Allgemeines » Qatars chief World Cup organizer, told the

LOS ANGELES -- Through most of the first two months of the season, Yasiel Puig batted second and Hanley Ramirez hit third for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Ramirez is still hitting behind Puig, only now they are in the third and fourth spots, and the change is starting to generate positive results for manager Don Mattingly. Ramirez homered twice, drove in five runs and scored four times, tying career highs in all three categories and leading the defending NL West champions to a 12-2 rout of the Pittsburgh Pirates on Saturday. "I just try to help the team any way I can," Ramirez said. "When Donnie asked me if I was OK with it, I said: "I just want to win. Puigs been doing a great job, so why not hit him third so he can learn how to drive runs in?" Ramirez, whose 4 for 4 day increased his career average against Pittsburgh to .362, hit a two-run homer in the fourth inning against Brandon Cumpton and led off the sixth against Bryan Morris with his ninth of the season. The 2009 NL batting champion and three-time All-Star shortstop is 8 for 20 with eight RBIs in five starts in the cleanup spot after missing four games because of a sore left calf. "He found some good pitches to hunt and put some good swings on some balls," Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said. "The history hes got against this organization is significant. I saw him break in. I had him on the All-Star team in 2008. Hes a good player, a good hitter, and hes done some damage at the plate. He also stole a base today, so that shows you his wheels OK." Puig had an infield hit in the third inning and has reached base in 32 straight games, the longest active streak in the majors. He is 13 for 32 with a homer and three RBIs in nine games since Mattingly moved him from second to third in the lineup, and the Dodgers are 5-4 during that stretch. Hyun-Jin Ryu (6-2) breezed to his third straight victory, allowing two runs and 10 hits with four strikeouts and no walks. Last Monday at Dodger Stadium, Ryu did not allow a baserunner through the first seven innings of his 4-3 victory over Cincinnati. "He threw the ball really well," catcher Drew Butera said. "He had good command, changed speeds well in and out and did a real good job focusing on every pitch, and he made my job easy. Our guys do a really good job of having a plan and purpose every pitch." Jamey Wright was credited with his second save in 19 major league seasons, after pitching the final three innings and allowing one hit. His other save was in 2011 with Seattle. Cumpton (0-2) was charged with 11 runs -- 10 earned -- and 11 hits in 3 2-3 innings. The 25-year-old right-hander had allowed a total of one run during the first four innings of his eight previous major league starts. "I was getting behind guys, so they were sitting on heaters and doing what they get paid to do," Cumpton said. "When I made my pitch, it found a hole -- and when I didnt make my pitch, it found a gap. Its discouraging, but its only one start. Ive gotten beaten around before and Im sure its going to happen again. But Im not going to hang my head over it." The Dodgers staked Ryu to an 11-1 lead with two runs in the first inning, four in the third and five more in the fourth. Ramirez and Matt Kemp triggered the onslaught with two-out RBI singles during Cumptons 28-pitch first inning. Cumpton threw only 18 pitches during the Dodgers third-inning rally, as four batters put the ball in play on the first offering and two others did on the second. "I knew almost all of them were going to be aggressive early in the count," Cumpton said. "Thats a great lineup. They made me throw pitches, and when I got behind, they made me pay." Andre Ethier started things off in the third with a drive that popped out of left fielder Starling Martes glove for a two-base error as his left arm hit the fence. Ramirez and Justin Turner had RBI singles, Adrian Gonzalez doubled home a run and Kemp hit a sacrifice fly. After Ramirezs first homer, Turner chased Cumpton three batters later with another RBI single and Butera greeted Jeanmar Gomez with a two-run triple. NOTES: 3B Josh Harrison had two hits, including a single on Ryus third pitch of the game. He is batting .324 in the 19 games hes started in the leadoff spot. ... Reigning NL MVP Andrew McCutchen has no RBIs or extra-base hits in nine games and 32 at-bats since his run-scoring single against Washingtons Blake Treinen on May 22. ... Marte has no RBIs in 42 career at-bats against the Dodgers, and teammate Jose Tabata has none in 29 at-bats against them. ... Butera has three triples in 574 career at-bats. Mitchell Trubisky Jersey . The win puts Arsenal four points clear of Everton in fourth place with two games to play in the Premier League, a position which would qualify the club for Europes top competition for the 17th straight year. Mitchell Trubisky Womens Jersey . PETERSBURG, Fla. http://www.chicagobearfootballauthentic.com/authentic-mitchell-trubisky-bears-jersey/ . He could have transferred when academic sanctions barred the Huskies from the NCAA tournament his junior season. Mitchell Trubisky Bears Jersey . Still, Encarnacion felt a sense of relief. He felt a pop just before crumpling to the ground after running out a groundball in the first inning of Saturdays game. It could have been worse. “Its going to take maybe two weeks,” said Encarnacion. “It depends how Im going to be and how Im going to be day after day, feeling better or not.DOHA, Qatar - Its a cold, hard fact of football: Countries with tiny populations dont generally beat big ones with deep wells of talented players.So how embarrassing might the score be when Qatar — smallest host in World Cup history, with just 282,750 citizens — plays the opening game of its 2022 tournament against, for example, titans Brazil or Germany?At best 5-0? At worst 10-0, even 30-0?Impossible, impossible, said Ivan Bravo, the former Real Madrid administrator working to prevent such a loss from party-pooping over the Middle Easts first World Cup.They will be ready to have a very good team, a competitive team.Given Qatars small size and lack of football pedigree, Bravos bravura would sound like folly if not for one game-changer: money. The oil-and-gas rich nation that pokes into the Persian Gulf has mounds of it.Funneled into the state-of-the-art Aspire training academy that Bravo oversees in Doha, Qatars showcase capital, the wealth is helping to make the embryonic nucleus of what will be the 2022 home team more formidable than population numbers would suggest.Its thrilling, Bravo said in an Associated Press interview. Theres always an underdog story, the little guy trying to punch above their weight story, and I think people will get behind it.Qatar qualifies automatically as host. It could be the only Middle East representative if its neighbours stumble in qualifying, as in 2010, when no team from the region went to South Africa. A strong host performance can make a World Cup memorable: French victory at home in 1998 and South Koreas wild ride to the semis of the 2002 tournament it co-hosted with Japan.So pressure is on.The players know what an opportunity this is, Hassan al-Thawadi, Qatars chief World Cup organizer, told the AP. Im sure they wont disappoint.Aspire is a source of such confidence. It trains local kids and others unearthed by a mammoth international scouting program — dubbed Football Dreams — that screens hundreds of thousands of teenagers from 16 countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The reach and size of that talent-search and Qatars history of recruiting overseas athletes to represent it internationally led to suspicions it could naturalize foreign footballers in bulk for the World Cup, although Bravo insisted that isnt the plan.He said Qatars ambition for 2022 is not only to field a team of Qataris but to also have seven, eight, nine, 10 Aspire-trained recruits from Football Dreams playing for other nations.Aspires facilities rival those of Europes best clubs. Under a giant dome, it has a full-sized indoor pitch with an exhortation from Pele on one wall: Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do.Outside, generously watered grass pitches resist the desert heat. Recordings of birdsong piped in over loudspeakers give the place an Alice in Wonderland feel.Raul has an office here, wattching the academys youngsters play and handing out trophies at competitions it organizes with Chelsea, Barcelona and other teams flown over to give Qatars young players the experience and game-time they will need on the world stage in eight years.dddddddddddd Bora Milutinovic, who coached the United States, Mexico, Nigeria, Costa Rica and China at World Cups, is often seen around the place, too, working as an adviser.Young Qatari players have been embedded with professional teams in Spain, Monaco, Austria and a club Qatar bought in Belgium to immerse them in a professional football environment 24 hours a day, which is something Doha lacks, because of the league, empty stadiums, Bravo said. The 2016 Rio Olympics and 2018 World Cup in Russia, if Qatar qualifies, will also be opportunities to hone players for 2022.While the pool of native Qataris is tiny — roughly only 4,000 boys are born here each year — Bravo says Aspire scouts see nearly all youngsters so no potential talent slips through. Motivating them, however, can be challenging: Thanks to the nations oil-and-gas wealth, Qataris are the worlds second-richest people per capita and — unlike slum kids in Brazil or Africa — dont need football as an escape.Youre in a country where even attendance to training can be difficult, Bravo said, before adding: Theres a bit of a misperception about everybody in Qatar: Theyre wealthy kids, they are wearing Rolexes and driving SUVs. Its not the case. A lot of our kids come from more humble or medium-income situations.A breakthrough came in October when Qatars under-19 team beat China, Myanmar and finally North Korea to become Asian champions, qualifying them for the under-20s World Cup next year in New Zealand.All the players are Aspire products and, Bravo said, none were naturalized, puncturing what he insisted are mistaken outside perceptions that Qatar is naturalizing guys, left and right and ... shopping around the world for players.There you have the proof of what we are trying to do, he said, which is to do this with the local players, because that is what this country wants.Its amazing, acknowledged Qatars sports minister, Salah bin Ghanem bin Nasser al-Ali, in an AP interview. We are the least populated nation in Asia but we won. We are the champion of the most populated continent. Think about it.Qatars senior team also won the regional Gulf Cup in November, beating host Saudi Arabia — with a population more than 100 times greater — in the final. Such successes are ammunition against critics who argue that World Cup organizer FIFA should not have picked such a football minnow as host.Because its a small country they say, Why is the World Cup here? said Tareq Sulaiman, a midfielder on the championship-winning under-19 team. This is the chance for us to show them that Qatar will do something good.___Rob Harris can be followed at www.twitter.com/RobHarris and John Leicester at www.twitter.com/JohnLeicester Cheap Twins Jerseys Wholesale Royals Jerseys Cheap Tigers Jerseys Authentic Indians Jerseys Cheap White Sox Jerseys Discount Blue Jays Jerseys Wholesale Rays Jerseys Cheap Yankees Jerseys Discount Red Sox Jerseys Discount Orioles Jerseys Discount Astros Jerseys Cheap Angels Jerseys Cheap Athletics Jerseys Cheap Mariners Jerseys Rangers Jerseys From China Braves Jerseys Outlet Cheap Marlins Jerseys Wholesale Mets Jerseys Wholesale Phillies Jerseys Cheap Nationals Jerseys Cubs Jerseys From China Reds Jerseys From China Cheap Brewers Jerseys Wholesale Pirates Jerseys Cheap Cardinals Jerseys Cheap Diamondbacks Jerseys Authentic Rockies Jerseys Dodgers Jerseys From China Wholesale Padres Jerseys Giants Jerseys From China ' ' '