Category: track and field

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, 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
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?

1
track and field

9.58 reasons to get excited about the track and field season

Posted on by Beau Dure

It’s a non-Olympic year. It’s a non-World Championship year. So why should care about track and field this summer?

1. The Diamond League. The Golden League was a neat idea — anyone who wins his/her event in each of six or seven meets gets a share of a golden jackpot. But after a while, it focused too much attention on the most predictable events, those that one person dominates. The Diamond League uses a points system so that the most competitive events will be the most interesting in the final. They’re also no longer limiting the events to a select handful each year — every Olympic event other than the marathon, decathlon and heptathlon is included.

And it’s no longer a strictly Euro thing. The 14-meet circuit starts in Qatar, stops by China and …

2. The Prefontaine and adidas Grand Prix (NYC) are on the elite circuit.

3. Lolo Jones. Charity-minded, working to overcome Olympic disappointment, blew away the field in the World Indoors 60-meter hurdles.

4. Steven Hooker. Olympic pole vault champion won 2009 world title while only taking two jumps because of a groin injury, then set a meet record at World Indoors. Somehow gets that hair over the bar.

5. Shot put. Christian Cantwell beat Belarus’ Andrei Mikhnevich with his last throw at World Indoors. Competitive season ahead.

6. Women’s pole vault no longer a foregone conclusion. Yelena Isinbayeva was only fourth at World Indoors.

7. Best street race since Seinfeld. Tyson Gay and Sanya Richards-Ross are among those competing May 16 in the CityGames in Manchester, where they’ll have a track going through the streets.

8. Shin Splints, the blog by USA Track and Field CEO and former Major League Soccer commissioner Doug Logan. As you may read in an upcoming book, Logan is quite a storyteller.

9. Penn Relays/Drake Relays weekend. The first big meets of the U.S. season are April 22-24, and at the Penn Relays …

9.58. Usain Bolt is running.

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general sports, mind games, mma, tennis, track and field

Happy Wednesday

Posted on by Beau Dure

HEADLINES

– New FIFA rankings! Spain, Brazil, Netherlands unchanged in top three. Portugal leaps past Italy and Germany for fourth. Egypt surges to 14th.

But the big news is in CONCACAF: USA 16th, Mexico 17th.

Mixed bag for the USA’s World Cup opponents: England swapped places with France to take seventh. Slovenia slipped to 29th. Algeria is up five places to 27th. (FIFA)

– Big upset in Key Biscayne’s Sony Ericsson Open, one of tennis’ near-majors: Tomas Berdych ousted Roger Federer. Tennis writer Bonnie D. Ford says via Twitter that the match was long but far too sloppy to be an “epic.” (AP)

– Would North Korea really host a couple of World Cup games if South Korea lands the 2022 Cup? As rigid as North Korea has been, who knows what the geopolitical landscape will look like by then? (Reuters)

– LPGA players are just warming up this season, and yet they’re being thrown into a major already. (USA TODAY)

– Welcome to Philadelphia, David Myrie! We’re happy to have picked you up in the MLS expansion draft, and we’re planning to build a core of good young players moving forward. Take your spot in the starting lineup for the opener. … OK, never mind, you’re cut. (Philadelphia Union)

PROVOCATIVE READS

– A few years ago, Mike Penner became Christine Daniels. Now, friends of the LA Times sportswriter are mourning two people with only one physical death. (LA Times)

– Football, religion, Sabbath … OK, I didn’t get through all of this one. (Christianity Today)

– Random preview of the day: U.S. Chess Championship in May features new format. As long as Jen Shahade is doing commentary, it should be worth checking out. (USCF)

TODAY’S TV (times ET)

– 1 p.m./9 p.m.: Tennis, Sony Ericsson quarterfinals, check Fox Sports Net affiliates

– 2:30 p.m.: Soccer, Champions League, Arsenal-Barcelona, FSC (Inter Milan-CSKA Moscow follows on delay)

– 8 p.m.: MMA, UFC Fight Night, Spike. The main event is one of the most anticipated ever on a free-TV UFC card, with longtime UFC contender Kenny Florian taking on Takanori Gomi, a Japanese fighter who has dealt with a few personal demons since the dissolution of Japan’s once-dominant Pride promotion and has finally found his way to the USA. Also a good heavyweight matchup of big (Roy Nelson) and tall (Stefan Struve) fighters trying to climb the ladder. (Bloody Elbow)

– 9 p.m.: Soccer, USA-Mexico women, ESPN2

– 10 p.m.: MMA, The Ultimate Fighter season premiere, Spike.  Recap will follow tonight right here at SportsMyriad, where I’ll hopefully have a logo and some design tweaks in place this evening.

0
basketball, mma, olympic sports, rugby, soccer, track and field, winter sports

Tuesday’s headlines: Moscow mourns, Man U in Munich

Posted on by Beau Dure

– The Champions League continues today at 2:30 p.m. ET with Bayern Munich-Manchester United (FSN) and Lyon-Bordeaux (FSC), but Wednesday’s action will have a somber tone as CSKA Moscow takes the field two days after a subway bombing that killed 39 people. The club has asked to wear black armbands (Reuters). (TV listings – Soccer America)

– CSKA Moscow’s basketball team, where Americans Trajan Langdon and J.R. Holden have carved out long careers, is in action today in the Euroleague quarterfinals against Spain’s Caja Laboral. CSKA leads the best-of-5 series 2-0. (Euroleague)

– Back to soccer’s European elite — Chelsea’s Didier Drogba has a two-match European ban. (BBC)

– Break up the U.S. men’s rugby sevens, which beat Thailand 62-0 and will play in another Cup quarterfinal. Will the USA turn into a rugby power now that the sport’s in the Olympics? (USOC)

– Tony Benshoof is the Terminator of luge. He’s having back surgery and says he might return for another season. (AP)

– Dana White talks often about the Internet being the future of broadcasting, and maybe he’s not kidding: The Ultimate Fighter will have tons of archival footage and extras online. (FanHouse)

– South Africa’s Carter Semenya, whose gender is still in question, has not been cleared to run. (AP)

– The collection of strange Diego Maradona headlines continues: He was treated at a hospital after being bitten by one of his dogs. Are the media too obsessed with him, or is his life that strange? (Reuters)

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