Monterrey, Veracruz in Good Shape
Monterrey and Veracruz have the upper hand going into Saturday’s decisive second-leg games in the Mexican league championship semifinals.
Two goals by Guillermo Franco, both on headers off corner kicks, and one each by Jesus Arellano and Omar Avilan earned Monterrey an impressive 4-1 victory Wednesday over Universidad de Nuevo Leon in the first game of the series in front of 43,000 at Monterrey.
Brazilian striker Kleber scored the opening goal for UNL, but Monterrey then took charge.
In the first game of the other semifinal series, Veracruz edged Morelia, 1-0, at home on a goal by Uruguayan forward Martin Rodriguez, but now faces a tricky away game at favored Morelia.
World Cup 2010
Morocco, one of six African nations bidding to stage the World Cup in 2010, received some welcome support from a European neighbor Thursday when Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar gave it his country’s backing.
“Spain supports and will support actively the Moroccan candidacy,” Aznar said in Madrid.
Egypt, Libya, Nigeria, South Africa and Tunisia also are seeking to stage the quadrennial world championship.
Pellerud Pact
The contract of Even Pellerud, coach of the Canadian women’s national team since 1999, has been extended through the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China.
Under Pellerud, Canada qualified for this summer’s Women’s World Cup and also finished second behind the United States in the first FIFA Under-19 Women’s World Championship in Canada last year. Pellerud had previously coached Norway to victory at the 1995 Women’s World Cup in Sweden. The Canadian Soccer Assn. (CSA) also announced that Canada would travel to Mexico for two games against Coach Leonardo Cuellar’s team June 12 and 15. Mexico still has a World Cup qualifying playoff ahead of it against an undetermined Asian opponent.
Brazilian Move
Livingston of the Scottish Premier League created a bit of history Thursday when it named Marcio Maximo Barcellos its new coach.
Barcellos, who has coached Brazil’s youth national teams and has also served as coach of the Cayman Islands national team, became the first Brazilian to coach a British team.
Quick Passes
New York/New Jersey MetroStar forward John Wolyniec was fined $500 and suspended for two games by Major League Soccer after the league’s Disciplinary Committee ruled that he had elbowed Columbus Crew defender Chad McCarty in the head, causing a concussion, during an off-the-ball incident in their game May 31.
Two-time World Cup-winner Franz Beckenbauer of Germany said he had no ambition to succeed Joseph “Sepp” Blatter as FIFA’s president. “There are other interesting jobs,” Beckenbauer, 57, said in Munich, where he hinted that he might resign as president of German champion Bayern Munich to concentrate on his job as head of Germany’s World Cup 2006 Organizing Committee.
Manchester United has agreed to sign Brazilian forward Ronaldinho from Paris Saint-Germain for $14.7 million, English newspapers reported, but the 2002 World Cup winner has yet to sign a five-year contract that would earn him a reported $5.24 million a year.
Phillipe Troussier, the Frenchman who coached Japan to the second round of last year’s World Cup and who previously coached Nigeria and South Africa, is being sought as coach by both Qatar and Iran, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) reported on its Web site.
Qualifying for the 2004 European Championship in Portugal resumes with 19 games set for Saturday and another 18 on Wednesday.
