sage for the world. When 40 percent of the homes in Brazil hav

Perhaps its a good thing West Ham United are leaving town this weekend.Whether their visit to West Bromwich Albion will feature Tony Pulis still managing the home side remains to be seen.While trying to avoid the distraction of another ugly supporter incident, the Hammers look to keep from dropping their fourth consecutive overall contest Saturday against a Baggies group thats mired in their own dysfunction.If blowing an early 2-0 lead in last Saturdays stunning 4-2 home loss to Watford wasnt bad enough, West Ham (1-0-3) also took a hit in the public relations department. Fans brawled amongst themselves, and clashed with stewards and Watford supporters in the stands of their new home at east Londons Olympic Stadium.Though West Ham supporters have made strides to improve their overall behaviour and reputation, this incident comes on the heels of Mays final match at historic Upton Park when fans attacked Manchester Uniteds team bus.While these isolated incidents were quickly brought under control, this behaviour has no place in football and West Ham will work tirelessly to eradicate such incidents, the club said in an official statement.Including a EFL match, the Hammers play three straight home fixtures following this contest so the club has time to set up improved security measures.On the pitch and away from the smoke at home, they must find a way to rebound from their most recent debacle. Though the team is not ready to panic, there is an obvious sense of urgency brewing within the West Ham dressing room.We need points and so we need to get our heads down and work hard, midfielder Dimitri Payet told West Hams official website. We will go (to West Brom) with the right attitude to go and get the win. We know that every match in this league is difficult, especially away from home. The key is to work hard and to go there with confidence and do what we need to do on the day.Manager Slaven Bilic is confident his side has enough talent and care for each other to get through these early struggles. West Ham dropped two of their first three last season then produced a 5-2-0 stretch and ultimately finished seventh to earn a spot in the Europa League qualifying round.We will get together, work hard and turn this situation around, Bilic said. Theres no point in talking about leadership on the pitch or moving grounds and all that.The key to a turnaround will be improving a defence thats yielded seven goals in the last two Premier League matches.We cant afford to make the mistakes we did, because in the Premier League you will get punished, said midfielder Michail Antonio, who scored half of his four league goals against Watford on assists from Payet. Weve got to keep going and keep working hard in training.The Hammers have won twice and drawn two in the last four opposite West Brom (1-1-2) with both triumphs coming at The Hawthorns.While the ￡175m sale of West Brom to a Chinese consortium appears imminent, its still unknown how much time Pulis has left on the touch line. Though rumours of the veteran coachs departure from the West Midlands squad go back to last season, a report surfaced in the Daily Mail this week that the club is close to sacking him and perhaps former England national team boss Roy Hodgson would step in.West Broms winless stretch extended to four straight over all competitions with last Saturdays 1-0 loss at Bournemouth.It was frustrating because I thought we created some very good opportunities in the second half, midfielder Matt Phillips told West Broms official website. We created some good opportunities and thats something we can take into the next game.The Baggies have managed two goals through four league matches and none since Gareth McAuley scored in the ninth minute of a 2-1 home defeat to Everton on Aug. 20. Theyve remained competitive thanks to a defence thats issued one of three Premier League goals in the last two contests.Nike Air Max Cyber Monday . 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His tenure as the GM in Vancouver was all too brief. Though he led the Canucks to what was then a franchise record-shattering campaign in just his second season, Nonis was gone and replaced one year later.RIO DE JANEIRO -- With fireworks forming the word Rio in the sky and supermodel Gisele Bundchen shimmering to the tune of The Girl From Ipanema, Rio de Janiero jubilantly welcomed the world Friday to the first Olympic Games in South America.After one of the roughest-ever rides from vote to Games by an Olympic host, the city of beaches, carnival, grinding poverty and sun-kissed wealth opened the two-week Games of the 31st Olympiad with a high-energy gala celebration of Brazils can-do spirit, biodiversity and melting pot history.The low-tech, cut-price opening ceremony, a moment of levity for a nation beset by economic and political woes, featured performers as slaves, gravity-defying climbers hanging from buildings in Brazils teeming megacities and -- of course -- dancers, all hips and wobble, grooving to thumping funk and sultry samba.Brazil also packaged its party with solemnity, lacing the fun and frivolous show with sobering messages about global warming and conservation. Images of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, swirling in the Earths atmosphere were followed by projections of world cities and regions -- Amsterdam, Florida, Shanghai, Dubai -- being swamped by rising seas.The peace symbol, tweaked into the shape of a tree, was projected onto the floor of the Maracana Stadium that filled with thousands of athletes from 207 teams.The heat is melting the ice cap, a voice intoned. Its disappearing very quickly.The crowd roared when Bundchen, the Brazilian supermodel?and wife of?New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady,?sashayed from one side of the 78,000-seat Maracana Stadium to the other as Tom Jobims grandson, Daniel, played his?grandfathers famous song about the Ipanema girl tall and tan and young and lovely.In a video preceding the show, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the Games celebrate the best of humanity and appealed for an Olympic truce, calling on all warring parties to lay down their weapons during the two weeks of sporting achievement.There were times after the International Olympic Committee selected Rio ahead of Chicago, Tokyo and Madrid in 2009 when it seemed that the city of 6.5 million people might not get its act together for the worlds greatest sporting mega-event. The spreading health crisis of the mosquito-born Zika virus kept some athletes away.Promises to clean Rios filthy waters remained unfulfilled. The heavy bill for the Games, at least $12 billion, made them unpopular with many. Heavily armed security stopped a small group of protesters from getting close to the stadium ahead of the ceremony.But with more than a dash of gambiarra, the Brazilian art of quick-fixes and making do, Rio is ready.Our admiration is even greater because you managed this at a very difficult time in Brazilian history. We have always believed in you, IOC president Thomas Bach said.The honor of officially declaring the Games open fell to Michel Temer, Brazils unpopular interim president, who was loudly jeered and faced shouts of out with Temer. He was standing in for suspended President Dilma Rousseff. Her ouster less than four months before the Games for alleged budget violations was one of many obstacles in the works of Brazils Olympic preparations, and it impacted the opening ceremony itself.?Fewer than 25 foreign heads of state were expected, with others seemingly staying away to avoid giving the impression of taking sides amid Brazils leadership uncertainty. As Brazilian officials took their seats in the stadium, there were shouts of out with Temer from sections of the crowd.Jamaicas Usain Bolt, the two-time defending champion in the Olympic 100- and 200-meter races, skipped the ceremony, as expected. Bolt announced his decision earlier in the day. Friday was the fourth anniversary of Bolts winnning the gold in the 100 at the London Games.ddddddddddddAlso missing was 75-year-old Brazilian soccer great Pele, who announced earlier Friday that he was not physically able to attend the opening of the Olympics. He had previously said this week that he had been invited to light the cauldron, although that was not confirmed by Rio organizers.Instead, the cannonball-shaped cauldron was lit by Brazilian marathoner Vanderlei Cordeiro de Lima. At the 2004 Games, an Irish spectator wearing a kilt, knee-socks and a beret tackled de Lima while he was leading the Olympic marathon. Rather than gold, he fell back to take bronze.Greece, the historic and spiritual home of the Games, led the march by athletes into the stadium. They were joined by the first Refugee Olympic Team of 10 athletes displaced from Syria, South Sudan, Congo and Ethiopia. Their flag-bearer, Rose Nathike Lokonyen, fled war in South Sudan and ran her first race in a refugee camp in northern Kenya. Only Brazils team, which marched last, drew a louder roar from the crowd than the refugees.The athletes were given tree seeds, plus cartridges of soil. When the trees sprout, they will be planted in a Rio park.With USA emblazoned on the back of his jacket, Michael Phelps carried the flag for the U.S. team, the largest with 549 competitors. At his fifth Olympics, it was the first time the record-holder of 22 medals had marched in an opening ceremony, having skipped previous ones to save energy for competition.On behalf of all 11,288 competitors (6,182 men and 5,106 women), Brazilian two-time Olympic champion sailor Robert Scheidt pledged not to take banned drugs -- an oath likely to ring false to fans after the scandal of government-orchestrated cheating in Russia. As a consequence, Russias team was whittled down from a hoped-for 389 athletes to around 270.Iran picked a woman, archer Zahra Nemati, as flag-bearer for its team made up overwhelmingly of men. Another woman pushed Nematis wheelchair. The archer was paralyzed in a car accident as a teenager.Shoals of samba dancers flowed in a rainbow of colors, but many showed less flesh than normal for Brazil, seemingly mindful of their global TV audience.After the grandeur of Beijings opening ceremony in 2008 and the high-tech, cheeky inventiveness of Londons in 2012, Rios was earthier and less swish but more sobering with its gloomy environmental look at the future and deliberate penny-pinching. Creative director Fernando Meirelles said the budget, slashed by half as Brazils economic recession bit ever harder, is 12 times less than London, 20 times less than Beijing.It is pretty tacky to be overspending, he said. It is not a good message for the world. When 40 percent of the homes in Brazil have no sanitation, you cant really be spending a billion reals for a show. In the end, I feel good that I am not spending money that Brazil hasnt got.In the U.S., NBC faced social media criticism for its decision to delay the broadcast of the ceremony so it could be shown in prime time in all time zones. Frequent commercial breaks, including eight in the first 65 minutes, also proved frustrating for time-shifting viewers accustomed to fast-forwarding through ads.NBC began its telecasting of the festivities an hour after they begin in Rio on Friday. On the U.S. West Coast, the telecast of the opening ceremony wasnt set to start for another hour. NBC didnt start streaming the event through its app or Olympics website until the television coverage began, and streamers had to authenticate their account with a cable or satellite service.Information from The Associated Press was used in this report. ' ' '