U.S. defeats China, wins Four Nations title
Goals from midfielder Lori Chalupny and striker Natasha Kai gave the United States a 2-0 victory over China on Tuesday and a record fifth Four Nations tournament title at Guangzhou, China.
The women’s soccer tournament is a warmup for the World Cup in China this fall.
The Americans dominated and managed to contain China’s top two scoring threats, Han Duan and Ma Xiaoxu.
American defender Oguchi Onyewu joined Newcastle on loan in a move that will keep him in the English Premier League for at least the rest of the season. Onyewu passed a medical test and agreed to leave Belgian team Standard Liege.
Ronaldo, the World Cup’s all-time leading scorer, left Madrid for AC Milan, returning to Italy’s Serie A for a reported $9.73 million transfer fee. The 30-year-old Brazil striker will be with Milan until 2008 -- the same length as the remainder of his contract at Madrid.
Midfielder Edgar Davids joined Ajax Amsterdam on an 18-month contract, returning to the club where he began his career. Davids, 33, who was playing for Tottenham in England, also had been in talks with FC Dallas of Major League Soccer.
MISCELLANY
Red Sox have out
in contract with Drew
The Boston Red Sox would be able to void the final two years of J.D. Drew’s contract if he spends 35 days on the disabled list in 2009 with a specified injury.
The team could also get out of the deal if Drew finishes the ’09 season on the DL and can’t play the outfield in 2010, according to terms of the agreement obtained by the Associated Press.
A similar provision lets the team off the hook for the final $14 million in 2011 if Drew is injured in ’10.
The Tennis Channel and ESPN have entered into a multi-year, multimedia deal in which they will share rights to the French and Australian Opens.
Last August, the Tennis Channel acquired rights to the French Open and now, as specified in the new alliance, will share those rights with ESPN, which will air its portion of the coverage on ESPN2 and also offer live streaming video.
ESPN2’s telecast of the Australian Open women’s final Friday night earned the network’s highest tennis rating in history. Serena Williams’ surprising eighth Grand Slam victory drew a 1.9 cable rating, representing 1,715,000 homes. The previous best was a 1.5 rating, or 1,350,000 homes, for the 2005 Australian Open women’s final in which Williams defeated Lindsay Davenport.
ESPN, meanwhile, said its coverage of the Winter X Games averaged an 0.8 cable rating, which was unchanged from last year. But among male viewers age 18 to 24, the rating was up 53%.
Time Warner Cable and Channel 9 announced the launch of KCAL 9 HD, a new high-definition channel for customers of Time Warner Cable in Southern California.
Beginning Friday, all Channel 9 Lakers telecasts will be available in HD on Time Warner’s Channel 409.
Versus, formerly OLN, will continue to televise the NHL, having exercised its option for the 2007-08 season for $72.5 million and picked up the rights for three additional seasons for an undisclosed amount, according to multichannel.com.
Larry Stewart
*
Officials at the Kentucky Derby Museum, located on the grounds of Churchill Downs, said they’d be “honored” if Barbaro were buried in a garden along with four other Derby winners.
Christian Prudhomme, the Tour de France’s race director, expressed frustration over the slow progress of Floyd Landis’ doping case.
“The anti-doping commission in the United States won’t meet until the first days of March to study the Landis case -- that’s too much time,” Prudhomme was quoted as saying in sports daily As. “The situation is unbearable.”
MacKinzie Kline, a top-ranked 14-year-old golfer from Encinitas with a rare heart condition, received a spot to play in an LPGA Tour event this year and got a medical exemption to use a cart on the course, a first for the LPGA.
She will play in the $2.6-million Ginn Tribute from May 31-June 3 at Mount Pleasant, S.C.
Top-seeded James Blake, bidding for his 10th career title, brushed past Robert Kendrick, 6-3 6-2, at the Delray Beach International at Miami
Philipp Kohlschreiber lost to Davide Sanguinetti, 7-5 6-3.
