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Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Becks wants Olympics glory

David Beckham admits he would love to appear for Great Britain in the 2012 Olympic - if he is still playing.
Beckham, 33, has a contract with Los Angeles Galaxy until 2012 and has not ruled out appearing or even captaining Great Britain's team at the London Games.
The England midfielder arrived in Beijing today ahead of the Olympics closing ceremony, in which he is playing a leading role in London 2012's set.
He said: "I will be 37 so I'm not sure I will still be playing. But you never know, at the end of the day I'm just going to be happy to be involved.
"I will definitely be there, but whether it's playing or not I'm not so sure about that one."
Beckham said he believed football deserved its place in the Olympics despite the controversy over whether clubs should be forced to release players for the tournament.
He added: "For me, football is the best sport in the world so for me it should be top of the list.
"There are so many other great sports and so many other athletes who have worked so hard to get here, but it's still important.
"There are great players and great teams over here so it's still my number one sport, whether or not it is looked at as different."
Meanwhile Beckham believes Usain Bolt should carry on showboating and said he has been awed by the Jamaican sprinting superstar.
Bolt, who clinched his third sprinting gold and third world record of the Games on Friday night, has been criticised by International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge for showing a lack of respect towards his fellow runners.
But Beckham gave his backing to Bolt saying: "I think he's great. If you're that good - and he breezed through all the early stages and then turned it on for the finals, it's so impressive if you can do that.
"He's so talented and has got so much confidence. It's such a big stage and the whole world is watching, so if you can perform like he has then you can gloat - and it's good to see."

by espnstar.com/football/other-football/news



Champions League Tuesday Review

Arsenal returned to winning ways with a big win over Porto while Dimitar Berbatov scored his first goals for Man United.

Arsenal took control of Group G after their 4-0 thumping of Portuguese side FC Porto. Robin van Persie scored twice for the Gunners. Fenerbache were held by Dynamo Kiev to a goalless draw in the other group game.
In Group E, Manchester United played their best side as promised by Sir Alex Ferguson and the Red Devils romped to a comfortable 3-0 win with Bebartov breaking his duck for the defending European champions. Primera Liga pace-setters Villarreal beat Celtic 1-0 with a hotly-disputed free-kick by Marco Senna to move joint-top with Man United.
Both games in Group F ended up in draws. Bayern were held 1-1 by Lyon while Steaua escaped Florence with a 0-0 draw with Fiorentina.
Real Madrid came away from Russia with a hard-earned 2-1 win over Zenit St Petersburgto go two points clear in Group H - the group of death. Juventus were surprisingly hed to a 2-2 draw with BATE.
To complete the experience, why not check out the Champions League photo-gallery here.
* Matchday 3 will be played on 21/ 22 October 2008.
by espnstar.com/football/champions-league/news


Sneijder plans van Persie chat

Holland midfielder Wesley Sneijder has revealed he plans to speak to team-mate Robin van Persie about the disagreement over a free-kick at Euro 2008.

In the quarter-final defeat to Russia, Van Persie went against what had been agreed and took a set-piece himself, failing to score.

"We never spoke about this again, because we left Switzerland the day after and I haven't played for the Oranje since then," the Real Madrid star, who suffered a serious knee injury in pre-season, told Voetbal International magazine.

"I don't want to say that I would have scored a goal, but it's simply a matter of agreements.

"As soon as we see each other again, I will speak with Robin about it.

"We don't have to make a big issue out of it but I want to make it clear that everyone must keep to the agreements."

by espnstar.com/football/news

Zanetti in confident mood

Internazionale captain Javier Zanetti is confident his team will bounce back from Sunday's derby defeat in Wednesday's Champions League Group B showdown against Werder Bremen.

Jose Mourinho's outfit lost 1-0 to arch rivals AC Milan in a thrilling derby at the weekend, ending the champions' unbeaten run in Serie A this term.

"Milan won the derby but we look ahead with optimism," said the 35-year-old. "We must try to get our second win in the Champions League."

He added: "There are so many games left in the season that it's early days yet.

"Mourinho told us after the game that we should think about Wednesday's encounter because there was nothing we could do about the derby result."

Mourinho added: "I like to say that when we win, it is the merit of my players and when we lose it's my fault.

"Hence, this defeat was lost by me, but it's nothing to worry about."

Adriano is set to partner Zlatan Ibrahimovic up front for the Nerazzurri and defenders Marco Materazzi and Nicolas Burdisso are likely to start, despite being suspended for Saturday's league game against Bologna.

Inter have won three of their last four matches at the San Siro.

by espnstar.com/football/news

Puyol defends Barca players

Carles Puyol defended his team-mates over allegations from Espanyol that they helped incite the crowd trouble Saturday.

Espanyol general director Pedro Tomas claimed on Monday that his club would be reporting the "provocative behaviour" of some of the Barca players to the anti-violence commission.

The match, which Barca eventually won 2-1 thanks to two late goals, was stopped and the players left the Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys pitch for several minutes during the second half following ugly scenes in the stands where flares were thrown in the direction of the home fans.

"We will report the behaviour of some of the Barca players, celebrating the goal, but also encouraging and provoking the violent members of the crowd," said Tomas.

However, Puyol has responded by saying: "This is totally out of place. We are surprised. In those moments of tension, when your pulse is going 180 a minute, we were happy because we had scored a goal and we only intended to celebrate it with the fans, because in this section we also had friends and family.

"At no moment was our intention to salute the violent fans - the minority who have thrown the flares.

"The dressing room and Barcelona do not feel represented by those that threw the flares, the same as that the person who threw the bottle at (Barca goalkeeping coach Juan Carlos) Unzue does not represent Espanyol.

"The players are 100% against violence."

The Spain international added: "I apologise if these celebrations annoyed anyone. The players like to think about football and if there is anyone who is always against violence, it's us."

by espnstar.com/football/primera-liga/news

Vijay withdraws from Asia events

Vijay Singh will skip a pair of Asian events to take a two-month break in order to recover from niggling injuries.

The 45-year-old, who clinched the PGA Tour's FedEx Cup play-off title on Sunday, was scheduled to compete at the Iskandar Johor Open in Malaysia from October 30 to November 2 and the HSBC Champions in Shanghai from November 6 to 9.

However, the Fijian will now miss both events and is not scheduled to return until the Father/Son Challenge and the Tiger Woods World Challenge, both in December.

"I've been hurt a lot," said Singh, who spent his formative years as a professional golfer in Asia.

"My arm still hurts and my back still hurts, so I'm going to take some time off and get myself in good shape physically and see if I can come out stronger."

Singh finished in a tie for 22nd at the season-ending Tour Championship last weekend but secured a USD 10 million bonus for winning the FedEx Cup following victories at The Barclays and Deutsche Bank Championship.

by espnstar.com/golf/news

Serena to open against China's Li

Serena Williams faces Na Li when she makes her first appearance since winning the US Open at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix.

Na Li set up the second-round meeting by coasting to a 6-1 6-2 victory over Nicole Vaidisova as the tournament got underway on Monday.

The world's top-ranked player, Williams collected her ninth career Grand Slam title earlier this month at Flushing Meadows, where she stormed through a loaded draw before edging Jelena Jankovic in the final.

Williams headlines another tough draw at this hardcourt event, which will feature eight of the world's top-10 ranked players. The top four seeds received first-round byes.

Jankovic, the world number two, is seeded second and hopes to continue her recent stellar play after winning the title last week at Beijing.

She will take on the Ukraine's Alona Bondarenko, who swept past Greece's Eleni Daniilidou, 7-6 (7-5) 6-1 on Monday.

World number three Dinara Safina is seeded third, followed by fellow Russians Elena Dementieva and Svetlana Kuznetsova, ranked fifth and seventh, respectively.

Dementieva opens play against Austria's Sybille Bammer, who ousted Germany's Tatjana Malek, 4-6 6-2 7-5, in Monday's only other match.

Venus Williams is the sixth seed while Vera Zvonareva, the world's ninth-ranked player, and world number 10 Agnieszka Radwanska received the seventh and eighth seeds.

by espnstar.com

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