Japan women's soccer coach Norio Sasaki. (Getty)

Following Tuesday's Olympic badminton scandal in which eight female doubles players were disqualified for trying to lose matches to rig a preferred place in the tournament, Japan women's soccer coach Norio Sasaki has admitted that he told his players not to win their final group-stage match against last-place South Africa. But instead of trying to lose, Sasaki, who led Japan to its first Women's World Cup title last year, merely wanted a draw, which Japan got when the match ended 0-0. This helped ensure that his side would finish second in Group F and remain in Cardiff for its quarterfinal match against Brazil instead of traveling 400 miles to Glasgow, where group winners Sweden will play its quarterfinal against France on Friday.

[Related: Badminton tourney marred by teams trying to lose]

From the AP:

"It was a different way of playing compared to the usual game, but the players were on the same page as me," he said.

He said [he] introduced one striker, Yuki Ogimi, late in the match,

Monterrey beat Chorrillo 5-0 in a CONCACAF Champions League match on Tuesday night thanks, in part, to a hat trick from 27-year-old Angel Reyna. After Reyna scored his third goal and his team's fifth in the 87th minute, he celebrated by executing a luchador-inspired move by hopping up on teammate Abraham Dario Carreno, wrapping his legs around his neck and snapping him to the ground with a tilt-a-whirl headscissor takedown.

Though Carreno helped him pull off the pro wrestling move, this wasn't a spontaneous decision. The pair had practiced a bit in training recently (video here), but that time Reyna finished Carreno off with a backbreaker too.

It doesn't seem like Reyna needs anymore help scoring goals, but with a few minor tweaks, that celebration could be turned into an elaborate, opponent-distracting way to score on corner kicks.

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The ultimate triumph! (Getty)

Spurs beat the New York Red Bulls 2-1 in a friendly dubbed the Barclays New York Cup (probably by an intern). For pulling off what is easily the greatest sporting accomplishment anywhere in the world this week, Spurs were awarded medals the size of dinner plates while goal-scorer Gareth Bale was given a miniature Man of the Match trophy that was surely more satisfying than any Olympic medal.

Tim Cahill earned a penalty in his debut for New York, but it was Gylfi Sigurdsson who produced the highlight of the match impressive winning goal. Have a look...

Real Madrid has once again set up its preseason training base at UCLA and while it's in America, it's decided to try playing baseball. For some reason, the players all decided to pitch underhand, which was apparently just fine for Xabi Alonso, who teed off on one from Higuain.

Jose Callejon ran the wrong way after getting a hit and Iker Casillas held the bat like he had no idea what it was used for while posing for a photo with a couple of visiting professional baseball players.

Thankfully, Pepe wasn't given a chance to take any swings because someone would've ended up being decapitated and it probably would've been Mesut Ozil.

Previously: Chelsea players prepare for U.S. tour by trying American sports

With a place in the quarterfinals already guaranteed, the U.S. women's soccer team strolled to a 1-0 win against North Korea to end the group stage with three wins in three matches. Abby Wambach scored the only goal in the 25th minute, giving her a goal in each match thus far, and the entire starting XI (minus keeper Hope Solo and captain Christie Rampone) celebrated by lining up, joining hands and doing the wave (video here).

Near the end of the second half, the U.S. perhaps got a little too comfortable and North Korea threatened to equalize, but ultimately couldn't.

Now that the group stage is complete, the U.S. will face New Zealand, which eked through to the quarterfinals with just one win and two losses. The winner of that match will go on to play the winner of Great Britain vs. Canada in the semifinal.

[Photos: U.S. Women's Soccer team]

Great Britain has made the most of its home advantage to this point with three wins as it remains the only team that has yet to allow a single

Almost immediately after announcing a seven-year shirt sponsorship deal with Chevrolet worth an estimated £200 million ($312.6M USD), the Glazer family pushed ahead with its much maligned plan to unleash a Manchester United IPO on the New York Stock Exchange. From the first rumor of the move, fans and media have been united in questioning it. And now financial experts agree that it appears to be a blatant attempt to dupe investors into giving the club's unpopular owners/debt masters their money for very little (if anything) in return.

In the video above, Andy Green of the well-respected andersred blog talks to Sky News about how Alex Ferguson's blind loyalty to the Glazers is being financially rewarded, that the Glazers chose to list the IPO on the NYSE because their shares would hold far more value than those of all other investors ("They'll sell 10 percent of the club and they will keep 98 percent of the votes") and that the valuation of club is very much inflated.

Guardian finance

We're only a few days into the London Olympics and the Games have already served as an all-consuming distraction for a large portion of the planet. One group that has not been distracted from their primary focus, even while attending Olympic football matches, is that of Blackburn fans (and their chickens) who really, really want the club's manager, Steve Kean, and ownership group, Venky's, as far away from their club as humanly possible.

So even though it's the offseason and Sunday's Spain v Honduras match at St James' Park in Newcastle had nothing to do with Blackburn, there was still a "Kean Out, Venky's out" banner hanging right next to the pitch.

As if being sued by Sam Allarydce wasn't bad enough, now Kean is being protested at international sporting events that he has no part of. In fact, the apparent randomness of this banner's presence might have been what kept confused Spain into losing to Honduras.

What's left of Ever Banega's new Ferrari. (AS)

Valencia's Ever Banega has had terrible luck when it comes to cars this year. Back in February, he suffered a broken ankle that kept him out for six months after it rolled backwards while he was filling up at a gas station because he forgot to set the handbrake. Now, his super expensive new Ferrari has been charred to a crisp because of a "short circuit."

From Reuters:

The vehicle that caught fire on Monday was a brand new Ferrari worth around 250,000 euros [$306,506], the [Valencia] spokesman added, and pictures carried in local media showed only the front part of the car remained unscathed with the rest, including the passenger cabin, burnt to a black crisp.

The blaze seemed to have been caused by some sort of short circuit, the spokesman said.

According to Spanish paper AS, Banega was driving the car outside of Valencia when he saw smoke coming from the back of the car and that the fire occurred spontaneously. In 2010, Ferrari recalled the 458 Italia because "an adhesive used to attach a heat shield under the rear fender can ignite under high temperatures, leading to a larger fire in the engine bay."

Though he was fortunate to make it out unharmed, after this, Ever Banega might just start taking the bus.

UPDATE: Here's video of Banega trying to get a bucket of water at Valencia's training ground to put out the fire engulfing his car before the fire department arrived to do the job with actual hoses...