26 Players on Queiroz List

Iran football coach Carlos Queiroz laughed off speculation linking him with vacant New York Red Bulls job.
“Without a doubt, we will talk about consecutive victories in the 2014 World Cup qualifiers in the new year. There is nothing to say. I wish you all a happy new year,” Queiroz said on Tuesday, Mehr News Agency wrote.
On Friday, Mlssoccer.com reported that New York Red Bulls had shortlisted former Real Madrid coach Queiroz for the vacant seat.
Queiroz was appointed as Iran football coach in April 2011 on a three-year deal.

26 Players Called Up
Meanwhile, Queiroz called up 26 players for the camp ahead of the Asian Cup qualifier against Lebanon on February 6.
Although there are no really big surprises, some decisions might still raise a couple eyebrows, Persianfootball.com wrote.
The most anticipated call-ups were the goalkeepers after number one keeper Mehdi Rahmati decided to flee from his new competition from German second Bundesliga but the Eintracht Braunschweig man Daniel Davari had to postpone his possible Team Melli debut to March due to bad league scheduling in Germany.
But as pretty much expected, Sepahan’s Shahab Gordan, Saipa’s Rahman Ahmadi and Rubin Kazan’s Alireza Haqiqi received an invitation and will fight for the number one jersey within the next week.

No Ansarifard
While the defense consists of the usual suspects, the midfield selection is at least slightly astonishing. Of the just five players who would compete for the three spots in midfield, should Queiroz stick to his 4-3-3 formation, four are defensive minded with only Mojtaba Jabbari being a classic central offensive midfielder.
Jabbari, one of the best players for Iran it could give his long anticipated comeback after missing the second half of 2012 due to injury.
Ali Karimi and Omid Nazari are missing injured while Reza Haqiqi also is not fully healthy and was left out too. The recently regular invitees Mohammad Nouri and Qasem Dehnavi didn’t make the list, just like Milad Nouri.
On the other hand no less than ten player will struggle for three slots in the attacking line, although a small formation change to a 4-2-3-1 or 4-2-2-2 doesn’t seem unlikely with the selected set of players.
Karim Ansarifard and Mohammad Qazi are not among those as they complete the prominent absentee list of Persepolis players. However, their in-form teammate Gholamreza Rezaei made the list after being left out injured for more than a year whereas Esteqlal target man Farzad Hatami could celebrate his national team debut.

Goalkeepers
Alireza Haqiqi – Rubin Kazan, RUS
Shahab Gordan – Sepahan
Rahman Ahmadi – Saipa

Defenders
Khosro Heydari – Esteqlal
Hossein Mahini – Persepolis
Hadi Aqily – Qatar SC, QAT
Jalal Hosseini – Persepolis
Pejman Montazeri – Esteqlal
Mohammad Nosrati – Tractorsazi
Mehrdad Pouladi – Persepolis
Ehsan Hajsafi – Sepahan
Midfielders
Javad Nekounam – Esteqlal
Andranik Teymouriam –
Al Kharitiyath, QAT
Pejman Nouri – Malavan
Omid Ebrahimi – Sepahan
Mojtaba Jabbari – Esteqlal

Strikers
Ashkan Dejagah – Fulham FC, ENG
Masoud Shojaei – Osasuna, ESP
Mohammadreza Khalatbari – Sepahan
Gholamreza Rezaei – Persepolis
Arash Afshin – Foulad
Yaqoub Karimi – Naft Tehran
Reza Qoochannejhad –
Standard Liege, BEL
Jalal Rafkhaei – Malavan
Mehrdad Oladi – Malavan
Farzad Hatami – Esteqlal

Beckham Tops Final-Day Moves

David Beckham’s move to French Ligue 1 side Paris St-Germain was the biggest coup on January transfer deadline day.
The 37-year-old former England captain signed a five-month contract and is donating his salary to charity.
AC Milan sealed the signing of Mario Balotelli from Manchester City for £19m while QPR broke the club record to sign centre-back Chris Samba for £12.5m, BBC wrote.
Premier League clubs spent about £120m in January, said accountants Deloitte, double the total of January 2012.
But the figure was far short of the record level of £225m in January 2011, with three clubs - Queens Park Rangers, Liverpool and Newcastle - contributing more than 50% of the total outlay this year.
On a deadline day that saw £35m spent on transfer fees, former Anzhi Makhachkala and Blackburn defender Samba, 28, signed a four-and-a-half-year deal subject to international clearance.
He will join Harry Redknapp’s side, with England international Jermaine Jenas also moving to QPR from Tottenham to team up with his former manager.
However, West Brom striker Peter Odemwingie was left embarrassed by what Redknapp called “crossed wires” as he travelled to west London in the belief he would join the Premier League’s bottom team.
Despite Odemwingie’s journey south, West Brom said he had “not been given permission to speak to QPR” and that the forward acted “wholly unprofessionally”.
Redknapp said: “I think he felt like we were trying to sign him and the deal had been done but it hadn’t. It was just unfortunate and I think the wires got crossed somewhere. It was a bit of a mistake.”
Meanwhile, Arsenal signed Malaga left-back Nacho Monreal for about £10m as back-up for the injured Kieran Gibbs.

Gomez Recalled by Germany Kiessling Left Out

Mario Gomez has been recalled to the Germany squad for next week’s friendly against France after an injury layoff but there was still no room for Bundesliga leading scorer Stefan Kiessling.
Bayern Munich striker Gomez, who has not played for his country since Euro 2012 after undergoing ankle surgery, was included in a 23-man squad named on Friday for the friendly in Paris on February 6, Reuters reported.
Coach Joachim Loew said that Rene Adler was set to start in goal for what would be his first international for more than two years, although Bayern Munich’s Manuel Neuer was still the first choice.
There were no major surprises although critics have wondered why coach Loew has been reluctant to select Kiessling, whose 13 goals this season have led Bayer Leverkusen to an unexpected second place in the table.
Thirty-four-year-old Lazio striker Miroslav Klose, who has 10 goals in Serie A this season, was the only other forward in the squad.
Loew’s comments implied that 29-year-old Kiessling did not fit in with Germany’s playing style despite a consistently good scoring record at club level over the years.
“Mario Gomez is in good shape again after his long injury. Like Miroslav Klose, he has all the prerequisites to put our playing philosophy into practice,” Loew said in a statement.
“I’m convinced that, thanks to his experience and qualities, he will assert himself at the highest international level.”
Gomez, who has scored two goals in seven Bundesliga appearances since returning from injury in late November, has found himself overshadowed at Bayern by Croatia striker Mario Mandzukic, joint second in the scoring charts. Kiessling made the last of his six appearances against Uruguay in the third-place match at the 2010 World Cup. Hamburg SV’s Adler was Germany’s first-choice goalkeeper in the run-up to the 2010 World Cup but missed the tournament due to a rib injury and lost his place to Neuer.
He has struggled to fight his way back into the squad despite excellent performances at club level and last played in the friendly against Sweden in November 2010.

Whitmarsh: No More Mistakes

Martin Whitmarsh is confident McLaren have delivered a title-challenging car in the MP4-28 and insists the team can cut out the mistakes that derailed last year’s campaign.
Although bookended by wins and despite frequently having the fastest car, McLaren conspired to finish third in last year’s Constructors’ Championship. The MP4-28’s predecessor suffered poor reliability towards the end of the season whilst the hopes of Jenson Button and particularly Lewis Hamilton were further thwarted by operational errors, Sky Sports wrote.
Speaking at the launch of their latest challenger at their Woking base on Thursday, Whitmarsh owned up to McLaren’s mistakes but stressed that steps were being taken to prevent a repeat in the upcoming 2013 season.
“There’s been a tremendous effort on design processes, making sure that we’ve got reliability, looking at the processes of how we run ourselves as a race team.
“Fernando (Alonso) and Ferrari last year probably never had the quickest car but were very strongly in contention for the whole year; they maximized the points out of the product that they had and we didn’t.
“I think we’ve worked very hard on that this winter and we’re seriously intent on putting that right.”
Although outwardly similar to last year’s car, the MP4-28 in fact represents an ambitious shift in emphasis for the team in the context of rules that have changed little in the intervening period.
Both the front and rear ends of the car are markedly different, with Whitmarsh of the belief that McLaren’s rivals will be hard pushed to come up with anything quite as radical.
“This car is already quicker than the car that finished the end of the last year and at the moment it’s got a very encouraging development slope - be it downforce or other parameters - this car’s responding very well,” he said.

Iran to Host 2013 WABA Championship

The Islamic Republic of Iran is set to host the 2013 West Asian Basketball Association (WABA) Championship in early February.
According to a statement released by Iran’s Basketball Federation on Wednesday, the WABA tournament will be held between February 7 and 11 in the 3, 000-seat Azadi Basketball Hall in west Tehran.
The sports event will bring together basketball players from Iran, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon. Syria withdrew from the competition.
The 2013 WABA Championship is the qualifying tournament for the 2013 FIBA Asia Championship. The two best teams, excluding Iran, will qualify for 2013 FIBA Asia Championship.
The 2013 FIBA Asia Championship will be held from August 1 to 11 in Manila, Philippines.
The competition serves as the qualifying tournament for the 2014 FIBA World Cup in Spain.

Maradona Cleared of Italy Tax Evasion

Diego Maradona has won a 30-year battle over tax evasion charges in Italy and will soon return to Naples, the scene of some of his greatest sporting triumphs, his lawyer said on Friday.
Lawyer Angelo Pisani said his client was cleared of a tax bill of almost 40 million euros, of which 36 million was interest built up since 1984, when Maradona joined Serie A club Napoli, Reuters wrote.
“There is a sentence from the central commission... that confirms the annulment of the fiscal scrutiny against Maradona,” Pisani told Italian television.
“Diego Maradona can return to Italy a free man. He is free from every debt because he was never a tax evader. He said he will return to Naples to say hello to the city, the Neapolitans and hopefully the football too.”
Considered among the greatest players ever, Maradona is still Napoli’s all-time top scorer and is considered a hero for leading the club to the Serie A title in 1987 and 1990.
He also led Argentina to victory in the 1986 World Cup and captained the team in the 1990 tournament, when they lost to West Germany in the final in Italy.
When Maradona visited Naples in 2006, he was mobbed by supporters but financial police stripped him of two Rolex watches worth 10,000 euros each to help pay off the bill.
Pisani said Napoli and the club’s former duo Alemao and Careca of Brazil were also cleared of scrutiny over their tax affairs.
Italy’s tax authorities were not immediately available for comment.

Lee, Thompson Help Warriors Beat Mavericks

Although Klay Thompson won’t admit it, without Stephen Curry on the court, Golden State depends on him even more for offensive production. He turned in another big night.
David Lee finished an assist short of a triple-double, Thompson scored 27 points and the Warriors beat the Dallas Mavericks 100-97 Thursday night, AP wrote.
‘’I have the same mindset going in. I try to score, be a play maker and play some defense,’’ Thompson said. ‘’I’m going to take those shots any way.’’
Thompson connected on 11 of his first 14 shots two days after scoring a career-high 32 points in the Warriors’ 108-95 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers.
‘’He’s a knockdown shooter, as good as it gets, and he defends his tail off,’’ Warriors’ coach Mark Jackson said. ‘’He knows without Curry on the floor we need him to score more.’’
Lee had 15 points, a season-high 20 rebounds and nine assists, and Jarrett Jack scored 13 points, including two free throws with 2 seconds left to help the Warriors win their third straight. Harrison Barnes had 12 points.
Andrew Bogut, in his second game since returning from injury, was also a big factor for the Warriors. In limited playing time, he had three blocked shots, including one when the Mavericks had a chance to win the game in the final seconds.
‘’You have to pick and choose your spots,’’ he said. ‘’Defense is where I am most valuable to this team.’’
O.J. Mayo scored 25 points to lead the Mavericks, who dropped their second straight. Vince Carter added 22 points and Shawn Marion 18 as Dallas failed to reach 100 points for the first time in 10 games.
Dallas lost in Portland two nights ago when Mayo was called for a charge with under 2 seconds to play, giving LeMarcus Aldridge the chance to sink a basket at the buzzer.
‘’The game came down to the call that wasn’t made,’’ Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said. ‘’Brandan Wright got hit in the arm. And it’s obvious. It’s two nights in a row. It’s very tough to take, with as hard as our guys are fighting, to not be on the free throw line with a chance to go ahead with 6 seconds left in the game.’’
Wright avoided the subject.

Robben and Van der Vaart Left Out

Wesley Sneijder, Rafael van der Vaart and Arjen Robben have been left out of the Netherlands squad for next week’s friendly against Italy because they have failed to play regularly at club level, coach Louis van Gaal said on Friday.