| Red Bulls Beat Wizards to Clinch Playoff Spot Dane Richards scored a first-half goal and the Red Bulls clinched a spot in the MLS playoffs with a 1-0 victory over the Kansas City Wizards on Saturday night. feeds.nytimes.com |
Matikainen sets sights on Euro 2013 • Matikainen will coach senior, Under-19 and Under-17 teams• The 50-year-old will examine England's Academy system.The first full-time head of the Welsh national teams, the Finnish coach Jarmo Matikainen, steps into his new role today with ambitions to match his achievements in his own country at both senior and youth levels.The 50-year-old former midfielder, who has spent the past 10 years coaching in the women's game, was assistant to the former manager Michael Kald when the Finns reached the semi-finals of Euro 2005 in England and has also managed the national team to the semi-finals of a European Under-19 Championship."Wales is like Finland, a small football country but ambitious," said Matikainen, who will manage the senior, Under-19 and Under-17 teams while co-ordinating a strategy for the advancement of Welsh women's football."The aim will be for sustainable development and success. My experiences with the Finland teams have given me insights into what will be needed to move the game forward in Wales and I'll be having dialogue about that with the players and their clubs."Most of the senior Welsh internationals are with English clubs and Matikainen will be looking for pointers from England's forthcoming Super League and Academy system. He will also, when qualifying for Euro 2013 starts, be aiming to lead the senior national team into a major tournament for the first time."Seeing how the [English] Academy system works will be very interesting for me," he said. "It's something we will need to work on, but we already have some very good players and our own Premier League is getting stronger. To qualify for Euro 2013 we will have to be at the top of every aspect of our game, and that's what we will be working towards."A weather-hit programme of (English) Premier League Cup group matches yesterday saw wins for Sunderland, West Ham, Coventry and Keynsham.Women's footballTony Leightonguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Chelsea Lead Field For 2011 Asia Trophy In Hong Kong SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Chelsea, Aston Villa and Blackburn Rovers will clash with the Hong Kong champions in the four-team Asia Trophy knock-out next year to help prepare for the 2011-2012 Premier League season. feeds.nytimes.com |
Jérôme Valcke to miss goal-line meeting due to vote-selling claims • Fifa's general secretary forced to cancel visit to Wales• Valcke will instead be in Zurich at ethics committee hearingThe Fifa general secretary, Jérôme Valcke, has cancelled a visit to tomorrow's goal-line technology meeting in Wales to deal with the ongoing corruption crisis.Valcke was due to attend the International FA Board business meeting at Celtic Manor but now he will send other officials to meet the chief executive of the four British associations who with Fifa make up the game's law-making body.Valcke will instead be in Zurich where Fifa's ethics committee are due to hear the case of two Fifa executive committee members, Nigeria's Amos Adamu and Tahiti's Reynald Temarii, who it is claimed asked undercover reporters for cash in return for their World Cup votes. The ethics body is also separately to investigate whether at least two countries campaigning to host the 2018 and or 2022 tournaments breached bidding rules.It is expected the IFAB meeting will take the first steps towards introducing goal-line technology, possibly by appointing an independent company to test the 13 systems that have put themselves forward to Fifa. No major decisions will be taken until the full IFAB meeting in March however.FifaFootball politicsguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Reports: Wayne Rooney tells Man United he wants out Wayne Rooney has reportedly told Manchester United that he wants to leave the Premier League club, although the club said speculation that the ... rssfeeds.usatoday.com |