MARCH & APRIL Updates:
Reginald Bottomtoucher Jr has been a revolution to Tolima since joining them on loan. He has only made 11 appearances out of a possible 13 games played in the season. Even though he has only scored 2 and assisted 3 other goals, he has helped Tolima move up to become joint top with America de Cali and Once Caldas with 21 points a piece. In the Colombian Cup Group Stage, Tolima is top of the Group as well with 4 wins and 2 draws without losing a game...and haven't conceded any goals.
Hulkster has made more appearances this past 2 months. After 14 matches this season, Hogan has scored 8 goals and made 5 assists. Hulkster even made a substitution appearance for Brazil and was alert enough to score a goal in Brazil's 3-0 win over Finland. Gremio once again were kicked out of the Gaucho State by Internacional, this time in the Semi Finals of the Clausura stage. Gremio were also kicked out of the Brazilian cup by losing 2-0 on aggregate to Vitoria. Now Gremio and Hulkster will have 1 week to prepare themselves for the new Brazilian League season to start.
Over at the Minas State Championship, Cruzeiro cruised to the finals after beating America (MG) 5-0 on aggregate in the Semi-Finals. They will now be facing Atletico Mineiro over a 2 leg finals over the next 7 days, split by the 1st match of the Brazilian League Season. Matthew Cameron has been doing his part for Raposa by scoring 4 goals and assisting 2 and collecting 1 MotM award in only 8 matches that he has started since the start of the year.
Universidad de Chile have got themselves a **** of player this year. In 11 matches played in the Chilean League, Raul has already scored 10 goals and created 3 others. It was only good enough to place them in 4th place, good enough for a playoffs spot. In Copa Libertadores, Universidad haven't had the best of runs. Winning 1 game, drawing 2 and losing the rest to crash out of the Group Stages with only 5 points. In the 8 matches played in Copa Libertadores, including the 2 Preliminary matches, Raul has found the net on 3 separate occasions.
Staying in our South American tour, we now go to Olimpia. Oswaldo Nino has played 16 matches through out the season. He has done well enough to attract attention from Brazil's Internacional. Olimpia have accepted a Loan transfer for Oswaldo that will see him finished the year in Brazil, where he will be joining the club in mid June. Nino has scored 2 and assisted 4 for club and country since the start of 2016.
Valderrama has been in tip top shape for Chivas in the Copa Libertadores, scoring 3 goals and assisting 3 other in just 6 appearances. Even dismanteling Corinthians during the 1st leg of the Copa Libertadores 2nd Round when he scored the tying goal and assisting the game winning goal for Chivas in front of the home fans. After making the Clausura Mexican Playoffs by losing their final two league matches, Chivas went on to lose both legs to Puma in the Quater Finals.
Moving on to Europe, our first stop will be at Marseille to see how Martin Batistuta has fared as of late. He has been in superb condition as of late, scoring 3 goals in the past 5 games. It took Martin 36 games to hit his 15 goal landmark bonus. Batistuta also got 5 assists under his name as well as 2 MotM performances. He has been in such a good form that his value has gone up in the past 2 months to $20,000,000. Marseille don't have a minimum release clause on his contract and it could be crucial when it comes to selling him at some point in the future...maybe sooner then later.
Javier Squeekles goal/game ratio may have dropped a little as of late, but his arrival to Napoli has been nothing but wonderful for the young Bolivian. This far into the season, after 13 games, he has scored 6 goals and picked up 1 yellow card on the way. Javier has also made 1 appearance for his national side where he scored 2 goals in a 4-0 win over Montserrat that saw him get ever so close to breaking Bolivia's National Goalscoring record of 20. Already scoring 16 goals in 26 caps for Bolivia. At a tender age of 19 years old, its not far fetched that Javier will smash the record before the end of the year with 7 more matches in the South American World Cup Qualifiers.
Ignacio Ballena has finally come back from injury. He hasn't made any appearances for Young Boys yet, they seem to want Ballena to take his time to get ready as the Swiss season comes to an end. He was given the chance with Uruguay's senior squad to collect his 4th cap in the friendly against Northern Ireland where he finally scored his first international goal for his country. Uruguay ended up winning the game 6-3.
With 2 matches left to play in the Israeli League, Maccabi Haifa is sitting 2 points away Tel-Aviv, who are perch in 1st place. Messy Hallow hasn't made many appearances since coming back from his injury.
OTHER News:
- Botafogo have been heavily linked with Raul and Valderrama as they try to sign both players to bring them to Brazil and propel them to the top of the league.
- Chivas rejected Corinthians' bid for Valderrama just a week ago. So it will be hard to see Valderrama moving to Brazil now that he has been in great form for Chivas both domestically and continental.