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Page 2B SPORTS East Oregonian Friday, July 21, 2017 Soccer MLS expansion tour continues after Nashville makes its case By ANNE M. PETERSON Associated Press The Major League Soccer 2017 expansion tour continued this week with official league visits in North Carolina. Charlotte and Raleigh are among 12 cities hoping to land an MLS team. Nashville appeared to make a strong case recently when league Commissioner Don Garber visited in conjunction with the U.S. national team’s Gold Cup opener against Panama. The turnout caught Garber’s eye. The July 8 game drew 42,622 fans to Nissan Stadium. A U.S. women’s national team SheBelieves Cup match against France last year drew more than 25,000 fans. “If you don’t have success with friendlies or interna- tional competition, you’re not going to have success in MLS,” Garber told reporters during the visit. “So that’s a checked box that we’ve actu- ally checked a while ago.” The Nashville bid is led by billionaire businessmen John Ingram. The one thing missing is a solid stadium plan, which MLS requires for an expansion franchise. Twelve locations are competing for MLS expan- sion franchises. Two winning bids are expected to be announced later this year, bringing the league to 26 teams, with two additional teams to be added in the future. MLS expanded to 22 teams this season with the addition of Atlanta United FC and Minnesota United FC. LAFC, which replaces the now-defunct Chivas USA, joins next year. Miami’s expansion effort, led by David Beckham, would bring the league to 24. In addition to Nashville and the two North Carolina bids, the other areas that are vying for an expansion team include: Cincinnati, Detroit, San Antonio, Sacramento, San Diego, St. Louis, Tampa/ St. Petersburg, Indianapolis and Phoenix. Sacramento’s bid looks to be among the strongest, with the USL’s Sacramento Republic FC drawing very well and detailed plans for a stadium in place. Phoenix has also emerged as a front-runner with a bid that includes private financing for a stadium and an established star — Didier Drogba — joining the campaign. Tampa Bay won approval in April to expand and upgrade Al Lang Stadium, home of the USL’s Tampa Bay Rowdies. MLS Deputy Commis- sioner Mark Abbott visited Charlotte on Tuesday and Raleigh-Durham on Wednesday. North Carolina Football Club owner Steve Malik, leading the Triangle’s bid for a team, unveiled plans for a downtown Raleigh stadium and entertainment complex at a news conference before a rally led by the Oak City Supporters. The effort even has a hashtag: 919TOMLS . “This is the beginning of a journey. We need to get there pretty quickly if we want to take advantage of the catalyst of an MLS franchise and I believe we can do that,” Malik said at a news confer- ence Wednesday. GAME OF THE WEEK: Looking forward to the weekend, the Cascadia Cup rivalry continues on Sunday when the Portland Timbers visit BC Place and the Vancouver Whitecaps. The rivalry between the two teams actually dates back to 1975, when both were part of the North America Soccer League, but the Cascadia Cup was created by fans in 2004 as a three-way competition with the Seattle Sounders. Based on points, the Sounders and Timbers are tied atop the table so far this season. GOLF: McIlroy, Johnson battle the wind, sit six shots back Continued from 1B 5-under 65. U.S. Open champion Brooks Koepka, with no competition and barely any practice since capturing his first major a month ago, ran off three straight birdies and holed a tough shot from a pot bunker for eagle on the par-5 17th hole for a 5-under 65. Joining them was Matt Kuchar, who first endeared himself to these British fans as a 19-year-old amateur in 1998 at Royal Birkdale. Kuchar tied the course record with a 29 on the front nine, only to fall into a routine of pars the rest of the way. He still shot 65, his best score ever in a major. They had a one-shot lead over Paul Casey and Charl Schwartzel on a day that started nasty and ended with 39 players breaking par. The biggest question after a long day on the links was what was in store for Friday, when high wind and occa- sional showers were in the forecast. “I thought today’s round was extremely important, as they all are,” Spieth said, atop the leaderboard at a major for the first time since last year’s Masters. “But given the forecast coming in, I thought you really needed to be in the red today. You can certainly make up ground in a round tomorrow, and we’ll see it happen. But being able to kind of play with shots, or play a little more conservative because you don’t try to do too much on a day like tomorrow, that’s nice and very helpful.” Dustin Johnson and Rory McIlroy fall into that category. AP Photo/Peter Morrison Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy plays out of the bunker on the 7th hole during the first round of the British Open Golf Championship, at Royal Birkdale, Southport, England Thursday, July 20, 2017. Johnson, the No. 1 player who hasn’t played the weekend at a major since the British Open last year, managed only one birdie on a decent day for scoring and shot 71. McIlroy also shot 71 and was relieved. Coming off three missed cuts in his last four events, he was 5 over through six holes when his caddie gave him a pep talk. McIlroy closed with three birdies over the last four holes to stay in the game. Phil Mickelson failed to make a birdie, the first time that has happened in a major in five years, and shot 73. Kuchar was the only one at 65 who played in the afternoon. The wind remained strong, though the course was manageable for everyone who stayed out of bunkers and deep grass and who holed putts. “I watched some of the golf this morning on TV. It looked awfully challenging,” Kuchar said. “It looked like anything under par was going to be a good score. Seemed like the later your tee time, the better draw you got. ... For me, to start my British Open with a 29 on the front nine is a great way to start.” Charley Hoffman had the best start of all, holing out from the rough on the daunting opening hole for an eagle. He was poised to join the leaders when he reached 5 under with a birdie on the 15th, only to drop shots on the next two holes. Hoffman shot 69 and was in a group that included Ian Poulter and Rafa Cabrera Bello. Defending champion Henrik Stenson, who played with Spieth, had a 71. Stenson also played with Spieth the first two rounds of the 2015 Masters that the Texan won wire-to-wire and knew what to expect. But his best shot was with his feet in the sand. Spieth was in thick rough to the right of the 16th fairway when his shot crept into the back of a pot bunker. Not only was the ball on a slight slope, the rake marks left his ball between two ridges. “This is dangerous,” he said to his caddie. He aimed to the right of the hole to avoid it going off the green on the other side and into another bunker, and it came off perfectly about 10 feet away. “That was awesome,” were his next words to his caddie. He made the par putt — Spieth made a lot of putts on picked up a two-putt birdie on the 17th and narrowly missed a 7-foot birdie putt on the last. It was his best start in a major since he shot 66 at the Masters a year ago. Spieth rated it among the top five or six rounds he has ever played in a major, not bad for someone who came close to the Grand Slam two years ago. “I couldn’t have done much better today,” he said. DUCKS: Need to replace Brooks, Dorsey, Bell, Ennis, Boucher Continued from 1B join the Ducks as a grad transfer if he joins Elijah Brown on the roster. The 6-4 Brown earned all-Moun- tain West Conference honors the past two seasons at New Mexico while averaging 21.7 points per game as a sophomore and 18.9 as a junior. The son of Golden State Warriors assistant coach Mike Brown committed to Oregon in May. The Ducks added forward MiKyle McIntosh as a graduate transfer from Illinois State last month. The 6-7 McIntosh averaged 12.5 points and 5.6 rebounds for the Redbirds last season. Oregon coach Dana Altman has added a handful of graduate transfers during his tenure but three would be his most in one season. The coach said his positive expe- rience with five previous senior transfers has encouraged him to continue welcoming players for their final season. Mike Moser and Jason Calliste each played their senior season for the Ducks in 2013-14 while Jay-R Strowbridge played in 2010-11 and Olu Ashaolu arrived the following season. Dylan Ennis helped Oregon reach the Final Four last season as a grad transfer. With Ennis and Chris Boucher graduating, Dillon Brooks, Tyler Dorsey and Jordan Bell leaving early for the NBA, and Casey Benson and Kavell Bigby-Wil- liams transferring to other schools, Oregon will return only five players from last season. Altman has signed four freshmen and two transfers but still has two scholarships open for next season. The coach has said he wants to save some scholarships for the fall signing period and adding Onwuasor would allow him to do that. Oregon has three seniors on the roster with Brown, McIntosh and Roman Sorkin. That leaves Oregon with five openings for the 2018 recruiting class with 6-8 forward Miles Norris of Chula Vista, Calif., the only player who has committed to the Ducks. Onwuasor would add depth to Oregon’s backcourt that currently features Brown, sophomore Payton Pritchard and freshmen Troy Brown Jr. and Victor Bailey Jr. Onwuasor, who is from Ingle- wood, Calif., played his first two seasons at Texas Tech and averaged 4.2 points per game as a sophomore before transferring to Southern Utah and sitting out a season. Oregon won a school-record 33 games last season and are 187-70 (.727) in 7 seasons under Altman. The Timbers defeated the Whitecaps 2-1 earlier this season at Providence Park. Vancouver has won the past three matches at home against Portland. BEST OF THE REST: Two of the top teams in the Eastern Conference, Chicago and NYCFC, meet on Saturday at Yankee Stadium. The match will showcase two of the league’s top players, New York’s David Villa and the Fire’s Nikolic Nemanja, who leads the league with 16 goals this season. The Fire are unbeaten in their last 11 matches, going 8-0-3 over the span. NYCFC was going to be coming off a tough challenge on Wednesday night with a match at home against Toronto. TOUR: Continued from 1B rockslides in thinning air at an altitude of 2,360 meters (7,743 feet). He sped away from Froome’s group and grad- ually reeled in riders ahead of him on the hairpin bends and steep road — the last being John Darwin Atapuma of Colombia, with about 1.5 kilometers (1 mile) left to ascend. From there, Barguil labored on alone to win the first stage to finish at the summit of Izoard in the 114-year history of the Tour. Barguil also won in the Pyre- nees on Bastille Day. Only the hardiest pines survive at such high altitudes. And only the hardiest riders, too. The climb showed again what was already becoming apparent on the first day of big Alpine mountains on Wednesday: that Froome is super-strong and only Uran and Bardet are capable of staying with him. They are now the only riders within a minute of Froome overall, after Italian Fabio Aru faded again and continued his slide down the overall rankings. Going into the Alps, Aru was second overall, breathing down Froome’s neck. He is now fifth overall, nearly two minutes behind Froome. Bardet outsprinted Froome in the final ramp of the climb, and got four bonus seconds for finishing the stage in third place — behind Barguil and Atapuma. As a consequence, Bardet moved a tiny bit closer to Froome overall, having been 27 seconds behind him at the start of the stage in Briancon. Uran lost a couple of seconds at the top, and is now 29 seconds back from Froome in third place. Barguil has recovered remarkably quickly from a pelvis fracture in a crash in April. He was also struck by a car on a training ride last year, fracturing his wrist. “I had a lot hard luck. Luck is now on my side,” he said. “I had big problems, but I never gave up.” SCOREBOARD Baseball MLB AMERICAN LEAGUE East Division W L Pct GB Boston 54 43 .557 — Tampa Bay 51 45 .531 2½ New York 49 45 .521 3½ Baltimore 46 49 .484 7 Toronto 44 51 .463 9 Central Division W L Pct GB Cleveland 48 45 .516 — Minnesota 48 46 .511 ½ Kansas City 47 47 .500 1½ Detroit 43 51 .457 5½ Chicago 38 54 .413 9½ West Division W L Pct GB Houston 63 32 .663 — Seattle 48 49 .495 16 Los Angeles 47 50 .485 17 Texas 45 50 .474 18 Oakland 43 52 .453 20 ——— Thursday’s Games Toronto 8, Boston 6 Baltimore 9, Texas 7 Kansas City 16, Detroit 4 N.Y. Yankees 4, Seattle 1 Friday’s Games Houston (Fiers 6-4) at Baltimore (Jimenez 4-5), 4:05 p.m. Oakland (Blackburn 1-0) at N.Y. Mets (Matz 2-3), 4:10 p.m. Texas (Darvish 6-8) at Tampa Bay (Cobb 8-6), 4:10 p.m. Toronto (Estrada 4-6) at Cleveland (Bauer 7-8), 4:10 p.m. Detroit (Sanchez 1-0) at Minnesota (Santa- na 11-6), 5:10 p.m. Chicago White Sox (Shields 2-2) at Kansas City (Kennedy 3-6), 5:15 p.m. Boston (Sale 11-4) at L.A. Angels (Nolasco 4-10), 7:07 p.m. N.Y. Yankees (Sabathia 8-3) at Seattle (Moore 1-1), 7:10 p.m. NATIONAL LEAGUE East Division W Washington 57 Atlanta 46 New York 43 Miami 42 Philadelphia 32 Central Division W Milwaukee 52 L 37 48 50 51 61 Pct .606 .489 .462 .452 .344 GB — 11 13½ 14½ 24½ L Pct GB 46 .531 — Chicago Pittsburgh St. Louis Cincinnati West Division 49 48 46 40 45 48 49 55 .521 1 .500 3 .484 4½ .421 10½ W L Pct GB Los Angeles 66 30 .687 — Arizona 55 40 .579 10½ Colorado 56 41 .577 10½ San Diego 41 54 .431 24½ San Francisco 37 60 .381 29½ ——— Thursday’s Games N.Y. Mets 3, St. Louis 2 Arizona 12, Cincinnati 2 Pittsburgh 4, Milwaukee 2 Atlanta 6, L.A. Dodgers 3 San Diego 5, San Francisco 2 Friday’s Games St. Louis (Martinez 6-8) at Chicago Cubs (Arrieta 9-7), 11:20 a.m. Milwaukee (Garza 4-4) at Philadelphia (Nola 6-6), 4:05 p.m. Miami (Urena 7-4) at Cincinnati (Bailey 2-3), 4:10 p.m. Oakland (Blackburn 1-0) at N.Y. Mets (Matz 2-3), 4:10 p.m. Pittsburgh (Williams 3-4) at Colorado (Hoffman 6-1), 5:40 p.m. Washington (Scherzer 11-5) at Arizona (TBD), 6:40 p.m. Atlanta (Garcia 3-7) at L.A. Dodgers (Wood 11-0), 7:10 p.m. San Diego (Cahill 4-3) at San Francisco (Samardzija 4-11), 7:15 p.m. MiLB Northwest League North Division W L Pct. GB Vancouver 19 16 .543 — Tri-City 17 17 .500 1½ Spokane 14 20 .412 4½ Everett 13 21 .619 5½ South Division W L Pct. GB Hillsboro 20 14 .588 — Eugene 20 14 .588 — Boise 19 15 .558 1 Salem-Keizer 15 20 .429 5½ ——— Thursday’s Games Vancouver 8, Salem-Keizer 3 Boise at Everett, late finish Spokane at Hillsboro, late finish Eugene at Tri-City, late finish Friday’s Games Vancouver at Salem-Keizer, 6:35 p.m. Boise at Everett, 7:05 p.m. Spokane at Hillsboro, 7:05 p.m. Eugene at Tri-City, 7:15 p.m. Soccer CONCACAF Gold Gup QUARTERFINALS Thursday At Glendale, Ariz. Quarterfinal Three Mexico 1, Honduras 0 Quarterfinal Four Jamaica 2, Canada 1 SEMIFINALS Saturday At Arlington, Tex. Costa Rica vs. United States, 7 p.m. MLS EASTERN CONFERENCE W L T Pts GF GA Toronto FC 11 3 6 39 36 21 Chicago 11 3 5 38 37 19 NYC FC 10 6 4 34 38 26 Atl. Untd. FC 9 7 3 30 39 27 New York 9 8 2 29 25 26 Orlando City 8 7 5 29 22 29 Columbus 9 10 1 28 30 32 Montreal 6 6 6 24 29 30 Philadelphia 6 8 5 23 26 23 New England 5 9 5 20 29 31 D.C. United 5 12 3 18 17 35 WESTERN CONFERENCE W L T Pts GF GA Sporting K.C. 8 4 8 32 24 14 FC Dallas 8 3 7 31 30 18 Houston 8 7 5 29 34 29 Vancouver 8 7 3 27 25 27 Portland 7 8 6 27 35 35 Seattle 7 7 6 27 29 31 San Jose 7 8 5 26 23 31 Los Angeles 6 9 4 22 28 33 Real Salt Lake 7 12 2 23 27 41 Minn. United 5 11 4 19 25 42 Colorado 6 11 1 19 19 27 NOTE: Three points for victory, one point for tie. ——— Friday’s Game Atlanta United FC at Orlando City, 4 p.m. Saturday’s Games Chicago at New York City FC, 11 a.m. New York at Minnesota United, 1 p.m. Colorado at Toronto FC, 4 p.m. Houston at D.C. United, 4 p.m. FC Dallas at Montreal, 4:30 p.m. Los Angeles at New England, 4:30 p.m. Philadelphia at Columbus, 4:30 p.m. Sporting Kansas City at Real Salt Lake, 7 p.m. Sunday’s Games Portland at Vancouver, 3:30 p.m. San Jose at Seattle, 7:30 p.m. Basketball WNBA EASTERN CONFERENCE W L Pct GB Washington 12 9 .571 — Connecticut 12 9 .571 — New York 10 9 .526 1 Atlanta 9 11 .450 2½ Indiana 8 13 .381 4 Chicago 8 13 .381 4 WESTERN CONFERENCE W L Pct GB Minnesota 16 2 .889 — Los Angeles 14 6 .700 3 Phoenix 11 9 .550 6 Dallas 10 12 .455 8 Seattle 9 11 .450 8 San Antonio 3 18 .143 14½ ——— Thursday’s Games Chicago 82, Los Angeles 80 San Antonio 85, Indiana 61 Saturday WNBA All-Star Game, East vs. West, 12:30 p.m. (ABC) Cycling Tour de France Thursday 18th Stage At Col d’Izoard, France A 111.5-mile ride from Briancon to Izoard: 1. Warren Barguil, France, Team Sunweb, 4 hours, 40 minutes, 33 seconds. 2. Darwin Atapuma, Colombia, UAE Team Emirates, :20 behind. 3. Romain Bardet, France, AG2R La Mondiale, same time. 4. Christopher Froome, Britain, Team Sky, same time. 5. Rigoberto Uran, Colombia, Cannon- dale-Drapac, :22. 6. Mikel Landa, Spain, Team Sky, :32. 7. Louis Meintjes, South Africa, UAE Team Emirates, :37. 8. Daniel Martin, Ireland, Quick-Step Floors, :39. 9. Simon Yates, Britain, Orica-Scott, :59. 10. Alberto Contador, Spain, Trek-Sega- fredo, 1:09. 11. Nairo Quintana, Colombia, Movistar Team, 1:18. 12. Carlos Betancur, Colombia, Movistar Team, 1:22. 13. Fabio Aru, Italy, Astana Pro Team, same time. 14. Tony Gallopin, France, Lotto Soudal, 1:37. 15. Brice Feillu, France, Team Fortu- neo-Oscaro, 1:54. 16. Mikel Nieve, Spain, Team Sky, 2:15. 17. Alexey Lutsenko, Kazakhstan, Astana Pro Team, 2:54. 18. Andrew Talansky, United States, Cannondale-Drapac, 3:01. 19. Bauke Mollema, Netherlands, Trek-Se- gafredo, same time. 20. Serge Pauwels, Belgium, Dimension Data, 3:04. Also 89. Nate Brown, United States, Cannon- dale Drapac, 22:43. 148. Taylor Phinney, United States, Can- nondale Drapac, 28:33. OVERALL STANDINGS (After 18 stages) 1. Chris Froome, Britain, Sky, 78:08:19. 2. Romain Bardet, France, AG2R La Mondiale, :23 behind. 3. Rigoberto Uran, Colombia, Cannondale Drapac, :29. 4. Mikel Landa, Spain, Sky, 1:36. 5. Fabio Aru, Italy, Astana, 1:55. 6. Daniel Martin, Ireland, Quick-Step Floors, 2:56. 7. Simon Yates, Britain, Orica-Scott, 4:46. 8. Louis Meintjes, South Africa, UAE Team Emirates, 6:52. 9. Warren Barguil, France, Sunweb, 8:22. 10. Alberto Contador, Spain, Trek-Sega- fredo, 8:34. 11. Damiano Caruso, Italy, BMC Racing, 13:41. 12. Nairo Quintana, Colombia, Movistar, 13:52. 13. Mikel Nieve, Spain, Sky, 23:11. 14. Alexis Vuillermoz, France, AG2R La Mondiale, 23:33. 15. Emanuel Buchmann, Germany, Bora-Hansgrohe, 31:01. 16. Brice Feillu, France, Fortuneo-Oscaro, 35:06. 17. Carlos Betancur, Colombia, Movistar, 36:25. 18. Serge Pauwels, Belgium, Dimension Data, 37:31. 19. Tiesj Benoot, Belgium, Lotto Soudal, 40:49. 20. Bauke Mollema, Netherlands, Trek-Se- gafredo, 47:03. Also 42. Nate Brown, United States, Cannon- dale Drapac, 1:54:33. Golf PGA Tour British Open Thursday At Royal Birkdale Golf Club Southport, England Purse: $10.25 million Yardage: 7,156; Par: 70 (34-36) First Round Leaderboard Jordan Spieth 31-34—65 Brooks Koepka 33-32—65 Matt Kuchar 29-36—65 Paul Casey 31-35—66 Charl Schwartzel 34-32—66 Ian Poulter 32-35—67 Justin Thomas 33-34—67 Richard Bland 34-33—67 Austin Connelly 33-34—67 Charley Hoffman 31-36—67 Rafa Cabrera Bello 32-35—67 Stuart Manley 34-34—68 Alex Noren 34-34—68 Hideki Matsuyama 33-35—68 James Hahn 33-35—68 Sung Kang 35-33—68 Martin Laird 34-34—68 Ernie Els 33-35—68 David Lipsky 32-36—68 Joost Luiten 34-34—68 Richie Ramsay 33-35—68 Daniel Berger 35-33—68 Bubba Watson 33-35—68 Also Jason Day 34-35—69 Adam Scott 32-37—69 Rickie Fowler 32-39—71 Dustin Johnson 34-37—71 Rory McIlroy 39-32—71 Zach Johnson 37-38—75 LPGA Tour Marathon Classic Thursday At Highland Meadows Golf Club Sylvania, Ohio Purse: $1.6 million Yardage: 6,476; Par: 71 (34-37) (a-amateur) First Round Leaderboard Gerina Piller 30-33—63 Peiyun Chien 30-34—64 Sung Hyun Park 30-34—64 Aditi Ashok 31-34—65 In-Kyung Kim 32-33—65 Kelly W Shon 32-33—65 Angel Yin 31-35—66 Sandra Changkija 31-35—66 Lexi Thompson 34-33—67 Alison Lee 33-34—67 -5 -5 -5 -4 -4 -3 -3 -3 -3 -3 -3 -2 -2 -2 -2 -2 -2 -2 -2 -2 -2 -2 -2 -1 -1 +1 +1 +1 +5 -8 -7 -7 -6 -6 -6 -5 -5 -4 -4
