Copa America 2015

Peru and Paraguay teams aim to end their Copa America campaign on a high after missing out on a place in the final.

Paraguay will have to do without star attackers Roque Santa Cruz and Derlis González for their third place play-off match against Peru.

Both players limped off the field during their 6-1 semi-final defeat at the hands of Argentina during the opening half-hour.

Paraguay could not repeat their heroics in their first Copa game, where they came back from two goals down to take a point off Argentina – suffering the heaviest defeat at this summer’s competition the second time around.

Chile and Argentina will bring the curtain down on Copa América 2015 with an enticing match up in the final tomorrow, Saturday, July 4th.

The top-two scoring teams in the competition will lock horns at Estadio Nacional in Santiago de Chile after topping their respective groups and emerging from the knockout stages.

The winner will celebrate an historic achievement. The loser will be left wondering how much longer the title drought will last. Because host Chile has never won the title in the Copa's 99-year history and Argentina has gone 22 years without lifting a major trophy.

US Requests Extradition of Seven FIFA Officials

The United States has requested the extradition of the seven FIFA officials arrested in Zurich last May on corruption charges, according to the Swiss Federal Office of Justice.

The U.S. embassy in Bern made the official request Wednesday, within the 40-day deadline established by the extradition agreement between both countries.

Under Swiss law, the seven executives, who have already objected to extradition, have the right to a hearing. From there, the Swiss justice system will rule on whether extradition is warranted within two weeks.

The seven officials are part of a group of 14 top executives from the world football governing body, who were arrested as part of a U.S. corruption probe. They were indicted on charges of "rampant, systemic, and deep-rooted" corruption. If convicted they could face up to 20 years in prison.

The massive corruption scandal, considered the worst in the FIFA history, followed a major inquiry by the FBI that found that those implicated took bribes and kickbacks estimated at more than US$150 million over a 24-year period.

The controversy led to the resignation of FIFA President Sepp Blatter and also forced football authorities to postpone the bidding process for the hosting of the 2026 World Cup.
 

Beach Volleyball

Cubans Nivaldo Díaz and Sergio González had a decent debut performance ending from the 9th to 12th places of the World Beach Volleyball Championships in the Netherlands.

The Cuban team could not win a place among the best eight after a defeat playing Brazilians Pedro Solberg and Evandro in a hard-fought game on Thursday.

Cuba-U.S. Baseball Friendly Series

The U.S. University baseball team won a second game over the Cuban team by score of 2-0 as part of a friendly series taking place in North Carolina.

A day after the  no hit-no run achieved by three pitchers, other three U.S. pitchers reduced the Cuban offensive to only three hits on Thursday evening.

Daulton Jefferies, Logan Shore and Stephen Nogosek led to the shutout with combined work with seven strike outs and didn't allowed walks.

The only runs in the game were scored in the six and seven innings. The first one driven in a sacrifice fly by fourth in line Harrison and the second with a home run by catcher Schwarz.