MANCHESTER, England - China defender Sun Jihai wants to sign a new contract at Manchester City even though he hasn’t started a Premier League match this season.

Sun has been reduced to a bit-part role at Eastlands since Sven Goran Eriksson took charge in July, but he is happy in England and is determined to stay and fight for his place.

The 30-year-old has made only two substitute appearances in the league so far this season, but the former Dalian Shide star is confident he can convince Eriksson to give him a chance.

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LONDON - Steve McClaren knows the knives are out for him as England stumble towards Euro 2008 failure, but the beleaguered coach believes he is still the right man to lead his country.

McClaren’s team will be eliminated from the race to next year’s finals if Russia win their last two matches, forcing England’s star-studded squad to miss a major tournament for the first time in 14 years.

It is a position that reflects badly on McClaren and the tone of the debate after England’s potentially decisive defeat against Russia was that he had been out-witted by opposition manager Guus Hiddink, providing conclusive proof that he was out of his depth.

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MANCHESTER, England - Manchester United striker Louis Saha will miss his side’s Champions League trip to Dynamo Kiev on Tuesday as he struggles to recover from a knee injury.

The France international aggrevated the long-standing problem in the warm-up before a match against Wigan earlier this month and he was absent again when United won 4-1 at Aston Villa on Saturday.

Serbian defender Nemanja Vidic has been named in United’s squad but he is also a doubt with the concussion that kept him out of the Villa match.

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LONDON - Jose Mourinho insists he is not interested in replacing Steve McClaren as England coach.

McClaren faces the sack if England’s stuttering Euro 2008 qualifying campaign ends in failure and former Chelsea manager Mourinho is the bookmakers‘ favourite to take over.

But the Portuguese wants to stay in club management and, claims even if he did consider an international job, the only challenge that appeals to him is leading his own country.

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MINNEAPOLIS — Max McGee, the former Green Bay receiver who scored the firsttouchdown in Super Bowl history in an unexpected starring role, died Saturdayafter falling from the roof of his Deephaven home, police confirmed. He was 75.

Police were called to McGee’s suburban home around 5:20 p.m., Sgt. ChrisWhiteside said. Efforts to resuscitate McGee were unsuccessful.

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SAN JOSE, Calif. — Jeremy Roenick scored a power-play goal early in thesecond period and the San Jose Sharks finally won at home, beating the NashvillePredators 3-0 on Saturday night.

Evgeni Nabokov stopped 22 shots to record his first shutout of the season,and the 35th of his career in the first meeting of the two teams since theSharks eliminated Nashville in the first round of last year’s playoffs.

Patrick Marleau scored his first goal in seven games late in the thirdperiod for the Sharks.

Chris Mason stopped 18 of 20 shots for the Predators, who lost their fifthstraight after opening the season with two victories. Nashville also fell to 0-3on the road.

The Sharks, who were tied in the third period of both of their first twohome games, finally managed to hold the late advantage.

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CALGARY, Alberta — Jarome Iginla scored the go-ahead goal and added twoassists to lead the Calgary Flames to a 4-1 victory over the Edmonton Oilers onSaturday night.

Iginla and Daymond Langkow hooked up at 9:21 of the second period to breakopen a 1-1 tie. Langkow carried the puck around the Oilers net and slicklybackhanded a perfect pass onto the stick of Iginla in the slot, and the Flamescaptain snapped a quick shot past goalie Dwayne Roloson.

Iginla extended his point-scoring streak to five games. During that time hehas five goals and 11 points.

Kristian Huselius, Dion Phaneuf, and Adrian Aucoin also scored for Calgary(4-2-2). The Flames have earned points in five straight games (4-0-1) and havebegun a season-long seven-game homestand with two straight wins.

Rookie center Sam Gagner scored his first NHL goal for Edmonton (3-5-0). TheOilers have lost five of their last six after starting the season with a pair ofwins.

GLENDALE, Ariz. — Kirk Maltby scored a pair of second-period goals and theDetroit Red Wings rallied to beat the Phoenix Coyotes 5-2 on Saturday night.

Henrik Zetterberg had a goal and an assist and Jiri Hudler and Brett Lebdaalso scored for the Red Wings, who have won three of their last four.

Zetterberg leads the NHL with 17 points and has at least one point in eachof Detroit’s first nine games, a career-best scoring streak.

Steven Reinprecht and Derek Morris scored for the Coyotes, who lost allthree games of their abbreviated homestand. Phoenix has lost five of six sinceopening the season with a 3-2 home win over St. Louis.

Maltby broke a 2-2 tie with 25.5 seconds left in the second when heone-timed a pass from Zettenberg from the right faceoff circle over MikaelTellqvist’s extended glove.

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SEATTLE — Tracy McGrady scored 30 points, and the Houston Rockets beat theSeattle SuperSonics 117-94 Saturday night to spoil Kevin Durant’s home debut.

McGrady, entering his 11th NBA season, was 10-of-20 from the floor and madeall nine free throws. McGrady, who did not play the final 17 minutes, had seenlimited time during the preseason because of a sore knee.

Shane Battier added 19 points.

Durant, the No. 2 pick out of Texas who was averaging 16.8 points in hisfirst four exhibition games, finished with 25 points on 9-of-20 shooting.Delonte West, scoring 12 second-period points, finished with 22. Center RobertSwift had 10 points.

With the season opener in 10 days, Sonics coach P.J. Carlesimo restedforward Chris Wilcox and guard Earl Watson and tried to limit the minutes forrookie forward Jeff Green, this year’s fifth pick out of Georgetown. But Green,who has a sore knee, entered three minutes into the game and played 22 minutes.He scored five points.

The Sonics were coming off Thursday’s 126-106 loss to Los Angeles, withCarlesimo saying “we went so far backward in the Lakers game … we need tomaintain a level of consistency.”

But the Sonics (1-4) did not make much progress. They now have allowed 106.8points per game, third worst in the league. The Rockets, with a vastly moreexperienced roster, reached their exhibition high for points. Houston (3-1)built a 13-point lead, 22-9, with three minutes left in the first quarter.

Durant gave the Sonics their only lead of the game, 2-0, hitting his firstshot 30 seconds in. Three minutes elapsed before he touched the ball again asthe Rockets galloped away.

West, hitting his first seven shots, briefly snapped the Sonics back in thesecond period. He hit back-to-back buckets early in the quarter to bring theSonics back within 26-23. The Rockets then outscored the Sonics 33-19 to led59-42 by intermission.

Aaron Brooks, a Seattle native who was Houston’s first-round draft choice(26th pick) out of Oregon, was given a warm reception when he entered the gamewith 1:32 left in the first. He played 18 minutes and scored 12 points.

BATON ROUGE, La. — Matt Flynn threw a 22-yard touchdown pass to DemetriusByrd with a second left to lift fifth-ranked LSU to a 30-24 victory over No. 18Auburn on Saturday night, keeping LSU’s national title hopes alive and well.

With South Florida losing earlier in the week, LSU is certain to move up toat least third in the BCS standings, behind only Ohio State and possibly BostonCollege, which was idle this weekend.

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