Players come and go in the K-League, especially those from overseas. There is an incredibly high turnover of playing staff in South Korea, teams can virtually change their entire starting elevens from season to season. Hiring players is not, of course, an exact science. Some succeed and some don’t for a variety of reasons. Some can end up spending years at one of the league’s 16 clubs. The likes o

Manager Ralf Rangnick expects a close matchGELSENKIRCHEN, Germany (AP) ― Two weeks after knocking out title holder Inter Milan, an unheralded Schalke side is looking to cause another major upset in the Champions League when it plays Manchester United in the first leg of the semifinals on Tuesday.Schalke considers itself a total underdog against the three-time champion. But the Bundesliga team was

ICHEON, Gyeonggi Province ― Some of the world’s top golfer are set to battle again in Korea for the Ballatine’s championship. The $2.9 million European Tour event will tee off on Thursday at Blackstone Golf Club in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province with a total of 156 golfers vying for the trophy. Since its establishment in 2007, the Ballantine’s Championship has been hosted on Jeju Island. But this year,

Monaco’s Park Chu-young (center) vies with Rennes’ goalkeeper Nicolas Douchez. Monaco won 1-0. AFP-(Yonhap News)Celtic, Rangers battle to scoreless drawLONDON (AP) ― Arsenal’s slim hopes of winning the Premier League were virtually extinguished Sunday on a last-minute goal by Bolton substitute Tamir Cohen in a 2-1 loss.The Israel midfielder, who came on in the 85th minute, glanced in a near-post h

South Korean figure skating sensation Kim Yu-na will make her much-anticipated return to the ice at the world championships in Moscow this week.The Olympic champion has not skated competitively since losing her world title in Turin last year to Japan’s Mao Asada, the 2008 and 2010 titleholder and Olympic silver medalist.Kim Yu-naKim arrived in Moscow on Friday ahead of the season’s final competiti

Teen cyclist Kiho Choi of Hong Kong made history by winning the 2011 Tour de Korea after completing the nine-stage race, a total distance of 1,335.9 kilometers, on Sunday. Choi, 19, had a sluggish start. He finished fourth in the first stage of 108.1 kilometers by clocking 2 hours 39 minutes 5 seconds. He remained in fifth place until the third stage. But the 2010 Asian Games medalist laid the fou

MOSCOW (AFP) ― Figure skating superstars Kim Yu-na and Mao Asada will rekindle their long-running rivalry in the relocated world figure skating championships starting here on Monday.The championships, originally scheduled to take place in Tokyo a month ago, were moved to Russia following the devastating earthquake and tsunami on March 11. All four reigning champions are back to defend their titles

TORONTO (AP) ― Investigators arrested a 29-year-old man Wednesday in connection with the death of a student from Beijing, who was last seen alive on a webcam by her boyfriend in China as she struggled with an attacker, police said.Brian Dickson has been charged with first-degree murder, Toronto police spokesman Tony Vella told The Associated Press on Wednesday.Dickson is scheduled to appear in cou

TOKYO (AP) ― New data from Japan’s National Police Agency show that two-thirds of the victims identified so far in last month’s tsunami were elderly ― and most of them drowned.The agency said in a release this week that as of a month after the March 11 disaster, 65 percent of the 11,108 confirmed fatalities of known age were 60 or older.Another 1,899 identified victims were of unknown age.Adding t

PARIS (AFP) ― There’s a distinct Hong Kong flavor to the nine-member jury that will decide the Palme d’Or at the Cannes film festival that opens May 11.Hong Kong director Johnny To and film producer Shi Nansun, wife of director Tsui Hark, are both on the panel that is being led this year by Oscar winner Robert De Niro, said organizers in a statement late Tuesday.French director Olivier Assayas, an

About 30 percent of people here eat foods that are too salty, the Korea Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday, stressing that Koreans need to cut their sodium intake. Only 24.4 percent said they eat salt in moderation, showing that the dominant palette of Koreans is “savory.”The test was conducted by studying the preference of 500 people for the saltiness of a bowl of bean sprout soup. The W

The number of people suffering from glaucoma exceeded 400,000 in 2009, almost double 2002’s 210,000.Aging seems to be the most common cause of the disease that can eventually lead to blindness, the National Health Insurance Corporation said Monday. Glaucoma is a complicated disease in which damage to the optic nerve leads to progressive, irreversible vision loss. It is the second most common cause

How could anyone have ever thought the 2011 Formula One season was going to be a walkover for any driver? Yes, Red Bull’s championship leader Sebastian Vettel has the fastest package. But with the introduction of the Pirelli tires, Drag Reduction System and KERS, the 2011 F1 Grand race is not all about speed ― it is about strategic wisdom, big brains, big guts. And these are far more complicated t

CHENGDU, China (AFP) ― Three-time major winner Padraig Harrington and South Korea’s Yang Yong-eun will both be hoping to defy recent history at the Volvo China Open. Harrington will be looking for a sharp upturn in form after a poor start to 2011 which has seen the Irishman struggle with a neck injury and miss the cut at the Masters.Korea’s Yang, who became the first Asian to win a major when he s

Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors were the only team among four South Korean K-League representatives to earn a victory this week at an ongoing continental club competition, while two Korean teams suffered defeats and another was held to a draw.At home in Jeonju, 243 kilometers south of Seoul, on Wednesday, Jeonbuk beat Cerezo Osaka 1-0 to move into first place in Group G of the Asian Football Confederation

VALENCIA, Spain (AP) ― Cristiano Ronaldo headed home the winner in extra time as Real Madrid ended an 18-year Copa del Rey trophy drought with a 1-0 victory over biggest rival Barcelona on Wednesday.Ronaldo guided Angel Di Maria’s 103rd-minute pass back across goal and past the outstretched hand of goalkeeper Jose Manuel Pinto into the top corner as Madrid won silverware for the first time since a

Is this the end of the road for Lee Seung-yeop? The Korean slugger of the Orix Buffaloes is in one of the worst slumps of his career in his seventh spell at the Japanese top-division baseball league. It is still early in the 2011 season, but the opening games saw the veteran hitter struggle to connect on pitches, picking up just two hits in the past seven games.On Tuesday, Lee went 0 for 3 in the

South Korean figure skater Kim Yu-na will go for her second world title next week in Moscow, the new venue for the rescheduled World Figure Skating Championships.The International Skating Union will run the season’s final competition from April 24-May 1. The event had been scheduled for March 20-27 in Tokyo, but was postponed after a devastating earthquake hit Japan earlier in March.Kim will leave

The 2011 K-League season is proving to be nothing if not unpredictable. Usual minnows such as Daejeon Citizen, Daegu FC and Sangju Sangmu are enjoying the rarified air near the top of the standings while there are some prestigious names floundering in the depths of the 16-team league. Just take a look at FC Seoul and Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma. Seoul lifted the domestic title in December just a month a

One-run games on the rise in Korean baseball leagueGames decided by the smallest of margins in South Korea’s top baseball league have been on the rise in the early going of the season, a trend that experts say has been exciting for fans but distressing to managers.In the first 52 games in the Korea Baseball Organization through Sunday, 18 games, or 35 percent, have been decided by a single run, ac