Columbus advances
Brad Evans and Robbie Rogers scored to give the Columbus Crew a 2-0 win over the Kansas City Wizards on Saturday night at Columbus, Ohio, and a place in the MLS Cup semifinals.
The teams tied, 1-1, in the first leg of the two-game quarterfinal Nov. 1 in Kansas City, giving Columbus a 3-1 aggregate victory. The Crew will play its semifinal match at home against the Chicago Fire on Thursday.
Evans’ goal came in the seventh minute after Crew midfielder Brian Carroll lobbed a long pass over the Kansas City defensive line and into Evans’ path. He then chipped the ball over Wizards goalkeeper Kevin Hartman, who had rushed off his line in an effort to reduce Evans’ shooting angle.
Rogers doubled the Crew’s lead in the 57th minute, after pretty passes from Alejandro Moreno and Guillermo Barros Schelotto inside the Wizards’ penalty area gave Rogers space for a left-footed shot that beat Hartman.
Keane leads Liverpool
Liverpool and Arsenal returned to winning ways to assert their Premier League title credentials, and Hull lost its third straight match after an impressive start to its debut campaign in the top flight.
Robbie Keane scored his first two league goals since joining Liverpool in the off-season in a 3-0 victory over West Bromwich Albion.
Samir Nasri also had a double, leading Arsenal to a 2-1 victory over defending champion Manchester United and easing the pressure on Manager Arsene Wenger by stopping a three-match winless streak in all competitions.
Liverpool leads the standings by three points over Chelsea, which is at Blackburn today.
Bolton topped Hull, 1-0, on Matt Taylor’s 50th-minute goal, and Portsmouth won for the first time since Tony Adams replaced Harry Redknapp two weeks ago. Jermain Defoe converted a 90th-minute penalty to beat Sunderland, 2-1.
Higuain scores four goals
Gonzalo Higuain scored four goals to give 10-man Real Madrid a 4-3 victory over Malaga in the Spanish league.
Real Madrid had defender Sergio Ramos sent off just before halftime.
Higuain, who was replacing injured Ruud van Nistelrooy, tied the score in the eighth, 37th and 71st minutes before scoring the winning goal in the 78th to take his season total to nine goals.
Van Nistelrooy reportedly could be sidelined until January because of a right knee injury.
U.S. women win exhibition
Heather O’Reilly scored in the 72nd minute and the U.S. women’s team beat South Korea, 1-0, in an exhibition match at Tampa, Fla.
The U.S improved to 31-1-2 this year. The team’s only loss came in the opening match of the Summer Games to Norway.
