CORNER KICKS
1 Mexico’s national team will make its first Southern California appearance in 18 months when it plays China at the Coliseum on Oct. 17 in the final match of its five-game 2007 U.S. tour.
Before that match, Coach Hugo Sanchez’s Mexico squad also will play five-time world champion and reigning Copa America champion Brazil at Foxborough, Mass., on Sept. 12, as well as Colombia on Aug. 22 at Denver.
The Brazil game will be the 34th meeting between the national teams in a half-century-old series in which the Brazilians hold a 19-9-6 advantage but have lost the last two games.
Mexico’s most recent visit to the Los Angeles area was in May 2006 when it defeated Venezuela at the Rose Bowl in its final tune-up before last summer’s World Cup in Germany.
Mexico has played China only twice before, winning, 3-2, in Mexico in 1987 and, 3-0, at San Diego in 1993.
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2 Newly crowned Asian champion Iraq will have to try to qualify for the 2010 World Cup on the road after the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) ruled that, for security reasons, the Iraqis could play no home games in the 43-nation qualifying tournament.
“I think the soccer authorities in Iraq understand why we made this decision,” Carlo Nohra, the AFC’s assistant general secretary, said in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
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3 Forward Robbie Findley used his 22nd birthday to send an indirect message to the Galaxy, which traded him to Real Salt Lake on June 20.
Findley scored his fifth goal of the season and his second game-winner for Salt Lake in a 1-0 victory over defending MLS champion Houston, ending the Dynamo’s 11-game unbeaten streak.
He now has more goals and more game winners this season than any Galaxy player.
“He was unbelievable, absolutely unbelievable, the entire game,” Salt Lake Coach Jason Kreis said.
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4England Coach Steve McLaren will attend the Galaxy’s game at D.C. United on Thursday to check on David Beckham’s injured ankle and also to “watch an MLS game in the flesh,” he said.
“A lot of people have been writing about the standard of football over there, but I need to see it myself and make that judgment rather than other people,” McLaren told reporters in London.
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5Gearing up for the Galaxy’s planned visit on Nov. 27, Sydney FC of Australia’s A-League has signed midfielder Juninho of Brazil’s 2002 World Cup-winning team to a one-year, $859,000 contract.
Juninho, 34, who played 50 games for Brazil between 1995 and 2003, was signed under Australia’s equivalent of the so-called “Beckham rule” under which MLS clubs can acquire marquee players outside the salary cap.
