Football: Overseas round-up - Beckenbauer's rap for German `journeymen'

FRANZ BECKENBAUER yesterday branded the German national team a "bunch of journeymen" after their 3-0 defeat by the United States.

Beckenbauer, who captained West Germany to World Cup victory in 1974 and coached them to their triumph in 1990, spoke as Germany's decline continued. Beckenbauer, now Bayern Munich's president and head of his country's bid to stage the 2006 World Cup, said: "There are too many mediocre players, they are journeymen. Where have the talented players gone? Players like [Andi] Brehme, [Rudi] Voller and the young [Lothar] Matthaus."

Bruce Arena, the new coach of the United States team, was reluctant to bask in the glory after the victory. "It's certainly a good win for us," he said, "but we're not going to blow it out of context. It's a good win, but it's a friendly."

All three goals were scored by Americans based in Germany: Jovan Kirovski of Fortuna Koln, Tony Sanneh, once of DC United and now on his way to Hertha Berlin, and Claudio Reyna of Wolfsburg.

Meanwhile, in Italy, Fiorentina's Serie A title ambitions took a knock as Milan halted their run of 10 home wins with a 0-0 draw and their striker Gabriel Batistuta suffered a knee injury. Giovanni Trapattoni, the Fiorentina coach, warned that Batistuta could be out for a month after the Argentine twisted his knee midway through the second half.

Second-placed Lazio closed the gap with a 3-0 victory at home to Perugia that cuts Fiorentina's lead to a point. Marcelo "the Matador" Salas, Lazio's Chilean import, scored in each half after setting up Christian Vieri's 42nd minute opener as Rome's big spenders side set a club record of nine successive wins - just one short of the best seen in Serie A.

The French midfielder Youri Djorkaeff hit a hat-trick as fifth-placed Internazionale, who play Manchester United in the quarter-finals of the European Cup next month, took their record at San Siro to 25 goals in the last five games by beating the moderate Empoli 5-1. Roberto Baggio opened the scoring with a superb sixth-minute free-kick, David Beckham's old rival, the Argentine Diego Simeone, added a second before Djorkaeff opened his account with a 35th-minute penalty. Djorkaeff added his other two goals in the 67th and 90th minutes.

In Spain, Barcelona seized a three-point lead in La Liga with a 2-1 win over Extremadura, while Real Madrid moved into joint second place with Celta Vigo after beating Valladolid 3-2 with a hat-trick from Raul.

Celta Vigo impressed with a 4-1 win over Villarreal. Moises Garcia gave Villarreal the lead in the 27th minute, but Juan Sanchez equalised two minutes before the break. Michel Salgado gave Celta the lead in the 81st minute, the Bulgarian Lubo Penev scored a third from the penalty spot on 87 minutes and the Israeli Haim Revivo made it 4-1 in injury time.

In France, the Italian striker Fabrizio Ravanelli scored twice as Marseilles won 3-1 at home to Bastia to go two points clear at the top of their League.