A lot went on in sports last week, including two of the top soccer club teams on the planet securing championship trophies. Over in the U.S., one of the best golfers in the world rallied for some hardware, a popular NASCAR driver broke a crazy losing streak, and MLB, NHL, and the NBA made progress towards restarting their seasons. Check out what happened this past week in sports!
Weekly Sports Recap & Update – June 29th Edition
Liverpool locks up 19th English Premier League title after Man City falls to Chelsea
Liverpool won their nineteenth overall title, and first in 30 years, after Chelsea beat Manchester City 2-1 on June 25.
Man City was the lone EPL rival that could catch Pool. The Blues made sure that didn’t happen.
How historic is Liverpool’s 2020 English Premier League Championship? The Reds have lost just two games since May 2018. They won the EPL trophy in record time, with 7 matches left.
The domination was so perfect that many predict Manchester City will go after Napoli center-half Kalidou Koulibaly. If Man City wants to add Kalidou, they had better start working on doing so as soon as possible.
The 2020-2021 English Premier League kicks off on September 11. That’s about 10 weeks from today.
Bayern Munich dominates Wolfsburg after securing their 9th straight Bundesliga trophy
Bayern had secured their ninth straight Bundesliga Championship before kicking off against Wolfsburg on Saturday.
Manager Hans-Deiter Flick said he wanted Bayern to play at a high-level against Wolfsburg even though they already had the trophy. Flick’s players got the memo.
Bayern dominated Wolfsburg 4-0 to put an exclamation mark on another successful Bundesliga season.
Dortmund must find a way to compete. Their last title was in the 2011-2012 season. Since then, Dortmund has finished as runner-up to Bayern five times. What will Dortmund do to turn the tables on Bayern?
We’ll have to wait and see.
Poirier defeats Hooker in Fight of the Year candidate at UFC Fight Night on June 27
In what many are calling the MMA bout of the year, Dustin Poirier defeated Dan Hooker via unanimous decision.
It’s hard to know exactly why the judges chose Poirier over Hooker. Then again, it would have been equally difficult to understand why they chose Hooker over Poirier if that’s the way it went.
Poirier out struck Hooker 208 to 182. But Dan had a couple more significant strikes, 155 to 153.
Hooker also was good on 4-of-9 take down attempts. Dustin was 1-of-7 with his take down attempts.
In any case, Dana White won’t hesitate to put either one on a major fight card in the future. So, in that respect, both Dan Hooker and Dustin Poirier came out winners.
Dustin Johnson rallies for Travelers Championship win
Dustin Johnson used a 61 third round to help him take the Travelers Championship on Sunday. DJ didn’t start out hot. He shot a 69 on Thursday.
But on Friday, he dropped a 64. Saturday came the 61 and on Sunday, Johnson shot a 67. Kevin Streelman finished second at -18 followed by Will Gordon and McKenzie Hughes, both at -17.
Rory McIlroy shot a 63 first round, but after that, he imploded. Rory posted a 68, 69, 67 in the final three rounds. That’s not bad, but McIlroy’s supposed to dominate after a great first round, not drop out of the Top 10.
NASCAR driver Kevin Harvick snaps 0-for-38 record at Pocono, Hamlin wins Sunday Cup race
In the first event at Pocono, Kevin Harvick broke a 38 race losing streak. Harvick proved that he’s put the Pocono curse behind him because in the second event, the Cup race on Sunday, Kevin finished second to Denny Hamlin.
Kevin Harvick might be the only driver that can break Joe Gibbs Racing’s stranglehold on NASCAR Cup Championships.
Since NASCAR restarted, Harvick has been on fire. He won the Darlington 400, the Cup Series race at Atlanta, and now the Pocono 325. That’s 3 wins from 11 races. He’s finished in the Top 5 in 3 other NASCAR Cup events.
Kevin Harvick is second on the Cup Standings. He trails only Denny Hamlin who has 4 wins.
MLB implements 60-game season
On June 22, Major League Baseball implemented a 60-game season. Commissioner Rob Manfred had the right to implement a season based on an agreement players and the league struck on March 26.
Teams will battle those in their division and squads in their opposite division. For example, the Dodgers in the NL West will battle Arizona, Colorado, San Diego, and San Francisco. But, they will play against Oakland and the L.A. Angels, two teams in the AL West.
The league came up with this regional schedule idea to cut down on travel.
Spring training should start between July 1 and July 8. Also, players will receive 37% of their salaries if they complete the full 60-game schedule.
The league has yet to figure out how to handle rising Covid-19 cases in Texas, Arizona, and Florida. But, they’ve got some time to do that.
No matter what, it sure looks like baseball is back. That’s an awesome thing!
NHL drops Vancouver, now down to 5 potential hub cities
The National Hockey League dropped Vancouver from their list of potential hub cities. In the last couple of months, the NHL has dropped Columbus, Dallas, Pittsburgh, and Minneapolis / St. Paul from the list of potential cities for a season restart.
The league’s plan is to have two cities host all 24-teams for the NHL Playoffs. Each city would host 12 participating squads.
The cities left in the running are Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Chicago, Edmonton, and Toronto.
There’s a good chance Toronto or Chicago is one of the cities. If Toronto gets the nod, Edmonton and Chicago won’t.
It makes sense for the National Hockey League to have one city on the east coast and one on the west. The NHL figures to decide on which Canadian city, Edmonton or Toronto, gets the right to host games.
They will then decide on the U.S. city. Los Angeles has a leg up over Las Vegas due to the rise in Nevada coronavirus cases.
The National Basketball Association comes out with their 2020 NBA Orlando Regular Season schedule
The National Basketball Association came out with their return to play schedule and, man, it’s going to be great!
On July 30, the first regular season restart day, the Utah Jazz battles the New Orleans Pelicans. The Pels have the easiest schedule of any participating team. Unless they implode, they should make the playoffs.
After Jazz-Pels, the Lakers and Clippers throw down. That should be fantastic. It will also give us a chance to see where two of the top teams in basketball are in terms of fitness.
Check out some of the must watch games after from July 31 through August 5.
- Friday, July 31 – Celtics vs. Bucks, Rockets vs. Mavericks
- Saturday, August 1 – Heat vs. Nuggets, Lakers vs. Raptors
- Sunday, August 2 – Blazers vs. Celtics, Bucks vs. Rockets
- Monday, August 3 – Raptors vs. Heat, Lakers vs. Jazz
- Tuesday, August 4 – Celtics vs. Heat, Rockets vs. Trail Blazers
- Wednesday, August 5 – Thunder vs. Lakers
It will be interesting to see if favored squads, the Clippers, Lakers and Bucks, are as dominant as they were before the shutdown.
Also, will players have the same drive that they had before March 11? Hopefully, they will! No matter what happens, the NBA will soon return, which means that sports will soon return.
Have a great week!