Toluca Title Courtesy of Cardozo
Paraguayan striker Jose Cardozo completed a magical season for Toluca by scoring the championship-winning goal as the Red Devils routed Morelia, 4-1, in the second leg of the Mexican league final to win their seventh title.
Cardozo’s strike brought his tally to a record 36 goals in 25 matches in a season in which, at one point, he scored in 15 consecutive games.
Morelia had won the first game of the two-game series, 1-0, at home Wednesday, ending Cardozo’s scoring streak, and the Monarcas increased their advantage Saturday when striker Adolfo Bautista scored in the first minute at Toluca to silence most of the 25,000 fans on hand.
But Toluca, attacking in numbers, first tied the game on a 32nd-minute goal by Salvador Carmona, then tied the aggregate score three minutes before halftime on an Israel Lopez goal.
Cardozo’s goal five minutes into the second half won the title, with Rafael Garcia adding the fourth in the 65th minute.
Toluca also won the championship in 1967, 1968, 1975 and, after Mexico switched to holding two championships a year, in 1998, 1999 and 2000.
China Gets Haan
Former Dutch World Cup midfielder Arie Haan, 54, was named China’s national team coach Sunday and said his aim is to duplicate the success of fellow Dutchman Guus Hiddink, who led South Korea to fourth place at the 2002 World Cup.
“I have a lot of confidence because otherwise I wouldn’t come to so big a country,” Haan said in Beijing. “Everybody was looking in Western Europe, especially Holland, at what a fine job he [Hiddink] was doing. I can only hope I do the same.”
Matthaeus Move
Lothar Matthaeus signed a contract to coach perennial Yugoslav power Partizan Belgrade, the league’s defending champion.
The defender, who was captain of Germany’s 1990 World Cup-winning team but has yet to prove himself as a coach, was given an 18-month contract worth more than $770,000, according to Germany’s Bild am Sonntag newspaper.
As he did when playing for the New York/New Jersey MetroStars during a brief and unimpressive stint in Major League Soccer, Matthaeus will be given a luxury car and an apartment as part of the contract.
He replaces Ljubisa Tumbakovic, who resigned Thursday after 10 seasons, during which Partizan won the league title six times and the Yugoslav Cup three times.
Sukur’s Bad Break
Turkish World Cup striker Hakan Sukur, who joined Blackburn Rovers only three weeks ago, broke his leg while training Saturday and as a result failed to make his English Premier League debut against Manchester United on Sunday.
As it was, U.S. goalkeeper Brad Friedel earned a shutout as Blackburn edged Manchester, 1-0, to end United’s eight-game winning streak.
Sukur, 31, will be sidelined for about eight weeks.
Bianchi’s Choice
Barcelona announced that Coach Louis Van Gaal would remain in charge of the team despite a series of poor results in Spanish league play, thereby paving the way for Carlos Bianchi to return as coach of Boca Juniors in Argentina.
Bianchi, who led Boca Juniors to three Argentine championships, the Copa Libertadores and the Toyota-Intercontinental Cup during his first spell at the club from 1998 to 2001, had been offered his old job on Saturday.
But the coach was reportedly waiting to see if an opening occurred at Barcelona, where Van Gaal was said to be on shaky ground. Barcelona’s announcement Sunday that “the coach stays and there are no changes at the club,” leaves Bianchi free to accept Boca’s offer, which he is expected to do today.
He would replace Oscar Washington Tabarez, under whom Boca Juniors finished second to Independiente in this season’s championship.
