International Roundup

Rampant Porto clinches 19th Portuguese title

LISBON, Portugal (Reuters) -- UEFA Cup finalists Porto won their 19th Portuguese league title on Sunday and sealed their berth in the Champions League by crushing lowly Santa Clara 5-0 at home.

With four games left in the championship, Porto have 79 points and an unassailable 14-point lead over second-placed Benfica, whose faint title hopes vanished as they went down 2-1 at home to local rivals Sporting on Saturday.

Porto remain on course for a treble as they face Celtic in the UEFA Cup final in Seville on May 21, and play Uniao Leiria in the Portuguese Cup final at the National Stadium on June 15.

The home team opened the scoring in the sixth minute when a cross from Helder Postiga in front of the goal found team mate Maniche Ribeiro at the far post, who nipped forward to beat goalkeeper Jorge Silva from close range.

Brazilian striker Derlei Silva put Porto two-up just four minutes later with another close range shot after receiving a cross from Nuno Capucho on the right and easily beating marker Nuno Portela.

Santa Clara mounted the occasional spirited counter-attack, but rarely threatened and a long range free kick from Tucho forced one of international Vitor Baia's few real saves of the first game.

Maniche came close to scoring his second in the first half, but his shot from the six-meter line took a deflection and hit the bar.

Three minutes after the break Jorge Silva failed to save a shot from Postiga inside the area and Derlei picked up the rebound to bag his second goal of the match and make the score 3-0 for Porto.

Maniche was denied again in the second half as Jorge Silva stopped then caught a powerful right-footed volley by the midfielder in a goalmouth scrable following a corner.

Porto dominated the rest of the game, and completed the rout with a set piece from free kick specialist Deco in the 78th and a close range shot three minutes from time from Postiga, who connected with a rebound from a shot by Derlei.

Porto trainer Jose Mourinho had to watch the game against the visitos from the Azores islands from the stands as he was sent off during last week's league match gainst Academica -- but drew praise from his assistant Antonio Andre.

"The foundations of our success were in the daily work we did to win the championship. It's all down to Jose, who is a born trainer," Andre told state television.

"He's a man who works 24 hours a day for football, for Porto and who is absolutely dedicated to football and lives for it, and that says it all for all this praise, this championship and what we are winning this season," he added.

Santa Clara's Brazilian trainer Carlos Alberto Silva conceded defeat and praised Porto.

"We knew it was going to be difficult to play against Porto away, but those first two gaols scored in quick succession made things very difficult indeed," he said.

Spartak Moscow slumps to another defeat

MOSCOW (Reuters) -- Struggling former champion Spartak Moscow slumped to its third defeat of the new Russian season, this time to city rival Torpedo on Sunday.

Torpedo striker Alexander Shirko scored twice against his former club and Sergei Budylin added another from a penalty spot to hand Spartak a 3-0 defeat.

Spartak, who have won only one of their first seven matches, dropped to 13th place on six points, nine points behind league leader CSKA Moscow.

Spartak have won nine Russian league titles since 1992 but finished third last year.

In Samara, Rostov missed a chance to join CSKA at the top of the league table, going down 3-0 to Krylya Sovietov Samara.

Samara's Brazilian striker Jose Sousa scored once in each half and compatriot Marcio Gausho added a third as Rostov suffered its first defeat of the season.

Elsewhere, Dynamo Moscow hammered Uralan Elista 5-1 to move into second place with 13 points from seven matches.

The loss saw Uralan, coached by former Russian international Igor Shalimov, dropping to the bottom of the 16-team premier league after gaining just three points -- all draws -- in its first seven games.

Alania Vladikavkaz beat Saturn Ramenskoye 1-0 to go third on 12 points ahead of Zenit St Petersburg after the St Petersburg side was held to a 0-0 home draw by struggling Rotor Volgograd.

Russian champion Lokomotiv faces CSKA in an eagerly-awaited Moscow derby on Sunday. Lokomotiv beat the army side 1-0 in a "golden game" last November to clinch its first league title.

Panathinaikos stays on top of Greek league

ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- Nikos Lymberopoulos scored three goals Sunday as Panathinaikos hammered OFI Crete 5-1 at home and stayed in first place in the Greek first division with two rounds remaining.

Croatian striker Goran Vlaovic and Pandelis Konstantinidis scored the other two goals for Panathinaikos. After its 21st league win of the season, the Athens club remains in first place with 67 points from 28 games.

Archrival Olympiakos Piraeus stayed three points behind in second place after beating Ioannina 3-0 away. Yugoslav midfielder Predrag Djordjevic scored twice.

In the next round, Panathinaikos and Olympiakos will clash in the most important game of the season. The showdown at Olympiakos could decide the league champion.

In other results Sunday, it was: Xanthi 3, Kallithea 0; Ionikos 2, Iraklis 4; Proodeftiki 1, Panachaiki 0; and Aegaleo 3, Akratitos 1.

Third-place AEK is just two points behind Olympiakos after beating Aris 4-0 on Saturday. The Athens team has not given up hope of being league runners-up and earning an automatic place in the Champions League.

Panathinaikos played against OFI without some of its regular starters, including Polish striker Emmanuel Olisadebe and goalkeeper Antonis Nikopolidis. Uruguayan coach Sergio Markarian decided to rest them for next week's derby against Olympiakos.

Vlaovic, who has spent most of the season on the bench, gave Panathinaikos the lead with a curling freekick from outside the area in the 13th minute.

Just one minute later, Lymberopoulos exploited a defensive error to make it 2-0 with a blistering shot.

Four minutes into the second half, Lymberopoulos converted a penalty to stretch the score to 3-0. In the 63rd minute, Lymberopoulos struck again to make it 4-0. The hat-trick means Lymberopoulos stays the first division's top scorer this season with 16 goals.

Konstantinidis added a fifth for Panathinaikos in the 74th while Costas Dermitzakis grabbed OFI's consolation goal in the 89th.

Olympiakos took a fifth-minute lead against Ioannina with a freekick from Djordjevic. The same player made it 2-0 off a perfect pass from Swedish midfielder Par Zetterberg in the 19th.

French international Christian Karembeu closed the scoring with a close-range shot in the 72nd minute.

On Saturday, AEK Athens marked its 10th consecutive league victory after trouncing Aris Thessaloniki 4-0 to maintain third place with 62 points. Toward the end of the match, AEK supporters tossed broken seats at riot police guarding about 100 Aris fans. No arrests or injuries were reported.

Costas Katsouranis opened the scoring in the 12th with a header off a precise free kick from Vassilis Tsartas. In the 30th, Vassilis Lakis made it 2-0 for AEK and then scored his second goal of the game in first-half injury time. Yugoslav striker Ilja Ivic made the final score 4-0 in the 77th.

The match was the last one to be played at AEK's home ground, the Nikos Goumas stadium, after some 73 years. Demolition works due to start in March were delayed by bureaucratic wrangling. A new stadium will be built on the same site and is expected to be ready shortly before the start of the 2004 Athens Olympic Games.

Also on Saturday, PAOK defeated Panionios 3-0 with two goals from Giorgos Georgiadis. The win made the cash-strapped Thessaloniki club a favorite to win a place in the UEFA Cup.

The game was played in Kozani, northwestern Greece. It was PAOK's eighth match played this season either behind closed doors or away as punishment for fan violence in previous league games.

Cafu undecided on Japan move -- report

TOKYO (Reuters) -- Brazil captain Cafu has said he is undecided about joining Yokohama F-Marinos this July despite reaching an agreement with the J-League club at the start of the year, a Japanese newspaper reported Sunday.

The 32-year-old was set to move to Yokohama for US$3.5 million at the end of his current contract deal with Italian Serie A club AS Roma.

But the move was apparently thrown into confusion after comments Cafu made in an interview on Italian television over the weekend, according to the Nikkan Sports daily.

"I haven't decided yet. I will wait until the end of the season. I haven't signed for anybody as things stand now," Cafu was quoted as saying.

Yokohama officials announced in January that Cafu would become an F-Marinos player on July 1. The defender was understood to have signed a contract for two and a half years.

Cafu led Brazil to a fifth World Cup triumph in Japan and South Korea last June. The South Americans beat Germany 2-0 in the final at International Stadium.

But whether or not Cafu will appear at the World Cup final venue on a regular basis for Yokohama now appears less than certain, especially with Serie A club AC Milan said to be interested in signing him.

Scrap lackluster UEFA Cup, Platini says

PARIS (AP) -- French soccer legend Michel Platini, an executive committee member of soccer's governing body FIFA, said Sunday that the UEFA Cup should be scrapped.

"The UEFA Cup has lost its prestige," Platini was quoted as saying on sports daily L'Equipe's Web site. "It contains teams that finished sixth and seventh in their domestic leagues, whereas before it was teams that finished second and third."

The former France captain said last month that he thought the UEFA Champions League should also be abandoned. Instead, he favors one European competition for all club sides.

"We must study the possibility of a cup with 256 teams at the start and involving home-and-away elimination matches," the 47-year-old former Juventus star and three-time world player of the year said.

Under its current format, UEFA has two competitions -- the Champions League and UEFA Cup.

Platini, France's all-time leading international scorer with 41 goals in 72 games, is also skeptical about a proposed plan to expand the World Cup to 36 teams.

"For the 1998 World Cup in France we had 32 teams for the first time and it was the perfect number," he said. "To change we would need 40 teams. It's much too many, and that's why I have my doubts."

Platini added that games finishing level after normal time should continue to be decided by the golden goal rule -- where the team scoring first in extra time wins regardless of how long is left to play.

"I prefer the golden goal because it is better to end the match on a goal scored than a missed penalty," he said, adding that he did not support a return to the old system of extra time and then a penalty shoot out.

Tigers halt Seongnam winning streak in K-League

SEOUL (Reuters) -- Ulsan Tigers held table-topping Seongnam Ilhwa 0-0 at home on Sunday to prevent the South Korean champions from setting a K-League record of eight straight wins to start the season.

Playing without captain Yoo Sang-chul, out for six weeks with an ankle injury, mid-table Ulsan produced a battling display that helped Taejon Citizen close the gap at the top to five points after its 2-0 victory over Suwon Blue Wings.

Seongnam, which has won the K-League title for the past two years, has 22 points from eight matches.

Its 3-0 win at Chonbuk Motors in midweek equalled the K-League record for successive victories at the start of the season with Suwon, who won seven in a row in 1998.

Citizen comfortably beat visiting Suwon thanks to first-half goals from strikers Kim Eun-jung and Kim Jong-hyun in front of 35,000 at Taejon World Cup Stadium.

Anyang Cheetahs beat bottom club Bucheon SK 2-1 to stay third on 16 points. Bucheon is the only team yet to record a victory this season and has just one point from eight games.

Meanwhile, South Korea striker Lee Dong-gook scored a hat-trick as K-League newcomer Sangmu Phoenix beat Pusan I.cons 3-2 away for its second win of the season.

His treble at Pusan World Cup Stadium made it four goals in his last two games for Lee, who joined army side Sangmu in the pre-season to complete his military service.

Taegu FC, the second new club to join the 12-team K-League in 2003, had less luck, however. It was beaten 1-0 at home by Chonbuk, while Chunnam Dragons beat struggling Pohang Steelers 2-1.

Egypt coach asked to stay despite France thrashing

CAIRO (Reuters) -- Mohsen Saleh has been asked to stay on as coach of Egypt despite his side's 5-0 defeat by France in a friendly international last week.

Egypt is gearing itself up for African Nations Cup qualifiers against Mauritius on June 6 and Madagascar on June 20.

"Axing him at this crucial stage of our build up for the African Cup of Nations' finals could only spur chaos within the squad," said Egypt Football Association president Al-Dahshouri Harb after a meeting of the board on Sunday.

"We have tabled the whole issue in the meeting attended by the head coach. Mr. Saleh asked to resign after coming under harsh criticism from local media, still we made it clear this won't be a solution for the time being.

"We have no history in dismissing managers in such circumstances. France were a tough opposition, still one of the world beaters, and I assume the technical staff will have a chance to better assess the capabilities of the squad for the upcoming vital qualifiers," said Harb.

 

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Both the Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.