THE SOCCER REPORT
U.S. Women begin World Cup title defense, Ronaldo's Portugal wins Nations League
Jun 12, 2019, 6:34 am
The U.S. Women's National Team look to defend their FIFA Women's World Cup title and become back-to-back champs.
Photo courtesy of Nike, Inc.
The Summer of Soccer is underway with the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup, UEFA Nations League and international friendlies all part of the schedule this past weekend. The action is about to kick into another gear with the start of the Concacaf Gold Cup and South America's Copa America this week. Here is the week in soccer:
FIFA Women's World Cup
The premier women's international soccer competition kicked off in France with a 4-0 win by the hosts last Friday to open the competition. France is one of the favorites, and pressured to win, due to their role as the home team. The French women are also looking to match their male counterparts that became World Cup champions last summer at Russia 2018.
Germany, another of the favorites, opened their campaign with a 1-0 win over China while 2011 Champions and 2015 Runners-up Japan were held to a scoreless draw against what could be a Cinderella team in Argentina. England and Scotland faced off for the first time at the World Cup, men or women's, with the Lionesses winning 2-1 while potential dark horse Canada picked up a 1-0 win over Cameroon.
The defending champion United States joins the fray on Tuesday (2:00 p.m. CT, FOX) in what will likely be a multiple goal clinic against Thailand. For all the basics on the Women's World Cup, check out this article.
UEFA Nations League
The first ever Nations League, an attempt to get rid of "meaningless" international friendlies, looks to have been a rousing success and it could not have finished in a better way in terms of garnering media attention. European football's golden boy Cristiano Ronaldo led Portugal, the current European champions, to a second European title in three years with a 1-0 win over the Netherlands.
Concacaf Gold Cup
The biannual tournament to determine the champion of North America, Central America and the Caribbean - the region governed by Concacaf - kicks off on Saturday. The United States enter as the defending champions but it is Mexico, the nation with the most titles in the competition, who enter as the favorites to win it all.
Mexico fared well with a 3-1 friendly win over Venezuela in Atlanta on Wednesday followed by a 3-2 win over Ecuador on Sunday up in Arlington, TX. The United States enter with doubts after a 0-1 loss to Jamaica in Washington D.C. and a 0-3 loss to Venezuela in Cincinnati.
CONMEBOL Copa America
South America also has a tournament kicking off this weekend in the revered Copa America. Hosts Brazil are always in the spotlight because of their star-studded squad and will be expected to win despite losing Neymar to injury this past week. Of course, as it has been for several editions now, the main storyline will be if Lionel Messi can finally lift a trophy with Argentina. With what many consider as the best in the world (and best all-time by others) in his prime, the time seems now or never for Messi to conquer the quadrennial tournament as well of the hearts of his country - and what a story it would be to do it on rival turf.
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Luis Severino struck out eight in seven innings and Luis Urias homered to lead the Athletics to a 5-2 victory over the AL West-leading Houston Astros on Thursday night.
Severino (4-11) allowed four hits and two earned runs as the A’s snapped a four-game skid. Mason Miller earned his 20th save.
Urias hit his eighth homer in the sixth inning and finished with two hits. Nick Kurtz went 3 for 5 with an RBI double in the two-run fourth inning. Max Schuemann also knocked in a run in the inning on a fielder’s choice grounder.
Christian Walker drove in a run with a sacrifice fly to right field and Victor Caratini scored on a groundout by Cam Smith — all in the seventh inning — for the Astros, who had their four-game winning streak halted.
Jason Alexander (1-1), a former member of the Athletics who was claimed off waivers in May, allowed five earned runs and 11 hits in six innings. The 32-year-old right-hander finished with three strikeouts and two walks.
Key moment
Carlos Cortes made his MLB debut for the A’s and went 1 for 3. He had a sacrifice fly, single and scored a run.
Key stat
The Astros went 0 for 4 with runners in scoring position.
Up Next
Athletics LHP Jeffery Springs (8-7) will go in the second game of the four-game series. The Astros have not announced a starter.