However, despite a poll showing the majority of Argentina fans thought Maradona was unfit to coach the national team going into the final two World Cup qualifying matches, he guided the team through to South Africa with two dramatic victories.
Red Sox billionaire owner John Henry bought the MLB franchise in 2002 and reversed the curse, bringing two World Series titles to the team in 2004 and 2007.
FORBES: Long Awaited Stanley Cup Win For Bruins Billionaire Jeremy Jacobs
"I beat her when playing for Ireland in the World team championships two years ago so I must have a chance especially with the home crowd behind me, " said Madeline.
BBC: SPORT | Other Sport... | Squash | Perry ready for world challenge
Ironically, two members of the Honduran World Cup team play for the Hangzhou Greentown professional team.
The team has won two World Series during his tenure, the first in 2004 after an 84-year title drought.
The pairing of Button and Hamilton at McLaren makes them the first team to have two British world champions since Graham Hill and Jim Clark were together at Lotus in 1968.
Other big gainers: the Texas Rangers (up 6, 000 to over 42, 000 per game), a team coming off two straight World Series appearances, the Los Angeles Dodgers (up 5, 100 to 41, 300), who shook off the Frank McCourt nightmare just before the season started, and the Washington Nationals (up 4, 900 to 29, 800), who vaulted to first place this season while showcasing talented youngsters Bryce Harper and Stephen Strasburg.
England, wearing their new purple second kit, went into the match as the eighth best team in the world - two places behind Argentina - and even that ranking looked generous after a match in which they struggled to show any signs of progress from last week's defeat by Australia.
The 28-year-old has played in two World Cups, and his side are a leading team among the ICC associate nations.
BBC: SPORT | Cricket | Counties | Scotland | Seamer Blain backs Scots to shine
Each had his team in a World Series during the two preceding years.
Rosberg fills one of the two slots in the team caused by the departures of world champion Jenson Button and Brazilian Rubens Barrichello.
The 2008 Beijing Games provided the latest disappointments, with a men's team sporting the likes of two-time world player of the year Ronaldinho and future AC Milan star Alexandre Pato crashing out in the semifinals to Argentina, losing 3-0 and ending up with the bronze medal.
CNN: Golden goal: Can boys from Brazil achieve Olympic dream?
In its first of two exhibition games before the World Baseball Classic, manager Joe Torre's team fell into a four-run hole through five innings, and needed three RBIs by Giancarlo Stanton and a run-scoring triple by David Wright to forge a 4-4 tie in a game called after nine innings.
Twenty eight countries, including a team from Japan, took part in the two-day Golden Shears World Shearing and Woolhandling Championships.
It sparked a transformation that made the tourists the dominant side in world cricket for the next two decades, as their bowlers battered Greig's team with a fearsome pace attack.
Other pairings included Masters champion and world number two Phil Mickelson with Rickie Fowler, the youngest player in the US team at 21, Jim Furyk and Jeff Overton, Stewart Cink and Matt Kuchar and Bubba Watson and Dustin Johnson.
Their one-day plans, meanwhile, are very much up in the air but with so much one-day cricket to be played next summer, including the World Twenty20 and and a total of 10 ODIs before the Champions Trophy, there is plenty of opportunity for the selectors to have a serious rethink and muster a team which can seriously threaten to win the World Cup, now two years away.
The two-day world championship event concludes Saturday evening with women's singles followed by the team relay.
The former England centre defended his team's World Cup record of just one try in the past two games.
Its baseball team has won two straight American League Central titles and made it to the World Series last year.
The Springboks, 1995 world champions on home soil, saw Montgomery kick two early penalties, reward for the team's early pressure which led to Samoa errors in defence.
Newspapers which traditionally send over a dozen reporters to the World Cup will now get by with just two - and this in a year when their team is justifiably seen as one of the favourites.
Alonso, a two-time world champion with Renault, finished fifth in the drivers' standings, while the French team were fourth in the constructors' championship.
The world's top team, Mike and Bob Bryan, who have won their first two matches in London, are fortunate to share not only DNA but also U.S. citizenship.
WSJ: Backup Plan Is Needed for Houston Texans, Chicago Bears
As the rain held off at Hockenheim, the Red Bulls and Ferrari dominated the fastest laps leaving world champion Button and team-mate Hamilton struggling 0.634 seconds behind the front two, something that troubled both McLaren drivers.
BBC: Sebastian Vettel pips Fernando Alonso to German F1 pole
Having turned professional in 1971, Watson is a seasoned veteran of the golfing world whose experience and respect are expected to aid the struggling U.S. team in two years' time.
CNN: Veteran Watson relishes return to U.S. Ryder Cup captaincy
They have two medals in sailing with more gold medals still up for grabs in a sport where Team GB collected a world-leading six medals in Beijing.
What really shook up the world's neurologists, though, was the Duke team's finding that people born with two copies of the E-4 version of apo E developed Alzheimer's symptoms an average of 20 years earlier in life than those born with an E-2 version.
WSJ: A Gene Gives a Hint Of How Long a Person Might Hope to Live
Despite the two Welshmen's losses, Team GB drew 6-6 with an impressive rest-of-the-world squad made up of fighters from Sweden, the United States, Ireland and China.
The biggest threat in the next four years for Team USA, which hasn't lost since 2006, may be the 2014 World Cup, where a wily Spanish team that lost to the U.S. in the last two Olympic gold-medal games will be playing in front of a home crowd.
WSJ: Coach K, 2016 Olympics: Mike Krzyzewski to Return as Team USA Basketball Coach
应用推荐