ellowcardNovember 30 ° 2007

Y

Mourinho to FA: “Come and get me.”

ESPN Soccernet

Jose Mourinho is ready and willing to talk to the Football Association about the vacant England manager”s role.

The former Chelsea boss has emerged as the fans” favou-rite to take over the reins from Steve McClaren, who was dis-missed last week after his fail-ure to lead England to the Euro 2008 finals.

FA chief executive Brian Bar-wick is set to begin his hunt for England”s new boss within the next week - and contrary to

an apparent consensus that he would not be tempted by the job, Mourinho admits he would welcome an approach.

“You will have to speak to the FA to see if they are interested in offering me the job,” he told The Sun.

“I cannot say what I think until they say they are interested. Tell the FA to come and get me.

“We will have to wait and see, but I rule nothing out.”

Meanwhile, England and Chelsea captain John Terry believes it would be “fantastic” to play for the national team

under former manager Jose Mourinho.

Terry was Mourinho”s linch-pin during two Premier League title-winning seasons at Chel-sea and, having left Stamford Bridge in September.

It would be an appointment Terry would roundly welcome.

“Jose is a fantastic manager and I would like to work with him again,” the Blues skipper told Chelsea TV.

“To be with England would be fantastic. I”m sure he would love it and one day he could be England manager.”

Inside today:‘Roos want England

Beck’s world tourSeattle: The new MLS destination

Wire Reports

Cristiano Ronaldo was the match-winner against former side Sporting Lisbon for the second time this season, fir-ing home a stunning injury-time free kick as United came from behind to maintain their 100 per cent record in this season’s Champions League.

The Reds had seemed set to make do with a solitary point, having drawn level through Car-los Tevez’s second-half strike after Sporting defender Abel had given the visitors a shock lead after 21 minutes.

The result means United are now guaranteed to progress to the knockout stages as Group F winners, regardless of the result in next month’s group finale against second-placed Roma.

Sevilla 3, Arsenal 1rsenal lost their long unbeat-

en record and top spot in Group H after slumping to a Champi-ons League defeat by a domi-nant Sevilla tonight.

Arsenal had not been beat-en in a competitive match since the start of April, but goals from Seydou Keita, Luis Fabiano and former Tottenham striker Freder-ic Kanoute saw victorious Sevilla join the already-qualified Gun-ners in progressing through to the last 16.

Eduardo Da Silva scored for Arsenal but it was not enough to save Arsene Wenger’s men, and they will need to beat Steaua

Bucharest in their final match and hope Sevilla slip up against Slavia Prague to clinch first place.

Chelsea 4, Rosenborg 0Chelsea secured their place

in the knockout stages of the Champions League with a com-prehensive 4-0 victory over Rosenborg in Trondheim.

A brace of goals from Didi-er Drogba and a 40-yard free-kick from Brazilian defender Alex had given Chelsea a com-manding first-half lead over the Norwegians.

Chelsea then spurned a host of chances in the second period before Joe Cole added a fourth goal in the 73rd minute.

The Blues had their hosts on the ropes from the kick-off in the

Lerkendal Stadium with Drogba going close from an acute angle in the second minute.

Liverpool 4, FC Porto 1Liverpool’s Champions

League survival fight will go right down to the wire with vic-tory in their final game against Marseille now required.

As a statement of support for under-pressure coach Rafael Benitez it was a pretty conclu-sive effort both on and off the pitch as Fernando Torres’ double saw the Reds through a poten-tially difficult night after Lisan-dro Lopez had levelled for the Portuguese outfit.

However a penalty from Ste-ven Gerrard and tap in from Peter Crouch meant Mercyside’s hopes were still alive.

Premier League

Grant claims conspiracy against Blues

ESPN Soccernet

Chelsea coach Avram Grant wants `positive” talks with the Football Association after insisting his side are being targeted by card-happy officials.

Grant unleashed an icy blast at the FA after Michael Essien”s red card appeal was rejected and Chel-sea were charged with failing to ensure its players conducted them-selves in an orderly fashion follow-ing his dismissal for violent conduct against Derby on Saturday.

Grant”s frosty riposte was as chilly as the snow-covered streets of Trondheim which greeted his team

ahead of tomorrow night”s Cham-pions League clash with Group B”s surprise package Rosenborg.

Victory for Chelsea will ensure their qualification for the knockout stages as group winners but Essien”s red card and the latest charge from the FA overshadowed their prepa-rations.

Grant insisted that the FA were wrong to charge them with any offence even though Chelsea”s play-ers surrounded referee Andre Marri-ner in the wake of Essien”s dismissal.

And Grant is so concerned that his side are being targeted too readily by officials after his play-ers collected three red cards since

he replaced axed Jose Mourinho in September, that he wants talks with the FA.

Grant declared: “I think the hand is on whistle too easy against us. All the red cards are too easy, they are not red cards. I saw what hap-pened with Michael Essien.

“I just know the facts. The red card against Man Utd (Mikel John Obi) was not a red card, the red card against Ful-ham was not a red card for Didier Drogba and the red card for Michael was not a red card.”

By Dale JohnsonESPN Soccernet

Football fans are a fickle bunch. It’s only a few months ago that Newcastle fans were ready for the long haul of a major rebuild-ing process under Sam Allardyce, even if he was not the most pop-ular of appointments. Thirteen games in and the vultures are not just circling but ready to swoop down and pluck him from the St James’ Park hot seat.

It’s an all too familiar facet of the modern game that impa-tience often brings irrational reaction.

Billy Davies’ exit from Derby County on Monday means almost a quarter of managers in the Eng-lish professional leagues have been ousted since the start of the season. It’s a remarkable state of

affairs when we haven’t reached the end of November.

The speed of Allardyce’s demise on Tyne-side is all the more surpris-

ing considering that the Magpies are actually eight points better off than at the same point last season. And despite the apparent gulf in class from the 4-1 home defeat to Portsmouth they are still just eight points behind Pompey, who occu-py the likely second UEFA Cup spot, with a game in hand.

Granted, the 3-0 reversal against Liverpool in similarly worrying fashion was hardly the reaction Allardyce would have been looking for but the support-ers in the north east need to con-

sider the bigger picture.‘You don’t know what you’re

doing’, ‘Big Sam for England’ and ‘We’ve only had one shot’ could be heard from the stands during what was a dismal performance against Rafael Benitez’s side. Benitez, incidentally, is the only manager in front of Allardyce in the betting for the next manage-rial casualty.

Allardyce’s response was to lock the players in the changing rooms for 40 minutes and call them in for an extra training ses-sion on Sunday.

Is the need for a team which plays ‘sexy football’ so great that it matters above all else? Do they really believe that sacking Allardyce and replacing him with a manager with a better media profile for his style of football will bring success any sooner?

The fans still long for the foot-ball of the Kevin Keegan and the Sir Bobby Robson eras and are finding it increasingly difficult to adapt to Allardyce’s more func-tional style. But pretty football does not necessarily equal suc-cessful football.

This is a results business and it’s certain that if Newcastle’s record over the past seven games had been somewhat better than seven points out of a possible 21 few would be so critical.

Would any Chelsea fan - both those from pre and post Roman Abramovich - change the sil-verware-laden three-season era of Jose Mourinho just because they were not exactly entertain-ers? Maybe the purest of purists would grumble but when your team is winning it’s hard to find cause for complaint.

Commentary

For Toons and Big Sam, patience is a virtue

Sam Allardyce

Premier League TableTeam PD W D L PT

Arsenal 13 10 3 0 33

ManUtd 14 9 3 2 30

ManCity 14 9 2 3 29

Chelsea 14 8 4 2 28

Liverpool 13 7 6 0 27

Portsmouth 14 7 5 2 26

AstonVilla 13 7 3 3 24

Everton 14 7 2 5 23

Blackburn 13 6 5 2 23

WestHam 13 5 4 4 19

Newcastle 13 5 3 5 18

Fulham 14 2 7 5 13

Reading 14 4 1 9 13

Tottenham 14 2 6 6 12

Bolton 14 2 5 7 11

Birmingham 14 3 2 9 11

Midd’brough 14 2 4 8 10

—————————————

Sunderland 14 2 4 8 10

Wigan 14 2 2 10 8

Derby 14 1 3 10 6

New deals all around at Man. U

Wire Reports

John O’Shea signed a new long-term contract extension with Manches-ter United on Friday and went on to play a key role in the Reds’ Champions League comeback over Sporting.

Although O’Shea could undoubtedly gain more first-team experience away from United, he is one of those who believes one game for the Red Devils is worth 10 anywhere else.

And, having committed his future to the club until 2012, the 26-year-old feels he can look forward to collecting plenty of major prizes.

‘I feel like I am going to be part of something special,’ he said.

Meanwhile, Patrice Evra still has one-and-a-half year deal to run but United boss Sir Alex Ferguson is appar-ently set to get the former Monaco man tied down on a long-term basis.

Evra’s representative Federico Pas-torello told skysports.com: “Patrice is under contract until 2009 and he is very happy at Manchester United.

Nemanja Vidic has also signed a two-year contract extension that will keep him at United until 2012.

The Serbian defender, who signed on Christmas Day 2005 from Spartak Moscow in a £7million deal, had a dif-ficult start to his Old Trafford career but has gone on to be one of the most influential players at the club.

Yellowcard ° November 30 ° 2007

Champions League Roundup

Ronaldo’s revenge sinks Sporting

Cristiano Ronaldo scored with a superb freekick in the 90th minute to give United a 2-1 win. It was the second time in two games against Sporting Lisbon that he had scored against his old club. Getty Images photo

Coaching carousel

Jewell excited by Derby County testESPN Soccernet

New Derby County manag-er Paul Jewell insisted he would not ‘wave the white flag’ in the club’s battle with relegation - but accepts he faces one of the toughest challenges of his career.

Jewell, who left his job as Wigan Athletic manager after keeping them up on the final day of last season, was unveiled on Wednesday morning as Billy Davies’ replacement and his first task is to get the Rams off the bottom of the Premier League.

But despite the side’s per-ilous situa-tion, Jewell insists a first-time return to the Champi-onship is not a foregone con-

clusion.“It’s going to be very diffi-

cult but I’m not here to wave the white flag. We’re not adrift,” Jew-ell said.

Meanwhile, Alex McLeish offi-cially traded the St. Andrew’s

Cross of Scotland in for the St. Andrew’s stadia as he was unveilled as the new manager of Birmingham City.

McLeish, 48, resigned as Scot-land coach on Tuesday after nar-rowly missing out on leading the country to next year’s Euro 2008.

He replaces Steve Bruce who has moved to rivals Wigan.

‘I always had the desire to come to the Premiership and I’d love to be managing in the Pre-miership for a considerable time,’ said McLeish, who signed a 3-1/2-year deal.

Paul Jewell

Chel-sea’s Avram Grant

doesn’t believe

any of the 3 red cards shown since his arrival at Stamford Bridge were warranted and seeks explana-

tion from the FA. Associ-ated Press photo

ESPN Soccernet

Sven-Goran Eriksson intends to make ‘very few’ additions to his Manchester City squad in the Jan-uary transfer window.

The former England boss has already sent his wish list to Thaksin Shinawatra - and has been pleased with the owner’s response.

Eriksson is looking to build on the club’s bright start to the sea-son. They go into the Barclays Pre-mier League match at Wigan on Saturday in third place.

He said: ‘My list (of players ) is very long but it will get shorter.

‘I had a very good meeting with our owner. It was very positive.

‘I informed him who we might be interested in. He was not too shocked which was good. He said

at the end of the meeting ‘go on’.’On the matter of how many

players he would like to recruit, Eriksson said: ‘It depends on how much money is available.

‘It won’t be like August when we took in eight players. It will be very few.

‘We are not going to gamble. We have a good squad and a good base.’

Eriksson is comfortable with

transfer windows now he has returned to club management.

However, if there was to be a change he would like to see a dis-satisfied player be able to move on freely if it suited him and the club.

‘Perhaps the window should be more open than closed,’ said Eriksson.

‘Maybe you buy a player in August and for some reason if things don’t go as you hope, it should not be necessary for him to stay one year when he is not playing.’

Meanwhile, Brazil playmak-er Elano has been ruled out of the Wigan game because of a ham-string injury.

Eriksson said: ‘He is having a scan and we do not know at the moment how long he will be out for.’

So it’s been over 40 years since Eng-land has hoisted the World Cup. Yet in the last decade, the country that gave the world football to begin with will have missed a pair of major competitions.

The last time a team with ‘Pre-mier’ players were underachiev-ing, a certain highly touted Por-tugese came along to, quite literal-ly, kick the team into gear.

Jose Mourinho, love him or hate him, did miraculous things at Chelsea and almost immediately. While bringing in the likes of Didi-er Drogba, he knew the top XI didn’t always mean the best XI.

Now Mourinho is available again and underachieving team is in need. The “Special One” has virtually dared the Football Association to give him a shot at not only taking England to the 2010 World Cup, but dare I say, winning it? Mourinho would have no other goal.

After Sven-Goran Erikson’s playing favorites with the likes of Michael Owen and David Beckham and Steve McClaren’s constant second-guessing of his squad, the team needs stability. International football is a stop-and-go beast to begin with, often with long layoffs, and someone unafraid to make tough deci-sions with Premier League expe-rience is necessary.

But adding Mourinho to the bench wouldn’t just help things on the pitch. England is making a genuine attempt at hosting the 2018 World Cup. However, with UEFA President Michael Plati-ni against the country, the team needs to improve its image on the world stage.

Danny Jordaan, who led South Africa’s successful attempt at 2010 believes the country has a legitimate shot ... if they can start making more friends than ene-mies. Hiring a heavily respected international manager, well that’d be a good start.

PA

Another dazzling performance from £9.6million man Ashley Young swept Aston Villa to their fourth consecutive victory and left them within touching dis-tance of the Premier League’s top four.

Martin O’Neill’s men stand just one point behind Chelsea and few would dare bet against them challenging for a Cham-pions League place on the evi-dence of their 4-0 rout of 10-man Blackburn.

John Carew snatched Villa’s opener against the run of play in the 29th minute but from that moment on the visitors were in command and when Ryan Nelsen was sent off in the 53rd minute there was only going to

be one winner.Nelsen hauled down Young in

the box and Gareth Barry swept

home the resulting spot-kick before late goals from Young and late substitute Marlon Harewood completed victory.

It was easy to forget Rovers had dominated the first half hour only to be denied by a mixture of poor finishing and fine saves from Scott Carson before Carew struck.

England number one Carson, given a torrid time at Middles-brough at the weekend, received more of the same again at Ewood Park but kept his nerve to keep Villa on level terms.

“Scott was booed because people are hurting [after Eng-land’s failure to qualify for Euro 2008], but he’s come through it well and I’m pleased for him,” O’Neill said. “Gareth was ter-rific in his captain’s role. He was majestic.”

Yellowcard ° November 30 ° 2007Barclay’s Premier League ° Nov. 30

Harry Redknapp: Embroiled in the bungs probe. Getty Images photo by Stu Forster

Harry Redknapp arrested

ESPN Soccernet

Portsmouth have confirmed that manager Harry Redknapp and chief executive Peter Storrie are among five men arrested Wednes-day by anti-corruption police.

The men, aged 69, 60, 55, 48 and 30, were taken into custo-dy as officers swooped on eight addresses across the UK.

The raids were part of the

force’s economic crime unit’s investigation into alleged bungs in the game.

Last year the FA brought in for-mer Metropolitan Police commis-sioner Lord Stevens and his com-pany, Quest, to carry out a sepa-rate inquiry into suspect transfers.

A City of London Police spokes-woman said: “Five men have been arrested on suspicion of conspira-cy to defraud and false accounting

as part of an ongoing investigation into football corruption.”

A 61-year-old man was held in May on suspicion of money laun-dering and a 28-year-old - wide-ly rumoured to be Tottenham defender Pascal Chimbonda - was questioned in September.

Police also searched Newcastle, Portsmouth and Rangers as well as two homes during a series of raids in July.

Pompey boss among 5 swooped in bungs prope

Ramos wants

Defoe at Spurs

Sky Sports News

Striker Jermain Defoe has stalled on signing an extension at White Hart Lane as he looks to establish himself as a first-team regular.

This season, Defoe has made 10 appearances in the Premier League, but he has started only once and has yet to score.

He was urged by Spurs chair-man Daniel Levy to commit his future to the club earlier this week, with his present deal expir-ing in 2009.

Tottenham boss Ramos feels the England international wants to stay put and expects contract talks to reach a successful conclu-sion. This comes admist persistent rumors that Alex Ferguson would like to bring him or counterpart Dimitar Berbatov to Old Trafford in the January transfer window.

“He has expressed sometimes that he would like to stay in the club and he likes the club,” said Ramos on Sky Sports News.

“Of course, there are some difficulties with the contract, but it is nothing major.”

Meanwhile, Defoe will miss Spurs’ UEFA Cup tie with Aalborg today due to illness.

Despite illness, Tottenham keen to keep striker from

moving to Manchester.

Villa swarm over 10-man Rovers

Gareth Barry’s penalty was a dagger into Blackburn’s heart. Getty photo

J u s t i n B e ck e t t Edi tor ’s Corner

England deserves

a ‘special’ manager

Press Pass

Since his arrival in England in 2005, Liverpoool’s Jose ‘Pepe’ Reina has established himself as one of the best ‘keepers in the Premier League.

Q. Hi Pepe, what do you feel about the title race, do you think Liverpool have a good chance?

A. I hope so, it is a long race - I have said it many times and it is quite early to talk about that but all that we want is to be involved until the end and fight for that. We know it is going to be tough, there are good sides involved in the race but we are Liverpool and we have good quality to show that we can be contenders.

Q. At the very beginning of the season you started so well, it was fantastic but then there was a dip in form, what do you think hap-pened?

A. I don’t know. Something was wrong and we were not playing our best but that is normal, no? At any point of the season some teams will drop as we did and it is normal because you can’t be at a high level all the time. Let’s see if we can keep getting the results that we got in the last week and keep winning.

Q. Jerzy Dudek was the star of

Istanbul, does it make you feel that you want the Champions League even more?

A. Of course, that is one of my dreams. My dad played one final and I played another one, neither one of us has won it so let’s try and reach another final and final-ly win it.

Q. What do you think about Fernando Torres as a player?

A. He is a great player, a key player for us, an impor-tant striker around the world. Obviously for Spain and for Liverpool he is a really good player. He is still quite young and has a long way to go, but in the next few years he is going to become one of the most important strik-ers ever.

Q. As a fellow Span-iard have you helped him settle in to the Eng-lish game?

A. As much as I can, it is important. I felt that way when I came with Fer-nando Morientes and Luis Garcia and people like this.

Q. What are your expectations for Spain?

A. Go little by lit-

tle because all of the time we are so optimistic before the tourna-ments and afterwards it is, excuse me, a pain in the ass when you go out and you go back that early. So let’s respect the teams that will be involved in the Euro 2008 and see what we can do.

Q. & A.

Reina wants to lead Liverpool as No. 1

Big spending Sven eyes more targets

Eriksson has made his intentions known to City’s owner. Getty photo

ESPN Soccernet

Sir Alex Ferguson has vowed to do everything he can to help find England”s next manager.

Twenty-four hours after it was confirmed Ferguson would be among a hand-picked group of football men FA chief executive Brian Barwick would talk to over hiring Steve McClaren”s succes-sor, the Manchester United man-ager accepted he had a part to play.

There might be a certain iro-ny in such a fiercely patriotic Scot speaking on St Andrew”s Day about helping England but, after 21 years as United boss, Ferguson knows his experience can prove invaluable as Barwick begins the hunt for a man who can restore the fortunes of a national team who so miserably failed to reach Euro 2008.

“Obviously, I will try to help the situation,” he said.

“A lot of people want to do

that because it is important to our game that England get the right man to replace Steve and try to drive the team on.

“It is not easy to get interna-tional managers. It is not an easy job and it is not an easy selection process.

“No-one at the FA has spoken to me and I don”t know if they will or not but there is nothing wrong with them asking football people.”

It was reported earlier this week that Ferguson had informed a friend he would put Jose Mourinho at the top of his hit-list.

Ferguson denies making the actual comments, although he agrees Mourinho would have to come under serious consideration

if he declared an interest.“Obviously, if Jose wanted it,

he would be a consideration,” he said.

“But if Arsene Wenger said he was interested, he would be a consideration. If I said I was inter-ested, I would be a consideration.

“First of all, it is about who wants the job and then who has the qualifications for it.”

While Wenger has made it clear he has no intention of leav-ing Arsenal and Ferguson could not even consider the prospect of managing England, Mourinho has been somewhat evasive on the actual issue of whether he would welcome the opportunity of tak-ing on such a high-pressure, if highly-paid role.

England Yellowcard ° November 30 ° 2007

David Beckham curls a freekick in a previous England-Australia match. TonyMarshall/Empics

Socceroos want England showdownESPN Soccernet

Australia’s football boss-es are hoping England may agree to play a friendly international down under next spring.

The Football Federation Australia believe England’s failure to qualify for Euro 2008 may have provided the opportunity to arrange the fixture.

The proposed Austra-lia-England clash would be played in either Sydney or Melbourne, with May the most likely month.

FFA director Phil Wolan-ski said: ‘Nothing has been signed off, as far as I am aware, but there are vari-ous negotiations and dis-cussions going on at any one stage.

“When they are plan-ning their internation-al programme the boys (at the FFA) are looking at who’s available and where and when.

“Considering England are out of ‘Euro’, their cal-endar would be looking very different to what it normally would be. Australia-England is always an attractive match in any sport.”

Former England captain David Beck-ham, currently in Australia with his club Los Angeles Gal-axy, reluctant-ly recalled his country’s last meeting with the Socceroos - a 3-1 defeat in February 2003.

“For England, when you’re wearing an England shirt, there is no friendly game, especially when it’s against Australia,” he said.

“There’s rival-ries all the way

through sport with Eng-land and Australia, with the cricket and the rugby.

“That was a big game for us; we took it serious-

ly and we lost out in the end. They played very well.”

Aus-tralian Tim Cahill makes his living at Everton but could take on England soon.AP photo

Barwick canvases opinions in search for new manager

Wire Reports

Brian Barwick today told Football Association directors he will consult leading figures from at home and abroad in his search for a ‘world-class manager’ to be Steve McClaren’s successor as Eng-land head coach.

Barwick reported to the FA board that he has already canvassed opinion from England captain John Terry, UEFA president Michel Platini, Germany legend Franz Beckenbauer and Wales manager John Toshack.

Now Barwick and Sir Trevor Brooking, the organi-sation’s director of football development, have drawn up a list of other leading figures they will consult in their search.

These include England vice-captain Steven Ger-rard, Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson, Sir Bobby Charlton plus former England managers Sir Bobby Robson, Glenn Hoddle and Graham Taylor.

The FA chief executive told them he and Brook-ing were looking for a manager of the very highest calibre.

Barwick did not mention any names to the board members but his comments would make it less like-ly for Alan Shearer to be McClaren’s successor given that he has no managerial experience.

Barwick met Brooking yesterday to decide their tactics for finding the best man for the job.

An FA insider said: ‘The chief executive told the board that he was determined to get a manager with world-class credentials.

ESPN Soccernet

England captain John Terry has spoken of the pain caused by fail-ing to qualify for Euro 2008 - and how he does not want to leave his home and face the public.”It”s going to take a very long time for the public to get over it,” admitted the Chelsea defender. “For us as well, you don”t want to come out of your house or people to see you.

“As time goes on things heal and it gets easier but at the same time when you walk down the street or are out you wonder whether people are looking at you but life goes on.”

Terry missed the 3-2 defeat against Croatia at Wembley through injury and the defeat cost Steve McClaren his job as coach along with assistant Terry Venables.

But he has since returned to action with Chelsea - helping them to a victory over Derby in the Bar-

clays Premier League and into the last 16 of the Champions League thanks to a 4-0 thump-ing of Rosen-borg in Trond-heim last night.

England”s players were booed by fans during league games last weekend and Terry admits that he is still feeling the repercus-sions from their failure to reach the finals of the competition next summer.

Terry said: “It was very disap-pointing as captain this happening but we have to make it work in the World Cup now.

“The draw has been made and we have a chance. The players need to reform and have a good chat about what direction we are going to move in and go forward.

“It would be nice to play Croa-

tia and get what happened out of our system. They are a good side and it will be tough home and away. They showed how hungry they were at Wembley and that surprised a few of us because they had already qualified.

“We will have to face that wher-ever we go in the world and that is firmly in our minds. Hopefully that will help us do ourselves justice in the qualifiers.

“We have got a chance to prove ourselves in that group and we need that, the country needs it. We can do that and bring the country up again and get the fans back on our side. We have let them down and will move on.”

Terry watched from the sidelines as England failed to overcome Cro-atia but confessed that he came close to playing after almost recov-ering from knee surgery.

He said: “I feel fine now, a bit sharper after two games and it is

great to be back. I had a few con-versations with a few people - the manager and the medical staff at England and Chelsea.

“But it was four and a half weeks after my operation and I had only done a bit of running on my own at the training ground, trained with the youth team and then went over to England, so it was probably about a day”s full training.

“Going into a game like that I wouldn”t have done the lads any favours at all. I would always play if I am asked but you have to think of the bigger picture and if I had to come off after 50 or 60 minutes because of the injury then I would have been no good to anybody.

“It is different if you are an attacking player. Maybe the boss would have stuck me on the bench if it was Wayne Rooney but there was not much I could have brought to the game late on.”

Terry haunted by 3 Lions failure

John Terry

Following the lead of many of his EPL compatriots, Sir Alex Ferguson will assist the FA in its search for a new England coach. Getty Images photo

Fergie to help in

manager search

U16 Lions take down Scotland

By Matt PhillipsThe Football Association

Jonjo Shelvey kept up his goal-a-game Victory Shield record as England claimed their seventh title in a row at Falkirk on Thurs-day night.

The Charlton midfielder latched onto Jose Baxter’s superb through-ball in first-half injury time and beat Celtic’s Connor Fairley with a cool finish from ten yards.

Shelvey had opened up Eng-land’s Victory Shield campaign with a close- range strike against Northern Ireland back in October before ending Welsh hopes with a terrific curling free kick earlier this month.

Baxter then found the net himself in the second half, scor-ing his second penalty in as many games after a foul on Elford-Alliyu but Scotland’s response was immediate.

Substitute Kal Naismith had barely been on the pitch 30 sec-onds when he was felled by Steer in the box and the lanky Rangers hitman got up to stroke the spot-kick home.

MLS Yellowcard ° November 30 ° 2007

Associated Press

SYDNEY, Australia -- David Beckham gave a crowd of 80,295 just what it

came to see: some drama and a goal from a trademark, curling free kick.

Having limped around for almost 20 minutes after injuring his left ankle, the former Eng-land captain scored the Los Angeles Galaxy’s only first-half goal in an exhibition against Sydney FC on Tuesday.

The Galaxy scored two more goals in the second half, but lost 5-3 to Sydney.

Beckham, trailed by paparazzi and constant-ly under the media gaze at

a series of celebrity and sponsor events since arriving Sunday, ful-

filled his playing obliga-tions in Sydney.

“It was an enter-

taining match for the 80,000 fans. That’s what they wanted, to see some goals and to see a bit of an exhibition -- they got that,” he said.

With his team trailing 3-0, Beckham lined up a free kick from 24 yards out just before halftime. He then sent his trademark bending kick over the defensive wall and into the top-left corner of the net.

“I was really happy to score tonight because of the amount of fans and the attention that there has been on myself and this game,” Beck-ham said. “It’s nice once again to get a free kick -- people expect you to do it every time from that position. I practice it enough.”

Organizers of the Galaxy’s match against the Wellington Phoenix on Saturday hope to break the all-time record for a soccer crowd in New Zealand, the 31,000 mark set in 1982 when New Zealand played Kuwait on the way to that year’s World Cup finals.

By the time of Beckham’s arrival Thursday, almost 30,000 tickets had been sold and around 5,000 more remained to be sold before full house signs could be displayed at Wellington’s Westpac Stadium.

Galaxy fall to Sydney, move on to NZ Seattle lands next

MLS franchiseAssociated Press

SEATTLE — The call came unsolicited, from a powerful Hollywood executive whom Don Garber didn’t know.

The commissioner of Major League Soccer quickly learned Joe Roth wasn’t just a soccer fan poking around at the idea of putting some money into the MLS. Roth was serious in wanting his own franchise.

“Cold call,” Garber said. “He said, ‘My name is Joe Roth and I want to talk to you about coming into MLS.’”

That was in February. On Tuesday, the MLS formal-ly announced that Seat-tle would become its 15th franchise, beginning play in 2009, concluding the long

wait for Pacific Northwest soccer fans.

The yet-to-be-named team will play at Qwest Field, home of the Seattle Seahawks. The expansion Tuesday makes Seattle the league’s 15th club and fol-lows the rebirth of the San Jose Earthquakes, who will start play in 2008.

“I woke up one morning in February and told my wife I wanted to start an MLS franchise,” said Roth, who will be the majority owner of the Seattle franchise.

The other members of the ownership group include Paul Allen’s Vulcan Sports and Entertainment, actor and “The Price is Right” host Drew Carey and Adri-an Hanauer, owner of the Seattle Sounders of the Unit-

ed Soccer Leagues. Hanau-er will serve as the general manager.

Once Roth established his interest in starting a team, Garber pointed Roth to the Pacific Northwest, where Seattle, Portland, Ore., and Vancouver, British Columbia, had all expressed interest in a franchise.

After studying the three markets, Roth settled on Seattle, partnering with Allen’s group and Hanau-er. Having a suitable facil-ity already in place certain-ly helped.

“I didn’t have a desti-nation, just an idea,” Roth said. “I told [Garber] I want to help grow a franchise in a city and I want to be involved with the growth of the league in general.”

The stadium was built with a public-private part-nership and was pitched to voters as being a home for the Seahawks and top-level soccer. The upper deck of the stadium will be blocked off, creating an intimate 24,500-seat venue in the lower bowl.

“Without Vulcan sports, we wouldn’t have had a facility that would allow this team to come in in 2009,” Garber said. “We’ve been trying for many years with Adrian and previous own-ers of the Sounders to come up to Seattle and haven’t been successful. The stars aligned with Vulcan, Hanau-er and Roth, and we’re very lucky to have the owner-ship group. This is a power group.”

Crew, Quakes make preseason tradeESPN Soccernet

The Columbus Crew announced Monday that the team has acquired midfield-er Brian Carroll from the San Jose Earthquakes in exchange for forward Kei Kamara. Car-roll appeared in 121 games over five seasons with D.C. before being selected by San Jose in last week’s MLS expan-sion draft.

“We are excited to acquire someone of Brian Carroll’s abil-ity and experience,” said head coach Sigi Schmid. “He is some-one who has been a part of an MLS championship and he will help bring that mentality to our team. At the same time, we thank Kei for his efforts on behalf of the Crew and wish him the best of luck in San Jose.”

Carroll, a 26-year-old native of Springfield, Va., was origi-

nally selected by D.C. United in the second round (No. 11 overall) of the 2003 MLS SuperDraft out of Wake Forest University. In 2007, he saw action in 28 games (19 starts) and collected a career-high four assists. Carroll also has earned six caps for the U.S. national team.

Kamara, a native of Sierra Leone who played collegiately at Cal State Domin-guez Hills, scored five goals in 36 games for the Crew after being selected by Columbus in the first round (No. 9 Overall) of the 2006 MLS draft.

Associated Press

SECAUCUS, N.J. — The New York Red Bulls redesigned their stadium to cut the number of lux-ury suites by almost half, remove a concert stage and make sure every seat is covered by a roof, giving it a look similar to major European soccer venues.

The changes announced by the club on Thursday will add to the original $140 million cost announced when the team cere-monially broke ground nearly 14 months ago with Anschutz Enter-tainment Group, but Red Bulls general manager Marc de Grand-pre would not specify further, say-ing only that it would cost “more.”

The redesign will reduce the number of suites from 52 to 30, move the first row of seats with-in 21 feet of the touchlines, and install a 130-foot wide roof around the entire facility -- the last 60 feet of which will be translu-cent to allow more light into the stadium.

“Red Bull Park was redesigned to be more in line with soccer facil-ities worldwide,” de Grandpre said.

The stadium in Harrison, across the Passaic River from Newark, will have its capacity increased

from an originally estimat-ed 20,000 to 25,189. Although ground was broken in Septem-ber 2006, construction has been delayed because of site cleanup and other problems.

Construction is to begin in ear-nest in December with comple-tion set for 2009, a year behind schedule.

Austrian Energy drink maker Red Bull bought the MetroStars from AEG last year in a $100 mil-lion deal that included $30 million for the team, $45 million for a half interest in the stadium and $25 million for stadium naming rights for 10 years. Red Bull, which also

bought SV Salzburg and rechris-tened the club Red Bull Salzburg in 2005, then renamed the Metro-Stars after its signature brand.

AEG, which also owns the Los Angeles Galaxy and Houston Dynamo, had begun the process to build a stadium when it owned the MLS club from 2001-2006. In line with other MLS clubs who have constructed facilities for their teams, the Red Bulls stadium orig-inally was expected to include a concert stage to be able to stage a variety of events.

Two weeks ago, Red Bull pur-chased AEG’s stake in Red Bull Park for an undisclosed sum.

NY looks abroad for stadium

The New York Red Bulls unveiled an updated design of their new stadium. As-sociated Press photo

MLS heads Pan-Pac. tourney

Wire Reports

HONOLULU -- David Beckham and the Los Angeles Galaxy will lead a four-team field for the inau-gural Pan-Pacific Championship exhibition tournament in Hawaii in February.

The event also will include Japa-nese league cup champion Gam-ba Osaka, the MLS Cup champion Houston Dynamo and a team from Australian A-League Final Series.

The tournament will feature a pair of doubleheaders Feb. 20 and Feb. 23, with the first day’s winners playing for the title and the losers for third place. Gamba Osaka will open the tournament against the Galaxy, with Houston facing the Australian team.

“Honolulu was selected as the host not only for its geographical location in the center of the Pan-Pacific, but also for its commu-nity, its terrific infrastructure and its history of hosting top interna-tional sporting events,” said Doug Quinn, president of Soccer United Marketing.

Team adidas

ties RealWire Reports

The MLS Generation adi-das team played to a score-less draw with the Real Madrid reserves in the sec-ond game of their Spain trip on Thursday at the Real Madrid training center at Val-debebas in Madrid.

Against Real’s full reserve team that plays in the Span-ish second division, Genera-tion adidas dominated pos-session in the first half. Kei Kamara (San Jose Earth-quakes) and Chad Barrett (Chicago Fire) each had good scoring chances in the early going, while goalkeeper Brad Guzan (Chivas USA) was not threatened at all.