SOCCER
Striker fires again
SURGING Sydney chalked up a club record fourth straight win, with new striker Ranko Despotovic again finding the net in a 2- 0 A-League home victory over rivals Newcastle.
The 30-year-old Serbian striker, who scored the match-winner against Wellington last week after making his debut off the bench, produced a longer super-sub cameo last night.
His match-clinching goal on the hour pushed Sydney up to second spot.
Despotovic entered the game at Allianz Stadium after 43 minutes, when skipper Alessandro Del Piero walked off with what appeared to be a hamstring injury issue.
Joel Chianese, who had scored the opening goal of the season against the Jets seven weeks earlier, again ended the game’s stalemate on the stroke of halftime by pouncing on a fine cross from Ali Abbas.
The match tilted decisively towards Sydney in a three- minute period early in the second half.
With Newcastle trailing 1- 0 down, an unmarked Nathan Burns blazed over from close range.
The Jets, who’d been undefeated after round one, were made to pay for his profligacy on the hour.
Despotovic brushed past Taylor Regan and beat Birighitti inside his near post.
Sydney had the edge in possession in a frenetic and tightly contested first half of the match.
But they also had the busier goalkeeper.
Vedran Janjetovic knocked down a stinging shot from in-form Jets striker Adam Taggart.
He also dealt comfortably with a weak effort from Scott Neville.
Sydney almost lost their lead in the first 30 seconds of the second half after midfielder Nick Carle lost possession in his own half. LIVERPOOL goalkeeper Simon Mignolet insists his side can make a successful bid to qualify for the Champions League as long as they don’t get carried away by their surprise challenge. Brendan Rodgers’s side have capitalised on inconsistent starts from both Manchester clubs, Chelsea and Tottenham to move into second place on the EPL table behind leaders Arsenal. Liverpool have not finished in the top four since the 2008-09 season but a return of 24 points from their opening 12 matches has seen them touted for a return to European football’s elite club competition. FORMER teammates of Manchester United great Ryan Giggs hailed his longevity as he celebrated his 40th birthday yesterday while still an active EPL player. Giggs’s landmark anniversary came just two days after his key role in United’s Champions League thrashing of Bayer Leverkusen and was the latest chapter in an extraordinary one-club career that saw him make his first-team debut as a 17-yearold in 1991. SYDNEY FC have reached the semi- finals of the International Women’s Club Championship after defeating the Japanese Nadeshiko League runners-up NTV Beleza 1-0 at the Kanko Stadium yesterday. Emma Kete’s 61st minute strike was the difference as the Sky Blues had the better of much of the game. England’s FA Women’s Super League club Chelsea now stand between Alen Stajcic’s team and a place in next Sunday’s final. CHELSEA manager Jose Mourinho revealed yesterday he will not bring in a new striker when the transfer window opens in January. Mourinho has just three experienced front men to call upon in Fernando Torres, Demba Ba and Samuel Eto’o as Belgium international Romelu Lukaku was allowed to go out on loan to Everton in August. Torres has only just regained fitness after a spell on the sidelines, however, and Eto’o will miss today’s EPL home game with Southampton because of an injury suffered during last week’s Champions League defeat in Basel. BAYERN Munich coach Pep Guardiola admitted Friday to having concerns about his team’s mounting injury problems. Last season’s treble winners have not yet lost in this campaign, winning 11 and drawing two matches in the Bundesliga while winning all five Champions League encounters. Captain Philipp Lahm is the latest addition to the treatment table with a hamstring injury, joining the likes of vice- captain Bastian Schweinsteiger, France winger Franck Ribery, Peru striker Claudio Pizarro, Switzerland wideman Xherdan Shaqiri and Germany defender Holger Badstuber. WORLD governing body FIFA wants an overhaul in the approach to the fight against sports doping. Just two weeks after the World Anti-Doping Agency’s conference in Johannesburg, FIFA held their own conference. Their conclusion was that the approach to anti- doping should be based on risk within individual sports rather than conformity across all sports. Of 274,000 dope tests in 2012, 1.2 per cent gave abnormal results.