Javad Nekounam

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Nov. 11--The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) unveiled an updated list of nominees for its awards on Sunday, which will be presented in Sydney this month.
According to AFP, Iraq’s Nashat Akram, 23, is joined by Iranian’s Javad Nekounam and Mohamad Salehi Mehdi on the list, which was revised after the first leg of the AFC Champions League final on November 7.
The trio join Iraq’s victorious Asian Cup 2007 captain Younis Mahmoud, Saudi Arabian striker Yasser Al Qahtani and Japanese Yasuhito Endo and Shinji Ono, who retained their places on the updated nominees list.
South Korean goalkeeper Lee Woon-Jae was removed from the nominees this month following his suspension by the country’s football association over a late-night drinking spree during the 2007 Asian Cup.
The AFC said that three Japanese players-- Yasuhito Morishima, Tsukasa Umesaki and Yoichiro Kakitani--are among four candidates for Youth Player of the Year, along with North Korea’s Kim Kum-il.
Iraq, Saudi Arabia and South Korea are contenders for National Team of the Year at the awards, to be handed out at a November 28 ceremony.
Asian Champions League finalists Urawa Reds from Japan and Sepahan from Iran are in the running for Club Team of the Year, along with Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma from South Korea and Al Wahda from the United Arab Emirates.
Former Iranian coach Amir Ghalenoiee, Hak Bum Kim from Seonganam Ilhwa Chunma and Rauf Inileev of the Uzbek national team have been nominated for Coach of the Year.
China, Japan and Vietnam are nominees for National Association of the Year, while 10 countries--Australia, Iraq, Iran, Japan, Jordan, South Korea, Lebanon, Thailand, Uzbekistan and Vietnam are vying for Fair Play Association of the Year.
The AFC also announced the list of 10 nominees for Referee of the Year and Assistant Referee of the Year.
In Futsal--indoor five-aside football--Japan’s Kenichiro Kogure, who won the Player of the Year award last year, is once again on the list, along with Iranian trio Vahid Shamsaee, Kazem Mohamadi and Mohamadreza Heidarian, and Abdulla Buriev from Uzbekistan.
Iran, who won the Asian Futsal Championship for the eighth time this year, have been nominated with Japan and Uzbekistan for Futsal Team of the Year.

Liverpool's Fernando Torres controls the ball during the English Premier League soccer match against Fulham at Anfield, Saturday.

LONDON, Nov. 11--Fernando Torres’ superb individual goal and a Steven Gerrard penalty pushed Liverpool up to fourth as Fulham again imploded in the last 10 minutes, BBC wrote.
Torres twisted and turned to get the better of Aaron Hughes, before beating goalkeeper Antti Niemi with a low shot. Peter Crouch, who hit the bar with a first-half header, won the penalty when he was fouled by Carlos Bocanegra and Gerrard’s spot-kick was unstoppable.
Niemi was superb for Fulham in goal, making a series of top-class saves. During midweek Liverpool had thrashed Besiktas 8-0 in the Champions League, but Fulham proved less accommodating as Rafa Benitez named an unchanged side for the first time in over a year.
Prior to Saturday’s game, Liverpool had drawn four home games and for 80 minutes Fulham looked they might be another side to come away from Anfield with a point.
But not for the first time this season Fulham, who now have conceded goals in the last 10 times seven times this season, failed to last the course.
Deploying David Healy and Shefki Kuqi in attack, Fulham tried to get their midfield players to support them as quickly as possible in the early stages of the game. Kuqi’s aerial presence caused Liverpool problems, while former Reds midfielder Danny Murphy tried his luck with a couple of long-range efforts.
Kuqi worked tirelessly for Fulham, tracking back to help out his defenders. And Fulham’s defensive organization ensured Liverpool struggled to create clear chances in an even first half, ensuring Niemi had only one real save to make in the opening period from Sami Hyypia’s shot.
Andriy Voronin briefly unsettled the Fulham defence when he emerged unmarked at the far post, but after controlling the ball on his chest he misplaced his pass.
Even so Liverpool were unlucky not to go in at the interval ahead when Crouch’s looping header bounced off the bar.
Just after the restart Crouch headed the ball down to Voronin, but the Ukrainian forward’s shot was comfortably gathered by Niemi. On 55 minutes the Fulham keeper had an altogether less comfortable moment when he was momentarily deceived by Fabio Aurelio’s free-kick, before recovering to make the save.
Soon afterwards Niemi had to push the ball over the bar from Voronin’s rising shot, though Voronin was to completely miss his kick when Liverpool’s next chance arrived.
Niemi’s best save of the game came from Yossi’s Benayoun’s chip which looked goalbound before the Finn got one hand to the ball and pushed it past the post.
Benayoun had an influential game for Liverpool and a clever pass released Voronin, but the Ukrainian’s shot flashed past the post.
On came Ryan Babel and Torres and the Spanish striker’s arrival proved decisive.
Liverpool goalkeeper Jose Reina played a part in Torres’ goal, his huge kick finding his Spanish compatriot deep in the Fulham half. Torres’ tricky bamboozled Hughes and having created space the former Atletico Madrid beat Niemi with a low shot inside the near post.
Crouch was then tripped by Bocanegra and Gerrard’s powerful penalty gave Niemi no chance.

South Africa's Ashwell Prince plays a shot during the third day of the first test cricket match against New Zealand in Johannesburg, Saturday.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa , Nov. 11--South Africa were primed for one of their biggest wins in Tests as New Zealand were steamrollered on day three of the first Test in Johannesburg.
According to BBC, Jacques Kallis and Hashim Amla hit centuries in a superb stand of 330 before the Proteas declared on 422-3. And New Zealand, needing a record 531 for victory, reached stumps on 57-3.
Injuries and illness added to New Zealand’s woe, with Shane Bond ruled out of the tour and Jacob Oram and Michael Papps requiring treatment. Bond broke down with an abdominal muscle tear after bowling four overs and will be out of action for four to six weeks.
Oram also limped out of the attack after removing Kallis for 186 while Stephen Fleming was another player in the wars, suffering a bruised forearm, but was forced to open the batting given that a sick Papps was absent.
Kallis was three short of his Test best score of 189 when edging Oram to Brendon McCullum to end a 262-ball effort--his 28th Test century. Amla, who finished unbeaten on 176, had been first to his century, only his second in Tests, when hitting a leg-glance off Chris Martin for four in the morning session.
Kallis reached three figures after the drinks break with an exhilarating six over wide mid-on off Dan Vettori. And he cut loose after being dropped by sub fielder Michael Mason at mid-off moments later.
He soon became the eighth batsman in Test history to score 9,000 runs, but a double century remained elusive. Amla reached his 150 off 331 balls with 21 fours, passing his previous highest Test score of 149, which came against the same opponents in Cape Town in 2005-07.
But either side of tea, the spectators were treated to a dour period of play, with Amla and Ashwell Prince unwilling to up the scoring, putting on 72 in 28.2 overs before the declaration came. It seemed inevitable that New Zealand would lose wickets in the 17 overs of batting they had before stumps.
Graeme Smith took two smart slip catches--for a phenomenal tally of 69 in 57 Tests--to remove Craig Cumming and Fleming before Ross Taylor sliced his second ball to Kallis, also standing in the slip cordon.

TEHRAN, Nov. 11--Iran’s futsal team flies to Budapest on Monday to participate in the Hungarian Futsal Tournament.
Four teams, including Hungary, Iran, Brazil and Turkey, will attend the event on Nov. 12-18, According to Mehr News Agency.
Iran and Brazil will most probably clash once again.
Both teams faced each other in the Mini World Cup held in Brazil two weeks ago. The in-shape Brazil defeated Iran 4-0 while its fans supported the team in an attractive game. The match can be considered a revenge game for Iran’s National Futsal Team.

Masoud Moradi

TEHRAN, Nov. 11--AFC has lifted the ban on two Iranian international referees after Iran requested the same on Saturday.
According to IRNA, Masoud Moradi and Reza Sokhandan were suspendedÊfrom judging all continental and international matches by the AFC Referee’s Committee due to plenty of mistakes they made in a match held between Qatar and the UAE in the 2007 Asian Championship in Kuala Lumpur.
The Committee put performance of Iranian referees under scrutiny after it received a letter from Masoud Enayat, head of the Iranian Referees Committee who praised their work in Iran’s Professional League and AFC decided to lift the ban on both Iranian referees.

NEW YORK, Nov. 11--Miguel Cotto retained his World Boxing Association welterweight title with a unanimous decision over “Sugar“ Shane Mosley in an action-packed 12 rounds at Madison Square Garden on Saturday.
According to Reuters, Cotto of Puerto Rico improved his perfect record to 31-0 with the fourth defense of his WBA title while Mosley, a four-times world champion, dropped to 44-5.
Two judges scored the fight 115-13 and the third had it 116-113 for the champion.
Neither fighter scored a knock down but Cotto bled from the corner of his right eye after an accidental clash of heads in the final round. Mosley had swelling under both eyes after 12 rounds of brawling.
“It was a great fight,“ Mosley told reporters.
“Miguel is very strong. Not only is he a powerful puncher but he can box. He’s a young lion on his way to greatness.“
The 36-year-old Mosley, nine years older than Cotto, tried to use his reach advantage with a stinging left jab and caught Cotto with occasional right-hand leads, right crosses and uppercuts when the Puerto Rican came inside.
Cotto looked to wade through Mosley’s attack to unleash a punishing assortment of left hooks and straight lefts mixed with right hands from surprising angles.

SHANGHAI, China, Nov. 11--Phil Mickelson birdied the 18th to move two shots clear of England’s Ross Fisher after three rounds of the HSBC Champions event in Shanghai.
According to AFP, the world number two hit a 68, matched by Fisher, to stand on 14-under. But the best round of the day came from another English player, Paul Casey, who chipped in three times for a 66 which secured him third spot at 11-under.
Overnight leader Kevin Stadler fell away after carding a 73 to be 10-under, while five players were on seven-under. That group included Padraig Harrington (69) and Vijay Singh (72).
Mickelson got off to a good start with a birdie at the second and topped the leaderboard for the first time when Stadler found a bunker for his second bogey of the day at the third.
With Stadler making further errors, Thai-based Scot Simon Yates briefly joined the leader at 10-under, but a double bogey after finding the water at the sixth dropped him back down. Yates finished with a disappointing 75 to be nine shots off the lead.
Mickelson was reined back in when he three putted at the seventh before again taking the lead courtesy of a sublime chip onto the green at the eighth. Fisher refused to fade and produced some fine golf to remain in the chase, birdieing the eighth when hitting a wood 235 yards to within eight feet.
He played the back nine in two-under for his third 68 of the week. Casey hit three birdies in the first four holes and grabbed another couple either side of the turn.
He had further birdies at 12 and 13, but played the last five holes in one-over to knock some of the gloss of an otherwise near-perfect round.

MADRID, Spain, Nov. 11--Getafe returned to haunt Barcelona as they condemned Frank Rijkaard’s side to a 2-0 defeat in the Primera Liga on Saturday.
According to Reuters, The last time Barca visited the Coliseum six months ago Getafe knocked them out of the King’s Cup in the semi-finals by overturning a 5-2 first-leg deficit with a stunning 4-0 win.
This time the modest Madrid-based club put in a similarly gritty performance with Manuel del Moral giving them the lead after 28 minutes. Uruguayan Juan Albin made sure of a deserved three points with a second goal at the end.
Michael Laudrup’s Getafe climbed to 11th with their third consecutive win.

SHANGHAI, China, Nov. 11--Rafel Nadal began his Masters Cup campaign with a 3-6 6-3 6-4 victory over Richard Gasquet in Shanghai.
According to Reuters, the Spanish second seed looked to be suffering a hangover from his Paris Masters final loss to David Nalbandian as Gasquet made the better start. But he found his form in the second set to level. Frenchman Gasquet saved a matchpoint at 5-3 in the decider, but Nadal served out to seal the win.
The event sees the world’s top eight competing in two round-robin groups. The top two from each advance to the semi-finals.
Sunday’s red group action also sees Serbia’s Novak Djokovic take on David Ferrer of Spain. Nadal is seeking his first win in the elite tournament after pulling out injured in 2005 and losing to Roger Federer in last year’s semi-finals.
The gold group gets under way on Monday, with defending champion Federer drawn alongside Andy Roddick, Nikolay Davydenko and Fernando Gonzalez.
Federer has won three of the last four Masters Cup titles and has overwhelming records against group opponents Roddick (14-1), Davydenko (10-0) and Gonzalez (10-0). Despite losing successive matches against Nalbandian in recent weeks he will remain, in the Argentine’s absence, a strong favorite.
“I feel 100 percent,“ said Federer. “I’m physically fresh, I feel like I have no problem in my body. Mentally I’m fine. I think the break after the Davis Cup was important. I had some other breaks during the season and I’ve really paced myself well. It’s been another great season and I have high hopes for this tournament.“