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Soccer briefs

©Associated Press

© St. Petersburg Times,
published September 23, 2001

Miami gets win in opener

FORT LAUDERDALE -- Alex Pineda Chacon and Diego Serna scored to lead the Miami Fusion past the Kansas City Wizards 2-0 Saturday in the opening round of the MLS playoffs.

The Fusion, the Eastern Division champion, dominated play in winning its first playoff game in its four-year history.

Game 2 of the best-of-three series is Wednesday night in Kansas City.

Chacon's goal eight minutes into the second half gave Miami a 2-0 lead. He stole the ball from Kerry Zavagnin near midfield and passed to Serna down the left wing.

Serna moved the ball near the goal area to Preki. The former Wizards midfielder outmaneuvered Zavagnin and Peter Vermes before crossing a pass to Chacon, whose 12-yard shot beat Tony Meola.

Kansas City's best scoring opportunity came at the 73rd minute when Onandi Lowe's free kick from 30 yards hit the left goal post.

Serna gave Miami a 1-0 lead at the 28th minute. Ian Woan centered a pass to Serna, who beat Meola from just outside the 6-yard box.

SAN JOSE 3, COLUMBUS 1: Landon Donovan scored two first-half goals and Manny Lagos added one for visiting San Jose.

Ronnie Ekelund lofted a pass inside the penalty area to Donovan, who scored past charging goalkeeper Tom Presthus in the fifth minute.

Dovovan gave San Jose a 3-0 lead just before halftime when he collected an errant clearing attempt by Tenywa Bonseu that bounced off John Harkes' back and scored from 19 yards.

WORLD CUP QUALIFYING: The United Arab Emirates moved back into contention, beating Uzbekistan 1-0 at Tashkent on Mohammed Omar's goal off a free kick in the sixth minute.

China (3-0-1) leads Group B with 10 points, two ahead of Qatar (2-1-2), three ahead of the UAE (2-2-1) and four ahead of Uzbekistan (2-3). The group winner gets a berth in the 32-nation field at next year's tournament in Japan and South Korea, and the second-place team advances to playoffs.

In Group A, Thailand and Iraq pretty much eliminated themselves with a 1-1 tie at Bangkok. Sutee Suksomkit put Thailand ahead in the 38th minute but Emad M. Ridha tied it the 63rd.

Saudi Arabia (3-1-1) is first with 10 points, two ahead of Iran (2-0-2) and four ahead of Bahrain (1-1-3). Iraq is fourth at 1-3-1 and Thailand is last at 0-2-3.

U.S. FLAG BURNED: Fans of the Greek club AEK Athens tried to burn the American flag before the team's match against Scotland club Hibernian, and booed during a moment of silence for the victims of the terrorist attacks in the United States.

"What went on in Athens disgusted me," Hibernian coach Alex McLeish said. "With what happened (Sept. 11), innocent people of all nationalities in America, anyone would show respect."

There was a minute's silence at all 77 European games played during the week. But McLeish said that as the players stood in silence to pay their respects in the Athens stadium before Thursday's UEFA Cup game, many AEK fans jeered through the silence and tried to burn the American flag.

"What badly disappointed me was that there was no effort made by anyone, the police included, to do anything about it," McLeish said. "When I first heard all the shouting and jeering, I thought it was their way of doing the minute's silence. Then I was told by someone who said, 'Look, they're burning the American flag.' "

Several hundred fans booed and jeered, and a group set fire to an Israeli flag, while others tried to burn an American flag but couldn't get it to light.

TODAY ON TV: College women, N.C. State at FSU, 1, Sunshine; Mexican League, Guadalajara vs. UAG, 1, Univision; College women, Virginia at Florida, 3, Sunshine (taped); MLS playoffs, Chicago at Dallas, 5, ESPN2.

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