■ Soccer
Switch is on for Romario
Soccer officials changed the schedule of the Brazilian Cup on Monday so Romario got a chance to score his 1,000th career goal at Maracana stadium. Romario's Vasco side was supposed to play its match today against Gama at Sao Januario stadium in Rio de Janeiro, but the game was transferred to Maracana at the striker's request, Vasco spokesman Roberto Garofalo said. The match between Fluminense and America, which originally was scheduled for the same time at Maracana, had its start delayed several hours and will be played as part of a doubleheader.
■ Basketball
Coaches elected to Hall
Phil Jackson, a winner of 10 NBA titles as a player and coach, and fellow coaches Pedro Ferrandiz of Spain and Mirko Novosel of Yugoslavia were selected for the US Basketball Hall of Fame on Monday. Also selected were Roy Williams, who has taken two schools to the US college championship final, the 1966 US college champion Texas Western team, four-time WNBA championship coach Van Chancellor and former NBA referee Mendy Rudolph. Jackson has won nine NBA titles as a coach with the Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers, matching Red Auerbach's record. He also played for the 1973 champion New York Knicks.
■ Soccer
Blanco to sign with Fire
Mexican forward Cuauhtemoc Blanco arrived in Chicago and was greeted by a throng of 5,000 on Monday, a day before US Major League Soccer's (MLS) Chicago Fire said he would sign with the club. Blanco will become the latest high-profile player to join an MLS club under the US league's "designated player rule" following England's David Beckham, who signed with the Los Angeles Galaxy in January, and former US international Claudio Reyna, who will debut for the New York Red Bulls when the season opens on Saturday. Like Beckham, Blanco's contract with Mexico City side Club America expires in June, after which the El Tri veteran will be eligible to join Chicago.
■ Football
NFL cancels China game
The exhibition game scheduled for China in August was canceled on Monday by the NFL, which said it wanted to concentrate its "global resources" on next October's regular-season game in London. The game had been set for Aug. 9 in Beijing, the second of two consecutive contests between the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks, who had been scheduled to meet in Seattle the previous week. That game also was called off, NFL spokesman Michael Signora said on Monday. Although San Francisco and Arizona met in Mexico City in 2005, the NFL has never played a regular-season game outside North America. The first will take place in London on Oct. 28.
■ Tennis
Dog chomps Gonzalez
Fifth-ranked Fernando Gonzalez has paid a price for his love of animals, Chilean state television reported on Monday. Gonzalez was driving his car on a busy Santiago avenue on Saturday afternoon when he saw a dog in the middle of the street that had been struck by another vehicle. Gonzalez stopped to pick up the dog and take it to a clinic, but the animal bit the small finger of his right hand. "It was a small dog that I tried to take a veterinary clinic. It's nothing serious," Gonzalez said.
RSS