A Global Reaction to Tragedy
Moments of silence in honor of victims of terrorist attacks on U.S. targets were observed Tuesday before first-round soccer matches in the European Champions League.
In a statement, Gerhard Aigner, chief executive of the Union of European Football Assn., said, “UEFA wishes to express its profound sadness and horror at the tragic and terrible events which have taken place today in the United States. Our thoughts and hearts go out to all the victims of these dreadful attacks and our sincerest sympathy to their families and friends.”
Because of the attacks, the German television network Premiere planned to broadcast its two games without commentary. “We’ll show the matches as planned. but only the atmosphere in the stadium will be heard,” network spokesman Dietrich Woesterhoff said.
In Moscow, where Lokomotiv Moscow played Anderlecht, Russia’s NTV television canceled its live broadcast to show footage of the attacks.
Fans in Liverpool, England, where Liverpool played Boavista, held up a banner declaring, “USA: Our thoughts are with you.”
It was Liverpool’s first game back in the Champions Cup since the 1985 Heysel Stadium tragedy in Brussels in which its rioting fans caused a stampede that led to the deaths of 39 Juventus supporters.
Aigner said UEFA will monitor the current situation for changes regarding security. A decision on whether to play eight more Champions League games scheduled for today will be made this morning along with other 43 UEFA Cup matches set for Thursday.
In a related matter, the Glasgow Rangers are appealing UEFA’s decision to make them play a soccer match in the Dagestan city of Makhachkala on Thursday and have canceled travel plans.
The Rangers, fearing for the safety of players and supporters, asked UEFA to switch the first-round UEFA Cup match against FC Anzhi Makhachkala from Dagestan, a Russian republic in the south of the country bordering war-torn Chechnya.
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In Champions League play, Real Madrid won, 2-1, at Italian champion AS Roma, while seeded clubs Arsenal and Lazio lost.
Luis Figo and Maria Guti scored for Real, a record eight-time winner of European soccer’s most prestigious club competition. Vicente Engonga’s penalty gave Real Mallorca a 1-0 home victory over Arsenal, and Umit Karan netted a goal as Galtasaray beat Lazio by the same score.
Elsewhere, Nantes and Panathinaikos opened with victories, while Boavista held UEFA Cup champion Liverpool to a 1-1 draw at Anfield.
There were also draws between Anderlecht and Lokomotiv Moscow and between Dynamo Kiev and Borussia Dortmund.
Striker Raul and wing back Guti missed first-half chances for Spanish champion Real, which was without suspended world player of the year Zinedine Zidane. Early in the second half, Antonio Zago brought down Raul just outside the area and Figo curled a right foot shot inside Ivan Pelizzoli’s right post.
Guti doubled the lead with a 62nd-minute header before Italy forward Francesco Totti netted a penalty awarded to the Italian champion after Aitor Karanka felled Jonathan Zebina.
In Group B, Jorge Silva scored after three minutes for Boavista, which last season ended Benfica, Sporting Lisbon and Porto’s 55-year dominance of Portuguese soccer with its first league championship.
England striker Michael Owen leveled the score in the 29th minute. The 21-year-old, the scorer of 12 goals in his last 10 matches, received Emile Heskey’s pass and beat Alexandre Ricardo in the Boavista goal with a curling right foot shot.
Four-time champion Liverpool, returning to Europe’s elite competition after a 16-year absence, continued to press the Portuguese team, which picked up seven yellow cards, without creating anything but long-range shots from midfielder Gary McAllister and substitute John Aarne Riise.
Among today’s scheduled matches, defending champion Bayern Munich opens its defense at Feyenoord in Rotterdam, 1999 winner Manchester United visits Olympiakos of Greece and 16-time Spanish champion Barcelona plays host to Lyon.
Ice Hockey
Players on a team with three Americans under contract voted to call off their match in Germany’s top league after the shocking events in the United States.
The Nuremberg Ice Tigers, with Americans Paul Stanton, Chris Luongo and David Emma, voted unanimously against playing their scheduled match against the Revier Loewens Oberhausen.
Oberhausen officials then reluctantly agreed, leading to the game being postponed only an hour before its scheduled starting time.
Tennis
Top-ranked Gustavo Kuerten, unable to bounce back from his drubbing in the U.S. Open quarterfinals, lost in the opening round of the Brazil Open to fellow Brazilian Flavio Saretta, 4-6, 6-2, 6-4.
For the second match in a row, Kuerten showed little of his usual speed or flair and looked lethargic. He saved two match points but on the third sent a shot into the net.
Romania’s Andrei Pavel, seeded No. 1, and Spain’s Albert Portas, No. 2, won opening-round matches in the Gelsor Open in Bucharest, Romania.
Pavel, the Tennis Masters Series Canada winner, defeated the Czech Republic’s Jiri Vanek, 6-0, 6-3.
Pavel is trying to become the first Romanian to win the tournament. The second-seeded Portas defeated Solon Peppas of Greece, 6-0, 6-2.
In Tashkent, Uzbekistan, wild-card Oleg Ogorodov of Uzbekistan, cheered by a crowd of 3,000, upset No. 7-seeded Davide Sanguinetti in the first round of the President’s Cup, 7-6 (3), 7-6 (4).
Cycling
Erik Zabel of Germany won the fourth stage of cycling’s Tour of Spain from Leon to Gijon, edging Spain’s Oscar Freire in a sprint finish for his third consecutive stage victory.
Santiago Botero of Colombia took the race leader’s gold jersey from Britain’s David Millar after a crash two kilometers from the finish split the field.
Botero now leads Millar by four seconds.
