clint mathiswill retire from soccer Saturday after an exhibition against Real Madrid at the Rose Bowl, the Los Angeles Galaxy said. Mathis, a 33-year-old midfielder, played 11 years in Major League Soccer and had stints in Germany and Greece. He also made 46 appearances for the United States national team.
The Times's soccer blog has the 2010 World Cup covered from all angles, with news, features and live analysis of every match.

FIFA fined the Netherlands and Spain for the record number of yellow cards in the World Cup final last month that Spain won, 1-0. FIFA said the Dutch federation must pay $14,480; eight Netherlands players received yellow cards. The Spanish federation was fined $9,650 for its team’s five yellow cards. worldcup


¶Anderlecht and Hapoel Tel Aviv reached the European Champions League playoffs with comfortable wins. Hapoel scored three times in the first 35 minutes to beat Aktobe, the Kazakh champion, 3-1, and advance in the home-and-home, total-goals series, 3-2. Anderlecht of Belgium defeated the New Saints, 3-0, for a 6-1 aggregate victory, as the 17-year-old forward Romelu Lukaku scored twice in six minutes. champions