ABCDE COLLEGES


U-Md.’s transition game Randy Eaton brings a straightforward approach to job as interim athletic director. D3


BASKETBALL


Team-building exercise A Washington-based group uses basketball to promote healing between conflict-torn groups. D6


World Cup 2010


SPORTS “


wednesday, july 7, 2010 BLOGS, MULTIMEDIA AND CHATS washingtonpost.com/sports


Wizards Insider Stay up-to-date on NBA free agency and how it affects Washington’s plans. Nationals Journal Get the latest as the team continues its homestand before the all-star break. Ask Boswell Tomorrow, 11 a.m. Tom Boswell takes your questions on the Nationals and more.


PRO BASKETBALL


All-star Langhorne Crystal Langhorne, the Mystics’ leading scorer and rebounder, is named to the WNBA all-star team. D5


Our chances took a knock today. I’m not going home, we’ll stay in the race and keep trying.” Lance Armstrong, who slipped to 18th place overall in the Tour de France. D2


Nationals come out on top vs. Padres Zimmerman’s homer


MICHAEL SOHN/ASSOCIATED PRESS


Uruguay goalie Fernando Muslera can’t stop Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s rocket from 35 yards.


1-0


Diego Forlán is momentarily happy after scoring Uruguay’s equalizing goal from long distance.


1-1 JAMIE MCDONALD/GETTY IMAGES


Wesley Sneidjer, in orange, the most prolific scorer for the Netherlands, puts the Dutch ahead for good.


2-1 The Dutch are one step away DYLAN MARTINEZ/REUTERS by Adam Kilgore


Ian Desmond and Ryan Zimmerman share the left side of the Washington Na- tionals’ infield and occupy divergent places in their development. Zimmer- man is a reigning all-star trying to prove he belongs in this year’s showcase. Des- mond is a rookie trying to prove he be- longs in the majors leagues. On Tuesday night, after a roller-coast- er eight innings, Desmond and Zimmer- man created the Nationals’ 6-5 victory over the San Diego Padres. First, Des- mond atoned for a crucial eighth-inning error by throwing out the go-ahead run at home plate in the top of the ninth. Next, Zimmerman led off the bottom of the ninth by crushing a game-winning home run — his second of the night — to dead center off of Luke Gregerson. Before 14,039 at Nationals Park, Wash-


ington had its third straight win in a walk-off. In stifling heat — the 99-degree first-inning temperature made it the hot- test home game since baseball returned to Washington — the Nationals received contributions from all over their roster. Liván Hernández allowed four runs on nine hits in seven-plus innings. Michael Morse went 3 for 4 with a double and a two-RBI single. In the end, Desmond and Zimmerman won it for the Nationals. In his last two games, both played since his name was added to the list of five players who can


nationals continued on D5 D S


in ninth inning caps up-and-down contest


MICHAEL WILBON


For free agents, it’s only their whole lives ahead


FERNANDO VERGARA/ASSOCIATED PRESS Arjen Robben celebrates after scoring the third and final goal for the Netherlands, which has advanced to the Cup final twice, in 1974 and 1978, but never won. Germany vs. Spain: 2:30 p.m., (ESPN, ESPN Deportes, Univision)


Highly anticipated Germany-Spain semifinal has all the makings of a championship match


Of course, Germany is here, for by Steven Goff


durban, south africa — At Mo- ses Mabhida Stadium, a half-year-old gem built a few hundred yards from mangroves and surf in this beach des- tination, Germany and Spain will en- ter Wednesday’s World Cup semifinal with rosters and pedigrees befitting of the championship game of this quadrennial event. Wednesday’s winner almost cer- tainly will be favored in Sunday’s fi- nal against the Netherlands, and many observers have expressed senti- ments similar to those of German for- ward Lukas Podolski, who said the matchup “would have been a great fi- nal.”


Germany almost always reaches the semifinals (nine times in the past 12 tournaments). Spain fits the part as well, having won the 2008 European title and boasting a roster of players plucked almost exclusively from an exceptional domestic league. But when the tournament began almost a month ago, doubts followed both sides — Germany because of in- experience (its youngest roster since 1934) and injury (captain Michael Ballack is out); Spain because of a sour World Cup history (no previous semifinal appearances). Atypically, the Germans have re- sponded with a ferocious attack that


world cup continued on D6 Netherlands 3, Uruguay 2: Netherlands advances to final


Netherlands tops Uruguay to advance to first Cup final since 1978


by Liz Clarke


cape town, south africa — As a first-time host of soccer’s grand spectacle, Africa opened the 2010 World Cup with tremendous good will showered upon its six qualifying teams.


By the quarterfinals, South Amer- ica had emerged as the tournament’s dominant player, with four of its five squads among the last eight. But Tuesday at Cape Town Stadi- um, the Netherlands did its part in restoring Europe as the leading actor in the World Cup, defeating an un- dermanned but resilient squad from Uruguay, 3-2, in the first of the tour-


Sunday, 2:30 p.m., WJLA (Channel 7), WMAR (Channel 2) World Cup final


nament’s two semifinals to guarantee an all-European final. The Netherlands will face either Spain, the 2008 European champion, or three-time World Cup champion Germany, for the sport’s most cov- eted trophy Sunday at Johannes- burg’s Soccer City Stadium. The loser of Wednesday’s semifinal in Durban will face Uruguay in the third-place match Saturday in Port Elizabeth. Dutch soccer fans erupted in cheers, song and ear-splitting vuvu- zela blasts when Wesley Sneijder, their most prolific scorer, struck the 70th-minute goal that reclaimed the lead after a tense first half ended in a 1-1 deadlock. Once the victory was official fol- lowing a spirited surge by Uruguay, which scored to make it a one-goal game during stoppage time, a throng estimated at 40,000 to 50,000 erupt-


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Chicago Tribune called. Well, actually, a Chicago Tribune editor flew to Washington to visit me some years back and said my hometown newspaper, the one I grew up delivering as a kid with my brother and our dog, was going to make me an offer I couldn’t refuse. That started weeks of deliberations, nights where I couldn’t sleep, days of uncertainty and anxiety. So I have a sense of what Dwyane


I


Wade has gone through in recent weeks, being pulled by Miami and his life there the last seven years and Chicago and his life there the previous 21 years, the mom he bought a church for, the brothers he played with in the back yard, the two young sons who live there now. LeBron James has gone through a similar push-and-pull, especially since a change of teams would mean leaving home in Northeast Ohio, leaving Cleveland where he’s the most beloved thing to come down the pike since Jim Brown. I presume they’ve gone back and


forth a hundred times because I’d wake up one morning convinced I was leaving D.C. for Chicago. I even had my wife go to Chicago one weekend and look at neighborhoods we might live in. One day the Trib sent me a box of “recruiting materials” that included my high school letter sweater from my days on the baseball team. It was an incredible rush.


wilbon continued on D3


actually do know what it’s like, relatively speaking, to be driven crazy by a free agent dilemma. The


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