18 September 2011 00:42

A 0-0 draw at home to Lierse was enough for Cercle Brugge to take the lead in the Belgian First Division on Saturday.

Neither side proved capable of producing a winner at the Jan Breydelstadion, but Lierse may well have been the happier of the two teams at the final whistle.

They survived to force the draw despite playing the entire second half with just 10 men following the 42nd-minute dismissal of defender Gonzague Vandooren.

Lierse remain without a win from seven matches of the season played, and are just one point outside the relegation zone.

Cercle Brugge head the table by one point from Gent, who are in action against Anderlecht on Sunday.

In other matches, Jeremy Perbet claimed a hat-trick and Rachid Bourabia struck a brace as promoted Mons thrashed Mechelen 5-1.

Shlomi Arbeitman bagged a second-half double as Westerlo eased to a 2-0 win at home to Sint-Truiden.

First-half goals from Mustapha Oussalah and Brecht Capon helped Kortrijk dispatch Leuven 2-0 at home.

Beerschot ran out 2-0 winners in their match at home to Zulte-Waregem.

Senegalese striker Ibrahima Sidibe put the home side ahead in the 13th minute, but they had to wait until four minutes from time for Guillaume Francois’s goal to confirm the win.

Zulte-Waregem were hampered by the 78th-minute dismissal of defender Steve Colpaert.

14 September 2011 17:10

Liverpool boss Kenny Dalglish has confirmed he held a meeting with Head of Referees Mike Riley at the club’s Melwood training ground on Tuesday.

The Scottish tactician has grown increasingly critical of match officials in recent weeks, culminating in a post-match rant following his side’s 1-0 loss to Stoke City.

The Reds lost after Jamie Carragher was harshly judged to have brought down John Walters in the area, with Stoke converting the resulting penalty.

However, Dalglish is now confident that the club has a better understanding of the rules following the meeting with Riley.

“It was good to see Mike and we had an extremely informative and amicable discussion, which has given us all a better understanding of how things operate,” Dalglish told the club’s official website.

“It’s our job to best represent the club and protect its interests, but we have the utmost respect for the job referees do and have never wanted or asked for any form of preferential treatment, simply a level playing field for everyone.”

“We will continue to conduct ourselves in a dignified and respectful manner at all times.”

“From our perspective it was certainly worthwhile sitting down together and maybe it’s something that should happen more often.”

Liverpool face another tricky Premier League away match on Sunday when they travel to White Hart Lane to face a resurgent Tottenham side.

11 September 2011 06:49

Sporting Kansas City took the lead in Major League Soccer’s Eastern Conference with a 3-0 win over Houston Dynamo on Saturday.

A brace from Teal Bunbury and CJ Sapong’s goal secured all three points for hosts Kansas in the match at Livestrong Sporting Park.

Houston finished the match with 10 men after the 64th-minute dismissal of Honduran Carlos Costly.

The win means Kansas now lead the conference on goal difference ahead of Columbus Crew, who went down 4-2 at home to bottom side Toronto.

The visitors led at half-time through goals from Nick Soolsma and Ryan Johnson at Columbus Crew Stadium.

The hosts pulled one back through Tom Heinemann on 67 minutes, but Julian De Guzman struck to restore the two-goal cushion with eight minutes remaining.

Andres Mendoza netted again for Columbus to make it 3-2 with three minutes to go, before Danny Koevermans’ 90th-minute effort made sure of the win for Toronto.

In other matches, Real Salt Lake won 2-1 away at the Seattle Sounders.

An own-goal from Seattle goalkeeper Kasey Keller and Alvaro Saborio’s second-half strike did the damage for RSL, either side of Fredy Montero’s goal for the hosts.

Both sides played the second 45 minutes with 10 men, after Seattle’s Jhon Hurtado and RSL defender Tony Beltran both saw second yellow cards late in the first half.

Shalrie Joseph and Rajko Lekic were on target in the New England Revolution’s 2-0 win at home to FC Dallas.

The New York Red Bulls managed a 1-1 draw in their match at home to the Vancouver Whitecaps.

Davide Chiumiento put the visiting Whitecaps ahead in the first half at Red Bull Arena.

Juan Agudelo equalised after the break for the 10-man hosts, who had Jan Gunnar Solli sent off on 45 minutes.

A Charlie Davies hat-trick saw DC United win 3-0 at Chivas USA, who lost David Junior Lopes to a 68th-minute red card.

Chris Wondolowski and Ramiro Corrales found the back of the net in San Jose’s 2-0 win over the Chicago Fire, who failed to make Wondolowski pay for a missed penalty seven minutes into the second half.

Finally, the Philadelphia Union were held 0-0 at home to the Portland Timbers.

8 September 2011 04:46

A thrilling second half comeback saw the Philadelphia Union claim a 4-4 draw against the New England Revolution in the MLS on Wednesday.

Both sides entered the match without a win in their last six league matches, but while New England were bottom of the Eastern Conference, Philadelphia still sat fourth and were every chance of making the playoffs at the end of the season.

But they made a horrendous start to the match, conceding four times in 25 first-half minutes to silence the home fans.

The scoring rout began on nine minutes for New England when Anthony Soares netted, and 11 minutes later that lead was doubled when Denmark’s Rajko Lekic scored from the penalty spot.

On 26 minutes Moroccan Monsef Zerka made it 3-0 and although Roger Torres pulled a goal back for Philadelphia, the visitors quickly restored their three-goal lead when Benny Feilhaber bagged his third goal in seven matches.

Freddy Adu scored nine minutes after half time for Philadelphia, but any comeback looked unlikely until Frenchman Sebastien Le Toux dragged the hosts within a goal when he netted a penalty with 11 minutes to play.

New England tried to desperately hang on and they made it until injury time, only to concede in the dying stages.

Le Toux was the goalscorer again as Piotr Nowak’s side moved ahead of the Houston Dynamo into third in the Eastern Conference.

4 September 2011 20:44

Spain midfielder Cesc Fabregas is hopeful Barcelona and Real Madrid can put aside their club rivalries for the sake of the national team.

Meetings between La Liga’s top two have been especially ill-tempered in the past 12 months, marred by touchline brawls and accusations of gamesmanship.

It has been suggested that tense relations between the two clubs could undermine Spain’s defence of the European Championship.

The reigning champions will qualify for next year’s finals in Poland and the Ukraine if they overcome Liechtenstein on Tuesday.

And Fabregas, who re-joined Barca from Arsenal in August, has called on the two squads to unite behind the national cause.

“It’s very clear that when Barca play Madrid the players of Madrid want to win for Madrid and the players of Barcelona want to win for Barca,” Fabregas said.

“This is something that no one could change, and no one will change.”

“Now we have all come here as team-mates and we are here to defend the best interests of the national team.”

“Because we if we want to repeat what we have achieved in the last three to four years then we have to be closer together to achieve that.”

Spain will be without their regular centre-back pairing of Carlos Puyol and Gerard Pique, but Fabregas is confident they can overcome the absence of his club team-mates.

“It’s clear that they are two great defenders, and when you don’t have them in the team you notice it,” Fabregas said.

“The same thing has happened to us with them at the club and we miss them a lot, but then again we have other great players that can do a good job.”

“I don’t think we need to find excuses for this. If we are the champions of the world then it’s because we have many variations.”

“And while these two are fundamental for the team, I feel we have other players who can achieve great things for the team as well.”

Spain have lost three friendlies against quality opposition since their World Cup triumph, going down to Portugal, Argentina and Italy.

But they have won all five matches played in qualifying Group I.

And Manchester City forward David Silva is unconcerned about the occasional reverse, unless it comes in a competitive fixture.

“Well I think that the national team should always win or at least to try and win all the games, 100 per cent,” Silva said.

“We, of course, know that the competitive games are much more important.”

“And hopefully it stays like this that we always win the qualifiers, the European Championships, the World Cups.”

“Even the friendlies, but if we do not do so well there maybe it’s also because we bring in many players, try new things, all of which helps us towards winning the competitive games.”