RIO DE JANEIRO, 17 April 2004 — Five-time former champions Penarol were knocked out of the South American Libertadores Cup at the first hurdle on Thursday despite registering a 2-0 victory over America.

The Uruguay champions were eliminated on goals scored after Brazil’s Sao Caetano won 2-0 away to The Strongest, their second goal coming from striker Warley on the break in the 83rd minute.

Sao Caetano and Penarol finished level in Group 1 on eight points and a goal difference of two but the unfashionable Brazilian club took second place by scoring ten goals to Penarol’s nine.

Sao Caetano, whose home matches rarely attract more than 3,000 fans, are guaranteed to finish as one of the worst four second-placed teams in the nine groups, which means they will have to playoff for a place in the last sixteen.

Mexico’s America, who fielded a reserve team against Penarol, had already won the group with a game to spare.

Despite America’s generosity, Penarol, who won the last of their Libertadores titles in 1987, left it too late at the historic Centenario stadium in Montevideo.

The home team finally broke the deadlock when striker Carlos Bueno in the 83rd minute. The same player added the second seven minutes later. Striker Somalia gave Sao Caetano, beaten finalists in 2002, a ninth-minute lead in La Paz, at 3,600 meters above sea level.

Cameroon Lose Six World Cup Points Over One-Piece Kit

In Zurich, Cameroon have been docked six points ahead of their 2006 World Cup qualifying campaign after breaking a pledge to FIFA that they would not wear their controversial one-piece strip in the African Nations Cup knockout phase.

Cameroon, who were beaten in the quarterfinals by Nigeria in Tunisia in February, have also been fined 200,000 Swiss francs ($154,000) by world soccer’s governing body.

“FIFA had shown leniency at the time for Cameroon’s attire in the group round of the competition after the (Cameroon soccer) association had given assurances that the team would wear authorized playing kit in the knock-out phases,” FIFA said in a statement yesterday.

“Despite this agreement, Cameroon subsequently wore the same equipment in the quarterfinals.” FIFA wanted Cameroon to wear regulation shirts and shorts.

They won the Olympic gold medal in Sydney in 2000 and were African Nations Cup champions in 2000 and 2002. Many of Cameroon’s squad play in Europe’s top teams and include Manchester United’s Eric Djembe Djembe and Rigobert Song from RC Lens.

Ittihad Lose to Ismaili: Arab Champions League

Al-Ittihad of Saudi Arabia suffered their second loss in an away match of the Arab Champions League against Ismaili of Egypt 1-0 in Cairo last night, writes Mahmoud Ahmad.

Trawri salvaged a victory for Ismaili in the 78th minute after breaking through the strong Ittihad defense and found the mark inside from the penalty box. Ittihad intensified pressure to grab an equalizer but it was too little too late as the time went in Ismaili’s favor.

Ismaili are leading Group B with four points. Ahli and Sfaxien have two points each but Ahli are second on better goal difference. Ittihad are at the bottom with one point.