Category: cycling

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

Monday Myriad: Twenty20 just not cricket; injury-free Giro goal

Posted on by Beau Dure

A little late and short this week due to free-lance deadlines and a nervous trip to the auto dealer’s service department. (It lived.)

Also, these are going to be more Oly/international/MMA and less soccer because I’m already rounding up soccer elsewhere. As are other people.

Starting this week, though, with a complaint about:

CRICKET

Twenty20 cricket already takes a long, complicated game and makes it a short, extremely complicated game. But then when you have a little rain, it’s like racing to solve a Rubik’s Cube.

That’s one way of describing the way West Indies beat England 60-191 in the World Twenty20 tournament. (Cricinfo)

That leaves England needing a win over Ireland, one of the outsiders in a sport that accords “test status” to a small group of countries, to advance to the “Super Eight.”

Afghanistan didn’t pull off some sort of miracle on grass in its opener, but Noor Ali helped the team post a respectable score. (Guardian)

SOCCER

MLS: Full recap coming tomorrow. For now, read DuNord’s recap and be sure to follow the link to the story on RSL’s Andy Williams, whose wife is cancer-free but has been hospitalized a couple of times with infections, nearly causing Williams to miss a game.

WPS: Heard the phrase “league of parity” a few times after Saturday’s Freedom game. Atlanta is falling off the pace at the bottom of the league but has not yet played at home — the Beat will open their soccer-specific stadium (shared with Kennesaw State University) Sunday against Sky Blue. Looks great.

Europe: DuNord’s recap also tracks the title battles (Chelsea, Bayern set to clinch in the finales this weekend). Hannover (Steve Cherundolo) won to climb out of the Bundesliga relegation zone.

Mexico: Pachuca (Jose Francisco Torres) takes a 1-0 lead into the second leg as they try to upset top seed Monterrey in the quarterfinals.

South America: As long as we’re scanning roundups, you can’t beat this Copa Libertadores roundup at BigSoccer.

TV midweek (times ET):

  • Tuesday: Barcelona-Tenerife, 2 p.m., GolTV – Barca lead by one point in Spain with three games to play.
  • Tues/Wed/Thurs: Copa Libertadores round of 16, second legs, Fox Sports Espanol
  • Wednesday: Roma-Inter Milan, 2:45 p.m., GolTV –
  • Wednesday: Tottenham-Manchester City, 3 p.m., ESPN2 – Teams tied for fourth Champions League spot with two to play.
  • Wednesday: D.C. United-Kansas City, 7 p.m., ESPN2 – One of four midweek MLS games.

CYCLING

  • Tour of the Gila: Levi Leipheimer is the winner, with a lot of help from Lance Armstrong. Side note in the results: Floyd Landis finished ahead of Armstrong. (Velo News)
  • Tour de Romandie: Alejandro Valverde made up a one-second gap in the overall standings on the final stage for the victory. (Velo News)
  • Mountain bike World Cup: Willow Koerver finished second over the weekend to move up to first in the season standings.
  • Looking ahead: The Giro d’Italia starts Saturday. U.S. rider Christian Vande Velde is blunt about his goals: “Ideally, not break seven bones in my body.” Gotta dream big. (Velo News)

OLYMPIC/COLLEGE SPORTS

  • Track and field: Chris Solinsky is a pretty good 5,000-meter runner. He decided to dabble in the 10,000, running it for the first time at the Payton Jordan Invitational at Stanford. The result: He’s the first non-African to break 27 minutes. (IAAF)
  • Gymnastics: Dominant run for the U.S. teams at the Pacific Rim Championships in Melbourne, winning men’s and women’s team titles and 27 medals. Rebecca Bross won the women’s all-around.
  • Beach volleyball: No upset on the men’s side at the AVP’s Santa Barbara stop, with Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers winning. The women’s bracket was a little less predictable — Annett Davis and Jenny Johnson-Jordan won for the first time in two years. Their last win was in this event.
  • Wrestling: Tervel Diagnev and Justin Ruiz won golds at the Pan American Championships, where Cuba won six of seven men’s freestyle classes.
  • Judo: 2008 Olympic bronze medalist Ronda Rousey, who may one day make an MMA promoter’s day, returned for her first major competition since Beijing and won her sixth U.S. title.

TENNIS

  • ATP Rome: Rafael Nadal is back in winning form on clay, beating David Ferrer in the final.
  • WTA Stuttgart: All hail Justine Henin, showing good form on clay in her comeback.
  • Roundup: Joe Fleming is back at the helm of USA TODAY’s Weekly Net Post, where you’ll read more about the Bryan brothers‘ 60th career title and yet another Borg-McEnroe epic. When their legs give out, those guys will be playing epic matches in table tennis. Or on a Wii.

ELSEWHERE

  • Boxing: Floyd Mayweather zzzzzzzz battered in second round but zzzzzzzzzz won every other round zzzzzzzzzz to beat Shane Mosley. Talk immediately turned to when he might really fight Manny Pacquiao.
  • Chess: While I was fretting over my car, world chess challenger Veselin Topalov played a really aggressive opening with the black pieces to try to force the action against Vishy Anand. The champion couldn’t come up with a win but held on for a draw to maintain a one-point lead at 4-3 through seven games of the 12-game match. (Susan Polgar blog)
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cycling, mind games, olympic sports, soccer, tennis

Friday Myriad: Europa, but no pirate twins?

Posted on by Beau Dure

The big soccer news for U.S. fans and anyone who appreciates the underdog: Fulham reached the Europa League final, rallying from 1-0 down to win 2-1 Thursday against Hamburg. That’s not exactly Butler reaching the NCAA hoops final — Fulham plays in the Premier League, and Hamburg would’ve been the team playing at home in the final. It’s more like Northwestern, in a major conference but not a major player, reaching the NCAA hoops final. The U.S. interest is, of course, Clint Dempsey, who was on the field for the big comeback.

The weekend ahead includes another eight-game Saturday in MLS (all times ET) …

EUROPEAN SOCCER

Full listings at Soccer America. Games Saturday unless specified.

England (2 games left; Chelsea lead Man U by 1)

Fourth place/Champions League berth: Tottenham Hotspur (64 pts., +26 goal diff) lead Aston Villa (64, +16), Manchester City (63, +27) and Liverpool (62, +28).

  • Manchester City-Aston Villa, 10 a.m., FSC: Well, that’s convenient, given the standings.
  • Tottenham Hotspur-Bolton, 10 a.m., Fox Soccer Plus
  • Liverpool-Chelsea, 8:30 a.m., Fox Soccer Plus
  • Sunderland-Manchester United, 11 a.m., FSC

Italy (3 games left; Inter lead Roma by 2)

  • Parma-Roma, noon, Fox Soccer Plus
  • Lazio-Inter, 2:45 p.m. Sun., FSC

Spain (4 games left; Barca lead Real Madrid by 1)

  • Villarreal-Barcelona, 4 p.m., GolTV
  • Real Madrid-Osasuna, 1 p.m. Sun.

Germany (2 games left; Bayern and Schalke tied)

  • Hannover-Borussia Moenchengladbach, 9:30 a.m.: Hannover (Steve Cherundolo) is 17th, one behind automatic safety (15th) and one behind a playoff spot (16th). Gladbach (Michael Bradley) will finish 11th, 12th or 13th.
  • Bayern Munich-Bochum, 9:30 a.m., GolTV
  • Schalke-Werder Bremen, 9:30 a.m.

MLS (points in parentheses)

  • D.C. United (0) -New York (12), 4 p.m., TeleFutura: Worst vs. first in the East.
  • New England (6)-Dallas (3), 7:30 p.m., DK/MLSS
  • Chicago (7)-Chivas USA (6), 8:30 p.m., DK/MLSS
  • Houston (7)-Kansas City (7), 8:30 p.m., FSC
  • Salt Lake (4)-Toronto (6), 9 p.m., DK/MLSS: If Real don’t win this one, THEN it’s time to worry.
  • San Jose (6)-Colorado (10), 10 p.m., DK/MLSS
  • Los Angeles (13)-Philadelphia (3), 10:30 p.m., DK/MLSS
  • Seattle (8)-Columbus (7), 10:30 p.m., DK/MLSS

WPS

  • Sky Blue (6)-Gold Pride (6), 6 p.m., FSC/iPhone/Webcast: Better known as Bay Area-New Jersey and the battle for first place. Carli Lloyd is on 30-day injured reserve with a broken ankle.
  • Washington (3)-St. Louis (5), 6 p.m.
  • Philadelphia (5)-Atlanta (1), 6 p.m.
  • Boston (5)-Chicago (1), 6 p.m.

MEXICAN SOCCER

Quarterfinals, first leg

  • #8 Pachuca-#1 Monterrey, 6 p.m. Sat., Univision: Pachuca (Jose Francisco Torres) won the CONCACAF title this week.
  • #7 Morelia-#2 Chivas, 8 p.m. Sat.
  • #5 Santos-#4 Pumas, 5 p.m. Sun., TeleFutura
  • #6 Club America-#3 Toluca, 10 p.m. Sun., Univision

OLYMPIC/COLLEGE SPORTS

  • Cycling, Tour de Romandie
  • Gymnastics, Pacific Rim Championships, Melbourne, Australia.
  • Canoe/kayak: U.S. slalom team trials Friday.
  • Beach volleyball: AVP Santa Barbara, men’s championship, 5:30 p.m., Sun., ESPN2
  • Wrestling: Pan American Championships.
  • Diving, FINA Grand Prix, Canada.
  • NCAA winter championships special, 1 p.m. Sat., CBS

TENNIS

  • ATP, Internazionali BNL d’Italia, Rome: semifinals 7:30/10 Sat.; 10 Sun. final; Tennis Channel
  • WTA, Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, Stuttgart, Germany: semifinals 2/4 Sat. (delay); 2 Sun. (delay) final ; Tennis Channel: Watch Justine Henin and Dinara Safina
  • WTA, Grand Prix de SAR La Princesse Lalla Meryem, Fez, Morocco.

ELSEWHERE

  • Boxing: Mayweather-Mosley, 9 p.m. Sat., pay-per-view
  • Cricket: World Twenty20 starts Friday with one surprise team among the 12-team field — Afghanistan.
  • Horse racing: Kentucky Derby, 4 p.m. Sat., NBC
  • Chess: The World Championship continues as long as they can keep the lights on.

(Confused by the headline? Here’s the reference.)

1
cycling, mind games, mma, olympic sports, soccer, tennis, track and field

Monday Myriad: Bolt flies while U.S. nets wins in tennis and beach volley

Posted on by Beau Dure

TRACK AND FIELD

  • Penn Relays: Usain Bolt draws record attendance and clinches the 4×100 relay with a blazing final leg. USA fares well in the rest of the relays. (AP)
  • Drake Relays: Christian Cantwell shot putted real far, Damu Cherry upset Lolo Jones and tied the world lead in the 100m hurdles, Wallace Spearman set a world lead in the 200, Boaz Lalang upset training partner Bernard Lagat in the mile, and Chaunte Lowe posted the world lead in the high jump. (IAAF)
  • Dakar Grand Prix: The volcano kept the early-season meet from bringing in top talent. Top U.S. performances were Jillian Camarena-Williams’ shot put win and a 1-2 for Funmi Jimoh and Brianna Glenn in the long jump. (IAAF)
  • London Marathon: Ethiopia’s Tsegaye Kebede (2:05:19) and Russia’s Liliya Shobukhova (2:21:59) were the winners, along with a tethered royal, Natalie Imbruglia and a man dressed as a banana. (BBC)

CHESS

Decisive games already in the World Championship — Game 1 to Vesselin Topalov, Game 2 to Vishy Anand.

MMA

Jose Aldo kicked Urijah Faber for five rounds to retain his WEC featherweight title, Ben Henderson made quick work of Donald Cerrone in a WEC lightweight title rematch and Manny Gamburyan shocked Mike Brown with a one-punch, first-round KO.

SOCCER

MLS is already covered.

England

  • Top: Chelsea kept a one-point lead over Manchester United and padded its goal difference with a 7-0 drubbing of Stoke.
  • 4th Champions spot: Aston Villa won the derby over Birmingham 1-0 to tie Tottenham and move a point ahead of Manchester City, two ahead of Liverpool.
  • Relegation: West Ham (Jonathan Spector) beat Wigan to pull six points clear of Hull (Jozy Altidore). Burnley and Portsmouth are out.
  • Americans abroad: Jozy Altidore apologized by Twitter after a retaliatory head butt drew a red card and ended his season.
  • Injuries: Manchester City have appealed for an emergency goalkeeper after Shay Given’s injury. We’re guessing Villa won’t let them borrow Brad Guzan. (Soccernet)

Germany

  • Top: Borussia Moenchengladbach (Michael Bradley) tied Bayern Munich, opening the door for Schalke to tie for the lead with a win over Hertha Berlin with two weeks left.
  • Americans: Hannover (Steve Cherundolo) lost 0-3 to Bayer Leverkusen but remained just one point behind automatic safety and one behind a playoff spot. Ricardo Clark made his injury-delayed Eintracht Frankfurt debut.

Spain

  • Barcelona and Real Madrid each won, leaving Barca one point ahead. Barca still has Champions League play but need not leave the country any more, with the semifinal’s second leg at home and the final in Madrid.

Italy

  • Shocking loss for Roma at home to Sampdoria. Inter Milan now leads by two. AC Milan lost to Palermo and is out of it.

Scotland

  • Rangers clinched the title with Maurice Edu starting, DaMarcus Beasley on the bench. (Soccer By Ives roundup)_

Cups

  • Aris (Freddy Adu, Eddie Johnson) lost the Cup final 1-0 to Panathinaikos. Adu played the last few minutes.
  • Dutch Cup final: Ajax 2, Feyenoord 0

WPS

  • FC Gold Pride 2, Atlanta 1: Carrie Dew with the 89th-minute winner off Kiki Bosio’s flip throw. Atlanta’s Tobin Heath left on crutches.
  • Philadelphia 3, Washington 1: Both starting keepers were away with the Canadian national team. Former Freedom midfielder Lori Lindsey had two assists.
  • Chicago 0, Sky Blue 1: Pattern — Natasha Kai scores for the Jersey team; defense holds it.
  • St. Louis 1, Boston 1: Puddles on the field made it interesting.

Mexico (regular season over; playoff pairings follow)

  • American Herculez Gomez (Puebla) won a share of the scoring title.
  • #1 Monterrey vs. #8 Pachuca (Jose Francisco Torres)
  • #2 Chivas vs. #7 Morelia
  • #3 Toluca vs. #6 Club America
  • #4 Pumas vs. #5 Santos Laguna

CYCLING

  • Liege-Bastogne-Liege: Alexandre Vinokourov won and then endured grilling over the blood doping offense for which he has served a suspension. He and Alexander Kolobnev pulled away from the field with 15k left for a two-man sprint. Chris Horner was in the second group, 1:07 back, for sixth place. (Reuters)
  • Athens Twilight Criterium: Karl Menzies and Theresa Cliff-Ryan win in the rain. (Velo News)
  • Little 500: Special for Breaking Away fans — The Cutters won their fourth straight. (Velo News)

BOXING

  • Mikkel Kessler took Carl Froch’s WBC super middleweight title with a unanimous decision. Both fighters are 1-1 in the Super Six super middleweight tournament.
  • Tomasz Adamek took a close majority decision over Cristobal Arreola.

OLYMPIC/COLLEGE SPORTS

  • Beach volleyball, FIVB World Tour, Brazil: Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers are the first U.S. team to win an FIVB event in Brazil in 14 years. (USA Volleyball)
  • Wrestling, U.S. Open: Wisconsin sophomore Andrew Howe shines; Olympic medalist/MMA newcomer Sara McMann loses a close one. (USA TODAY; full results at TheMat.com)

TENNIS

  • Fed Cup semifinals: Stunner! Bethanie Mattek-Sands leads the Williams-less USA past Russia. Defending champion Italy awaits in the final. (AP)
  • ATP Rome: All hail 6-9 American John Isner, the pride of Greensboro and the University of Georgia, who won on his 25th birthday. (AP)
  • ATP Barcelona: Fernando Verdasco over Robin Soderling in the final.
1
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.
4
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.
–

3
cycling, olympic sports, soccer

Weekend wrap: Schizophrenic synchronized diving, more Messi, Horner’s hat

Posted on by Beau Dure

What did you miss if you were focusing on The Masters?

SOCCER

– Portsmouth made it to the FA Cup final against Chelsea, which would qualify the already-relegated Premier League team for the Europa Cup … if they can win an appeal after failing to turn in their paperwork on time. (BBC)

– Remembering Ruben Mendoza, who played in the youth system of Mexican club Atlante but was a U.S. national teamer in the 1950s and a U.S. Open Cup champion with St. Louis club Kutis. (US Soccer Players)

– Hey, we thought MLS was the only league that played on while national team players were elsewhere. (AP)

– Real Madrid has been giving Barcelona a good chase this year, but Messi’s club now has the look of a team on one of those majestic runs at which others can only marvel. The Spanish showdown this weekend: Real Madrid 0, Barcelona 2. (ESPN video)

– Bayern Munich was a little less emphatic in stamping its authority over the race in Germany, eking out a 1-1 draw with Bayer Leverkusen (The Offside)

CYCLING

– This is not a leftover from last week — Fabian Cancellara broke away and left Tom Boonen behind to win the classic Paris-Roubaix race. Next up: Cancellara conquers America. (USA TODAY: Sal Ruibal’s blog)

– Americans didn’t fare well in Paris-Roubaix, but check out the winner of the Tour of the Basque Country — it’s Chris Horner, who spent years dominating in the States before getting a consistent ride in Europe. (VeloNews)

ELSEWHERE

– Curling: Fourth place for Pete Fenson and the USA, first place for Canada at the World Championships. (Universal Sports videos)

– Modern pentathlon: The BBC produced a 10-minute highlight/feature reel that’s a good introduction to the sport for those of you who didn’t spend a whole day covering the women’s event in Beijing. Top U.S. finishers, not appearing in this video, were Will Brady (19th) and Margaux Isaksen (24th). No word on whether Isaksen kissed her horse.  (BBC video)

– Marathon: Ethiopia’s Tadesse Tola won the Paris Marathon in 2 hours, 6 minutes and 41 seconds. Let’s check the pace calculator here: That’s a 4:50 mile, repeated 26 1/4 times. (AP)

– Triathlon: A couple of top-10s for U.S. athletes in Sydney (USOC),

– Boxing: Evander Holyfield wins a world heavyweight title of some sort. So will you please retire for good this time? No? You want to fight a Klitschko? Please, no. (ESPN)

– Diving: Diving ‘gainst myse-elf, oh oh, diving ‘gainst myse-elf! With a synchro selection giving coaches reflection, I’m diving ‘gainst myse-elf, oh oh … (USOC)

– Tennis/cricket: Those of us in Duke-North Carolina marriages have nothing on this — Indian tennis star Sania Mirza and Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik married over the weekend. Congratulations and best wishes for peace. (BBC)

We covered the UFC bout that mattered (we’re ignoring Anderson Silva’s sleepwalking defense of his middleweight belt), and we’ll have an MLS/WPS wrap later today.

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cycling, general sports, mma, olympic sports, soccer

Wednesday now officially renamed Messiday

Posted on by Beau Dure

The top news from yesterday: The story from Barcelona quickly changed from “Hey, can Arsenal really win at the Nou Camp?” to “Do we go ahead and put Lionel Messi alongside Pele and Maradona?” The young Argentine, just three years removed from being hyped alongside Freddy Adu as one of the potential stars of the U-20 World Cup, scored four goals to silence any talk of Arsenal advancing to the semis. Inter Milan advanced past CSKA Moscow in the other Tuesday quarterfinal.

Also:

– Soccer: Speaking of four-goal outbursts, Cruz Azul waited until the last 20 minutes to turn an aggregate tie into a rout against Pumas in the CONCACAF Champions League semis. (The Original Winger – video)

– Soccer: Former D.C. United goalkeeping prospect Milos Kocic has turned up with Toronto FC, where Mo Johnston says he can learn from Stefan Frei and Jon Conway. Kocic, though, is a year older than Frei and therefore might not have much of a future there unless Frei gets snapped up by a European club at some point — which shouldn’t be out of the question. (Toronto FC “beta” site)

– Soccer: A far more curious story from Toronto — unconfirmed reports say Jim Brennan will abruptly retire as a player and join the front office. The club has scheduled a 1:30 p.m. ET “player announcement.” (Toronto Sun)

– Curling: Pete Fenson and the USA won their must-win against Italy to move into a tie for a playoff spot in the World Championships. (USOC)

– MMA: Suspended heavyweight Josh Barnett seems resigned to sitting out a year before applying to get his California fight license again, frustrated with delays in his appeal that he blames on California authorities. He’s been busy fighting overseas and working on his “film career” along with every other MMA fighter. It’d be a pity not to give the articulate Barnett a day in court to see if he can address his second U.S. doping offense. (MMA Junkie)

– Golf: Story too strange to pass up — John Daly didn’t qualify for The Masters, so he set up shop in August selling merchandise. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

– Soccer: And in this amusing video, Philly defender Danny Califf aims for a cup atop Danny Bonaduce’s head and misses several times, the last one catching Bonaduce flush in the face. Bonaduce also has been KO’d by Sugar Ray Leonard in the studio, so he takes the shot pretty well. But we’d fear for his safety if fellow Union defender Toni Stahl showed up. (The Offside Rules)

TODAY’S TV

– Now: Cycling, Tour of the Basque Country, Universal Sports webcast

– 2:30 p.m. ET: Soccer, Champions League quarterfinals, second leg. Manchester United-Bayern Munich is on Fox Soccer Channel. Bordeaux-Lyon is on Fox Soccer Plus, then replayed at 5 on FSC.

– 10 p.m. ET: MMA, The Ultimate Fighter, Spike. Check back for the recap by 11:30 p.m.

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basketball, cycling, olympic sports, soccer, sports culture

Tuesday tribalism (and news, not all about Duke)

Posted on by Beau Dure

We’re Americans, with a capital ‘A’, huh? You know what that means? Do ya? That means that our forefathers were kicked out of every decent country in the world. We are the wretched refuse. We’re the underdog. We’re mutts! … We’re mutants. There’s something wrong with us, something very, very wrong with us. Something seriously wrong with us – we’re soldiers. But we’re American soldiers! We’ve been kicking ass for 200 years! We’re 10 and 1!

– John Winger (Bill Murray), Stripes

America may be the biggest and most powerful country the world has seen since Britain decided to quit naming most of the world after its monarchs, but we still love the underdog. No one’s making a movie about the big school with the great facilities that won the Indiana high school basketball championship as expected.

Once upon a time, Mike Krzyzewski and Duke were the underdogs challenging the long reign of Dean Smith and North Carolina in the ACC. No one had a clue of what was to come. True story: In a freshman dorm at Duke in the fall of 1987, someone said it was a shame we had all arrived after all the good basketball. And no one doubted it.

That’s changed a bit. The well-mannered runners-up with the unruly trend-setting crowd have become champions once, twice, three and now four times. By 2001, most people were sick of seeing Shane Battier on ESPN, no matter how likable and admirable the guy was. And seriously, what was up with that “Who’s your daddy Battier” chant?

Duke is also seen as a place of privilege, and as a standout Salon piece points out, Americans have mixed feelings about that. They’re not even consistent in how they apply that prejudice to basketball. Why would Duke be any more evil than Georgetown, another private school where the rent is a lot higher than it is in the crime-infested neighborhoods around Duke?

Continue reading →

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basketball, cycling, soccer, tennis

Monday news: 1 week and counting, Coach K rumors

Posted on by Beau Dure

SportsMyriad is one week into its existence, and I’m keeping it in “soft-launch” mode for another day or two. The idea here is to do mostly original content, and that takes time to bring to fruition. When you’re still catching up on household things like paying taxes and trying to finish up an expense report for a former employer, that content doesn’t just spring up. And while you can’t tell from looking at it, I have put a lot of time into the “design” here.

Once I’m up to speed, you’ll still likely a get a weekday morning roundup. Like so …

NEWS

– Soccer: Sure, the big game had a couple of controversial calls each way, but Chelsea looked outstanding in winning at Old Trafford to leapfrog Manchester United and take first place in the Premier League with five games to play. Arsenal is still just three points back.

The lead also changed hands in Germany, with Bayern Munich beating Schalke. (AFP)

– Tennis: Andy Roddick took his first win at a “Masters 1000” tournament, the most recent name for the not-quite-majors, since 2006, beating Rafael Nadal in the semis and rolling past Tomas Berdych in the final. In an era dominated by Nadal and Roger Federer, Roddick should get full credit for trying everything he can to break the stranglehold. He even raised some money for Chilean earthquake relief over the weekend. The women’s winner in Key Biscayne: Kim Clijsters, who wiped out Venus Williams. (USA TODAY’s Weekly Net Post, a great roundup of the tennis scene)

– Cycling: Fabian Cancellara powered away from Tom Boonen for an epic win in the Tour of Flanders. Lance Armstrong, George Hincapie and Tyler Farrar all finished with the lead pack. AP says Lance was thrilled with his ride, but is anyone concerned that Lance had no teammates there? (VeloNews)

– Curling: Rough going for Pete Fenson and the USA so far at the World Championships. (USOC)

– Rowing: Cambridge shocks Oxford to win the Boat Race. (Telegraph)

THOUGHTS

– College basketball: Mike and Mike this morning were all over two stories, both affecting me as a loyal fan of my hometown and alma mater’s teams. First was Donovan McNabb to the Redskins, about which I have no useful comment. The second: NorthJersey.com reports, in an anonymously sourced story curiously buried on their site, that the New Jersey Nets’ incoming owner, Mikhail Prokhorov, is prepared to offer Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski between $12M and $15M per year to be coach and maybe GM.

A few reasons why Coach K would be unlikely to move:

1. He doesn’t need the money. If you’re a pro football player with 5-10 years of peak earning potential, then yes, you go to the highest bidder. If you’ve been coaching for more than 30 years and can go another 5-10, you’ve already accumulated enough money to do pretty much anything you want to do.

2. He loves where he is. Durham is his family home. He works with Duke’s business school. He loves being part of a campus setting.

3. He’s healthy where he is. This is a guy who has been through hip replacement already. Want to put him through 82 games (plus preseason and playoffs) of flying all over the country?

4. He has already won at the “highest level”? Even if you consider the NBA a higher “level” than college basketball — debatable, considering how different the jobs are — Coach K has already won at what he would consider a higher level than that. The patriotic West Point guy coached Team USA to an Olympic gold medal that recent history has shown is no sure thing. Once you’ve done that with pro players, what’s the point of trying to prove you can do that in the NBA?

Dick Vitale, who may love Duke even more than this two-time graduate does, quickly dismissed the idea. He won’t be alone.

And speaking of great 30-year runs … happy anniversary, R.E.M.

Update: Didn’t take long to get the official Coach K denial of interest.

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