Soccer Shorts

A round-up of today's other soccer news in brief

Antic sacked as coach by Serbia

RADOMIR Antic has been sacked as Serbia coach following his side's poor results at the World Cup and a mediocre start to qualifying for Euro 2012.

Serbia fell at the group stage in South Africa and drew at home with Slovenia in their second Euro 2012 qualifier. Antic (61), will be replaced by former Serbia international Vladimir Petrovic.

Antic took over as Serbia coach before the start of qualifying for the 2010 World Cup and guided they to the finals after they topped Group 7 ahead of France. But his side were beaten by Ghana in their opening Group D match and, despite bouncing back with a shock win against eventual semi-finalists Germany, a 2-1 defeat by Australia ended their campaign.

Ireland climb another three places to 33rd

THE Republic of Ireland have climbed another three places in the Fifa world rankings on the back of the recent Euro 2012 qualifying wins over Armenia and Andorra. Giovanni Trapattoni’s side are up to 33rd in the latest standings, their highest position since February of 2009.

Slovakia’s surprise win in Moscow has seen them rise 11 places to 16th while Group B rivals Russia fall out of the top 20 by dint of the same result.

There is no great change at the top of the list with Spain and The Netherlands remaining first and second although Germany moved ahead of Brazil.

France’s slide down the table continued as they plummeted another six spots to 27th. Les Bleus were seventh at the start of the year but are now at their lowest position since the rankings were introduced in 1993.

Montenegro, Fifa’s newest national team who played their first international in March 2007, moved into the top 50 for the first time (40th) thanks to successive wins in their opening Euro 2012 qualifiers.

WORLD RANKINGS – TOP 20

(previous ranking in bracket)

1 (1) Spain; 2 (2) Netherlands; 3 (4) Germany; 4 (3) Brazil; 5 (5) Argentina; 6 (7) England; 7 (6) Uruguay; 8 (8) Portugal; 9 (9) Egypt; 10 (10) Chile; 11 (14) Croatia; 12 (12) Greece; 13 (11) Italy; 14 (22) Norway; 15 (13) Serbia; 16 (27) * Slovakia; 17 (15) Paraguay; 18 (18) United States; 19 (19) Slovenia; 20 (23) Ghana. Selected others: 25 (16) * Russia; 45 (59) Northern Ireland; 47 (39) Scotland; 71 (66) * Macedonia; 84 (84) Wales; 105 (96) * Armenia; 202 (201) * Andorra. (* indicates countries in Republic of Ireland’s Euro 2012 qualifying group).

Dalglish wanted to replace Benitez

LIVERPOOL legend Kenny Dalglish has admitted he wanted to replace Rafael Benitez at Anfield before the appointment of Roy Hodgson. Dalglish was player-manager at Anfield between 1985 and 1991 and was the last man to bring the league title to the club.

The 59-year-old felt the time was right for Benitez to leave Liverpool and has revealed he put himself forward to replace the Spaniard at the helm. However, Liverpool rejected Dalglish’s overtures and moved instead for former Fulham chief Hodgson to take charge at Anfield – and the Scot admits he was disappointed to be overlooked for the job.

“It was right for everybody that Rafa Benitez left – for him and for Liverpool Football Club,” Dalglish said in his new book. “There just comes a stage in every manager’s career when the board says, ‘You’ve been good for the club but we feel it would be best if you go’.

“I wanted the job. I couldnt miss the opportunity. One day, I was in a meeting with Christian ( Purslow) and the chairman, Martin Broughton, and I formally put my name forward. ‘We don’t want you, Kenny’, came the reply from Christian and the chairman. Fine. That’s their prerogative. They explained they had different plans for me, a position with greater longevity.”

Togo team turns out to be fake

A FAKE Togo team masquerading as the official side played a match against Bahrain earlier this month. Bahrain won the friendly 3-0 but they were surprised by the poor quality of the Togolese team.

Bahrain’s head coach Josef Hickersberger describing the match in Riffa on September 7th as “boring” and “a wasted opportunity”.

However, it appears Bahrain’s opponents were not an official Togo team.

“Nobody has ever been informed of such a game,” Togo’s sports minister, Christophe Chao, told Jeune Afrique. “We will conduct investigations to uncover all those involved in this case.”

Seiyi Memene, the chairman of Togo’s interim soccer federation, was also adamant that the team was not an official one.

“We cannot send our players to play friendly matches abroad without the approval of Fifa,” he said.

“The players that took part in the friendly match against Bahrain were completely fake.”

Edwards signs new Wolves deal

WOLVES midfielder Dave Edwards has signed a new contract that will keep the Wales international at the Premier League club until 2013.

The 24-year-old, who joined Wolves from Luton for an undisclosed fee in January 2008, has signed a three-year deal with an option for a fourth year.

Edwards joins George Elokobi, Matt Jarvis, Jody Craddock, Stephen Ward, Sam Vokes and Wayne Hennessey in signing new contracts with Wolves over the last few months.

Villa confirm Houllier’s start

NEW Aston Villa manager Gerard Houllier will take charge of the team after Saturday’s home match against Bolton, the Premier League club have confirmed.

Houllier was appointed as Villa’s new boss last week but has been waiting for clearance from his technical director role at the French Football Federation. Houllier’s first game at the helm will be the League Cup match against Blackburn on September 22nd.

Löw raises doubts about Ballack

THE Germany coach Joachim Löw has raised doubts as to whether Michael Ballack will ever return to the national team following his latest injury setback.

Ballack, the former Chelsea midfielder, will miss the next six weeks after picking up a micro-fracture of his left shin during Bayer Leverkusen’s Bundesliga game last weekend. He has not appeared for Germany since March, when he picked up his 98th cap in the friendly defeat to Argentina.

An ankle injury picked up in the FA Cup final forced him to miss the World Cup and he was not included in Löw’s latest squad selection since the Germany coach deemed he had not yet fully recovered from that injury.

Now, Löw is wondering whether Ballack will ever be able to get back to full fitness and a good enough level of form to be considered for the national team again.

“Generally speaking, and this does not only apply to Michael Ballack, everybody has got to realise when their time at the top is over,” Löw told the Badische Zeitung newspaper.