MLS All-Star Game, Football Is Back, MLB Trade Deadline and More to Watch

July turns to August this week, and futbol (briefly) turns to football, with the MLS All-Star Game on Wednesday night followed by the NFL's Hall of Fame game on Thursday. All mixed around the Major League Baseball trade deadline on Wednesday as playoff contenders become buyers and playoff pretenders become sellers.

Must-Watch: MLS All-Star Game

Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Diego Costa, Josef Martínez and João Félix, Carlos Vela and Hector Herrera, and Wayne Rooney and Koke: These pairs of international stars will all be on the pitch together Wednesday night at Orlando City Stadium for the MLS All-Star Game. The best players in Major League Soccer in 2019 will take on Atlético Madrid from Spain’s La Liga, with kickoff set for 8 p.m. ET on FS1.

The MLS has played its midseason showcase match against a club from Europe on its preseason tour since 2005, with the results even at seven wins apiece, although European squads are on a three-match win streak, the last two coming in penalties. Atletico will be another tough test, as the Spanish side has won every match of its preseason so far, including a 7-3 drubbing of city rivals Real Madrid over the weekend in New York.

The MLS All-Star Skills Challenge takes place Tuesday night, featuring three competitions among trios representing the MLS All-Stars, Atletico Madrid and host club Orlando City. You can stream that event Tuesday night at 8 p.m. ET on the MLS website, app or Twitter account.

For the full MLS All-Star roster, go here. And to check out Atletico’s full roster for the match, go here.

Weekend Showdowns

The league returns to serious business quickly after Wednesday night’s exhibition, with critical matchups this weekend to begin the second half of the season. This is how the league table stacks up at the break, and these are the matches you’ll want to tune into this weekend (all times Eastern):

Saturday

Atlanta United vs. LA Galaxy, 5 p.m. on Fox Sports Go

New York Red Bulls vs. Toronto FC, 6 p.m. on ESPN+

New England Revolution vs. LAFC, 7:30 p.m. on ESPN+

Real Salt Lake vs. NYCFC, 10 p.m. on ESPN+

Sunday on FS1

DC United vs. Philadelphia Union, 7:30 p.m.

Seattle Sounders vs. Sporting KC, 10 p.m.

Watch This: MLB Trade Deadline

Major League Baseball’s trade deadline is 4 p.m. ET Wednesday, and unlike previous years in which there was a second, waivers-involved trade deadline at the end of August, July 31 marks the final day players can change teams this season. That means the next three days are gonna get crazy, especially with some big series happening in the leadup to the deadline. A major deal last night will get things moving:

MLB Network will air a special live edition of MLB Tonight on Wednesday afternoon from 1-4:30 p.m., announcing and keeping track of trades as they happen, as will ESPN with a trade-deadline edition of Baseball Tonight from 2-4:30 p.m.

Some series this week will help separate buyers from sellers, tell buyers just how much they need to buy and inform sellers how much they should trade away. Check out the standings and these games to watch:

Atlanta Braves at Washington Nationals (three games Monday through Wednesday): The teams in first and second place, respectively, in the National League East. Atlanta can pad its lead or Washington can announce itself in the race. Watch Monday’s game at 7 p.m. on ESPN and Tuesday’s at 7:05 p.m. on ESPN+.

Detroit Tigers at Los Angeles Angels (three games Monday through Wednesday): Can the Angels use a series against one of the worst teams in baseball to move up in a packed AL Wild Card race and become buyers to help get Mike Trout back to the playoffs?

San Francisco Giants at Philadelphia Phillies (three games Tuesday through Thursday): Three weeks ago the Giants were a team primed to sell, low in the standings with some players who could bring quite a haul in return. Now they’re the hottest team in the MLB and back in playoff contention, what do they do? And even sitting in third in the NL East, Philadelphia didn’t sign Bryce Harper for $330 million to be sellers at the deadline, right? (RIGHT?)

Chicago Cubs at St. Louis Cardinals, (three games Tuesday through Thursday): It’s the Cubs and Cardinals, it doesn’t matter if everything is on the line or nothing is on the line, these teams want to destroy each other. It just so happens they’re at the top of the NL Central and will both be looking to add pieces at the deadline. Watch Tuesday night at 8:15 p.m. on MLB Network and Wednesday at 8 p.m.on ESPN.

What's on B/R Live

1. Liverpool Summer Tour Finale

After a trip through an American heatwave and matches in baseball stadiums, Liverpool’s Preseason Summer Tour concludes this week in Europe, as the Reds face French club Lyon in Geneva, Switzerland. The match kicks off at 1 p.m. ET and can be streamed on B/R Live here.

It wasn’t the prettiest of U.S. tours for Liverpool, with two losses and a draw, but the Reds can take solace in the fact that a) it’s preseason and b) they’re still without at least four of their best players. However, a win against a solid Lyon side on Wednesday would create some much-needed positive momentum heading into the Community Shield against Manchester City on Sunday.

2. UCL and UEL Qualifying

The pool of teams vying for spots in the group stages of the UEFA Champions League and Europa League shrinks even more this week, as the second legs of the second qualifying round will cut the field in half.

Select qualifying matches will stream on B/R Live this week, including some teams who made some noise last season (Leg 1 scores in parentheses).

UCL Qualifying| Watch each match here on B/R Live

Tuesday:

Dinamo Zagreb (2) vs. Saburtalo (0), 2 p.m.

Basel (2) vs. PSV Eindhoven (3), 2 p.m.

Olympiakos (0) vs. Plzen (0), 2:30 p.m.

Wednesday:

Copenhagen (2) vs. The New Saints (0), 1:45 p.m.

UEL Qualifying Thursday| Watch each match here on B/R Live

Kups Kuopio (0) vs. Legia Warsaw (1), 1 p.m.

Maccabi Haifa (1) vs. Strasbourg (3), 1 p.m.

Niederkorn (0) vs. Rangers (2), 1:30 p.m.

3. ONE: Dawn of Heroes

Two American martial arts legends return to the ONE Championship ring this week in ONE: Dawn of Heroes from Manila, Philippines. Demetrious Johnson and Eddie Alvarez will each take part in a World Grand Prix semifinal. You can stream Dawn of Heroes for free Friday at 8:30 a.m. ET here on B/R Live.

Johnson will compete in a flyweight bout against Tatsumitsu Wada of Japan, while Alvarez will compete in the lightweight division against Eduard Folayang, who will be competing in his home country. The main events will be the Flyweight Muay Thai World Championship between the UK’s Jonathan Haggerty and Thailand’s Rodtang Jitmuangnon as well as the Featherweight World Championship between Martin Nguyen out of Vietnam and Australia and Koyomi Matsushima out of Japan. For more bout details and the full event card, go here.

4. Rangers SPFL opener

It’s a pretty big week for Rangers, as the Scottish club hopes to advance in Europa League qualification before beginning its domestic league season on Sunday. After finishing in second place last season, nine points behind city rival Celtic, Rangers travel to Kilmarnock Sunday at 8:30 a.m. to kick off its Scottish Premiership campaign and return to the top. Stream the match on B/R Live right here. 

More to Watch

NFL Hall of Fame Game

Football is back. It’s just the first game in what will be more than a month of preseason action, but no matter. The pads are on, and the competitive juices will start to flow from there.

The Denver Broncos and Atlanta Falcons play at 8 p.m. Thursday night on NBC from Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton, Ohio. The HOF game matchup means both teams will play five preseason games while the rest of the league plays four.

Two days later the NFL’s Hall of Fame Class of 2019—Champ Bailey, Pat Bowlen, Gil Brandt, Tony Gonzalez, Ty Law, Kevin Mawae, Ed Reed and Johnny Robinson—will be enshrined into the hall in Canton. The ceremony begins at 7 p.m. and will broadcast on ESPN and NFL Network.

Quick Catchup

1. Announcement: This newsletter is now the official newsletter source for dads at baseball games catching balls in one hand while holding a baby in the other.

2. Brooks Koepka Wins Again, Water is Wet: The World No. 1 won the WGC-FedEx St, Jude Invitational by three shots over Webb Simpson and five shots over Rory McIlroy, who began the final round with the lead.

3. AJ Green injured: The Cincinnati Bengals' star wide receiver went down early in training camp with a left ankle injury and will now likely miss the start of the season.

4. Baseball vs. Physics, the rematch: Seattle Mariners shortstop J.P. Crawford made one of the plays of the *year* by somehow stopping his body going full speed toward left field to make this throw to first base for the out.

5. Cover Art: FIFA 20 unveiled Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk and Real Madrid’s Eden Hazard will be on the cover of this season’s game.

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