Brazil's passion for 'futebol' famously knows no bounds -- and comes in all shapes and sizes in this giant country, with Rio's beach culture the perfect backdrop.

Love of the Beautiful Game extends well beyond classic 11-a-side and, from before sunrise to long after sunset, dozens of balls whizz through the air as players do battle right to the water's edge.

Four-time gold medallist Simon Ammann admitted Monday that he needs a miracle if he is to achieve his dream of becoming the first man to win five Olympic ski jump titles.

The 32-year-old Swiss, who won double gold at Salt Lake City in 2002 and repeated the achievement in Vancouver four years ago, was a disappointing 17th on the normal hill Sunday when Poland's World Cup leader Kamil Stoch took gold.

International Olympic chiefs on Monday warned athletes against wearing symbols of mourning for lost loved ones during competitions at the Sochi 2014 Games.

Freestyle skiers and snowboarders have reportedly been banned from wearing tributes on their kit to Canadian freestyle skier Sarah Burke, who died after a halfpipe training accident in the United States 2012.

Picture this scene: Friday night, just before the opening ceremony of the Sochi Olympics, in what's called the "presidential lounge" of Fisht Stadium. In the hospitality industry, that phrase "presidential" is often thrown around with very little meaning.

Not on this night.

Real Madrid forwards Gareth Bale and Jese Rodriguez each scored and set up goals for Karim Benzema in a 4-2 win over Villarreal on Saturday, giving the powerhouse a share of the Spanish league lead after Atletico Madrid stumbled to a 2-0 loss at Almeria.

With leading scorer Cristiano Ronaldo serving the first of a three-game suspension, Bale stepped up by opening in the seventh minute at the Santiago Bernabeu before he crossed for Benzema's first goal in the 25th.

Manuel Pellegrini insists Manchester City's failure to regain first place in the Premier League is hardly surprising after his squad was ravaged by injuries to several key players

City would have finished the weekend in first place had they beaten Norwich at Carrow Road on Saturday, but instead dropped to third after settling for a point from a frustrating 0-0 draw.

The British government has corrected a blunder in which it barred 2,500 of England's most notorious football hooligans from just the opening day of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, a newspaper said Sunday.

Police Minister Damian Green signed a legal document that would have left them "free to cause mayhem", The Mail on Sunday said, had one of his team not later spotted the error.

Take a tour around the small Kenyan town of Iten and the scene is something of a who's who of the athletics world.

Olympic gold medalists, world record holders as well as the stars of tomorrow are all being drawn to the modest red-dirt Rift Valley destination, fast emerging as the go-to training destination for the world's elite runners.

Third-placed Borussia Dortmund were delighted by their 5-1 romp at Werder Bremen, while run-away Bundesliga leaders Bayern Munich were left lamenting the Nuremberg pitch in their quest for perfection.

European champions Bayern remained 13 points clear in the Bundesliga as goals by Mario Mandzukic and captain Philipp Lahm sealed the Bavarian giants' 2-0 win with 56 out of a possible 60 points this season.

Russia's Winter Olympians face intense pressure to perform at their home Sochi Games from a public hungry for success to prove the country remains a sporting superpower over two decades after the collapse of the USSR.

But it remains to be seen whether the relatively inexperienced teams will be able to satisfy the weight of public expectation, with sport in Russia still suffering from the disappearance of the sports system that vanished along with the USSR.