The Sports Report: Soccer star Alex Morgan retires

Howdy, I’m your host, Houston Mitchell. Let’s get right to the news.

From Kevin Baxter: I wasn’t looking for Alex Morgan when I stopped by the San Diego Wave’s sprawling practice facility last month. I was there to talk to Landon Donovan, the other national team legend, who had just been named the Wave’s interim coach.

But Morgan sidled over after practice anyway and we talked for about 20 minutes. She chatted about her daughter, Charlie, who has been the subject of most conversations with Morgan over the last four years. But she also talked about her charitable foundation, the businesses she hopes to start, her husband, Servando Carrasco, and the homemade food she prepares for her two dogs.

What she didn’t talk about was soccer. And if ever there was a sign that Morgan was ready to move on from the sport that had long defined her life, that conversation on a windswept bluff overlooking the 5 Freeway was it.

On Thursday, Morgan made it official, announcing her retirement from professional soccer in an emotional 4½-minute video she posted to social media. She’ll play her final game Sunday in San Diego, her new hometown, against the North Carolina Courage.

“I’m retiring,” she said during the video, in which she also announced she is pregnant again. “And I have so much clarity about this decision. It has been a long time coming, and this decision wasn’t easy.

“Soccer’s been a part of me for 30 years,” she continued, pausing frequently to take deep breaths and compose herself. “It was one of the first things I ever loved. I gave everything to this sport, and what I got in return was more than I could have ever dreamed of.”

Continue reading here

RAMS

From Gary Klein: The Detroit Lions feature one of the NFL’s most dynamic passing attacks — and the Rams now must try to stop it with a depleted secondary.

On Thursday, the Rams placed cornerback Darious Williams on injured reserve because of a hamstring injury, so the veteran will be sidelined for the opener on “Sunday Night Football” and games against the Arizona Cardinals, San Francisco 49ers and Chicago Bears.

Williams, who was expected to start opposite Tre’Davious White, suffered the injury early in training camp. Cobie Durant could start in place of Williams, but Durant also has been nursing a hamstring injury.

Continue reading here

NFL SEASON OPENER

From Sam Farmer: Baltimore lost by less than an inch — and a foot.

That’s the right foot of Ravens receiver Isaiah Likely, who appeared to catch the tying touchdown against Kansas City with 0:00 showing on the clock. Replay revealed his right toe was just into the white of the back of the end zone, however, and the Chiefs held on for a 27-20 victory.

It was a thrilling ending to a rematch of last season’s AFC title game, which Kansas City won by a touchdown in Baltimore.

The play in question came on third down from the 10-yard line, after Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson had missed would-be touchdown throws to Likely and a wide-open Zay Flowers.

One of the heroes for Kansas City was rookie receiver Xavier Worthy, who scored a pair of touchdowns on a 21-yard end around and a 35-yard throw from Patrick Mahomes.

Continue reading here

USC FOOTBALL

From Ryan Kartje: The numbers of USC’s two most recent Heisman Trophy winners are officially retired and immortalized in the Coliseum. Though, one had to wait much longer for that honor than the other.

It was nearly 20 years ago that Reggie Bush won his Heisman Trophy after one of the most electrifying seasons in college football history. That trophy was relinquished in 2010 after the NCAA found that Bush accepted improper benefits and hit USC with major sanctions that included erasing any mention of the legendary running back on campus.

Bush finally got his Heisman back in April after a prolonged fight with the Heisman Trust. And now, he has his No. 5 back up on the Peristyle end of the Coliseum as well.

He is joined by the No. 13 of Caleb Williams, whose stunning improvisational skills helped lead USC to the Pac-12 title game in 2022 on his way to becoming the Trojans’ eighth-ever Heisman winner.

Continue reading here

Why USC sold Coliseum field space to DirecTV: It’s ‘an adapt-or-die scenario’

ANGELS

Cody Bradford gave up one run in six innings and Adolis García hit a three-run home run in the first inning as the Texas Rangers beat the Angels 3-1 on Thursday night.

Bradford (5-2) made his fifth consecutive quality and gave up just two hits, both singles by Zach Neto. He walked two, matching his high this season, and struck out four. In his previous four outings, the 26-year-old left-hander was 0-2 despite an ERA of 2.77 as he was provided seven runs of support.

The Rangers (68-73) are 8-2 in their last 10 games, their best 10-game stretch this season. The defending World Series champions are within five games of .500 for the first time since Aug. 5.

The Angels (58-82) extended their franchise-record streak of consecutive losing seasons to nine with the loss.

Continue reading here

Angels box score

MLB scores

MLB standings

PARALYMPICS

From David Wharton: For years after surgery left him paralyzed as a child, Steve Serio didn’t see much of a future in sports.

His friends played in high school, so he volunteered as manager for all the teams. Then, at 14, he heard about wheelchair basketball.

Twenty-two years later, Serio is playing in his fifth Paralympic Games, hoping to lead the U.S. men to a three-peat and add to a resume that already includes two golds, a bronze and a 2023 world championship.

“The most influential moment of my life was not the Games that we’ve won, it’s not the gold medals that we’ve won, it’s the day I found wheelchair basketball,” Serio said. “That was the day I started my impossible.”

His story is common among people with disabilities who say it was only by chance they stumbled across adaptive sports. Here is a brief guide for Southern Californians inspired to try some of the sports being played at the Paralympics in Paris.

Continue reading here

2024 Paris Paralympics live updates

THIS DATE IN SPORTS

1920 — Jack Dempsey knocks out Billy Miske in the third round to retain the world heavyweight title. It’s the first radio broadcast of a prizefight.

1920 — Bill Tilden wins his first of seven U.S. Open men’s singles titles, defeating Bill Johnston, 6-1, 1-6, 7-5, 5-7, 6-3, at the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills, N.Y.

1941 — Bobby Riggs beats Frank Kovacs in four sets to win the men’s title in the U.S. Lawn Tennis Association championships. Sarah Palfrey Cooke wins the women’s title with a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Pauline Betz.

1975 — Chris Evert wins her first of six singles titles in the U.S. Open with a 5-7, 6-4, 6-2, victory over Evonne Goolagong. In the men’s semifinals, Manuel Orantes performs one of the great comebacks in tennis history, saving five match points to defeat Guillermo Vilas, 4-6, 1-6, 6-2, 7-5, 6-4, after trailing two-sets-to-love and 0-5 in the fourth set.

1980 — Chris Evert Lloyd beats Hana Mandlikova of Czechoslovakia to win her fifth U.S. Open singles title in the last six years.

1980 — John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors battle in perhaps their greatest U.S. Open match. McEnroe edges Connors in the semifinal, 6-4, 5-7, 0-6, 6-3, 7-6 (3) in front of a packed Louis Armstrong Stadium.

1992 — Noureddine Morceli of Algeria smashes the world record for 1,500 meters, clocking 3:28.86 at an international track and field meet in Rieti, Italy. Morceli breaks the record of 3:29.46 set by Said Aouita of Morocco in 1985.

1993 — Helena Sukova of the Czech Republic beats Martina Navratilova 7-5, 6-4 to advance to the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open. Navratilova’s loss leaves the United States without a women’s quarterfinalist for the first time in the tournament’s history, dating to 1887.

1995 — Cal Ripken plays in his 2,131st consecutive major league game to surpass Lou Gehrig’s 56-year record. Ripken receives a 22-minute standing ovation and later hits a homer in Baltimore’s 4-2 win over the Angels.

1996 — Baltimore’s Eddie Murray’s hits his 500th home run.

2003 — In the U.S. Open, No. 2 Justine Henin-Hardenne wins the all-Belgian women’s singles final, beating No. 1 Kim Clijsters, 7-5, 6-1.

2008 — US Open Women’s Tennis: Serena Williams wins her third US title; beats Jelena Janković of Serbia 6-4, 7-5.

2017 — CoCo Vandeweghe becomes the third American to get into the U.S. Open women’s semifinals, beating top-seeded Karolina Pliskova 7-6 (4), 6-3. Madison Keys completes the sweep for American women, giving the host country all four U.S. Open semifinal spots for the first time in 36 years. The 15th-seeded Keys takes 69 minutes for a 6-3, 6-3 victory over 418th-ranked qualifier Kaia Kanepi of Estonia. The Americans haven’t had all four semifinalists at the U.S. Open since 1981, when Tracy Austin beat Martina Navratilova for the title. Chris Evert and Barbara Potter also made the semifinals.

2017 — FIFA orders that a World Cup qualifier between South Africa and Senegal be replayed after the referee is found guilty of match manipulation and banned for life. South Africa beat Senegal 2-1 in the qualifier last November, helped by a penalty awarded by Ghanaian referee Joseph Lamptey for a nonexistent handball.

2020 — World No. 1 tennis player Novak Đoković is disqualified in 4th round of US Open after hitting a ball in frustration, striking a line judge; trailed Pablo Carreño Busta 5-6 in 1st set.

Compiled by the Associated Press