Canada Is in Market for Coach

Holger Osiek, the German coach under whom Canada won its first and only international title -- the CONCACAF Gold Cup in 2000 -- resigned Tuesday to pursue other interests.

During Osiek’s five years in charge, Canada compiled a 20-17-9 record, beating Colombia in the 2000 Gold Cup final and losing to the United States in the 2002 semifinals.

The CSA said assistant Colin Miller would be the national team’s interim coach while Canada sought a successor to Osiek.

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Barthez’s Future

Having lost his starting spot at Manchester United to American Tim Howard, Fabian Barthez might halfway have expected to be replaced as France’s first-choice goalkeeper too.

But France Coach Jacques Santini has reassured Barthez that his job is safe.

“He remains No. 1 in that position in the national team,” Santini told reporters at the French team’s training camp in Clairefontaine, France.

Meanwhile Barthez, 32, told the French daily L’Equipe that he wanted to stay with the English Premier League champion for the remainder of his contract and would try to win back his starting place from Howard.

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Real Escapes

Real Madrid narrowly avoided its first defeat of the Spanish season when it was held to a 1-1 tie on the road by Villareal.

Only a headed goal by Real Madrid defender Antonio Nunez off a David Beckham corner kick with five minutes left in the match kept Real unbeaten.

Beckham suffered a slight groin strain, further adding to the worries of England Coach Sven Goran Eriksson, who already is without the injured Paul Scholes, Steven Gerard and Trevor Sinclair for Saturday’s Euro 2004 qualifying game at Macedonia.

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Makelele Speaks Out

Having finally completed his $26.3-million transfer from Real Madrid to Chelsea, French international Claude Makelele lashed out at his former club.

“There were certain things I could no longer put up with, I could no longer play under those conditions,” he told L’Equipe.

“Real acted very strangely toward me.”

Makelele’s concerns had mostly to do with being paid less than Zinedine Zidane, Luis Figo, Raul and others, but even so, he let Madrid keep his 15% of the transfer fee, or $3.95 million, in order to get away.

“Honestly, with all the money I helped this club [Real Madrid] to make, they could at least pay me what they owed,” he said.

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Times wire services contributed to this report.