SOCCER: Favorites fall in FA Cup
Liverpool and Tottenham were humbled by lower-league opposition in the FA Cup, joining a lengthy list of Premier League teams to exit at the fourth-round stage of the world’s oldest knockout competition.
Third-tier struggler Oldham stunned Liverpool with a 3-2 win yesterday while Spurs lost 2-1 at Leeds, which is mid-table in the second-tier League Championship. Chelsea was spared a similar fate by Spain striker Fernando Torres, who earned the holders a replay with a late equalizer in a 2-2 draw at third-tier Brentford.
* Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo warmed up for their teams’ upcoming Copa del Rey clash with high-scoring displays to help Barcelona and Real Madrid cruise to comfortable wins against helpless Spanish league opponents. After Ronaldo hit his 20th career hat trick in an 11-minute span to help Madrid rout Getafe 4-0, an insatiable Messi did him one better by netting four times in Barcelona’s 5-1 thrashing of 10-man Osasuna.
NHL: Caps finally get a win
Alex Ovechkin scored his first goal of the season, and the Capitals became the last NHL team to get a win, beating the Sabres 3-2 in Washington.
* Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and James Neal scored in the shootout to give the Penguins a 2-1 victory in Ottawa.
* Teddy Purcell had a goal and two assists, Martin St. Louis contributed four assists, and the Lightning beat the Flyers in Tampa.
* Nick Leddy scored 2:45 into overtime and the Blackhawks improved to 6-0 — the best start in franchise history — with a 2-1 win over the Red Wings in Chicago.
SKATING: Aaron wins U.S. crown
Little-known Max Aaron won his first title at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships and helped knock down three-time champion Jeremy Abbott to the last step on the podium. He won the free skate in a rout to jump from fourth to first, and finished with 255 points overall, almost four better than Ross Miner.
ETC.: Spain takes handball title
Spain routed Denmark 35-19 before a home crowd to win its second world handball championship.
* Scott Pruett tied Hurley Haywood’s record of five Rolex 24 at Daytona victories, helping Chip Ganassi Racing return to Victory Lane in the prestigious car race.
* World WBO super middleweight champion Arthur Abraham will defend his title with a rematch against German compatriot Robert Stieglitz on March 23 in Magdeburg, Germany.
l Heather Richardson won the 1,000-meter race to become the first American woman to win the World Sprint Championships since 2005.
* The United States team, including Olympic 100-meter hurdler Lolo Jones, won gold in the combined bobsled-skeleton team event at the world championships in St. Moritz, Switzerland.
* The world’s top women golfers will meet starting next year in an eight-nation biennial LPGA global match-play event worth $1.6M. The International Crown will debut July 24-27 at Caves Valley Golf Club in Owings Mills, Md., near Baltimore.