VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Abby Wambach and Christine Sinclair have spent the past two weeks chasing each other, chasing history and chasing a place in the London Olympics.
Wambach and the U.S. women's soccer team qualified for the Summer Games on Friday night by beating Costa Rica. Sinclair and the Canadians punched their ticket later with a win against Mexico.
Now for a little competitive fun. The United States and Canada will play today in the final of the qualifying tournament. The game essentially is for bragging rights.
The teams feature the most prolific active goal-scorers.
Where do they stand? Wambach and Sinclair have 129 goals apiece. Both passed Germany's Birgit Prinz to move into third place all-time, one behind Kristine Lilly and quite a few behind Mia Hamm's world-record 158.
Plushenko still rules: Defying his aching left knee, Evgeni Plushenko, 29, had a career-best performance in Sheffield, England, to win his seventh European figure skating title. Throwing in an unexpected quadruple jump to a compelling routine, the 2006 Olympic champion scored a personal-best 176.52 points in the free skate to total 261.23 - outdistancing 18-year-old Artur Gachinski.
Carolina Kostner, a 24-year-old Italian, captured a fourth continental title within a six-year span. Topping both segments, Kostner finished with 183.55 points, more than 16 clear of second-place Kiira Korpi of Finland.
World champions Meryl Davis and Charlie White finished nearly 13 points ahead of siblings Maia and Alex Shibutani in San Jose, Calif., on their way to a fourth straight U.S. Figure Skating Championships ice dance title.
Vonn reigns again: Lindsey Vonn dominated another World Cup downhill, winning by 1.42 seconds on a relatively flat 1.57-mile Engiadina course in St. Moritz, Switzerland. Vonn finished in 1 minute, 43.65 seconds to relegate defending overall champion Maria Hoefl-Riesch to runner-up.
Donovan gets upper hand: Landon Donovan, in the sixth game of his loan spell from Major League Soccer's Los Angeles Galaxy, set up both Everton goals in Liverpool, England, to help beat Clint Dempsey's Fulham 2-1 in England's FA Cup.
Bryans denied record: Leander Paes and Radek Stepanek denied Bob and Mike Bryan their record 12th Grand Slam men's doubles title, beating the U.S. twins 7-6 (1), 6-2 in the final of the Australian Open in Melbourne.
Taylor Townsend, a 15-year-old from Stockbridge, Ga., defeated Yulia Putintseva of Russia 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 to win the girls singles event at the Australian Open, a day after she and partner Gabrielle Andrews of Pomona, Calif., won the girls doubles.
U.S. Davis Cup captain Jim Courier has selected Ryan Harrison, 19, to the four-man squad that will play Switzerland in the first round Feb. 10-12. Harrison will join Mardy Fish, John Isner and Mike Bryan on the team that will play on clay indoors in Fribourg, Switzerland.
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