Month: April 2010

soccer, sports culture

Book review: ‘A Beautiful Game’

Posted on by Beau Dure

The first thing you’ll notice about A Beautiful Game is that it’s a beautiful book. The photography is rich and diverse — a treasured pair of dirty boots in Liberia, a youth clinic in Cambodia, a junkyard kickabout in Brazil, Fabio Cannavaro with a medal in Germany. Flip through the pages, and the scenes are as vibrant as the made-for-HD Planet Earth and Life TV series. Put the book on a coffee table, and you may find visitors flipping through it regardless of their level of soccer interest.

The text of the book is a collection of essays from mostly famous players around the world, all telling their stories of how they grew up with the game. The 41 essayists include some of the world’s biggest names — Lionel Messi, Luis Figo, Franck Ribery (unfortunate timing, given his current scandal) and Cannavaro. Yet coincidentally or not, Major League Soccer is well-represented. Landon Donovan is the chosen American. Former MLS players Ivan Guerrero, Claudio Suarez, Carlos Ruiz and Ryan Nelsen contribute along with current Chivas USA teammates Ante Jazic and Maykel Galindo.

Best of all these is a riveting introduction from David Beckham about a UNICEF visit to Sierra Leone. Beckham talks openly of his fear of being overwhelmed by the conditions he would find on his visit, but as he tells it, he left the country full of hope after greeting families with hugs — and a football. The introduction sets the tone: No matter the circumstances, football gives children hope and joy. Five percent of the book’s proceeds will go to UNICEF sports projects.

The downside is that the stories, though they’re drawn from diverse countries, tend to sound the same after a while. Whether they’re playing on the streets of Honduras or in a club in Finland, the players all talk of playing until sundown and forging their happiest memories kicking about with their friends. Browse through the book in several sittings, and this disadvantage is quickly forgotten.

Yet the book has a deeper drawback. As inclusive as it is for people of different national origins, economic backgrounds and faiths, it’s not gender-inclusive. Women are barely visible — a shot of the U.S. team celebrating stands out as the reader flips through pages and pages of boys and men. How much would we love to read the story of Brandi Chastain picking up the game as girls were first encouraged to play in the USA? Or Marta, learning to play in a culture less accommodating to women’s soccer? (Or so we think.)

That’s the one major oversight. Otherwise, this fine book opens the reader’s eyes to the world, not with sad and shocking tales but with inspirational stories of global joy.

The details: A Beautiful Game, edited by Tom Watt, HarperOne (imprint of HarperCollins), release May 2010

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cycling, mind games, mma, olympic sports, soccer, tennis, track and field

Friday Myriad: Get your track shoes and chess pieces

Posted on by Beau Dure

Don’t let the volcano or blown calls get you down. All times ET, which seems appropriate given the birth of new I-95 rivalries in MLS and WPS this weekend.

TRACK AND FIELD

Penn Relays, featuring the “USA vs. The World” events, will have a same-day delay broadcast, 8 p.m. ET Sat., ESPN2

The Drake Relays also will have their big names competing Saturday, though they’ve already seen a meet record with U.S. champion Diana Pickler in the heptathlon.

Also the first official IAAF event of the season, the Dakar Grand Prix on Saturday.

Two marathons Sunday: London and Madrid. London will be broadcast on Universal Sports.

CHESS

The World Championship match between champion Vishy Anand and challenger Veselin Topalov starts Saturday morning. Grandmaster Ian Rogers, writing for the USCF’s Chess Life Online, provides a helpful and witty guide to following the event.

MMA

Some other writer wrote a preview of WEC’s first pay-per-view card at 10 p.m. ET Saturday. Spike will have two prelims at 9 p.m. The main event has two of the most exciting fighters in the world — featherweight champion Jose Aldo vs. former champion Urijah Faber. There’s also a lightweight title fight rematch between Ben Henderson and Donald Cerrone, plus a compelling featherweight matchup with former champion Mike Brown facing Manny Gamburyan.

EUROPEAN SOCCER

Now would be a good time to mention the World’s Greatest Football Fan contest, complete with video from one “Cobi J.” Good thing to fill out while you’re agonizing over your favorite team in the stretch run this weekend.

The key German and French games aren’t televised this week.

England (3 games left; Chelsea lead Man U by 1)

For fourth place: Tottenham (64) and Man City (62) have game in hand over Aston Villa (61).

Relegation race: Bolton (35), Wigan (35), Wolves (34) near safety. West Ham (31) on bubble. Current relegation zone is Hull (28), Burnley (27) and Portmouth (farewell).

  • Tottenham-Manchester United, 7:30 a.m. Sat., ESPN2: For the second straight week, Manchester United carries its title hopes against a team fighting for the final Champions League berth.
  • West Ham-Wigan, 10 a.m. Sat., FSC: Vital for West Ham (Jonathan Spector).
  • Hull-Sunderland, 10 a.m. Sat., Fox Soccer Plus: Hull (Jozy Altidore) are in worse shape.
  • Arsenal-Manchester City, 12:30 p.m. Sat., FSC: The Gunners are pretty well stuck in third after collapsing last week; Man City still wants that Champions League berth.
  • Everton-Fulham, 9:55 a.m. Sun.: Everton (Tim Howard) still in the mix for a European spot; Fulham (Clint Dempsey) might want to cool the jets in the Premier League and focus on that second Europa League semifinal leg.
  • Chelsea-Stoke, 11 a.m. Sun., FSC: Possible lead change?

Spain (5 games left; Barcelona lead Real Madrid by 1)

  • Barcelona-Xerez, noon Sat., GolTV
  • Real Zaragoza-Real Madrid, 2 p.m. Sat., ESPN3

Italy (4 games left; Roma lead Inter by 1 and AC Milan by 7)

  • Inter Milan-Atalanta, noon Sat., Fox Soccer Plus
  • Palermo-AC Milan, 2:30 p.m. Sat., FSC
  • Roma-Sampdoria, 2:30 p.m. Sun., FSC

Greece

  • Cup final: Aris-Panathinaikos, 1:30 p.m. Sat., untelevised: Trophy for Eddie and Freddy?

More global listings at Soccer America.

MLS

New FC Dallas technical director Barry Gorman has already paid dividends for the Hooray Beers. He coached Jason Yeisley at Penn State, and Yeisley made the difference last night with a textbook … dive. (See the currently non-embeddable video.) Jeff Cunningham made his second PK of the night and Dallas got a draw with the unlucky Seattle Sounders.

The weekend (home teams first; all games Saturday except the last):

  • New York (3-1-0) – Philadelphia (1-2-0), 4 p.m., TeleFutura
  • New England (2-2-0) – Colorado (2-1-1), 7:30 p.m., DK/MLSS: Better matchup than you might have thought a month ago.
  • Columbus (1-0-1) – Salt Lake (2-1-0), 7:30 p.m., DK/MLSS: Past two MLS champs meet as RSL continues brutal early schedule.
  • Kansas City (2-1-0) – Los Angeles (4-0-0), 8:30 p.m., DK/MLSS: Good test for Galaxy’s streak.
  • Chicago (1-2-1) – Houston (2-1-1), 8:30 p.m., DK/MLSS
  • Chivas USA (1-3-0) – San Jose (2-1-0), 10:30 p.m., FSC
  • Toronto (1-3-0) – Seattle (2-1-2), 2 p.m. Sun., DK/MLSS: Temperamental TFC vs. some angry Sounders. Yikes.

D.C. United is the idle team this week. Not exactly sure why.

WPS

  • FC Gold Pride (1-1-0) – Atlanta (0-1-1), 10 p.m. Sat.: Fun fact – Atlanta keeper Allison Whitworth leads the league with 19 saves. Second place is Hope Solo with 12. Expansion defenses are fun!
  • Philadelphia (0-0-2) – Washington (1-1-0), 6 p.m. Sun.: Abby Wambach was WPS player of the week with a goal and two assists for the Freedom.
  • Chicago (0-1-1) – Sky Blue (1-1-0), 6 p.m. Sun.: Facing each other for the second time already. First game was 1-0 Sky Blue in their Jersey home.
  • St. Louis (1-0-1) – Boston (1-0-1), 6 p.m. Sun., FSC, Webcast, iPhone: Looks like the only way to make this more readily available would be to beam it directly into your head. Coincidentally, these teams are tied for first in the early going.

CYCLING

  • Athens Twilight Criterium, Saturday: Not a major event, but it draws a few good riders and will bring back pleasant memories for all us former Athens residents.
  • Liege-Bastogne-Liege, Sunday: Classic ride through Belgium and one of the last big rides before the Giro d’Italia. Among the riders: Alberto Contador, Cadel Evans, Christian Vande Velde, Chris Horner, Andreas Kloden, Yaroslav Popovych. Earlier this week at La Fleche Wallonne, Evans beat Joaquin Rodriguez and Contador in the final sprint, with Horner 7th. On Versus May 1.

BOXING

Super Six super middleweight tournament continues: Carl Bloch vs. Mikkel Kessler, 9 p.m. ET Sat., Showtime

Heavyweights Cristobal Arreola vs. Tomasz Adamek, main event on 11:15 p.m. ET Sat. HBO card

OLYMPIC/COLLEGE SPORTS

Four ongoing events this weekend

  • Equestrian, Rolex Three-Day Event, Lexington, Ky., Universal Sports
  • Canoe-Kayak, U.S. flatwater national team trials, Chula Vista, Calif.
  • Wrestling, U.S. Championships, Cleveland, TheMat.com
  • Women’s college gymnastics, NCAA championships, Gainesville, Fla., NCAA/CBS College Sports

TENNIS

  • Fed Cup semifinals, USA vs. Russia, 2/4 p.m. Sat., 2/4/6 p.m. Sun., Tennis Channel
  • ATP Barcelona: semifinals 7:30/10 a.m. Sat., final 10 a.m. Sun., Tennis Channel: David Ferrer, Robin Soderling among quarterfinalists.

ELSEWHERE

  • Several bowlers from the PBA Tour, whose season is over, are competing in the Japan Cup.
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olympic sports, track and field

LaShawn Merritt, male enhancement and unanswered questions

Posted on by Beau Dure

Startling news from track and field today: 2008 Olympic champion and 2009 world champion 400-meter runner LaShawn Merritt revealed that he has accepted a provisional suspension due to positive drug tests.

His championships aren’t at risk. In fact, none of his competitive results are at risk; the positives were recorded on out-of-competition tests since he last raced in September. The question is when he’ll be able to return to competition. If Merritt gets the standard two years, he’ll miss the 2011 World Championships.

But there are a few mitigating circumstances and oddities that need to be investigated.

The substance in question: a male enhancement product that he started using after last season. He didn’t realize it contained dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), a banned substance. Veteran Olympic sports reporter Philip Hersh (Tribune papers) says the product is ExtenZe, for which DHEA is prominently mentioned on the ingredients. (If you’re paranoid about what might happen if your Web browser’s cookies reveal you’ve browsed ExtenZe’s site, just take my word for it and don’t follow that link.)

USA Track and Field CEO Doug Logan, known to soccer fans as the first commissioner of Major League Soccer, released a blistering statement: “He has now put his entire career under a cloud and in the process made himself the object of jokes. In this day and age, a professional athlete should know better. Personally, I am disgusted by this entire episode.”

Merritt makes no effort to hide his embarrassment in his public statement.

As an athlete, and strong advocate of fair competition; I have worked
very hard to push myself to the outer limits of my physical abilities
without any performance enhancement drugs. I’ve always prided
myself on doing what’s right, and will continue to do so.

To know that I’ve tested positive as a result of product that I used for
personal reasons is extremely difficult to wrap my hands around.

But there’s something interesting in the press release issued by experienced athletes’ rights attorney Howard Jacobs. The tests were in October, December and January. Merritt wasn’t told of the tests, Jacobs’ release says, until March. He didn’t learn until “days ago” that the substance was DHEA.

A 5- or 6-month delay? That’s not supposed to happen. Check Article 7 of the World Anti-Doping Code (PDF).

Also a little odd, though it doesn’t mitigate the big ol’ “DHEA” on the ExtenZe ingredient list and on the Code’s 2010 prohibited list (PDF): You won’t find anything about that particular product by searching the GlobalDRO database site that is supposed to help athletes figure out if that bottle from the local vitamin store is on the up-and-up.

I’ve e-mailed the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency for comment and will pass on results.

Update: USADA confirms that Merritt had three urine samples with positive tests for “testosterone prohormones.” Merritt has accepted a provisional suspension, the investigation is ongoing, and the agency will comment again after that. No specific answer on the time gap between October and March. I’ve asked one follow-up: Have the B samples already been tested as well?

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soccer

FC Dallas and the college conundrum

Posted on by Beau Dure

FC DallasWhen the news came through that FC Dallas had hired former Penn State head coach Barry Gorman as their new technical director, the reaction wasn’t hard to predict.

FCD owner Hunt Sports Group has lost a few fans. Among the issues: FCD’s head coach is Schellas Hyndman, the longtime Southern Methodist coach whose former players in college happen to include Clark Hunt.

So when you tell a few Dallas fans that the team is hiring a friend of Hyndman’s who has been in the college game for a few decades, that’s akin to announcing a Beatles reunion with Yoko Ono taking John Lennon’s spot.

From the comments at Buzz Carrick’s excellent 3rd Degree blog:

  • “Sounds like Barry just received a nice retirement bonus from the Hunts.”
  • “I wish the Hunts would go play family reunion somewhere else.”

The buddy system, though, shouldn’t be such a problem. Bruce Arena and Sigi Schmid have always had “their guys” around. Real Salt Lake has an MLS Cup under the leadership of Dukies Jason Kreis and Garth Lagerwey.

But can today’s college game prepare a front-office executive to dig up and evaluate talent for an MLS team? BigSoccer blogger Bill Archer thinks not:

I don’t care what sport you’re talking about or what league, the people who are best equipped to identify and develop players who will succeed in that league are guys who have been there themselves, who’ve spent a lot of time playing and/or coaching there and have direct, intimate, personal knowledge of how you do and don’t succeed there. This guy brings none of that.

Indeed, not many people are making the jump from college to MLS in the head coaching or front office ranks these days. In the early days, Bruce Arena and Sigi Schmid were plucked from the college ranks because that was one of the highest levels of soccer running in the USA before MLS launched. It helped that Arena and Schmid had college dynasties at Virginia and UCLA. As Archer points out, he has seen Sigi Schmid, and Gorman is no Sigi Schmid.

But there’s one reason why the wailing over Gorman’s hiring may be premature: The college game, like it or not, is still quite important in MLS.

Consider the New England Revolution, where Liverpool legend Steve Nicol has been in charge for nearly a decade. He’s not building the team through some questionable lower-tier signings from his friends in England. The roster has been replenished year after year through smart SuperDraft selections and the occasional scouting of African teams.

Gorman should have a good sense of who’s coming through the college ranks. That’ll put him one step up on many pedigreed coaches and personnel guys who came to MLS and failed.

Will that be enough to make him a valuable addition to the Dallas front office? Will Dallas outperform everyone in future drafts? Time will tell.

But it’s a gamble, to say the least. Dallas fans are casting skeptical eyes on the team these days, and the current regime will have little margin for error among the Hoops, er, Red Stripes faithful. (Really? You guys prefer to be named after a beer than a geometric shape? OK, then.)

Dallas has two more immediate concerns tonight. First, getting fans to make the trip to Pizza Hut Park on a school night. Second, dealing with a strong Seattle team and trying to avoid going winless in April. 8 p.m. ET, ESPN2 — game notes here.

Correction: First version of this post incorrectly referred to FCD’s new TD as “Danny” Gorman. Obviously, I had him confused with Danny Szetela.

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mma

Bellator nets nice ratings despite uneven distribution

Posted on by Beau Dure

Bellator has the numbers from its April 8 debut on Fox Sports Net, and they have reason to be pleased. The company says Bellator increased FSN’s Thursday night 25-54 male audience by 180 percent. Not exactly sure how they compute national ratings when FSN affiliates can choose different programming, but they share one local success story: 0.85 for a live airing on FSN Pittsburgh. Not bad for something with no obvious Pittsburgh tie-in.

The trick is getting more affiliates to show the fights live. That’s not easy during the overlap of baseball with the NBA and NHL playoffs, but judging from tonight’s broadcast times, distribution is getting better. More than half of FSN’s affiliates will show the fight card live, with others operating on reasonable (and, on the West Coast, helpful) delays.

Sadly, here in Northern Virginia, Comcast Sports Net is opting for a repeat of some sort of Best Damn Sports Show special and the World Poker Tour.

“In your area, we’ve gotten a lot of calls,” says Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney, who worked out the deal with FSN after the promotion spent its first season on ESPN Deportes. Rebney sees the challenge of getting his fights to all affiliates but says the advantage of FSN is the broad reach to hard-core sports fans.

The fallback option is always the highlight show on NBC, which is broadcast Saturday night / Sunday morning at hours catering to insomniacs or DVRs. The good news is that the production values are terrific, with solid camera work and graphics guiding viewers through Bellator’s tournament set-up. (By way of disclaimer, I should say I’ve known and respected Bellator commentator Sean Wheelock for years from soccer circles, but the production values speak for themselves.)

So far this season, a couple of favorites such as UFC vet Roger Huerta have moved on without too much trouble. One upset in Rebney’s eyes was Pat Curran’s powerful knockout of Mike Ricci, a Georges St. Pierre protege, in the lightweight (155) tournament.

“A guy who fight most of his career at 145 took on Mike Ricci, who a lot of people said was the next GSP, and walked through him,” Rebney says.

Bellator drew attention with some viral videos of spectacular fight finishes last season. The official Curran-Ricci clip is climbing toward six-figure views.

The biggest controversy in Bellator was in the first fight for one of its big-name signings, Olympic wrestler Ben Askren. He got a tough draw against two-time UFC fighter Ryan Thomas and had to escape from a solid submission attempt before landing one of his own. With Thomas caught in a modified guillotine choke, referee Dave Smith asked for a sign that Thomas was OK. He didn’t get it, and he stopped the fight. Thomas, clearly unaffected, immediately popped up and protested.

The aftermath, as shown on the NBC highlights, had one hiccup for the broadcast team, with Timmy Smith saying the one “sign” fighters and referees use to communicate is the tapout. But referees always tell fighters in pre-fight instructions to give a sign when requested. Unconscious fighters can’t tap.

“The referee who made the call is not an inexperienced ref,” Rebney says. “I understand his reasoning. I understand what Ryan said because I talked to him for 15 minutes after the fight.”

The crowd was unhappy, though sportsmanship prevailed between the athletes. Thomas told the crowd how much he respects Askren and reminded them that the stoppage wasn’t his fault. Askren said Thomas deserves another chance.

Rebney said he would make Thomas the first alternate in case someone couldn’t continue in the tournament. He got his opportunity right away, thanks to that annoying volcano in Iceland that is keeping Europeans in Europe. Jim Wallhead couldn’t make the trip, so Thomas will fight again tonight against Jacob McClintock, who has won all six of his pro bouts in the first round.

Also on tonight’s card is another welterweight quarterfinal with Tyler Stinson against Dan Hornbuckle, whose last two fights were wins in Japan’s Sengoku circuit against Akihiro Gono and Nick Thompson.

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mma

‘The Ultimate Fighter’: Season 11, Episode 4: The doors of perception

Posted on by Beau Dure

To review from last week (check the recap for a full rundown of the episode and the teams):

– Chris Camozzi’s jaw injury forced him to leave the house and show. Seth Baczynski, who lost a close decision to Court McGee in the prelims, took his place.

– Charles Blanchard gives massages, which some insecure people in the house find funny.

– Brad Tavares beat James Hammortree on every scorecard except that of Tito Ortiz, who apparently blacked out for the last 3:30 of the fight. Luckily, his card doesn’t count.

– Crabman (Jamie Yager) is getting closer to being this season’s Junie Browning.

On to this week …

We start with a recap of last week’s fight, and we learn that Yager was cheering for Tavares. Tavares is not on Yager’s team. Yager’s teammate, Nick Ring, isn’t happy about that. Ring already had feuded with Crabman, but they patch things up. We think. Yager has formed his own “team” that he calls “Minority Report.” It’s Yager (African American), Tavares (Hispanic), McCray and Kyle Noke (Australian). The others call it “Team Yager.” And worse.

Continue reading →

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mind games

World chess championship delayed

Posted on by Beau Dure

Iceland is once again playing a role in the confused history of the world chess championship, and this time, Bobby Fischer isn’t involved.

Thirty-eight years after Fischer beat Boris Spassky to break the Soviet Union’s Cold War stranglehold on the title and two years after Fischer died in Iceland as a wanted man in the USA, the 2010 title match has been delayed one day because champion Viswanathan Anand had trouble getting to Bulgaria, where challenger Veselin Topalov already has home advantage.

Anand had trouble getting to Bulgaria because — you guessed it — that giant ash cloud from Iceland’s volcano snarled his travel plans. Like Barcelona against Inter Milan, he made it by bus.

The Bulgarian organizers were reluctant to hold up the festivities. It took an act of FIDE, which has already invested the past decade and change trying to bring normalcy to the world championship, to push back the starting date. The polite but firm letter (see PDF) from FIDE Deputy President Georgios Makropoulos to organizing committee chairman Boyko Borisov, who doubles as Bulgaria’s prime minister, gives a sense of the diplomatic difficulties:

It is clear that we have reached an impasse in the discussions and a decision must be made. I also requested a
meeting with you, but I was informed, that unfortunately this was not possible.

Readers at Mig Greengard’s Daily Dirt Chess Blog have installed Anand as a heavy favorite.

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soccer

The marketing of Landon Donovan

Posted on by Beau Dure

If you stopped by the soccer page at Yahoo! yesterday, you saw this video link: “Landon Donovan gets mad at a reporter.”

Naturally, I clicked — Donovan isn’t the type to blow up at anyone. He’s heard it all before. At worst, you’ll get a mildly sarcastic answer, not hostility.

The video paints a different picture:

If it seems unbelievable, well, it is. Donovan has plenty of experience answering inane questions. And it’s hard to imagine a reporter asking about Gatorade unless it was a precondition of the interview. (Many reporters decline those preconditions.) In any case, there’s no way a question on Gatorade would send someone over the edge.

So it’s clever, though not as clever as this ad for a Mexican lottery:

Hard to imagine, say, Cuauhtemoc Blanco landing a similar ad deal in the USA.

If you’re looking for the more thoughtful side of Donovan, try this LATimes interview in which he talks a bit about attitudes toward the game in different cultures.

In the meantime, we’ll wonder what it’ll take to get soccer players back in shampoo commercials (skip to the 6:48 mark):

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Uncategorized

What I’m doing; what I’ve done

Posted on by Beau Dure

After 10 years, 4 months and a few days, I left USA TODAY at the end of March 2010. In my time there, I wrote about soccer, mixed martial arts and Olympic sports. I edited the online sections for soccer, boxing/MMA, Olympics, golf, hockey, high school sports and horse racing. (Not all at the same time, but many at the same time.) I dug into the technical side to help with IT work on our automated stats and scores. And I was a guinea pig on blogs, backpack journalism (with video), Twitter and some other things I’ve probably blocked from my memory.

I learned plenty and met people I’ll never forget, but it was a good time to go. I left after the Vancouver Games, for which I was the Nordic/biathlon beat writer after being called in to take over the online prep work with three months to go. I have other projects I want to pursue, and I hope to continue the most enjoyable part of my job — writing — as a freelancer.

The rest of my agenda, in no particular order:

If you want to hire me as a freelancer but failed to catch any of my writing for the national newspaper and its Web site, you might want to check out my work portfolio.

A few highlights, not necessarily the very best of my work (others can judge that) but offering a wide sampling:

First part of the e-mail address is duresport. Then gmail.

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cycling, mma, soccer

Monday Myriad: MMA apology time

Posted on by Beau Dure

Quick reminder: Boston Marathon this morning on Universal Sports.

So what happened this weekend?

SOCCER (Americas)

– MLS: The Galaxy look great. The bottom teams look terrible. Full roundup already up.

– WPS: Six and a half years ago, Abby Wambach scored both goals in the last WUSA final as the Washington Freedom defeated the Atlanta Beat. On Sunday, Wambach had a goal and two assists as the Freedom won their first WPS meeting with the Beat 3-1. Trivia, true to the best of my recollection (let me know if I forgot someone): The only two players from the Beat’s 2003 final lineup to play in WPS, Briana Scurry and Homare Sawa, are on the Freedom’s roster. Sawa scored for the Freedom.

It was another 3-1 decision in the Bay Area, where FC Gold Pride unleashed Christine Sinclair (two goals) and Marta (one) on the defending champion Sky Blue.

1-1 ties elsewhere: Boston-Philadelphia, Chicago-St. Louis. The great news was that St. Louis’ Lori Chalupny was in action after some concussion concerns, and she scored Athletica’s early goal. Chicago rookie Casey Nogueira, who looked amazing in the W-League a couple of years ago, had the equalizer.

USL/NASL: The early Division 2 pace-setters are the Austin Aztex, who spoiled St. Louis’ home debut with a 2-1 win. Only three goals in the other four games over the weekend, with road wins for Tampa Bay (at Baltimore) and Minnesota (at Carolina), a home win for Portland (vs. Rochester) and a 0-0 tie for Vancouver at Miami.

Charleston took the early lead in USL-2 with a 3-2 win over Charlotte. Former D.C. United developmental player/JoJo video star Mike Zaher scored for the Battery.

Brazil: Botafogo clinched the Rio title. (AP)

Mexico: American Herculez Gomez was red-carded after two goals and will wait through the regular-season finale to see if he can share the league’s scoring title. (AP)

SOCCER (Europe)

England: Arsenal fell from legit Premier League contenders to head-scratching also-rans in 10 minutes in their fourth-to-last game, conceding three goals to Wigan to fall six points behind Chelsea, which left the door open with a loss to Tottenham. The other decisive game: Manchester United got a late goal (again) to beat Manchester City in a classic derby, keeping United within a point of Chelsea and dropped City behind Tottenham in the race for the fourth Champions League spot.

Spain: Real Madrid wins, Barcelona ties — Barca’s lead is down to one.

Germany: Schalke stays within two points of Bayern Munich as both teams win, but Bayern pretty well settles the goal-difference tiebreaker by blasting Hannover 7-0. Steve Cherundolo’s side is in the relegation zone.

Italy: Milan’s loss to Sampdoria likely leaves a two-team race between Roma and Inter. Roma and Lazio “fans” had a knife fight. Shocker.

Americans in action: Goal.com’s roundup has an unlikely lead — Eric Lichaj scored a vital winner for Leyton Orient. (Goal.com)

MMA

The results were surprising for Strikeforce’s CBS show Saturday night. Inexperienced “King Mo” Lawal upset light heavyweight champion Gegard Mousasi, who re-upped with Strikeforce a couple of days earlier. Jake Shields outwrestled former Olympic wrestler Dan Henderson, and Gilbert Melendez easily handled top Japanese lightweight Shinya Aoki.

The bad news for Strikeforce: All three title fights went the distance and didn’t have a lot of crowd-pleasing action. (MMA Fighting Stances)

Then came the comedy: Jason “Mayhem” Miller, who won earlier in the night, jumped into the cage and demanded a rematch with Shields. Miller, known for entertaining entrances and his hosting duties on MTV’s Bully Beatdown, got a beatdown of his own from Shields’ camp, including the fiesty Diaz brothers. Mayhem’s immediate reaction on Twitter: “Whoops.” He has since issued a more formal apology. Not expecting one from the Diaz brothers.

TENNIS

Think Rafael Nadal is ready for the French Open? He won the Monte Carlo final over Fernando Verdasco 6-0, 6-1. (Yahoo!: Busted Racquet blog)

Top-seeded Caroline Wozniacki suffered an ankle injury and retired from her semifinal match at the Family Circle Cup in Charleston. Daniele Hantuchova upset Jelena Jankovic in the quarters but lost in the semis to Samantha Stosur, who went on to win the final over Vera Zvonareva.

BEACH VOLLEYBALL

Misty May-Treanor, who reveals in an upcoming book that she and her family struggled with alcoholism, teamed for the first time with Nicole Branagh and swept through the field at the AVP Fort Lauderdale Open. The final was rainy and windy, enough so that the men’s final that was to follow the women was canceled. (Miami Herald)

CYCLING

Alberto Contador seems to be in good shape for the Grand Tours, winning the Vuelta a Castilla y Leon. (Velo News)

With Fabian Cancellara and Tom Boonen not in the field, Belgian Philippe Gilbert won the Amstel Gold Race (Velo News)

BOXING

Not often that a Ring champion loses. Sergio Martinez landed the upset this weekend over Kelly Pavlik. (USA TODAY)

THIS WEEK

– Track and field: Penn and Drake Relays start Thursday and Friday.
– Soccer: Champions League and Europa League will go on this week despite the volcano.
–

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