United States Athletic Teams

Conor Casey scored two second-half goals Saturday night and Landon Donovan added a third as the United States rallied to defeat Honduras, 3-2, to earn a place in soccer's 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Casey can pack his bag right now. The 28-year-old from Dover, N.H., almost certainly will be going along. At the World Cup, Casey can rub shoulders with players from the likes of defending world champion Italy and former champion Germany, not to mention Chile, Denmark, the Ivory Coast and Serbia.

First it was world champion Italy. Now it's the $94-million man. Things don't get any easier for the U.S. team at soccer's Confederations Cup in South Africa today, what with the Brazilians lining up to take shots at the Americans in Pretoria. And shoot they will.

It took a kid from Teaneck, N.J., to light up the South African city of Pretoria on Monday night. Unfortunately for the United States, Giuseppe Rossi was playing for Italy in the Confederations Cup, and the 22-year-old's two exceptional goals earned the defending world champions a 3-1 come-from-behind victory over a combative but short-handed U.S. team.

Chris Cummings is one of the nation's top high school soccer players, a quick and aggressive forward-midfielder described by his coach as "electric" and "charismatic." He was looking forward to playing his senior season with his best friends at Encino Crespi High before moving on to UCLA in the fall on a soccer scholarship.

It is one of the most famous sports photographs of the 1990s, the now-iconic image of U.S. soccer player Brandi Chastain on her knees, clenching her jersey in her right fist and exulting over the successful penalty kick that had just decided the 1999 Women's World Cup. Every picture tells a story, but the shot of Chastain tells several.

Mexico's string of soccer failures in the United States -- the Tricolor has not beaten the U.S. on American soil in nine years -- obviously is beginning to gnaw on some nerves south of the border. That, at least, is one way of looking at the roster that Mexico Coach Hugo Sanchez announced Thursday for Wednesday's match against the U.S. national team at Reliant Stadium in Houston.

HOUSTON -- When the team bus pulls up at Reliant Stadium this evening and Coach Hugo Sanchez and the players on the Mexican national soccer team disembark, another milestone will have been reached. For the fifth consecutive year, the Tricolor will be on tour in a country where it is every bit as welcome and as well-supported as it is in Mexico City, Guadalajara, Monterrey or anywhere else "El Tri" travels.

HOUSTON -- Jozy Altidore, the player many see as the future of American soccer, scored his first international goal Wednesday night as the United States and Mexico fought and scrapped and finally settled for a 2-2 tie in front of a sellout crowd of 70,103 at Reliant Stadium. It wasn't just any old goal, either. It was a beauty. It came in the 40th minute and provided the climax to an 11-minute spell in which the U.S.

Michael Ball, seller of blue jeans, renter of two Malibu mansions and employer of a chef from Spago, is founder and owner of Rock Racing, a new-age cycling team filled with twitchy, tattooed rebel riders who are shaking their fists at the autocratic leadership of a sport Ball feels is destroying itself by a doping witch hunt. Ball also says with exclamatory profanities that Rock Racing will be the savior of cycling.

WHISTLER, Canada -- Marking the halfway point between the disappointment of Turin in 2006 and the promise of Vancouver, the United States Alpine ski team makes a key World Cup circuit stop this week on the Whistler Mountain courses to be used at the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. It has been a decade since the World Cup circuit visited Whistler, and this week's races will serve as the only test events before Vancouver. "A lot of our athletes have never actually skied on these hills," U.S.