TODAY'S (SORT OF) AMERICAN SOCCER STORY

The Chicago Trib's soccer writer ranks the MLS teams' songs. I don't care about his rankings, but he does us a service by allowing us to listen to them all. I think they're all pretty much terrible.

WORLD CHAMP FAIRY TALES - THE 39-YEAR-OLD DISCUS CHAMP AND THE HIGH JUMP LARK

Donald Thomas of the Bahamas is an incredible athlete. And we can all be inspired by a 39-year-old discus champ, if only we knew more about her.

32-YEAR-OLD IS 1500 CHAMP

A story for aging athletes everywhere. Take 3 years off from serious competition and come back to win your first championship ever.

TODAY'S AMERICAN SOCCER STORY

The Much Lousy Soccer (MLS) Soccer league (I stole that from a British newspaper columnist) is getting less lousy. But now they want to further thin out the talent at the top level by adding another top flight team. What they need to do is follow the British model from 100 years ago and start adding teams at lower levels. Then they can adopt a relegate/promote system so you truly have the best teams at the top level and all the others play to their home crowd only and don't bother the rest of us trying to watch a good game on ESPN.

DENG SLUMMING WITH BRIT HOOPSTERS

OK, there's plenty of NBA coverage out there, so I intend to generally ignore it. But Luol Deng is such a refreshing opposite to so many of the thugs playing the major professional sports. This article is also funny because, while the NBA is trying to take advantage of the increasing popularity of basketball around the globe, it's clear it has a long way to go in Britain. Who is Lebron Jones?

ON THE ROAD: MAJOR LEAGUE LACROSSE (OR IS IT MINOR LEAGUE)?

You know how guys who've played minor league sports or small college sports talk about the trials and tribulations of travel of the small-time circuit? The guys who play for the Denver team in Major League Lacrosse had a hell of a time getting to this weekend's semifinals in Rochester. The side fell off the bus.

GAY IS 100 WORLD CHAMPION, BEATING POWELL

USA's Tyson Gay passes Asafa Powell to win the world championship in the 100

YOU'VE FOUND HOFFA

He's in Osaka, winning the world shot putting championships. USA Today has good coverage of this mammoth. By the way, it's Reese Hoffa, not Jimmy. The USA went 1-2 in the shot put.

THESE ATHLETES ARE ALL GOING PRO IN SOMETHING ELSE

Life for athletes in the other sports, captured well by the NYT

TODAY'S OTHER AMERICAN GOALKEEPER STORY

Kasey Keller's headed back to England. With Moenchengladbach relegated, Keller decided the great food there wasn't enough to keep him interested. He's headed to Fulham, who need to keep their place as team America in the prem after the loss of Brian McBride.

TODAY'S AMERICAN SOCCER STORY: Howard only bright spot for Sams

Most observers agree the current USA squad needs a lot of work in a lot of places. Bad reviews were all around this morning for the defense in particular, and nobody particularly caught anyone's eye up front either. The lone bright spot right now is the play of Everton keeper Tim Howard. Jeff Carlisle's take is above.

TODAY'S AMERICAN SOCCER STORY: US looks for rare win in Europe

Today's American soccer story is an obvious one, the US men take on Zlatan Ibrahimovic (and I guess the rest of the Sweden team) this afternoon (our time) in a friendly. We're looking to improve on our woeful record in matches on the European continent, where it's something like 3-1,179-4. Most of those losses were Jeff Agoos' fault. Jonathan Spector and DaMarcus, put us right.

CRICKET: Yahoo! beats Google in Internet co. one-day test match

I've been in mourning all week because my favorite search engine Google went down to rivals Yahoo! in a one-day cricket match in England. The Yahoo! team apparently was faster, although Google probably had more googleys. In the final, Yahoo! drew with an Internet travel company, but who cares, my boys from Google were on the sidelines by then.

CRICKET - Old guys trying to run sport ruining it for young American players, typical

Loyal The Other Sports Page reader Joe Follick is demanding more cricket coverage on this blog, or he'll stop reading. Since he's one of only about two regular readers, I'm trying to oblige. Most readers won't be very familiar with cricket, and reading a story about an actual match requires a glossary at a minimum. I thought I'd start with an easy story - an update on efforts to grow cricket in the United States. Only trouble is, that effort's run into trouble. You see, old guys trying to run the sport, as they so often do, have screwed things up for the young guys (and girls) trying to play it. The US missed out on the U-19 Americas competition in Canada this month because it was banned. Surf around on www.cricinfo.com for more info.

SUMO'S GRAND CHAMPION IN TROUBLE WITH TRADITION-BOUND SUMO OVERLORDS

No doubt you've been following the troubles of Asashoryu, grand champion of this summer's Nagoya tournament. He said he was injured but then showed up playing in a charity soccer match in his native Mongolia. It's a huge scandal in Japan. The story above gives you all the background. Then today comes this: he has dissociative disorder and supposedly is only saying "ah" and "ugh". http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/sports/20070821TDY24004.htm
There's also this from Japan Times: http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/ss20070821a1.html

U.S. MEN'S GYMNASTICS TEAM MIGHT NOT MAKE BEIJING

The Washington Post on the team the U.S. is taking to the gymnastics worlds in Germany, which are the qualifier for the Beijing Olympics. Short version: we have a young team without much international experience and there's the prospect there won't be a U.S. men's gymnastics team in Beijing.

TRACK WORLD CHAMPS OVERVIEW

A decent preview of the upcoming track world championships, with the reminder that you won't be able to see most of these champions on TV.

ONE OF THE GOOD GUYS

Olympic speed skating medalist Joey Cheek makes my point - hard-working athlete (won an Olympic medal), not breaking laws, doing good things for the world and you've never heard of him.

SO YOU THINK YOUR TRAINING ENVIRONMENT'S TOUGH?

The athletes of Sudan - including at least one from Darfur - head to Osaka. The world championships are a world away from what these athletes have to deal with at home.

GYMNASTICS - Follow the Hamm brothers

From the land of sky blue waters, the Hamm brothers have come back to gymnastics. They're trying to make the Beijing Olympics. It's not a news story, but they have a Web site where you can track their efforts.

TODAY'S OTHER AMERICAN SOCCER STORY

While I include this because it's nice to see an athlete who has a hint of the value of an education, I mainly put it here because Burse is from Louisville - he played his high school soccer (as a forward) at St. X and was a star for the club team Javanon.

TODAY'S AMERICAN SOCCER STORY

Expectations are high for the U.S. women in the upcoming World Cup in China, despite the gold jerseys.

ENDURANCE NUT

This weekend's NYT Play Magazine gives us this article which captures a little of the psychology of being addicted to playing a sport. I know it well.

TRACK: Will this white boy be faster than Michael Johnson?

A recurring theme: you've probably never heard of Jeremy Wariner if you live in the United States. Even though he's the fastest man in America, maybe the world. He's got a good shot at breaking Michael Johnson's quarter mile world record this month in Osaka. But you have to read Pakistani, Australian and other foreign newspapers to get any news about him. The funniest thing about this Qatari news story - it points out that Wariner isn't black. Since there's no picture of him, I think that's a legitimate thing to mention, even if if it does make you feel like you're in 1955.

TRACK WORLD CHAMPS: Steffenson ready, and cocky

After admittedly getting his arse kicked in London, this Aussie sounds a bit cocky heading to Osaka. In case you didn't know it (thanks, American newspapers), the track and field World Championships are coming up in Japan. These are the fastest men and women on the planet, but if they don't wear helmets, you likely never heard of them.

TODAY'S AMERICAN SOCCER STORY

Jozy, meet Becks. Jozy Altidore is going to be blogging for The New York Times and today's his first crack at it. He's a much better player than writer so fortunately this bright young star has a future on the pitch. This blog, however, is just as interesting for the comments posted by readers. Red Bull has a few followers.

RUGBY UNION: Before they can sing and drink, US scrummers will actually have to play in World Cup

Real men, playing one of the toughest sports, with little padding.

TODAY'S SOCCER STORY: Becks gets first goal with no English TV coverage

The American soccer story of the day is an easy one: Becks bends it like Beckham, nets first Galaxy goal. SI's Grant Wahl has the best coverage.