Tuesday Sports: Game Day

CANADA VS ARGENTINA

Lionel Messi and Argentina were expected to be in the Copa America semifinals. Alphonso Davies and Canada, not so much. But here we are, it’s game day between the top two Group A sides, who each advanced to the Final Four with quarterfinal wins via penalties. Canada is aiming to pull off a massive upset tonight in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Uruguay and Colombia play tomorrow in the other semifinal. The championship final is scheduled for Sunday.

FORMER CFL EXEC JOINS NORTHERN SUPER LEAGUE

Christina Litz, whose resume includes executive stints with the Canadian Football League, Woodbine Entertainment and Manitoba’s True North Sports and Entertainment, has been named president of the Northern Super League.

The new professional women’s soccer league is slated to kick off next April with franchises in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Halifax. 

“We’re really excited to have her,” league co-founder Diana Matheson. 

“She’s got such perfect experience at the CFL, with the (Winnipeg) Jets, doing a number of other things … She knows the space so well,” added the former Canadian international. “And that’s exactly what we wanted coming into this.”

MLB

The Blue Jays open a three-game series in San Francisco tonight with left-hander Yusei Kikuchi on the mound for 41-and-49 Toronto. Left-hander Blake Snell will start for the Giants, who are 44-and-47. The Jays are coming off a weekend series win against the Seattle Mariners, taking two of three games at T-Mobile Park.

WCBL

Swift Current 5 Brooks 2
Medicine Hat 11 Weyburn 2

NBA

Raptors president Masai Ujiri guarantees he’ll build a championship team in Toronto again. Ujiri and the Raptors locked up two key pieces of the young core they hope will be part of it, signing Scottie Barnes and Immanuel Quickley to extensions for at least the next three seasons. Ujiri hopes the Raptors can bounce back from last season’s 25-and-57 record, saying, quote, that’s not what this team, these fans and this city deserve.

NHL

The Washington Capitals have named Chris Patrick their general manager with longtime G-M Brian MacLellan promoted to president of hockey operations. Patrick has worked for the Capitals in various capacities since 2009 and served as assistant G-M for the past three years. MacLellan spent a decade in the G-M role, helping build the team that won the franchise’s first Stanley Cup in 2018.

WIMBLEDON

They call him “The Joker,” but tennis star Novak Djokovic showed his serious side after beating 15th-seeded Holger Rune Monday to reach the Wimbledon men’s singles quarterfinals. He called out some spectators for what he felt was “total disrespect.” Rune’s supporters often stretch out his surname to say Ruuuuuune, which sounds similar to “Boooooo!”

NFL

• The NFL has suspended Pittsburgh Steelers safety Cam Sutton for the first eight games of the 2024 season for violating the league’s personal conduct policy. The league announced the decision Monday, stipulating Sutton — who will not be paid during the suspension — would be eligible to apply for reinstatement on Oct. 29. The discipline stems from Sutton’s involvement in an alleged domestic violence dispute in Florida in March.
• Lawyers for retired NFL quarterback Brett Favre will ask a federal appeals court today to revive a defamation lawsuit Favre filed against former tight end Shannon Sharpe, amid the backdrop of a Mississippi welfare scandal that is one of the state’s largest public corruption cases. Sharpe said during a September 2022 broadcast that Favre “stole money from people that really needed that money” and that someone would have to be a sorry person “to steal from the lowest of the low.”

(CP)