Zenit St. Petersburg have reached an agreement “in principle” to sign Porto defender Bruno Alves, according to A Bola.

Zenit announced just this morning the signing of Aleksandar Lukovic from Udinese, who can play at centre-back or left-back and now look to have signed the highly rated 28-year-old Portuguese international.

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Zenit will pay ?¬23m for Bruno Alves, which is ?¬7m short of what Porto originally requested but the two parties are striking out the minor details of the transfer before an official announcement.

A Bola claims that the transfer is “a done deal”.

Real Madrid and coach Jose Mourinho were previously looking at Bruno Alves as the ‘Special One’ looked for key installments in his defence and Chelsea were also rumoured to be preparing a bid for the powerful defender.

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Colorado Rapids defender Julien Baudet has welcomed fellow Frenchman Thierry Henry to MLS, saying that the 32-year-old will enjoy his time in the US.

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Henry signed for the New York Red Bulls this week after being released by Spanish champions Barcelona. There have been some suggestions that the Arsenal legend made a mistake in moving to MLS, which is seen as a ‘retirement league’ by some, but Baudet believes that Henry made a good decision.

?Many people in Europe are going to see it as a step down for him but, when you get here, you see it is actually very competitive and a very good league, the former Notts County defender told MLSsoccer.com. ?Henry is a winner and its going to be a big challenge for him. He should be excited; we should all be excited.

?Its a fantastic move for him. He always wanted to go to New York and this is a great move for everyone and especially important for MLS on the back of a great World Cup for the US team.

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MEXICO CITY (AP)?Javier Aguirre quit Wednesday as Mexico coach, three days
after the national team was knocked out of the World Cup in a 3-1 loss to
Argentina in the round of 16.

It marked the fifth straight time that Mexico has been eliminated in the
second round of the World Cup.

?Im the person responsible, said Aguirre, adding that hed made a
commitment to reach the quarterfinals.

Mexico has only twice reached the quarterfinals of the World Cup?in 1970
and 1986, when it hosted the event.

?We didnt qualify for the next round, and because of this one can consider
it a failure, Aguirre added. ?The plan was tobe among the best eight in
the world. This was the plan. If we didnt do it, its clear staying on the job
is not an option.

Aguirre made the announcement at a packed news conference in Mexico City.
The Mexico-born Aguirre was appointed 15 months ago to his second stint at
Mexico coach. He also coached the team in the 2002 World Cup, but was replaced
after Mexico was eliminated by the United States.

Aguirre is Mexicos fourth coach in four years and the fifth since Argentine
Ricardo La Volpe was released after the 2006 World Cup.

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He said the next coach should be retained for the entire four-year World Cup
cycle, which will end with the 2014 tournament in Brazil.

Aguirre said he had faith in a younger generation of Mexican players who
will be the core of the team in the next World Cup. They include forwards Javier
Hernandez, Giovani Dos Santos and Carlos Vela.

?I think the future is in the hands of our young players, Aguirre said.

He suggested he might be out of work for a while and said he did not know
where he could coach next, but suggested England or Spain were possible
destinations. He took over the Mexico job just weeks after being fired by
Spanish club Atletico de Madrid.

Mexico played more warm-up games than any team ahead of the World Cup, but
opened with a disappointing 1-1 draw with South Africa. Mexico defeated France
2-0 and then lost 1-0 Uruguay, meaning it fell behind the South Americans to
second place in Group A. This forced Mexico to face Group B winner, Argentina.

Several reports suggest Aguirre is one of highest paid national team coaches
with an annual salary of about $4 million. Only Italy coach Marcelo Lippi and
England coach Fabio Capello are believed to earn more.

?Everything I did, I did thinking of the well-being of Mexico, Aguirre
said.

?I have to be honest. If Im not enthusiastic about something, I can leave
the job.

Associated Press Writer Molly OToole contribued to this report.

Mexico won 2-0 against France on Thursday to come closer to securing a place in the second round of the World Cup, but Mexican national team captain Rafael Marquez urges his team to remain calm.  

Despite the goals from Javier ?Chicharito Hernandez and Cuauhtémoc Blanco from the penalty spot, France is still not out of the competition. The French team faces South Africa in the next game and a win with better goal differential coupled with a loss from the Mexican team to Uruguay could send Les Bleus ahead.  

?Were happy because of the win, but we need to be calm and maintain our feet firmly on the ground, Rafael Marquez told reporters after the game.

Marquez, who received the captains armband back for the game against France, said that Mexicos win should not be a surprise after performances in friendlies against other European teams.  

?Weve gone up against England, the Netherlands and we did well, although maybe we needed a few more minutes of concentration. Against Italy we won, so I dont think its a surprise anymore, said Marquez in the mixed zone after the game.  

The player added that the referee had an impact, but that the team performance overcame that.   

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?The truth is yes (there were tough calls from the referee). Any foul hed call them in their favor and yes the referee was a bit rough, but even then we did a good job.  

In the opening game against South Africa, Mexico looked like they could score in the first half, but then went down in the second half before drawing against the home team. The difference, says Marquez, was better concentration by the Mexican team.  

?Effort and work were the keys because we all have the quality, it was just a question of adding something extra, more concentration overall. Perhaps against South Africa we lost concentration in the second part, there wasnt order and that also affected us.

?It was concentration, we didnt lose our calm. Now we need to stay the same and think of Uruguay.”

Marquez noted that Uruguay does not have the type of players that France does, but they are still dangerous and Mexico will not spare any details in preparation for their last group game.

?Maybe Uruguay doesnt have Frances quality, but even then they continue to be dangerous. Forlan and Suarez are very dangerous people so we cant spare and efforts, added the player.

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