U.S.A. / SPORTS
June 15, 2015
THE ASIAN REPORTER n Page 7
87th-minute goal by Bobby Wood
lifts U.S. squad to 2-1 win in Germany
Crowe apologizes
for casting
Emma Stone in
part-Asian role
By Nesha Starcevic
The Associated Press
C
OLOGNE, Germany — Five days after
beating the Netherlands for the first
time, the United States defeated
Germany in Germany for the first time.
The Americans could not be more confident
heading into next month’s CONCACAF Gold
Cup.
“It makes us world champions, right?”
goalkeeper Brad Guzan joked after the 2-1
victory over the Germans on June 10.
Bobby Wood, whose 90th-minute goal gave
the U.S. a 4-3 win in Amsterdam on June 5,
scored in the 87th minute for the improbable
victory in an exhibition against the nation that
won last year’s World Cup in Brazil.
U.S. captain Michael Bradley passed to Brad
Evans, wide on the right flank, and Evans made
a 25-yard diagonal pass to Wood, who had
entered in the 74th minute. Wood trapped the
ball just outside the arc, swivelled, took a touch,
and sent a 23-yard shot on a hop past
goalkeeper Ron-Robert Zieler.
“I think we did that like 20 times yesterday,”
Wood said. “It’s kind of funny that it happened
that exact way.”
It was just the second international goal for
the 22-year-old from Hawai’i, whose German
club, Erzgebirge Auehas, was relegated to the
third division during a season in which he was
slowed by injury.
“Bobby Wood is a work in progress,” U.S.
coach Jurgen Klinsmann said. “He had a very
difficult season.”
The U.S. had lost its previous two games
against the Germans in Germany: 2-4 in 2002
and 1-4 in 2006. The Americans survived a
scare in injury time, when Sami Khedira
bounced a header off the crossbar.
“It’s such a monumental win for us as a
country and a federation,” Guzan said. “It’s
important that we build some momentum going
into the Gold Cup. We know ultimately this
summer is about us winning the Gold Cup.
That’s our No. 1 goal.”
The Americans won the 2013 Gold Cup title
and would earn a berth in the Confederations
Cup if they win this year’s tournament. If
another nation wins, it would meet the U.S. in a
playoff for the Confederations Cup spot.
TALKING STORY IN
ASIAN AMERICA
n Polo
Polo’s “Talking Story”
column will return soon.
FABULOUS FINISHES. Bobby Wood of the United States scores a goal during an international-friendly soccer match
between Germany and the United States in Cologne, western Germany, on Wednesday, June 10. Five days after beating the
Netherlands for the first time, the United States defeated Germany in Germany for the first time. Hawai’i-born Wood, whose
90th-minute goal gave the U.S. a 4-3 win in Amsterdam on June 5, scored in the 87th minute for the improbable victory in
an exhibition against the nation that won last year’s World Cup in Brazil. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)
Klinsmann, who sang both national anthems
“We should feel like, as we head into big,
important games in the Gold Cup, that we have before kickoff, won against the country he led to
nothing to be afraid of, and we can step on the the 1990 World Cup title as a player and
field against any team and can cause anybody coached to third place in 2006. Germany is
trouble and can beat anybody,” Bradley said.
coached by Joachim Loew, Klinsmann’s
Mario Goetze put the top-ranked Germans assistant from 2004-2006.
ahead in the 12th minute off a pass from Patrick
“We should have scored a second. We lost pace
Herrmann, who was making his national team through a lot of substitutions in the second half.
debut and left three defenders in his wake.
The result is frustrating, but we can live with
Mix Diskerud tied the score for the
that,” Loew said. “The Americans have
27th-ranked U.S. in the 41st minute when he
improved a lot over the past couple of years.”
ran into a precise 20-yard pass from Bradley,
Notes: Germany was also scheduled to play a European
and with the laces of his outstretched right boot
Championship qualifier against Gibraltar late in the week.
kicked it in from about six yards. That
No. 1 goalkeeper Manuel Neuer was left off the roster,
culminated a 30-pass, 90-second sequence for
along with Thomas Mueller and Toni Kroos, as the stars
the Americans.
were rested after their club seasons. The U.S. had not
“Just a regular kind of half-American,
beaten the world’s No. 1 team since upsetting Spain at
half-Norwegian volley. A little extra jump
the 2009 Confederations Cup. The Americans scored
there,” said Diskerud, whose mother is from the
multiple goals in consecutive games in Europe for the first
U.S. and whose father is from Norway.
time since 1979, according to the U.S. Soccer Federation.
Appeals court: No birthright citizenship for American Samoa
WASHINGTON (AP) —
A federal appeals court
says people from the South
Pacific islands of American
Samoa do not have a right
to U.S. citizenship simply
because they were born on
the U.S. territory.
The U.S. Court of
Appeals for the District of
Columbia Circuit rejected a
lawsuit challenging the
constitutionality of federal
laws that make those born
in American Samoa U.S.
nationals, but not citizens,
like those born in Puerto
Rico and other territories.
The three-judge panel
said the U.S. Constitution
does not automatically
extend
birthright
citizenship to the nation’s
self-governing
political
territories.
One American-Samoa-
born plaintiff in the lawsuit
Does ping-pong in Seattle parks stop crime?
SEATTLE (AP) — The city of Seattle is
wondering if free ping-pong in its parks
may help stop crime.
KING-TV reports the city’s first
experiment with a free ping-pong table
seems to be making a difference.
A ping-pong table was installed at Hing
Hay Park in Chinatown four years ago.
Since then, crime data from the Seattle
Police Department suggests incidents in
the area seem to be going down over time,
although there have been some ups and
downs. There were 46 crime incidents in
the area in 2009 and 16 in 2014.
No one is willing to draw a direct connec-
tion between the ping-pong table and the
crime statistics, but the city has installed
four other tables since then. Officials
believe the positive community activity
could be crowding out some of the crime.
New Chinese restaurant’s name: I Don’t Know
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) — There’s a
new Chinese restaurant in Rochester. The
name? I Don’t Know.
Seriously, the I Don’t Know Chinese
Restaurant recently opened on Genesee
Street. Owner Jessie Dong tells the
Democrat and Chronicle of Rochester that
she came up with the unusual name
because whenever she would ask her three
children what they wanted to eat, their
response would be: “I don’t know.”
Dong said when it came time to name
the new restaurant, her family didn’t know
that either, hence the name I Don’t Know.
Dong is a native of Guangdong
province in China and now lives with her
family in the town of Greece, a Rochester
suburb.
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said he wanted to become a
law enforcement officer in
California. Because he isn’t
a citizen, he cannot.
q
Anniversary of
first Everest climb
marked as
industry frets
Continued from page 2
route, saying it was unsafe
and there was not enough
time to transport all the
necessary
aluminum
ladders and tie ropes, dig a
path, and then finish
climbs before the end of the
season.
The government charges
$11,000 per climber and
makes an average of $3.5
million in permit fees per
year. Many of those who
were to climb Everest this
year had permits last year
that were renewed due to
the shortened 2014 season.
Nepal’s Tourism and
Civil Aviation minister
Kripasur Sherpa said the
government would con-
sider renewing those per-
mits once more, but that so
far, no one had asked.
NEW YORK (AP) —
Cameron
Crowe
has
apologized for offending
anyone over his casting of
Emma Stone in a partially
Asian, partially Hawaiian
role in his film Aloha.
Stone’s character, cap-
tain Allison Ng, is a quarter
Hawaiian, and she has a
half-Chinese father. In a
message posted on his
website, TheUncool.com,
Crowe said the character
was always intended to be
someone frustrated that
she lacked outward signs of
her ethnicity.
“I have heard your words
and your disappointment,
and I offer you a heartfelt
apology to all who felt this
was an odd or misguided
casting
choice,”
wrote
Crowe.
Some criticized Stone’s
casting as another example
of Hollywood white-wash-
ing Asian-American movie
roles. The Media Action
Network for Asian Ameri-
cans called the film “an
insult to the diverse culture
and fabric of Hawai’i.”
Some Native Hawaiians
have disapproved of the
film’s title as a misappro-
priation of Hawaiian cul-
ture.
Crowe, however, dis-
puted the notion that
Aloha, which stars Bradley
Cooper as a military
contractor returning to
Hawai’i, merely used the
state as an exotic backdrop.
“We were extremely
proud to present the island,
the locals, and the film
community with many jobs
for over four months,”
Crowe said. “Emma Stone
was chief among those who
did tireless research, and if
any part of her fine charac-
terization has caused con-
sternation and controver-
sy, I am the one to blame.”
Aloha has been pilloried
by critics and debuted
weakly at the box office
with $9.7 million for Sony
Pictures. The film last year
also came up in e-mails
revealed in the Sony
hacking that depicted
then-chairwoman
Amy
Pascal
regretting
the
movie.
It has been a humbling
release for Crowe, the
writer-director of Jerry
Maguire, Almost Famous,
and Say Anything. Crowe
said in the Sony e-mails
about its release, Aloha has
“felt like a misunderstood
movie.” But he concluded
saying he is “grateful for
the dialogue.”
“From the many voices,
loud and small, I have
learned something very
inspiring,” wrote Crowe.
“So many of us are hungry
for stories with more racial
diversity, more truth in
representation, and I am
anxious to help tell those
stories in the future.”