South America

The James Rodriguez experiment at Real Madrid is all but finished. The 25-year-old Colombian attacker is moving to Bayern Munich on a two-year loan deal with an option to buy.

Not coincidentally, Bayern are now coached by the man who brought Rodriguez to Real Madrid in the first place, Carlo Ancelotti. Rodriguez moved to Madrid from Monaco after the 2014 World Cup, at which he won the Golden Boot, but he failed to consistently crack Real Madrid's starting lineup. Bayern Munich now have two World Cup Golden Boot winners, as Thomas Muller won the award in 2010.

Diego Maradona was in Russia for the Confederations Cup last week, and during his visit he continued his habit of being very complimentary toward communist politicians, most notably Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Here's what Maradona told Russia Today:

Soccer's version of the Royal Wedding took place yesterday. Lionel Messi married his childhood sweeheart, Antonella Roccuzzo, in a ceremony in Rosario, Argentina. Everything was very extravagant. There was a red carpet.

When you're a footballer so you even kick your wife's wedding dress 
pic.twitter.com/ufgwKDBx0z

— Leo Messi (@messi10stats) July 1, 2017

Claudio Bravo, Chile’s goalkeeping hero during penalty shootout victories over Argentina at both the 2015 and 2016 Copa America finals, came up trumps again against Portugal at the 2017 Confederations Cup semifinal stage. Bravo faced penalties from Ricardo Quaresma, Joao Moutinho and Nani, saving all three of them.

Bravo!

Boca Juniors celebrated their 32nd Primera Division title on Sunday with a 2-1 victory over Union de Santa Fe. They finished seven points above hated rival River Plate, and to add insult to injury, they unveiled a clock displaying and tracking their 112+ years of unrelegated existence.

Arsene Wenger has done something special with his most recent Gunners team.

Despite missing out on the Champions League for the first time in his career, Wenger has managed to instill a sense of team unity that’s the envy of Europe.

Five minutes into the Confederations Cup group B match between Chile and Germany, two Arsenal players combined for the game’s opening goal.

Gunners defender Skhodran Mustafi passed to Arsenal striker Alexis Sanchez, who, after a one-two with Eduardo Vargas, fired home off the left post.

It’s not every day that you manage to sign one of Brazil’s most talented attacking players on a free transfer, but that’s exactly what Barcelona have achieved with Lucas Lima.

Golden generation. What does it mean? On the one hand, it can mean that you’ve got the likes of David Beckham, Frank Lampard, Paul Scholes, Steven Gerrard, John Terry and Rio Ferdinand all getting in each other's way while Steve McClaren holds an umbrella. 

On the other, you’ve got Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Ze Roberto, Roberto Carlos, Cafu and Kaka providing jobs for millions of Nike employees around the world and teaching us all that ginga isn’t a tower game for gingers. 

Of all the dirty tricks in soccer, Argentinian defender Federico Allende, who plays for lower division Sport Club Pacifico, might have come up with the dirtiest.

From the BBC:

Allende gave Cordoba's Vorterix Radio an interview on Tuesday in which he said "you need to play dirty" to beat big clubs like Estudiantes de La Plata.

"I kept piercing the Estudiantes strikers with a needle," said the Pacifico defender.

History and Background 

Chile started playing football very early, with their football federation founded all the way back in 1885 — the second oldest in South America. However, they struggled to produce to a dangerous side for a long time. La Roja participated in the first World Cup held in 1930, but failed to advance past the group stage. Their best ever record in the tournament came in 1962 when they hosted it, coming in third.