The Associated Press
Monterrey won the CONCACAF Champions League on Wednesday, with Humberto Suazo’s goal in first half stoppage time giving the Mexican club a 1-0 away win on the night and a 3-2 aggregate victory.
Monterrey booked a place in the FIFA Club World Cup in December, and denied a Salt Lake team that had not previously lost at home in 37 games, stretching back 23 months.
“It is satisfaction. It is joy,” said Monterrey coach Victor Manuel Vucetich, 11-0 in championship finals across various leagues. “All are important, but this one comes with a special prize.”
Real had a week to prepare for the game while Monterrey was playing its eighth game in 27 days.
Yet the Mexicans outlasted RSL, which squandered early scoring chances and couldn’t convert late as it desperately sought a late goal that would have given it the trophy on the away goals rule.
“I told our players if you fall asleep for one minute, this team can punish you,” RSL coach Jason Kreis said.
That’s what happened in stoppage time at the end of the first half on consecutive one-twos between Suazo and Sergio Santana. Santana avoided a defender and gave the ball back to Suazo, who was there to put the ball past RSL goalkeeper Nick Rimando.
Suazo, a Chilean international striker, was also a thorn in RSL’s side during the first leg in Mexico, scoring to give Monterrey a 2-1 lead before Javier Morales equalized in the 89th minute.
Morales had a chance to clinch an even more important late equalizer on Wednesday, but his stoppage time header went wide.
RSL was on the offensive in the first 15 minutes but had nothing to show for it. Fabian Espindola missed an open net in the 9th minute, and Nat Borchers’ header was too weak.
“We couldn’t get that last bounce,” Kreis said. “It’s a major, major disappointment. We’ll see how we go on.”
While the coach said the team must quickly turn its attention back to Major League Soccer, that is easier said than done after the disappointment of missing out on becoming the first MLS team to make the Club World Cup.
“It’s going to be tough,” said captain Kyle Beckerman, who was forced to sit out the game because of accumulated yellow cards. “Everybody in the locker room is pretty hurt right now. So it’s going to take a lot for us to get back.”
<a href="http://msn.foxsports.com/foxsoccer/video?vid=db6e0e08-7c4b-42d2-a4a8-781b477b2345" target="_new" title="">CL Update: Barcelona 1-0 Real Madrid</a>
<a href="http://msn.foxsports.com/foxsoccer/video?vid=38614c72-fbc0-47d6-a60a-72be5aecf8a1" target="_new" title="">CL Update: Barcelona 2-0 Real Madrid</a>
<a href="http://msn.foxsports.com/foxsoccer/video?vid=a48e992c-8691-4f6c-9940-988213faacc1" target="_new" title="">CL Highlights: Barcelona/Real Madrid</a> The Associated Press
Lionel Messi lit up an ill-tempered Champions League semifinal on Wednesday with two goals in the last 15 minutes to give Barcelona a 2-0 victory at 10-man Real Madrid.
Messi guided substitute Ibrahim Afellay’s cross through the legs of goalkeeper Iker Casillas to open the scoring in the 76th minute.
With three minutes to play, the elusive Argentina forward brilliantly ghosted past three defenders before clipping the ball past Madrid goalkeeper Iker Casillas for his 52nd goal of the season, and 11th in the Champions League.
Barcelona dominated throughout but only managed to break through after Pepe was red-carded in the 61st at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium.
Madrid coach Jose Mourinho was sent to the stands for protesting the decision, which left Madrid playing with 10 against Barcelona for the fourth straight game.
Mourinho has seen his team finish with 10 players in his last five matches against Barcelona, counting Inter Milan’s 1-0 defeat at Barcelona in the semifinal return leg last year.
“If I say to (the referee) and to UEFA what I think and feel, my career ends today,” Mourinho said. “One day I hope to get an answer to the question: why?”
It was Barcelona’s first win in three games between the bitter rivals in 12 days after a 1-1 league draw and a 1-0 extra-time Copa del Rey final defeat.
Madrid’s defense in Tuesday’s return leg will be short-handed with Pepe and Sergio Ramos both suspended. Ramos was booked for a foul on Messi in the 53rd.
Mourinho described the second leg in Barcelona as “mission impossible” as he continued to bemoan his side’s treatment by the referee.
“We’ll go there with pride, without Pepe who did nothing, without Ramos who did nothing and the coach who can’t be on the bench,” he said. “If we score a goal they’ll kill us again. It’s a result that is impossible.
“Today showed we have no possibility. And my question is why? I’ll live my whole life with this question but I hope one day to get the answer. Why in a game that was equal did he do what he did? But he won’t answer, he’ll go home because he doesn’t have to answer to anyone.”
Counterpart Pep Guardiola refused to respond to Mourinho’s comments, preferring to congratulate his team’s performance.
“A team that has nine European Cups never gives up on a series, I’m convinced of that,” Guardiola said. “We played a very good game. We controlled their counterattacks, their aerial game which is very dangerous.”
Messi’s 178th goal tied him with Josep Samitier as the third highest scorer for Barcelona, behind only Cesar Rodriguez (235) and Laszlo Kubala (196).
“At 23 he’s the third leading scorer in club history. That’s incredible,” Guardiola said.
Both coaches had stoked tensions on the eve of the match, with Guardiola launching an expletive-filled attack on Mounrinho, and the ill-will spilled over into the match.
Substitute Barcelona ‘keeper Jose Manuel Pinto was the first to be sent off for a red card at halftime as the two teams skirmished while leaving the field.
Pinto’s sending off left Barcelona without a reserve ‘keeper as the frustration of being unable to exploit 70 percent of the possession in the first 45 minutes seemed to boiled over.
Pepe was then harshly sent off after clashing with Daniel Alves as he lunged for a ball and Mourinho was sent to the stands for sarcastically clapping and showing a thumbs up to the fourth official.
“If you know football you know that’s not a yellow card,” said Madrid winger Cristiano Ronaldo, who was limited to testing Barcelona ‘keeper Victor Valdes with a dipping shot before the half and a header over the bar after the restart. “The coach was set to make changes over the last 20 minutes.”
Barcelona dominated possession as expected from the start and Madrid defended while looking for an opportunity to counterattack, which only materialized when Emmanuel Adebayor came on at the start of the second half.
The visitors patiently threaded the ball around and David Villa and Xavi Hernandez nearly put the Catalans ahead with good chances as Madrid clamped down the center with Pepe sticking to Xavi and Messi.
Tensions finally exploded in the 40th when Madrid defender Alvaro Arbeloa was booked after a tussle with Pedro Rodriguez, while Alves was shown a yellow card for a push on Di Maria.
As the second-half minutes ticked down, Madrid looked set to succeed in frustrating Barca, but Pepe’s expulsion complicated things.
Mourinho took a seat in the first row behind the dugout and began scribbling instructions that were passed to assistant coach Aitor Karanka, as he looked to reshuffle his team in the absence of his defensive lynchpin.
But there was no stopping Messi, whose second goal was a wonderful example of his trademark darting run and finish.
Madrid stumbled against Barcelona again at the Bernabeu, where it hasn’t beaten Barcleona in nearly three years—a run of four games.
“The expulsion marred the game,” Casillas said. “We’ll have to see now if anything happens in the return game, which is very complicated from the result.”
Apart from hitting out at the officiating, Mourinho also continued his war of words with Guardiola by insisting that if the Catalans coach wins his second Champions League title it will be marred by Wednesday’s result.
“I’ve won two Champions Leagues and I won them both on the field and they were with two clubs,” the Portuguese coach said. “Josep Guardiola is a fantastic coach, I repeat he is a fantastic coach. But if he wins again then it will be affected by today.”
The Associated Press
Clint Dempsey broke Fulham’s Premier League goalscoring record by netting twice in a 3-0 victory over Bolton on Wednesday.
The American midfielder hooked the ball into the net after 15 minutes and tapped in another three minutes into the second half to take his tally since joining Fulham in 2007 to 33 goals.
Dempsey surpasses fellow American Brian McBride and French midfielder Steed Malbranque, who both scored 32 league goals before leaving Fulham.
After Dempsey’s double, Norway defender Brede Hangeland completed Fulham’s victory with a 65th minute-header.
Fulham soared into the top half of the Premier League standings to ninth, a place and four points behind Bolton with four matches remaining.
Via AFP
A second-string Real Madrid side romped to a 6-3 win over Valencia on Saturday to cut Barcelona’s lead to five points and hammer out a timely warning to their bitter rivals ahead of Wednesday’s Champions League semi-final.
Coach Jose Mourinho fielded just Iker Casillas and Ricardo Carvalho from the side which beat Barcelona in the final of the King’s Cup in midweek as he looked to rest his players before the two Spanish giants meet again in Europe.
Argentina striker Gonzalo Higuain made the most of his opportunity with a hat-trick while Brazilian star Kaka grabbed a brace.
Karim Benzema opened the scoring when the keeper failed to reach a Higuain pass and the Frenchman slotted passed two defenders on the line.
Higuain then slipped the ball home while defender Jeremy Mathieu dawdled in possession.
Still before half time Kaka and Higuain netted from crosses with the Valencia defence again ball watching.
After the break Valencia were a little better with Higuain completing a hat-trick before Roberto Saldado finally got the home side on the score sheet.
A piece of quality from Kaka saw him finish clinically after nutmegging a defender and then Valencia gave some respectability to the scoreline with goals from Jonas Goncalves and Jordi Alba.
Real Madrid waited 18 years to win back the Copa del Rey trophy— only to drop the cup and watch it get crushed under the wheels of a bus.
Only hours after beating archrival Barcelona in the domestic cup final in Valencia, Madrid defender Sergio Ramos let the 15-kilogram (33-pound) cup fall from the top of the team bus during celebrations early Thursday morning in the capital.
The front right wheel of the bus rolled over the trophy before the driver stopped.
Emergency services gathered up the broken pieces and returned them to the bus but the trophy did not reappear at the club’s traditional celebration spot of the Plaza de Cibeles in central Madrid.
“The cup fell, it fell,” Ramos said according to Europa Press agency. “But the cup is OK.”
Later, the Spain defender made light of the incident on Twitter.
“The whole thing about the cup was a misunderstanding, it didn’t fall … it jumped off when it reached Cibeles (the fountain in Madrid where the team celebrates its titles) and saw so many Madrid fans,” Ramos tweeted.
“Hahahaha … but don’t worry … have a good day.”
The club said Thursday that the trophy will be repaired, and that a replica has been placed in the club museum in the meantime.
“It is not in good shape, evidently, it was run over by a bus,” Madrid spokeswoman Marta Santisteban told The Associated Press. “It has to be fixed.”
When the jeweler who made this year’s trophy, Federico Alegre, first heard the news that his creation had been demolished, he couldn’t believe it.
“I thought it was a joke,” Alegre told the Spanish newspaper El Mundo. “But later I saw that it was true. Now I will have to try and repair the damaged cup.”
Once it is whole again, the cup will take its place alongside Madrid’s other silverware in its trophy case at the club museum.
Madrid beat Barcelona 1-0 after extra time on Wednesday, with Cristiano Ronaldo’s header giving the club its first domestic cup since 1993 and its first trophy of any kind in three years.
Spanish reports said 60,000 fans gathered at Cibeles to celebrate the club’s first silverware under coach Jose Mourinho.
“After two complicated years, winning the Copa del Rey is a relief,” Madrid captain Iker Casillas said before following the tradition of wrapping a Madrid insignia and club scarf around the Roman goddess that marks the square.
The Associated Press
Javier Morales scored an 89th-minute equalizer to give Real Salt Lake a 2-2 draw at Monterrey in the first leg of the CONCACAF Champions League final Wednesday.
Aldo De Nigris opened the scoring for Monterrey in the 18th minute, before Nat Borchers headed an equalizer in the 35th for Salt Lake, which is bidding to become the first U.S. club to win the continental title since the Los Angeles Galaxy in 2000.
Suazo put Monterrey ahead again from the penalty spot on the hour, but Morales leveled with a diagonal drive just before the final whistle.
The draw made MLS teams 0-21-4 in competitive matches in Mexico.
But the two away goals put Salt Lake in a positive position ahead of the return leg in Utah next Wednesday.
Salt Lake would be crowned champions with a home win or by holding Monterrey to a 0-0 or 1-1 draw. Monterrey must win or draw 3-3 (or by a higher total) to take the title. A 2-2 draw would lead to extra time and the possibility of penalties.
Victory would also make Salt Lake the first American team to play in the Club World Cup, a December tournament played against the other continental champions including the European Champions League winner and South America’s Copa Libertadores holder.
Monterrey enjoyed the best of the early chances with Humberto Suazo’s shot from the edge of the area forcing Salt Lake goalkeeper Nick Rimando into a flying save to tip the ball over the bar in the ninth minute.
The early pressure paid off when Monterrey’s full back Sergio Perez joined the attack on the right and forced the ball across goal for De Nigris to finish.
De Nigris and captain Luis Perez were forced off with injuries in the 22nd minute, but Monterrey kept pushing and Suazo brought another diving save out of Rimando with a low curling shot in the 25th.
Despite the sluggish start, Salt Lake began to move the ball with greater precision and the equalizer came from a high ball into the box—a traditional weak spot of Mexican teams often exploited by more athletic American sides.
Will Johnson lifted a cross toward the penalty spot and Nat Borchers beat two defenders to the ball to head past goalie Jonathan Orozco.
Monterrey regrouped after the break and controlled possession in the Salt Lake half. Neri Cardozo almost put the home side in front after breaking onto an Osvaldo Martinez pass at the 60-minute mark, but Jamison Olave diverted behind.
Two minutes later, Cardozo’s run and cross down the left was handled by a Salt Lake defender and Suazo sent the penalty into the bottom corner.
Nonetheless, Monterrey’s inconsistent form since winning the Mexican league title in December resurfaced in the final stages.
Salt Lake’s Argentine striker Morales collected the ball on the edge of the box and cut inside Jose Basanta before unleashing a shot across Orozco that nestled in the corner.
Real Madrid claimed their first trophy under Jose Mourinho when Cristiano Ronaldo’s dramatic extra-time winner secured a 1-0 King’s Cup final victory over arch-rivals Barcelona on Wednesday.
With penalties looming in a tense and occasionally brutal clash at Valencia’s Mestalla stadium, the Portuguese forward leaped to crash home a 103rd-minute header from Angel Di Maria’s cross after Barca had dominated the second half.
Di Maria was sent off after receiving his second yellow card just before the end of extra time.
Real’s first domestic cup since 1993 came in Mourinho’s debut season since joining from Inter Milan, denying Pep Guardiola’s Barca, who lead La Liga by eight points, the chance of a second treble in three seasons.
Barca and Real are also due to meet in the two-legged Champions League semi-final on April 27 and May 3.
The Associated Press
American forward Herculez Gomez entered as a second-half substitute and scored his first two goals of the Clausura season in Pachuca’s 3-0 win over Chiapas on Saturday night.
Gomez came in in the 62nd minute and scored in the 70th on a near-post header off Franco Arizala’s cross and in the 78th when he curled a 30-yard free kick over the defensive wall to give Pachuca a 2-0 lead.
A member of last year’s U.S. World Cup team, he signed with Pachuca last May and scored one goal in 14 appearances during the Apertura season.
Last year, he scored 10 goals during the Clausura season and became the first American to win or share the Mexican league’s regular-season scoring title.
The Associated Press
Bayern Munich has fired coach Louis van Gaal with immediate effect, Kicker magazine and other German media reported Sunday.
Van Gaal was due to leave the club at the end of the season, one year early, but the Bayern board decided to fire the 59-year-old Dutchman with five games remaining, according to reports in online editions of Kicker and the Munich-based newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung.
The decision came after Bayern dropped from third place following Saturday’s 1-1 draw in Nuremberg.
Third place is Bayern’s minimum goal because it brings a place in qualifying for the Champions League. The club has virtually no chance of defending its Bundesliga title and is out of other competitions.
There was no immediate reaction from Bayern to the reports. Spokesman Markus Hoerwick said there were “talks” going on.
Van Gaal’s assistant Andries Jonker will coach the team until the end of the season, Kicker said.
Bayern’s next match is against Bayer Leverkusen, whose coach Jupp Heynckes will take over at Bayern next season. Leverkusen is second, six points ahead of Bayern, and still has title chances.
With a win in Munich, Heynckes’ current club could deny his future team a place in the Champions League. Next season’s Champions League final is in Munich and Bayern is keen to qualify for the competition.
Bayern swept the domestic double and reached the Champions League final in van Gaal’s first season. But with Bayern out of the German Cup and the Champions League and faltering in the Bundesliga, the club’s board decided one month ago to terminate van Gaal’s contract one year early at the end of the season.
Bayern won its next three games after announcing van Gaal’s departure but Saturday’s draw, after an early 1-0 lead, left the club one point behind Hannover, which beat Mainz 2-0.
