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Thursday October 12, 2017

LEBRON JAMES made his preseason debut Tuesday night after missing Cleveland’s fi rst three games with a sprained left ankle. He scored 17 points, but also had eight turnovers in the 108-94 loss to the Chicago Bulls.

It was the fi rst chance for James to play with close friend and former Miami Heat team-mate Dwyane Wade as the Cavaliers showed off their new starting lineup. Cavs coach Tyronn Lue brought out his new starting group for the fi rst time now that James is back. He was joined by Wade, Kevin Love and newcomers Derrick Rose and Jae Crowder. Lue announced the lineup, which includes three former MVPs on Monday. James and Rose have won regular-season MVPs and Wade was the 2006 Finals MVP.

Rose fi nished with 13 points and Iman Shumpert added 12.

“Tonight, I was off. I could feel it,” James said. “It’s just my fi rst action since the Finals and my timing was a little off and turnovers, I think, just trickled down to everybody. So, I made everyone’s timing off.”

The starting fi ve was expect-edly rusty with the group having spent little time together. Wade

Bulls hold off Cavs in LeBron’s debut

was just bought out by the Bulls on Sept. 24. Crowder and Isaiah Thomas went to Cleveland as part of the Kyrie Irving trade Aug. 30. And Love was just recently informed that he’d be moving to center with the unit from power forward.

Love and Wade were a com-bined 2 for 19 Tuesday.

“I don’t think we’ll be the team we want to be in a week,” James said. “It’s going to be for the whole season. We’re going to have changes, we’re going to make changes, we’re going to become a better team as the games go on. So, the team open-

ing night will not be the team that we know we can be.

“We’ve only practiced for two weeks and you play on the third week, that’s not like a lot of time to prepare, especially when you have so many new guys playing here.”

Rose will move to the bench once Thomas returns from a hip injury expected to keep him out for months. That second unit will then be a formidable group with a mixture of Rose, J.R. Smith, Tristan Thompson, Iman Shumpert, Kyle Korver and Jeff Green.

(SD-Agencies)

Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James (R) drives to the basket against Chicago Bulls guard Paul Zipser during the fi rst half at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland on Tuesday. SD-Agencies

ARJEN ROBBEN ensured that the Netherlands bowed out of World Cup qualifi cation in some style Tuesday, scoring both goals as the Dutch beat Sweden 2-0 before announcing his retirement from interna-tional soccer.

The winning margin at the Amsterdam Arena was nowhere near enough for the Netherlands, which had to beat Sweden by seven goals to move into second place in Group A.

The Swedes, who looked content to defend throughout the match, fi nished second and go into a playoff for the World Cup in Russia next year. France beat Belarus 2-1 to seal the top spot in the group and automatic qualifi cation.

The Netherlands, a three-time World Cup runner-up, has now missed out on the World Cup after failing to qualify for last year’s European Championship in France.

It has been a dramatic fall from grace for a Dutch team that reached the semifi nals at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, four years after losing the fi nal in South Africa.

But it was a fi ttingly bitter-sweet end for one of the great-est wingers the Netherlands has produced, who may be best remembered for a goal he didn’t score — against Spain in the 2010 World Cup fi nal, when Iker Casillas made an outstand-ing save to keep the Dutchman at bay. Spain won 1-0 in extra time.

Tuesday’s performance was vintage Robben. He darted past defenders, drifted in from the right fl ank and shot with his left foot, fell theatrically under a Swedish tackle and pleaded with the referee for a free kick. He fi red up his team, urging them forward and fell to his knees, pounding the turf with both hands, when he hit an inaccurate pass.

“I wanted to show one more time all the things that I can do,” Robben told Dutch broadcaster NOS as he announced his retire-ment from the national team.

(SD-Agencies)

Robben not enough as the Dutch miss Russia 2018

Netherlands’ Arjen Robben applauds fans after the match against Sweden in Amsterdam on Tuesday. SD-Agencies

LIONEL MESSI’S three goals lifted Argentina into the World Cup on the last day of South American qualifying, keeping the Albiceleste from missing out for the fi rst time since 1970.

Messi single-handedly resur-rected Argentina’s hopes in a 3-1 win over Ecuador in Quito that drew a line under a chaotic campaign that had left the two-time champion in danger of fail-ing to qualify.

The Barcelona superstar scored twice inside the opening 20 minutes to give Argentina the lead after Ecuador had stunned the visitors with an opening goal from Romario Ibarra after 38 seconds.

Messi then completed his hat trick — the 44th of his dazzling career — with a sublime chip in the second half to seal the victory.

The Argentinian superstar can now look forward to his fourth appearance at the World Cup at next year’s fi nals in Russia, where he will attempt once more to lead his country to an elusive major title.

Since his country’s defeat to Germany in the 2014 World Cup fi nal, Messi has twice suffered agony at major tournaments with Argentina, losing the fi nals of both the 2015 Copa America and the 2016 Copa America Centenario.

Messi, who will turn 31 during next year’s World Cup, now has one, perhaps fi nal, chance to emulate his idol Diego Maradona by lifting the World Cup.

Relieved Argentina manager

Messi lifts Argentina to World Cup

Jorge Sampaoli — the third coach appointed during the qualifying campaign — could not avoid expressing his gratitude to Messi following Tuesday’s win.

“Messi doesn’t owe a World Cup to Argentina — football owes a World Cup to Messi,” Sampaoli said.

“He’s the best player in his-tory. This is a team victory. They played a brilliant match.”

Argentina had started the day outside the automatic qualifying positions, needing to secure its fi rst win in Quito since 2001 to be certain of claiming at least a playoff place.

It looked as if Argentina’s

worst fears were set to become a reality after Ibarra’s opening goal in the fi rst minute.

But it was not long before Messi stamped his authority on the game, hauling his team back into the contest with a composed opening goal.

The equalizer came in the 12th minute when Messi darted for-ward and quickly released Angel Di Maria down the left.

The Paris Saint-Germain attacker duly returned the favor as Messi raced into the penalty area to poke home a low fi nish past Maximo Banguera.

Eight minutes later Messi fi red Argentina into the lead

with another virtuoso strike, lashing into the top corner.

Messi then completed his hat-trick with a sublime chip in the 62nd minute to make it 3-1.

Meanwhile, Chile went from comfortably qualifying for the 2018 World Cup to missing out on the tournament altogether in the space of 90 minutes follow-ing its 3-0 defeat to Brazil on Tuesday night in Sao Paulo.

Paulinho and Gabriel Jesus each scored in the second half to power Brazil to the win. The fi ve-time world champion fi n-ished qualifi cation as the top country in the South American region. (SD-Agencies)

Argentina’s Lionel Messi celebrates at the end of the match against Ecuador on Tuesday. SD-Agencies

NICK KYRGIOS was fi ned US$31,085 by the ATP yester-day after walking off the court during his opening match at the Shanghai Masters a day earlier.

The 13th-seeded Aus-tralian packed his bag and left the court after losing the fi rst set 7-6 (5) to Steve Johnson on Tuesday.

Kyrgios was fi ned US$21,085, his fi rst-round prize money, for failing to see the doctor follow-ing his retirement. According to ATP Tour rules, it is mandatory to be examined by a physician if injured. He was fi ned an addi-tional US$10,000 for unsports-manlike conduct.

Hours after he abandoned the match, Kyrgios offered an apology on Twitter and said he had a stomach ache and sore shoulder.

Kyrgios received a warning during the 12th game of the fi rst set after hitting two balls in anger. (SD-Agencies)

Kyrgios fined for Shanghai walkoff

Nick Kyrgios