w Page 4835 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

France Continues Ownership Of Brazil
Brazil has capped a tournament full of uninspiring play with more of the same, but this time, they weren't able to get away with it. A peaking-at-the-right-time French squad got a goal from Thierry Henry, slotting home a free kick from the man of the match, Zinedine Zidane. Zidane was brilliant al...

Charlie Villanueva Finds A New Home
In need of a point guard, and realizing that free agents flock to Toronto like women flock to bloggers, the Raptors acquired a point guard in a trade last night. T.J. Ford heads north of the border, and Charlie Villanueva goes back the other way to play alongside Andrew Bogut in Milwaukee....

Nadal Shows Agassi The Wimbledon Exits
In 1987, Andre Agassi lost his first match at Wimbledon in straight sets, and that is exactly how he lost his last one. Rafael Nadal took him out this morning, unmercifully hammering the old man, 7-6 (7-5), 6-2, 6-4....

Yeah, Thierry Henry Is France's Problem
If you're planning on watching the Brazil/France match later on today, you may notice that France doesn't suit up a lot of white guys. Of the 23-man roster, 16 of them are something other than white....

God Refuses To Save The Queen
...but Portuguese goalie Ricardo saved just about everything. God left the queen hanging out to dry on penalty kicks, after 120 minutes of scoreless play. Penalties were 3-1 in favor of Portugal, and they'll be advancing to face the winner of Brazil/France in the semifinals....

Week In Deadspin: Pulling For Peter
• Get well soon, Mr. Gammons. • There will never be another tirade like Joe Mikulik's, ever. • Louis Gossett Jr., college basketball superhero. • Michael Strahan is not gay, but he's still a big dope. • David Hirshey is everywhere. • We'd love to see more sportswriters get in fights. • Let's try t...

To Watch Tonight
What to watch after you discover that the latest Bin Laden tape has no DVD Easter Eggs ... • Boxing: Light welterweights, Juan Urango vs. Naoufel Ben Rabah, at Hollywood, Fla. Or, why not rent the movie Hard Times instead?[ESPN2] • MLB: Baltimore at Atlanta. The Braves' comeback starts ... now! OK ....

Live Blog: Italy Vs. Ukraine
It's still hard to believe that the United States tied a team that's one game away from the semifinals. We think maybe the Italians should be disqualified on that indignity alone....

Cultural Oddsmaker: Fourth Of July Fiesta!
A.J. Daulerio's Cultural Oddsmaker runs every Friday. Send him all kinds of fan mail....

Joe Mauer: Man Muscles, And Stylish Classics, For Every Moment
We'll admit it; we love Bat-girl. She would be our one and only Internet squeeze, if it wasn't for our desperate, wholly inappropriate cyber crush on Ashley Harkleroad. One reason that Bat-girl is the best: She recently gave us this, the Joe Mauer Fashion Spread from Travel and Leisure Magazine. Y...

The Real Story Of The World Cup
After all the talk of diving in soccer yesterday, we couldn't possibly have been happier to receive this comprehensive study from "Information Builders." The point of the study is to look at the World Cup so far — up to but not including this morning's Germany-Argentina game — and tally which teams ...

Randy Walker, R.I.P.
Randy Walker, head coach of the Northwestern Wildcats, died last night of a heart attack. The former Miami of Ohio coach — that school has produced an amazing number of coaches, by the way, from Woody Hayes to Bo Schembechler to Ara Parseghian — had just signed a contract extension in April that wou...

Live Blog: Germany Vs. Argentina
And, at last, after a whole two days without soccer, the quarterfinals have begun, in what we think is probably the best quarterfinal matchup of all. The Argentinians have often looked like the best team here, but the Germans, you know, they're hosting, and they've looked doggone good themselves. ...

Eddie Griffin Needs To Mind His Surroundings
OK, so we formally apologize for taking until 10 a.m. today to get to this. It's been a busy morning....

Hirshey: Now It REALLY Begins
David Hirshey is writing throughout the World Cup....

Get Your Isiah Popcorn Here!
Just to be cheap and pile on, we found this site which allows you to "become a Dale and Thomas popcorn affiliate. According to the site:...

To Watch Tonight
What to watch after you've done your part for charity ... • NASCAR Busch Series: practice for Winn-Dixie 250, at Daytona Beach, Fla. Yeah, we tried to use that line to get out of a speeding ticket once. [Speed Channel] • Golf: PGA Tour, Buick Championship, first round, at Cromwell, Conn. This had be...

Illini Reunited In ... Utah! Go Jazz!
Forgive us a tiny bit of indulgence here, but our ultimate takeaway from the NBA Draft last evening was not the million Portland trades, Isiah Thomas' fumbling, Dan Patrick and David Stern's pissing contest or even the insane convergence of Michael Jordan and a guy who cries with two second left in ...

Diver Down
An oft-forwarded Slate piece written this week attempts to answer the question: What's wrong with diving in soccer? The mock, oh-lord-god-help-me-it-HURTS! soccer move that so infuriates Americans — most memorably demonstrated in a Dave Eggers essay — is probably the biggest roadblock to the sport c...

So Long, Wimbledon. See You Next Year!
Well, we missed possibly the greatest match ever in women's professional tennis. Damn it. Earlier today, Russia's Maria Sharapova met Ashley Harkleroad of the U.S. in Day Four Qualifying at Wimbledon, with the fourth-ranked Sharapova coming away with a 6-2, 6-2 victory (like the score mattered). M...