Sports briefs

American leads Australian Masters

MELBOURNE, Australia — American Jason Dufner topped the Australian Masters leaderboard halfway through the second round Friday, shooting a 5-under 67 for a one-stroke advantage over late-starting Tiger Woods and five others.

Dufner bogeyed his final hole to finish at 7-under 137 at Kingston Heath. The former Auburn star is winless in three seasons on the PGA Tour.

Woods had a late tee time after opening with a 66 on Thursday.

Manny Villegas (68), Ashley Hall (69) and Mathew Goggin (70) completed the second round at 6 under, while James Nitties and Brenden Grace had yet to tee off.

Chivas USA says goodbye to coach Preki

CARSON, Calif. — Chivas USA and Preki are parting ways two years after he was chosen Major League Soccer's coach of the year.

The club said Thursday that Preki will pursue other opportunities. His contract expires at year's end.

Preki Radosavljevic became Chivas USA's fourth coach in January 2007, replacing Bob Bradley, whom he had been an assistant to during the 2006 season. Preki had a career record of 49-29-21, and his winning percentage of .561 was the best in club history.

Chivas USA made the playoffs in each of Preki's three seasons in charge, and he was the longest-serving coach in team history. Preki was a two-time MVP in MLS.

The Red and White lost to the rival Los Angeles Galaxy in the two-game Western Conference playoffs this season.

Nationals give skipper job to Riggleman

WASHINGTON — Nationals skipper Jim Riggleman opened his first news conference in 10 years as a full-fledged, full-time, full-titled major league manager — no "interim" tag to be found — by saying he didn't want to list the people he needs to thank, lest he forget someone.

And then, not surprisingly, the man who will manage the Washington Nationals in 2010 proceeded to list those people: his family; the team's owners; president Stan Kasten, GM Mike Rizzo and their staffs; current players; players he worked with in the minors; Whitey Herzog, who brought Riggleman to the majors as a coach years ago.

On and on. Clearly, Riggleman is grateful to be a skipper in the majors once again.

"My feeling was, if there was some divine intervention that came upon me that said, 'You will never manage again,' then I would have got out" of baseball, Riggleman said Thursday, when the Nationals officially announced he would remain in their dugout. "I wanted to stay in the game, because I still wanted to manage. So if I would have strongly doubted it would ever happen, I would not have continued. And you had to wonder as the years went by."

Neither the Nationals nor Riggleman's agent — who said he had to sign a nondisclosure agreement — would say anything about the terms of the deal.

Next season will mark his first since 1999 with a managing job in spring training. That was his final year with the Chicago Cubs, one of three other clubs he's managed.