Relief for América de Cali: Cristian Barrios moves further from Junior
Cristian Barrios has been a key piece in the last semester of América de Cali, which is why his name begins to resonate in the transfer market, and generates concern in the team that will now be led by Gabriel Raimondi.
It was known that Gimnasia y Esgrima de La Plata had started proceedings to sign him, an interest that the Argentine club had already shown at the beginning of the year. But the 'Wolf' withdrew from the negotiations, presumably worried about the ankle injury that Barrios suffered in the Copa Sudamericana, which would still take some time to recover.
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In this context, Junior de Barranquilla appeared, which these days has seemed very linked to América in the transfer market (including rumors about Juanfer Quintero).
With the arrival of Alfredo Arias to the bench of the Shark, the team seeks to reassemble with figures. However...
Is Cristian Barrios moving away from Junior?
Although several versions put the player on Junior's radar, at the express request of Alfredo Arias to strengthen the attack, journalist Diego Rueda reported that there would be "difficulties" to sign him.
Thus, the reporter adds, Junior would go for another option: Jhon Fredy Salazar, the right winger who has had a good season with Águilas Doradas and would be the chosen one to fulfill the wishes of coach Arias.
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This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.
📸 LUIS ROBAYO - AFP or licensors
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New York Times
28 minutes ago
- New York Times
The rest of Europe could catch up to the traditional elite at Euro 2025 – that's not a bad thing
Two years ago, before the first 32-team Women's World Cup, there was widespread anticipation of one-sided matches. The 2019 World Cup featured 24 sides, and the United States defeated Thailand 13-0 in the group stage. Surely, including eight weaker teams would prompt similar results? Such fears were misplaced. Granted, the Netherlands beat Vietnam 7-0, and there were a couple of 6-0 and 5-0 games, but the gap between the elite and the outsiders had narrowed. Advertisement Traditionally strong nations, including Germany, Italy and Brazil, crashed out at the group stage. Colombia, South Africa and Nigeria were hugely impressive in reaching the knockout stage. Smaller nations, such as Haiti, New Zealand and Jamaica, were genuinely competitive. The progression of the outsiders was rightly celebrated. But what if there was another factor? What if the traditional elite are not as good as they should be? This summer's European Championship, which kicks off on July 2 in Switzerland, will be the latest test. Among the 16 teams who qualified for Euro 2025, there are half-a-dozen realistic contenders, distributed somewhat unevenly across the four groups — none in Group A, Spain in Group B, Germany and Sweden in Group C, and England, France and the Netherlands in Group D. All but the Netherlands, ranked 11th, are in FIFA's top 10 positions in the global standings. Yet none of the six appear to have improved significantly over the last couple of years. World champions Spain are strong favourites, but they are not perfect. Spain produce more technically gifted players than any other nation — Barcelona playmakers Alexia Putellas and Aitana Bonmati have split the last four Ballons d'Or between them — but sometimes their stars feel too similar. They are overloaded on passers but have few ruthless goalscorers. Germany once completely dominated this competition, winning eight of the nine tournaments between 1989 and 2013 (the first of those was as West Germany), but they have undergone a major rebuild after their shock group-stage exit at the World Cup two years ago. They are without several veterans, including superstar striker Alexandra Popp. Their run to Olympic bronze in France last year is a positive, but they badly lack proven defenders. Sweden won the first women's European Championship in 1984, a reflection of the Nordic nations embracing the women's game before the traditional powerhouses of men's European soccer. Their headstart had long-lasting effects: for much of this century, Sweden had the best league in women's European soccer. Now the more populous European nations are taking the women's game seriously, Sweden have slipped back — although striker Stina Blackstenius comes into the tournament in great confidence, having scored the only goal in Arsenal's Champions League final win against Barcelona. Advertisement England won the European Championship on home soil three years ago, and the domestic game has progressed significantly in recent years, but their build-up to the tournament has been disrupted. The withdrawals of goalkeeper Mary Earps and defender Millie Bright, who both started every game of England's runs to major finals in 2022 and 2023, have dominated headlines and hinted at deeper issues with team spirit in Sarina Wiegman's squad. Wiegman has won the last two Euros, in 2022 with England and in 2017 with her home nation, the Netherlands. The Dutch look less fearsome these days, largely because Vivianne Miedema, once the most complete striker in Europe, has suffered from three years of injury problems. The former Arsenal forward went into Euro 2022 having scored a staggering 94 international goals at 25 years old. Three years on, she has only added three more. Finally, France are eternally a mystery, continually producing good players but failing to click collectively. They have never reached the final of a Euros — or a World Cup or Olympics, despite hosting those tournaments in 2019 and 2024. On paper, they have few weaknesses. On the pitch, they often underwhelm. So what is going on? How did Europe take first, second and third place (Spain, England and Sweden) at the 2023 World Cup, and yet it feels their best sides should be better? Well, there are probably three major shifts happening. First, in Europe, the outstanding version of the women's game is now club soccer, rather than international soccer. When the United States was the dominant force, the structure of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) ensured balance and competitiveness; players were distributed relatively evenly across the league and the national team remained the best side in the sport. European soccer is very different, concentrating players at a handful of clubs. With more movement of players between countries, and more players being imported from outside Europe, top clubs now hoard players and perform at a higher level than international sides. As a consequence, going from the Champions League to the Euros often feels like a step down in quality. The second factor is the tactical evolution of the women's game. It is less individualistic and increasingly collective. A decade ago, it felt enough for major nations to rely on a couple of stars who would dominate through speed and strength. But the sport has become more complex. Teams defend better as a unit, and opponents need integrated movement to break them down. Teams press higher up the pitch, so opponents need practised passing moves to bypass them. Advertisement These concepts can only be perfected on the training ground and, at international level, coaches do not have much time with their squad. It is a clear advantage that Spain can count on almost an entire starting lineup who play together for Barcelona in Liga F — but, again, they are unlikely to be as good as Barca. Finally, the rise of the underdogs cannot be separated from all this because it is clear the world's best players now hail from a wider range of nations. In the 2014 voting for FIFA's world player of the year award, the top 10 female players hailed from seven traditionally strong women's soccer nations: the U.S., Brazil, Japan, Germany, France, Spain and Sweden. For the equivalent vote a decade later, in December, the top 10 included Barbra Banda from Zambia, Tabitha Chawinga from Malawi and Khadija Shaw from Jamaica. Meanwhile, the top goalscorer in European club soccer in 2024-25, Ewa Pajor, with 25 goals in 28 games for Barca, will captain Euros debutants Poland, who could not have hoped to qualify without her. These days, the world's best players do not always play for genuine contenders. That is not necessarily a bad thing. The game has improved immeasurably over the last decade in terms of physicality, technical quality and tactical ability. Fewer major players are absent through injury compared to previous tournaments. The lopsided draw will create major showdowns in the group stage and allow at least one outsider to make the semi-finals. Ultimately, one of the six favourites is likely to win the Euros, but their days of expecting huge victories are over.
Yahoo
5 hours ago
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Alexandre Pantoja believes he's a top-4 pound-for-pound fighter in MMA after UFC 317
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Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Yahoo
Alexandre Pantoja believes he's a top-4 pound-for-pound fighter on the plant after UFC 317
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I believed Charles can get the victory [against Topuria at UFC 317] and everything else, but Topuria is so good. "I said that [about] Topuria like two years ago — I'm a huge fan, I love how he fights. Topuria is amazing to get two belts. He makes what every fighter wants to make [happen] — double champ, something unique. Everybody wants to be special. Everybody wants to be unique at something, and he's on this list. "Maybe if you put Islam [on the top pound-for-pound], Topuria and then you have Merab — Merab has fights with Jose Aldo, fighting Petr Yan, a lot of legends he's fought — and maybe myself." Pantoja's successful fourth defense puts him ahead of all current UFC champions in that category. Counting non-title bouts, Pantoja has also defeated half the names in his division's top 15 (some twice), adding fuel to the prospect of a potential bantamweight title pursuit. Despite his continued dominance, however, the idea of a champ vs. champ fight with bantamweight's Dvalishvili still isn't in Pantoja's mind. Advertisement "My division is so challenging for me," he said. "Maybe people say, 'You fight everybody in your division, you beat everyone.' But there's a lot of good names to fight. I still want to fight with Manel Kape. I still want to fight Amir Albazi. I still want to fight again with [Brandon] Moreno. There's so much challenges for me there. I love to fight in my division — 125 [pounds], for me, is one of the best divisions in whole UFC. "Of course everybody wants to be unique in something, something special. Everybody want to be double champ in UFC. Of course I want to, but I protect my division. If I want to [go to] 135, it's a huge [size] difference I can get — I get 10 more pounds. I need to work much more for that. Then if I beat Merab, who's next at the 135?" "If I have an opportunity and UFC wants that, money talks sometimes," Pantoja added. "I want to hear money talk with me. ... But I'm 125 [pound] champion. I need to defend my division." At UFC 317, it was made clear who the likely next challenger for Pantoja's belt will be. Directly before the champion's victory, top contender Brandon Royval and surging up-and-comer Joshua Van delivered the arguable Fight of the Year and received Fight of the Night honors for theirs efforts. Advertisement Ultimately, the 24-year-old Van unseated the No. 1-ranked Royval via unanimous decision, setting up an in-cage staredown with Pantoja at the end of the night. It was a moment that instantly generated plenty of hype for the hypothetical title tilt, but Pantoja's team wasn't exactly pleased with UFC's decision. "My team didn't like that," Pantoja said. "It's my moment. My team's moment. But when the fight's over, one of the guys from UFC said, 'Hey Joshua, come to the Octagon.' And I'm OK with that. I'm a fighter. That's the business. When I'm inside of the Octagon, I'm Alexandre Pantoja, 'The Cannibal,' UFC fighter. I agree with everything the company did for the show. I'm OK with that. Monday, I'm back to being Alexandre Pantoja, father to Nicolas, Gabriella's husband. Advertisement "This [staredown was] good for the company. Josh Van is amazing. I followed Josh Van in a couple fights and he looked amazing. He's a very good challenger for me. I think he's the biggest challenge I have in my whole career right now — a young kid with so much motivation, and it's going to be amazing. ... I love the challenge. I love the possibility to fight with the best guys from the whole world." The biggest win of Van's career extended his win streak to five — a run that began this past September. Initially the Royval bout belonged to Kape, however he suffered an injury, which opened up an opportunity for Van just three weeks after the youngster stopped Gustavo da Silva at UFC 316. Pantoja is ready and good to go, targeting December's Las Vegas year-end pay-per-view for his return. If Van is indeed the next in line after UFC 317, as all signs indicate, Pantoja expects a major challenge. "He doesn't have a lot of wars like I do in the past. He hasn't cut weight like 35 times. This is something [different] — and I love that," Pantoja said. "He comes with amazing victories over Rei Tsuruya, Bruno 'Bulldog,' Brandon Royval — what a fight. I'm excited for that challenge. "He's not just fresh because he's young, but no one expected him to fight [me] right now. There's no more rematches for me [with this one], so that's good for the whole division."