Central & 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.

Elias Hernandez had himself one helluva time on Sunday night against El Salvador, scoring a goal with a vicious volley and assisting on both Hedgardo Marin and Orbelin Pineda’s strikes. 

El Salvador pulled one back through Nelson Bonilla to briefly level the match at 1-1 in the 10th minute, but Mexico were deserved winners with a controlled display of mesmerizing passing. El Tri maintained 66% of possession while completing their passes at a 90% clip, including 82% in the attacking half.

The Gold Cup cometh, and with disgraced former CONCACAF president Jeffrey Webb no longer around to taketh, the 2017 edition of the biennial championship of the North, Central American and Caribbean region promises to giveth in abundance.

Beginning with a titanic clash between French Guiana and Canada on Friday, July 7 and culminating on Wednesday, July 26 with the final in Santa Clara, California, we’ll be treated to three weeks of CONCACAF’y tomfoolery.

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.

With one match left for each of the eight nations in the Confederations Cup and no team yet qualified for the semifinals, the competition is tighter than Andy Carroll's man bun. 

Despite sitting atop Group A after its less-than-convincing win over New Zealand, Mexico could go home early if results don’t go El Tri’s way. And while Germany and Chile are, as expected, in comfortable positions in Group B after their sedate draw Thursday, Australia and Cameroon are both still alive. 

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.