Fifa World Cup

They used words like passion and embrace and emphasized the tagline "a city leaps forward. " But Leonardo Gryner perhaps put it best when the CEO of Rio de Janeiro's organizing committee offered a hint of what to expect at the 2016 Olympics in the Carnival City. "In Brazil, as you know, we like to party," Gryner said at a news conference. Rio received the Olympic flag at Closing Ceremonies for the London Games Sunday night, unveiling 250 dancers and musicians in an eight-minute ceremony that officials said was designed to showcase the city's "multicultural embrace.

Downloaded singles 1.SOS (edited), Rihanna 2.Bad Day, Daniel Powter 3.What's Left of Me, Nick Lachey 4.Temperature, Sean Paul 5.Dani California, Red Hot Chili Peppers [Courtesy iTunes] Downloaded albums 1.We Shall Overcome - The Seeger Sessions, Bruce Springsteen 2.Let Love In, Goo Goo Dolls 3.All the Roadrunning, Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris 4.A Girl Like Me (bonus tracks), Rihanna 5.IV, Godsmack [Courtesy iTunes] Downloaded videos 1.Drug Testing, The Office 2.A Million Little Fibers, South Park 3.S.O.

Are you paying attention to the Stanley Cup Finals? You couldn't write a better script. Bone-jarring checks, fast, wide-open scoring, a game-changing penalty-shot goal. It had it all. Even a fan named Stanley Cup! Neil Riordan Timonium I have paid even less attention to the Stanley Cup than I will to the FIFA World Cup. That would be none. Jim Kirby Columbia Sure, as long as it doesn't conflict with something more important, such as Deal or No Deal or one of those classic O's-Devil Rays matchups.

Moves Baseball ATHLETICS -- Sent P Connor Robertson outright to Triple-A Sacramento. Named Tony DeFrancesco third base coach. BRAVES -- Signed director of player development Kurt Kemp, director of scouting Roy Clark and director of Latin American operations Johnny Almaraz to two-year contract extensions. Claimed P Chris Resop off waivers from Angels. Designated P Chad Paronto for assignment. DEVIL RAYS -- Claimed OF Chris Snelling off waivers from Athletics. Released P Jay Witasick (C. Milton Wright, UMBC)

The United States came within a point yesterday in Leipzig, Germany, of being one of the seeded teams for next year's World Cup. Under the draw procedure approved by the FIFA World Cup Organizing Committee, the U.S. team wound up just behind Argentina and Italy. U.S. coach Bruce Arena wasn't surprised to miss out. "I thought all along the draw is going to be difficult. The field is extremely strong," he said. The Americans can't meet a team from Asia in the first round of next year's tournament in Germany.

SEOUL. South Korea - South Korean hotels says the FIFA World Cup Accommodation Bureau overestimated the number of visitors to this year's soccer World Cup by as much as three times, leaving them with empty rooms and little time to fill them. Byrom Consultants Ltd., which has a contract with 213 Korean hotels, canceled more than two-thirds of 796,158 rooms covered in the agreement, the Korean World Cup Organizing Committee reports. The accommodations agency cut a quarter of those as late as April 30. The tournament opens Friday.

The Baltimore Grand Prix races into town Labor Day weekend, and we're already planning our city's sporting future. We're curious: What's the next sporting event that should randomly come to Baltimore? The Summer Redneck Games. Yes, these actually exist. And yes, toilet seats are involved. -   Luke Broadwater, managing editor,  b Solo synchronized swimming championships. It's a real sport, in that it was an Olympic event. If that's enough to make it count.

FIFA, the international governing body for soccer, releases its last batch of 300,000 World Cup 2006 tickets on Dec. 12, offering a final chance to buy tickets to the games, held June 9 through July 9 in stadiums all over Germany. The opening game will be in Munich's new Allianz Arena, while the final - won by Brazil in Japan in 2002 - will be in Berlin's Olympic Stadium. Among the 12 cities with early matches are Frankfurt, Hamburg and Leipzig. The FIFA World Cup Ticketing Center in Frankfurt will process applications for tickets to all 64 matches; the prices range from as low as 35 euros ($41.

The weather's getting colder, all your favorite shows are back on TV and squirrels are pelting your car with acorns. It can only mean one thing: Fall is here. With the summer officially kaput, why not recapture some of that back-to-school buzz of your youth by joining a pickup sports team? Here are a few rec centers and groups that offer the fun of gym class with none of the embarrassment - at least until you put on your matching uniforms. 1 Play Baltimore Looking for some fun, friendly competition?