U.S. women beat England, win tourney
The U.S. women’s national soccer team beat England 1-0 in Orlando on Wednesday night to win the SheBelieves Cup tournament.
The United States finished atop the table at 2-0-1. England was second at 1-1-1, ahead of defending champion France (1-1-1) on goal difference. Germany finished last at 0-2-1.
The top-ranked U.S. team beat third-ranked England on an own goal that came off of a cross from Megan Rapinoe in the 60th minute.
Carli Lloyd started the game for her 250th appearance for the national team, moving her up to sixth on the career list.
The Americans were without several key players for the three-city tournament, including defender Becky Sauerbrunn, who is recovering from a foot injury, and midfielder Tobin Heath, who had ankle surgery. Defender Julie Ertz was rested for the final match by coach Jill Ellis. All three were on the 2015 World Cup-winning team.
Earlier Wednesday, Amandine Henry, Eugenie Le Sommer and Valerie Gauvin scored as France topped Germany 3-0.
All four teams are preparing for next year’s World Cup in France. France already qualified for the tournament as host. The defending champion United States will attempt to qualify this fall.
With its first home loss in 15 months, Manchester City ended up stumbling into the quarterfinals of the Champions League with a surprise 2-1 loss to Basel, advancing on a 5-2 aggregate. Though the English Premier League leader is in the last eight, its EPL compatriot, Tottenham, is out after Gonzalo Higuain and Paulo Dybala scored twice inside three minutes and Juventus stunned Tottenham with a 2-1 victory in London after a 2-2 draw earlier in Turin.
Motor sports:
Kevin Harvick has been stripped of the playoff points he earned for winning at Las Vegas because of violations discovered on his Ford.
NASCAR ruled that Harvick’s No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing team violated the rule requiring rear-window support braces holding the rearwindow glass rigid, as well as a rule requiring the rightside rocker panel extension to be aluminum.
The penalty is the loss of the seven playoff points Harvick earned for winning Sunday’s race and both stages. Harvick also was docked 20 points. Harvick now has six playoff points instead of the 13 he had earned through three races.
Crew chief Rodney Childers was fined $50,000, and car chief Robert Smith was suspended two races.
Obituary:
Woody Durham, the retired “Voice of the Tar Heels” who called North Carolina football and basketball games for four decades, died at 76 of complications of the neurocognitive disorder that prevented him from public speaking. Durham called UNC games from 1971 through 2011. He worked more than 1,800 games.