Young Rooney Is a Hit for England
Wayne Rooney became the youngest goal scorer in European Championship history Thursday, scoring twice in a 3-0 victory over Switzerland at Coimbra, Portugal, that helped England recover from its jolting opening loss.
Rooney, 18, headed in a cross from Michael Owen in the 23rd minute after England was outplayed early. He scored a second goal with 15 minutes left. The ball struck the post so hard that it hit goalkeeper Joerg Stiel in the back before going into the net.
“Two beautiful goals, both of them,” England Coach Sven-Goran Eriksson said. “Fantastic.”
Steven Gerrard completed the scoring in the 82nd minute.
In another Group B game, France tied Croatia, 2-2, at Leiria and leads the group with four points. England has three points, Croatia two and Switzerland one.
The performance by England was critical after a 2-1 defeat to France on Sunday in which both French goals came during second-half injury time. England needed to win to contend for a spot in the quarterfinals.
Rooney is almost a year younger than the previous record-holder -- Dragan Stojkovic of Yugoslavia in 1984.
In the France-Croatia game, France’s David Trezeguet capitalized on an errant back pass from Croatia’s Igor Tudor and scored in the 64th minute to tie the score at 2-2. On the play, Croatian goalkeeper Tomislav Butina charged to the edge of the box, and his clearance appeared to strike Trezeguet’s hand.
France led, 1-0, at halftime after Tudor was charged with an own-goal off a curving free kick from Zinedine Zidane. The Croats rallied, scoring twice in four minutes early in the second half to take a 2-1 lead.
Croatia’s Milan Rapaic made a penalty kick in the 48th minute. Then Dado Prso beat Mikael Silvestre in the penalty area and shot around Marcel Desailly, who whiffed on a clearance try.
Totti Suspended
Italy’s star playmaker Francesco Totti received a three-match ban from UEFA for spitting in the face of Danish player Christian Poulsen during the teams’ Euro 2004 opener.
Italy has until midday today to appeal the decision. It still remained possible, albeit unlikely, that Totti would be allowed to play today in a key Group C match against Sweden.
William Gaillard, UEFA’s chief spokesman, said it all depended on whether the appeals commission has time to meet before the match if Italy appeals.
“We will not tolerate this type of behavior,” Gaillard said. “We have not in the past and we will not in the future.”
MLS Change
Spanish powerhouse Real Madrid has canceled its plans to serve as the opponent for a team of Major League Soccer All-Stars for the league’s annual game this summer.
Real, a nine-time European champion, had to pull out after the team finished fourth in the Spanish league and was forced to enter a qualifying tournament for next season’s European Champions League.
Instead, the July 31 MLS game at Washington’s RFK Stadium will match teams made up of players from the league’s Eastern and Western conferences.
MLS officials said Real Madrid might play in next season’s MLS game and that a team of MLS All-Stars will travel to Spain for a game against Real Madrid on Sept. 21.
Copa Libertadores
Defending champion Boca Juniors stunned Argentine rival and host River Plate, 5-4, on penalty kicks at Buenos Aires to advance to the finals of the Copa Libertadores.
After the teams tied, 2-2, on aggregate in the two-leg series -- River won Thursday’s game, 2-1 -- River’s Maxmiliano Lopez missed his kick to open the door for Boca.
In Wednesday’s other semifinal, Once Caldas of Colombia stunned visiting Sao Paolo, 2-1, at Manizales after holding the Brazilian team to a 0-0 tie in the first leg. Jorge Agudelo scored the winner in the final minute.
Boca will play host to Once Caldas in the two-leg final beginning Wednesday.
