CHIANG MAI, Thailand, Feb. 25--French star Zinedine Zidane praised Asian football’s “big step forward“ on Saturday as he dazzled more than 10,000 fans at a charity match in northern Thailand, reported AFP.
Zidane said players like Japan’s Shunsuke Nakamura, who has earned rave reviews with Scottish league-leaders Celtic, were helping to inspire a generation.
“Asian football is in the process of making a big step forward,“ Zidane said before taking the field with two teams of Southeast Asian players.
“When you see players like Nakamura who are playing in Europe ... they are bringing something positive to Asian football.“
“It is also good for future players who are here among us today, who could make this step forward and play in a big European team.“
Zidane chipped the ball over the goalkeeper’s head for the first goal in the 36th minute, before setting up the second for a Malaysian teammate for a final score of 2-2.
More than 10,000 fans turned up for the match, which raised 260,000 baht (7,750 dollars) for the Keuydaroon charity for children with HIV/AIDS.
Zidane walked on the pitch to cheers and applause, hand-in-hand with 11-year-old HIV sufferer Ton.
Among the Asian players were Thai legend Piyapong Pue-On and his compatriot Kiatisak “Zico“ Senamuang. Other players were from Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.

DOHA, Qatar, Feb. 25--Hosts Qatar defeated Malaysia 1-0 win in a friendly match here at the Al-Sadd Stadium on Saturday in preparation for the upcoming Olympic Football Tournament Beijing 2008 qualifier against Kuwait on the last day of February, said AFC.
Majed Mohamed scored the only goal of the match in the 54th minute though Malaysia impressed with a spectacular display.
Qatar coach Jamaluddin Musovic made a raft of changes after the goal to give his squad vital playing time in the middle before they go up against Kuwait on February 28.
The Qataris’ preparations kicked off with a friendly against Qatari double champions Al Sadd on February 13 and this ended in a 1-1 draw. Musovic’s charges next defeated Oman in the second friendly 3-1 before rounding off the series with the narrow win over Malaysia.
Qatar also face giant killing qualifiers Pakistan and Bahrain in Group A. In other friendlies involving West Asian Olympic teams, Syria drew goalless with Saudi Arabia at the Abbasiyyin Stadium in Damascus.
While the Syrians are in Group B with Japan, Malaysia and Hong Kong, the Saudis will have to negotiate their way in a tough Group D comprising Jordan, Australia and Iran.
Meanwhile, Jordan drew goalless against Iraq at the Prince Mohammed Sports Complex in Al Zarqaa in the second match between the two. Jordan won the first game 2-1.
Iraq are in Group E with Thailand, India and DPR Korea.

Jenn Heil in action at Canada's Freestyle World Cup finals

PENTICTON, USA, Feb. 25--Jenn Heil led Canada’s Freestyle World Cup medal rush Saturday, winning her fourth straight women’s mogul event while Kristi Richards took third on the hill named after her, reported AP.
In the men’s event, Alex Bilodeau and Maxime Gingras finished second and third behind Australia’s Dale Begg-Smith. It was Gingras’ first World Cup poidum.
Heil was sixth in the qualification round down the course dubbed Kristi’s Run. But she cleaned up her jumping in the final to emerge with a high winning score of 26.99.
Shannon Bahrke of the United States was a close second in 26.78, with Richards 26.25 for the third World Cup medal of her career.
The victory extended Heil’s lead atop the moguls points table, giving her 584 points and a 167-point lead over Bahrke as she closed on a fourth straight World Cup title.
For Richards, it was a third career World Cup medal, and second this season after winning in Deer Valley where Heil was second. Canadian-born Begg-Smith won with a score of 27.41, while had Bilodeau 27.33 and Gingras 27.07 It was Begg-Smith’s second straight victory, third in four events and fourth overall this season, and increased his lead atop the men’s standings with 584 points, 133 over France’s Guilbaut Colas, who finished fourth on Saturday.

LONDON, Feb. 25--Manchester United moved nine points clear of Chelsea at the top of the Premier League on Saturday after Cristiano Ronaldo scored in the 88th minute to earn a 2-1 win at Fulham, said AP.
Ryan Giggs equalized for United midway through the first half after Brian McBride had put the home side ahead.
Ronaldo then ran at the Fulham defense and hit a deflected shot into the net. “It’s significant winning, the way we played today,“ Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson said. “Fulham will feel very aggrieved at not winning the match.“ United leads the league with 69 points, while defending champion Chelsea isn’t in league action this weekend because it plays Arsenal in Sunday’s League Cup final.
Also Saturday, Robbie Fowler scored two penalties in Liverpool’s 4-0 win over Sheffield United, and Charlton beat fellow struggler West Ham 4-0. Middlesbrough defeated Reading 2-1, and Everton beat bottom club Watford 3-0.
McBride scored his 12th goal of the season in the 17th. United goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar, a former Fulham player, blocked midfielder Simon Davies and the ball ran to
McBride, who hit a diagonal shot through defender Nemanja Vidic’s legs and into the net.
Wayne Rooney set up Giggs in the 29th and the winger volleyed into the net with the top of his foot for his second goal in five days. Giggs also scored in Tuesday’s 1-0 Champions League win at Lille. Fulham’s Tomas Radzinski hit the crossbar with a header and Van der Sar stopped three shots from Davies and one by McBride.
Ronaldo hit his 16th goal of the season into the bottom corner off Fulham defender Philippe Christanval.
“That’s the most difficult game I’ve had all season,“ Ferguson said. Fulham manager Chris Coleman was angry his side were denied a penalty--and possible equalizer--by referee Peter Walton when Van der Sar appeared to bring down Heider Helguson after Ronaldo’s goal.
“The referee has no excuses, he was in the perfect position,“ Coleman said. “There is only one way to put it and that is that he lost his nerve.“ Fowler scored penalties in the 20th and 25th minutes--both given for fouls on captain Steven Gerrard.
Fowler took the first kick after Sheffield United defender Rob Kozluk brought down Gerrard, because striker Peter Crouch had earlier been taken off the pitch with a bloodied head after a tackle from Rob Hulse. Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez said Crouch had broken his nose.

DUBAI, UAE, Feb. 25--Justine Henin justified the seedings but defied the odds when she retained her Dubai Open title with a 6-4, 7-5 win over Amelie Mauresmo in a fine, colorfully varied final, said AFP.
It gave the Belgian revenge for her loss to the French woman in the Wimbledon final and maintained Henin’s unbeaten record in the Gulf tournament to 16 matches over four tournaments--but plenty of people would have bet against all that at the start of the week.
Then she struggled to survive against a 16-year-old qualifier, Tamira Paszek; now she was slightly too good for her arch-rival who had set her mind on the physically difficult achievement of wining back-to-back titles on different continents.
“I said at the beginning of the week it would be difficult to get through it,“ said Mauresmo, a last-minute replacement at the tournament following the withdrawals of Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams.
“I almost did. It was only by a point here and a point there that I failed, and I am proud to have come here at the last moment to support the tournament.“
Henin can be proud of overcoming her shaky, nerve-ridden start and of building her mental strength in only her second tournament since the break-up of her marriage.
“I could deal with my emotions better on the last two days,“ said Henin. “But I still need to improve and find some stability.“ Mauresmo, however, made it clear that she did not think there had been any difference in Henin since the start of her personal problems.
“I didn’t really see a difference,“ she claimed. The two still do not speak, following last year’s controversial Australian open final in which Henin retired, and the edge between them may have contributed to a spirited, well-contested match between the two most attractive stroke players in the women’s game.
Henin continued where she left off in her final set against Sevtlana Kuznetsova, attacking any vulnerable second serves with venom, taking risks in getting forward and asserting herself more stridently than she used to when she first entered the limelight.

BOSTON, USA, Feb. 25--Shalane Flanagan turned the women’s 3,000m into her own personal victory march Saturday on the opening day of the US indoor athletics Championships, according to AFP.
The 25-year-old clocked 8min 56.74sec to cement her status as a US medal hope for the 2007 Osaka World Championships and the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
However, she couldn’t match the American record of 8:33.25 she set on this same track less than a month ago, at the Boston Indoor Games, when she finished second to Ethiopia’s Meseret Defar.
The opening day featured a host of sprint heats. Top athletes moving to Sunday’s semifinals or finals included Ron Bramlett posting a US-leading time in the men’s 60m hurdles (7.51), Olympic 4x400m gold-medal relay anchor Darold Williamson in the men’s 400 (46.98) and Monica Hargrove in the women’s 400 (52.35).
In other finals, 39-year-old Jeff Hartwig won the pole vault with a clearance at 5.80, adding the title to the national indoor crown he won in 1999.
Tora Harris emerged victorious from an arduous men’s high jump competition, which went to a jump off after he and Jesse Williams both cleared 2.29m The bar was twice lowered in the jumpoff with both weary jumpers missing each time, before it was lowered to 2.23 where Harris cleared to win it.
The high jump performance of the day belonged to Jeff Skiba, who finished 12th in the 13-man field despite competing with a prosthesis.
Skiba, who was born without a lower left leg, is the first Paralympic athlete to qualify for the national indoor championships. He cleared 2.05m.
For the 10th straight year, Tim Seaman won the men’s indoor racewalking title, equaling the feat of Henry Laskau, who ruled as National indoor champion from 1948 through 1957.
Sunday’s program includes a star-studded men’s shot put, but it won’t include veteran sprinter/hurdler Gail Devers. Devers had toyed with the idea of trying to complete a Trans-Atlantic double this weekend. But she was fourth in a meet in Paris on Friday night and won’t compete here.