Rooney falls in MLS farewell, Atlanta advance Ousted Sarfaraz to remain in top Central Contract category
WASHINGTON DC: Former England and Manchester United star Wayne Rooney was routed in his Major League Soccer farewell match as Toronto FC ripped DC United 5-1 in the first round of the playoffs.
Rooney, who turns 34 on Thursday, assisted on a secondhalf stoppage time equalizer that forced 30 extra minutes, but United surrendered two goals in five minutes and never recovered on Saturday.
Toronto advanced to an Eastern Conference semi-final on Wednesday at East top seed New York City FC.
Marco Delgado’s goal in the 32nd minute put Toronto ahead until Rooney crossed the ball into the heart of the box, Frederic Brillant got his head on it and Lucas Rodriquez finished in the third minute of stoppage time to equalize.
In extra time, Toronto’s Richie Laryea scored in the 93rd minute, fellow Canadian Jonathan Osorio added goals in the 95th and 103rd minutes and Nick Deleon netted another in stoppage time after the first 15 minutes to seal United’s fate.
United captain and top scorer Rooney arrived in MLS in the middle of last season and lifted the club from league doormat to a playoff berth.
But Rooney said in August he was returning to England after this season to be a player and assistant coach for Championship club Derby County.
“He has been a big plus for this club,” United manager Ben Olsen said. “He has helped us in a big way.”
While Rooney’s arrival and a new stadium created buzz around United, the team flopped in the playoffs, ousted by Columbus last year on penalties, and his exit comes with Washington sports fans focused on baseball’s World Series return to the US capitol next week for the first time since 1933.
Rooney had 11 goals in 28 matches this season, five of them game winners and four of them penalties. Last season, Rooney scored 12 goals in 20 matches.
In other games, Franco Escobar scored in the 70th minute as defending champion Atlanta United beat visiting New England 1-0.
The Five Stripes advanced into an East semi Thursday against Sunday’s winner between the Philadelphia Union and New York Red Bulls.
KARACHI: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has made it clear that ousted captain Sarfaraz Ahmed will remain in category A of the central contracts given to players as he is available for selection in all three formats of the game.
Dismissing rumors that the board had decided to relegate Sarfaraz to a lower category, a PCB spokesperson said Sarfaraz would retain his top category in the central contracts which run till July next year.
“There will be no change in his central contract as he is available for selection in all three formats,” the spokesperson said.
Babar Azam, Pakistan’s new T20 captain, and leg-spinner, Yasir Shah are the two other players in category A of the contracts. The board has also issued an apology for a faux pas it committed just at the time it was announced that Sarfaraz had been removed as captain from all three formats.
The board’s digital media team had uploaded a short video on its official page, in which a few players were found celebrating as a team official waved to Sarfaraz to walk off.
The board said it had beforehand decided to release the video as part of its build-up to the World T20 but unfortunately at the same time the news about the change in captaincy also came.
The release of the video and change in captaincy upset many cricket followers especially the supporters of Sarfaraz, who took it as an insult to the former skipper.