GUADALAJARA, Mexico - The U.S. men won't be playing soccer at the Athens Olympics.
A swarming Mexican offense knocked the United States out Tuesday night with a 4-0 victory that ended a string of five appearances for the Americans in the Olympics.
Playing before a noisy crowd of almost 57,000, Mexico avenged a 2-0 World Cup loss two years ago. The Mexicans battered the U.S. defense with waves of attackers who kept slipping free near the goal. Rafael Marquez Lugo scored twice.
The game among under-23 squads was a winner-take-all battle for an Olympic berth. It came a little more than two months after a qualifying tournament win by Mexico kept the U.S. baseball team out of Athens. Costa Rica, Australia, Argentina, Paraguay and Greece also have qualified.
WOMEN'S TEAM: Forwards Mia Hamm and Cindy Parlow and midfielder Aly Wagner were among 20 picked for the U.S. roster for Olympic qualifying. The trio joined 17 players who helped the American women win the Four Nations Tournament last week in China. In the first round in Costa Rica, the United States plays Trinidad and Tobago (Feb.25), Haiti (Feb.27) and Mexico (Feb.29). The United States is unbeaten against those nations.
COLLEGES: Gators finish second
Senior Camilo Villegas' 2-under 70 led Florida to a second-place tie in the Mercedes-Benz Collegiate Championship at Ponte Vedra Beach. South Carolina (3-under 861) won; UF and Oklahoma State were 27 back. Villegas (216) finished fifth, five behind champion Jason Hartwick of Texas. ... In Palos Verdes Estates, Calif., the UF women were 14th (627) after the second round of the Northrop Grumman Regional Challenge, 48 strokes behind leader UCLA.
BASEBALL: Host Florida Southern held off Eckerd's late rally for an 11-10 win. The Moccasins had a 10-1 lead after five innings.
HORSES: Madeira takes Endeavour
Madeira Mist, with Edgar Prado aboard, won the $100,000 Endeavour Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs, holding off a late charge by Something Ventured. Madeira Mist finished the 1 1/16-mile turf race, which was postponed Saturday because of inclement weather, in 1:44.97 and returned $7.60.
TENNIS: Goran returns a winner
Goran Ivanisevic won his first singles match in eight months, hitting 25 aces in a 7-6 (7-2), 3-6, 7-6 (7-3) victory over Bohdan Ulihrach at the Milan Indoors. The 2001 Wimbledon champion has been hindered by shoulder, elbow and knee injuries. His last tour singles match was a first-round loss to Jan Vacek at the Queen's Club tournament in June.
ET CETERA
BASKETBALL: Center Ann Wauters signed a multiyear contract with the WNBA's New York Liberty, who made her the fourth selection in last month's dispersal draft. The 6-foot-4 Wauters averaged 11.2 points for the now-defunct Cleveland Rockers last season.
RUNNING: The first runner to cross the finish line at this year's Boston Marathon will be a woman. Race officials changed the starting format so the elite female runners will leave Hopkinton 25 minutes before the rest of the field.
SWIMMING: Sachiko Yamada broke her Japanese national record by more than three seconds to win the opening event in the Spring National Championships in Orlando. Yamada won the 800-meter freestyle in 8 minutes, 25.62 seconds. Tampa resident and two-time Olympic champion in the event Brooke Bennett finished seventh.
