ROME -- Defending champion Italy will not use its top players at the United States in the first round of the Fed Cup. Nike Vapormax Sale Canada . The Italian tennis federation says in a statement that Sara Errani, Roberta Vinci, Flavia Pennetta and Francesca Schiavone asked to skip the Feb. 8-9 competition in Cleveland. Instead, Italy captain Corrado Barazzutti will likely rely on Camila Giorgi, Karin Knapp, Nastassja Burnett and Alice Matteucci. The top players cited a travel schedule that would have taken them from the Australian Open to a tournament in Paris, then Cleveland, then to another tournament in Doha, Qatar -- over a 16-day span. Errani and Vinci won the Australian Open doubles title Friday. Barazzutti says, "We decided to accept the request of our veterans." The team will be named officially Wednesday. Buy Nike Vapormax Canada . Hamels threw seven sharp innings to earn his 100th career victory, Domonic Brown had a career-best five RBIs and the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Cincinnati Reds 12-1 on Saturday night to end a four-game losing streak. Nike Vapormax Clearance . -- Felix Girard scored on the power play in the third period to lift the Baie-Comeau Drakkar past the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada 4-3 in Quebec Major Junior Hockey League action Friday. http://www.vapormaxcanada.com/ .J. -- Freshman Eli Carter scored a career-high 31 points and hit the go-ahead basket in the second overtime as Rutgers rallied to stun No.Liam Ridgewell has been at Portland Timbers for one-and-a-half years - and hes really enjoying life in MLS. The former Aston Villa, Birmingham and West Brom defender captained Timbers to their first-ever MLS Cup trophy last season, beating Columbus Crew 2-1 in the final.With another 2-1 win against Columbus last weekend to mark the opening game of the season, Portland now make the trip to California to face San Jose Earthquakes on Sunday - live on Sky Sports. Ahead of the game, we asked Ridgewell 10 MLS-related questions. Take a look at what he had to say as he tells us all about his own career and life stateside.What was it like winning the MLS Cup last season? Portland Timbers won MLS Cup in 2015 It was a huge achievement - for the city and for the organisation, it was massive. A lot of people didnt expect us to do it, nobody thought we could get anywhere near it, but we knew of the teams capabilities and we knew we could do it if we performed on the day.How did it compare to winning the League Cup with Birmingham in 2011? Ridgewell won the League Cup with Birmingham in 2011 On the day I was excited and said it was better than winning the League Cup but it is definitely on par with it.It was such a special thing with Birmingham, it might even have been a greater achievement to win the League Cup with them because we were such outsiders going against Arsenal, but winning the MLS Cup was a big achievement.As MLS Cup holders, when do you get to meet President Barack Obama? Winning MLS Cup means the chance to meet Barack Obama We havent been told when we meet him! Id say it will be when we play DC United away so thatll come towards the end of the season.It will be unbelievable to meet him, it will be extra special being the captain and being able to get a couple of minutes with him and to shake his hand. Itll be a massive thing, thats for sure.Whats the aim this season after winning MLS Cup last year? Portland Timbers surprised many by winning MLS Cup last season Its going to be a difficult year for us. Last year people were tipping everyone else. This year the spotlight is going to be on us in every game to keep on winning, so its going to be more difficult.But weve got the capacity in the team to carry on winning and go and do it again. We did it last year and made a couple of additions in the pre-season. Were looking good, looking strong so why cant we win it again? Its going to be very tough because people are going to be looking at us as champions and wanting to beat us, so its something weve got to get used to quite quickly.You play San Jose Earthquakes live on Sky Sports this weekend, whos their main threat? Ridgewell thinks Chris Wondolowski is one of San Joses most dangerous players Theyve got Chris Wondolowski, who is a very good centre forward and plays for the national team, he scores a lot of goals. Theyre a very strong outfit and Im sure this year theyll be looking to do a lot more [than last season] and are a team weve really ggot to look out for. Nike Vapormax Canada Sale. What Portland players should we be keeping an eye on this season? Portand Timbers Darlington Nagbe was called up to the US national team in November last year Darlington Nagbe is certainly running the midfield every time we play. Hes such a big player for us and to now get into the USA national team is even bigger.Hes going to go on and do bigger things and a lot more with his career. Were lucky to have him to be perfectly honest and is a good player to have in our team. With him and Diego Chara in the midfield, and if we can get Fanendo Adi scoring goals like last season with 16, well be up and running.Other than Portland, who has the most passionate fans in MLS? Seattle Sounders fans are known to be very loud and passionate about their club Seattle are very big rivals to us. They pack out their stadium, so theyre certainly passionate about their team.Whenever we play them with it being a derby. Theyre certainly very loud. Its always nice to play there and you certainly hear them thats for sure.Can MLS ever compete with the Premier League? Steven Gerrard (R) joined MLS last season I definitely think it can. The way the league is going theres a lot of investment into it, and theyre doing it the right way by not letting the investment get too out of control.When you get these players like Steven Gerrard, David Villa, Frank Lampard coming over here its a different lifestyle and type of place. Its enjoyable as well so theres no reason why it cant grow and get better. Your Lumberjack mascot Timber Joey… do you see him often? Timber Joey is a much loved figure in Portland We see him all the time! He travels with us to away games, we see him at home games before we go out and train...if were lucky enough we get to have a beer with him or see him out in Portland.Theres no other stadium in the world where you see someone cutting a log with a chainsaw. Its just incredible really and its such a good experience. You wouldnt get to experience that kind of thing back at home so its another perk of coming to play in MLS.Do you see yourself finishing your career in MLS? Liam Ridgewell (R) was on loan at Brighton during the off-season, and could see himself returning to play in England one day Id like to go back and play one day back in England but Ive only got a year left on my contract at Portland Timbers.Im talking to the club at the minute so hopefully that will go well but you never know how thats going to go so it could be my last season this year.Hopefully it isnt but it might be. I might be playing at home sooner than I expected but I think Im always going to come home with my kids being at home, my family. Id like to play at home one more time. 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