World Cup

As We the People of the United States squirm into our new role as a chronic international sports also-ran, as we realize we can't rule golf or basketball or tennis or much of anything besides halfpipe snowboarding, we can always find a bright side. We can learn some world geography.

  England's Football Assn. on Tuesday selected veteran West Bromwich manager Roy Hodgson to coach its national soccer team, replacing Fabio Capello, who resigned under pressure in February. Hodgson, 64, has coached 18 teams -- including the national squads of Switzerland, Finland and the United Arab Emirates -- during a 36-year career. His current 16-month contract with West Brom doesn't expire until next month, but the club has agreed to release him when the season ends May 13 so that Hodgson can begin preparing for Euro 2012.

Ryan Appell stood on an isolated stretch of highway on the outskirts of an old South African mining town dressed like Betsy Ross' worst nightmare. He worn a bandana and a scarf made from a U.S. flag, had a flag tied around his neck and carried another in his hands. "This," he said with a smile, "is me." And apparently it's a lot of other Americans too because the U.S. soccer team's fan base, which once consisted primarily of friends and family members, has swelled into one of the largest contingents at this World Cup. According to FIFA, the world governing body for soccer, only South Africa bought more tickets to this World Cup than the U.S. And though some of the 136,500 tickets sold in the U.S. — more than the number sold in Germany, Italy, France, Mexico and Brazil combined — were undoubtedly purchased by fans who came here to root for one of the 31 other teams in the tournament, Appell was hardly the only fan who had traveled halfway around the world to come root for America.

Monterosso won the $10-million Dubai World Cup, the world's richest horse race, handing the ruler of Dubai an emotional victory after one of his horses was euthanized earlier Saturday. Monterosso, who finished third last year, also gave a much-needed confidence boost to Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum's stables, which had not won the race since 2006. All four of their horses were longshots. Capponi grabbed the lead coming into the straight only to see Monterosso bolt past and beat his stablemate by three lengths.

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has used strong language to decry what he calls British neocolonialism, which he says is behind daily rumors that he will be nudged into retirement. But now he finds himself fiercely defending his role as host of one of the British Empire's most enduring legacies: cricket. The cricket World Cup is coming to South Africa next month, and neighboring Zimbabwe is to host six of the 54 matches.

The joke among the women of luge is that the highest non-German finisher at any race is the real winner, so strong is that team's grip on the top of the podium. Erin Hamlin is tired of being a punch line. "Yeah, it gets old," says Hamlin, 23, of Remsen, N.Y. "We improve every year, but we still have a place to look up to." With 97 consecutive World Cup wins dating back to 1997, the German hold has engendered that kind of black humor. Last year, Hamlin struck back with a gold medal at the World Championships on her home track at Lake Placid, a win that stunned the Germans, who even admitted their shock to reporters in an uncharacteristic moment of candor.

Andres Escobar could have been here this weekend instead of in his violent hometown of Medellin, Colombia. The popular soccer player, who was murdered early Saturday, was asked to be a color commentator for Carcol radio, Colombia's premier network, after his team failed to advance to the second round of the World Cup. Escobar would have been in Carcol's cramped quarters at the International Broadcast Center in Dallas, where thousands of commentators are covering the World Cup.

World Cup 2010: AUSTRALIA FIFA ranking: 19 Overall World Cup record: 1-4-2 Coach: Pim Verbeek Best performance: Second round, 2006 Overview: Australia ended a 32-year World Cup drought in 2006, reaching the knockout stage, and many veterans from that squad are back this summer. Keeper Mark Schwarzer was brilliant in qualifying, posting seven consecutive shutouts to help the Socceroos win their Asian zone bracket. Tim Cahill, Everton's creative midfielder and the first Australia to score a World Cup goal, leads the attack for Dutch-born coach Pim Verbeek.

Ricky Rubio's rookie season has come to an abrupt end. The Minnesota Timberwolves point guard will sit out the rest of the season because of a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee, the team announced Saturday. Now the upstart Timberwolves will have to keep chasing a playoff berth without one of the players who was most responsible for the franchise's resurgence. "I feel bad for Ricky having to miss the rest of this season," team President David Kahn said in a statement.

Choose any significant soccer event in Southern California over the last 38 years, and chances are Ralph Perez was there. The 1984 Olympic Games? He worked as a statistician "just so I could get to the games. " The World Cup a decade later? He was a technical advisor. Major League Soccer? He was with the league from the start and even helped coach the Galaxy to two MLS Cup wins. He also founded programs at Cal State Los Angeles and Cal State San Bernardino, ran teams at Cal State Fullerton and Whittier College and might be the only man in history to coach teams in all three divisions of NCAA play, the MLS, the Olympics and the World Cup. All of that won him a lifetime achievement award last month at the National Soccer Coaches Assn.

In an attempt to stop the spread of chaos throughout the country one week before Carnival, Brazil on Friday arrested leaders of a police strike in Rio de Janeiro before it got fully underway in that city. Police officers demanding higher pay had already walked off the job in the northeastern state of Bahia, whose capital is Salvador, for 10 days, and about 150 people died in the ensuing criminal violence. Authorities in both cities now claim the situation is under control, but the earlier turmoil in Salvador — and the decision of some Rio police and firefighters to join the strike late Thursday night — has led to questions about the country's ability to safely put on this year's Carnival festivities, as well as play host to the World Cup in 2014 and the Olympic Games two years later.

Lindsey Vonn earned her 50th World Cup win Saturday at Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, taking the downhill on the Kandahar course with temperatures plunging to minus 13. "It's crazy. I am at a loss for words. I already cried with one of the TV crews and that is enough crying for the day," Vonn said. "Fifty World Cup wins is a huge mark for me in my career and more than I even thought possible. I just wanted the 50th win. " Few skiers reach the 50-win landmark. Among the women, only Annemarie Moser-Proell of Austria (62)

Lindsey Vonn dominated yet another World Cup downhill Saturday, winning by 1.42 seconds on the Engiadina course at St. Moritz, Switzerland. The American found speed that eluded her rivals and clocked 1 minute 43.65 seconds on the relatively flat 1.57-mile track. "I'm extremely happy with the win," said Vonn, whose eighth World Cup victory this season extended her lead in the overall and downhill standings. "It's been an amazing year so far. " Maria Hoefl-Riesch of Germany, the defending overall champion, was second.

Eighth in a series of occasional stories. As soon as Dotsie Bausch opens the door to the main building at the Irvine Animal Care Center, Mandy and Brandy, a pair of excitable miniature pinschers, begin leaping excitedly against the vertical steel bars at the front of their cage. "They are so wildly energetic," Bausch says of the adorable - and soon-to-be adopted - brown and black siblings. "These two really need a lot of exercise to drain them so they can be calm when people come to look at them.

Reporting from Glendale, Ariz. -- Hey, America, Juergen Klinsmann has a message for you: You've fallen behind the rest of the world in soccer. Way behind. "Oh, yeah," he says, sighing. "There is still a lot of catching up to do. " And the only way to do that, he says, is to move fast. Really, really fast. So earlier this month Klinsmann opened his first winter camp as coach of the U.S. national team with an eight-day stay at a state-of-the-art training facility in Phoenix, where players had their blood analyzed, their aerobic capacity measured, their strength tested and their eating habits digested — but rarely saw a soccer ball.

Johnson Wagner played bogey-free over the last 12 holes and won the Sony Open at Honolulu for his third PGA Tour title. Six players had a share of the lead Sunday at some point in the final round. Wagner was the only player who stayed there, closing with a three-under-par 67 for a two-shot victory over Carl Pettersson , Sean O'Hair , Harrison Frazar and Charles Howell III . The win puts Wagner in the Masters. He ended his two-week working vacation in Hawaii with a tie for ninth at Kapalua and a win at Waialae.