Pro Eleven Headlines

Tevez scores to deliver shaky victory

ENGLAND: Carlos Tevez ended his 12-match goal drought as Manchester United edged into the League Cup quarter-finals with a 1-0 win over QPR.

Alex Ferguson's second-string team struggled to make its dominance pay against the Championship side and the Premier League champion had to wait until the 75th minute to make the breakthrough at Old Trafford yesterday.

Tevez finally ended QPR's stubborn resistance with a penalty after substitute Danny Welbeck was tripped by Peter Ramage for his first goal in two months and only his second of the season. The Argentinian tested the visitors' goalkeeper Radek Cerny throughout.

But it was far from convincing stuff from United. Gary Neville, Anderson and South Korean star Park Ji-Sung were the only survivors from the United side that lost 2-1 at Arsenal.

ENGLAND: Manchester United midfielder Owen Hargreaves will miss the rest of the season after surgery on his right knee, the English Premier League champion confirmed yesterday.

Hargreaves travelled to Colorado for a meeting with renowned surgeon Richard Steadman after being plagued by a tendonitis problem for almost two years and immediately had the operation.

Former Manchester United and England striker Andy Cole announced his retirement from professional soccer.

MADRID: A hat-trick by Real Madrid's iconic striker Raul taking him to 300 goals for the club was not enough to save it from exiting the Spanish Cup despite a 4-3 second-leg victory over third-division Real Union.

Union progressed thanks to the away goal rule having beaten Real 3-2 in the first leg.

The Spanish giant will be asking questions of its defence which was largely a first-choice one except for the absence of goalkeeper Iker Casillas — who was replaced by Polish guardian Jerzy Dudek — with Italy's World Cup winning captain Fabio Cannavaro leading the line.

Its recent habit of conceding a lot of goals at home — eight in its past three matches — left its German coach Bernd Schuster nonplussed. The reigning Spanish champion looked set to be joined on the cup sidelines by last season's league runner-up Villarreal, which required a miracle after it lost the first leg 5-0 to minnow Polideportivo Ejido.

ENGLAND: Arsenal's remarkable band of youngsters delivered another breathtaking performance to crush Wigan 3-0 in the League Cup fourth round. Jay Simpson's first two goals and a jaw-dropping third from Carlos Vela ensured Arsene Wenger's side cruised into the quarter-finals and left Wigan nursing severely bruised egos.

It was no surprise to see Wenger treat this as a sort of after-hours kindergarten — the Frenchman has used the League Cup to blood his young players since his appointment in north London in 1996.

Even so, it was still startling to witness a side with an average age of just 19 out-class a Wigan team which showed just one change from its last Premier League game against Stoke.


Chelsea dumped out of Carling Cup by Burnley, Tottenham advances

Chelsea was dumped out of the Carling Cup on penalty kicks by lower-league Burnley, while defending champion Tottenham advanced to the quarter-finals with a 4-2 victory over Liverpool on Wednesday.

Didier Drogba put English Premier League leader Chelsea ahead with his first goal of the season in the 27th minute, but Burnley striker Ade Akinbiyi equalized in the 70th to send the fourth-round fixture into extra time. Burnley prevailed 5-4 on penalty kicks with goalkeeper Brian Jensen saving from Wayne Bridge and John Mikel Obi.

Tottenham strikers Roman Pavlyuchenko and Fraizer Campbell each scored twice in the space of 15 minutes either side of the break to continue Harry Redknapp's unbeaten six-match run since being tasked with reviving an ailing Spurs side last month.

Blackburn, which beat Spurs in the 2002 final, advanced from the fourth round with a 2-1 victory at Sunderland.

Luiz Felipe Scolari's Chelsea suffered a setback just before Drogba's opener when an injury to Juliano Belletti forced him to send on Frank Lampard.

But it was Lampard's precision pass that released Drogba on a run that led to the curling goal in his first start in six weeks.

Chelsea defender Branislav Ivanovic squandered two headers, one went over the crossbar before the break and another went over in the 55th.

Scolari had only just replaced Drogba with 19-year-old Frano Di Santo when goalkeeper Carlo Cudicini only managed to parry a shot from Chris Eagles and the substitute Akinbiyi pounced to equalize.

Di Santo, who missed two golden opportunities to send Chelsea through, went off with an injury three minutes into extra time - forcing Chelsea to play with 10 men because Scolari had used all of his substitutes.

However, the numbers were evened four minutes before the shootout when Stephen Caldwell was sent off for a second bookable offence after blocking Florent Malouda.

On penalties, Burnley claimed the only shock of the round to join Arsenal, Manchester United, Stoke, Watford and Derby in Saturday's draw.

Just as Redknapp had desired, Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez made 10 changes from the side that beat West Brom in the Premier League on Saturday.

Although Benitez expected more with star striker Fernando Torres - in his first start in more than a month - joining a host of international names, the Spaniard can now focus on winning the club's first league title since 1990.

"I'm disappointed because I want to win every game and we came here with a lot of players with quality to win," Benitez said. "But if you can't keep playing with the same squad you have to think about other priorities - the Premier League and the Champions League, then the FA Cup."

After a disjointed 38 minutes, Pavlyuchenko sparked a thrilling conclusion to the half when the Russian swept home after Campbell cut the ball back.

Within four minutes, Campbell scored the first goal of his loan spell from Manchester United after confusion in Liverpool's defence. Andrea Dossena cut across goalkeeper Diego Cavalieri's vision as Campbell headed on Jamie O'Hara's deep pass.

Campbell had waited two months to open his Spurs account, and added another on the stroke of halftime with a diving header from Aaron Lennon's cross.

"Young Fraizer has been great, worked hard and you can see why (United manager) Alex Ferguson doesn't want to sell him," Redknapp said.

Damien Plessis gave hope of another Liverpool comeback in the 49th after nodding in Ryan Babel's corner.

But Didier Zokora was given space to race down the left flank three minutes later, and square to Pavlyuchenko, who restored Tottenham's three-goal advantage.

Spurs goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes, who had been culpable for the visitor's first goal, gave them another route back into the match in the 63rd. The Brazilian raced off the line and failed to punch Babel's corner clear, giving Sami Hyypia a routine header.

Gomes' collision with Phillipp Degen in the 68th took the gloss off the victory. Although Gomes was carried off the White Hart Lane pitch after receiving five minutes of treatment, he didn't require hospital treatment and should be fit for Saturday's match at Fulham.

At Sunderland, it took Blackburn striker Roque Santa-Cruz's arrival in the 62nd to break the deadlock within three minutes, heading home Martin Olsson's left cross from point-blank range.

Blackburn went 2-up in the 70th, when Phil Bardsley turned Matt Derbyshire's cross, which had been pushed on by goalkeeper Marton Fulop, into his own net.

Despite Kenwyne Jones pulling one back inside a minute, Sunderland could find no way back.


Gamba Osaka Beats Adelaide to Win Asian Champions League Title

Adelaide were already fighting an uphill battle at home, after a 3-0 deeat in Osaka last week. Their hopes suffered a further setback when the Brazilian struck twice in the first 15 minutes to give the Japanese side an unassailable 5-0 aggregate lead.

With a two-goal cushion on the night, Gamba hopes of becoming the second successive Japanese team to win Asian football's premier club crown, following Urawa Reds' triumph last year, were never in danger.

"I'm really happy. There was lots of pressure and to win and this title makes us feel very proud," Gamba coach Akira Nishino said.

"I expected a lot of pressure but our team was very aggressive and handled the pressure well and we were able to decide the match in the first half."

A deflated sell-out home crowd in Adelaide groaned at their team's impotency as Gamba Osaka clinically inflicted the Reds' first home defeat in this year's ACL on a balmy evening.

Gamba effectively killed off the tie in the fourth minute when Lucas fired home, after Adelaide's goalkeeper Mark Birighitti only partially saved Hayato Sasaki's stinging volley from outside the penalty area.

Lucas struck again in the 15th minute, after the Brazilian was put through on the left by an incisive pass from Takahiro Futagawa and he had the time and space to finish.

"They are a classy side and it [the opening goal] was a real dagger to the heart after four minutes. It made it absolutely impossible after that," Adelaide coach Aurelio Vidmar said.

"But full credit to my players in the second half, they played with plenty of pride and passion, but over the two legs they were far
the better side than us."

The Adelaide players' heads visibly dropped as Gamba controlled possession and created several scoring chances in the second half.

Lucas, on a hat-trick, headed just over as Adelaide's frustrations boiled over with defender Michael Valkanis was booked after a poor tackle on Michihiro Yasuda.

Adelaide felt they could have had a penalty midway through the second half when Cristiano was brought down in the box only for the referee to wave play on.

Adelaide United came into second leg with a mountain to climb, needing to score four goals. In the end, they just didn't have the legs.


Galaxy's Donovan to train with Bayern Munchen

Los Angeles Galaxy and USA forward Landon Donovan was named US football's Player of the Year Tuesday, the same day his team said he was training for 10 days with Bayern Munchen.

Donovan led Major League Soccer in scoring with a career-high 20 goals in 25 matches, although the Galaxy failed to qualify for the eight-team MLS playoffs.

The 26-year-old is the career scoring leader for the United States with a total of 37 goals in 105 international appearances.

His 2008 Player of the Year award, voted on by the US media, was his fifth. Donovan is the only player to earn the accolade more than twice.

This year, 213 journalists selected Donovan, awarding him a total of 297 points.

Tim Howard finished second with 249 points and Clint Dempsey placed third with 176 points.

A player receives three points for each first-place vote, two points for each second-place vote, and one point for each third-place vote.

The Galaxy had announced earlier Tuesday that Donovan was training for 10 days with defending Bundesliga champions Bayern Munchen. He is expected to return to Los Angeles later this month.

Bayern Munchen are coached by former Galaxy technical adviser Jurgen Klinsmann.

They currently sit in third place, one point behind leaders Bayer Leverkusen and TSG Hoffenheim.

Donovan's Galaxy teammate David Beckham is planning an even longer spell in Europe now that his 2008 MLS season is over.

The former England captain is due to join AC Milan on loan from January 7 when the Serie A season restarts following its winter break.