Donovan top US player for fifth time

Landon Donovan was voted the top US player of 2008 yesterday, becoming the only five-time winner of the Honda Player of the Year award. Donovan led Major League Soccer in scoring this year with the Los Angeles Galaxy. In a vote by a nationwide panel of journalists, Donovan finished with 297 points. He was followed by Everton goalkeeper Tim Howard with 249 points and Fulham forward Clint Dempsey with 176 . . . Donovan joined Bundesliga champion Bayern Munich for a 10-day practice stint in Germany to stay in shape, and says he wouldn't mind staying longer. "For me, it's just an opportunity to see how I stack up, doing some training with some very good players and kind of getting a feel for possibly going forward," said Donovan, who had two previous and unsuccessful career stops in Europe.

Sigi Schmid of the Columbus Crew was voted MLS coach of the year by a poll of league players, coaches, general managers, and media. Schmid, who also won in 1999, joined Bob Bradley as the only coaches in MLS history to win the award more than once . . . The Colorado Rapids removed the interim tag from Gary Smith's title and made him the sixth coach in franchise history . . . Revolution defender Michael Parkhurst was among 19 players selected for a five-day US national team training camp ahead of next week's World Cup qualifier against Guatemala.

The University of Massachusetts field hockey team, ranked 17th in the country, received a 48th-minute goal from Jill Powers and prevailed, 1-0, over No. 19 Kent State in an NCAA Tournament play-in game in Amherst. The Atlantic 10 champion Minutewomen (17-4) will travel to Syracuse (20-1) for a first-round game Saturday at 11:30 a.m. Connecticut (17-3), the other New England team among the field of 16, takes on Duke (14-5) Saturday at 2 p.m. in College Park, Md. . . . Following a scoreless battle in Norfolk, Va., Matt Pentkowski scored the deciding penalty kick for Northeastern, which outscored Old Dominion, 5-4, in the shootout to win its first-round matchup in the Colonial Athletic Association men's soccer tournament . . . Dartmouth moved up two spots to No. 3 in the USCHO.com women's hockey poll, followed by Harvard, New Hampshire, Boston College, and Boston University. Northeastern is No. 10 . . . The Big East will promote senior associate commissioner John Marinatto to replace Mike Tranghese, who is retiring after 19 years leading the conference, according to a person with knowledge of the decision . . . ESPN announced that Bob Knight will have an expanded role in men's basketball coverage this season, including more studio time and color analyst duties on Thursday night game telecasts.

Jimmie Johnson's dominance may have taken some of the sizzle out of the Sprint Cup Chase for the championship, but that doesn't mean NASCAR chairman Brian France thinks Johnson's last major steps toward a third straight points title had to be relegated to cable TV. France said he wasn't pleased with ABC's decision to bump the final laps of last weekend's race in Phoenix to ABC-owned ESPN2 so the network could air an episode of "America's Funniest Home Videos." "We didn't like it, that was not what we had anticipated but we have talked to them repeatedly in the last couple days," said France, but he added that a rare early afternoon storm in Phoenix and a late accident that forced two red-flag stoppages couldn't be helped . . . France said NASCAR may reduce or eliminate testing sessions that can cost teams as much as $100,000 a day as it looks at ways to cut expenses amid lower corporate and consumer spending. NASCAR won't consider dropping events from its Sprint Cup series or shortening races to reduce costs.

Confused and jittery after failing to win a game in the second set, Novak Djokovic rallied past Nikolay Davydenko, 7-6 (7-3), 0-6, 7-5, to reach the semifinals of the season-ending Masters Cup in Shanghai. "I had a very unexplainable lapse. I just wasn't myself," Djokovic said. In the other round-robin match, Juan Martin del Potro defeated Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (7-5) . . . Marcel Granollers, 22, will replace the injured Rafael Nadal when Spain plays Argentina in the Davis Cup final Nov. 21-23.

Nick Price shot a 7-under-par 65 to lead the Champions Tour team to two nine-hole tournament victories at the Wendy's 3-Tour Challenge in Henderson, Nev. Price, who teamed with Jay Haas (66) and Fred Funk (68), shot a 5-under 31 to top the field of nine golfers over the first nine holes at Rio Secco Golf Club, then shot a 2-under 34 on the second nine. Kenny Perry led the PGA Tour team with 6-under 66, and Natalie Gulbis and Cristie Kerr tied for the LPGA Tour lead with 67s . . . Detroit Pistons guard Rodney Stuckey will rejoin the team today after missing a game to undergo tests for being lightheaded and dizzy . . . Chicago Bulls guard Kirk Hinrich had surgery to repair a torn ligament in his right thumb. He is expected to miss three months . . . Jockey Julien Leparoux tied Hall of Famer Pat Day's 24-year-old track record with seven wins at Churchill Downs. Leparoux won his first seven races in Louisville, Ky., before coming up just short in his final two mounts . . . American swimmer Peter Marshall and South African Cameron van der Burgh set world records at a World Cup short course meet in Stockholm. Marshall, an Atlanta native, won the 100-meter backstroke in 49.94 seconds, breaking Ryan Lochte's record of 49.99 set in 2006. Van der Burgh broke his own 50-meter breaststroke record by winning in 25.94 . . . Peter Eastgate, a 22-year-old from Denmark, became the youngest champion in the history of the no-limit Texas Hold 'em main event at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, winning more than $9 million.