World Cup: Colombia thrash insipid Poland
Kazan (Russia), June 25 : Colombia thrashed Poland 3-0 in a Group H encounter of the FIFA World Cup here on Sunday.
Yerry Mina (40th minute), Radamel Falcao (70th) and Juan Cuadrado (75th) scored for Columbia. The win kept alive Columbia's chances of advancing from the group stage.
They are on three points from two matches. They had been defeated 1-2 by Japan in their first game.
Poland, who had been defeated by Senegal in their previous match, have no points and are as good as out of the tournament. Colombia dominated proceedings right from the start.
The South Americans controlled possession beautifully and Poland struggled to contain their star-studded attacking line-up.
Cuadrado was impressive form, keeping the capacity crowd awestruck with his runs down the right wing.
He formed a superb combination with Juan Quintero and the duo created all sorts of problems for the Poland defence.
Apart from his good work upfront, Cuadrado also did some really good defensive work, falling back with speed whenever Poland went on the counter.
Poland never really seemed to be in the game and created very little scoring chances.
They have one of the best centre forwards in the world in Robert Lewandowski but Poland's link up play from the midfield was rendered ineffective by Columbia's excellent defensive organisation.
The Bayern Munich star was left totally isolated in the absence of proper support from the midfield.
Whenever Poland went on the attack, Colombia's speed down the flanks saw the Europeans being caught on the counter.
Colombia took the lead shortly before half time off a corner when James Rodr Aguez floated in a cross into the penalty box and Mina rose above the Poland defence to head the ball in.
The South Americans continued to dominate after the break and created scoring chances at regular intervals. But a combination of poor finishing and excellent defending by Poland prevented them from scoring.
But Colombia could not be denied for long as Falcao, who seemed to be struggling with his form, finally found his scoring touch.
A quick attack by Colombia saw Quintero put forward an excellent through and Falcao raced into the opposition box and calmly slotted home into the bottom-left corner.
Poland were forced to go all out in attack which saw Cuadrado score Colombia's third goal off a fast counter a short while later.
James initiated the move charging out of defence down the left wing before finding Cuadrado upfront.
Cuadrado, who had raced down the right wing before receiving the ball in the centre, continued his run and beat Poland goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny with an excellent finish.
That virtually sealed the issue as Poland never seemed capable of scoring and Colombia clinched a well deserved victory.
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NADA serves whereabouts failure notice to retired wrestler Vinesh Phogat
New Delhi, Sep 25: The National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) on Wednesday served a notice to wrestler-turned-politician Vinesh Phogat for whereabouts failure and sought an explanation within 14 days.
Vinesh had announced her retirement after her disqualification from the Paris Olympics in August, saying she doesn't have the strength to continue. The 29-year-old, who was disqualified for being 100gm overweight ahead of her 50kg category gold medal bout, had announced her decision via social media.
All the athletes registered with NADA's Registered Testing Pool (RTP), of which Vinesh is a part, are required to provide details about their availability for dope tests.
If they fill the details and are found not available on that location at that given time, it is considered a whereabouts failure.
The NADA, in its notice, conveyed to the wrestler-turned-politician that she had apparently committed a whereabouts failure as she was not available for a dope test on September 9 at her house in Kharkhoda village in Sonepat.
Vinesh had announced her retirement from the sport after her Paris Olympics campaign ended in heartbreak, where she made the final but was disqualified ahead of her gold-medal bout for being overweight.
Vinesh and fellow wrestler Bajrang Punia joined the Congress party recently and she is contesting the upcoming Haryana Assembly election from Julana constituency.
She has been busy campaigning in the Julana constituency these days.
"You are hereby given a formal notice to notify you about apparent failure to comply with the whereabouts requirements of the ADR, and to invite you to make any comments before we come to a final decision on the matter," the NADA notice read.
"A Dope Control Officer (DCO) was sent to test you on that dav at that time and place. However, he was unable to locate you for testing as you were not available at the given location."
Vinesh needs to either accept the failure or provide evidence that she was present in that location for about 60 minutes.
It may be mentioned that one whereabouts failure does not constitute an anti-doping rule violation. There must be three whereabouts failures (whether filing failures or missed tests) within a 12-month period for NADA to charge an athlete.
