Turkish Soccer Team’s Win Overshadowed by Deaths
In a match overshadowed by the stabbing deaths of two English soccer fans 24 hours earlier, Turkey’s Galatasaray team won its UEFA Cup first-leg semifinal Thursday, 2-0, over England’s Leeds team at Istanbul.
The second legs are April 20, with Turkish fans being urged to stay away from the match in Leeds.
The death of the two Leeds fans in street fighting in central Istanbul on Wednesday turned Galatasaray’s Ali Sami Yen Stadium into an armed camp, with 10,000 police patrolling in and around the 28,000-seat venue.
British officials identified the dead as Christopher Loftus, 37, and Kevin Speight, age unknown. Those with Loftus when he was killed said they were ambushed as they came out of a bar.
Wearing black armbands, Leeds players seemed jittery in the first half as Galatasaray took a 2-0 lead. Although Turkish players elected to go without armbands, stadium flags were flown at half-staff.
In another semifinal game at London, Arsenal and Lens players observed a minute’s silence in respect for the two fans killed in Istanbul. Arsenal beat Lens, 1-0.
English officials said that England’s bid for the 2006 World Cup would not be affected by the violence in Istanbul.
England is one of five bidders for the World Cup, along with South Africa, Germany, Morocco and Brazil. FIFA, soccer’s world governing body, will choose the 2006 host on July 6.
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U.S. soccer star Michelle Akers underwent shoulder surgery at Orlando, Fla., and will need three months to recover. The 34-year-old midfielder, a member of the 1999 World Cup champions, should be ready for Olympic preparation this summer.
Awards
Kelly and Coco Miller, the identical twins who led the Georgia Lady Bulldogs to the NCAA women’s Final Four last season, won the Sullivan Award as the nation’s top amateur athlete for 1999.
The Miller sisters, from Rochester, Minn., became the first athletes in the award’s 70-year history to win as an entry, and gave women’s basketball a second consecutive Sullivan Award winner. Tennessee’s Chamique Holdsclaw won for 1998.
Motor Sports
In a break from tradition, CART champion Juan Montoya won’t have to pass the rookie test to race in the May 28 Indianapolis 500.
Montoya is hoping to make his first start in Indianapolis. The Indy Racing League decided he would not be required to go through its rookie orientation program due to his experience on high-speed ovals in CART, said IRL director of racing operations Brian Barnhart.
The rookie program is today and Saturday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Veterans will to test their cars Sunday through Tuesday.
Organizers of the Brazilian Grand Prix were fined $100,000 by the world governing body of the sport after advertising boards fell on the track during March 25 qualifying.
During qualifying, three advertising billboards fell onto the track. One crashed to the surface from 35 feet above and clipped the right front wing of Jean Alesi’s Prost Peugeot as he was traveling at 170 mph. Alesi was uninjured.
Miscellany
The Hartford Courant reported that the Connecticut junior guard Khalid El-Amin will announce in the next few days that he will forgo his senior season and declare himself eligible for the NBA draft.
Ed Martin, 66, the central figure in an investigation of the Michigan basketball program, faces indictment today on federal gambling and tax charges in Detroit.
Stan Gray, founder of the Babe Ruth League for players 13-15 and a Pasadena Junior College teammate of Jackie Robinson in 1937-38, died March 30 at Huntington Hospital of congestive heart failure. A lifetime resident of Pasadena, he was 81. Gray also played for the Angels and Seattle in the old Pacific Coast League. Services are pending.
Karl Goehring returned from an injury with a shutout, stopping 30 shots as North Dakota beat defending champion Maine, 2-0, and advanced to the NCAA hockey championship game at Providence, R.I. On Saturday, North Dakota will take on Boston College, which defeated St. Lawrence, 4-2, as Hobey Baker Award finalists Jeff Farkas, Mike Mottau and Brian Gionta scored in the third period.
Tennessee Titan offensive lineman Benji Olson, charged in Hopkinsville, Ky., with drunk driving, pleaded guilty to an amended charge of failure to drive carefully. He was fined $100 and court costs. . . . Green Bay Packer running back De’Mond Parker is free on bond after being charged with possession of marijuana in Richton Park, Ill.
A school hall monitor has been accused of trying to sell two of Mike Tyson’s stolen championship belts on the Internet.
Tyson’s 1986 WBC and WBA heavyweight title belts, which police value at $50,000 each, were listed for sale several weeks ago on eBay, an online auction site.
William Eaddy, 33, a hall monitor at an Albany, N.Y., elementary school, was arrested Tuesday and charged with second-degree criminal possession of stolen property, a felony.
Former Laker guard Sedale Threatt agreed to pay nearly $172,000 in child support for six of his children as part of a pre-trial release agreement.
The United States defeated France, 4-2, at Glasgow, Scotland, to secure a berth in the semifinals of the world curling championships alongside Canada, Sweden and Finland.
