U.S. Women Advance to Final Despite Loss
The U.S. women’s team lost to Sweden, 3-1, on Thursday at Lagos, Portugal, but still finished atop the Group A standings and will advance to play Group B winner Norway in the final of the Algarve Cup on Saturday.
Norway played China to a scoreless draw.
Sweden, the 2003 World Cup runner-up, built a 3-0 lead against the defending Algarve Cup champions on goals by Malin Andersson, Anna Sjostrom and Josephine Oqvist. Cat Reddick scored the only U.S. goal, off a cross from Mia Hamm three minutes before the final whistle.
“We will try to improve on this Saturday,” U.S. Coach April Heinrichs said.
Exhibition Series Set
Chelsea will play Glasgow Celtic on July 24 at Seattle, and Manchester United will face Bayern Munich on July 25 at Chicago, the first games in a series of nine exhibitions scheduled between European powers on U.S. soil this summer.
Manchester United, the defending English champion that has slumped recently, also will play Celtic on July 28 at Philadelphia before facing AC Milan on July 31 at East Rutherford, N.J.
Other exhibitions include a Liverpool-Celtic matchup July 26 at East Hartford, Conn., and Liverpool-AS Roma on Aug. 3 at East Rutherford. There are no games scheduled for Los Angeles.
Appeal Denied
Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand lost an appeal to lift his suspension for missing a drug test and will be suspended for eight months.
He failed to appear for a drug test at the team’s training facility Sept. 23.
The World Anti-Doping Agency said Ferdinand could have been suspended for two years, standard punishment for missing a drug test in sports such as track and field.
Ferdinand cannot play for England at the European Championships this summer at Portugal and will be sidelined for the first month of the 2004-05 season with Manchester United.
Manchester United was 15-3-2 in Premier League play before Ferdinand began serving his suspension Jan. 20. The team is 3-3-2 since he was sidelined, has fallen from first place to third in the league standings and also was eliminated from Champions League play by FC Porto.
Italian Troubles
Juventus has been eliminated from the Champions League, trails AC Milan by nine points in the Serie A standings and faces a 2-0 deficit in the opening leg of the Italian Cup final, the only trophy that it has a chance of winning.
Alessandro Del Piero and David Trezeguet, the team’s top strikers, are sidelined by injuries, but Marcello Lippi, Juventus coach, said he hadn’t given up on the season.
“Absolutely not,” he said. “I have to prepare for nine league matches. And one Italian Cup final game, which may seem difficult to come back in, but we’ll try anyway.”
More European News
It seems Barcelona, interested in bolstering its attack for next season, has targeted Frenchman David Trezeguet, according to reports in the French sports daily L’Equipe. Trezeguet hasn’t signed a new contract with Juventus and his old deal ends in June 2005.
Jorge Trezeguet, the player’s father and agent, said Juventus had not kept a promise to review his son’s contract as long as the team remained competitive.
“In the last three years, Juventus has twice been champions of Italy and has reached the Champions League final,” Jorge Trezeguet told L’Equipe. “David was the league’s leading scorer in 2002 [with 24 goals]. This sticks in the throat.”
