Santiago Aldama, the Memphis Grizzlies’ versatile forward, has taken a significant leap in his fourth NBA season, embracing a larger role and showcasing his dynamic skillset as he nears restricted free agency. Standing at 6-foot-11, Aldama has …
Santiago Aldama, the Memphis Grizzlies’ versatile forward, has taken a significant leap in his fourth NBA season, embracing a larger role and showcasing his dynamic skillset as he nears restricted free agency. Standing at 6-foot-11, Aldama has thrived with increased offensive freedom, often playing as a hybrid forward or even a wing despite his near-seven-foot frame.
In a recent interview with HoopsHype, Aldama discussed his journey, the impact of international play, and the coaching shift to Tuomas Iisalo.
The Saints could be set to play another international game in the near future. One of their opponents is hosting a game in Spain, and France looms large in 2026:
The New Orleans Saints could be headed overseas sooner rather than later.
It marks the first time an NFL game will be played in Spain as the league continues to bring contests around the world. The venue the action will take place in is the 78,000-seat Bernabeu Stadium.
The opponent has not yet been revealed, but Miami’s list of visitors for 2025 does include the Saints, Buffalo Bills, New England Patriots, New York Jets, Baltimore Ravens, Cincinnati Bengals, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Los Angeles Chargers and the Washington Commanders.
If the opponent is indeed the Saints, it will not be the first time the two teams have faced each other outside of the United States. The Saints and the Dolphins squared off against each other in London, England, back in 2017. New Orleans won a 20-0 shutout over Miami in that game.
And it has been even longer since the Saints have played the Dolphins in Miami, with that game taking place over a decade and a half ago when Saints came out on top, 46-34 on Oct. 25, 2009.
The Saints last traveled abroad to play a game against the Vikings in London on Oct. 2, 2022, losing 28-25 in a close one to Minnesota.
Looking ahead, the Saints themselves could end up hosting their next international game in Paris, France as soon as 2025, though it seems more likely that would occur in 2026. The news was originally reported by Fletcher Mackel of WDSU back in mid-August.
New Orleans holds exclusive marketing rights with the country, and it’s fitting given the state of Louisiana’s strong connections to France and cultural connections that have always been very evident in the state.
Could the Washington Commanders play in the first NFL game in Madrid, Spain, next season?
On Friday, the Dolphins announced they would be the official home team for the league’s first game in Madrid.
So, how does this involve the Washington Commanders? The Commanders are one of nine teams on Miami’s home schedule next season. The Bills, Patriots, Jets, Ravens, Bengals, Saints, Buccaneers, Chargers and Commanders are all possibilities to make the trip to Spain in 2025.
The NFL generally doesn’t schedule division opponents for international games, which would seemingly exclude the Bills, Jets, and Patriots. The league revealed last year that Madrid would host a game in 2025.
“We are thrilled to play the NFL’s inaugural game in Spain, a country of rich history,” Dolphins CEO Tom Garfinkel said in a statement. “There is a hunger for football in this market, and we are proud to join with the NFL in growing the game internationally while engaging with old and new fans alike. With the unique synergy between Miami and Madrid, we believe this is only the beginning for us in this incredible region and we look forward to bringing the excitement and community of Dolphins football to Spain in 2025 and beyond.”
Miami is the fifth NFL team to be designated as a home team for international games next season. The Jaguars, Jets, and Browns will all play in London, while the Colts are the designated home team for a game in Germany. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell previously said he hoped to play eight international games in 2025.
The NFL released the home teams for the three London games. Could the Raiders be among those headed to the UK in 2025?
We are a few months away from the full 2025 NFL schedule release. But well in advance of that, the NFL has announced the home teams for the London games.
Three teams will play ‘host’ in London next season. Those teams are the Browns, Jaguars, and Jets.
The question is if the Raiders could be the opponent in any of those games. And the answer is…
No.
The Jaguars and Browns are among the Raiders 2025 opponents, but both of those matchups are Raiders home games, which means you can eliminate London from the list of possible locations for Raiders games this season.
After playing three times in London in 2014, 2018, and 2019, the Raiders have not left the country for a game since relocating to Vegas, so they’re due to go overseas again.
There are still games that will be played in other countries next season, so there is still a chance the Raiders could play internationally.
The two other countries announced for NFL games are Berlin Germany and Madrid Spain. The home teams have not yet been announced for those cities.
It’s worth noting that the Raiders have more home games this season than away games, which would seem to raise the likelihood that if one of their games was to be moved internationally, it would be a home game. But it’s not an absolute.
It’s a norm for college basketball teams to get together during the summer to prepare for the upcoming season. A few lucky ones get to take a trip to an exciting place. This year, Notre Dame was one of them. The destination was Spain.
One stop in the country was Madrid. While the team took in the sights, it also was there to play basketball. This it did against the Madrid All-Stars, and it turned out be a favorable result for the Irish:
Notre Dame beat Madrid All Stars 89-65. Stats: Markus Burton 15 pts, four rebs, four assists Braeden Shrewsberry 11 points Logan Imes 11 points Burke Chebuhar nine points Garrett Sundra nine points, nine rebs
Only time will tell if the Irish make any significant strides from a rebuilding 2023-24 season, but we can see now that they at least have a better understanding of each other. After all, many players have been together for a year now, so at least there are those relationships. Let’s hope that leads to more winning in 2024-25.
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Notre Dame guard [autotag]Cassandre Prosper[/autotag] missed most of this past season, but the next two weeks should help make up for that. She’s off to Paris to represent Canada for the 2024 Olympics. She’s incredibly fortunate to have this opportunity at this stage of her career.
To help get Irish fans in the Parisian spirit for the Olympics, Prosper, who hails from Montreal, shared a few French words and phrases on social media:
The Olympics start this week in Paris so we wanted our very own olympian Cass Prosper to make sure everyone was prepared with some French vocab pic.twitter.com/bK7Jg5t13F
— Notre Dame Women's Basketball (@ndwbb) July 23, 2024
Those of you who took French in school might have known some of these already, but for everyone else, it’s a nice little educational moment.
This tweet was made the same Prosper scored six points in Canada’s pre-Olympic 77-74 victory over Australia in Spain. Former Irish standout [autotag]Natalie Achonwa[/autotag] contributed 15 points on 6-of-7 shooting and grabbed six rebounds.
Elsewhere, the U.S. bounced back from [autotag]Arike Ogunbowale[/autotag]’s All-Star MVP performance by topping Germany, 84-57, in its last game before the Olympics in London. [autotag]Jewell Loyd[/autotag] scored 11 points on 4-of-6 shooting, and [autotag]Jackie Young[/autotag] had eight points.
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Could one of the world’s top international coaches be interested in the USMNT?
There is a major new name in the mix for the U.S. men’s national team head coaching position.
On Sunday, the day he led Spain to the Euro 2024 title, Luis de la Fuente’s representatives confirmed to the Washington Post they had reached out to U.S. Soccer to express interest in the USMNT job.
The 63-year-old’s stock is at an all-time high after guiding Spain through Euro 2024 with seven wins from seven matches, culminating in a 2-1 victory over England in Sunday’s final in Berlin.
La Roja also registered wins over Croatia, Italy, Germany and France en route to the title, its record fourth men’s European championship.
The USMNT position has been vacant since Gregg Berhalter was dismissed last week in the wake of the team’s stunning group-stage exit at the Copa América.
Several names have already been mentioned as potential replacements, with Columbus Crew head coach Wilfried Nancy and LAFC boss Steve Cherundolo both indicating they may be interested when recently quizzed on the job.
De la Fuente has been a coach in Spain’s national team setup since 2013, taking charge of the under-19 and under-21 teams before coaching the under-23 team at the Olympics in 2021. He was named senior national team coach in 2022, and just signed a contract extension through 2026 last month.
If the Spain boss is truly interested, he would seemingly be near the top of the list of candidates. But it is worth considering just how real De la Fuente’s interest truly is.
On the CBS Sports Golazo Network, Spanish journalist Guillem Balague speculated on Monday that De la Fuente may be looking to use U.S. Soccer as leverage to push the Spanish federation to offer him a larger contract.
According to Balague, however, there is another Spanish coach who may have more concrete interest: former Liverpool and Real Madrid boss Rafael Benítez.
Gooooood morning, Winners! Welcome back to the Morning Win. I hope you had a fantastic weekend.
Soccer absolutely took over the sports world on Sunday with two epic finals in the Euro Cup and Copa América.
Let’s start at Hard Rock Stadium, where absolute chaos broke out when fans bum-rushed it. They were climbing through vents, destroying escalators, and more in the building. Chaotic is probably the most kind way to describe it.
Suddenly, a Colombian team that had not lost a game in two years fell. Argentina won a record 16th Copa, which also happened to be its second consecutive one. By the way, the World Cup win is sandwiched between the two of them. And did I mention that Argentina lost Lionel Messi in the middle of the game to a non-contact ankle injury? Wild stuff, man.
Couple that with what happened across the pond in the Euro final. Spain prevailed over England, 2-1, with Mikel Ozyarzabal’s stoppage time tap-in in the 93rd minute ending this one.
“Just 13 minutes after Chelsea star Cole Palmer tied the match with a 73rd-minute goal as a substitute, Spain got its late winner by way of a Mikel Oyarzabal tap-in off a brilliantly timed run. In real time, it looked like Oyarzabal could have been offside at the moment of Marc Cucurella’s pass. But VAR confirmed that the goal was good.”
That’s how Spain got it done. Ultimately, it came down to the wire. But that bit of skill, timing and luck helped it prevail.
Watching these games was so much fun yesterday, as international football usually is. But it also hit me with a pretty grim realization: I don’t think I’ll ever have a team to root for in this. Not on the men’s side, at least.
The football we watched across continents on Sunday was so good. It was just far and away better than anything the USMNT has given us in years at this point.
It’s MLB All-Star week and the Home Run Derby is tonight, but I wanted to take a bit of time to show Paul Skenes some more love. His path to becoming an All-Star starter has been incredible.
For all of the talent and resources that the England men’s national team has boasted over the years, the Three Lions have not won a major trophy since the 1966 World Cup. It’s been nothing but heartbreak in the decades since, and Sunday’s Euro 2024 final was yet another chapter in England’s astonishing title drought.
As England made its deep run into the Euro 2024 final, fans across London and other major cities packed bars, pubs, event spaces and parks for watch parties. On Sunday, cameras were set up for the reactions from Boxpark Wembley in London. And when Spain’s Mikel Oyarzabal scored the winner in the 86th minute, the watch party turned from buzzing to silent in an instant.
This was the dejected reaction to the winning Spain goal:
England fans misery as Spain took the lead with four minutes left as Cucurella finds Oyarzabal with a simple finish #EURO2024pic.twitter.com/vCNnCC78EM
Throughout Euro 2024, Spain had looked like the more dominant side. And on Sunday, Spain finished off the perfect tournament run with a 2-1 win over England. That go-ahead goal, though, will haunt England fans for a long time.
Just 13 minutes after Chelsea star Cole Palmer tied the match with a 73rd-minute goal as a substitute, Spain got its late winner by way of a Mikel Oyarzabal tap-in off a brilliantly timed run. In real time, it looked like Oyarzabal could have been offside at the moment of Marc Cucurella’s pass. But VAR confirmed that the goal was good.
Oyarzabal was on by the narrowest of margins. Take a look:
Upon the review, John Stones’ knee just barely kept Oyarzabal on side. Unlike the Copa America — which has relied on hand-drawn lines and inconsistent officiating — Euro 2024 has utilized digitally mapped fields for VAR views. So, the offside calls were made to the precise moment.
And as we saw there, that small margin made all the difference.
England fans misery as Spain took the lead with four minutes left as Cucurella finds Oyarzabal with a simple finish 
