Britian withdraws 2022 World Cup bid

Britain withdrew its bid to host the World Cup in 2022, shortly after the U.S. announced it will not aspire to host the tournament in 2018.

The U.S. decision to concentrate its efforts in the 2022 World ensures that the 2018 tournament will be in Europe.

The announcement of England, therefore, became a mere formality as the FIFA rules prohibit consecutive world cups to be held on the same continent.

"In recent months we have been in talks with FIFA and UEFA in relation to the possibility of focusing only on the 2022 World Cup, and which we mentioned on previous occasions," he said in a statement the president of the U.S. Soccer Federation and his candidacy, Sunil Gulati.

"This decision is in the best interest for our bid," he added.

The general secretary of FIFA, Jerome Valcke, said the agency had warned the U.S. that everything pointed to make the 2018 World Cup in Europe.

"The announcement of the American committee to focus its candidacy only in the 2022 World Cup is a gesture that is well received and appreciated by FIFA," said Valcke.

Competition for the 2018 World Cup is now between Britain, Russia and joint bids from Netherlands-Belgium and Spain-Portugal.

Meanwhile, the bid for the tournament in 2022 is between the United States, Australia, Japan, Qatar and South Korea.

FIFA will select the sites on 2 December.

South Africa draws against Sierra Leone in Freetown

Bafana Bafana have taken control of Africa Cup of Nations Group G thanks to Sunday's away draw in Sierra Leone.

The goalless draw sees Pitso Mosimane's men move their points tally to four while Niger, who stunned Egypt 1-0, lie second with three points. Sierra Leone have two points while the Pharaohs are bottom with just a single point to their name.

The 2010 World Cup hosts put up a plucky defensive effort and managed to repel a number of attacks from the Leone Stars, who beat Bafana in an AFCON qualifying tie in Freetown in 2008.

But there was no repeat as Mosimane's defence held firm through the 90 minutes to collect a second consecutive clean sheet in qualifying.

Unfortunately for local fans, the excellent result in trying conditions away from home was overshadowed by the SABC's incompetence as the national broadcaster failed to televise the match as expected.

Bafana's next match, which is slated to take place at Soccer City in March 2011, is against the embattled Pharaohs who will require nothing less than a victory to keep alive their hopes of qualification for the continental showpiece in Gabon/Equitorial Guinea in 2012.

Source: football365.co.za

Afcon 2012 qualifiers- October 9-10 results

The African continent was once again ablaze as Afcon 2012 tournament hopefuls battled it out in their respective groups. The likes of Cameroon, Zimbabwe and Ghana could not make full use of their home ground advantage by drawing against DR Congo, Cape Verde and Sudan respectively.

World Cup finalist Algeria were clobbered 0-2 by Central African Republic, while the 2010 WC hosts South Africa snatched a point in Freetown against Sierra Leone who also managed to hold the might of Egypt to a draw in their last group fixture. And the rest of the results are as follows:

Group A

Mali 2-1 Liberia

Zimbabwe 0-0 Cape Verde

Group C

Comoros 0-1 Mozambique

Group D

Tanzania 0-1 Morocco

Central African Republic 2-0 Algeria

Group E

Senegal 7-0 Mauritius

Cameroon 1-1 DR Congo

Group F

Burkina Faso 3-1 Gambia

Group G

Niger 1-0 Egypt

Sierra Leone 0-0 South Africa

Group H

Burundi 0-1 Ivory Coast

Rwanda 0-3 Benin

Group I

Ghana 0-0 Sudan

Group J

Kenya 0-0 Uganda

Angola 1-0 Guinea Bissau

Group K

Malawi 6-2 Chad

Togo 1-2 Tunisia

Alex Ferguson praises Javier Hernandez

Alex Ferguson, Manchester United manager, praised the Mexican striker Javier Chicharito Hernandez, author of the goal that gave his team victory over Valencia (0-1), the UEFA Champions League. Saying "Chicharito has great quality and great projection"

Chicharito scored the only goal of the game in Mestalla, after 85 minutes, seven minutes after entering the field to replace the Brazilian Anderson and just seconds later to fire another shot at goal post defended by César Sánchez.

Ferguson noted the strength and energy of his team in a very committed game.

On the final result and when asked if the prize for his team was not excessive, said the Valencia a good team. "Our goal is to defend well and that the changes had been key to the outcome," he said.

Ferguson said that Valencia is a good team with good players and makes good football, very dangerous centers for both bands.

"We must give our victory the merit," said England team coach, who believes that a team will have the chance to qualify as first or second and the challenge to his rival is "in the next game at Rangers in Scotland, "he concluded.

Valencia coach,Unai Emery said he is pleased with the work of the players and the support of the fans, and said his team played to win and was closer to to doing so, and he was satisfied with everything but less with the result.

"They found the wisdom of the goal and won. We congratulate them," he said after the defeat of 0-1 with a goal in the dying minutes.

UEFA Champions league first stages overview

In the UEFA Champions League the real competition begins in the second round. In the first stage, the differences between the powerful and the weak is enormous, and even if there are any surprise result.

We had two teams marked the debut had been a setback, albeit slight (just had tied). And both were recovered this week.

Manchester United still not convincing, but still took a 1-0 very important visit to Valencia. And notice that we are not talking about a lesser team, but the third one of the most powerful leagues, that of Spain. Even so, remain abysmal differences between the elite and those who follow.

The other candidates who had tied for first date was Inter, and it recovered with a win against another team of middle-level and Werder Bremen.

Its neighbor, AC Milan drew 1-1 against Ajax. Again, a draw might seem a poor result, but considering that the Dutch seem to be the umpire in the group, a point is still vital. The only problem with AC Milan seems to be their average age.

Either way, Real Madrid, Mourinho is already feeling the pressure to not only win but to enjoy. Things are not going well, playing Benzema as a winger and forgetting what they do best, which is to attack, with Cristiano Ronaldo and Higuain suffering from a lack of supply.

Chelsea on the other hand, beat Olympique de Marseille despite the absence of high-profile names like Lampard and Drogba. Arsenal also struggled against Partizan in Serbia, while Bayern Munich clinched their second straight win against Basel visitor.

It is clear that the some areas are very uneven: but they have time to straighten up when they stumble.

Mourinho satisfied with Auxerre victory

Jose Mourinho, coach of Real Madrid, was satisfied with his team's victory over Auxerre (0-1), and considered the most important thing was to win the match.

"Winning this game and have 6 points, for us, most important," Mourinho said in a brief news conference after the meeting.

The coach said that Madrid deserved to win the match despite a few scoring opportunities that resulted in a match that was "not easy to play" with the outputs of the players against Jean Fernandez.

"With Mallorca and Levante we created 15 chances, but did not score and drew zero-zero. Everyone said we did not deserve to win because we did not score. Today, we deserved because we scored," said the Portuguese.

"I keep everything, with the difficulty of the game. Auxerre is very well organized and very dangerous on the counterattack," he concluded.

Jorge Valdano, general manager of Real Madrid, said after the game against Auxerre in TVE, that his team struggled to win because "accumulated considerable stress.