Soccer Roundup: Manchester United Is Closing In On Another Title

Manchester United took a huge step toward retaining its title in the English Premier League when it beat visiting West Ham United, 4-1, at Old Trafford on Saturday after playing more than half the game with 10 men.

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Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice, and Carlos Tévez and Michael Carrick each scored against their former club as United increased its total to 84 points with one league game to play.

Chelsea, which plays at Newcastle United on Monday, has 81 points, but trails United by a large margin in goal differential.

If Chelsea loses on Monday, the title will be United’s unless United loses at Wigan Athletic and Chelsea beats Bolton by a double-digit margin in their final league matches next week.

Ronaldo, who on Friday was named England’s Footballer of the Year for the second successive season, gave United the lead with a goal in the third minute and added another after 24 minutes. He has 40 goals this season, in a competitions. Tévez, who helped West Ham stave off relegation last season before joining United, made it 3-0 with a stunning 30-yard shot two minutes later. Dean Ashton scored on a bicycle kick for West Ham two minutes later.

United was reduced to 10 men when Nani was ejected eight minutes before halftime for a head-butt on Lucas Neill.

Carrick put the game out of reach when his shot took a deflection off Neill in the 60th minute.

CELTIC INCREASES LEAD Glasgow Celtic increased its lead to 8 points in the Scottish Premier League with a 2-1 victory at Motherwell on Saturday.

Trailing, 1-0, Celtic tied the game on a goal by the Australian striker Scott McDonald and went ahead when the Greek international Georgios Samaras came off the bench to score the winner.

Celtic has only two games left, while second-place Rangers, which plays at Hibernian on Sunday, have four games to play. (AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE)

BECKENBAUER BLASTS BAYERN Franz Beckenbauer, the president of Bayern Munich, on Saturday ridiculed the club’s players as “joggers” after their 4-0 UEFA Cup semifinal loss on Thursday at Zenit St. Petersburg of Russia.

“Certain players were jogging out there,” Beckenbauer said.

“Such a defeat as that 4-0 in St. Petersburg, you can’t just let that pass and I found the team lacked discipline in certain parts of the game,” Beckenbauer, who led Bayern and Germany as a championship-winning player and coach, told Bild. “Some players attitude was that of joggers on the Marienplatz.” Marienplatz is Munich’s central square.

Bayern had been favored to win the UEFA Cup, which it last won in 1996, having missed out on qualification or the Champions League last season by placing fourth in the Bundesliga.

They had drawn the home leg, 1-1, against the Russians but collapsed in the return match.

Beckenbauer called it a “humiliation.”

(AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE)

DEL PIERO MAKES HIS CASE The Juventus captain Alessandro Del Piero said he deserves being recalled to the Italian national team for next month’s Euro 2008 tournament after scoring 18 goals in Serie A this season.

The World Cup winner has not played for his country since a qualifying match against France last September.

But calls to bring him back have been mounting as the forward has been instrumental in helping third-place Juventus secure a qualification spot in the Champions League on its return to the top flight after relegation over the 2006 match-fixing scandal.

“I think I have deserved the European championships with a beautiful season,” Del Piero told his club’s TV channel.

Roberto Donadoni, the national team manager, said last week that on current form Del Piero, 33, had a strong case for a place in his squad. Del Piero has scored 27 goals in 85 international games. (REUTERS)

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