Observer & Busness 5 May 2012 - Oman Daily Observer

MELBOURNE — Morne
Steyn produced another metronomic
goal-kicking display
slotting 16 points with his
boot, adding a try and setting
up two others as the Northern
Bulls overcame a spirited Melbourne
Rebels 41-35 in their
Super Rugby match yesterday.
Steyn managed five conversions
and two penalties, and
did not miss a shot at goal, as
the Bulls won their fourth successive
match.
“It was pretty exciting
from the stands, high inten-
18 SPORT
OMAN DAILY Observer
SATURDAY, MAY 5, 2012
Steyn produces masterclass as Bulls overcome Rebels
SOUTH African team Northern Bulls’ left wing Bjorn Basson (centre) leaps for the balls as Melbourne Rebels players close in during the first half
of the Super Rugby match in Melbourne yesterday. The Bulls won the match 41-35. — AFP
Capello eyes return with
top English club
LONDON — Former England
manager Fabio Capello wants
to get back into soccer with a
leading Premier League club,
the Italian said yesterday.
“England would be very
interesting for me because I
know the teams and players
very well,” the 65-year-old
told The Times newspaper. “I
want to manage a team that
wants to win something, if
possible.
“It has to be interesting
based on the value of the team,
not money. I don’t work for
money,” added Capello, who
quit the England job in February
after the Football Association
removed John Terry
as national captain against the
Italian’s wishes.
“I want to manage a team
LONDON — Either Fernando
Torres of Chelsea or Andy
Carroll of Liverpool, who have
both hugely under-achieved
since their record-breaking
transfers last year, will claim
one of English soccer’s major
prizes when their teams meet
in the FA Cup final today.
Torres, at least, has recently
shown glimpses of why Chelsea
paid £50 million ($81.10
million) to Liverpool for him
in January last year — a record
fee between British clubs.
The Spaniard has scored
four goals in his last three
games, including last week’s
solo effort at Barcelona which
sealed Chelsea’s place in the
Champions League final on
May 19.
He also scored his first hattrick
for Chelsea in their 6-1
win over Queens Park Rangers
on Sunday but failed to hit the
net in Wednesday’s 2-0 home
defeat by Newcastle United
and in total has scored only 12
times for Chelsea.
Carroll became the most
expensive British player of
all time when Liverpool paid
Newcastle United £35 million
for him to replace Torres, but
has scored only 11 goals in 54
matches for Liverpool since.
that is able to play in the
Champions League and to
fight for lots of trophies.”
Capello, who enjoyed successful
spells at club level
with AC Milan, Roma, Juventus
and Real Madrid, also
said he supported the FA’s
decision to appoint West Bromwich
Albion manager Roy
Hodgson as his successor as
England boss.
“I have known Roy since
he was coaching in Italy (with
Inter Milan) and I have met
him often in these last few
years,” he added. “I believe
he is a very good and experienced
manager and he is a
very good choice for the England
national team. I wish him
all the best for the future and
Euro 2012 (next month).”
Arsenal plan pre-season game
in troubled Nigeria
LONDON — Arsenal are
planning to visit Africa for the
first time in 19 years by travelling
to troubled Nigeria for
a pre-season friendly.
The opposition for the
August 5 match is not yet
known but is likely to be a
leading African national team,
the London club said on their
website yesterday.
The friendly will be played
at the Abuja National Stadium.
Arsenal, who are also
planning pre-season games
in China, Malaysia and Hong
Kong, last visited Africa for a
tour of South Africa in 1993.
At least his late header
against Everton in the semifinal
at Wembley three weeks
ago guaranteed Liverpool a
return to the London stadium
for the final.
Now the two strikers, both
dropped from their national
sides and both remarkably
unproductive in front of goal,
have the chance of lasting redemption
and a place in their
club’s folklore as an FA Cup
winner.
Despite the focus on the
Premier League, and a late
kick-off (1615 GMT) for this
year’s final rather than its traditional
1500 start, the FA Cup
is still one of soccer’s grand
occasions.
The match is being shown
live to a huge global audience
in more than 120 countries
and, as everyone in football
never tires of saying, the
money is all very well but
winning silverware is what
matters.
Liverpool have already
picked up a trophy this season
with a win over Cardiff City
on penalties in the League Cup
final in February.
Their league form though,
has been erratic and continued
to disappoint on Tuesday when
MADRID — Spain coach
Vicente del Bosque said yesterday
he will wait to the last
moment for David Villa to join
the Euro 2012 squad as Barcelona
reported his broken leg is
healing “very well”.
Villa, dubbed King David
for his 51 goals in 82 internationals,
fractured his left tibia
in Barcelona’s Club World Cup
semifinal win over Al Sadd in
Japan on December 15.
Del Bosque said he had
spoken to Barcelona coach
Pep Guardiola on Thursday
for an update on 30-year-old
Villa’s recovery.
“I last spoke to his current
coach yesterday. He told me
how he is,” the Spain coach
told a news conference in Madrid,
without giving details of
the conversation. “We have an
obligation and also a conviction
that we should wait until
the last moment in David’s
case because he has been our
most reputable goal scorer, the
surest player and we should
wait, of course.”
In a separate news conference,
Guardiola said of Villa:
“His recovery is going very
well. Better and better. Hopefully
he will be able to go to
the Euro.”
Spain will publish a provisional
list on May 15 including
those going to the Euro
and the London Olympics,
Del Bosque said.
Later, he said, the team
will decide on possible players
from Chelsea who face
Bayern Munich on May 19,
and then those from Barcelona
or Athletic Bilbao who
clash in the domestic King’s
Cup final May 25.
A definitive list will be
drawn up May 27, Del Bosque
said, but Spain could still wait
to bring in Villa right up until
May 29, the deadline for handing
over the documentation to
UEFA.
Del Bosque refused to
say whether he would bring
on Chelsea striker Fernando
Torres, whose last-gasp equaliser
against Barcelona on
April 24 shattered the Catalans’
hopes of reaching the
Champions League final.
“We look at every day’s
play but we don’t make a definitive
decision based on one
day,” he said.
“We have to study the history
of the players,” the coach
added.
“At the moment obviously
I am not going to say whether
sity, good attacking from both
sides, maybe not the best defensively
from us but good
to get the win,” Bulls captain
Spain pinning hopes on
David Villa recovery
a side showing nine changes
from the previous game lost
1-0 at Anfield to Fulham —
the first time Fulham had won
a match there in 30 attempts
over 78 years.
CUP DOUBLE
Coach Kenny Dalglish
though, saw no relationship
between his team’s latest setback
and today’s final.
“It will not affect Saturday
but that doesn’t mean the performance
is right and it is not
something you want to dismiss
easily,” he said.
“It is not correct to go
about your work in that way
but if we had come in and won
4-0 it wouldn’t have made
any difference to Saturday
either.”
He was pleased, though,
that Carroll was back after
missing last Saturday’s 3-0
win at Norwich City.
“There were some positives.
It was nice to see the big
lad back. He had a niggle at the
weekend but he is fit and back
and played 90 minutes so that
is good for us.”
Despite their League failings,
Liverpool have the chance
to complete a rare domestic FA
Cup and League Cup double,
Tom, Dick or Harry is coming
to the team but we don’t make
a decision based on one single
game.”
Del Bosque said he respected
Guardiola’s “difficult”
decision to end his four-yearreign
as coach of Barcelona
and take a rest, saying no one
could have achieved so much
in so short a period.
“I am happy and proud that
we have Spanish coaches with
the application and human
values of Pep Guardiola,” he
said in a conference organised
by Spain’s Europa Press news
agency.
“He has a good record on
the sporting field and personally,”
Del Bosque added.
“When we talk about Guardiola,
it is a unique story — you
cannot compare it to anyone.”
The Spain coach, who
praised the level of Spanish
club football as being among
the best in Europe, repeated
earlier statements that he was
convinced that there was no
doping in the game.
“I don’t know if I am naive
or innocent, but I don’t believe
there are people with such a
lack of morals in football, I
don’t believe it,” Del Bosque
said. — AFP
emulating Arsenal’s in 1993,
their own in 2001 and Chelsea’s
in 2007.
Chelsea have been the outstanding
cup side in the country
over the last few years and
have the chance of winning
the first half of a cup double of
their own, with the Champions
League final against Bayern
Munich just over two weeks
away.
They are bidding to win the
FA Cup for the fourth time in
six seasons, the best success
rate in the competition since
The Wanderers won it five
times in the first seven years
of its existence between 1872
and 1878.
The only comparable modern
record is Arsenal’s three
wins in four seasons between
2002 and 2005.
Chelsea coach Roberto Di
Matteo, who has transformed
their season since taking over
from Andre Villas-Boas at the
beginning of March, has a special
affinity with the FA Cup
and holds two records that can
never be broken.
His goal after 43 seconds
for Chelsea in the 1997 win
over Middlesbrough was the
fastest ever scored in the final
at the old Wembley and his
Pierre Spies said.
“We needed these points,”
he added of the victory that
propelled them to the top of
the South African conference
on 42 points, one ahead of the
Stormers who have a bye.
The match was one of milestones
for the Melbourne side,
with Mark Gerrard making
his 100th Super Rugby appearance,
while club captain
Stirling Mortlock was making
his first of the season from the
replacements’ bench after he
recovered from a long standing
calf injury.
It was also their first match
since they parted ways with
enigmatic fly-half Danny Cipriani,
who has returned to England
early. The former England
international has signed with
Sale for next season.
The first half was helterskelter
as both sides secured
a bonus point by scoring four
tries each with Melbourne’s
captain Gareth Delve crashing
over after the hooter had
sounded to vindicate his decision
not to take a penalty shot
at goal and ensure the match
was evenly poised with the
Bulls leading 31-28.
The second period, however,
failed to live up to the
first as both sides adopted a
more conservative, patterned
approach for the first 20 minutes
before Steyn’s deft chip
kick ahead was gathered by J J
Engelbrecht to crash over and
break the shackles.
Cooper Vuna struck back
immediately for the Rebels for
Ireland flanker
Wallace retires
due to injury
DUBLIN — Ireland and
Muster flanker David Wallace
was forced to retire from
rugby on Thursday after failing
to fully recover from the
knee injury that ruled him
out of last year’s World Cup.
Wallace, who made a
brief comeback last month,
was part of Ireland’s grand
slam-winning team in 2009
and won 72 caps in an 11year
international career.
The combative number
seven won two European
Cups with Munster and
toured with the British and
Irish Lions in 2001 and 2009,
following in the footsteps of
brothers Richard and Paul to
make the Wallaces the only
three members of the same
family to play for the Lions.
“Although it’s disappointing
that injury is forcing
me to retire now, I take
great comfort that I’ve had
an unbelievably enjoyable
career and I feel very lucky
to have been involved in an
era that has seen Munster
and Ireland enjoy so much
success,” Wallace, 35, said
in a statement.
Wallace is the fourth
experienced Irish player to
call time on his career recently.
— Reuters
FA Cup final offers Torres and Carroll chance of glory
FERNANDO TORRES ANDY CARROLL
winner against Aston Villa in
2000 was the last FA Cup final
goal there before the stadium
was demolished.
Now he has the chance to
become the third Italian manager
in three years to win the
Cup after Chelsea’s Carlo Ancelotti
in 2010 and Manchester
City’s Roberto Mancini last
year.
“It is important we keep
going. We want to win the
FA Cup, and the Champions
League, and although we have
done well to get to the finals,
we have not won anything
yet,” he told reporters.
The key to Chelsea’s victories
has been their “old guard”
of John Terry, Ashley Cole,
Frank Lampard and Didier
Drogba, who has scored every
time he has played in a competitive
match at Wembley
— this year’s semi-final win
there over Tottenham Hotspur
and the finals in 2007, 2009
and 2010, all of which Chelsea
won.
Cole, who won the cup
three times with Arsenal and
has three winners’ medals with
Chelsea, has already won the
FA Cup more times than any
other player. — Reuters
his second try, with Kurtley
Beale adding his fifth conversion,
before Steyn slotted a
72nd minute penalty for the
Bulls to give them a 41-35
lead that they held until the final
whistle.
HURRICANES GIVE
AUCKLAND THE BLUES
In Wellington, the despair
and anguish on Ma’a Nonu’s
face typified the Auckland
Blues’ terrible Super Rugby
season yesterday as they
crashed to their seventh successive
loss when they were
beaten 35-19 by the Hurricanes.
Nonu had missed the tackle
on T J Perenara inside the Hurricanes
22-metre area which
led to him standing behind
his own goal line 12 seconds
later watching Beauden Barrett
attempt to convert Andre
Taylor’s eighth try of the
season.
The try gave the Hurricanes
a 13-12 lead seven minutes before
halftime, a lead they never
relinquished as they controlled
the second half with tries from
Julian Savea, Perenara and Jason
Eaton.
The match was supposed to
be a homecoming of sorts for
Nonu, who played more than
100 games for the Hurricanes
before being released last year,
and scrumhalf Piri Weepu.
Weepu had joined Nonu at
the Blues, rejecting the offer of
a contract from the Hurricanes,
and the partisan crowd did not
let him forget it with boos resounding
around Wellington
LONDON — Wayne Rooney’s
overhead kick for Manchester
United against Manchester
City in February last
season has been voted by fans
as the best goal of the 20 years
of the Premier League, it was
announced on Thursday.
Rooney’s acrobatic effort,
which gave United a 2-1
home victory and helped them
to win last term’s title, was
the only goal from the last 10
years among the nominees.
Dennis Bergkamp’s swivel
and finish for Arsenal against
Newcastle United in 2002
and team-mate Thierry Henry’s
dipping flick and volley
against Manchester United in
2000 were second and third
respectively.
The Premier League said
in a statement that hundreds
of thousands of fans had voted
and that the top three received
MANCHESTER — Manchester
City’s visit to in-form
Newcastle United tomorrow
(1230 GMT) will be more
difficult than last Monday’s
match against title rivals Manchester
United, according to
manager Roberto Mancini.
The Italian said fifthplaced
Newcastle would
approach the game against
Premier League leaders City
in an extremely confident
mood after their 2-0 victory at
Champions League finalists
Chelsea on Wednesday.
“Newcastle played a fantastic
game at Chelsea and I
think this game will be more
difficult for us,” Mancini told
reporters yesterday.
“The Manchester United
game was at home and we
played very well to win 1-0
but Newcastle is away and I
think it will be harder.”
The two Manchester clubs
are locked together on 83
points with two games left to
play this season, with City top
on goal difference.
Mancini said City would
keep a particularly close eye
on red-hot Senegal striker Papiss
Cisse tomorrow.
“Cisse is incredible,” said
Regional Stadium every time
he lined up a shot at goal in the
first half.
Weepu, however, gradually
silenced the cat calls with
four successive kicks, which
proved to be all of the visitors’
points in the first 40 minutes as
they wasted a wealth of possession
and field position with
poor handling and decision
making.
Given the Blues’ error rate
it was hardly surprising three
of the Hurricanes’ five tries
came from mistakes — Taylor’s
was from a turnover and
missed tackle while two others
resulted from handling errors
by Blues winger George
Moala.
The first when he dropped
a cross kick from Barrett and
Hurricanes captain Conrad
Smith pounced on the ball
early in the first half.
The second was even worse,
when he fumbled a speculative
grubber kick from Perenara
and the ball bounced to replacement
prop Reg Goodes,
who barged over though the
television match official ruled
he had been held up in goal.
Perenara, however, scored
the bonus point try from the
ensuing scrum to give the Hurricanes
a 28-12 lead after Barrett
had added the conversion.
Benson Stanley scored a
late consolation try from long
range for the Blues before Hurricanes
lock Eaton added his
side’s fifth in the final minute
to complete the scoring.
Rooney’s overhead kick
named best EPL goal
more than half the public vote,
with Rooney garnering 26 per
cent, Bergkamp 19 per cent
and Henry 15 per cent.
“I grew up watching the
Premier League so to be voted
the best goal in the history of
the Premier League is a great
feeling,” Rooney said. “I’d
like to say a big thank you
to all the fans that voted for
me.”
Ex-United player David
Beckham won the 10-year
award in 2002 for his goal
from the halfway line against
Wimbledon in 1996.
A series of awards including
best match, save and best
goal celebration have been
launched to mark the 20 years
of the Premier League with
results from the other online
fan polls due in the coming
weeks. — Reuters
Newcastle game tougher than
facing Man Utd: Mancini
the Italian. “He scored two
fantastic goals against Chelsea.
“He has 13 goals in 12
league games for Newcastle
and he’s a good player. But
not just him, their whole team
is playing very well.
“They play to win in every
game, they have a good mentality
and for this reason I
think it will be a good game
on Sunday.”
Manchester United entertain
Swansea City at 1500
GMT and Mancini dismissed
the suggestion that Manchester
City would be under more
pressure because they play
first tomorrow.
“Our players know they
have everything in their own
hands,” he said. — Reuters