Paul Breitner and Kevin Keegan
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Showing posts with label Hamburg. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hamburg. Show all posts
Friday, 19 February 2016
Saturday, 21 November 2015
Dortmund Suffer Hamburg Loss
Hamburg hit Borussia Dortmund on the break to clinch an unexpected 3-1 victory on Friday as the Bundesliga resumed amid tight security following the deadly shootings in Paris last week and the cancellation of Germany’s friendly with Holland due to security fears.
The game in front of 57,000 fans in Hamburg’s Volksparkstadion started 15 minutes late due to heavy traffic and long queues for increased security checks following the attacks that left 130 dead and hundreds injured in the French capital last week.
Germany had played France last Friday in Paris and the players spent the night inside the stadium before being whisked off to the airport.
The friendly against Holland, scheduled for Hanover on Tuesday, with Chancellor Angela Merkel set to attend, was then called off only two hours before the start.
The game in Hamburg started with a minute’s silence for the victims in Paris as well as another for the former West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, who died on 10 November, with fans holding French flags and messages of support.
Dortmund, attempting to close in on leaders Bayern Munich, who take on Schalke 04 on Saturday, quickly lifted spirits with an attacking game but were twice caught on the break, with defender Mats Hummels heading in an own goal to complete a disappointing evening for them.
Ivo Ilicevic had a golden chance in the 16th minute only to fire desperately wide but the Croatian made amends, latching on to a superb through ball from Lewis Holtby and forcing keeper Roman Bürki to bring him down. Pierre-Michel Lasogga drilled in the 19th-minute penalty.
Dortmund, with Marco Reus back from injury, again dominated but were once more caught off guard with a quick counterattack and Holtby slotting in from a tight angle three minutes from half-time.
The visitors came out battling after the break with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang spilling a big chance wide and Dortmund shooting four times on goal in four minutes before Hummels turned a lone Hamburg cross into his own net to end any hopes of a comeback.
Aubameyang clinched a late goal to take his tally for the season to 14 but could not avert their second league loss of the season.
Dortmund remain on 29 points, five behind leaders Bayern, while Hamburg, who needed a relegation play-off to stay up last season, move up to eighth with their second win in seven matches.
Tuesday, 22 September 2015
A Bridge Too Far
A high court judge has been asked to decide whether bridge is a sport after it was refused recognition by Sport England.
Mr Justice Dove is expected to analyse arguments over the next two days at a hearing in London.
The English Bridge Union (EBU) took legal action after Sport England, the public body responsible for increasing participation in sport, refused to recognise the card game.
Union officials say recognition that bridge is a sport will be beneficial for the game and that Sport England’s ruling is “inconsistent with both the wishes of parliament and the opinion of significant international sporting organisations”.
An EBU spokesman said: “When ruling on what constituted a sport in the 2011 Charities Act, parliament specifically included ‘mind sports’, stating that sport comprised ‘activities which promote health involving physical or mental skill or exertion’.”
He said bridge required “undoubted levels of mental skill” and had “known health benefits”.
The EBU was granted permission in April to seek a judicial review. Judge Mr Justice Mostyn, who plays bridge, said at the time: “You are doing more physical activity playing bridge, with all that dealing and playing, than in rifle shooting.”
Lawyers for the EBU said officials want a judicial review to determine whether Sport England, the government body that distributes lottery funding, had acted lawfully in “adopting a policy that prevents it recognising sports that it does not consider to be ‘physical’.”
“The EBU is hoping that the judicial review will pave the way for bridge and similar sports to receive the recognition that they deserve,” said a spokesman for law firm Irwin Mitchell, which is representing the EBU. Recognition by Sport England is important because lack of recognition impacts upon EBU’s ability to take part in European and international competitions.
He added: “Chess has already been recognised as a sport by the International Olympic Committee and was demonstrated at the Sydney Olympics in 2000. It was also included in the 2006 and 2010 Asian Games and is being considered for the Pan-American Games.
“Organisers of the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo have invited both chess and bridge to apply for inclusion in the games, which, if accepted, will be the first time players have competed in the Olympics.
If bridge were to be recognised as a sport in England then EBU would be able to invest in a number of projects to teach bridge to people of all ages and to ensure that facilities are improved.”
Lawyer Alex Peebles said: “We will argue that a sport does not need to be physical to be regarded as a sport as a matter of law. We hope our legal challenge will result in Sport England reconsidering its decision not to recognise bridge as a sport, which will help the EBU to access the essential support they need to continue growing and attracting new players.”
Jeremy Dhondy, an international bridge player and chairman of the EBU, said: “We hope that this hearing will allow bridge to be recognised in the way that it should.”
Thursday, 25 July 2013
Brands Gives Federer Swill Roll
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| Getty Images |
Roger Federer's poor run of form continued as he lost to world number 55 Daniel Brands at the Swiss Open.
The top seed was beaten 6-3 6-4 in just over an hour in the second round by the big-hitting German in Gstaad.
Federer, 31, who lost in the second round at Wimbledon, has been trying out a larger, more powerful racquet frame.
But last week he lost to Argentine qualifier Federico Delbonis, the world number 114, in the semi-finals of the German Tennis Championships in Hamburg.
Brands, 26, hit 11 aces past Federer as he secured a place in the quarter-finals against Romania's Victor Hanescu.
Switzerland's Federer has now lost to players outside the top 50 in the rankings at his last three tournaments, including his Wimbledon exit, when he was beaten by Ukraine's Sergiy Stakhovsky, who was 116th in the world.
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