Soccer Sports News & Betting

Vitesse Arnhem fired coach Hans Westerhof on Tuesday with the club fourth last in the Dutch league.

Vitesse general director Paul van der Kraan said faith had been lost in the 60-year-old Westerhof, who had only been in charge since the beginning of the season and with his team 15th in the 18-team Eredivisie.

“It’s a shame but in our evaluation we realized there is no basis to continue with Hans,” Van der Kraan said on Vitesse’s Web site.

Westerhof declined to comment. His future had been in doubt since last month when he called his own central defenders substandard after a 1-1 draw with AZ Alkmaar and the comment was picked up by a microphone.

Vitesse did not immediately announce a successor.

Chelsea’s Didier Drogba says he entered this season having lost his passion for football.

“For several weeks this summer, I no longer had a head for football. I had completely lost the fire. I no longer wanted to hear talk of targets or ambition,” the Ivory Coast striker said in an interview with France Football magazine published Tuesday. “I had absolutely no excitement or adrenaline. I felt completely extinguished. For the first time in my career, I had lost the passion for football. I was lost.”

Drogba, who joined Chelsea from Marseille in 2004, told the magazine that he was profoundly shaken by the death of his grandmother in June.

“I felt as if all of my childhood memories were flying away. I felt I had aged brutally,” the 30-year-old Drogba said. “For a long time, I put football on hold. After my injury, I really wasn’t in a hurry to return, nor very motivated.”

Drogba missed the start of the season with a knee injury, and was then given a three-game ban for throwing a coin back at fans who jeered him after scoring a goal. Despite the setbacks, Drogba said “this break was good for me. I now feel very strong, with a huge appetite.”

He also said he understood why Chelsea manager Luiz Felipe Scolari is leaving him more on the bench this season in favor of Nicolas Anelka, currently the Premier League’s top scorer.

“For the moment, I can only keep quiet,” France Football quoted Drogba as saying. “It is not because I have been here for more than four years that I have a right to make demands to be in the starting lineup. At the moment, there’s a guy at the front who is hot and racking up goals. I must wait my turn.”

But he suggested that Scolari pair him with Anelka more often in attack.

“I have always said that I was happy that Nicolas came to Chelsea. But I still cannot understand why managers are afraid to put us together,” Drogba said. “He and I are waiting for just one thing - to be able to play together. But really together - not one in the center and the other on the left wing.”

Aston Villa moved back into the top four of the English Premier League with a 1-0 win at Hull clinched by Kamil Zayatte’s late own goal and favorable officiating on Tuesday.

The match ended in confusion after referee Steve Bennett changed his mind after appearing to award Hull a penalty deep into injury time when Villa winger Ashley Young looked to have handled Ian Ashbee’s header on the line.

“The referee got it wrong because he gave it originally,” Hull manager Phil Brown said. “The linesman took up a position that he was giving the penalty but for some reason they’ve changed their mind between them.

“The referee is 15 yards away but he consults a linesman who was 40 yards away from the incident.”

But TV replays, which showed that the crossbar had denied Hull an equalizer, vindicated Bennett’s apparent change of heart.

“I didn’t touch it with my hand, you can clearly see it was going over,” Young said. “I was just seeing it out and we got our reward at the end of the day.

“It’s clear, I think, that it’s hit the bar and gone over. The referee has given the penalty then changed his mind and he deserves credit for that.”

Hull deserved a point for their tenacity against a Villa side creating little and struggling to find the target, but the third loss in a row left Brown’s side with a sense of injustice.

And Villa got its goal only in the 88th minute on the counterattack when Zayatte inadvertently volleyed Young’s cross beyond his own goalkeeper while under pressure from Gabriel Agbonlahor.

“We didn’t play well tonight,” Villa manager Martin O’Neill said. “These Premier League games are hard. We came with plenty of confidence but it didn’t happen in the first half.

“It was a great win for us tonight. We just keep putting pressure on the sides around us.”

Aston Villa was fourth with 38 points, below defending champion Manchester United, which has two games in hand, on goal difference. Liverpool has 45 points and tops the standings from Chelsea by three points.

While it was the same Villa lineup that recovered a 2-2 draw against Arsenal on Friday, Hull manager Phil Brown ditched five players from the side that was embarrassed 5-1 at Manchester City.

Hull had a goal disallowed after five minutes when Nick Barmby challenged Villa goalkeeper Brad Friedel in the air, making him spill the ball, enabling him to bundle it into an empty net.

“With a bit of fortune we could have got our noses in front,” Brown said. “I would like to see the Nick Barmby incident again. We didn’t seem to get those decisions tonight.”

Every once in a while, Edgar Sosa will do something that will remind Rick Pitino why he likes his enigmatic point guard so much.

Maybe it’s a nifty wraparound pass to Louisville teammate Samardo Samuels after Sosa snakes his way through the lane. Maybe it’s a well-timed 3-pointer from the top of the key. Maybe it’s a deflection at the front of Louisville’s suffocating fullcourt press.

Yet three years into his roller-coaster career, the plays aren’t coming fast enough for Sosa, his coach or the 18th-ranked Cardinals.

Pitino hasn’t lost faith in Sosa’s ability, but he doesn’t have time to wait.

The Cardinals (8-2) host streaking UNLV (11-2) on Wednesday, and they’ll do it with shooting guards Preston Knowles and Jerry Smith in the backcourt. That leaves the playmaking to forwards Earl Clark and Terrence Williams while Sosa watches from the bench.

After spending more than two seasons watching Sosa be either brilliant or bratty, Pitino doesn’t think he has a choice.

“If his mind-set would change he’d be a great playmaker,” the coach said. “His mind-set is he gets so emotional that he wants to score, and then if he doesn’t score he gets down on his game and that’s the toughest thing with him.”

Chastised as a freshman for being a little too exuberant following even the most mundane of plays, Sosa has slipped to the other end of the spectrum. Moody at times, Sosa vanished from the locker room following Louisville’s 82-62 win over UAB last weekend, a game in which he played just six minutes, none in the second half.

“I was watching a clip last year right before the half he went in, had a layup hit the front rim and missed it and had his head down as he was going off the court,” Pitino said. “The air just came out of him. We’ve just got to get him to the point where he just thinks about playmaking. I think he can be an outstanding playmaker.”

Maybe, but time is quickly running out. Sosa has already been passed by Smith, Knowles and Andre McGee on the depth chart as Pitino has chosen to run the offense through his talented forwards.

“Our guards are good, they’re steady, they get the job done, but I don’t think they’re playmakers necessarily,” Pitino said. “The playmakers on this team are Earl and T-Will and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.”

Williams and Clark have accounted for nearly half (83) of Louisville’s 186 assists. Sosa leads Louisville guards with 30 assists, but 10 of those came in the season-opener against Morehead State. It was the kind of performance that he’s occasionally tantalized his coaches with over the last two-plus seasons. Yet he’s failed to back it up and his erratic play - not to mention his 30 percent shooting - has him watching more than he’s playing.

There’s some irony in Sosa losing his starting job to Smith. The two came in as freshmen and appeared to be the backcourt of the future, with Sosa the decision-maker at the point and Smith the spot-up shooter. Now it’s Smith who is at the top of the press, Smith who is the next option when Williams and Clark give it up.

Pitino allows Smith isn’t a penetrator who will drive and dish that way Sosa can. But Smith’s intensity and maturity mean Pitino knows what he’s going to get when he puts Smith on the floor.

“The good thing about Jerry is he gets a little more fatigued at the point, but he doesn’t turn the ball over much,” Pitino said.

For now, that’s enough.

Besides, not many teams have a pair of athletic ballhandlers on the wing like the 6-foot-6 Williams and the 6-10 Clark. It’s a role Clark relishes though he doesn’t exactly consider himself a point forward. If the Cardinals play well enough, Clark knows everyone will get a chance to do their thing, even Sosa.

“Edgar at times, he shows that he can be a great point guard, one of the best point guards in the country,” Clark said. “But it’s just like an up-and-down process right now and we’re just trying to keep him up.”

Tennessee center Wayne Chism bruised his spine and elbow when he hit the floor after blocking a shot during the No 14 Volunteers’ victory over Louisiana Lafayette.

He will make a full recovery and be evaluated day to day, associate athletic trainer Chad Newman said Tuesday. Coach Bruce Pearl said the team hopes he can return during the week if his recovery allows.

Chism left the arena on a stretcher and went to the University of Tennessee Medical Center for testing on his head and neck. The school says all tests were negative, and Chism was released early Tuesday.

The 6-foot-9 player blocked a shot by La’Ryan Gary with 5:12 left in Monday night’s 89-62 victory, then landed hard on his back under the basket. He had 18 points and 15 rebounds at the time.

“We’re all thankful that Wayne’s injury does not appear to be serious,” Pearl said in a statement. “There was a lot of praying going on when he went down, and with some 21,000 Vol fans hoping he was going to be all right, those prayers seem to have been answered.”

The Vols (9-2) were off Tuesday but will practice Wednesday. Tennessee visits Kansas on Saturday.

Wayne Rooney’s agent lost his appeal Monday of an 18-month ban and $586,000 fine imposed by English soccer authorities on how he came to represent the England striker.

Paul Stretford can still go before an arbitration panel to contest the independent disciplinary commission’s July verdict of improper conduct.

“We are entirely satisfied that the overall penalty was not excessive and was well within the range open to a reasonable regulatory commission considering matters of this seriousness,” the Football Association’s appeal board said in a statement.

Stretford will serve only half the suspension if he is found to not have broken further regulations. He became Rooney’s agent in September 2002, helping the striker transfer from Everton to Manchester United two years later.

The matter stems from evidence Stretford gave to a court in October 2004 in which three men were accused of blackmailing him in 2003. A judge threw out all charges against the men. Stretford was found to have made false statements to the court and was declared an unreliable witness.

Stretford said during the trial he signed Rooney in December 2002. However, documents showed he’d signed him three months earlier when the player was still under contract to his original agent, Peter McIntosh.

The FA also found that Stretford had signed Rooney to an eight-year contract, exceeding the maximum limit of two years.

Dimitar Berbatov scored Monday to give Manchester United a hard fought 1-0 victory over Middlesbrough to boost its title defense.

The Red Devils remain seven points adrift of leader Liverpool, but with two games in hand.

“We are in a good position come the turn of the year,” United manager Alex Ferguson said. “We have two games in hand, both at home, and it is going too be a great run in.”

On a frustrating night at Old Trafford, Berbatov took until the 69th minute to break the deadlock.

The Bulgaria striker volleyed home from close range after Michael Carrick’s cross had bounced back off defender David Wheater.

Wayne Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo and Park Ji-sung had all squandered chances against the stubborn visitors before Berbatov’s winner.

Park could have extended United’s lead, but somehow managed to shoot over from three yards (meters).

Ferguson said that his side’s wastefulness in front of goal is becoming a worry.

“We have missed a lot of chances. That is a big concern,” Ferguson said after the match, the second in a row in which United has ground out a 1-0 win over inferior opponents after beating Stoke by the same scoreline on Friday.

“(Wins like this) are just as important,” Ferguson said. “Three points are the name of the game. But I have to say how well Middlesbrough played tonight. For a team in their position (one place above the relegation zone) it belies their ability.”

Ferguson also had praise for Berbatov, who has struggled to reproduce the kind of form he showed at former club Tottenham and which prompted United to pay more than 30 million pounds ($43 million) for his services in September.

“He is a marvelous player and I thought he was absolutely superb for us. He took his goal well,” Ferguson said.

Middlesbrough manager Gareth Southgate said he could draw a lot of positives from the performance despite losing.

“We looked bright, our attitude was fantastic and there was a lot of healthy performances. I’m not displeased,” Southgate said. “Only one team has taken a point from here so there’s no disgrace in that.”

Southgate dismissed speculation that his position at the Riverside Stadium could be under threat given Middlesbrough’s lowly position.

“We don’t take our position for granted but we understand the situation we are working in,” he said. “We’re competing - five or six games ago we were in a healthy position. Two wins would change things, there’s no panic here.”

Ross Turnbull had a busy night in the Middlesbrough goal as he kept United’s strike force at bay.

A low curling effort from Wayne Rooney was turned wide and Cristiano Ronaldo’s resulting cross was palmed away from Berbatov’s path.

Ronaldo couldn’t find the net with two free kicks, striking wide and at Turnbull, while later having a claim for a penalty dismissed by referee Martin Atkinson after being grappled to the ground by Emanuel Pogatetz.

Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard has been charged by police with assault and affray over a brawl outside a bar that left a disc jockey hospitalized with facial injuries.

Merseyside police announced the charge early Tuesday - 24 hours after Gerrard was arrested in Southport while celebrating Liverpool’s emphatic 5-1 victory at Newcastle on Sunday that extended its lead atop the Premier League to three points.

The 28-year-old Gerrard was charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm and affray - an offense that carries a maximum five-year prison sentence.

He was released on bail to appear in court on Jan. 23, 2009, with John Doran, 29, and Ian Smith, 19, who were charged with the same offenses.

Three other men, who were arrested with Gerrard at 2:30 a.m. Monday morning, were released without charge on police bail pending further inquiries.

In the altercation outside the Lounge Inn, the bar’s 34-year-old DJ had a tooth broken and sustained cuts to his forehead, although he was later released from a hospital.

The Lounge Inn, a modern restaurant that becomes a nightclub later in the evening, is in the seaside town of Southport, less than 10 miles north of Gerrard’s home in Formby in Merseyside.

The other men held are not believed to be soccer players but are from the Huyton area of Liverpool, where Gerrard grew up and was spotted by Liverpool scouts at the age of eight playing for Whiston Juniors.

Gerrard is Liverpool’s most influential player and crucial to its bid to win the English league title for the first time since 1990, scoring twice and setting up another goal in Sunday’s win.

Gerrard, who has played 70 times for England, led Liverpool to the Champions League title in 2005 and was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace.

Newcastle manager Joe Kinnear urged Mike Ashley to invest in new players after the embattled owner took the Premier League club off the market saying no suitable offers had been forthcoming.

Ashley had hoped to end the uncertainty at the club with Sunday’s announcement, but it was followed by Liverpool inflicting a 5-1 drubbing that exposed the team’s deficiencies.

Ashley has spent three months trying to offload the club after saying he couldn’t afford to match the fans’ ambitions or cope with the threats to his safety following Kevin Keegan’s resignation as manager.

Disgruntled supporters staged mass protests at St. James’ Park in September and boycotted matches after Keegan said his power was being eroded by interference from club directors.

“We need to get (Ashley) back on board and we need to sit down and discuss the future of the club first and foremost, and the strength of the team and what direction we are going in,” said Kinnear, who is contracted until the end of the season.

“We need to get players in to strengthen the squad and make sure we stay in the league, first and foremost. We have suggested players to Mike that I would like and it’s really wait and see what price they are.”

Ashley bemoaned the club’s debt when announcing his search for a buyer in September, but said he will try to find the money for reinforcements

“With the January transfer window approaching, we will be working closely with Joe to see what can be done to strengthen the squad,” Ashley said in Sunday’s matchday magazine

Despite initial interest from at least eight investment groups - including an unnamed American consortium, whose offer was well below Ashley’s asking price - the worsening global financial crisis ultimately stymied a sale.

After buying the club in May 2007 for 134 million pounds (then US$270 million; euro200 million), the sports tycoon watched matches in a replica jersey among the fans, who haven’t had a trophy to celebrate since the 1955 FA Cup. The Magpies haven’t won the league since 1927.

Ashley will hope Sunday’s statement appeases the huge fanbase in this single-club city in northeast England and pave the way to him being able to watch a match for the first time since Keegan’s dramatic exit after less than seven months in charge.

“I am happy to end the uncertainty the fans may have had about the future direction of Newcastle United. I know just how important that is to you,” Ashley said. “I have withdrawn Newcastle United from the market, and for me 2009 will be the year in which we drive the club forward together.

“Even when I haven’t been at games I have remained a keen supporter, kicking and heading every ball and cheering the team on TV and being first to congratulate Joe (Kinnear) whenever there’s a good result.”

Newcastle United Supporters’ Club spokesman Michael Ord said he was disappointed that Ashley has now conceded defeat in finding investors.

“I am unhappy about it,” Ord said. “This man said, ‘I will not subsidize Newcastle United any further.’ There is nothing in that statement that tells us that he is going to provide funds. I am at a stage where I do not believe a word this man says.

“He needs to start thinking long and hard about what he is saying, because I don’t think Mike Ashley will take Newcastle forward at all.”

Teenage forward Tommy Oar moved Queensland into second place in Australia’s A-League with a freekick in added time to give the Roar a 3-2 win over the Wellington Phoenix on Sunday.

The 17-year-old’s left-foot shot took a slight deflection past Phoenix goalkeeper Glen Moss. Oar drilled the shot from just outside the penalty area after Wellington skipper Andrew Durante was red-carded for bringing down Roar winger Michael Zullo.

Queensland was level with Melbourne on 26 points in the standings, just a point behind Adelaide United, which has a game in hand over both teams.

Winless at home in their first five matches this season, Queensland has now won three in a row in Brisbane.

On Saturday, substitutes Nick Ward and Ney Fabiano scored late goals as the Melbourne Victory beat Sydney 3-2, inflicting Sydney’s third straight loss and Melbourne’s first win after three defeats in a row. Sydney, expected to be among the league leaders, has won only once in its past eight matches and is in sixth place.

Sydney’s Shannon Cole opened the scoring just 30 seconds into the match with a curling left-footer which Melbourne goalkeeper Michael Theoklitos had no chance to stop. Three minutes later, Brendan Gan put Sydney up 2-0 with a 25-meter right-footer just inside the left post.

Melbourne’s star striker Archie Thompson opened his side’s scoring in the 14th minute, after being found clear in the box following a quickly taken Carlos Hernandez freekick.

Victory captain Kevin Muscat said he sensed Melbourne would overcome its poor start to the match.

“You get those games sometimes where I could just tell we were going to get back into the game,” Muscat said. “The noise that I could hear, the belief that was going around the place, in fact we were disappointed not to come in at halftime even. But as soon as we got that second goal there was only one winner.”

Adelaide, returning from its fifth-place finish at the Club World Cup in Japan, consolidated its position in the top three when Kristian Sarkies’ 40th-minute strike gave it a 1-0 win over the Perth Glory.

Adelaide finishes its schedule with four matches in 14 days against Sydney, Melbourne, Newcastle and Queensland.

“We’ve got a couple of games in hand but that doesn’t mean anything unless you win them,” Adelaide coach Aurelio Vidmar said. “It’s never easy coming here (to Perth) so to get the three points really showed we are serious about where we want to go as a football club.”

Sasho Petrovski scored in the 67th minute and substitute Matt Simon added the winner in the 80th as the Central Coast Mariners overcame an early penalty by Joel Griffiths to beat the Newcastle Jets 2-1.