Arena stays cool before big match
SAN JOSE, Calif. — A new coach is making the decisions after a pair of historically bad games. Nearly half the projected starters are sidelined. Fans are freaking out that the U.S. men’s soccer national team’s streak of consecutive World Cup appearances might end at seven. On the eve of his first competitive international match in nearly 11 years, Bruce Arena was calm and confident. “The last thing we’re going to do is concern ourselves a whole lot if players go down, and I haven’t done that. I’m actually eager to see how some of these other players are going to perform,” the old-turned-new U.S. coach said Thursday at the last training session before the qualifier against Honduras. “My guess is we’re going to be OK.” Another misstep and the Americans would be winless in the final round of World Cup qualifying with seven games left. Only one team has qualified from a similar start in the North and Central American and Caribbean region — Trinidad and Tobago in 2006. Arena, 65 years old and a member of the U.S. National Soccer Hall of Fame, coached the Americans from 1998 to 2006. He was brought back in November to replace Jurgen Klinsmann after a 2-1 home loss to Mexico and a 4-0 debacle at Costa Rica.
FOOTBALL
THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. — The Los Angeles Rams announced Thursday they signed former University of Georgia quarterback Aaron Murray. He is expected to be the Rams’ third-string quarterback. He was a fifth-round pick by Kansas City in 2014, and he spent two seasons with the Chiefs before getting cut and finishing last season on Philadelphia’s practice squad. The deal reunites Murray with former college teammate
Todd Gurley, the Rams’ top running back. The Rams don’t intend to re-sign quarterback
Case Keenum, who started the first seven games last season before giving way to
Jared Goff, the No. 1 pick in the 2015 draft. Sean Mannion is expected to be Goff’s backup after spending two years as the Rams’ third-stringer.
LEGAL
HARRISBURG, Pa. — Jurors in the criminal trial of former Penn State University president Graham Spanier spent more than six hours deliberating Thursday without reaching a verdict regarding the child endangerment and conspiracy charges he faces in the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse scandal. The panel got the case after Spanier’s attorneys declined to call any witnesses to counter accusations he acted illegally in handling a 2001 complaint about Sandusky, a former assistant football coach, showering with a boy. Deliberations were scheduled to resume today. In a closing argument, Spanier attorney Sam Silver said there was “no evidence” and the case involved “judgment calls” by high-ranking university administrators in dealing with the complaint Sandusky had been seen naked with the boy in a team locker room. “They made judgment calls,” Silver said. “They did not engage in crimes. They did not enter in a conspiracy.” Prosecutor Laura Ditka said Spanier, former athletic director Tim Curley and former vice president Gary Schultz took actions to preserve the university and their own reputations, all at the expense of children. Spanier, who didn’t testify, faces three felonies. Curley and Schultz struck plea deals last week to a misdemeanor count of child endangerment and testified against Spanier.