U.S. Cruises Behind Boxx

Shannon Boxx of Redondo Beach scored three goals Wednesday afternoon and the United States women’s national team defeated Trinidad and Tobago, 7-0, in its first qualifying game for the Athens Olympics.

Mia Hamm had two goals and Kristine Lilly and Abby Wambach each scored once in the lopsided victory in front of 750 in Estadio Nacional at San Jose, Costa Rica.

The victory extended the Americans’ unbeaten streak against Central and North American and Caribbean (CONCACAF) region opponents to 15 games.

The U.S. scored six goals in a 23-minute span in the first half.

“We showed we could be dangerous from both flanks, from the run of play and from set pieces,” Coach April Heinrichs said, “so it becomes very difficult for a team to shut us down.

“It was a great start to the tournament for us.”

The only setback for the U.S. was the injury suffered by Leslie Osborne, who was out of the game for 20 minutes while taking six stitches above her left eye after a clash of heads with a Trinidad and Tobago player as both fought for the ball in the air.

The eight-nation, 10-day CONCACAF qualifying tournament began earlier in the day as Mexico beat Haiti, 5-0, behind three goals from Patricia Perez and two from Maribel Dominguez.

The tournament continues tonight when Canada plays Jamaica and Costa Rica plays Panama.

The tournament’s two finalists will qualify for Athens.

Galaxy Loses in France

Less than 24 hours after arriving in Europe, the Galaxy was beaten, 2-0, by French second-division leader AS Isteres on a wet and chilly afternoon in the Stade Municipal at Mallenort, France.

Former Austrian international Andreas Herzog and Brazilians Marcelo Saragosa and Flavio Costa made their Galaxy debuts as second-half substitutes. Herzog hit the post on a 90th-minute shot, just as Jovan Kirovski had done in the first half.

“It was a difficult task to get off a plane and try to play a game the next day,” Coach Sigi Schmid said. “Obviously, Isteres were a good opponent. They’re in the middle of their season and are sitting on top of the second division, so they’re a team that’s in good form.”

At La Manga, Spain, the Major League Soccer defending champion San Jose Earthquakes defeated Gif Sundsvall of Sweden, 3-1, in their opening game at the La Manga Cup, with Dwayne DeRosario, Jamil Walker and Landon Donovan scoring.

The New York/New Jersey MetroStars, competing in the same tournament, lost to Viking of Norway, 1-0.

Champions League

English champion Manchester United and Italian champion Juventus lost in the first knockout round of the European Champions League and face a tricky challenge in the second leg of the two-game series.

Manchester United was beaten, 2-1, by UEFA Cup holder and Portuguese champion FC Porto in Portugal in a game in which South African players scored all the goals.

Quinton Fortune gave United the lead after 14 minutes, but Benni McCarthy tied the match in the 29th minute and won it in the 78th in front of 49,977 at Porto.

Manchester United captain Roy Keane was red carded three minutes from the end for a foul on goalkeeper Vitor Baia and will sit out the return leg at Manchester on March 9.

Juventus was beaten, 1-0, in Spain by Deportivo La Coruna on a first-half goal by Albert Luque. French striker David Trezeguet of Juventus suffered a dislocated shoulder and will sit out the return game at Turin.

Chelsea left Germany with a 1-0 victory over Stuttgart, courtesy of an own goal by defender Fernando Meira, and Olympique Lyon escaped from Spain with similar good fortune, winning, 1-0, against Real Sociedad on an own goal by defender Gabriel Schurrer.

The loss ended Real Sociedad’s 26-game unbeaten streak in European competition.

F.A. Cup

Two overtime goals by Tommy Smith, the first in the 99th minute and the second in the 115th minute, earned Sunderland a 2-0 victory over Birmingham City and a place in the quarterfinals of the English F.A. Cup.

The teams had tied, 0-0, in the first game at Sunderland, forcing Wednesday’s replay at Birmingham.

Sunderland will play Sheffield United in the quarterfinals March 7.

Fire Bombing

A restaurant at Milan owned in part by Inter Milan and Italy national team striker Christian Vieri suffered fire damage after being targeted by a fire bomber, who left a message criticizing Vieri’s play.

“Vieri, the tolerance is over, you are not worthy of Inter,” read the message, which was released by police. “You don’t deserve the support of our city because you don’t care about our suffering and that we are disgraced by you. Now you start to pay.”

Inter Milan was beaten, 3-2, by rival and European champion AC Milan on Sunday.

Quick Passes

Americo Gallego, a defensive midfielder on Argentina’s 1978 World Cup-winning team, was appointed coach of his former club, Newell’s Old Boys. Gallego, who played for Newell’s from 1974 to 1981, replaced Hector “Bambino” Veira, who resigned two games into the new Argentine season, citing fan criticism for his decision.... Mkhanyiseli Siwahla entered the record books as the youngest player to appear in a South African professional match and the youngest to score a goal as he helped Cape Town Ajax to a 3-0 victory over Dynamos at age 15 years, 5 months and 22 days.