2/28/2006
John Duerden, goal.com

World Cup Groups D and A meet in Tehran on Wednesday as Iran face Costa Rica.

It hasn’t been easy for Team Melli to find opposition to travel to the intimidating Azadi Stadium but the talented Central Americans should provide an interesting test for Branko Ivankovic’s men.
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2/28/2006
James Eve

ROME, Feb 28 (Reuters) – "Friendly" is not, perhaps, the best word to describe Italy's game against Germany on Wednesday (kickoff 2000 GMT).

Inevitably, the match at Florence's Franchi stadium will stir up memories of previous meetings between the heavyweights: their semifinal at the 1970 World Cup in Mexico, which the Azzurri edged 4-3 after extra time; Italy's triumph in the final in Spain 12 years later, when they beat West Germany 3-1.

The attention of their coaches, however, will be fixed on the near future rather than the distant past.
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By Mike Woitalla, Executive Editor
Soccer America

The USA drawing Iran as a first-round opponent at the 1998 World Cup provided much fodder for pre-tournament hype for those finals. "World Cup War," "Group Hug? Doubtful" and "Devil of a Draw" were headlines in the New York Daily News, New York Times and Sports Illustrated, respectively.

The U.S. State Department even had to weigh in on whether the game would have to be called off because of President Bill Clinton's 1995 executive order banning all commercial and financial transactions with Iran.
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2/27/2006
Sporting Life

Substitute Alfredo Cariello scored an impressive last-gasp winner to earn Ascoli all three points against Messina on Sunday.

With the game having reached injury-time with nothing to separate the sides, Cariello broke through the Messina defence before leaving visiting goalkeeper Marco Storari with little chance to save with a clinical left-footed finish.
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2/27/2006
Afshin Afshar, lastkick.com

Bayern trashed Frankfurt 5:2 over the weekend. Leading 4:2 Felix Magath decided on a more defensive posture so with sixteen minutes ago he sent in Ali Karimi. Karimi replaced Martin Demichelis who was having a very good game. Ali did what was expected of him and while he was on the field Bayern scored a fifth goal.
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2/27/2006
BBC

Midfielder Figueiredo has withdrawn from Angola's squad for their World Cup warm-up game against South Korea on Wednesday.

The player from Portuguese second division club Varzim was injured last week, said officials of the Angolan Football Federation.
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2/27/2006
Afshin Afshar, lastkick.com

Where is Arie Haan?

As many of you know Perspolis’s new Dutch coach Arie Haan has not yet started his job at the time of this writing.

The rumor is that the club had agreed to pay Haan a certain sum of money at the time of the signing of his contract. The agreed upon sum is reportedly $350K at the time of payment of which Haan will start his job.
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2/27/2006
Reuters

STOCKHOLM – Sweden defender Christoffer Andersson has agreed to join Hanover 96 from Norwegian first division Lillestrom in July, Swedish media reported on Sunday.
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2/26/2006
hsv.de

HSV lost 0-2 at home to Stuttgart on Sunday evening (26.02.06) in a round 23 Bundesliga clash in front of 51,821 in the AOL Arena. The visitors took the lead through Silvio Meißner two minutes before half time. Two minutes from the end, captain Daniel van Buyten was sent off and will miss next weeks mega-tough trip to the Bundesliga title favourites Bayern Munich. To add insult to injury, an awful mistake by Raphael van der Vaart gifted Mario Gomez Stuttgart’s second goal a minute into injury time at the end of the second half. (more…)

2/26/2006
Reuters

CARDIFF – Manchester United crushed Wigan Athletic 4-0 to win the English League Cup final on Sunday with three goals coming in a blistering six-minute spell in the second half.
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