Sports Burst – The Real Madrid Match-Winner
Isco becomes Madrid main man, USA’s price of success and relegation rumbles
By Tim Stannard
1) No ‘I’ in team for Isco, as Madrid look ahead to Spurs sizzler
Come 2056, when both a creaking and cranky Leo Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have finally stopped dominating a world football scene they have been on top of for nearly ten years, it will be time for some new Ballon d’Or sheriffs in town.
One of those could be Real Madrid’s Isco, who is having another sterling campaign of digging his teammates out of trouble on a weekly basis, a job previously undertaken by CR7.
But it’s a mantel that Isco is happy with as is he looks towards a cracker of a Champions League clash on Tuesday against Tottenham Hotspur, however, it is all about his more illustrious teammate for the moment, says a Spanish midfielder who knows his place in the global pecking order. "Cristiano Ronaldo needs to win the Ballon d'Or one way or another,” said Isco at Tuesday’s press conference ahead of the Bernabeu clash.
Tune into the Locker Room from 7:30PM ET / 4:30PM PT for a full look at who will come out on top between Zizou and the Poch.
2) USA moves up in world after Russia 2018 failure
FIFA Rankings time! That always gets a whoop and a holler of a Monday morning.
This time, the rankings produced by those zany egg-heads in Zurich are a little bit special. Normally, the top-of-the-tree list is arbitrary nonsense that over-emphasizes the greatness of Switzerland – the home of FIFA – but this time around the standings will have a bearing on the European play-offs in terms of seeding. The four top-ranked sides - Switzerland, Italy, Croatia and Denmark will be drawn on Tuesday against Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, Sweden and Greece in two-legged affairs for the last tickets to Russia.
For the record, Germany are still top followed up by Brazil with Portugal third. Remarkably, a failure to qualify for the 2018 World Cup sees the USA moving up a place in the ranking to 27, whilst Costa Rica, who clinched a position, drop a spot.
3) Troubled teams dominate Monday’s big matches
Icardi’s hattrick, PSG’s last-minute clincher, nine goals between Betis and Valencia, Manchester City scoring for fun…the weekend has been epic but it is by no means over.
La Liga is serving up an absolute humdinger for desert with relegation-threatened Las Palmas hosting Celta Vigo – a club whose players unfortunately will be more concerned with terrible wildfires sweeping through the region. That clash is live on beIN SPORTS ESPANYOL from 3PM ET / 12PM PT.
Serie A is putting on display a relegation six-pointer between Hellas Verona and Benevento – the away team in that clash have yet to pick up a single point all season, so tune in from 2:45PM ET / 11:45AM PT live on beIN SPORTS to cheer from the sidelines. Another struggling side features in the Premier League with a surprisingly bad Leicester City looking to move out of the relegation zone with a victory over the machine of WBA.
Catch the action from all those games on the XTRA at 7PM ET / 4PM PT.
4) A wild weekend wrap-up as old-timers dominate tennis
Monday morning’s media is still pouring over the goings on of Sunday across the world. In the NFL, the New York Giants actually won a game, Aaron Rogers busted his shoulder and Colin Kaepernick is taking the NFL to court for collusion – although the former story might well end the latter.
Andrea Dovizioso won the Moto GP Japan Grand Prix, to sit in second behind Marc Marquez in the standings. Maria Sharapova won her first tournament since her drugs ban ended with a victory in the Tianjin Open and the only two functioning male players apparently – Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal - played the Shanghai Open final with the Swiss prevailing.
Top class live tennis continues on live beIN SPORTS every day this week with extensive coverage of the WTA Kremlin Cup. Right now! Clickies!
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. SB 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.