Soccer Capsules: Milan chief says Beckham's return nearly certain
MILAN — AC Milan CEO Adriano Galliani says David Beckham's return to the Serie A team on a loan from the Los Angeles Galaxy in January is nearly "100 percent certain."
"A great player will arrive, his first name is David, his last name Beckham," Galliani was quoted as saying by the ANSA news agency on Monday. Galliani made the remarks to Sky Italia.
"It is practically 100 percent certain, what's missing is the signatures, but there is total agreement," Galliani added.
The former England captain has long been linked with a second loan at Milan, where he performed well in a six-month stint last season. He wants to return to Europe to maintain his place on England's 2010 World Cup squad.
Beckham has helped the Galaxy reach the eight-team Major League Soccer playoffs for the first time in four years.
The Galaxy will play rival Chivas USA, which shares the Home Depot Center stadium with the Galaxy, when the Western Conference semifinals get under way on Sunday. Chivas will be the home team for the first match, and the Galaxy will host the return leg Nov. 8.
Beckham played on Saturday when the Galaxy clinched their first division title in seven years with a 2-0 victory over the San Jose Earthquakes.
Hull fines Altidore for tweeting apology
HULL, England — Hull fined U.S. striker Jozy Altidore on Monday for tweeting an apology after he was left off the squad against Portsmouth because he arrived late for Saturday's game.
The Premier League club said Altidore would have been on the bench for the 0-0 draw. He was replaced by Will Atkinson.
"It's unacceptable behavior, full stop," Hull manager Phil Brown said. "You prepare all week for a match day, mentally and physically. To ask a player to arrive an hour and a half before a game is not too much to ask, is it?"
Altidore, who is on loan from Spanish club Villarreal, didn't help matters when he tweeted his apology to fans of the Premier League club.
"Apologize to all of you," he wrote. "I showed up late. Made a big mistake. I'm very, very sorry."
Brown said the reasons for Altidore being left out should have remained private.
"It's going to cost him a lot of money, unfortunately," Brown said. "That for me is information that stays in house. The reason he wasn't on the bench was our business."
U.S. to play friendly at Slovakia next month
CHICAGO — The United States will play friendly against Slovakia on Nov. 14 in Bratislava in a World Cup warmup for both nations.
The match is the first of two games in Europe for the U.S. The other game is Nov. 18 against Denmark in Aarhus.
This will be the first game for the U.S. against Slovakia, which qualified for its first World Cup since Czechoslovakia split in 1993.
College
Missouri women's soccer wins Big 12 title
COLUMBIA, Mo. — The Missouri women's soccer team is the Big 12 Conference's regular season champion.
The Tigers (12-4-3) defeated Nebraska 5-0 on Sunday to give the school its first Big 12 regular season title in any sport since women's softball 12 years ago. The softball team and men's basketball team won their conference tournaments last year.
Junior Alysha Bonnick scored twice for Missouri, which concludes its regular season Friday with a trip to Lawrence to face Kansas. Missouri was undefeated in conference play with seven wins and two ties after a rocky early season start out of conference.
Comentary: Barcelona replies with full force after upset
LONDON — Anyone who thought last week's loss at home to unheralded Rubin Kazan was the first crack in a crumbling Barcelona soccer team should have been at Camp Nou on Sunday.
Pep Guardiola's classy players provided the answer with a 6-1 thrashing of Real Zaragoza and could easily have scored at least three more goals. It was a strong warning to rivals in the Spanish and Champions leagues that they are not going to give up their titles easily.
If this is how Barcelona reacts to a shocking defeat, then the likes of Real Madrid, Inter Milan, Manchester United and Premier League leader Chelsea should take note.
Let's face it, all Rubin did was catch Guardiola's team on an off day.
Yet the 2-1 Champions League loss to the Russian club prompted suggestions that Barcelona was nowhere near as strong as the team that won three trophies last season when it became Spanish and European champions.
With Real Madrid bulking up its squad with such signings as Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka, Karim Benzema and Xabi Alonso, Barcelona was under far more pressure to hold onto its Spanish league title, let alone the European crown.
Critics questioned the club for releasing free-scoring Samuel Eto'o and replacing him with the immensely talented but unpredictable Zlatan Ibrahimovic. They pointed to lapses of concentration in defense and suggested Lionel Messi's form had dropped because of Argentina's shaky form in qualifying for the World Cup.
Another loss at home would have added to those doubts. But Guardiola's team brushed Zaragoza aside and appeared unstoppable as it moved into a three-point lead at the top of the Spanish standings.
Ibrahimovic scored twice — once with a powerful free kick and the other from close range — and had another disallowed. Messi repeatedly cut through the Zaragoza defense with his dribbling, had two shots blocked by the 'keeper and finally chipped the ball over him for a goal.
Andres Iniesta and Xavi Hernandez controlled the midfield and joined the frequent spells of one-touch passing and Seydou Keita scored three goals in an overall showing that was applauded by club president Joan Laporta.
"We put in a perfect performance and we were clearly deserved winners," he said. "The players were especially motivated after Tuesday's result and they showed tonight that that was just a slip-up.
"There's a long way to go in the league yet. We are playing well and with the same attitude we showed last year — humility and sacrifice. We are on the right track".
Guardiola had special praise for Messi and Ibrahimovic, who have combined for 13 goals.
"Leo is never in doubt," he said. "He's a guy who just loves playing football. It's important that we are by his side and he knows that we will always be there whatever happens."
He said Ibrahimovic was settling into the team and becoming stronger and more dynamic.
Xavi said he was confident the team would get over the loss to Rubin.
"I already said that the game the other day was just one of those things," he said. "People tend to be guided by results, but we know that if we continue playing like that (against Zaragoza) then we will almost always win. The victory helped show that we are doing things well, has helped build confidence, and has made us league leaders."
Guardiola is likely to rest some frontline players when Barcelona begins defense of the domestic cup Wednesday against Cultura Leonesa, a third-division club that has played only one season in top-tier soccer.
Then comes a visit to mid-standings Osasuna in the league and a chance to make up for its loss to Rubin when it travels to Kazan Nov. 4.
Barcelona is in a tight Champions League group with Italian champion Inter Milan and Ukraine's Dynamo Kiev, with only one point separating first and last. It's possible that Guardiola's team needed that loss to Rubin to shrug off any hints of complacency and sharpen its act.
If that's the case and Zaragoza was the first team to feel the full force of its response, then the rest of Europe should beware.
Robert Millward covers international soccer for The Associated Press.
Elsewhere
French football official defends postponing match
PARIS — French football league president Frederic Thiriez has denied that postponing Marseille's match against Paris Saint-Germain at late notice was the catalyst for widespread violence erupting in Marseille's city center.
Fans of the bitter rivals had running battles after Sunday night's game — scheduled for 2100 local time and televised on cable TV — was called off about six hours before kick off because PSG players Ludovic Giuly, Mamadou Sakho and Jeremy Clement had contracted swine flu.
A new date for the match will be decided on Thursday morning, with PSG president Robin Leproux and his Marseille counterpart Jean-Claude Dassier both summoned to the LFP's Paris office.
The late cancellation of Sunday's game meant thousands of fans were able to mingle in the city center.
"Claiming that they (the incidents) are linked to the postponing of the match is intellectual fraud, unfortunately these fights were prearranged," Thiriez told sports daily L'Equipe on Monday.
Nearly a dozen people were injured, according to Marseille police chief Philippe Klayman, and reports Monday said 16 had been arrested following the clashes outside Marseille's main train station and the nearby Vieux Port (Old Port) area.
The late cancellation played straight into the hands of those looking for a fight, with PSG's notorious hooligan element heavily involved in downtown clashes. French reports before the match spoke of prearranged fights over the internet and a higher level of threats than usual.
"There is only one person responsible and that is the president of the French football league (Thiriez)," Philippe Pereira, speaking for a section of PSG's supporters, told LCI television on Monday.
Pereira said Thiriez was playing with people's safety by canceling so late. Pereira said he arrived with other PSG fans by train at Marseille's Saint-Charles station and that the violence began almost immediately outside, with police ill prepared.
Thiriez defended his decision by saying it was based on advice from the LFP's medical commission.
"What would people have said if the match had been maintained and the whole Marseille squad had been infected (with swine flu)?," he told L'Equipe. "There would have been an outcry."
The LFP initially said Saturday that the game would go ahead despite the first two swine flu cases, Giuly and Sakho, being diagnosed. It called the match off after another case, that of Clement's, was detected Sunday.
Clement traveled on the plane with the rest of the squad.
Dassier said he was "dubious" about the decision.
"All this seems a bit amateur," he said. "I am a little dubious that with two (players ill) you play, and with three (ill) you don't play."
"We need to think quickly about what happened so that it never happens again," Dassier said.
Deschamps wanted the match played on Wednesday, but the LFP says this is not possible. PSG players and staff members have been quarantined for a 72-hour period to try and prevent any new infection.
Police used tear gas to break up the fighting, with one newspaper capturing a fan throwing a knife at rivals.
Early Sunday afternoon, about 100 PSG fans — some wearing shirts emblazoned with the Kop of Boulogne emblem of PSG's hooligan fringe — started fighting with Marseille fans.
French football hit rock bottom three years ago when PSG fan Julien Quemener was shot and killed by an off-duty policeman protecting a Jewish fan surrounded by a hate mob, after PSG's UEFA Cup match against Hapoel Tel Aviv.
PSG has long harbored a far-right element, many of whom converge in the Kop of Boulogne section of Parc des Princes.
Despite pledges at French government level to stamp out football violence, problems persist.
Before last season's UEFA Cup match between PSG and FC Twente, around 250 hooligans from PSG and their Dutch rivals fought in the city's historical center in broad daylight, with Christmas shoppers running for cover, and again later that night outside Parc des Princes.
PSG's hooligan fringe has been highly active since the early 1990s, with incidents in Paris against Arsenal, Chelsea, Bayern Munich, CSKA Moscow, and Galatasaray.
With their team having failed to qualify for Europe this season, PSG's hooligans have targeted away games at Marseille, Nice, Lyon, Saint-Etienne, Montpellier and Bordeaux.
PSG hooligans fought with Montpellier fans on trams and in the streets around Montpellier's stadium on the opening day of the season, with one PSG supporter losing an eye.
-- Jerome Pugmire
China leaders desperate to improve national team
BEIJING — Already pressed to keep the economy humming and ensure political stability, China's leaders have another worry: How to raise the deplorable state of the national football team.
Members of the central leadership have recently grown "extremely concerned" about the state of the team, Deputy Sports Minister Xiao Tian was quoted as saying in an interview with state media on Monday.
"Society and the ordinary people are not satisfied and the pressure on us is great," Xiao said. "We need to quickly come up with some methods of resolving this problem and engineering a turn around both in the level of football and the football market."
Xiao did not say which government officials had registered their concern, but his comments follow remarks on the state of Chinese football by Vice President Xi Jinping earlier this month.
"Why is it that we can win a gold medal in pretty much every other sport but football," Xi was quoted as saying while on a visit to Germany. "We've got to resolve to do something to raise it up, but this is going to take a long time."
Cabinet member Liu Yandong was also recently quoted as calling for "reform and development" of Chinese football along scientific lines. She didn't say how that would work.
Despite topping the gold medal tallies at the Beijing Olympics last year, China and its famed sports schools have failed to produce much football talent.
China's two earliest exports to European football fared well, with Sun Jihai and Fan Zhiyi joining Crystal Palace in England in 1998, but since then nobody has reached any great heights in Europe.
Defender Sun played 130 matches for Manchester City in six seasons after leaving Palace but was troubled by injuries and finished his stint in England last season with Sheffield United.
Fan, a stalwart of the national team, played 88 matches for Crystal Palace between '98 and 2001 and was captain of the team at times.
China's poor showing on the international stage and lack of individual stars has been a constant source of frustration both for Chinese fans and those who follow the game. The national team is currently ranked No. 102 in the world, squeezed in between the Cape Verde Islands and Estonia.
China was knocked out of 2010 World Cup qualifying last year, failing to make the top 10 sides in Asia. In its only World Cup appearance, in 2002, China lost all three games while failing to score a single goal.
Xiao said his bureau bore some responsibility for the failures, but seemed to lay the blame mainly on the professional league that has generated a seemingly endless stream of chaos, controversy, and scandal.
Professional teams are run by private businesses whose decisions on the field are driven primarily by the profit motive and not the desire to nurture talent and win matches, Xiao said.
"At the same time, the sports bureaus are powerless to intervene. This is something we need to fix," Xiao said. "The level of Chinese football is low, young players are fewer and fewer — there's no question that it's a problem, everyone can see that."
Although football remains hugely popular in China, many fans have given up on the local teams and instead closely follow the professional leagues in England, Spain, Germany and Italy.
Newly appointed national team coach Gao Hongbo has set qualification for the 2014 World Cup as a target in his quest to revitalize the beleaguered team.
Gao's selection marks a return to Chinese coaches after experimenting with a string of foreigners, most successfully under Bora Milutinovic in 2000-2002.
-- Christopher Bodeen
Argentina crisis helping Mascherano at Liverpool
LIVERPOOL, England — Argentina captain Javier Mascherano is drawing on the same fighting spirit that took his underperforming country to the 2010 World Cup as the inspiration to turn around Liverpool's season.
For months, Mascherano feared Argentina would not qualify for the finals in South Africa, but Diego Maradona's side ended its campaign earlier this month by beating Uruguay to clinch a spot.
So when Liverpool slumped to a fourth straight loss on Mascherano's return from international duty, the midfielder's crisis management mode kicked in again.
"I was living for three to four months in a difficult situation with Argentina," Mascherano told The Associated Press. "So I had the other experience before like (I have) with Liverpool now."
A loss to Manchester United on Sunday would have deepened the depression engulfing Anfield and seriously endangered Liverpool's Premier League title hopes, but the players pulled off a morale-boosting 2-0 victory over the champion.
"It was difficult for us to lose four games in a row, but now I say, 'Let's start again,' Mascherano said. "Now we have won we cannot stop, and (we will) try to keep going... we are pulling together.
"If we want to fight for something we have to play every game like that. We cannot be relaxed with this win — that is the message."
Fifth in the table, Liverpool trails leader Chelsea as it chases a first English championship crown in 20 years. However, Mascherano viewed Sunday's victory as "very important for confidence."
"We need to think about continuing winning, not to look at the table and seeing we are six points behind Chelsea," he said. "We have to look forward and not drop important points in the future.
"If we want these three points to be valuable we have to show this performance in the future ... Maybe people thought we couldn't play as we can against the top sides, but (against United) we showed we can and we are really happy."
Victory over United relieved the pressure on manager Rafa Benitez, but Mascherano's international coach is still feeling the heat despite Argentina's World Cup qualification.
There have been calls for Maradona's resignation as FIFA investigates his profanity-filled tirade following that last-gasp 1-0 victory over Uruguay.
Mascherano still believes Maradona, who had virtually no coaching experience when he was hired a year ago, should lead Argentina to the World Cup.
"Diego is a person living in football for more than 30 years and he knows how to manage a lot of things on the football pitch," Mascherano said. "We know we have to improve for the World Cup but now we have time and we are really happy.
"And we are now a little bit relaxed because it was a difficult moment when we didn't know if we are going to the World Cup or not."
-- Rob Harris
Spurs make planning application for new stadium
LONDON — Tottenham moved closer to leaving its White Hart Lane stadium on Monday when it applied to local government for planning permission to build a new 56,250-seat ground nearby.
The Premier League club announced a year ago that it planned to switch to a site adjacent to its traditional north London home and has now submitted revised plans, including a single-tier stand at one end of the stadium.
Tottenham said the stand behind one of the goals will feature 63 rows of seats and help create what it hopes will be "the most atmospheric stadium in Europe."
"We have continued to refine the designs to maximize stadium atmosphere, including a reduction in the space allocated to corporate areas in order to deliver the new single-tier stand," stadium architect David Keirle said. "The acoustics will be excellent, with the bowl design helping to reflect sound back onto the pitch."
The stand is reminiscent of the steep Sudtribune at Borussia Dortmund's Westfalenstadion, which accounts for 25,000 of the stadium's 67,000 seats.
Spurs, which has been at White Hart Lane since 1899, hopes to move into the new ground within five years.
No budget has been set.
The club needs to replace its current 36,310-seat ground to boost income from ticket sales and match-day revenue to compete financially with the likes of Manchester United and Arsenal, both of whom attract crowds about twice as big.
Arsenal moved into Emirates Stadium three years ago having built the 60,432 bowl on a former industrial site bordered on each side by a railway line.
Tottenham's stadium, which will also be named by a corporate sponsor, will sit on a major road and include a club museum, housing, shops and public space.
"We have designed what will be a vibrant area 365 days a year and not a stadium with dead space surrounding it," chairman Daniel Levy said.
The stadium could be part of England's bid to host the 2018 or 2022 World Cup, with host cities having to submit applications to the bidding authority next month.
"Tottenham Hotspur Football Club's provisional designs for their new stadium are very impressive," England 2018 Ltd chief executive Andy Anson said. "We fully expect the stadium to be one of those included as a potential host venue for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bid.
"We wish the club every success with their plans."
-- Stuart Condie
Middlesbrough appoints Gordon Strachan as manager
MIDDLESBROUGH, England — Middlesbrough appointed Gordon Strachan as manager Monday to spearhead the team's attempt to return to the Premier League.
The 52-year-old Strachan has been without a job since quitting Scottish side Celtic at the end of last season, when Boro was relegated from the top flight of English football.
"I don't need to be here and I don't have to be here," Strachan said. "I'm here because I want to be here. When I left Celtic, I told them it would be very difficult to retrace my steps and the excitement that went with Celtic.
"I felt it had to be something different. I never said bigger or better. This is something different."
Strachan signed a four-year contract with the League Championship club, which had been strongly linked with the former Southampton manager since firing Gareth Southgate last week.
Chairman Steve Gibson had stuck with Southgate despite relegation having given the former England defender his first managerial position. He started looking for a successor to Southgate three weeks before firing him.
Strachan is the first experienced manager to be brought in by Gibson, who has also hired Steve McClaren and Bryan Robson.
The former Scotland midfielder led Celtic to three straight league titles and three more trophies, but ended his four-year spell when he narrowly failed to win the championship again.
"I know the chairman. I know you get money and I know you get time," Strachan said. "These things attracted me to the job."
Strachan met with the Middlesbrough players Monday morning and said he had yet to think about whether he needed to strengthen the team in the January transfer window.
He said he first saw Boro play this season five or six weeks ago when he took his grandson to see the team at Coventry, which is one of his former clubs and his grandson's local team.
First-team coach Colin Cooper was in temporary charge as Middlesbrough drew 2-2 with Preston on Saturday that left the northeast England team fourth in the second-tier standings.
Juande Ramos leaves CSKA as coach
MOSCOW — CSKA Moscow has parted company with coach Juande Ramos after a 3-1 home defeat to FK Moscow at the weekend left the club languishing in fifth place in the Russian Premier League.
A message posted on the club's Web site Monday said the Spaniard's contract was terminated "by agreement of both sides" with just four games left in the domestic league.
Former Real Madrid and Tottenham coach Ramos took over from Zico as CSKA manager at the beginning of September and leaves a league record of three wins, two losses and a draw.
CSKA has appointed former Krylya Sovietov and FK Moscow coach Leonid Slutsky in Ramos' place.
City rival Lokomotiv Moscow is just one point behind CSKA in the race to the league's last qualifying spot for next season's Europa League.
CSKA is also negotiating a Champions League campaign. It lies third in Group B, with three points from three games. Manchester United leads the group with nine points, with Wolfsburg in second on four. United hosts CSKA next on Nov. 3.
Ramos' replacement, Slutsky, quit Krylya on Oct. 9 after a summer match-fixing scandal involving the Samara club. UEFA recently sent a letter to the Russian Football Union requesting it investigate Krylya's match against Chechen team Terek Grozny in June, among other games.
That match, which Terek won 3-2, caused outrage as the Russian media reported that one individual staked $400,000 on a Terek win on the Betfair Internet betting exchange.
Rosenborg's Erik Hamren in running to coach Sweden
STOCKHOLM — The Swedish Football Association says Rosenborg coach Erik Hamren is one of several candidates to take over the national team.
FA chairman Lars-Ake Lagrell told The Associated Press he held talks with Hamren on Monday in Trondheim, Norway.
Lagrell said a handful of candidates remain in the running but declined to reveal the others.
Hamren, a Swede, has been coaching Rosenborg since 2008 after helping Aalborg win the Danish league. He has also coachedAIK, Degerfors and Orgryte.
Former England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson Eriksson ruled himself out last week because of his contract with English fourth-tier side Notts County.
Lars Lagerback stepped down as Sweden coach after the team failed to reach next year's World Cup.
Roma captain Totti undergoes knee surgery
ROME — AS Roma says captain Francesco Totti has undergone surgery on his right knee.
The Serie A club said Monday it was not clear how long Totti would be sidelined for but reports said the playmaker might be out for a month.
Totti struggled with knee problems last season and has missed games during this season's Serie A campaign. In April 2008 he partially tore his anterior cruciate ligament and underwent surgery on his right knee.
Roma said in a statement that Totti had arthroscopy surgery Monday and that "no other tears were found during the surgery." The club said the 33-year-old player would begin rehabilitation immediately but it was unclear when he might be fit to play again.
Totti retired from international play after Italy won the 2006 World Cup.
Two people shot after fan confrontation in Brazil
SAO PAULO — Police say a confrontation among rival fans in Brazil left two people hospitalized with gunshot wounds.
Authorities say one man was shot in the arm and another in the abdomen when Sao Paulo and Corinthians fans fought each other at a plaza in downtown Sao Paulo late Sunday night. The fan shot in the abdomen was in serious condition on Monday.
Police say about 400 fans were involved in the confrontation and nearly 30 were detained.
The Sao Paulo state public safety department said Monday two Sao Paulo fans were formally accused with illegal possession of firearms.
Also Sunday, Flamengo supporters got into a confrontation with police officers in Rio de Janeiro, but no one was seriously injured.
Three Blackburn players diagnosed with swine flu
BLACKBURN, England — Swine flu has been diagnosed in three Blackburn players and two members of the Premier League's staff.
The club did not identify the affected players on Monday, but manager Sam Allardyce had said on Sunday that midfielder David Dunn and defender Christopher Samba were sick with "a virus."
Blackburn says that Tuesday's League Cup match against League Championship side Peterborough will go ahead.
League Previews
FA Cup star Robins faces Ferguson in League Cup
LONDON — Almost 20 years after his FA Cup goal for Manchester United probably saved Alex Ferguson's job, Mark Robins will try and knock his former manager out of the League Cup on Tuesday.
Robins' goal in a 1-0 victory over Nottingham Forest in January 1990 came at a time when the pressure was on Ferguson after three years at Old Trafford without a trophy.
United went on to win the FA Cup, the European Cup Winners' Cup followed soon after by the first of Ferguson's 11 Premier League triumphs. The Scot is still going strong, despite Sunday's 2-0 Premier League loss to Liverpool, having won 23 titles to become the most successful manager in English football.
If Robins had not scored that FA Cup goal and United lost to Forest, the club may well have fired Ferguson and none of those triumphs would have happened.
Now, defending League Cup champion United makes a rare visit to Barnsley's Oakwell Stadium, where Robins is the new manager and the League Championship club has a 20,000-sellout crowd and the financial bonus of live TV coverage.
"It's a great chance for the players to play against some of the best in the country and often the world," Robins said. "But it's also an opportunity for us to progress to the next round.
"A tie like this doesn't come round very often and it'll be a money spinner too, which is always welcome."
Robins said the upcoming anniversary of his goal for Ferguson had not been on his mind.
"I've had a lot on my plate and I'm sure he's got a lot more on his," Robins said.
Ferguson wants his team to hit back after seeing Chelsea take over at the top of the Premier League. Although the League Cup is the least important of his goals this season, he is looking for a big performance from the players he fields at Oakwell.
"Part of the challenge is how you react to disappointment," Ferguson said. "We lost 4-1 to Liverpool at home last season, which was a travesty at the time. But the players buckled down and we went on to win the league."
Before Sunday's game at Anfield, there were strong doubts about Liverpool's confidence and Rafa Benitez' future as manager after four defeats in a row — two in the Premier League and two in the Champions League.
But Benitez was proud of the way his team hit back against United.
"We needed the three points for our confidence, so I think it will be a big boost for the team, especially because it is against a good side," he said. "The fans are delighted and you can see that the players are in the same mood. It is very positive, but we have a game (on Wednesday) so we need to be ready.
"If we can keep the momentum, I am sure we have a good team that can win games in a row. But we have to try and win on Wednesday and then continue against Fulham (in the Premier League)."
Both Arsenal and Liverpool are likely to field mostly backup players at the Emirates on Wednesday. But the fact that one of the leading contenders will be going out of the competition is a bonus for their rivals.
Tottenham, which won the title in 2008 and was runner-up to United last season, has a home game on Tuesday against Everton, the losing finalist in the FA Cup last May. FA Cup holder Chelsea, which won the League Cup in 2005 and '07, welcomes Bolton on Wednesday.
Portsmouth hosts Stoke on Tuesday and Aston Villa visits Sunderland, while Blackburn, outplayed 5-0 by Chelsea on Saturday, hopes to rebound with a home win over League Championship club Peterborough.
Manchester City, whose last major title triumph was the 1976 League Cup, will be confident of beating second tier Scunthorpe at home on Wednesday.
-- Robert Millward
Madrid looks to Copa del Rey for remedy
MADRID — Real Madrid will look to a Copa del Rey date on Tuesday with third-division club Alcorcon to end a poor run of form and return to winning ways.
The match is also a chance for big-spending Madrid, which has managed just one win from its last four games, to make amends after being knocked out by another third division club, Real Irun, at this stage of the compertition last season.
"We're not playing that bad," midfielder Rafael Van der Vaart said on Monday. "I remember the image we gave off against Real Irun last year — we can't put our fans through such an ordeal again. We need to go for every competition and the Copa motivates us."
A capacity crowd of 4,000 is expected at the Santo Domingo stadium, which sits on the outskirts of the Spanish capital.
But they won't be treated to Cristiano Ronaldo, who remains sidelined by injury, as coach Manuel Pellegrini's roster continued to be shortened after Saturday's 0-0 draw at Sporting Gijon.
Strikers Gonzalo Higuain, Karim Benzema and Ruud van Nistelrooy, midfielder Xabi Alonso and defenders Pepe and Ezequiel Garay are all carrying knocks, while midfielder Lassana Diarra is also away due to a family problem.
Madrid hasn't won the competition since 1993 and some in the Spanish press are speculating that a defeat at Alcorcon could spell the end of Pellegrini's reign after just 12 games.
"The coach is committed, he's doing great work with the team," Madrid goalkeeper Iker Casillas said. "There's no need to be so worried."
Barcelona begins the last of its treble trophy defense Wednesday at Cultura Leonesa, a third-division club which has played only one season in topflight football, and that was over 50 years ago. Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero could attend the game between his favorite club — Barcelona — in his home province of Castile and Leon.
The Catalans couldn't have come into the competition more emphatically than Sunday's 6-1 win over Zaragoza, following last week's surprise defeat to Rubin Kazan.
"The only difference with that Champions League game was that the goals came," said striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic who scored twice to become the Liga's joint leading scorer.
There are four games between first division clubs, who now enter the competition at the fourth round, with Zaragoza facing last-place Malaga, Getafe playing Espanyol, Valladolid welcoming Mallorca and Osasuna at Xerez.
On Tuesday, Marbella is against Atletico Madrid, Atletico Ciudad plays Sevilla and Recreativo Huelva welcomes Sporting Gijon.
On Wednesday, it's: Hercules vs. Almeria; Rayo Vallecano vs. Athletic Bilbao; Alcoyano vs. Valencia; Celta Vigo vs. Tenerife; Murcia vs. Deportivo La Coruna; and Puertollano vs. Villarreal. On Thursday, Salamanca plays Racing Santander.
Return legs will be played Nov. 11.
