Brian Orser has won two Olympic silver medals and coached a skater to gold. All that experience did little to prepare him for the sport's newest twist.

Team figure skating debuted Thursday at the Sochi Olympics, and Orser wasn't quite sure what to think as coach of one of its top competitors — 19-year-old Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan. The same was true for many of the skaters, who were quick to rationalize their performance, good or bad.

Manchester United captain Nemanja Vidic will leave the club after eight years at the end of the season.

Manager David Moyes had previously indicated he wanted Vidic to stay, but the 32-year-old Serbian defender on Friday announced plans to leave when his contract expires.

Sochi Olympic organizers announced that more than 80 percent of tickets to events have been sold.

Russian spectators, who were allocated 70 percent of the total available, have faced lengthy lines in Sochi to collect their tickets.

Time for the games to begin. Thank goodness.

To put it mildly, this has not been the most carefree of lead-ups to the Olympics. It has been roiled by security concerns, arguments about gay rights and the still-questionable hosting abilities of a country that spent $50 billion but remained busy slapping paint on buildings only hours before the cauldron was set to be lit.

Spain coach Vicente del Bosque is not pleased by the actions of some national team players during an ill-tempered Copa del Rey semifinal between Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid.

Madrid beat Atletico 3-0 in the first-leg semifinal on Wednesday when Madrid players Alvaro Arbeloa and Sergio Ramos were among those to clash with Atletico striker Diego Costa, a Brazilian-born, naturalized Spaniard who is expected to be at the World Cup for Spain.

Michael Laudrup is taking legal advice after being fired as Swansea manager on Tuesday.

Laudrup revealed Thursday he was notified of his dismissal in "the briefest of letters which gave no reasons why such hasty and final action was deemed necessary."

Olympic fans of the world, where are you?

Sochi is (more or less) ready for you to come to its Winter Games. Thousands of athletes, soldiers, journalists and herds of smiley volunteers are in place, eager to help.

Miami cured its road woes with a 116-112 win over the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday, with Ray Allen hitting the clinching 3-pointer in the final minute of the showdown between NBA divisional leaders.

Two other divisional leaders — Oklahoma City and San Antonio — also won, with the Thunder proving too good for an understrength Minnesota, while the Spurs needed double overtime to beat Washington for the 16th straight time. In another key game, Houston beat Phoenix to move above the Clippers and into fourth place in the Western Conference.

Competition at the Sochi Olympics has begun, 32 hours before the opening ceremony.

Early starts are needed because of 12 men's and women's medal events added since the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.

Real Madrid spoiled crosstown rival Atletico Madrid's short honeymoon as Spanish leader by winning its Copa del Rey semifinal first leg, while Barcelona also took control of its series with a victory over Real Sociedad.

Pepe, Jese Rodriguez, and Angel Di Maria all scored as Madrid won a bad-tempered crosstown derby 3-0 to humble Atletico on Wednesday, three days after it took the outright league lead, with only its second loss of the season and first in 23 matches.