Soccer Capsules: New Mexico suspends hair-pulling soccer player

The midfielders have not previously played for the national team. Mueller will be in the squad only for Wednesday's match against Ivory Coast because he is also in the under-21 team set to play Northern Ireland next Friday, coach Joachim Loew said.

Striker Stefan Kiessling of Bayer Leverkusen, who leads the Bundesliga with seven goals, returns to the squad for the first time since March.

Forward Mario Gomez is also in the squad despite losing his place in the starting lineup of Bayern Munich.

Germany plays Chile in Cologne on Nov. 14 and Ivory Coast in Gelsenkirchen four days later, the first friendlies since the three-time champions qualified for the World Cup.

The 20-year-old Mueller has been one of the revelations of the season, becoming a starter for Bayern under new coach Louis van Gaal and scoring some important goals.

"Thomas should spend a few days with us to get to know the atmosphere in the national team," Loew said.

Loew overruled objections from Bayern officials, who thought it was too early for Mueller to be called up for international duty.

The 23-year-old Hunt, whose mother is English, has become one of Werder's top players this season after overcoming a series of injuries and has scored three times.

"We have the possibility to give him a chance now," Loew said. "He has played consistently well this season and has progressed."

Hunt and Mueller can play as forwards or attacking midfielders.

Hannover goalkeeper Robert Enke is not in the 24-man squad after only recently overcoming a bacterial infection. Stuttgart defender Serdar Tasci was scheduled to return, but his club said on Friday a foot injury would keep him sidelined for several weeks, possibly even until the end of the year.

Goalkeeper Rene Adler of Bayer Leverkusen dropped out of the squad late Friday because of an eye infection.

Midfielder Simon Rolfes of Bayer Leverkusen and Cacau of Stuttgart are also out with injuries.

-- Nesha Starcevic

Hitzfeld gives 1st Switzerland call-up to Bunjaku

FRANKFURT — Bayer Leverkusen scored three times inside the first 11 minutes and went on to rout Eintracht Frankfurt 4-0 to remain the Bundesliga leader on Friday.

Leverkusen, which had drawn its last three games, will remain atop the Bundesliga when the 12th round is completed over the weekend, since it has a four-point lead over Werder Bremen and Hamburger SV.

Stefan Kiessling opened the scoring in the second minute with his league-high eighth goal of the season, Stefan Reinartz doubled the lead in the sixth and Toni Kroos produced a spectacular goal in the 11th to put the only undefeated side in the Bundesliga firmly in control.

Leverkusen shifted down a gear in the second half before Lars Bender completed the victory in the 86th.

Frankfurt remained harmless throughout.

Leverkusen played without goalkeeper Rene Adler because of an eye infection, but his replacement, 19-year-old Fabian Giefer, kept a clean sheet.

In the top game on Saturday, Bayern Munich hosts Schalke.

League Preview

Injuries leave Liverpool struggling vs. Birmingham

LONDON — Liverpool needs to find a way to overcome the likely absence of Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard or it could lose another must-win game against Birmingham on Monday.

Liverpool's reliance on the pair has been exposed by their continual injuries this season, leaving their team on verge of Champions League elimination and nine points off the top of the Premier League after just 11 games.

Monday's game at Anfield is the fifth in a row that fans and commentators have called crucial to the club's chances of mounting a challenge for a first title since 1990, but, worryingly for manager Rafa Benitez, his team has won just one of the previous four.

And Torres and Gerrard seem set to sit out the game, with both possibly needing surgery before they can resume the season.

Torres played in pain through 87 minutes of Wednesday's 1-1 Champions League draw at Lyon and visited a local hospital the following day for tests on his groin injury.

"He still had the same problems that have troubled him for a few weeks," Benitez said. "He wants to wait, rather than have an operation. He wants to work with the physios to try to solve his problems, but still he has pain.

"He told me he needed to keep stopping because of the pain. Whether there is the need for him or Steven Gerrard to have an operation is a decision we will not take straight away."

Surgery could rule either player out for weeks or even months, but both have the World Cup at the end of the season to think about as well as Liverpool's faltering form.

Although a 2-0 win over Manchester United alleviated some of the pressure on Benitez, a League Cup loss at Arsenal, a 3-1 Premier League defeat at Fulham and a last-minute equalizer by Lyon have heaped it back on.

If Chelsea beats United on Sunday, Liverpool could be 12 points behind the leaders by the time it plays.

Benitez may at least be able to bring back Martin Skrtel to shore up the defense, although Glen Johnson and Fabio Aurelio are out because of calf problems.

Chelsea hosts United boosted by the Court of Arbitration for Sport's decision to temporarily lift FIFA's ban on it signing new players and with only Jose Bosingwa on the sidelines.

Coach Carlo Ancelotti said the club would decide whether the fullback needs surgery over the next few days and is not thinking about signing a replacement in January.

"We have time to look for players," Ancelotti said. "We don't want to take a decision at the moment. At the moment, I am very happy with this squad and these players."

But the defending champions are struggling with injuries and a porous defense.

England international Rio Ferdinand will miss the match because of what may be a lower back problem, while Wes Brown and Jonny Evans looked shaky as United let in three goals in a Champions League draw against CSKA Moscow this week.

Midfielder Park Ji-sung is again missing with a knee problem and Gary Neville is suspended, but Nemanja Vidic and Dimitar Berbatov are fit.

"Vidic has trained for the last three days and should be OK," Ferguson said. "Berbatov got a knock and we'll see what he's like in training today, but he should be fine."

And United should soon be able to call upon Owen Hargreaves, with the England midfielder set to return to training in about 10 days — 14 months after his last appearance.

"He's been doing some good football work with our physios," Ferguson said. "We're not going to force it, but he is very happy within himself."

Any slip-up by United could let Arsenal through into second place, with the Gunners at lowly Wolverhampton Wanderers in one of Saturday's five matches.

The Gunners are seeking to stretch a two-month unbeaten streak in which it has outscored its league opponents 19-5.

Arsenal is just three points behind United, which, with Chelsea, has occupied the top two spots since Sept. 13.

Also Saturday, fourth-place Manchester City hosts Burnley, Tottenham hosts Sunderland, Aston Villa hosts Bolton and bottom club Portsmouth is at Blackburn.

West Ham hosts Everton on Sunday, when Fulham is at Wigan and Stoke is at Hull.

Newcastle seeks to stay top of the second-tier League Championship when it plays Peterborough on Saturday, with second-place West Bromwich Albion at fourth-place Leicester.

-- Stuart Condie

A day after arriving, Parreira told reporters in Johannesburg Friday he believes "the core is there, the team is there." He also said he would not have come back if he didn't think Bafana Bafana could advance.

The South African Football Association reappointed Parreira as head coach on Oct. 23, 18 months after he gave up the job to spend time with his ailing wife. He replaces Brazilian coach Joel Santana, who left in what SAFA called an amicable parting of ways after eight losses in nine matches since June.

Parreira said a win or two would help morale, making upcoming friendlies — against Japan on Nov. 14 and Jamaica on Nov. 17 — "very important games for us."

"We want to win every game. That's how you build confidence," he said.

He added that South African fans, who have been scathing about the team's performances and skeptical about bringing back the Brazilian Parreira instead of turning to local coaching candidates, could help build morale.

"Let's embrace the team," Parreira said. "If we build a very warm feeling toward our national team, I'm sure the response will be great."

The team's physical condition was more worrying, Parreira said.

"World Cup is a war," he said. "You have to train, you have to play like a warrior."

He said 10 of his 11 starters were spending too much time on the bench with their foreign clubs. And those teams are under no obligation to release the players so Parreira can get them into shape.

A prime case in point is Benni McCarthy, named Thursday to the 24-man team to face Japan.

Parreira said he expected McCarthy to make only one of the camps he plans for the team, in Brazil in March and then Germany in April. He called McCarthy the team's most experienced player, but acknowledged there are questions about his fitness and willingness to work.

"It's up to him," the coach said. "We trust him, that's why we're bringing him back."

Santana, Parreira's predecessor, dropped the Blackburn forward from the Confederations Cup earlier this year, a tournament seen as a World Cup warmup. McCarthy has been a frequent no-show for friendlies, angering selectors and fans.

Parreira expressed sympathy for Santana, saying he had been under great pressure to win at a time when the team was still finding its feet. South Africa's style of play is often compared to Brazil's and Parreira, who is the country's 15th coach in as many years, said that another thing the two nations have in common is lack of patience with football coaches.

Under Santana, Bafana Bafana didn't qualify for the African Cup of Nations for the first time in 14 years, though he did take them to the semifinals of the Confederations Cup.

Parreira coached Brazil to the 1994 World Cup title. During his first tenure as South Africa coach, Parreira put together a young and inexperienced team that had a series of poor results and was eliminated in the first round of the African Cup of Nations last year. South Africa was then ranked 71st by FIFA.

SAFA's president, Kirsten Nematandani, introduced Parreira Friday saying he expected the coach to take the team "through the knockout stages and most probably to the quarterfinals" of the World Cup.

Parreira said it wouldn't be easy, but "I believe we can do it.

"After jumping to the next round, the sky is the limit. Anything can happen."

-- Donna Bryson

No strike in Spanish football for now

MADRID — The Spanish football league has backed down from a threat to go on strike over a bill that would eliminate a tax break for high-earning foreign players.

League president Jose Luis Astiazaran said Friday that a committee will be formed instead to negotiate with the government over the proposal, part of the draft budget for 2010. If the bill passes it would not be retroactive and would not affect high-earning players already in the league, such as Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaka. It would only apply to those signed after Jan. 1.

Astiazaran spoke after an emergency meeting of the presidents of most of Spain's first- and second-division clubs on the so-called Beckham Law.

Astiazaran said the league would discuss the bill with the government and parliament and meet again Nov. 19 when"we will see the results and decide what measures to adopt."

The tax break was introduced in 2004 and was to designed to attract top talent to Spain, including business executives and scientists, but football players have been among the most prominent beneficiaries. It was passed the year that David Beckham signed for Real Madrid.

As the law stands now, foreign residents who earn more than €600,000 ($880,000) pay a tax rate of 24 percent whereas Spaniards earning that much pay a rate of 43 percent, the highest in the Spanish tax code.

The proposal announced this week would eliminate that disparity. Parliament is scheduled to vote on the budget by the end of the year.

When the tax proposal was announced Tuesday, Astiazaran told The AP, "we do not rule out halting league play."

The league argues that eliminating the tax break would hurt Spain's ability to compete for top-flight players. If that were to happen, the league says stadium attendance, television ratings and revenue would also fall.

With the law as it is, "the league is better, the television value rises, fans go out to the stadium and this is a dynamic that generates wealth," Astiazaran said.

-- Jorge Sainz

CAS temporarily suspends Chelsea's transfer ban

LAUSANNE, Switzerland — The Court of Arbitration for Sport has suspended Chelsea's transfer ban until it can reach a final decision on the club's appeal.

The court's decision Friday almost certainly frees Chelsea to acquire players when the international transfer market reopens in January.

FIFA had banned the Premier League club from signing players for the next two transfer windows for breaking rules in acquiring French teenager Gael Kakuta from Lens in 2007. Chelsea appealed to CAS against the FIFA ruling that cut the London club out of the market until January 2011.

CAS did not say when it expected to reach a final decision. It could take several weeks to arrange an appeal hearing and several more for the panel of arbitrators to reach a verdict.

MANCHESTER, England — Rio Ferdinand has been ruled out of Manchester United's meeting with Premier League leader Chelsea on Sunday because of what the club suspects is a back injury.

The England defender has sat out the defending champions' past three games with a calf problem but manager Alex Ferguson says the injury may have been misdiagnosed.

Ferguson says "we are having to look at something different because usually you are back from a calf injury within two or three weeks."

United trails Chelsea by two points at the top of the standings.

Ferguson: Kuszczak and Van der Sar are friends

MANCHESTER, England — Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson says Tomasz Kuszczak was only joking when he claimed that fellow goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar refuses to give advice to his less experienced colleague.

Kuszczak and Ben Foster act as backup to van der Sar at United and the Poland international told the club's television channel that the Dutch veteran could help the pair develop into top 'keepers but chooses not to.

Responding to Kuszczak's comment that "maybe Edwin doesn't like me," Ferguson said "Tomasz was cracking a joke. He was laughing when he said it. There is no problem between him and Edwin: maybe it is just that Polish humor doesn't translate to British humor."

UEFA charges Unirea after fans miss start of match

NYON, Switzerland — UEFA has charged Unirea Urziceni with poor organization after fans missed the start of a Champions League match against Rangers.

UEFA said Friday that entry procedures at the 30,000-capacity Steaua Stadium in Romania's capital Bucharest left fans queuing and late for the match Wednesday.

UEFA's disciplinary committee will deal with the case on Nov. 12.

Unirea is using the home of rival club Steaua Bucharest in the Champions League because its 7,000-capacity stadium in Urziceni does not meet UEFA standards.

Rangers also faces a disciplinary hearing next week because of its fans' behavior during the match, which finished 1-1.

Capello unveils Ramsey sculpture at Wembley

SOFIA, Bulgaria — Lyuboslav Penev has resigned as coach of CSKA Sofia after a disagreement with club owners.

Penev had suspended nine players who had been spotted at nightclubs in violation of team disciplinary rules. But the club's owners overruled his decision and ordered them back to the squad ahead for Thursday's Europa League game at FC Basel.

Penev announced his decision in a letter to owners Dimitar Borisov and Ivo Ivanov. The letter was published Friday by Bulgaria's state news agency, BTA.

CSKA lost its last four games, including twice against FC Basel.