Senegal saves Africa from embarrassment at World Cup

MOSCOW — By starting its World Cup with a win, Senegal also saved Africa from embarrassment in the tournament.

The continent was facing the prospect of a worst-ever World Cup start before Senegal beat Poland on Tuesday. The 2-1 victory was the first and only African win in the first round of matches, after Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria and Tunisia all lost their opening games. A few hours after Senegal’s win, Egypt then also lost its second match, 3-1 against Russia.

As in 2002, when Senegal beat then-defending champions France in its opening match, it now hopes to build on the momentum. But coach Aliou Cisse said beating the Poles didn’t have the same history-making feel of the 1-0 victory in 2002 against the French, Senegal’s former colonial masters. From there, in what was its first and until now only World Cup, Senegal went on a run to the quarterfinals.


“It is not the same thing, not the same flavor,” Cisse said. “Everyone knows the history of France and of Senegal. France was the colonizing power of Senegal. We were the immigrant sons of that France.”

Not since 1974 — when Zaire, its only representative, lost all three of its matches, conceded 14 goals and scored none — had Africa been without at least a win or a draw in the first matches. Since the World Cup expanded to a 32-team format in 1998, the worst opening round for African teams was in 2006, when Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo and Angola all lost their first matches and Tunisia drew 2-2 with Saudi Arabia.

Compounding the worries for African supporters is that, aside from Senegal, the continent’s five teams largely aren’t scoring. Egypt, Morocco and Nigeria didn’t get off the mark in losing their opening matches to Uruguay, Iran and Croatia, respectively. Tunisia’s goal in its 2-1 loss to England came from a penalty. Mohamed Salah, Egypt’s star striker, also scored from the spot on his return Tuesday to the team following his left-shoulder injury in the Champions League final in May.

The only African to score from open play so far in Russia is Mbaye Niang, who pounced on an appallingly judged and executed Polish back pass to net Senegal’s second goal at Moscow’s Spartak Stadium. The other two goals in the match were both scored by Poles. Defender Thiago Cionek deflected a shot off his right calf past his own keeper, an own goal that gave Senegal the lead. Grzegorz Krychowiak headed in Poland’s late consolation goal.

Although contesting only its second World Cup, Senegal could end up carrying the hopes of all Africa if the continent’s other teams don’t quickly pick themselves up. Morocco faces a tough task against Portugal and Spain in Group B. Nigeria has to play Argentina and resilient Iceland in Group D. Tunisia has the more manageable Panama but a tough match against Belgium in Group G. Egypt’s second-match loss to Russia severely compromised its chances of getting out of Group A.

Senegal’s next opponents in Group H are Japan and Colombia.

“We know Africa supports us. If we can make all the other African nations proud, that is twice as glorious,” Niang said. “We’re thinking of our journey, trying to write our own story but if we can inspire the others, that’s a greater honor for us.”

source: sports.inquirer.net

14 killed, 60 injured in Polish train crash

WARSAW – Fourteen people were confirmed dead and sixty injured in a head-on train crash in Szczekociny, southern Poland, late Saturday as rescue workers raced overnight to pull passengers from the wreckage.

“The death toll in this huge train catastrophe has risen to 14,” Poland’s Interior Minister Jacek Cichocki said, speaking at the crash site.

“It appears there are no more conscious people in the wagons,” Cichocki told reporters early Sunday.

Sixty people were hospitalized with about half reported to be in a serious condition, rescue officials said.

Some 350 passengers were travelling on board two trains which collided head-on at 9:00 pm (2000 GMT) as they were travelling on the same track, according to Poland’s PKP railways.

One train was en route to the southern city of Krakow from the capital Warsaw, while the other was travelling to the capital from the south-eastern city of Przemysl.

An investigation was launched Sunday morning into the reasons behind the fatal crash as the rescue operations continued in the early hours.

Images of the wreckage broadcast by the TVN24 commercial news channel showed mangled wreckage with reports indicating three carriages had jumped the tracks along with the locomotives from both trains.

“We heard a deafening noise and we were hurled out of our seats,” an unnamed survivor told the PAP Polish news agency. “We saw crushed bodies pinned beneath seats and we saw parts of
bodies inside and outside the train wagons,” the survivor said.

“It was terrifying. The scale of destruction is huge,” one of the first firemen on the scene told the PAP.

Another survivor told the TVN24 news channel of dead bodies as well as people still alive but pinned down under twisted metal.

Fireman Grzegorz Widawski described the conditions at the crash site as “very challenging.”

“The wagons are in very bad shape and it’s difficult to get to the people trapped inside,” he told the PAP.

A total 450 firemen and 100 policemen were involved in the rescue efforts, emergency response authorities said.

Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Transport Minister Slawomir Nowak were also expected at the crash site overnight, according to a government statement.

Saturday’s accident is the worst rail catastrophe in Poland since 1990, when 16 people were killed in a collision between two trains in the Warsaw suburb of Ursus.

The country’s most deadly train wreck occurred in 1980 in Otoczyn, near the northern city of Torun when 67 people died and 62 were injured in a collision between a passenger and a freight train.

source: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/155961/at-least-6-dead-in-polish-train-crash-%E2%80%93-official