Foudy’s Three Goals Lead U.S. to Win Over Ukraine
Julie Foudy’s three goals led the United States over Ukraine, 5-0, in a women’s soccer match at Fresno.
Foudy’s first two scores, including a 25-yard shot set up by Kate Sobrero, came in the first 10 minutes of the second half to give the U.S. a 4-0 lead.
Foudy has 27 goals in 138 international appearances, including six goals this year for the U.S. (22-1-2).
Tiffeny Milbrett scored 20 minutes into the game off a centering pass from Shannon MacMillan for the opening goal. Debbie Keller added the fifth goal.
The Ukraine, which appeared content to stay back on defense and try to keep the game close, had just one shots on goal in each half.
*
Graham Kelly, who quit as English soccer’s top executive because of allegations involving a $5-million loan to the Welsh federation, said the payment was not a bribe.
“A bribe to me is somebody slipping something into somebody’s back pocket and then they go away and stash it in the Bahamas,” he said.
Kelly and Football Assn. Chairman Keith Wiseman promised the money to the Welsh FA without telling the rest of the executive committee of the English FA. The payment has been interpreted as a bribe to gain a Welsh vote in Wiseman’s favor in an election regarding FIFA, soccer’s ruling body.
Kelly has denied that was the motive in what has become the biggest scandal in the FA’s 135-year history.
He acknowledges the payment was in keeping with the English FA’s policy of helping cash-strapped soccer federations, and he saw nothing wrong if that policy aided England’s bid to win the 2006 World Cup.
Olympics
Juan Antonio Samaranch, president of the International Olympic Committee, expects his organization to find a new way of selecting Olympic cities as a result of the widening bribery scandal regarding the Salt Lake City 2002 Winter Games.
“After this scandal, I believe that the IOC as a whole must accept that the system needs to change and that we can’t continue like this,” Samaranch told Le Matin newspaper. “We are not happy with the way of selecting organizing cities for the games.”
The IOC has been shaken by accusations of rampant corruption and vote-buying masterminded by agents. A top IOC member, Switzerland’s Marc Hodler, has estimated that up to 7% of the 115 members are open to bribery.
Winter Sports
Swiss world champion Michael Von Gruenigen claimed his first World Cup victory of the season when he skied a faultless second run to win a men’s giant slalom at Alta Badia, Italy. The Olympic bronze medalist was second after the first leg but was more than half a second faster than the rest of the field in his final run to finish with a combined time of 2 minutes 41.01 seconds for his 15th career World Cup win.
Karin Roten of Switzerland powered to a World Cup slalom victory at Veysonnaz, Switzerland. Roten ended a victory drought for the Swiss team that stretched back to January 1997.
Three-time Olympic champion Georg Hackl of Germany won his second World Cup luge singles race of the season, with Adam Heidt of the U.S. a surprising third at Winterberg, Germany. The victory over perennial rival Markus Prock of Austria gave Hackl the lead in the overall standings.
Jurisprudence
Three minor league players for the New York Mets were sentenced to two years in prison and two years’ probation for their part in the gang-rape of a 17-year-old girl.
Jose Brea Tucent, 18, Natividad Tavarez, 19, and Milton Gonzalez, 18, all of the Dominican Republic, were released on bond in Fort Pierce, Fla., pending their appeal.
Prosecutors had requested 15 years in prison and 15 years’ probation for each of them, but Circuit Judge C. Pfeiffer Trowbridge sentenced the three as youthful offenders Friday.
The three were convicted in October of raping the girl at the Port St. Lucie Holiday Inn, where they were staying during the Mets’ extended spring training in April.
Two other suspects, Vincent Rosario, 19, and fellow player Ruddi De La Cruz, 19, are expected to go to trial in early January.
Miscellany
Stuart Appleby shot a final-round 69 to win the Coolum Classic at Coolum, Australia. Appleby finished with a 17-under 271 for his first professional victory in his home country and his first win since the death of his wife, Renay, who was killed in July when she was crushed by a car outside a London railway station.
China finished with 129 of the 378 gold medals awarded at the Asian Games, which closed at Bangkok, Thailand. South Korea finished with 65.
