Football Association chief executive Brian Barwick and FA development director Trevor Brooking will combine to search for a new England coach.
The pair are to meet after Barwick returns from Durban, where Sunday’s 2010 World Cup draw is taking place.
WASHINGTON, Ill. — At the end of the night, all Leslie McDonald cared about was that his team pulled out the win.
Filed under Florida
Turnover ratio is hardly an underrated statistical category in the world of football, but what’s truly underappreciated in this sport is the location of a team’s turnovers. On a day when Oregon and UCLA both played the fourth-string quarterbacks on their rosters, the timing of turnovers—rather than the turnovers themselves—enabled the USC Trojans to attain first place in the Pac-10 Conference.
The location of turnovers made all the difference in the world on an afternoon in Pasadena when neither team could eclipse 220 yards of total offense. With Oregon’s Brady Leaf banged up and ineffective, the Ducks trotted out third-string signal caller Cody Kempt and then fourth man Justin Roper in a futile attempt to produce any semblance of an offensive attack. UCLA—reduced to desperation a few weeks ago because of attrition at quarterback—once again sent out Osaar Rasshan, number four on the depth chart, to try and move the Bruins. In a year when numerous Pac-10 quarterbacks have been sidelined with injuries, Saturday’s contest at the Rose Bowl featured the ultimate MASH unit matchup in the conference. Given the absence of quality quarterbacking on both sides, big mistakes were much more likely to decide this game than any big plays. Sure enough, futility filled the field for both ballclubs, but in the end, UCLA got the turnovers that mattered.
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A little while ago, I compared the Wild’s season to a country song.  Not as much for any sort of ‘twangy’ play, but rather the lyrics.  The team has gone through some tough times, but the ‘woe-is-me’ act is getting long in the tooth and the team has to move forward regardless of the adversity it faces. The team put in a lackluster effort last game against the Columbus Blue Jackets and were embarrassed in front of a sold out home crowd. The team needs to have some pride and find ways to win games; that will mean simplifying things and doing their best just to get as many pucks as they can on net. They don’t need to be fancy, they need to just work hard and keep things simple and straight-forward and that should give them a good chance to be successful.Â
In the first period the Wild seemed to be playing with more purpose and determination than they did in their last game against the Blue Jackets. The Predators, while speedy are also rather inconsistant like the Wild are at this point in the season. One thing Nashville has always been able to do fairly effectively under the direction of their Head Coach Barry Trotz is forecheck and at times in the first period the Predators had the Wild scrambling in their own end with an excellent forecheck.  Despite all of the great pressure by the Predators; the Wild would light the lamp first when Brent Burns would fling a wrister from the point that deflected off of the stick of a screening Aaron Voros and by Chris Mason to give the Wild a 1-0 lead after a rather lengthy goal review. The replay shown on Fox Sports Net clearly demonstrated Voros’ stick was not up too high, and ultimately the folks in Toronto made the right call giving Minnesota a lead. The Wild’s lead would be rather short-lived as soon after Voros’ goal Matt Foy would take a foolish high sticking call.  For allegedly possessing the league’s 2nd worst power play, the Nashville Predators power play moved the puck well and was winding up and taking big blasts at Niklas Backstrom. The Wild almost had the penalty killed off when Ville Koistinen slid a pass over to Martin Erat who blasted a one-timer that beat Backstrom to the post to tie the game at 1-1.  With the limited crowd at Sommet Centre back into the game, the Predators would give their fans even more to cheer for when they scored about 20 seconds later. Former University of North Dakota star Greg Zanon’s blast from the point was stopped by Backstrom, but he was unable to hold in the rebound and veteran winger Martin Gelinas very patiently took the loose biscuit and wrapped it around the sprawling goaltender giving Nashville a 2-1 lead. Minnesota would respond, when James Sheppard would find Matt Foy all alone, and he would shovel a shot in to tie the game 1-1 going into the 2nd period. Just as the 1st period ended, the Predators’ pest Jordin Tootoo decided to taunt some of the Wild’s players and this would result in him sitting in the penalty box to start the 2nd period.Â
Toronto Marlies
TORONTO – Derrick Walser made sure the Toronto Marlies’ resiliency was rewarded.
Walser scored in overtime as the Marlies beat the Syracuse Crunch 4-3 in American Hockey League action Saturday.
PHILADELPHIA — Quarterback Donovan McNabb will miss the Philadelphia Eagles’ game Sunday against New England because of a sprained ankle and injured thumb.
McNabb hurt the thumb on his throwing hand early against Miami last Sunday and left after injuring his ankle in the second quarter. He has not practiced all week.
SWEDE Daniel Chopra was hanging on to his one-shot overnight lead, despite an unconvincing start to his final round in the Australian Masters at Huntingdale.
Chopra, who started the day on 12-under, was still on that score after making par on each of the first three holes on Sunday.
Australian Aaron Baddeley remained in second place on 11-under, after going through the opening four holes in even par.
AUSTRALIA Test opening batsman Phil Jaques withdrew from the New South Wales team to play Tasmania in Sunday’s Ford Ranger Cup one-day match because of an ear infection.
NSW captain Simon Katich won the toss at North Sydney Oval and opted to bat first.
Jaques, who scored a century in both of the two Tests against Sri Lanka, was the only Blues player involved in that series to be selected in the Blues team for the game.
