Adu Scores Three Goals for U.S. at FIFA Worlds

Ghanaian-born Freddy Adu scored a hat trick Thursday as the United States under-17 national team rolled over South Korea, 6-1, at Lahti, Finland, in the opening game of the FIFA Under-17 World Championship.

Adu, 14, scored the tying goal five minutes after the Koreans had unexpectedly taken the lead on an 11th-minute own goal by U.S. defender Brandon Owens, then added two more late in the match as the Americans scored four times in the second half.

“We played much better in the second half and the guys up front did an excellent job of finishing today,” said U.S. Coach John Ellinger. “Now we need to get the intensity up and get ready for our next match against a tough Sierra Leone side [on Sunday].”

Besides Adu’s three goals -- the first after a remarkable half-field run through five Korean players -- the U.S. got scoring from Owens, Jamie Watson and Steve Curfman.

The six goals and the five-goal victory margin were both records for the U.S., which finished fourth in the same tournament in New Zealand in 1999, when its stars were Landon Donovan and DaMarcus Beasley.

In other games Thursday, Spain tied Sierra Leone, 3-3, at Lahti, with Samuel Barlay scoring all three Sierra Leone goals, and at Tampere, Finland, Portugal defeated Yemen, 4-3, and Brazil tied Cameroon, 1-1.

Trinidad Arrests

Police in Trinidad have arrested two men in connection with the stabbing death Saturday of Trinidad and Tobago’s under-20 international player Dwight Lewis, 18, who was killed after an argument over a spilled beer.

No charges were immediately filed against the two men. The two unidentified men were captured at a road block in the town of Valencia, Trinidad. Hundreds attended Lewis’ funeral at Port of Spain Thursday just hours before the arrests were made.

*

Makalele On Strike

Chelsea’s $14.5-million bid to acquire French midfielder Claude Makalele from Real Madrid ran into problems when the Spanish club broke off talks with Chelsea after Makalele went on strike.

The 30-year-old starting defensive midfielder has refused to train with Real for the past two days, citing unhappiness over his salary, which is said to be three to five times less than that of such teammates as David Beckham and Luis Figo.

Real has fined Makalele $160,000 and has canceled a planned meeting with Chelsea set for Monday.

“At the moment, it’s not in my head to train, or do anything like that,” Makalele said.

*

Enke Walks Out

German goalkeeper Robert Enke, who was given the unenviable task of replacing Turkish 2002 World Cup star Rustu Recber as Fenerbahce’s starter, walked out on the Turkish club after only one game, a 3-0 loss that brought intense criticism from Fenerbahce fans and led to Enke’s one-year loan deal from Barcelona being canceled.

Fenerbahce Coach Chistophe Daum said Enke “didn’t fit in” with the team and probably would return to Barcelona as a back-up to Recber.

*

Quick Passes

Two days after being signed by Manchester United for $19.7 million, forward Cristiano Ronaldo, 18, was selected by Portugal Coach Luiz Felipe Scolari for next week’s friendly against Kazakhstan.... Germany’s latest star-in-the-making, Bayern Munich midfielder Sebastian Deisler, was omitted from the Germany team that will play Italy in Stuttgart on Wednesday.

Times wire services contributed to this report.