England qualified for the quarter-finals of the 2018 FIFA World Cup on Tuesday with a win over Colombia, needing penalties to advance. Harry Kane and Yerry Mina scored in regulation, leading to a 1-1 final score, and England won 4-3 in the shootout. More
YEKATERINBURG, Russia (Reuters) – Midfielder Keisuke Honda came off the bench to salvage a 2-2 draw for Japan against Senegal, as both teams were locked at the top of Group H following an entertaining encounter on Sunday.
Soccer Football – World Cup – Group H – Japan vs Senegal – Ekaterinburg Arena, Yekaterinburg, Russia – June 24, 2018 Japan’s Keisuke Honda applauds their fans after the match REUTERS/Marcos Brindicci
Veteran Honda, 32, who became the first Japanese player to score in three different World Cups, replaced Shinji Kagawa in the second half with his team down 2-1 and fired the equaliser in 12 minutes from time after an error by Senegal goalkeeper Khadim N’Diaye.
Senegal thought they had claimed all three points as Moussa Wague drilled the ball into the top of the net in the 71st minute to make it 2-1, after Sadio Mane’s fortuitous first-half opener was cancelled out by Takashi Inui’s curling shot. But Honda ensured things ended level and deservedly so.
The result leaves both teams, who beat Colombia and Poland respectively in their opening matches, on four points from two games and within reach of a spot in the last 16.
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“They were avoidable goals, that’s clear,” Senegal coach Aliou Cisse said in a blunt assessment of his defence. “The best team was Japan, we have to admit that.”
“We didn’t play a great game but we didn’t lose……
CHAPECO, Brazil (Reuters) – The Brazilian town of Chapeco, its buildings draped in the green colors of its devastated soccer club, prepared on Saturday to receive the bodies of victims of an air disaster in Colombia that killed 71 people and wiped out the team.
The crash on Monday night shocked soccer fans the world over and plunged Brazil, South America’s biggest nation, into mourning. The BAe146 regional airliner operated by Bolivian charter company LAMIA had radioed that it was running out of fuel before smashing into a hillside outside the Colombian city of Medellin.
Only six people survived, including just three members of the soccer side Chapecoense en route to the Copa Sudamericana final, the biggest game in its history.
Reports in Brazilian media that the plane, which circled outside Medellin for 16 minutes while another aircraft made an emergency landing, had barely enough fuel for the flight from Bolivia have outraged relatives of the victims.
Bolivian President Evo Morales pledged to take “drastic measures” to determine what caused the crash. Bolivia has suspended LAMIA’s operating license and replaced the national aviation authority’s management.
In Chapeco, a small agricultural town in southern Brazil, dozens of fans kept vigil at Chapecoense’s stadium, where an impromptu shrine swelled with fresh flowers and handmade posters. Green and black cloth was draped from fences, store fronts and construction sites.
Sidnei de Oliveira Dias, a 25-year-old fan, said an open air wake due to…