Sports Burst - LaLiga Stalls on Clasico Call
Decision day looms on what to do with El Clasico as postponement of world's biggest club match looks likely
By Tim Stannard
Madrid, Buenos Aires and Miami could be options as the Camp Nou El Clasico looks set to be cancelled
Spain has taken a good look at the Brexit bother in the UK, the...er....issues currently going on in American politics and said "hold my cerveza and small plate of meatballs and watch this."
As much as sport would like to ignore the real world, block its ears and go blah, blah, blah - hello, NBA last week - Spanish soccer is being impacted by a decision on Monday by the country's Supreme Court to hand prison sentences to political leaders in Catalunya for a independence referendum in 2017, deemed illegal and very seditious by the state.
Not only did the butterfly effect from that decision cause Ivan Rakitic to trudge down a freeway in Barcelona trying to get home from an airport disrupted by protesters but it looks likely to see a postponement of El Clasico which was due to be played on Saturday 26th October in the Camp Nou.
LaLiga, the Spanish Federation and even the government are reluctant to go ahead with the game due to security issues and are looking at various options. As it stands, no decision has been made on the biggest club match in the world due to be played in just nine days' time.
The idea of switching the game to El Bernabeu appears to be a non-starter. As does Sports Burst's own plan of having El Clasico take place in Buenos Aires as a return favor for the Copa Libertadores final hosted in Spain last year due to the potential for violence.
Miami? Too soon. Besides, Villarreal and Atletico Madrid look set to play a LaLiga game there in December so no-one wants to steal their wind.
A postponement to Wednesday December 18th looks most likely, however our man in Barcelona, Jamie Easton, reports at time of writing that when that decision will be made is still up in the air.
Maybe today, maybe tomorrow. Maybe the day before El Clasico. Maybe just before kick-off to really ramp up the tension.
To quote a tourist slogan from the country back in the day - "Spain is different."
Solskjaer claims Manchester United support ahead of Liverpool clash
Time to cast your minds back to the days of yore before the international break ruined soccer for everyone.
Remember Manchester United?
Going nowhere fast in the Premier League in twelfth?
Lost to Newcastle United?
Two points above the relegation zone?
Well, United are back in action on Sunday and the game could not be harder - Liverpool in Anfield. What's more, the visitors are set to play without Paul Pogba who appears to have checked out completely as well as David de Gea who picked up a timely injury on international break with Spain.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was speaking about the match on Thursday to Sky Sports and seems fairly confident about his future whatever the result will be - a 4-0 loss, just for the record. Indeed, the Norwegian expects to be at Old Trafford for the long haul - "we are planning, we are looking and the money is there for January and summer.”
Speaking of footballers wanting to check out ahead of big matches for teams they don’t want to be playing for, Christian Eriksen is set to miss Tottenham’s weekend clash against Watford. Speaking to the press ahead of the game, Mauricio Pochettino says that unlike Solskjaer, he does not expect to reinforce a troubled squad in the January window. “I believe in the players we have that are in Tottenham today,” claimed the Argentinean.
This and everything else in the wide, wide, world of sport will be mulled over in the Sports Burst live show at 12PM ET.
Baseball changes timestream as Yankees host Astros
Right. Time to get your heads around something complicated. Well. For Sports Burst anyway. Rather inclement weather in New York on Wednesday caused the postponement of Game 4 in the MLB play-off series between the Houston Astros and New York Yankees. Game 4 will now take place on Friday. Game 5 is taking place on Thursday ahead of Game 4.
The Astros are currently 2-1 up and if the series continues to game 5 and 6 then there will be no travel day on Friday for the two teams to head to Houston.
Thursday Night Football returns with the Denver Broncos (2-4) hosting the Kansas City Chiefs (4-2). The two teams have had mirror campaigns so far, with the Broncos losing their first four matches and winning the most recent two and the Chiefs winning their first four games and losing two games.