Ronaldinho could turn his back and walk away from Milan

Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho has insisted that star forward Cristiano Ronaldo is not a diver and also identified Group G opponents Milan as serious contenders for the UEFA Champions League this term.

For several years now, the United States and Mexico have had a stranglehold on CONCACAF. Aside from the Gold Cup, where only Canada has been able to unseat the region's top two sides, the U.S. and Mexico have been unstoppable, particularly in World Cup qualifying. Since CONCACAF went to the six-team Hexagonal in 1998, the U.S. and Mexico have finished in the top three and have qualified directly to all four World Cups since.

By Kyle McCarthy U.S. Soccer ended the rampant speculation surrounding Bob Bradley's future by resolving the situation in a manner no one quite expected.

A 21-year-old man impersonated a 14-year-old by playing in a youth football league and attempted to enroll at a Hillsborough County Middle School, according to league and school district officials.

Opinion: The idea itself was fine. Everybody loves big lakes. Everybody loves golf courses. Everybody should love a great golf course on the shore of a Great Lake. The PGA gave us Whistling Straits for its championship in 2004, and again this week, and again in 2015 and again for the Ryder Cup in 2020. Maybe it can be fixed by then.

Opinion: What Lane Kiffin needs, in addition to a dozen more USC reserves and some NCAA mercy, is empathy. Too bad the polarizing first-year Trojans coach won't be Facebook friends with UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel. Regardless of his ties to the archrival, Neuheisel might be the one colleague who'd understand Kiffin's situation with the most compassion.

Losing semi-finalists Germany and Uruguay prepared to battle for third place on Saturday in a match neither of them wanted to be in, but global attention was more firmly fixed on the imminent World Cup final.

With the Big Four dominating most of the finals, it's hardly surprising two new candidates have never made it to the centre stage since 1978. In fact, only five previous finals featured two teams trying to win the World Cup for the first time. Obviously, such were the first two finals, between Uruguay and Argentina in 1930, and Italy and Czechoslovakia in 1934. Then there was the sensational encounter between West Germany and Hungary in 1954, and a somewhat more straightforward affair of Brazil versus Sweden in 1958. In the last 50 years, only Argentina and Holland met in a classic non-champion final in 1978. Both teams were extremely lucky to get to the final in the first place. Argentina

Spainare just 90 minutes away from joining a select group of teams who have simultaneously held both theWorld Cupand European Championships. Widely perceived to be the best team of the current generation, La Furia Roja won the European Championships two years ago in Austria and now have the chance to complete the set when they take on the Netherlands in Johannesburg on Sunday. In 1974 West Germany lifted the brand new FIFA trophy - Brazil having won the Jules Rimet four years previously for the third time meaning they could keep it - two years after winning the 1972 Euros. In 1998 the 'Golden Generation' of French football won the World Cup on home soil before going on to claim the Eu

Opinion: Avert your eyes. Please do not feed the madness by watching LeBron James' ESPN extravaganza Thursday night.

His straight-sets win over Czech 12th seed Tomas Berdych at the All England Club on Sunday was Nadal's eighth grand slam title win, and even though the world number one has never reached the final at Flushing Meadow he is clearly the man to beat in New York, said McEnroe.