Van der Sar set to retire at end of season

Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson expects goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar to retire at the end of the season.
The 40-year-old Dutchman has featured 19 times this season, helping United reach the Premier League summit and the Champions League knockout phase.

But Ferguson said Thursday that “we are planning for this being his last season.”
Van der Sar has won three Premier League titles and the Champions League since arriving in 2005 from Fulham and has a contract until the end of this season.
There could still be a coaching role for Van der Sar at United in the future.
Ferguson says that “We have not discussed it, but Edwin is a player who would be of interest in terms of his knowledge and standing in the game.”

Inter working out details to fire Benitez

Inter Milan officials are meeting with Rafa Benitez’s agent to figure out how they can dismiss the manager.
Club president Massimo Moratti has apparently already decided he wants to fire Benitez, but the club needs to work out the details of his contract, which isn’t due to expire until the end of next season.

Italian media widely report that Benitez’s agent Manuel Garcia Quillon was meeting Thursday with three top Inter officials, plus the club’s lawyer, Angelo Capellini.
Benitez guided Inter to the Club World Cup title last weekend, but the European champion is languishing in seventh place in Serie A, 13 points behind city rival AC Milan.
Moratti has reportedly already decided to hire former AC Milan manager Leonardo to lead the club beginning in January.

Ronaldo hat trick as Real Madrid routs Levante 8-0

Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema had three goals each to lead Real Madrid to an 8-0 rout of Levante on Wednesday night in the first leg of the fifth round of Spain’s Copa del Rey.
Ronaldo scored in the 45th, 72nd and 74th minutes, raising his season total to 25 goals in 24 matches in all competitions for Madrid this season.
Benzema connected in the sixth, 32nd and 70th minutes, and Mesut Oezil and Pedro Leon also scored. The second leg of the total-goals series is at Levante on Jan. 5.

Controversial Benitez shows up in Liverpool

The bizarre saga of Rafa Benitez and Inter Milan is soccer’s most-compelling current soap opera, and the most outrageous plot twist of all could be yet to come.
Benitez is on the verge of being fired by Inter after a series of disputes which came to a head when he criticized owner Massimo Moratti in a public rant last weekend. Inter sent Benitez a message on Monday to inform his actions were a breach of contract, and are currently trying to negotiate a reduced payoff figure before officially firing him.
While the storm of acrimony swirls, Benitez has taken the extraordinary step of uprooting himself from Milan and returning to his former home in Liverpool. Benitez was fired as Liverpool boss at the end of last season, and there is no coincidence about the timing or location of the place he has sought sanctuary from the controversy brewing in Italy.

 With Liverpool having endured a desperate start to the season under new head coach Roy Hodgson, Benitez would love to return to the Anfield hot-seat if the Englishman was sacked. By arriving on the doorstep, it turns up the heat on Hodgson even more.

“It would be surprising,” said Hodgson, when asked if he saw Benitez as a threat to his position. “If he was the right man, then it would have been wiser not to let him go and then bring him back six months later.
“This job will always have people linked with it. When you occupy one of the top jobs in the country, it would be very strange if other people were not linked with your job. I’m sure there are people who are very envious of my position.”
But perhaps Hodgson has more to worry about than he thinks. It didn’t take long for word to get out that Benitez was in town, and banners begging the Spaniard to return to Anfield soon sprung up both outside the club and his own home.
Polls of Liverpool fans expressed strong support for a Benitez comeback, even though he only left six months ago following a deeply disappointing campaign.
This has truly become an extraordinary situation. Benitez’s anti-Moratti rant was incredible and, according to some, utterly crazy. Turning up at Liverpool is shameless and unfair on Hodgson, who is suffering through some desperately tough times.
Make no mistake, Benitez is making a symbolic move by heading back to the north-west of England. He isn’t there for the weather (currently under a heavy blanket of snow) or for the peace and quiet. He wants his old job back.
Liverpool spent the early part of the season in crisis, and even dipped briefly into the relegation zone before rebounding slightly to sit in ninth place in the English Premier League. Hodgson has found it tough to win over the Liverpool fans, and some of his signings (especially defender Paul Konchesky) have not gone down well.
That situation doesn’t mean Benitez is going to waltz straight back through the Anfield doors, but that hasn’t stopped the rumor mill from cranking into overdrive.
In the meantime, in Italy, there is this most unusual form of status. To all intents and purposes, Benitez is no longer Inter manager. He knows it, Moratti knows it and so does the soccer public.
But with neither side wanting to give any financial ground this thing could keep on rumbling for a while. Most twists to come? Don’t bet against it.

NFL closer to a ruling on Favre investigation

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is close to announcing whether the league will punish Brett Favre(notes) for sending inappropriate photos and phone messages to a former New York Jets game hostess.
Goodell said Wednesday he received the league’s report about the case “last week and I expect that some time in the near future I will make a decision.”

Asked if that would come by the end of the season, he said, “I expect that, yes.”
The NFL is examining whether Favre sent Jenn Sterger messages and photos in 2008, while he was playing for the Jets and she also worked for the team.
Now with Minnesota, Favre, whose record consecutive starts streak ended at 297 on Monday night because of a shoulder injury, could face disciplinary action under the league’s personal conduct policy.
Sterger’s manager, Phil Reese, has said his client would like the league to “implement a program” to prevent unwanted advances—similar to those she’s alleging Favre made.
Reese said Sterger wants the league to discipline Favre before his career ends. “It’s not a money story,” Reese said, adding his client’s goal is some acknowledgment that Favre was in the wrong.
Favre has said this season will be his last.

NASCAR’s Johnson wins Driver of the Year

Five-time defending NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson beat out NHRA Funny Car champion John Force for the Driver of the Year award on Wednesday.
It’s the fourth time Johnson has received the honor, tying him with Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon for most wins in the award’s 44-year history.

“It’s an honor to win the award again,” Johnson said. “Among such tough competition, with the voting panel, who it is and how well versed they are in motorsports, it’s a huge, huge honor.”
Journalists and broadcasters from across the country vote for Driver of the Year, which is eligible to any driver from any series that competes on four wheels in the United States. Past winners include Mario Andretti, Richard Petty, Darrell Waltrip, Dale Earnhardt and Bobby Rahal.
Johnson received 10 votes to beat Force, who received seven votes. NASCAR driver Kyle Busch received one vote.
“This year’s pre-vote teleconference was one of the most spirited debates that I can recall,” said panelist president Barry Schmoyer. “As many people have said already, it will be a long time before anyone will set the bar as high as Jimmie Johnson.”

After almost being fired earlier this season, Claude Puel has reversed Lyon’s fortunes and now has a chance to lead his team to first place in the standings with a win at defending champion Marseille in the French league’s biggest match so far this season.
Seven-time champion Lyon, which dropped to 18th place after seven rounds this season, has recovered from the shaky start and sits third, two points behind leader Lille.
Lille has 31 points from 17 games, one more than second-place Paris Saint-Germain, which plays struggling Monaco. Lille hosts Nancy.

Marseille coach Didier Deschamps, who guided the team to their first French league title since 1992 last season, paid tribute to Puel’s work ahead of Sunday’s clash.
“I have a lot of respect for what he is doing,” Deschamps said. “A few months ago, there was not a single program where his future was not brought up. We do the same job, and I thought it was natural to give him my support.”
Lyon’s morale reached its low when the club lost at home to fierce rival Saint-Etienne for the first time in 16 years in September.
Puel’s future at the club then looked in danger, with fans repeatedly calling for his sacking and even hanging banners off highway bridges and in the town center calling for the coach to go.
With pressure mounting and even players criticizing him in newspapers, Puel soldiered on and convinced Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas to give him his backing until the end of the season.
And Aulas’ bet paid off: Lyon hasn’t lost a game in the league since the bitter defeat to Saint-Etienne and is enjoying a 10-game unbeaten streak.

The team also showed an unprecedented defensive cohesion this season in a 2-0 win over Toulouse last weekend, at last keeping a clean sheet after conceding 31 goals in its 23 previous games.

“We sorted out our mistakes in defense,” Puel said. “It’s normal to have an improved level of play when you’re on a good unbeaten run. The game against Marseille will be fun. They’re going well despite their draw with Auxerre.”
Marseille’s poor run of results in the league continued last weekend as Deschamps’ team was held 1-1 at Auxerre. The defending champions have failed to win their last three games and dropped to fifth place overall, four points behind Lille.
“We haven’t won in our last two games and everybody are talking about a crisis at OM. This is not true,” Argentine playmaker Lucho Gonzalez said.
But Marseille’s bid to retain the title received a big boost on Wednesday with the signing of France and Rennes defender Rod Fanni. Marseille brought in Fanni as a replacement for injured right back Cesar Azpilicueta, who tore the anterior cruciate ligaments in his knee and is out for six months.
“I am delighted and so proud to sign for Marseille,” said Fanni, who was born in the nearby town of Martigues. “There is no denying that I have come here to try and win the title, and to do well in the Champions League.”
Lyon playmaker Yoann Gourcuff and Marseille forward Brandao are both doubtful for Sunday’s clash. Gourcuff has not played since picking up an Achilles’ injury in a Champions League game at Schalke last month.
“We’ll see this week whether Yoann can get up to speed and be OK on the ball,” Puel said.
Also Saturday, it’s: Lens vs. Caen; Montpellier vs. Auxerre; Rennes vs. Valenciennes; Saint-Etienne vs. Arles and Toulouse vs. Lorient.
Sunday’s match between Sochaux and Bordeaux could feature American striker Charlie Davies’ return to action.
The 24-year-old Davies was a passenger in a car accident Oct. 13, 2009 in which another passenger died. Davies was left with two broken bones in his right leg, a broken and dislocated left elbow, a broken nose, forehead and eye socket, a ruptured bladder and bleeding on the brain.
The injuries caused him to miss this year’s World Cup.
“At the moment I really feel I’m ready,” Davies told the league’s website. “That (Bordeaux match) was my home debut for Sochaux last season and I scored twice and I really can’t think of a better way to make my comeback than against Bordeaux, in the game where it all began, and come back after over a year out of the game against one of the top teams in France. It would be astonishing to finally get my chance.”

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