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ATHENS, Greece -- All the injuries Belgium were worried about became irrelevant once its World Cup qualifier against Bosnia kicked off on Friday.Bosnia was beaten 4-0, and Belgium was two-for-two wins in Europes Group H.BELGIUM 4, BOSNIA 0The European Championship quarterfinalist exposed weaknesses in a Bosnian defense that relied on heavy tackles and buckled in the 26th minute when Emir Spahic scored an own goal.Two minutes later, Belgium turned on the magic: A gifted touch from Dries Mertens found Eden Hazard, who ran around defenders and chipped the ball past goalkeeper Asmir Begovic.Coach Roberto Martinezs men kept up relentless attacks, the Bosnians no match for the speed of winger Yannick Carrasco.The normally well-composed Bosnians were forced into spells of panic defending, and Toby Alderweireld made it 3-0 on the hour, facing away from the goal as he tapped in a corner kick from Mertens.Romelu Lukaku started the night as the lone striker for Belgium at King Baudouin Stadium and was marked out of most of the game. He should have scored midway through the second half and made amends in the 79th. Besieged by five Bosnian players, he swung in the fourth.Only Lukakus miss was a shame, Martinez said. The score was beautiful and the play was attractive. We played with intensity that denied the Bosnians possession even when they tried to change up their game.Substitute Milan Djuric breathed some life back into the Bosnian team that started its campaign with a 5-0 win against Estonia. But Edin Dzeko was unable to finish his chances and the home side hardly threatened.GREECE 2, CYPRUS 0Belgium is level on points with Greece, which defeated a hard-working Cyprus to continue its recovery under new coach Michael Skibbe.Kostas Mitroglou needed one touch to find the net early. Kostas Fortounis set up the in-form striker as Cyprus defenders paused to see if a foul was issued for an earlier challenge.Petros Mantalos, wearing a black protective face mask, added the second just before the break, after goalkeeper Konstantinos Panagi carelessly rolled out the ball.We expected this to be a tricky match and it was, Skibbe said. We scored good goals but at times lacked composure. Thats something we need to work on. But were improving with every game and with every win.ESTONIA 4, GIBRALTAR 0Estonia beat Gibraltar 4-0, all scored in the second half. The goals came from Konstantin Vassiljev and Sergei Mosnikov and two from Mattias Kait.---Follow Gatopoulos at http://www.twitter.com/dgatopoulos Fake Sports Jerseys .ca looks back at the stories and moments that made the year memorable. Sports Jerseys From China . 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It is not as if Monica Abbott blended in with the crowd before she signed her groundbreaking $1 million contract. While such compensation put an appropriately specific figure on it, her left arm has been uniquely invaluable for quite some time.Nerissa Myers, Abbotts teammate with the Scrap Yard Dawgs, a Houston-area expansion team in National Pro Fastpitch, knows well the special kind of misery awaiting opposing batters. Facing Abbott for the first time, something Myers did two years ago in an otherwise nondescript regular-season game, brought on the kind of nervousness she compared to playing in the World Series.In my head, Im thinking I have to stay short [with her swing], but nothing can really prepare you for actually getting in the box, Myers recalled of the 2014 game between her Akron Racers and Abbotts Chicago Bandits. I got in there and she threw the first pitch, and in my head Im like Oh crap. I was thinking about how I was going to play this off and pretend like Im super confident when I didnt even see the ball come out of her hand.It wasnt Abbotts paycheck that had Myers sweating.That same old Abbott is exactly who her new employer hopes it signed. The landmark contract isnt akin to a venture capitalist investing money to develop an idea. What the new franchise invested in were the services of the best pitcher in the world, established excellence able to make instant contenders of a roster with more rookies than veterans. Rookies like Taylore Fuller. Just weeks removed from playing at the University of Florida, Fuller has been behind the plate for the majority of Abbotts innings for the Scrap Yard Dawgs. And if hitting against Abbott is the most nerve-racking experience in softball, catching her might be next on the list.The other night I told her I thought she hit 80 [miles per hour] because it felt so hard, Fuller said. What amazes me the most about her is her control on her fastball. She can pinpoint that pitch anywhere she wants, and it still feels like its coming at you 80 miles an hour.So some things never change. Abbott will be Abbott.Scrap Yard began the last week of June in third place and with a winning record in the six-team league. That success contrasts with the fate of most of the leagues new franchises in recent seasons. It was celebrated a season ago when the first-year Dallas Charge slipped into the playoffs with a 17-33 record. But after a rough start this season without Abbott, who was completing professional obligations in Japan, Scrap Yard is on a roll. Not coincidentally, Abbott began the week with a 5-1 record, the leagues second-best ERA and nearly twice as many strikeouts as any peer.The contract that I received, part of it was based on what I had already done, Abbott said. And then, obviously, an expectation of what I will continue to do over the course of my career. So Im trying to remember that and just separate regular business from softball business.Yet the familiarly invaluable ace is inescapably now also the million-dollar arm. That is change. For all that is the same, pitches speeding plate-ward and batters seeking solace in even making contact, this is Abbotts summer in a manner unlike any summer before. It is her league. In addition to a new uniform, new city and new teammates, she returned to a new role in the story of softball.And not just as the daughter who, while scarce free time has allowed for little in the way of splurges, reached for the check when she and her parents went out for a celebratory dinner.It definitely felt like I was starting something new, Abbott said of her return stateside. I was so grateful to play for the Bandits for so long, and I have so many great memories there of such a great organization to play with, so I felt like I was kind of embarking on a new adventure a little bit. It was a little bit nerve-racking, a little bit of you dont know whats going to happen or what to expect.But at tthe same time, I felt like I was being led in the right direction.dddddddddddd Im trying to create something bigger for other girls in the league and for other women, whether theyre in softball or in another sport or just in the office.The middle chapters in that story, let alone its resolution, are years from being written. Only months have passed since she signed the uniquely structured contract that will pay her a million dollars over five seasons in a league in which teams operate under a $150,000 annual salary cap. Only weeks have passed since she first took the field for a franchise that hopes not to follow in the footsteps of the Carolina Diamonds, New York-New Jersey Comets, Rockford Thunder, Washington Glory and other franchises now defunct or relocated and rebranded.It isnt time yet to predict how the story ends, but there is definitely a sense of a distinct beginning. As much as batters are settling in for another summer of trying to solve Abbott, she is also a surrogate for every player in the league. If the league can support the investment in her skills, what promise might it hold for others? That was part of what came to mind when Myers first heard about the contract.It was more of a general happiness, Myers said. Everybody is a competitor and we all compete, but when that happened, it was like a relief. Like were doing something, were making a difference -- and shes going to make a difference for this sport. ...Were all just super excited. Of course you want to be like Howd you do that? But it was just general excitement that the people coming up after us are going to be able to make a decent amount of money and play this sport without having two or three other jobs on the side.How to get from here to there is, not unlike the Dawgs themselves, a work in progress. Abbott described an ongoing process of figuring out how best to use the bully pulpit, how to pick her spots to speak up with the same precision as she picks the spots to place her pitches. She brought up salary transparency as an issue of note. Her contract was unique not just in its size but in its public specificity. Unlike Major League Baseball, NPF salaries arent readily available. If players had access to a clear delineation of market value, Abbott suggested, it might better empower them in negotiations.At the other end of the business spectrum, Fuller almost couldnt believe it when she held her first paycheck in her hands recently, more amazed that she was being paid to play softball than conscious of an amount that rarely adds up to more than four figures for a summer of work. The hard part comes when, as in the case of a four-year veteran like Myers, a person wants to keep playing beyond that first summer.For now, both Fuller and Myers said the contract is rarely a topic of conversation with Abbott, the ground still too new to feel comfortable teasing her about it yet and more serious questions still unformed. Fuller was initially unsure at first how to act around Abbott, intimidated by the intensity and detail that the pitcher brings to the job, every pitch to every batter scouted and planned. But the intimidation wasnt born of a difference in salary. It was born of having watched Abbott pitch for a decade, first at Tennessee and then with the U.S. national team and the Bandits.Then you get to know her as a person and shes just another teammate, Fuller said. Shes awesome as a person. Shes really nice. You would think shes a 13-year-old girl, honestly, because she gets along with everyone so well. Shes ditzy, shes clumsy and shes hilarious. Theres no barrier there once you get to know her, and I think she makes sure of that. She doesnt want that barrier there.She wants to be the same old Abbott, even as a new summer begins to reshape what that means. ' ' '