Cardinals fire defensive coordinator Clancy Pendergrast

The Arizona Cardinals fired defensive coordinator Clancy Pendergast on Saturday, less than a week after the team played Pittsburgh in the Super Bowl.

“Like every decision, it comes down to what’s best for the team and what gives us the best chance to win,” Coach Ken Whisenhunt said in a statement.

Pendergast’s departure leaves the team without both coordinators. Offensive coordinator Todd Haley was named head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs on Friday.

Pendergast, 41, was hired by Dennis Green in 2004 and stayed on when Whisenhunt took over in 2007. He has been a coach in the NFL since 1995.

SOCCER

Beckham to play for England

David Beckham’s strong play with AC Milan earned him a spot on the England team that will play Spain in an exhibition game Wednesday.

England Coach Fabio Capello selected the Galaxy star among 23 players who will go to Seville to face the European champions, who are on a 28-game unbeaten run.

Beckham, who wants to join the Italian club full time, has scored two goals and started all six games since going to Serie A.

WINTER SPORTS

Canada’s Kucera wins downhill title

John Kucera became the first Canadian man to win the downhill at a world championships, skiing flawlessly and then watched one top skier after another fail to match him in Val d’Isere, France.

He finished in 2 minutes 7.01 seconds. Didier Cuche of Switzerland, who won the super-giant slalom Wednesday, was 0.04 behind, and Carlo Janka of Switzerland was third, 0.17 back.

Bode Miller, winless this season in World Cup competition, was slowed by fog and finished eighth.

Kelly Clark won the World Cup halfpipe snowboard events in Bardonecchia, Italy. Clark scored 1,000 points to lead a U.S. sweep. Hannah Teiter was second, followed by Gretchen Bleiler.

Mathieu Crepel of France won the men’s event, scoring 1,000 points to beat Nathan Johnstone of Australia. Iouri Podladtchikov of Switzerland was third.

Mario Stecher led an Austrian 1-2 finish at a Nordic combined World Cup event in Seefeld, Austria. Stecher was fourth after the jumping and sixth in the 10-kilometer cross-country race to finish in a combined time of 25:29.0, beating Lukas Klapfer by 4.8 seconds.

Canadians Jennifer Heil and Alexandre Bilodeau won the World Cup freestyle moguls in West Vancouver, Canada. Hannah Kearney of the U.S. was second in the women’s competition.

German teenager Felix Loch won the men’s singles title at the luge world championships in Lake Placid, N.Y.

HOCKEY

Stars put Avery on waivers

The Dallas Stars put Sean Avery on waivers, moving the controversial left wing one step closer toward a return to the NHL.

Germany qualified for the Vancouver Winter Olympics by edging Austria, 2-1, in Frankfurt.

St. Cloud State junior forward Ryan Lasch, a Lake Forest native, was chosen as the Hockey Commissioners’ Assn. Division I player of the month for January. Lasch, who went to Mission Viejo Trabuco Hills High, had 14 points in eight games, leading the Huskies to a 4-3-1 record against four nationally ranked teams.

ETC.

Stuczynski sets U.S. record in pole vault

Jenn Stuczynski cleared the bar at 15 feet 9 3/4 to break a 6-year-old American mark and win the women’s pole vault at the Boston Indoor Games for the third straight year. Olympic champion Steven Hooker of Australia won the men’s pole vault with a height of 19-10 1/2 .

On the track, Sentayehu Ejigu of Ethiopia outleaned Olympic bronze medalist Shalane Flanagan and hit the tape 0.005 seconds in front to win the women’s 5,000 meters in 14:47.613 seconds. Flanagan, who finished with the same official time on the scoreboard, set an American record.

Jim Vernon of Pasadena was elected to a second one-year term as president of the United States Golf Assn. at the association’s annual meeting in Newport Beach.

PASSINGS

Jameson, 89, was LPGA tour pioneer

Betty Jameson, one of the 13 founding members of the LPGA tour in 1950, died Saturday in Boynton Beach, Fla., the tour said. She was 89.