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Fri/Sat/Sun November 17~19, 2017

PERU beat New Zealand 2-0 Wednesday night to win a two-leg playoff and earn the 32nd and last spot in the World Cup fi eld in Russia.

The last time the Peruvians reached the World Cup was in 1982 in Spain.

After a goalless draw in New Zealand on Saturday, a more vibrant Peru showed up at the Estadio Nacional.

Despite the absence of their main striker Paolo Guerrero, who has been suspended by FIFA on doping suspicions, the Peruvians controlled the match from the start.

At 28 minutes, striker Jef-ferson Farfan opened the scor-ing from the edge of the box burying the ball into the New Zealand net. In tears, the Loko-motiv Moscow forward showed the shirt of his boyhood friend Guerrero to the crowd.

New Zealand’s attempt to react and qualify for its third World Cup in history never got even close to the Peruvian goalkeeper.

Then at 65 minutes, defender Christian Ramos netted the second after a mistake from New Zealand’s defense on a corner.

Peru’s qualifi cation put the South American team in a World Cup pot with Spain, Switzerland, England, Colombia, Mexico, Uruguay and Croatia.

A still tearful Farfan said after the match that his team had “to endure a lot of nonsense until we got here.”

“I dedicate this to Paolo, I promised him we would deliver,” Farfan said. Guerrero scored six goals for Peru in South American qualifi ers. (SD-Agencies)

SIXTH-SEEDED Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov made his way into the semifi nals at the ATP Finals on Wednesday by beat-ing David Goffi n 6-0, 6-2, but he was given a violation for coach-ing during the second set.

A linesman informed the chair umpire of the infraction during the fi fth game of the fi nal set, and Dimitrov reacted by saying he didn’t hear anything.

He probably didn’t need any extra advice anyway, not after the way he was playing, and the way Goffi n was, too.

“Yeah, that was very weird, to be honest,” Dimitrov said of the violation. “I have no idea why. But it’s fi ne. ... I mean, when you’re so zoomed into the match, I don’t even pay atten-tion to all that.”

Dimitrov ended up winning 34 of the 47 points he served and won 32 of the 57 points served by Goffi n.

In the fi rst set, Dimitrov lost only two points on his serve and twice broke Goffi n without even going to deuce. Goffi n fi nally managed to hold serve in the second set, but Dimitrov still was able to break the Belgian’s serve two more times.

“I was just following my game. Just simple as that,” Dimitrov said. “I was using every opportunity. I took care of all of the balls that I had to.”

And he gave Goffi n few chances to make a comeback.

“He came to the net from the beginning, from the fi rst point,” Goffi n said. “It was not easy for me to lose my serve from the start. It was tough for my confi dence after that when it was 0-4.”

The win gives Dimitrov a 2-0 record and ensures he will play on the weekend in his debut at the season-ending tournament. Roger Federer has also already qualifi ed for the semifi nals.

In Wednesday’s late match, Dominic Thiem defeated Pablo Carreno Busta 6-3, 3-6, 6-4.

Thiem is now 1-1 and will next face Goffi n, who is also 1-1, for a spot in the semifi nals Friday.

(SD-Agencies)

RUSSIA will be the lowest-ranked team in the draw for the World Cup it is hosting after Peru sealed the last qualifying spot.

FIFA uses its October rankings for the Dec. 1 draw in Moscow, which means No. 65 Russia is two places below Saudi Arabia, which will be lowest-ranked nation in the pot of fourth-seeded teams.

Despite the rankings, Russia will be the top seed in Group A — the status FIFA gives all World Cup host nations.

Peru’s win pushed No. 38 Serbia down into the fourth-seeded pot as a dangerous out-lier. Serbia is likely to be drawn

in a tough group with Brazil or Argentina, the only top-seeded teams from outside Europe.

FIFA limits each of the four-team groups to a maximum of two European teams. No two teams from any other conti-nental confederation can be drawn together

Potentially tough draws could group Brazil, Spain, Egypt and Serbia, and Germany with Eng-land, Costa Rica and Nigeria.

FIFA has changed how it allocates teams in the draw and now uses rankings alone for all four pots. At previous World Cups, only pot 1 was for seeded teams, and the other three pots were decided

by a geographical spread.World Cup draw seedings

(FIFA ranking in October):Pot 1: Russia (65), Germany

(1), Brazil (2), Portugal (3), Argentina (4), Belgium (5), Poland (6), France (7).

Pot 2: Spain (8), Peru (10), Switzerland (11), England (12), Colombia (13), Mexico (16), Uruguay (17), Croatia (18).

Pot 3: Denmark (19), Iceland (21), Costa Rica (22), Sweden (25), Tunisia (28), Egypt (30), Senegal (32), Iran (34).

Pot 4: Serbia (38), Nigeria (41), Australia (43), Japan (44), Morocco (48), Panama (49), South Korea (62), Saudi Arabia (63). (SD-Agencies)

THE World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) hurt Russia’s hopes of competing at next year’s Winter Olympics by refusing to reinstate the country’s suspended anti-doping operation.

At its meeting Thursday in South Korea, WADA said two key requirements for reinstatement had still not been fulfi lled: That Russia publicly accept results of an investigation by Canadian Richard McLaren concluding that Russia ran a state-spon-sored doping program, and that the country allow access to urine samples collected during the time of the cheating.

Russia has depicted the doping program that marred the 2014 Games in Sochi as the work of individuals, not the govern-ment. Alexander Zhukov, the president of the Russian Olympic Committee and also a member of the International Olympic Committee, doubled down on that at Thursday’s meeting, telling WADA members, “We absolutely deny the existence of a state-sponsored doping system.”

“It is clear that an uncon-

ditional recognition of the McLaren Report is impossible,” Zhukov said. “Such a require-ment cannot, and should not serve as an obstacle to the full compliance of RUSADA.”

USADA chief executive Travis Tygart described the latest devel-opment as “another sad moment in this entire sordid affair.”

“There was really no other outcome, based on their unwill-ingness to admit what the fl ood of evidence proves,” Tygart said. “Now clean athletes are watching anxiously to see if the IOC similarly will take action to fi nally stand up for their rights or not.”

The IOC has ultimate say on Russia’s status at next year’s Olympics.

WADA’s decision and Zhu-kov’s statements will play into decisions the IOC makes at meet-ings next month, where execu-tive board members will discuss investigations into individual Russian doping cases from the Sochi Olympics, and into the allegations of state-sponsored manipulation of the anti-doping program. (SD-Agencies)

AFTER defeating the Charlotte Hornets 115-107 Wednesday night, the Cleveland Cavaliers are now on a three-game win-ning streak for the fi rst time this season.

“Our defense was phenom-enal,” said LeBron James, who scored 31 points. “We had a great game plan and we were just in tune. We executed it.”

Five of the Hornets’ 13 turn-overs came in the fourth quarter, and Cleveland fi nally pulled away in a game that was tight for three quarters.

The Cavaliers have won seven straight against the Hornets.

Kyle Korver’s 3-pointer with 1:06 left in the third quarter put the Cavaliers ahead for good at 86-84. They extended the lead to 10 points three times in the fourth quarter, fi rst when James drove into the lane and hit a step-back baseline jumper to make it 105-95.

Cleveland’s Kevin Love had 22 points and 10 rebounds, Jeff Green added 13, Korver had 11 and J.R. Smith 10. The Cavaliers have won three straight and four of fi ve. The loss was Charlotte’s fi fth in a row since a fi ve-point win at Milwaukee on Nov. 1.

(SD-Agencies)

Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James (R) drives past Charlotte Hornets forward Michael Kidd-Gilchrist during their game in Charlotte on Wednesday. SD-Agencies

Peru earns final spot in World Cup

Russia lowest-ranked in draw for its home Cup

Peru’s Christian Ramos (15) celebrates with teammates after scoring against New Zealand in Lima, Peru, on Wednesday.SD-Agencies

WADA decision harms Russia’s hopes for Winter Olympics

James leads Cavs past Hornets

Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov in action during his group stage match against Belgium’s David Goffi n in London on Wednesday. SD-Agencies

Dimitrov enters semifinals at ATP Finals, beats Goffin