France halts U.S. women’s streak
Kadidiatou Diani scored twice and France ended the U.S. national team’s 28-game unbeaten streak with a 3-1 victory Saturday at La Havre, France.
The top-ranked U.S. women had not lost since falling 1-0 to Australia in 2017, The Americans were 25-0-3 over the span.
Marie-Antoinette Katoto also scored for thirdranked France. It has won eight straight matches.
It was the first of 10 matches the United States will play before the World Cup. The Americans are defending champions and could meet France in the tournament’s quarterfinals.
Elsewhere: With a 2-1 A victory over Brighton, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer racked up a sixth successive Premier League win with Manchester United since replacing the fired Jose Mourinho. Matt Busby, who died 25 years ago this week, only managed five in a row when he started out at United in 1945.
Although United remains in sixth spot it is now only three points behind fourthplaced Chelsea. Goals by Paul Pogba and Marcus
Rashford secured the latest victory.
Maurizio Sarri launched a damning critique of his players’ mental fragilities after Chelsea’s grip on fourth place was weakened by a 2-0 loss to Arsenal. The race for fourth position is now wide open with Arsenal only three points behind Chelsea seeking Champions League qualification. …
In Italy, teenage midfielder Nicolo Zaniolo again showed why he is one of Serie A’s most promising talents as he inspired Roma to an exciting 3-2 victory at home. Roma let slip a two-goal lead but recovered to in-
flict Torino’s first away defeat of the season and climb into fourth spot.
An ugly chant was turned into a powerful symbol against racism as Inter Milan drew 0-0 with Sassuolo in front of an unusual San Siro crowd. It was the second of two matches Inter had to play behind closed doors as part of its punishment for racist chanting in the Dec. 26 league match against Napoli. The club, though, was allowed to let in more than 10,000 children from local schools in an initiative against discrimination. …
Real Madrid scored a convincing 2-0 victory over Sevilla in one of its best performances in an upand-down season to get back into the Spanish league’s top three for the first time since September. Casemiro was on target with a long-range shot before Luka Modric added a late second goal. … Edinson Cavani and Kylian Mbappe scored hat tricks as French league leader Paris Saint-Germain crushed bottom club Guingamp 9-0.
ETC.
Figure skating: John
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Coughlin, a two-time U.S. pairs champion recently suspended from figure skating, has died at 33 of an apparent suicide in Kansas City, Mo. U.S. Figure Skating released a statement citing Couglin’s sister saying in a Facebook post her “wonderful, strong” brother took his life. Coughlin received an interim suspension from the U.S. Center for SafeSport and USFS on Thursday for unspecified conduct.
Olympics: A lawyer
A for Russian cross-country skier Alexander Legkov says Switzerland’s federal court has dismissed the IOC’s appeal against Russian athletes being cleared of doping at the 2014 Sochi Olympics. Attorney Christof Wieschemann says in a statement “Alexander Legkov can rightly claim: ‘My medals are clean!' Congratulations.” The IOC had stripped Legkov of his gold medal in 50-kilometer freestyle and silver in the 4x10-kilometer relay.
Skiing: Austrian skier
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Ramona Siebenhofer made it back-to-back
World Cup downhill victories, while Lindsey Vonn finished tied for ninth in the second race of her return from injury at Cortina D’Ampezzo, Italy. Siebenhofer, who had her first career win in Friday’s race, finished 0.04 seconds ahead of Austrian teammate Nicole Schmidhofer. … Austria’s Vincent Kriechmayr edged Beat Feuz by 0.14 seconds in a men’s downhill at Wengen, Switzerland. Feuz, the top Swiss skier, had won every downhill in Switzerland the past three years.