Chelsea celebrates
LONDON – Defending champion AC Milan edged into the second round of the Champions League with a 1-1 draw with Benfica on Wednesday, and Chelsea advanced with a 4-0 victory at Rosenborg.
Two other qualifying groups are wide open, however, and half of the last 16 won’t be decided until next month’s final games, with nine-time champion Real Madrid under pressure after a 3-2 loss at Werder Bremen.
David Beckham
WELLINGTON, New Zealand – Having conquered Australia, soccer superstar David Beckham faced a harder sell Thursday when he jetted into New Zealand for the second match of the Los Angeles Galaxy’s tour Down Under.
If rugby-mad New Zealand falls to his charms, the England midfielder will have pulled off an exceptional piece of football conversion.
Aston Villa celebrate
BLACKBURN, England – Aston Villa scored three goals in the second half to beat Blackburn 4-0 in Wednesday’s only Premier League game.
John Carew gave Villa the lead against the run of play in the 29th minute, and Gareth Barry added the second from the penalty spot in the 53rd after Ryan Nelsen was sent off for bringing down Ashley Young.
Champions League: Liverpool 4-1 Porto
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Rafa came a bit closer in answering the call of Liverpool’s owners as his squad out away Porto FC with two goals from Fernando Torres. He should just give up his rotational policy which really unsettles his team and just go with his best offensive weapons right from the start, who at this point are Torres and Andrei Voronin.
Tyrese Rice scored 28 points and had five assists Wednesday to help Boston College to its fifth straight win, a 77-64 victory over Michigan in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge.
Shamari Spears had 14 points and 12 rebounds and Rakim Sanders added 10 points for the Eagles (5-0), who were playing away from home for the first time this season.
CHICAGO – DePaul’s Kene Obi has been certified an academic qualifier by the NCAA Clearinghouse and may begin participating in practice activities, it was announced today.
Pau Gasol
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – Here’s one sign the Memphis Grizzlies are improving under new coach Marc Iavaroni.
It only took them 14 games to win consecutive games. Not bad, compared to a year ago when it took them almost a full season – 73 games – to string wins together.
Edu and O’Halloran
CHICAGO – Toronto FC midfielder Maurice Edu and defender Marvell Wynne were named Wednesday to the U.S. squad that will travel to China in preparation for Olympic qualifiers.
This will be the first time the U.S. under-23 team has gathered since Peter Nowak took over as coach in August.
Bobby Simmons
MILWAUKEE – Bucks forward Bobby Simmons missed Tuesday’s game with Philadelphia for personal reasons.
The team said Simmons’ absence wasn’t serious, but didn’t elaborate.