Amir Qalenoei of Esteqlal instructs his team during a training session.

Esteqlal of Tehran meet Khuzestan’s Foolad in Ahvaz today in the semifinal showdown of the Winners Cup.
Esteqlal hope that they will be crowned champions in the Winner Cup to compensate for their unsuccessful showing in the Premier League, Mehr News Agency reported.
Foolad have high hopes in this match after defeating powerhouses such as Saipa, Esteqlal of Ahvaz and Hamedan’s Pas in the previous rounds.
Both teams have high incentives to win in the match. Esteqlal may be more psyched than the past few months given the changes in the team’s management system and appointment of Amir Qalenoei as head coach. It is indeed a matter of life or death for Esteqlal.
Meanwhile, Gilan’s Pegah beat Isfahan’s Sepahan 4-2 on Tuesday to encounter Shiraz’s Barq in the other match of semifinals.
Pegah’s Head Coach Nader Dastneshan told Fars News Agency that his team deserved a win in the tough match.
“Since Premier League has ended, there was not much pressure on the team and our players played with peace of mind.
Our triumph should not be linked to Sepahan’s weakness, but rather to the fact that we had a very good day,“ said Dastneshan.
He also thanked the team’s fans for cheering Pegah throughout the match.
“Now we will focus on Barq only. We are sure that we will have a tough time playing against them. The important thing for us is to reach the final,“ he pointed out.
Pegah and Barq will meet in Rasht on June 1.

Sven-Goran Eriksson

Former England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson could take charge of Mexico, according to the president of the national federation.
“We have a very clear picture of the profile we are looking for. We talked with Mr (Luiz Felipe) Scolari, we talked with Mr Eriksson and we are closing in on him (the Swede),“ Mexican Football Federation president Justino Compean told local radio on Tuesday.
Eriksson is manager of Manchester City but recent media reports have said he is likely to be sacked despite a respectable ninth-place finish in the English Premier League.
Mexico have been looking for a permanent replacement since former Real Madrid striker Hugo Sanchez was sacked as coach in March after only 16 months in the job.
The Mexicans cast their net wide in search of a successor including Brazilian Scolari, coach of Portugal.
Jesus Ramirez, who coached the Mexico team that won the under-17 world championship in Peru in 2005, is working as interim coach until a full-time replacement is signed.
Mexico start their 2010 World Cup CONCACAF qualifying campaign against Belize next month.

Emerson Leao

Former Brazil goalkeeper and coach Emerson Leao quit as coach of Santos on Tuesday, ending his third stint at Pele’s former club after only five months.
Leao, 58, resigned after his side were knocked out of the Libertadores Cup by Mexico’s America last Thursday and trounced 4-0 by Cruzeiro in the Brazilian championship on Sunday.
“We decided it was better to stop here,“ Leao told a news conference after becoming the fifth Brazilian coach to lose his job in the last two weeks.
He blamed refereeing decisions for his team’s failure to do better in the Paulista championship, which kicks off the marathon Brazilian season, and the Libertadores.
“We missed out on the semifinals of the Paulista because of refereeing mistakes and the reason we didn’t get to the Libertadores semifinals was because we fell to that negative tradition of refereeing,“ he said.
Brazil has one of the highest turnovers of coaches in the world and there have already been 13 coaching changes at the 20 first division clubs since the season began in January.
Vasco da Gama and Ipatinga have already parted company with two coaches this year.
The shortest-lived coach was Romario, who lasted only five games at Vasco da Gama before storming out after saying that club president Eurico Miranda had tried to interfere in team selection.

Rafael Nadal will be hoping it will be third time lucky when he returns to complete his first round match against Brazilian qualifier Thomaz Bellucci at the rain-hit French Open.
The Spaniard, unbeaten at Roland Garros since making his debut in 2005, had been scheduled to play his match on Monday but has so far been thwarted by the showers that have dogged this year’s claycourt major, Reuters wrote.
After returning to his hotel without hitting a ball on Monday, he managed to contest only two games on Tuesday when rain again cut short the day’s action.
Women’s top seed Maria Sharapova is another player who has yet to open her account and weather permitting will be first up on Center Court against fellow Russian Evgeniya Rodina, a 19-year-old ranked 103rd in the world. Among the others also playing catch up are fifth-seeded Spaniard David Ferrer and 2003 champion Juan Carlos Ferrero.
Ferrer meets unseeded Belgian Steve Darcis while Ferrero, the only man to beat Nadal on clay since last year’s Hamburg final, plays Brazil’s Marcos Daniel.
While organizers will hope the rain will relent and allow the remaining 60 first-round matches to be completed, Serbians Novak Djokovic and Ana Ivanovic and former champion Serena Williams will be aiming to progress to the third round.

David Haye

David Haye will be promoted by Golden Boy Promotions as he sets his sights on becoming the heavyweight champion.
The Englishman on Tuesday signed with Oscar De La Hoya’s company, which is one of boxing’s top promoters on the strength of its owner and the numerous star fighters it has in its stable, Ticker reported.
Haye (21-0, 20 KOs) relinquished his WBA, WBC and WBO cruiserweight titles earlier this year to move up to the lackluster heavyweight division.
“Golden Boy Promotions is a powerful and forward-thinking company that is in this sport to protect the well-being of boxers,“ Haye said. “One of their main goals is to empower the boxer, which is something I believe in too.
“Golden Boy is the perfect company for me to sign with in order to advance my career in and at the same time help to improve the state of boxing with my own promotional company. That is my ultimate intention as both a world champion boxer and a promoter.“
Golden Boy, up to this point, has rarely been involved in the heavyweight division.
“Golden Boy Promotions has been waiting a long time for the right opportunity to get involved with the heavyweight division and in signing David Haye, that time has come,“ De La Hoya said.