Kaka, Iraq Emerge winners

LONDON - AC Milan star Kaka looks set to collect a sweep of player of the year awards after scooping more than 50 per cent of the votes in the annual poll conducted by the respected magazine World Soccer, whose readers also gave Iraq the team prize. Kaka, who is the hot favourite to pick up the FIFA player of the year award on Monday and already won European soccer's Golden Ball, finished way ahead of his rivals in a poll of the magazine's readers.

The Brazilian received 52.8 per cent of the votes ahead of Barcelona's Lionel Messi (17.6) and Manchester United's Cristiano Ronaldo (16.0). Messi won the young player award ahead of Arsenal's Cesc Fabregas.

The biggest surprise in the poll was Iraq winning the vote for world team of the year.

Winner of the Asian Cup in July, the Iraqi team not only overcame stronger teams but also achieved the triumph against a background of chaos and tragedy back home in its war-torn country.

Iraq edged Milan, which won the Champions League for its seventh triumph in European soccer's most prestigious competition, with two-time UEFA Cup winner Sevilla a distant third.

Manchester United's Alex Ferguson captured the coach of the year award after leading the Red Devils to their ninth Champions League title in 15 years. Ferguson edged Juande Ramos, who won back-to-back UEFA Cup titles with Sevilla before moving on to Tottenham.

Ronaldo double lifts Man U

Cristiano Ronaldo made up for missing out in the European Footballer of the Year award by scoring both the goals as Manchester United moved to within three points of leaders Arsenal with a 2-0 win against Fulham at Old Trafford on Monday.

Ronaldo who was overlooked in favor of Ac Milan’s Brazilian forward Kaka for the Ballon d’Or award that was announced on Sunday, proved too good for Fulham, who saw their woeful Premiership away record stretch to 24 games without victory as Sir Alex Ferguson’s team cruised to the win.

United had allowed themselves to fall off the Premiership pace by losing 1-0 at Boltan in their last league outing and nothing but three points against Fulham would do for the champions with Arsenal stretching their lead to six points with a weekend victory at Aston Villa.

Argentinian striker Carlos Tevez should have hit a hatrick during that period as three golden chances fell into his path, but the former West Ham forward failed to take any of them.

Where Tevez was wasteful, however, Ronaldo was lethal and Portugal International gave United the lead on ten minutes with a thunderous volley that left Neimi completely helpless.

On the occasion, poor defending by Fulham unlocked the door for United. Lawrie Sanchez’s team failed to properly clear Ryan Giggs’s corner and the ball ultimately fell to Ronaldo on the edge of the six yard box after the flick-on from defender Nemanja Vidic.

Unmarked, Ronaldo simply lashed a right-foot volley into the roof of the net to put United ahead and claim his twelfth goal of the season.

Sanchez’s team could not hold out until the end of the game, though, and Ronaldo doubled United’s lead when he headed In John O’Shea’s cross from close range on 58 minutes.

MaClaren sacked

Steve MaClaren was sacked as England head coach today following their failure to qualify for Euro 2008, the football Association confirmed.

“The FA board unanimously decided to terminate MaClaren’s contract with immediate effect,” FA chairman Geoff Thompson told a news conference. The FA said it has also terminated the contract of assistant coach Terry Venables.

England miss Euro ’08 bus

England hopes of a place in Euro 2008 finals disappeared at Wembley yesterday when they lost 2-3 to Croatia after fighting back from conceding two early goals to pull level. Subsequently, head coach Steve MaClaren was sacked.
Instead of hanging to the point that would have secured their place in the tournament co-hosted by Austria and Switzerland, they conceded a third goal 13 minutes from time, allowing Russia to steal into second place in Group E and qualify with Croatia.
It was the first time since 1984 that England missed out on the European Championship finals and the first time since the 1994 World Cup that they failed to qualify for a major tournament.
Former England captain David Beckham, a second-half substitute said, “This is a big setback, not just for the players but the nation… We have to show the English way which is to fight back.”
The home crowd was stunned after eight minutes when Scott Carson, controversially chosen in goal after making his debut in a friendly only last week, allowed a speculative shot by Niko Kranjcar to skid off him and into the net, and it looked all over when Ivica Olic doubled the lead six minutes later.
England pulled level with a 56th-minute Frank Lampard penalty followd by a great goal by striker Peter Crouch, who expertly controlled a cross from half-time substitute Beckham before volleying the equalizer.
Croatia, though, continued to look dangerous and won it in the 77th-minute when substitute Mladen Petric lashed in a shot from the edge of the box.
The Croatians will be among the second seeds when the draw for the finals is made in Lucerne, Switzerland on December 2.

Bolton hold Bayern Munich 2-2

Struggling Bolton Wanderers held European soccer aristocrats Bayern Munich to a 2-2 draw in UEFA Cup Group F on Thursday. Bolton, second from the bottom in the English Premier League , shocked Bayern with an eight minute opener in Munich, the first goal in five years for defender Ricardo Gardner.
Bayern, 9past winners of four European Cups, a cup Winner’s Cup and a UEFA Cup, replied with goals from Germany striker Lukas Podolski either side of half time.
But Kevin Davies made it a night to savour for new coach Gary Megson with an 82nd minute strike against the run of play.
Bayern stay on top of the group with four points from two games.
Aris Salonika jumped to second after beating Red Star Belgrade 3-0 and Bolton are third a point behind.

Arsenal Face Action

Three season ticket holders at English Premier League side Arsenal claim the club could be in breach of contract for allegedly allowing racist chanting at their stadium, a report said. The Independent newspaper said the trio had written to the club chairman, claiming that the use of the words “Yid” and “Yiddos” to refre to fans of Tottenham Hotspur broke human right laws.

Man U, Arsenal advance

Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger have very little nice to say to each other and little in common but for once they shared the headlines for the right reasons as Manchester United and Arsenal became the first clubs to qualify for the knockout stages of the Champions League.

Their means of qualifying like their managers, couldn’t have been more contrasting as united whipped once proud Ukrainian outfit Dynamo Kiev 4-0 , while a second-string Arsenal side drew 0-0 away yesterday at Slavia Prague – a team they trounced 7-0 a fortnight ago.

Gerard Pique nodded United ahead with his first goal for the club and Carlos Tevez scored his first in the Champions League after a darting run hand one-two with Wayne Rooney.