Giants Stadium

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- The Parmalat Cup soccer tournament will conclude this afternoon at Giants Stadium.Parma of Italy will clash with Boca Juniors of Argentina for the championship after the U.S. national team meets Benfica of Portugal in the consolation game at 1 p.m.

The New York Giants have reached a crossroads in their season after losing five of six games. Following a 26-6 loss at Denver on Thursday, the Giants are 6-5, with three NFC East opponents up next on the schedule, two at home. "We have a five-game schedule," coach Tom Coughlin said Friday. "It's one game at a time with these divisional games coming up. We have got to see how we come back now and rally back from a loss which none of us is proud of." But with New York having lost to nearly every winning team it has faced this season, a turnaround might not be within reach.

Navy is negotiating to play its 1993 football game against Notre Dame at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia.Originally scheduled to be played in Dublin, Ireland, the game would mark Notre Dame's first football appearance in Philadelphia since 1974 -- Ara Parseghian's final year as coach -- when the Irish beat Navy, 14-6."

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - Matt Stover set the NFL record for most consecutive point-after touchdowns, but that's not what will be remembered from yesterday's 30-10 loss to the New York Giants. His 32-yard field goal attempt was blocked by defensive tackle Fred Robbins, ricocheting off the low part of his arm. The ball was recovered at the Ravens' 33-yard line, which set up the Giants' second touchdown that extended their lead to 13-0. The wind at Giants Stadium - which was listed at 17 miles per hour at kickoff - played a part in the blocked kick.

An article in yesterday's Sun gave an incorrect date for the 1992 Army-Navy football game in Philadelphia. The game will be Dec. 5.The Sun regrets the error.The 1993 Army-Navy football game has been moved from Philadelphia's Veterans Stadium to Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., the two service academies announced yesterday.The 1993 game will be played Dec. 4 and mark the second time it has been played at the Meadowlands. In 1989 at Giants Stadium, Navy defeated Army, 19-17, on a 32-yard field goal by Frank Schenk with 11 seconds left.

NEW YORK -- Dan Reeves was not en route to Newark Airport yesterday from Denver. He was not flying east from anywhere. He was in Palm Springs, Calif., playing golf, on a brief vacation with his wife, Pam.There is no news conference scheduled today at Giants Stadium because as of last night, the 49-year-old former Broncos coach had not officially accepted an offer to become the Giants' new coach.But don't sweat, Giants fans. This doesn't figure to be GM George Young's third strike. According to a source, Reeves wants the job.The only reason he wasn't standing behind a podium in Giants Stadium today is because he and his wife planned this weekend vacation at one of their favorite getaway spots well in advance and wanted a few days to themselves.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- The New York Giants made Ray Handley's coaching debut a success by beating the Buffalo Bills, 23-17, last night in a rematch of Super Bowl XXV.Lewis Tillman's 3-yard touchdown run ignited a 13-point second-half outburst as the Giants beat the Bills at Giants Stadium in August the same way they did at Tampa Stadium in January -- by controlling the ball. New York, which held the ball for more than 40 minutes in winning the Super Bowl, had it for 38 minutes in its exhibition opener.

WASHINGTON -- The District of Columbia will be one of 12 charter cities in the Major League Soccer that will make its debut next April.RFK Stadium was one of seven venues awarded MLS franchises yesterday for the first full professional soccer league in the United States since the North American Soccer League folded after its 1984 season."

The mood in the visiting dressing room at halftime of Sunday's game at Giants Stadium was hopeful. The Washington Redskins trailed by only six points even though their defense hadn't forced a punt and their offense hadn't shown the same explosiveness as the previous two weeks. "I think our guys wanted to play hard," Redskins coach Joe Gibbs said yesterday, a day after his team's 19-3 loss to the New York Giants. "I just don't think we played well. To be truthful, it was kind of the way we started the game off. We just never really got in sync."

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- If this was goodbye, Lawrence Taylor wasn't telling.But if this was his swan song at Giants Stadium, it sounded sweetly like a nightingale's.Yes, the third-quarter chant of "LT," when a crowd of 75,089 saluted one of the game's all-time greats, was heartfelt."I appreciate it," the future Hall of Fame linebacker said 'u yesterday after the New York Giants brushed past the Minnesota Vikings, 17-10, in an NFC wild-card game."I appreciate the 13 years they've given me. If it was my last game, so be it. On Sunday, there are a lot of reasons why you go out and play -- you've got family, friends, teammates, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now that Matt Walsh has finally told his story, I feel that the right thing to do is to come clean about something. I was once a suspected NFL spy. At least, I figure that's why New York Giants coach Bill Parcells threw me out of practice at the Meadowlands nearly 18 years ago and sent word through a team emissary that I was never to darken the doorstep of Giants Stadium again. But I have an excuse. I misinterpreted the rules. I was working for a Philadelphia newspaper, and the Eagles and Giants were preparing for a game in November 1990.

East Rutherford, N.J. It dawned on Tiki Barber the morning after the Giants beat the Eagles with a dramatic comeback in Week 2. That's when he knew this would be his final season. "I felt like I was 50 years old," Barber said Thursday. "I consciously told myself, `I don't want to do this anymore. I want to move on with the rest of my life.' " The Giants staged a remarkable fourth-quarter rally against the Eagles and beat their divisional rival in overtime. Barber was exhausted. "Literally, the next morning, I couldn't pick my head up off my pillow because I had an injury to my neck and back," he said.

The mood in the visiting dressing room at halftime of Sunday's game at Giants Stadium was hopeful. The Washington Redskins trailed by only six points even though their defense hadn't forced a punt and their offense hadn't shown the same explosiveness as the previous two weeks. "I think our guys wanted to play hard," Redskins coach Joe Gibbs said yesterday, a day after his team's 19-3 loss to the New York Giants. "I just don't think we played well. To be truthful, it was kind of the way we started the game off. We just never really got in sync."

A bundle of tangible gains befell the Ravens when Matt Stover's game-winning kick split the uprights Sunday in Cleveland. They have a 3-0 record for the first time. They're tied with the Cincinnati Bengals atop the AFC North. They have a two- game lead over the Pittsburgh Steelers. But the victory also delivered an intangible gain that eventually might be more important than all the others combined: Maybe, just maybe, the defense is actually going to start trusting the offense after Sunday's winning rally from 11 points down.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. It sounded like a bad joke - What happens when you move the French Quarter to Jersey-only no one thought to create a punchline. I wish they had. A chuckle would have felt good last night. Instead, therewere tears during the national anthem. There were cheers throughout last night's Giants-Saints game. And there were jeers whenever the "home team" tried to make itself at home. "We hate you, Saints!" a tailgating Giants fan yelled at a pair of New Orleans' fans prior to kickoff.

SCOUTING REPORT Ravens run offense vs. Jets run defense: The Jets rank 11th against the run, but they have shown vulnerability recently. The Bills' Willis McGahee and the Patriots' Corey Dillon both cracked 100 yards against New York in the past three weeks. And New York, which is led in the middle by rookie linebacker Jonathan Vilma, has yet to really be tested by the better running attacks, going against one top-10 rushing team. The Ravens, however, haven't established their once-feared ground game this season.

Site: Giants Stadium, East Rutherford, N.J.Time: 4 p.m.TV/Radio: Chs. 45, 5/WBAL (1090 AM), WTEM (570 AM)Line: Giants by 7Last week: The Redskins beat the New Orleans Saints, 38-24, and the Giants beat the Arizona Cardinals, 20-17.Last meeting: The Giants beat the Redskins, 20-6, last November when Rodney Hampton, who won't play in this game, rushed 24 times for 78 yards.The series: The Giants lead the series that dates to 1932, when the Redskins were in Boston, by a 69-50-3 margin and have won nine of the past 12.On the sidelines: Norv Turner brings a 1-1 record into his first game at Giants Stadium as a head coach.

The New York Giants have reached a crossroads in their season after losing five of six games. Following a 26-6 loss at Denver on Thursday, the Giants are 6-5, with three NFC East opponents up next on the schedule, two at home. "We have a five-game schedule," coach Tom Coughlin said Friday. "It's one game at a time with these divisional games coming up. We have got to see how we come back now and rally back from a loss which none of us is proud of." But with New York having lost to nearly every winning team it has faced this season, a turnaround might not be within reach.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Fans who arrived late missed the decisive plays, but then Morgan State also seemed to show up late yesterday, giving up a long touchdown pass on the first play from scrimmage in falling behind Hampton by 17 points in the first quarter en route to a 49-37 loss to the Pirates in the New York Urban League Classic at Giants Stadium. Quarterback Bradshaw Littlejohn took it upon himself to bring back Morgan, completing 28 of 47 passes for 340 yards and two touchdowns and also running for three scores, but it wasn't enough.