BRIEFS - Joe Public draw

•  Joe Public draw

GUATEMALA CITY (AP):

Trinidad team Joe Public secured a 1-1 away draw at Guatemala's Municipal on Thursday in a Group B match of the CONCACAF Champions League.

Mario Rafael Rodriguez gave Municipal a 1-0 lead in the 77th, and when Joe Public's Jevon Morris was sent off with a red card in the 81st for a nasty elbow, Municipal looked certain winners. But Miqueas Lewis scored three minutes into stoppage time to salvage a point for the visitors. Joe Public and Municipal each have one point from two matches, behind group leader Santos with six points.

• Favourite ground

NEW YORK (AP):

Defending US Open champion Kim Clijsters says "everything comes easier" for her on American hard courts. Clijsters says she moves better and sees the ball better on the blue courts used at the year's last Grand Slam tournament, which begins Monday. She says the left hip that bothered her at a tournament a week ago is "doing good," thanks in part to "a lot of acupuncture".

The Belgian has a 14-match winning streak at the US Open, taking the title the last two times she entered, in 2005 and 2009. In between, she took time off to get married and have a baby. And make no mistake: Clijsters considers herself a mother first, a tennis player second. She says there are days when she decides to skip practice to spend time with her 2¹/²-year-old daughter.

• Ballack out

BERLIN (AP):

Long-time Germany captain Michael Ballack has been left out of Joachim Loew's squad for the first two 2012 European Championship qualifiers. Loew said he had spoken with Ballack in a "good and confidential" phone call in which they agreed the 33-year-old needs more training to return to form after an ankle injury that ruled him out of the World Cup.

Included in Loew's squad for games against Belgium and Azerbaijan are 17 players from the World Cup team that finished third in South Africa. The 21-man squad, announced yesterday, includes a third goalkeeper, Rene Adler. With Ballack still out, Philipp Lahm will keep the armband that he wore at the World Cup. Lahm and Ballack have been at odds over who will continue as Germany captain.

• Alonso fastest

SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, Belgium (AP):

Fernando Alonso was fastest Friday in a rain-soaked Belgian Grand Prix practice session that offered teams little chance of exploiting pace. The Ferrari driver's lap of two minutes, 0.797 seconds around the Spa circuit was just over 13 seconds off the fastest lap set by Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel last year.

McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton was second in 2:01.567, and Robert Kubica of Renault was third, just ahead of Vettel. Overall F1 leader Mar Webber was seventh in his Red Bull car - 2.129 seconds behind Alonso.

• Mascherano deal

BARCELONA, Spain (AP):

Barcelona have reached a deal to sign midfielder Javier Mascherano from Liverpool.

Barcelona said on its website the Argentina midfielder had agreed to a four-year contract pending the official medical. The price of the transfer was not revealed with Liverpool reportedly holding out for a fee of up to £25 million (€30.5 million; US$38.8 million).