IN BRIEF (Page 24)

SOCCER

Drogba brace gives Chelsea 2-0 friendly win

COPENHAGEN: Striker Didier Drogba scored twice in the last half hour to give Chelsea a 2-0 win against Danish side Brondby in a pre-season friendly on Tuesday.

The Ivory Coast international rose above the goalkeeper to head in a cross from the right for the English Premier League side's first in the 62nd minute. Drogba played a one-two with Peruvian strike partner Claudio Pizarro before racing into the box to shoot home the second five minutes from the end.

Stick to foreign coaches, Park Ji-sung tells Koreans

SEOUL: As South Korea continues its search for a new national soccer coach, its most celebrated player Park Ji-sung says the job must go to a foreigner.

The Korean Football Association (KFA) accepted former head coach Pim Verbeek's resignation on Saturday after the Dutchman had steered the Koreans to third place in the Asian Cup.

"There is nothing wrong with a Korean coach but we lack experience in advanced European-style football so I think a foreigner as national team coach will be better for now," Park was quoted saying in sports daily Sports Seoul yesterday after an interview with a local radio station.

Man Utd struggle with injuries ahead of season

LONDON: Manchester United captain Gary Neville and strikers Louis Saha and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer are battling to be fit for the start of next season.

Manager Alex Ferguson, whose champions open at home to Reading on August 12, told www.manutd.com the trio would not be ready for "roughly a couple of weeks." Paul Scholes has already been ruled out for the season start by knee surgery.

Portuguese winger Nani is a doubt for Wednesday's friendly against Inter Milan with an ankle injury. England midfielder Owen Hargreaves is back in full training after tendinitis and could feature for the first time in Saturday's pre-season game against Peterborough. Brazilian Anderson could play in Friday's friendly against Doncaster Rovers.

BASEBALL

Rodriguez misses out as Yankees blast 8 homers

NEW YORK: The New York Yankees equaled the club record with eight home runs as they crushed the Chicago White Sox 16-3 to move to within three games of the American League wild card lead on Tuesday.

None of the eight Yankee homers, however, was hit by Alex Rodriguez, who went 0-for-5 in his latest bid for his 500th career home run. Rodriguez is mired in an 0-for-17 slump.

But Hideki Matsui hit two - his 12th and 13th in July - to allow Mike Mussina (6-7) to cruise to the victory, which moved New York to within seven games of the Boston Red Sox in the AL East.

"They took pictures of the wrong guy tonight," Rodriguez told reporters.

CYCLING

Astana suspend activity for one month

PARIS, July 31 (Reuters) - Astana are suspending their activities for one month, the cycling team said in a statement on Tuesday.

"Following the recent events, Astana Cycling Team have decided to stop its activities until the end of August," the statement read.

"This period of time will be the opportunity for deep questioning."

The Swiss team backed by Kazakh companies pulled out of the Tour de France earlier this week after Alexander Vinokourov tested positive for blood doping. Astana announced on Monday they had sacked the Kazakh rider. He denies any wrongdoing.

(China Daily 08/02/2007 page24)