| Little Niki's all grown up; Colts scoring leader 'in love with the sport again', and it shows
For a fan favourite, the Barrie Colts' Vladimir Nikiforov seems to take himself pretty seriously. It's not really a bad thing, though. After all, the speedy winger will be the first to tell you goofing off isn't exactly a great resume-builder for a major junior hockey player looking to take his game to the next level. Following a stellar first season with the Colts in 2005-06 that garnered the one they call 'Niki' an invite to the Dallas Stars rookie camp, things unravelled a bit, Nikiforov said. "After the first year, I was invited to the Stars camp, and I think I let it get to my head a bit," said the Lithuanian-born Long Island native, who amassed 55 points in the follow-up to his rookie campaign. "Things didn't end up working out, and last year I screwed around a lot.
Lamentable referee was unfair, declares McLeish
NO MATTER how long he remains in management, it is unlikely any refereeing decision will cause Alex McLeish as much anguish as the controversial award of the free-kick to Italy which led to Scotland's European Championship exit just before 7pm on Saturday. "Lamentable, just lamentable," said McLeish, shaking his head in a mixture of bewilderment and residual anger some 45 minutes later. The crushing disappointment of Christian Panucci's winning goal, headed home from Andrea Pirlo's set piece as the Group B qualifier entered stoppage time, was still etched on the face of the Scotland manager as he conducted a daily newspaper briefing inside the Hampden tunnel. .
Pele: England lacks good players
Pele believes England is too quick to blame its managers for underachieving - instead of admitting that the soccer-mad country is starved of talent.
The national team's only significant triumph remains the 1966 World Cup, which it hosted, and is now in danger of missing its first major tournament since the 1994 World Cup after last month's defeat in Russia maintained a patchy qualifying campaign for the European Championship.
Manager Steve McClaren, fighting for his future after 15 months at the helm, needs Israel to deny Russia three points on November 17 and for his team to beat Croatia four days later at Wembley.
"England has few very good players," three-time World Cup winner Pele said on Wednesday.
"When those players get injured in a tough, long tournament they don't have a player to replace them - that is the big problem in England.
Roosevelt backers look to raise renovation money at R Party
Sixty-one years ago Roger Stetson pulled up a stool and sat down at a long lab table in Mr. Koch's science lab, across from beakers, Bunsen burners and that beautiful girl on the other side of the table.
The two Roosevelt High School 10th-graders quickly formed a friendship, sitting across from each other every home room, chatting about the latest school gossip, the upcoming dance and tennis. Yes, tennis.
Roger was "hooked" on tennis. Shirley would watch from the bleachers, which she continued to do even as the two headed to Iowa State University. They'd later wed and Roger would be called up to the Navy.
After discharge, Roger returned home and the two raised a family of four, all of whom would follow dad onto the court.
They've since picked up whistles and clipboards, focusing now on coaching.
Wolves: Telfair, Marbury share a loss
Almost every night that Timberwolves guard Sebastian Telfair can remember, two spotlights beside his Coney Island housing-project court nicknamed so contradictorily shone bright at 10 o'clock, illuminating until midnight pickup games that had started there before noon.On Wednesday night, the Garden was silent, its asphalt and chain-link fencing lit by candles placed across the court in memory of the man who taught Telfair, his cousin Stephon Marbury and two generations of New York City street-ball players the game of basketball.If he had been back home in Brooklyn, Telfair could have seen the vigil remembering the man everyone simply knew as Mr. Lou from the bedroom where he was raised in the Surfside Gardens projects. Robert Williams -- a nursing-home manager by day and basketball mentors to hundreds by night and weekend -- died of a heart attack at age 64 on Tuesday afternoon in his apartment next to the Garden court."If you looked outside the window of my room, right down there was the court," Telfair said.
US fans were misled over David Beckham, Pele says
Pele believes US fans were misled about what David Beckham could bring to Major League Soccer. Amid great fanfare, the former England captain was presented by the Los Angeles Galaxy in July, but his greatest impact has been on ticket sales and merchandise. Pele believes Beckham's introduction was "very, very bad" as it raised expectations about what the former Manchester United and Real Madrid midfielder could produce on the pitch. "They announced him as a scorer of goals," Pele said. "He isn't a goal scorer. That was a mistake." After playing an exhibition match in Vancouver, British Columbia, on Wednesday night, Beckham said "everybody in the world knows I'm not a goal scorer." "The Galaxy wouldn't have come out and said that," Beckham said. "Like I said, everyone has got their own opinions.
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