round
MANCHESTER, England Blackpool are now in contention for European football next season despite being
relegated from the Barclays Premier League on Sunday. Ian Holloway's side went down 4-2 at
Manchester United to end their brief spell in the top flight of English football. But the
Tangerines could feature in the Europa League next year [.
LONDON, England Manchester United will face the winners of the tie between Arsenal and Leyton
Orient in the FA Cup quarter-finals, throwing up the possibility that the Premier League's top two
sides could clash at Old Trafford. The two great rivals last met in the competition when United
defeated Arsenal 4-0 in the fifth [.
CAIRO, Egypt Egyptian soccer authorities indefinitely suspended all soccer in the country Friday
until there is a "return of stability" to a nation convulsed by protests and violence. The Egyptian
Football Association said in a statement it was postponing league games across all four of its
professional divisions, as well as youth and junior [.
At the final whistle of Blackpool's third round FA Cup tie against League One highfliers
Southampton, the home fans were ecstatic after all they had just managed to beat one of the Premier
League's form teams when it comes to playing away from home, and book their place in the next
round. But amid [.
LONDON — Liverpool midfielder Ryan Babel was charged with improper conduct by the Football
Association (FA) on Monday after posting a mocked-up photo of referee Howard Webb wearing a
Manchester United shirt on social networking site Twitter. The picture appeared on the Dutch
forward's official page on Twitter just hours after United beat Liverpool 1-0 [.
LONDON, England Less than three months ago Arsenal were in sight of an unprecedented quadruple. Now
that number – four – is again within sight but with an entirely different connotation. If
Manchester City win at Bolton on Sunday they will finish third, even if Arsenal win,
simultaneously, against Fulham.
LONDON, England Arsenal were held to an embarrassing 1-1 draw by Leyton Orient in the FA Cup fifth
round after the League One (third-tier) side snatched a last-gasp equaliser at Brisbane Road on
Sunday. Arsene Wenger's team had enjoyed a famous 2-1 win over Spanish champions Barcelona in their
Champions League last 16 first [.
LONDON, England  — Phil Neville scored the winning spot-kick as Everton sent holders Chelsea
crashing out of the FA Cup on penalties after a pulsating fourth round replay finished 1-1
following extra time on Saturday. Chelsea who were bidding to become the first side in 125 years to
win the competition three times in [.
MANCHESTER, England Manchester United ruined Kenny Dalglish's first game back in charge of
Liverpool with a 1-0 win at Old Trafford in the third round of the FA Cup. Manchester United ruined
Kenny Dalglish's first game back in charge of Liverpool with a 1-0 win at Old Trafford in the third
round of the [.
LIVERPOOL, England - Manager Roy Hodgson left Liverpool on Saturday and the club appointed former
player and manager Kenny Dalglish until the end of the season to try to turn around a dismal run of
form. Hodgson, who joined England's most successful club from Fulham in July last year, had been
under intense pressure from fans in recent weeks after defeats by Wolverhampton Wanderers and
Blackburn Rovers.
PARIS, France — The French football federation has named the nine cities that will host matches
during the 2016 European championships. Bordeaux, Lens, Lille, Lyon, Marseille, Nancy, Nice, Paris
and Saint-Denis were chosen on Friday ahead of Saint-Etienne and Toulouse, which have been named as
reserve locations.
LONDON, England The English Football Association (FA) is to abstain from voting in the upcoming
FIFA presidential election between Sepp Blatter and Mohamed Bin Hammam, it was announced Thursday.
FA chairman David Bernstein said in a statement there were a "range of issues" which made it
"difficult" to vote for incumbent Blatter or Asian [.
PARIS, France Lille moved to the brink of the Ligue 1 and French Cup double when a second-half
Gervinho goal secured a 1-0 league home win over Sochaux on Wednesday. The northeners, who were
last champions in 1954 and won the French Cup on Saturday, have 72 points with two games left and
lead [...]
PARIS, France  Raymond Domenech continues to slide apparently effortlessly from one controversy to
another. His latest is an interview with L'Express in which the former national team coach labelled
the players who mutinied at last year's World Cup as "horrible, unthinking brats." This angered
both his former employers at the French federation whom he [.
CHAMONIX/LONDON Real Madrid won nothing last year yet they continue to top the table of the world's
richest clubs in the annual revenue assessment undertaken by accountant Deloitte. This is the sixth
successive year the record nine-times former champions of Europe have led the list. Spanish
champions Barcelona are second followed by Manchester United [.
SANTIAGO, Chile -Marcelo Bielsa resigned as Chile's national team coach on Friday, ending a
three-month saga over his future. Bielsa stepped down at a news conference despite his overwhelming
popularity in Chile and attempts by new Chilean football association president Sergio Jadue to
persuade him to stay.
DOHA, Qatar — Saudi Arabia fired its second coach this month after closing out a disappointing
Asian Cup campaign with a 5-0 loss to Japan. The Saudi Press Agency says Nassir al-Johar was fired
and would be replaced by a "high profile" international coach. Al-Johar, who was brought in for his
fifth stint with the [.
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — The king of Saudi Arabia has fired the country's football federation
president following the national team's disappointing performance at the Asian Cup. A statement
from King Abdullah's office on Saturday says Sultan bin Fahd bin Abdul-Aziz has been removed from
his post and replaced by Prince Nawaf bin Faisal bin Fahd [.
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 [.
BARCELONA, Spain — Real Madrid provisionally moved to within two points of league leader
Barcelona by beating Levante 2-0 on Saturday. Karim Benzema scored Madrid's sixth-minute opener
after a great individual effort from Angel Di Maria, and Ricardo Carvalho sealed the win four
minutes before halftime.
BRUSSELS, Belgium  —Three-time winner Liverpool was fortunate to leave Sparta Prague with a 0-0
draw in the first leg of their Europa League last-16 match, but fellow former champions Ajax, FC
Porto and CSKA Moscow emerged with away wins on Thursday. Kenny Dalglish's first European match in
charge of the Reds was a dull affair [.
WIGAN, England — Ivan Klasnic fired Bolton Wanderers to a 1-0 win over Wigan Athletic in their FA
Cup fourth-round replay at the DW Stadium on Wednesday. Owen Coyle's side can look forward to a
fifth-round trip to Fulham this weekend thanks to Croatian striker Klasnic's second-half winner.
While Wanderers' Wembley bid remains alive, Wigan [.
CASA GRANDE, Ar Looking to build on Tuesday's victory over Real Salt Lake, Vancouver Whitecaps FC
return to preseason action when they take on Pacific Northwest rivals Seattle Sounders FC at Grande
Sports World in Casa Grande, Arizona, on Friday afternoon at 3 p.m. PT. Despite being together for
less than two weeks, Teitur [.
LONDON, England — Edin Dzeko opened his goalscoring account for Manchester City to salvage a 1-1
draw with Notts County as Tottenham were sent crashing out of the FA Cup in a humiliating 4-0 rout
by Fulham on Sunday. Bosnian striker Dzeko netted in the 80th minute to rescue City, who were left
staring down [.
LONDON, England Holders Chelsea needed a late equalizer by Salomon Kalou to snatch a 1-1 draw that
kept it in the FA Cup after a Louis Saha header had put Everton on course for a fourth-round upset
at Goodison Park. In another of the weekend's five all-Premier League ties Aston Villa beat
Blackburn Rovers [.
PARIS, France — Fifth-tier Chambery claimed another major French Cup scalp on Saturday, following
up a success over Monaco with a penalty shootout win over another top flight side in Brest to reach
the last 16 along with fellow amateurs Drancy. Bordeaux promptly became the 12th first division
side to exit the tournament after they [.
LEEDS, England — Samir Nasri helped Arsenal overcome a potentially tricky FA Cup third round
replay as Arsene Wenger's side defeated Leeds 3-1 on Wednesday to book a fourth round date with
Huddersfield. After being held 1-1 by Simon Grayson's Championship team at the Emirates 11 days
earlier and losing to Ipswich in the League [.
MANCHESTER, England A last-gasp Aleksandar Kolarov effort ended Leicester City's threatened
fightback and saw Manchester City progress into the fourth round of the FA Cup. Carlos Tevez had
put the hosts ahead after 15 minutes before Paul Gallagher equalised from the penalty spot four
minutes later after Lloyd Dyer had been felled by Patrick [.
DOHA, Qatar — Reigning champions Iraq stunned the United Arab Emirates 1-0 on Saturday at the
Asian Cup with an injury-time own-goal to put the holders in a strong position to make the knockout
rounds. Three-times champions Iran became the first team at the championships to qualify for the
quarter-finals after they defeated World Cup [.
DOHA, Qatar— A thunderbolt from captain Server Djeparov gave Uzbekistan a 2-1 win over Kuwait
that took them to the brink of the Asian Cup last eight here on Wednesday and left Kuwait on the
verge of elimination. Djeparov cracked home a first-time shot from 20 yards in the 65th minute to
continue Uzbekistan's 100 [.
DOHA, Qatar — Three-times champions Iran stormed back from the shock of losing an early goal to
grab a 2-1 victory over arch rivals and holders Iraq at the Asian Cup Tuesday. With United Arab
Emirates and North Korea playing out a 0-0 draw earlier, Iran top Group D after the first round of
games. [.
MADRID, Spain Hercules routed visiting Atletico Madrid 4-1 with four first-half goals to close the
18th round of the Spanish league on Monday. Jorge "Tote" Lopez, Nelson Valdez, Olivier Thombert and
David Trezeguet all scored before halftime as a toothless Atletico seemingly had its sights set on
Thursday's Copa del Rey match against Real [.
LONDON — Lowly Stevenage pulled off the giant-killing shock of the FA Cup third round on
Saturday, upsetting Newcastle 3-1 on a day when several Premier League clubs were sent crashing
out. Stevenage in the fourth tier of English football and ranked 73 places below the Magpies
advanced to the next round courtesy [.
NEW YORK, NY Five more amateur teams will earn berths into the US Open Cup tournament this year.
The PDL's allotment was raised to nine from eight and the NPSL will receive four automatic berths,
the first time since 2003 that teams from that fourth-division league will gain automatic entry.
NPSL teams used 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 [.
ROME, Italy  - AS Roma coach Claudio Ranieri was left to fight off loud boos and speculation his
days at the club are numbered after an embarrassing 3-2 home defeat by Champions League knockout
round debutants Shakhtar Donetsk on Wednesday. Three Serie A games without a win and the club being
up for sale had [.
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands Ajax Amsterdam squandered a two-goal lead and missed a late penalty to draw
2-2 at Roda JC Kerkrade and lose ground on the Dutch league leaders on Sunday. PSV Eindhoven,
convincing 4-0 winners at AZ Alkmaar on Saturday, are top with 50 points after 23 matches and are
ahead of Twente Enschede, [.
The Rest
LIVERPOOL, England — The Football Association will open an investigation after Liverpool winger
Ryan Babel posted a digitally altered picture on Twitter of referee Howard Webb wearing a
Manchester United shirt. Webb awarded a penalty against Liverpool and later sent off its captain
Steven Gerrard as Man United won 1-0 in the third round of [.
