What you may have missed this weekend: 6/7-6/9

This was another weekend full of sporting matches and games that we should have watched or kept up with.

But if you missed it, don’t worry Aman and I have will keep you updated on what you missed this weekend, like maybe the opening matches of the FIFA Women’s 2019 World Cup.

“FIFA Women’s World Cup Canada 2015 – Edmonton” by IQRemix is licensed by CC BY-SA 2.0

Along with the Women’s World Cup, we have the results of Tennis’ French Open for both Men and Women. Last week, I told you about Serena Williams’ early exit, but let’s find out who won the French Open this year.

We’ll also be talking about the big fight from Saturday night and of course the NBA and NHL Finals. We even have some WWE news to talk about as this past Friday featured some first-time ever matches.

There is also weekly Cricket provided to us by Aman, so let’s see what we missed!

Soccer:

South Korea no match for France:

It took South Korea 78 minutes before they found their first shot against France in the opener of the Women’s FIFA World Cup in Paris at a sold out Parc des Princes. The French completely out-matches the Koreans 23 shots to one and the result ended 4-0, the winners being obvious.

Éugenie Le Sommer’s goal and Wendie Renard’s two goals left the scoreline at 3-0 at half-time, though it could’ve been 4-0 if Mbock Bathy’s goal wasn’t called offside. But in the 85th minute, captain Amandine Henry found the net to end the game at 4-0.

Bonansea brace beats Australia:

While the first half was all about Australia, Italy won the second half and the game along with it. While Samantha Kerr scored in the 22nd minute to give Australia the lead, Barbara Bonansea was the hero as she first tied the game for Italy in the 56th minute, before scoring the winner in the 95th minute.

England edge past rivals Scotland:

England’s Lionesses started their World Cup campaign off with a win over Scotland, the score being 2-1. In the first half, the first goal came through a Nikita Pariss penalty after VAR judged Nicole Docherty had handballed. Ellen White made it 2-0 for England before the half, wiping Scottish competition out of the game. However, Claire Emslie managed to find the net in the 79th minute, but England held on for the win.

Chelsea manager to leave for Juventus:

Turns out Maurizio Sarri won’t be the long-term manager Chelsea are looking for. Despite winning the Europa League and finishing runners up in the League Cup, Sarri is set to leave Chelsea after he signed a three-year deal with Italian giants Juventus.

Tennis:

Women’s French Open:

After two of the top women went down early in the French Open, the field was wide open for the taking.

This year’s winner was 23-year-old Australian Ashleigh Barty and it didn’t take her long to do it. Within an hour, Barty beat Czech teenager Marketa Vondrousova (6-1,6-4).

This is Barty’s first time winning a French Open and she has become the first Australian woman since Margaret Court in 1973 to win the title in Paris. Congratulations to Ashleigh Barty.

Men’s French Open:

But here is where things got interesting because before we get to the final between Dominic Thiem and Rafael Nadal, let’s see how Thiem got there.

It took him all five sets to edge No. 1 Tennis player, Novak Djokovic (6-2, 3-6, 7-5, 5-7, 7-5).

Nadal was waiting for the winner of Djokovic-Thiem match as he beat Roger Federer in straight sets on Thursday.

Sunday a Men’s champion was crowned and that is Rafael Nadal after winning in four sets (6-3, 5-7, 6-1, 6-1). This is Nadal’s 12th French Open title and his 18th career Grand Slam.

The 12 French Open titles makes him the first player, man or woman, to win the same Slam 12 times. He has also helped himself by gaining ground on the major total and sits two behind Federer’s all-time record (20) while Djokovic (15) is still behind both Federer and Nadal.

Boxing:

WBO Featherweight World Title Fight:

Going into their fight on Saturday night, Oscar Valdez was struggling to meet the weight of 126 lbs. as a featherweight. He did get to that weight and he fought one of his best fights round-by-round performance.

Valdez beats Jason Sanchez 117-110, 118-109, 118-109 winning unanimously after 12 rounds. In round five, Valdez got a knockdown on Sanchez. He also gave Sanchez a strong left hand in bout. Sanchez also got in several good jabs on Valdez as the two went jab for jab and show respect as the final seconds ticked off.

Valdez will improve to 26-0 (20 KOs). He is also 7-0 as the Featherweight Champion. Sanchez (14-1) drops his first bout after coming into the fight 14-0 (7 KOs). If Valdez remains in the Featherweight class, I could see these two going again.

Horse Racing:

There was seriously a lot of sporting events that happened this weekend, and the Belmont Stakes is one of them. This is one of the three races that can win a Horse the triple-crown. The other two are the Kentucky Derby and Preakness.

Coming into the race, Tacitus was the betting favorite. However, it was Joevia that had the advantage after the first turn. That was until Sir Winston made a late surge to take the 2019 Belmont Stakes and claim the final leg of the American Triple Crown.

Sir Winston became the 7th horse to win the Belmont after not running in either of the first two Triple Crowns.

NBA:

NBA Finals:

After giving up a game 2 loss at home in Toronto, the Raptors had their backs to the wall heading back to Oracle against the Golden State Warriors. Unfortunately, the Warriors were shorthanded for game 3 and three Raptors pulled away for their second win of the series.

But Friday night with the return of Klay Thompson and Kevon Looney, the Warriors were looking to even the series back at two games a piece and they had their chance.

But the team that was known for dominating the 3rd quarter of games got dominated and could not return to form. Warriors’ Steph Curry can’t find his shot like he did in game 3 and DeMarcus Cousins was once again a no show in the game.

Raptors’ Kawhi Leonard led his team to another great game as they came out in the second half and pulled away from the Warriors. Now the Warriors are down 3-1 in the NBA Finals and we all know that only one team in the history of NBA Finals has came back from 3-1.

That one team was the LeBron James led Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016 against these Warriors, but can the Warriors be the second team in history to do so? Will Kevin Durant make a return in game 5 to help the Warriors in their comeback?

NHL

Bruins pull series back in their favor:

If you’re a Bruins fan, losing to first-timers St. Louis Blues would’ve been a bit shameful, but thanks to Boston’s 5-1 win over the Blues on Sunday night, that won’t happen just yet. St. Louis had the series in their favor at 3-2, but Boston’s win means that a game seven will take place to decide the Stanley Cup winner, and that too in Boston.

The Bruins had the blessing of their front line being effective as Brad Marchand, David Pastrňák, Brandon Carlo and Zdeno Chára scored early. However, the best player for the Bruins was goaltender Tuukka Rask, who saved a whopping 28 of the 29 shots he faced!

WWE:

Super Showdown:

I know we don’t normally do WWE bits in this article besides maybe WrestleMania like I gave you in April, but this was an important part of history.

That history being the first ever match between two of the biggest icons in WWE history. On Friday, we saw The Undertaker face Goldberg for the first time.

Of course, it isn’t the same type of match that these two could’ve had in their younger days when they were both dominating. It was a back and forth match that saw both guys fatigued. In the closing moments of their match, Undertaker (54) and Goldberg (52) had failed attempts of finishers that could’ve been worse of either guy. Goldberg’s failed jackhammer lead to failed brainbuster that led to a failed tombstone powerdriver until Undertaker finally nailed a chokeslam to him the victory.

Goldberg gave himself a chance in the match as he imitated Undertaker’s throat slash. Goldberg quickly hit back-to-back spears , but it earned only a two-count before Undertaker sat up and reminded fans about the best of what they remember about that character. Regardless of the mistakes and failed attempts in this match, it was an epic match for the ages!

Cricket:

Roy, Buttler too much for Bangladesh:

Though England has a shaky World Cup history against Bangladesh, none of that mattered in Cardiff as the English beat the Bangladeshis by 106 runs. In the first innings, England scored a massive 386-6, fueled by Jason Roy’s 153(121) and then Jos Buttler’s 64(33). Buttler, however, did suffer a leg injury and was unable to take the field in the next innings as opener Jonny Bairstow took the wicket-keeping gloves. Despite being somewhat expensive, with his nine overs going for 78, Mohammad Shaifuddin found the two wickets of both Buttler and Joe Root.

Bangladesh wasn’t able to do much in response as star bowler Jofra Archer picked up three wickets: the early one of opener Soumya Sarkar and the last two of Mehidy Miraz and Mustafizur Rahman. Shakib Al-Hasan showed he is the best all-rounder in the world with is 121(119), but him alone could not chase down England’s mammoth total.

Afghan batting fails yet again:

With wicket keeper and opener Mohammad Shehzad being injured, Afghanistan were already at a disadvantage. Against New Zealand, Afghanistan could only manage to score 172. Hashmatullah Shahidi followed up from his form against Pakistan with his first half-century of the World Cup, scoring 59(99).

New Zealand’s ecstatic fast bowlers were too much pace for the Afghani batsmen to keep up with as Lockie Ferguson took four for 37 and Jimmy Neesham got five for just 31. Unfortunately, after being hit by a nasty bouncer, leg-spinner Rashid Khan left the field due to a concussion, leaving Afghanistan with one less bowling option.

However, the second innings commenced as a dream start for Afghanistan, Aftab Alam getting the wicket of Martin Guptill first ball. But Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor was just too much experience for Afghanistan as New Zealand won comfortably, by seven wickets.

Australian bowling fails against India:

After just beating the West Indies in a tight match, Australia was no match for in-form India. After scoring a century vs South Africa, Rohit Sharma followed up with a half-century, but this time, the century-maker was his partner, Shikhar Dhawan. The captain, Virat Kohli, found some form too, scoring 82 off 77 as India powered their way to a score of 352-5 at The Oval in London.

Though Australia managed to not lose wickets early, their slow batting and failure to score faster led to their demise. David Warner, Steve Smith and Alex Carey all got half-centuries, but Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah’s three wickets each bowled Australia out for 316, 36 runs short.

The moment of the match had to come when Kohli told Indian fans to stop booing at Smith. When the fans taunted Smith by calling him a ‘cheater’, referring back to the ball-tampering scandal in December of 2017, Kohli intervened, requesting the fans to stop, before shaking hands with the Aussie. Kohli expressed in an interview afterward that he felt like Smith had done nothing wrong, that “What’s happened has happened,” and that the Indian fans were being unfair.