TGIF! Premier League starts today! First up is Liverpool vs. Norwich at 2pm! Also, look out for ManU vs Chelsea on Sunday at 10:30am!
Enjoy the weekend!
By: Gabrielle Burgess
If you liked this Blog, follow Suga Lifestyle Online, on Instagram (@sugalifestyle), Twitter (@sugalifestyleja) or like the Suga Lifestyle Facebook page.
CONGRATULATIONS to the 2019 Gold Cup Champions, MEXICO!
Mexico defeated the USA 1 – 0 (Santos 73′) to win the Concacaf Gold Cup last night. The match was unexciting for the most part with both teams using the 4-3-3 formation and possession just about even throughout the match, but the edge went to Mexico.
Mexico created more opportunities, committed less fouls and deserved the win.
Congrats again, Mexico!
By: Gabrielle BurgessÂ
If you liked this Promo, follow Suga Lifestyle Online, on Instagram (@sugalifestyle), Twitter (@sugalifestyleja) or like the Suga Lifestyle Facebook page.
.NBA FINALS – BASKETBALL
Dubs Versus Cavs Part 4 Starts Tonight!
Do the Cavs have a chance? I think they can get at least 1 win. The Warriors rise to the occasion as Champions and above the level of each opponent they meet, but they are not at their best right now, They have a lot to fix offensively and defensively. LeBron James is at his best ever though and can win a game with help from at least 1 or 2 members of his team. The Warriors would have to give up though or be extremely careless to let the Cavs take this Championship away from them, whether they are at the top of their game or not. They have Home court advantage too! Game over.
Schedule for the 1st 3 games:
FRENCH OPEN – TENNIS
Unseeded Serena Williams advanced to the 3rd round of the French Open with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 win over no. 17 Ashleigh Barty today. Halep, Sharapova and Muguruza also moved on to the 3rd round for the Ladies.
WORLD CUP – Football
The greatest show on earth begins Thursday, June 14! Who’s your team?!
Let Suga assist if you are not already a die-hard Brazil or Argentina fan. The ball is round, but they are not going to the final this year!
Suga’s Picks!
1. Vive la France! – FRANCE
2. Ze Germans! – GERMANY
3. BELGIUM – The best team on paper!
Stay tuned!
By: Gabrielle Burgess
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COMMONWEALTH GAMES GOLD COAST 2018 – ATHLETICS
The Commonwealth Games down under have come to an end and Jamaica did extremely well, winning International medals that we have never won before.
Over the weekend, we took over some of the Field events!
Jamaica’s thrower, Danniel Thomas struck Gold in the Women’s Shot Put!
Fedrick Dacres and Traves Smikle brought home the Gold and Silver respectively for the Men’s Discus.
Back on the track, Paralympian, Tevaughn Thomas won Bronze in the Men’s T47 100m!
Natoya Goule finally medalled internationally with a Personal Best in the Women’s 800m Final with a sweet Bronze medal finish.
Danielle Williams and Yanique Thompson got Jamaica a Silver and Bronze respectively in the Women’s 110m Hurdles.
Jamaica also took home medals in the 4×400m Relays for both the Men and Women!
Bronze for the Men
Gold for the Women!
NBA PLAYOFFS – BASKETBALL
The NBA Playoffs started last Saturday and the Celtics are already 1 up on the Bucks and the Thunder 1 up on the Jazz.
Warriors blew out the Spurs and the 76ers routed the Heat.
The Raptors finally won an opening Game 1 in the Playoffs, beating the Wizards.
The no. 1 team in the West, the Rockets, had a fight to beat the Timberwolves, 104-101. This may be one of the best match ups for the West in the 1st round.
Surprises?
The Cavs lost to the Pacers 80-98. But if you think about it, LeBron James usually allows a Game 1 loss.
Pelicans beat the Trail Blazers, 97-95. They had a significant lead for most of the game and when the Trail Blazers came fighting back it just wasn’t enough.
PREMIER LEAGUE – SOCCER
After Manchester United lost to West Brom over the weekend, Manchester City officially became Champions of the Premier League!
It’s Man City’s 1st title under Pep Guardiola. Congrats to them.
More exciting weeks ahead in Sports. Stay tuned!
By: Gabrielle Burgess
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This Weekend was an action packed weekend for sports. Suga thoroughly enjoyed every moment.
Where do I begin?!
With the biggest news of course.
English Premier League – Football/Soccer
Manchester City finally lost their 1st Premier League match of the season. Liverpool beat them 4-3 without Coutinho, who was sold to Barcelona.
The match was off to a blistering start with Liverpool scoring within the first 10 minutes. Man City’s Sané leveled the score a little before halftime.
Liverpool took 10 minutes to score 3 goals, making it 4-1 at 68′. Liverpool then scored twice in the last 10 minutes to set up a nervy ending for Liverpool to anticipate the sound of the whistle and win in true Liverpool fashion.
If you missed the Goals and excitement or would like to relive the moments, watch it here.
The Battle for 2nd spot is on. Here is the table now:
Australian Open – Tennis
The Australian Open has begun and it isn’t looking good for the American women.
Defending Champ, Serena Williams withdrew from the Open and her big comeback because she did not feel ready to go all the way.
2017 US Open Champ and American, Sloane Stephens has already been knocked out, along with fellow Americans, Coco Vandeweghe and Venus Williams.
Venus Williams was knocked out by a former top 10 player, Belinda Bencic of Switzerland 3-6, 5-7.
NBA – Basketball
The Cavs are on a 3-game losing streak!
After a blowout 99-133 loss to the Toronto Raptors and the release of a video with an angry LeBron James in a team huddle last Thursday night, the Cavs were trying to break their 2-game losing streak versus the Indiana Pacers on Friday night.
After the Cavs blew a 22-point lead, with just a few seconds left, LeBron James stepped out-of-bounds on a baseline drive to the hoop, then to add insult to injury, missed the last shot as well. Pacers rallied to beat the Cavs 97-95. Not a good week for LeBron and the Cavs.
Cavs play the Warriors tonight at 8pm, which won’t be an easy task either.
The Warriors had a different fate with the Raptors, holding them off 127-125 last Saturday night and the Minnesota Timberwolves continue to win.
NFL – American Football
Super Bowl Sunday is set for February 4th and the AFC and NFC Championships are 1 week away to see who will be in it!
3 of the last 4 teams remaining have never won a Super Bowl. Schedule for Next weekend’s AFC and NFC Title games:
How did we get there?!
On Saturday, Top seed in the AFC, the New England Patriots led by Tom Brady beat the Tennessee Titans 35-14.
The Titans started off with a lead by a Touchdown (TD) at the end of the 1st quarter.
The Patriots scored 2 TD in the 2nd and never looked back. They scored a 3rd TD just before the half and entered the 3rd quarter, 21-7. Patriots’ Defense tore up the Titans and they led 28 -7 in the beginning of the 4th and sealed victory with another TD to finish 35-14.
The Philadelphia Eagles held off the Atlanta Falcons 15-10 to book their spot in the NFC Championship.
The Falcons led for most of the half, until Eagles’ Jake Elliott scored a 53 yard FG with 1s remaining before halftime to bring the score to Falcons 10- Eagles 9.
The Eagles later on scored to take over the lead 12-10. In the beginning of the 4th, they scored another FG to go up 15-10.
With a few mins remaining, the Falcons were unable to come up with the catch in the end zone.
The Jacksonville Jaguars pulled off the upset of the Playoffs and beat the Pittsburgh Steelers, 45-42.
The Jaguars led for the majority of the game and did well to hold off the Steelers who kept trying to make a comeback.
The NFL Game of the weekend goes to the Minnesota Vikings versus the New Orleans Saints! Vikings beat the Saints 29-24.
The game was quite a snooze until the Saints finally got on the board with a Touchdown in the 3rd to make it 7-17. Then another in the beginning of the 4th to make it 14-17.
It all started with the interception by Saints’ rookie, Marcus Williams.
With 3:01 left in the 4th, the Saints were up 21-20.
With 1:29 left, Vikings got themselves in FG range and scored to make it 21-23.
The Saints then scored a FG with 25s left to make it 24-23.
Then all of a sudden, Vikings win 29-24Â TD!
Ironically, the Saints’ rookie, Marcus Williams who initially turned the game around for the Saints also ended it for them, failing to stop Vikings’ Diggs.
Stefon Diggs scored the game-winning 61-yd TD and in his post-game interview said, ‘I don’t stop playing till the clock hits zero.’
With that wild finish, The Vikings head to NFC Championship to face the Eagles next Sunday.
If you missed the only 4th quarter ‘Walk-off’ TD in NFL Postseason history, Check it out here.
Sports Season is now in high gear. Stay tuned!
By: Gabrielle Burgess
If you liked this article, follow Suga Lifestyle or like the Suga Lifestyle Facebook page.
CRICKET
The West Indies Under 19 Cricket Team won the ICC World Cup vs India! Signs of a good future? Maybe not. They only scored 146 runs in 49.3 overs to win, however the bowling and fielding were impressive.
It is the first major title on any level that the West Indies has won since the senior team won the ICC World Twenty20 in 2012.
FOOTBALL
Arsenal put a dagger in Leicester’s campaign to win the Barclay’s Premier League title yesterday with Welbeck’s header in stoppage time to seal a 2-1 victory.
Leicester’s only goal was from a penalty kick at the end of the first half that probably shouldn’t have been awarded. They got a red card at 54′ downsizing them to 10 men, then Walcott of Arsenal equalised at 70′.
Here is a look at the BPL table now:
There was exciting action in La Liga yesterday too. Lionel Messi had an unbelievable Penalty kick, where it was Barcelona 6-1 Celta Vigo! Watch it here!
BASKETBALL Â – NBA ALL-STAR WEEKEND
Zach LaVine and Aaron Gordon put on a show for the Slam Dunk Contest! Zach LaVine reclaimed his title from last year with all 10s.
Klay Thompson defeated Splash brother, Steph Curry with 27 points in the final round to win the All Star Weekend 3-point shoot out competition. Thompson tied Curry’s score of 27 last year for the most points ever in the All Star 3-point shoot out competition.
The West beat the East, 196-173 with the record for the most points in a half, 92 and both sides surpassed the record for the most combined points in a half, 92-90.
Russell Westbrook got MVP for the 2nd straight year with 31 points.
Paul George of Pacers was on fire with 41 points, just 1 point shy of Wilt Chamberlain’s record of 42 for the most points scored in an NBA All-Star game. Paul George also had the most 3-pointers in the game with 9.
This was also Kobe Bryant’s last All-Star game. All the greats were there to watch including the Greatest of all time, Michael Jordan a.k.a MJ. The commentator confirmed it saying, he IS still the greatest of all time. MJ sent his best wishes to Kobe. The other ‘MJ’, Majic Johnson also did a tribute. Kobe follows the 2 MJs with his level of skill and greatness. Kobe we salute you!
US OPEN TENNIS
Suga called it! Congratulations to Flavia Pennetta and Novak Djokovic, the 2015 US Open Champions!
The more experienced, Pennetta won her first singles Grand Slam title on Saturday in 2 sets, 7-6, 6-2, defeating the woman responsible for the upset of the year, Roberta Vince.
The Men’s Final with World no. 1, Novak Djokovic vs no. 2, Roger Federer was delayed by 3 hours because of rain but definitely worth the wait. Note that there will be no more delays next year because there will be indoor options.
Djokovic has won his 10th Grand Slam title and 2nd US Open. 3 this year except for the French, where he was a finalist! Amazing season. He won physically and mentally with the crowd against him in 4 sets, 6-4, 5-7, 6-4, 6-4. Well deserved.
The match was epic! Both players were a bit nervous in the first set. Djokovic was the more relaxed player, but had a nasty fall in one of the early games, then lost his momentum. He got it back and played well to win the first set, where Federer was very tight. The commentators said it was a messy first set for Roger.
Roger looked more like himself in the 2nd set, using a lot of variety to even sets, 7-5. That set was an hour long!
Djokovic regained control and took the 3rd.
In the 4th set, Djokovic was up 5-2 to serve for the match, but Roger wasn’t finished just yet. Roger broke his serve and held for it to go to 5-4. Djokovic had some big serves in the last game and after 3 hours and 20 minutes, Djokovic hit a massive serve that Roger sent long to seal the deal for Djoko.
Roger is clearly the People’s Champion. Djoko had to hit deep to win most rallies or serve big to win points. A few well executed lobs worked in his favour as well. Roger said he is very pleased with where his game is at and we will see him next year.
After losing the 1st set, he was already at a disadvantage to make up physically in the 2nd, then try to overcome the excellence of Djokovic in the 3rd at his age and current fitness level. He looked fitter than Wimbledon but he has more work to do. Kudos to him though for helping to make the match so entertaining. You know it was epic when Djoko jumped up into the stands afterwards and shouted, ‘This is Spaaaaarta!’ with members of his box. Suga thinks this is probably his best and most meaningful win of his career so far. Well done Djoko.
BOXING
Floyd ‘Money’ Mayweather has hung up his boxing gloves, going out with a win by a unanimous vote over Andre Berto to retire undefeated 49-0. It was a good fight. Much more entertaining than the most hyped and marketed fight in history, the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight earlier this year. Props to the referee for denying Mayweather Barney hugs and there was less running, but more dancing. No joke. Mayweather actually did the running man during one of the rounds. He enjoyed himself. He displayed his quickness and agility off the ropes, as he is known for. Besides a very low, direct blow to Mayweather from Berto (for all the abused women out there!), it was a fairly clean fight. Finally we saw some upper cuts! Yes! Both boxers lost their footing during the fight, but it was in the last round that Mayweather piled on the right hooks and upper cuts, weakening the knees of Berto. But Berto recovered quickly and put up a good fight.
What did Mayweather and Berto say after the match? Well Mayweather explained why he was retiring. He said he is almost 40, been fighting for 19 years and has been a World Champion for 18 years. He believes he has accomplished everything, having broken every record there is, so there is not much left in the sport of Boxing for him. He is happy to leave the sport with all his faculties, something he has mentioned before, that clearly was a concern for him. He also mentioned that he has done a lot of charity work, which the media never mentions, for instance, feeding the homeless. He of course closed with, ‘Money don’t make me, I make money. I am the best at boxing’.
The defeated, Andre Berto said Mayweather was slippery. He had a lot of speed and was real crafty, using a lot of little things to keep him off his rhythm. He was asked about an exchange between them during one of the rounds and Berto explained that he basically said, ‘Here I come. I am here to fight.’ Berto said he pushed it to the limit but he fell short. He was asked if he thought Mayweather was the best ever. There was a pause and unclear shout from the crowd. Thankfully he kept it real and said Mayweather is ONE OF the best ever.
FOOTBALL: Barclay’s Premier League
It’s not looking like a good year for Chelsea. They continue to dig a deeper hole with a 3-1 loss to Everton. The other big sides, Arsenal, Manchester City and Manchester United were all victorious. Arsenal with a 2-0 win over Stoke City, Man City beat Crystal Palace 1-0 and Manchester United beat Liverpool 3-1!
With a goal in the 89th minute after many successful time-wasting tactics by Nicaragua, Simon Dawkins secured a place for Jamaica in the Semi Final round of the CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying game with a final score of Jamaica 2: 0 Nicaragua. Thanks also to Darren Mattocks who scored a goal in the 13th minute, which started to get Jamaica out of debt. Mattocks displayed a valiant effort throughout the entire match. Jamaica needed 2 clear goals to win and the Reggae Boyz accomplished just that. Well done. I wish I could say the same about the commentators on FLOW Channel 100 though. They probably put Jamaica to sleep, making some miss the 2nd goal. The same thing was said about every 5 minutes in a different way, CNN style. Though debatable, for Suga, there were a lot of dull aka boring moments in the game, especially in the 2nd half where it looked for a moment like the Reggae Boyz gave up, but the commentators could have done better. They even closed the curtains on the Reggae Boyz until World Cup 2022 with about 15 minutes left in the game, which is A LOT in football time. Shame on them and extremely poor coverage.
They will now join Costa Rica, Panama and Haiti in Group B. Haiti, who was also in a knock out round, beat Grenada to advance. How does the rest of the CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying 4th round look?
Group A: Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, Canada
Group C: United States, Trinidad & Tobago, St.Vincent and the Grenadines, Guatemala
So the Road to Russia continues!
US Open
Serena Williams won 6-2, 1-6, 6-3 last night in a 98- minute long Quarterfinal versus her sister, Venus Williams. It seemed much longer for them and it wasn’t easy for Serena at all compared to their match up this year at Wimbledon, where it took Serena only 2 sets to win. Serena’s face looked like she was in emotional pain for the entire match. Since they are both power hitters and servers, rallies if any, only lasted about 3 or 4 hits and nobody knows Serena’s serve better than Venus.
Serena closed out the match with an ace and Venus whispered in Serena’s ear that she was very happy for her. Very sweet exchange and embrace afterwards.
Serena will move on to play the unseeded Italian, Roberta Vinci in the Semi Final this Thursday, continuing her quest to complete a Calendar Grand Slam and even Steffi Graf’s 22 Grand Slam titles in the open era.
Serena now leads Venus 16-11 in head to head Grand Slam matches and has won 7 of the last 8 meetings.
See why Venus says Serena is the ‘best ever’ here:
http://es.pn/1K7Ppem
The men’s side of the Quarterfinals was also pretty exciting yesterday with a 5 – setter from Cilic and Tsonga, where Defending Cham, Cilic prevailed 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 6-7, 6-4. Marin Cilic will meet Novak Djokovic in the Semi finals.
Djokovic who continues to look good defeated Feliciano Lopez in 4 sets, 6-1, 3-6, 6-3, 7-6. Do you know that he gets his sneaker company to shave down the bottom of his tennis shoes so that he can skid more. It has been noticed he gets to balls that are usually out of reach for most players, by skidding over to them during the open. Interesting stuff.
Today’s action at the Open includes:
Ladies QF:
Kvitova vs Pennetta
Halep vs Azarenka
Men’s QF:
Wawrinka vs Anderson
Federer vs Gasquet
We will witness our favourite sibling rivalry in Sports again with ‘Sister Sister’ action between the Williams sisters at the Quarterfinals of the US Open at 7pm ET/6pm Jamaican time.Â
There is clearly a lot more on the line for Serena, but it would surely be nice to have Venus move on to the Semi Finals as well since she may not have this opportunity again. Bitter sweet, but as Serena said on Sunday, ‘At least one of us, a Williams, will be in the Semi Finals, so that’s good.’
May the best sister win!
The Reggae Boyz had a disappointing loss versus Nicaragua at the Office at the National Stadium in Kingston, Jamaica last Friday night, with the final result of 3-2. The Reggae Boyz were behind by as much as 3-0 and fought hard in the end to score 2 goals. This now gives Nicaragua the edge over Jamaica on aggregate in the 2nd Leg tonight at 8:30pm, Jamaican time, which will also be a knock out round to continue on the Road to Russia. Jamaica will have to score 2 clear goals above Nicaragua in order to WIN and keep their dreams, as well as Jamaica’s dreams alive. If they score 1 goal above them, for a scoreline of 3-2, that would mean we have tied on aggregate, facing more than likely overtime and penalties if necessary. With a scoreline less than that, we can kiss our dreams of Russia goodbye.
The  Reggae Boyz will be without Giles Barnes, who due to previous joint and tendon issues, cannot play on Nicaragua’s artificial surface. Upston Edwards has taken his place. Jamaica’s Captain, Rodolph Austin is also questionable since he is dealing with personal priorities to access a visa to continue his professional career in Scandinavia. Can’t blame him. If unavailable, Coach Schaefer said Adrian Mariappa could Captain the team and Andre Clennon is a possible substitute for the game depending on how he performs in their training session.
So there is a lot of work to do and they have to stay completely focused.
*Flow Jamaica Limited will have live and exclusive broadcast of the match on FLOW 100.
All the Best to the Reggae Boyz!
ENJOY!
The euphoria of how well the Reggae Boyz did in the Gold Cup is still in the air, but a clean slate starts tonight as they begin to dodge some pot holes, starting at 8pm in the National Stadium versus Nicaragua with the hope of a place in the World Cup Finals in Russia 2018 as their final destination.
So how do they move on after tonight’s match?
The return leg will be next Tuesday in Nicaragua with the hope that the Reggae Boyz will advance to the 4th round on aggregate and go into Group B with Costa Rica and Panama, as well as the winner of Haiti vs Grenada. The top 2 teams will then advance to the 5th and final round, where the top 3 teams will head to Russia! The team in 4th place will be entered into a Continental Play-off.
Good Luck Reggae Boyz! Keep playing with heart and pride!