-time. Di Maria floated a neat pass to Marcelo and the Brazilian thundered a left-footed volley into the corner as Real went in 3-0 at the break. The second half belonged to Ronaldo as the world's most expensive player bagged a 26-minute hat-trick. Ronaldo opened his account in the 50th minute and added his second from the penalty spot on 67 minutes with an emphatic spot-kick. The Portuguese star completed his hat-trick nine minutes lat- er after a good pass from substitute Ser- gio Canales and joins Barcelona's Lionel Messi at the top of the goal- scoring charts on 27 goals. Benzema grabbed his sec- ond on 61 minutes and could have had a hat-trick himself, while Ronaldo could have scored six or seven against a poor Malaga who stay second from bottom three points from safety. Earlier Almeria stay rooted to the bottom of the Spanish first divi- sion after a 1-1 home draw with 10-man Racing Santander on Thursday. Racing played 73 minutes of the match with ten men after Brazilian de- fender Henrique was sent off early on, but Almeria could not capitalise on their numeri- cal advantage. Henrique, on loan from Barcelona, hauled down speedy Ar- gentine Pablo Piatti on 17 minutes to earn a red card, but the extra man didn't show as Racing took a 37th minute lead through Gonzalo Colsa and then Adrian Morales missed a penalty close to half-time. Alme- ria equalised on 64 minutes through Albert Crusat but the Kings Cup semi-finalists stay bottom of the table four points from safety. Racing stretched their unbeaten run to six league games with new coach Mar- celino guiding the club away from the rel- egation zone and up to 12th. Real Madrid's injured Ronaldo off 10-15 days MADRID, MARCH 4 (AFP): Real Madrid star striker Cristiano Ronaldo will be off 10- 15 days after picking up a thigh muscle injury in the team's 7-0 thrash- ing of Malaga, the club announced Friday. Ron- aldo had a scan at a hos- pital near Madrid which confirmed a grade I, or minor tear, in the left thigh muscle, Real said. The injury had an es- timated recovery time of "10-15 days depend- ing on clinical develop- ments," the club said. Ronaldo left the field injured in the 76th min- ute on Thursday night after scoring his third goal in the match against Malaga at the Bernabeu, putting Madrid seven points behind league leaders Barcelona. The Portuguese striker had earlier posted an opti- mistic message Friday on his Twitter account, hoping to be ready for Sunday's game against Racing Santander. "I got injured last night after scoring 3rd goal but it doesn't look bad. I hope to be ok for next game and help the team," the message said. But the message was taken down later in the day. Ronal- do's hat-trick placed him level with Barcelona's Lionel Messi at the top of the goalscoring charts on 27 goals. LONDON, MARCH 4 (REUTERS): Arsenal are physically and psychologi- cally stronger than a year ago and can knock Barce- lona out of the Champions League at the Nou Camp next week, their French playmaker Samir Nasri said on Thursday. "I think we have become more ma- cho and we have all stepped up from last year," he told a media briefing at the launch of the official match ball for the May 28 final at Wembley. The France for- ward said he was convinced Arsenal would make up for last season's 6-3 quarterfi- nal defeat by "the best team in the world" and reach the last eight again. They have given themselves a chance of making progress after coming from behind to beat the Spanish cham- pions 2-1 in the first leg of their last-16 tie at the Emir- ates on Feb. 16. Although the 23-year- old forward conceded Bar- celona start as favourites to advance, he said Arsenal's players were no longer in- timidated by the likes of Lionel Messi, Xavi and An- dres Iniesta, the creative forces in Pep Guardiola's glittering team. "We ap- proached the game differ- ently this year. Last year we were a little scared of Bar- celona because they are fantastic and play amazing football and we were sur- prised how good they were. "This year we said, 'Look, they are fantastic and if we lose to them it will be nor- mal because they are the best team in the world.' So there was no pressure on us and we played our normal game and showed every- one we can beat them and be at their level. "We are more macho, physically and psychologi- cally, Some of us, like Theo Walcott, Jack Wilshere, even myself, we have all stepped up. "We are stron- ger. All of our players can compete with all of theirs." Nasri was sitting in the dressing room at Wemb- ley Stadium where the dis- consolate Arsenal team re- turned after their shock 2-1 defeat by Birmingham City in Sunday's League Cup fi- nal. He said that setback had not dented their self- belief as they, along with Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur, attempt to be- come the first London side to lift the European Cup. Chelsea host FC Co- penhagen in their last-16 tie after a 2-0 win in the first leg in Denmark while Spurs are 1-0 up against AC Milan after winning their opener in Italy. Nasri knows the path he would like Arsenal to take to sur- pass both of their London rivals. "If we beat Barcelona, I would love to play one of the other London clubs in the final and I want Ar- senal to be the first club from London to win the Champions League. "But my dream would be to play against Marseille in the quarterfinals, then Tot- tenham in the semifinals, then Chelsea in the final," he added. Olympique Marseille were held to a 0-0 draw by Manchester United in their first leg in France. "I want Marseille to beat Manches- ter United. It would be spe- cial for me to play against Marseille. I was born there, I grew up there, I played for Marseille for 10 years and it's something I would love to do." Before that though, Arsenal need to get past Barcelona and Nasri is un- der no illusion just how hard that task will be, even though he is very optimis- tic it will happen. "More important than stopping Xavi or Iniesta is stopping Lionel Messi," he said before giving his as- sessment of Argentina's talented World Footballer of the Year. "He can make the pass, he can dribble, he can score. You cannot stop him. If you say to someone follow him for 90 minutes, you cannot do it because he has such quality. "Some- thing will happen, he can make the difference by himself. He is now playing as a striker, so he can go into the middle, he can turn, he has the space, he has the freedom. "But we are con- fident we can beat them. We did it at The Emirates and we know they will play the same type of game. We know it will be really diffi- cult but don't forget even if we draw, we qualify." Magnificent seven as Ronaldo inspires Madrid win Real Madrid's Sergio Ramos, left, vies for the ball with Malaga's Weligton Robson from Brazil, left, during their Spanish La Liga soccer match at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid, on Thurs- day, March 3.(AP Photo) Leadership Sports Camp conducted DIMAPUR, MARCH 4 (MExN): Leadership Sports Camp under the theme “Witnessing Christ Through Sports” was conducted by the Youth Department, Chakhesang Baptist Church Council (CBCC) for three days from March 1 to 3 at its Mission Centre, Pfütsero. CBCC Youth Secretary Vikuo Rhi in a press release stated that 84 campers mostly youth leaders and sports persons participated in the camp. The resource persons were the Kingdom Stewards (8 of them) from Jalukie Town Baptist Church. The camp was basically focused on experiential games, team building and vision catering, besides which morn- ing spiritual activities such as spiritual exercises and evening worship services were amongst many. The campers were divided into four groups namely: (i) Sea Gull with ‘Soar High’ as its slogan; (ii) Faith with ‘One in Christ’; (iii) Conquerors with ‘fight the good fight’; (iv) John with ‘Do it for God’. The groups were identified with Blue, Green, Yellow, and Red colors respectively. Many campers were blessed with new insights and spiritual renewal. The Youth Secretary, CBCC Vikuo Rhi convey deep gratitude to the King- dom Stewards led by Pastor Mongzeum Mpom who is also the Convener, Nagaland Sports Coalition (NSC) for their resourceful contributions, and all those who participated in the sports camp. Kolo Toure suspended for failing drug test LONDON, MARCH 4 (AGENCIES): Manchester City defender Kolo Toure has been suspended after failing a drug test, the Premier League club said on their website (www.mcfc.co.uk) on Thursday. The Football Association (FA) informed City that an A-sample pro- vided by the Ivory Coast international had tested posi- tive for a specified substance. The 29-year-old has been suspended from taking part in all matches pending the outcome of the legal process. Toure played for Arsenal from 2002-09 before joining City for around 16 mil- lion pounds, one of a number of big-name players to move to Eastlands after the club's takeover by billion- aire owners from Abu Dhabi. Toure, who has played over 80 times for his country, was made captain by for- mer coach Mark Hughes but lost the armband this sea- son after the arrival of manager Roberto Mancini. His younger brother Yaya joined City from Barcelona last year. City are third in the standings, 10 points behind leaders Manchester United but on course to qualify for next season's Champions League. ARGENTINA, MARCH 4 (AGENCIES): Chilean champions Universidad Catolica earned a remark- able and richly deserved 4-3 upset win over 10-man Velez Sarsfield in the Lib- ertadores Cup on Thurs- day. Catolica, a goal up inside a minute through striker Lucas Pratto, fell 3-1 behind in the first half but fought back scoring twice in the dying minutes to win the Group Four match at the Argentine team's For- tin (fortress) stronghold in Buenos Aires. "We made a good start and then made three mistakes despite playing well, but we kept going forward," Argentine man of the match Juan Eluchans told Fox Sports. Catolica, coached by Argentine-born former Spain striker Juan Antonio Pizzi, went top of the group with four points from two matches, one point ahead of Velez and Caracas FC, who beat Chile's Union Es- panola 2-0 at home. Velez, South American champi- Campers during Sports Camp held at CBCC Mission Centre, Pfutsero : March 1-3. Arsenal are stronger now and can beat Barca, says Nasri INDIANAPOLIS, MARCH 4 (AGENCIES): Gold medal Olympic hero Michael Phelps posted two of the fastest times in the world this year by winning the 200-metre freestyle and 100-metre butterfly at the Indianapolis Grand Prix. The 16-time Olympic medallist won the 200m in one minute, 46.27 seconds and did the same in the 100m with a time of 51.75 seconds Thursday at the Indiana University Nata- torium facility. "The best time in the world. I'll take it. I'm definitely happy," said Phelps, who is gearing up for the 2012 Olympics. The 25-year-old American won by a full body-length in the butterfly, beating out runner-up Kaio de Almeida of Brazil and Japan's Ma- sayuki Kishida, who placed third. In the freestyle, Phelps defeated Tunisian Olympian Ous Mellouli by seven-tenths of a second. Dominik Meichtry of Swit- zerland was third. US Olympian Dana Vollmer also turned in the fastest time in the world this year by winning the wom- en's 100-metre butterfly in 57.66 seconds. Ireland's Bar- ry Murphy won the men's 100-metre breaststroke in a world leading 1:00.77, and so did Mellouli in the men's 400-metre individual med- ley with a time of 4:13.80. Phelps's impressive results Thursday are an indication that he is stepping up his performances ahead of the Olympics in London next year. "We really just want to get him back to the top level, or near the top level, and it's good to be back," coach Bob Bowman said. "Finally, he's in the game. Now, we can kind of worry about the oth- er stuff." In January, Phelps had a disappointing perfor- mance at the Austin Grand Prix, where he was relegat- ed to the consolation final in the 200 freestyle, finishing in 1:49.90. Phelps back on track with wins at Indianapolis GP Chile's Catolica hit late brace to upset 10-man Velez 4-3 Victor Zapata of Argentina's Velez Sarsfield, left, fights for the ball with Jorge Ormeno of Chile's Universidad Catolica during a Copa Libertadores soccer match in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, March 3. (AP Photo) ons in 1994, looked to have the match in the bag at half- time with solid defending and more organised attacks. They equalised with a header by central defend- er Fernando Ortiz from a Maxi Moralez free kick af- ter 20 minutes. Midfielder Augusto Fernandez put Velez ahead two minutes later when he volleyed home playmaker Mo- ralez's fine left cross and left back Emiliano Papa headed their third in first- half added time. However, Velez coach Ricardo Gareca played the wrong cards after Ortiz was sent off in the 52nd minute for a second booking, send- ing on defender Fernando Tobio and taking off Mo- ralez, who did not look hap- py about the change. Velez retreated, handing the ini- tiative to Catolica who end- ed up running the Argen- tine side into the ground with their speedy breaks down the flanks, notably on the left where wing-back Eluchans was inspiration- al, and diagonal runs across the defence. A 74th minute goal by midfielder Tomas Costa put Catolica, finalists in 1993, back in the match. Eluchans attacked on the left and threaded the ball through to Costa who scored with a shot from outside the box that went in close to goal- keeper Marcelo Barovero's far post. With less than two minutes remaining Ar- gentine Pratto equalised, swivelling in the box to hit a left-footed shot that went in after hitting both posts. Pele, left, and Cobi Jones, right, kick soccer balls during their visit to the Singapore Sports School on March 4, in Singapore. Soccer stars Pele, Cantona and Jones were in the city-state to promote the rebirth of the New York Cosmos, who hope to begin playing in 2014. (AP Photo)
p10_march5_2011
Mar 13, 2016
5 March 2011 home playmaker Mo- ralez's fine left cross and left back Emiliano Papa headed their third in first- half added time. However, Velez coach er Fernando Ortiz from a Maxi Moralez free kick af- ter 20 minutes. Midfielder Augusto Fernandez put Velez ahead two minutes later when he volleyed Campers during Sports Camp held at CBCC Mission Centre, Pfutsero : March 1-3.
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The Morung ExpressSPORTSSaturday5 March 201110 Dimapur
MADRID, MARCH 4 (AFP): Cristiano Ronaldo scored a second half hat-trick to make it 27 league goals for the season as Real Madrid crushed hapless Malaga 7-0 at the Santiago Bernabeu on Thursday to close the gap on league leaders Barcelona to seven points. Barcelona won 1-0 at Va-lencia on Wednesday to put the pressure on Real who had drawn 0-0 at Deportivo La Coruna in their last match, but Jose Mourinho's side responded by maintain-ing their 100 percent home record with their biggest win of the season.
Ronaldo had gone four games in all competitions without a goal - a drought by his high standards - but the Portuguese star hit the goal trail as Real ran riot.
First half goals from French forward Karim Benzema, Argentine winger An-gel di Maria and Brazilian full back Mar-celo put Real into a commanding fi rst half lead before Ronaldo took centre stage in the second half to give Manuel Pellegrini a horrid return to the Bernabeu. Malaga coach Pellegrini guided Real to a record 96 points in the league last season only to be sacked after one season to pave the way for Mourinho's arrival.
Benzema started the match ahead of Togo striker Emmanuel Adebayor and re-paid the faith by opening the scoring on 27 minutes. Xabi Alonso delivered a free-kick into the box and Malaga defended it poorly allowing Benzema to stay onside and the Frenchman used the outside of his right boot to steer a volley into the roof of the net.
Benzema had a second goal ruled out for o� side minutes later after Mesut Ozil had crashed a left-footed free-kick o� the post. Real were looking menacing and scored again on 35 minutes as Malaga were blitzed on the counter attack.
The visitors were attacking with a corner but Madrid cleared and launched a speedy attack and some woeful defending allowed di Maria to run clean though on goal. The Argentine showed good composure to side-foot home and then played a key role in the
third goal on the stroke of half-time.Di Maria fl oated a neat pass to Marcelo
and the Brazilian thundered a left-footed volley into the corner as Real went in 3-0 at the break. The second half belonged to Ronaldo as the world's most expensive player bagged a 26-minute hat-trick.
Ronaldo opened his account in the 50th minute and added his second from the penalty spot on 67 minutes with an emphatic spot-kick. The Portuguese star completed his hat-trick nine minutes lat-er after a good pass from substitute Ser-gio Canales and joins B a r c e l o n a ' s Lionel Messi at the top of the goal-scoring charts on 27 goals. Benzema grabbed his sec-ond on 61 minutes and could have had a hat-trick himself, while Ronaldo could have scored six or seven against a poor Malaga who stay second from bottom three points from safety. Earlier Almeria stay rooted to the bottom of the Spanish first divi-sion after a 1-1 home draw with 10-man Racing Santander on Thursday. Racing played 73 minutes of the match with ten men after Brazilian de-fender Henrique was sent o� early on, but Almeria could not capitalise on their numeri-cal advantage. Henrique, on loan from Barcelona, hauled down speedy Ar-gentine Pablo Piatti on 17 minutes to earn a red card, but the extra man didn't show as Racing took a 37th minute lead through Gonzalo Colsa and then Adrian Morales missed a penalty close to half-time. Alme-ria equalised on 64 minutes through Albert Crusat but the Kings Cup semi-finalists stay bottom of the table four points from safety. Racing stretched their unbeaten run to six league games with new coach Mar-celino guiding the club away from the rel-egation zone and up to 12th.
Real Madrid's injured Ronaldo off 10-15 daysMADRID, MARCH 4 (AFP): Real Madrid star striker Cristiano Ronaldo will be off 10-15 days after picking up a thigh muscle injury in the team's 7-0 thrash-ing of Malaga, the club announced Friday. Ron-aldo had a scan at a hos-pital near Madrid which confi rmed a grade I, or minor tear, in the left thigh muscle, Real said. The injury had an es-timated recovery time of "10-15 days depend-ing on clinical develop-ments," the club said.
Ronaldo left the fi eld injured in the 76th min-ute on Thursday night after scoring his third goal in the match against Malaga at the Bernabeu, putting Madrid seven points behind league leaders Barcelona. The Portuguese striker had earlier posted an opti-mistic message Friday on his Twitter account, hoping to be ready for Sunday's game against Racing Santander. "I got injured last night after scoring 3rd goal but it doesn't look bad. I hope to be ok for next game and help the team," the message said. But the message was taken down later in the day. Ronal-do's hat-trick placed him level with Barcelona's Lionel Messi at the top of the goalscoring charts on 27 goals.
LONDON, MARCH 4 (REUTERS): Arsenal are physically and psychologi-cally stronger than a year ago and can knock Barce-lona out of the Champions League at the Nou Camp next week, their French playmaker Samir Nasri said on Thursday. "I think we have become more ma-cho and we have all stepped up from last year," he told a media briefing at the launch of the o� cial match ball for the May 28 fi nal at Wembley. The France for-ward said he was convinced Arsenal would make up for last season's 6-3 quarterfi -nal defeat by "the best team in the world" and reach the last eight again. They have given themselves a chance of making progress after coming from behind to beat the Spanish cham-pions 2-1 in the fi rst leg of their last-16 tie at the Emir-ates on Feb. 16.
Although the 23-year-old forward conceded Bar-celona start as favourites to advance, he said Arsenal's players were no longer in-timidated by the likes of Lionel Messi, Xavi and An-
dres Iniesta, the creative forces in Pep Guardiola's glittering team. "We ap-proached the game di� er-ently this year. Last year we were a little scared of Bar-celona because they are fantastic and play amazing football and we were sur-prised how good they were. "This year we said, 'Look, they are fantastic and if we lose to them it will be nor-mal because they are the best team in the world.' So there was no pressure on us and we played our normal game and showed every-one we can beat them and be at their level.
"We are more macho, physically and psychologi-cally, Some of us, like Theo Walcott, Jack Wilshere, even myself, we have all stepped up. "We are stron-ger. All of our players can compete with all of theirs."
Nasri was sitting in the dressing room at Wemb-ley Stadium where the dis-consolate Arsenal team re-turned after their shock 2-1 defeat by Birmingham City in Sunday's League Cup fi -nal. He said that setback had not dented their self-
belief as they, along with Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur, attempt to be-come the fi rst London side to lift the European Cup.
Chelsea host FC Co-penhagen in their last-16 tie after a 2-0 win in the fi rst leg in Denmark while Spurs are 1-0 up against AC Milan after winning their opener in Italy. Nasri knows the path he would like Arsenal to take to sur-pass both of their London rivals.
"If we beat Barcelona, I would love to play one of the other London clubs in the fi nal and I want Ar-senal to be the first club from London to win the Champions League. "But my dream would be to play against Marseille in the quarterfinals, then Tot-tenham in the semifinals, then Chelsea in the fi nal," he added.
Olympique Marseille were held to a 0-0 draw by Manchester United in their fi rst leg in France. "I want Marseille to beat Manches-ter United. It would be spe-cial for me to play against Marseille. I was born there,
I grew up there, I played for Marseille for 10 years and it's something I would love to do." Before that though, Arsenal need to get past Barcelona and Nasri is un-der no illusion just how hard that task will be, even though he is very optimis-tic it will happen.
"More important than stopping Xavi or Iniesta is stopping Lionel Messi," he said before giving his as-sessment of Argentina's talented World Footballer of the Year. "He can make the pass, he can dribble, he can score. You cannot stop him. If you say to someone follow him for 90 minutes, you cannot do it because he has such quality. "Some-thing will happen, he can make the difference by himself. He is now playing as a striker, so he can go into the middle, he can turn, he has the space, he has the freedom. "But we are con-fident we can beat them. We did it at The Emirates and we know they will play the same type of game. We know it will be really di� -cult but don't forget even if we draw, we qualify."
Magnifi cent seven as Ronaldo inspires Madrid win
Real Madrid's Sergio Ramos, left, vies for the ball with Malaga's Weligton Robson from Brazil, left, during their Spanish La Liga soccer match at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid, on Thurs-day, March 3.(AP Photo)
Leadership Sports Camp conducted DIMAPUR, MARCH 4 (MExN): Leadership Sports Camp under the theme “Witnessing Christ Through Sports” was conducted by the Youth Department, Chakhesang Baptist Church Council (CBCC) for three days from March 1 to 3 at its Mission Centre, Pfütsero. CBCC Youth Secretary Vikuo Rhi in a press release stated that 84 campers mostly youth leaders and sports persons participated in the camp. The resource persons were the Kingdom Stewards (8 of them) from Jalukie Town Baptist Church. The camp was basically focused on experiential games, team building and vision catering, besides which morn-ing spiritual activities such as spiritual exercises and evening worship services were amongst many. The campers were divided into four groups namely: (i) Sea Gull with ‘Soar High’ as its slogan; (ii) Faith with ‘One in Christ’; (iii) Conquerors with ‘fi ght the good fi ght’; (iv) John with ‘Do it for God’. The groups were identifi ed with Blue, Green, Yellow, and Red colors respectively. Many campers were blessed with new insights and spiritual renewal. The Youth Secretary, CBCC Vikuo Rhi convey deep gratitude to the King-dom Stewards led by Pastor Mongzeum Mpom who is also the Convener, Nagaland Sports Coalition (NSC) for their resourceful contributions, and all those who participated in the sports camp.
Kolo Toure suspended for failing drug testLONDON, MARCH 4 (AGENCIES): Manchester City defender Kolo Toure has been suspended after failing a drug test, the Premier League club said on their website (www.mcfc.co.uk) on Thursday. The Football Association (FA) informed City that an A-sample pro-vided by the Ivory Coast international had tested posi-tive for a specifi ed substance. The 29-year-old has been suspended from taking part in all matches pending the outcome of the legal process. Toure played for Arsenal from 2002-09 before joining City for around 16 mil-lion pounds, one of a number of big-name players to move to Eastlands after the club's takeover by billion-aire owners from Abu Dhabi. Toure, who has played over 80 times for his country, was made captain by for-mer coach Mark Hughes but lost the armband this sea-son after the arrival of manager Roberto Mancini. His younger brother Yaya joined City from Barcelona last year. City are third in the standings, 10 points behind leaders Manchester United but on course to qualify for next season's Champions League.
ARGENTINA, MARCH 4 (AGENCIES): Chilean champions Universidad Catolica earned a remark-able and richly deserved 4-3 upset win over 10-man Velez Sarsfi eld in the Lib-ertadores Cup on Thurs-day. Catolica, a goal up inside a minute through striker Lucas Pratto, fell 3-1 behind in the fi rst half but fought back scoring twice in the dying minutes to win the Group Four match at the Argentine team's For-tin (fortress) stronghold in Buenos Aires. "We made a good start and then made three mistakes despite playing well, but we kept going forward," Argentine man of the match Juan Eluchans told Fox Sports.
Catolica, coached by Argentine-born former Spain striker Juan Antonio Pizzi, went top of the group with four points from two matches, one point ahead of Velez and Caracas FC, who beat Chile's Union Es-panola 2-0 at home. Velez, South American champi-
Campers during Sports Camp held at CBCC Mission Centre, Pfutsero : March 1-3.
Arsenal are stronger now and can beat Barca, says Nasri
I N D I A N A P O L I S , MARCH 4 (AGENCIES): Gold medal Olympic hero Michael Phelps posted two of the fastest times in the world this year by winning the 200-metre freestyle and 100-metre butterfly at the Indianapolis Grand Prix. The 16-time Olympic medallist won the 200m in one minute, 46.27 seconds and did the same in the 100m with a time of 51.75 seconds Thursday at the Indiana University Nata-
torium facility. "The best time in the world. I'll take it. I'm definitely happy," said Phelps, who is gearing up for the 2012 Olympics. The 25-year-old American won by a full body-length in the butterfl y, beating out runner-up Kaio de Almeida of Brazil and Japan's Ma-sayuki Kishida, who placed third. In the freestyle, Phelps defeated Tunisian Olympian Ous Mellouli by seven-tenths of a second. Dominik Meichtry of Swit-
zerland was third.US Olympian Dana
Vollmer also turned in the fastest time in the world this year by winning the wom-en's 100-metre butterfl y in 57.66 seconds. Ireland's Bar-ry Murphy won the men's 100-metre breaststroke in a world leading 1:00.77, and so did Mellouli in the men's 400-metre individual med-ley with a time of 4:13.80. Phelps's impressive results Thursday are an indication that he is stepping up his
performances ahead of the Olympics in London next year. "We really just want to get him back to the top level, or near the top level, and it's good to be back," coach Bob Bowman said. "Finally, he's in the game. Now, we can kind of worry about the oth-er stu� ." In January, Phelps had a disappointing perfor-mance at the Austin Grand Prix, where he was relegat-ed to the consolation fi nal in the 200 freestyle, fi nishing in 1:49.90.
Phelps back on track with wins at Indianapolis GP
Chile's Catolica hit late brace to upset 10-man Velez 4-3
Victor Zapata of Argentina's Velez Sarsfi eld, left, fi ghts for the ball with Jorge Ormeno of Chile's Universidad Catolica during a Copa Libertadores soccer match in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, March 3. (AP Photo)
ons in 1994, looked to have the match in the bag at half-time with solid defending and more organised attacks.
They equalised with a header by central defend-
er Fernando Ortiz from a Maxi Moralez free kick af-ter 20 minutes. Midfi elder Augusto Fernandez put Velez ahead two minutes later when he volleyed
home playmaker Mo-ralez's fi ne left cross and left back Emiliano Papa headed their third in fi rst-half added time.
However, Velez coach
Ricardo Gareca played the wrong cards after Ortiz was sent o� in the 52nd minute for a second booking, send-ing on defender Fernando Tobio and taking off Mo-ralez, who did not look hap-py about the change. Velez retreated, handing the ini-tiative to Catolica who end-ed up running the Argen-tine side into the ground with their speedy breaks down the fl anks, notably on the left where wing-back Eluchans was inspiration-al, and diagonal runs across the defence.
A 74th minute goal by midfi elder Tomas Costa put Catolica, finalists in 1993, back in the match. Eluchans attacked on the left and threaded the ball through to Costa who scored with a shot from outside the box that went in close to goal-keeper Marcelo Barovero's far post. With less than two minutes remaining Ar-gentine Pratto equalised, swivelling in the box to hit a left-footed shot that went in after hitting both posts.
Pele, left, and Cobi Jones, right, kick soccer balls during their visit to the Singapore Sports School on March 4, in Singapore. Soccer stars Pele, Cantona and Jones were in the city-state to promote the rebirth of the New York Cosmos, who hope to begin playing in 2014. (AP Photo)