Sports

AMMAN — The top teams in the Professional Football League have maintained their spotsahead of week 7 of matches kicking off on Wednesday.

Following over a month’s break  during which club players were busy on national duty, last week’s matches saw the leading teams score wins as standings changed midway through the 12-team group.

In the upcoming week, leaders Hussein who beat Aqaba 4-0 will play 11th placed Ahli; Wihdat, who beat Shabab Urdun 2-0, play Salt who are now 7th after holding Ma’an 2-2. Third placed Faisali ,who upset Ahli 1-0 ,play Jalil who beat Mugheer Sarhan 2-1 to move up to 5th; Ramtha, who beat Sahab 5-1 to hold on to 4th ,next play Maan, while Shabab Urdun play Aqaba, and Sahab play Mugheer Sarhan

Hussein are so far the only unbeaten team but are closely trailed by Wihdat with a postponed match for both.

So far in the season, Wihdat beat Faisali to winthe Jordan Super Cupfor their 15thtimetrying to beatFaisali ‘s record 17-time wins. Reigning Pro League champs Faisali won their 9th Jordan Football Association Shield, while the Jordan Cup is still underway.

Last season, three teams split four titles: in addition to being crowned Pro League champs, Faisali also won the 35th Jordan Football Association (JFA) Shield title when they beat Ramtha who in turn upset Faisali to win the 39th Jordan Super Cup.  Wihdat defeated Aqaba for their 11th  Jordan Cup final. 

The 2022 league, saw a close-fought contest at both ends of the standings.Faisali won the league title one point ahead of Wihdat and Hussein who tied in overall points and finished second and third respectively.

They were followed by Shabab Urdun, Aqaba, Ramtha, Ma’an, Salt , Sahab, Mugheer Sarhan, Sarih and Jazira.

A three-time league champ veteran Jazira, were relegated alongside Sarih, while Ahli and Jalil were promoted from the First Division. Jazira’s relegation was the fourth time– 1977, 1992, 2003, 2022 after the club was a frontrunner in the past five years and played in the AFC West Asia Zone final in 2018 and 2019.

In 2021, Ramtha won the League crown for the third time in their history after 39 years. 

Since the league kicked off in 1944 with only Faisali, Ahli, Urdun and Homenetmen competing, Faisali are now 35-time record league champs while Wihdat were champs 17 times since they joined in 1980.

Although Faisali are the all-time record holders, Wihdat's record is quite impressive. After four years in the Pro League, they won their first title in 1980 and have gone on to win the majority of titles since then.

Ahli won eight times, Ramtha and Jazira three times, ShababUrdun twice, Amman and Urdun clubs once.

MANCHESTER, United Kingdom — Manchester City once feared a trip to Old Trafford but painted the town blue once more with a 3-0 victory over a demoralised United on Sunday to reassert their dominance.

A double from Erling Haaland before Phil Foden tapped home a third took Pep Guardiola’s men nine points clear of United just 10 games into the Premier League season.

Not since United last won the league in Alex Ferguson’s final season in charge, in 2012/13, have the Red Devils finished above their local rivals.

That run looks destined to go on for another season, with the clubs worlds apart on and off the pitch.

The travelling City support taunted the home fans with chants expressing the hope that United’s unpopular owners, the Glazer family, would remain for “10 more years”.

Initial optimism among the United fanbase that the Americans would sell the club they have controlled since 2005 looks likely to have been misplaced, with British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe set to settle for a minority stake after a year of negotiations.

United’s demise under the Glazers has coincided with the rise of City as the dominant force in English football, thanks to backing from Abu Dhabi’s Sheikh Mansour.

But money is not the only reason for the disparity in the performances of both clubs.

United have outspent City in the transfer market in recent years but have wasted millions in the process.

Despite his side’s struggles to score goals this season, United boss Erik ten Hag left expensive attacking talent in Antony and Mason Mount on the bench on Sunday.

City’s slick operation 

By contrast, City have a slick operation behind the scenes to match their football.

Guardiola cut short his successful managerial spells at Barcelona and Bayern Munich but is now into his eighth season at the Etihad.

“I know what we have done. I didn’t expect it,” he said when asked if he had envisaged the change in fortunes for the clubs after his seventh win at Old Trafford as City boss.

“I said many times we are in the same direction — the chairman, sporting director, manager and the players, we go there. When we lose or things aren’t going well we don’t find blame for someone. We work out what we have to do better and find solutions.”

Finding solutions for a season that threatens to spiral out of control is now Ten Hag’s job.

The Dutchman enjoyed plenty of plaudits for his first season in charge as he returned United to the Champions League and ended a six-year trophy drought by lifting the League Cup.

However, after another period of heavy investment in the summer transfer window, United have gone backwards at an alarming rate.

A return of five defeats from their opening 10 league games means the club have made their worst start since 1986/87, while they are also in severe danger of failing to make the Champions League knockouts.

Ten Hag’s decision to replace striker Rasmus Hojlund was met with a chorus of boos for the second time this season by the Old Trafford crowd and thousands marched out after Foden’s goal 10 minutes from time.

“It’s different levels,” said former United midfielder Roy Keane. “The United players are just short in every aspect, technically and tactically. It’s a long way back for this team.”

Frustration towards the Glazers has largely shielded Ten Hag from criticism so far.

But questions are beginning to be asked of the former Ajax boss, with United languishing eighth in the table, eight points adrift of the top four.

Catching City already looks an impossible task as Guardiola’s side target another historic landmark.

Fresh from matching United’s crowning glory under Ferguson by winning the Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup in the same season, City are now aiming to become the first side to win the English top flight for a fourth consecutive year.

RIYADH — World heavyweight champion Tyson Fury beat mixed martial arts fighter Francis Ngannou in a split decision after their boxing bout went the distance in Saudi Arabia on Sunday.

Ngannou knocked Fury down in round three but the 35-year-old British fighter, though shaken, was able to continue.

The undefeated Fury, who earlier this week laughed off his opponent as a “big fat sausage”, afterwards acknowledged that the 37-year-old Cameroonian had effectively kept him off-balance.

“He’s a very awkward man, and he’s a good puncher and I respect him a lot,” Fury said of Ngannou, adding that it was “probably my toughest fight in 10 years”.

Fury was the overwhelming favourite against boxing novice Ngannou.

“This was my first boxing match, great experience — I’m not giving any excuse,” Ngannou said in a ringside interview.

“I know I come up short, I’m going to come back and work harder... now I know I can do this.”

Fury came out swinging in the first round with a hard right hand but sustained a cut to the forehead in the second round and looked especially sluggish after hitting the mat in the third.

The final rounds dragged as both men tired, neither able to land a decisive blow.

“I don’t know how close it was, but I got the win and that’s how it was,” Fury said.

“Fair play to Francis, he cut my head here. It was a good fight.”

Fury’s WBC heavyweight belt was not on the line in the “Battle of the Baddest” in the capital Riyadh, but Saudi officials nevertheless hoped it would further boost the Gulf kingdom’s reputation as a top-flight boxing destination.

With all parties desperate to lend the contest some sporting legitimacy, the WBC had fashioned a “Riyadh Champion” belt to allow the winner to strut around the ring at the end with something other than a fat pay cheque.

Fury has been linked with a £50 million ($60.6 million) payout from Sunday’s exhibition bout, while he has said in the British press that Ngannou will earn £10 million.

The war came up just once on Sunday, when heavyweight Arslanbek Makhmudov said after his undercard win: “Victory to our brothers in Palestine!”

KLEINARL, Austria — With all eyes on Mikaela Shiffrin as the new World Cup ski season kicks off in Soelden this weekend, one of those cheering the 28-year-old American on is Austrian legend Annemarie Moser-Proell.

“It’s incredible what she’s doing, and she’ll continue to win,” Moser-Proell told AFP in an interview in her native Alpine village of Kleinarl.

Already with a record 88 World Cup victories under her belt, Shiffrin is now just one short of equalling Moser-Proell’s record of six big crystal globes.

But Shiffrin’s success and the strong possibility she will take her record outright over the next couple of years does not bother Moser-Proell who set the standards in the 1970s.

Apart from those six overall titles, five of them in succession, the Austrian won 62 World Cup races, third behind Shiffrin and Lindsey Vonn, five world championships and an Olympic gold medal.

Her place in skiing history is secure, whatever Shiffrin does over the next few years.

“I’m at a certain age where it [the number of globes] no longer plays any role for me,” said Moser-Proell, who was crowned as the 20th century’s best female skier.

“Shiffrin is just as exceptional a talent as [Austrian retired ski champions] Marcel Hirscher or Hermann Maier,” added the 70-year-old, who won her first four titles as Annemarie Proell before getting married.

She said it was hard to compare the statistics of wins now and then as the race calendar was fuller now.

Besides that, skiing “has changed completely” as the material has developed — and slopes are better prepared.

“We often started races on slopes, where no one would go down today,” she said.

‘I had everything’ 

Growing up with seven siblings on a farm at 1,230 metres altitude, young Annemarie skied downhill every day to reach school and was among those who pushed for her village to have a ski club.

“When we were kids, we always asked if we could watch TV when a race was being broadcast. So from childhood on, we had this enthusiasm,” she recalled.

Moser-Proell credits her success on her early instructors — two brothers, passionate about the sport in ski-mad Austria — combined with “a certain portion of talent and also the will to succeed”.

Her career took off when the national team trainer saw her training on the Kitzsteinhorn glacier and immediately offered her a place on his team.

At 14, she raced her first World Cup race. She took her first podium when she was 15 — she is still the youngest to do this in downhill — and her first victory ensued a year later when she was only 16.

“Once you won a race, that really got you going” to win more, Moser-Proell recalls today, in front of a glass cupboard full of trophies.

Her most cherished moment is her first big globe win in 1971 — when she raced against a “might” of more experienced French skiers.

Four more big globes followed, and then in 1975, Moser-Proell shokced the ski world by announcing her retirement, causing her to miss the 1976 Olympics.

She wanted to stay with her father who had cancer and get away from outside pressures.

“Of course, I was under pressure. Above all, there was no help back then” such as a spokesperson or manager, she said.

After her father died in June 1976, she returned to the piste, winning her final overall title in 1979 and bagging Olympic gold in 1980, her most important moment.

“I had everything. Just Olympic gold was missing,” she recalls.

‘Enjoy life’

Once retired for good after the Lake Placid Olympics, she dedicated herself to a completely new career — as a chef in the cafe that she and her husband had built and opened in 1976 in her village — and having a daughter.

“They [people] didn’t believe it. When they asked ‘where is Annemarie?’ and the server told them: ‘she is in the cellar, in the bakery’. No, nobody believed it,” she laughs.

She said she would like to be remembered “as a friend rather than being put on a pedestal... I want to be a local, like everyone else”.

Today, she still enjoys skiing, as much as e-biking, playing tennis and hunting — a sport passed on through the generations in her family.

“My main project. Stay healthy, do a lot of sports as long as possible. Yes, and enjoy life,” she smiles.

Moser-Proell still watches World Cup races Classics like Schladming or Kitzbuehel she would not miss as it is “skiing in the purest form”.

As for the others, if the weather is good, she would rather go skiing herself.

GLASGOW — Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers said his side showed they can compete in the Champions League after a 2-2 draw against Atletico Madrid on Wednesday, despite failing to end a decade-long wait for a home win in the competition.

The Scottish champions twice led through Kyogo Furuhashi and Luis Palma, but were pegged back by Antoine Griezmann and Alvaro Morata.

Atletico then had Rodrigo De Paul sent off in the closing stages.

Celtic, though, could not make the man advantage count in the final eight minutes plus stoppage time to leave their chances of progressing in Group E looking slim.

A draw takes Atletico to within a point of group leaders Feyenoord, who beat Lazio 3-1 on Wednesday.

Celtic’s first point in the group leaves Rodgers’ men three points adrift of the third-placed Italians.

“We showed we can compete with a top level team,” said Rodgers. “I don’t think you can say they’ll fly back to Spain not knowing they’ve had a tough game.

“The performance gives you the confidence at this level, and that was a really good performance, but we just couldn’t get the win.”

There could also be further ramifications from the match for Celtic after fans defied a club plea by waving Palestine flags in a show of support to people in Gaza during the war between Israel and Palestinian militants Hamas.

A leading Celtic fans’ group announced they would distribute flags outside the stadium.

In a statement before the match, Celtic asked that “banners, flags and symbols relating to the conflict and those countries involved in it are not displayed at Celtic Park at this time”.

Celtic have twice been fined by UEFA in the past for the flying of Palestinian flags.

Once the action got under way, the home side were inspired by the hostile atmosphere.

Matt O’Riley’s through ball sliced open the Atletico defence for Kyogo to dink home his seventh goal of the season.

But Celtic have found the step up to Champions League level tougher defensively and a naive challenge from Greg Taylor on Nahuel Molina handed the visitors a glorious chance to equalise.

Joe Hart tipped Griezmann’s spot-kick onto the woodwork, but the ball bounced back kindly for the French international to roll into an empty net.

Celtic hit back within three minutes when Palma blasted into the far corner from Daizen Maeda’s cross.

Atletico thought they had levelled again before half-time only for Axel Witsel’s header to be ruled out for offside.

Diego Simeone’s men did not have to wait long after the break to equalise when Morata stooped to divert a brilliant header high past Hart from Marcos Llorente’s cross on 53 minutes.

Atletico then looked set to go on and win the game as Celtic paid for their first-half efforts by tiring in the second period.

But De Paul dived in on Paulo Bernardo to earn a second yellow card and at least give the hosts some breathing space in the closing stages, even if they failed to find a winner.

BERLIN — Napoli winger Khvicha Kvaratskheli helped an “ice-cold” Napoli secure a narrow Champions League victory at Union Berlin on Tuesday, laying on the game’s only goal for Giacomo Raspadori in a 1-0 away victory.

The Georgian stepped up in the absence of star striker Victor Osimhen and was dangerous throughout, slicing through the Union defence to set up Raspadori midway through the second half.

The victory — Napoli’s second in three group stage matches — boosts the Italian side’s chances of reaching the knockouts, while Union are stranded in last place with no points after three losses.

Visiting manager Rudi Garcia said “we had to be patient and in the second half we did better — and scored a great goal.”

“We’ve won twice away from home [but] there’s still a long way for us to go to qualify.”

Napoli captain Giovanni Di Lorenzo told Sky Sports: “We wanted this win — we showed how strong of a side we are.”

Goalscorer Raspadori said although his team “could have done better” against Union “an away win like this in the Champions League is always good”.

“We knew it would be difficult.”

“Napoli didn’t have many chances but they were ice cold” Union captain Christopher Trimmel told broadcaster DAZN.

Union coach Urs Fischer told reporters after the game it was “brutal to leave the field as the loser after the way we played, we had a grip on Napoli”.

The Swiss coach said Kvaratskhelia was the difference between the sides.

“It’s not possible to defend a player of his quality for 90 minutes.”

Osimhen out 

Napoli travelled to the German capital without offensive talisman Osimhen, the Nigeria striker having torn his hamstring while on international duty.

Union left centre-back Leonardo Bonucci, who signed on a free from Juventus in the summer, on the bench despite the Italian captain having played 29 matches against Napoli in a storied career.

Another summer arrival from the Italian league, Germany defender Robin Gosens, who arrived from Inter Milan, recovered in time to make the starting XI.

Spurred on by a fiery home crowd of 70,000 in Berlin’s sold out Olympic Stadium, Union started brighter, forcing the Italian champions to concede some early corners as the home side pushed high and had Napoli on the back foot.

Union had the ball in the net after 24 minutes when Chelsea loanee David Fofana, carving down the right flank, found Gosens, who tapped in, but the Ivorian had been offside in the build up.

Napoli had few attacking opportunities in the opening half, seemingly missing Osimhen’s penetration up front and manager Rudi Garcia reacted at halftime, switching out Jens Cajuste for Eljif Elmas in midfield to give his side some attacking spark.

Quiet in the first, Kvaratskhelia danced his way into the penalty box early in the second, but failed to find a teammate in a penalty area crowded by red Union shirts.

Kvaratskhelia continued to trouble Union down the left and created the opener out of nothing, shedding Trimmel and cutting back to Raspadori, who snuck a looping strike in at the near post.

Fischer made all five changes as the clock wound down but Napoli held firm for a hard-fought away victory.

Union, who suprisingly qualified for the Champions League after just their fourth season in the top division, have now lost ten matches in a row in all competitions.

Trimmel observed: “It was a good step for us in the right direction. We were brave.”

“It’s a bitter feeling because we weren’t missing much.”