NEw SARS-likE viRUS EMERGES iN MidEASt - Kuwait Times

LONDON: England would be keen to
stage the semi-finals and final of Euro
2020 if UEFA president Michel Platini’s
plan to hold the tournament across
Europe became a reality, English FA
chairman David Bernstein said yesterday.
Platini’s idea of having matches in
12 or 13 European countries with the
final stages in one venue will be discussed
by UEFA’s executive board in
December with a decision made early
next year.
Bernstein told a media briefing at
Wembley: “Clearly Wembley is incredibly
highly thought of by UEFA and it is
something we will probably push for.
“UEFA want to hold the semi-finals
and the final on the same ground, or
in the same city and I think we would
be on their shortlist - but there would
be some strong competition.”
Turkey have expressed their wish to
stage what will be a 24-team tournament
in 2020, but their bid will be
dropped if Istanbul is awarded the
Olympic Games in the same year.
Scotland, Wales and Ireland have also
declared their interest in staging the
finals.
Platini was in London last week and
discussed his idea of staging the finals
across the continent with the FA, who
would be keen to stage what would
effectively be a “finals week”.
Platini was so impressed with
Wembley’s staging of the 2011
Champions League final between
19 SPORTS
England keen to stage 2020 Euro finals
BUENOS AIRES: River Plate’s Leonardo Ponzio (left) and Racing Club’s Luciano
Vietto struggle for the ball during an Argentina’s league soccer match.—AP
Lanus topple Boca Juniors
BUENOS AIRES: A blunder by goalkeeper
Oscar Ustari paved the way for Boca
Juniors’ 2-0 defeat at Lanus that allowed
Newell’s Old Boys to overtake them as
Argentine championship leaders on
Sunday.
It was a fine result for Lanus coach
Guillermo Barros Schelotto, a Boca idol in
his days as a winger who masterminded
the victory against his old club.
“I didn’t enjoy it fully like I would beating
another team,” the former Columbus
Crew forward told reporters. “We were
always in control, we deserved to win.”
Ustari spilt a high ball into his penalty
area, defender Rolando Schiavi’s
attempted clearance hit the bar and
striker Mario Regueiro put Lanus ahead
after half an hour.
Despite Uruguayan Regueiro’s red
card in the 81st minute for a second
booking, Lanus increased their lead in
the 86th through Diego Valeri in a counter-attack.
Former Paraguay World Cup
coach Gerardo Martino’s unbeaten
Newell’s team, who won 2-1 at Colon,
lead the Inicial championship standings
with 18 points from eight matches. Velez
Sarsfield, who won 2-1 at San Lorenzo on
Saturday, have 17 points and Boca 16.
Big guns River Plate, Independiente
and San Lorenzo are struggling in the
lowers reaches of the standings, desperate
for points early in the season to stave
off the threat of relegation.
River lost 1-0 at home to Racing Club
and are one from bottom of the relegation
points averages with Independiente,
who were held 1-1 at home by All Boys
on Saturday, below them.
Fans are demanding a change of
coach at River where they see the inexperienced
Matias Almeyda struggling to
build a solid team and chanted at the
end of Sunday’s defeat for the return of
the highly successful Ramon Diaz.
Independiente, having handed the
reins to Americo Gallego at the end of
last month, have gone 15 matches without
a league win.
San Lorenzo’s coach Ricardo Caruso
Lombardi, who normally finds something
to complain to the referee about,
tried to put a lid on his frustrations after
a second successive defeat, saying: “I
look like Snow White I’m so calm, but
inside I’m a volcano.
“At big clubs, time is shorter (but)
while I feel good with the players, I’ll carry
on. They support me.” —Reuters
Toluca defeat Atlante 1-0
MEXICO CITY: Luis Tejada scored in the
84th minute as Toluca beat Atlante 1-0
Sunday to take the lead in Mexico’s
Apertura football tournament after nine
rounds of matches.
The victory improved Toluca to 20
points, ahead of second-placed Tijuana
on goal difference, after Tijuana drew 1-1
against Atlas on Saturday. In third, four
points behind, is Monterrey, which won
3-2 against Queretaro.
In other results, Chivas drew 0-0 with
Pumas, Cruz Azul held America 1-1,
Puebla drew 1-1 with Leon, Santos
Laguna and Jaguares drew 0-0 with San
Luis defeated Pachuca 1-0 and Morelia
and Tigres drew 1-1. Panamanian Tejada
scored with a right foot finish from inside
the area for Toluca when it seemed the
game was heading for a scoreless draw.
Colombian Duvier Riascos got the
equalizer in the 75th minute for Tijuana
with a simple finish, after Chilean Hector
Mancilla had weaved through the
Tijuana defense and finished to give
Atlas the lead in the 30th minute. Mexico
international Angel Reyna got the winner
for Monterrey eight minutes from
the final whistle.
Queretaro took the lead in the 15th
minute when Carlos Bueno scored and
held it until Nery Cardozo headed in the
equalizer in the 50th.
Abraham Carreno then put Monterrey
ahead in the 69th, but Diego Guastavino
pulled Queretaro level two minutes later
before Reyna’s winner.
Luis Perez hit the post from the penalty
spot for Chivas in the third minute of
second half injury time and Emanuel Villa
spawned a good chance for Pumas minutes
before.
In Saturday’s Mexico City derby,
America’s Christian Benitez latched onto
a long pass to open the scoring in the
18th, before Javier Aquino responded
three minutes after halftime for Cruz
Azul.
Leon’s goal came via a header from
Sebastian Maz in the 28th. Argentine
Matias Abelairas brought the scores level
in the 67th.
Current champions Santos Laguna
couldn’t score against Jaguares, but had
the better chances. San Luis got its second
win of season, with Jaime Correa
getting the only goal of the game in the
38th against Pachuca.
Lucas Lobos scored from the penalty
spot top to put Tigres in front after 66
minutes on Friday, before Miguel Sabah
equalized for Morelia in the 72nd.—AP
Manchester United and Barcelona that
UEFA awarded the 2013 final to
Wembley as well, which coincides with
the FA’s 150th anniversary celebrations.
Bernstein continued: “One of the
major factors is whether Turkey get
the Olympic Games or not. If Turkey
do not get the Olympic Games then I
think they are in a pretty good position
to stage the Euros.
“If we believed there was a real
opportunity of having the tournament
here of course we would look at it. “Of
course there would be an intent, the
public want it and we’d want it and it
would be wonderful to have it here.
“If Michel Platini’s current views
prevail and it becomes a pan-
Preview
MILAN: The San Siro has become
a burden for AC Milan and Inter
Milan with neither side managing
a win at the stadium in eight
attempts between them this season,
piling pressure on both their
managers. Tomorrow, it will be
troubled Milan’s turn to try to
break the jinx when they face
Cagliari in a midweek Serie A
match. Milan have failed to score
in three attempts at the San Siro
this season, losing 1-0 to
Sampdoria and Atalanta in Serie
A, and drawing 0-0 with
Anderlecht in the Champions
League. Rivals Inter have lost to
AS Roma and Siena in the league
at home and Hadjuk Split in the
Europa League where they have
also drawn with Vaslui and Rubin
Kazan. Another defeat for Milan
tomorrow will keep the heat on
coach Massimiliano Allegri,
whose side have taken only three
points from four Serie A games.
“We need to break the San Siro
taboo tomorrow. The fans, who
have been exceptional so far,
need to stay close to the team
tomorrow as well,” Allegri told
reporters after Sunday’s 2-1
defeat at Udinese. Allegri has
been left to pick up the pieces
after Milan dismantled their team
in the close season by selling the
likes of Zlatan Ibrahimovic and
Thiago Silva to try to balance the
books.
They are also plagued by
injuries but Allegri, who led Milan
to the 2011 title, has remained
remarkably unruffled in the face
of mounting pressure and some
ragged performances by his side.
European competition, then the focus
needs to be on the semi-finals and
final.”
After England’s unsuccessful bid to
FIFA in 2010 to stage the 2018 World
Cup finals, Bernstein said the FA would
not want to get into any kind of bidding
war to stage the tournament.
“We would not want to be involved
in a World Cup-style bidding process,”
he remarked. “We do not want to
spend a lot of money on something
that fell flat.” But, he said, he could see
the attraction of Platini’s idea
although there were two ways of looking
at it.
“What you would lose is the individuality
and the national flavor that you
get from, (Euro 2012 co-hosts) Poland
“At the moment I think it’s just
Juventus who are doing really
impressive things as it was logical
to expect,” said Allegri. “The other
teams are not going at 120
kilometres an hour and there’s
time to get back the positions
that we’ve lost now. I was and I
am calm.”
Rookie Andrea Stramaccioni’s
Inter, who have a 100 percent
away record in all competitions
and have yet to concede a goal
on their travels, visit Chievo in
another of Wednesday’s matches
(1845). “We’re united. We’re
behind this coach who’s trying to
do the best he can, and so are
we,” said midfielder Esteban
Cambiasso after Sunday’s 2-0
home defeat by Siena.
“The season is long and we
hope that our luck will turn.
We’re sorry to have lost at home,
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2012
and Ukraine or anywhere else.
“On the other hand, it is very
European-democratic across a wide
range of countries.” Apart from July
and August’s London Olympics and
the Paralympics which followed,
England last hosted a major soccer
tournament when they staged the first
16-team Euros in 1996.
In a sense Platini’s idea takes the
Euros back to how they were staged
from the first finals in 1960 through to
1976 when a continental-wide qualifying
competition ended with four
teams playing the two-semi-finals, a
playoff and a final in the same country.
That format was dropped when the
tournament was expanded to eight
teams in 1980.—Reuters
Milan’s turn to face San Siro jinx
Preview
BERLIN: Borussia Dortmund aims to bounce
back from its first Bundesliga loss in just
over a year when the defending champion
visits high-flying Eintracht Frankfurt today.
Dortmund’s 31-game unbeaten streak
came to a halt on Saturday with Hamburg’s
first win, and Juergen Klopp’s side already
finds itself five points behind pacesetting
Bayern Munich.
“The season has only begun. Last season
we were eight points behind Bayern and we
still won the German championship,”
Dortmund midfielder Ivan Perisic told the
Bundesliga website. “So I’m not worried
about it.” Frankfurt, in contrast, set a
Bundesliga record by becoming the first
promoted side to win its opening four
games.
“I’d be disappointed if we don’t finish
German champions now,” Frankfurt coach
Armin Veh joked after the third win. Bayern
- enjoying its best ever start to the league -
hosts misfiring Wolfsburg. “We can’t deny
it’s a good start but a good start is only of
any use if you keep marching on,” said
Bayern sporting director Matthias Sammer
after his side’s seventh consecutive win
across all competitions.
Also Tuesday, Schalke hosts Mainz and
Fortuna Duesseldorf visits Greuther Fuerth.
Tomorrow, Borussia Moenchengladbach
hosts Hamburg, Hoffenheim visits Stuttgart,
Hannover welcomes Nuremberg, Freiburg
hosts Werder Bremen and Bayer Leverkusen
visits Augsburg.
“It’s not nice to be reacquainted with
how losing feels,” Dortmund captain
Sebastian Kehl said after the 3-2 defeat. “It
has to be said that we really only have ourselves
to blame.” Dortmund was just five
games shy of Hamburg’s record of 36
games unbeaten set in January, 1983.
“Such a thing is incidental, although the
record would have been nice of course,”
Perisic said. “Maybe in a couple of weeks
we’ll get angry about the record because
we could have managed it with a draw (in
Hamburg).”
Defensive lapses were to blame for the
AC Milan’s Urby Emanuelson, of the Netherlands (left) in action in this file photo.
Kehl in this file photo. —AP
loss, though coach Juergen Klopp said his
team played badly in “the beginning, the
middle and the end.”
“If we learn the right lessons from
Hamburg it should be our last defeat for a
while,” said Klopp, whose side began last
season with three defeats from six games.
Klopp said Sunday that he never had a
team that played its best football in the first
five games and that “our real capability will
always come to light over the course of a
season.”
The outspoken 45-year-old coach is yet
to find his ideal lineup behind striker Robert
Lewandowski, with Perisic, Mario Goetze
and offseason signing Marco Reus all
switching positions during Saturday’s loss,
when the middle became too crowded.
“Mario, Marco and Ivan didn’t allow the
space they needed to play their game,”
Klopp said. Dortmund ended the game with
because we can’t manage to satisfy
our fans, but we’re sure the
wins will come.”
Titleholders Juventus, the
only team to have won their first
four games, take their perfect
record to Fiorentina for the only
match late yesterday. Tomorrow
Napoli, second with 10 points,
host Lazio, who have nine after a
shock home defeat by Genoa on
Sunday. —Reuters
Dortmund aims to bounce
back against Frankfurt
GERMANY: Leverkusen’s goalkeeper Bernd Leno jumps over Dortmund’s Sebastian
Goetze playing alongside substitutes Julian
Schieber and Jakub Blaszczykowski behind
Lewandowski.
Now questions are being asked about
how Reus - a Ä17.1 million ($22.2 million)
purchase - fits in a midfield still adapting to
the departure of Shinji Kagawa for
Manchester United.
“Our game is different to (Reus’ previous
club) Moenchengladbach’s,” said Dortmund
sporting director Michael Zorc. “He simply
needs time to get used to it.”
Jupp Heynckes has no such problems at
Bayern, where the 67-year-old coach has
been rotating his squad with the summer’s
new arrivals all contributing.
“You have to compensate for the energysapping
program by rotating the squad,”
Heynckes said. “Every player has to forget
his ego and drop to the bench sometimes.
I’ll organize it so it works.”—AP