MONTREAL (TICKER) — Four-time former winners Brazil were beaten, 1-0, by 10-man Poland in the opening match of the FIFA Under-20 World Cup in Montreal on Saturday.

English referee Howard Webb sent off Poland’s Krzysztof Krol for a second bookable offense in the 27th minute, but Grzegorz Krychowiak’s strike from a free kick four minutes earlier proved sufficient for the Poles to make a winning start to their Group D campaign.

A crowd of 55,800 attended the match at Olympic Stadium, reflecting the strong public interest in the tournament.

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ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Minnesota Wild re-signed center Mikko Koivu anddefenseman Martin Skoula to multiyear contracts. Terms of the deals weren’tannounced Saturday.

The 24-year-old Koivu recorded 54 points and 58 penalty minutes last seasonwhile appearing in all 82 regular-season games with Minnesota.

Koivu led the Wild in faceoffs won (583) and faceoffs taken (1,147), rankedthird in assists, tied for third in power-play goals (9) and tied for fourth ingoals and fifth in scoring.

The 27-year-old Skoula had 15 assists and 36 penalty minutes with the Wildlast season, when he averaged 20:14 in ice time. He ranked fourth on the team inblocked shots (81) and fifth in hits (73).

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Sabres executive Larry Quinn had one last piece of adviceto offer as the team’s co-captains, Chris Drury and Daniel Briere, gathered inLos Angeles to prepare for the start of NHL free agency.

Landing the most lucrative contract does not necessarily guarantee anyoneplaying for a winner, the Sabres managing partner said Saturday.

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BUFFALO, N.Y. — Veteran forward Adam Mair re-signed for three years withthe Buffalo Sabres on Saturday.

Mair earned a slight raise above the $675,000 he made last season. The dealwas announced by his agent, Robert Gerow, and reached a day before Mair waseligible to become an unrestricted free agent.

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MONT-TREMBLANT, Quebec — French rookie Franck Perera earned his first ChampCar Atlantic Championship pole position in final qualifying for Sunday’s race atCircuit Mont-Tremblant.

Perera had the best lap at 109.175 mph in the No. 11 Condor MotorsportsMazda-Cosworth/Swift. The Frenchman is the only driver in the series to finishin the top five in all six of his starts in the 12-race championship.

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AUSTIN, Texas — The sleek black Mercedes whipped into valet parking. Anyoneexpecting the driver to get out of the car with the same grace and style was infor a shock.

With the aide of the valet, Earl Campbell slowly emerged.

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CAIRO - Mouloudia Alger of Algeria and Real Banjul of Gambia have secured places in the 2009 African Football Confederation club competitions.

Fodil Hadjadj scored after 65 minutes of the Algerian Cup final to earn title holders Mouloudia a 1-0 victory over neighbours USMA, who were also losing finalists last year.

The victors qualify for the African Confederation Cup with third-placed league finishers JSM Bejaia while winners Entente Setif and runners-up Jeunesse Sportive Kabylie enter the African Champions League.

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KIEV - The rights to broadcast the Euro 2012 football championships are going to be sold for one billion euros, Adam Olkowicz, head of the Polish committee for organizing the championships, said Saturday in Yalta.

“Only the TV broadcasting rights to Euro 2012 will be sold for one billion euros, which will be a record. Big earnings are expected for UEFA. The countries organizing the championships will also get a big economic gain,” he said during the round table ‘Euro 2012: what it will bring to Ukraine’.

This round table was part of the fourth annual summit of Yalta European Strategy (YES), a Ukrainian-European high-level informal forum, founded by Victor Pinchuk, a Ukrainian tycoon who owns a number of large, mostly metallurgical enterprises.

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SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Jazz made qualifying offers to guards Dee Brownand C.J. Miles on Friday, making both players restricted free agents.

The move means the Jazz can match any offer Brown or Miles get from otherteams that want to sign them. Terms of Utah’s offers were not available.

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OUAGADOUGOU - The Burkina Faso Football Federation executive committee has quit after a disastrous 2008 African Nations Cup qualifying campaign.

Burkina Faso suffered a shock 1-0 home loss to Tanzania this month and lie bottom of Group 7 on four points with no chance of reaching the biennial tournament in neighbouring Ghana.

The result completed a hat-trick of defeats during June for the ‘Stallions’ after going down 1-0 at home to Mali in a friendly and 3-1 away to Mozambique in another Nations Cup qualifier.

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