SOCCER

U.S. men defeat Czechs in first game after Cup

Alejandro Bedoya scored in the 39th minute, and a youthful U.S. men’s soccer team started the four-year cycle of preparation for the 2018 World Cup with a 1-0 victory against the Czech Republic in Prague on Wednesday night.

Three players made their U.S. debuts, with 21-year-old forward Joe Gyau playing the entire match, 23-year-old defender Greg Garza entering in the 63rd minute and 18-year-old midfielder Emerson Hyndman coming in four minutes later.

The U.S. went ahead when goalkeeper Petr Cech sent the ball upfield to Vladimir Darida. Mix Diskerud stripped the midfielder and dribbled right back at Cech. The goalkeeper made a diving stop and the ball ricocheted to Bedoya, who scored on a left-footed shot for his second goal in 33 international appearances.

MLS: Lee Nguyen scored his 11th and 12th goals of the season to give the New England Revolution a 3-1 victory over Sporting Kansas City at Foxborough, Massachusetts.

CYCLING

TOUR OF ALBERTA: Ruben Zepuntke won the first stage in a group sprint in rainy, cool conditions at Lethbridge.

Zepuntke, 21, finished the six-lap, 89-mile leg in 3 hours, 18.03 seconds.

OLYMPICS

COURSE THREATENED: Rio de Janeiro’s Olympic golf course faces an uncertain future after a court proposed that the under-construction layout should be modified to meet environmental concerns.

Judge Eduardo Klausner, hearing a lawsuit brought against the city of Rio de Janeiro and the course developer, said the defendants had to return Sept. 17 to say if they could accept the proposal. Klausner said work on the course could continue but no new areas of vegetation could be plowed under.

BASKETBALL

WORLD CUP: Kenneth Faried kept up his sharp shooting with 16 points and the U.S. national team rolled to a 4-0 start with a 106-71 victory over the Dominican Republic at Bilbao, Spain.

The Americans surpassed 100 points for the second time in the tournament, and they scored 98 points in their other two games.

NBA: The Dallas Mavericks will bring back reserve center Bernard James for a third season.

FOOTBALL

COLLEGE: Florida and Idaho agreed to cancel their postponed season opener.

The game was called Saturday night after heavy rain created unsafe field conditions.

• Florida will be without backup linebacker Jeremi Powell for at least three games following knee surgery.

MOTORSPORTS

NASCAR: Comcast Corp. signed a 10-year agreement to replace Nationwide Insurance as the title sponsor of NASCAR’s second-tier racing series.

The series will be known as the NASCAR Xfinity Series through 2024. The deal matched the longest single agreement around title sponsorship of any NASCAR national series in its history, and Sports Business Daily valued the package at worth close to $200 million.

– From news service reports

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