LONDON (AP) ― Manchester City grabbed the lead in the Premier League with a controversial 2-0 victory at Newcastle on Sunday, and Liverpool stayed in contention with a 5-3 win at Stoke.Edin Dzeko and Alvaro Negredo scored in City’s 10th consecutive win over the Magpies. City also extended its unbeaten run in all competitions to 15 games.But the result did not reflect the intensity of a game dominated by referee Mike Jones’ decision to wave off Cheikh Tiote’s apparent equalizer, ruling Yoan Gouff

South Korean men’s national football team departed for Brazil on Monday to set up its first pre-World Cup training camp in the South American country.Head coach Hong Myung-bo will lead a squad of 23 players from South Korean, Chinese and Japanese leagues to the World Cup host country. The team will arrive in Foz do Iguacu in Brazil and train there for a week before moving to Los Angeles, according to the Korea Football Association.In the United States, South Korea will take on three World Cup pa

LONDON (AP) ― Chelsea moved provisionally top of the English Premier League by beating Hull 2-0 on Saturday, while Manchester United ended a sorry run of three straight defeats to lift the gloom surrounding the reigning champions.Meanwhile, there were huge wins for Sunderland and West Ham over fellow relegation rivals at the foot of the table, leaving the battle to avoid the drop up for grabs with the bottom 11 teams separated by only six points.Eden Hazard and Fernando Torres scored second-half

Manager Michael Laudrup of Swansea City, an English Premier League club, has decided not to recall Ki Sung-yeung from his loan to Sunderland back to Swansea, according to foreign media outlets. “I think I couldn’t bring him back as it wouldn’t help either of us. He is playing there all the time so imagine I take him back and he plays sometimes or sits on the bench and they reach the final -- you can imagine mentally how that would affect the player,” Laudrup was quoted as saying. Laudrup’s first

MADRID (AP) ― Real Madrid overcame some uncharacteristic poor finishing from Cristiano Ronaldo to beat Osasuna 2-0 in the opening leg of their Copa del Rey last-16 match on Thursday. Ronaldo failed to connect on an ample number of opportunities at Santiago Bernabeu Stadium. But Karim Benzema and Jese Rodriguez scored in each half for Madrid to come out of the first leg with the firm advantage. Benzema got up to head home Luka Modric’s free kick in the 19th minute before combining with Ronaldo to

South Korean men’s national football coach Hong Myung-bo said Thursday that former national coach Guus Hiddink advised him to help improve players’ concentration, as the country gets ready for the FIFA World Cup in Brazil.Hong visited Hiddink, who coached South Korea to the semifinals at the 2002 World Cup, at a Seoul hospital. The Dutchman is recovering from a recent knee surgery here.After his meeting with his former coach, Hong told reporters that Hiddink said he’d watched videos of South Kor

SUNDERLAND, England (AP) ― Manchester United slumped to a third consecutive loss for the first time in nearly 13 years when Sunderland added to manager David Moyes’ troubles by winning the first leg of their League Cup semifinal 2-1 on Tuesday.The setback against the Premier League’s last-place team completed a hat trick of 2-1 losses at the start of 2014 for Moyes, in his first season as Alex Ferguson’s successor.United, which won the Premier League by 11 points last season before Ferguson reti

South Korean football head coach Hong Myung-bo said Wednesday he’d like to meet former national team captain Park Ji-sung about returning for one last hurrah at the upcoming FIFA World Cup.In a phone interview with Yonhap News Agency, Hong said he believes the two should have a heart-to-heart about Park’s availability for South Korea at the World Cup in Brazil this summer.Park, who captained South Korea to the round of 16 at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, retired from international play in

BARCELONA (AP) ― Cristiano Ronaldo scored his league-leading 19th and 20th goals of the season on Monday to seal Real Madrid’s 3-0 win over Celta Vigo, keeping his team in touch with the top of the Spanish standings.Ronaldo moved one goal ahead of Atletico Madrid’s Diego Costa as the competition’s top scorer by finding the net in the 82nd minute and again in stoppage time from a cross by substitute Gareth Bale on his return from a three-week injury layoff.Celta’s attack, led by midfielder Rafina

MANCHESTER, England (AP) ― Manchester United and West Ham paid a big price for fielding heavily weakened teams in the FA Cup when they were knocked out in the third round on Sunday, while Chelsea and Liverpool advanced relatively comfortably.Swansea capitalized on the 80th-minute sending-off of substitute Fabio Da Silva by scoring in the last minute through Wilfried Bony in a 2-1 win at United, the latest setback for David Moyes in his turbulent first season with the English champions.United has