Dynamo top Kansas City on Aliyu’s late goal to end skid
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Héctor Herrera scored his first goal of the season and Ibrahim Aliyu added a goal in the 78th minute to help the Houston Dynamo beat Sporting Kansas City 2-1 Saturday night and end a three-game losing streak.
Leading the counterattack, Griffin Dorsey worked from the right side to the center as he worked down field and then played a through ball to a streaking Aliya near the penalty spot, where he bent a low shot around the outstretched arm of goalkeeper Tim Melia and inside the back post to give Sporting the lead for good at 2-1.
Herrera opened the scoring in the 31st minute. He tapped a corner kick to nearby Amine Bassi, who played a ball that led Herrera to to corner of the area, where he ripped a one-touch shot that gave the Dynamo (5-4-2) a 1-0 lead.
Dániel Sallói, just outside the penalty area, quickly turned a fired a low roller that slipped inside the near post for Sporting that made it 1-1 in the 61st.
Kansas City (2-5-5) has lost three consecutive games and is winless in six straight.
Melia and the Dynamo's Steve Clark had five saves apiece.
AUTO RACING Keselowski ends NASCAR drought
Brad Keselowski moved to the front when leaders Chris Buescher and Tyler Reddick hit battling for first with nine laps left and held on to win the Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway on Sunday for his first NASCAR win in three years.
It was Keselowski's 36th career victory, his second at Darlington and his first since reconnecting with magnate Jack Roush and becoming a co-owner at Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing.
It appeared Keselowski's employee at RFK, Buescher, would get the win after he passed his boss and Reddick with 29 laps to go. But Buescher and Reddick then hit and fell back, opening the door for Keselowski's satisfying victory.
“What a heck of a day,” Keselowski said. “That battle out there with my teammate and Tyler Reddick, we just laid it all on the line.”
Ty Gibbs was second, Josh Berry third and Denny Hamlin fourth. Chase Briscoe was fifth followed by William Byron, Bubba Wallace, Justin Haley and Michael McDowell.
Buescher slid to 30th and Reddick 32nd. Buescher confronted Reddick when both got out of their cars. Reddick took full blame for the incident.
TENNIS
Djokovic beaten at Italian Open
Novak Djokovic’s performance was so poor on Sunday that even the 24-time Grand Slam champion admitted it was “concerning.”
Djokovic put on one of his worst displays at one of his favorite tournaments as he was upset by 29th-seeded Alejandro Tabilo in the third round of the Italian Open.
It was Djokovic’s first match since accidentally getting knocked on the head by a water bottle while signing autographs on Friday.
“I managed to sleep okay. I had headaches. The next day or yesterday was pretty fine, so I thought it’s okay. Maybe it is okay. Maybe it’s not,” Djokovic said.
The top-ranked Djokovic lost his first two service games and went on to lose the match 6-2, 6-3 in just 68 minutes, handing Tabilo the victory when he double-faulted — his fifth of the match — amid boos at the Foro Italico.
COLLEGE BASKETBALL Wicks returning to Wyoming
Wyoming has hired former Cowboys basketball assistant Sundance Wicks away from Green Bay to fill its head coaching vacancy.
Wicks went 18-14 and staged a remarkable turnaround in his lone season at Green Bay after spending three years as a Wyoming assistant on Jeff Linder’s staff. Wicks will take over for Linder.
In announcing the Wicks hiring Sunday, Wyoming said Linder had resigned “to pursue other opportunities in college basketball.” ESPN has reported that Linder, who went 63-59 in four seasons at Wyoming, is close to a deal to become an assistant on Texas Tech coach Grant
McCasland’s staff. “You cannot put into words what it means for a kid from the country roads outside of Gillette to represent the state of Wyoming and the Cowboys as their new head basketball coach,” Wicks said in a statement.
In his only season at Green Bay, Wicks won the Joe B. Hall national coach of the year award that goes annually to the top rookie head coach in Division I basketball.
Wicks had inherited a Green Bay program that went 3-29 the year before his arrival. The 15-win improvement from 3-29 to 18-14 represented the ninth-biggest turnaround in NCAA Division I history.