Basketball, NBA: Dennis Schröder won the duel with his national team colleague Daniel Theis and ended the mini crisis in the professional basketball league NBA with the Los Angeles Lakers. The defending champion from LA prevailed after two defeats at the Boston Celtics with 96:95 and celebrated the eleventh victory in the 13th away game. Theis had victory for Boston in the match between the two NBA record champions, but missed the basket with the final siren.
Schröder had twelve points and seven assists in 33 minutes of play, Theis was two minutes longer on the floor and had 14 points and seven rebounds. Anthony Davis was the Lakers’ best shooter with 27 points after his injury-related break and also contributed 14 rebounds. “I’m back in attack mode, aggressive,” said Davis, who had been sorely missed in the past two games. Teammate LeBron James scored 21 points as well as seven rebounds and assists. While Schröder and his Lakers are still number three in the Western Conference with 15 wins out of 21 games, Boston is fifth in the east with a record of 10: 8 wins.
Football, DFB: In advertising for Jamal Musiala as a possible national player, Joachim Löw explicitly praised the 17-year-old from FC Bayern. “He is an exceptionally great talent, absolutely,” said the national coach Picture on sunday after Munich’s 4-1 win against TSG 1899 Hoffenheim on Saturday. “He is particularly valued in Germany and Bavaria. I think he knows one way or another that I want to nominate him. The decision is his.” Born in Stuttgart, Musiala also has an English passport and most recently played for England’s junior national teams after playing for the German U16s. For the senior national team he can still choose between Germany and England. According to the report, Loew met with Musiala and his mother after the game. The offensive player moved from Chelsea to Bayern in 2019. This season he has 15 Bundesliga appearances and three goals.
Soccer, South America: The Brazilian first division club SE Palmeiras has won the Copa Libertadores for the second time in the club’s history. In the South American counterpart to the European premier class, the club from Sao Paulo prevailed 1-0 (0-0) against their national rivals FC Santos. Breno Lopes scored the celebrated winning goal in Rio de Janeiro’s football temple Maracana in the ninth minute of stoppage time. With a prize of 15 million US dollars in his pocket, Palmeiras is now traveling directly to the FIFA Club World Cup in Qatar. There the South America representative is set for the semifinals on February 7th, as is the Champions League triumphant Bayern Munich in his semifinals a day later. The other two semi-final teams will be determined in two quarter-finals at the beginning of the week. The derby between the neighboring rivals was poor in playful highlights at temperatures well over 30 degrees and characterized by many fouls. For Palmeiras, trained by Portuguese Abel Ferreira, it was the second triumph in the Libertadores Cup after 1999. Santos had previously won the competition three times with club legend Pelé (1962 and 1963) and world star Neymar (2011).
Football, third division: The former German soccer champion 1. FC Kaiserslautern broke up with coach Jeff Saibene on Saturday evening. The Red Devils had previously lost 0-1 at home in the 3rd division against SV Wehen Wiesbaden and are in great danger of relegation. The 52-year-old Luxembourger has been with the FCK since October 2020. A successor for Saibene has not yet been determined. A few hours earlier, Dagmar Eckel, daughter of the 1954 world champion Horst Eckel (88), resigned from the board of 1. FC Kaiserslautern eV for personal reasons. Reasons for the decision were not given, she was a member of this body since December 2019.
Soccer, 2nd Bundesliga: Winter champion Hamburger SV and pursuer Holstein Kiel celebrated home victories in the promotion race in the 2nd Bundesliga. With the 3-1 (2-1) win against Bundesliga relegated SC Paderborn, Hamburg increased their lead over second VfL Bochum to four points. Moritz Heyer (8th minute) and Sonny Kittel (22nd / 53rd) scored the goals for HSV, which remained unbeaten for the ninth time in a row. Sven Michel (41st) scored for the guests.
Bayern-Schreck Kiel meanwhile drew level with the second Bochum by the 3-1 (3-0) against Eintracht Braunschweig on points. VfL welcomes the last strong Karlsruher SC on Sunday. Fabian Reese (4th), Fin Bartels (28th) and Janni-Luca Serra (31st) ensured clear conditions for Kiel at half time. Yassin Ben Balla (63.) only managed to score 1: 3 after an hour.
In the basement of the table, Darmstadt 98 missed a big jump at 1: 1 (1: 0) at Jahn Regensburg. The lilies led until the seventh minute of stoppage time before Kaan Caliskaner equalized with his first second division goal. With 24 points, Regensburg now remains ahead of Darmstadt (22).
Handball World Cup: Defending champion Denmark and surprise team Sweden play the new world champions on Sunday (5.30 p.m. / Eurosport). Sweden reached the final with a sovereign 32:26 (16:13) in the semifinals against France for the first time in 20 years, Denmark defeated the European champions Spain with 35:33 (18:16).
The match winner for the Danes in a game that was exciting right into the final seconds was superstar Mikkel Hansen with twelve goals. In addition, goalkeeper Niklas Landin from THW Kiel ensured important parades, especially in the final phase, so that the Danish tournament favorites on Sunday in Cairo are about to win the number two World Cup.
The Swedes are now reaching for their fifth gold medal 22 years after their last World Cup coup. Above all, Sweden, with twelve Bundesliga professionals, one of the three German opponents in the Olympic qualification in March, stunned on Friday evening with a very strong performance. The outstanding player was once again goalkeeper Andreas Palicka from the Rhein-Neckar Löwen. Flensburg left winger Hampus Wanne became the top scorer with eleven goals.
Sweden, who originally started as an outsider in the World Cup, also impressed against “Les Bleus” with their highly efficient style of play. In the back, the team of Norwegian coach Glenn Solberg put an extremely agile and aggressive 6-0 cover with a strong Palicka behind it. And at the front, tub and co. Scored a number of goals with a counter-attack. The Swedes also used almost every opportunity otherwise. The hit rate of over 90 percent after 40 minutes – a rarity in handball. France led only once over the entire 60 minutes (7: 6), otherwise Sweden was permanently ahead and deserved to win.
Rodel-WM: The two-seaters Toni Eggert and Sascha Benecken (Ilsenburg / Suhl) have won the world title for the fourth time in a row and are now among the ranks of record world champions. The Thuringians prevailed on Saturday at Königssee in front of the local heroes Tobias Wendl / Tobias Arlt (Berchtesgaden / Königssee), after two runs the permanent rivals were separated by one and a half tenths of a second. Even after the first run, the gap was only two thousandths. With the fourth title, Eggert / Benecken now caught up with the German duos Stefan Krauße / Jan Behrendt (between 1989 and 1995) and Patric Leitner / Alexander Resch (between 1999 and 2007). No double has been more successful so far. Third, the Latvian brothers Andris and Juris Sics won their first World Cup medal.
Alpine skiing: Linus Straßer was also unable to convince in the first of two slalom competitions in Chamonix, France this weekend. After he was eliminated twice in a row in Flachau and Schladming, the Munich driver crossed the finish line this time, but fell short of expectations in 17th place. He was 1.54 seconds behind the Frenchman Clement Noel, who repeated his victory from the previous year. The Swiss Ramon Zenhäusern was second (+0.16 seconds) ahead of Marco Schwarz from Austria (+0.19). The other German starters had missed the second run: Julian Rauchfuß finished 35th, Sebastian Holzmann 42nd, Anton Tremmel 44th, Alexander Schmid was eliminated. Another slalom is scheduled for Sunday.
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