6 January 4, 2021 Hamed Lak a Nominee for Thunder Beat Magic 108-99 Best 2020 ACL Team TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Persepolis goalkeeper Hamed Lak has been shortlisted for the best goalkeeper of the 2020 AFC Champions League Team. Fans of Asian football have voted for their Best XI at each edition of the AFC Champions League be- tween 2016 and 2019, so now the-AFC.com turns to the most recently concluded chapter, the 2020 com- petition, to determine the top 11 players. Signed as Alireza Beiranvand’s replacement, Oklahoma City Thunder guard Hamidou Diallo (6) goes up to shoot Hamed Lak proved he was the right man for the job between Orlando Magic centers Nikola Vucevic (9), guard Dwayne with some impressive displays as Persepolis made Bacon (8) and guard Terrence Ross, right, during the second half of the final for the second time in three years. an NBA basketball game, Saturday, Jan. 2, 2021, in Orlando, Fla. Lak’s five clean sheets were a tournament best and the fact that the four goals he conceded throughout ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) -- Dar- rebounds. Terrence Ross added the tournament were from the penalty spot speaks ius Bazley had a season-high 19 26 points and four 3-pointers off volumes of the stability he gave Persepolis. points, George Hill scored 13 of the Orlando bench. Lak will compete with Jo So-huk (Ulsan Hyundai his 18 points in the third quarter Six players scored in double FC), Apirak Worawong (Chiangrai United), Daiya Maekawa (Vissel Kobe) and (Al Nassr) and the Oklahoma City Thunder digits for Oklahoma City, which Persepolis goalkeeper Hamed Lak to win the accolade. dominated the second half of a shot 44.2% from the floor with 108-99 win over the Orlando 13 3-pointers. Shai Gilgeous- Magic on Saturday. Alexander added 16 points, PSG Hire Former Captain Pochettino as New Manager The Thunder ended a three- while Al Horford, Hamidou Di- PARIS (Reuters) - French heart”. game losing streak and bounced allo and rookie Theo Maledon champions Paris St Germain “I return to the club to- back nicely from a 33-point loss each scored 12 points. have named former Totten- day with a lot of ambition to New Orleans two nights earli- Bazley converted a driving, ham Hotspur boss Mauricio and humility, and am eager er. Oklahoma City also avenged left-handed dunk with 4:37 left Pochettino as their new head to work with some of the a 118-107 home loss against the to give the Thunder a 99-91 coach after sacking Thomas world’s most talented play- Magic five nights ago. lead, their largest of the night Tuchel, with the Argentine ers,” Pochettino, who has signing a deal until June an option for a one-year ex- Orlando (4-2) has dropped two up to that point. Horford drilled 2022, the Ligue 1 club said tension in his contract, said straight after starting the season a straight-on 3-pointer with 50 on Saturday. in a statement. 4-0. The Magic were routed seconds to play, sending the Pochettino, who played “This team has fantastic 116-92 by Philadelphia on New Thunder on their way to the sec- for PSG as a defender in potential and my staff and Year’s Eve and lost on Saturday ond road victory of the season. the early 2000s and also I will do everything we after making just 37% of their The Thunder trailed by three captained the side, has been can to get the best for Paris out of a job since being Saint-Germain in all com- shots. points just after halftime, but This Nov 6, 2019, photo shows Tottenham Hotspur’s Argentinian head Orlando was even worse in the they grabbed the lead late in the dismissed by Spurs in No- coach Mauricio Pochettino clapping at the end of the UEFA Champions petitions. fourth quarter when it made just third quarter and never trailed vember 2019, a few months League Group B football match between Red Star Belgrade (Crvena Pochettino’s first game in after guiding the north Lon- Zvezda) and Tottenham Hotspur at the Rajko Mitic stadium in Belgrade. charge will be a trip to St eight of 28 shots (28.5%) and the rest of the way. They out- don club to the Champions Etienne on Jan 6 when the missed all 10 of its tries from scored the Magic 22-15 in the League final. tine said he was honored to Parisian club “has always league resumes following 3-point range. That allowed the fourth period. The 48-year-old Argen- take on the role and that the held a special place in my the winter break. Thunder to outscore the Magic Standout guard Evan Fournier 24-17 over the final 12 minutes missed Saturday’s game with Vlhova Leads Slalom in Croatia After 1st Run; Shiffrin 4th to break open a close game. back spasms. Michael Carter- Nikola Vucevic scored a sea- Williams started in place of fourth. The American three-time race in order to train for upcoming overall champion could earn the speed events in Austria. son-best 30 points by making Fournier and missed nine of his 100th podium result of her World Heavy rain on Saturday weak- 13 of 21 shots, including four 11 shots and all four tries from Cup career, which started in 2011. ened the surface of the Crveni 3-pointers. He also grabbed 13 3-point range. Her 99 top-three results so far in- Spust course just outside Croatia’s clude 67 victories. capital. Course workers added salt At a night race in Semmering last that hardened the top layer but also Son Nets 100th Tottenham Tuesday, Michelle Gisin became created a lot of bumps. the first skier other than Vlhova or Even Croatian great Ivica Koste- Shiffrin to win a World Cup slalom lic struggled on the course. The Goal in Win Over Leeds in 29 races since January 2017, 2011 men’s overall champion lost when Frida Hansdotter triumphed his balance and fell during a pre- in Flachau. race camera run. Vlhova and Gisin are 1-2 in both The race took place five days the slalom and the overall stand- after a magnitude 6.4 earthquake ings. hit central Croatia. Race organiz- Slovakia’s Petra Vlhova speeds down the course during an alpine ski, On Sunday, the Swiss skier was ers said they would donate 10 per- women’s World Cup Slalom, in Zagreb, Croatia, Sunday, Jan. 3, 2021. 0.38 behind in third. The rest of cent of the prize money to a relief ZAGREB, Croatia (AP) -- Petra In tough conditions due to fog the field, led by Gisin’s teammate fund for people whose houses have Vlhova posted the fastest time in the and rain, the overall leader from Wendy Holdener, had at least 1.47 been damaged or destroyed. opening run of a women’s World Slovakia finished her run 0.32 seconds to make up in the second The Croatian ski federation Cup slalom on Sunday, five days af- seconds ahead of Katharina Liens- run. matched that donation, raising the ter her four-year-long joint winning berger of Austria. Defending overall champion total amount to 350,000 Croatian streak with Mikaela Shiffrin ended. Shiffrin was 0.42 behind in Federica Brignone skipped the kunas (50,000 euros; $60,000).

Sainz Leads in 1st Stage Dakar 2021 Tottenham Hotspur’s South Korean striker Son Heung-min (left) JEDDAH (Dispatches) -The lead in the cars category changed hands vies with Leeds United’s Northern Irish midfielder Stuart Dallas. several times during the 277km stage from Jeddah to Bisha, as overnight leader Nasser Al-Attiyah ceded three minutes in the opening 37km stretch LONDON (Reuters) - Son made it 3-0 in the 50th min- and immediately dropped down the order. Heung-min scored his 100th ute. Vaidotas Zala was the first to snatch the top spot in one of X-raid’s 4x4 goal for Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham, who topped the Mini Coopers, before Sainz and Peterhansel duked it out for the lead in the marque’s two buggies. as they returned to winning table in December, had gone Sainz, who suffered a puncture in Prologue and started 28th on the ways with a 3-0 defeat of Leeds four league games without a road, had a major setback when he lost over three minutes in the penul- United to climb back into the win, but a comfortable vic- timate section, but he came back strongly in the final stretch of the day, ’s top four on tory over Leeds sent them into winning the stage by 25 seconds. Saturday. third spot with 29 points from That put him just eight seconds ahead of Peterhansel in the general classifications, helped by the 13-time event winner suffering a puncture The South Korean doubled 16 games. in the final 50km of the stage. Tottenham’s tally just before The only blemish was hav- Leading the non-Mini charge was Czech driver Martin Prokop, who The factory Toyota team failed to break inside the top five, with Giniel the interval after strike partner ing defender Matt Doherty put his Benzina Team-run Ford entry ahead of the Century cars of Ma- de Villiers finishing more than eight minutes down in seventh and three- Harry Kane’s penalty had giv- dismissed in stoppage time thieu Serradori and Yasir Seaidan. time champion Al-Attiyah three places further back in 10th. Ex-WRC driver Khalid Al Qassimi placed a privateer Peugeot run by They were separated by 2014 winner Nani Roma (Bahrain Raid en the hosts the lead on a crisp for a second yellow card after the PH Sport team in sixth, ending the day with an identical time to that Xtreme) and Jakub Przygonski, the latter driving an Overdrive-run Toy- winter day in north London. a late challenge on Pablo Her- of Seaidan. ota Hilux. Toby Alderweireld’s header nandez.