Will Choke Be On Gonzalo Higuain In Copa America Climax?
Argentina handed a brand new way to disappoint as Atletico seals new deal with Griezmann. All this and even more apples of mirth from the fruit salad of sport
By Tim Stannard
1) Chile overcome elements and Colombia to set up final repeat against Argentina
Some biblically-bad inclement weather on Tuesday night meant that the Copa America semifinal between Colombia and Chile in Chicago had a two-hour delay, but the damage was done for Los Cafeteros in just 11 minutes from the start of the game, with Chile hot-to-trot out of the blocks and blasting the opposition away before the game had barely warmed up.
This 2-0 victory has set up a repeat of last year’s Copa America final with the scene of the match now moving a few miles north from Santiago to Nooo Jersey with Chile and Argentina going poncho-to-cowboy hat once again. This means that Argentina – and Gonzalo Higuain in particular – will have the chance to right a few choking wrongs from the finals of yore in Chile and Brazil…or shoot themselves in the foot all over again and have Leo Messi rocking backwards and forwards hugging himself for the rest of the summer.
2) Atletico and Leicester in good day for the little guy deals
Atletico Madrid may remain a third force a little while longer in La Liga. Antoine Griezmann have confirmed the renewal of the forward’s contract until 2021, after a plethora of stories linking the Frenchman to every club that imaginative journalists could think of, on any given day.
Not even the thought of finishing third, year after year, was enough to tempt Jamie Vardy away from EPL side, Leicester City. Despite Arsenal triggering the buy-out clause for the England striker, Vardy has decided to stay with the EPL Champions. Nope. Never going to get used to writing that. Leicester City say that a deal in principle has been agreed with the forward, to be finalized after England’s Euro 2016 defeat to Iceland on Monday.
The future of Alvaro Morata is still up in the air. Real Madrid have bought the footballer back from Juventus but are expected to flip the footballer to the EPL. It’s a strong possibility says the player’s agent. "He still has offers from top clubs in the Premier League," claimed Juanma Lopez.
3) Portuguese TV company demand Ronaldo remorse over lake-themed mic-drop
Disgruntled Portuguese media outfit, CMTV, would like an apology from Cristiano Ronaldo after the footballer amusingly threw one of their microphones into a lake after it was thrust into CR7’s face during a morning stroll on Tuesday. Considering the footballer is now king of the whole country after two goals and an assist plonked Portugal into the last 16, the chances are that Ronaldo will be telling them to kiss his sweet behind.
Meanwhile, Spanish sports daily claim that both Ronaldo and Gareth Bale will be offered new deals keeping the footballers at the Santiago Bernabeu until at least 2020.
4) Euro 2016 takes sofa day as Zlatan waits to reveal Old Trafford future
Rather selfishly, the European Championships are taking two days off. Two days! The last 16 round gets going on Saturday with the highlights being Italy facing Spain and Croatia up against Portugal. The neutrals will be cheering on the supposed minnows of Northern Ireland, Ireland and the remarkable Iceland.
Sweden will not be one of those teams, so that means the end of King Zlatan’s playing days for His country. Now, if He could just announce this flipping Manchester United deal Thursday or Friday when the sports news world is a little quiet. That would be nice.
5) Wimbledon loses a seed as Russian sport suffers another body blow
Wimbledon number six seed, Victoria Azarenka, has withdrawn from the tournament set to start on Monday due to a knee injury.
After Rory McIlroy withdrew from the Rio Olympics due to concerns over the Zika virus, world number one golfer, Jason Day, says he has yet to decide whether to travel and represent Australia.
Another low blow for Russian sport. The nation’s track and field athletes are currently banned from the Rio Olympics due to poor doping controls from the country’s federation. The weightlifters could be next along with those of Kazakhstan and Belarus. The International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) says that a ban could be put in place after retests from the 2008 and 2013 Olympic Games in Beijing and London showed irregularities. "Only clean athletes should be able to compete," said an IWF statement.
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