River Plate

If you’ve played enough of the FIFA video game series with friends, then you’re probably familiar with randomizing the teams before a game. Sometimes you’ll get a strange matchup where one player gets a national team and the other gets a club. 

That would never happen in real life, right? 

Friday will see a situation just like that as the Argentina national team announced it will play a friendly against Primera División leaders River Plate. The game is part of a national celebration for Argentina’s triumph in Qatar.

A new season in the Argentine First Division began this weekend and River Plate celebrated the occasion with a 2-0 victory over Central Córdoba.

Ignacio Fernández – who returned to the team after a one-year stint with Atletico Mineiro – got on the scoreboard first, while winger Pablo Solari sealed the win with one of those goals you're happy to enjoy from different angles.

And yes, you're going to see it from a few of those angles. 

This summer's Luis Suárez transfer saga has been all over the place, and reports now place the Uruguayan in MLS.

After two seasons at Atlético Madrid, Suárez became a free agent July 1 and it was time to look for a new club. Many suggested that a move back to South America would be ideal for the striker after a 16-year career abroad. However, with Qatar around the corner, Suárez preferred to remain in Europe to prepare for his last World Cup.

“My priority is to stay in Europe,” he said.

The road to the 2022 Copa Libertadores Final at El Monumental in Guayaquil, Ecuador, gets serious this week with the start of the Round of 16 across South America.

The first team to get a shot at back-to-back champion Palmeiras is Paraguay's Cerro Porteño, but they'd need one of the tournament's greatest ever upsets to knock out Abel Ferreira's side. Atlético Mineiro is probably up next for Palmeiras in the quarterfinals, although the Galo must first overcome Ecuador's Emelec. 

The tuxedo is out of the closet once again. This time it's to welcome a new edition of Copa Libertadores. Palmeiras (Brazil) has won the last two championships, and the logical question is who will be the team that will challenge its dominance?

The tournament will kick off Tuesday, Feb. 8, with the match between Montevideo City Torque (Uruguay) vs. Barcelona SC (Ecuador) for the first of three qualifying rounds before the group stage.