Iran’s Hazfi Cup

Esteqlal Roll Over Abu Moslem

Esteqlal roll past Abu Moslem 5-0 to book its place to the semifinal round of Iran’s Hazfi Cup.
According to Mehr News Agency, Jlloyd Samuel of Trinidad and Tobago put the club ahead in the 25th minute of the match with a header from a right corner kick.
Later, the visitor had some opportunities to level the game in the first half but strong performance by Mehdi Rahmati denied them all.
A minute into the second half, Farzad Hatami with a header scored Blues second.
Three minutes into the hour mark Javad Nekounam scored the third before Hatami doubled his tally two minutes later.
In the 76th minute of the match, Pejman Montazeri scored the fifth for the Blues.
In another game of the day, Iran’s Premier League holder Sepahan defeated Naft Abadan 2-0 to reach the semifinal round of the Cup.
Meanwhile, Damash saw off Sepasi 4-3 in the penalty shoot outs and reached the semis.
Popular club Persepolis routed Naft Tehran 4-1 to advance to the quarterfinals round of the Iran’s Hazfi Cup.
According to ISNA, more than 15000 spectators watched the match on Tuesday at Tehran’s Azadi Stadium.
In the 14th minute of the match, Amin Manouchehri scored the first goal of the match for the Tehran-based club.
But twelve minutes later, Mohammad Nouri leveled the game for Persepolis.
Persepolis missed a good chance in the 31st minute of the game to score its second as Naft’s goalkeeper Hamed Fallahzadeh saved Serbian midfielder Marko Perovic’s shot.
In the second half, Persepolis tried hard to score a goal and finally in the 58th minute of the match Nouri beautifully headed Gholamreza Rezaei’s shot.
In the 75th minute of the match, Hossein Mahini was downed inside of the box by Naft Referee and the referee awarded them a penalty kick. He scored the third for the Reds.
Just 5 minutes before the final whistle Hadi Norouzi chipped the ball over Fallahzadeh to join the score sheet.
In the quarterfinal round of Iran’s Hazfi Cup, Persepolis will meet Zob Ahan.
The Hazfi Cup is a knockout cup competition in Iranian football, run by the Iranian Football Federation. The competition wasn’t regarded important by clubs until the IFF decided to award one of Iran’s Asian Football Confederation Champions League spots to the champion.
The competition was founded in 1975. Esteqlal has won the cup on the most occasions, with 6 wins. The current holders are also Esteqlal.

Leonardo: PSG Can Afford Ronaldo

PSG Sporting Director Leonardo has said the big-spending club are capable of any transfer deal imaginable, but played down a move for Cristiano Ronaldo.
The French league leaders have spent aggressively since they were bought by Qatari investors in 2011, and have reached the knockout stages of the Champions League in this campaign under manager Carlo Ancelotti, Eurosport reported.
Although Leonardo insisted “everything is possible” when it comes to PSG and transfer dealings, he played down any links with Ronaldo in the short term.
“PSG has turned into a club where everything is possible,” Leonardo said. “But he still has a long term contract with Real Madrid and you don’t leave
that way a club like Real. There’s nothing concrete. There are no contacts. But today, when you speak of that kind of player moving, there are four or five clubs where it can happen and PSG is now part of them.”
Leonardo added that despite their financial might, there would never be any chance of attracting Lionel Messi to the club.
“He’ll never leave Barcelona,” the Brazilian said.

Mourinho Is Bad For Real Image

Almost two-thirds of Real Madrid’s members believe coach Jose Mourinho has a negative impact on the La Liga club’s image, according to a survey published in Marca sports daily on Wednesday.
Among 704 members asked at the stadium before Sunday’s game at home to Real Sociedad, or by telephone, whether the Portuguese’s actions and statements were damaging, 61.6 percent answered yes, with 33.1 percent saying no, Marca said.
Members gave his performance as coach since he took over in 2010 an average mark of 6.68 out of 10, down from 8.82 in a similar poll conducted in March 2011, but 54.4 percent still thought he should stay on after this season, with 41.8 percent saying he should leave, they added.
The survey, by polling company Sigma Dos, is the latest evidence that all is not well at Real, who are 16 points behind arch rivals Barcelona in La Liga and facing a possible exit from the King’s Cup at home to Celta Vigo later on Wednesday.
It will also make painful reading for president Florentino Perez, who is up for re-election this year and has given Mourinho unprecedented powers in the hope he can lead the club to regular silverware in domestic and European competition.
Mourinho’s combative style and regular insinuations of bias against his teams are seen as unsporting by many and at odds with what Real regards as its traditional image of a gentlemanly club that is gracious in victory and defeat.
He has come under fire recently for relegating hugely popular goalkeeper and captain Iker Casillas to the bench amid reports of dressing-room rifts between Spanish and Portuguese contingents in the squad.
Real need to overturn a 2-1 deficit against Celta in Wednesday’s Cup last-16 second leg at the Bernabeu if they are to secure a quarter-final meeting with Valencia.

Jazini Named Interim Coach of Iran’s Greco-Roman

Iran Wrestling Federation has announced that former Iranian athlete Rasoul Jazini as the interim head coach of Iran’s Greco-Roman wrestling team.
Jazini will lead Iran in the 2013 Greco-Roman Wrestling World Championships, which will be held on February 19 and 20 in the 12,000-seat hall of Azadi Sports Complex in Tehran, Press TV wrote.
The event will bring together athletes from Iran, Russia, Turkey, Bulgaria, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia, South Korea, Azerbaijan and Hungary.
Jazini replaced Mohammad Bana, who resigned from his post on Monday after leading the national Greco-Roman wrestling team for 8 years.
Under his direction, Iran’s Greco-Roman team snatched three gold medals in the London 2012 Olympic Games.
Jazini won a bronze medal in the 2000 Asian Wrestling Championships in Seoul, South Korea, and a silver medal in the 2001 Asian Wrestling Championships in Ulan Bator, Mongolia.

Hoy Wins Six Days Of Rotterdam Event

Sir Chris Hoy is eager for Great Britain to get their own six-day sprint cycling event after claiming victory in the Six Days of Rotterdam sprint competition ahead of compatriot Jason Kenny.
The six-time Olympic champion edged out Olympic individual sprint champion Kenny by a single point, having held a slender three-point lead going into the final day of competition, Eurosport reported.
A win in the team sprint, second in the individual sprint and third in the keirin were enough for Hoy to edge home, and the Scot revealed that he would like to see a similar competition take place on British soil, with the new indoor track in Glasgow, named after Hoy, a prime candidate.
He said: “We have got the support, there’s a huge amount of interest. The public is crying out for it. They want to see this kind of event on home soil.
“We would certainly back it if one came to Scotland, England, Ireland or Wales, wherever.
“It’s fantastic for Scottish cycling to have an indoor facility in our country. It’s great for cycling.”

Rockets Beat Lakers For 5th Straight Win

Sure the Los Angeles Lakers are short-handed. But a team with Kobe Bryant, Steve Nash and Metta World Peace should still play better than this.
James Harden scored 31 points and Chandler Parsons added 20 to help the Houston Rockets pick up their fifth straight win with a 125-112 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday night
Houston trailed by as many as 14 in the first half, but used a pair of runs in the third quarter to go on top and build a big lead, AP wrote.
World Peace had a season-high 24 points for the Lakers, who were playing without their top three big men: Dwight Howard, Pau Gasol and Jordan Hill - who are all out with injuries.
Bryant added 20 points for the Lakers and Nash had 16 points and 10 assists to become only the fifth player to surpass 10,000 career assists, joining John Stockton, Jason Kidd, Mark Jackson and Magic Johnson.
Nash said he tweaked his back in the game, but that he was OK.
‘’It’s really hard to enjoy it right now,’’ Nash said of the assists. ‘’I don’t want to discredit it, or not appreciate the company I share in this milestone, but right now it’s the farthest thing from my mind. We’re just trying to find a way to win one game.’’
The Lakers, who lost their fourth straight to fall to 15-19, are in 11th place in the Western Conference.
‘’I thought we had the better team,’’ World Peace said. ‘’We definitely had the better team, but every night we have the better team and it’s just not translating to wins.’’
The Rockets have rallied from double-digit deficits for their last three wins. As usual, they did it on Tuesday night behind the strong play of Harden, who has scored at least 25 points in 13 straight games.
‘’They were short-handed tonight, but they are still tough,’’ Harden said of the Lakers. ‘’We knew we couldn’t take them lightly. They did a great job in the first half of really getting easy shots on us. In the second half we started to pick it up defensively. We got out in transition and made some easy shots.’’

FIFA Extends Life Bans On 41 Players in S.Korea

Forty one South Korean players have been handed worldwide lifetime bans following a match-fixing scandal in the country’s K-League, world governing body FIFA said on Wednesday.
The 41, charged after a domestic match-fixing investigation dating back to 2011, received lifetime bans from all football activity by the K-League and the Korea Football Association’s disciplinary committee with FIFA’s Disciplinary Committee extended the sanctions to have worldwide effect, Reuters wrote.
South Korean sport has been marred by match-fixing allegations in professional soccer, volleyball and baseball, forcing the government to declare war on the issue.
In February soccer officials scrapped the K-League Cup competition as part of sweeping changes brought in to avoid a repeat of last year’s match-fixing scandal.
Ten other players involved in match-fixing were given worldwide bans by FIFA in June while in March, South Korea’s volleyball association banned 11 players for life in a bid to curb corruption in domestic sport.

Galatasaray Open Sneijder Talks

Galatasaray say they have opened negotiations with Inter Milan over the transfer of midfielder Wesley Sneijder.
Sneijder’s agent Soren Lerby told BBC Sport he had not spoken to the Turkish side and was unaware of their interest.
And it remains to be seen whether the 28-year-old would move to Turkey, having suggested he would only consider one of Europe’s top few teams.
The Dutch playmaker has not played for Inter since 25 September because of a dispute over his contract.
In November, the Italian side informed Sneijder he would not play for them until he agreed a significant cut in his salary.
The player refused, meaning he has been on the sidelines despite being fit for the last two months.
A statement on Galatasaray’s official website read, “Galatasaray announces it has begun negotiations with the FC Internazionale for the transfer of Wesley Sneijder. The public will be informed of developments.”

Lance May Admit Doping

US cyclist Lance Armstrong will be interviewed by chat show host Oprah Winfrey, amid reports that he might publicly admit to doping.