It’s a crazy month for soccer fans, with the world’s two major continental championships overlapping, yielding three to five games a day for the next few weeks – Euro 2016 in the mornings and early afternoons, and Copa America in the evenings.
Copa America Centenario
The U.S. national team continues its baffling inconsistency: a disjointed 2-0 loss to Colombia in the tournament opener Friday was followed by a crisp and spirited performance in a 4-0 romp over Costa Rica on Tuesday. Same starting 11, but an entirely different team. Of course, give some credit to Colombia – the third-ranked team in the world can make anyone look bad. The U.S. finishes group play against Paraguay, 6pm, Sat. June 11 in Philadelphia; a draw or win puts them into the quarterfinals on Friday, June 17 in New Jersey, while a loss eliminates them. Elsewhere, group play continues through Tuesday across the country, and the quarterfinals begin Thursday. Other top performances from the first week: Argentina comfortably handled defending champ Chile, while resting Leo Messi‘s sore back, and Mexico romped over Uruguay, 3-1. This week there are a couple of pretty juicy group finales in Houston: Colombia-Costa Rica at 8pm Sat., June 11, and Mexico-Venezuela at 7pm Mon., June 13. All games are being shown live on Fox Sports and Univision; see the full schedule at www.ca2016.com.
Euro 2016
The quadrennial European championship kicks off in France this Friday, June 10, running through July 10, with heightened security, and the first bomb threat already defused: a right-wing anti-immigrant plot uncovered in Ukraine. First round group play runs through June 22, with three games most days, at 8am, 11am, and 2pm. Highlights from the first week include the opener, France-Romania, at 2pm Friday, followed by showdowns between group favorites each of the next three afternoons: England-Russia at 2pm Sat., Germany-Ukraine at 2pm Sun., and Belgium-Italy at 2pm Mon. All 52 games will be shown live on ESPN and ESPN2; see www.uefa.com/uefaeuro or www.espnfc.us.
This article appears in June 10 • 2016.



