Loew drops 6 German World Cup players

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Germany coach Joachim Loew dropped six World Cup players from the 23-man squad to play Kazakhstan in a Euro 2012 qualifier and Australia in a friendly next week.

As expected, Loew also did not select former captain Michael Ballack, who still has not reached top form after a long injury layoff.

Loew picked one newcomer, midfielder Sven Bender of Bundesliga leader Borussia Dortmund.

Andre Schuerrle of Mainz, with one previous appearance, was also included, along with fellow midfielder Toni Kroos of Bayern Munich. Dortmund midfielder Mario Goetze, with two caps, and teammate and defender Marcel Schmelzer, with one, also return.

Real Madrid midfielder Sami Khedira and Mesut Oezil are both in the squad.

But the coach dropped six players who were on the team that finished third at the World Cup — Marko Marin, Cacau, Serdar Tasci, Piotr Trochowski, Marcell Jansen and Stefan Kiessling. All are struggling with form in their clubs.

Loew selected only two strikers, Bayern Munich teammates Mario Gomez and Miroslav Klose. Gomez leads the Bundesliga with 18 goals, but Klose was getting little playing time. Lukas Podolski of Cologne was also included, but was listed as a midfielder.

Germany plays Kazakhstan on March 26 in Kaiserslautern, and Australia three days later in Moenchengladbach.

Loew's team leads Group A of qualifying for next year's European Championship in Poland and Ukraine with four wins from four games.

Loew has said he will give some of the reserves and newcomers playing time against Australia, the Asian Cup runner-up.



Germany:

Goalkeepers: Rene Adler (Bayer Leverkusen), Manuel Neuer (Schalke), Tim Wiese (Werder Bremen).

Defenders: Dennis Aogo (Hamburger SV), Holger Badstuber (Bayern Munich), Jerome Boateng (Manchester City), Arne Friedrich (Wolfsburg), Mats Hummels (Borussia Dortmund), Philipp Lahm (Bayern Munich), Per Mertesacker (Werder Bremen), Marcel Schmelzer (Borussia Dortmund).

Midfielders: Sven Bender (Borussia Dortmund), Mario Goetze (Borussia Dortmund), Sami Khedira (Real Madrid), Toni Kroos (Bayern Munich), Thomas Mueller (Bayern Munich), Mesut Oezil (Real Madrid), Lukas Podolski (Cologne), Andre Schuerrle (Mianz), Bastian Schweinsteiger (Bayern Munich), Christian Traesch (Stuttgart).

Forwards: Mario Gomez (Bayern Munich), Miroslav Klose (Bayern Munich).

Birmingham through to League Cup final

LONDON (AP): Birmingham rallied to beat West Ham 3-1 after extra time Wednesday and set up a meeting with Arsenal in the League Cup final, while Liverpool climbed to seventh in the Premier League by edging past Fulham 1-0.

Craig Gardner was the match winner for Birmingham in a dramatic semifinal second leg at St. Andrew's, firing home from 25 yards in the fourth minute of extra time to earn the Midlands club a 4-3 aggregate win.

Carlton Cole scored a stunning goal in the 31st to put West Ham 3-1 up in the two-legged series but Birmingham took the game into extra time thanks to second-half goals by Lee Bowyer and Roger Johnson.

The Blues, whose only major trophy came when they won the League Cup in 1963, will be underdogs when they play Arsenal at Wembley on Feb. 27.

Arsenal qualified for the final by beating second-tier side Ipswich 3-0 in the second leg of their semifinal, winning 3-1 on aggregate.

Pedro scores twice as Barcelona beats Levante 2-1

FC Barcelona's Pedro Rodriguez (right),
duels for the ball against Levante's
Xavi Torres during a Spanish La Liga soccer
match at the Camp Nou stadium in Barcelona,
Spain, Sunday. - AP

BARCELONA, Spain (AP): Pedro Rodriguez scored twice in the second half to give Barcelona a 2-1 win over Levante on Sunday, its 11th consecutive victory in the Spanish league.

Both goals were set up by Dani Alves, who provided the second-half spark that energized a Barcelona attack missing Lionel Messi, who was watching from the stands.

Levante succeeded in stifling the home side throughout the first half but at the start of the second, Alves slipped the ball to Pedro, who calmly slotted a shot through a wall of Levante defenders to put Barcelona ahead in the 47th.

Twelve minutes later, the Brazil right back centered low for Pedro to volley into the Levante goal.

Christian Stuani, who had just come on to the pitch, halved the deficit with a sharp strike with ten minutes to play.

Tottenham trying to bring Beckham back to England

LONDON (AP) - David Beckham could be on his way back to England's Premier League - for a little while.

Tottenham, where Beckham trained as a schoolboy before signing for Manchester United, wants to sign the former England captain on loan from Los Angeles Galaxy until the Major League Soccer season starts in March.

Beckham has said he would like to return to the Premier League after more than seven years away and Spurs manager Harry Redknapp thinks the 35-year-old midfielder's experience could be invaluable for a team challenging for a second straight top-four finish and doing well in its Champions League season.

"He just said that he would like to come and play here at Tottenham," Redknapp said after Tottenham beat Fulham 1-0 on Saturday to stay fifth in the Premier League.

"I've left it to the people at the club. I've passed it on to them. They're talking to whoever they have to talk to at his club." Beckham spent the past two northern hemisphere winters in Italy on loan at AC Milan, while his Galaxy teammate Landon Donovan did the same last year at English club Everton. Beckham wants to join a European club on a short-term loan to boost his chances of being recalled to the England team. He made the last of his 115 international appearances against Belarus in October 2009 and missed last year's World Cup because of an Achilles injury at Milan.