D2 BASKETBALL
EZ SU
KLMNO SOCCER Freedomsecures playoff bid
A 1-0 win over Atlanta delivers Washington the fourth seed
BY STEVEN GOFF As it turned out, theWashing-
ton Freedom didn’t need Abby Wambach’s late goal Saturday night to secure a Women’s Pro- fessional Soccer playoff berth. Withthe resultofanother league match working to its advantage, any outcome would have suf- ficed. But lockedina scoreless game
with the last-place Atlanta Beat and the other game hanging in the balance, the Freedom didn’t want to risk relying on others to secure the final postseason slot. Maintaining its attacking men- tality against the short-handed Beat, Washington ensured its place when, in the 88thminute, Wambach chipped the ball over goalkeeper Hope Solo for a 1-0 victory before 3,545 atMaryland SoccerPlex. Next Sunday, the Freedom(8-
9-7) will face the third-place Philadelphia Independence (10- 10-4) in West Chester, Pa., with the winner playing at the sec- ond-seededBostonBreakers (10- 8-6) in the semifinal on Sept. 22
or 23. Gold Pride (16-3-5), from Northern California, finished first overall and will host the championship game Sept. 26. Saturday’s victory capped a
dramatic resurgenceby theFree- dom, which endured a 10-game winless streak before going 4-1-2 in its last sevenmatches. “The stress level was pretty
high, but we can only control whatwe can control,” saidWam- bach, who has a team-high 13 goals. “If we won this game, we knewitwould be in our control.” The Freedombegan the night
leading Sky Blue by just a point in the standings. A Washington loss, coupled with a victory by theNewJersey club over visiting Boston, would have ended the Freedom’s season.Butwitha 0-0 draw against the Breakers, Sky Blue could only pull even with Washington, which held the tie- breaker. Nevertheless,Wambachmet a
bouncing ball at the top of the penaltyareaandliftedasoft shot over the charging Solo. “I saw Hope come out and then stay, but shewas a little bit too off her line so I just kind of popped it over her head,”Wambach said. The Freedom survived two
scares: Inthe 32ndminute, goal- keeper AshlynHarris was called upon to stop Kaley Fountain’s one-on-one bid and, in the 59th,
Atlanta had an apparent goal disallowed. The Freedom had a player
advantage for the final 14 min- utes after Atlanta’s Lauren Ses- selmann received her second yellow card. In the 79th, Wash- ington appeared to take the lead when reserve Christie Welsh converted from inside the six- yard box, but an offside call doused the celebration. “It’s been the theme for the
last seven weeks,” Freedom Coach Jim Gabarra said of his team’s perseverance. “One thing I learnedabout this groupis that we are pretty dependable when weneed something desperately.” WPS Notes: Commissioner
Tonya Antonucci, who devel- oped the league’s businessmod- el and oversaw the launch last year, is going to step down, sev- eral sources said. A league spokesman declined to com- ment. Two teams folded this year,
attendance has remained slug- gish and, amid financial issues, the league has restructured op- erations and made personnel cuts. Meantime, the WPS board of governors has approved a western New York expansion franchise for next season, in- creasing the number of teams to eight, sources said.
goffs@washpost.com
THANASSIS STAVRAKIS/ASSOCIATED PRESS
“To play on this day was a great honor ,” AmericanKevin Durant said of playing the semifinal on Sept. 11. FIBAWORLDCHAMPIONSHIP
Durant’s 38 points sets U.S. record, propels Americans into title game
“I’ve seen him score 45, 35, ASSOCIATED PRESS Wearing a special Sept. 11 me-
morial message on his sneakers, Kevin Durant carried the United States intothe goldmedal game at the FIBA World Championship, scoring a U.S.-record 38 points Saturday in an 89-74 victory over Lithuania inIstanbul. “I justwanted to remember ev-
erybody back in the States, every- body that was affected by 9/11,” Durant said. “And to play on this daywas a great honor andwe just triedtodoourbest toplayhardfor our country andour families.” Durant soared over defenders
or stepped away from them for three-pointers, scoring 17 points in the first quarter to stake the Americans to an early lead that wasnever seriously challenged. He surpassed Carmelo Antho-
ny’s single-game record of 35 points and raised his tournament average to 22.1, which would be the best ever by
aU.S.player.
back-to-back,” guard and NBA teammate Russell Westbrook said. “It doesn’t surpriseme at all whathe’s beendoing.” More importantly, Durant
guaranteed the Americans a chance at their first world title since 1994. They will play Sunday againstTurkey,whichbeat Serbia, 83-82, inthe other semifinal. The Americans will have to
overcome the raucous home fans of the Turks, who also are unde- feated after their last-second vic- tory. The Sinan Erdem Dome has been a sea of red during Turkey’s games andwill provide the tough- est atmosphere a U.S. team has facedinyears. “That’s what we came here to
do,”guardEricGordonsaidbefore the Americans knew their oppo- nent. “We’re a young teamandwe fight throughalotofadversityand that’s what we’re here for, to win the gold.” Durant posted a Twitter mes- sage on Saturday that read: “May
Godbless thosewhowere effected by the events on Sept 11, 2001. . . . 9-11-01onmy shoes tonight. . . you guyswillwatchoverus.” Thenhewent out anddominat-
edthefirstquarter, shootingat the basket in front of section 324, which was awash in Lithuania greenandfilledwithfansbanging drums andwaving flags. Lamar Odom added 13 points
and 10 rebounds, while Andre Ig- uodala led the defensive effort that tookLithuaniastarLinasKle- iza right out of the game. “They did a great job on our
leader, Linas Kleiza. We couldn’t find a solution on their star Kevin Durant,”LithuaniaCoachKestutis Kemzura said. “Hewas unstoppa- ble today.” l TURKEY 83, SERBIA 82:
Semih Erden blocked a last-sec- ondshot to sealTurkey’swin. Following a turnover by Phoe-
nix Suns forward Hedo Turkoglu, Novica Velickovic dribbled in for an open layup with a half-second left only to bedeniedbyErden.
Late goal powers D.C. United
Julius James scores in 81st minute for 1-0 win over his former team
BY ASSOCIATED PRESS
toronto—Julius Jamesscored in the 81st minute to lift last- placeD.C.United to a 1-0 victory against Toronto FC on Saturday, dealing a blow to his former team’s dwindling playoff hopes. TorontoFC(7-10-7), winless in
its past sixMLSmatches,needed a victory to jump back into the chase for a postseason berth. The opportunity was there
against a struggling United team (5-16-3) that has been shut out 14 times this year. However, Toronto came out with an unin- spired effort at home. United, which has had trouble scoring, had the better chances but could not finish. None was better than one at
the opening of the second half when D.C.’s Santino Quaranta made an improbable miss of an open goal on a close-in chance. Finally, James,whowas draft-
ed in 2008 by Toronto and trad- ed to Houston in the deal for Dwayne De Rosario the follow- ing offseason, made no mistake with the winner — his first goal of the season.
DIGEST GOLF
Moore takes one-shot lead at the BMW Ryan Moore figured the BMW
Championship would be his last tournament for awhile.He shot a 5-under-par 66 in Lemont, Ill., on Saturday, which could put his va- cation on hold. Moore eliminated the mis-
takes that held himback the pre- vious day,making only one bogey to reach 8-under 205 and take a one-shot lead over Dustin John- son (68), Matt Kuchar (70) and CharlieWi (70). MoorewasNo. 58 in the FedEx
Cup standings, and needed one of hisbestweeks just tocrackthe top 30andadvance to theTourCham- pionship in two weeks at East Lake. A victory not only would
TELEVISIONANDRADIO
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4:15 p.m.
Carolina at NewYork Giants » WTTG (Channel 5), WBFF (Channel 45) Cincinnati at NewEngland » WUSA (Channel 9),WJZ (Channel 13) Arizona at St. Louis » WTNT (570 AM)
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8:20 p.m. Dallas atWashington » WRC (Channel 4),WBAL (Channel 11), WWXT (92.7 FM), WWXX (94.3 FM),WTEM (980 AM)
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL 1 p.m.
1:30 p.m. 2 p.m. 8 p.m.
Baltimore at Detroit » MASN2,WTNT (570 AM)
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WNBA FINALS 3 p.m.
GOLF 2 p.m. 2 p.m. 4 p.m.
TENNIS 1 p.m. 4 p.m.
Atlanta at Seattle » WJLA (Channel 7), WMAR (Channel 2) Champions Tour, Songdo Championship » Golf Channel
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Tour’s first event inAsia. Funk made a 12-foot birdie
send himto the FedEx Cup finale, butgivehimaclear shotat the$10 million bonus. Tiger Woods finally broke par
with a 3-under 68, but he needed much more. Woods was tied for 22nd at even-par 213, some seven shots behind where he needs to finishtoadvancetotheFedExCup finale.Otherwise, itwillbehis last PGA Tour round of the year in America. About his only drama Sunday will be playing alongside Phil Mickelson, who shot a 70 to also finish at even par. . . . In Incheon, South Korea, Fred
Funk shot a 5-under 67 to take the lead in the rain-soaked Songdo Championship, the Champions
putt on the par-5 18th to reach 8 under. TomPernice Jr. (64), Russ Cochran (65) and John Cook (68) were two strokes back. . . . PGA Championship winner
Martin Kaymer shot a 4-under 66 to take a one-stroke lead at the KLMOpen inHilversum,Nether- lands. The German star had a 10-un-
der 200 total. Paraguay’s Fabrizio Zanotti (65) and Sweden’s Chris- tian Nilsson (68) were tied for second.
SOCCER Manchester United conceded
two stoppage-time goals to draw, 3-3, at Everton, while Chelsea maintained a perfect start to its title defense by beating West Ham, 3-1, in the Premier League. United led 3-1 in the 90thmin-
ute even without Wayne Rooney, who was given a day off against his former teamamid newspaper reports about his private life. But Tim Cahill sparked Everton’s comebackwith a headed goal and Mikel Arteta had time to score an equalizer. Chelseawonits fourthstraight
withlittle resistanceatWestHam, which is stillwithout a point after fourmatches.MichaelEssiennet- ted Chelsea’s first goal after two minutes andheaded inits third in the 83rd. Arsenal is two points behind
Chelsea in second after routing Bolton 4-1, while big-spending Manchester City was held to a 1-1 drawby Blackburn to collect only one point fromits last twomatch- es.
Tottenham was held 1-1 by
West Bromwich, as was Sunder- land at Wigan, while Blackpool won its secondmatch since being promoted, prevailing, 2-0, over fellownewcomerNewcastle.
PAWEL DWULIT/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Julius James, third from left, scored in the 81st minute to lead United to a 1-0 win over Toronto FC, which had slim playoff hopes.
Toronto has not scored in
MLS play in 400 minutes. l Red Bulls 3, Rapids 1: Thi-
erry Henry scored his second MLS goal, starting the Red Bulls to a 3-1 win over the Colorado Rapids on Saturday that helped advance New York toward the Major League Soccer playoffs. The French forward, who
scored his firstMLSgoal against San Jose on Aug. 28, put New York ahead in the 17th minute off an assist from Estonian na- tional team player Joel Lind-
pere. Rookie Tim Ream made it 2-0
in the 32nd with his first MLS goal, scoring off Tony Tschani’s corner kick. Omar Cummings raced in
from midfield to score to cut the lead in the 52nd minute. Rich- ards scored off a scramble in the 58th. New York, second to Colum-
bus in the East at 12-8-4 with 40 points, missed the playoffs last year. Colorado is fourth in the West at 9-7-7 with 34 points.
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2010
PAUL ELLIS/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE VIA GETTY IMAGES
ManchesterUnited’sNemanja Vidic, left, scores past Everton goalkeeper TimHoward during a 3-3 draw. Fulham’s 2-1 victory over
Wolverhampton came at a cost, with Bobby Zamora breaking his right leg in a hard challenge by Karl Henry, an injury that will sideline theEnglishforwardforat least fourmonths. Everton goalie Tim Howard
had made two excellent saves in the firsthalf.Afterdivingoneway, theAmericanliftedhis trailingleg to knock away a deflected shot by Paul Scholes in the 32ndminute, then five minutes later used a wrist to tip a 12-yard effort by RyanGiggs over the crossbar. Defending La Liga champion
Barcelona lost its first Spanish league home game since May 2009 when Nelson Valdez scored
in each have to give promoted Hercules a 2-0 victory. The Paraguayan forward beat
Victor Valdes in the 27thminute, then latched on to Tiago Filipe’s centering pass froma swift coun- terattack in the 59th.
MISC. American David Oliver won
the 110-meter hurdles to help the U.S. to victory at DecaNation in Annecy, France, themeet that pits seven countries against each oth- er in the 10 decathlon events. The Beijing bronze medalist
finished in 13.11 seconds for an easywin ahead ofGarfieldDarien of France, who was second in 13.65. Stefano Tedesco of Italy
finished third at the Parc des Sports. Oliver has run under 13 sec-
onds five times this season. He finished in12.89 inJuly, just short ofDayronRobles’sworld record. MichaelRodgers of theUnited
States won the 100 in 10.13 sec- onds. Three-time European gold medalist Christophe Lemaitre of France was second after a slug- gish start to finish in 10.16. Lao Yi of Chinawas third. . . . The Minnesota Timberwolves
have waived little-used center Greg Stiemsma. The Timber- wolves signed the 24-year-old as a free agent in April, but he didn’t appear in a game last season. —Fromnews services
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