Ronaldo makes history as Portugal beat Ghana 3-2

The Portuguese star has become the first male player to score in five World Cups.
 
Cristiano Ronaldo became the first male player to score in five World Cups as Portugal opened its campaign against Ghana, the lowest-ranked team in the tournament.

Despite his recent struggles and controversies at the club level, Ronaldo spectacularly led the line for his national team in the game on Thursday, which ended in a 3-2 victory for Portugal.


After a scoreless first half, Ronaldo converted from the spot in the 65th minute to give Portugal a 1-0 lead against Ghana.

Ghana’s Andre Ayew then scored an equaliser, after which Portugal got two goals in quick succession to make the score 3-1. A goal by Ghana’s Osman Bukari made it 3-2 in the 89th minute.

Portugal’s victory puts the team at the top of Group H ahead of their next match against Uruguay on Monday. Ghana’s next match is against South Korea on Monday.

( curtesy Al Jazeera)

Saudi Arabia jubilant after World Cup win over Argentina, declares public holiday

Saudi Arabia has said Wednesday will be a national holiday as on the Jeddah Corniche by the Red Sea, in the heart of the capital Riyadh and in towns and villages across the country its seismic 2-1 World Cup win over Lionel Messi’s Argentina was celebrated as a coming of age.

The national football side’s remarkable victory is being seen as both a triumph on the pitch and an epochal moment on a global stage, where a regional power has long sought a place in the spotlight.

Outsiders against an Argentine team on a 36-match winning streak surely delivered that and, on Tuesday afternoon and evening, it was all that mattered to Saudi leaders and the fans who circled public squares in convoys of cars, waving the country’s green flag and proclaiming a new era of international football.

The public holiday will be for all state employees “and the private sector, and male and female students in all educational stages” the government announced on Tuesday evening.

“We are so happy about the result. It was an exceptional match from our falcons,” said Ghassan Alwan, 42, marketing director at the Saudi Ministry of Housing. “Our faith in our players was in the right place. We wrote history tonight.”

“Incredible, massive, amazing, fantastic,” added Abdulrahman Abed, a sports editor. “Congratulations to everyone. This means a lot to every Saudi. This will give a huge boost to every Arabic team in the World Cup.”

Euphoria reached the inner circle of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who was pictured embracing his brothers after the full-time whistle, as well as sports cafes and public parks across the country.

Universities were given the afternoon off for students to watch the game. City streets were almost abandoned. Women joined men in many cafes and restaurants – a new phenomenon in the desert kingdom – to take in the most unlikely of victories.

“What an amazing win for the Saudi national team,” said Adel Al-Akeely, a Riyadh doctor. “There’s a lot that’s been changing in our country, many new achievements and an ambitious drive to become the best that we can be. Moments like this materialise these changes and remind you of how proud we are of our youth.

Saudis have long bristled at the notion that a love of sports and a keenness to attract global events amounted to image laundering, with many sports fans insisting that they too wanted to experience international competition and pitch their national teams into the mix.

Ahead of the match, Prince Mohammed told the national team: “All I want to tell you is stay relaxed, play your game and do your thing.” Few believed that this was just another game, however. In a country battered by criticism over human rights and geopolitical positions, this was a nation-building moment, a chance to turn a political tide.

After full-time, regional rivals embraced the Saudi win. Dubai’s ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, tweeted congratulations. Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, meanwhile, briefly draped himself in the Saudi flag – an image that put to rest five years of enmity in the lead-up to the World Cup, in which Prince Mohammed had boycotted Qatar and severed ties.

That row is now firmly over and the Saudi victory was being received around the region as an achievement the Arab world could swing in behind. In South America, though, the reaction was markedly different.

There was shock and despair in Argentina as the final whistle went nearly 14,000km away in Qatar. The Argentinian football magazine Olé lamented what it called “a world-wide whammy”.

The newspaper Clarín said Argentina’s players had suffered “a historic walloping” after becoming “entangled in Saudi Arabia’s spider’s web”.

“Incredible,” Olé announced beside a photograph of Lionel Messi cradling his face in his hands.

The football writer Diego Macias called the result “a hammer blow … the likes of which will leave a long-lasting mark”.

“Argentina lost much more than a game against Saudi Arabia,” Macias wrote. “It forgot its footballing principles in the changing room and began the World Cup in the worst possible way.”

In neighbouring Brazil, fans rejoiced over their arch footballing rival’s dismal performance. A reworked version of Argentina’s triband flag – in which the yellow sun at the centre wept uncontrollably – went viral on social media.

“What an embarrassment, Argentina,” tweeted the football commentator Luis Felipe Freitas.

Brazilian newspapers pronounced Argentina the World Cup’s first “zebra” – a Portuguese expression that roughly translates as an unfathomable upset. “Pigs flew!” said Rio’s O Globo newspaper.

Allies of Brazil’s far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, meanwhile, blamed the fiasco on Argentina’s leftist leaders.

“Socialism in Argentina has shattered the behaviour of its citizens to such an extent that they lost to Saudi Arabia in the cup,” tweeted the congressman and broadcaster Bibo Nunes. “What you get with socialism/communism is a wasteland.”

FIFA World Cup Shocker: Saudi Arabia crush mighty Argentina 2-1

Saudi Arabia shocked the football world Tuesday (22) when they defeated 2-time world champions Argentina 2-1 in the FIFA World Cup at Lusail Stadium, Qatar.

Saudi Arabia had never beaten Argentina before and the South Americans looked set to extend their domination when star Lionel Messi opened the scoring when he converted a penalty in the 10th minute of the game.

Argentina almost made it 2-0 in the 27th minute. However, an attacking player was found offside and the goal by Lautaro Martines was disallowed. At half-time Argentina led 1-0.

The Saudis came back strong in the second half and equalized with a Saleh Alshehri goal in the 48th minute.

Salem Aldawsari then scored in the 53rd minute for Saudi Arabia to take the lead in the game and held on until the end.

Australia’s David Warner considers Test retirement after next year’s Ashes

Australia opener David Warner has hinted he will quit test cricket after next year’s Ashes series in England but plans to continue playing white-ball cricket at least until the 2024 Twenty20 World Cup.

Defending champions Australia could not make the last four in the home T20 World Cup, which England won on Sunday, and it was a particularly subdued tournament for Warner.

“Test cricket will probably be the first one to fall off,” Warner said on Triple M’s Deadset Legends show.

“Because that’s how it will pan out. The T20 World Cup is in 2024, (one-day) World Cup next year.

“Potentially it could be my last 12 months in Test cricket.”
“But I love the white-ball game; it’s amazing.”

Australia’s test schedule next year includes trips to India and England before they return to India for the 50-overs World Cup.

West Indies and the United States co-host the 20-overs World Cup in 2024.

Australia could potentially lose Warner and fellow batter, Usman Khawaja, next year when both would turn 36.

Warner endured a horrid run in the home T20 World Cup with three single-digit scores followed by 25 against Afghanistan though he remains a sought-after name in franchise cricket.

“T20 cricket – I love the game. I will be looking to get to 2024,” the left-handed batter said.

“For all those people saying I am past it and a lot of those old people are past it, look out. Be careful what you wish for.”

Australia will engage with West Indies in a two-test home series beginning on Nov. 30, before hosting South Africa for three tests and an equal number of one-day internationals.

Prizemoney distribution confirmed for T20 World Cup teams

England will receive USD 1.6 million as prize money after beating Pakistan in the T20 World Cup 2022 final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) on Sunday.

The thrilling T20 event came to a thrilling climax at the MCG over the weekend and just how the total prize pool of $5.6 million will be distribution among the teams is now known.

While Jos Buttler's victorious side will receive the highest amount, all 16 teams will be rewarded for their efforts in Australia with a payout.

Runners-up Pakistan will receive exactly half the amount that England got ($800,000), while the two losing semi-finalists - India and New Zealand - will collect $400,000 apiece.

The eight teams that exited at the Super 12 stage will receive $70,000 each. Like last year at the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2021, a win in each of the 30 games in the Super 12 phase is worth $40,000 to each team.

The four teams that were knocked out in the first round - UAE, Scotland, Namibia and West Indies - will get $40,000 each, but each side will also receive an additional $40,000 for each win they picked up during the First Round.

The eight teams (Australia, Sri Lanka, Ireland, Afghanistan, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Netherlands, Bangladesh) that exited in the Super 12 stage will take home USD 70,000. Every win in the Super 12s is worth an additional USD 40,000.

Accordingly, the value of the total prize money received by the Sri Lankan team in this year's World Cup is USD 230,000.

The four teams (West Indies, Namibia, Scotland, UAE) that were knocked out in the first round will receive USD 40,000 each, with an additional USD 40,000 for every victory registered during the round.

Donald Trump announces he is running for president in 2024

Former President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he will mount a third White House campaign, launching an early start to the 2024 contest. The announcement comes just a week after a disappointing midterm showing for Republicans and will force the party to decide whether to embrace a candidate whose refusal to accept defeat in 2020 sparked an insurrection and pushed American democracy to the brink.

“In order to make America great and glorious again, I am tonight announcing my candidacy for president of the United States,” Trump said to an audience of several hundred supporters, club members and gathered press in a chandeliered ballroom at his Mar-a-Lago club, where he stood flanked by more than 30 American flags and banners bearing his “Make America Great Again” slogan. “I am running because I believe the world has not yet seen the true glory of what this nation can be.”

“We will again put America first,” he added.

Another campaign is a remarkable turn for any former president, much less one who made history as the first to be impeached twice and whose term ended with his supporters violently storming the Capitol in a deadly bid to halt the peaceful transition of power on Jan. 6, 2021.

Trump enters the race in a moment of political vulnerability. He hoped to launch his campaign in the wake of resounding GOP midterm victories, fueled by candidates he elevated during this year’s primaries. Instead, many of those candidates lost, allowing Democrats to keep the Senate and leaving the GOP with a path to only a bare majority in the House.

Far from the undisputed leader of the party, Trump is now facing criticism from some of his own allies, who say it’s time for Republicans to look to the future, with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis emerging as an early favorite White House contender.

The former president is still popular with the GOP base. But other Republicans, including former Vice President Mike Pence, are taking increasingly public steps toward campaigns of their own, raising the prospect that Trump will have to navigate a competitive GOP primary.

He’s launching his candidacy amid a series of escalating criminal investigations, including several that could lead to indictments. They include the probe into dozens of documents with classified markings that were seized by the FBI from Mar-a-Lago and ongoing state and federal inquiries into his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

But Trump, according to people close to him, has been eager to return to politics and try to halt the rise of other potential challengers. Aides have spent the last months readying paperwork, identifying potential staff and sketching out the contours of a campaign that is being modeled on his 2016 operation, when a small clutch of aides zipping between rallies on his private jet defied the odds and defeated far better-funded and more experienced rivals by tapping into deep political fault lines and using shocking statements to drive relentless media attention.

Even after GOP losses, Trump remains the most powerful force in his party. For years he has consistently topped his fellow Republican contenders by wide margins in hypothetical head-to-head matchups. And even out of office, he consistently attracts thousands to his rallies and remains his party’s most prolific fundraiser, raising hundreds of millions of dollars.

But Trump is also a deeply polarizing figure. Fifty-four percent of voters in last week’s midterm elections viewed him very or somewhat unfavorably, according to AP VoteCast, a survey of more than 94,000 voters nationwide. And an October AP-NORC poll found even Republicans have their reservations about him remaining the party’s standard-bearer, with 43% saying they don’t want to see him run for president in 2024.

Trump’s candidacy poses profound questions about America’s democratic future. The final days of his presidency were consumed by a desperate effort to stay in power, undermining the centuries-old tradition of a peaceful transfer. And in the two years since he lost, Trump’s persistent — and baseless — lies about widespread election fraud have eroded confidence in the nation’s political process. By late January 2021, about two-thirds of Republicans said they did not believe President Joe Biden was legitimately elected in 2020, an AP-NORC poll found.

VoteCast showed roughly as many Republican voters in the midterm elections continued to hold that belief.

Federal and state election officials and Trump’s own attorney general have said there is no credible evidence the 2020 election was tainted. The former president’s allegations of fraud were also roundly rejected by numerous courts, including by judges Trump appointed.

But that didn’t stop hundreds of midterm candidates from parroting his lies as they sought to win over his loyal base and score his coveted endorsement. In the end, many of those candidates went on to lose their races in a sign that voters rejected such extreme rhetoric.

While some Republicans with presidential ambitions, like former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, have long ruled out running against Trump, others have said he would not figure into their decisions, even before his midterm losses.

They include Pence, who released a book Tuesday, and Trump’s former secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, as well as former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who ran against Trump in 2016. Other potential candidates include Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin. Trump is also likely to face challenges from members of the anti-Trump wing of the party like Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan and Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, vice chair of the House committee that has been investigating Jan. 6.

But the person who has most occupied Trump and his allies in recent months is DeSantis, whose commanding reelection as governor last week was a bright spot for Republicans this cycle. The former congressman, who became a popular national figure among conservatives during the pandemic as he pushed back on COVID-19 restrictions, shares Trump’s pugilistic instincts and has embraced fights over social issues with similar zeal.

Even some enthusiastic Trump supporters say they are eager for DeSantis to run, seeing him as a natural successor to Trump but without the former president’s considerable baggage.

Trump has already begun to lash out at DeSantis publicly. On Tuesday, the Florida governor shot back.

“At the end of the day, I would just tell people to go check out the scoreboard from last Tuesday night,” DeSantis told reporters.

A crowded field of GOP rivals could ultimately play to Trump’s advantage, as it did in 2016, when he prevailed over more than a dozen other candidates who splintered the anti-Trump vote.

Trump’s decision paves the way for a potential rematch with Biden, who has said he intends to run for reelection despite concerns from some in his party over his age and low approval ratings. The two men were already the oldest presidential nominees ever when they ran in 2020. Trump, who is 76, would be 82 at the end of a second term in 2029. Biden, who is about to turn 80, would be 86.

If he is ultimately successful, Trump would be just the second U.S. president in history to serve two nonconsecutive terms, following Grover Cleveland’s wins in 1884 and 1892.

But Trump enters the race facing enormous challenges beyond his party’s growing trepidations. The former president is the subject of numerous investigations, including the monthslong probe into the hundreds of documents with classified markings found in boxes at Mar-a-Lago.

Meanwhile, Trump is facing Justice Department scrutiny over efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. In Georgia, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is investigating what she alleges was “a multi-state, coordinated plan by the Trump Campaign” to influence the 2020 results.

And in New York, Attorney General Letitia James has sued Trump, alleging his namesake company engaged in decades’ worth of fraudulent bookkeeping by misleading banks about the value of his assets. The Trump Organization is also now on trial, facing criminal tax fraud charges.

Some in Trump’s orbit believe that running will help shield him against potential indictment, but there is no legal statute that would prevent the Justice Department from moving forward — or prevent Trump from continuing to run if he is charged.

It wasn’t any secret what he had been planning.

At a White House Christmas party in December 2020, Trump told guests it had “been an amazing four years.”

“We are trying to do another four years,” he said. “Otherwise, I’ll see you in four years.”