U.S. Gets Closer to Olympic Spot

The United States defeated Mexico, 2-0, Sunday afternoon at San Jose, Costa Rica, to clinch first place in Group B of the CONCACAF women’s Olympic qualifying tournament.

The result means that the U.S. will play the loser of today’s Group A game involving Canada and Costa Rica in the semifinals on Wednesday for a place in Athens.

Mexico will play the winner, also for a berth in the Olympics.

Coach April Heinrichs’ American team has not been scored on this year and has not given up a goal in 589 minutes, so when it took the lead in the 10th minute, the result was all but assured.

Abby Wambach won a corner kick on the right. Kristine Lilly sent the ball to the far post, where Shannon Boxx headed it back across the goal and Mexico defender Maria Castillo accidentally deflected it past her own goalkeeper.

The U.S., which outshot Mexico, 9-5, doubled its advantage in the 26th minute when Wambach scored her 17th goal in 28 games for the national team.

This time a foul on Mia Hamm near the endline to the left of the net allowed Lilly to send a free kick to Wambach at the far post and the forward scored from close range.

In an earlier game involving two teams already eliminated, Trinidad and Tobago defeated Haiti, 6-2.

A 128-Year Wait Ends

Middlesbrough ended 128 years of frustration when the English Premier League club won the first trophy in its history, defeating Bolton Wanderers, 2-1, in front of 72,634 at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, Wales, to win the English League Cup.

Goals by Cameroon’s Joseph-Desire Job in the second minute and by the Netherlands’ Boudewijn Zenden on a penalty kick in the seventh minute put ‘Boro on course for the Cup, but Kevin Davies scored for Bolton in the 21st minute to cut the deficit in half and keep the outcome in doubt until the end.

Middlesbrough Coach Steve McClaren, touted by many as a potential long-term successor to England Coach Sven-Goran Eriksson, became the first English coach in eight years to win one of the country’s three major trophies.

Middlesbrough’s victory earned it a place in next season’s UEFA Cup -- the team’s first venture into Europe.

FIFA Decisions

The executive committee of FIFA, world soccer’s governing body, met in London, and voted unanimously to reintroduce the FIFA World Club Championship, to ratify an agreement with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), and to provisionally lift the suspension it had imposed on Guatemala in December.

“I am a happy man today,” said Joseph “Sepp” Blatter, who had campaigned strongly for the world club championship despite vocal opposition from Europe and South America.

The event was first held in Brazil in 2000 and the second edition was to have been played in Spain in 2001 but was abandoned for financial reasons.

It will now be re-launched in 2005, but Blatter said the site and date for the tournament, featuring the club champions of each of FIFA’s six continental confederations, have not been determined.

“We will play this competition every year ... but don’t ask me where and when,” he said.

Japan and the U.S. have been mentioned as possible sites.

Guatemalan Goalkeeper Dies

Goalkeeper Danny Ortiz died after colliding with an opposing player during a Guatemalan league game.

Ortiz, 27, was knocked unconscious briefly when he took a hard shot to the chest during a collision with Comunicaciones forward Mario Rodriguez. He was taken to a hospital and was listed in stable condition, but the Municipal player later died.

“Unfortunately, his heart did not respond,” team physician Jorge Jerez said at a news conference with hospital doctors.

Quick Passes

U.S. national team striker Clint Mathis scored his fourth goal in five games since joining Hannover 96 of the German Bundesliga, but it was not enough to prevent the club from losing, 3-1, to Hertha Berlin.... VfL Bochum and goalkeeper Rein van Duijnhoven set a Bundesliga record when they held Hansa Rostock to a 0-0 tie. Bochum has not conceded a goal at home in 744 minutes.

The Russian oil company Nafta-Moskva withdrew its $495-million offer to buy AS Roma of Italy in the wake of a judicial investigation into alleged financial wrongdoing by Italian teams.... The U.S. probably will play Grenada in June in its first qualifying match for the 2006 World Cup. Grenada defeated Guyana, 5-0, on Saturday night at St. George’s, Grenada, in the first game of its two-game qualifying series. The second game is on March 14.

-- Compiled by Grahame L. Jones