Soccer Capsules: U.S.-Iran soccer game could be in works
TEHRAN, Iran - A soccer game between the United States and Iran this fall could be in the works.
The possibility exists after the head of Iran's soccer federation said Monday he received a proposal from his U.S. counterpart about an exhibtion game in October or November.
The U.S. Soccer Federation would say only that "it's normal for multiple federations to contact each other about the possibility of playing a match on available international dates."
Iran Football Federation chief Ali Kafashian told the Fars news agency the Iranians are considering the offer. But USSF spokesman Neil Buethe would neither confirm nor deny the offer. He said depending how World Cup qualifying goes, there could be open dates in November, but those could be filled by other teams looking for matches.
He said there were a "lot of different factors" to consider before any "serious conversations" about actually playing a match.
"Any discussions we have with other federations are kept internal until we have a signed agreement," said Buethe.
This wouldn't be the first time that sports has cut through the nearly 30-year diplomatic freeze between the U.S. and Iran. Weightlifters, basketball players and other athletes have taken part in exchanges in recent years. But a soccer match would be an extremely high-profile event in Iran, where the sport is a national passion.
U.S. women rout Canada 4-0
TORONTO - Shannon Boxx, Megan Rapinoe, Lindsay Tarpley, and Lauren Cheney scored to lead the United States to a 4-0 victory over Canada in a friendly Monday night.
The top-ranked Americans spoiled the home debut of Canada coach Carolina Morace.
The defending Olympic gold medalists signed on to play the game earlier this month after Japan pulled out; the Americans were making their first trip north of the border in eight years. They caught the 11th-ranked Canadians for an early goal and it was almost all United States from that point on.
Boxx scored in the second minute, running onto a pass, taking two steps and firing a shot from just outside the penalty area past goalkeeper Karina LeBlanc and into the left corner of the net.
Rapinoe gave the Americans a two-goal lead in injury time before the break, hitting a shot from just inside the box that tucked into the lower right corner of the net.
Tarpley's goal came in the 77th minute from a scramble in front of the net off a corner kick, and the Americans would score again in the 80th, with Cheney connecting on a cross from Heather O'Reilly and heading it backward into the net
"The Canadians are always a challenge for us because they're a tough strong team, but now you can see they're working the ball, they're possessing," Boxx said. "She wants them to play, not just hit that long ball and hit those tough balls in the air, she wants them to play on the ground."
Neither Canadian star Christine Sinclair nor American striker Abby Wambach was able to connect for her 100th career goal.
The United States is 38-3-4 all-time against Canada, and outshot the host team 18-7.
The Americans controlled play for much of the night with their speed and crisp passes, and neither U.S. goalkeeper, Hope Solo and Nicole Barnhart, had to make a difficult save. Canada's shots either sailed wide or over the net, and the only one on net, by Sinclair in the first half, went straight to Solo's hands, eliciting a groan from the crowd of 10,255.
"Obviously we didn't come out to lose 4-0, but I think we did a lot of good things as a team," said midfielder Kara Lang. "We're all getting used to it, it's a lot of changes but a lot of very, very positive changes, and we're very excited for what's to come."
N. Ireland soccer mob beats Catholic man to death
DUBLIN - Militant Protestant supporters of a Scottish soccer team beat to death a Roman Catholic man in the latest sign of how sports rivalries inspire sectarian bloodshed in Northern Ireland, police and politicians said Monday.
Witnesses said more than 20 Protestant supporters of Glasgow Rangers, many of them wearing the team's blue-and-white jerseys and scarves, drove into a Catholic district of the town of Coleraine after Rangers clinched the Scottish Premier League championship Sunday.
Billy Leonard, a former policeman and politician from the Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein, said several carloads of anti-Catholic extremists came armed with clubs "and literally attacked the first person they came across."
Kevin McDaid, 49, was fatally bludgeoned while his wife, Evelyn, and a 46-year-old Catholic neighbor, Damien Fleming, were both injured. Fleming was reported in critical condition.
Police said they arrested seven men on suspicion of involvement in the attack.
A Presbyterian minister in the town, the Rev. Alan Johnston, said Rangers supporters were drinking heavily while watching Sunday's Rangers victory at pubs in central Coleraine and then drove across a bridge to the Catholic area, Somerset Drive.
A Catholic politician in the town, John Dallat, accused an outlawed Protestant paramilitary group, the Ulster Defence Association, of responsibility.
Rangers enjoys support exclusively from the British Protestant side of the community in Northern Ireland, while archrival Glasgow Celtic draws support only from the Irish Catholics.
Those sectarian allegiances fuel street fighting, and occasionally worse, in both Glasgow and across Northern Ireland, particularly when the two teams play each other or when the annual league championship - typically won by one of the two - is determined. Celtic, league champions the previous three years, finished second Sunday.
Police in forensic suits erected a tent Monday to preserve evidence at the spot where McDaid died. Nearby, someone had tied a green-and-white Celtic scarf to a pole, and teenagers wearing Celtic clothing huddled on street corners drinking from beer cans and shouting anti-Protestant slogans.
The officer leading the murder investigation, Detective Chief Inspector Frankie Taylor, appealed to the Catholic minority in the town not to retaliate.
Taylor said the dead man had four children, did volunteer youth work in the town, and had been encouraging local Catholics to cooperate with Northern Ireland's traditionally Protestant police. He described McDaid as "a man who would do anything for anybody."
In Northern Ireland, where Catholics and Protestants attend separate school systems, sports divide rather than unite the population. Protestants back rugby, Catholics their homegrown Gaelic football and hurling.
Both sides like soccer - but rarely root for the same teams. In international competitions, Catholics back the Republic of Ireland soccer team, Protestants the Northern Ireland squad. Many Belfast pubs refuse to admit customers if they are wearing soccer jerseys or scarves, particularly the rival Glasgow colors, because of the likelihood it will spark a fight.
-- Shawn Pogatchnik
FIFA to pick Brazil cities for 2014 World Cup
ZURICH - FIFA's ruling committee will decide this weekend which 12 cities in Brazil will host matches at the 2014 World Cup, football's governing body said Monday.
The 24-man Executive Committee must choose from 17 candidate cities at a May 30-31 meeting in Nassau, Bahamas, that sets the stage for FIFA's annual Congress next week.
The panel will also hear progress reports from organizers of the eight-nation Confederations Cup - a test event for the 2010 World Cup - being played in South Africa next month, and attempts by suspended federations Ethiopia and Kuwait to regain full status within the global body.
Top of the agenda is the choice of host cities in Brazil, which will be announced Sunday.
A FIFA inspection team visited all 17 cities in January and February.
Executive members agreed last December to have 12 venues instead of 10 after the Brazilian soccer federation asked for a wider spread of matches across the country.
All potential stadiums would hold at least 40,000 spectators.
The 2014 World Cup final is scheduled to be played in the 90,000-capacity Maracana stadium in Rio de Janeiro, which also hosted the final in 1950.
The committee, chaired by President Sepp Blatter, will also work on the agenda for the June 2-3 Congress of the 208 football nations.
FIFA wants to tighten rules that already forbid politicians interfering in the work of independent national associations.
Ethiopia was kicked out of the African qualification tournament for the 2010 World Cup because two factions are battling for control of the national body, while Kuwait's football is currently being run by an interim panel after FIFA issued a ban in response to government interference.
Rome readies security for Champions League final
ROME - About 5,000 ticketless fans are expected for the Champions League final this week between Manchester United and Barcelona.
Thousands of law enforcement officers will patrol the area around Olympic Stadium and the city center as well as airports and subway stations, officials said Monday after a security meeting. The patrols will begin Tuesday, a day before the final.
Bans on alcohol sales will be imposed from Tuesday until the early hours of Thursday.
"Everything that could be done to avoid incidents has been done," Rome Mayor Gianni Alemanno said.
An estimated 67,000 fans are to attend the game, including 30,000 from England and 20,000 from Spain. Many are expected to arrive through Rome's Leonardo da Vinci and Ciampino airports starting Tuesday.
About 5,000 ticketless fans are expected from England, including a few dozen hard-core supporters, and a few dozen from Spain, said Rome police chief Giuseppe Caruso.
Another official, Prefect Giuseppe Pecoraro, warned against counterfeit tickets. He said police had seized fake tickets, although he declined to give numbers, citing an ongoing investigation.
The security plan includes deploying 1,000 stewards inside the stadium. About 500 volunteers of the Civil Protection Department and 1,500 traffic officers will beef up the police and Carabinieri contingent.
Caruso declined to give an overall number of police forces involved. About 30 police officers evenly split from England and Spain will help the Italians.
Burnley wins playoff final to reach Premier League
LONDON - Burnley returned to the top tier of English soccer for the first time in 33 years with a 1-0 win over Sheffield United in Monday's playoff final.
Midfielder Wade Elliott scored in the 13th minute at Wembley, surging past two challenges before getting the ball back and curling it from the edge of the penalty area into the top corner of the net.
"That's probably the best goal I'll ever score," Elliott said. "My mum and dad were sat up in the opposite corner and I thought about running over, but it was too hot."
Burnley finished fifth in the League Championship, two places below its opponent, and joins Wolverhampton Wanderers and Birmingham in going up. Sheffield United was demoted from the Premier League two years ago.
The promotion is likely to be worth more than $63.6 million to Burnley, which will be the 43rd team to play in the Premier League. Burnley was relegated from the top tier in 1976, 16 years before the Premier League started.
Wolfsburg introduces new coach Armin Veh
WOLFSBURG, Germany - Armin Veh was introduced as the new coach of Wolfsburg on Monday, two days after the team won the German league title.
He succeeds Felix Magath, who led Wolfsburg to its first Bundesliga championship. Magath left after two seasons to coach Schalke. Veh signed a two-year contract and will also act as manager and club director, as did his predecessor.
Veh coached Stuttgart to the 2007 Bundesliga title after also replacing Magath, who was fired in 2006. Veh lost his job at Stuttgart in November and will now coach a club in the Champions League for a second time.
"His greatest advantage is that he's already won a title; he knows how it's done," Wolfsburg managing director Juergen Marbach said. "And he knows how you go into a new season with a championship behind you."
Barcelona's Henry and Iniesta train with team
BARCELONA, Spain - Barcelona's Thierry Henry and Andres Iniesta haven taken part in the team's final training session before leaving for the Champions League final against Manchester United.
The Spanish champion said on its Web site Monday that neither player went through the entire session at the Camp Nou due to leg injuries, but would likely be available for Wednesday's final at Stadio Olimpico in Rome.
Henry injured his right knee in a 6-2 win at Real Madrid on May 2, while Iniesta hurt his right thigh in a 3-3 draw with Villarreal on May 10.
Henry has scored 25 goals this season but missed the 1-1 semifinal draw at Chelsea, where Iniesta's injury-time equalizer sent Barcelona through.
French team to have names in Braille on jerseys
PARIS - France players will have their names written in Braille on their jerseys next month to mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of Louis Braille, the French inventor of a system used by the blind for reading and writing.
Coach Raymond Domenech said Monday the jerseys will be worn for the exhibition game against Nigeria on June 2 in Saint-Etienne.
Braille was born in 1809 and blinded at age 3. His system has been adapted to almost every known language.
The French team's initiative is in partnership with the French federation for the blind. Some of the jerseys will be sold at auction.
Mourinho extends Inter contract to 2012
MILAN - Inter Milan coach Jose Mourinho has signed a contract extension that will keep him at the club until 2012, the team said on its Web site Monday.
Mourinho's original contact took him through 2011, but the Inter management was eager to keep hold of him after Real Madrid expressed interest in hiring him.
Since joining Inter in June 2008 Mourinho has helped Inter win a fourth consecutive Italian title and the Italian Super Cup. But the club made a meek exit at the hands of Manchester United in the first knockout round of the Champions League.
