United manager Louis van Gaal makes home debut

German football club Bayer Leverkusen has refused to release its South Korean star, Son Heung-min, for the upcoming Asian Games, officials here said Wednesday, throwing the host country’s chance of ending its gold medal drought into doubt.In a statement, the Korea Football Association said the Bundesliga team informed the South Koreans that it would not make Son available for the Sept. 19-Oct. 4 continental competition to be held in Incheon, west of Seoul.The KFA said it first received a rejecti

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) ― Miroslav Klose, the top scorer in World Cup history, has retired from Germany’s national squad a month after the team won the title for the fourth time.The 36-year-old Klose scored twice in Brazil, making him the highest-scoring player in the tournament’s history with 16 goals, one ahead of Ronaldo. It was Klose’s fourth World Cup tournament.With a career total of 71 goals, Klose is also the highest-scoring player for Germany. He is also the second most capped Germany p

CARSON, California (AP) ― Landon Donovan, widely considered as America’s best ever footballer, will retire at the end of the MLS season. The 32-year-old LA Galaxy forward is the top goalscorer in MLS history and a five-time league champion. “I feel incredibly blessed and lucky to have played a role in the remarkable growth of MLS and U.S. Soccer during my playing career,” Donovan said in a statement on his Facebook page. “And while my career as a player will soon be over, rest assured I will sta

Bert van Marwijk, a former Dutch national head coach, has shown an interest in managing the South Korean men’s senior football team, the sport’s local technical director said Thursday.“Though we have no results to report at the moment, we did confirm van Marwijk’s interest in becoming the next head coach of our men’s senior football team,” Lee Yong-soo, the head of the technical committee at the Korea Football Association, said at a press conference in Seoul.Earlier this week, Lee, who was named

TOKYO (AP) ― Brazil and Barcelona striker Neymar says he is almost back to full fitness after the serious back injury he sustained at the World Cup.The 22-year-old Neymar is on promotional trip to Tokyo, where he will film a commercial for a Japanese mattress company. About 700 fans greeted him at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport on Thursday.“It’s all good. My back is improving. It’s almost 100 percent,” Neymar said. “I’m looking forward to joining my (Barcelona) teammates and helping them win the title.”

South Korea will seek to hire a foreign head coach to fill the vacancy on the men’s senior national football team, the sport’s technical director said Thursday.Lee Yong-soo, who was named the new head of the technical committee at the Korea Football Association last week, said at a press conference that he has narrowed down candidates for the top coaching job in South Korean football to three foreign nationals.“We’ve short-listed three coaches based on specific criteria, and all three are from o

Technical director Lee Yong-soo (Yonhap)The new-look technical committee at the Korea Football Association will hold its inaugural meeting to go over candidates for the coaching vacancy on the men’s senior national team, officials said.The KFA named Lee Yong-soo, a popular television analyst and a university professor, as its new technical director last Thursday.At his inaugural press conference on Monday, Lee announced seven new members of his technical committee, vowing to take steps to help i

Lee Yong-soo, freshly minted as South Korean football’s new technical director, said Monday he is in no rush to fill in the head coaching vacancy on the senior national team.Lee, 54, was named the new head of the technical committee of the Korea Football Association last Thursday. The committee’s main responsibility is to nominate head coaches for national teams in different age brackets. The position on the senior team has been vacant since Hong Myung-bo resigned earlier this month in the wake

Retiring South Korean football icon Park Ji-sung bid adieu to fans in style, scoring a goal in his final match on Friday while getting a hero's farwell.Park, a former South Korean captain who announced his retirement in May, made his last appearance at the K League Classic All-Star Game in Seoul on Friday. He served as the captain of the team of active and former players, as they took on the K League All-Stars at Seoul World Cup Stadium.Park, who had earlier said he was worried about his conditi

MADRID (AP) ― Luis Suarez could make his Barcelona debut against Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium in October. The Spanish league announced its schedule for the 2014-15 season on Thursday, and the first “clasico” is due to take place on the weekend when Suarez’s four-month ban for biting an opponent at the World Cup is to end. Real Madrid will host Barcelona in the ninth round on the weekend of Oct. 25-26. Suarez’s ban will be completed on Oct. 25, making him available on the 26th. It