Week Ahead
SUNDAY 7/13
Women's Soccer: Brazil at U.S.
Team USA takes the field for the first of two friendlies—today in CommerceCity, Colo., and on July 16 in San Diego—against another squad expected to wina medal at the Beijing Olympics. The U.S. will be without top defender CatWhitehill, who tore her ACL last month, but new coach Pia Sundhage can call onHeather Mitts (left), another elite defender, who missed the 2007 World Cupwith a torn ACL of her own.
ESPN 4 p.m.
SI PICK OF THEWEEK
MONDAY 7/14
MLB Home Run Derby
It's on his home turf, but Alex Rodriguez (above) will sit out this year's longball challenge. Dinner plans with Madonna? No, ARod worries that the Derbycould mess up his swing—as it did to his Yankees teammate Bobby Abreu (inset)in 2005. Then with the Phillies, Abreu hit 18 homers in the first half, won theDerby and then went deep just six times the rest of the season. Rodriguez, theAL's leading vote-getter, will start at third base the next night, when YankeeStadium hosts the midsummer classic for the first time since 1977.
Fox 8 p.m.
TUESDAY 7/15
In Stores: NCAA Football 09
EA Sports' college football game is now available for the Wii, so gamers cansweat as if Nick Saban were running them through two-a-days. The Wii version,dubbed the All-Play edition, is designed to be easier to use than NCAA Football09 on other platforms. It's more cuddly on the outside too: Michigan State'sSparty mascot graces the cover.
SUNDAY 7/20
The ESPYs
Gratuitous trophy presentations, anyone? Justin Timberlake hosts ESPN's annualcelebration of sports and celebrity, with a few contrived awards (Best Finish?The Hummer Like Nothing Else Award?) thrown in. The Super Bowl--champion Giantsappear to be a lock for Best Upset, but in the spirit of the award the longshotnominee, Belmont winner Da'Tara, should take them down by a nose.
ESPN 9 p.m.
MONDAY 7/21
NCAA Year in Review
A one-hour special recaps the academic year in sports. USC fans may want topass. The show is heavy with coverage of UCLA, which won morechampionships—men's golf, women's tennis (below) and women's water polo—thanany other school, and of Stanford, which had the nation's top-performingathletic program for the 14th straight year.
ESPN2 3 p.m.
TUESDAY 7/22
Highway 18
It's The Amazing Race in polo shirts and spikes. This reality show featuresfive teams on a 1,000-mile race through Florida, with stops at the state's bestgolf courses. What's reality TV without a little drama? "Hey guys, he justtouched his lie," one competitor complains in tonight's premiere. Golf hasnever been edgier.
Golf Channel 10 p.m.
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LEE JAE-MIN/SIPA PRESS (MITTS)
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JOHN IACONO (RODRIGUEZ)
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CHARLIE NEIBERGALL/AP (ABREU)
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SUE OGROCKI/AP (UCLA)
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EA SPORTS (VIDEO GAME)