European champions English club Liverpool's French striker Djibril Cisse (r) fights for the ball with Costa Rican club Deportivo Saprissa's defender Victor Cordero during the second half of the FIFA Club World Championship semifinal soccer match at Yokohama International Stadium, south of Tokyo, Thursday. (Reuters Photo)

YOKOHAMA, Japan, Dec. 16--Liverpool eased past Costa Rica’s Deportivo Saprissa 3-0 in the semifinal of the FIFA Club World Championship on Thursday as the European champions kept a clean sheet for the 11th successive match.
Rafael Benitez’s side will now meet Brazil’s Sao Paulo in Sunday’s final with the South Americans looking for their third world title and Liverpool their first, Reuters said.
Peter Crouch scored twice and captain Steven Gerrard was also on target as the European champions set a new club record of 11 successive clean sheets in all competitions.
Liverpool take on South American champions Sao Paulo in Sunday’s final at the same venue.
Liverpool took control of the game in only the second minute when Crouch applied a clinical finish after being set up by John Arne Riise.
Gerrard added a second in the 32nd minute, volleying another Riise delivery superbly past Saprissa goalkeeper Jose Porras from 20 meters.
Crouch pounced on a defensive error to slide home his second of the game in the 58th minute to underline Liverpool’s complete dominance in front of a 44,000 crowd.
Liverpool’s shut-out of Saprissa surpassed the mark of 10 clean sheets set by Kenny Dalglish’s title winners of 1987-88 when Bruce Grobelaar played in goal.
Liverpool have now played 1,015 minutes since last conceding a goal in a shock 2-1 defeat to Crystal Palace in the third round of the English League Cup on October 15. Goalkeeper Jose Reina, who did not play in that match, has been unbeaten now for 990 minutes.
“I think we’ve done Europe proud,“ said Gerrard. “It’s always nice to break records but the most important thing is to keep on winning. We want success. We don’t to break records, we want trophies.“
Liverpool and Sao Paulo both received byes into the semifinals of the revamped six-team competition.
“No one would be happy to lose 3-0,“ said Saprissa coach Hernan Medford. “But we were not embarrassed because we played against one of the best teams in the world.“
Japan has proved a happy hunting ground for Sao Paulo, who won the World Club Cup--the tournament’s forerunner, involving the champions of Europe and South America--in 1992 and 1993.
Liverpool were beaten 3-0 by Brazil’s Flamengo in 1981 and 1-0 by Argentina’s Independiente in 1984.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Dec. 16--World Cup finalists and Asian newcomers Australia have been placed among the bottom rung of countries for next month’s Asian Cup qualification draw.
Australia, who officially join the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) on January 1, 2006, have been placed in Pot D alongside Palestine, Sri Lanka, Chinese Taipei, Pakistan, Bangladesh and India, Reuters reported.
The situation throws up the possibility of three World Cup finalists competing in a single qualifying group for the 2007 Asian Cup, to be hosted jointly by Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam.
“We are going on how the teams performed at the previous Asian Cup (2004, in China),“ an AFC spokesman said.
“In this case, Australia do not have a record, so they are at the bottom. If we went according to FIFA rankings, of course, the situation would be different.“
Australia are ranked 49th in the world and fifth among Asian teams.
But it is not enough to help them sneak into Pot A, which will contain World Cup finalists Japan and Iran, plus China, Bahrain, Uzbekistan and Jordan for the January 4 draw.
Pot B features two more countries playing in Germany next year--South Korea and Saudi Arabia -- along with Iraq, Oman, Kuwait and Qatar.
The third tier, Pot C, will contain United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, Singapore and Hong Kong.
One country from each pot will be drawn on January 4 into six qualifying groups of four teams.
In the past, Pot D offered few worries for the stronger teams but, with Australia lurking, there will be some tense moments this time around.
Pakistan and Bangladesh are to play off in order to qualify for a place in Pot D.
At the end of the qualifiers, the top two teams from each of the six groups will advance to the finals.
Japan are the defending Asian champions, having beaten hosts China in the 2004 final in Beijing.

Cleveland Cavaliers Larry Hughes (r) is fouled by Denver Nuggets Carmelo Anthony in the third quarter in Cleveland, Ohio, Thursday. (AFP Photo)

NEW YORK,
Dec. 16--A battered LeBron James scored 26 points to outshine red-hot Carmelo Anthony as the Cleveland Cavaliers eased past the Denver Nuggets 94-85 on Thursday, snapping a season-high three-game losing streak.
James, who injured his shin in the opening half and played the rest of the contest with his leg heavily wrapped, failed to score at least 30 points for the first time in six games, but got plenty of support with five of his team mates hitting double figures, Reuters reported.
Damon Jones contributed 17 points to the Cleveland cause while Zydrunas Ilgauskas added 16 points and Donyell Marshall had 11 points and 12 rebounds.
Anthony, coming off a career high 42 point performance against the Charlotte Bobcats, was held to 23 points while Greg Buckner had 15 in the loss for the Nuggets, who played without injured Marcus Camby and Earl Boykins.
The Cavaliers led 24-19 after the first quarter and 44-40 going into the intermission.
But the Nuggets continued to battle, trimming the deficit to a single point at 65-64 entering the final quarter.
With just over seven minutes to play the Nuggets edged ahead 72-71 before the Cavaliers responded with a 13-4 run to put the contest out of reach.
In Minneapolis, Michael Finley scored 21 points and Tim Duncan had 13 points, nine rebounds and six assists as the San Antonio Spurs held on to edge the Minnesota Timberwolves 90-88.
In Seattle, Tracy McGrady poured in 34 points and dished out eight assists and Yao Ming chipped in with 26 points and 10 rebounds as the streaking Houston Rockets quieted the SuperSonics 104-98, extending their win streak to five games.
Ray Allen paced Seattle with 30 points while Rashard Lewis hit for 15 in the loss.

TOKYO, Dec. 16--FIFA head Sepp Blatter said Friday politics has no place in football and sidestepped whether Iran should be banned from the World Cup after its president described the Holocaust as “a myth“.
“We are not going to enter into any political declarations,“ the president of football’s world governing body told a small group of reporters here.
“There have been so many rants from heads of states, even in Europe, and we in football, if we entered in such discussions, then it would be against our statues.
“We are not in politics.“
On Thursday a FIFA spokesman Andreas Herren told German sports agency SID that “Iran have qualified for the finals and the Iranian Football Federation has not done anything wrong“.
Iran, who failed to qualify for the 2002 World Cup, begin their World Cup against Mexico in Nuremberg on June 11 with further group games against Portugal and Angola.
He also denied he was in favor of banning national anthems before football internationals, playing down earlier comments where he appeared to suggest they should be abolished. Blatter told the Schweizer Illustrierte magazine last month he had been shocked by the jeering and whistling that accompanied the playing of the Swiss anthem before the World Cup playoff against Turkey in Istanbul on November 16, AFP said.
But he said Friday that while the match had raised questions about national anthems he was not in favor of getting rid of them.
“I have not said we should abolish the national anthems,“ he told reporters here.
“Is it worth having national anthems, then we say yes. What we have to do is educate the spectators. It is a question of respect. I have got back to the (FIFA) executive committee and we will do it.“

LONDON, Dec. 16--Seven-times world champion Michael Schumacher started with a spin and then set the fastest lap after interrupting his winter holiday to test for Ferrari in Spain on Thursday.
The German, returning to work for the first time since Ferrari’s depressing Formula One season ended in October, said he was positively surprised by the new V8 engine at the southern Jerez circuit, Reuters said.
“I feel a much lower level of power, but this sensation is nice,“ he told reporters at the circuit. “It is interesting and the sound is totally different.
“On the first lap I was shocked but then I noticed that I had not used the full potential of the engine. I do feel this limitation of power, but honestly I had expected a lot worse,“ his spokeswoman quoted him as saying.
Schumacher did 68 laps with a best time of one minute 18.958 seconds, quicker than Brazilian team mate Felipe Massa in a V10-powered F2005 car.
Formula One’s engine rules are changing next year, with a switch from three liter V10 to 2.4 liter V8 units, and teams are testing with both.
Schumacher said last weekend that he wanted to get back in the car because he felt he did not deserve a holiday after his worst year since he joined Ferrari in 1996.
The German won only once in 2005, the six-car US Grand Prix fiasco at Indianapolis, and was dethroned after a five-year reign by Renault’s Spaniard Fernando Alonso.

FRANKFURT, Germany, Dec. 16--Bayern Munich have already secured the honorary title of autumn champions but coach Felix Magath is not about to let his players let up for the final league game of 2005 away at Borussia Dortmund on Saturday.
The champions are four points clear of Hamburg SV and are assured of spending the six-week winter break looking down on their rivals.
One more win would give them a good chance of stretching that lead to six points as Hamburg face a daunting trip to third-placed Werder Bremen on Sunday. Magath does not want to see the opportunity slip by, Reuters said.
“The workload will be a lot heavier next year so it would be nice to have a big lead at the end of the first half,“ Magath said. “We want to close out the year with a win.“
Bayern will need inspiration from an unfamiliar source on Saturday, with Germany midfielders Michael Ballack and Sebastian Deisler both missing through suspension.
Iran’s Ali Karimi is likely to start in place of Ballack in the center, with Bastian Schweinsteiger and Ze Roberto on the wings.
Dortmund have even greater personnel problems, with Czech Republic midfielder Tomas Rosicky suspended and Lars Ricken, David Odonkor, Christian Woerns, Jan Koller and Cedric van der Gun all injured.
“I don’t know who I’m going to call up to fill the 18-man squad,“ said Dortmund coach Bert van Marwijk.
Youngster Uwe Huenemeier could come in at center back for Woerns, with Marc-Andre Kruska in midfield in place of Rosicky.
Dortmund, champions in 2002, were facing a battle to avoid relegation this time last season but they improved greatly after the winter break and this time they are eighth in the table, back challenging for a European place.

LONDON, Dec. 16--Frank Lampard has something of an old-fashioned boys’ comic-book hero about him--brave, steadfast, dedicated, charitable, good to his mother and on the spot to score the winning goal, Reuters said.
The midfielder’s exploits for England and English champions Chelsea have earned him a place on the shortlist of three, including Barcelona’s Ronaldinho and Samuel Eto’o, for FIFA’s World Player of the Year award.
Last month he was runner-up to Brazilian Ronaldinho for the European prize and has walked away with countless domestic awards.
Perhaps his greatest accolade, however, comes from Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho, who describes him as a “complete player“ whom he would not swap for any other.
The 27-year-old from Essex has come on in leaps and bounds since arriving at Stamford Bridge from West Ham United in 2001, signed by Claudio Ranieri for 11 million pounds ($19.5 million).
During his first season he endured taunts for being slow, dumpy and overpriced.
He impressed the management, however, with his hard work and dedication, learned after years of training as a boy with his footballer father, also Frank.
“In the early years he would have me over the park training.“
Last month Lampard broke the Premier League record for successive appearances and has now played 161 on the trot, never missing since Oct. 13 2001. It is a remarkable record, snatched from goalkeeper David James, for a midfielder and especially a classic box-to-box player who, Mourinho says, runs more kilometers per game than any of his players.

BEIJING,
Dec. 16--Organizers of the Beijing Olympics enjoyed another solid year of preparations in 2005 as construction of sporting venues got into full swing and sponsors eagerly signed on for the high-profile event.
“There is no reason for any worry as far as we are concerned,“ the head of the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) coordination commission for the 2008 Games, Hein Verbruggen, said during an inspection tour in November.
“We have been able to confirm the excellent efforts being made by BOCOG (the Beijing organizing committee) and the Chinese authorities to ensure the sports competitions will be held in the best possible conditions.“
According to AFP, Chinese and multinational firms also expressed their support with financial backing and, by years’ end, the Games organizers had confirmed their 10 top “partners“.
The 10 firms are the Bank of China, China Network, Sinopec, China National Petroleum Corporation, China Mobile, Volkswagen, Adidas, Johnson and Johnson, Air China and the People’s Insurance Company of China.
Seven other second-tier sponsors--United Parcel Service, Haier, SOHU, Yili, Tsingtao Beer, Yanjing Beer and BHP Billiton--have also been designated.
The money-drive picked up steam in November when Beijing unveiled at a ceremony to mark 1,000 days before the start of the Games the five Olympic mascots.
In a nationally televised program from Tiananmen Square, the five cartoon characters--a traditional Chinese doll, a panda bear, a Tibetan antelope, a Beijing swallow and a “fish child“ were unveiled.