Atlante’s Rey Rules the Day
Necaxa, which swept the Galaxy in a two-game CONCACAF Champions Cup quarterfinal series, was brushed aside by Atlante, 4-1, Sunday as Colombian forward Gabriel Rey scored two goals to spark the victory.
Atlante shares the overall lead in the Mexican league with Morelia, which routed Santos Laguna, 4-0, Saturday in the 14th round of league play. Each team has 28 points.
Chilean striker Sebastian Gonzalez scored Atlante’s first goal, increasing his league-leading total to 16 goals. Gonzalez has scored one more than last season’s top scorer, Paraguayan forward Jose Cardozo, who had two more for Toluca on Saturday in a 3-1 victory over UNL.
Morelia, which last week knocked the Columbus Crew out of the Champions Cup, got two goals each from Reinaldo Navia and Adolfo Bautista to briefly take the league lead before Atlante pulled level Sunday.
Tea Fells Two
Two Paraguayan players have been banned from international competition for six months or six games, whichever comes first, after failing a drug test, allegedly as the result of tea they drank to alleviate the effects of playing at high altitude.
Jorge Valdez and Derlis Gomez, both from Paraguay’s 12 de Octubre club, said they drank the tea, made from coca leaves, before a Copa Libertadores match against El Nacional at Quito, Ecuador, on March 19.
Coca tea is legal and is widely used in the Andes, but it caused Valdez and Gomez to fail post-match drug tests.
The players said they would appeal the ban imposed by CONMEBOL, South America’s soccer confederation.
Rangers Chase Treble
Rangers are poised to win the elusive treble after a 4-3 come-from-behind victory Saturday in the semifinals of the Scottish Cup.
Coach Alex McLeish’s team already has won the Scottish League Cup and leads the Scottish Premier League by a comfortable margin over Celtic.
In the Scottish Cup final, Rangers will play Dundee, which defeated Inverness, 1-0, Sunday to book its place in the May 31 final.
That Germany Job
Bayern Munich Coach Ottmar Hitzfeld, under contract with the German league leader through 2005, told Germany’s Welt am Sonntag newspaper Sunday that he might like to coach the national team, perhaps after the 2006 World Cup.
“I wouldn’t want to rule that out even though it’s not an issue at the moment,” Hitzfeld said. “What’s clear for me right now is that when I leave Bayern I’d like to take a year off and do something else other than train a team. I want to keep everything open.”
Quick Passes
England international Joe Cole, 21, faces possible criminal charges after the West Ham United captain allegedly punched Bolton Wanderers’ French defender Bernard Mendy after Bolton’s 1-0 victory over West Ham on Saturday. The loss increased the likelihood of West Ham being relegated from the English Premier League.... Argentina’s Gustavo Costas was appointed coach of Peruvian league-leader Alianza Lima, becoming the team’s third coach in seven months after the dismissal of Colombia’s Jose “Cheche” Torres last week, when Alianza was ousted from the Copa Libertadores, and the earlier resignation of Franco Navarro.
