Soccer

Demonstrators trashed shops and smashed windows at the headquarters of the country's soccer association to protest the firing of the national team's coach. Police said they arrested as many as 35 people. Two officers were slightly hurt. The association said it fired Meho Kodro last week because he refused to let the team play a friendly match against Iran.

Conor Casey scored two second-half goals Saturday night and Landon Donovan added a third as the United States rallied to defeat Honduras, 3-2, to earn a place in soccer's 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Casey can pack his bag right now. The 28-year-old from Dover, N.H., almost certainly will be going along. At the World Cup, Casey can rub shoulders with players from the likes of defending world champion Italy and former champion Germany, not to mention Chile, Denmark, the Ivory Coast and Serbia.

First it was world champion Italy. Now it's the $94-million man. Things don't get any easier for the U.S. team at soccer's Confederations Cup in South Africa today, what with the Brazilians lining up to take shots at the Americans in Pretoria. And shoot they will.

Didier Drogba as goal scorer? Sure. Happens all the time. Drogba as peacemaker? Not so common, but it happened at the Rose Bowl on Tuesday night. Drogba as fantasist, inventor of surprising passes and superlative moves? Sure. Apparently there isn't much the Ivory Coast international is not capable of doing on a soccer field. Tormentor of referees? User of sometimes shocking language?

It took a kid from Teaneck, N.J., to light up the South African city of Pretoria on Monday night. Unfortunately for the United States, Giuseppe Rossi was playing for Italy in the Confederations Cup, and the 22-year-old's two exceptional goals earned the defending world champions a 3-1 come-from-behind victory over a combative but short-handed U.S. team.

Soccer question of the day: What do you do when a swarm of bees takes refuge inside a goal mouth? At Azteca Stadium on Sunday, a World Cup qualifier between Mexico and El Salvador was interrupted for about six minutes as officials used fire extinguishers to drive away the insects that had invaded the El Salvador goal. Once the bees were cleared, the match resumed -- and the only things invading the El Salvador goal from that point on were soccer balls. Mexico won the match, 4-1, and clinched a spot in the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa.

InterLiga, the winter soccer exhibition featuring eight Mexican teams playing two weeks of round-robin matches in the United States, starts its fifth tournament today, but under mounting criticism from players and coaches. InterLiga, scheduled during the winter break of Mexico's first-division soccer club season, awards two teams a spot in the prestigious Copa Libertadores tournament in South America.

InterLiga, the U.S.-hosted soccer tournament with eight teams from the Mexican league, takes over the Home Depot Center this week with doubleheaders tonight, Wednesday and Saturday. The tournament, which offers fans of the Mexican league a chance to watch their favorite clubs, has been criticized by players, coaches and owners in Mexico.

Club America gave its supporters and the InterLiga organizers what they wanted: cause for great atmosphere and a dream matchup with Cruz Azul that is likely to sell out the Home Depot Center on Saturday. America defeated Atlas, 3-2, in front of a largely America-partisan crowd of 20,167 on Wednesday night to secure a spot in Saturday's finals as the top seeded team from Group A -- as such, they'll play the second-seeded team out of Group B, rival Cruz Azul.

This wasn't just another game. Joel Romero, a lifelong Club America fan, knew it. It's not that often one of the biggest soccer rivalries in Mexico gets staged north of the border. But that's what America-Cruz Azul is, one of the biggest rivalries in Mexico. "It's the most beautiful thing in the world," said Romero, 42, who had never seen a Cruz Azul-American game in person. "A Clasico Joven?