Mexico routs U.S. for fifth Gold Cup title
Soccer: Finally, a win against the Americans on U.S. soil for Mexico.
And, finally, the charmed run by the young hosts in the Gold Cup ended in a crushing defeat.
Mexico snapped a decade victory drought against the Americans Sunday with a 5-0 rout in the East Rutherford, N.J., for its fifth CONCACAF regional championship. Captain Gerardo Torrado scored on a penalty kick in the 56th minute, then the inexperienced U.S. squad came unglued.
As an overwhelmingly pro-Mexico sellout crowd of 79,156 rocked Giants Stadium, Giovani Dos Santos and Carlos Vela scored 5 minutes apart despite several brilliant saves by Troy Perkins. Indeed, it seemed the goalkeeper was the only American on the field during the 11-minute blitz in which Mexico’s attackers could have sprinted all the way back to Azteca Stadium without being touched.
Jose Antonio Castro and Guillermo Franco put the finishing touches on Mexico’s first win at the United States since March 1989. Castro scored off a great through-pass from Vela, a substitute who energized Mexico when he entered the game after halftime.
The United States, fielding an inexperienced squad after the top team finished second in the Confederations Cup last month, could not maintain American dominance of its continental rival.
•Chelsea defeats Club America: Franco DiSanto and Florent Malouda each set up the other for a goal in the span of two minutes in the second half to lead Chelsea to a 2-0 win over Club America in the final game of the World Football Challenge at Arlington, Texas.
Chelsea went undefeated in winning the four-team, round robin-style tournament, which was played in six cities across the United States over the last week. Club America was second, one point ahead of Inter Milan.
•Inter Milan tops AC Milan: Diego Milito scored twice to lead Inter Milan to a 2-0 victory over AC Milan in an exhibition at Foxborough, Mass., that was just the third match the bitter intercity rivals have ever played outside Italy.
The crowd of 42,531 leaned heavily toward AC Milan, and they were quieted in the fourth minute when Milito chased the ball down to the left of the goal and left-footed it between the goalkeeper Zeljko Kalac and the near post.
Phelps off to winning start at worlds
Swimming: Michael Phelps and the Americans got the best of France again in the relay. And just like Beijing, the world’s greatest swimmer owed a big hand to his teammates.
Phelps led off the 400-meter freestyle relay, his first event of the world swimming championships in Rome, but he was only third when he turned it over to Ryan Lochte.
Lochte hung tough against France’s hulking Alain Bernard while surprising Russia also surged into contention. Matt Grevers did his part on the third leg, and Nathan Adrian pulled it out for the U.S. with a blistering down and back, overtaking the Russians and holding off the heavily favored French to win in 3 minutes, 9.21 seconds.
The Russians touched second in 3:09.52, while the French were relegated to the bronze.
•Australian swimmer’s brother killed in wreck: Australia’s Meagen Nay will return home from the world swimming championships following the death of her brother in a car crash.
Twenty-eight-year-old Amos Nay died Saturday on the Gold Coast in Queensland state. The news was relayed to his sister in Rome before she swam in the preliminaries of the 4x100-meter relay on Sunday, helping the Australian team qualify third-fastest.
She did not compete in the relay final later Sunday, when Australia also finished third.
Australian media reported Monday that Nay would return to Australia, taking no part in any of her scheduled events later this week: the 200 freestyle, 200 backstroke and 4x200 freestyle relay.
Her father, 1972 Olympic swimmer Robert Nay, was killed in a car accident in 1992 when his daughter was 4. Meagen’s mother was in Rome for the championships, along with her stepfather.
Unseeded Ginepri wins at Indy again
Tennis: Unseeded Robby Ginepri won his third career ATP Tour singles title, beating fellow American Sam Querrey 6-2, 6-4 in the Indianapolis Tennis Championships.
Ginepri, 26, last won an ATP title in 2005, when he also captured the Indy championship.
Ginepri broke Querrey twice to quickly win the first set. He then took the crucial 11th game of the second set in dramatic fashion, rallying from 40-0 down for the first break of the set. That gave Ginepri a 6-5 lead, and he held serve without losing a point to win the tournament in the next game.
•Davydenko takes German Open: Nikolay Davydenko won his first title of the year, beating Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-4, 6-2 in the German Open final at Hamburg.
The second-seeded Davydenko captured the 15th title of his career and became the first Russian to win the clay-court tournament.
Davydenko last won a title in Warsaw 13 months ago.
The 28-year-old Russian fell behind 3-1, but won five of the next six games to clinch the set. Mathieu gained an early break in the second, only to see Davydenko storm back to win the final five games.
•Petkovic beats Olaru to win Gastein Ladies: Andrea Petkovic of Germany won her first career WTA Tour title by beating Ioana Raluca Olaru of Romania 6-2, 6-3 at the Nuernberger Gastein Ladies at Bad Gastein, Austria.
The 98th-ranked Petkovic has won eight titles on the lower ranked ITF circuit, but had never before reached a WTA quarterfinal.
WR Bennett retires from NFL
Football: Ravens wide receiver Drew Bennett has announced his retirement, just two days after signing with Baltimore in an effort to rekindle his NFL career.
Bennett agreed to a one-year deal after a tryout on Friday. But he aggravated an old knee injury during the workout, and after returning home to Nashville, Tenn., the 30-year-old decided to quit.
Bennett’s decision comes after Derrick Mason surprised the Ravens by announcing his retirement on July 13.