Canada Beats Costa Rica in Gold Cup
Charmaine Hooper scored two goals and Christine Sinclair added a third Sunday as Canada shut out Costa Rica, 3-0, in the CONCACAF Women’s Gold Cup in front of 3,256 at Centennial Stadium in Victoria, Canada.
The victory, Canada’s third in a row in the eight-nation tournament, earned it first place in its group and set up a semifinal match Wednesday night against Mexico in Seattle.
The United States, also unbeaten, will play Costa Rica in the other semifinal earlier that evening.
Hooper put the Canadians ahead by firing a penalty kick into the lower right-hand corner of the net in the 28th minute after Silvana Burtini had been knocked down in the penalty area. Hooper doubled Canada’s lead three minutes before halftime by chipping a shot from 18 yards over the head of Costa Rican goalkeeper Marie Claire Herra.
The two goals gave Hooper, the Canadian captain, six for the tournament and a share of the scoring lead with Sinclair and U.S. forward Tiffeny Milbrett.
Sinclair reclaimed the top spot by scoring Canada’s third goal in the 49th minute, but although the Canadians outshot the Ticas, 17-2, they could not add to their total.
In the day’s earlier game, Haiti defeated Jamaica, 2-1.
Fire Coach Set
According to Soccer America magazine, Major League Soccer’s Chicago Fire today is expected to name Dave Sarachan as its new coach following the departure of Bob Bradley for the New York/New Jersey MetroStars.
Sarachan was an assistant to Bruce Arena on the U.S. team that reached the 2002 World Cup quarterfinals.
Victims Honored
In a gesture that typified the reaction of grief-stricken Italians in the wake of last week’s earthquake that killed 29, including 26 children, Francesco Totti, the captain of AS Roma, Sunday offered up for auction the uniform he had worn in Wednesday’s historic European Champions League victory over Real Madrid in Spain.
The crowd of 55,000 at the Olympic Stadium in Rome stayed silent for 10 minutes before the Roma-Perugia game, and similar silent tributes were paid at matches throughout Italy.
Arsenal Prevail
English champion Arsenal ended a four-game losing streak -- its longest in 19 years -- with a 1-0 victory over Fulham in an English Premier League game Sunday. An own goal by Fulham’s Steve Marlet off a corner kick by his France national team teammate, Arsenal winger Thierry Henry, made the difference.
More memorable than the victory, however, was the postgame comment of Fulham Coach Jean Tigana, a former World Cup midfielder for France, who is worried about injuries.
“I do not have a big squad and hope my players stay fit,” Tigana said. “In fact, I would prefer my wife to get injured instead of my players -- I can’t come out of retirement and play.”
100th Norwegian Cup
Striker Bjorn Arild Levernes scored an early goal for Valerenga and the Oslo-based club went on to win the 100th Norwegian Cup final, 1-0, over Odd Grenland in front of 25,000 fans Sunday at the national stadium in Oslo.
Littbarski Fired
Pierre Littbarski, a World Cup winner with Germany in 1990, was fired Sunday as coach of MSV Duisburg of the German second division after saying he would like to coach rival Union Berlin.
“This is no basis for a long-term collaboration,” said Walter Hellmich, Duisburg’s president. “He was a great player, but he still must prove himself as a coach.”
