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Ballou is said to have been tracked by Barca for several months after establishing himself as an emerging talent in Major League Soccer. The 18-year-old made 21 appearances in MLS last year, becoming the youngest player in Montreal’s history and doing enough to catch the eye of Barca. A right midfielder by trade, Ballou will join Barcelona B in Spain’s second tier, with the side occupying the final relegation spot in the table after 23 matches....

Ernesto Valverde’s side, who edged out Sporting in the Champions League by a single goal in Lisbon on Wednesday, will look to make it seven out of seven in the Primera Division ahead of the forthcoming international break. Barca 6/10 for La Liga title So far, Barca have beaten Betis, Alaves, Espanyol, Getafe, Eibar and Girona in their first six fixtures in La Liga, scoring 20 goals and conceding only two....

With new signing Ousmane Dembele facing a long time on the sidelines, the South American double act take on responsibility up front as a duo. Barcelona 4/11 to score first v Sporting The pair will be backed up by a packed midfield, with Andres Iniesta looking likely to push furthest forward of the quartet fielded by Ernesto Valverde. Ivan Rakitic, Sergi Roberto and Sergio Busquets are all handed starts in the middle, while Paulinho drops to the bench alongside Denis Suarez....

Since leaving the Catalan giants in 2012, Guardiola replaced Jupp Heynckes at Bayern Munich and won three successive league titles, before taking over the reins at Manchester City from the outgoing Manuel Pellegrini. The Spaniard is widely regarded as the most successful manager of his generation and oversaw one of the most iconic periods in the club’s decorated history, as he won the Champions League twice and played a pivotal role in Lionel Messi’s development as a player....

The Blaugrana fell behind in Madrid and lost Ousmane Dembele to a serious injury but a late Paulinho winner delivered the three points and saw them record their fourth league win out of four. They face another quick turnaround ahead of Tuesday night’s return to Camp Nou to face Eibar. TV CHANNEL & LIVE STREAM In the UK, the match will be available to watch live on television on Sky Sports Mix and by stream via Sky Go....

The Catalan side booked their place in the last eight by beating Chelsea in the round of 16 and they will attempt to put one foot in the semi-finals by winning at home ahead of next week’s second leg in Italy. Barca come into the game having rescued a point away to Sevilla in La Liga at the weekend, with Lionel Messi emerging from the bench to help his side snatch a 2-2 draw, thus preserving their unbeaten record in the Primera Division....

The Catalans kicked off in the knowledge that they had already been eliminated from this season’s Champions League due to Inter’s 4-0 win over Viktoria Plzen in the early kick-off. Bayern piled the misery on Barcelona by opening the scoring after 10 minutes with Mane racing clear of the home team’s defence to clip a neat finish past Marc-Andre ter Stegen. Chuopo-Moting doubled the German champions’ lead just after the half-hour mark as Bayern once again found it too easy to get in behind Barca....

Villa might be turning in lifeless performances this season, but the ever reliable Shay Given has kept them solid and tight at the back. Brad Guzan is an able replacement but Villa miss Given’s command of his area and incredible shot stopping ability. In a season filled with defeats and protests, summer signing Yakubu has done his best to lift the gloom surrounding the Ewood outfit. Steve Kean may be facing serious pressure from the fans, but Yakubu’s goals this season have at least ensured that the under-fire Scottish manager hangs on to his position a little while longer....

Leicester stunned the sporting world with their remarkable title triumph last season, but Claudio Ranieri’s men have found it difficult in 2016-17 after suffering a 2-0 defeat at home to Everton on Monday as the defending champions flirt with relegation. A second defeat in three matches left Leicester in 16th position, just three points above the relegation zone. “They’re not the team they were this time last year,” Barry said....

Barry’s speech may be part of a last-ditch strategy for a defendant who faces a maximum penalty of $1.85 million in fines and 26 years in prison. By all accounts, investigators have a strong case, including testimony by more than a dozen former associates that Barry used cocaine. So far his lawyers have had no luck negotiating a plea bargain. With the mayor’s promise to leave quietly, they may now hope to persuade prosecutors to drop the three felony charges for perjury....

In a new tweet, Portnoy revealed that he received “insulting” trade offers from Pederson. He jokingly stating that he understood why Pham slapped him. His tweet read: The Pham incident occurred in May this year. Pederson claimed that Pham accused him of cheating in a fantasy football league. The claims arose after Pederson allegedly placed a player on injured reserve and replaced him with a fantasy football free agent. However, Pham claimed it was a cheat move, despite supposedly executing a similar swap within his own fantasy football team....

Starr, 82, had two strokes in 2014 and isn’t in the best health, so his wife described the incident that took place nearly 60 years ago. According to her, Starr was beaten in the back as part of a paddling tradition to initiate Starr into the university’s A-Club for varsity lettermen. MORE: Top 10 Tide players, all time | Ranking Nick Saban’s Alabama teams The news that there was an injury to Starr’s back isn’t new information....

There’s no leash on it, just like the wind… free in its movements and careless in its grace. So, I close my eyes and see people walking around posh streets with the yellow-red flags of Catalonia waving on the pavement every 500 meters. I see couples holding each other and laughing whilst walking on the streets; the elderly on the park benches reading newspapers while the birds chirp on the trees around....

The winning film, "12 Years A Slave" is on my ever-growing list of movies to get around to seeing, as is "Dallas Buyers Club," but I'm not exactly broken up at not having seen either one on the big screen. When it comes to going out and spending a couple of hours watching something, I'll go for sports because you don't get another chance to watch sports later on down the line....

The Hall of Fame voting/ballot process is far from perfect, though, and in my third year with an official ballot, I again did my best to work within the constraints of the 10-player maximum. Maybe one day we’ll just be allowed to decide which players are Hall of Famers and which players aren’t worthy of the Hall, without ranking and maneuvering them against other players who happened to retire in the same time frame (sigh)....

The New York Yankees will take on the Boston Red Sox in a two-game series to be held at London Stadium on June 29 and 30. International games are nothing new to MLB. Mexico, Japan and Australia have all staged matches but, in terms of tapping into the UK market, it is 12 years behind the NFL and eight behind the NBA. However, the profile of the matchup taking place at the 2012 Olympic Stadium could not be more impressive....

“The Sandlot” was released on April 7, 1993, “Major League” was released April 7, 1989, and “The Bad News Bears” was released on April 7, 1976. If you’re going to produce a baseball movie, it makes sense to target early April for the release date. Baseball’s Opening Day is right around then, though sometimes it falls at the end of March and in days of old, sometimes wouldn’t start until the middle of the month....

Sometimes a stat just jumps right out and punches you in the face. It seems like a crazy typo, something that makes you laugh because doesn’t make a bit of sense — an egregious outlier among other, more sensible numbers. But a second look and little digging show that, no, it’s not a mistake. It really happened. But it still doesn’t make sense. This was my experience the first time I saw Lonnie Smith’s outrageous 8....

One potential byproduct of this shift is the possibility of some movies previously planned as streaming-only getting the chance to spread their wings in actual theaters. After Netflix began cracking down on password sharing in a strange 4D chess move to apparently combat sinking subscriber numbers, audiences understandably didn’t take the news particularly well. Subscriptions bizarrely haven’t begun to rise in the wake of the service lowering accessibility and raising prices, and other services have taken note....