Free-agent Hirano returns to Orix

Keiichi Hirano, a 33-year-old free agent who plays both second base and center field, signed with his former club, the Orix Buffaloes, on Tuesday.

Hirano, a premium pre-draft signing of the Orix BlueWave in 2002, was traded to the Hanshin Tigers in December 2007. In 2011, he won the Central League's Best Nine Award at second base and a Golden Glove Award.

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Kaka returns as Brazil thrashes Zico's Iraq

MALMO, Sweden — Kaka scored on his return to international soccer after an absence of more than two years, leading Brazil to a 6-0 win over Iraq in an international friendly Thursday in Sweden.

The Real Madrid midfielder, who last played an international when Brazil was beaten in the quarterfinals at the 2010 World Cup by the Netherlands, added the third goal in the 47th minute at Swebank Stadium.

Chelsea playmaker Oscar scored twice and there were also goals from Hulk, Neymar and Lucas.

"We did well. We scored six goals, that says it all," Brazil coach Mano Menezes said, adding that Iraq goalkeeper Noor Sabri "was one of the best players tonight, he made some fabulous saves."

Oscar scored in the 21st minute after a lovely through ball from Neymar and then made it 2-0 five minutes later.

Goals in the 59th from Hulk, 75th from Neymar and 79th from Lucas completed the emphatic victory.

Iraq rarely threatened, with only Younis Mahmood twice going close in the second half and Humadi Ahmad causing concern for goalkeeper Diego Alves in added time.

Zico, the Brazilian great who is now Iraq's coach, substituted five players in the second half in an attempt to lift his team. But his decision to remove the experienced Mahmoud surprised the largely Iraq-supporting crowd.

"If we had lost 6-0 to Iceland I would have been worried, but losing to Brazil was not a problem," Zico said.

The sound of drums — not samba, but Arabic — dominated the stadium in Sweden's third largest city. More than 14,000 tickets were sold for a friendly that was mostly attended by Iraqis living in the Scandinavian country.

Malmo is one of its most ethnically diverse cities, with 40 percent of residents being first- or second-generation immigrants.

It was the first meeting between five-time world champion Brazil and Iraq, the 2007 Asian Cup winner.

Brazil, which isn't playing qualifiers for the 2014 World Cup because it will host the tournament, plays Japan in Poland on Tuesday.

DUBLIN — Ireland captain Robbie Keane has been ruled out of Friday's World Cup qualifier against Germany because of an Achilles tendon injury.

This is the latest blow to the Irish team that already has lost Sean St. Ledger, Richard Dunne, Glen Whelan, James McClean and Kevin Doyle over the last two weeks.

Keane, a forward for the Los Angeles Galaxy, missed training Thursday.

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Giants' Sawamura returns to form after shaky stretch

Hirokazu Sawamura (10-10) threw five shutout innings on Saturday to earn his first win since Aug. 14 as the Yomiuri Giants defeated the Yokohama BayStars 6-0 at Tokyo Dome.

Sawamura allowed one hit, a first-inning leadoff single and two walks, while striking out one batter. The Central League's 2011 Rookie of the Year was coming off a stretch of five games in which he had allowed 19 runs in 25 2/3 innings.

"With all the great support I got from the fans, it was fun pitching," Sawamura said.

Giants leadoff man Hisayoshi Chono had three hits to take over the league lead with 173 on the season. Chono singled in a run in the fourth and hit his 14th homer of the year in the seventh.

The BayStars' Alex Ramirez, who needs seven hits to reach 2,000 in Japan, did not play. Yokohama has four games remaining in the season.

Carp 4, Swallows 2

At Tokyo's Jingu Stadium, Shota Dobayashi hit a pair of solo homers, and Keisuke Imai (4-8) held batters to two runs over six innings as Hiroshima beat Yakult in game that was called with none out in the bottom of the ninth due to rain.

The Carp snapped a six-game winless streak against the Swallows, including one tie, for a 9-12 record with two ties against Yakult. Dobayashi hit a tiebreaking leadoff shot off Takehiko Oshimoto (4-1) in the seventh and went deep for his 14th homer of the year in the ninth.

PACIFIC LEAGUE

Lions 2, Marines 1

At Seibu Dome, Chiba Lotte closer Yasuhiko Yabuta (1-6) blew a one-run, ninth-inning lead by allowing a leadoff single and issuing four walks to force across the tying and winning runs in a loss to Seibu.

Pinch hitter Chris Carter and light-hitting utility infielder Takuya Hara drew consecutive two-out, bases-loaded walks in the ninth.

Lions starter Takayuki Kishi (11-12) went the distance to win for the first time since Aug. 28.

Eagles 2, Hawks 1

At Sendai's Kleenex Stadium, Akihisa Makida's two-run homer in the second inning off Yang Yao-hsun (2-3) was all Tohoku Rakuten needed against third-place Fukuoka Softbank, moving the fourth-place Eagles back to .500 for the first time since July 27.

Wataru Karashima (8-5) limited the damage to one run on three hits in eight innings. He struck out seven and walked two.

Koji Aoyama worked the ninth and set a club record with his 22nd save.

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Pietersen returns to England fold

LONDON — Kevin Pietersen will be slowly reintegrated into the England side after the brilliant but controversial batsman settled his drawn-out rift with team management, earning him a short-term central contract.

Pietersen has been out of favor with England since being dropped for sending provocative phone messages to South Africa players about then-test captain Andrew Strauss in August, disrupting the unity of the team and leaving him an outcast.

But after lengthy talks with the England and Wales Cricket Board, Pietersen will undertake a program of reintegration after which selectors "will consider Kevin for future matches," effectively putting him on probation.

"It's been a horrible situation for all involved but thankfully we have drawn a line under it," the 32-year-old Pietersen said at a news conference in Colombo on Wednesday. "Playing cricket for England is the pinnacle of any cricketer's career, and I want an opportunity to do that again as soon as possible."

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Blackwell returns to U.S. as Evessa tenure ends

For Ryan Blackwell, nothing's changed. His status — as the former Osaka Evessa head coach — is the same as it was last Friday, when it was first reported in this newspaper that his tenure had ended.

Blackwell won't be back on the Evessa sideline next season. He won't be given a shot to guide the bj-league team to its eight consecutive playoff appearance in as many seasons.

The 35-year-old returned to the United States on Tuesday, and is now officially unemployed. His search for a new coaching gig is under way.

Despite players' desire for Blackwell to return to Osaka for a third season at the helm, team executives did not offer the ex-Syracuse University forward a new contact for the 2012-13 season.

After The Japan Times' article was published about the team's plans to part ways with Blackwell due to his close friendship with former Evessa star and two-time league MVP Lynn Washington (who was exonerated of all charges in a drug case in Osaka, while his wife, Dana, pleaded guilty to possession of marijuana for medicinal purposes; she was released from police custody last Friday), players voiced displeasure with the team's decision.

Blackwell, a former Evessa and Sendai 89ers player, reiterated on Wednesday what he said in an exclusive interview last week. "Ownership wanted to make a change," Blackwell told The Japan Times.

Osaka went 67-35 in two seasons under Blackwell. The Evessa went to the Final Four in 2010-11, and fell to the Kyoto Hannaryz in the mini-tiebreaker game on May 13, when Lee Cummard's buzzer-beating 3-pointer propelled Kyoto to its first trip to the Final Four.

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Yoshida returns focus to Olympic three-peat after rare defeat

Unexpected: Russia's Valeria Zholobova celebrates after ending Saori Yoshida's 58-match winning streak on Sunday in the 55-kg final at the World Cup meet in Tokyo. AFP-JIJI

Incredibly long winning streaks come as natural to Saori Yoshida as enjoying ice cream cones on hot summer days for the rest of us.

For the record, freestyle wrestler Yoshida's 58-match winning streak came to an end on Sunday at the World Cup meet in Tokyo. Russia's Valeria Zholobova, just 19 years old, was the better grappler in their match. For anyone else, 58 straight wins would seem like an out-of-this-world accomplishment. For Yoshida, however, the bar is set so high, that a loss, any loss, is a jaw-dropping, stop-the-presses shocker.

"Going to London will mean nothing if I don't three-peat, so I have to fix the problems which need addressing," Yoshida was quoted as saying by Kyodo News after Sunday's defeat at Yoyogi National Gymnasium.

She is, after all, a two-time gold medalist, and one of Japan's biggest medal hopefuls for the 2012 Summer Olympics.

Nobody likes to lose, but who says this is a bad time for Yodida to taste defeat? In fact, it probably came at the best possible time. It may even lessen the pressure of having to keep the streak alive in order to attain gold; at least those were my initial thoughts on Sunday after watching a replay of the Yoshida-Zholobova match on TV.

The 29-year-old Mie Prefecture native probably didn't need any additional motivation to be fired up for her third Olympics, but this will surely push her to be more focused on her techniques and conditioning in the weeks before the competition commences in London.

And no one can excuse her of fearing the spotlight, as evidenced by her decade of dominance in national (10 consecutive titles) and international (victories at nine straight world championship since 2002) competitions.

You can argue that Yoshida doesn't face the wealth of talent that athletes must contend with in other sports, but that doesn't cheapen her accomplishment. The sport may not appear to have as many elite-level competitors as, say, figure skating or tennis, but there are skilled practitioners throughout the world who have what it takes for greatness.

In addition, she has been so good for so long that any loss is a major headline. Which takes us back to January 2008, when Yoshida's 119-match winning streak ended against American Marcie Van Dusen in Taiyuan, China.

It wasn't the end of the world, of course.

"It is a big shock to lose my first match at an international meet," she told reporters after the match. "I realize I have to train even harder."

That loss, too, arguably came at the right time. Yoshida diligently prepared for the Beijing Games and, as stated above, collected another gold medal.

Don't expect Sunday's setback to decrease Yoshida's workload or preparations for London. Instead, expect tackling, as noted by AFP-Jiji in its story after Yoshida's Sunday defeat, to be the key area of emphasis she works on with her coach, Kazuhito Sakae.

"After losing, I really struggled for six months to get back on my feet, and today I couldn't help but feel anxious," Yoshida was quoted as saying after winning the gold in 2008. "I went for two straight titles, but compared to Athens there was so much more built up inside me this time. I aim to three-peat in London in 2012."

As they say in Hollywood and beyond, the plot thickens.

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Scholes returns as United edges City in F.A. Cup derby

MANCHESTER, England — The F.A. Cup's Manchester derby left Alex Ferguson seething about United's carelessness and Roberto Mancini hailing City's strength and positive attitude.

The winner of Sunday's third-round contest, though, was Manchester United — just.

Having stormed into a 3-0 lead and seen City captain Vincent Kompany sent off in the first half, United stumbled after the break against the holders before clinging on to win 3-2 and book a trip to Liverpool.

"We were 3-0 up at halftime and we thought we were through," Ferguson said. "(We) took our foot off the pedal."

City hauled itself back into contention after strikes from Aleksandar Kolarov and Sergio Aguero, whose goal came after the ball was given away by United midfielder Paul Scholes hours after he surprisingly came out of retirement.

"It was a careless performance in the second half and we should have been home and dry," Ferguson said. "We made mistakes and you suffer if you make mistakes."

Similar mistakes have seen the champions lose back-to-back Premier League matches to slip three points behind leader City, and despite the defeat, Sunday's game only strengthened Mancini's belief that he will deliver the club's first English title since 1968.

"If we show the same attitude and strength in other games that we showed against United with only 10 men then yes we can win the league," the City manager said. "I said we had to improve and I think we are doing so.

"To play 80 minutes against one of the best teams in Europe with ten men and come so close to saving the game was fantastic."

But United advanced and were also joined in the fourth round Sunday by Chelsea, Sunderland and Sheffield Wednesday. Chelsea routed Portsmouth 4-0 after scoring all four goals in the second half, Sunderland won 2-0 at Peterborough, and Sheffield Wednesday beat West Ham 1-0.

At the Etihad Stadium, it seemed that United would avenge its 6-1 league loss to City earlier in the season with its own derby rout after a dominant first half.

Wayne Rooney was rampant two days after being forced to deny he was about to leave United due to a rift with Ferguson, scoring the opener after 10 minutes.

City's day took another turn for the worse inside two minutes when Kompany was sent off by referee Chris Foy for a two-footed low lunge on Nani. City will appeal against the red card to prevent Kompany serving a four-match ban.

United made its man advantage count on the half-hour, as Patrice Evra crossed from the left into a crowded penalty area, and Danny Welbeck took advantage of Samir Nasri's failed clearance to smash a spectacular volley into the net with his back turned toward the goal.

The third came five minutes before the break after Welbeck ran onto Giggs' ball and was tripped by Kolarov in the area. Rooney's penalty was saved by Costel Pantilimon — deputizing for the rested Joe Hart — but the striker headed the rebound into the net.

United was never so comfortable again.

After Patrice Evra fouled Richards, Kolarov curled his free kick into the net just three minutes into the second half.

The much-anticipated return of Scholes then came, but United still had a difficult last 30 minutes.

Within minutes — just after United was denied another penalty when Antonio Valencia was fouled by Kolarov — Scholes gave away the ball to James Milner on the right. Aguero latched on to Milner's cross and buried the ball into the net after Anders Lindegaard spilled his initial shot.

"We had other chances to score in the end and we didn't concede any chances for them to score," Mancini said.

The 37-year-old Scholes announced on Sunday morning that he was returning to the squad seven months after retiring, with United in the midst of an injury crisis.

"I was surprised, we didn't find out until we got to the dressing room," Rooney said. "It gave everyone a lift. He's a fantastic player."

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