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Geronimo Rulli penalty hero, Juan Foyth, Funes Mori win Europa League with Villarreal

Roy Nemer
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29

Geronimo Rulli was the penalty hero for Villarreal as the club lifted their first ever European trophy.

It was Villarreal vs. Manchester United in the Europa League final and an early scared for Juan Foyth. The Tottenham loanee tripped on the ball as his head colided with Pogba’s knee. He was cut in the face but did continue the match.

Villarreal took the lead after 29 minutes with Gerard Moreno scoring as they kept that lead going into half time. The second half saw Manchester United mostly in control as Edinson Cavani scored to draw them level.

Juan Foyth was substituted off in the 88th minute. The match remained at 1-1 as it went to extra time and to a penalty shootout. At this point, Ramiro Funes Mori was an unused substitute and Rulli was the only Argentine on the pitch.

The penalty shootout was not a short one as it went to 22 kicks, 11 rounds with every player having a kick of the ball. Ultimately, it came down to Geronimo Rulli and David De Gea as the last two. Rulli went up first and dispatched a perfectly placed penalty kick to make it 11-10 in favor of the Yellow Submarines.

Up stepped Manchester United’s David De Gea but it was Rulli who made the save as Villareal were crowned Europa League champions.

Lionel Messi, Rodrigo de Paul arrive in Argentina for Copa America

Roy Nemer
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28

Lionel Messi and Rodrigo de Paul both arrived to Argentina earlier on the same flight as they join the national team for the World Cup qualifiers and Copa America.

Several players have already landed in Argentina but none bigger than the best player in the world. Messi and de Paul both landed and arrived to the country together through Messi’s private jet. They’ll be joining the Argentina bubble shortly.

Messi and de Paul aren’t the only two to join the team. Several others have joined the squad. The PSG duo of Angel Di Maria and Leandro Paredes joined on Tuesday with Lucas Alario, Nicolas Gonzalez, Lautaro Martinez, Nicolas Dominguez and Exequiel Palacios having already joined the squad earlier.

Lionel Scaloni’s squad have two World Cup qualifying matches which begin next week. The first match is at home vs. Chile on June 3 and the second away on June 8 vs. Colombia. The Copa America begins shortly after on June 13 vs. Chile, once more. Here is the Argentina squad for the World Cup qualifiers:

Marcos Acuña (Sevilla)
Sergio Aguero (Manchester City)
Lucas Alario (Bayer Leverkusen)
Emiliano Buendia (Norwich City)
Angel Correa (Atletico Madrid)
Joaquin Correa (Lazio)
Rodrigo de Paul (Udinese)
Angel Di Maria (PSG)
Nicolas Dominguez (Bologna)
Juan Foyth (Villarreal)
Alejandro Papu Gomez (Sevilla)
Nicolas Gonzalez (Stuttgart)
Giovanni Lo Celso (Tottenham)
Agustin Marchesin (FC Porto)
Emiliano Martinez (Aston Villa)
Lautaro Martinez (Inter)
Lisandro Martinez (Ajax)
Lucas Martinez Quarta (Fiorentina)
Lionel Messi (FC Barcelona)
Nahuel Molina (Udinese)
Juan Musso (Udinese)
Guido Rodriguez (Real Betis)
Cristian Romero (Atalanta)
Lucas Ocampos (Sevilla)
Nicolas Otamendi (Benfica)
Exequiel Palacios (Bayer Leverkusen)
Jose Luis Palomino (Atalanta)
Leandro Paredes (PSG)
German Pezzella (Fiorentina)
Nicolas Tagliafico (Ajax)
Franco Armani (River Plate)
Gonzalo Montiel (River Plate)
Julian Alvarez (River Plate)

Sergio Aguero hits out at critics in Twitch stream

Roy Nemer
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17

Sergio Aguero has been streaming for several months and the Argentine has attacked his critics over it.

Aguero will be taking part in his first Champions League final on Saturday when Manchester City play Chelsea. However, the soon to be Barcelona striker was on Twitch streaming where he attacked his critics.

With thousands of people watching and subscribed, Aguero had this to say about his streams:

“I think today is my last stream, I don’t know for how long. My agenda is full. I think it’s my last day. On Thursday, I fly out to Portugal, Saturday is the match. After that I have to go to Argentina. I’m in Argentina the entire month of June. And in July I won’t do anything either.”

Regarding his critics:

“Today, everyone is jumping on the bandwagon, the record. How great Kun is when just a while ago they (the journalists) were killing me. Today it’s how great Kun is, it’s incredible what he did. I would prefer to be calm, to enjoy it there and focused on the national team.

“Everyone is expecting the slightest mistake and if something happens, the first thing they will say in Argentina is that I am a streamer. There are many journalists who didn’t like me from before. I don’t care.

“Some didn’t like it (him streaming), that I injured myself because I’m sitting. That I was streaming and thinking about football. What does streaming have to do with it? As if I’m riding a motorcycle and I’m about to kill myself.

“If you say I’m on a motorcycle, say it and that there’s a possibility that he get injured and he kills himself. I would say ok, that I’m irresponsible and I’m playing games. So I’m streaming, am I doing something wrong? I don’t understand why there are people who don’t like it.”

Javier Mascherano talks Lionel Messi, Barcelona, Liverpool, World Cup

Roy Nemer
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14

Javier Mascherano has played for some of the biggest clubs in the world and in an interview on Tuesday, the Argentine spoke about it all.

Mascherano has played in several tournament finals, one of which was a World Cup final. He’s played alongside the best players in the world and managed by some of the best. Now retired, the former Barcelona man spoke about the finals he has played in with Argentina and his clubs. Speaking in an interview with Libero of TyC Sports, here’s what he had to say:

“The final I lost the most which hurt the most was the World Cup one. Being champions at the Maracana means being eternal. It changes a lot being a World champion. The dressing room I saw the most hurt was after the final of the 2016 Copa America.

“I didn’t know how to handle the “Mascherano +10” from Maradona. I was very young.

“The block on Robben sums up my career: Not give up. With Messi, we always took charge of the situation and they always criticized us for it.

“In Russia, everything was going badly and we couldn’t deal with it.”

The Argentine also stated that it was Lionel Messi who helped bring him to Barcelona:

“Messi helped in Barcelona signing me. Pep didn’t want to know anything. Guardiola was the best coach I had in my career. I told him I was going to Barcelona to learn.

“The first thing Pep told me when I joined Barcelona was: “You know you’re coming here to be a substitute, no?””

In regards to his time prior to joining Barcelona:

“When Tevez and I arrived at West Ham, they didn’t know us. We had just came back from playing a World Cup and Alan Pardew asked us where we played. The best Mascherano was the one from Liverpool. Their fans were the one’s who me the most affection. In 2004, after the Olympic games, I got a call from Real Madrid.”

Regarding Lionel Messi:

“From what I saw, Messi is the best, the most complete. I hope he ends his career with Barcelona.”

And about joining Estudiantes:

“I had practically signed with Inter Miami but I decided to go back to Argentina.”

Copa America could be hosted in United States, not Argentina

Roy Nemer
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23

Argentina could lose out on hosting the Copa America as there’s a possibility that it could be moved to the United States.

A report on Monday coming out of Colombia that the entire competition could change continents. Per a report by BluRadio Colombia, there has been talk about the tournament.

While the United States are hosting the Gold Cup in July, the idea would be to host the Copa America in the United States in cities that are not hosting the Gold Cup. Here are the stadiums hosting the Gold Cup:
Dallas, Texas: Cotton Bowl
Arlington, Texas: AT&T Stadium
Houston, Texas: NRG Stadium
Houston, Texas: BBVA Stadium
Austin, Texas: Q2 Stadium
Frisco, Texas: Toyota Stadium
Glendale, Arizona: State Farm Stadium
Las Vegas, Nevada: Allegiant Stadium
Orlando, Florida: Exploria Stadium
Kansas City, Kansas: Children’s Mercy Park

The current COVID situation in Argentina has meant that football matches were suspended last week and the country itself is in a lockdown. Javier Hernández Bonnet, of Blog Deportivo on Blu Radio had this to say:

“The phone has shook in the last 72 hours. The crisis that the public order has generated in Colombia and the pandemic in Argentina is making it that it’s being looked at elsewhere, some approaches have already been made. The Copa America outside of the South American football confederation: The United States.

“They are trying to establish a circuit of cities where there’s no Gold Cup to be able to have a Copa America with people in attendance.”

In addition, Argentina are looking into potentially postponing the Copa America by a few days in order to advance the vaccination in the country.

Those who were in that meeting were Matías Daniel Lammens Nuñez, minister of Tourism and Sports of Argentina and Claudio Tapia, AFA president.

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