Neuigkeiten » the defending champion at the

FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. - Osi Umenyiora still goes online to play video games against his buddy Victor Cruz.Oddly enough, their game of choice is FIFA soccer. Cruz usually takes Manchester United, while Umenyiora prefers either Chelsea or Man City.Im not going to lie. He wins the majority of the time, Cruz said. But I come back when it matters, so Im cool with that.On Sunday, theyll be opponents in that other kind of football, in a game that really matters.Umenyiora, who spent the first decade of his career with the New York Giants, will line up for the first time against his former team as a defensive end for the Atlanta Falcons.It seems downright surreal to everyone involved.Umenyiora was such a key and immensely popular member of the Giants for so long, helping the team to a pair of Super Bowl titles. He made the Pro Bowl twice and had 75 sacks during his tenure with New York, including a career-best 14.5 in 2005.Im excited to see a lot of the familiar faces, Umenyiora said. I was there for 10 years, basically a third of my life, so I met a lot of people, have a lot of good friends there. Most of the good things in my life came from that organization.This certainly isnt a case like Steve Smith, who took such pleasure in beating his former team last week. The Baltimore Ravens receiver had 139 yards receiving and two touchdowns in a 38-10 rout of Carolina, then angrily spouted that the Panthers stabbed me in the back.There are no hard feelings for Umenyiora.I left there on really good terms with everybody, Umenyiora said. So I dont have any of that, I want to come back and kick the Giants in the teeth, stuff like that. Ive got a job to do. Weve got to get back to winning. We have a big one on the road this week. Thats pretty much all Im focused on.Umenyiora, who turns 33 next months, hasnt made much of an impact in his two seasons with the Falcons (2-2). While he had a team-high 7.5 sacks last season, the Falcons struggled to get pressure on the quarterback.This season, hes been demoted to a backup role. Umenyiora has six tackles through the first month of the season and is still looking for his first sack. He looks out of place in the Falcons preferred 3-4 alignment, not quite mobile enough to handle an outside linebacker role, not quite big enough to take an inside spot.Umenyiora hopes hell get an opportunity to go after Giants quarterback Eli Manning, a player who was always hands-off to him in practice when he played for the Giants.Ive never had a chance to get even close to him, Umenyiora said, trying to hold back a smile.He doesnt really recognized these Giants (2-2), who have gone through extensive turnover the last two seasons and this year brought in a new offensive co-ordinator, Ben McAdoo, to install a West Coast-style offence.Manning and the Giants struggled at first with the transition to a system that relies on quick reads and throws, losing their first two games. But theyve scored 75 points the last two weeks, looking particularly impressive in last weeks victory at Washington.If the Falcons tried to pick Umenyioras brain about what to expect from his old team, he wouldnt have much to offer.I dont know this offence at all, so theres nothing Ive been able to give our team, he said. Everything about that team looks different than when I was there.Well, not everything.The Giants still have Cruz, their flashy receiver. And offensive tackle Will Beatty, a player who still speaks fondly of Umenyiora (and vice versa). They all wish they could have stuck together a little longer.To see Osi in a different uniform is unfortunate, Cruz said.Even Tom Coughlin, the Giants hardscrabble coach, sounded a bit moved by the thought of Umenyiora wearing red instead of blue.Its still a little bit sad to see ol Osi over there, Coughlin said. He was such an integral part of our team.Notes: Falcons G Justin Blalock missed practice for the second day in a row. Blalocks absence makes it increasingly likely that Atlanta will have three new starters on the offensive line against the Giants. ... WR Harry Douglas, who didnt play last Sunday against the Vikings because of a foot injury, also missed practice.___AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org and www.twitter.com/AP_NFL___Follow Paul Newberry on Twitter at www.twitter.com/pnewberry1963 China Cheap Jerseys . Quarterback Drew Willy appeared to injure his throwing hand on the third last play of practice Thursday. Wholesale Jerseys China . Halak did not get the start in the Washington Capitals Tuesday night game against the St. http://www.chinajerseysnflcheapauthentic.com/. As they are wont to do, the Spurs made things real easy. The Spurs signed Parker to a multi-year contract extension on Friday, ensuring that the six-time All-Star point guard will be in the fold whether Duncan and Ginobili are able to continue their careers or not. NFL Jerseys Cheap . Hes had three top-10 results this season and feels ready to put it all together and finally hoist a trophy at the top level. Cheap College Jerseys . With the Rangers already leading 2-0, Carey Price was taken down early in the second period of New Yorks 7-2 pounding of the Canadiens in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference final on Saturday afternoon.PARIS - His ninth French Open title behind him, Rafael Nadal already is thinking ahead to whats next: Wimbledon. Thats why he planned to waste no time and go directly from France to Germany on Monday to get ready to play in a grass-court tuneup tournament. Nadals collection of 14 Grand Slam titles, only three shy of Roger Federers record for men, includes two championships at the All England Club. But the most recent came in 2010, and Nadals past two trips to Wimbledon were quite brief: He lost in the second round in 2012, and the first round in 2013. "I want to try to play well again in Wimbledon," the No. 1-ranked Nadal declared Sunday night after beating No. 2 Novak Djokovic 3-6, 7-5, 6-2, 6-4 in the French Open final to improve to 66-1 at the clay-court tournament. "Im healthy. Thats the most important thing, I feel." The big question about Nadal always was longevity, and whether his 6-foot-1 (1.85-meter), 188-pound (85-kilogram) body would hold up to the constant pounding from his relentless style. Well, now he is the only man with at least one Grand Slam title in 10 consecutive years. And having turned 28 last week, the Spaniard is roughly two months older than Federer was when he got his 14th major. But Nadal was slowed by a bad back during a loss in Januarys Australian Open final. Of more concern: his knees. He decided not to defend his Wimbledon title in 2009, then was sidelined for the last half of 2012 because of a problem with his left knee. "I hope my knee will have the positive feeling on grass, because I feel my knee (is) better than last year in the rest of the surfaces," Nadal said. "Grass always was a little bit harder for me after the injury." This part of the tennis schedule is unforgiving, allowing two weeks to adjust from clay to grass between the French Open and Wimbledon. That changes next year, when a third week gets added. For now, there is time to contemplate story lines that will matter when Wimbledon starts June 23. Djokovic, for example, will try to set aside hiss latest disappointment in Paris, coming up short again in his bid to complete a career Grand Slam.dddddddddddd Djokovic has won six major titles — four at the Australian Open, plus one each at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open — but he has lost in the finals at three of the last four Slams. That includes a defeat at the All England Club a year ago, when Andy Murray became the first British man to win the title since Fred Perry in 1936. So Murray would be the centre of attention, anyway, and he gave everyone another reason to keep a close eye on him by hiring former womens No. 1 Amelie Mauresmo as his new coach. The fourth member of the Big Four, Federer, has lost before the quarterfinals at three of the last four Slams, a stretch that began with a second-round exit at Wimbledon. It will also be worth watching how players who had breakthroughs at the French Open follow that up. Ernests Gulbis, for one. Simona Halep, Andrea Petkovic and Garbine Muguruza, too. And then there are a couple of previous Wimbledon winners who followed very different paths in Paris. Serena Williams was the defending champion at the French Open, and departed in the second round, beaten 6-2, 6-2 by Muguruza. Williams vowed to "go home and work five times as hard to make sure I never lose again." After her last early exit at Roland Garros — in 2012s first round — she went on to win Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. Sharapova, meanwhile, earned a second French Open title and fifth major overall, overcoming a dozen double-faults in her three-set victory over Halep in the final. Now its on to Wimbledon, where Sharapova won her first Grand Slam championship at age 17 in 2004. "Even though you always remember those incredible moments of holding that trophy," Sharapova said, "you got to try to erase that from your mind because you got to create new ones." ___ Howard Fendrich covers tennis for The Associated Press. Write to him at hfendrich@ap.org or reach him via Twitter at http://twitter.com/HowardFendrich ' ' '