Stanford’s Macario wins Player of Year

Stanford freshman forward Catarina Macario was named national women’s Player of the Year by ESPNW on Tuesday.

Macario leads Division I players with 13 assists and is fourth in the nation, and first in the Pac-12, with 17 goals.

“What separates her is her technical ability but also her brain for the game,” head coach Paul Ratcliffe said in a statement released by Stanford. “She’s a very intelligent player, and then she’s a good athlete as well. The amount of goals she has scored is difficult to do for a senior, let alone a freshman. That’s truly remarkable.”

Macario, a native of Brazil who played in high school at Torrey Pines-San Diego, was previously named Pac-12 Forward of the Year, Freshman of the Year and first team All-Pac-12.

Stanford faces South Carolina in an NCAA tournament semifinal Friday in Orlando.

English Premier League: Ashley Young scored twice in the first half and Jesse Lingard ensured there would be no late comeback from host Watford with a 65-yard goal to complete a 4-2 win. United is five points behind EPL leader Manchester City, which plays Southampton on Wednesday.

Fifth-place Tottenham lost 2-1 at Leicester and is 13 points behind Manchester City after its third loss in give games.

FIFA backs Russia: FIFA defended Russia’s right to host the World Cup amid a series of doping scandals, saying that there is no sign of widespread drug use in Russian soccer.

Russia has been stripped of dozens of Olympic medals for doping and cover-ups, including tampering with samples. Soccer is among the sports in which positive tests apparently were covered up, according to a World Anti-Doping Agency investigation last year.

“From the information we have, we cannot talk about widespread doping in football in Russia,” FIFA general secretary Fatma Samoura said, three days before FIFA hosts the World Cup draw at the Kremlin.