Ferguson Is the King of the Cups

What do soccer, golf and horse racing have in common? More to the point, what links the European Cup, the Ryder Cup and today’s Breeders’ Cup?

The answer, surprisingly enough, is Manchester United Coach Alex Ferguson.

The 60-year-old Scot won the European Cup in 1999; he has a longtime friend, Scottish golfer Sam Torrance, who last month won the Ryder Cup, and today Ferguson has a horse, Rock of Gibraltar, who is the even-money favorite to win the Mile in the Breeders’ Cup.

In June of 2001, Ferguson bought a 50% share of the Irish-bred colt for just under $200,000. Since then, the 3-year-old, trained by Aidan O’Brien, has won seven consecutive Grade I races in Europe, breaking a 30-year-old record set by the great Mill Reef.

Today’s Mile at Arlington Park will be Rock of Gibraltar’s final race before retiring to stud. Ferguson has enjoyed -- not to mention profited from -- the ride. The colt is estimated to be worth $50 million in stud fees.

“It’s difficult to compare [horse racing] with football,” Ferguson said earlier this year. “I give the orders [at Manchester United], whereas in racing I leave everything to Aidan.”

Ferguson doesn’t mind being a spectator, though, as he showed when Torrance led Europe to victory over the United States in the Ryder Cup last month.

“It was fantastic,” Ferguson said at the time. “I don’t think I’ve ever been gripped in a sport other than football in the way I was. It was incredible. At times it was almost perfection.

“I’m really delighted for Sam. I’ve known him since he was a lad. That was a long time ago. He showed he was never in a panic. He was in control, and it’s good to see someone in control.”

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A Good Week

It has been a good week for Wayne Rooney. Last Saturday, he scored a superb goal for Everton to defeat English champion Arsenal and end its seven-month, 30-game unbeaten streak in the Premier League.

Then there was the pleasing news that his agents had reached agreement with Everton on a contract worth nearly $750,000 a year.

And, oh yes, there was his birthday. On Thursday, Wayne Rooney turned 17.

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A Bad Week

It has been a bad week for aging Mexican dentist Hugo Sanchez. On Tuesday, Sanchez, coach of UNAM in Mexico, was incensed after the Pumas were beaten, 1-0, by unheralded Estudiantes de Merida in Venezuela in a Copa Libertadores qualifying game.

“They had warned me about the refereeing in the Libertadores, but I didn’t think it was as bad as this,” Sanchez fumed.

On Wednesday, Sanchez received more bad news when his bitter rival, Argentine-born Ricardo Lavolpe, was named Mexico’s national coach, a job Sanchez had sought. Starting when they were players, the two have feuded for years.

It remains to be seen whether Lavolpe will further torment Sanchez by either ignoring UNAM players or by calling them into the national team at inconvenient times.

Either way, it might be enough to make Sanchez wonder why he chose coaching instead of putting his dentistry degree to use.

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Foreign Flavor

The goal scored by Carlos Ruiz on Sunday against the New England Revolution not only gave the Galaxy its first Major League Soccer championship but kept alive an odd streak.

Americans Eddie Pope and Tony Sanneh scored the game-winning goals in the first two MLS Cups in 1996 and 1997, but the winner has been scored by a foreign player for the last five seasons.

In 1998 it was Poland’s Jerzy Podbrozny; in 1999 it was Bolivia’s Jaime Moreno; in 2000 it was Denmark’s Miklos Molnar; in 2001 it was Canada’s Dwayne DeRosario, and in 2002 it was Guatemala’s Ruiz. It doesn’t mean much, but it is a peculiar statistic.

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Say What?

It looks as if Claudio Reyna, the U.S. team captain, is in for an eye-opening time now that his English Premier League club, Sunderland, has hired Howard Wilkinson as coach.

England’s Guardian newspaper reports that when Wilkinson, 58, was asked his heroes, he rattled off five of them: “[jockey] Lester Piggott, Frank Sinatra, Fidel Castro has done a magnificent job in some respects, the fellow who invented red wine, and the outside right I used to have at Boston United [an amateur team he coached three decades ago].”

Here’s another bit on Wilkinson wisdom: “If you make it a game of life or death, you’ll be dead a lot.”

Reyna surely never heard anything like that from U.S. Coach Bruce Arena.

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How Great I Am

Roberto Carlos believes there is only one player who deserves to be chosen FIFA world player of the year for 2002: Roberto Carlos.

“I’m the only player in the world who won everything in 48 days,” the Real Madrid left back told the Spanish sports daily AS. “If they don’t want to give me an award, then fine, but my titles are there for all to see. My rivals all had one bad competition. It’s been my year.”

Roberto Carlos won the European Champions Cup with Real Madrid in May and the World Cup with Brazil in June.

The award for modesty has yet to be presented.