Sunday Sport: The Daytona 500! NCAA and Football!

Sunday Sport

Jeff Gordon

Daytona Beach, Florida USA:  Legendary champion Jeff Gordon will drive the Chevrolet Camaro pace car in the 59th Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway in Florida. Chase Elliott (No. 24) and teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. (No. 88) have pole position and second postion as they start in Row 1 as the Cup Series debuts a three-stage racing format.  At the latest, 40 drivers are set to take part.   Jamie McMurray, Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer, Brad Keselowski, Kurt Busch, Matt Kenseth, and AJ Allmendinger, round out the first ten riders.  This famed 200-lap race awards bonus points after Lap 60 and Lap 120.

In England:  The EFL Cup final takes place on Sunday evening, with Manchester United taking on Southampton in what may prove to be a very evenly matched contest.  Logic would dictate a Man U win, but cup finals are great equalizers. Although United’s 16-match unbeaten league run makes them favorites, Southampton showed what they can do with the right tactics in dispatching Liverpool in the semi-final. According to some commentators, the contest may very well come down to penalties... 

Gareth Bale and Real Madrid

In Spain:  Real Madrid travel to Villareal's Estadio de la Ceramica on Sunday evening for their second away game in five days and Zinedine Zidane will be eager to expunge the memory of last week's 2-1 defeat to Valencia.  Welshman Gareth Bale is returning from the disabled list at a vital time to boost Madrid’s title bid.  Real Madrid’s slip-up at Valencia on Wednesday night means they  now hold just a one-point lead over Barcelona at the top of La Liga.   Bale scored off the bench in a 2-0 win over Espanyol last

weekend. This weekend is shaping up to be the most important in the Spanish league season so far. Barcelona travel to a surging Atletico Madrid, one of the toughest away trips in football, while Real Madrid visit a Villarreal side who have conceded just nine times at home all season.

Six Nations Rugby play today will feature a single match, between England and Italy.  Italy comes late to the game, and are the loveable losers.  England leads the standings.  The game, played at Twickenham, was recently likened by an Italian as "hard cheese," but, he added stoically, "if you don't grow, you don't play."    

In NHL Hockey today, the Boston Bruins will travel to the Dallas Stars. This is the first of two meetings this season between the Bruins and Stars, from the American Airlines Center in Dallas. 

 

Marcin Michal Stasiowski

NCAA Basketball in the USA is coming down to the wire, as every effort is made to get a good foundation before  conference tournament play starts.  The Butler Bulldogs make the short trip from Indianapolis to Cincinnati as they take on the Xavier Musketeers.  The Bulldogs scored 58 points in the second half to defeat Xavier 83-78 on January 14th in Indianapolis. Freshman guard Kamar Baldwin scored all 21 of his team-leading points after the break in that game for Butler.  Expectations are high for a good game.  The Orangemen of Syracuse travel to Kentucky to take on the Louisville Cardinals.  The Cardinals won a 76-72 thriller in overtime on February 13th in Syracuse, scoring 10 straight points in the extra period. Louisville had five players score in double figures in that game and held the Orangemen to just 8 of 34 three-point shots.