Central & South America

Roberto Firmino donated almost $77,000 to save the lives of two young fans suffering from a rare genetic disease. The Liverpool striker and Larissa Pereira, his wife, helped to cover the expenses of a year-long medical treatment in America for Joao de Amorim, 6, and 11-month-old Miguel de Amorim, who both need treatment for spinal muscular atrophy.    

The Mexico Women's National Team won the gold medal at the Central American and Caribbean Games on Monday night in Barranquilla, Colombia.

With staggering goals and extraordinary performances, Mexico bounced back from an early deficit in the final vs. Costa Rica.

El Tri Femenil secured the highest prize with a final score of 3-1. Mexico trailed 1-0 after María Alvarado scored via a penalty kick for Costa Rica in the 13th minute.

As he bounces back from a less-than-ideal World Cup showing and gets ready to suit up for PSG, Neymar’s been in his hometown for the 2018 edition of "Neymar Jr.’s Five." The five-a-side tournament consists of teams from more than 60 countries who battle it out in tournament qualifiers for a chance to play in the World Final at Instituto Projeto Neymar Jr. in Praia Granda, Brazil. 

Ezequiel Barco, the 19-year-old Argentine phenom who became Major League Soccer’s most expensive transfer when he joined Atlanta United for $15 million back in January, was withheld from Saturday’s match against DC United and will miss this weekend’s game against Montreal for “an act of indiscipline.” Now, SB Nation blog “Dirty South Soccer”

With Mexico failing to advance beyond the Round of 16 for the seventh consecutive World Cup and South America failing to send a representative to the semifinals for the first time since 2006, a myriad of coaching changes are expected in both CONMEBOL and CONCACAF over the coming weeks. Key to all this is Mexico manager Juan Carlos Osorio, who’s expected to step down from his role when his contract expires at the end of the month.

Darwin Quintero, Minnesota United’s first-ever Designated Player signing, repaid in full his $1.65 million salary by scoring the club’s maiden hat-trick in Major League Soccer. What’s more, it was the greatest hat-trick in the history of the league. I can say that because I was there — look! Here’s a picture of Michael Bradley suffering in the Fourth of July heat whilst “shielding” his backline (he was awful).

Brazil takes on Belgium in the second quarterfinal of the 2018 World Cup at Kazan Arena on Friday, July 6 at 2:00 p.m. ET. The match is a broadcaster’s dream with the likes of Neymar and Philippe Coutinho taking on Romelu Lukaku and Eden Hazard. It’ll be a high-octane affair with the winner moving on to Saint Petersburg to play either France or Uruguay in the semifinals.

Colombia looked absolutely buried in the 92nd minute of Tuesday's Round of 16 match against England. The Three Lions were only up one, but Colombia looked unable to do anything apart from bitch at American referee Mark Geiger. I had already written a nice little introduction about the blossoming of the Special Relationship on the biggest stage, but then Mateus Uribe forced a corner.