ICYMI – France won the World Cup

Leading up to the slowest part of the summer sports session we have Wimbledon Champs, World Cup Champs, unexpected PGA Champs and expected NASCAR champs, some Women’s basketball and soccer and a pinch of International Lacrosse thrown in.

World Cup: France wins their second world cup

· France beats Croatia 4-2 to become the 6^thcountry with multiple World Cup Victories (Brazil 5x, Germany 4x, Italy 4x, Argentina 2x, Uruguay 2x)

· It was Croatia’s first ever World Cup final (previous best was third place in 1998)

· Belgium beats England 2-1 to take third place.

Tennis (Novak Djokovic and Angelique Kerber win Wimbledon)

· Novak Djokovic wins 14^th major tieing him with Pete Sampress as fourth all time (beat Ryan Anderson)

· Angelique Kerber wins 3^rd major title. (beat Serena Williams)

· Mike Bryan and Jack Sock win Mens Doubles

· Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova win the Womens Doubles

MLB (50% of the way into the season)

· Entering the All-Star break it’s all about trends: The top five teams are all in the East but the West has 10 teams at or above .500

· Three American teams are trending for 100 losses: Baltimore (69 losses), Chicago (62 losses) and Kansas City (68 losses)

· JD Martinez and Jose Ramirez both have 29 home runs which puts them both on pace for almost 48 Home Runs

· JD Martinez has 80 RBIs (annualizes to 132 RBIs) and Francisco Lindor has 85 Runs (which puts him on pace for 140 runs)

· Mookie Betts batting a .359 avg; .448 OBP and .691 SLG through All-Star break. All are top two among MLB players.

NHL (Free Agency & Prospect Camps)

· Marc-Andre Fleury signs 3 year extension with the Vegas Golden Knights

· Oliver Bjorkstrand signs 3 year extension with Columbus Blue Jackets

· 2018 Prospect & Development camps are underway

NBA (Free Agency & Summer League Play)

· Jabari Parker signs two year deal with Bulls, Jimmy Butler turned down extension with the Minnesota Timberwolves and Tony Parker signed with the Charlotte Hornets.

· Summer league play – Kevin Konx, Wendell Carter Jr and John Collins are turning heads. Josh Jackson appears to be struggling a bit.

PGA – Michael Kim wins at John Deere Classic

· Michael Kim won and he won BIG. He set a John Deere Classic record (previous was -26 set by Steve Stricker in 2010) , he won by 8 strokes and he shot each round by at least -5.

· Remainder of the top 10: Francesco Molinari, Joel Dahmen, Sam Ryder, Bronson Burgoon, Harold Varner III, Kevin Streelman, John Huh, Chad Campbell, Keith Mitchell and Andres Romero.

WNBA

· Breanna holding atop the PPG spot with 22.5. Sylvia Fowles (Minnesota Lynx) atop rebounds with 11.9 per game. Brittany Griner averaging 2.9 blocks per game (a whole block above #2 who is Natasha Howard with 1.9)

· Great article on how this has turned into one of the best WNBA seasons ever. Close standings, multiple MVP candidates and a number of stars excelling well into their 30s.

NASCAR – Martin Truex Jr. wins for second year in a row

· He won the pole and lead most the race. Martin Truex Jr, Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch have now combined for 14 of the 19^thwon races this year (Austin Dillon, Joey Logano, AJ Allmendinger, Clint Bowyer and Erik Jones each have one win)

· Ryan Blaney finished 2^nd and Brad Keslowski third.

Women’s Soccer

· Stop me when you’ve heard enough – North Carolina Courage win again, beating Washington Spirit 2-0.

· Seattle Reign FC sits in second with 65% as many points.

· Lindsey Horan scores twice to help Portland Thorns beat Houston , ties Sam Kerr (Chicago Red Stars) with league leading 9 goals.

World Lacrosse Championship (host Israel)

· 46 participating nations; pool play underway,

· Current undefeated teams in pool play: Hong Kong, Latvia, Italy, Puerto Rico, Switzerland, Philippines, Finland, Sweden, Ireland, Germany, Japan, Israel and USA.

MMA

· Junio Dos Santos beats Blagoy Ivanov in unanimous decision

NFL (Training camp battles)

· Catch up on the latest from the RB1 podcast

College

· As we are now in the dry college season I’ll highlight an article each week to look into: