Chelsea, Rangers Ousted From UEFA Cup Field
Most of the leading clubs competing in the UEFA Cup survived completion of the first round Thursday, but two big-name teams, Chelsea of England and Rangers of Scotland, crashed out in spectacular fashion.
Chelsea fell at the first hurdle for the third season in a row when it was beaten, 4-2, by unheralded Viking Stavanger of Norway, thereby losing the two-game series, 5-4, on aggregate.
Erik Neyland scored twice for the Norwegian team at home, including the decisive goal in the 87th minute.
“We played brilliantly,” Neyland told Reuters. “We are so happy. It’s always difficult to play away in the UEFA Cup against any team, and we proved that today.”
Rangers, the Scottish Premier League leader, defeated Viktoria Zizkov of the Czech Republic, 3-1 in overtime, in Glasgow, but the visiting team had won the first game, 2-0, in Prague and its lone goal Thursday--by Marcel Licka in the 100th minute--was enough to see it advance on the away goals rule.
Rangers Coach Alex McLeish said the 2-0 loss at Prague had been the telling blow. In 46 years of European competition, Rangers have never overcome a two-goal deficit.
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Llamosa Suspended
New England Revolution and U.S. World Cup defender Carlos Llamosa was suspended from Saturday’s Major League Soccer playoff semifinal opener against the Columbus Crew and fined $1,000 by the league for arguing with game officials in an earlier playoff game against the Chicago Fire.
Llamosa had already been fined $500 and had served a one-game suspension before MLS on Thursday increased the penalty for what it called “prolonged and aggressive dissent.”
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Referee Ban Upheld
Byron Moreno, the Ecuadorean referee who was suspended for 20 games by the country’s soccer federation for mishandling a league game, has had his appeal against the ban rejected.
Moreno, whose controversial decisions during the South Korea-Italy match at the World Cup first brought him to international attention, unaccountably added 12 minutes of injury time to a game between Liga de Quito and visiting Barcelona, thereby giving the home team time to score twice and grab a 4-3 victory.
Barcelona complained, pointing out that Moreno was a candidate for a place on the Quito City Council and that he had allowed politics to interfere with his judgment.
The federation rejected Moreno’s claim that stoppages and time-wasting had been behind his decision to prolong the game.
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Brazil on the Road
World champion Brazil will travel to South Korea for a Nov. 20 game against the 2002 World Cup co-host, the Brazilian soccer federation announced in Rio de Janeiro.
Brazil holds a 2-1 all-time edge in games between the two countries.
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Asian Games
China, South Korea and Thailand advanced to the quarterfinals of the Asian Games on Thursday with victories in Busan, South Korea.
Coach Park Hang-Seo’s South Korea team shut out Malaysia, 4-0, to the delight of the “Red Devil” fans at the Masan Sports Complex. Two goals by Kim Eun-Jung and one apiece from Choi Tak-Uk and Lee Dong-Gook were enough to leave the Koreans unbeaten after three games.
China had a more difficult time but defeated India, 2-0, in a game between the world’s two most populous nations.
Thailand also reached the final eight by beating the United Arab Emirates, 3-1.
The other five quarterfinalists will be decided in games to be played Saturday.
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Bolivian Players Strike
The financially troubled Bolivian league suffered another blow Thursday when the players from Wilstermann went on strike and refused to travel to a game against Bolivar in La Paz, saying they had not been paid their June wages.
In addition, defender Jorge Zapata went on a brief hunger strike outside the headquarters of his former club, Oriente Petrolero, claiming the club owed him $3,000.
In an effort to survive, the Bolivian league earlier this year imposed a maximum wage of $1,500 a month for players and cut expenses by not allowing referees to travel to games outside their home towns.
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Israel Game Postponed
Israel’s Euro 2004 qualifying game against Cyprus scheduled for Oct. 16 was postponed until April 30 after UEFA, European soccer’s governing body, ruled that the security situation in the Middle East warranted such a move.
Unable to play its home games in Israel because of the ongoing unrest there, Israel had been trying to play them in Romania but had not reached an agreement to do so.
A UEFA statement said postponement was “a sensible solution” and was “necessary due to the lack of an acceptable solution to the need for matches to be played outside Israel because of safety and security concerns.”
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USA Opponents Set
If the United States wants to qualify for the FIFA World Youth Championship in the United Arab Emirates March 25-April 16, its under-20 national team first must get past Haiti, El Salvador and Canada.
Those are the American team’s three opponents in the CONCACAF qualifying tournament to be played Nov. 13-17 at Blackbaud Stadium in Charleston, S.C.
Coach Thomas Rongen’s team will open against Haiti on Nov. 13 and then plays El Salvador on Nov. 15 and Canada on Nov. 17. The top two teams advance to the world championship.
