CORNER KICKS
Five things happening around the world
1Several of Europe’s leading teams cleared the hurdles in their paths Tuesday as Arsenal, Barcelona, Manchester United, Inter Milan and Sevilla won their European Champions League matches without undue difficulty.
Arsenal managed a 1-0 win over Steaua Bucharest in Romania on a late goal by Robin Van Persie, and Barcelona got second-half goals from Carlos Puyol and Lionel Messi as it shut out German champion VfB Stuttgart, 2-0, in Germany.
Wayne Rooney scored his first goal of the season to give English champion Manchester United a 1-0 victory over visiting AS Roma, while another Italian club, Inter Milan, rolled over the Dutch side PSV Eindhoven, 2-0, behind two goals from Swedish striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
Sevilla, which won the UEFA Cup last season, disposed of Slavia Prague, 4-2, in Spain as four players scored.
The only top club to stumble was defending French champion Olympique Lyon, which has won six domestic titles in a row but was upset, 3-0, at home by Rangers. The Scottish club got a goal and an assist from U.S. international DaMarcus Beasley.
2David Beckham has returned to Los Angeles from England to resume rehabilitation work on his right knee and hopes to play for the Galaxy again before the end of the Major League Soccer season, his spokesman said Tuesday. Glenn Lehrman said Beckham flew back from London on Sunday after visiting his father, Ted, who was hospitalized last week after suffering a heart attack. Meanwhile, Lehrman scoffed at reports in England’s Daily Mirror that claimed Beckham was unhappy at the quality of play in MLS and was considering a six-month loan to Sunderland of the English Premier League.
Sunderland is coached by Beckham’s former Manchester United teammate Roy Keane, but the club has discounted the rumor, as has the Galaxy.
“There will be no loan moves or short-term contracts,” one of Beckham’s spokesman said. “He is under contract to the Galaxy.”
3Major League Soccer would not confirm it, but reports out of the Pacific Northwest indicated that Seattle might be granted an MLS team in time to play at Qwest Field in the 2009 season.
Whether that team would incorporate the name of the existing semi-pro Seattle Sounders, who over the weekend won the United Soccer Leagues (USL) title, was not immediately clear. The new owners reportedly include Adrian Hanauer, who owns the Sounders, and Southern California movie-studio executive Joe Roth.
4Mexico’s revolving door of coaches continues to spin. The latest to be shown the exit was Chivas de Guadalajara’s Jose Manuel de la Torre, who became the fifth coach fired in the last two months.
5The New England Revolution will again try to win its first trophy tonight when it plays FC Dallas in the final of the U.S. Open Cup at Pizza Hut Park in Frisco, Texas.
The Revolution lost the Open Cup final to the Galaxy in 2001 and also was beaten in the MLS Cup finals of 2003, 2005 and 2006.
Dallas won the Open Cup in 1997.
