Chivas Can’t Deny Club America
Mexico national team goalkeeper Oswaldo Sanchez played one of the games of his life Sunday, making a series of spectacular saves, but he was unable to prevent defending Mexican league champion Club America of Mexico City from defeating Chivas of Guadalajara, 1-0, at a packed Jalisco Stadium in Guadalajara.
Sanchez’s most stunning save came when he threw himself to his right and batted away a penalty kick by Club America’s Chilean striker, Ivan “Bam Bam” Zamorano, in the 24th minute.
World Cup referee Felipe Ramos Rizo awarded the controversial kick when Cuauhtemoc Blanco fired a shot that struck a defender on the arm as he lunged to tackle Blanco. Chivas protested the call in vain, but Sanchez defused the situation with his save.
He also denied Christian Patino when the forward broke through one-on-one, diving at his feet and snatching the ball away and made several other exceptional saves against Blanco and Patino. Other shots flew barely high or wide.
With a 0-0 tie looking inevitable, Club America Coach Mario Carrillo sent forward Marcelo Lipatin into the game in place of Zamorano in the 82nd minute. Within seconds, Lipatin scored, taking a through pass that eluded the error-prone Chivas defense and using the outside of his left foot to chip the ball over the on-rushing Sanchez and into the open net.
Ramon Ramirez was Guadalajara’s lone scoring threat, with Ramon Morales and Omar Bravo looking dangerous occasionally, but Club America’s season-opening victory was well deserved.
The game, regarded as the classic in Mexican soccer, was the 168th between the teams, with Club America holding the all-time edge, 63-56-49.
Meanwhile, the Guadalajara club is the target of an audacious bid by Mexican businessman Jorge Vergara Madrigal, who has offered to buy the team for $80 million from its current 196 owners and build it a state-of-the-art 100,000-seat stadium.
Jalisco Stadium was site of historic World Cup games in 1970, when England’s Gordon Banks made what is regarded as the best save of all time, against Pele, and in 1986, when France edged Brazil on penalty kicks in a memorable quarterfinal.
But Vergara has called the stadium “obsolete in every area” and has said that he is “sure that by next May I’ll be the owner of Chivas.”
O’Brien Wins With Ajax
United States World Cup midfielder John O’Brien, who won the Dutch league championship and the Dutch Cup last season with Ajax Amsterdam, Sunday completed a trio of titles when he helped Ajax defeat PSV Eindhoven, 3-1, to win the Dutch SuperCup in front of 40,000 at Amsterdam.
The game marked the debut of PSV’s new coach, Guus Hiddink, who led South Korea to fourth place in the World Cup.
Silva Leads Arsenal
Gilberto Silva, who won the World Cup with Brazil in June before joining defending English league champion and F.A. Cup winner Arsenal from Atletico Mineiro two weeks ago, Sunday earned his new team its first honor of the season.
Silva’s 69th-minute goal gave Arsenal a 1-0 victory over Liverpool in front of 67,337 at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, Wales, in the Community Shield, the traditional curtain-raiser for the English season, which begins Saturday.
The match pitted Arsenal’s Senegalese-born captain, Patrick Vieira, against Liverpool’s new Senegalese acquisition, striker El Hadji Diouf, for the first time since the World Cup opening game, in which Diouf’s Senegal upset Vieira’s France, 1-0, in Seoul.
Vieira brought Diouf crashing to the turf three minutes after Silva’s goal, but no penalty was called by referee Alan Wiley, angering Liverpool’s Michael Owen, a standout for England’s World Cup team.
“It was a penalty,” Owen said. “Just because he [Diouf] made a meal of it, doesn’t mean it wasn’t a foul.”
Arsenal was the better team, however, and might have won by a larger margin but for several spectacular saves by Liverpool’s Poland national team goalkeeper Jerzy Dudek.
Arsenal Coach Arsene Wenger called Silva “a bright, intelligent boy” who “was maybe a little surprised by the physical side of the fight” but said he would quickly adapt to the more rugged English style.
Wenger revealed Saturday that he had been offered the chance to take over as coach of former world champion France but had declined.
“I never considered taking the job,” he said. “I want to be successful again this season because I have worked hard to put this team together.”
Ferdinand Injured
Rio Ferdinand, the world’s most expensive defender who joined Manchester United on July 21 in a $47-million transfer deal, will miss the team’s first European Champions League qualifying match on Wednesday and the start of the English Premier League season on Saturday after spraining an ankle.
The injury occurred in Manchester on Saturday during United’s 2-0 victory over Boca Juniors of Argentina in a benefit game for UNICEF, the United Nations’ children’s fund. Dutch striker Ruud van Nistelrooy scored both goals in the match, which turned ugly in the second half and saw Boca’s Carlos Tevez ejected.
China on the Rise
China might not have had the best of World Cup debuts, losing all three of its games, but 21-year-old Chinese striker Qu Bo did enough during a two-week trial with Tottenham Hotspur to earn a roster spot with the club.
Coach Glenn Hoddle Sunday acquired the forward from his Chinese club, Quingdo Yizhong, for $3 million, subject to Qu getting a work permit to play in the English Premier League. Spurs also is chasing Spanish striker Fernando Morientes, but Real Madrid wants nearly $30 million for him.
Also joining new clubs were free agents Valery Karpin, the Russian national team midfielder who returned to his former Spanish team, Real Sociedad, and Australia national team captain Paul Okon, who joined Leeds United in England.
Ivory Coast national team defender Cyril Domoraud was sent on a one-year loan from AC Milan in Italy to Espanyol in Spain.
