Soccer Sports News & Betting

Goalkeeper Gregory Coupet compares playing for France. To a form of “dictatorship” in which coach Raymond Domenech forbids players to say what they think.

Coupet, who has had tense relations with Domenech since being dropped in favor of Fabien Barthez for the 2006 World Cup, says Domenech’s stringent regime means players are effectively gagged.

“The players are not allowed to speak,” Coupet said in an interview published on the Web site of France Football magazine. “I can speak because I got out of there. But it’s a dictatorship that’s in place. The FFF (French Football Federation), the staff, everyone needs to look in the mirror.”

After learning that Domenech preferred Barthez for the 2006 World Cup campaign, a furious Coupet packed his bags and left France’s pre-tournament training camp in the French Alps, only to change his mind and come back. Coupet and Domenech patched up their differences and Coupet played in all three of France’s matches at the European Championship last summer.

France drew 0-0 with Romania, and then Coupet was at fault for two goals in France’s 4-1 defeat to the Netherlands, before making amends with a solid performance in the 2-0 defeat to Italy that ended France’s Euro 2008 campaign.

Coupet blamed Domenech for France’s below-par showing at the Euro.

“Domenech plays around with people, but if you do that you end up falling flat on your face,” Coupet told France Football. “All this is very sad because there is an enormous amount of quality in this group that is being wasted. It’s crazy that guys with so much talent should feel so ill at ease.”

Domenech can still call up Coupet, but the Atletico Madrid goalkeeper doubts it after his comments.

Coupet also criticized the FFF for keeping Domenech in a job, saying the federation sought easy scapegoats for the Euro debacle.

“They fired the doctor and the press officer … isn’t that a bit scary?” Coupet said. “We were useless at the European Championship because of the doctor and the guy in charge of press relations … it’s a disgrace!”

Juergen Klinsmann, feeling the heat early in his first season as Bayern Munich coach. After the club’s worst domestic start in 31 years, will be hoping for a return to form against Lyon in the Champions League.

After two straight losses, one a 5-2 thrashing at home by Werder Bremen, the German champions are in ninth place in Germany’s top division.

Seeking to rest key players ahead of Tuesday’s game against Lyon, Klinsmann dropped several starters for the match at Hannover on Saturday, but the move backfired when Bayern lost 1-0.

Ze Roberto, Lucio and Bastian Schweinsteiger were among the usual starters who were left out and Bayern produced a pale, uninspired performance.

“We showed no creativity, no ideas, nothing unexpected,” Klinsmann said.

Klinsmann called his players for what appears to have been a stormy meeting after the game in Hannover, but he declined to give details.

“It’s normal that after a game like that clear and perhaps also loud words are used,” Klinsmann said.

There is little tolerance for failure at Bayern, but club president Franz Beckenbauer stopped short of criticizing Klinsmann’s rotation.

“I don’t think such criticism would be justified,” Beckenbauer said.

Even Franck Ribery, making his second appearance since recovering from an ankle injury, could not turn things around for Bayern when he came on at the start of the second half.

“If we play like that against Lyon, we’ve got no chance,” Ribery said.

Lyon will not be intimidated, having lost only one of four previous Champions League games against Bayern.

Bayern won its opening game at Steaua Bucharest 1-0, but general manager Uli Hoeness said the team had to be successful both in domestic and international competitions.

“We don’t want to see two faces of Bayern,” Hoeness said.

If Ribery plays, it will be his first Champions League match against French opposition.

“All the eyes (in France) will be on me,” Ribery said. “I feel good, but against Lyon I’d play with a broken leg.”

But Klinsmann refused to commit on giving Ribery his debut from the start.

“Everyone will have to be patient until game time,” he said.

Bayern will have to figure out how to stop Lyon’s striking partnership of Karim Benzema and Fred, with defender Christian Lell out with a thigh injury.

“Our goal is at least one point, but three would be good,” Benzema said.

Lyon drew 2-2 with Fiorentina in its Champions League opener.

Tottenham fans had every reason to think their team would contend this season. Few would have imagined that after six games their team would be last in the Premier League and off to its worst start in 53 years.

Manager Juande Ramos had strengthened his League Cup-winning squad with such players as Luka Modric, Giovani dos Santos and David Bentley.

Now, far from looking like a team capable of challenging the traditional top four of Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool, Spurs are in crisis. They have but two points and can’t even keep up with Stoke, Bolton, Middlesbrough and Fulham. Even a League Cup victory at Newcastle hasn’t lifted the gloom.

Until Sunday’s 2-0 defeat at Portsmouth - a team that had conceded 10 goals without reply in its previous two games - Tottenham fans had kept faith with Ramos, the man who had guided Seville to two UEFA Cup triumphs.

But it was too much for some fans. They chanted “You don’t know what you’re doing” when Ramos removed the club’s latest big signing, Russian striker Roman Pavlyuchenko, and replaced him with the uninspiring Darren Bent.

The fans clearly wanted two strikers on the field, especially with their team two goals down, and they have been puzzled by Ramos’ repeated, seemingly needless lineup changes from game to game. Nineteen different Spurs players have started so far this season.

The Tottenham followers see Aston Villa, a club which has the same ambition to break into the top four, third in the standings and Villa manager Martin O’Neill has started with the same 11 in every league game. The last time a Villa manager had this approach, the team won the English league in 1981 using only 14 players all season and followed that with the European Cup - now Champions League - a year later.

That’s the sort of achievement Spurs fans have been dreaming of for years. Right now it’s hard to see where their next league victory is coming from.

Spurs’ next game is at home to Hull City, the team that made it to the top tier for the first time in its 104-year history through the promotion playoffs last season.

While that would have seemed like an easy three points when the fans looked at the schedule at the start of the season, they will be glad of just one right now.

Hull has turned out to be no pushover and on Saturday scored a stunning 2-1 victory at Arsenal.

If Tottenham goes out of the UEFA Cup by losing at Wisla Krakow on Thursday and then tumbles to Hull, Ramos will be in far more trouble with the fans as well as the club’s owners.

“I speak with the chairman regularly and everybody is aware of our delicate position but we have to work hard together to change it,” Ramos said.

“There is another game on Thursday in a different competition and the players know they must recover quickly. Does it hurt when the fans say those things? No, it hurts only when we cannot win games.”

Ramos certainly needs to keep the Spurs fans behind him. He will have seen first hand the fiasco at Newcastle. The Magpies supporters have vented their fury at owner Mike Ashley for the team’s appalling play and left their stadium 60 percent empty for the League Cup meeting with Spurs.

“The fans need to understand that the first people who want to change the situation are the players, the management and all the people in the club,” Ramos said. “This is when we all need to work together. It’s a difficult time and we all hope to change the situation.”

It’s lucky for Ramos that the season is only six games old and he has 32 more to put things right.

“We have young players but players with quality and I have every confidence in the team. However, they are young, the pressure is on and it’s possible the confidence is low,” Ramos said. “I’m sure when we win two or three matches that situation will change.”

But Martin Jol thought the same thing this time last year, and look what happened to him.

He was fired after 10 games and replaced by Ramos.

Juventus will be looking to break out of its scoring slump. When it visits Champions League newcomer BATE Borisov in Belarus on Tuesday.

Juventus was held to a 0-0 draw by Sampdoria on Saturday and hasn’t scored more than one goal in a game since beating Slovakian side Artmedia 4-0 in Champions League qualifying on Aug. 13.

“We’ve made mistakes and we’ve paid for them,” Juve defender Giorgio Chiellini said. “But I think we’re on the right road and slowly but surely we’ll be able to win again. It’s not just the forwards fault. We’ve also got to dictate play better from behind.”

Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon will miss the game in Minsk with a thigh injury and striker David Trezeguet is out until at least January after surgery on both knees.

Finishing with 10 men, BATE put on a respectable performance in a 2-0 loss to nine-time champion Real Madrid in the club’s opening match of Group H.

Juventus and Madrid lead the group with three points each, while BATE and Zenit St. Petersburg have zero.

“Our match with Real Madrid was a good lesson for us,” BATE coach Viktor Goncharenko said Monday. “One cannot buy such experience and I hope we will feel more comfortable against Juventus.

“As in Madrid, we do not know what to expect from our opponents. We had never before played against such teams. But we are capable of challenging any team and we will try to get a positive result.”

BATE will be without defender Anri Khagush, who was sent off against Madrid, and injured team captain Aleksandr Ermakovic, who is out for the season with a knee injury.

But the Belarus side will have its strike duo of Gennady Bliznyuk and Vitaly Radionov back after both were suspended for the Madrid game.

“Blizhyuk and Radionov are our key strikers and we definitely missed them in Madrid,” Goncharenko said. “We are going to give Juventus a real fight and combat for every ball. We are really looking to play good football and take off points from Claudio Ranieri’s side.”

Juventus left Christian Poulsen off its roster for rest and fellow midfielder Cristiano Zanetti is still out injured.

With Trezeguet unavailable, Ranieri will likely rely on Alessandro Del Piero again after the captain scored from a free kick in Juve’s opening 1-0 win over Zenit. Newly signed Brazilian forward Amauri and Vincenzo Iaquinta are the other options in attack.

Amauri has scored three league goals since arriving from Palermo, while Iaquinta is scoreless upon his return from injury.

Italy under-21 standout Sebastian Giovinco could also provide a spark, having provided the cross that Amauri headed in during a 1-1 draw with Catania last week.

Juventus has drawn its last two matches.

“Facing teams like these takes away your desire to play,” said midfielder Mauro Camoranesi, who returned from injury in the scoreless draw at Sampdoria.

Juventus could also have a hard time getting motivated to play BATE, but the first team from Belarus in the competition has had some respectable results of late.

“BATE is very dangerous in counterattacks and we should be very careful tomorrow,” Ranieri said in Minsk through a translator. “Of 15 home matches there wasn’t a single one in which BATE has not scored a goal. We really respect Borisov.”

Besides its record 23-match unbeaten streak to start its domestic league, BATE remained unbeaten home and away through all three Champions League qualifying rounds - against Valur Reykjavik, Anderlecht and Levski Sofia.

“Considering the level of our opponent, a draw tomorrow will be a good result,” Goncharenko said. “But still we will strive for victory.”

Real Madrid is looking to end its poor away record in the Champions League by beating Zenit St Petersburg on Tuesday.
The nine-time champion has not won in seven matches on the road since beating Steaua Bucharest 4-1 in Romania in October 2006.

“It’s difficult to play on the road,” Real Madrid coach Bernd Schuster said through a translator. “We must win in St. Petersburg or Turin. It’s better not to postpone the task.”

Madrid beat Champions League newcomer BATE Borisov 2-0 in its first Group H game, while UEFA Cup and European Super Cup champion Zenit lost the opener to Juventus 1-0.

“Statistics mean nothing,” Zenit coach Dick Advocaat said. “In any case, Real Madrid is the favorite in our group. The rest of the teams will contend for places from two to four.”

Schuster said the match will be difficult.

“Zenit lost its first match to Juventus and that will force them to play with extra motivation,” said Schuster.

Madrid will be without its core midfield of Wesley Sneijder, Jose Maria “Guti” Gutierrez and Fernando Gago. They are all skipping the trip to St. Petersburg to recover from leg injuries.

“It will be a very difficult game,” Real Madrid coach Bernd Schuster said. To make it out of the group

New Madrid signing Rafael van der Vaart has carried the midfield responsibilities and scored a team-leading four goals.

Spain midfielder Ruben de la Red can play his first Champions League match for Madrid after serving a suspension, while Schuster will have to bench one of his strikers - Ruud van Nistelrooy, Gonzalo Higuain or all-time Champions League leading scorer Raul Gonzalez - despite all three being in good form.

Van Nistelrooy’s importance to the Spanish champion showed again on Saturday after the former Netherlands striker got his third goal of the season in injury time to lead Madrid over Real Betis 2-1 and into second place with its fourth straight league win.

“I’m not the team savior. I work as hard as my teammates and only do what I’m expected, to score goals,” Van Nistelrooy said. “We know about winning in the last minute and it will bring us a lot of strength playing against Zenit.”

Advocaat said his team would play careful defense and will try to capitalize on rare chances.

“I’m sure Real will not give us many chances, and we must not waste them as we did against CSKA,” he said.

Zenit lost to CSKA Moscow 3-1 last week and has a very slim chance of defending its Russian title.

“We practically lost our chance,” Advocaat said. “But we will fight for second or third place to play in the Champions League next season.”

The Russian champion beat Lokomotiv Moscow 3-0 on Saturday without forward Andrei Arshavin, who was suspended but returns Tuesday.

“The game may become a key one for his (Arshavin’s) future,” said Konstantin Arsaniya, Zenit’s transfer manager. “Right after this match, a decision may be made to let Arshavin go and play in Europe after the end of the domestic season (in November).”

Zenit had previously declined to sell Arshavin to FC Barcelona and Tottenham.

Advocaat announced Monday that he had sidelined defender Ivica Krizanac for a locker-room argument with goalkeeper Vyacheslav Malafeev after the CSKA match. Krizanac blamed Malafeev for the defeat.

Zenit striker Fatih Tekke, who has been sidelined with a knee injury since August, is expected to be back in the starting lineup on Tuesday, but Vladislav Radimov pulled a muscle during practice Monday.

Another Zenit striker, Pavel Pogrebnyak, who missed this year’s European Championship because of injury, is eager to score on Tuesday against Madrid’s goalkeeper.

“I have been thinking about facing Real Madrid since the draw,” Pogrebnyak said. “I missed playing Spain and scoring against Iker Casillas at Euro 2008, but now I hope to do it on the club level.”

Polish football faced its latest crisis Monday. After the national federation was suspended by its court-appointed chief for allegedly failing to tackle corruption in the domestic league.

The move raised further questions about Poland’s ability to co-host the 2012 European Championship with Ukraine.

The governing board of the Polish Football Federation was suspended after a ruling by the Poland Olympic Committee’s arbitration court. The court named Robert Zawlocki as temporary chief of the federation in response to a critical motion submitted by the Ministry of Sport.

Zawlocki, a lawyer who once worked for the federation’s disciplinary committee, announced he had suspended the current board and canceled elections for Oct. 30 to choose the federation’s new leadership.

The vote will take place once “order was restored” in the organization, Zawlocki said.

Minister of Sport Miroslaw Drzewiecki said that a probe into the federation’s functioning has found “numerous violations” of the general law and of the federation regulations.

He said the probe showed that the composition of the governing body was not in accordance with the regulations, while the board has also failed to keep its own promise to hold an extraordinary electoral convention and has failed to take efficient steps to fight corruption.

All these violations “prove an inability by the board to run the federation efficiently and to carry out their duties,” Drzewiecki said.

“Taking into consideration the scope and the nature of the violations … the minister was obliged to … move for a suspension” of the governing board and to ask for a temporary manager to be appointed, Drzewiecki said.

Suspended federation president Michal Listkiewicz said he was surprised by the decision.

“I don’t know what it’s all about,” he said, adding he had assurances from Drzewiecki that the organizing team preparing Euro 2012 “will not be affected by all this hubbub.”

But Zawlocki, the temporary manager, supported the negative assessment of the board’s performance.

“Legal chaos reigns in the federation right now, and it has to be brought into order,” Zawlocki said.

In 2007, then sports minister Tomasz Lipiec suspended the board and appointed an acting chief after accusing the federation’s leadership of failing to tackle corruption. FIFA harshly criticized that action, and refused to recognize the appointment.

There was no immediate reaction from FIFA to Monday’s decision and it was not immediately clear what impact Monday’s move might have on Poland’s right to co-host Euro 2012.

Zawlocki said he sent a letter to UEFA president Michel Platini “assuring him that the organization of the 2012 European Championship will continue without interruption,” PAP news agency reported.

Zawlocki said Platini had not yet replied.

Prosecutors in Wroclaw launched an investigation in 2005 into match-fixing in Polish football, and have charged about 120 people - including federation members, coaches, referees, players and club officials - with rigging matches in the top domestic leagues. Twenty-nine clubs have been implicated.

After public and political pressure, Listkiewicz announced in April that the governing board would resign and hold new elections this fall.

Also, police arrested 27 people in the western city of Szczecin after violent clashes between supporters of two first-division football teams.

Footage broadcast on Polish state television showed supporters of Wisla Plock scaling a fence to get into a section reserved for fans of host Flota Swinoujscie.

While Rick Neuheisel insisted there are no “moral victories” for the UCLA football team. He still gave the Bruins good grades for effort and improvement.

UCLA played Fresno State on even terms before losing 36-31 on Saturday.

“We certainly have things to improve on, but we’re eager to do just that, improve,” Neuheisel said Monday. “The effort was such that it could have easily been a victory.

“We’re not into moral victories at UCLA, I don’t mean to intimate that. But I do see us going in the right direction.”

Tailback Kahlil Bell, who returned to the lineup against Fresno State after missing two games with a sprained ankle, agreed.

“The goal is to win and we didn’t, but we did a lot of good things,” said Bell, who carried 20 times for 73 yards and scored on runs of 1 and 7 yards against the Bulldogs. “We put 31 points up on the board, finally had some touchdown drives, something we hadn’t done in the previous weeks.

“With a young team, you need things like that to build off, take a step up and keep on climbing.”

The Bruins, off to a 1-3 start that includes an 0-1 Pac-10 mark in their first year under Neuheisel, host another struggling conference foe, Washington State (1-4, 0-2) on Saturday night at the Rose Bowl.

Neuheisel, asked what he found most encouraging about UCLA’s latest performance, quickly replied, “Our running game was much better.”

The Bruins, who gained a not-so-grand total of 156 yards on the ground in their first three games, netted 234 against Fresno State.

“Kahlil being back in the game helps us, not only from a talent standpoint, but certainly with the attitude that he brings with him,” the coach said. “Kahlil is kind of like that guy in the Monty Python movies who gets his arm cut off and says, `flesh wound.”‘

Freshman Derrick Coleman rushed for 86 yards on 10 carries against the Bulldogs, but lost a critical fumble late in the game.

One area in need of improvement, Neuheisel said, is third-down efficiency on both sides of the ball.

UCLA’s offense went 2-for-9 on third down against Fresno State, which was 6-of-14 against the Bruins’ defense.

“We play a lot of great snaps on defense,” Neuheisel said. “We’ve got to play better on third down. We have three to four big plays a game that are killing us.

“Usually, as is always the case, it’s one guy getting out of position and all of a sudden, there’s a huge play.”

Neuheisel’s first three games at UCLA were a roller-coaster ride that now seems to be leveling out a bit. The Bruins upset Tennessee in the opener, then were humbled in a 59-0 setback to BYU that was the school’s worst defeat in 79 years. That was followed by a lackluster performance in a 31-10 loss to Arizona.

“Now we just need to kind of punch the door down and find ways to win,” he said.

Bell believes that’s coming.

“We’re missing a lot of guys right now, but we’re coming back from injury and we’re getting better and we’re going to get this rolling,” the senior tailback said. “We’re going to get this thing turned around.”

Nick Saban doesn’t want to talk about rankings in September. He even insists he doesn’t even know where Alabama stands in the polls.

If that’s true - and it seems unlikely even for the ultra-focused coach - he’s one of the few in college football still in the dark. The second-ranked Crimson Tide has been all the rage since a mostly one-sided win at then-No. 3 Georgia Saturday night, but Saban cares far more about his team staying focused and keeping it going.

“I don’t even know what we’re ranked. Nobody’s told me,” Saban said Monday, 24 hours after the latest AP poll came out. “I don’t really care because it really doesn’t matter. Whatever it is, can somebody tell me who was ranked there last year at this time? Does anybody know?”

Sure, coach. It was LSU, your former team and the eventual national champion. If that result renders the analogy a little less effective, his point is clear: The Tide (5-0, 2-0 Southeastern Conference) hasn’t won anything yet.

If that message didn’t come through, Saban poses another question: “Who was leading the marathon at the Olympics halfway through? Can anybody tell me. If they didn’t win, it doesn’t matter. Nobody cares.”

The Tide is a long way from the finish line entering Saturday’s game against unbeaten Kentucky (4-0). After that, the always-brutal SEC schedule includes visits to Tennessee and LSU and a home game with Auburn.

Saban doesn’t have to go back even a week to hammer his point home. There was Oregon State’s upset of top-ranked Southern California on Thursday night and Mississippi’s win at then-No. 4 Florida on Saturday.

Saban even paraphrased postgame comments from two of those team’s stars.

“It’s the same old thing. You can read what (Mark) Sanchez says at USC about, ‘We weren’t prepared for this game. We didn’t prepare right.’ Or what (Florida’s) Percy Harvin says about, ‘I don’t know how we let this happen.’

“If you get satisfied and you fall in love with yourself, you get complacent and lose your desire.”

That’s why Saban greeted his players for Monday’s 7 a.m. film review by pointing out special teams snafus and what he perceived as late-game letdowns. Tide players said he offered plenty of praise, too, but later talked to reporters about “monumental” breakdowns on special teams that included allowing a punt return for a touchdown.

The Tide has racked up plenty of positive signs in rising to its highest ranking in 15 years. Nobody else has beaten two Top 10 teams already, after all, and done it easily. Alabama raced to a 31-0 halftime lead before Georgia made it more respectable in the second half before losing 41-30.

Plus, Alabama hasn’t trailed all season, has outscored opponents 74-0 in the first half and is one of four Bowl Subdivision teams with four non-offensive touchdowns.

The Tide also leads the SEC in scoring and rushing offense and rushing defense.

‘Bama players insist their approach doesn’t change even with the lofty ranking, which cornerback Javier Arenas said “doesn’t make a bit of difference.”

“It’s not a whole different ballgame,” Arenas said. “We’re the same football team we were when we came out of training camp. We’re aware of it, but we’re mature enough to not let that affect us. People were talking good about us before this game and we didn’t let it get to our head.”

But No. 2? Come on, that’s a big deal, right?

“It was cool,” Arenas conceded briefly. “It doesn’t mean anything to us. At the end of the season ask me how it felt and I’ll let you know.”

Here comes No 4 Missouri, with its 54-point-per-game offense and Heisman hopeful quarterback Chase Daniel.
Nebraska coach Bo Pelini seems plenty worried.
Pelini says his team is making too many “bonehead” errors and needs to clean up its act to stick with the Tigers (4-0) on Saturday. Last week, the Cornhuskers (3-1) allowed Virginia Tech’s chugalug offense to run up season bests in points and yards in a 35-30 loss.

The coach said Monday that his defense got away with blown coverages in its first three games against lesser competition. The Hokies took full advantage, and who knows what could happen if the high-powered Tigers are able to do the same.

“We’re not executing as consistently as we would like to,” Pelini said. “A lot of that is coaching. We’re giving up too many big plays and making bonehead errors.”

Virginia Tech finished with 377 total yards, and Tyrod Taylor, not known for his passing, was 9-of-15 for 171 yards.

“He had open receivers on ones he didn’t complete,” Pelini said. “We dropped some coverage. We played undisciplined football, with too many missed assignments. It’s pretty easy to complete balls when that happens.”

Missouri poses big problems as it looks for its first win in Lincoln since 1978. The Tigers are second nationally in both scoring (53.8 points) and total yards (595.5 yards). Daniel is 101-of-133 for 1,412 yards - 353 yards per game - and 12 touchdowns. Receivers Jeremy Maclin and Chase Coffman are averaging more than 90 yards per game, and Derrick Washington is running for more than 90 a game.

“They’re good across the board,” Pelini said. “They have a good running game and a good passing game, but it starts with the quarterback. Then you throw in Maclin. You can’t focus on stopping one guy or you’ll get killed.”

Daniel lines up unusually deep in the shotgun in Missouri’s spread offense, making it difficult to pressure the quarterback. Daniel has been sacked once in four games.

“You’re not going to sack him a lot, but you have to try to affect him some, get some push up front, collapse the pocket and make him uncomfortable,” Pelini said. “They line him up deep back there, and he’s good at getting rid of the football and making quick decisions. They do a nice job as far as how to handle him and how they go about it.”

Missouri coach Gary Pinkel said Pelini, a defensive coordinator at his previous stops, is capable of making quick adjustments to get his defense playing at a higher level.

“He has his mark,” Pinkel said. “They’re disciplined, well-coached, physical, tough - all of the above. Their biggest test was against Virginia Tech, and Virginia Tech is very good up front. He (Pelini) is good at what he does. I expect their defense will improve and get better each week, so it will be a real challenge for us.”

California running back Jahvid Best will miss at least one game with a dislocated left elbow. But the versatile speedster won’t require surgery.

Best was injured in the third quarter of the Golden Bears’ 42-7 victory over Colorado State last Saturday. The sophomore is third in the nation with 215.5 all-purpose yards per game, and third in the Pac-10 with 105.3 yards rushing.

Best, who fumbled two times while rushing for 85 yards against the Rams, was hurt while putting out his arm to cushion a fall. Freshman Shane Vereen has played well in the Bears’ first four games as Best’s backup or his replacement in the backfield when Best lines up as a receiver.

California (3-1, 1-0 Pac-10) hosts Arizona State (2-2, 1-0) on Saturday, followed by an off week. Best hopes to be available for the Bears’ trip to Arizona on Oct. 18.

—-
Cantwell, Long expected to play against Memphis.

Louisville Hunter Cantwell will be ready to go when the Cardinals play at Memphis on Oct. 10, coach Steve Kragthorpe said Monday.

Cantwell injured his left ankle in the third quarter of Louisville’s 26-21 loss to Connecticut last week when he was hit from behind while scrambling. Cantwell returned to the game but struggled the rest of the way and threw an interception with 2:45 remaining that UConn’s Lawrence Wilson returned for the go-ahead score.

Kragthorpe said during a teleconference Monday that he anticipates Cantwell will play against the Tigers and isn’t worried about the loss sticking with him going forward. Cantwell has thrown for 876 yards and five touchdowns this season for Louisville (2-2).

Cantwell could get some help next week. Kragthorpe said wide receiver Scott Long should make his season debut at Memphis after missing the first four games with a foot injury.