Talking Balls: Brawling Ballers, Goal Grabbing Goalies and Talented Teenagers
The big sports story comes from the CBA. China’s Basketball Association is currently in the best-of-seven series finals. Guangdong Hongyuan took a 2-0 lead in the CBA final against Xinjiang Guanghui at home with a 85-80 win. Then things got interesting. Du Feng of Guangdong got into an altercation with Xinjiang’s Charles Gaines. The Guangdong player aimed a headbutt at Gaines and was swiftly dealt a blow to the temple. The punch knocked Du out. A Guangdong fan then tried to take on Gaines and general mayhem ensued while the stadium announcer appealed for calm. To see the fight click here, here or here. The CBA are set to fine both players.
Another video and this one’s from the world of snooker. Liang Wenbo got himself lost backstage before his game with Ronnie O’Sullivan. The Englishman was 7-2 up before play resumes at 9.30pm Beijing time. Ding Junhui begins his first round match against Stuart Pettman at 5pm locally. Hong Kong’s Marco Fu is already out after losing 10-9 to Martin Gould while Zhang Anda took Stephen Hendry all the way before losing to the same score. The Chinese teenager was unknown until he beat John Parrott and Ricky Walden in qualifying.
Jose Luis Chilavert, Rogerio Ceni, Rene Higuita, Jorge Campos and Hans-Jorg Butt. The list of goalscoring goalkeepers is illustrious and it now has a new member. Cheng Xiaopeng of Nanchang Bayi is in fine form. He scored two penalties in his team’s win over Hangzhou Greentown for his third goal of the season. After four games he sits joint top of the CSL scoring charts. See his brace here.
Beijing Guoan beat Shaanxi 1-0 at the Workers’ Stadium on Sunday. See Zhu Yifan’s winner here and then see if you can answer why he has a Popeye t-shirt on underneath his kit. Bizarre.
Zhang Jin became the youngest ever player on a European Tour Event (even though it’s held in China) when he played at The Volvo China Open in Suzhou aged just 14. Zhang did not make the cut and so missed out on the prize money but he finished joint 76th which is no mean feat. His two rounds of 73 and 72 were not quite good enough but he finished creditably in the 156-strong field. Expect more from the youngster over the coming years. Korea’s YE Yang won the event.
Zhang Jin is coached by Billy Martin, former caddy of Jack Nicklaus. Martin says this of Zhang, “Caddying with Jack I got to meet a lot of great people. It’s the same eyes I saw in Michael Jordan, in Gene Hackman, in Bill Clinton; the same eyes and the same focus. He’s got that.” That’s high praise indeed coming from a man who advised the most successful golfer in major championship history. We’re not sure where Gene Hackman comes into it, though.
The NBA has been off being nice in Chengdu by playing for charity, see report here. Good on the tall fellows.
Finally, Formula 1 news. Despite reports suggesting that the maintenance on the Shanghai circuit is RMB 200 million per year F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone has no intention of cancelling the event. Read more here. He’s also said that Beijing is on the radar for F1. Jenson Button won last weekend’s Shanghai GP.
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