Category — Other Leagues

Having shipped nine goals in two games, Bayern Munich have little time to wallow in self-pity when they host Eintracht Frankfurt in the Bundesliga on Saturday.

After a 5-1 drubbing at the hands of league leaders VfL Wolfsburg last week, Bayern were thrashed 4-0 by Barcelona in their Champions League quarter-final first leg on Wednesday.

With their leaky defence a shadow of last season’s solid backline and defender Lucio as well as striker Miroslav Klose injured, coach Juergen Klinsmann needs a quick fix.

Defending champions Bayern are three points off the top in third place with 48 points with eight games remaining this term.

Klinsmann must also deal with mounting criticism that his first season in charge of Bayern has been a flop, despite vocal backing from the club board.

Bayern playmaker Franck Ribery admitted they needed to win against Eintracht to keep any title hopes alive.

“We are under pressure now. We absolutely must win against Frankfurt.” the Frenchman said after Bayern’s mauling in Spain. “We have to be present at the weekend.”

However, catching Wolfsburg, especially given Bayern’s erratic recent performances, is no easy task, with Felix Magath’s team having won their last eight league matches.

Wolfsburg, who lead Hamburg on goal difference in the Bundesliga, travel to lowly Borussia Moenchengladbach with two of the league’s most dangerous strikers in Grafite and Edin Dzeko.

The pair have been superb throughout the season, with the Brazilian topping the scorers’ list with 20 goals and the Bosnian 15.

While Magath has banned any title talk, insisting their aim was to finish in the top five, the players know the championship is only a few more wins away.

“Glabach will fight against relegation in this match and they will need every point they can get,” Wolfsburg midfielder Zvjezdan Misimovic said. “But if we keep a cool head we can get something out of this match as well.”

Hamburg, also on 51 points, travel to resurgent Stuttgart, who are in fifth place.

Hamburg’s midweek UEFA Cup clash against Manchester City could leave Martin Jol’s side drained, however, the team having played virtually non-stop since the end of the winter break in the league, UEFA Cup and German Cup. – Reuters

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Defending champions Toluca continued their unbeaten run in the Mexican Clausura championship with a 3-1 win over struggling Cruz Azul on Sunday.

Nestor Calderon opened the scoring for the Red Devils on the stroke of halftime when he beat Yosgart Gutierrez with a shot from outside the area.

Chilean Hector Mancilla added the second in the 58th minute with his eighth goal of the competition, making him joint top scorer with his compatriot Humberto Suazo of Monterrey.

Luis Angel Landin pulled one back for the Blue Machine one minute later but Edgar Duenas added Toluca’s third in the 76th minute after running onto Antonio Naelson’s pass and placing his shot past Gutierrez from the edge of the area.

Toluca, unbeaten after 11 games, top Group Three with 23 points while Cruz Azul are bottom of Group Two with 11.

America and Pumas UNAM disappointed a 70,000 crowd at the Azteca by drawing their derby 0-0, a result which kept Pumas top of Group Two.

Guadalajara, Mexico’s most popular club, dropped to fifth in Group Two with 12 points after losing 1-0 at Tigres UANL, who ended a five-match winless run.

Tigres, under Argentina’s 2006 World Cup coach Jose Pekerman, stayed fifth in Group Three with 10 points after Paraguay defender Pedro Benitez scored in the 39th minute.

Argentine Christian Gimenez scored a hat-trick to give Group One leaders Pachuca a 3-0 win over Necaxa and keep them on course for a quarter-final place.

The 18 teams meet each other once in the qualifying stage but are divided into three groups. – ESPN

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Liberian striker Anthony Laffor scored a hat-trick as South African Premiership leaders SuperSport United trounced Mamelodi Sundowns 4-1 in a Pretoria derby. The victory lifted defending champions SuperSport to 49 points, six more than Orlando Pirates and nine ahead of Kaizer Chiefs as the race for the title enters the closing stage.

Sundowns are 11 points adrift in fourth place with five fixtures left and virtually out of the title race while raising doubts about the future of French coach Henri Michel. Laffor, who played in his homeland and Ghana before arriving in South Africa four years ago, claimed his second hat-trick of the championship season and lies third on the scorers list with 11 goals.

He broke the deadlock at Super Stadium after 23 minutes by rounding goalkeeper Calvin Marlin and his low cross set up the second goal for midfielder Daine Klate soon after to give United a 2-0 half-time lead. There was no second-half comeback from expensively assembled Sundowns and Laffor struck again on 65 minutes after Glen Salmon won a race for possession and played the ball into the path of the lethal Liberian.

Sundowns embarrassment was completed 12 minutes from full-time when Laffor got to a cross first and national squad member Marlin had to pick the ball out of his net once more. The losers were reduced to 10 men when another Bafana Bafana (The Boys) contender, defender Matthew Booth, was shown a red card for a late tackle on Mozambican midfielder Elias ‘Domingues’ Pelembe.

Zambian substitute Collins Mbesuma finally gave Sundowns supporters some cheer with a consolation goal and SuperSport goalkeeper Andre Arendse made several late saves. The keeper, who turns 42 in June, was recalled in place of Ugandan Dennis Onyango as coach Gavin Hunt rang the changes after an African Champions League loss at Kampala City Council last weekend.

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Seattle Sounders opened the Major League soccer season in style with a 3-0 thumping of the New York Red Bulls to a sell-out crowd on Thursday night – casting aside the off-season saga of David Beckham’s future.

The newest team in the MLS, Seattle have sold over 20,000 season tickets and in a passionate stadium in front of 32,000 fans there was little thought of L.A Galaxy’s Beckham, who will miss the first part of the season while he stays with AC Milan in Italy. There was a full-blooded atmosphere at Qwest Field as the ‘Rave Greens’ began their first campaign in USA’s top league playing at a fast pace against a New York side that looked far from certain in defence.

Colombian international Fredy Montero opened the scoring in the 11th minute, finishing off a fine passing move with a confident 15 yard strike. The impressive Montero then set up Brad Evans for Seattle’s second in the 25th minute as the home side threatened to run amok. The only surprise was that it took until the 75th minute for the Sounders to add their third when Red Bulls defender Mike Petke was woefully caught in possession and Montero dribbled goalwards before blasting home.

“There was so much expectation but we had to perform and we had to do that – it’s great that we could,” said Sounders keeper Kasey Keller back in the United States after a career in England, Spain and Germany. Qwest Field is home to the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks and the venue was re-arranged for it’s MLS debut with the upper tier closed off and covered with flags and decorations.

The result was a sell-out in the 32,000 lower tier and MLS commissioner Don Garber was delighted with the first appearance of the league’s newest franchise. “It shows what soccer can be in this country, this is absolutely spectacular and defines what we want to see in Major League Soccer,” he told ESPN television.

The Sounders featured in the old North American Soccer League (NASL) and then the United Soccer Leagues (USL) before winning an expansion slot in the MLS. Portland is expected to be named as the newest expansion team on Friday.

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FC Luzern, FC Basel, Young Boys Bern and Sion are the four teams that make an appearance in the semi finals of the Swiss Cup.

Quarter final action started on March 4th, when Young Boys bern easily defeated Grasshopper 3-0 at their own stadium, which was also a host venue of Euro 2008.

Sion secured their ticket to the semi finals thanks to a 1-2 win at Sankt Gallen on Tuesday. Luzern beat Concordia Basel 0-2 and FC Basel were just a bit too strong for FC Zürich, 0-1.

If Basel were to win the tournament, it would be their third consecutive Cup trophy. Of the four semi-finalists, Young Boys have to go furthest back to their most recent victory, which was achieved in 1987.

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