Sports

By PETE IACOBELLI AP Sports Writer It doesn’t get much bigger than this for No. 1 Alabama and No. 5 Georgia who face difficult openers to start their seasons. The defending national champion Crimson Tide will play No. 14 Miami in Atlanta on Sept. 4. The Bulldogs will play six-time defending ACC champion Clemson in

By DÉBORA REY and NATACHA PISARENKO Associated Press BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Few places in the world have soccer fans more passionate than those in Argentina. And few have been denied a live view of their teams for so long due to the pandemic. It’s been 20 months since the government banned spectators at

OSAKA, Japan (AP) — Australia beat China 3-0 but Japan has fallen to a shock 1-0 defeat against Oman in the opening Group B game of World Cup qualifying. Substitute Issam Al-Sabhi swept home from close range in the 88th minute in rainy Osaka to claim victory against the world’s 24th-ranked team, the highest in

By ROB MAADDI AP Pro Football Writer NFL players can wear social justice messages on their helmets again this season. And “It Takes All of Us” and “End Racism” will be stenciled in end zones for the second straight year as part of the league’s Inspire Change platform. The NFL will also bring back the

By STEPHEN WADE AP Sports Writer TOKYO (AP) — Afghan athlete Zakia Khudadadi got her chance to compete in the Tokyo Paralympics. Khudadadi is one to two Afghans participating in the Paralympics. She lost her first-round match in taekwondo to Ziyodakhon Isakova of Uzbekistan 17-12. She also lost a losers’ bracket match against Viktoriia Marchuk

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — Brazilian soccer official Marco Polo del Nero has had his life ban from soccer cut to 20 years by the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Del Nero was indicted by federal prosecutors in the United States in 2015 on bribery charges but has avoided being extradited from Brazil. He has been

By STEPHEN WADE AP Sports Writer TOKYO (AP) — Lora Webster is five months pregnant and going for her fifth medal in sitting volleyball in her fifth Paralympics. This is the second Paralympics in which she’s been pregnant, and the third time during a competition. Webster and her American teammates face Brazil in the sitting

By HOWARD FENDRICH AP Tennis Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Even a retractable roof at the U.S. Open was no match for the heavy rain and wind the remnants of Hurricane Ida carried to Flushing Meadows. The storm knocked down tree limbs, caused flooding around the tournament grounds and forced a match to shift from

By DAN GREENSPAN Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — Southern California wide receiver Drake London had shifted his attention between football and basketball in previous years. But with his focus solely now on the gridiron coming off an impressive breakout sophomore season, even bigger things are expected in his third year catching passes from star

By STEPHEN HAWKINS AP Sports Writer Texas is beginning a new era with new coach Steve Sarkisian, new starting quarterback Hudson Card and preseason AP All-America running back Bijan Robinson. The Longhorns play their first game under Sarkisian at home against No. 23 Louisiana-Lafayette. All 10 Big 12 teams open this weekend. Second-ranked and six-time

By The Associated Press Mets acting general manager Zack Scott is due in court two days after he was arrested on charges of driving while intoxicated following a fundraiser at team owner Steve Cohen’s house. Scott was arrested on a DUI charge around 4:15 a.m. Tuesday in suburban White Plains, New York. Police found him

By NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press VENICE (AP) — Italian director Paolo Sorrentino is turning the camera on his own personal tragedy. Sorrentino’s autobiographical “The Hand of God” premieres Thursday at the Venice Film Festival. It recounts how his otherwise normal childhood in 1980s Naples was upended by the sudden, accidental death of his parents and

By JANIE McCAULEY AP Baseball Writer SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Jace Peterson hit a go-ahead single in the seventh, Lorenzo Cain homered for a second straight game and the Milwaukee Brewers knocked the San Francisco Giants out of the top spot in the National League for the first time in more than three months. The

By BETH HARRIS AP Sports Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — Justin Turner and AJ Pollock singled home the tying and go-ahead runs through the same infield hole in the eighth inning, and the Los Angeles Dodgers rallied past the Atlanta Braves 4-3 to complete a three-game sweep. The Dodgers staked Max Scherzer to an early

By HOWARD FENDRICH AP Tennis Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Stefanos Tsitsipas has heard boos from the crowd for yet another long trip off court after dropping a set during a second-round victory over Adrian Mannarino. Tsitsipas says he is not doing anything that breaks the rules. And he is right about that, because the

By DAVID SMALE Associated Press KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Austin Hedges popped an RBI single just out of reach of first baseman Carlos Santana for the tiebreaking run in the 11th inning and the Cleveland Indians beat the Kansas City Royals 5-3. Hedges’ bloop off Ervin Santana fell in shallow right field, allowing pinch-runner

By MARK GONZALES Associated Press CHICAGO (AP) — Rookie Gavin Sheets hit two home runs, leading the Chicago White Sox to a 6-3 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Wednesday night. Sheets, who was promoted from Triple-A Charlotte before the game, hit a three-run homer off Max Kranick (1-3) with two out in the fourth