By Tim Stannard

Brazil look for World Cup catharsis against Germany

The signs are already strong that this current Brazil side are a slight improvement on the spineless rabble that fell 7-1 on home soil to Germany four years ago at the World Cup.

The fact that the South American side actually elected to face their opponents just before the Russia World Cup for the first time, says that a swagger has returned to the team, in the footballing equivalent of a voluntary trip to the dentist for some exploratory root canal.

Of course, it could well mean that that swagger is booted out of the team after another smackdown by the Germans, but the friendly nature of the clash suggests that a tactical draw could well be the result, to keep both sets of fans – and coaches – happy.

While all the pre-match talk concerned the 7-1 loss in the semis, Germany coach Joachim Low downplayed the historic result for his team to a mere step in the path to winning the World Cup. “Looking back, one day after the game we had already forgot about it,” shrugged Low on a match that still sends Brazil fans into instant sweats. Just to put the boot in a little harder, Low noted that revenge simply wasn’t possible for the Brazil team – “you cannot get the semifinal back."

And that’s how Germany win so much stuff. Cold.

Messi set to miss out with intra-Barca battle against Spain

Elsewhere around the world, another gaggle of countries will be wrapping up the international break with either a spring in their step or a slouch.

The second biggest game of the day sees a couple of big beasts squaring off with Spain hosting Argentina in Atletico Madrid’s stadium. However, the hopes of Gerard Pique being on the receiving end of one of Lionel Messi’s mazy runs seem to be fading with reports that the Barca man will be sitting out his country’s second friendly of the break. However, Messi has been struggling with hamstring issues.

Russia have a whole new chance to disappoint against a still flakey France in St. Petersburg and England will be looking for a double win with a clash against Italy, after beating the Netherlands last week.

beIN SPORTS has some doozies with Colombia taking on Australia live at 2:50PM ET / 11:50AM PT with both teams looking for morale-boosting wins. Poland are taking on South Korea in a genuinely tantalizing battle on beIN SPORTS CONNECT 4 at 2:30PM ET / 11:30AM PT. Nigeria face Serbia on beIN SPORTS CONNECT 5 at 2:45PM ET / 11:45AM PT.

Tune into the XTRA at 7PM ET / 4PM PT for the best of a huge day of action.

Barca to Shaw up defense with Man United outcast

TRANSFER TRACKER!

Time to start off with a rumor, that if it becomes reality will see the biggest middle finger ever waved in Jose Mourinho’s direction. According to the Daily Mirror, Barcelona are interested in picking up Manchester United left-back, Luke Shaw, a figure that has suffered quite the public criticism from Mourinho over the past two years over his performances…or lack of them.

Real Madrid’s desperate and largely inexplicable desire to replace Keylor Navas continues with Roma and Brazil international Alisson now being linked by Marca with a move to the Bernabeu this summer. This follows news that Thibaut Courtois has pledged loyalty to Chelsea for another year and David de Gea will never be allowed to leave Manchester United.

And speaking of Manchester United, it seems that more cash will be splashed over the summer in a bid to replace the retiring Michael Carrick. Names on a supposed short-list drawn up by Jose Mourinho include Arturo Vidal, Marco Verratti, Jean-Michael Seri, Fred, Jorginho and Sergej Milinkovic-Savic.

Kyrgios takes on Verdasco in Twitter battle  

With the men’s tennis world suffering a bit of a lull in storylines – Roger Federer sitting out the rest of the clay-court season, Novak Djokovic down in the dumps and Andy Murray nowhere to be seen – Nick Kyrgios has stepped up by starting a Twitter feud with Spain’s Fernando Verdasco, after he argued with fellow Australian, Thanasi Kokkinakis, during a last-32 clash at the Miami Open. “The saltiest dude,” declared Kyrgios, taunting Verdasco for his recent losing record against Aussies. And so it went on through the toddler-esque medium of social media. The pair may meet in the semis.

The Round of 16 gets underway on Tuesday with Milos Raonic and John Isner set for action. The women’s bracket has reached the quarterfinal stages. Sloane Stephens leads the way for the US in a tough battle against Angelique Kerber.

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