SOCCER

U.S. DOWNS PANAMA FOR GOLD CUP TITLE

The United States won the CONCACAF Gold Cup for the third time, beating Panama 3-1 on penalty kicks following a scoreless tie in yesterday’s final at Giants Stadium.

Santino Quaranta, Landon Donovan, and Brad Davis converted penalty kicks for the Americans, while goalkeeper Kasey Keller stopped the opening shot from Luis Tejada and allowed just one penalty, to Felipe Baloy. Panama’s Jorge Luis Dely Valdes hit the crossbar and Alberto Blanco put the his shot over the bar.

The Americans, ranked sixth in the world, also won this tournament – the championship of soccer’s North and Central American and Caribbean region – in 1991 and 2002.

FOOTBALL

WILLIAMS REPORTS TO DOLPHINS CAMP

Running back Ricky Williams reported to Miami Dolphins training camp yesterday morning, nearly one year to the day after he told the team he was retiring from football. The 2002 NFL rushing champion faces a four-game suspension at the start of the season for violating the league’s substance abuse program, yet likely will be able to play in preseason games.

SWIMMING

PHELPS FAILS TO QUALIFY FOR 400M AT WORLDS

Michael Phelps won’t match his medal haul from the Athens Olympics at the world swimming championships. In his very first race in Montreal, Phelps shockingly failed to qualify for the final of the 400-meter freestyle and an expected showdown with Australian star Grant Hackett.

Phelps faded badly in the seventh of eight preliminary heats. The 20-year-old American was third at the final turn, but dropped all the way to seventh – next-to-last – when he touched in 3 minutes, 50.53 seconds. That wasn’t even close to putting him among the eight fastest swimmers. Hackett, as expected, was the top qualifier in 3:44.63 – nearly six seconds ahead of Phelps, who wound up 18th overall and more than one-and-a-half seconds behind the last qualifier.

TENNIS

NADAL DOWNS GAUDIO FOR MERCEDES CUP TITLE

Top seeded Rafael Nadal ran his winning streak on clay to 34 matches yesterday, beating Gaston Gaudio 6-3, 6-3, 6-4 to claim the Mercedes Cup title in Stuttgart, Germany. Nadal’s eighth title this year – tying ATP leader Roger Federer – came against last year’s French Open champion, whose record on clay is next best to the Spanish teenager’s 48-2 mark.

Also yesterday, unseeded Robby Ginepri came from a set down to beat Taylor Dent – who retired from heat illness in the third set – at the RCA Championships in Indianapolis for the second ATP title of his career.

– Associated Press