our-time world player of the year has been Martino

Some of the sports stories The Associated Press is covering Saturday. A full Sports Digest will be sent by about 3 p.m. All times EDT:- BATON ROUGE, La. -- Unbeaten and top-ranked No. 1 Alabama plays perhaps its toughest game yet, facing No. 15 LSU and running back Leonard Fournette. Game starts 8 p.m.- COLUMBUS, Ohio -- No. 9 Nebraska plays a second consecutive ranked Big Ten rival on the road when it takes on No. 6 Ohio State. Another loss for both could end conference and national title hopes. Game starts 8:15 p.m.- Other top-five college football games: No. 2 Michigan-Maryland (noon); No. 3 Clemson-Syracuse (3:30 p.m.); No. 4 Washington-California (10:30 p.m.); No. 5 Louisville-Boston College (noon).- ARCADIA, Calif. -- California Chrome tries to cap an undefeated year at the $6 million Breeders Cup Classic, with 3-year-old colt Arrogate a serious challenger in the 10-horse field at Santa Anita. Post time 8:35 p.m.- LAS VEGAS -- Manny Pacquiao, now a senator in the Philippines, returns to the ring against Jessie Vargas, with a piece of the welterweight title at stake. Pacquiao is aging at 37, as is his appeal. Bout starts about 11:30 p.m.- PARIS -- Andy Murray supplants Novak Djokovic at the top of tennis. He takes the No. 1 ranking for the first time after reaching the Paris Masters final without playing a point. Milos Raonic, his leg ailing, withdraws before the semifinal.- The Oakland Raiders (6-2) and Denver Broncos (6-2) go head to head in prime time Sunday for first place in the AFC West. The Raiders have not made the playoffs since losing the Super Bowl in early 2003.- FORT WORTH, Texas -- All four Joe Gibbs Racing drivers are still in contention, with only three spots available for the title-deciding race in NASCARs Chase for the Sprint Cup.- NEW YORK -- Mets outfielder Yoenis Cespdes is expected to opt out of the remainder of his contract, which would pay $47.5 million over two seasons, and become a free agent again.- LAS VEGAS -- Australias Rod Pampling leads by a stroke entering third round of the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open. The 47-year-old Australian won the last of his two PGA Tour titles in 2006 at Bay Hill. Cheap 76ers Jerseys China . Scott won the Australian PGA last week in his first event in Australia since winning the U.S. Masters in April. American Matt Kuchar, ahead by two strokes with four to play and even with Scott with one to go, double-bogeyed the 18th after taking two shots to get out of a bunker. Cheap NBA Jerseys . -- Lou Brocks shoulder-to-shoulder collision with Bill Freehan during the 1968 World Series and Pete Roses bruising hit on Ray Fosse in the 1970 All-Star game could become relics of baseball history, like the dead-ball era. http://www.cheap76ersjerseys.com/ .J. -- Seven games into a disappointing season, New York Giants defensive catalyst Jason Pierre-Paul is getting the feeling hes back. Cheap Swingman 76ers Jerseys . Hamelin, who triumphed in the 500 on Saturday, edged out Victor An of Russia by 0.021 seconds to maintain his lead in the World Cup standings. Russias Vladimir Grigorev was third. In the relay, Canada took control six laps from the finish line to beat Russia and the Netherlands. Cheap 76ers Jerseys Authentic . Soukalova missed only one target and completed the 15-kilometre course in 40 minutes, 32.6 seconds for both victories in this seasons individual discipline. Darya Domracheva of Belarus was second, 34.BARCELONA, Spain - Moments after completing his deal to coach Barcelona for the next two seasons on Friday, Gerardo Martino assured fans that he had come to maintain the winning style established by successors Tito Vilanova and Pep Guardiola. Barcelona announced Tuesday that the Argentine coach would take over for Vilanova, who stepped down last week to proceed with a cancer treatment that was "incompatible" with his coaching duties. The 50-year-old Martino has never coached in Europe before, and after five trophy-laden seasons with coaches who had come up through the clubs youth programs, his signing represents a break from the line of selecting in-house managers. Martino said that he would tweak the team he has inherited, looking to improve on something that was already working well. "I will try to combine both things, keeping with the style of the club and the style the players are comfortable playing in, but logically while trying to add my own part to make a more complete team," Martino said. "There are excellent players here and if we can go back to the ideas of the great moments of Barcelona we will do well." Martino will travel later Friday to Oslo, where Barcelona is getting ready to play a friendly against Valerenga on Saturday. The Spanish league is set to begin on Aug. 17-18. He will have a tough act to follow. Vilanova led Barcelona to the Spanish league title last season and helped Guardiola guide it to an unprecedented 14 of a possible 19 titles as his assistant from 2008-12. In his favour, Martino will receive a star-studded squad with Lionel Messi, several Spanish internationals such as Andres Iniesta, Xavi Hernandez and Cesc Fabregas, and the clubs latest major signing, Brazil striker Neymar. But his chances for success may largely depend on how well he can convince this diverse collection of players used to winning, and winning in the Barcelona way of attacking football, that he is the right man to carry the team through this unexpected ttransition.dddddddddddd While Barcelona won its fourth Spanish league title in five years last season, it lost its place as Europes best team after Bayern Munich crushed it 7-0 over two legs of the Champions League semifinals. Martino thinks he can put Barcelona back on top. "Even for a club like Barcelona that has reached such a high level of excellence, it can also get better and needs to in order to sustain a high level of winning," Martino said. "Above all, we want to recover Barcelonas ability to pressure high up the pitch. We want a Barcelona comfortable in attack and defending far from its own area." While not going into many details about a group of players he has yet to meet, Martino said that he plans to keep using Messi as Barcelonas central forward, "where he has exploded in recent years." Martino considered it "normal" that he was relatively unknown in Europe. His greatest coaching achievements are leading Newells Old Boys to the Argentine league title last season and Paraguay to the quarterfinals of the World Cup in 2010. He has already received the backing of Messi. "He (is) a great coach and his record speaks for itself. He showed he could do things well both at Newells and with Paraguay," Messi said. "I am convinced he will do well at Barca." Messi played for Newells in his home town of Rosario as a young boy before his move to Spain to join Barcelonas "La Masia" training academy. The four-time world player of the year has been Martinos most vocal supporter so far, even though they dont know each other personally. Martino, who has the nickname "Tata," led Newells to its first league title in nine years last in June, achieving a remarkable turnaround for a side that had fought off relegation the season before. He coached Paraguay from 2007-11. As a player, Martino was a midfielder from 1980-1996, including a short spell in 1991 at Spanish club Tenerife in the Canary Islands. Cheap NFL Jerseys Wholesale Jerseys Wholesale NFL Jerseys Jerseys From China Wholesale NFL Jerseys Cheap NFL Jerseys Cheap Jerseys ' ' '