Melbourne Victory Over Hume

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Melbourne Victory are on track for an unprecedented triple crown after defeating a gallant Hume City 3-0 in their FFA Cup semi-final.

The grassroots club caused Victory headaches all night but the A-League giants reached the final thanks to Besart Berisha’s 41st minute penalty and late goals to Kosta Barbarouses and Jason Geria at AAMI Park on Wednesday night.

Their prize is a 7 November date with Perth Glory at the same venue when Kevin Muscat’s side could add the knock-out cup to their 2015 A-League premiership and championship trophies.

In front of an animated crowd of 6,575, Hume City showed they weren’t making up the numbers as the sole National Premier League club in the last four of the competition.

Their relentless running and commitment to defence troubled the Australian champions, with goalkeeper Chris Oldfield defying Victory time and again. Driven by captain Nick Hegarty and with former Victory winger Theo Markelis prominent, City came closest to an early opener.

On eight minutes, Markelis’ cross was blocked inside the box by the outstretched hand of Jason Geria at close quarters. Referee Ben Williams left his sense of occasion in his pocket with his cards, signalling immediately for play on.

Hume continued to push, with Matthew Hennessey heading a curling Jai Ingham ball wide.

At the other end, Oldfield improved his reported chances of an A-League contract with Central Coast Mariners with a string of fine saves from Jesse Makarounas and Berisha.

The former Liverpool youth keeper couldn’t stop Berisha from the penalty spot however, when Williams judged Brad Walker’s tug of the Albanian’s shirt as a foul.

Victory, enjoying the lion’s share of possession, also dominated the shots tally but Hume weren’t done. Victory keeper Danny Vukovic denied substitute Souheil Azagane from a one-one-one chance and then Markelis from a free-kick.

With Hume players – without a competitive game for five weeks – cramping on all corners of the pitch, Barbarouses lashed home from Berisha’s pass.

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Russia Won Cup Before Vote

Sepp Blatter has revealed there was an agreement in place for the 2018 World Cup to go to Russia even before the vote took place.

The suspended Fifa president has told Russian news agency TASS that the tournament was always lined up to go to Russia with the 2022 World Cup to be held in the USA - until Michel Platini decided to throw his weight behind Qatar.

Blatter's comments will spark further controversy over World Cup bidding, as England, Spain/Portugal and Belgium/Holland spent tens of millions of pounds on bidding against Russia.

Blatter did not expand on who exactly had "agreed" for Russia to be hosts, but claimed the crisis in Fifa had been prompted by England and the USA being "bad losers" as a result of their World Cup bid failures.

Blatter told TASS: "In 2010 we had a discussion of the World Cup and then we went to a double decision. For the World Cups it was agreed that we go to Russia because it's never been in Russia, eastern Europe, and for 2022 we go back to America. And so we will have the World Cup in the two biggest political powers.

"And everything was good until the moment when [French president Nicolas] Sarkozy came in a meeting with the crown prince of Qatar, who is now the ruler of Qatar. And at a lunch afterwards with Mr Platini he said it would be good to go to Qatar. And this has changed all pattern.

"There was an election by secret ballot. Four votes from Europe went away from the USA and so the result was 14 to eight.

"If you put the four votes, it would have been 12 to 10. If the USA was given the World Cup, we would only speak about the wonderful World Cup 2018 in Russia and we would not speak about any problems at Fifa."

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Mets Dreaming of 1986

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Matt Harvey will try to get the New York Mets off to a flying start when baseball's World Series opens in Kansas City on Tuesday night.

Pitcher Harvey has been a big part of the Mets' success this season, going 13-8 with a superb 2.71 Earned Run Average on his return from more than a year out of action after surgery on his elbow.

The Mets have not won the World Series since 1986 - appearing in only one more edition since - and they take on the Royals on the back of a dominant 4-0 sweep of the Chicago Cubs, with Harvey taking to the mound.

They have so far been reliant on the 'Fearsome Foursome', a pitching rotation that features a resurgent Harvey and three of the league's best young prospects in Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard and Steven Matz.

The Mets also boast the league's best post-season hitter in Daniel Murphy, who has seven home runs in his past nine games.

"We have a lot of weapons," Harvey said. "I don't think any of us have really sat back and kind of realised what we can accomplish as a group. Right now, it's about our team and about winning.

"We realise this is still just a baseball game and for me this is another start. It's on a different level but it's still baseball."

The New York Mets advanced to their first World Series since 2000 after beating the Chicago Cubs 8-3 Wednesday night, sweeping the NLCS

The New York Mets advanced to their first World Series since 2000 after beating the Chicago Cubs 8-3 Wednesday night, sweeping the NLCS

Mets manager Terry Collins had some tough choices to make about the order of his World Series rotation but says it is a luxury to have such depth, with veteran Bartolo Colon - a 14-game winner in the regular season - and Jon Niese also available.

"These guys are going to be really good and this experience is going to make them that much better," Collins said. "They're not just throwers, they're legitimate guys."

For Kansas City, the pain of last season's World Series defeat against the San Francisco Giants inspired them to want to go one better in 2015.

The Royals won the American League's Central Division, supposedly one of the most competitive, by 12 games to claim top seeding and then beat the Houston Astros and Toronto Blue Jays to set up a clash with the Mets.

"That's pretty hard to swallow," Royals third baseman Mike Moustakas said of their 2014 disappointment. "That's going to stay with you for a while. I think the only way to get rid of that feeling is to go out this year and finish the deal."

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Stoke Prove Chelsea Hazard

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Eden Hazard missed the decisive penalty in the shoot-out as beleaguered Chelsea were knocked out of the Capital One Cup by 10-man Stoke.

The holders, who lost Diego Costa to injury in the first half, had come back from the brink to force extra-time, with Loic Remy's late equaliser cancelling out Jon Walters' fine 52nd-minute strike.

Stoke had Phil Bardsley sent off in second half injury-time but held on for the added 30 minutes to force penalties.

The first nine attempts were all scored but Jack Butland then pulled off a brilliant stop to deny Hazard and pile the pressure on Jose Mourinho and his struggling side.

The Premier League champions have now suffered four defeats in their last six games in all competitions and could be without Costa for their crunch clash against Liverpool this weekend after he was reportedly taken to hospital with a chest injury.

Without the Spaniard, the Blues pushed hard for a winner in extra-time at the Britannia but could not find a way past Butland, who made a sharp late stop to keep the game level.

Both sides named strong starting line-ups for the clash, with Hazard, Costa and Oscar in the XI for Chelsea and Ryan Shawcross making his first appearance of the season for Stoke.

The Blues started brightly and Butland was called into action early to keep out a near-post effort from Costa and a shot from Oscar.

Ramires should have given the visitors the lead when he rounded Butland after half an hour but failed to hit the target with the goal at his mercy.

Stoke's best chance of the half came at the end as Walters turned in the box but saw his shot blocked by the outrushing Asmir Begovic.

The Potters forward would not be denied for long as, shortly after the interval, he was teed up on the edge of the box and sent a fantastic strike crashing in off the underside of bar.

Kurt Zouma and substitutes Kenedy and Bertrand Traore were unable to convert equaliser attempts, and Walters also missed a couple of chances to add to his effort.

Stoppage time then saw things dramatically turn in Chelsea's favour, with Remy rifling in Zouma's knock-down from a Willian corner and Bardsley being shown a second yellow card after a tackle on Kenedy.

The first half of the additional period saw Chelsea threaten through Hazard and a Traore header, while Marko Arnautovic fired a shot just wide of Begovic's post.

Willian went close in the second 15 minutes and Butland saved from Traore with his feet before touching the ball away as it skidded goalwards off Kenedy.

The England goalkeeper then proved the hero of the night as he made the decisive intervention in the shootout to send Stoke through to the quarter-finals.

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FA Face Questions About Eva

Football Association officials are to be questioned next month on their handling of anti-discrimination cases – including that of the former Chelsea doctor Eva Carneiro.

Members of the FA’s Inclusion Advisory Board (IAB) say they have “deep concerns” about a number of cases and will question the chief executive, Martin Glenn, and director of governance, Darren Bailey, about the issues raised at a meeting in November.

Top of the list of concerns will be the FA investigation into the independent board member Heather Rabbatts, the chair of the IAB, which was launched after a complaint from two FA councillors about her criticism of the FA’s handling of the Carneiro case.

Carneiro parted company with Chelsea after being dropped from first-team duties following criticism from manager José Mourinho for going on to the pitch at the referee’s request to treat the injured Eden Hazard on the opening day of the season.

Independent members of the IAB, including the former Chelsea players Graeme Le Saux and Paul Elliott, have written a joint letter to the FA chairman Greg Dyke and all FA councillors backing Rabbatts and criticising the investigation. The letter, a copy of which has been seen by Press Association Sport, states: “The FA Inclusion Advisory Board [IAB] members have expressed deep concerns about a number of recent anti-discrimination cases.

“To this end, we are looking forward to meeting with Martin Glenn and Darren Bailey to discuss these issues in more depth and in the hope that we can continue to support the FA and its values to see inclusion and diversity developed across the game. In the meantime, we wish to express our unwavering support for Heather Rabbatts and further, to seek reassurance that she still has the full support of the FA board.

“We were concerned to see two members of the FA Council question Heather’s integrity this week with an FA enquiry now under way. Their seeming priorities surely serve only to distract from the real issues at stake within football such as fairness, equality and respect.”

The letter says Rabbatts’ mandate is to champion equality and diversity in football. It adds: “We would question whether Heather Rabbatts has any charge to answer to and therefore, the IAB calls for this matter be concluded promptly so that she can continue unhindered in her many good works at the FA IAB helm and as a member of the FA board.”

Rabbatts has been heavily critical of the FA’s handling of Carneiro’s case and expressed “major concerns” about the disciplinary process, which saw Mourinho cleared of making discriminatory comments towards the doctor, after it emerged she had not been interviewed by the FA. She also questioned why no charges had been brought against any club after Carneiro suffered sexist abuse from opposing fans.

It is understood two FA members of the 121-strong FA council – the 82-year-old life vice-president Ron Barston and 70-year-old law lecturer Richard Tur, the chairman of the Oxford University FA – sparked the investigation into Rabbatts.

Under FA rules, only two members of the council are required for a formal investigation to be launched. The ultimate sanction if any wrongdoing is found would be Rabbatts being removed from the FA board, though any such move would have to be confirmed by her fellow directors.

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