By Tim Stannard

1) Tattooed Millionaires respond to Lalas roasting

Go US Soccer!

The international game has never been hotter in the USA – not only are the USMNT making the simplest qualification process for the World Cup ever as complicated as changing a password that demands capital letters, a cluster of %&*($ and numbers, but now the big figures of the North American sport are starting to turn in on themselves.

No more Mr Nice Guys. Former player and Fox analyst, Alexi Lalas, kicked things off beautifully over the weekend by calling out some players by name for underperforming of late, especially after the home defeat to Costa Rica. “A bunch of soft, underperforming, tattooed millionaires,” summed up the vibe.

Well, some of their names are hitting back including Michael Bradley who sniffed that “the lion doesn’t care about the opinion of the sheep. I’ll leave it at that.” “I am not going to lose sleep about what Alexi Lalas has to say about us. He can say what he wants,” was the response from ‘Wonder Boy’ Christian Pulisic. This is going to get juicy to say the least.

2) Marcelo is Real Madrid for life

Not too much drama for Real Madrid on Wednesday in the Champions League. Cristiano Ronaldo did his thing by scoring. Gareth Bale did his by not scoring and getting booed by the Santiago Bernabeu crowd once again.

Not wanting to leave a media vacuum, the club officially unveiled / presented / had an excuse for an event on Thursday with the extension of Marcelo’s contract to 2022, which will keep the Brazilian at the Bernabeu for a total of 16 years in total. And during a media grilling, the Brazilian fullback was asked about his favorite manager of the 36 he has had over the past 10 years. Naturally, Coach Zizou was number one. “He’s the one who understands me the most,” said Marcelo.

Tune into the XTRA from 7PM ET / 4PM PT for all the latest from Marcelo’s big day.

3) Arsenal start Europa League life as Milan head to Austria

The Europa League has returned! Just the 24 matches to be played on Thursday amongst a group of teams, many of who aren’t actually in Europe. Hidden amongst Sheriff, Young Boys and Skenderbeu Korce are Arsenal, the team wearing the dunce’s cap in this year’s tournament.

The Gunners are making their debut against German outfit, Cologne. But the good people of Canada are in for a treat with TWELVE live Europa League games to choose from between beIN SPORTS and beIN SPORTS CONNECT, including Mega Millions Milan's trip to Austria Wien and Marseille's home opener against Konyaspor.

Catch all the best action and analysis on the XTRA at 7PM ET / 4PM PT.

4) Cape Verde shock world in FIFA rankings romp

The new FIFA rankings are out!

They are a strange obsession for Sports Burst that simply won’t go away anytime soon. After Germany lost the top spot over the summer for reasons still unfathomable to most, the European outfit are back on their global perch after two wins in the World Cup qualifiers. Brazil, who dropped points against Colombia, are down to second with Portugal moving up three places to third. Argentina, despite being truly horrible these days are fourth.

The USA drop two spots to 28 – alongside Netherland, the worst insult of all – and the Cape Verde Islands are the biggest shakers and movers of the new list with a 47 place move up to 67^th.

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