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Arsenal defender Kolo Toure has told his team-mates to use the bitter memory of their embarrassing defeat by Hull to spark a backlash against Porto on Tuesday.

Arsene Wenger admitted he felt sick after watching Saturday’s shock 2-1 loss against the Premier League newcomers and the Gunners boss is threatening to make sweeping changes when Porto visit the Emirates Stadium.

But Toure believes Arsenal can go someway towards making amends if they defeat the Portuguese champions and the Ivory Coast international expects an immediate reaction in the Champions League tie.

“We can’t just think about Hull. It’s true we lost and didn’t play well,” he said.

“But we didn’t play very well against Fulham and then we came back well in the next game when we beat Twente in the Champions League (qualifiers).”

“For a team like Arsenal it’s always good to have a good reaction. Any team can fall down but it’s about how they react to defeat that matters.”

“This is a really good test and we will see if we can show another face.”

“We are lucky we can play a match so soon after that and change everything in the minds of our fans.”

“We want to show everyone we are still a good side. The manager, like everyone at the club, was very upset after Hull.”

“We’re professional and we know that when we play for Arsenal we can’t afford to lose like that.”

“The manager didn’t have to say anything to us but he still had a few words. Every player was very sad and disappointed. We need to show we have the character to win against a big team.”

Toure denied that complacency had contributed to Arsenal’s loss and he even claimed he was scared by the prospect of playing one of the Premier League’s minnows.

“I was scared to play the game. Sometimes people, not the players, play the game before it’s started and that’s a problem because there are no small teams in the Premiership,” Toure said.

“Against Man United everybody thinks it’s going to be a tight game but when you play against Hull it’s harder because you are expected to win and score in the first minute.”

The United States has been disqualified from its fourth-place finish in the Olympic team dressage event for a positive drug test.

The International Equestrian Federation says rider Courtney King’s horse Mythilus tested positive for a banned substance that is used as an anti-inflammatory pain reliever.

King’s teammates were Steffen Peters, riding Ravel, and Debbie McDonald on Brentina. King also loses her 13th place in the individual dressage. She received a one-month ban already served since she was suspended during the Beijing Games.

The penalties were imposed Monday after a Sept. 7 hearing.

St. Louis Blues defenseman Erik Johnson will miss the first three days of training camp because of a knee injury.

Team president John Davidson said Thursday that Johnson hurt his right knee in a non-hockey related incident.

Johnson will be re-evaluated over the weekend and his status will be updated before Tuesday’s preseason game with the Dallas Stars.

Johnson was the Blues’ first overall pick in 2006.

The NBA fined Miami Heat rookie Michael Beasley $50,000 on Thursday for his role in an incident at the Rookie Transition Program this month which resulted in the expulsion of Miami’s Mario Chalmers and Memphis’s Darrell Arthur.

Chalmers and Arthur were dismissed and fined $20,000 each after hotel security found two women in their rooms, a violation of program rules, and detected the smell of marijuana, the Miami Herald reported.

Beasley, the second overall draft pick this year, recently admitted to being in the room at some point with his two fellow rookies.

Because of his failure to co-operate with the original investigation, Beasley was fined more than twice the amount of Chalmers and Arthur, who will be forced to repeat the program next year.

Goal-shy Manchester United kicked off their Champions League title defence with a tepid 0-0 home draw against Villarreal in their opening Group E match on Wednesday.Former champions Juventus celebrated their return to Europe’s top flight with a 1-0 win over Zenit St Petersburg while Real Madrid strolled to a 2-0 home win over Belarus first-timers BATE Borisov.

It was the third barren stalemate in as many meetings between United and Villarreal after a couple in the 2005-06 group stage, in which United finished bottom of the group while Villareal reached the last four of the competition.

United carried their patchy Premier League form into the match, in which lack of bite up front reduced them to long range efforts from Nani and Carlos Tevez in the first half.

The champions were let off the hook on the hour when Guille Franco’s clever back-heel came off the inside of the post before they also hit the woodwork with a Johnny Evans header from a Cristiano Ronaldo cross.The Portuguese winger made his first appearance as a substitute after recovering from ankle surgery but overall United once again looked short of last season’s cutting edge.

“I think we were a bit short in terms of real sharpness and clinical finishing but games will bring us on and we will improve from tonight,” United manager Alex Ferguson said.

“We should have maybe won it with the chances we created but there were a lot of plus points for us. Players like Owen Hargreaves, Ji-Sung Park and Nani got their first games for us which will bring them on well.”

Alessandro Del Piero drove in a 76th-minute free kick to give Juventus, who were stripped of their Italian league title in 2006 and demoted to Serie B after a match-fixing scandal, victory against last season’s UEFA Cup winners.

SCHUSTER UNHAPPY

At the Bernabeu, Sergio Ramos gave Real an early lead and Ruud van Nistelrooy pounced in the second half to seal the match with his 54th goal in 69 Champions League appearances.

But Real’s German coach Bernd Schuster was not happy with his team’s performance. The nine-times winners of Europe’s premier club competition failed to take full advantage of the gulf in class.

“Seeing the start we made I expected us to score more goals so I am disappointed,” he said. “After our first goal we could see that BATE could not react and I didn’t like the way we eased off. You should ask…

the players why they did.”Real moved up a gear in the second half but missed several good chances. The visitors had defender Anri Khagush sent off for two bookable fouls.

A late goal from captain William Gallas earned Arsenal a 1-1 draw at Dynamo Kiev after Ismael Bangoura had fired the home side ahead with a 64th-minute penalty.

There was more drama when Olympique Lyon fought back from two goals down to salvage a 2-2 home draw with Fiorentina while Barry Robson missed a penalty for Celtic in their 0-0 home draw with Danish side Aalborg.

Melbourne Victory striker Ney Fabiano was suspended for nine matches by an A-League disciplinary panel Wednesday for spitting at an opponent. The Brazilian was given a red card in the first half of Melbourne’s 1-0 win over Adelaide United last Friday for spitting at Adelaide’s Robert Cornthwaite after the pair was involved in an on-field altercation.

The disciplinary committee ruled that the spitting offense was established and handed down an eight-match ban on top of the mandatory one-match suspension for the red card, the A-League said in a statement. Two weeks ago, Perth defender Dino Djulbic was given a five-match ban for spitting in the direction of an official.

Former Pakistan captain Rameez Raja has made a passionate appeal to his ex-skipper Imran Khan to quit politics and lead the country’s embattled Cricket set-up out of its current crisis.Rameez said Imran had the ability to head the Pakistan Cricket Board and put the game back on track. “You cannot find a better person to lead the cricket board. He can see us through this crisis. Pakistan cricket board is facing problems and Imran is the right man to lead it now,” he added.

Imran, since retiring from international cricket in 1992, has kept a distance from the game refusing lucrative and prestigious posts in the cricket set-up.

He has formed his political party, the Tehreek-e-Insaaf, and is now a mainstream politician.

Australian Cricketers Association (ACA) feels the security threat in India is not as alarming as Pakistan, but fears it will have to cope with a fair bit of criticism for going ahead with the tour.

Cricket Australia (CA) and ACA will meet government and independent security advisers Monday to discuss the Indian security situation following serial blasts in New Delhi, the venue for the third Test from Oct 29.

ACA chief executive Paul Marsh said he expected ‘heat’ if Australia toured India.

‘The threat assessment for India has been considerably lower than that of Pakistan,’ Marsh was quoted in Australian media.

‘I expect there will be heat if we decide to tour,’ Marsh said.

‘As much as it’s sometimes reported that we cancel series at the drop of a hat, that is simply not the case. We receive specific, expert advice from people who have served us well in the past and we will consult them again. I would not say there is panic among the players I have spoken to, but a degree of concern.

The Australians were criticised by several members of the Asian Cricket Council and commentators for postponing this year’s tour of Pakistan on security grounds and expressing concerns over the staging of the Champions Trophy which was eventually postponed.

Marsh insisted security assessments would be made impartially and not swayed by the lucrative nature of an Indian tour compared with Pakistan.

‘If the team stays in India, there might be some who criticise us for double standards. But people need to understand our starting point is that we always want to tour.’

‘We go to extreme lengths to obtain the best advice on the situation of each country we visit. In Pakistan’s case this year, people we rely on told us not to tour. If they say not to tour again, we’ll listen. Bombs going off anywhere are a concern.’

Australia’s high commissioner to India, John McCarthy has offered his assistance should the board need it. The Department of Foreign Affairs has not upgraded the travel warning to India but has referenced the Delhi bombings on its website.

‘We want to find out if the latest bombings will change that in any way and what our independent experts think about our Australia A players being over there at the moment. As always we’ll rely on the advice of the experts.’

Australia A team is touring India and their assessment of the situation will also be taken.

World number one Rafael Nadal battled his way into the US Open quarter-finals, outlasting 55th-ranked Sam Querrey 6-2, 5-7, 7-6 (7/2), 6-3 to match his best career showing at the Grand Slam event.

The reigning Wimbledon, French Open and Olympic champion is trying to become only the fourth man to win three Slam singles crowns in a row, joining Pete Sampras, Rod Laver and the man he dethroned atop the rankings, Roger Federer.

“Very tough,” Nadal said. “I’m very happy for the victory. Now I’m in my best round at the US Open and I hope to play better in the next round.”

But Nadal struggled Monday in the face of an epic effort from lanky US 20-year-old Querrey, who nearly made his fourth-round Slam debut a shocker for the ages and cast major doubt upon whether or not Nadal has what it takes to win a US Open.

“He had to earn that third set and fourth set,” Querrey said. “It’s nice to know he actually had to go out there and fight for it rather than me handing it to him.”

The 22-year-old Spanish left-hander bids for his first US Open semi-final against 35th-ranked American Mardy Fish, who matched his best Slam run from last year’s Australian Open by defeating France’s Gael Monfils 7-5, 6-2, 6-2.

“He’s a dangerous player. He’s playing very well,” Nadal said. “He’s playing with big confidence and I have to play very well if I want to win.”

The other quarter-final on Nadal’s side of the draw will send British sixth seed Andy Murray against the hottest player on tour, Argentina’s 19-year-old Juan Martin Del Potro.

The South American won his 23rd match in a row, beating Japan’s 18-year-old Kei Nishikori 6-3, 6-4, 6-3 to advance, while Scotsman Murray ousted a friend, Swiss 10th seed Stanislas Wawrinka, 6-1, 6-3, 6-3.

“It’s always tough playing against one of your friends,” Murray said. “But this is the quarter-finals of my favorite tournament and I had to put the friendship aside.”

Murray, who reached his first Slam quarter-final this year at Wimbledon, assured a rise to fifth in the world with the triumph. He beat Del Potro in May on Rome clay in their only prior meeting when his foe retired in the third set.

Querrey fired 20 aces and 52 winners at Nadal but made 50 unforced errors to fall short after three hours and 13 minutes at Arthur Ashe Stadium.

“At the start I was a little nervous but after an hour I was hiting my shots pretty good,” Querrey said. “I was just taking my forehand and trying to rip it as hard as I could. He’s just too good.”

Nadal broke Querrey in the third and seventh games to take the first set in 31 minutes, but in the second, Querrey answered a Nadal break in the seventh game by breaking at love with Nadal serving for the set to equalize at 5-5.

Querrey held and ripped a forehand cross-court winner to grab two break points on Nadal in the 12th game. Nadal netted a forehand on the next point and the fight was on.

“It was very difficult, especially after my big mistake in the second set,” Nadal said. “I was playing normal. Nothing special but nothing bad.”

Nadal broke to open the third set but Querrey answered in the eighth game, breaking back on Nadal’s fifth double fault to set up the pivotal tie-breaker.

Nadal jumped ahead 3-1 in the tie-break when Querrey sent a forehand wide, then won the final four points, three on errant shots by the American, to take the set, jumping for joy when a Querrey backhand went long to seal the set.

“I served very bad in the second set but the important thing was I played my best in the tie-breaker,” Nadal said.

Querrey, who won his first ATP title last March at Las Vegas, was down 4-2 when he forced seven break chances in the seventh game. But Nadal yanked each back from the brink, tension growing with every rescue until two errant Querrey forehands allowed Nadal to hold for 5-2 and he held again to end it.

“If I could have battled through that game and got back on serve, you never know,” Querrey said. “The longer the match went on the more free I was on my forehand. It was feeling good, especially in the fourth set.”

If Fish has anything to say about it, another battle awaits Nadal.

Fish, 26, was a runner-up last week at New Haven and beat then-number one Federer in March at Indian Wells. He said he was “absolutely” confident he could hurt Nadal.

“Confidence is a big thing. It comes back to wanting desperately to do well and do anything I can to win,” Fish said. “A guy with my style of play is someone he doesn’t want to see.

“Rafa is playing so well and so solid from the baseline and moves so well. You’ve got to be able to finish points quickly,” Fish said. “He can finish with anybody. He wants to run guys down. I don’t intend to let him do that.

“I’m going to come in - not necessarily kamakaze-type tennis, but I’m going to try to keep the points as short as possible.”

Defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic agreed to a four-year contract extension with the San Jose Sharks on Wednesday, keeping one of the club’s best young players with the Sharks through the 2012-13 season.

Vlasic had two goals and 12 assists while playing in all 82 regular-season games for the Sharks last season, just his second full NHL campaign. He was third on the Sharks with 85 blocked shots while playing more than 21 1/2 minutes per game.

Vlasic, who made the NHL’s all-rookie team after the 2006-07 season, will be a key part of the Sharks’ revamped defense under new coach Todd McLellan. San Jose acquired veteran defensemen Rob Blake, Dan Boyle and Brad Lukowich while jettisoning Craig Rivet and Matt Carle after the club lost in the second round of the playoffs for the third straight season.

“Marc-Edouard is one of the top young defenseman in the game, and we are excited to have him in the fold for the next several years,” Sharks general manager Doug Wilson said. “He has a tremendous future with this franchise, and we look forward to watching his continued development.”

Vlasic, who first made the Sharks’ roster as a 19-year-old in 2006, will make $735,000 next season.