US men's soccer team loses goalie to leg injury

Brown, 22, was placed on injured reserve Tuesday by the Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer, retroactive to Aug. 24. He sustained injuries to a hip flexor and quadriceps during an Aug. 23 practice, as he was still recovering from a quadriceps injury sustained about a month earlier.

Brown is expected to miss the Rapids' final game of the regular season, Sept. 8 at home against the Los Angeles Galaxy.

Friedel, the U.S. starter during the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, would become one of the three "wild-card" players over the age limit of 23 if midfielder Chris Armas is unable to go to Australia.

Armas, a starter for the Chicago Fire, injured a knee Aug. 16 playing for the United States in a 7-0 win over Barbados in a World Cup qualifier and isn't on the roster for Sunday's qualifier against Guatemala at Washington. A decision on his Olympic status is expected Wednesday or Thursday.

Executive demoted

SYDNEY, Australia – The chief executive of the Sydney organizing committee was demoted to ceremonial duties as the New South Wales government took a stranglehold on Olympics operations.

Sandy Hollway's role was downgraded when the government, which is bankrolling next month's Olympics, promoted David Richmond to director-general of the organizing committee.

Richmond was in charge of the government-run Olympic Coordination Authority, which was responsible for the construction and management of Olympics venues.

Hot sellers

SYDNEY, Australia – More than a third of the 75,000 tickets sanctioned from the failed Premium Ticket plan for Olympics sold out within hours of going on sale Tuesday.

The first batch of 30,000 seats, originally earmarked as Premium Tickets, were sold out by the afternoon.

Organizers scrapped the Premium Ticket packages last year after complaints that the program put tickets into the hands of bigwigs, instead of the general public.

The remaining Premium Tickets, including those for the track and field finals, will be sold in stages.

Briefly ...

Brent Butler, a second baseman in the Colorado Rockies' organization, was dropped from the U.S. Olympic baseball team Tuesday after breaking a bone in his right hand. He will not be replaced. ... Romanian triple jumper Rodica Mateescu, the runner-up in the 1997 World Championships, tested positive for steroids and will miss the Olympic Games, team officials said. ... Canadian rower Marnie McBean, a three-time Olympic gold medalist, withdrew from next month's games because of back pain.