Sports

On Sunday the U.S. played Cuba in the World Baseball Classic to a crowd of fans of the game and protesters against the Cuban regime. The goal of the demonstrations was presumably to bring awareness to Cuba’s totalitarian regime, but it was really about proximity to whiteness.

Puerto Rico on Friday broke the Guinness World record for the most hair dyed, with 192 men going blond to support the U.S. territory’s team vying to win the World Baseball Classic after finishing twice as runner-up.

Now that Haiti’s national women’s soccer team has qualified for the Women’s World Cup, Latino Rebels Radio host Julio Ricardo Varela welcomes Brenda Elsey, a professor at Hofstra University, to discuss and celebrate this exciting moment in Haitian sports history.

Gunmen threatened Argentine soccer superstar Lionel Messi in a written message left Thursday when they opened fire at a supermarket owned by his in-laws in Argentina, police said.

For the first time in its history, the Haitian women’s soccer team has qualified for the FIFA Women’s World Cup after defeating Chile 2-1 on Tuesday.

Two former Fox executives went on trial Tuesday, accused of bribing South American soccer officials for TV rights to one of the continent’s biggest annual tournaments and using information gathered in the process to help the network’s winning World Cup broadcast bid.

Brazil said a final farewell to Pelé on Tuesday, burying the legend who unified the bitterly divided country. Newly inaugurated President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva paid his respects at Vila Belmiro, the stadium where Pelé played for most of his career.

Lionel says he wants to keep playing for the Argentinian team, so maybe we’ll see him in another World cup. But for now, the Messi-Ronaldo debate has ended for many, and Argentina has won their first World Cup in 36 years, their third all-time—and one that will resonate in the proud fútbol nation forever.

Lionel Messi and Argentina set their sights on World Cup glory in Sunday’s final against France. For Messi, it means one last chance to cap his amazing legacy with the biggest prize in the world’s most popular sports tournament.

While Team USA has far more signs of hope, given that their players are ascending, competing in top leagues, and have reached the Round of 16 after an eight-year absence, Mexico just had their worst World Cup showing in decades, with a roster led by highly experienced but old veterans.

This week’s wrap-up comes to you from the cozy confines of quarantine, as senior editor Hector Luis Alamo has managed to catch COVID for only the second time this year.

Cuban officials announced Monday that women boxers would be able to compete officially after decades of restrictions, though they didn’t yet confirm if that would be taken to a professional level like it was with Cuban male boxers earlier this year.

Senior editor Hector Luis Alamo gives a review of some of the most interesting and important things he saw, read, and heard over the past week.

Brazilian soccer great Pelé thanked fans worldwide on Thursday for the well-wishes he’s received since being admitted to a São Paulo hospital amid his fight against cancer. The 82-year-old Pelé, who had a colon tumor removed in September 2021, was hospitalized Tuesday to regulate his medication, his daughter said.

Mexico is going to have to suddenly find goals — and perhaps even several of them — to extend its knockout-round streak at the World Cup. Meanwhile, Lionel Messi has already come to Argentina’s rescue at the World Cup, and he might just have to do it all over again.

Argentina’s 2-0 win over Mexico was the most-watched Spanish-language World Cup group stage broadcast in U.S. history, drawing 8.9 million viewers on Telemundo television and the streaming services of Telemundo and Peacock.

Ricardo Pepi was left off the U.S. Men’s National Team’s World Cup roster after giving stellar performances in the qualifying matches — and even after the 19-year-old Mexican American chose to play for the U.S. team over the Mexican one. Will his fate convince dual nationals in the future to choose otherwise?

Latino Rebels Radio: November 10, 2022

Adriano Leite Ribeiro, known as “Adriano Imperador”, was once the greatest soccer player in Brazil. But he turned his back on the glitz and glamor of stardom, choosing instead to spend time in the favela of his boyhood—which sparked a racist and classist backlash in the Brazilian press.

Major League Baseball celebrated its 21st annual Roberto Clemente Day on Thursday, with festivities centered in New York, where the Mets hosted the Hall of Fame outfielder’s former team, the Pittsburgh Pirates. Clemente died in a plane crash at age 38 attempting to deliver relief supplies to earthquake victims in Nicaragua on New Year’s Eve 1972.

Nicaraguans living in the United States filled the stands in Pennsylvania to cheer on the players of 14 de Septiembre Little League from Managua after travel restrictions prevented their family members from attending the World Series games.