IN BRIEF Madrid wins in league’s return to play
Playing a home game but not at its famed Santiago Bernabeu Stadium, Real Madrid resumed its Spanish league campaign with a 3-1 win over Eibar on Sunday to keep pace with leader Barcelona.
Toni Kroos, Sergio Ramos and Marcelo scored a goal each — with Marcelo taking a knee and raising one of his hands in the air — as Madrid won the game at the club’s training center while major renovation work takes place at the 80,000-capacity Bernabeu, about 6 miles away.
Eden Hazard, who had been expected to miss the rest of the season because of a foot injury sustained before the coronavirus pandemic, thrived on his return and set up two of the goals in the game. There were no fans at the 6,000-capacity Alfredo Di Stefano Stadium, which is used mostly by Madrid’s “B” team. Madrid players walked a few hundred meters (yards) from the team’s housing facilities to the stadium for the match that marked the club’s return after a pause of more than three months because of the pandemic.
A large banner in the stands spanned from one goal line to the other with the image of a black ribbon and the message “in our hearts,” honoring the nearly 28,000 who have died with COVID-19 in Spain. The league officially resumed on Thursday with third-place Sevilla defeating city rival Real Betis 2-0.
Madrid is expected to play all of its remaining home matches at the Alfredo Di Stefano because the Bernabeu will continue to undergo renovation work during the summer. The club is likely to remain at the Alfredo Di Stefano for the rest of the season even if fans are allowed back before then.
College football: Louisiana Tech officials say a football player has tested positive for COVID-19 and that he and some of his teammates have been instructed to self-quarantine for two weeks. School officials say contact tracing helped officials identify additional football players who could have been exposed.
Louisiana Tech has not released the names of the players being required to quarantine and has not specified how many players were identified for possible exposure.
NASCAR: Chase Briscoe survived two late cautions and a frantic overtime finish to prevail in an Xfinity Series race at Homestead-Miami Speedway — while adding to a nightmarish weekend for Noah Gragson, who saw a huge lead slip away in the final laps for the second consecutive day.
Briscoe was without crew chief Richard Boswell, car chief Nick Hutchins and engineer DJ Vanderley, all of whom began serving four-race suspensions for a safety violation that happened Saturday. So Briscoe — a big Tony Stewart fan growing up — got Stewart-Haas Racing competition director Greg Zipadelli to fill in as his crew chief.
NBA: Spurs coach Gregg Popovich criticized NFL commissioner Roger Goodell for caving to Donald Trump in the past on the issue of player protests during the national anthem.
“A smart man is running the NFL and he didn’t understand the difference between the flag and what makes the country great — all the people who fought to allow [Colin] Kaepernick to have the right to kneel for justice,” Popovich told The New York Times in a column by Maureen Dowd posted Saturday. “The flag is irrelevant. It’s just a symbol that people glom onto for political reasons.”
He added that Goodell “got intimidated when Trump jumped on the kneeling [and] he folded.”
PGA: Three months away because of the COVID-19 pandemic didn’t slow Daniel Berger’s momentum, and he made it pay off Sunday with a victory at Colonial.
The PGA Tour made a healthy return to golf at the Charles Schwab Challenge with a somewhat sickly finish. Berger saved par from behind the 17th green on the first playoff hole and won when Collin Morikawa missed a 3-foot par putt. Berger closed with a 4-under 66, his 28th consecutive round at par or better dating to Oct. 11 at the Houston Open.