Int Football - Around the world in 80 goals

Eurosport - Mon, 22 Dec 13:03:00 2008

A whistle-stop tour of the weekend's football action across the globe, with Ajax hitting six in the Eredivisie.

FOOTBALL 2008-2009 Eredivisie Ajax Luis Suarez (Not in Italy) - 0

NETHERLANDS

Moroccan international Mounir El Hamdaoui scored his 15th goal of the season to keep leaders AZ Alkmaar on track for their first title since 1981 with a 2-0 win over Utrecht.

Dario Cvitanich and Luis Suarez (pictured) hit doubles for Ajax in a 6-0 thrashing of lowly Graafschap Doetinchem to keep them in second place, three points behind Alkmaar.

Steve McClaren's Twente Enschede beat Willem II Tilburg for a fifth straight win to stay third above champions PSV Eindhoven, who overcame strugglers Feyenoord 1-0 with Ibrahim Afellay on target.

COLOMBIA

America beat Independiente Medellin 3-1 to win the Colombian Clausura championship and claim their 13th title, equalling the record held by Millonarios.

The Red Devils completed a 4-1 aggregate win in the two-leg final with their victory at Cali's Pascual Guerrero stadium on Sunday.

Medellin went ahead in the 17th minute when Danilson Cordoba's long ball forward caught the America defence napping and Diego Alvarez touched the ball past Adrian Berbia.

Adrian Ramos crashed in a right-foot shot from outside the area to equalise eight minutes later and the hosts went ahead on the hour when Medellin's Jamel Ramos turned Ivan Velez's cross into his own goal.

Jaime Cordoba finished off a breakaway to score America's third in the 89th minute.

America, beaten in the Apertura championship final in the first half of the season, dominated Colombian football during the 1980s but have been hit by financial problems in the past few years. Their previous title was in 2002. Two championships per year are held in Colombia.

COSTA RICA

Saprissa won their fifth successive Costa Rican title when they beat Alajuelense 3-0 in the second leg of the Apertura championship final.

Trailing 2-0 from the first leg, the Purple Monsters wiped out the deficit in less than a quarter of an hour of Saturday night's return.

Alejandro Alpizar headed in Armando Alonso's cross in the 12th minute and returned the compliment he set up the second for Alonso to score two minutes later.

Striker Jairo Arieta scored the decisve goal in the 85th minute from a chance created by playmaker Walter Centeno.

Saprissa's Alexander Robinson and Alajuelense's Argenis Fernandez were sent off for fighting in the 57th minute.

The Apertura is the first of two championships played in the Costa Rican season.

CHILE

Colo Colo won the Chilean championship for the fifth time in six attempts and a record 28th overall when they beat 10-man Palestino 3-1 in the second leg of the final.

Argentine striker Lucas Barrios was among the scorers with his 37th goal of the season as the Chieftains completed a 4-2 aggregate win over the rank outsiders to win the Clausura championship.

Barrios opened the scoring in the 27th minute of Saturday night's game when he swept home Daud Gazale's pass from close range.

Palestino, who represent Chile's Palestinian community, equalised ten minutes later when Luis Pavez headed in from a corner.

Gazale turned in Domingo Salcedo's pass to put Colo Colo back in front five minutes after halftime and Barrios set up the third for Rodrigo Millar in the 61st minute.

Palestino, who had two players sent off in the first leg, saw red again when substitute Jean Paul Pineda was dismissed in the 74th minute for a tackle from behind.

The Clausura is the second of two championships which are played in the Chilean season.

Colo Colo won both tournaments in 2006 and 2007. Their run was interrupted when they lost to Everton in the final of this year's Apertura tournament.

ARGENTINA

Boca Juniors beat nine-man San Lorenzo 3-1 in the second game of the three-way Argentine championship playoff on Saturday to set up a title decider against Tigre on Tuesday.

Playmaker Juan Roman Riquelme set up two of Boca's goals but also earned a fifth yellow card which will rule him out of the Tuesday's match.

Lucas Viatri, Rodrigo Palacio and Cristian Chavez scored for Boca on a scorching afternoon at neutral Racing Club while Santiago Solari replied for San Lorenzo, who beat Tigre 2-1 in the mini league's opening match but are now out of the running.

San Lorenzo had Gaston Aguirre and Gonzalo Bergessio sent off and six other players booked while Boca had five players shown the yellow card.

Boca, San Lorenzo and Tigre finished level on points at the top of the regular tournament, sending the title race to a three-way playoff as goal difference is not used.

Saturday's result left Boca and San Lorenzo with three points each in the mini-league and Tigre with none.

Goal difference will be used to settle the mini-league if the teams finish level on points, followed by the head-to-head record of the teams during the regular championship.

This gives Tigre the upper hand as they beat both the other pair while Boca beat San Lorenzo.

Play was held up for five minutes during the first half after an ugly clash of heads involving Boca defender Juan Forlin and San Lorenzo striker Andres Silvera, who were both taken to hospital for treatment. Media reports said their condition was not serious.

Viatri put Boca ahead in first-half stoppage time when he headed in Riquelme's perfectly floated corner at the near post.

Former Real Madrid striker Solari levelled out of the blue in the 61st minute when his soft shot slipped through the hands of Boca goalkeeper Javier Garcia.

Boca regained the lead in the 77th minute when Garcia's long kick out of defence found Jesus Datola on the left.

Datola's crossfield pass found Riquelme who laid off a neat ball into the middle for Palacio to fire home.

San Lorenzo lost their heads as Aguirre and Bergessio were both dismissed for second bookable offences in the last 10 minutes, Bergessio leaving the field in a fit of rage.

Substitute Chavez added the third when he cut inside his marker and scored with a low shot from 20 metres.

URUGUAY

The Uruguayan championship was suspended on Saturday for the second time in just over a month because of security problems.

Uruguayan Football Association president Jose Luis Corbo said the weekend games, which would have determined the winners of the championship's first stage, had been postponed indefinitely.

He said the decision was made because police refused to allow Danubio to host Penarol in their stadium, the site of a riot last month that resulted in the match being suspended for two weeks.

"We put forward a number of alternatives which were not accepted," Corbo said. "It's a problem of interpretation."

Danubio and Nacional have 29 points from 14 games going into the final round of matches while Racing Club and Defensor Sporting, who have 27 points each, are also in contention.

Danubio were due to welcome Penarol - Nacional's arch-rivals - while Nacional were at Central Espanol. Defensor Sporting were to entertain Juventud with Racing Club at home to Wanderers.

The Uruguayan championship is divided into two stages and the 16 clubs meet each other once in each.

The Observador newspaper said police vetoed Danubio's stadium because of worries with the fencing.

"I don't know what happened. We made all the arrangements. People can go and see for themselves," Danubio president Arturo del Campo told the newspaper.

Last month about 200 Danubio and Nacional fans fought a pitched battle on the field after the team met in a top-of-the-table clash at Danubio's Jardines del Hipodromo stadium.

The championship was suspended the following day. The competition was also stopped for nearly one month in 2006 after a Cerro fan was attacked and killed by a group of Penarol supporters near the Centenario stadium.

Reuters

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  1. this is the wrost "article" i have ever seen

    From bilal_ramadan2003, on Thu 25 Dec 6:44AM
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