Wrapping Up Unfinished Business and Starting Copa America Preparations
Another full slate of scintillating sports lies ahead and these are the 5 Can't Misses of the week.
SATURDAY: SUPERBIKES ROUND 7 - Tom Sykes Does the Double
Before the race:
A MotoAmerica champion gets ready for Super Bikes storm
Saturday and Sunday brings forth the UK round of the Superbikes, a contest currently dominated by three Brits, Johnny Rea, Chaz Davies, Tom Sykes. So it's high time for the old country to be given a lesson in how to ride a bike like a true 'Merican.
The man to deliver this lesson is Cameron Beaubier, the reigning MotoAmerica champion who is filling in for the injured Sylvain Guintoli in the great Yamaha family and has packed his leathers for a trip across the pond. Before heading off to Castle Donington, the MotoAmerica standings leader spoke to beIN SPORTS about what he hoped for in his sudden Superbikes debut.
"I'm just going to go in there with no expectations and do the best I can. I know those guys are are really fast and really good, but at the same time I've been racing with some really fast guys here," said Beaubier. "I know it's going to be tough but I am going to give it my all and give it my best."
SATURDAY: HULL CITY 1 - SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY 0
Before the match:
The final promotion spot to the EPL is it stake in the Championship finale
It feels like over a week since the Championship's nerve-shredding playoff semifinals. Largely because it has been over a week. And let's face it, those who sat through them needed a bit of time to let the jitters settle down.
Despite some tears and fears both Hull City and Sheffield Wednesday have battled through and survived 46 league games, and two playoff clashes against Derby County and Brighton respectively to face a winner-takes-all clash at Wembley Stadium.
The expectations for both sides are at opposite extremes. Hull City were relegated from the EPL last season and a return to the bright lights and a possible income stream of $200 million over the next two years was a bare minimum for manager, Steve Bruce.
Sheffield Wednesday will simply be delighted to be at the game, having finished the season in sixth under a Championship rookie coach, Carlos Carvalhal, when a top ten place in the standings would have been the prime directive in the club's rebuild project.
The prestige and Premier League prize at stake will see the pasts of both teams becoming irrelevant in one of football's great showpiece occasions.
Prediction - Sheffield Wednesday to cause one of the great Championship upsets
SATURDAY: RUGBY's AVIVA AND PRO 12 PLAY-OFF FINALS - Live on beIN SPORTS CONNECT from 10AM ET
Before the Finals:
Rugby season comes to close with playoff finals for Aviva and Pro 12
The end of the season is nigh in both the English Aviva Premiership and the Pro12 - the best clubs of Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Italy. And the set-up could not be any better in both divisions with the top two teams in each league playing to grab the one-off prize.
The best club in Europe, Saracens will be taking on an Exeter side that is having the best campaign in the team's history by finishing as runners-up in the regular season to enter the play-offs for the first time. However, it would be one of the all-time shocks for the reigning Premiership champions and newly-crowned European Champions to slip up at this late stage.
The Pro12 is an all-Irish affair that also sees an established power taking on a plucky upstart with 2013 and 2014 winners, Leinster, facing Connacht a team looking for its first win in a 131-year-long history.
Prediction - Rugby's powerhouses to prevail with wins for Saracens and Leinster
SUNDAY: GIRO D'ITALIA FINAL STAGE - Vincenzo Nibali Wins Second Giro
The final stage from Cuneo to Torino is one for the sprinters to mop up as by that time a new winner of the Giro d'Italia will have donned the pink jersey, after three weeks of racing around both the Netherlands and Italy.
With some of the big-hitters of the Giro either dropping out or struggling with the grueling conditions of the tour, such Alejandro Valverde and Vincenzo Nibali, some more unfamiliar faces have emerged such as Dutch rider, Steven Kruijswijk, who is expected to seal the deal in Turin for his first major tour win.
SUNDAY: BRAZIL V PANAMA - Live on beIN SPORTS from 9.20PM ET
Brazil continues build-up for Copa America contest
Brazil have had to get used to feeling down in the dumps about their football team, with the country's glorious past seeming far, far away. Disappointment in the homeland during the World Cup was followed by a flat Copa America in Chile.
Now there is another chance for a bounce back in the US of A for the Copa America Centenario tournament. However, there is going to be one fairly important figure missing in the form of captain and star striker, Neymar, who is set to lead his team in the Olympic Games in Rio, instead.
This means that the rest of his team are going to have to step up, starting with a warm-up match high up in Denver, Colorado, against CONCACAF side, Panama.
Prediction - A tough start to Brazil's busy summer of football