IN BRIEF (Page 24)

Soccer

Manchester United suffers Park injury blow

SEOUL: Manchester United midfielder Park Ji-sung will miss the first half of next season following knee surgery, media reported on Monday.

Park, who underwent an operation in the United States in April, arrived on Sunday in his native South Korea and will join up with the United squad on their pre-season tour later this week.

"I will be able to be back playing in January of next year," Park was quoted saying in local sports daily Sports Seoul.

"It is very disappointing news but hopefully we have the squad to cover injuries this year," United manager Alex Ferguson said.

Park, 26, joined United from Dutch club PSV Eindhoven in 2005, but will find competition for places heated following the multi-million dollar arrivals of highly-rated wide men Nani and Anderson from Portugal.

United play FC Seoul on Friday, three days after a game against Japanese team Urawa Reds.

Baseball

Phillies become America's biggest losers

NEW YORK: The Philadelphia Phillies are officially the biggest losers in US sport.

The National League team lost a 10-2 decision to the St Louis Cardinals on Sunday for the franchise's 10,000th defeat.

No US professional sports team has ever accrued that many losses, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

But were long-suffering Phillies fans embarrassed or upset?

Not according to a philly.com poll.

Only 10 of the 629 early voters (1.6 percent) claimed to be upset. Another 80 (12.7 percent) said they were embarrassed.

A majority of the voters, 340 (54.1 per cent), checked "Glad to be done with it. Enough already."

The next highest number of respondents?

"Ready to start working on the next 10,000," 199 voters (31.6 percent) said.

That could come on Monday when the Phillies, with a record of 8,810-10,000 in 125 years of baseball, play the Dodgers in Los Angeles.

Bonds stays hitless as Dodgers trump Giants

SAN FRANCISCO: The Los Angeles Dodgers won for the 11th consecutive time in San Francisco as Giants slugger Barry Bonds was hitless in a 5-3 loss on Sunday.

Rafael Furcal broke a 3-3 tie with a sixth-inning triple and scored on Juan Pierre's squeeze bunt to send the Giants to their fourth consecutive loss.

Bonds, who is four career home runs shy of Hank Aaron's all-time record of 755, went 0-for-5 for a second straight day. He has no hit in his last 20 at-bats over six games.

"It's an embarrassment to me to wear this uniform and that's all it is," the 42-year-old Bonds told reporters.

Motor racing

Stewart ends 20-race winless streak

CHICAGO: Tony Stewart broke a 20-race winless streak as he outran Ford's Matt Kenseth to win the NASCAR race at Joliet, Illinois on Sunday.

"I'm glad this is over," Stewart told reporters after his first victory since November 2006. "I'm going on vacation."

The Chevrolet-driving Stewart came out of the pits in the lead with 40 laps remaining and never lost it.

A closed-door meeting between Stewart and squabbling teammate Denny Hamlin with team owner Joe Gibbs on Saturday led to a smoother ride on Sunday, Stewart said.

"Joe knows how to organise people and how to keep people motivated and keep them working together," Stewart said. "I think Denny worked better today than we ever worked." Hamlin finished 17th. Carl Edwards, driving a Ford, took third.

(China Daily 07/17/2007 page24)