Winners:
Two American goalkeepers helped their English Premier League teams to English League Cup wins on Wednesday. Tim Howard, who has yet to see league action for Manchester United this season, received a 6 out of 10 rating by The Sun for his efforts in a 3-1 win over West Brom. Guiseppe Rossie, Man U's 18-year-old Italian-American, was The Sun's highest rated player (8) along with Louis Saha and Cristiano Ronaldo. Keeper Brad Friedel rated a 7 as he helped Blackburn to a 3-2 win over Charlton, for which American defender Jonathan Spector played final 20 minutes.
Mexico's UNAM Pumas reached the Copa Sudamericana with a 4-0 win over Argentina's Velez Sarsfield in which Argentine forward Bruno Marioni scored a hat trick. UNAM will meet the winner of Boca Juniors and Chile's Universidad Catolica, which had ousted D.C. United at the round of 16 stage.
Losers:
READING, resting Americans Bobby Convey for the whole game and keeper Marcus Hahnemann for all but the final seven minutes, was ousted from the Carling League Cup, 3-0, by Arsenal. All three goals were scored before Hahnemann entered.
Manchester United's American owners, the Glazer family, did not attend Wednesday's League Cup game, which included a farewell ceremony for George Best, who died last Friday. "These are men whose hearts are aligned to Wall Street stoniness rather than Mancunian sentimentality," wrote The Guardian. "Somebody should buy them The Official History of Manchester United as a Christmas present."
Ronald Koeman, the Dutch coach of Portuguese club Benfica, was fined $300 for suggesting, by waving his hands over his eyes, that referee Pedro Proenca was blind after he didn't award a penalty kick for what Koeman considered a handball by a Belenenses defender.