Sports Burst – Nothing to See Here!
Much ado about nothing and a Brazilian meltdown
Much ado about nothing
Hey…how are you? Good? How’s Wednesday looking? Hope traffic is not so bad where you are.
News? Erm. Not really. Mariano Diaz has still not swapped Lyon for Real Madrid and the Spanish press seem to have completely lost interest in the idea after going a little nuts about it on Tuesday.
Adrien Rabiot is still a PSG player and almost certainly won’t be going to Barcelona in the same way that Ivan Rakitic will remain a Barcelona player and won’t be going PSG. Indeed, while we are on a not-moving roll, Sergej Milinkovic-Savic won’t be leaving Lazio for PSG either says his agent.
And speaking of nothing happening, Valladolid will learn its punishment fate over the state of the pitch against Barcelona…at the end of the season, according to AS with La Liga wanting to have a long, hard think about it. No turf war there.
Platini slams VAR as Bordeaux pass on Thierry
Time for a bit of French chatter now…mon dieu!
The president of Ligue 1 side Bordeaux, Stephane Martin, has announced that stories on the grapevine were true that Thierry Henry would not become the club’s new coach after the sacking of Gus Poyet. Wages and transfer budget were reportedly the issue.
Arsenal has not one but two rebelling players – not only is Mesut Ozil all in the huff with Unai Emery but Alexandre Lacazette reportedly wants to leave between now and Friday. The French forward has yet to start a Premier League game for the Gunners.
Former UEFA president, Michel Platini, has shown the same kind of forward-thinking as the current organization’s head by rejecting VAR outright. “Killing football!” was the vibe from the Frenchman.
And for those of you still holding out on the future of Ben Arfa. If looks like being Rennes. Stand by for hot news on that on Wednesday.
Young Boys make history in Champions League
And then there were three…three spots left in this season’s Champions League group stage to be drawn on Thursday.
Young Boys (for the first time!), AEK Athens and Ajax passed their particular trial by fire in Tuesday’s fixtures in the second leg of the play-off stages and will be joined by either Salzburg or Crvena Zvezda (0-0), PAOK or Benfica (1-1) and the fully-abbreviated clash between PSV and BATE (3-2 to the Dutch). Catch the XTRA at 7PM ET / 4PM PT for the best of the day’s action from the Old World.
But hold your horses Daddy-oh, as there are a gaggle of top-class sides in action on this side of the Atlantic. The Copa Liberatores is at the Last 16 second-leg stage. Independiente, Atletico Tucaman and Gremio passed through to the quarterfinals on Tuesday, but not without controversy with Independiente’s clash against Santos being abandoned with eight minutes to go due to crowd violence.
The first leg had ended 0-0, but a decision by Conmebol to change the result to 3-0 to Independiente 12 hours before the game over the fielding of a player who should have been suspended in the first leg by the Brazilian side did not go down well with the home crowd.
There are three more games on Wednesday including the all-Argentinean affair between Racing Club and River Plate, currently goalless from the first leg.
Red Bulls look to charge to top of table
THE MLS is also up and running on Wednesday in several really sweaty parts of the USA.
Hoping not to drop like flies like the tennis players at the US Open are the NY Red Bulls who can move to the top of the Eastern Conference standings with a win over Houston. That clash leads the way in a roster of four games.
Portland Timbers are hoping to end a run of four losses on the bounce with a win against Toronto FC. Wayne Rooney’s improving DC United takes on Philadelphia Union. San Jose Earthquakes host FC Dallas while the Seattle Sounders are looking for an eight victory in a row against Sporting KC.
WHAT IS SPORTS BURST?
The life philosophy of Sports Burst is that if you are not upsetting someone, then you are not trying hard enough. Sports Burst is a daily trawl and troll through the morning's sports news to bring you fact-nuggets to make you both smile and swear. Hopefully at the same time.