Sport

Soccer never stops. Even now, when most of the world’s leagues are dormant at New Year’s, the English Premier League is powering through one of its busiest stretches of the season. Soccer’s continuously spinning wheel is one thing that makes the sport great, but the end of the calendar year is always a good time to look back and look forward.   I’ll have my predictions for 2016 later in…

I have four adult daughters who participate in sports as triathletes, and a granddaughter who plays in a junior football team. We have been angered by the virtual invisibility of women in the sports section of the Guardian. Reading the letters about the list of the world’s top 100 footballers (Letters, 26 December) I did a quick random survey of eight sport sections (mostly Saturdays) that had escaped being used…

When Hockey Night in Canada leaked the news earlier this month that Les Canadiennes of the Canadian Women’s Hockey League would play the Boston Pride of the National Women’s Hockey League on December 31 at the NHL’s Winter Classic, fans of both leagues were ecstatic. Women’s hockey has a firm foothold in the northeastern corner of the U.S., as well as parts of Canada and Minnesota, but the sport is…

Buy Photo Michigan and MSU hockey playing in 2012 in Joe Louis Arena.(Photo: Kathleen Galligan, DFP)Buy Photo The Michigan and Michigan State hockey teams will play for the Iron D Trophy on Feb. 5 at Joe Louis Arena. Mike Bayoff, Director of Strategic Hockey Alliances for the Red Wings/Olympia Entertainment, told the Free Press that U-M coach Red Berenson and MSU coach Tom Anastos will help play a role in the…

Looking at the statistics, the No. 35 is one of the least-used and least-successful numbers in our countdown so far. While Glenn Dunaway was the first to pilot the number on July 10, 1949, the No. 35 has not been used very often on a full-time basis. These days, Cole Whitt pilots the No. 35 Front Row Motorsports Ford in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. In just his second Sprint…

How much I do I love hockey? I can’t even describe. In Russia, we don’t really have a Christmas break, but from December 31 to January 3, everything closed. Even hockey school. These were the worst days of my life. Four days with no hockey, I get so depressed. I can’t even sleep. Just sit watching YouTube of Kovalev and wait. Some people in Canada understand this, I think. In…

The U.S. team offered its condolences to Pacheco’s family and friends on Sunday. The Salvadorean Soccer Federation also paid tribute to the player, saying it shared the pain and offered prayers to his family. This year has been the deadliest on record for El Salvador, with 6,500 murders. The country experiences an average of 17 murders a day, according to police, who attribute the violence to gangs. Other Central American…

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Shannon Szabados makes history every time she steps on the ice for the Columbus (Georgia) Cottonmouths in the Southern Professional Hockey League, but hit another major milestone Saturday night. In a 3-0 win over the Huntsville Havoc, Szabados became the first woman to record a shutout in a men’s professional hockey league. Szabados, who has played parts of the last three seasons with Columbus, made 33 saves to earn the…

Authorities in El Salvador say gunmen shot and killed former national soccer team player Alfredo Alberto Pacheco at a gasoline station in a municipality west of the country’s capital. El Salvador’s Attorney General’s Office and its National Police said unidentified assailants aboard a vehicle approached Pacheco and some of his friends in the city of Santa Ana early Sunday and opened fire. Pacheco was killed, while two people accompanying him…

While it has been a part of NASCAR’s premier division since 1950, the No. 33 was not run on a consistent basis in NASCAR until “Handsome” Harry Gant moved on from Jack Beebe’s team to join stuntman and film director Hal Needham’s team in 1981. Gant made his first start in the green-and-white No. 33 Skoal Bandit car during the CRC Chemicals Rebel 500 at Darlington Raceway on April 12,…

Shannon Szabados makes history every time she steps on the ice for the Columbus (Georgia) Cottonmouths in the Southern Professional Hockey League, but hit another major milestone Saturday night. In a 3-0 win over the Huntsville Havoc, Szabados became the first woman to record a shutout in a men’s professional hockey league. Szabados, who has played parts of the last three seasons with Columbus, made 33 saves to earn the…

As the NASCAR offseason continues, many drivers are eagerly tuning into NFL games on the weekends, something that is almost impossible during the Sprint Cup season.  However, with a rare Saturday night football game between the Washington Redskins and the Philadelphia Eagles, some of NASCAR’s top drivers tuned in and had a little fun with the wild game.  Hendrick Motorsports’ Dale Earnhardt Jr. is a life-long Redskins fan, and when…

For a list of all the latest deals, check out the transfers page. Louis van Gaal, 64, plans to resign as Manchester United manager if they lose a fifth game in a row – against Chelsea on 28 December. (Mail on Sunday) The Mail on Sunday suggests that Louis van Gaal may walk out on Manchester United Former United striker Dwight Yorke said his old club were “painful to watch”…

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After years of indoor training, Michael Phelps is really enjoying sunny Tempe. (Otto Greule Jr/Getty Images) Michael Phelps has had his fair share of success in the pool. Eighteen Olympic gold medals. Twenty-two overall. Thirty-nine world records. And having already committed to retiring, presumably for good this time, following this summer’s Rio Olympics, it appears he is already thinking about what he will do beyond the pool — or at least out…

It has been a year of celebration and controversy in world soccer, with the U.S. winning the largest and most competitive Women’s World Cup in history while FIFA, the sport’s world governing body, was embroiled in chaos after the U.S. Justice Department unsealed 41 indictments against high-ranking soccer and sports marketing officials. Here’s a look at some of the key events of the last year and what to look forward…

For a list of all the latest deals, check out the transfers page. Louis van Gaal, 64, plans to resign as Manchester United manager if they lose a fifth game in a row – against Chelsea on 28 December. (Mail on Sunday) The Mail on Sunday suggests that Louis van Gaal may walk out on Manchester United Former United striker Dwight Yorke said his old club were “painful to watch”…

It has been a year of celebration and controversy in world soccer, with the U.S. winning the largest and most competitive Women’s World Cup in history while FIFA, the sport’s world governing body, was embroiled in chaos after the U.S. Justice Department unsealed 41 indictments against high-ranking soccer and sports marketing officials. Here’s a look at some of the key events of the last year and what to look forward…

After years of indoor training, Michael Phelps is really enjoying sunny Tempe. (Otto Greule Jr/Getty Images) Michael Phelps has had his fair share of success in the pool. Eighteen Olympic gold medals. Twenty-two overall. Thirty-nine world records. And having already committed to retiring, presumably for good this time, following this summer’s Rio Olympics, it appears he is already thinking about what he will do beyond the pool — or at least out…