Sunderland Win: Sunderland ended their long wait for a Premier League victory with a surprise 2-0 win at Middlesbrough in a passionate northeast derby yesterday. Tommy Miller fired them into a second minute lead at the Riverside and they weathered the storm to add a killer second goal when Argentine midfielder Julio Arca curled home a superb free-kick on the hour mark. Sunderland, who have spent the past two seasons in the second tier of English football, last won a Premier League game in December 2002. Playing today - Tottenham vs Fulham (9 p.m.).
Bundesliga: Hertha Berlin moved up to fourth place with a 1-0 win away to Cologne yesterday, while VfB Stuttgart eased the pressure on Giovanni Trapattoni by beating Kaiserslautern by the same score. Hertha's only goal came from Alexander Madlung in the 52nd minute of an uninspiring Bundesliga game. It was enough to take Hertha to within four points of Bayern Munich, who retained the league leadership despite a 2-0 defeat by Hamburg SV on Saturday. Stuttgart had a Jon Dahl Tomasson goal to thank for what was only their second win of the league season at home to Kaiserslautern. The result took Stuttgart up two places to 10th with nine points from seven games, ahead of Cologne on goal difference.
Koller: Jan Koller's knee injury has been confirmed as a cruciate ligament tear, leaving the Czech Republic striker facing a six-month lay-off. Koller suffered the injury in Borussia Dortmund's 1-1 draw with FSV Mainz on Saturday. Dortmund also have Cedric van der Gun and Delron Buckley on the long-term injured list, leaving them without a fit centre-forward. The 2.02 metres tall, powerful 32-year-old Koller has scored twice in seven Bundesliga matches this season.
Referee Arrested: A Brazilian referee was arrested on Saturday over allegations that he was involved in a match-fixing scheme which affected games in this year's national championship, a police spokesman said. Edilson Pereira de Carvalho, also a FIFA referee, was arrested by federal police in his hometown Jacarei in the state of Sao Paulo following allegations he accepted bribes from an illegal Internet gambling ring to fix matches, the spokesman added. Roberto Porto, of the public prosecutors' office in Sao Paulo, said Carvalho sometimes negotiated with the gambling ring minutes before kick-off. Porto added that each match day the gambling ring moved between $87,300 and $174,600 while Carvalho received around $4,366 per game.
Tennis: Russian teenager Maria Kirilenko beat Germany's Anna-Lena Groenefeld 6-3 6-4 in yesterday's China Open final to win the first WTA Tour title of her career. Chinese organisers had hoped another Russian 18-year-old would lift the trophy in Beijing. However, world number one Maria Sharapova retired with an injury during her semi-final with Kirilenko on Saturday to cap a miserable week for the tournament. Kirilenko had led Sharapova 6-4 2-1 when the top seed called it quits in their semi-final and the 45th-ranked Kirilenko carried on where she left off in her second career final.
Basketball: European Championship final - Greece vs Germany 78-62.