LEVERKUSEN, Germany -- Bayer Leverkusen fired Sami Hyypia as coach Saturday after an alarming mid-season slump and turned to the Finns former coaching partner Sascha Lewandowski to secure Champions League qualification. Tom Brady Jersey . The Bundesliga club said in a statement that the former Liverpool defender Hyypia was being released "with immediate effect" following Fridays 2-1 loss at relegation-threatened Hamburger SV. Lewandowski stepped back to resume coaching Leverkusens youth side after securing Champions League qualification with Hyypia last season. He has been charged with securing at least fourth place in the Bundesliga to repeat the feat this time around. "He helped us out in a critical situation once before when he worked alongside Sami Hyypia following the release of Robin Dutt," Leverkusen sporting director Rudi Voeller said. "Were firmly convinced he will succeed again." Leverkusen previously drew with bottom side Eintracht Braunschweig and is in danger of losing fourth place, with both Wolfsburg and Borussia Moenchengladbach in a position to overtake on Saturday. "This decision was more than difficult because Sami did a brilliant job over the last two years," Voeller said. Leverkusen was second at one point in the Bundesliga but had a severe change in fortune after the winter break with only three wins from 12 league games this year. It has also endured humiliating losses to Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League and second-division Kaiserslautern in the German Cup. "What he and his coaching staff achieved with the team in the first half of the season was well beyond expectations and earned him praise from all sides," Voeller said. "Thats why the current slump is even more painful for us. The dramatic events of the last few weeks leave us no other choice but to bring about a separation. We want to and have to try everything to save the season." Assistant coach Jan-Moritz Lichte was also released. "Its not an easy situation for me now to take Samis place," Lewandowski said. "We had responsibility for this team together for more than a year. So you cant take over without regret that the former partner couldnt realize his dreams." Kicker magazine said that Thomas Schaaf (former Werder Bremen coach), Markus Weinzierl (Augsburg), Armin Veh (Eintracht Frankfurt) and Jos Luhukay (Hertha Berlin) are all possible candidates to take over from next season. Hyypia is the seventh coach to lose his job in the Bundesliga this season, following the dismissals of Bruno Labbadia and his successor Thomas Schneider at Stuttgart, Thorsten Fink and his successor Bert van Marwijk at Hamburger SV, Michael Wiesinger at Nuremberg and Mirko Slomka at Hannover. Rob Gronkowski Youth Jersey . Marc-Andre Fleury made 27 saves to backstop the Penguins to a 2-1 victory over the Flames, handing Calgary its team record sixth consecutive home regulation loss. Kevin Faulk Patriots Jersey . Groves signed with Cleveland as an unrestricted free agent last year after a season with Arizona. He was in the linebacker rotation and had a sack in the season opener against Miami. https://www.patriotssportsgoods.com/Womens-Drew-Bledsoe-Inverted-Jersey/ . And I wanted to take this opportunity to share some of my experiences gained through International competition and the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan. Seven NHL referees and six linesmen will be assigned upcoming games in Sochi by the IIHF as part of their 28-man officiating roster comprised of 14 refs and 14 linesmen. BUDAPEST, Hungary -- Threats to a string of European Olympic offices are reviving a question that has haunted preparations for the Winter Games next month: Is it safe to go to Sochi? European Olympic authorities, whose countries have faced terrorist threats and attacks in the past, largely shrugged off the new menacing messages as a hoax, a marginal phenomenon that security experts say is common ahead of big events. Some members of the U.S. Congress arent so sure. They say Russia isnt doing enough to assure that athletes will be protected at the Feb. 7-23 games, happening not far from an Islamic insurgency that Russias huge security apparatus has struggled for two decades to quell. Russia may run greater risks in towns outside the tightly controlled Olympic zone. Suicide bombs last month a few hundred kilometres (miles) away have increased concerns, and an Islamic warlord has urged his followers to attack the Sochi Olympics, Russian President Vladimir Putins pet project. The threats reported Wednesday appeared to be more anodyne. They were first revealed by Hungarian sports officials, who announced they had received an email in Russian and English threatening Hungarian athletes with terrorist attacks. The International Olympic Committee insisted it takes credible threats seriously, but "in this case it seems like the email sent to the Hungarian Olympic Committee contains no threat and appears to be a random message from a member of the public." International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach said he remains confident in Russias Olympic organizers. Talking to reporters in Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday, he said: "Security is always a matter of concern, not only in the Olympic Games but at every big event, whether its sport or any other. That is unfortunately the world we are living in. "But we are very confident and we know the Russian authorities together with their many partners internationally are doing everything to organize the games in a safe and secure way." The Hungarian Olympic Committee said it had received a message from the organizers of the Sochi Games saying: "Threat described in the email sent to your address is not real." It turned out that Olympic committees from several other European countries, including Britain, Germany, Italy and Austria, had received similar messages but hadnt publicly reported them. The Canadian Olympic Committee would not say whether it had received a similar message. However, the COC did release a statement later Wednesday. "The safety of our entire Canadian Olympic team including our athletes, coaches, support team and volunteers is always our main priority," the statement said. "We have the utmost confidence that the International Olympic Committee and the Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee will deliver outstanding Olympic Winter Games. "The Canadian Olympic Committee has and continues to work very closely with government and security forces in Canada as a cornerstone of our preparation for Sochi 2014. This preparation extends to a close collaboration with the Organizing Committee in Sochi and the host nationn, Russia, who are responsible for all security matters relating to Sochi 2014. Tom Brady Womens Jersey. . As with other Olympic Games, our safety and security measures are always adapted to each environment." Wolfgang Eichler, spokesman for the Austrian National Olympic Committee, said the email was a hoax that officials had seen before. "Its a fake mail from a sender in Israel who has been active with various threats for a few years," Eichler told Austrian news agency APA. "Its been checked out because it also arrived two years ago." Germanys national Olympic association, the DOSB, also said it had received "several times the same mail with unspecific, general warnings" and it had sent it onto security officials. "We are not aware of any threats that have been deemed as credible being directed toward our delegation," British Olympic Association spokesman Darryl Seibel told the AP. "Organizations such as ours receive email correspondence all the time -- some of which seem to lack in credibility." A spokeswoman for Switzerlands Olympic committee said similar threats were common so close to the Winter Games and athletes and officials would base their travel plans instead on the assessment of security officials -- not on threats. Across the Atlantic, some are viewing the Sochi Games with more trepidation. Members of Congress expressed serious concerns Sunday about the safety of Americans at next months Olympics in Russia and said Moscow needs to co-operate more. While FBI Director James Comey said earlier in January that the Russian government "understands the threat and is devoting the resources to address it," the U.S. has offered air and naval support to the Russian government as it conducts security preparations for the Olympics. The U.S. State Department has advised Americans at the Olympics to keep vigilant about security because of potential terrorist threats, crime and uncertain medical care. By contrast, the French Foreign Ministry for example has not issued any particular terrorism warnings for travellers to Sochi, and a French official said Wednesday that the government has seen no reason to adapt its advice for now. All national Olympic committees "take security seriously and a number travel with their own security. It is not unusual to see the USA expressing greater concerns than other nations," said Andrew Amery, who oversaw security for the 2012 London Olympics, noting that the U.S. sends one of the largest teams and many of the top sponsors are American companies. Amery said intelligence services will be crucial to the games. "It is not unusual to see an increase in hoax calls during the build up to such events and the security agencies will be prepared for them. I do not feel this increases the risks in Sochi and am confident that the security agencies are well-placed to assess these threats." Russia has responded to the Islamic threat by introducing some of the most sweeping security measures ever seen at an international sports event, including an estimated 100,000 police, army and other security forces. ' ' '