Play Goes On Despite Blasts
A car bomb exploded within 200 yards of Santiago Bernabeu Stadium in Madrid on Wednesday evening less than four hours before Real Madrid played Barcelona in the semifinals of the European Champions League.
The blast, one of two to rock the Spanish capital, caused minor injuries to eight people, mostly from flying glass. Police had evacuated the area in time after receiving a warning from ETA, the Basque separatist group that claimed responsibility for the explosions. The second blast occurred near a railway station half an hour later, causing no injuries.
Officials from both teams met with leaders of UEFA, European soccer’s governing body, and decided to go ahead with the match, which ended in a 1-1 tie in front of more than 75,000. The result meant that eight-time European champion Real Madrid won the two-game series, 3-1, on aggregate, and will play Bayer Leverkusen of Germany in the May 15 final.
Spain national team striker Raul gave Real Madrid the lead two minutes before halftime, but Barcelona, which needed to win by three goals after losing the first match, 2-0, tied the score in the 48th minute on an own goal by Ivan Helguera.
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After trying for more than two years to find a buyer, Airdrie, a 124-year-old club in the Scottish second division, went into liquidation, having earlier released its coaches and players. The club has debts of more than $4 million and its stadium and name are for sale.
World Cup 2002
Ecuador was beaten, 2-1, by the Brazilian club Internacional of Porto Alegre in front of 42,000 at Quito in its final warmup game at home before leaving for the World Cup.
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England’s coach, Sven Goran Eriksson, said he will delay selecting his 23-man roster by two days, until after Manchester United’s game against Arsenal and Liverpool’s match against Blackburn Rovers on Wednesday.
More than half of England’s players will be involved in those games, and Eriksson fears that injuries similar to those that recently sidelined United’s David Beckham and Garyl Neville could again force him to change plans.
Eriksson will announce his roster May 9 and the team will go to Dubai on May 13 for rest and recuperation before traveling to Japan, where it plays Sweden, Argentina and Nigeria in the first round.
Djalminha, expected to be chosen later this month for Brazil’s team, lost his temper Wednesday while training with his Spanish club, Deportivo La Coruna, and head-butted Coach Javier Irureta.
The two have been at odds for some time over Djalminha’s scant playing time.
“It’s the result of end-of-season nerves,” Irureta said. “It happens in a lot of teams.”
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Nigeria Coach Adegboye Onigbinde has alleged he was offered bribes by an unidentified player agent who wanted some of his clients included in Nigeria’s team.
“I was offered $2,000 per player by an agent, but I refused and warned him to stay clear of me and the team,” Onigbinde said.
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Africa’s player of the year, striker El Hadj Diouf of Senegal, blasted his country’s soccer federation for failing to provide the national team with more games as it prepares for its first World Cup.
Senegal has played only one game since February, and Diouf believes the lack of game sharpness will show when Senegal plays defending champion France in the tournament’s opening game, May 31 at Seoul, South Korea.
“It’s a farce what’s going on around the national team, our preparation has been sabotaged,” Diouf, 21, told the Senegalese newspaper L’Info.
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World Cup cohost Japan’s first match is not until June 4, but already Coach Philippe Troussier is making his post-tournament plans.
Troussier on Wednesday told Agence France-Presse he had been contacted to become coach of Olympique Marseille and is talking with the French first-division team.
“I have always made it clear that I did not want to carry on after the World Cup,” he said. “After four years of a job that has been as uplifting and rich as my experience in Japan, I now want to pursue my own personal development elsewhere.”
