Month: September 2019

The ankle injury suffered by PSG’s forward means that he will sit out the home Copa, leaving the Selecao with work to do ahead of the first match

Buoyed by home advantage and with a strength and depth of talent unmatched by any of the other 11 participants, Brazil go into the 2019 Copa America as overwhelming favourites to lift the trophy.

Not since 2007 have the Selecao won South America’s famous competition, and with a solitary victory in the Confederations Cup and in the Rio Olympic Games since then the pressure to prevail is intense for Tite’s men.

The coach has responded by picking a squad packed with top names, although the loss of Neymar has cast a shadow on preparations as it was confirmed that the PSG star would miss the entire competition.

Brazil’s line-up nevertheless includes two Champions League winners from Liverpool in the shape of Alisson and Roberto Firmino as well as a host of champions from across Europe’s top leagues.

That glut of options gives Tite a welcome dilemma: how to trim his 23-man squad down into a single starting XI.

The Selecao go into the Copa with a strong idea of what their best team might be, but there is still time for a surprise or two before they kick off against Bolivia on Friday – with Neymar’s replacement clearly the biggest conundrum.

“We already have the starting line-up in mind, but we joke around saying that we will call up 23 to then decide the XI,” Tite’s assistant Cleber Xavier told reporters at the start of May. It is undeniable that compared to their main rivals at the Copa, most notably Argentina, Brazil enjoy an enviable level of consistency when it comes to picking their best team. 

The loss of Neymar just minutes into their first pre-Copa friendly did not have an immediate impact on results. Qatar were dispatched 2-0 before Brazil ran riot against Honduras, winning 7-0 in Porto Alegre. 

In both of those games Tite went with a 4-2-3-1 line-up, which could also mutate into 4-3-3 or 4-1-4-1 depending on the opposition in the upcoming tournament. In the meantime Chelsea’s Willian has been drafted in for the PSG forward, a change that should make little difference tactically to the coach’s plans.

While Neymar is back on the sidelines Dani Alves, who has been handed captaincy duties for the Copa, is back at full fitness and will be in the first XI against Bolivia, while Alisson pips Manchester City’s Ederson to the No. 1 jersey after both saw action this year. 

With Marcelo out of the running Alex Sandro gets the nod at left-back, outside Thiago Silva and Marquinhos in the centre of defence. It is in midfield where Brazil will have to make some tough decisions. 

Casemiro will anchor the middle, leaving either Allan – the more combative option – or Arthur – a superior passer – to fight it out for the right to accompany the Real Madrid man. Then, whether Tite ultimately opts for either of his two favoured tactical set-ups, a big upset could be on the cards. 

Philippe Coutinho has long been one of Tite’s favourites. But the Barcelona man has suffered all season in Catalunya, failing to show his best football; and suddenly his place in the first XI has begun to look rather tenuous, although Neymar’s injury certainly aids him in that respect.

Everton’s Richarlison has made the most of his Brazil opportunities over the past 12 months, scoring five goals in 10 appearances following his debut after the 2018 World Cup. He offers a more direct outlet to goal and looks set to take on the mantle left by Neymar in attack, although Willian will also hope to make an impact should he be given the chance. 

Lucas Paqueta is a more orthodox replacement for Coutinho in that regard and will also be hoping to put pressure on the ex-Liverpool star over the course of the Copa. Brazil also have a wildcard option in the shape of Ajax’s David Neres, who enjoyed a fine season for the Champions League semi-finalists.

As mentioned above, Firmino goes into the Copa America as Brazil’s first choice to occupy the No. 9 spot, with Jesus set to be used as an impact substitute over the last half hour should the Selecao need extra firepower. What is certain, however, is that the Copa America favourites won’t have their star man Neymar to count upon over the next month.

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Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. will have to dump radioactive water from its destroyed Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant directly into the Pacific Ocean, Environment Minister Yoshiaki Harada said Tuesday.

Since the plant was crippled by an earthquake and tsunami in 2011, Tepco has collected more than 1 million tons of contaminated water from the cooling pipes used to keep fuel cores from melting.

The water is currently stored in tanks at the power plant site, but the utility says it will run out of space by 2022.

“The only option will be to drain it into the sea and dilute it,” Harada told a news conference.

Harada was responding to questions inviting him to reflect on his work as a minister on his last day before a planned Cabinet reshuffle on Wednesday.

“The whole of the government will discuss this, but I would like to offer my simple opinion,” he said. A final government decision on disposal of the tainted water is pending a report from an expert panel.

Harada did not say how much water he thought would need to be discharged into the ocean.

Tepco officials were not immediately available for comment.

Any green light to dump the contaminated water into the sea, however, could anger neighbors such as South Korea, which summoned a senior Japanese Embassy official last month to explain how the country would deal with the liquid.

Ties between the East Asian nations are already at a low ebb following a compensation dispute over wartime forced labor.

Apparently with South Korea in mind, Harada said, “A country may have an opinion, but it is important to explain about the situation with our best intentions.”

Coastal nuclear plants commonly dump into the ocean water that contains tritium, an isotope of hydrogen that is hard to separate and is considered to be relatively harmless.

Tepco, which also faces opposition from local fishermen, admitted last year that the water in its tanks still contained contaminants other than tritium.

Earlier this month, government officials told a meeting with embassy officials in Tokyo that they were still considering options for handling contaminated water at the Fukushima plant.

Asked by one of the participating embassy officials about the timing of the panel’s decision, officials said such timing had not yet been set, according to a media briefing held after the meeting.

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The meeting for diplomats was attended by 27 embassy officials from 22 countries and regions, including South Korea and the United States. No protests or demands were made by the participating diplomats, according to government officials.

The Brazilian is linked with a return to his former club and his old team-mate would seemingly like to have the star forward back

Luis Suarez would seemingly welcome Neymar back to Barcelona, recalling one of the best years of his career alongside the Brazilian and Lionel Messi.

Neymar, 27, is linked with a return to the La Liga champions, two years after making a €222 million switch to Paris Saint-Germain.

According to Globo Esporte, Barca may pay €100 million (£90m/$112m) to bring Neymar back to the club he spent four seasons while also including Ousmane Dembele, Ivan Rakitic or Samuel Umtiti to help sweeten the deal.

The Brazil international spent four seasons at Barca before his move, including winning a treble in 2014-15.

In total, Neymar made 186 appearances for the club, scoring 105 goals while capturing eight trophies during his time alongside Suarez and Messi.

Suarez said he would be happy to see Neymar, who is sidelined with an ankle injury that will keep him out of the entire Copa America, back at Camp Nou.

“I was privileged to fulfil one of the best years of my life as a football player at Barcelona next to the best in the world, Messi, and the second-best in the world, Neymar,” the Uruguay international told RAC1 on Monday.

“For me, it was one of the best moments I’ve ever lived, won the treble.”

Suarez added: “Who would not want to enjoy players like Ney?

“But he belongs to PSG and these are things that are always talked about during the market.”

Barcelona team-mate Arturo Vidal echoed Suarez’s sentiment, even if he never got to play with the Brazil star himself.

Vidal, who started in Chile’s 4-0 Copa win over Japan in the two-time defending champions’ Copa America opener, joined Barcelona this past season after previously featuring at Bayern Munich and Juventus.

And the Chile midfielder says that Neymar remains a beloved figure in the dressing room, and a player good enough to come back and help guide the pursuit of more trophies.

“It would be lovely if he wanted to come (back to Barcelona),” Vidal said following Chile’s win. “He won everything, everyone likes him there.”

Neymar has helped lead PSG to two consecutive Ligue 1 titles, having scored 51 goals in 58 appearances.

However, the club has struggled in their pursuit of an elusive Champions League title, having fallen to Manchester United in the Round of 16 this season.

Everton defender Yerry Mina has been fined £10,000 and warned over his future conduct after admitting a Football Association misconduct charge in relation to its betting rules.

A statement released by the FA said: “Yerry Mina has been warned as to his future conduct and fined £10,000 after admitting a misconduct charge in relation to the FA’s betting rules.

“The Everton FC defender breached FA Rule E8(3) by participating in an advertisement for betting activity which he is prohibited from engaging in.”

Mina’s punishment comes on the same day a Leeds midfielder was banned from all football-related activity for six weeks.

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Leeds midfielder Jordan Stevens has been given a six-week ban and a £1,200 fine after being charged with misconduct by the Football Association in relation to its betting rules.

The 19-year-old admitted to placing 59 bets on football between August 2018 and May 2019 – five of those involved games in which Leeds played.

The ban is on all footballing activity which means Stevens is unable to train with Leeds during that period or interact with players or the coaching staff – a move the club has called “excessive” and a “disproportionate punishment”.

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A statement released by the FA said: “Jordan Stevens has been suspended from all football and football related activity with immediate effect for a period of six weeks.

“The Leeds United player admitted a misconduct charge in relation to The FA’s Betting Rules. The midfielder was also fined £1,200.”

Leeds have reiterated their stance in supporting their player and chief executive Angus Kinnear expressed his disappointment at Stevens’ suspension.

“Whilst we fully recognise the importance of the FA’s role in protecting the integrity of the game, we are hugely disappointed in the FA’s choice of sanction,” said Kinnear, in a statement on the club’s website.

“To prevent a young footballer from taking part in any football activities at such critical period of his career is a disproportionate punishment following a foolish mistake from a young player.

“We are particularly disappointed that the sanction was determined by two former professional footballers who we hoped would have had a better understanding of the impact of their decision.”

Stevens joined Leeds from Forest Green in February 2018 and he has made one first-team appearance for the club.

Empress Emerita Michiko was discharged from the University of Tokyo Hospital on Tuesday, two days after undergoing successful breast cancer surgery, the Imperial Household Agency said.

Doctors deemed the 84-year-old former empress was recovering smoothly from the surgery Sunday after observing that her appetite was gradually returning and she could leave her room and walk around.

The former emperor expressed gratitude to the head of the hospital and doctors who conducted the operation, telling them “thank you” before returning to the Imperial Palace by car.

She was admitted to the hospital Saturday to undergo a partial mastectomy to remove cancerous cells while preserving her left breast.

The operation was performed by medical staff from the Shizuoka Cancer Center, which dispatched doctors to carry out breast cancer screenings of the former empress, and the University of Tokyo Hospital.

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A lump was found in July in the mammary gland of the former empress’s left breast during a medical ultrasound, and the cancer diagnosis was confirmed after a needle biopsy was conducted in early August.

At stage 1, the earliest stage of invasive breast cancer out of four, no tumor cells were detected to have spread.

A decision on whether or not to administer hormone therapy and other treatments will be made based on the results of a final pathological diagnosis of the removed tissue, which will take one to two weeks to complete.

On the day of the surgery, Emperor Emeritus Akihito and the couple’s daughter Sayako Kuroda visited the hospital to see the former empress before her operation. The pair also came to the hospital Monday.

Former Empress Michiko lost weight due to stress and a busy schedule amid the imperial succession earlier in the year, according to the agency. She underwent cataract surgery on both eyes in June and was earlier diagnosed with heart valve abnormalities, with the condition continuing to be monitored.

The former emperor became the first Japanese monarch to abdicate in about two centuries, bringing an end to the Heisei Era spanning his 30-year reign. His elder son Emperor Naruhito ascended to the Chrysanthemum Throne on May 1.

Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Shinjiro Koizumi, who made headlines recently by announcing his marriage with television anchor Christel Takigawa, stressed on Monday his eagerness to work for the introduction in the country of a dual surname system for married couples.

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If there were an established system in Japan allowing married couples to use separate surnames, “I may use (it),” said Koizumi, head of the LDP’s Health, Labor and Welfare Division, at a meeting of young entrepreneurs in Tokyo.

“It would be desirable for such a system to be offered as an option, as we both work in society and think about the happiness of our own selves and family,” he said, referring to his personal situation.

“Some people oppose even the addition of a new option,” Koizumi said, highlighting the strong objections that exist in the nation to adopting a dual surname system.

“I want to change the current situation in Japan, in which things don’t get going” even though both conventional and new options are available.

Koizumi, 38, one of the sons of former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, announced last month his marriage with Takigawa, 41, who is widely known for her work and for using the term omotenashi, or hospitality, during her 2013 presentation for Tokyo’s bid to host the 2020 Summer Olympics and Paralympics.

The sleepy neighborhood of Araya in the city of Akita seemed like the perfect place for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to put a U.S. anti-missile system. The area has reliably backed the ruling party and has first-hand experience of a North Korean rocket flying overhead.

That is, until residents began to worry that Lockheed Martin Corp.’s Aegis Ashore system might make their pocket of homes nestled near rice fields and the sea a prime target for Pyongyang in any conflict. Opposition quickly rallied against the project, helping oust an Upper House lawmaker from Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party in July and forcing the Defense Ministry to redo site surveys.

“I don’t think Aegis Ashore is needed, but at least I want them not to put it right next to this residential area,” said independent lawmaker Shizuka Terata, 44, who defeated the LDP incumbent in a district that had supported the party in 14 of the past 19 elections. “As the mother of a child, I hated the idea.”

The pushback is the latest sign of the limits of Abe’s efforts to balance Japan’s deep-seated pacifism with renewed threats from North Korea and a demanding ally in U.S. President Donald Trump.

The ¥500 billion anti-missile system faces a likely delay, if not a bigger rethink: the Defense Ministry’s 2020 budget request includes money for purchasing the missile interceptors but none for preparing the site.

Moving ahead with the plan would require Abe to either push past or win over local opposition, with 60 percent of Akita residents opposed the deployment, according to a July poll by the local Sakigake Shinpo newspaper. Another alternative is to pick another site in northern Japan, at the risk of sparking a similar reaction.

Abe was counting on the Aegis Ashore system for tracking and intercepting missiles to meet two goals: protecting against North Korea and assuaging frustration over Japan’s lopsided relationship with its sole ally, the U.S. Since taking power in 2012, Abe has bolstered military spending each year and purchased American weapons systems such as the Aegis Ashore and F-35 stealth fighter jets, which are also made by Lockheed.

Japan is the largest foreign buyer of the plane considered the most expensive U.S. weapons system, which Tokyo is quick to point out when Trump gripes about bilateral trade deficits. Even so, Japan’s defense spending is at about 0.9 percent of gross domestic product, lower than the 3.2 percent in the U.S., World Bank data show.

The anti-missile system would help satisfy Washington’s long-standing demand for Japan to take a bigger security role, despite a promise to provide for its defense.

During a meeting of foreign and defense ministers from both countries in April, they reaffirmed their vow “to bolster capability and enhance their respective integrated defense for both air and missile threats, including through the timely and smooth deployment of Japan’s Aegis Ashore.”

Staying on the right side of the U.S. has grown more urgent under Trump. He has mused to confidants about withdrawing from the Japan-U.S. defense treaty and complained in public about the pact because it doesn’t oblige the Self-Defense Forces to come to America’s defense.

“There’s never been a president who talked publicly about dismantling the U.S.-Japan alliance, so there’s been no debate about that,” said Yasuhiro Takeda, a professor at the National Defense Academy of Japan in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture.

But the Aegis Ashore situation underscores the challenge in meeting those demands. Besides budget pressures and personnel shortages stemming from Japan’s aging population, Abe also faces a deep-seated pacifism among a public wary of repeating the mistakes that led to World War II.

So, despite resentment over the presence of thousands of U.S. troops and a fear of being dragged into America’s conflicts, many also see efforts to build a more independent military as anathema. Abe has repeatedly put off plans for a relatively small revision to the U.S.-drafted pacifist Constitution, which would make explicit the legality of the SDF.

Takeda, who wrote a book on the theoretical cost of defending Japan without the security treaty, concluded it was unrealistic at any price. Instead, the country should seek to ease the burden on the U.S. by bolstering its own capabilities in specific areas, including missile defense, Takeda said.

The reaction in Akita shows that course is fraught with difficulty. Akita has been on the front lines of North Korea’s missile threat since 1998, when the country’s rudimentary Taepodong rocket flew over the prefecture, raising alarm in Japan about its secretive neighbor’s arsenal.

North Korea launched two more missiles over Hokkaido to the north in 2017. The country considers Japan its mortal enemy and has hundreds of missiles that potentially can strike all parts of the country.

The Defense Ministry sought to persuade local people that the site in Akita and a second one at Hagi, Yamaguchi Prefecture, were the only feasible options for the location of the batteries. However, people in Akita raised concerns about the site’s proximity to a school and the possible health effects of its radar.

“Given Japan’s fiscal constraints, I think we should be spending more on things that are closely related to people’s livelihoods,” said Terata, the Akita lawmaker.

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Then, mistakes in the ministry’s paperwork and an official who dozed off at an explanatory session galvanized local opposition to the deployment. Some have also expressed doubts about the system’s effectiveness against a new generation of North Korean missiles that fly at a lower trajectory.

“Now there are low-flying cruise missiles and they may not be able to detect them,” said Masashi Sasaki, 69, a former railway employee who lives with four generations of his family on a street close to the proposed site in Akita and is campaigning against the deployment. Among his plans is a “human chain” demonstration to draw attention to the unsuitability of the site.

“We must never allow a war,” Sasaki said. “We mustn’t allow this place to become a trigger for war. So we can’t allow it to be located here. It’s our duty to refuse it decisively.

Nabil Fekir’s former agent has countered the France star’s claims over the breakdown of his move to Liverpool.

The Reds were on the verge of signing Fekir from Lyon in a £53million deal last year before the move collapsed at the 11th hour with the player having posed for photos in a Liverpool shirt.

It was suggested that a medical had highlighted concerns over Fekir’s knee, but the player, who joined Real Betis for a knockdown fee this summer, dismissed those claims insisting they were just ‘excuses’.

Jean-Pierre Bernès, who represented Fekir at the time but is now involved in litigation against the star, has countered the playmaker’s version of events, saying the question marks over his knee formed only half the story.

“He has to stop this show and stop taking people for fools,” Bernès told L’Equipe via our friends at Sport Witness. “Everyone knows what happened.

“The transfer to Liverpool has turned around for two reasons. The first is his knee, even though the English club’s leaders were willing to make an effort on this.

“The second is the appearance of a foreign pseudo-representative who asked for the negotiations to be resumed from the beginning at the moment of signing.

“Between this episode and the medical visit, Liverpool’s leaders decided to abandon the case.”

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Sergio Ramos says Real Madrid “always has the door open” for players with the sort of “amazing physique” that Paul Pogba has.

Pogba was linked with a move to Real throughout the summer but Manchester United refused to countenance the sale of their only world-class player.

The Frenchman was said to feel ‘isolated’ and regretful at not forcing the situation to get the move he craved.

And Real have started their charm offensive remarkably early ahead of a probable renewal of their interest next summer.

Captain Ramos says a player of Pogba’s stature would always be welcomed at the Bernabeu.

“I think Real Madrid always has the door open for good players such as him,” he told the Daily Express.

“For me, Pogba is one of the great players.

“He is different and he has shown his value at Juventus and now Manchester United.

“I think he brings balance to a team. He has a great offensive influence and he has this amazing physique.”

 

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