Basketball

The women's basketball team of Cuba rolled over Mexico by a score of 79-42 in the 1st series of 3 preparatory games to CentroBasket Tournament, to be held in Monterrey, Mexico, from July 22nd to 26th.

The Cubans, champions of world-qualifying last year, widely imposed their quality in 4 sets where Yamara Amargo, with 21 points, Clenia Noblet (11) and Leidy Oquendo (10), topped the offensive, while Cassandra Asencio and Anai Sánchez, both with 9 units, highlighted by the visitors.

In the match, held behind closed doors at the Havana's Sports City Coliseum, the Cuban coach Alberto Zabala, employed 12 of the 18 players that currently make up the national pre-selection in view of the CentroBasket and the world top in Turkey.

This Wednesday is a training day for both teams to close with a couple of matches on Thursday and Friday.

The Monterey's CentroBasket begins on July 22nd with the participation of 8 teams divided into 2 groups, where Mexico will play in Group A with Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, and the 3rd place in the Caribbean, while in Group B Cuba will be facing El Salvador, and the 1st and 3rd places of the Caribbean Tournament which takes place now.

Chess 

The Cuban GMs Isam Ortiz, Rodney Perez and Roberto Gómez Ledo will defend the colors of Cuba at the V Ibero-American Chess Championship, organized from the 22nd to the 30th of July in the Spanish town of Linares.

Ortiz faces the commitment in his status of national monarch, the same right also assigned to his counterparts of the other 22 member countries of the regional federation, while Pérez and Gómez Ledo were invited by the organizers to hold nine rounds to be attended by the Brazilian Gilberto Milos, champion of the 3rd edition, said the Cuban commissioner of the discipline, Carlos Rivero.

The preliminary payroll disseminated via the web also includes other re-known figures such as the Mexican Manuel León Hoyos, Paraguayan Axel Bachmann, Peruvian Jorge Cori, and Argentine Alejandro Hoffman.

Cuba won the foundational version 2006 through Lázaro Bruzón, who was succeeded on the throne by the Peruvian Julio Granda in 2008, Milos in 2010, and Spanish Iván Salgado in 2012.

Brazil 2014
A sovereign shameful beating gave the mighty Teutonic squad --formed in 1908-- to Brazil in its own backyard, revenge planned for the 1980's when Brazil did not allow them to advance to the finals.
This time, the always even-tempered and almost perfect German players, did not believe in the penta-South American champion and showed its impeccable technique and strategy under an admirable coach.
It was a real Calvary to Brazil from the very same 10th minute of the first half until the final whistle where Brazil would have lost even if it had the presence of Neymar himself, Thiago Silva and others, as stars like Muller, Klose, Ozil, Hummels, or simply any other, showed that soccer is and will always be a team sport.  The South American giant was lucky to score an unexpected goal in the nick of time as the clocked ticked out.
The Mineirão Stadium in Belo Horizonte, was a depressed eyewitness to a humiliating defeat and an absolute disappointment to all its people and fans who hope that the same will not happen with Argentina-Netherlands game.
Wish the Albiceleste squad not be also squeezed by the almost perfect machinery of Orange team as America mourns. The old Anglo-Saxon proverb "Do not count your chickens before they hatch" should put us all forward thinking about the future.