As days pass, more and more sports leagues restart their seasons. Last week, a couple of other huge soccer leagues headed back to the pitch, UFC provided another great night of action, NASCAR had another awesome race, and horse racing ran it’s first Triple Crown event of 2020. Check it out!
Weekly Sports Recap & Update – June 22nd Edition
Chelsea rallies, Liverpool shows rust in first EPL action since the shutdown
The Blues had to rally while one of the top club teams in the world showed they may need a match or two before showing their best.
English Premier League returned this past weekend.
The festivities kicked off on Friday when Tottenham and Manchester United battled to a 1-1 draw. On Saturday, Bright & Hove Albion provided the biggest upset of the weekend when they beat Arsenal 2-1.
Sunday saw Chelsea rally from a 1-0 deficit to best Aston Villa 2-1.
Liverpool has the English Premier League Championship sewn up. But, they didn’t play like a champion. Facing overmatched Everton, the best Pool could do was a 0-0 draw.
Most teams showed a pandemic hangover. Only 4 matches produced at least 3 goals, Southampton 3-0 over Norwich City, Bright & Hove Albion 2-1 over Arsenal, Chelsea 2-1 over Aston Villa, and Newcastle 3-0 against Sheffield.
Most soccer squads have struggled to score goals in their first foray to the pitch since the pandemic hit. But, like what Bayern did in the Bundesliga, the best teams figure to get it back into gear sooner rather than later.
Barcelona and Sevilla draw, Real notches a win
While Manchester City won’t catch Liverpool, things are different in Spanish La Liga. This weekend opened the door for Real Madrid to catch Lionel Messi led Barcelona for the La Liga title.
Barca could do no better than to draw 0-0 with Sevilla FC on Friday. On Sunday, Real beat Sociedad 2-1. Real is now in a 65-65 points tie with Barcelona. Expect an awesome finish to the 2020 La Liga season.
Iternazionale beats Sampdoria, Bayern rolls again
Internazionale beat Sampdoria 2-1 on Sunday. That’s the most important Italian Serie A action that happened over the weekend.
Inter Milan has 57 points. They’ve got a shot to catch Juventus with 63.
Speaking of Juventus, Ronaldo’s team hit’s the pitch for the third time in the past couple of weeks on Monday, June 22. Juventus battles Bologna.
Juvy is just 1 point ahead of Lazio in the Serie A standings. On Monday, Juventus isn’t a lock. They battled AC Milan and Napoli to 0-0 draws in a couple of Italian Coppa Italia matches.
Also, Monday’s battle is Juventus’ third in the past 10 days. The match kicks off at 3:45 pm ET. Make sure to check out odds in MyBookie.
Blaydes beats Vokov at UFC Fight Night June 20
Once again, UFC owned the evening. The top MMA promotional company in the world put on another show with 12 fights at their June 20 UFC Fight Night.
In the main event, Curtis Blaydes beat Alexander Volkov via unanimous decision. Overall, Volkov out struck Blaydes 127 to 116.
Ah, but that’s why UFC counts significant strikes, right? Curtis provided 69 significant strikes to Alexander’s 31.
Blaydes also had 14 takedowns. Volkov had just 1.
Per Dana White, Blaydes’ performance didn’t impress. Unlike other “commissioners”, White says what he feels. Dana pointed to Curtis Blaydes using all those takedowns to win the fight as an easy way out.
Per White, Blaydes shouldn’t wait for a championship bout. “With his performance tonight and his cardio, I wouldn’t wait around if I were him. I’d stay active and stay busy. When you talk s— like he talked this week, man you better come in and whup somebody’s ass.”
After Round 3, when Blaydes got tired, all he did was lay on Volkov. UFC prides itself on providing entertainment and the main event at UFC Fight Night June 20 wasn’t all that entertaining.
Raquel Pennington beat Marion Reneau and Josh Emmett beat Shane Burgos. Both fighters could show up on a championship card in the future.
Simpson holds off Ancer for RBC Heritage victory
The PGA Tour continued its restart this weekend. After a delay, Webb Simpson held off Abraham Ancer for a 1-stroke victory at the RBC Heritage.
Simpson shot a -22 while Ancer shot a -21. Although Webb won, Daniel Berger was the story.
Berger won last week’s Charles Schwab Challenge. He finished tied for third at the RBC Heritage. In the last two weeks, Berger has pocketed a cool $1,768,900.
The man’s on fire. This week, the PGA heads to TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Connecticut for the Travelers Championship.
The purse for the Travelers is $7.4 mil. It’s also a prestigious event. So, expect big guns like Jon Rahm, Rory McIlroy, and Brooks Koepka to bring their sticks to Cromwell.
GEICO 500 at Talladega takes place on Monday
NASCAR will run the GEICO 500 at Talladega Motor Speedway on Monday, June 22. The race doesn’t start until 3:00 pm ET.
Make sure to check it out. Martin Truex Jr. grabbed the pole, but like what we wrote last week in our weekend sports article, Joe Gibbs’ drivers don’t have a ton of success at Talladega.
Still, Truex Jr., Denny Hamlin, and Kyle Busch got the top 3 starting spots. Could the old ball coach end his Talladega curse?
We shall see!
Chalky Tiz the Law takes unconventional Belmont Stakes
Tiz the Law went off at even money to win the Belmont Stakes. The Barclay Tagg trained favorite didn’t disappoint.
Although we’ve got nothing against the horse, we must throw a flag on this year’s Belmont. First, they race happened at 1 1/8 miles instead of 1 ½ miles. Second, the race happened without fans.
Then again, Tiz the Law absolutely dominated. It’s not the horses fault that neither of Bob Baffert’s top runners, Nadal and Charlatan, showed up for the event. If Tiz the Law wins the Triple Crown, we can’t call him one of the best horses ever.
Now, if he wins the Kentucky Derby and Breeders’ Cup Classic, that’s different. We could most definitely call him a Top 50 horse. Doing that, winning a couple of Triple Crown races and then taking the BC Classic almost never happens.
If he adds the Pegasus World Cup next January to a resume that includes a Belmont, Derby, and Classic victory, he could sneak into the Top 30. If he were to take at least two Triple Crown events, the Classic, the Pegasus and next year’s Dubai World Cup, we might have to put him in the Top 20.
Have a great week!