Win Moves Arsenal Closer to a Milestone
Arsenal stepped onto the threshold of history Sunday when it defeated Sheffield United, 1-0, to reach the English Football Assn. Cup final.
Arsenal is the Cup holder. If it beats Southampton in the May 17 final at Cardiff, Wales, and retains the English Premier League championship it won last season, Arsenal will become the first team in the 131-year history of English soccer to win both trophies two years in a row.
But two formidable obstacles stand in its way of a “double double.”
One is Southampton, which beat Watford, 2-1, in Sunday’s other semifinal to reach the FA Cup final for the first time since 1976.
The other is Manchester United, which thrashed Newcastle United, 6-2, Saturday to move three points clear of Arsenal at the head of the English standings. The teams meet Wednesday at Highbury, after which Arsenal could be back in a tie for first place or trailing United by six points with only a handful of games to play.
“We’re set up nicely now and have got to the position I hoped we would get to some months ago,” said Manchester United Coach Alex Ferguson. “I think we have given ourselves a genuine chance” of beating Arsenal to the title.
Arsenal Coach Arsene Wenger dismissed Ferguson’s comments as irrelevant.
“What is important is not what people say, but the result in the end,” he said. “Let’s focus on how good we are and how good we can be, and let other people do the talking. Maybe [Ferguson] is a little nervous, but you can understand that.”
Arsenal won Sunday on a disputed goal by Swedish midfielder Freddie Ljungberg that was scored in the 35th minute while Sheffield United forward Wayne Allison was lying injured at the other end of the field.
Goalkeeper David Seaman, playing in his 1,000th match, preserved the victory for Arsenal with a stupendous save off a close-range header by Sheffield’s Paul Peschisolido six minutes from the final whistle.
Mexico Tops Jamaica
Second-half goals by Emilio Navarro and Pedro Vazquez earned Mexico a 2-0 victory over Jamaica at Kingston on Sunday in the first of two playoff games for a place in the FIFA Under-17 world championship in August at Finland.
The United States and Costa Rica already have qualified from the CONCACAF region, and Mexico is poised to join them.
Its second match against Jamaica is April 27 at Mexico City.
Iran Advances
Iran has moved into the second round of Asian regional qualifying for the 2004 Athens Olympic Games without playing a game. The Maldives, Iran’s first-round opponent in a home-and-home series, refused to travel to Iran for the first game last week because of security fears spurred by the war in neighboring Iraq. Iran was awarded the victory on walkover.
Schmeichel to Retire
Peter Schmeichel, the giant goalkeeper who led Denmark to its 1992 European Championship triumph and won the European Champions League, five English Premier League titles, three FA Cups and an English League Cup with Manchester United, will retire at the end of this season.
“My body is not happy anymore,” Schmeichel, 39, told England’s Sunday Times. “I always promised I’d move on when this moment arrived. It’s time to end my playing career.”
After leaving United in 1999, Schmeichel played for Sporting Lisbon in Portugal and then moved back to England with Manchester City, his current team.
“There is a time to let go, to get on with my life,” he said. “It’s over.”
Mexican Roundup
The Tecos of UAG ended a 13-game winless streak Saturday when they defeated defending champion Toluca, 3-0, in the Mexican league season’s 14th round of play. Goals by Alfredo Castillo, Patricio Camps and Gandhi Vega earned UAG its first win of the season.
Guadalajara’s other team, Chivas, tied the Pumas of UNAM, 1-1, Sunday in Mexico City, where both goals came in the final five minutes. Jaime Lozano gave Pumas the lead in the 85th minute with a shot that caromed in off the post, but a last-minute header by Jair Garcia earned Chivas a share of the points.
Elsewhere, overall leader Atlante was upset, 1-0, by Santos Laguna, which got a goal from Denis Caniza. Necaxa twice came from behind to earn a 2-2 with Colibries.
