Tsunami charity match

Ronaldinho's team drubs Shevchenko's 6-3 in tsunami charity match

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) -- International soccer stars played for Asian tsunami relief Tuesday with a team of non-Europeans led by Brazil's Ronaldinho beating Andriy Shevchenko's continental crew 6-3.

In a match dubbed "The Game of Hope,'' 35,000 spectators watched some sparkling offense despite near freezing temperatures and a polar wind. Cameroon's Samuel Eto'o, the African player of the year, led the way with two goals.

From the starting whistle, Ronaldinho, Eto'o and their teammates produced some dazzling play with heel flicks, dummy dribbles and goals galore.

The other side included Shevchenko, a Ukranian voted European player of the year, David Beckham and Zinedine Zidane.

"It's the first time in my 30 years with FIFA that there's been such an assembly of players of this stature,'' said president Sepp Blatter. "This is football, and it's football for the future.''

FIFA hopes to gather some $10 million for the tsunami victims, with a third coming from Tuesday's match.

The proceeds were to go to the Tsunami Solidarity Fund set up by FIFA and the Asian Football Confederation to help rebuild Asian soccer after the tsunami tragedy of Dec. 26 that caused 300,000 deaths.