The lack of English players in Manchester City's first-choice team is "pretty depressing", according to Football Association chairman Greg Dyke.

"It's been a great league this year. I think the Premier League has been brilliant," Dyke told several British Sunday newspapers.

Move over vuvuzela. A compact, Belgian-made trumpet dubbed the "diabolica" is gearing up to replace the South African horn as the noisemaker of choice at the next World Cup games in Brazil .

Its young designers said they are "overwhelmed by the flood of orders coming from all over the world", and predict that a million models will be sold by the time the month-long tournament starts on June 12.

Cameroon have brilliant players like Samuel Eto'o but keeping them together holds the key to 2014 World Cup success as the team makes a record seventh appearance by an African country.

Squad cliques were blamed for a disastrous 2010 tournament in South Africa with the “Indomitable Lions” losing all three matches they played. The same cannot happen in Group A this year against hosts Brazil, Croatia and Mexico.

Four years after leaving one World Cup finals as a new football hero, Mexican striker Javier Hernandez returns to the sport's greatest stage desperate to reignite a spluttering career.

From the moment Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson plucked Hernandez from the obscurity of FC Guadalajara just before the 2010 finals started in South Africa, the diminutive striker enjoyed a meteoric rise to fame.

Croatia coach Niko Kovac is intent on challenging golf legend Walter Hagen's claim that 'no one remembers who came in second' at the World Cup.

Kovac's Croats, who made the Brazil finals through the play-offs, have the dubious honor of opening the 2014 football showcase against the hosts in Sao Paulo on June 12.

Inter Milan handed club veteran Javier Zanetti a memorable send-off with a 4-1 win over Lazio which secured their place in next season's Europa League.

Zanetti, who has spent 19 seasons with Inter, was playing in his final official game before taking up a director's post with the Serie A giants.

World number one Rafael Nadal will face Japan's Kei Nishikori in Sunday's Madrid Masters final after he romped past fellow Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut 6-4, 6-3 on Saturday.

Tenth seed Nishikori had a much sterner test as he needed 10 match points to finally overcome David Ferrer 7-6, (7/5), 5-7, 6-3 in nearly three hours to record his 14th straight win.

The San Antonio Spurs moved one win away from reaching the NBA Western Conference finals on Saturday with a dominant 118-103 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers.

The Spurs, who had won the first two games of the best-of-seven second-round series at home, showed no let up at the shift to Portland and can complete a four-game sweep on Monday in Oregon.

Miami ground down Brooklyn and San Antonio was in control throughout to beat Portland as the two experienced outfits won on Thursday to take 2-0 leads in their NBA second-round playoff series.

Miami's LeBron James scored 22 points and Chris Bosh added 18 as the Heat beat Brooklyn 94-82, while San Antonio's players shared the scoring load in a 114-97 win over Portland.

The English Football Association has fined Chelsea coach Jose Mourinho 13,000 pounds ($16,900) for bringing the game into disrepute with sarcastic comments about match officials after a shock defeat in the Premier League to Sunderland.

The FA announced the fine Thursday evening and also said the Portuguese had lost an appeal against a separate fine incurred at another league match against Aston Villa.