ROME — Brazil forward Alexandre Pato will miss the Copa America after injuring his right shoulder in AC Milan's final match of the Serie A season. Pato was carried off on a stretcher in the 71st minute of Sunday's 0-0 draw with Udinese. Milan physician Maurizio Gevi told Italy's Sky TV that Pato will be [.

MANCHESTER, England Manchester City have swooped to snatch Celta Vigo starlet Denis Suarez from under the noses of Barcelona. Celta's chairman Carlos Mourino has confirmed that the Spanish Under-17 midfielder will move to Eastlands for an initial fee of €1 million which could rise to €3m depending on appearance- and performance-related clauses in the [.

SAN SEBASTIAN, Spain — Raul Tamudo's second-half goal lifted Real Sociedad to a 1-0 win over Mallorca on Monday in the Spanish league. Under gusting winds and rain, both teams had difficulties creating clear-cut scoring chances in the first half at Anoeta stadium. Sociedad was the better team after the restart, and Tamudo rose up [.

MADRID: Since February 23, 2002, José Mourinho has coached Porto, Chelsea, Internazionale and Real Madrid in 180 home domestic league and cup matches with 152 wins, 28 draws . . . and no defeats. That remarkable record was extended when Madrid moved within two points of Spanish league leaders Barcelona, for 24 hours at least, [.

ROME, Italy — Claudio Ranieri has resigned as Roma coach following Sunday's disastrous 4-3 defeat at Genoa, despite having led 3-0. It was the club's fourth defeat in a row and Ranieri then told Italian news agency Ansa he had decided to quit. "I've always thought about the good of Roma and after a game [.

MANCHESTER, England Manchester United's long-serving midfielder Ryan Giggs has signed a one-year contract extension with the Premier League giants, it was confirmed Friday. Giggs, who turned 37 in November, had already signalled his intention to prolong his Old Trafford career into a 21st season, and the club confirmed Friday the deal had now been [.

MANCHESTER, England Patrice Evra has committed his future to Manchester United and agreed a new four-year contract, with an announcement expected from Old Trafford on Friday morning. Evra had considered leaving Old Trafford, tempted by the possibility of playing in Spain, and had been linked with a move to Real Madrid.

WASHINGTON, D.C. D.C. United waived defender Julius James, the Major League Soccer club announced on Thursday. In one and a half seasons in Washington, James played in 31 MLS contests, recording two goals in 2,388. "We would like to thank Julius for his contributions to D.C. United and we wish him well in the [.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil Roberto Carlos, Brazil's former World Cup-winning left back, joined Russian soccer club Anzhi Makhachkala after leaving Corinthians by mutual consent. The 37-year-old signed a 2 1/2-year contract, Anzhi Makhachkala said on its website last night, without giving financial details of the deal.

MANCHESTER, England Manchester United midfielder Park Ji-sung has been ruled out for four weeks because of a hamstring injury. The South Korea international, who recently returned from the Asian Cup in Qatar, injured his hamstring in training on Friday. United manager Alex Ferguson says "it was very unfortunate because it was his last kick [.

BERLIN, Germany — Bundesliga bottom side Borussia Moenchengladbach sacked their coach Michael Frontzeck on Sunday, 24 hours after their 3-1 German league defeat at St Pauli. 'Gladbach are seven points from safety at the foot of the table and 46-year-old Frontzeck, who has been in charge for 18 months, was shown the door after his [.

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands Johan Cruyff has returned to Ajax on an advisory basis after agreeing to become a member of one of three "sounding board groups". A meeting on Thursday night between general manager Rik van den Boog, Ajax's board of directors and Cruyff confirmed the former Holland playmaker's willingness to advise on technical issues.

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Major League Soccer scoring leader Chris Wondolowski has agreed to a new contract with the San Jose Earthquakes. Wondolowski scored 18 of his team's 34 league goals during the regular season last year to win the MLS Golden Boot award. The 28-year-old played for the Earthquakes in 2005, moved to [.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina The president of the Argentina Football Association says Carlos Tevez has been dropped from the national team as a punishment for missing the previous friendly match. Tevez was not in the team to face Portugal in Switzerland on Wednesday. Argentina FA president Julio Grondona said in a radio interview in Buenos [.

LONDON, England — David Beckham has extended his training stint with Tottenham by another two weeks. The former England captain had been set to return to the United States this week but the Premier League side says he will stick around until Feb. 22. The 35-year-old midfielder will begin preseason training with Los Angeles Galaxy [.

AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands Ajax Amsterdam extended the contracts of Roly Bonevacia (19) and Rodney Sneijder (19). Both midfield players renewed their contracts with the multi Dutch champions until the summer of 2013. Bonevacia has been with Ajax since 2001 and made his debut in the top squad on August 14, 2010 against Vitesse Arnhem.

FRISCO, Texas — Major League Soccer side Dallas has signed 31-year-old Brazilian midfielder Ricardo Villar from Spielvereinigung Unterhaching of the German third division. Villar played for Pennsylvania State University from 1997-01 after playing youth soccer at Sao Paulo. He was with Hampton Roads and Pittsburgh in the U.

PORTLAND, Ore. Portland Timbers striker Bright Dike is set to miss a significant amount of the upcoming season after suffering a torn Achilles tendon in an exhibition match. Dike underwent successful surgery Monday. Dike sustained the injury in the 20th minute of a preseason exhibition against the Ventura County Fusion on Friday.

LONDON, England Chelsea's Ashley Cole has been named England's Player of the Year for 2010 the first defender to win the award. Cole, who will draw level with Kenny Sansom on 86 caps to become his country's most-capped full-back if he faces Denmark on Wednesday, was the stand-out performer in a [.

LONDON, England Aston Villa's on-loan full-back Kyle Walker and Fulham goalkeeper David Stockdale are two of the surprise inclusions in Fabio Capello's latest England squad. The two players are the only first-time call-ups for the 25-man squad to face Denmark, which also sees familiar names Michael Dawson, Leighton Baines and Scott Parker return to [.

COLUMBUS, OH Columbus Crew veteran Duncan Oughton announced his retirement on Thursday, ending a 10-year career in which he became the longest-serving player in club history. Oughton will join the Crew's front office as the assistant to the technical director, a newly created role in which he will be involved in a variety of [.

CHICAGO, Ill The Chicago Fire signed forward Gaston Puerari from Montevideo Wanderers of Uruguay. "Gaston is a talented, offensive player with the ability to make an impact for our club," Fire Technical Director Frank Klopas said. "We are excited to bring in a player with quick feet, good passing skills and the ability to [.

LONDON, England — Arsenal goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski will miss the rest of the season following shoulder surgery, Gunners manager Arsene Wenger said Thursday. The Pole was injured during the warm-up ahead of Arsenal's Premier League match against Manchester City last month and has not played since.

NEW YORK, NY The New York Red Bulls are trying to sign Chelsea striker Nicolas Anelka, according to L'Equipe newspaper on Thursday. L'Equipe said the Major League Soccer club wants Anelka to reunite with fellow Frenchman Thierry Henry, who will begin his second season with the Red Bulls in March. "We will not comment [.

BERNE, Switzerland Japan moved into the top 20 of the FIFA world rankings on Wednesday after winning the Asian Cup last month while world champions Spain stayed in first place. Japan's record fourth Asian title which they won in Qatar lifted them 12 places to 17th, making them the Asian confederation's highest-ranked side.

HOUSTON, Tx — A Houston teacher and soccer coach has died after police say he was attacked in a shopping center parking lot. Christopher Matthews, 33, was allegedly attacked around 11 p.m.on Friday in the parking lot of a shopping complex. Ronald Lee Newman was taken into custody by police following the attack, and was [.

ALMATY, Kazakhstan Miroslav Beranek, who guided his native Czech Republic to a surprise European Under-21 title triumph in 2002, was named Kazakhstan coach on Monday. Beranek, 53, takes charge of a Kazakh team who are rooted to the bottom of Euro 2012 qualifying Group A. The Kazakhstan job had been vacant since October following [.

LONDON, England Chelsea have continued their extensive deadline day spending with the £21.3 million signing of Benfica's Brazilian defender David Luiz. Having signed Liverpool striker Fernando Torres for a fee rising to £50 million, Chelsea have also strengthened their defence with the acquisition of Luiz from the Portuguese club.

LIVERPOOL, England Andy Carroll has completed his transfer from Newcastle United to Liverpool FC and signed a 5 and a half-year-deal that will keep him at Anfield until 2016. The Club agreed a record transfer fee with Newcastle earlier in the day for the transfer of the England international striker.

LONDON, England— Aston Villa midfielder Stephen Ireland has completed a loan move to Newcastle for the rest of the season. Ireland's arrival at St James' Park came just hours after reports emerged that the deal had fallen through because he had failed a medical. The 24-year-old former Republic of Ireland international had a disappointing start [.

BOLTON, England Daniel Sturridge has joined Bolton Wanderers on loan until the end of the season. The 21-year-old forward will link up with Owen Coyle's squad hoping to add to his 21 appearances this season, in which time he has scored four times, most recently against Ipswich Town in the FA Cup on January [.

MELBOURNE, Australia — Melbourne Victory captain Manny Muscat will likely end his career in Australian football's A-League under suspension after being banned for eight weeks for a dangerous tackle. Muscat, a Malta international, was handed the ban for a tackle on the Melbourne Heart's Adrian Zahra during a heated derby last weekend.

HOFFENHEIM, Germany — Netherlands defender Edson Braafheid has joined Hoffenheim from Bundesliga rival Bayern Munich. Hoffenheim said the 27-year-old signed a 3 1/2-year contract on Thursday. Braafheid says the transfer is "very important for my further development, particularly with a view to the national team.

ROTTERDAM, Netherlands The board of Rotterdam football club Feyenoord has announced the suspension of technical director Leo Beenhakker. General director Eric Gudde said there had been a crisis of trust between Beenhakker and the club. At a press conference last week Beenhakker, who had just learned his contract with Feyenoord would not be extended, [.

HAMBURG, Germany Substitute Mladen Petric scored in the 65th minute and Hamburg edged Eintracht, 1-0, on Friday at HSH Nordbank Arena to win its third straight Bundesliga match. Hamburg moved up one spot to sixth and level on points with fifth-place Bayern Munich ahead of the weekend matches. Eintracht lost for the third time [.

CHESTER, Pa. — Goalkeeper Faryd Mondragon, the 39-year-old former starter for Colombia's national team, has agreed to a contract with Major League Soccer's Philadelphia Union along with Colombian defender Carlos Valdes. Mondragon terminated his contract last month with Cologne in Germany's Bundesliga.

NEW YORK, NY Manchester United legend Eric Cantona has made a shock return to football with the New York Cosmos. The Frenchman has joined as their director of soccer. "I am very honoured to join the legendary New York Cosmos. It's a big project, a wonderful project," Cantona told the Sun. "The Cosmos are [.

MADRID, Spain — Atletico Madrid beat Real Mallorca 3-0 on Monday to maintain their hunt for a European place and ease the pressure on coach Quique Sanchez Flores. Recent poor form including a 4-1 thumping by Hercules put Sanchez Flores in the firing line and there were rumours that if they lost to Mallorca and [.

PORTLAND, Ore. — Forward Kenny Cooper has signed with Major League Soccer's Portland Timbers. The 26-year-old had 40 goals in 90 games for FC Dallas from 2006-09. Cooper then signed with 1860 Munich and scored three goals in 15 games in all competitions. He spent part of this year on loan at Plymouth as it [.

BERLIN, Germany — Hanover went second in the Bundesliga on Sunday with an impressive 3-0 win at Eintracht Frankfurt, but leaders Borussia Dortmund remain 12 points clear at the top. First-half goals by Norwegian striker Mohammed Abdellaoue and defender Christian Schulz put Mirko Slomka's Hanover in control before Ivory Coast striker Didier Ya Konan added [.