Zico quits as Flamengo director after four months

Photo: Reuters

Former Brazil captain Zico has quit as director of his beloved Flamengo after only four months, saying that rivalries within the country's most popular club had made his life impossible.

"It's not possible to do what I want with Flamengo," said Zico, who is considered one of Brazil's greatest players, and was executive director of football at the club.

"I've noticed that my presence has not been favorable and has caused discontent among a lot of people," Zico added in a statement posted on his website (www.ziconarede.com.br) in the early hours of Friday morning.

"It's not possible for me to continue," he said, adding that his opponents had been criticizing his sons to get at him.

"I've been unfairly attacked, mainly via my sons, who have not been involved at any time, and this goes against the values and concepts I learned with my father.

"I can't allow this cowardly feud to continue using my family."

"Today, my grandson Alberto was born but Flamengo died in my heart," added Zico, who coached Japan at the 2006 World Cup and led Fenerbahce to the Champions League quarterfinals in 2008.

Flamengo won the Brazilian championship last year but risk relegation this season.

During Zico's short return to the club, Rogerio Lourenco was sacked as coach and replaced by former Brazil midfielder Silas, who himself is now in danger of being fired.

Zico is the most popular player the club has produced, having played in a golden generation which won three Brazilian championship titles, the South American Libertadores Cup and the World Club championship.

Flamengo claim to have 25 million supporters in Brazil but the club is notorious for its political in-fighting as well as the enormous pressure placed on coaches and players.

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Vietnam plunge to 33th at Chess Olympiad

Dao Thien Hai

Photo: Tuoi Tre

The Vietnamese men’s team have slumped to 33th place in the standings at the Chess Olympiad in Russia despite not losing any of their last four rounds.

The No 27 seeds were held to a 2-2 draw in the tenth round Friday by 56th ranked Montenegro.

All four players Dao Thien Hai (Elo rating 2,520), Le Quang Liem (2,694), Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son (2,633) and Nguyen Duc Hoa (2,385) produced ties with Dragisa Blagojevic (2,481), Nikola Djukic (2,475), Milan Drasko (2,486) and Blazo Kalezic (2,449).

In the ninth round Thursday, Vietnam had been held to a 2-2 draw by 41st ranked Kazakhstan. Hai beat Anuar Ismagambetov (2,492) but Son lost to Rinat Jumabayev (2,547). Liem and Nguyen Anh Dung (2,500) tied with Murtas Kazhgaleyev (2,620) and Kirill Kuderinov (2,481).

Earlier Vietnam had also held Greece, the No 25 seeds, and 42nd ranked Germany to draws in the seventh and eighth rounds.

The team had climbed to third place after winning all four opening rounds before losing the next two to drop to 22nd out of 148 teams.

Ukraine are top of the table with 29 points, followed by Russia 1, Israel, Poland, and Hungary. Russia have five teams in the tournament.

At the last Olympiad in Germany in 2008, Vietnam had finished ninth out of 154 teams.

In the women’s section, Vietnam, the seed No 24, are in 12th place out of 114 teams, with seven wins and three losses.

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Fish faces Monaco in Stars final

Powerful return: Argentina's Juan Monaco returns the ball against American Sam Querrey in the men's single semi-final of the Heineken Stars tourney in HCM City yesterday. Monaco won 7-6, 6-2. — VNS Photo Tien Thanh

HCM CITY — Argentina's Juan Monaco will meet American Mardy Fish in the Heineken Stars 2010 final after both took control of the semi-final matches.

World No 42 Monaco stunned world No 21 American Sam Querrey in straight sets 7-6 (1), 6-2 while world No 19 Mardy Fish also defeated world No 35 Tommy Robredo in straight sets, 6-3, 7-6, (7-5).

"I am happy to be the winner today. I played very well and took advantage of Querrey's unforced errors," Monaco said.

"I have made many between-the-legs shots in my career and I am happy I could do it again here for Vietnamese fans. I just chased the ball and hit it but when I turned my head, I was surprised to see it went over the net," the Argentine said when asked about a wonderful shot in the second set.

"I am currently in 42nd place and I hope I to finish the year in the top 20," he said.

Querrey, who has won four ATP titles this year, said: "I served well today but made so many unforced errors while Monaco played great tennis today. He had very good forehands and backhands."

"The time change did not effect my loss because I felt good for the match," added Querrey, who will be aiming to end the year as American No 2.

Despite being an exhibition tournament, players showed off their world-class tennis skills. While Querrey boasted powerful serves, scoring 14 aces throughout the match, Monaco frequently blasted heavy forehands as well as accurate and fine-slice backhands into corners.

The first set went on serves when Querrey saved a breakpoint in the fourth game and Monaco did the same to save two breakpoints in the fifth game to force a first set tie break. Querrey made five unforced errors in the tie break to allow the Argentine to take the set with a volley winner.

The second set went to Monaco, who broke the fifth game to lead 3-2 and won his service game to expand the lead to 4-2 with effective attacks at the net and heavy forehands into the corners.

Monaco broke the seventh game with the most amazing shot of the match. When the score was at 30-15, Querrey sent a lob up and over Monaco. The Argentine sprinted to the baseline to hit the ball through his legs and took 3,000 fans by surprise.

Monaco easily won his service and the last game to take the second set at 6-2 to claim victory over Querrey. — VNS

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Concert, photo exhibition celebrate Hanoi millennium

A concert entitled “International integration – toward future” took
place on the opening night of Hanoi millennium celebrations on
October 1 at the Hanoi Opera House.

The classical concert was held under the baton of Spanish conductor Carlos Cuesta.

Vietnamese
pianist Dang Thai Son and an orchestra accompaniment from the Vietnam
National Academy of Music played Concerto No 2, written for the piano by
S Rachmaninoff (1873-1943) and Symphony No 9 by Beethoven's (1770 –
1827).

Son was awarded first prize and the gold
medal at the 10th International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw
in 1980, marking the first time that an esteemed international
competition was won by an Asian pianist.

Earlier the same day, an
exhibition of 1,000 photos opened, introducing local and foreign
visitors with remarkable moments and impressions on the land and people
of Hanoi , the city of peace.

Entitled “ Hanoi – the city of
one thousand years”, the exhibition takes place at the Exhibition House,
No. 45, Trang Tien street , with 200 photos and at the Temple of
Literature with 800 others.

The selection of photos for the exhibition was launched by the Hanoi Photographers’ Association in 2006.

A
series of cultural and art programmes, including a lighting festival
and an ao dai (traditional dress) show was also held around the Hoan
Kiem Lake on the opening night./.

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Jubilant, solemn programmes to celebrate Hanoi birthday

A jubilant and solemn programme was held in the northern province
of Ninh Binh on Oct. 1 in re-enactment of the announcement of the Royal
Proclamation on the relocation of the capital and the relocation
journey.

The programme started with a ritual at the temple of
King Dinh Tien Hoang and King Le Dai Hanh at the former royal capital of
Hoa Lu in Ninh Binh.

Then drum performance and unicorn and
dragon dances warmed up the atmosphere before King Ly Thai To’s
proclamation to move the capital city was read out.

King Ly Thai
To, who was the first king of the Ly Dynasty, made the strategic
decision to move the country’s capital city from Hoa Lu to Dai La (now
Hanoi ).

Artists from Hanoi and Ninh Binh dressed up as the
King, the Queen and members of the royal court got on a dragon boat to
leave for Hanoi, following the journey of the King in 1010.

The
same day, an exhibition of photos and documents entitled “Ho Chi Minh
City: renewal, development and integration” opened at Lam Son park in Ho
Chi Minh City as an activity to mark the 1,000 th anniversary of Hanoi
and the 9th municipal Party Congress to open on Oct. 5.

The 10-day exhibition is among many other activities being held in the city coinciding with the 10 festive days in Hanoi.

On
this occasion, the city is decorated with flags, colour lights, banners
and slogans to mark Hanoi's birthday and the municipal Party
Congress.

In the central province of Thua Thien-Hue, from late
September, many activities have been organised to celebrate the capital
city’s birthday.

An exhibition of nearly 300 photos of Hanoi
and Thua Thien Hue opened at the provincial Ho Chi Minh Museum and will
run until Oct. 15.

On this occasion, Pham Chi Luong, a craft man
of Truong Son drum establishment of Hue city made a pair of drums
with a height of 2.8m and a diametre of 2.2m for the celebration.

Another
craft man also from Phuong Duc ward of Hue, Nguyen Van Thuy, made a
giant bronze gong for performance at celebrations in Hanoi./.

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French historian falls in love with Hanoi

Philippe Chaplain, chairman of France’s National Heritage League, has a
deep fondness of Hanoi and has spent many years researching the thousand
year old capital city.

Chaplain first set foot in Hanoi in 2002 and was attracted by the city’s
peaceful settings and landscapes, its Old Quarter and historical and
cultural sites, especially the Thang Long Royal Citadel, which inspired
him to collect information on the city such as books, photos and CDs.

Since 2006, Chaplain has taken part in contests on Thang Long-Hanoi and has won prizes four times.

After seven years, he had amassed over 1,000 photos of Hanoi and
subsequently has put on two photo exhibitions about the Vietnamese
capital to mark the 1,000 th anniversary of Thang Long-Hanoi.

According to Vietnamese historian Duong Trung Quoc, this is a precious
photo collection and will help young Vietnamese people to understand
more about the capital’s past.

In 2007, Chaplain
launched a website in French, Vietnamese and English at:
http://www.hanoilavie.com , which is the first website on Hanoi run by a
foreigner. He said he hoped that the site would act as a bridge of
friendship and a meeting place for fans of Hanoi.

At present, he is in Hanoi to enjoy the atmosphere of the grand
millennium. He says that Hanoi is always in his heart and he wants to
protect and preserve it along with Hanoi’s citizens./.

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Doves released as Hanoi celebrates birthday

A thousand doves, the symbol of peace, were released at the opening
ceremony of the Thang Long-Hanoi millennium anniversary celebrations on
October 1.

The owner of the doves is Pham Tai Thu, who was born in the central
province of Quang Nam. Thu started a business in the Central
Highlands city of Da Lat growing orchids and later became famous for
his flowers, which have been presented to several central provinces
and Ho Chi Minh City .

He first started to raise birds in 1998, breeding from Vietnamese, French, Thai and Japanese varieties.

He
has so far set up bird sanctuaries in Da Lat, Dam Sen park in Ho Chi
Minh City, and Pham Van Dong park on Son Tra island and at a steel
plant in the central city of Da Nang, raising a total of 3,800
doves.

His desire to release 1,000 doves at the opening
ceremony of the Thang Long-Hanoi millennium celebrations as a gift to
the capital received the support of the city’s fathers.

Hanoi has chosen its Botanical Gardens as the doves’ new home./.

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